Nathan didn’t say anything as he moved back a few feet. His cheek was beginning to swell. He allowed Eve to gently drag him farther back toward the couch, but he wouldn’t sit.
Colin didn’t look much better. He’d taken a good hit to his eye and the skin was bright red. “I guess the truth hurts,” he said with a cold smile.
Nathan jerked forward, but Eve and Joy pushed him back.
“Stop it,” Eve said. “He’s not worth it.”
“Fine,” Nathan said. “You’re right. He should just leave. We’d all be better off.”
There was a noise behind them, coming from the hallway. Aries spun around, half expecting to see a group of Baggers grinning at them, drawn by the sounds of their ridiculous drama.
“Wow,” Clementine said. “We’re gone for only a day and all hell breaks loose.”
* * *
Colin was up in his room and Eve had coerced Nathan into going with her to find some groceries for the evening meal. The house was silent. Aries and Clementine were in their bedroom while Joy and Raj stayed downstairs to try and figure out where the new guests were going to sleep.
“They’re cool,” Clementine said. “I mean, I can’t really say it about all of them. But Raj really helped us out. One of the girls is Larisa and she’s fine. I’m not actually sure about the others. Don’t even know their names yet. That other guy, I think his name is Claude, well, he’s a bit of a jerk and I don’t trust him, but he’s not a Bagger or anything. I think he was good friends with Ryder so he blames us for the attack.”
“Does that make him dangerous?” Aries asked, thinking of Colin and his threats.
“No, I don’t think so,” Clementine said. She pulled one of the pillows into her lap and squeezed it. “He came willingly enough. I think he’s just as lost as the rest. They put all that effort into keeping everyone safe. And the Baggers took them down in seconds. I don’t think he was really aware of how quickly they can kill.”
“They’re more than welcome here,” Aries said. “We’ve got the space.”
Clementine nodded.
“What about Heath?” Aries asked. “Anything?”
“No.” Clementine hugged the pillow tighter. “But UBC’s a big place. There’s still plenty of other places he could be hiding. I’m not giving up that easily. Besides, I have to go back. What if Michael doesn’t show?”
“He’ll be here,” Aries said. “He’s a champion fighter.”
Clementine nodded.
Aries gave her a hug. “I’m really glad you’re back. I was worried. I think now we should have the radios with us at all times.”
“Yeah, good idea.”
“And that leaves Mason.”
“Why? What happened to Mason?”
Aries shrugged. “He’s gone. Last night.”
“He wouldn’t just leave,” Clementine said. “Something must have happened—like with us.”
Aries blinked several times to avoid the tears. It was good to know that someone else was so sure of Mason.
“We’ll find him,” Clementine said. “You and me will go out tonight, okay? We’ll go see Daniel. Don’t give me that shocked look. I know you meet him at night.”
Aries choked back a laugh. “How do you know that? I’ve been so careful.”
Clementine smiled. “Because you check your hair in the mirror before you sneak out,” she said. “Just because you think we’re all sleeping doesn’t mean we actually are. I can’t imagine you’d be concerned about your looks if you’re just taking a walk through the park. Totally understandable. Daniel’s hot.”
“I’m so glad you’re back.”
* * *
It was raining when they headed out later that evening. Michael still wasn’t back and Aries could see the doubt and fear in her friend’s eyes. But Clementine wanted to come. She said it gave her something to do besides sit at home and go crazy with every passing second. At the last moment, Raj insisted on coming along too.
“It’ll be good to have a strong chem trainspotter such as myself,” he said. “Who else can you toss in their direction that might slow ’em down?”
Aries liked Raj instantly. He was lighthearted and enjoyed cracking jokes; it was a nice distraction in the severely stressed household. In less than a few hours, he’d already managed to make Jack smile properly twice, and that was something she’d been trying to achieve for weeks.
They’d decided to put the newcomers in the basement family room. It made sense because they all knew each other and Aries didn’t want to put them in Mason’s empty room. That seemed like too much of an intrusion. And too final. Mason wasn’t dead, just missing.
Hopefully Daniel would have heard something. He seemed to have a real ear for picking up rumors and secrets in the empty city streets.
They pulled their hoodies up over their heads and snuck out into the night. The rain wasn’t heavy, but it was still cold enough to chill her to the bone. By the time they reached the beach, they were all soaked through. Maybe it was time to start investing in rain gear. Maybe they could hit up one of the survival stores and get some proper stuff.
“So this is where you’ve been going?” Clementine whispered with a giggle. “I wish Michael was this romantic. I could use some beachside snuggling.”
“It’s not like that,” Aries said. She was glad it was dark out, because she could feel the warmth rising in her cheeks. “We just come here to talk. Nothing else.”
Nothing at all. Not since the time on the beach when he’d kissed her. Back when they carved their names in the log. No hand-holding. No exchanging loving words.
And no more kissing.
In a way it was better. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but it wasn’t really the time and place to start a whirlwind romance. And Daniel wasn’t exactly cold toward her, but he always seemed to be holding back in some way.
“There’s always Mason,” Clementine said mischievously.
Aries shot her a glance. “I’m not looking to hook up with anyone, so stop pushing, okay?”
“Just saying,” Clementine said, but thankfully she dropped it.
They waited by the bench, standing because it was too wet to sit. Eventually Raj went over to the shore and started tossing pebbles. The waves were wild and thrashing and everything he tossed sank without so much as a splash.
“He should have been here by now,” Aries said as she double-checked her watch. It was getting closer to midnight and still there was no sign of Daniel.
“Is this normal?” Raj asked. “Does he always show up?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Aries admitted. “It’s not like we plan to meet every night. It just sorta happens. But this feels weird. There’s something wrong here.”
“Maybe he’s with Mason,” Clementine said.
“Doubtful,” she said. “They hate each other. Nathan said they almost got into a fight at the Safeway the other day.”
They waited a little longer before even Aries had to admit it was best to head home. There was nothing moving on the beach except for the rain and the tide.
“We can try again tomorrow night,” Clementine suggested as they started back across the parking lot.
Would Aries do it? Come back every night like a jilted lover, waiting for her prince to appear and take her away from everything?
“No,” she finally said. “Tomorrow we start looking for Mason. You don’t give up on Heath and I’m not giving up on Mason. Like you said, until we see a body, there’s always hope. And if Michael’s not back tomorrow, we start looking for him, too. I’ve worked too hard to start losing people now.”
Raj pulled back his hoodie, letting the rain splash down on his hair. “I’m in, babes,” he said with his cheerful accent. “I owe you guys that much for taking us in. Where do we start?”
Aries turned and pointed back across the bay, where she could see the lone spotlight reflecting off the rain-pregnant clouds. “There. We go there.”
“The lion’s den?” Raj said. ?
??You want to go to the one place we should be avoiding like the plague?”
Aries nodded. “Mason’s not here for a reason. He’s being kept away. If the Baggers have him, they’ll have taken him there.”
“We’ll need better supplies,” Clementine said. “Michael’s binoculars aren’t going to be enough.”
“We’ll hit up something tomorrow,” Aries said.
Raj clapped his hands together. “Wish I had the keys to the chem lab. Then we’d really be able to have some fun.”
Aries smiled. “You know, that’s not such a bad idea.”
They headed back to the house, talking about what sort of supplies they’d have to find. But no amount of conversation could change the gnawing feeling growing inside her stomach.
Aries was the leader. She’d kept them safe. How was she going to keep them alive if more of them went missing?
NOTHING
Black paint.
The sounds and the screams are silenced here, bouncing off the paint and being absorbed by its darkness. I’m a frozen shadow. A puppet. My strings have been reeled back in.
Help me.
Voices. Voices whispering through the walls. They caress my skin, and when I open my mouth, the voices slip down inside my throat and drop into my stomach cavity. They slosh against the walls, crawling along my spleen like a thousand baby mice. My stomach is crammed full of rodents. There’s fine dining to be had on my spleen.
They came, they saw, they conquered. They came to take me away. They’re determined to climb farther inside my head. They want to talk. The voices warned me that this would happen. If I smash my head against the wall enough times, I might be able to stop them. But I can’t bring myself to touch the wall. The darkness will consume me. Not that way. I can’t go that way.
Help me.
I’m not strong.
MASON
Cages.
An entire room filled with cages.
The fluorescent lights burned bright above him. A never-ending day. It was strange seeing electricity again. It scalded his eyes and made him want to blink a lot. Intense. Like being on display in the middle of the sun.
Nowhere to hide in all that brightness.
They were in the remains of the Edgewater Casino. It had been a bit of a surreal experience earlier when the Baggers had escorted Daniel and Mason through the doors and underneath the gigantic darkened neon Casino sign. How often could someone say they were ushered into a gambling establishment at gunpoint? Once upon a time that would have been well worth tweeting or a Facebook update.
The Baggers had obviously been doing a lot of remodeling, because the inside was completely unrecognizable. Weren’t most casinos cheerful in a tacky sort of way? Mason had never been there before, so he couldn’t quite tell what kind of room it used to be, but it had clearly been gutted, everything removed in order to put in the cages. The walls had been painted black. Far back in the corner of the room, he could see a stack of blackjack tables and electronic slot machines piled against one another.
Mason sat on the ground in his small prison. His back leaned against the edge of his five-by-five cell. The walls were twenty feet of fencing that ended with more chain link and barbed wire over the top as a makeshift ceiling. There were a few gaps between wall and ceiling, but they were narrow. Even if he tried to climb his way out, he’d either slice his skin trying to slip through the gap or be stopped by the guards who paced the floor at regular intervals. They carried guns and various other weapons. Mason still had his jacket. They’d gone through his pockets and removed his Swiss Army knife. They took his wallet and the few dollars he had left, not that money meant anything. But they hadn’t checked his shirt pocket, where the tiny vial of sand still pressed against his chest. It was now the only thing he had left in the world. He wanted to take it out and hold it in his hands, but he was afraid someone might notice. So it remained hidden away, his lucky charm.
Some charm.
It was strange having his proof of identity gone. It wasn’t like he could order up a new set. His back pocket felt empty against his skin. What if something was to happen to him now and there was no one to recognize his body? He’d die without a name. Had Chickadee been carrying a wallet when he buried her? Would someone come along in the future and unearth her body? Would it matter if they read her name off her decaying driver’s license?
Mason shook his head slightly. This wasn’t the time for ridiculous thoughts. He needed to focus. Figuring out how to get free would be a good start.
But even if he managed to scale the fence and get outside, they’d bring him down in a second.
There wasn’t really a door to his cell. They’d just pulled back the mesh to reveal a two-foot opening and shoved him inside. He’d been locked in with a combination padlock. It was one of the cheap ones he used to buy at the discount store. Two bucks or not, it was still strong enough to keep him in. He double-checked his empty pockets, but there wasn’t anything useful to try and pick the lock with.
There was nothing to do except wait, for now at least.
There were a lot of other people in the room. The majority of the cages were filled. Someone was crying in the far corner. It might have been a woman’s voice, but it was hard to tell. He’d tried to spot them, but they were too far away and there was too much fencing. All he could see was a darkened lump curled into the fetal position. A small shadowy figure lay on the floor in the adjoining cage. They’d pushed their hands through the wire to try and reach the sobbing person.
No one spoke to anyone. A few people glanced in Mason’s direction every now and then. But no voices. They didn’t have to speak. It didn’t take a genius to know what every single person was thinking.
The fluorescent bulb above him kept flickering off and on. It made a loud humming noise that hurt his ears.
“This is just peachy.”
The voice came from his right.
Daniel was two cages down from him. Between them was an elderly man that might have been dead or just sleeping, neither of them could tell. The man was lying facedown on the floor, his features half covered by his jacket. He hadn’t moved since they arrived. Mason thought his leg might have twitched at least once, but he couldn’t say for sure.
The air was cool and Mason exhaled several times to see if he could actually see his breath. Negative. Stuffing his hands inside his pockets, he leaned his head back against the fencing.
“Whose bright idea was this again?” Although he spoke quietly, his voice sounded like a shotgun echoing through the silent room.
“Yours, I believe,” Daniel said. He was leaning against the wall too, only about seven feet away. He absently tapped his foot against the concrete. “Of course, I do recall saying we shouldn’t get caught.”
“Glad to see you’re so casual about this.”
“I’m shaking to death on the inside. Trust me—shivers, conniptions, the whole shebang.” Daniel leaned his head over and took a long look at Mason. He held up his hand in front of his face and made his fingers shake slightly. “Seriously, all jokes aside, you know they’re not going to just let us go, right?”
Mason turned away from Daniel, and the first pair of eyes he found was that of a young teenage girl. Her hair was long and matted and her glasses were askew. Although her face was covered in grime, he could tell that once upon a time she had been quite pretty. He probably would have noticed her if she’d walked down the hall at school. Now her cheeks were sunken and there were shadows under her eyes, which were big and frightened. Had she been captured or had she listened to the white vans and walked willingly into the Baggers’ grasp? It wouldn’t have been difficult. She was probably scared, tired of hiding, and slowly starving to death. It wouldn’t have been hard to convince herself that the Baggers meant everything they said about safety. Mason opened his mouth, maybe to say something to her, but he couldn’t think of a single word that wouldn’t sound fake or condescending. Besides, she was several cages away; he didn’t even know if sh
e’d be able to hear him.
“So what do we do, then?” Mason swallowed. The insides of his mouth were dry.
“Keep quiet,” Daniel said. “We can’t tell them anything. Especially about the others. If they find out where Aries lives, they’ll kill her. They’ll kill all of them, or worse.”
“You really think I’d do something so stupid?”
“Yes.”
Mason’s cheeks burned. He clenched his hand into a tight fist. “I’d never do anything to hurt Aries, and you know it. At least I have the decency to stick around. You can’t even bother to be there when she needs you.”
From two cages away, Mason watched Daniel’s eyes narrow and harden.
“You have no idea,” Daniel said. “I stay away to protect her.”
“Protect her?” It was impossible to keep his voice from rising. “From what? How?”
“You’ll see.”
There was a long pause as the two of them refused to acknowledge each other. Mason focused on his chain-link ceiling. It was easier than looking at the other hopeless people.
“It won’t matter,” Daniel finally said. “If they want the information, they’ll find it. There’s nothing you and I can do about it. They have ways of getting inside your head.”
The sound of shoes slapping the casino carpet made him pay attention. Four Baggers, all carrying police batons, moved along the aisle. Mason knew immediately they were coming for Daniel and him. He wasn’t disappointed when they stopped at his cage. The smallest one shoved a key in the lock and opened the gate.
“Come,” he said.
Mason didn’t move.
Two of the bigger ones stepped into the cage and reached down, yanking Mason up by the arms and pulling him out. It happened so quickly, he didn’t have time to react. Besides, even he was smart enough to know when not to pick a fight. All four of them looked like they’d personally love it if he tried to cause a scene. One of them held on to his baton so tightly, his white knuckles glowed under the fluorescent lights.
They slammed Mason up against the cage of his neighbor, the still unmoving clump of a person who might or might not be dead. A foot twitched slightly, but it might have been a muscle spasm. He didn’t have time to go in for a closer look. The largest Bagger grabbed Mason’s arm, pulling it painfully back, and slapped handcuffs around his wrists. Mason’s face was pressed tightly up against the fencing. He managed to twist his head a little to where he could see Daniel back against the wall. His arms were crossed over his chest, pulling his jacket tight against his skin.