The Hunting (22 page)

That was exactly what Rian was thinking.

‘Yeah. Maybe we can’t trust him?’ Renée remarked.

‘He may not know,’ he said, remembering when he’d left the truck by the Fortress. ‘They’ve bugged his truck before.’

Renée conceded that. ‘I guess.’

‘Rian?’

‘Yeah?

‘I’m scared. I hate this. I really hate this.’

They heard the shot. Heard someone shouting. Heard the chopper’s motor change tone. It suddenly sounded sick, real sick.

‘I should go look,’ Rian said.

‘Don’t you leave me here, Rian Tulane.’

‘Something’s going on, Renée.’

‘Stay. I can still feel it. Stay. Genie will be lying low. She knows what to do. She’ll make her way back. Stay … please.’

Moucher suddenly began to move.

‘No, Mouch, stay.’

But he was crawling towards the far end of the pipe.

Genie didn’t know what was wrong with the dog. He just wasn’t obeying anything tonight.

‘Mouch. Stop. Come back now, you hear me?’

Mouch moved even quicker towards the far end and Genie felt obliged to follow. What the hell he was up to, she had no idea.

‘You’d better have a good reason, dog, ’cause I am so going to beat you after all this. If it wasn’t for you, Schneider wouldn’t even know I was here.’

Mouch was already out of the pipe and turned around – giving her a sharp little bark to hurry her up.

‘You shut up now, dog. We’re supposed to be quiet.’

Genie crawled out of the pipe and it was absolutely dark here. She could see the stars above her despite the streetlights blazing over the road sixty metres away. She looked around her. They were in a garden, the homes closest to the road separated by a wall that extended right around one side of the development.

She bent down and gave Mouch a hug. She was safer here, no one could see her and the chopper was nowhere around.

‘Got to find a way back to the motel,’ she whispered into Mouch’s ears.

Genie began walking, looking for a gate – some way to get out of the complex.

Mouch was close to her heels now, not sure of this place. She could hear all kinds of activity on the other side of the wall. Police vehicles. She imagined they’d set up a manhunt for her. She and Mouch were going to have to go down every rat hole in Whistler to escape.

They passed a home where some people were still up watching TV on a huge wall screen. Lots of explosions and deafening music. She was sure glad she didn’t live next door to them. She continued walking. There had to be way out of here.

She heard the familiar
whoop-whoop
of cop cars. Were they coming for her? She had to find out what was happening. She realized that she didn’t even know the name of the motel they were staying at. How dumb was that?

Genie found a tree that grew close the wall and, after telling Mouch to sit and not move
on pain of death
, she jumped up, grabbed a branch and shimmied up to get a view.

There was open ground in front of her and in the distance the chopper was straddled across several car lanes. Cop vehicles and fire trucks had surrounded it and she could see they were making quite a fuss. Reverend Schneider was arguing with law-enforcement officers and she could hear, but not make out the words, that tempers were flaring. The chopper must have broken down. That was a real stroke of luck.

Genie dropped down besides Mouch and patted his head. ‘We caught a break. Come on. Time to find a way out of here.’

There was a gated exit and security post. Clearly whoever lived here was rich, but not so rich they had it manned twenty-four hours. They slipped under the gate and, keeping well behind parked vehicles, went the long way back to the motel.

‘No rabbits,’ she told Mouch, who kept his head down, aware that she was still cross with him.

Renée was still lying on the floor, but this time she was covered in mud. Rian likewise. They looked at Genie and Mouch with total astonishment.

‘You a ghost?’

‘Huh?’

Marshall was staring at her as well and Genie had no idea what they were doing or why the other two were muddy.

‘You’re covered in white dust,’ Marshall said. ‘Looks like lime.’

Genie caught sight of herself in the mirror and received a shock. She and Mouch had been crawling in white stuff. They really did look like ghosts.

‘And the mud? I mean, I go outside for five minutes and you guys are like mud wrestlers now?’

‘Five minutes!’ Rian protested. ‘You’ve been gone two hours. We looked all over for you and then there was a Mosquito attack and don’t tell me you—’

Genie took a deep breath. ‘Reverend Schneider saw me. Called in the chopper, the bastard. Had to hide in a drain. The chopper seems to have landed on the road. Cops crawling all over them.’

Marshall grinned. ‘They had a malfunction.’

Renée smiled. ‘He shot at them. Saw it swoop down and he shot at it.’

‘Slowed ’em down. You can bet they didn’t get clearance to fly this late at night and the cops won’t like that they crash-landed on the highway. Woke a few people up around here, I can tell you. Don’t worry, I fired from across the road behind a dumpster.’

Genie was impressed. She didn’t even know Marshall had a shotgun with him.

‘How do you think Reverend Schneider tracked us here?’ she asked. ‘It’s like we can never shake him.’

‘My son checked my truck over before I left. No GPS trackers on my vehicle. But if Schneider’s here, it means Strindberg will be following. I know we need sleep, but we need to check out early and get down to Level Fourteen before they close off our access.’

‘We’re still going down there?’ Genie asked.

‘No choice and, besides, once we are down there, they won’t be able to find you.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I’m one of the few people who still know how to get in. He’s fired pretty much everyone else. He won’t be looking for you down there. I doubt he remembers it. Just because he shut something down, doesn’t mean he knows what it was or did or even where it is. It’s just on a spreadsheet someplace and he moved it into a different column.’

‘We have to go,’ Genie agreed. ‘Cops will have to investigate that shooting. You’re crazy, Marshall, but thanks. You saved our asses again.’

‘It had to be done. I knew the moment I saw the Fortransco logo what it was.’

‘I’ve got to hit clean up,’ Renée declared. ‘I’m not going anyplace looking like this. ‘

‘Me too,’ Genie decided.

Marshall was looking at Moucher. ‘Take the dog in there. He’s a disgrace.’

Genie paused at the bathroom door.

‘It’s entirely his fault, y’know. He chased a rabbit, nearly got squashed flat by Schneider’s Mercedes.’

Marshall frowned. ‘He does like to chase rabbits. But you shouldn’t have chased after him. He’s a grown boy. He makes a mistake, he’ll pay for it and go hungry. Someone will find him and eventually call the number on his tag.
You
make a mistake and all hell breaks loose.’

Genie knew he was right. She had been stupid.

Rian could barely stay awake. He couldn’t remember the last time he slept.

‘We have to go down there?’ he asked. ‘It’s going to be cold.’

Marshall nodded. ‘It’s nearly four a.m. We’ll leave at six, pick up some coffee from somewhere and head to the hotel. You can sleep some more down there whilst I try to figure stuff out.’

‘Freeze to death more likely. You didn’t see Genie when she came back from there – she had frost on her skin.’

Marshall frowned again. ‘It’s not supposed to be so cold down there. I’ll see if I can fix that too. We’ll need sweaters. You need to get cleaned up too. Can’t have you looking like that out there.’

‘We need clean clothes.’

‘That I can’t fix.’

Marshall lay down; he needed some sleep himself. He was worried he was in too deep now – but he’d made a promise to help, and help he would.

‘Hey, leave hot water for me,’ Rian called out.

The bathroom door opened and a very wet, but clean, Mouch staggered out, slipping on the vinyl flooring. He looked half the size he did when he went in and very put out by the ordeal.

‘Don’t shake, Mouch, don’t you dare shake.’

He shook – spraying water everywhere.

‘Damn.’

G
enie was surprised to discover McDonald’s was real busy at six a.m. She had no idea that people needed breakfast at this hour, nor that clubwear was required – or virtually nothing in the case of some of the girls, who looked either exhausted or zoned out in most cases. What was clear was that no one waiting for their egg McMuffins, except her and Ri, had had any sleep that night. She adjusted Marshall’s baseball cap, at least three sizes too big for her head, but any disguise was better than nothing.

Moucher waited patiently outside, glancing in to make sure she didn’t forget to get a burger for him.

Marshall sat in his truck reading a newspaper, content to let them queue, whilst Renée slept in the corner, reluctant to start her day so early.

Rian was nuzzling her left ear.

‘What?’

‘Just feeling affectionate.’

‘In Maccy D’s?’

He laughed. It was, he realized, not the place to show any kind of feelings. They were surrounded by hungry zombies, none too keen to have to wait for their food either.

‘I was scared last night. You were gone two whole hours and, I don’t know, all kinds of things raced through my head. Bad stuff, y’know.’

Genie rested her head on his chest a moment. ‘Yeah, I know. I was stupid.’

‘Hi, can I take your order?’

They looked at the perky girl with acne and gave their orders.

They brought the food out to the others and handed it through the window. Renée awoke and ate without saying a word.

‘Oh, this is Mouch’s.’

Genie unwrapped the burger and blew on it to cool it. ‘We need to get biscuits and stuff. He’s eating all the wrong food.’

‘I’ll put him on a veggie diet when this is over,’ Marshall said. ‘I think he’s probably had enough adventures for a dog’s lifetime with you.’

Genie was about to protest but Moucher jumped up, twisted high in the air and snatched the burger and bun out of her hands, hastily running off to a doorway to eat it.

‘Maybe teach him some manners too,’ Marshall added with a smirk.

Genie stood outside the truck eating, thinking about what Marshall said. She’d been incredibly selfish taking Moucher with her. She was in no position to offer him a stable home. Of course he had to go back to live at the farm. It was his home, he was happy there. She didn’t want to admit any of this out loud, but she knew he was right. The worst of it was that she’d like to go back to the farm too. She’d felt safe there, despite all that had happened.

Moucher growled. There was someone trying to grab his food and he backed off with the burger in his mouth.

‘Mouch?’

Genie approached the doorway and was surprised to discover a woman was sleeping there, surrounded by cardboard boxes and all her possessions.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry. My dog didn’t know you were there.’

The grey-haired woman with an incredibly lined face looked at her with astonishment.

‘Girl – I know you.’

Genie shook her head.

‘I’m sorry. Are you hungry? Would you like some breakfast?’

Genie couldn’t bear to see people sleeping rough; she’d had a taste of this and was scared this would be her future.

‘Got a message for you, girl.’

Genie smiled. ‘I got half an egg McMuffin.’ She offered it to the woman, who snatched it from her with her black talons extending from her withered hands. Genie was scared of her and Mouch was still growling, even though he’d swallowed the burger whole.

The woman ate the McMuffin. Renée was calling for Genie to come away, but the old woman had an eye on Genie and was clearly trying to remember something. Genie turned but found the talons gripped around her shoes.

‘Grandma Munby has a message for you,’ the old woman said, her voice a furtive whisper now.

‘What? What did you say?’ Genie couldn’t believe it.

She squatted down; the stench of pee was overpowering and she nearly brought her breakfast up. She saw that the woman’s eyes were swollen and she had bruises on her neck.

‘You need money?’ Rian asked, standing behind her now, making sure Genie was OK.

Genie looked up at him. ‘She said something about my grandma.’

Rian looked sceptical. ‘How could anyone here know about your grandma? Even you don’t know anything about her.’

The woman put out her hand, the nails almost ten centimetres or longer, jet-black and sharp. Rian put a five-dollar bill in her hands.

‘Eat something,’ he told her.

The hand closed over the money and the old woman looked directly at Genie.

‘She says, she don’t want to see you – yet. The curse must end with her. You must start anew.’

Genie frowned. Didn’t make any sense and Rian, she knew, was keen to go.

‘Grandma Munby said this?’

The woman shuddered and turned her head away to the door whilst her hand stayed in the air, pointing at something.

‘They watch for you. Everywhere. Many eyes. They scared of the Munby girl.’

Genie looked at where she was pointing and there was a CCTV security camera pointed at McDonald’s. They were just outside its peripheral vision. But she quickly flipped her hood up over her head, in case. She’d had quite enough of people recognizing her.

The old woman curled up again and turned over, putting her back to them. The audience was over.

Rian hauled Genie up and they walked back to the truck in silence, Moucher at her heels.

‘What was that about?’ Marshall asked as they climbed back in.

‘Some crazy stuff,’ Genie replied. ‘Can’t believe people sleep in doorways out here in Whistler. Where does she go in winter, for God’s sake?’

‘It’s a tough world,’ Marshall declared as he started up the engine. ‘When all those banks and pensions went bust back in the recession, no one was thinking about the old folks. No one was thinking about the human cost at all.’

Renée gathered up all the packaging and dashed out to the bin and back again. She smiled as she climbed back in. ‘Just doing my bit for the planet.’