Instinct (35 page)

“Spill it,” Pete said.

Robby paused before he spoke. When he did, he spoke with confidence and authority. He wasn’t persuading them—he was informing them.

“Brad was at the center of the first event. His house was the nexus of all the activity. He told us that the government sent in a team to study the vines that he found behind his house. All those guys disappeared like everyone else on the day it started snowing.”

“Thanksgiving,” Romie said.

Robby nodded.

“They didn’t expect the arrival to be at Brad’s house. They expected it to be here. They knew about this place the same way that Romie sensed this place. It’s the same way that people have determine special places throughout history. There are unique spots on this globe that are burned into our DNA. We evolved to revere those places so that we would know where to go when everything went bad.”

“So how come nobody went to Brad’s house?” Lisa asked.

“Maybe they focused everything here. Or, it’s possible that the presence of their forces managed to change the event.”

“The government knew that the whole world was going to end and they sent people to Brad’s house in order to stop it? You know I don’t like to be this guy, Robby, but you’re giving me no choice. You’re turning me into a naysayer by starting up your crazy ideas again,” Pete said.

“I’m only giving you enough background so you’ll know how I’ve determined where Brad is,” Robby said.

“Okay?” Pete asked.
 

“If you needed to create a permanent installation of people in a powerful spot, but keep it out of the public eye so you wouldn’t cause panic, where would you hide it.”

“In plain sight,” Lisa suggested.

“Or underground,” Robby said with a shrug.

“You think they’re keeping Brad underground?” Pete asked.

Robby nodded. “You remember that guy with the scraggly beard who talked to us when we first got here?”

“The guy who looked like a kindergarten teacher?” Lisa asked.

“Yes,” Robby said. “That guy and the two guys with the long hair in the back. All three were missing from the nomination meeting we just had.”

“So what? I’m sure there were plenty of people who didn’t go.”

“Nope,” Robby shook his head. “Everyone was there except for those three, and all the vehicles are here. Unless they went somewhere on foot, I think they were down in their headquarters.”

“Does this speculation help us?” Pete asked.

“I’m sure there are at least two entrances and a couple of vents for air exchange. One of these buildings will hold an entrance, and there will be one hidden in the woods. There may be a third that’s either at the end of a long tunnel, or buried under a thin layer of turf. That’s how these places are typically designed. The main entrance is sometimes hidden in an outhouse, but here it would be one of these little buildings. It would be somewhere people wouldn’t gather, but would have a reason to visit once or twice a day.”

“Could be any one of several buildings, if you’re right,” Pete said.

“It’s in that area,” Robby said. He pointed by nodding his head towards one of the smaller barns.

“Why?”

Lisa was the one who answered. “Because that kindergarten teacher just appeared over there.”

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Robby dragged the spreader and carried the shovel. Pete pushed the wheelbarrow. They hauled four forty-pound bags of lime and Pete was not very careful with the load. Every time they came to a turn in their path, he jerked the cart to an abrupt halt, spilling a bit of the lime.

Pete had talked his way into getting assigned this duty. Amongst the gardeners, none professed to be an expert on maintaining horse pasture, so they didn’t question when Pete suggested that the paddock soil was too acidic. Unfortunately, to make the lie convincing, Pete and Robby had to spend the day spreading lime and working it into the dirt of the paddock while the horses were sequestered in another field.
 

“What if this doesn’t work?” Pete asked as he tossed another shovel of the powder in front of Robby’s rake.

“We can set up rotating surveillance on one of the Beardos,” Robby said. “We’ll do someone with medium-high rank. The top guys might be too careful about their movements.”

“How do we find out their rank? I thought you said that most of the Beardos weren’t aware of what’s going on.”

“You can see it in their grooming,” Robby said.

Pete stopped and leaned on his shovel. “Say what?”

“You’ll see it. Focus on the beard length. The ones with very thin beards that aren’t well filled in are the highest rank.”

“Sure,” Pete said. “Why wouldn’t they use facial hair to signify rank.” He smiled.

“It’s useful to have a scheme for identification. Military organizations always signify rank somehow.”

“I think I’ll just trim myself into a general then,” Pete said, rubbing his chin.

“Keep working,” Robby said. “Amongst the regular people here, rank seems to be determined by how hard you work.”

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Dinner was a very social time. People moved between tables, breaking up the cliques before they could solidify. Robby sat with other teenagers. When Judy showed up, Robby moved to her table and she introduced him around. Pete aligned himself with some Beardos and laughed as loud as they did over whispered, off-color jokes. When the plates were cleared, the Beardos broke up and spread out to various tables. Romie and Lisa sat together and were visited by a few factions. The people seemed intent on strengthening their bonds through many social interactions. Most everyone had lived alone for some amount of time before finding the group. Some joined together the day after Thanksgiving, and some had only found their way to the farm weeks or days earlier.

Sharing their stories was their primary form of entertainment. Lisa and Romie talked mostly of their life before, and left out descriptions of their travels into the snow.

After dinner, they were finally able to find a quiet place to talk.
 

People headed to the west side of the hill, to sit on the mowed slope and wait for the sunset. Pete, Robby, Lisa, and Romie sat in a tight diamond.

“There are two possible spots,” Lisa said. “There’s a garden shed next to the barn where three tractors are parked. We found footprints that led up to the tractor in the middle. Maybe you have to move the tractor to find a door or something. We couldn’t figure out how they would have moved that tractor without moving the one in front or in back though.”

Romie took over the report. “The other one is that little gran shed. The bins look like they were re-lined with metal sometime recently, and there was half of a footprint under one of the bins.”

“White?”

“Yes, someone stepped right in one of your lime piles and tracked it into the shed,” Lisa said.

Robby nodded. “That’s the one. Are you talking about the shed that has the old painted milk cans next to the door?”

“Yes,” Lisa said.

“You guys head to the latrine after dark. After ten minutes, we’ll meet you at the shed,” Robby said.

“What about Judy?” Pete asked. “Don’t you think she could help us search for Brad? She knows these people a lot better than we do.”

“No,” Robby said. He shook his head. “We can’t trust her.”

“You think she’s working with the Beardos?”

“No,” Robby said. “I’m not sure who she’s working with, but I think it’s safest to assume she’s not on our side.”

CHAPTER 23: ROCHESTER, NEW YORK

T
HEY
TOOK
TURNS
DELIVERING
food and medicine to the room. Jackson stopped threatening them with his gun, but he kept the dangerous hunk of metal within his reach. When Amy Lynne was conscious, she seemed to have a calming effect on the young man. He wasn’t exactly polite, but he was nearly civil. When she was out, he was short-tempered and mean. Unfortunately, as the days passed, she was unconscious more and more of the time.
 

Ty, Cedric, and Tim shared the little room that Ty had made his home. Ty returned one morning with a deep frown.

“I think she took a turn in the night,” Ty said.

“Worse than before?”

“Much worse. Her breathing is shallow, she’s showing signs of dehydration, and Jackson won’t let me start her on fluids.”

“Why?”

“He thinks there’s something in them. He only trusts the drugs that she identified before she went out,” Ty said, shaking his head. “Why does he think we would want to hurt her?”

“Not too bright,” Tim said.
 

Cedric stood up halfway and turned his nose towards the closed door. The dog didn’t make a sound, but the fur between his shoulder blades was standing straight up. After a few seconds, the dog worked his tongue in his mouth and settled back down.
 

“He’s doing that more and more,” Tim said. “You think it’s your hallway walker?”

Ty shook his head. “That thing only comes at night. I don’t know what he’s hearing.”

“When Cedric is frightened by something, it’s a good idea to pay attention,” Tim said.

Ty wiped his face with one giant hand. “I always thought her odds were pretty grim, but now that Jackson is involved, I don’t think there’s any way to save her.”

“If he were just smarter, I’m sure we could reason with him. Why don’t we spike his food. We can knock him out and leave him here. Or maybe we could lock him up somewhere. Hell, if we just get that gun away from him, he wouldn’t be able to stop us from helping Amy Lynne.”

“It’s too dangerous. What if she’s awake and she eats the food? It’s a delicate thing to sedate someone. You have to get the dose just right for their weight or it’s too easy for something to go wrong.”

“So then we have to leave,” Tim said. “As sad as it is, we have to admit that there’s nothing we can do because he has a gun and he’s too dumb to listen to reason.”

“I don’t want to leave this place,” Ty said.

“I know you don’t, but I’m not sure you have a choice. If she dies, and it sounds likely that she will, then he might become even more unstable. You don’t want to be around when that happens.”

“I won’t be frightened off by him,” Ty said.
 

“I believe you, but maybe you should,” Tim said. “The world is a dangerous place, but those threats are unpredictable. The danger of Jackson is certain. You wouldn’t have to leave forever. Just go away for long enough so he takes his rage elsewhere. Then, you could come back.”

“I could hide here,” Ty said. “He doesn’t know about this room. He always stays on the perimeter of the hospital, where all the windows are.”

“When he got angry with me, he burned my plane. If Amy Lynne dies, there’s a good chance that he’ll try to burn this place down.”

Ty sighed. He rubbed his face again and then moved to the floor, so he could stroke Cedric’s back. The dog glanced at him and then returned his attention to the door.

“This world,” Ty said.

Tim let the silence grow before he spoke again.

“Come with me and Cedric. If you want, I can drop you off a few miles north and you can make your way back here. If you take your time, the boy will probably be gone by then.”

Ty considered the offer for a while before he finally gave an answer.

It surprised Tim.

“Okay.”

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Ty rolled the cart to a stop just outside the doors to the hallway. On it, he had placed all the meds Amy Lynne would need and instructions on how to administer them. He didn’t have faith that Jackson would execute the instructions correctly, but he refused to leave without trying to help.

They met at the glass doors of the lobby. Ty hunched down so he could look up at the sky.

“Are you sure they aren’t out there?” Ty asked.

“No, but I’ve been okay moving around in the daylight,” Tim said.

Cedric whipped his head around and looked in the direction of the wing where Jackson and Amy Lynne were taking a morning nap.

“Should we disable his motorcycle so he doesn’t try to follow us?” Tim asked.

The bike was parked on the sidewalk, just outside the door.

“No,” Ty said. “He might need it.”

Tim nodded.
 

They left the hospital at a jog. Ty wasn’t very fast, but he was silent. Tim heard the jingling of Cedric’s collar, but didn’t hear Ty’s feet hitting the pavement. When they left the cover of the building, all Tim heard was the wind. It had picked up. He tried to get a sense of it, so he would know what to expect when he got the plane in the air, but it was swirling between the buildings. It was too random.

When they reached the plane, Tim threw the bag up on the wing and climbed up behind it. Ty stood on the pavement and looked around nervously. The sun wasn’t quite at the top of the sky yet, but it would be soon.