Madelyn's Nephew (28 page)

“She won’t be alone. The two of you can take care of each other.”

“Neither of us knows this area like you do. We need you, Madelyn.”

They both turned as the door opened and Harper emerged from the bedroom. Sleep had been kind to her. She looked healthy and rested compared to how she had looked the night before.

“We’re going to pack some supplies and make a run for it,” Elijah said to the girl. “You ready for that?”

“Yes,” Harper said.
 

“Stop,” Madelyn said. She held up her hands as if she could contain Elijah’s presumption with the gesture. “I can’t go with you. I’m sorry, but I can’t. I belong here.”

Harper came to Madelyn and took her hands. The young woman locked eyes with Madelyn. “You can’t stay here. It’s not safe. We have to get to Fairbanks and convince everyone to go south before the danger gets there. It’s the only way we’re going to survive.”

“If I can’t survive here, then I suppose I don’t want to,” Madelyn said.

“You have to do it for us,” Elijah said. “What happens if we can’t find our way back to the truck? What happens if we’re attacked. You’re going to leave us out there without a guide?”

Madelyn considered the issue. Elijah was decent with a map and a compass, but nothing beat local knowledge. There was no doubt that they stood a better chance with her along.

“I’ll take you as far as the truck,” she said.

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The woods had the same menace that she had sensed the day before. There was something hanging over them, ready to strike. Harper seemed to sense it too. Elijah was either blissfully unaware or really good at hiding his fear. They hiked in silence until they were almost halfway to the truck.

“When we get down to the second checkpoint, we can trigger an emergency meeting,” Harper said. She was coping with her fear by planning their next move. It was probably the best use for her nervous energy, but Madelyn still wished she would shut up.

“No,” Elijah said. “We need to report what we experienced. It’s up to Cleo to call a meeting if she sees the need.”

“This is one of those situations where words won’t convey the threat. It clearly falls under the emergency provisions,” Harper said.

“Trust the process,” Elijah said. “Trust Cleo. When your grandfather came down, she immediately gave him time at the meeting. She will take us seriously, but we have to follow the process.”

“In a way, I suppose you could consider this new threat to be good news,” Harper said. “We must be doing something right if there’s such a strong reaction, you know?”

Madelyn thought about Harper’s optimism, and how strongly Gabriel had defended it. The old man had been convinced that Harper needed to be blindly hopeful if humanity had any chance of survival. Perhaps he was correct.

“The Wisdom,” Elijah said.

Madelyn recoiled from the word. It had been a long time since she had heard it used that way.

“Yes,” Harper said, “I suppose it is.”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Elijah said. “It just occurred to me that this phenomenon that we’re dealing with might have a name.”

“No,” Madelyn said.

“I don’t know,” Elijah said. “It almost makes sense.”

“This is a bad road to go down,” Madelyn said. She couldn’t put her finger on exactly why, but Elijah’s line of reasoning was beginning to make her nervous.

“What is it?” Harper asked.

Madelyn shook her head but kept her mouth shut. She didn’t know how to articulate her objection.

“Back before all this started, there was a cult who were obsessed with the end of the world,” Elijah said. “They claimed that there was a force, and they dubbed it ‘The Wisdom’. They said that it would come and cleanse the earth. They claimed that it rolled through like a giant eraser every time a species got so powerful that they were self-destructive.”

“So they thought that the Hunters were part of that force?” Harper asked.

Madelyn wanted to stop walking. She had gotten up that morning with a hollow feeling in her gut. It was coming back now.

“No,” Elijah said. “They were adamant that the Hunters were
not
part of The Wisdom. They claimed it was a powerful force, just shy of omnipotence. Imagine a local god.”

“Stupid fairy tale,” Madelyn said.

“I don’t know,” Elijah said. “They claimed that it would appear differently to everyone who witnessed it. They said that it would blow in like an Indian summer and then hover against the wind. It almost sounds like what we’re experiencing.” He looked up towards the sky as they walked.

“Then what?” Harper asked.

“Vengeance,” Elijah said. “Ancient retribution stuff.”

“That sounds bad,” Harper said.

Elijah tilted his head and fell silent for a second. He sounded less enthusiastic when he finally continued. “They used to say, ‘You’re never too blind to see The Wisdom.’ Even that seems to fit.”

“Why did they call it The Wisdom?” Harper asked.

“I don’t know. One name is as good as another, I suppose. I’m not sure they ever really had a specific reason for the name.”

Madelyn knew why.
 

“They said that wisdom is the application of good judgement,” Madelyn said. “They said that their god was going to judge us all.”

“But then nothing ever came of it?” Harper asked.

“Supposedly, it had a timetable,” Elijah said. “It would take a hundred years to scour the Earth. Before long, all of the followers were taken by Hunters. It’s hard to worry about theoretical threats when the concrete ones are killing everyone around you.”

Harper looked up too. “I suppose it’s as good a name as any other.” She tasted the words in her mouth. “The Wisdom.”

“No,” Madelyn said. “It’s a terrible name. Whatever is up there is just a simple predator, like any other. It doesn’t have a magical explanation or any benevolent mission. It’s moving through the world trying to survive, like all the rest of us. Don’t invest it with some mythical purpose or you won’t be able to react to it for what it is.”

“And what’s that?” Elijah asked. “How can you profess to know anything about it?”

“I don’t,” Madelyn said. “That’s the point. We have to maintain our position of ignorance so we don’t do something stupid. Don’t assume that you know anything about it or you’ll end up a victim.”

With that, they walked in silence.

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“Why did you hide the truck?” Madelyn asked.

“Pardon?” Harper asked.

“This is where I found the truck, but it’s not where you and I left it. Why did you and Gabriel move it?”

“I wasn’t a part of that,” Harper said. “You’ll have to ask him.”

Madelyn looked to Elijah. They both seemed to realize the same thing at the same time. When they had told Harper about her grandfather’s death, the young woman had been pretty sick. There was no telling how much of that she remembered. Now that she was feeling better, she would have to be told again.
 

“I should get back,” Madelyn said. “I want some distance before you go starting this thing up.”

“What if we can’t get it running?” Elijah asked. “We’ll need your help if we can’t drive out of here.”

“I can find the right roads,” Harper said.

“Perhaps, but we won’t be taking roads if we’re not in the vehicle,” Elijah said.

Madelyn held up her hands to stop him and then pointed. “I’m just going to climb up to the top of that ridge. I’ll wait for ten minutes. If I don’t hear the truck start up and drive away, I’ll come back and help you figure out which way you should head down the mountain.”

Elijah thought about this for a second and then nodded.
 

“Okay,” he said.

Madelyn turned to leave and then reconsidered. She gave Harper and Elijah both a quick hug and then broke away. She could feel their eyes on her as she hurried through the center of Circle Poke. The old town was full of ghosts. Madelyn was almost afraid to turn back to see if Harper and Elijah had become ghosts as well.

She didn’t even make it to the top of the ridge before she heard the old truck rumble to life and then fade away. Madelyn picked up her pace. Before long she was breathing hard and had an uncomfortable heat building in her chest. Madelyn pushed through. Everything would be okay once she made it safely back to her cabin.

Her tears began to flow. At first, she thought of Harper. The young woman had forgotten or repressed the news of her grandfather’s death. Madelyn knew what that was like. When she had heard about her grandmother’s passing, Madelyn had denied it for weeks. The old woman had been too vital and strong. The idea that she had succumbed was ridiculous. Harper had a tough road ahead.

Madelyn realized that Harper wasn’t the only reason she was sad.
 

Her memories of David had mixed with her thoughts of Elijah. Somehow the two men were becoming intertwined in her brain. They were so different, but somehow occupied similar spaces in her mind.

Madelyn didn’t want to open her David feelings again. She wanted to be done with them. Ever since she had pulled his skull from the incinerator, his presence had been closing in. More ghosts.

A noise snapped her back to the present.
 

It sounded like a wave crashing on a beach. It was just the one quick wash of noise and then nothing. The normal chatter of birds came back slowly. Every living thing in the forest had been shocked into silence for a moment.

Madelyn made her feet move again.
 

She walked a few paces and then broke into a run.

M
ADELYN
BURST
THROUGH
THE
door of the cabin and slammed it behind herself. She couldn’t catch her breath. The air would get as far as her vocal cords and then she would cough it back up. With the door locked—both electronically and mechanically—she staggered for the bathroom.

She splashed cold water on her face as she panted. The look of herself in the mirror frightened her more. Her skin was waxy and pale. Here eyes were wide and crazy. Madelyn slammed the door to the bathroom and collapsed to her knees. Another wave of coughing nearly made her vomit for real. She got herself under control as a sharp pain jabbed in her side.

They had chased her all the way home.

Phantom noises appeared in the forest as she ran. Footsteps trailed her. Lonely voices called from the trees.

Madelyn turned at a glimpse of movement. A shadow under the bathroom door shifted—there was someone in her cabin.

Rummaging through her bathroom turned up nothing more deadly than nail clippers and a hairbrush. She pulled a spray bottle of cleanser from under the sink and held it in front of herself as she turned the doorknob.
 

The bathroom door creaked as it swung open.

She stared at the empty cabin. Madelyn crept slowly from the bathroom and made her way to the center of the living room. She kept spinning around, convinced that something or someone was creeping up behind her.

Madelyn worked through the cabin, checking every corner and peeking through the slits to see the outside. There was a presence there with her—she couldn’t explain it, but it was undeniable. She thought about the ghost she had seen on the surveillance camera. Some entity had moved through the place, touching this and moving that. Madelyn folded her arms across her chest and shivered.

It was unfair. This was her safe place.

She backed towards the stairs. She took the lift down to the control panel. Madelyn quickly scanned the record. She watched for anything—any movement at all—from when they had left, until her return. There was nothing there. Still unsettled, she watched the overview of the exterior cameras. She saw herself run back, stumbling in her panicked flight, and there seemed to be shadows that hung in the woods. They followed her to the edge of the forest and then stopped.

Madelyn reversed the display and watched the scene from every angle. The shadows seemed to be the right size and shape for people. She never got a good look at what was casting them.
 

“No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “It’s not real. It’s the same as the goat man or the bees.”

She shifted the panel and used the weather detection. The blue spot was still there, strong as ever. It looked like it was hovering over her cabin.
 

“Strong possibility of weird hallucinations in the forecast,” Madelyn said. The attempted joke failed to lift her mood. Goosebumps rose on her arms.

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Madelyn saw the shape as she climbed the stairs.
 

She could have stopped. She could have turned and fled back to the control room, but she didn’t. There was no hiding from whatever it was. Anything that could get through her locked door could just as easily invade the underground bunker where her supplies and utilities were housed.

The figure stood in a shadow.
 

She couldn’t see its face.

Madelyn found the top of the stairs and reached for the lights.

The thing seemed to absorb light. The obscuring shadows remained, even though everything else in the cabin was well-lit. The figure stood right near her wall of skulls. As she watched, the dark hand reached out and circled the eyehole of one of the bleached white skulls.

“Where’s mine?” the figure asked.

Madelyn tried to place the voice. It sounded like her brother, but not quite. There was something slightly different about the tone. It took her a second for the voice to click into place.

“Dad?” she asked.

The shadowed face turned towards her and came into focus.
 

“You didn’t care enough to save my skull?”

“The bodies were all planted in a mass grave. You know that.”

“You went to the trouble to recover your grandmother’s skull.”

“She was buried here on the property. It wasn’t difficult.”