Jo fumed all the way into the building. Galen locked the door behind them. She dropped her twigs and sticks beside the brick fireplace where Mike and Lary worked to start a fire. In front of her was a large empty room, lit only by the various lighters that were being used, flitting through the dark like fireflies. It smelled of dust and old wood. A small kitchen table and two chairs seemed to be the only furniture sitting off to the side in what was probably the kitchen area.
Dove and April were sitting cross-legged on the dirty wood floor not far behind Mike and Lary. Drew and Ben were exploring. The small torches in their hands glowed with a jaundiced yellow color. All they seemed to be finding were spider webs as evidenced by Drew’s yelps and the frantic thrashing of his hands at invisible assailants.
Jo walked over to her girlfriends and sat down with them. She sighed and placed a hand on Dove’s knee and her other hand on April’s shoulder, giving them both an encouraging rub. They smiled back at her.
“April, how’s your leg?” Jo asked.
“It hurts, but I think it’s Ok. I really can’t complain when I think about…” she lowered her head.
Dove gathered her dark hair together in one hand and draped it down the front of her shoulder. She rested an elbow on one leg and set her chin in her hand. “How could a day that started out so wonderfully, end up so badly?”
Jo shook her head, offering a halfhearted grin—the best she could do at the moment.
Dove lifted her head and looked around the room. Jo followed her friend’s searching gaze to Galen. He was examining something on the floor. Dove leaned in close to Jo and whispered, “What’s going on with you guys?”
Jo shrugged. She knew that it would be useless to tell them about Galen’s latest insult. She was emotionally exhausted from dealing with the whole matter.
April grinned and her face perked up. “A lover’s quarrel?”
Jo’s expression instantly wiped the grin off April’s lips.
April hunched her back. “Sorry.”
Bright yellow light flickered where Mike and Lary where kneeling. Between them, an infant flame began to grow. The girls got to their feet. Drew and Ben clicked off their lighters and tucked them into their backpacks.
The group huddled in front of the growing fire. To Jo, the lively flames were an expression of hope. She rubbed her arms and basked in the warmth. The group sat down together on the floor as close as they could get to the brick hearth. Jo’s hand landed on Mike’s knee. She pulled it away, but he grasped it. His mouth formed a smile made crooked by pain, but it was sweet on his handsome face. “I meant to tell you, Jo…what you did at the river…you were incredibly brave.” The wood snapped and the fire lit his face in a butterscotch glow. Jo blinked slowly and smiled.
“Or incredibly dumb.”
She was jolted by Galen’s harsh voice. She turned her head. He was opening a trap door in the floor and stepping down into the basement.
“Galen, where’re you goin’?” Lary asked him.
“I’m gonna check for entry points down here.”
“Expecting someone?” Jo ignored Dove’s tap on her leg.
Galen looked at her with one silver eye, the other cloaked by his pitch-black bangs. She turned her eyes back to the fire.
“It’s freezing down there, Galen,” April warned him.
“I don’t get cold,” came his blunt reply and he disappeared under the floor.
Jo was glad he was out of the room, but the moment with Mike was over and she resented him for that.
Her stomach growled. She was hot from the fire—or maybe it was because of Mike. She slipped her jacket off and threw it over with her backpack. “Drew, did you guys check the kitchen for a can of beans or something?”
“Not much of a kitchen,” Drew answered. “And not a bean to be had.”
Jo groaned. The area she had called a kitchen was just a strip of counter with a small white porcelain sink and a couple of cupboards. “So much for our—”
Something scratched the covering on the window, a sound like keys down the side of a car. Footsteps mashed the ground outside. The group stood up, quickly.
“It’s probably a bear,” Ben said.
“I don’t think it can get in,” said Mike. “That sheet metal is there to stay.”
“Yep,” Lary agreed, putting his arm around Dove. She sunk under his protective arm.
The noise of fluttering and scratching came from all around the front of the building, up to the roof. It grew louder and more intense.
“What the heck?” Drew’s eyes were huge. “Flying bears?”
The door rumbled, jerked roughly by the handle on the other side, but the lock held.
“That’s no bear,” Mike said.
“Hello.” The voice behind the door was deep and resonant.
Jo jumped.
“Open the door. We want to talk.” A man spoke icy, raw words, without expression.
“Maybe it’s a forest ranger,” Ben whispered.
“It’s not,” Mike whispered back.
“How do you know?”
“He would have identified himself.”
“Who is ‘we’?” Jo asked. Her heart pounded.
Wood creaked. Jo gasped and whipped around.
The trap door lifted and Galen’s head emerged. “What’s goin’ on?”
“There’s someone outside,” April squeaked.
Galen hurried out of the basement. He went straight to the door and stood in front of it.
The voice outside spoke again. “Open the door!”
The door shook. The handle was pulled on from the outside so hard that it caused a slight crease in the face of the door beside the lock.
“What the heck?!” Mike’s mouth dropped open.
“They must have a tool of some kind,” Ben commented.
“Yeah, like a piece of heavy equipment,” Drew said.
Galen grasped the door handle with both hands. He spread his feet apart and braced himself.
“Let me help you.” Lary reached for the handle.
“No! Get back,” Galen snapped.
Another assault was launched on the door. Galen’s arm muscles flexed. He gripped the handle tightly. His knuckles were white. On the other side was the sound of metal bending and twisting, but the door was not damaged and remained locked.
Jo marveled at this. Everyone’s wide eyes were on Galen.
The group stood frozen in place. The only noise came from the fire as it popped and hissed.
“What the heck do they want?” Lary asked.
“Let’s find out.” Mike took a breath to call out to the strangers, but before he got a word out, a sharp crack came from the window.
“Look!” Jo pointed to the top of the window frame.
The sheet metal was bending inward. The thick wood of the frame cracked and splintered. Screws popped out and pinged against floor.
Jo stared wide-eyed, her heart in her throat.
Dove and April screamed.
Galen let go of the door and headed to the window. The door shook frenetically. He turned back and grabbed the handle again, but his eyes were on the bending sheet metal. “Get in the basement!” He shouted. “Please, help me,” he begged someone.
Jo moved quickly down the stairs into the black abyss, trying not to step on Dove. April hopped down on one leg with Drew’s help. The other guys were right behind them. Above them, the sheet of steel groaned. Something snapped loudly.
The basement was musty and freezing cold. Galen was at the top of the stairs closing the trap door. He had something grey in his hand that looked a lot like the handle from the front door. In the last crack of light, Jo watched as he bolted the latch with the object. Pitch-black enveloped them.
A ferocious crack came from above their heads. The deafening clang of the window covering hitting the floor made them all jump. Jo held her breath. She shivered uncontrollably, but not from cold. “Who are they?” She whispered.
“Shh!”
The u
nmistakable sound of a zipper on a backpack came next.
“Dang,” Mike whispered, “they’ve got our backpacks. Enough of this. Let’s go see what they want.”
“Don’t, Mike,” Galen told him.
“We can take ‘em.”
“You’ll lose.” Galen’s cold, blunt words caused goosebumps on Jo’s arms. “Let’s get out of here,” he whispered.
He brushed by her. Her eyes followed the sound of his footsteps. A scraping noise drew her gaze upward. A rectangular view of the outside world appeared high in the wall through the opening of a hopper window. The window’s glass and frame were gone, covered by whatever Galen had pulled away.
The sky was dark, like the indigo blue color in a box of crayons. There was a pale golden light falling from the half-moon. Fresh, forest-scented air floated in.
“Up and out,” Galen whispered.
“Who are they?” Lary asked him.
“Later,” he said.
He gave Lary a boost out first, so he could help pull Drew out. Ben had a little trouble squeezing through. Mike was next. It took all the guys to lift him out since he only had the use of one hand.
The latch on the trap door jiggled.
Dove went next, followed by Jo, but April wouldn’t go.
“I can’t,” came her plaintive cry from the darkness.
“April!” Galen whispered impatiently.
Jo got down on her hands and knees and pleaded with her through the opening. “April, please, we’ve got to get out of here.”
“I can’t.”
“April, listen to me,” Jo told her, gazing into the dark hole, imagining April’s pale, frightened face. “You can do all things through Christ.”
A second passed. April hands appeared, grasping the window sill. Galen boosted her up. Drew and Lary grabbed her wrists and pulled her out.
“I want to go home,” she cried and fell onto Jo.
Jo hugged her and patted her back. “We will. I promise.”
Galen climbed out by himself. He faced the group. “Listen, I don’t have time to explain. You’ve got to get to the river. And if these guys follow you, get in the river. Better yet, get across the river.”
Dove gasped. Jo pictured the fast currents of the now black water and her stomach churned. April whined.
Galen put both hands on Mike’s shoulders and looked him in the eye. “Mike, get to the river. Run and don’t look back. Don’t stop for anything! See if you can find a place these guys can cross and do it!”
“Galen, who are these people?” Mike asked him.
“They’re not people. I’ll explain it later. Go!”
Mike’s forehead creased. A loud clang came from the basement, followed by a growl that was not from an animal. “Come on guys!” He motioned for everyone to follow him and bolted for the meadow.
“Come on, Dove.” Lary grabbed Dove’s hand. He hesitated, looking at April. “You got this?” He asked Drew.
“I got it,” Drew replied.
Lary and Dove raced away.
April watched them go, shaking her head. “I can’t run. I can’t make it.”
Drew and Ben looked at each other. Without speaking, they latched onto each other’s wrists and in one fluid motion scooped her up in a four-handed seat. They awkwardly jogged off into the night, with April bouncing up and down and emitting tiny squeaks of discomfort, as she hung onto their shoulders for dear life. Jo almost laughed at the sight, but the sound of twisting wood and steel coming from the basement sobered her.
Her friends were disappearing into the dark meadow. Dove didn’t even look back for her. Mike was already out of sight.
“Get going!” Galen pushed her forward. She launched into run, but stopped short. Voices! Someone was coming. She whirled around—smack into Galen’s chest. Galen grabbed her and pushed her down into the grass and shrubs behind the wide trunk of a cottonwood tree. The rough bark scratched her back. He was on his knees in front of her, leaning on the trunk with his hands. She could feel the heat from his skin and see the sheen of sweat on his neck and arms. She breathed in a faint scent, not of the forest, but it was pleasant.
Heated snarls and shuffling feet were behind the tree. Jo’s heart pounded savagely. Galen ducked his head down next to hers. The soft feathers of his hair tickled her temple and cheek. “Shhhh,” he made the softest, quietest sound in her ear, almost inaudible.
Footsteps crackled on the dried pine needles. They got farther and farther away, until all she could hear was her own shaky breathing, and the static buzz of insects. He lifted his head.
“What’s going on?” She whispered.
He was quiet. Her eyes traveled up his T-shirt to his neck and the underside of his chin.
“Galen?” She barely whispered.
“Shh!”
Jo didn't understand him. They seemed to be gone, whoever—whatever—they were. What was he waiting for? She pictured her friends being run down, forced to the edge of the river, plunging into it, because he had told them to. She imagined their bodies thrashing in the overpowering currents. Red’s terrified face popped into her head.
Adrenaline burst into her bloodstream. She shoved Galen’s arm from the tree and bolted out from under him. Taken off-guard, he lost his balance and stumbled into the shrubs at the side of the tree.
“Jo—dang you!” His hushed words were with sharp with anger.
Jo peered into the dark meadow. She pictured the river flowing violently on the other side of the trees. That’s where her friends would be—if they made it.
She took off, but as she reached the corner of the building, she skidded to a halt and froze. Her eyes widened. A moon-lit man stood before her in black pants and a long-sleeved black jacket over a white unbuttoned shirt. Straight, dull black hair fell below his shoulders. His hands, hanging from the jacket, had long fingers, almost claw-like, but it was his eyes that gripped her. The rings around his pupils were glowing, ice-blue.
He stepped forward. Jo’s legs wouldn’t move. Her heart hammered. A scream gurgled up from her throat.
Galen ran up beside her. The man stopped in his tracks and looked hard at Galen. His eyes closed half-way forming shiny, blue slits. He cocked his head back and forth, like a curious dog, and studied Galen. His blue eyes blazed brighter, but then darkened. Jo perceived a spark of familiarity between them that raised the hair on the back of her neck. Galen took in a deep breath and puffed out his chest. He took a step towards the man.
The stranger hissed and walked backwards. After a few steps, he melted into the darkness.
Chapter 21