Instinct (7 page)

A flashlight came on inside and then another. Bill and Viv were lighting up the place. Judy’s fear waned with the addition of more light.

She walked by the woman and saw a genuine smile cross the woman’s face. When Judy stepped through, she closed the door behind them.

“We can talk in the kitchen,” the woman said. “It’s right down the hall.”
 

Viv and Bill were investigating the rooms they passed with their probing flashlights. The woman didn’t pay them any mind. She kept shuffling down the hall. She wore a modest nightgown that hung all the way down to her slippers. Her long gray hair was tied in back. Judy followed, but left plenty of room between herself and the woman, just in case. She remembered her own flashlight and began to pull it out from her back pocket as they reached the kitchen.
 

There was no need for it. As soon as she reached the table, the older woman touched her flame to the many wicks of candles that decorated the center of the table. Judy glanced around at the kitchen. It was modern and practical, but trimmed in wood and stone, which gave it the feel of a country house. After the older woman took a chair, Judy took a seat.
 

In the center wall, she saw a fireplace under a brick arch. It held an iron pot suspended from a hook. Judy wondered if it contained soup made from the bones of earlier visitors. She looked back to the older woman’s smile. Shadows danced up her face.

“I’m Viv. This is Judy, Daniel, and Bill.”

“So nice to meet you. I’ll need to hear those names a few more times before I get them. I used to be one of those people who would hear a name once and then remember it forever. I guess my brain is getting tired. Oh, and everyone calls me Woolly.”

“Nice to meet you,” Viv said.

Daniel and Viv sat down, but Bill was still wandering around the kitchen.

“Does this work?” Bill asked. He turned his body so they could see that he was pointing at a hand pump, mounted to the counter over a sink.

“It does,” Woolly said. “It’s one of the best parts about this kitchen. I don’t think it had been used in years. They probably kept it just for the ambience, but it’s been a lifesaver.”

“Woolly is an interesting name,” Viv said.

“My parents called me Mildred, after my mother’s grandmother. I hated it. There’s no good nickname for Mildred. I hate Milly. It sounds like the name of an old cocker spaniel. My nephew called me Woolly because I always used to knit with wool. I took the name as my own. I even insisted that they call me Woolly at work.”

“When did you come to this place?” Daniel said.

“I lived a few towns over,” Woolly said. “When everyone disappeared, I wandered around. I didn’t know what to do. When I found the horses here, I decided that someone had better take care of them. I tried to let them out, but they kept coming back. There are still some loose around here, but I keep most of them in the paddock just so they won’t get into trouble.”

“And you said you live here alone?” Bill asked.

Woolly frowned. “I’ve answered one of yours already. How about we go back and forth? How exactly did you come to my door this evening?”

“We came down from up north,” Viv said. “There was a tremendous amount of snow up there, and there was a stretch where instead of disappearing, people just died. We decided to see if it was safe to come back into the area where there were no dead bodies, and where there wasn’t so much cold and snow.”

Woolly nodded.

“Yes, I live here alone with the horses. It’s my turn. How did you manage to travel without vanishing, like everyone else?”

Nobody said anything for a minute. Daniel was the one who finally ventured an answer. “We don’t know for sure. After the big day where everyone disappeared, a few people were taken here and there. For the most part, it seems like that the mass disappearance is over. Why is it the horses here survived? Do you have any idea?”

“I have a theory,” Woolly said. “It seems there’s something different about this hill somehow. If you stay up here, it seems you have some sort of immunity to disappearing. I haven’t seen anyone taken since I’ve been here.”

Bill looked like he was going to come over to the table to take a seat, but something caught his eye. He moved to the glass that made the upper half of the back door. Bill flipped up the back of his shirt and suddenly his hand was filled with a gun.

“Who’s out there? What are those lights?” Bill asked. He wasn’t pointing the gun at anyone yet. He held it towards the floor.

“I told you,” Woolly said, “I live alone. I burn torches down at the road. I’m terrified that one of the horses will fall in the ditch.” Bill wasn’t meeting her eyes. He was turned so everyone at the table was in his peripheral vision, but his attention was focused out the window.

“You said you live alone and then you said you haven’t seen anyone taken since you’ve been here. Who are you referring too?”

“Bill, put that away, would you?” Viv asked.

“Answer the question, Mildred,” Bill said.

Woolly’s eyes jumped between the other three, begging them for help.

“She probably just meant…” Viv began.

“Don’t answer for her,” Bill said. “Who hasn’t been taken, Mildred?”

“Just the horses, I suppose,” Woolly said. Her voice started to falter and she swallowed hard. “I’ve been living here alone. I’ve come to think of them as people.”

“I don’t buy it,” Bill said. He backed away from the door. When he was halfway across the kitchen, he swung the gun towards Woolly. “How many, and where are they?”

“There’s nobody,” Woolly said. “I live here alone.”

They all heard the creak from down the hall as the front door swung open. Bill darted towards Woolly and positioned his gun just inches from Woolly’s temple. Her hands came up defensively, and she froze with them raised to her shoulders. Viv, Daniel, and Judy all slid back from the table to put some distance between themselves and the firearm.

“Who’s there?” Bill asked.

“Bill, calm down,” Viv said.
 

“I’m perfectly calm,” Bill said. His gun hand, trembling, and his darting eyes told a different story.

“I’ll go see who it is,” Judy said. She would have done almost anything to extract herself from the kitchen at that moment. The potential danger down the hall seemed trivial compared to the scene unfolding at the table.

“No,” Bill said. “Let them come to us. They won’t do anything if they value Mildred’s life.”

Judy didn’t listen. She rose slowly and backed towards the hall.

“Judy?” Bill asked. His hand was shaking now. He grabbed the gun with both hands. That seemed to steady it.

Judy took the final two steps and was free of the kitchen. She turned and looked down the hall. There was a man pushing his head through the doorway at the end of the hall. He had a beard. Judy’s heart raced for a second before she realized that she recognized him. The man looked up at her and she saw the recognition in his eyes as well.

“Bill,” she called over her shoulder. “It’s just…”

The gunshot drowned her out. The man coming through the door immediately dropped into a low crouch and slinked through the doorway into the living room. Judy turned towards the kitchen, and then turned back to the front door when another bearded man came through and ran upstairs. She didn’t know where to turn.

From the kitchen, Viv cried out.

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Judy lowered herself to the front stairs and put the cigarette between her lips. She couldn’t get her numb hands to operate the lighter. The end of the cigarette bounced and swayed. When she finally got a flame, she couldn’t get it focused on the end of the cigarette for long enough to take a puff. She threw both to the side and put her head in her hands.

She felt a weight settle on the stair next to her.

Through her fingers, she recognized Ron’s pants.

“She attacked you guys?” Ron asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it, Ron.”

The headlights from the Land Cruisers were bathing them with light. Judy didn’t want to be in the dark anymore. She wanted them to leave the lights of the vehicles on all night and she would just stay out on the porch until dawn.

“The others must have run off,” Ron said. “We’ve had people all over this place and all through the barns. Nobody has found them yet. You want to come inside? Bill, and Viv, and that other guy, are in the living room. What’s his name? Daniel?”

Judy took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“I didn’t think this place existed,” Ron said. “I thought that Luke was making it up this whole time. I can’t wait to see it in the daylight.”

“Cars,” Judy said.

“What’s that?”

“How did you get the cars here?” she asked.

“Oh, it’s funny,” Ron said, “after you guys walked down the hill, someone found this place on a map. We saw there was a parallel road. That road had a bridge, so we were able to drive right around the washout and come in from the other side. It was quick and easy.”

Judy sat there with her hands covering her face. The lights from the vehicles sparkled between her fingers. She wished Ron would go away, but she didn’t want to speak.

“I think they’ve cleaned up the kitchen, if you want to go inside. Bethany was making a fire in the brick oven. She said she was going to bake some bread. Did you see any of the other guys who were living here? I wonder where they went. Do you think they have some secret hiding place around here? I guess it would make sense. I hope they’re not dangerous.”

Judy didn’t say anything.

“Here comes Luke. Do you want to be alone?”

Judy nodded.

Ron stood. “Luke, do you mind giving her a few minutes? She really wants to be alone right now.” Ron walked towards Luke as he spoke. Judy lowered her head to her knees and pressed her face into her legs. She wanted to curl into a ball so tight that she disappeared.

Footsteps approached across the dooryard.

“Judy?” It was Luke’s voice. She didn’t answer.

“Judy, I need to ask you about what happened in there,” Luke said.

She curled tighter, still hoping to disappear.

“Bill says he was attacked. The story from Viv and Daniel sounds a bit different. I want to know what you think.”

Judy didn’t respond. She wished for the cigarette she’d tossed aside. One of the bearded men had pressed it into her hand after they’d cleared out the house. It was the only one she had, and now it was laying in the dirt, probably soaking up the dew. If she had it back, she would find a way to get it lit. She shouldn’t have given up on it just because her hand had been trembling. Her hand had trembled like Bill’s had, as he held the gun up to Woolly’s head.

“Hayden said you were in the hall when Bill shot, but I need to know what you saw when you were still in the kitchen. Can you tell me that?”

Judy wished for Luke to go away. Once he did, she would track down that cigarette.

“I don’t blame Bill for acting to defend himself. I just want to make sure that’s what happened,” Luke said. “Your perspective is important to me.”

Judy stayed silent and kept her face hidden. She knew Luke was still there, waiting for an answer.

“Judy,” he said.

She jerked up her head and opened her eyes. She immediately regretted the action. The headlights stabbed bright daggers into her head. Luke was lit from behind and looked like a floating god, outlined in white light.

“You made your human sacrifice, and you got your blood. What more do you want?” Judy asked.

“Nobody wanted an old woman to die, Judy,” Luke said. “If I shouldn’t trust Bill with a gun, I need to know. We have women and children around. Do you think we can accept the risk of having an unstable person in our midst? If he’s going to panic and shoot someone every time something goes bump, people have a right to know the exact details of what happened, don’t you think?”

“You got your details from Viv and Daniel, I’m sure. I wasn’t even there. I can’t tell you anything.”

“So be it,” Luke said. He raised his arms to his shoulders, just like Woolly had. “So be it.”

He gave her a second. He stood still while she dragged in a ragged breath and let it out.

“Listen—there are some beds upstairs if you want a chance to get a good night’s sleep. We’re going to set up a camp here in the yard, but you can sleep inside tonight if you’d be more comfortable there. Bethany is baking some bread. I’ll make sure they save you some for breakfast.”

Luke backed away before lowering his hands. His deference brought her more anger. When he’d left, she walked to one of the Land Cruisers and looked for one with an empty back seat. They were parked in a semicircle, all pointing with their headlights towards the house. Half of them were running, the other half were burning the headlights from the battery. Judy crawled inside a vehicle and curled up on the seat. She slept.

CHAPTER 6: PENNSYLVANIA

T
IM
WEIGHED
EVERYTHING
BEFORE
he loaded it into the plane. He wanted to balance the load and he wanted to know exactly what to expect. He ran through all his periodic maintenance, even items that weren’t yet due. He brought enough rations, for both himself and Cedric, to last a week—ten days if he remained thrifty.