The Winter People (31 page)

But
most noticeable about “The Big Empty”, as Mike had called it, was the quiet it
offered from the storm outside.  There was only the slightest hint of the wind,
and even that was quickly lost with the softest of sounds.  So it was with
amazing clarity that they could hear the soft scuffle of something moving on
the floor above them.

As
they climbed the stairs they moved as one, so close were they huddled
together.  Mike’s knuckles were white from squeezing the flare gun so tightly,
and his hand quivered.  His mouth had gone dry and he tried to swallow, but couldn’t. 
Every now and then a step would creak and it would be deafening roar in the Big
Empty, and Mike would go rigid.  Behind him, he was sure the others were the
same, but he was so focused on what lie ahead he was only barely aware of them.

There
came some more shuffling, and then the creak of a floorboard.  Mike very nearly
peed his pants.  He regained control with a heavy sigh and crept forward.  At
the top of the stairs he paused and listened.  Nick and Sarah came up beside
him and startled him.  He’d nearly forgotten that they were there.  He put a
finger to his lips and Nick and Sarah nodded.  Each of them cocked their heads
in a different direction, straining to hear.

They
didn’t have to wait long.  There was another creak of a floorboard three doors
down the walkway.  As quietly as they could, the three worked their way towards
the door, and what ever lie beyond.  Nick pushed Sarah to the side and crouched
low in front of the door, his flare gun held before him.  The scene was almost
laughable to Nick, like some old NCIS episode.  He almost smiled at that
thought, almost.

Mike
stood above and slightly off to one side.  He gently twisted the knob until the
bolt came free with a tiny click.  He looked down at Nick and they gave each
other a nod, then Mike threw the door open.  In the split second as the door
opened, there was a sharp thud as a short arrow sank into the door frame beside
Mike’s head.

“Oh God!  I-I-I’m
sorry,” Gary rattled out, surprised.  “I thought you were one of those things.”
his words trembling nearly as much as he was.

Mike looked over
at the arrow (bolt, Gary later corrected) embedded in the door frame and let
out a disbelieving laugh.  A toothy grin filled his face and he turned back to
the kid standing before him.  “Lucky for you I wasn’t.  That was a pretty sorry
shot,” he teased.  Gary only nodded, embarrassed.

There was an
awkward moment of silence; the situation seemed too alien for anything else. 
Finally, Sarah pushed past Nick and Mike and into the room.  “My name’s Sarah,”
she said.  “And that’s Mike and Nick,” motioning to each with her head.

Gary swallowed,
exhaled, and then replied.  “Gary, Gary Radner.  My mom and I...”  His words
trailed off and he hung his head down, swallowed again, and continued.  “We
live here in town.  She-she worked at the Diner, but...I should’ve helped her. 
I was there.  She needed me, but I didn’t do anything.”  Gary’s eyes were far
away, his expression blank.  He barely noticed that Sarah had come up beside
him.  Nick and Mike only glanced at each other then fixed their eyes on the
floor beneath them.

Gary continued, “I
couldn’t do anything.  I couldn’t move.”  Tears began to fill his eyes, “It
tore her apart, and I just watched it!  I just w-watched.”  Finally the tears
fell and Sarah put her arm around him.

As Sarah held Gary
and Gary sobbed, Nick motioned to Mike and they left the room to investigate
the rest of the floor.  Office after office, it was dark and empty.  They
finally ended up back where they had started and found Gary and Sarah perched
on the end of a large oak desk.  Gary’s eyes were puffy and pink and Sarah
still had an arm around him.  Gary saw Nick and Mike and turned his head to wipe
his eyes.  He sniffed once and then turned back around.  For a moment, things
were better.

“Well Gary Gary
Radner,” Nick said, “How’d you get in here?”

Gary smiled
briefly, but Nick didn’t notice it.  “Through a window in that side office” he
said, motioning to a door on the right side of the room.  “I climbed a drift to
the fire escape and just broke in.  It wasn’t too hard.”

“What did you
almost shoot with me with?”  Mike asked.

Gary recounted his
morning, and the scene at the Diner, leaving out the part about his mother.  He
told them about the creatures and the things he had noticed about them.  He
quickly breezed through the part about his journey there, much of it a blur to
him anyway.  He finally finished by showing them the crossbow he had made.

Nick offered up
their story in the abridged version and Gary listened intently.  Occasionally
he would cast a sidelong glance at Sarah, but looked away as soon as she would
turn to look at him.  Through all that had happened, his hormones were still in
good working condition, oblivious to it all.  Gary smiled inwardly.  He didn’t feel
nearly as alone as he had for what seemed like a long, long time.

They decided to
separate into two parties and search the rest of the building.  Gary hastily
volunteered to go with Sarah.  Mike and Nick had to suppress a chuckle.  They
cast each other a smile and left Gary with Sarah.  Nick and Mike headed up
stairs and Sarah and Gary headed down.

***

Sarah had seen
that look before and she had to smile.  As Gary accompanied her from room to
room her eyes would catch his just before he looked away.  He had taken it upon
himself to protect her and led the way into each uncharted area, crossbow
boldly held before him.  It was the testosterone dance and Sarah knew it all
too well.  He was harmless she was sure, and at least it kept his mind off his
mother.

They finished
their survey and ended up back in the radio area of the police station.  Since
Gary’s entrance had cut short their search of the office earlier, she decided
to pass the time until Nick and Mike returned by continuing it now.  There was
a gun cabinet with several guns in it on the far wall across from the massive
oak desk, but it was locked.  She and Gary searched through the drawers of each
desk and then the two filing cabinets but came across nothing that could help;
no flares, and no keys.  Sarah finally looked around the offices, dismayed.

That’s when she
noticed the computer.  She’d seen it before, she was sure of it.  It just must
not have registered.  She went to the desk to turn it on and Gary spoke up.

“Don’t bother,” he
said morosely, “I already thought of that.”

“Thought of
what?”  She wondered.

“Sending out an
email for help.”  He replied.

“Why didn’t you
say something?  Why don’t bother?”  Sarah prodded.

“The phones are
down, and we don’t have cable.”  He said flatly.  “No internet.”

Sarah mouthed a
silent “Oh” and slid down into a big padded chair in front of the monitor,
glum.  Every room was void of life, dark and unfeeling.  The windows were
covered with packed snow, driven into high drifts by the wind.  Outside doors
as well were blocked and Sarah’s feelings about it were mixed.  They were well
barricaded from anything entering from the outside, but they were also barred
from leaving.  She sat in the big padded chair, thinking.  Gary sat nearby,
involved in his own thoughts.  It was in that moment of quiet contemplation
that Sarah thought she heard something.

***

Room after empty
room Nick and Mike made their search in silence.  In the last office they
finally relaxed.  Nick leaned back on a tall filing cabinet and crossed his arms
while Mike plopped down in a green winged back chair near the door.

At last Nick
spoke, “What do you think of that Gary kid?”

Mike shrugged and
half smiled.  “He reminds me a lot of me.”

Nick smiled. 
“Yeah, me too.”  Then his smile faded, “What are we gonna do Mike?  This place
isn’t very defensible.”

“I don’t know.  If
Gary could just walk right in here...then, I don’t know.” Mike replied.

“I guess we could
try to...”  Nick trailed off in mid sentence.  Something had caught his eye
outside in the murk beyond the window to his left.  “There was something moving
in the trees.  It seemed to be a single light, a snowmobile?” he finished.

“Are you sure?!” 
Mike jumped out of his chair and moved quickly to the window beside Nick.

“Yeah!  Right
there,” he said, pointing.  “Maybe it’s Hayden?”

“Well, it is
headed for the bay doors.  We’d better get down stairs, its coming up pretty
fast.”  Mike turned before he’d finished saying it.  His heart was pounding
with anticipation and hope.  Nick was on his heels as they descended the stairs
and bounded for the sheriff’s offices.

As Mike came
flying through the heavy swinging door he very nearly knocked Sarah over
backwards.  “Oh shit!” they both exclaimed, startled.

“I heard
something!” Sarah exclaimed a little panicked.

“I know, it’s a
snowmobile,” Mike replied.  And almost as an acknowledgment, there was a hollow
thud, thud, thud, coming from the bay area.

The four of them
wasted no time and moved down the long green corridor to the garage bays. 
There were three more thuds on the large center by door and they echoed in the
emptiness of the garage.  Even so, they could all tell that they were not
nearly as strong as the first time.  There was one last thud that sounded more
like something had been thrown against the door than someone had hit it.  They
reached the garage and faced the door.  It was silent.  They looked at each
other for a tentative moment and listened.

***

With every last
bit of his strength depleted, Tom fell hard against the mostly buried garage
door.  He had knocked a few times but now there was nothing left.  His vision
was blurred, his body a lead weight, and his hope had abandoned him.  Tom was
finished.  If this was it then let it happen, he could go no further.  With
that thought, Tom passed out.

Yet even as the
clouds of unconsciousness converged upon him, the door began to rise jerkily. 
A harsh fluorescent light soon began to bathe him and in a moment, he slid
beneath the door in a lifeless lump.  Tom Willis dropped the eight or so feet
from the top of the drift to the garage floor.  The quick reactions of the four
people inside were all that saved his head from a nasty crack on the concrete.

The wailing wind
followed the man inside, violently attacking the temperature.  Just as the
mercury dropped, so did the groups ability to hear above the din.  So it was
with some alarm that Sarah noticed the dark figure hunkering in the doorway. 
Almost instantly she realized that it was another man, with a large bundle of
some sort on the snow beside him.

***

Johnny had seen
the other snowmobile in his mind’s eye, closing on the courthouse.  He knew it
was Tom Willis just as surely as he knew who was waiting for him in the
courthouse.  Johnny eased out of the tree line behind the old brick building
and followed its walls around the side to the garage bay doors.  Tom had just
collapsed against the door as Johnny’s machine came to a stop next to his
heap.  Even as the door struggled to open Johnny was unloading the litter he
towed of its precious cargo.

There was
surprise, and even a little fear, on the faces of the others down in the garage
bay.  Holding onto the motionless form of Tom Willis, they all stood there in a
moment of frozen trepidation until Johnny started to lower the large bundle on
the snow next to him into the garage.  Nick and Mike finally registered the
moment and eased the bottom half of Tom to the concrete floor and moved to
accept the large bundle from Johnny.

Johnny didn’t even
try to be heard above the pitiless cry of the wind, he just set about lowering
Hayden and Roscoe.  Nick and Mike took the heavy load from Johnny, sensing its
importance, and eased it onto the floor next to Tom.  Johnny followed the
bundle down, landing harder than he wanted to on his bad leg and felt the sharp
pains of protest rocket up into his groin.  With the big garage door working
its way closed against the force of the intruding snow drift, Johnny finally
ripped off his face mask and goggles.

Nick and Mike
recognized him immediately and the slightest ray of hope danced across both of
their faces.  Johnny only hoped that it wasn’t misplaced.  Gary and Sarah still
held the upper body of Tom, but all four were silent, looking expectantly at
Johnny.  Finally, Johnny broke the odd silence.

“Hi Nick…Mike.  I
need some help with this.” And he turned toward the bundle lying on the floor
next to him.  “Let’s get ‘em into the office where it’s warm.”  Johnny
continued, motioning to both his bundle, and Tom Willis.  Without another word
Nick and Mike started to drag the heavy bundle down the long green hallway,
followed by Sarah and Gary dragging Tom, and Johnny limping up the rear. 
Beneath the skins and blankets, Nick and Mike heard an occasional whimper and
they looked at each other briefly, puzzled.  It was a sorry parade, to say the
least.

The warmth of the
office hit Johnny like an oven; he hadn’t realized it until just then how cold
he’d been.  He immediately stripped out of his cold weather gear and knelt
beside his precious bundle.  The ropes were still fairly frozen so he withdrew
his knife and began to cut the bundle open.  As he did so, Tom Willis was
already coming around and was sitting in the big padded chair that Sarah had
occupied only minutes earlier.  Sarah was busy making a big pot of coffee, and
Nick, Mike, and Gary just stood there dumbly watching Johnny.

As the ropes and
blankets and skins fell away, despair sank into Nick’s and Mike’s hearts. 
Hayden looked dead.  It was only his uncontrolled trembling that let them know
he was alive.  The dog tried to evoke a pat on the head, or give a lick, but
was in obvious pain from the gashes in its side.  Gary knelt down next to
Roscoe and gave in to his request, comforting the big Pitt Bull.  Johnny gave
Gary an appreciative glance then started removing Hayden’s soggy long
underwear.

Nick called out to
the back office, “Sarah, do you see any clothes or one of his uniforms back
there?”

“Yeah.”  She
replied.

“Could you bring
those out here?”  He continued.

“Okay.”  And then
a moment later she suddenly appeared behind Nick with a bundle of clothing. 
“Coffee’s cooking.”  She reported and handed the bundle to Nick.  “Who’s
that?”  She queried Mike as Nick squatted down beside Johnny and they started
to dress Hayden.

“That’s the
sheriff.”  Mike replied sullenly.

“I sorta figured
that,” she said flatly, “I meant the other guy?”

“Oh…That’s one of
the Rangers from the station.  Nick and I talked to him last night.”  Mike
replied, only slightly embarrassed.  “His name is Johnny.”

“And the dog,”
Johnny interjected, “is Roscoe.”  And even though he already knew the answers,
Johnny forged ahead with the introductions.  “Who are you?”  He asked.

“I’m Sarah, Nick’s
sister.”  She replied.

He smiled and
nodded, and Sarah suddenly felt much safer.  There was something in his smile. 
It was warm, and caring, and strong.  Sarah returned his smile and nodded back,
then looked down at the dog that Gary was coddling.

Gary didn’t even
glance over to Johnny, but acknowledged him.  “Hey Johnny, you remember me?”

“I sure do
Gary…And thanks for Roscoe.”  At his name, Roscoe looked back at Johnny and
gave Gary a big swipe with his tongue.  Gary smiled and tears began to fill his
eyes.  He bent down and hugged the big dog so the others wouldn’t see.  But
they had, and no one said a word.