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[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 46

Just under a mile to the southwest, Miles was lying on a small dune, watching them. He had brought binoculars and the .338 Lapua Magnum rifle with him. The rifle was much more accurate than the old .30-06 he had used in WWII against the Germans and Miles was an exceptional shot. Even with the wind, he knew he would have no problem hitting his target at this distance. He put down the binoculars with which he’d been watching the couple as they examined Muskie’s corpse and brought the rifle to his shoulder. He adjusted the bipod that was attached to the forestock so that he had a stable shooting platform and then twisted the focus on the Nightforce NXS 8-32x56 scope and the couple snapped into focus. The heat rising from the desert caused their image to ripple as if they were standing behind a shimmering screen curtain, but Miles had made many much more difficult shots. He twisted the windage and elevation knobs to adjust for the conditions and then settled the rifle butt into his shoulder and snugged his cheek into the formed rest. He drew in a soft breath and exhaled slowly as he centered the reticle on Anton’s head. He wasn’t sure which of the two was the threat, but his gut told him it was the man. At this distance, the man’s head was almost entirely hidden behind the mildot in Miles' reticle. As the last of Miles' breath slipped from his mouth, he slowly squeezed the trigger. There was a loud boom and the familiar shock in his shoulder… but a strange sound followed immediately after. The whine of a ricocheting bullet. The whine of the ricochet hung in the air for a second. Miles blinked and looked through the scope and saw his view was now obscured. He blinked again and was about to adjust the scope when the dark shape blocking his view moved. Miles looked up to find a small girl, no more than five or six standing no more than five feet in front of him.

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 45

It took the group most of the morning to get the Humvees packed up for the trip out of Dugway. Anton helped the group load the meager supplies they had on hand on the three Humvees that would carry the last of the survivors north to rendezvous with the others at Hill Air Force Base. Most of what they were carrying was extra gas that they had siphoned from the various vehicles around the facility. Each truck had four extra 11 gallon jerry cans strapped on the back. They left six full jerry cans at the hotel for Anton to use, if he was able to follow them north later on. Niki had helped the others pack the clothing and foodstuff they had scrounged from the houses, hotel and outbuildings into the trucks as well. There were just nine people who had made it out of the facility with Colonel Cooke, consisting of Vicci and his two soldiers, Tocarro and two other computer specialists, the medical officer and two maintenance workers. Niki made it eleven in total. Each Humvee had seating for four so the third vehicle had one empty seat, which they filled with additional supplies.

Anton stood alone by his Humvee, staring absently at the map in his hands. He had a bad feeling about this. He shifted his gaze and looked west out across the burning desert heat. Somewhere out there a man was waiting for him… a terrifying man. Anton felt a hand on his arm and turned to find Niki at his side. She had her backpack slung over one shoulder. As her eyes caught his, she swung the backpack off her shoulder and tossed it through the open passenger window of Anton’s Humvee. Anton started to disagree, but she held a finger to his lips. The touch of her finger on his lips sent a small shock through him. She looked into his eyes and without looking away slowly tilted her head upwards and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. “I am going with you.” She said.

His mind was caught between bliss and panic, but his fear jumped forward. “It’s not safe! I’m not sure I can protect you!” he hissed, grabbing her by the shoulders.

Her eyes were still locked with his as she said, “If you can’t, no one can. And I would rather die with you than live alone.” With the last word, Anton saw the strength and hardness return to her eyes. “Now let’s do this.” She stepped past him and jumped into the front seat of the Humvee. Anton turned to the others. Cooke and Vicci were the only two not already inside their vehicles and both men simply shrugged. Then Cooke turned to face Anton and snapped his heels together and brought his hand to his brow in a crisp salute. He held it there until Vicci did likewise. Then both men turned and jumped into their Humvees.

Anton and Niki watched as the three Humvees circled out of the parking lot, turned onto Stark Road and headed northeast out of town. Then Anton turned and slowly walked around the front of the Humvee to the driver’s side, watching Niki through the glass as he went. She held his gaze with her own, proud and defiant and ready for anything. As he started the engine, she reached across the center console and squeezed his arm. Neither spoke as Anton maneuvered the Humvee out of the parking lot and headed west on Stark, in the exact opposite direction of the others.

The road west of Dugway was empty and hot. The sun beat down on the truck as they travelled towards the airfield. Both Anton and Niki had their windows down but it didn’t do much to alleviate the heat. By the time they had turned north on North Wig Mountain Road, they were both sweaty and sticking to the seats. The miles rolled by slowly and the dust kicked up behind them held in the dry, still air long after they passed. Cooke was right, Anton mused as he looked in the rearview mirror at the cloud of dust behind them. Anyone out here would see them coming from a long way off indeed.

They found the road west off of North Wig Mountain Road without much difficulty. It really was pretty much the only road they had seen since they turned north. This new road, however, was not paved and was therefore even dustier. The front tires kicked up grit as well as dust and the sound of the small rocks pelting the underside of the truck as they drove took on a monotonous tone. Niki readjusted herself in her seat and smiled at Anton. Anton did his best to smile back, but he was feeling an ever-growing sense of doom. As bright as the desert was that they were driving through, Anton felt like there was a big black hole out there somewhere just waiting to swallow him. A hole so deep and so dark he might never find the bottom. The thought sent a chill down his spine even as the sweat was dripping off his brow.

Even before they came into sight of the last corner where the road would once again turn due west, signalling their proximity to the spot marked on the map, Anton knew they were close. This time, however, it wasn’t any sixth sense or foreboding feeling… it was instead the gathering of languidly circling crows and vultures he saw out over the desert about a half mile from the road. The distance was too great for him to see what was on the ground out there, but there were some birds already there fighting over whatever it was. Niki had seen it too and grabbed the handrail on the dash as Anton pulled hard on the wheel and the Humvee left the relative smooth of the road for the jumbled bumps and crunches of the rough, sage-lined desert plain. There were tire tracks crisscrossing this section in all directions and there were even some seemingly established paths but Anton ignored these and drove in a beeline for the circle of birds. The Humvee bounded and bounced over the rough terrain, but Anton kept his foot on the gas. Meanwhile his eyes were scanning the surroundings for any sign of where a sniper may be hiding. He had no idea what he was looking for, but he figured it would be some sort of vantage point or high ground that a shooter would prefer. Niki was concentrating on the birds. The ones on the ground were now looking in their direction and the fighting had stopped, they were still a couple hundred yards away, but they had the birds undivided attention. Those still in the air had stopped circling and were swinging away to the east as the truck bore down on the site.

Anton didn’t slow until he was almost upon it and the birds on the ground exploded in panic as the truck approached. As the Humvee skidded to a halt and the birds scattered, Anton and Niki sat staring at the form lying in the crusted earth. Anton knew immediately that it was Muskie. There was no mistaking the misshapen and deformed profile of the man’s body. Anton also knew immediately that Muskie was dead. He and Niki stepped softly out of the vehicle. Both scanned the horizon in sweeping half turns, but now, other than the squawks of the departing birds and the hard, hot wind that had kicked up, there was no sound. The desolate flat was baked hard and Anton and Niki saw nothing but rising heat waves causing liquid mirages to form in all directions. If anyone was out there looking at them, they would have to be a long way off.

Anton turned back to the bloody corpse on the ground. He grimaced as he deftly tapped the warped and sickly shrunken chest with the toe of his boot. The upturned face rolled to one side. The birds had been at the face pretty hard. The eyes and lips were gone leaving a gruesome skull like death mask on the small body. Muskie had died hard, Anton thought, as his eyes wandered over the broken limbs. Both arms and both legs were broken in several places. Muskies right foot was twisted at a macabre angle and it was swollen to the size of a football and was turning from purple to black in the heat.

Anton glanced at Niki. She was also staring at the body, but Anton noticed that she seemed to be analyzing it more than simply trying to comprehend it. There was something clinical about her watchful eyes as they traced the details of Muskie’s battered corpse. “Miles definitely did not like this guy,” she said at last. “He made him suffer before he died. Suffer A LOT.” She paused for a moment and squatted down and looked closely at one of Muskie’s broken legs. “I’ve seen worse in my line of work,” she said finally. Then she stood and stretched and turned back to Anton. “But not much. Miles is a pretty twisted fellow.”

Anton nodded and turned his back on the corpse. Once again he scanned the horizon all around the site. He could see no spot where anyone could be hiding.

“What now?” Niki asked, looking around as well.

“We wait.” Anton folded his arms across his chest and turned due west staring off in the direction of the descending sun, his shadow stretched out behind. Niki stood watching him for a moment and then walked up behind him, close, and leaned her head against his back. She closed her eyes and listened hard. She could just hear Anton’s heart through the clothing. He leaned back into her just a little, but otherwise didn’t move. Nikki smiled and closed her eyes, waiting for what she knew would come.

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 44

Anton awoke to a soft knocking at the door. He looked around the room, groggy with sleep. There were a pile of blankets on the floor but no sign of Niki. Then he heard movement in the bathroom. Again, there was a soft knock. Anton rose and crossed the room and pulled the door open. Colonel Cooke was outside with Specialist Tocarro and Sergeant Vicci. Cooke was holding a piece of paper. They all looked worried.

“We found this in the entryway of the hotel this morning. Vicci was coming in from a security sweep and found it on his way in.” Cooke handed the note to Anton.

It was a single sheet of paper, hotel stationery to be exact. There was a ragged hole at the top. The only thing on the paper was a set of handwritten coordinates and a scribbled signature.

40°19’43” N 113°18’28” W

Anton couldn’t make out the signature and gave Cooke a questioning look.

“That’s Miles,” was all he replied.

Anton noticed there were a couple of small smudges of what looked like blood near the bottom of the page and there appeared to be blood around the ragged hole at the top. Anton flipped the page over and then back and then looked again at Cooke. “Where do these coordinates lead?”

“Near as we can figure from the paper maps we’ve found, it is about thirty miles northwest of here… out in the middle of the desert. That’s all part of the Dugway Proving Grounds Test Range. Nothing but baked earth out there as far as I know.”

“So why would he leave this?”

“We think he wants us to go there,” Cooke replied and glanced nervously at Tocarro and Vicci.

“What’s going on?” Anton asked. “Is there something you’re not telling me?” Then it dawned on him that Muskie wasn’t with them. “Wait, where’s Muskie?”

“Vicci went to find him first. But he wasn’t in his room. Doesn’t look like anyone’s been there all night…”

Anton felt a knot forming in the pit of his stomach. “Where would he go?”

“Well, that’s the thing…” Vicci spoke up. “I went to find him first because I noticed that it was his knife that had been used to… ‘attach’... the note to the hotel entryway.”

“What?” Anton replied as the knot continued to grow.

“The knife was stuck through the note and embedded up to the hilt through one of the big iron girders supporting the awning over the entryway. It was punched clean through. Like a piece of cardboard. I couldn’t get the knife out. It’s still stuck down there.”

All three of the men stared at Anton. Anton knew that they were expecting him to provide answers for this and he didn’t have any. The knot in his stomach was making him a little queasy and he was breaking out in a cold sweat. What was Miles capable of? Where the hell was Muskie? Anton was feeling more and more out of his depth. Why was this happening to him?

“We won’t let you go out there alone,” Cooke said suddenly. The other two nodded. “We’ve already decided on that. We’ll take all the men we have and face this together.”

Anton noticed that Cooke didn’t look nearly as confident as he was trying to sound. Cooke saw Anton’s concern and reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a map. “Can we come in and talk about this?”

Anton stepped back from the door and the three men came in. Niki was now standing in the middle of the room watching them. She was dressed as she had been the day before, but her face and hair were washed and she looked refreshed. Cooke nodded to her as he made his way to the small table next to the window. He laid out the map and pointed to a spot that had a small pencilled ‘x’ on it. “That’s the coordinates.”

Anton studied the map. The point was located along a roughly north-south line between two small peaks. Granite Peak, the southern one, was about 15 miles due south of the point on the map. There was a smaller, nameless peak about 8 miles north of the point. East and west of the location, the desert was pretty much flat for 30 to 40 miles in either direction. Cooke was right. It looked like there was absolutely nothing out there. Anton’s gut, however, was telling him otherwise. Anton had a sinking feeling that they would find something there.

“Miles always was a good strategist,” Cooke said quietly.

“What?” Anton answered.

“The location. There is no way to provide cover. The distance is too great. Anyone within shooting range will be visible to anyone else in the area. If he’s out there already… and I am assuming he is… he will see us coming from a long way off.”

Anton's shoulders sagged a little.

“There’s one more thing,” Cook continued.

Anton and the others looked at him.

“I’ve not been able to verify it, but Miles told me he was a sniper for the Rangers before he went into Project Indra.”

“Shit!” Vicci hissed and he slumped down into the nearest chair. “We’ll be sitting ducks out there if he has any kind of decent hardware.”

Anton stared at the map for several moments. Niki walked up behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder. He didn’t turn. “Colonel. I’m going out there alone.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Anton…” Cooke began, but as Anton raised his hand he stopped speaking.

“He wants me alone. That’s why he wants to meet out there. No place for hiding. If you come, he will kill you. All of you. And that won’t do us any good.”

“But what if he kills you?” Vicci asked. Everyone in the room looked at Anton.

“Then it would be best if you were far, far away,” Anton responded. “I think you folks ought to pack up and head east when I go west to meet Miles. He is fast, but he can’t go two directions at once. Our best defense is to split up. He is going to concentrate on me, as I am the biggest threat. That gives you time to get away.” Anton paused and stared at the three men. They all looked like they were trying to figure out a different solution but Anton’s logic was sound. Anton saw the resignation in their eyes.

“Just show me on the map how to get out there,” Anton said finally.

Cooke stepped forward. “There is actually a road that runs fairly close to where that is. It’s just a dirt service road. There are a lot of test facilities scattered around so there are roads criss-crossing the desert out there. To get to it, you’ll need to head west again and go out past the airfield where we picked you up. About two miles past the airfield, Stark Road will hang south, to the left, and you’ll see a fork with another road that continues west northwest. Take that road.” Cooke pointed to the intersection on the map. “Follow that west till you get to this little evap facility. Don’t go in--gates probably locked anyway, just take this road that skirts it to the north. You’ll find North Wig Mountain Road there,” Again Cooke pointed to a point on the map. “You’ll take that north for about 10 or 12 miles to this little intersection here. You’ll see the big gravel pit off to the left as you approach the intersection. There you’ll cut west. This road has no name, but it is the only one going west from here. Once you’re on that road you’ll run west for another 10 to 12 miles. You’ll know you’re close when the road cuts southwest at a straight 45 degree angle here,” once more Cooke pointed to a point on the map. “This road skirts a little waste dump. It continues southwest for about a mile and a half, turns north there and continues for about another mile and a half. Once the road straightens out, and heads due west again, you’ll be within a third of a mile of the site. You can take the hummer across ground there.” Cooke paused and looked at the map. “I’m not sure how you will be able to pinpoint your exact location once you leave the road.”

“I think I’ll know the place when I see it,” Anton responded.

“I was kinda thinking that same thing... “ Cooke said, almost under his breath.

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 43

Niki and Anton sat quietly by themselves in one of the rooms in the IHG Army Hotel. The survivors had gathered here after escaping the facility. Anton stared down at his shoes and Niki stared at him. “Do you think you can beat him?”, she asked.

Anton looked up into her eyes and saw worry there. “I’ve no idea,” he said. “I don’t know what I am capable of. I still feel like I am just being dragged along for the ride. But if what they say about this guy Miles is true… then the monster… I mean me… or whatever… is probably the only one who can stop him.”

Niki held his gaze for several minutes before she looked away. Anton still felt in awe of how someone could look so fragile and yet so strong all at the same time. His eyes traced the line of her jaw from her earlobe to her chin and then down her long graceful neck. She turned and caught his gaze and he quickly averted his eyes and felt the blush on his cheeks. 

“Why did you come here, Niki?” he asked, looking up at her once more. 

She again held his gaze for a moment before speaking. “I go where you go.”

Anton’s brow furrowed a bit but he didn’t look away. “Why?”

Her eyes bored into his with such intensity he felt as if she were looking inside him. “Because I can trust you.” Anton saw tears start to form at the corners of her eyes. She blinked and turned her head towards the window. “For me, that is saying a lot. I trust no one.” The whisper was barely audible. 

“But why me, Niki? Why do you trust me? You hardly even know me,” Anton continued. 

Niki didn’t respond. Instead she rose and walked over to the window and stared out at the purple evening sky. Her mind was full of questions and she needed answers. She couldn’t wait anymore. She was feeling something she had never felt before and was desperate for it to be real. She hoped that what she believed was true, but there was only one way to find out.

Anton remained sitting on the edge of the bed, watching her. The glow of the setting sun silhouetted her lanky form in the darkened room and Anton found himself thinking he’d never seen anyone quite so beautiful. He looked down at his hands and saw the ring on his finger and felt a stab of guilt. He tried to remember the faces of his wife and daughter but saw only images of death. He looked at Niki again and a sense of calm enveloped him. He thought for a moment that maybe he did know, after all, why she trusted him. And almost as if she could hear his thoughts, Niki turned and looked into his eyes once more and that mysterious hint of a smile tugged at her lips. She walked back over to the bed and sat down near him--not next to him...but near. 

“I’ll take the couch,” Anton said, rising from the bed. Niki said nothing and laid back on the bed. She watched as Anton unbuckled his tactical vest and set it on the coffee table and sat on the couch untying his hiking boots. With his boots off, he turned and stretched out on the couch, his feet propped up on one arm rest and his head resting on the other. He stared up at the ceiling for a moment and then closed his eyes. The events of the last few days had exhausted him. All his muscles ached. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He felt the soft blackness of sleep start closing in around him. His hand slipped from his chest and hung limply over the side of the couch as sleep settled in. 

In the drowsy fog that filled his mind, Anton only half heard the faint noises from across the room. Buckles unclipping, a zipper, soft movements followed by padded footsteps. He felt the cool touch of her slender fingers as they lightly grazed the skin of his forearm. He opened his eyes and saw her standing over him, the blanket from the bed wrapped around her shoulders and open just enough at the front for him to catch a glimpse of the smooth line of her inner thigh above her knee. In one motion she opened the blanket and spun herself onto the couch, nestling her naked form against him as the blanket settled over them. Anton, very much awake now, could feel the intense heat of her back against his chest and was afraid to move, thinking that any action on his part would make this dream vanish. Under the blanket, she pulled his free arm around her and cupped his hand to her breast. Anton felt her body tighten for a moment as his hand came into contact with the soft curve of her breast, but she held his hand fast, not allowing him to withdraw. Her breath was husky for a moment and then settled once and she leaned back into him and Anton felt her body relax. He pulled her close, allowing his head to fall into place on her shoulder, their faces resting cheek to cheek. The soft smell of her hair and the warmth of her skin was intoxicating. She said nothing but tightened her grip on his hand. As Anton drifted off to sleep, strange images filled his mind--windblown desert sand, clear blue sky, a dust devil sliding away in the distance and Nikki’s bright green eyes. The images disappeared and reappeared almost as if pulsating and Anton felt, more than noticed, the dark heartbeat keeping time as the images faded from his sight. He felt a deep longing in his chest, a desire to share his future with this strange and exotic woman lying quietly in his arms. He felt that desire reach out of himself, down through his arms, through his hands and then he felt a slight tingle in his fingertips against Nikki’s soft skin. She gasped a little and Anton thought for a second that he had actually shocked her, but her hand tightened once again and the image of her face flashed before his eyes. Her face was radiant and shining, and the image increased in brightness until soft whiteness filled Anton’s mind, bright and soft and white… like mist in the morning sun. Behind it all, the dark heart beat slower...a soft, deep thrumming beat lulling Anton to sleep. Just as he was slipping into blissful oblivion, he heard it. 

-Yes-

“Did you say something?” Anton whispered into Nikki’s ear as his breathing slowed. Nikki said nothing, but once again pressed herself into the curve of him and pulled his arms even tighter around her. And although Anton could not see it in the growing darkness, Nikki was wide awake, eyes shining. A satisfied smile crossed her face as she closed her eyes.

Outside, not a hundred yards from where Anton and Niki slept, Miles stood in the darkness. He stared at the window of Anton’s room.  Miles knew that the ‘thing’ was there. He knew it with his entire being. He wanted to go in and kill it, but the doubt still crawled around in the back of his mind. He had a feeling that whatever it was in that room, it never really slept. He would never catch it unawares. No. It was too soon. Miles had to bide his time and plan his attack. Tonight was no good. He turned to walk back towards the base when he saw the faint glow across the parking lot. Someone was standing in the dark, smoking a cigarette, in the shadows of the trees lining the street. The lit tip cast a faint glow on the grizzled face. Miles didn’t have to guess who it was. 

So tonight I deal with Muskie, Miles thought. Why not? I’ve nothing better to do. As he started to move, the light went out and somewhere in the darkness, much further away, there was a sound of sudden and terrible impact--the sound of two great forces colliding--and then nothing. 

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 42

The Dugway facility had no common network with the Michael Army Airfield, but Miles knew… without a doubt… when the jet landed. He had sensed an ominous presence approaching for nearly a half hour before the jet touched down. By the time the plane was on the tarmac, the blackness in Miles mind had expanded to the point he was nearly in full panic mode. He was angry with himself for being fearful of something he hadn’t even seen, but that didn’t stop the profuse sweating and the palpitation of his heart. His mind was racing with thoughts of impending doom and he was doing everything in his power to avert those thoughts from being realized. He had locked down the facility completely. The front gate had a blast shield that could withstand a nuclear attack and he had closed the massive blast doors. He had cut all outside network access and was running the place on minimal emergency power. The lighting in the facility was sporadic. He had turned off everything but the emergency lighting. Miles had always relied on his augmented senses anyway and felt more comfortable in the dark. If I can’t see them then they can’t see me, he’d always say.

He had armed himself with two pistols and his knife. There was no need for rifles in close quarters, especially with the dark interiors and Miles’ speed and stealth. Now, he sat in the control room, scanning the closed circuit camera monitors for any activity outside the base. In the late afternoon sun, all was still. Each of the cameras showed still, lifeless desert baking in the hot sun. The camera at the front gate showed an empty road running north towards the housing subdivision. Miles knew that they were out there somewhere, waiting… planning. Another shudder shook Miles and he got up and did another walk through of the facility. He had done several since the Colonel had left with the last of the soldiers, but the doubt and fear racking his mind made him second-guess himself. Maybe he had missed a closet or under a desk. Maybe someone was still hiding inside and would get a lucky shot when he was otherwise occupied. He hated feeling this panicked. It was totally out of character for the cool and collected man of mystery he had become over the last seventy years. But his mind wouldn’t let him rest. Was he finally succumbing to the side effects of the Indra Project genome splicing? His thoughts returned to the labyrinth of cells in Los Alamos where the crazed project subjects raged against restraints and beat themselves against the hard stone walls. No, I can’t go down that path, he thought, shaking his head vigorously. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He did a short mental check of his thought processes… no, it’s the fear doing this. That thing, whatever it is, that Muskie brought, is messing with me.

The thought of Muskie brought a smoldering anger to the front of his mind. That psychotic little shit deserved to die. Miles had read Muskie’s dossier when he had been selected for inclusion in Project Indra and the record of the atrocities he committed under the guise of ‘enemy interrogation’ in Viet Nam had left Miles hating the man before he even met him. And then when the guy showed up and he looked like a little Jewish watch repairman, Miles had hated him even more. Miles had wished that Muskie would simply succumb to the aging insanity that the other subjects had, but he was not so lucky. Muskie survived. He became ever more vile to look at but ever more powerful as well. And the guy was no dummy, Miles reminded himself. You can’t be a top notch interrogator without knowing quite a bit about human nature and general psychology. No, Muskie is one sneaky, smart, sonofabitch, Miles mused as he finished his latest walkthrough of the facility. I can’t let my guard down with him around. Miles checked the last of the rooms and then returned to the control room and the cctv monitors. He was alone... For now. Time to rest.

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 41

Colonel Cooke looked out across the Utah desert as the Humvee he was riding in clipped along Stark Road between Dugway and Michael Army Airfield. Another Humvee followed close behind. Cooke was accompanying Vicci and his two soldiers and specialist Tocarro to the airfield to see if they could find a working airplane that would accommodate their survivors so that the could get far away from Dugway as quickly as possible. Tocarro also thought they might be able to salvage some equipment so he could build a shortwave radio, so he had volunteered to accompany them. Monitoring shortwave frequencies probably would lead to other survivors more quickly than anything else, Cooke mused. 

“There it is,” Vicci said as they crested a rise and Michael Army Airfield came into view. The place was abandoned and looked a little worse for wear. No planes were visible, but there was a large hanger on the premises. There might be a plane inside, Cooke thought.

Vicci slowed as they approached the guard shack at a junction in the road. One road peeled off north leading to what looked like support facilities while Stark Road continued on into the main development of the base with housing and other related outbuildings. The hangar and airfield facilities were located there as well, so Vicci continued on straight ahead.

They drove straight to the hangar first. The large doors stood open and there was nothing inside. Cooke stepped out of the Humvee and turned to look across the tarmac and down the runway. There were no planes or helicopters of any kind. “Shit,” he muttered. Tocarro was jogging towards the tower with one of the spec/op guys in tow. Vicci pulled a pack of Lucky Strikes from his pocket and offered one to Cooke. Cooke accepted and the two smoked in silence for several minutes.

“Well, maybe Tocarro can build us a radio at least,” Vicci said. “And who knows, maybe there are some rations in some of those houses…”  His voice trailed off as he exhaled. Cooke noticed that Vicci had cocked his head a bit. 

“What is it?” Cooke asked. 

Vicci’s gaze hardened as he stared to the northwest off past the end of the runway. “Plane, up high, way out, coming in fast!” He pointed northwest and Cooke saw the small speck just above the horizon. There were light contrails trailing behind. 

“That’s a jet, Vicci!” Cooke exclaimed, “and it looks like they are headed this way!”

Vicci turned towards the tower. His soldier was waiting by the door. He whistled sharply and the soldier looked over. Vicci pointed at the sky, “Incoming!” He turned to Cooke. “Let’s get out of the open!”, he hissed and jogged towards the tower and administration buildings with Cooke and the second spec/op soldier right on his heels. The first spec/op had ducked inside the tower and was with Tocarro now up top. Both had their assault rifles trained on the runway. Vicci, Cooke and the last spec/op slipped inside the admin building. Vicci and Cooke hunkered down behind a table with a view out the window of the runway. The other spec/op soldier was lying just right of the door with his gun aimed through the small slit he’d left open.

No one made a sound as they listened to the approaching jet. The high whine of the engines increased in volume and within minutes the plane was approaching the end of the runway. All five men watched as the small jet set down and taxied towards the admin building. The pilot cranked hard on the rudder and the plane turned in a small half circle so that the nose was pointing back at the runway and the engines were shrieking directly at the admin building. Then the engines stopped. Everyone waited for movement. The door of the plane remained closed. Cooke and Vicci watched intently for any sign of movement, but whoever was in the plane obviously was in no hurry to get out. Cooke looked at Vicci. Vicci shrugged. “We have the upper hand in this situation. I say we wait for them to make the first move.” Cooke nodded and they both turned back towards the window. That’s when they heard it. Footsteps. Behind them. All three men in the room turned as one, panicked that someone was approaching them unseen from behind. The sight that met their eyes caused them all to gasp at once. There, standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by three armed men, was a little girl. She looked like she wasn’t more than six or seven. She had a ponytail and a puffy jacket, jeans and little glittery sneakers. She said nothing. She looked from one man to the next and then her gaze settled on Cooke. She walked directly towards him. Cooke watched the girl while Vicci and the other soldier alternated between watching the girl and watching the plane. The girl walked right up to Cooke and held out her hand like she wanted to introduce herself. A chill ran up Cooke’s spine. Something was not right. How did this girl get here? She looked like she had been outside for awhile. Her hair and face were kind of dirty, with smudges of dirt around the corners of her mouth. But her eyes were soft and kind and she had a pleading look on her face as she stood there, hand outstretched, looking up at him. Cooke tentatively took his right hand off his rifle, which was pointed near the girl but not directly at her, and reached out to take her hand. When their hands touched, he stiffened almost as if he’d been shocked. Vicci jumped up but before he could do anything, Cooke had fallen backwards and was sitting on the floor staring at the girl with a terrified look on his face. 

“What the hell!?!” Vicci hissed. “You okay? What’s going on?”

“She spoke to me… I mean… It spoke. Shit!” Cooke was crab walking backwards away from the girl. She stood still with the same imploring look on her face, staring at Cooke. 

“She didn’t say shit!” Vicci rasped. “What are you talking about!?”

“She did. I mean he did. It was in my head. I could hear it in my head when I touched her hand. But it wasn’t her voice. It was a man’s voice. I think it’s the guy on the plane.”

“What the hell are you yapping at?” Vicci was looking worried now and kept glancing out the window at the plane. 

“When I touched her hand, I heard a voice in my head. It said ‘We’re friendly, please don’t shoot us.’” Cooke turned to look at Vicci. Vicci gave him a concerned look and all Cooke could do was shrug sheepishly. “That’s what she said… What it said… whatever that is…” he said, nodding towards the girl.

“That’s a five year old kid!” Vicci said.

“No. It looks like one. But it’s not.” Cooke responded. Both turned to look at the girl once more. She was still gazing intently at Cooke but now her expression changed to one of concern. Her small brow furrowed and she walked towards him once more, again with her hand outstretched. Cooke looked at Vicci. Vicci’s face hardened and he shouldered his rifle and aimed at the girl’s head as she walked towards Cooke. Cooke looked at her, now face to face as he was still sitting on the ground. She stood in front of him, waiting, with hand outstretched. Cooke glanced back at Vicci. Vicci flexed his trigger finger and then gave Cooke a curt nod. Cooke reached out and took the girl’s hand once more. The feeling was the same, but not unexpected this time. He jumped a little but did not let go. 

-We have Muskie with us. He has come to help you. We have come to help you.-

Cooke was flabbergasted. How did this person know about Muskie? How did they know that HE knew about Muskie? His mind raced and he began to panic again.

-Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you. I can see your thoughts. That’s how I knew who you are and what you are running from. We are going to get off the plane now. Please don’t shoot us. We will have our hands up.-

With that, the girl let go of his hand and then turned and smiled at Vicci, who was still staring down the barrel of his gun at her. Vicci looked at Cooke with no small amount of concern in his eyes.

“She says that they are here to help us and they are coming out of the plane. They will have their hands up.”

Vicci turned towards the window again and Cooke saw the door on the plane open. 

“What the FUCK!?!?” Vicci shouted

Cooke nearly jumped out of his skin. “What are you yelling about!?” he screeched.

“Where the FUCK did the girl go!?!”

All three men looked around the room. “Did anyone see her leave?” Vicci asked. Cooke and the spec/op soldier both shook their heads slowly, panic rising in their eyes once more. All three turned towards the plane just in time to see a very beautiful, dark-haired woman emerge. She was wearing a tactical vest and there was a .45 in the holster mounted on the chest, but both her hands were in the air. She was looking directly at them. She held eye contact for a moment, then looked up at the tower and gave a little wave, and then turned to look back at Cooke. She then stepped lightly out of the plane and turned to look back up the steps. The second individual exited. It was a young man, probably mid-thirties, with long black hair and a beard. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail. He was wearing a tactical vest as well with a holstered gun. Both of his hands were also in the air. He stepped down onto the tarmac and the two of them turned once again to look at Cooke through the window. 

“Is that all of them?” Vicci asked.

“Nope. There is at least one more. And from what I’ve heard, he is pretty unmistakable.” 

“Where is he?”

Cooke stepped over to the door. The spec/op soldier there gave him space to open the door while keeping his gun trained on the two outside. Vicci was still standing at the window with his gun trained on the two as well. Cooke opened the door, keeping most of his body behind it, and called out. “Where’s Muskie?!”

“Right behind you,” Muskie replied. 

Cooke and Vicci both spun to see a very creepy looking old man holding the spec/op’s rifle. The soldier was unconscious on the ground. The little old man was wearing blue jeans and a navy blue cable knit sweater. He also had a small watchman’s cap on and heavy work boots. Other than that, he was unarmed, with the exception of the soldier’s rifle he now had trained on the two of them. The soldier on the floor moaned a bit and shifted slightly.

“Better safe than sorry, fellas,” Muskie stated softly. “Would you mind settin’ those guns down so we can talk?”

Vicci and Cooke both lowered their rifles to the floor and then stood with their hands up. Muskie smiled, dropped his rifle to the floor and kicked it out of reach of the unconscious soldier. He then waved for the two other passengers outside to come in. “Now we can be friends!” Muskie exclaimed as the two newcomers entered the room. Cooke and Vicci just glared at the old man.

Muskie stepped forward and extended his hand to Cooke, who took it warily. “We’ve not been formally introduced but you seem to know who I am. I expect we have a mutual friend. Tall, thin, dark haired gentleman. Pretty slick with his hands?” Muskie winked at Cooke “And you are?”

“Colonel Cooke, formerly of the Rangers. My last post was the Echelon site at Dugway.” 

Muskie smiled and tapped his forefinger to the tip of his nose. “You’re the spook that Miles was shadowing.” He then turned to Vicci. “And you are?” 

“Master Sergeant Vicci, Rangers,” was Vicci’s reply and he didn’t bother to shake Muskie’s hand. 

Muskie shrugged and smiled. He then turned to the man and woman who had entered. “This is Anton Peters and Veronika Tkachenko.” The two nodded in turn. Cooke nodded back.

“How do you all know each other?” Cooke asked. 

“Oh, we’ve only just met ourselves,” Muskie replied. “I ran into these two up in Seattle and they convinced me to give them a ride down here to help you out with your predicament.”

Cooke turned to the couple. “Who are you two?” 

Niki spoke first. “I’m with Interpol. Or… I was.  I worked in the human trafficking division, mostly in southeast Asia. Got stuck in Seattle when the shit hit the fan.”

Cooke turned to Anton. “And you?”

“I’m nobody. I’m just a survivor looking to find what’s left of society. I’m from Alaska. Found my way to Seattle via some unexpected circumstances,” he glanced at Muskie and Cooke noticed the look of criticism there. “I met up with Niki and some others in Seattle and then we hitched a ride with Muskie here.”

Cooke turned to Muskie once more and stared at him for a moment. “Do you think you can beat him?”

Muskie smiled and winked again. “Don’t look at me, sir. I’m purely support on this mission. Anton here is the big dog in this fight.”

The look of confusion was immediate on Cooke’s face as he turned once more to Anton. “I thought you said you were just along for the ride. You said you’re nobody, right?”

Anton shrugged and looked at Niki. Niki stepped forward. “Anton is still working his way through his abilities. He’s not quite sure yet just what he is capable of. He’s feeling a little overwhelmed.”

“What do you mean ‘his abilities’?” Cooke asked.

“You saw the girl, right?” Niki responded.

Cooke stiffened. 

“Don’t panic. We know you saw her because she is actually him.” She pointed at Anton. “She didn’t sound like a little girl did she?”

Cooke bristled. “How is a little girl going to help us with Miles?”

Now it was Muskie who spoke up. “I can vouch for that. The girl, as soft and innocent as she looks, is no slouch. All part of the same beast that is our buddy Anton here. The real kicker, though, is the one that comes out when he gets upset. This boy has all my abilities and many that I do not have--ones that even our friend Miles has only dreamed about.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Think about it,” Muskie continued. “I am fast. Fast like Miles. But we are still constrained by certain laws of physics. I am strong enough to go through most walls without slowing down, but there is going to be one hell of a hole when I’m done. That girl showed up in here, behind you, before we even opened the door to our plane.”

The look on Cooke’s face showed Muskie that the comprehension was setting in. 

“It gets better. She is flesh and blood. You held her hand. But then *poof*... she up and disappears.” 

Cooke nodded slowly. 

“And… AND… she knew what you were thinking, some of it when you didn’t even know you were thinking it. That’s how she… or more correctly ‘he’... knew that you knew me. He saw it in your head.”

Cooke looked nervously at Anton. Anton nodded softly.

“So, you are saying he can send the girl in to find out where Miles is and what he is up to so that you can catch him unawares and kill him?”

Muskie smiled condescendingly. “No sir. Like I said, I’m just support on this one. Pilot and an extra pair of boots on the ground. Mind reading is just one of Anton’s talents. Another is mayhem. Mayhem on a scale of which I don’t think you have ever seen. You have seen what I can do. At least a little. And I am guessing, since you are running away from your former facility, you have seen what Miles can do?” Muskie turned to look at Vicci now.

Vicci nodded and there was a bit of fear in his eyes when he did.

“Well rest assured gentlemen. Anton here is much more capable than old Miles. MUCH more capable.”

There was a groan from the corner as the spec/op soldier finally regained consciousness. He slowly sat up and looked around and then spasmed as he saw all the unknown people standing in the room. “What the…?!?”

“At ease, soldier,” Vicci hissed. “What’s done is done. Mind your firearm.”

The soldier stood up and retrieved his weapon and stood with his back to the wall facing the others.

“Sorry for the crack on the noggin, son,” Muskie said to the soldier. Then he turned back to Cooke and Vicci. “Where was I? Oh yes, mayhem! Our boy Anton has already disposed of one of the Project Indra subjects up in Alaska and he has nary a scratch to show from it. Likewise, he laid waste to a goodly number of bad folks there in Juneau before he hightailed it out of there. I was sent to find him when we lost contact with our other Indra soldier, Johnny, and I picked up Anton’s trail in Juneau and connected with him in Ketchikan. He was rather unaware of his own abilities then so I was able to get the drop on him there. Knocked him out and took him to Seattle for some interrogation at our facility there.”

“The old courthouse?” Cooke asked.

“Exactly!” Muskie said. “I almost forgot you’re the spookmaster. You probably heard most of my communiques with Los Alamos.”

“Miles was most interested in them.”

“I’m sure he was since I was tasked with tracking down and killing the men he had sent to destroy the Echelon installations.”

Cooke nodded. 

“Well, anyways, I had Anton strapped to a chair in a windowless interrogation room in the basement complex at the old courthouse. He woke up and I began to question him. Then I was beaten nearly to death and didn’t wake up for nearly an hour. Never even saw what hit me. But one thing I do know. Anton was tied to that chair the whole time.”

The silence in the room was deafening. Everyone stared at Anton. 

Anton shrugged once again. “I don’t remember much of that. I too was unconscious for a bit.”

“There’s more,” Muskie continued. “After I woke up I was furious that someone had beaten me so easily. I was angry and scared. Scared like I’d not been since before Indra did their work on me. I was looking to get out of Dodge and lie low for a while. As I made my way out of the building, that little girl, yeah the same one, she shows up in the middle of the communications room, three floors below ground in a secured facility.” He looked around at the others. They were all hanging on his every word. “Anyways, I’m jittery as hell, this girl appears out of nowhere, so I’m done. I head for the door. I turn my back on her and head for the door. But as soon as I turn around, BAM there she is in front of me again. Didn’t say a word. Just standing there staring up at me. Now I am more than a little unhinged. I freak out and grab this girl by the throat, with BOTH HANDS, and I’m set on choking the living shit out of her… “

“What happened?” Cooke asked.

“That’s just it. Nothing happened. I could no more squeeze that girl’s neck than you could squeeze a steel pipe with your bare hands. It was like she was made out of titanium or something. I flew into a rage and tried to pick her up and throw her and I nearly broke my own arms when her body didn’t budge one centimeter. It was as if she were a solid stone statue bolted to the floor...” Muskie’s voice trailed off again. “Then I heard his voice,” he said and pointed at Anton. “He told me we had to come here and stop the feller that was causing all this trouble. He said I needed to bring them here… Well, it was pretty convincing. What with the terrifying shadow the little girl was casting in that dark basement. Looked just like the shadow of the beast thing that beat the shit out of me in the interrogation room.”

“Wait, what? Beast? What Beast?” Now it was Vicci who spoke up.

“Anton’s other persona, the one you haven’t seen yet, is rather terrifying. It is a massive monster. All black. Faster by far than I am and unfathomably strong. Anton is some sort of shapeshifter and the beast personifies that. You can’t identify any particular feature other than its size and strength. It has claws, though I’m not sure how many on each hand or even if the number is constant. The face of the thing is ever-changing. It is like looking at two videos being played on the same screen. But the eyes… the eyes are constant. Pure blackness and they see right through you. It is the eyes that paralyze you. That thing looks at you and you're done. That’s what showed up in that interrogation room and beat the shit out of me. That’s what freed Anton. And it is the sole reason why I agreed to bring them here. I wanted that beast hunting Miles rather than me.”

Cooke and Vicci looked at Anton with renewed interest. “So, do you think you can beat him?” Cooke asked.

“Really, I’m not sure. But circumstances have led me to believe that I may be able to do the things these people claim. I have survived two attacks at the hands of these ‘supermen’,” Anton pointed at Muskie at this point, “and have escaped pretty much unscathed. The first guy was killed right in front of me by the beast that Muskie described. And I saw the same beast attack Muskie in the interrogation room just before I blacked out.”

“Wait, you blacked out, but the beast was still active?” Vicci asked.

“Yes,” Anton replied. “There is a connection between us, but we can act independent of each other. Much of what the beast did in Juneau I think it did while I was sleeping. Likewise, the girl is able to act and communicate with others when I am not around.”

“Then how do we know that you are the one controlling them?” Vicci continued. 

“I was just as doubtful. At first, the only reason I believed it myself is that the monster and the girl are always with me. I left Juneau. They were still with me. I left Ketchikan on jet, unconscious… and yet they followed me to Seattle somehow. But after today, I’m pretty sure the other two are just parts of me. I was able to project the girl and communicate using her. I was able to control it. That’s how I announced our arrival on the plane to you. Niki convinced me to try it. I started trying when we were still fifty or sixty miles out because I figured that if we weren’t here yet, you’d be less jumpy about talking to a little girl. But I couldn’t make it work.”

“Was the distance too great?” Vicci asked?

“No, I don’t think so. I think it was just that I didn’t know how to do it. When I quit trying and just started thinking about what we should do when we landed I suddenly saw you two hiding in the room. It was like I just appeared there, behind you. Not knowing what else to do, I walked up to you. I tried talking but nothing came out. Then I remembered what Niki had said about only hearing me once she touched the girl, so I held out my hand. Once you touched me, I got this flood of images from your mind and I knew you were the person we were looking for. I saw your interactions with Miles and his reports on Muskie and Project Indra. I got all of that information in just a flash.”

Cooke looked nervous. “How much did you get out of my head?” 

“I think I only get active memories. You were still worrying about Miles and wondering about Muskie so I could see that. But I can’t see things that aren’t on your mind. Like, for instance, I don’t know what your old school teacher’s names are or where you grew up.”

Cooke nodded slightly. “Can you read thoughts without the girl?” 

“I’m not sure. I’ve not been able to actively do it, but I’ve heard thoughts on two separate occasions when the girl wasn’t around.”

“Can you hear any thoughts now?”

Anton stood still and stared at the floor for several minutes. “Not really.”

“Not really? What does that mean?” Cooke asked.

Anton’s brow knitted a bit. “It’s kind of like whispering. I can’t make anything out, but I can tell two people are coming from the tower. And that they are worried.”

Vicci looked out the window. “Tocarro and Davis are on their way over here.”

The two men entered and Colonel Cooke filled them in on the details surrounding the new arrivals. Then Cooke explained to Anton and Niki about the situation with Miles. Muskie filled in a lot of the background on Project Indra and Miles’ history with the program. An hour later they were all in Humvees headed back towards Dugway where the rest of the survivors were hiding, awaiting their return… and where Miles was waiting in the secured Echelon facility.

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 40

Miles sat in the darkened control room listening to computers hum and whirr. The sound of the last of the exiting soldiers had faded into the shadows. He looked down at his bloody hands, one still gripping the small tactical knife he had used against the spec/op commandos, and smiled a bit. It had been even easier than he had thought. When he had planned the attack, he figured he’d need to kill all six of the commandos at the bare minimum to gain control of the facility. Colonel Cooke was well-trained, but had long since passed his prime. Miles knew that Cooke would have offered little resistance when the time came. He had assured himself of that with the little circus stunt with the ashtray. He had seen the fear in Cooke’s eyes then and felt the blackness in Cooke’s mind. He knew Cooke wouldn’t be a problem. The spec/op guys were the only resistance and they had fallen in seconds. Vicci had tried to save one but then had been pulled into the rec room by the remaining two soldiers. Miles had thought of just busting down the door, but decided not to. No sense in it. These guys would never be able to sneak up on him. They were no threat and they were terrified now. They would run given the chance. It served no purpose in Miles' plan to kill everyone. He had to leave survivors. The race had to survive. Humanity was teetering on the edge of the abyss and, at the moment, he was the one who got to decide who lived and who died. He reached into his jacket pocket and fished out another Indian cigarette and lit it up. The taste of the smoke was rich and soft on his tongue. He leaned back into the chair, turned his face upwards and exhaled in little, concentric smoke rings.

It was all going as planned… Well, that wasn’t entirely true, he thought. He would have to hunt down the last of the Project Indra subjects and terminate them--especially Muskie. Muskie could be a problem because he was no dummy. He might just be tricky enough to lay in wait somewhere and pick me off unsuspecting. Nope. That’s not gonna happen. I’ll find him first. He’ll be trying to contact Los Alamos and when he does, I’ll be listening. Miles looked up at the ceiling and smiled again and closed his eyes, his mind swimming through the endless possibilities that lay in front of him. It was during this moment of self-satisfaction that the little tingle went off in the back of his head. 

Miles sat bolt upright and scanned the room. He had learned long ago to never ignore that feeling. It always meant danger. He listened quietly for several moments and heard nothing but the soft murmurs of the computers working away. Had someone come back into the facility? He pushed himself into his mind, examining the tingle, trying to sense the location of the danger, but he could not. He got up and walked over to the security console and scanned the perimeter cameras. There was no one about. This troubled Miles. He had never had this feeling before without an immediate threat being evident. He was sensing something that was further away than those fleeing soldiers. He closed his eyes and pushed himself out, reaching for the source of the warning, but nothing but fear and blackness responded. Miles didn’t like this. He didn’t like this at all. He felt like there was something out there making its way towards him. Something that was far away but very dangerous. And the part that worried Miles the most was that it felt like whatever it was knew where it was headed and was coming as quickly as possible. 

Miles hurried over to the communications center and checked for any military broadcasts. There were none. Nothing had crossed the wire in several days. Muskie had logged on from a terminal up in Seattle. Miles knew that. But Miles also knew that there was no one left for Muskie to check in with at Los Alamos, so Muskie had gotten nothing from them. Then a small doubt crossed his mind. He pulled up the history of Muskie’s last connection from the courthouse in Seattle. It had lasted nearly five minutes. Muskie hadn’t spoken with anyone. Why had he remained connected for five minutes? Miles sat down and tapped some commands into the terminal. He connected to the mail server at Los Alamos almost immediately. He scanned the user files and found Muskie’s account. There were no files there. Now anyways. Miles stared at the notice on the screen. “No files” it said. “Last file deleted 2014-08-09:18:38” That timestamp coincided with Muskie’s last login. 

“Shit!”, Miles hissed. Garvey had posted a message in Muskie’s account. Miles knew this without even having to verify it. He knew it because it is what he, himself, would have done in the same situation. Garvey could post to the local server without being intercepted by an outside facility because both computers were on the same network. Miles never knew it was there because he had simply monitored communication between Los Alamos and their assets in the field, their primary asset being Muskie. Once Miles had verified that everyone at Los Alamos had been ‘decommissioned’, he’d not paid much attention to Muskie’s communication attempts except to keep track of where he was connecting from. This little communication had slipped under the radar. Miles now had to assume that Muskie was privy to what had happened at Los Alamos and probably had orders to ‘liquidate’ Miles on sight. Miles wasn’t worried too much about facing Muskie. No, what worried him was that Muskie was very smart. The fellow was an evil genius. He had survived by playing to his own strengths and against the weaknesses of others. Miles was sure that Muskie knew he could not beat Miles one on one. No, if Muskie were tasked with liquidating me, Miles thought, he will not be coming alone. 

There was that tingle again. This time it was stronger and Miles could sense an ever-expanding blackness behind it. Something so large he felt it could swallow the whole world along with him in it. Miles tasted bile at the back of his throat. He realized he was panicking a little and with that realization came another that it had been decades since he had felt such fear. The last time he had felt like this was when all hell was breaking loose on the Dnieper River long before he had been selected for Project Indra. He could smell the cordite and blood even now and his heart began to race. Muskie was coming and he was bringing something with him. Something that Miles had not encountered before. Something big. Something strong. Something very, very old.

Miles was about to turn and leave when he noticed the new file names listed on the terminal connection in Seattle. He clicked on one of the files. It was surveillance video from the interrogation room cameras. There were several new files. Someone had been using the rooms recently, Miles mused. “What were you up to, Muskie?” Miles whispered to himself as he clicked on the first file and waited for the video to load.

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 39

Jake didn’t even raise a fuss as Anton and Niki explained to him that they were both leaving. He hugged her and shook Anton’s hand. “Keep an eye on her… please,” he said, before releasing his grip on Anton’s hand.

“I will,” Anton replied and nodded slightly. 

The rest of the group said nothing, but a couple of them waved as the two shouldered their bags and headed towards the court building to meet up with the old man. He had told them to get their gear and meet him there and he would take them out to the jet. 

As they rounded the corner of Spring Street and 6th Avenue, heading towards the front entrance of the courthouse, they saw a military humvee parked at the curb with the motor running. The old man was in the driver’s seat. When he saw them approaching, he jerked his thumb towards the back door, motioning for them to get in. The both jogged to the passenger side and Niki hopped in the front seat and Anton took the seat behind her. They both tossed their gear into the empty seat behind the old man. He sat watching the both of them get situated. When they looked up he stared at them both for a couple minutes. Niki glanced back at Anton then back to the old man. Finally, the old man reached across the center console and offered Niki his hand. “I figure if we’re gonna be travellin’ together, we better get properly acquainted… Name’s Muskie.” 

Niki shook his hand but raised one eyebrow. “Muskie?... Isn’t that a name for a fish?” 

Muskie nodded. “A big, ugly one, with a lower jaw that sticks out like a bulldog. Like mine.” 

“I take it you picked that name up along the way somewhere…???” Niki asked. 

Muskie glanced down at his hands and was silent for a moment. “Yeah. I used to be called something else… but I don’t remember it now. I picked up the nickname in VietNam. They said I was like the fish. Mean and sneaky. Come out of nowhere and fuck you up.” He grinned and looked back at Niki.

“Well, I’m Veronika Tkachenko… but everyone calls me Niki. I worked with Interpol before all this.”

Muskie arched one eyebrow at the mention of Interpol. “Another interrogator in our midst, then…” He winked at her slyly. “And you?” he asked, turning now to look over his shoulder at Anton. 

“Anton Peters,” Anton replied. “Nothing exciting in my background. I worked as an effluent evaluation specialist at a wastewater facility in Juneau.”

Muskie’s brow furrowed. “A what?”

“I cleaned sewer water before it got pumped back out into the ocean.”

Muskie grinned a bit. “Bet your work clothes smelled worse than mine!” 

All three smiled at this and Muskie turned back towards the steering wheel and guided the humvee towards the freeway. They headed south, back towards the Boeing airstrip and the waiting jet. Once at the airfield, it took Muskie a couple hours to round up enough jet fuel to fill the plane. With full tanks, they could make Dugway easy, he thought. Probably not enough to make it back, though. Then he shrugged. Not much chance of any of us living long enough to want to come back, he thought, as he climbed into the cockpit and fired up the engines. He watched the other two as they got situated in the plane. Niki took the copilot’s chair and Anton sat in the passenger seat just outside the cockpit, behind Niki. They both looked much more optimistic than he felt. That was because they’d never been up against anyone like Miles, he thought. Then his mind slipped back to the basement of the courthouse and the terror he had awoken to when Anton had escaped. A shiver ran down his spine once more as he glanced at Anton over his shoulder. Maybe *one* of us will make it back, he thought, as he studied Anton’s profile for a moment. He turned his attention back to the controls and taxied the plane onto the runway and pointed the nose south. Minutes later they were climbing towards 15,000 feet and turning a little east southeast towards the Cascades and the Rockies beyond. Flight time would be less than two hours. 

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 38

I’m here.  

The words brought Anton out of his sleep immediately. He sat up and looked around the room. It was still dark, but he could see a faint glow away to the east. Niki was still sleeping soundly on her mattress and there was no one else in the room. Anton rubbed his eyes and looked around once more. He figured it had to be early, maybe three-thirty or four in the morning. He listened quietly for a moment and then, deciding the voice had been part of a dream, he was about to lie back down again when he heard it.

Now what?

But this time Anton was completely awake and this time he knew there was no one but he and Niki in the room. He also knew that even if there had been someone else, they wouldn’t have heard the voice because this time he was sure he’d heard it in his head. He sat still for a moment and his mind flashed back to the docks at Auke Bay and the voice he’d heard in his head when the man that tried to kill him had arrived. It had been the same experience, he thought. It was as if he was hearing the voice inside the other person’s head rather than someone talking directly to him. This voice sounded different, however. And yet familiar. The skin on the back of Anton’s neck began to prickle. He couldn’t place where he’d heard the voice before. He got out of bed and stepped quietly to the window and looked down at the street. It looked deserted. It was hard to see in the darkness, but he couldn’t see anything moving down there. His eyes scanned the windows of the building opposite, but still he saw nothing. 

Anton felt a prickle on the back of his neck once again, but still saw nothing in the street. Then, he closed his eyes and listened. The night was very quiet. He could hear the wind against the window and some distant bird calls. Then, at the very edge of his hearing, he thought he heard whispering. He cocked his head a bit, but couldn’t tell from which way it was coming. It was still very faint. He held his breath for a moment. He could hear his own heartbeat in his chest. And then he heard it.

She said to wait, so I guess I wait.

It was fainter this time, but definitely still the voice he’d heard earlier. He opened his eyes and looked at the building opposite once more. The windows were dark and he could see no movement, but he felt that someone was there, looking back. Anton’s eyes were drawn to one window in particular. The black rectangle looked no different than any of the others, but something had drawn his eye there. He stared hard for several minutes trying to somehow pierce the darkness and see what was hidden there, but still nothing moved. His eyes had just left the window when a flicker of light appeared there and he looked back. He could see a small pin-prick of red-orange light in the darkness. He crouched down and stared at the small light over the edge of his own window sill, trying to discern what it was. Suddenly the small light brightened and he realized it was a lit cigarette. The man smoking it had just taken a drag and the lit end of the cigarette brightened, softly lighting the man’s face with it’s red glow. Anton recognized the face immediately and backpedalled involuntarily away from the window.

“Shit,” he hissed in the darkness. “It’s that crazy old man! How the fuck did he find me?!?” He didn’t realize he was actually talking out loud until he heard Niki moan a bit and then sit up.

“What’s going on?” she said, seeing him sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. She looked around the room. “What time is it?”

“Late. Or Early. I think,” Anton whispered, his mind still preoccupied with the man across the street.

“Why are you whispering?” she asked, and she looked around again, now with a little panic in her eyes.

“Someone’s out there. In the building across the street.”

She jumped up and grabbed her gun. “Who is it?”

“Not sure… but I think I can hear him,” Anton replied, scratching his head a bit. 

Niki looked at him for a moment with concern. “What do you mean ‘you think you can hear him’?” she asked.

Anton looked at her for a second and then continued. “It’s kinda like with you and the girl. I can hear him in my head.”

Niki stood stone still for several moments. “I don’t hear anything,” she said. “What did he say to you?”

“I don’t think he was talking to me,” Anton replied.

“What?”

“I think I heard his thoughts. What he was thinking to himself.”

Niki stared at him again, long enough that it started to make him feel uncomfortable. “You telling me you can read minds?”

Anton shrugged. “Not sure. It has only happened once before and the last time it happened, the guy I heard was killed almost immediately after. But I don’t think this fellow knows that I heard him.”

“Well, what did he say?” Niki asked again.

“He said he was here and ‘now what?’. Then he said that ‘she’ had told him to wait so he was gonna wait.”

“Wait for what?”

“I’ve got no idea,” Anton replied. “But I think he’s the guy that kidnapped me in Ketchikan.”

“What? Can you see him too?” Niki looked more than a little worried now.

“I saw him in the window of the building across the street. He is smoking a cigarette and the light lit his face for a moment.” 

Niki crept to the window and peeked over the sill. “Which window?”

“Third floor, I think it is the third or fourth from the left.”

Niki stared out the window for a few moments and then crept back to Anton. “I don’t see any light in there now. And I think that is pretty far for you to be able to identify someone’s face from the light of a cigarette.”

“Well, it wasn’t just the cigarette. I recognized the voice, first. I just didn’t know where I recognized it from. Then when I saw the face, it clicked. I don’t know how he found us, but this can’t be good.”

“I know how he found us,” Niki replied.

“How?”

“‘She’ told him to come here.”

“But we don’t know who ‘she’ is,” Anton replied.

Niki tapped her right index finger to her temple and gave him a sly look.

“What? You think the girl told him?”

“What other girl knows we’re here?” Niki asked, and stared at Anton waiting for an answer.

“Why would she, and remember--you think *I* am her, why would she bring him here?”

“That I don’t know. But there is only one way to find out,” Niki stood and walked back over to the window. This time she didn’t bother trying to hide. Not that anyone could have seen her from outside anyway, it was still far too dark. 

“What are you talking about?” Anton hissed.

“We have to go talk to him.”

Anton jumped to his feet. “Ain’t gonna happen. That guy almost killed me last time. I do NOT want to repeat that experience.”

“If I remember correctly, *he* got the worse end of that encounter. Didn’t you say you thought he was seriously wounded when you left him? I rather doubt he wants to tangle with you again either.”

“Then why is he here?” Anton stood with his hands on his hips.

“I don’t think he knows it’s you he’s here to meet.”

Anton cocked one eyebrow. “What makes you think that?” 

“Think about it,” she said. “Did he ever see you with the girl before he kidnapped you?”

Anton thought for a minute. The girl had gone missing right before he spoke to the native woman in Ketchikan and it was right after meeting her that he had been kidnapped. “But if it was the girl, why would he believe a kid.”

“She is rather convincing,” Niki stated flatly. “Especially when you hear the voice of a…” she looked him up and down, “thirty-something-year-old man inside your head when she speaks.” She smiled and knelt next to her knapsack and grabbed her gun vest. She strapped it on and slipped three extra clips into the pocket below the holster on her chest. 

“What? You’re going out there now?” Anton’s face registered a little panic.

“No time like the present. Or did you want to sit here stewing about what he’s doing over there for a couple more  hours?”

At this point, they heard a soft rap on the door. Anton opened it and found Ben standing there in full gear. “Everything alright in here? I thought I heard voices…” His voice trailed off as he saw Niki standing behind Anton. “Oh, sorry, didn’t know you were up here Niki.” 

“Glad to see you, Ben,” Niki replied. “I was just about to come looking for you.”

“What for?” Ben asked.

“There’s a man in the building opposite waiting for Anton and I. We’re gonna go over and have a chat with him. Wanted to make sure somebody here knew we were going out.”

“What? Who’s over there? What’s going on? Does Jake know about this?”

“Nope, you should probably let him know as well,” Niki responded. “I don’t imagine we’ll be very long.”

She slipped past Anton into the hall as Anton grabbed his jacket. Ben looked at him with suspicion as he passed. Anton shrugged. “I’m just tagging along, this is all her idea.” 

Niki was headed for the stairs, Anton and Ben followed. As they passed the 12th floor, Ben peeled off. “I’ll go tell Jake what’s going on.” 

Niki waved him on and continued down the stairs to the fourth level with Anton right at her heels. She paused in front of the elevator shaft, pulled the .45 from the holster and checked the action and fingered the safety off. 

“That won’t do you any good against the guy we’re going to meet. Trust me.” 

“My daddy always told me it is better to have something and not need it than to need it and not have it.” She smiled and kicked the rope ladder into the shaft and slipped over the side, climbing towards the lobby below. Anton paused a moment, shook his head and then followed her down. 

All was quiet and dark down at the street level. Anton and Niki made their way out of the east end of the breezeway towards 1rst Avenue. They stopped at the entrance and glanced up at the windows of the building across the street. They saw no movement but both were pretty sure someone was watching them. Niki stepped out into the street and casually looked both ways before walking across with soft measured, unhurried steps. Anton was at her hip the whole way, his eyes scanning the windows and the street for any sign of movement.

 

“Are you always this nonchalant when approaching a superhuman, homicidal maniac?”

She paused and looked over her shoulder at him. “Only when I’ve got a beast that has already kicked the shit out of him watching my back.” She smiled again and continued into the lobby of the dilapidated red brick building where Anton had seen the man waiting. The door had been busted off the hinges and the lobby was in shambles. It looked like it had used to be a gift shop of some sort. Niki was looking for the stairs when they heard movement at the back of the shop. 

“I think you two are in the wrong place…” a voice said from the shadows. It was low and gravelly and seemed to come from nowhere. 

“I think we’re here to meet you. We think someone sent you to find us,” Niki responded.  There was no answer. “I think you’ve already met my friend here.” Niki jerked her thumb at Anton. There was a sudden rush of air and the little old man was standing in front of Anton.

“What the fuck are you doing here?!” the man hissed. 

“I could ask you the same thing… seeing as how the only reason I am here is because you brought me here,” Anton replied. Even in the dark, Anton could see the old man stiffen as if he were about to strike, but somehow Anton knew he wouldn’t. He stood staring at the man. 

“Who told you to come here?” Niki asked. 

“Why in the hell do you think someone told me to come here?” 

Niki ignored this response. “Was it a little girl?” Again the man stiffened, but Anton sensed fear rather than anger.

“She’s with us,” Niki continued. “She told me yesterday that someone was coming to meet us. Is that you?” Anton was impressed with how deftly Niki controlled the conversation. He imagined she was probably a very good field agent. She knew how to give just enough information to gain the trust of her subject without divulging everything.

“Why is a kid telling you what to do?” the man responded, with a wary tone.

“She is rather compelling, is she not?” Niki waited for a moment. “I mean, you’re here… on the word of a little girl, correct? We could ask you the same thing. But that would just be a waste of time because we both know that little girl is not like any little girl any of us have ever met before. Did you recognize her voice?”

Again the man stiffened a bit and this time, he turned to look at Anton with suspicion in his eyes. “Was it you? What are you up to?” the man hissed.

“Not sure yet. I’m trying to figure this out just like you two. Niki here thinks I’m linked to the girl somehow. She says the girl sounds like me. The girl has never spoken to me, so I have no idea.”

“She sounds like you, alright… but that’s not the half of it. I don’t think I even made that connection. I knew it was a man’s voice, but that wasn’t why I followed her instructions.”

“Why did you?” Niki asked.

“Because of what happened when I tried to kill her” The statement hung in the air like a poisonous cloud. No one spoke for several minutes.

“What happened?” Niki continued at last.

“I went to wring her scrawny little neck to get that damn voice out of my head. Mind you, I’m a strong fella. I may not look it, but your buddy here can attest to my abilities…” He looked at Anton and Anton nodded, watching the man warily

“Anyways, I grabbed hold of her…” the man made the motion of grabbing a small child by the throat with both hands, “and she didn’t move.”

“What?” This time it was both Niki and Anton in unison.

“She didn’t move. Her throat felt like it was made of cast iron and when I tried to lift her it was like she was bolted to the floor. I about cracked my own forearms with the exertion. And all the while, she kept talkin’, inside my head, calm as can be, tellin’ me that she needed me to come and get you and take you with me.” He stood staring at his hands. “That’s when I saw her shadow.”

“Shadow?” Niki whispered.

“Yeah. We were in the basement of the court building a couple blocks up. There was no lighting except for the emergency lighting. I had my back to it and she was in front of me. I was blocking the light from her, but her shadow grew. Even though she wasn’t in the light. As I was struggling trying to choke her, the shadow grew and I could see the outline of that thing…” His voice trailed off.

“What thing?” This time it was Anton.

The old man turned to face him. “The thing that saved you. The thing that almost killed me. I’m pretty sure my skull is fractured and I most likely have a severe concussion. I was unconscious for more than an hour after you left.”

Both Anton and Niki stood silent staring at the man. It was several moments before he spoke again.

“When I saw the shadow I almost blacked out from fear. I nearly pissed my pants and that’s no lie. But she just kept talking. She told me to come down here and wait. She didn’t say who I was waiting for or why I had to do it, she just said I had to take someone with me.”

“Where are you going?” Niki asked.

The man stared at her for several long seconds. She was about to repeat the question when he spoke. “Utah. Dugway Proving Grounds.” 

Niki was back in investigator mode, “What exactly is ‘Dugway Proving Grounds’?”

The man looked at her and rubbed his chin for several moments. “Fuck it!” he finally exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. “It’s a top secret military installation and home to the last remaining Echelon listening station.”

“Echelon?” Anton asked?

This time it was Niki who answered. “According to rumor, Echelon was a system set up in the late seventies or early eighties to eavesdrop on international communications. The countries involved are the member states of the UKUSA Security Agreement… the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Each of the member states has laws governing the interception of their own citizen’s communications, but they allow the partner states to eavesdrop on each other and then share the information amongst the member government intelligence agencies. Legal way to spy on your own people. The system was rumored to have the ability to scan all global telecommunications.”

“The rumor is true,” the old man replied nonchalantly.

“How do you plan on getting there?” Anton asked. 

“I’ve got a jet. Same one I used to bring you here.”

“So why do you want to go there?” Niki asked. 

“To find someone.”

“Who?”

“Someone that may even give your girl-beast a run for her money…” The old man’s voice trailed off again as he stared at Anton. “I need a cigarette… “ he said absently and patted his pockets until he found the pack of Lucky Strikes. He tapped one out of the pack and lit it with a worn zippo lighter. He took a long drag and clicked the lighter shut before pocketing it once more.

“Who is this person?” Niki asked.

“I’m not totally sure yet, but I think he may be the one that is responsible for all of this?”

“What? You mean everything? The pandemic?”

The old man nodded. The three stood in silence for a long time. Anton noticed that the room was getting lighter. The sun was coming up. 

“When do we leave?” Niki asked.

“I’m here waiting on you folks.”

Niki looked at Anton. Anton stared back at her and then looked intently at the old man. He turned back to Niki and nodded.

“Let’s do this,” she said and headed for the door.

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 37

After he had cleaned himself up, Muskie made his way upstairs towards the lobby of the courthouse. He’d found some fresh clothes in one of the personnel lockers in the restroom after he had showered. They were a little too big for him, but he rolled up the sleeves and used a pair of desk scissors to shorten the jeans. He had found his own boots lying outside his holding cell.

He stepped into the communications room on his way up and plugged his communicator back into the network and logged into a secure line to contact his commander. They’d definitely want to know about this new player in the game. Muskie shivered as memories of what happened in the dark room in the basement popped in and out of his conscious thought. It was a couple of moments before he realized that no one was responding on the other end. He typed in some commands at the terminal and pulled up the connection analyzer. The communication ports were functioning properly but there was no response from the other end. Muskie’s brow furrowed a bit. Not like Los Alamos to leave the communications room unattended. Something must have happened down there. He was about to log out when he saw the asterisk next to the message line in the communications menu. He had an unread message waiting for him on the server. He opened the message. It was a sound file. He double-clicked on the file and a new window with an audio player opened and the message began to play.

“Muskie, hopefully this makes it to you.” Muskie immediately recognized the voice of his commanding officer. “The shit has hit the fan down here. Someone hacked the door security codes and released all the test subjects. The base has been overrun. I’m currently locked in the communications center. I’ve been trying to warn the other bases, but haven’t been able to verify contact with anyone. I’ve left this message on all accounts in our system. I don’t think I will be able to hide here much longer. Muskie, I think it was Miles that released the subjects. I think he has been planning this for some time. I’m not sure but he may be the one that snuck [v1297] out of the facility. I didn’t think he even knew about that project, but he has been around so long that he may have heard things and figured it out. Anyway, I tried contacting Colonel Cooke up at Dugway to warn him about my suspicions, but I think Miles is intercepting all communications that they receive so I don’t know how much Cooke actually knows. If you get this message, don’t bother coming down here. There won’t be anything left. Take the jet and head to Dugway. Secure Colonel Cooke and let him know what happened down here. If any government assets are still available for deployment, Cooke will be able to contact them. Secure Dugway, Muskie. If Miles is really behind this, you know what we’re up against. It will take everything you have to beat him… and hopefully that will be enough.” Muskie could hear the doubt in his CO’s voice and Muskie knew it was justified. If Miles really was behind this, then the odds were in Miles favor. Muskie remembered with shame the way that Miles had easily defeated him whenever they had been paired in combat training. If Miles was the target, he would have to catch him totally unaware in order to have any chance of besting him. Muskie’s mind was formulating a list of supplies he would need for the trip as he made his way upstairs.

As he passed through the control room on his way to the stairs leading up to the lobby, a warning flashed in his head. Someone was here in the room with him. He crouched immediately and listened for signs of movement. He peeked over the top of the desks and scanned the room. Other than the softly blinking lights on several of the computers, there was nothing to see. The room looked empty. Then he saw it. The ponytail. Just the top of it, actually, and the very top of the head it belonged to. It was just barely visible over the surface of the desks across the room. It looked like there was a small girl making her way quietly along the row of desks at the back of the room, opposite from Muskie’s current location. He watched the pony tail as it passed along behind the row of desks and then turned, at the end of the row, to come up the side of the room towards him. As the girl passed along the rows on her way to where he was, Muskie caught glimpses of her face. She was staring intently at him as she made her way towards him. The sheer absurdity of the situation unnerved Muskie. How did she get in here? Why hadn’t he heard anyone come in? What is a small child doing running around unattended? None of it made any sense, and that caused him more than a little uneasiness.

The girl walked right up to him and stared intently into his eyes. Muskie wasn’t sure what to make of her. She looked like a normal little girl. He guessed she was probably six or seven. She looked a little dirty but otherwise pretty well-cared for. He glanced around the room expecting to see some adult caretaker, but the girl was alone with him in the room. And still she just stared up at him.

“What do you want?” he asked her. He fidgeted a little as she seemed completely unconcerned with his presence and her nonchalance irked him. He knew he was not pretty to look at but this little girl was looking at him the way any little girl would look at a puppy, or a flower… with quiet, innocent curiosity. But still she did not speak.

“Are you here with someone?” he asked, glancing around the room once more. Still nothing. “Listen, little girl, I don’t know how you got in here, but you have to leave now. I’m on my way out of here.” He stepped around the girl and jogged to the hallway leading to the stairs for the lobby. The hallway was dark except for the emergency lighting. He had just entered the hallway when he froze once again. There ahead of him was the girl, standing in the middle of the hallway, her face illuminated under the glow of the emergency lighting on the wall above. Muskie turned and looked into the room behind him. It was now empty. He looked at the girl once more and felt the cold breath of fear on his neck. He walked slowly towards her, watching for any sign of danger, but she remained perfectly still. He stopped once he reached her and stood looking down at her and she stared right back. He was about to step around her and continue on when she reached out and grabbed his hand. Muskie felt the room start to spin.

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 36

Once Anton had cleaned up, he went and joined the others in the floors above. Most were tending to the plants in the south-facing rooms on the various levels. Anton admired the ingenuity that the group had used in optimizing the space. The plants that needed less sunlight were placed on the lower floors and those that needed more were near the top and on the southwest corners. The protection from the elements and the fairly constant temperature actually was quite effective for growing fruits and vegetables. Most of the water was captured rainwater from the roof and runoff from the culverts at street level. 

Jake had designed a gravity-fed watering system that made watering the plants on the various floors very ‘hands-off’. Getting water from the street to the upper levels was where the work came in. The runoff, as well as the water recovered at the bottom of the system was accomplished via a system of weights and pulleys strung up in two of the elevator shafts. 50 gallon drums of water could be moved with surprisingly little effort to the top of the system, or between floors to adjust the amount each floor received. 

They had plumbed the system on each floor so that there was a fill tube at the elevator shaft that filled a small holding tank for the floor below. Water was syphoned from the 50 gallon drum into these fill tubes and the overflow from each floor drained into the holding tank of the floor below. They had replicated the system in all four of the towers. Needless to say, they had a good supply of food, and what they couldn’t eat they preserved for the off-season. 

All the organic waste was composted and reintroduced into the bedding soil. In fact, it was this duty that Anton found himself assigned as he waited for dinner. He and Ben and Mike transported the scraps from the dining area, as well as the trimming buckets from each floor, up to a north-facing apartment on the twenty-fourth floor. There were about twenty large square plastic dumpsters crammed into the gutted apartment. Each of the dumpsters had heavy plastic stretched over the top and then secured around the lip with bungee cords. The smell inside the apartment was still a little ripe as they entered. Ben saw Anton wrinkle his nose as they entered and Ben laughed. “That’s why we moved the composting up here to the top floor. No one wanted an apartment over the top of this wonderful aroma!” The three of them laughed as they dumped the fresh compost material into one of the dumpsters near the front. They filled it almost to the top and then Anton watched as Ben and Mike shoveled some rich dark soil-like material from one of the dumpsters at the back of the room into the top of the one they had just filled. The dark matter was full of worms and grubs. “Helps kick start the process on the new material,” Mike added as Anton watched. Once they were done, they moved the dumpster they had filled to the back of the room and moved one of the empty ones up near the door. Ben and Mike checked all the covers before they left, making sure the plastic was well secured. Anton could see that the underside of the plastic on many of the dumpsters was dripping with condensation. He also noticed that the room was noticeably warmer than most of the other north facing rooms. He put his hand on the side of one of the dumpsters and felt that it was quite warm, in fact.

Mike watched as Anton did this. “Kinda nice to come up here when the weather gets cold. These babies really put out the heat when the organics start to break down. In the colder months we add a heavy wool blanket on top of the plastic to further insulate the compost processes. Jake was the one that showed us how to do all this. He has dabbled in pretty much every kind of engineering you can imagine,” Mike continued as he waved his arm around at the dumpsters, “including BIO engineering!” 

“Let’s go see if the grub’s done yet,” Ben called from the hallway. Anton and Mike followed him back down the stairs to the dining area. As Anton walked into the dining hall, he spied Niki working with Anna and Betsy in the kitchen, and he felt his face flush a bit. He glanced around to see if anyone had noticed, but other than a small smile that tugged at Niki’s lips, no one gave any indication that they had noticed. He followed the two men to one of the tables where the rest of the adults were already chatting about the day’s activities. Without any pause in the conversation, the folks at the table slid this way and that to make room for the three men to sit down with them. Anton sat listening to the various conversations and glanced from face to face as the individuals spoke. He really felt included here and this feeling of community was what he had been searching for when he left Juneau. He felt a pang of guilt mixed with fear as he thought about what Niki had said. If she were right, and he had a creeping feeling that she was, he and Niki would be leaving this all behind tomorrow to go who knows where to find who knows what. And while he knew he would miss the camaraderie of this group of people, he also found the idea of embarking on a new adventure with Niki at his side a little exciting. And it was this little prick of excitement that caused him to once again glance towards the kitchen. Niki was standing in the doorway, leaning laconically against the jam, staring at him. She had a wooden spoon in one hand that had a smear of some sort of tomato sauce on the end that she had just dabbed to lips. As he made eye contact with her, she straightened suddenly and turned back into the kitchen. This time, Anton noticed that both Anna and Betsy had been watching her and they glanced at Anton as she turned and Anton saw a knowing look in their eyes. Anna smiled a little. Betsy seemed more wary. She caught Anton’s eye for just a moment, and Anton thought he saw worry there. Then she turned back to her cooking.

Anton had just turned back to the conversations at hand when the children, who had all been gathered in a far corner of the room playing at something suddenly rose as one and ran to their various parents. Tiny voices raising questions about food and complaining about ‘feeling like they were starving’ filled the air. Almost on cue, the folks in the kitchen began carrying the food out to the tables. Tonight it was vegetable soup in a tomato base with bread and roast root vegetables. They also had some cured meat that Anton couldn’t immediately identify. Gerald, who was sitting across from Anton, saw the quizzical look on his face. “Venison,” he said. “Even here in the city there are quite a lot of them. The packs of wild dogs don’t keep up with the population very well. We have a salt block down in a fenced parking lot near the waterfront. We usually catch a couple of them in there every week, but we only kill what we need. One or two a month usually. There’s a few here who don’t eat meat, so we don’t need much. We just let the others go.”

Anton cut a small chunk of the meat and popped it in his mouth. It was salt-cured and smoked and quite tasty. 

Gerald continued, “We have a store room in the tower directly north of us where we hang the cured meat. It’s up on the top floor so that the smell doesn’t attract much in the way of scavengers.”

Anton was just finishing up on his plate of food when Jake, Tony and Scott walked in. They were dressed in their tactical vests, each still wearing their pistols on their chest. Jake caught Gerald’s eye and made a small circle in the air with his finger. Gerald nodded and stood up and asked Lydia and Anna to take the kids down to the sleeping quarters. A look of fear spread through the faces of the adults as they watched the children file out. Once all the children were gone, the adults gathered at the table and all faces turned to Jake, Tony and Scott. 

“We scouted a little further North today,” Jake started. “We went all the way up to the Space Needle. Didn’t see hide nor hair of any tunnel folk along the way. It looks like they have seriously high-tailed it out of here.” There was a communal sigh from the room, but Anton noticed the look of relief wasn’t mirrored in Jake’s eyes. “I assumed,” Jake continued, “that after the incident last night, it must have been the monster that scared them…” his voice trailed off. The pause caused the sense of fear to return. “There is something else out there as well.” At this point, Jake turned his gaze on Anton. “I think your superman may have awakened.”

“What?” Anton replied.

“You said you left the guy lying on the floor at the old courthouse, right? You said you thought he might have been seriously injured.”

Anton nodded.

“Well, on the way back south we were walking under the freeway. When we got to the courthouse, we saw a very interesting sight.”

The hair on the back of Anton’s neck prickled a little.

“There were several dogs and three men nailed to the wall of the courthouse.” Now it was a gasp that rose from the group. Tony and Scott simply nodded, eyes wide, confirming Jake’s words. “The courthouse is made of stone and concrete. The ‘nails’ used on the bodies were sections of iron rebar. Someone or something was strong enough to puncture concrete and stone with that rebar. That close to us, if they’d used a hammer of some sort, we’d have heard it.”

The sense of foreboding grew thick in the room as folks whispered one to another.

“When we found that, we followed procedure and turned away east so as not to lead anyone to the towers here. We spent the better part of the afternoon on a circuitous path around to the east then south and across to the sound and then following the water back up this way. All along the way we watched our back and took precautions to hide our trail.”

“Did you see anyone following you?” Anton blurted out.

“Not a soul.” Jake replied. “But as soon as we started getting close to the towers, I felt like we were being watched. Like something was waiting outside. We even circled around north once more. Once we got a couple blocks away, the feeling left. But as soon as we started south again it was like there was something waiting for us.” Both Tony and Scott were nodding in agreement.

“But you never actually saw anyone, right?” Gerald asked.

Jake shook his head. “And I know it sounds strange. But after the scene at the courthouse, I don’t want to take any chances. Whatever did that is something we don’t want to mess with.”

“Could it have been the monster? Anton’s monster?” Judith asked, but Anton was shaking his head even as she asked it.

“I’ve been here all day,” Anton replied. Judith and the others simply shrugged and looked at Jake for confirmation.

“I don’t think so. I think whatever did that at the courthouse was making a statement. Tony and Scott may disagree, but I think it was telling any future attackers that building is off limits.” Jake turned to Tony and Scott. “What do you guys think?” 

Tony nodded and added, “It looked more intentional than what the monster did on the street here. I think it was meant to send a message.” Scott nodded in agreement.

“So, do you think that he knows we’re here?” Judith asked Jake. 

Jake looked at her for a moment, then around the room at all the others. “I don’t rightly know.” He paused for a moment. “But even if I’m wrong about what I felt… I think we ought to be extra vigilant tonight.” Everyone nodded in agreement.  

Jake waited behind as everyone was filing out of the room. He caught Niki’s eye and mouthed “Can we talk?” silently. Her eyes clouded a bit, but she nodded her head and waited for the others to leave the room. Anna and Betsy both cast knowing glances at Niki as they were leaving. Niki shrugged it off, but Jake bristled a bit. 

“What’s up with you and Anton?” Jake asked. 

“What’s it to you?” Niki responded, with more than a little irritation in her voice.

“We hardly know this guy. He just showed up out of the blue and you’re already taking him up to your room?”

“What do you think happened up there, Jake?” She responded, now with a note of sarcasm thrown in as well.

“That’s not the point. Up till now you’ve been very private… and we’ve all respected that. You’ve never had ANYONE up to your room, not even the other women. Why Anton?”

“I had a private matter that I had to discuss with him,” Niki said. The sentence hung in the air like a no trespassing sign. 

Jake blinked a couple of times, as if trying to comprehend what she was talking about. “What? Is he a doctor or something that I don’t know about?”

Niki cocked her head and folded her arms across her chest and Jake knew he wasn’t going to get any more answers out of her. His face softened. “Please. Just be careful. I don’t want you to get hurt, is all.”

Niki was quiet for a moment, staring into his eyes. “Jake, it was never going to happen between you and me. You know that, right?” 

The statement caught Jake off guard a bit. Although he’d never actually dared hope that Niki was falling for him, he thought that there was always a possibility. “I wasn’t trying to get you to invite me up, Niki, if that is what you are asking.”

“No, I know you weren’t,” Niki responded. “But I think you hoped somewhere down the line we might get together. I just want to be honest with you. I am forever grateful for what you have done for me. I probably wouldn’t still be alive if it hadn’t been for you. I know I will probably never be able to repay that debt. But I also know that this is not my home. I have to move on. And I want you to be ready to accept that when I do.”

“What? Move on? To where? What are you talking about?” Jake could feel a lump rising in his throat now.

“I don’t know, Jake. And I’m not even sure when. But I think it will be sooner rather than later.”

“There’s nothing out there, Niki.” Jake responded. 

“That’s where you’re wrong, Jake. The whole world is still out there. It’s just different in some ways. But in other ways it is still the same. There are bad places and good places. This is one of the good places. But it isn’t my home. I need to find my way home, Jake.” Her eyes were moist now, as if she were going to cry. Jake knew better, however. As fragile as Niki looked, she was as strong as steel inside. A lifetime of depending on herself had taught her that. 

“Where is home, Niki? Back to Hungary?” he said it almost facetiously and regretted the tone almost immediately. 

Niki shot him a look of disappointment. “No, Jake. Hungary has not been my home since I was nine and it never will be again. I mean my personal home. A place where I feel at home. Where my mind is at rest.”

Jake looked at her with a lost look in his eyes and shrugged sadly. Niki smiled weakly, gave him a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek and walked out the door to the stairs. Jake sat alone in the dining area for quite some time before he finally made his way up to his own room for the night. He lay there in his bed staring at the ceiling for what felt like an eternity. The loneliness that was now pressing down on him made him painfully aware of what Niki was talking about. Without her here, this place had no chance of being a home for him either. It was merely a place where you could survive. But what was survival if you had nothing much to live for? That question was still unanswered as he finally drifted into a fitful sleep.

Upstairs, Anton was lying staring up into the blackness in his room when he heard the doorknob turn. He raised up onto one elbow and turned to look as Niki tiptoed into the room. “I didn’t wake you, did I?” she asked.

“No, I was just lying here trying to get my head around the last few days,” Anton replied. “I still feel like I’ve been left out of the narrative on this whole story. And now, if what you were talking about is right, the story is about to get a lot more complicated.”

“Time will tell,” Niki quipped. “I guess we’ll just have to kick back and see what tomorrow actually brings.” She was sitting on her mattress and had unlaced her boots. She laid back and pulled the blanket up over her, then rolled so that her back was to Anton. “Good night,” she said softly over her shoulder.

“Good night,” Anton replied and laid back down and closed his eyes. He too laid there for quite some time before sleep finally took him, but in Anton’s case, it wasn’t loneliness or despair, but fear and a surprising amount of excitement. Eventually, however, the darkness and his exhaustion finally got the better of him and he fell into a sound sleep.

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 35

Back at the apartments, Niki headed straight up to her room. Anton and Jake made their way to the roof of the building while Tommy and Gunnar both said they were going to catch up on some much needed sleep. As Anton and Jake walked out onto the roof, they found several of the others there sitting in a circle deep in discussion. The talk quieted as the two men arrived. Judith waved the two over and Peggy and Anna scooted aside to make room in the circle for the two men. George and Lydia were there, along with Mike and his wife Betsy, and Gerald’s wife Ginny.

“We were just talking about you,” Judith quipped as the two men sat down in the space the women had made for them.

“All good, I hope,” Jake smiled.

“What did you find out down there?” Judith asked.

Jake recounted their exploration of the tunnels and the eerie silence that had greeted them there. He explained how they had found no one. No bodies. No dogs. Nothing. Just empty tunnels. Everyone in the group sat and listened as Jake was speaking but Anton noticed that none of them seemed to show any sign of surprise about what Jake was saying. When Jake finished speaking the group was silent for a moment, and then Judith spoke again.

“We were pretty sure that was what you were going to say,” she stated, and all the heads around the group began to nod. “We’ve been doing chores all morning and the air has been different today. Clean and fresh, but without much sound. No birds to speak of and no dogs. And, as we all began to notice this, we also noticed that we didn’t hear any of the tunnel rat signals. No wolf calls. Nothing. It has been very quiet up here today.”

“Maybe the rats have moved on,” Jake responded. “Maybe this is a good thing.”

The nods of the group now were tentative. They’d been around long enough to know that change wasn’t always good. As the conversations splintered into news of the day’s chores and issues with the irrigation system, Anton’s mind wandered back to the conversation with Niki in her apartment. He didn’t want to believe what she had said about someone showing up tomorrow, and even less about them leaving with this individual--whomever it may be. But one thing HE had learned during the last several weeks was that fate had a way of throwing him into the middle of things lately and he felt something gnawing at the back of his mind. It was that little itch of a belief that what Niki had said was true. He just felt it somehow. And if it were true, then his life was about to take another turn for the worse. But even though he was starting to believe what Niki said… he also agreed with her that perhaps it was best to let events unfold, rather than telling the others, on the off-chance that both of them were a little delusional. With that in mind, Anton excused himself from the group and made his way back down to his own room. He stood there for a moment, looking at the mattress and the blanket and realized he had very little to pack if he was indeed leaving tomorrow. His kidnapping three days earlier had left him without any supplies. The only clothes he had were the ones on his back, and they were more than a little smelly. He had no food or weapons to take with them. He found himself shrugging his shoulders as he realized he didn’t even know why he had come back down to his room. There was nothing here to pack. He was just turning to leave when Niki appeared in the doorway. She had a backpack over her shoulder and still had her tactical vest on with the pistol in the holster on the front. He noticed that she now had five additional clips tucked in the pockets. She dropped the backpack on the floor next to the door and removed the vest and laid it down next to the backpack.

“What’s all this?” Anton asked as she was piling the gear next to the door.

“My clothes. Some dried food. I got a little bottle of bleach for purifying water as well. I think Jake will let me take one of the vests. The gun is mine from before, so that is going with me. So are the clips.” Anton noted that the gun was indeed different from the one Jake had given him to use. Niki’s gun was a Beretta Px4 Storm in .45 ACP. Packed a little more punch than the .40 S&W.

“But why did you bring it all here?” Anton continued.

Niki looked at him for a moment before responding. “I’ve not felt safe since the travel ban.” She crossed her arms across her chest and rubbed her biceps as if she were cold. She stepped across the room and looked out the window. “Even after Jake and the boys rescued Elsa and me from those assholes… I still never really felt safe. I felt like my safety was out of my control. Like I had to depend on the goodwill of others for my safety.” She turned to look at Anton once again. “Until last night.”

Anton cocked one eyebrow.

Niki was quiet for several moments, staring at him. Anton didn’t bother to rush her this time. She looked like she was about to speak and then bit her lip. Her eyes clouded a bit and then she turned away from him towards the window again. Anton dropped to his mattress and rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. He heard Niki move and turned his head and looked up at her. She was facing him once again with a distant look in her eyes.

“That little girl calmed my mind,” she said and then paused for a moment. “I realized that I could either spend my life worrying about the bad stuff that *might* happen, or I could take charge of my life and make good things happen. It reminded me of why I became an field officer for Interpol to begin with. I have to face my fears head on to once again realize I can depend on myself. I don’t know you, Anton. I don’t know that little girl. But I’ve decided that even if the trip with you doesn’t materialize, I am not going to stay here and hide anymore. I don’t want to live that way. So either way, tonight is the last night here for me. And I’d rather spend it here with you than alone up in my own room.”

Anton’s look of confusion caused Niki to continue. “I don’t mean WITH YOU with you, I just mean here, in the same room. In case you planned to leave without telling me. I am not staying behind.”

Anton smiled at her and walked over and grabbed one of the stacked mattresses and pulled it to the floor. With a flourish he offered it to her. She slid it next to Anton’s and threw her pack on top of it.

“What do you think the others will think of you leaving?” Anton asked.

Niki sat down on the mattress and absently picked at one of the seams. “I think Jake will be disappointed the most. I think all of them assumed that Jake and I would end up together, just because we’re kind of similar in age and disposition… and we’re both single, of course.” She paused and looked up at Anton. “But this isn’t my home.” The words hung in the air for a moment. “And neither is Hungary,” she continued.

“Where is your home?” Anton asked.

Niki stood and walked over to the window once more. Her eyes scanned the horizon. “Somewhere out there. It’s waiting for me to come and find it.” She turned back to Anton and smiled briefly.

The look in her eyes caused Anton to catch his breath a bit. He wasn’t sure if it was simply how beautiful Niki was that affected him this way or if it was something else, something more. He’d known her for such a short time he felt embarrassed that he even felt this way about her… and yet he did. There was something there. And the more he watched her the more he felt like she felt it too… and that she was equally embarrassed. The two of them were carefully avoiding the little sparks that seemed to be flying between them.

Anton was searching for a neutral way to break the silence when he blurted out, “So, is there anywhere to bathe in this place?” Niki’s eyebrows jumped a bit. “I mean, I’ve not had a good cleaning since I left Alaska. I’m sure I smell a little ripe!” That caused both of them to laugh.

“They have a shower rigged up on the 24th floor, right under a catchment tank on the roof that they painted black. Passive heating system. Still a little chilly, but better than straight cold water.” She turned and looked at the shelves and grabbed a folded towel and threw it at him. “There is soap up there, and a few different kinds of shampoos. What with all the hotels in the vicinity, we’ve accumulated a lot of wrapped soap and travel-size shampoo bottles.”

Anton took the towel and was about to head out the door when Niki spoke again. “Jake can probably set you up with some clothes as well. We raided the upper floors of the Columbia Outlet up on Pine Street early on. We’ve got quite a collection. Some Old Navy stuff too.” Anton gave her a thumbs up and headed for the stairs.

Nikki stared at the door after Anton left, her mind racing. The events of the previous night swirled in her head and her pulse quickened. She had not told Anton everything. She had seen and heard much more when that little girl had touched her. The two had held hands most of the night and the silent conversation between them had been long and bewildering, but one thing was certain. Nikki knew that it had been Anton talking to her. A part of him that he did not yet recognize as himself. The conversation had both terrified and thrilled her. The memory of it now caused gooseflesh to rise on her arms and the nape of her neck and she felt her face flush. The future loomed dark and brooding in front of her, but she had promised that little girl… she had promised Anton… that she would help him see it through.

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 34

Colonel Cooke’s brow furrowed as he sat alone in his room. Something wasn’t right. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he’d learned the hard way to trust his gut when it told him to watch out and right now it was screaming at him. He’d worked with Miles for several years but now he felt like he hardly knew the man. The thing with the gun and the ashtray had totally thrown him off. How had this project existed for so long without the intelligence services rooting it out? Cooke wasn’t sure now if he could trust Miles. His story seemed plausible, but the best cover stories always do. He had to find a way to verify what Miles had told him… without Miles knowing. He got up, pulled on a nightwatch sweater from his wardrobe and stepped out into the hall. All was quiet. He made his way back up to the control room. There were a couple of analysts sitting at their desks, but most of the place was empty. Cooke noticed that one of the analysts was Tocarro. As soon as Tocarro saw the Colonel, he adjusted his seat, looked the other way and stretched. Cooke almost thought Tocarro was trying to avoid him when he realized that Tocarro had used the opportunity to stretch to look casually around the room. Seeing that no one else was there, he stood, walked directly past the Colonel, saluting as he did, and then continued on into the hallway towards his room.

Cooke watched him go and then turned back to the control room and headed for his office. Something about Tocarro’s actions seemed off. Perhaps I’m just getting jumpy, Cooke thought, and sat down at his desk. There were a couple of intercept reports in the tray on the corner of his desk. He picked them up and flipped through them. There was one from Tocarro in there. Cooke paused again as doubt began to creep back into his brain. Why hadn’t Tocarro said anything about this before he left? Cooke scanned the report. Looked like regular amatuer radio chatter. Nothing special. Why had Tocarro bothered to forward this? There was a handwritten note at the bottom of the page. “Think this may be important, see me for details. T”

Cooke stared at the note. Why did Tocarro leave as soon as I got here if he wanted to talk to me about this, Cooke wondered. He got up and walked out of the control room and headed for the dorm rooms. Tocarro wasn’t in his room and the other rooms appeared to be empty as well. Cooke noticed that there was no sign of Miles either. In the rec room, he found several of the other analysts playing billiards. “Any of you seen Tocarro or Miles?” They all shook their heads, then one spoke up.

“Sir, I think I saw Tocarro headed up towards the gate as I was coming down just a bit ago.”

“The front gate?” Cooke asked.

“Well, he was headed up the stairs anyway. I was on level two headed down here and I saw someone go up and around the corner on the staircase, just as I turned to come down here. I think it may have been Tocarro.”

Cooke nodded and turned and left the room. He walked quickly to the staircase and jogged up the three flights to the top floor. There was nothing on this floor but the front gate, which he kept manned 24/7 just in case any survivors showed up, and the armory. The armory had a coded door, but everyone left in the facility was authorized with the code. Cooke went to the gate first and talked with the guard. The guard said he’d not seen anyone come up since the special forces team had returned from their early morning run. The soldiers had begun that routine about a month ago. They would take sidearms with them and reconnoiter the area while they maintained their fitness. Cooke thought it would be good for their moral and had been proved correct. The men seemed more relaxed and calm. Not so jittery.

Cooke turned and walked back past the stairs to the hallway that led to the armory. The door of the armory was locked. He keyed in the code and stepped into the room. The armory had a motion sensor light that was supposed to come on when someone entered the room. It was apparently no longer functioning as the windowless room remained dark. Cooke was about to turn to leave when he heard it.

“Stay, sir. Close the door.”

Cooke recognized Tocarro’s voice and turned back into the room but he couldn’t identify where Tocarro was in the darkness.

“Close the door please, sir.”

A chill ran up Cooke’s spin. His mind raced. He had his .45 on him. He knew he could draw pretty quick, but he was getting on in years. Meanwhile, he was pretty sure that Tocarro was armed and may very well have a weapon pointed at him. Cooke decided to play along for now. He knew the room would be completely dark once he closed the door which would allow him to dodge a shot, hopefully. He closed the door.

It was just a split second after the door closed that the light inside the room came on. Cooke blinked a couple times and then saw Tocarro with his back to the wall, shielded behind a rack of AR rifles. He had one in his hands and Cooke noted that it was one of their night patrol models equipped with a night vision scope. So much for dodging the shot, Cooke thought.

The gun, however, was not pointed at Cooke. Tocarro held it in his right hand with the butt against his right hip and the barrel pointed at the ceiling. He stared quietly at the colonel.

“So what’s the deal, Tocarro? I got your note on the intercept. Why are we in the armory?”

“Because it’s not wired to the rest of the network,” Tocarro replied.

Cooke knew this, of course. The top floor of the facility was the only floor above ground and was therefore more vulnerable to attack. The facility was built so that the top floor could be isolated from the rest of the compound, which included the electrical systems. The only exception was the gate security cameras which were patched through to the network below.

“Why is that important?” Cooke responded.

“Because I don’t know how much of the rest of the facility Lieutenant Miles has bugged,” Tocarro replied. “I thought this would be our best shot for a private conversation.”

“What are you talking about?” Cooke asked.

“I found the bug in my room first. I’ve always been a bit paranoid. Got busted for hacking when I was a teenager. That was how the government first got their hooks into me. Anyways, I always scan my personal space for bugs. I found three in my bunk room. I wasn’t sure who put them there so I left them.”

“How do you know it was Miles?”

“Wasn’t sure until I found the bugs in your office. I figured if someone was trying to listen in on you, it probably wasn’t the regular chain of command. So I started sniffing around the network. I found an unregistered connection to the fibre trunk. It terminates in Miles dorm.”

“Yeah, he told me about that.”

Tocarro’s eyebrows raised a bit. “So you know about all the communications?”

Now it was Cooke’s turn to be surprised. “ALL? He has occasional communication with Los Alamos. The last one was yesterday.”

“No sir, that’s not true. That connection has been active--and heavily encrypted--almost non-stop since I located it. He has two network connections to Los Alamos and one to a system I’ve not yet identified…” Tocarro’s voice trailed off.

“What?” Cooke asked.

“Well sir, I think he may have a connection to the radio wave frequency network I’ve been monitoring.”

“What makes you think that?”

Tocarro scratched his head a bit. “Just the protocols. He is using a non-standard broadcast protocol on that connection. One that converts digital back to analog. It could conceivably be converting his communications into that radio wave static encryption we’ve been intercepting.”

Cooke’s heart was beginning to pound in his chest. There was just too much about this whole situation that he did not know. He felt like he was running blind here. “When did you find out about this?”

“It’s been a few weeks now, sir. Little over a month.”

“Why did you wait till now to notify me?”

“I didn’t know what was authorized. I knew he was receiving unauthorized communications, but I didn’t know if he was doing so at your behest. I thought maybe you wanted to keep the rest of the staff out of the loop on some military secret.”

Cooke stared at Tocarro. He could see panic in the specialist’s eyes. “What changed your mind about telling me, Tocarro?”

“I cracked his encryption. I have always been too curious. When I found his private connection I wanted to know what it was being used for. I hate not knowing what is going on. So I cracked his encryption. It is a 1024 bit encrypted, military grade connection but I have been working on a little project of my own building a software hack that analyzes light patterning in a fiber network. It is similar to the work I was doing with audio frequencies that allowed me to hack the radio static. Light and sound have similar properties when both are analyzed as waves. It’s fairly complex, but basically it is just a program that maps light patterns and looks for specific similarities. Those similarities can then be used to ‘help’ your encryption cracking algorithms...”

Cooke waved his hand to interrupt Tocarro. “That’s all fine and good. What did you find out?”

“Lieutenant Miles is not our friend.”

The words hung in the air for a moment.

“Explain.”

“Well, like I said, Lieutenant Miles has been corresponding with Los Alamos on two separate connections. One was very active with daily, and in some cases hourly, use. The other was sporadic. I noticed that the sporadic one coincided with private meetings between the two of you. I think he was telling you about the stuff he received through that line. That was why I originally thought you were involved.”

“Continue.”

“Well, I hacked that one first, because I figured it was most important since you were involved. The connection was to some doctor down there.”

“Dr. Garvey?”

“Yeah, that’s the guy. He was writing to Lieutenant Miles about some secret program they have down there. Apparently they have some human subjects that were part of an experiment. They had them locked up because they were dangerous, but they were somehow released.”

“Wait, what? Released? Miles didn’t tell me that?”

“He told you about the project, though?” Tocarro asked.

“Yeah. He said that most of the project subjects went crazy and had to be locked up. He didn’t tell me that any had been released.”

“I think I know why he didn’t.” Tocarro replied. Cooke’s stern look was all he needed to continue. “The last communication I intercepted on that connection was directed at Lieutenant Miles. That doctor, Dr. Garvey, said that he had found out that Miles had been hacking their network and was the one who released the subjects. He said he also found traces of an earlier hack in their bioweapons research lab. Said he had long suspected that Pathogen Zeta was one of theirs and that he now had the proof to corroborate it. He said he had sent the evidence to all the other military facilities and that he hoped they nuke this facility into oblivion.”

Cooke stared at Tocarro for several long moments. He then turned his gaze to the floor and rubbed his temples.

“Sir?” Tocarro whispered.

“Yeah?”

“What is Pathogen Zeta?”

Cooke looked up again. He stared hard into Tocarro’s eyes. “That’s the codename given to the virus that caused this pandemic.”

“You mean… we started it? That sickness is something we created?”

Cooke was about to respond when the sound of several gunshots echoed up through the facility.

“What the hell?” Cooke hissed and turned and stepped back out the door and looked down the hall towards the stairs. He could hear footsteps on the stairs, it sounded like at least two or three people were running up the steps. Cooke stepped back into the armory with Tocarro and drew his .45. He turned off the light and kept the door open just a crack so he could see down the hallway towards the stairs. He and Tocarro exchanged glances as the sounds from downstairs changed. Now there were people screaming as well as the sounds of running. Whomever was on the stairs had run out the front gate. The gate alarm was now sounding and there was the sound of more people on the stairs.

Cooke stepped out of the armory once more and crept to the corner of the hallway so he could see the top of the stairs. No one was there now and he could see the gate standing open. The warning light above the entrance was flashing and the alarm was still blaring. The sounds of people running up the stairs increased and a second later several of the analysts and the medical officer came into sight, running at top speed.

Cooke stepped around the corner, “Hey, hey, what the hell is going on down there?!?”

“There is some sort of monster down there!” the medical officer panted in a ragged whisper. “It has killed three of the special ops guys and the last three are holed up in the rec room shooting at whatever moves.

“What the hell are you talking about? A monster?” Cooke exclaimed. He had the medical officer by the collar now.

“I don’t know what it is. Moves too fast to see. The soldiers it killed are cut up something fierce, sir. They look like they were in a fight with turbo prop!”

The medical officer pulled free and ran after the others who had already passed the security gate. Cooke returned to the armory and grabbed one of the assault rifles and then turned to Tocarro. “I’m gonna go down and see if I can get to those soldiers. I am not going to order you to follow me but I’d be much obliged for the backup if you are willing.”

Tocarro brought the rifle to his shoulder and nodded curtly.

“Okay, grab some extra clips and we’ll see what we can do down there,” Cooke whispered.

“Already got them,” Tocarro replied and patted the tactical vest he had put on before Cooke had arrived.

“Let’s go then,” Cooke said as he turned towards the stairs.

Cooke and Tocarro made their way back down the stairs. They stopped at each landing, listening for movement, but now the facility was eerily quiet. The rec room was on sub level 4. Cooke opened the door on level 4 and drew in a sharp breath. Tocarro stole a quick glance over Cooke’s shoulder and gasped. There was blood splattered on the walls and floor outside the rec room door. A lot of blood. The floor was dark with it. The only lighting was the emergency lighting above the door of the rec room. There were two spotlights on it pointing down at forty-five degrees on either side of the rec room door. The minimal lighting caused confusing shadows and shapes. After a second, Cooke realized that some of the confusing shapes were bodies lying along the edges of the hallways. He couldn’t make out much detail in the light, but from what he could see he thought the medic’s description was pretty accurate. Whatever had chopped up these guys was quite powerful… and Cooke was pretty sure he knew exactly what, or more precisely, who had done this. His mind raced back to Miles’ mind-bending demonstration of his strength and speed. Someone that fast and that strong wouldn’t need any more than a common survival knife to do this kind of damage.

Cooke motioned for Tocarro to follow him to the rec room. Tocarro nodded and kept pace a couple steps back. Tocarro kept his eye on the stairs behind them as they made their way to the rec room door. They both stepped gingerly through the bloody mess and approached the door. Cooke put his ear to the door while Tocarro kept watch in the hallway. Cooke could hear soft movements inside the room, but no voices. He tried the knob, but the door was locked. He turned and scanned the hallway. There was no movement. He stepped back over to the stairs and looked down the stairwell towards the dorms and the control room. It was pitch black down there and no sounds came up.

Cooke fingered the switch on the flashlight attached to the side of his assault rifle and a blue-white beam of bright light pierced the darkness on the stairs. He drew another sharp breath. There were bloody footprints leading down the steps towards the control room. Cooke switched the light back off and stepped back to the rec room door. He turned to Tocarro. “Watch the stairs from the control room. You see anything move--and I mean anything--you shoot immediately. You understand?”

Tocarro nodded and trained his gun on the top of the stairs and switched on his night-vision scope.

Cooke stepped up to the rec room door and knocked softly. He waited a few moments and when there was no answer, he knocked again.

“Stay the fuck out!” came a gruff reply from inside. “We’ve got the door wired with anti-personnel mines! I don’t care how fast you are, mutherfucker, you ain’t that quick!”

Cooke recognized the voice. It was Sergeant Vicci, the special ops team leader. Cooke had never had much liking for the man, found him too domineering to be an effective leader, but had no doubts about the man’s abilities as a combat specialist.

“Vicci, it’s me, Cooke, I’ve got Tocarro out here with me. Open up. Miles is downstairs.”

There was some soft whispering from inside the room and then Cooke heard movement.

“Colonel Cooke?”, the voice came from just beyond the door now.

“Yeah, it’s me. Tocarro’s with me. I think Miles is downstairs for now. We need to get out of here pronto.”

“You saying Lieutenant Miles is behind this assault?” Vicci asked.

“I believe so. Didn’t you see him?”

“We didn’t see anything but flying body parts. Mutherfucker is faster than a goddamned bolt of lightning!” the voice hissed from the other side of the door.

“It’s Miles… I’m sure of it. He’s an experimental soldier of some sort out of Los Alamos. As you have seen, he has some enhanced abilities. We need to get out of here. No one is safe around him.”

There was some more muffled whispering, some of which sounded like argument, and then Vicci spoke again. “I’ve got to remove the ordinance from the door frame. Stand clear.”

Cooke and Tocarro retreated to the end of the hall nearest the stairs leading to the upper levels. Tocarro kept his gun pointed at the stairs at the other end of the hall that led down to the control room. The two men listened quietly as sounds of movement continued in the rec room. After several moments, they heard the click of the door bolt unlocking and the door opened a crack. Cooke stood and walked back to the door so that he was standing in the beam of the emergency light. The door opened a second later and Vicci and the two remaining spec/op soldiers stepped out. All three had their tactical vests on and were carrying assault rifles. One had a backpack as well containing what Cooke could only assume were the anti-personnel mines they had removed from the door.

Vicci motioned to his soldiers and pointed at the stairs. The two men kept watch on the stairs down to the control room while Vicci, Cooke and Tocarro made their way towards the stairs to the upper levels. Cooke noticed that Vicci was limping a bit.

“Are you hit?” Cooke asked, pointing at Vicci’s bum leg.

“No. I got tossed trying to pull one of my men away from the fight. Knee got a little hyper-extended is all. I’ll be fine.”

The five men made their way up the four levels of stairs and out the front gate into the bright afternoon sunshine of the western Utah desert. For Cooke, this was the first time he had set foot outside since the facility had been locked down after the pandemic. The feeling of the wind and the sun on his face was exhilarating in a way he couldn’t rightly describe. It was like he had been transported back into a childhood dream. The fear of the sickness, and even the more immediate fear of Lieutenant Miles, faded away for a moment as the warmth of the sun and the movement of the wind spilled over him.

“We’d best find the others and set up a perimeter,” Vicci said as the five men scanned the road that led towards the deserted houses of the base. “Only a couple of hours of daylight left and I want to be buttoned down before dark.”

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 33

After breakfast, Jake notified the group that he, Tommy, Gunnar and Anton would be going out to investigate what had happened in the street during the night. Niki spoke up immediately and said she was going along as well. Jake tried to dissuade her, but she was determined. The other women in the group all smiled as one as their gaze shifted between Niki and Anton. Anton blushed a bit. The men, however, did not look quite so approving. Jake in particular appeared upset that Niki wanted to accompany them, especially since it was fairly obvious that her reason for volunteering was to be with Anton. First she had called Anton up to her room and then, upon their return to the dining area, she had offered no explanation as to why she had asked Anton there. Not that any explanation was required, but Jake just found it irritating that she said nothing about it and just left the incident kind of hanging in the air. Jake had a soft spot for Niki and had kind of hoped that she felt the same and now, with Anton’s arrival, she seemed to just be throwing herself at Anton with no regards to anyone else. So it was with a little jealousy that Jake led the group down the stairs to the fourth floor and the access to the elevator shafts. They had stopped on the tenth floor and grabbed firearms for each of the group. Anton inspected the assault rifle and pistol he was given. The guns looked brand new. The rifle was a standard military-issue M4A1 used by American ground troops, chambered in .223. The pistol was a Glock 22, chambered in .40 Smith and Wesson. Jake handed him a couple of full clips for the rifle and four clips for the pistol. He also handed him a tactical vest that had straps to hold the extra clips. The vest had large velcro straps that secured separate front and back body armor panels. There were straps over each shoulder and then two straps under each arm. Anton fitted the vest and then, after snapping a clip into the rifle and one into the pistol, he attached the remaining clips to the vest. There was also a holster for the pistol velcroed to the front of the vest for easy access.

“So where did you find all this gear?” Anton asked as the rest of the group was suiting up.

“One of the local police precincts,” Gunnar replied. “They were locked in a room-sized vault in the basement. That’s why no one had taken them earlier. Tommy and I were able to tunnel in from below. Took us a couple weeks of hard work to get in. But the hardware was worth it. These are great little guns, and there was enough ammo in there to stock a small army. We’ve slowly transferred it all up here.”

Anton watched as Niki suited up. She handled the rifle and pistol with exceptional grace, her hands automatically checking the slides of each weapon for proper function. She holstered the pistol and slung the rifle over her right shoulder. Once everyone was ready, Jake led them down to the elevator shaft and descended the rope ladder to street level. Tommy kept watch over the street from the windows on the fourth floor till everyone was down, then he followed.

Out on the street in the midmorning sun, the scene looked almost theatrical, as if someone had been filming a horror movie and had simply forgotten to clean up before leaving. The blood was already darkened to a deep reddish brown and the body parts had started attracting flies. They didn’t smell too bad yet, but Anton could tell that by the following day, the smell on the street would be ripe. While most of the bodies were destroyed beyond identification of any sort short of DNA analysis, there was one body lying face down on the north side of the street almost directly across from the breezeway entrance. The body looked like it had been thrown there from somewhere near the entrance of the breezeway as there was a large swath of blood on the wall above where the body lay and an obvious stripe where the body had slid down the wall. Jake approached the body and gently stuck the toe of his boot under the shoulder of the corpse and tipped it back against the wall so they could see the face. The pile of entrails exposed when he rolled the corpse over, however, drew more attention than the dead man’s face. His gut had been split from crotch to chin and everything slid out of him as Jake rolled him over. The man looked like he had been attacked with a samurai sword. Besides the long gash that had eviscerated him, there were several other gashes in his arms and legs. His face, however, was relatively intact. Jake stared at him for a moment.

“I think he’s the guy that was leading the group we saved you from Niki,” he said, flatly. Niki approached, held her nose as she crouched to take a closer look. She nodded and then turned away.

“Well, I think we can confirm that these are a tunnel rat raiding party, then.” Jake stated as he turned to survey the rest of the street. “The clothing all looks like that bedouin shit they like to wear. Layers on layers.” Tommy and Gunnar nodded agreement.

“What now?” Gunnar asked.

Jake was still for a moment. Then he turned and looked north up 1rst Avenue. “Let’s take a stroll up to University Station. I want to see if there is any action at the entrance to the tunnel.”

Gunnar and Tommy shared a worried look. Jake turned and started walking north. Niki followed and Anton fell in behind her. Tommy and Gunnar brought up the rear. They headed up 1rst Avenue to University Street, then followed University east to Benaroya Hall. The entrance to the underground metro tunnels were located there. As they approached, Jake and the others fell into combat mode. They crouched as they walked and everyone scanned the buildings and sidewalks for signs of movement. Usually during midday there were plenty of birds about--pigeons, crows, seagulls and all sorts of smaller songbirds. Today, however, the streets were eerily quiet. All five had their rifles shouldered at the ready as they made their way across the street and up the steps to the tunnel entrance. At the entrance, Jake signalled for them to wait while he snuck into the large hallway that led below the performance center to the transit station below. He was gone only a minute or two and then returned. He waved them all forward. As they proceeded down the steps to the station below, Tommy and Gunnar looked more and more nervous. Niki also seemed to be jittery. Only Jake appeared completely calm. The four followed Jake down the disused escalators into the dark tunnels below. Anton noticed that the tunnels themselves were illuminated by emergency lighting along the top edge of the tunnels. The lighting allowed them to survey the station from the platform above. From where they sat, Anton saw no one in the tunnel. The large platforms on either side of the tracks were deserted and the tunnel leading away north was dark. Jake sat still for a long time looking and listening, then he turned to them.

“Something’s definitely up. Notice anything unusual, Tommy?”

Tommy nodded. “No dogs. The place is usually crawling with them.”

Jake looked at Anton and smiled. “I knew it would be a good idea to bring you along.” Anton merely shrugged. Jake turned once again and trotted down the silent escalators to the platform below. The others followed. Once at the tracks, Jake turned to look south down the tracks, then back to the north. He appeared to be listening. He shook his head softly. “I don’t hear a thing. No dogs. No music. Nothing. It’s like everyone down here has taken off… or died.” The words hung in the air for a moment and everyone turned to look at Anton once more. Anton stepped back instinctually.

“What are you all looking at me for?” he asked. “I didn’t do any of this. I was asleep right where you left me last night. I didn’t go anywhere, I didn’t do anything.”

Niki spoke next. “Anton, you’ve got to understand something. These tunnels used to be crawling with people. Lots of people and lots of dogs. Most of the people were homeless from before the sickness. After the sickness, they started preying on the folks up top that had persecuted them before. They banded together with other criminal types and created a gang society down here. There were chiefs for each section of the city, at least those accessible by the tunnels. They would kill folks for supplies and feed the corpses to their dogs. They would kidnap women and rape them. If the women resisted they were killed. If they didn’t, they were adopted into the tribe where they were passed around like party favors. The gangs had literally hundreds of dogs down here and a lot of guns as well. At night they would terrorize the city above. That’s why we locked ourselves into the towers. Even during the day they often raided the streets. All the normal survivors avoid the tunnels and especially the large entrances. Any time of day or night there are usually tunnel folk in these large entrances. They are usually armed and there are always dogs.” She paused and looked around and Anton once again noticed the death-like silence. “This,” Niki continued, pointing around her at the emptiness, “is weird. Totally unusual.”

“What do you think happened to them?” Anton asked.

Jake looked around. “Well, considering the lack of blood, I am assuming they high-tailed it out of here.”

“Lack of blood?” Anton asked.

“You saw what the street looked like in front of our place,” Jake continued. “Doesn’t look like anything like that happened here, and yet there is no one here. No people. No dogs.” He paused for a moment, turned to look at Anton once again and then continued. “I think the dogs alerted them.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean like when you showed up. Those raiders that were after you. Their dogs spooked real quick and wouldn’t go near you. When the men tried to force them, the dogs violently rebelled. The dogs were literally scared to death of you. They would have rather died than entered our building with you in there.”

“I’m not sure that’s the case…” Anton began, but Jake waved him off.

“Whatever you believe, Anton, the dogs wouldn’t go in. I think after what happened on the street back there last night, the dogs came running home. Remember, we didn’t see any dog bodies in the street, and those guys never go anywhere without them. I think the dogs hightailed it back here and then bolted when the monster started getting closer. I’ll bet the people followed the dogs.”

“What makes you think the monster came this way?” Anton continued.

Jake didn’t reply. Instead he simply turned in a slow circle, gesturing absently at the empty tunnels all around them.

“Something chased them off,” Gunnar whispered. “That much is obvious.”

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 32

Anton awoke the next morning to a light tap on his shoulder. He sat up and squinted. There was sunlight in the room already. As his vision cleared he saw that Jake, Tommy and Gunnar were standing at the foot of his mattress. The three men had rather worried looks on their faces.

“What’s going on?” Anton mumbled. “Did I miss something?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Jake replied. “Nobody saw you leave last night. And Tommy said he watched the staircase very closely just to be sure…”

“Of course I didn’t leave last night,” Anton said, rubbing his eyes while he spoke. “I was right here. One of the best night’s sleep I’ve had in ages… what is going on?” He looked around at the group. Jake walked over to the window and pointed down towards the street. Anton stood and walked over to the window and looked down and jumped as if he’d stepped on a live wire.

“Holy shit!” Anton stared down at the street. The window was on the north side of the tower and looked down on 1rst Avenue. Anton counted six bodies lying in the street in various states of dismemberment. The most intact of the six was only missing the head. In fact, after studying the scene for a moment, Anton wasn’t sure there were six bodies. What he thought were separate bodies could have been separated halves of single bodies. The street and the sidewalks on either side were splattered with so much blood that it looked like maybe the bodies had fallen from the sky and exploded on impact.

Anton recoiled from the window and turned to Jake, “Who are..” The sentence hung unfinished in the air.

Jake stared into his eyes for a moment. “Not any of ours, if that’s what you mean,” Jake said. “Probably more tunnel folk. I figured they might try to come back.” Jake paused for a moment. “I even made sure we had an extra man on security.”

At this last statement, Tommy and Gunnar both looked up quickly and glanced sidelong at each other.

“It was me,” Jake said, as if to answer their unspoken question. “I stayed up all night. At least I thought I did. I remember watching the sun go down and staring out at the darkness. I remember seeing the sun come up.” He paused again. “What I don’t remember is hearing or seeing anything that would have made me think THAT was happening downstairs!” His finger jabbed viciously at the window as he spoke. “Did either of you see or hear anything?” he said, looking towards Tommy and Gunnar.

“Not a thing, Jake,” Gunnar responded. “It was quiet all night. Unusually quiet.” Tommy nodded in agreement.

Jake stood quiet for a moment, staring at the floor. His left hand rubbing at his chin. Finally he spoke. “I want to go out and have a look around today. Maybe right after breakfast. See what we can find out.” He looked at Tommy and Gunnar. “You two have each been up half the night. I’ll understand if you want to let someone else go out on this one.” They both shook their heads vigorously.

Tommy spoke first, “I don’t think I’ll be sleeping for a bit. Not after seeing that. I’ve seen some evil stuff in the last few months but I’ve never seen bodies like that. I won’t be able to relax until I have a handle on what’s going on.” Gunnar nodded his agreement.

Jake looked at Anton. “You feel like coming with us?”

“You trust me to come along?” Anton asked, looking each of the three in the eyes as he spoke.

“Let me put it this way,” Jake said, “if Billy is right about you, I’d rather have you with me out there should we run into something dangerous. The folks in the tower are pretty safe. We’ve got this place locked down pretty tight. Out there, however, we’ve got to depend on each other for our lives.”

Anton ran his fingers through his hair and shrugged. “If you think I can help, I’d be glad to tag along.”

“Let’s get something to eat first and check in with the rest of the group. We’re going to have to let them know about what happened down there, if they haven’t already noticed themselves. And I want to make sure everyone is accounted for before we leave.”

The four men headed down to the 18th floor again and found most of the other folks already there. From the looks on their faces, Anton immediately knew that word had gotten round about the destruction in the street below. Some of the children were eating at one of the tables and Sisi and Elsa were sitting with them. The three teenagers were whispering to each other at the far end of that table as Anton and the others walked in. Tony, Anna, Peggy and Scott walked out of the kitchen when they heard the men come in. Jake looked around the room.

“Where’s the Lymans and the Calhouns?” he asked after mentally counting heads.

“Ben went to get them,” Sisi responded. “Judith is up on the roof meditating. She said she’d be down in a minute.”

“Niki?” Jake asked.

“Haven’t seen her yet. Ben was going to go by her room as well.”

Almost as if on cue, Niki walked into the room. Everyone turned to look and she seemed a bit flustered and then walked directly over to the table where everyone was standing. She smiled at Jake as she passed, but walked directly to Anton and whispered into his ear.

“Can you please come with me?” her soft voice hissed in his ear. Anton could sense a little bit of fear there.

“What?” he whispered back, painfully aware that now everyone was watching the two of them with growing interest.

“Please,” she whispered again. “I need to show you something.”

“What’s going on?” Jake asked.

Niki turned to Jake, “I need Anton to come back to my room, just for a second. There’s… something he needs to see…”

“Niki, what are you-” Niki cut off Jake with a raised hand.

“Please Jake, we’ll be right back. It will only take a minute.”

Jake and the others exchanged confused glances. The kids' eyes were all wide as saucers. Niki stood staring into Anton’s eyes. Anton felt himself going soft in the knees. Her eyes were pleading with him to follow her. Anton looked at the others and shrugged half-heartedly. Jake nodded and then stepped out of the way and performed a flourishing gesture with his arm, ushering them towards the door. The sarcasm of the movement was not lost on Anton or Niki. She flushed again, grabbed Anton’s arm and dragged him to the door. In the stairwell they went up one floor to the 19th and there they stepped into another sunlight hallway on the north side of the building. Niki led him along the hall to the last doorway. She stopped in front of the doorway, with her hand on the knob.

“Wait here a second,” she said, and turned the knob and stepped inside the door, closing it quickly behind her. Anton stood outside for several moments and was starting to feel awkward when the door opened again and Niki stuck her head out, looked past Anton down the hallway and then pulled him inside.

“What is this about?” Anton asked as he stepped around her into the apartment. He paused for a moment as he looked around the room. The apartment looked very different from the other living spaces he’d seen so far. The entry opened immediately onto a tiny kitchenette on the right and the bathroom on the left. Straight ahead was the living room with a door to the left that Anton assumed would be the bedroom, since the floorplan was the same as the empty apartment he had occupied two floors up. The living room had a couch and a chair, and lots and lots of books. There were book shelves on all the walls as well as several crates on the floor. The kitchen also had bookshelves on all the available wall space. There was a pass-through counter from the kitchen into the living room and there was one small round bistro table on the living room side along with a single chair.

Anton was scanning the various books on the shelves as Niki walked ahead of him to the bedroom door. Anton’s pulse quickened as she reached for the door handle. She paused and turned to look at him. Again there was a little bit of fear in her eyes. She turned the doorknob very gently and pressed the door open and peeked inside. Then she looked back over her shoulder at Anton and cocked her head, signalling that he should look as well. Anton walked up beside Niki and leaned around her to see past her into the room. The closeness of Niki and the smell of her hair almost distracted him from what he saw on the bed… almost. There, sleeping under a heavy wool blanket, with her head resting on a white pillow, was the girl. Anton jumped and it was then that he saw that Niki had been watching him very closely.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” she said. “It’s the girl that brought you here.”

Anton nodded. He looked at Niki and saw both relief and concern in her eyes. She held a finger to her lips and softly closed the door and led Anton to the couch in the living room. She gestured for him to sit down and then she took the chair.

“Where did she come from?” Anton half whispered.

Niki sat bone still in the chair, she was leaning both of her elbows on her knees, sitting on the front edge of the chair. Her head was bowed and her face was hidden by her disheveled black hair. She said nothing. Anton thought she hadn’t heard the question and was about to ask again when she spoke.

“Has Jake told you anything about me?” She looked up at Anton as she spoke. Her green eyes held an expression of sadness and fear, as if she were about to burst into tears. Anton shook his head softly and he saw the look in her eyes harden a bit and she averted her gaze and stared down at her hands. “I am an investigator for Interpol… or I *was* anyways. I specialized in human trafficking cases, specifically sex-trade stuff. I… I have some experience with that. I was sold into the trade when I was 9. I was kidnapped in Debrecen, in Hungary, that’s where I was born. I didn’t escape until I was almost 17. A red cross volunteer in Dubrovnik helped me escape from the brothel there and smuggled me into Italy. From there I was able to get back to my family in Hungary.” She paused for a moment and looked at Anton once again. Her lip trembled a bit. “It changes you. In ways you cannot imagine. I tried to return to my life and my family and found that I couldn’t fit in anymore. Whenever anyone would try to touch me, I would cringe and begin to panic. My mother and father were crushed by it. They felt they were somehow at fault, even though I had been kidnapped from the school yard at my elementary school.” She paused again for a moment and rubbed her palms on her knees as if massaging sole muscles. “I graduated from high school with decent grades and moved almost immediately to Budapest. I convinced myself it was for college, but truthfully… I was trying to get away from my past. My family just reminded me too much about what had changed in me. I needed to start fresh. At the university, I floundered a bit until I met another young woman who had been through a similar experience. She had decided to fight back against her past by studying criminal justice with the intent of becoming a police officer so that she could bring traffickers to justice. Since I really hadn’t made up my own mind about my degree, I followed her lead.” Niki paused again and looked up at Anton. Now there was a hardness in her eyes, almost cruel. He saw strength there, but also darkness… something that made the hair on the back of Anton’s neck stand on end.

“Turns out, I was pretty adept at criminal psychology,” she continued. “I excelled in all my courses and quickly rose to the top of my class. Instead of joining the local police, however, I was recruited by Interpol. They hired me as a junior level caseworker at first. All I did was review evidence files to try and generate new leads. As an Interpol employee, however, I was required to gain proficiency with firearms and self-defense. Again, I had a natural ability for the work and I scored very highly in both fields. My krav maga instructor even tried to get me to become an instructor for new recruits.”

Anton was watching her as she spoke. Her slight frame and timid body language gave her an appearance of vulnerability that Anton found at odds with the personal history she was sharing. He found it hard to imagine this woman skillfully handling a gun or subduing an attacker in hand-to-hand combat. But even as this thought crossed his mind he saw that cold, hard look in her eye again and decided that just maybe, her vulnerability was her camouflage. Maybe that was how she gained advantage.

“I ended up staying with Interpol and became a field agent,” she continued. “I’ve been working mainly in Asia, but my last case brought me here to the west coast rather frequently. The Yakuza have been working with Russian organized crime to transport young girls from Thailand, Cambodia, and Viet Nam into the U.S. and Seattle has become one of the larger ports of entry. I was here following up on a list of suspect shipping container manifests when the government shut down international travel. The rest probably isn’t much different than what you’ve been through since then.” With that, she leaned back in her chair, blew a wayward shock of hair from in front of her right eye with a soft puff from pursed lips, and stared at Anton. “Which brings us up to now…” she whispered and turned to look at the bedroom door again.

“One thing I left out of the story was the difficulty I’ve had sleeping ever since I was kidnapped. Even after all the training and the years spent taking care of myself, I still often wake up in a cold sweat. And there are many nights that I lie in bed and am terrified of falling asleep. I have tried to rationalize away this fear by going over the various securities we have in place to prevent anyone from attacking us at night, but I still fear being asleep. I feel too exposed… too vulnerable.” Nikki paused and stared hard at Anton for several moments. Something in her expression changed and he was about to ask if something was wrong when she spoke.

“I heard it last night.”

“Heard what?” he responded.

“The fight in the street. It was surprisingly quiet and unbelievably quick. The whole thing was over in probably less than a second and probably didn’t make much more noise than someone tossing a bag of garbage in a trash can… but I heard it.”

Anton felt his pulse quicken and he sat up straight and stared into her eyes as she continued.

“I was lying in bed, wide awake, in the dark. I was having one of my panic attacks. I think it was probably around 2:30 or 3:00. Everything was quiet, but the darkness felt oppressive to me, so I was having trouble controlling my breathing. My heart was racing. Then I heard it. Like I said, it wasn’t loud or drawn out. It was quiet and very quick… but something about the sound scared me even more. It was the sound of sudden, savage death. There was no time for them to scream. There was no time for them to fight back. They were dead. I knew before I got out of my bed to look that they were dead. I walked over to the window and looked down. It was too dark to see anything but I knew they were down there. I started to shake uncontrollably. And that’s when I felt it.”

She paused again and looked at Anton.

“Felt what?” he asked, his voice squeaked a little with anxiety.

Nikki stared at him for a moment and now Anton felt like he was being interrogated. Her eyes had become hard and she was watching him closely, as if she were expecting something.

“Her hand.”

She left the words hanging there in the air and her gaze hardened once again and Anton felt as if she were trying to trip him up somehow, catch him in some sort of deceit.

Anton said nothing and after an awkward moment, she continued.

“I was standing there at the window when suddenly her hand was in mine. I couldn’t see her very well, it was dark, and I was terrified, but her touch didn’t startle me. In fact, it was just the opposite. I immediately felt at ease, my fear melted away.” She paused again and her eyes bored into his own, unflinching.

Anton flushed under her scrutiny as his mind returned to the many times the girl had taken his own hand and now, looking back, he had to agree that the feeling of familiarity was unusual. He hadn’t given it much thought before and now he realized that it was exactly because it felt so familiar that he hadn’t given it much thought. It just seemed ‘right’ whenever the girl took his hand. He smiled at Niki as these thoughts came to him. He found himself nodding silently in agreement.

“It was after she had taken my hand that she spoke to me,” Niki continued.

Anton sat bolt upright, eyes wide. “She spoke to you?!?”

Niki appeared to have expected this response from him. She showed no surprise to his sudden movement and just sat watching him, staring into his eyes. Anton was about to ask again when she spoke.

“Yes. She spoke to me. She told me not to be scared. She told me that she would keep me safe. She told me that she had been looking for me for some time and was glad to have finally found me.”

Anton couldn’t believe his ears. Here he’d been with this girl for what now seemed like a lifetime and had never heard her utter a single word and yet now, this woman, who had just met the girl, had been gifted with a conversation. Anton felt a pang of anger and jealousy now and was rather ashamed that he felt it.

“That’s not all she told me,” Niki continued.

Anton looked up at her again.

“She also said that she had come to take me away from here. That she was going onward to find the one who had started all this--the one who must answer for it. She said she would show me why this had all happened and I would see how it all ends. She said the balance had to be restored.”

Now Anton was completely baffled. “What the hell? What is she talking about? Did she tell you what she meant?”

Niki slouched a bit in the chair. Her hips slid towards Anton as her back slid down the chair. She clasped her hands in front of her with her fingers intertwined like she was praying, her elbows were propped on the chair’s armrests. She extended her index fingers, with just the tips touching above the other clasped fingers, reminiscent of a game Anton played as a child where the hands were the church and the index fingers were the steeple. She gently tapped her index fingers to her lips as she stared quietly at Anton. “I haven’t told you the most interesting part yet.”

Anton shifted nervously in his chair.

Niki looked down at her fingers then back at Anton. Now he saw the vulnerability in her eyes again. She looked like she was trembling. He waited quietly for her to continue.

“When the little girl spoke to me, it wasn’t her voice I heard.”

The look of confusion on Anton’s face caused her to smile a bit.

“It was your voice.”

“What are you talking about?” Anton asked incredulously.

“It was *your* voice, Anton. I know it as sure as I know anything.” Niki stared at him for a second. “And to make this even more awkward,” she continued, “I am pretty sure that she didn’t speak out loud.”

“What?” Anton was at a total loss now.

“It was very dark in the room, and at first I thought she had spoken, but afterwards I realized that the reason why I was not scared was that the voice was actually inside my head. She was there physically holding my hand, but her voice… your voice… came to me in my head. And it felt completely natural, like it had always been there. That’s why it didn’t scare me.”

Anton was trying to get his bearings. Now he was kind of worried that maybe Niki had some mental issues and she was trying to project them onto him. The girl sleeping in the bed in the other room, however, tended to lend credence to what she was saying.

“If it was in your head, how do you know it was my voice?” Anton asked, not really knowing what to expect in reply.

“Because of the feeling of familiarity,” Niki responded.

“What?” Anton asked once again.

“I didn’t tell you this before, but when you first arrived and spoke with all of us, I thought I recognized your voice. I didn’t know why, but for some reason I knew I had heard you speak before.”

“I don’t think that’s possible,” Anton replied.

“I know it isn’t,” Niki responded, “but I felt it just the same. And as soon as the girl spoke to me, I knew it was your voice and I had the same feeling that I had heard it before.”

“Have you figured out where you heard it?” Anton asked.

“No. And I am not sure I have. I just feel that I have, for some reason. But I’ve realized lately that my feelings about such things are important and I need to pay attention to them.”

“So what are they telling you now?”

Niki looked at him and Anton saw softness there. Trust even. “I don’t know,” she said. “But according to the girl, the one we are waiting for will be arriving tomorrow.”

Anton stiffened. “What?!?”

Niki shrugged. “I’ve no idea. She said it just before she… we… went to sleep.”

Anton shifted in his seat and then stood up. “We should go and get Jake. If the girl is here, he needs to know.”

Niki made no move to get up. “I don’t think he will see her.”

“What do you mean,” Anton asked.

“Just intuition, maybe. I don’t think that girl really exists. I think she is like the monster. She is just part of you. She appears when she is needed. For some reason, I think I am supposed to go with you and she needed to show up in the way she did to convince me to follow you.”

“That’s just silly,” Anton responded. “I’m not this monster guy. And that girl is not part of me. I can’t explain why she’s here or what that monster is doing any more than you can. And I don’t have any plans to go anywhere. So how am I connected to this any more than anyone else?”

“Because... without you… they don’t exist.”

“I don’t believe it.”

Niki looked at him for a long time. Then she smiled. “Fine. Go get the girl. Let’s take her down to meet Jake and the others.”

Anton didn’t know what to say. He looked at Niki. She just nodded her head towards the bedroom door, but otherwise made no motion to rise.

Anton walked over to the bedroom door and opened it. The bed was empty.

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 31

Muskie screamed into the darkness. He wasn’t sure if he was awake or asleep. His eyes could find nothing in the inky blackness. His throat felt raw so he assumed he had been screaming for a while. No, he was awake now because he now remembered the dreams that had made him scream. His mind had been lost in a dark swamp of terrifying images of torture and pain, something or someone had been torturing him there, using horrific methods. It had seemed so real that now Muskie sat in silence in the blackness and took assessment of his situation. He was obviously bound, hogtied in fact, lying on his stomach with his hands tied behind him and his legs bound and then flexed behind him at the knees with his feet tied to the binding of his hands. He was also aware that he was naked and that was what worried him. Images from his dream flooded back into his mind, images of unspeakable acts of depravity and sodomy committed on him. He lay quiet for another moment trying to assess if the acts had actually occurred. He felt no pain now, but in the darkness he could feel a slickness on his skin that might be blood. The stench of vomit and shit in the room was strong. 

Muskie pulled at the bonds and felt them give a little. He was pretty sure he could break them if he asserted himself, but not knowing where he was and who may be close by, he was unsure whether he should make any additional noise, so he lay in silence for a few more minutes just listening. He could hear nothing close to him, no sound of any kind, so he flexed once, with all his strength and felt the binding on his wrists pop free almost immediately. The binding appeared to be no more than duct tape. Effective for most humans, but no match for Muskie’s strength. He rolled onto his back and brought his knees up to his chest so he could reach the binding on his ankles and broke that as well. After removing the last of the tape, he stood in the darkness and took a tentative step forwards, then another. The floor felt like concrete and there was definitely something sticky and smelly all over it. Muskie took two more steps and his outstretched hand found the wall. He then followed the wall to the left and found the first corner. Halfway down the second wall he found the door. It was heavy metal and it was locked. He put his ear to the door and heard faint electrical noises coming from outside, it sounded like cooling fans or HVAC air supply fans. He twisted the doorknob in his hand until it bound against the lock… and then continued twisting, very slowly. His hand hardened as the force increased and there was a slight whine as the metal locking mechanism bound against itself under the increasing pressure. Finally there was a sharp pop and the knob spun free in his hand and the door sagged just a little in the frame. Muskie pulled ever so slightly on the door and it swung in quietly exposing the dark hallway outside. There were no lights in the hallway, but the door at the far end had a semi-translucent window that was allowing in light from the room on the other side. The light was enough for Muskie to immediately recognize his location. He was still in the classified holding cell complex in the Court Building, the same place he had brought his own prisoner before the monster attacked, but he was now on one of the lower floors. The complex had five levels of holding cells below ground, and since there was only a doorway on one end of the hallway, he had to be at the bottom. All the other floors had doors at either end, one to stairs leading up and the other to stairs leading down. One way through. One way out. No elevators. Easy to control. 

Muskie made his way down the hall and paused outside the door leading to the stairs. In the light from the door window, he reexamined himself for wounds. He found most of his lower body as well as his hands and forearms covered in smeared excrement and vomit, but other than that there was no apparent damage. The torture and violence had all been in his head, apparently. He could only guess from the extreme panic he had felt upon awakening, that the vomit and shit were his own. He realized then that he could, in fact, taste the bitter bile of vomit in his mouth. This realization, however, was more worrisome to Muskie than any evidence of real injury. Somehow, that beast had done something to his mind that caused his own fears to overcome him to the point of crazed, abandoned panic and the resulting loss of control over his own bodily functions. As an experienced CIA interrogator, Muskie’s first suspicion was drug-induced torture. Had the beast, or perhaps the man, administered something that caused the terrifyingly real hallucinations? He looked closely at the fold of skin on the inside of his elbows for any sign of injection but found none. That doesn’t mean much, he thought. There are many places where a person could be injected that would not be readily evident. His mind flashed back to the hallucination of violent sodomy in his dream and he remembered many times wherein he had used suppositories as a method of drug administration to his interrogation victims. Not only was it effective, but the experience also tended to serve as another facet of torture that the victim would seek to avoid. Staring down at his own soiled, naked body, Muskie now felt that the proverbial shoe was definitely on the other foot. It angered and terrified him all at once. The indignity of being stripped and bound, like so many of his own victims, and bound in such similar fashion, angered him intensely. But the fact that whomever was responsible was able to subdue and bind him, even with his own incredible strength, scared Muskie more than a little. He wanted nothing more than to destroy those responsible for his humiliation, but now, for the first time in his life, he felt he may not be up to the task. Because even more terrifying than any of the images from his tortured dream was that split second memory when he turned and saw the beast just before it grabbed him in its claw and all the lights went out.

[a-wandering-imagination]

Chapter 30

The last thing Anton remembered was the impact. The crazy old man had been strangling him against the wall when the black beast attacked. Anton didn’t remember seeing the beast step into the room, it just seemed to appear out of the shadow in the corner of the room, which had caused Anton to flinch in terror because he assumed that the old man had somehow summoned the beast, but in a flash, his assumption was proven wrong as the beast rushed the old man. The movement was so fast that the force of impact slammed Anton and his chair into the wall and his head struck hard, causing him to lose consciousness. He awoke on the floor. The room was dark except for the glow from the camera. As he sat up, he realized his feet were still taped to the legs of the chair. His hands and chest were free, however. The rope that had tied him to the chair was shredded on the floor and the tape on his wrists was torn as well. 

As Anton sat up to free his legs, he heard a soft moan behind him and spun around. Something was lying on the floor against the far wall. It was rather dark in the room, but Anton was pretty sure it was the old man. Anton tore at the tape on his legs and soon had freed himself. He then turned and to the old man. He was still laid out on the floor, but Anton was too scared to assume the man was still unconscious. He looked at the door, which was slightly ajar, and then back to the man on the floor. He was silently gauging in his mind whether he could make it quickly out the door without disturbing the old man. He then remembered the speed the old man was capable of and decided against the jump and run strategy. He stood softly and walked over to the man on the floor. It was indeed the old man, but it didn’t look like he would be waking up anytime soon. One whole side of the man’s head was already bruising and there was blood mixed in the spittle draining from his slack lips onto a little pool on the floor. As Anton took note of this, the old man’s body convulsed and went rigid as if he were going into an epileptic seizure. Anton jumped backwards, striking the wall at an odd angle and banging his elbow. He grimaced but said nothing as he watched the old man spasm a couple times and then slump back into stillness. Anton stepped forward and leaned down a bit. The old man was still breathing, but to Anton it seemed labored. He wondered if the man would actually ever wake up again. That brought the memory of the beast’s savage attack screaming back to Anton’s mind and he turned towards the open door and stood silent, listening, for several moments. The only sound he heard from beyond the door was the soft whirring of electrical equipment. It sounded like computers, or maybe an office copier or something. 

Anton stepped to the door and peeked into the hallway. There was a single light recessed into the wall at the other end of the hall and Anton could see some light filtering from around the corner. There were no other doorways in the short hall so Anton stepped out and padded softly down to the corner and peeked around. The hallway spilled into a large office area that was dark except for a couple of wall-mounted emergency lights. Anton also noticed, however, that one of the computer terminals was active and he could see what looked like closed circuit camera feeds on the monitor. He walked over to the terminal. The screen indeed showed several CC camera feeds, one of which was the room he had just left. He could see the old man still lying on the floor in there. The other five cameras visible on the screen were of other areas of the building including one that appeared to be looking towards a street entrance as Anton could see sunlight spilling through the windows into a large lobby area. As Anton was scanning the cameras his attention was drawn back to the old man lying in the dark. Anton wondered if there were any recordings of what had happened in the room. He moved the mouse on the desk and a small menu bar appeared at the top of the screen. He clicked on ‘History’ and a small window popped up asking for a username and password. “Fuck,” he hissed. No luck there. Anton scanned the cameras one more time looking for either the girl or the beast and, seeing neither, turned and walked towards the door at the far end marked ‘STAIRS’.

The stairwell was also fairly dark, again lit by nothing more than wall mount emergency lighting. In the stairwell, Anton found he was on the bottom floor as the stairs only went up. He walked up six flights of stairs before he found an open doorway. The doorway opened into another office area but this one had tall, narrow, windows allowing in light from outside. The afternoon sunlight cast long shadows across the desks and silent monitors. Anton stood listening for any sign of life for several moments but heard nothing. He then made his way through the office space and through another door and found himself at the back of the lobby area he had seen on the CCTV screen in the room below. The reception desk at the lobby was empty and a couple of the chairs were tipped on their sides, but other than that it probably looked as it had before the pandemic. The walls were covered in pale, jade green tile and the floor was polished stone tile with a dark, coffee-colored geometric grid pattern offsetting the sandy, light colored tile. A large double set of doors led to the street with a small vestibule between the two. The doors looked heavy and the glass had the slightly blurry look of safety glass. Anton pushed on the crashbar of one of the doors and heard a soft click as it opened. As he stepped to the next set of doors, the first door closed behind him with another soft click. Anton, hesitating for a moment, turned and tugged on the door he had just exited. It was locked fast. He stepped forward to the next set of doors and pushed the crash bar and it opened the same as the last and Anton stepped out into the fading afternoon sunshine. Outside he could hear the sound of birds somewhere off in the distance. Gulls, he thought. He could also hear the wind filtering its way around the tall buildings surrounding him. But other than those rather peaceful noises, all else was silent.

Anton walked out to the street and turned to look back at the building he had just left. It looked like a huge cube of marble with dark slats of vertical windows. Large metal letters above the entrance spelled out the location: William Kenzo Nakamura United States Courthouse. Anton recognized the building immediately, he was in Seattle.  

Why a courthouse, Anton wondered. Was the old man part of the government? Was there still some functioning government somewhere? Anton had not seen any police or military personnel since before his wife died. The thought that maybe there was still some functioning government gave him a little hope… but then he remembered the old man. If that guy was what represented the government now, perhaps he should steer clear of them. As this realization settled in, Anton turned and walked down the sidewalk to the nearest corner and found himself at the intersection of 6th Avenue and Spring Street. Having spent a lot of time in Seattle, Anton knew he was just a short walk from the waterfront and most of his familiar haunts. The street, however, looked anything but familiar. The few cars still parked along Spring Street were covered in dust and mildew. Most of the storefront windows were busted out and the contents of the stores had been ransacked. There were shards of glass all over the street. The gutters were full of molding office paper and garbage. Flies buzzed around the rotting mounds that had accumulated around the storm gutter drains. Some of the walls had been sprayed with graffiti, but even that was now fading. The street looked as if it had been the site of some serious vandalism several months prior but had been abandoned since. 

Walking west on Spring Street, Anton passed the Seattle Central Library in the next block. The building had been a marvel of architecture when it opened in 2004. To many, the building looked like a large steel and glass wave, cresting over 5th Avenue. Now, with very little of the original glass left, the structure looked more like the remnants of some strange roller coaster that had begun to topple. Although the street looked abandoned, Anton heard the sounds of several types of birds. It sounded to him like there was a large group hiding somewhere in the upper floors of the ruined library. He stood watching for a moment and saw some small birds, probably siskins, flitting from spot to spot amongst the rubble of old book shelves and steel superstructure. He also heard a crow calling raucously off in the distance. These sounds of life lifted his spirits a bit and he continued west on Spring towards the waterfront. At 1st Avenue, Anton hung a right and headed north up towards Pike’s Market and Westlake Plaza. As he walked the empty sidewalk on the east side of the street, he started to get the uneasy feeling that someone was watching him. He paused midway between Spring and Seneca and scanned the street and the high rise buildings on either side. He saw no movement anywhere, but still felt like he was being observed. As he approached Seneca, the feeling became stronger. He stood with his back to the wall of the old Safeco Insurance building and scanned the intersection of 1st and Seneca. He could see down Seneca towards the water, under the freeway off ramp that spilled into Seneca from the west. Looking east, he could see up the hill a couple of blocks back towards the business district. Straight ahead he could see up 1rst Avenue to the north for several blocks until 1st Avenue jogged west at Stewart Street. He saw no movement whatsoever. He glanced up at the dark windows of the Harbor Steps Apartments, kitty-corner from where he now stood and felt something looking back. He didn’t know why, exactly, but he was pretty sure whomever was watching him was in one of those darkened rooms up there. The skin on the back of his neck began to prickle and Anton began to feel he was in danger. He jogged across 1rst Avenue westward, towards the water and shuffled quickly down the steps leading to the street below the freeway. Under the off ramp, and out of sight of the apartment towers, Anton felt a little sense of relief. At the bottom of the long staircase was the corner of Post Avenue, not much more than an alleyway that ran south, and Seneca, which continued west under the freeway to the waterfront a block away.

As Anton crossed Post Avenue, he heard something to his left down the street and froze in his tracks, slowly turning his head in the direction of the sound. About a block and a half down Post, he could see a dog chewing on something lying in the street. The dog was trying to drag the object off the street into the entrance of a parking garage. The sight of the dog made Anton’s heart skip a beat. He’d always loved dogs, but his wife had been allergic to them so he’d not owned one in years. He’d not seen any in Juneau since the outbreak, though he’d heard wolves and coyotes at night and wondered if maybe some of the local dogs had joined the wild packs. The dog he watched now looked more wild than tame, it was a german shepard mix, nearly all black, and very thin and ragged looking. It was struggling to pull the large item it had been chewing on out of the street. As it circled to gain better purchase on its prey, Anton saw that the object the dog had been chewing on was a human body, or at least part of one. He could see the leg the dog was chewing on and it appeared to be attached to a torso, but the head and at least one of the arms was missing. The clothing on the body was tattered and it looked as if the dog was trying to tear through the pants and jacket remnants. 

Anton took a couple of steps towards the dog, but the dog must have heard him because it stopped immediately and its head rose and looked quickly in all directions and then, seeing Anton standing in the street, it froze again and stared intently at him. The stare made Anton uncomfortable, it felt to him like the dog was sizing him up for dinner. The dog lowered its head as it took a step towards Anton and then paused again. There was about two hundred yards between them. For several seconds they both stood motionless, just staring at one another. Then, Anton heard a low growl emanate from the dog. It slowly built in volume and then ended in a short deep bark and the dog’s hackles rose all along its spine. The bark brought other sounds into play. Anton heard the sound of padding steps and within seconds four more dogs trotted out of the parking garage. All four of the newcomers turned in unison to look at Anton and they growled almost as one, hackles rising.

Now Anton was sure he didn’t want to get any closer to the dogs. In fact, he was pretty sure he wanted to get away from them as quickly as possible. He turned away from them and scanned the buildings on the north side of Seneca. Those directly across from him were once apartments as well and had small balconies on the second floor, above the garage entries at street level. Anton thought he might be able to jump and grab the bottom of the balcony railing if he got a good run at it and almost before the thought was complete, he bolted for the other side of the street and the waiting balconies. As he started to run, he heard the growls and grunts of the dogs as they leapt to give chase.

Anton was able to make it across the street with ease, but immediately realized that the balconies were too high for him to reach even with a lucky jump, so he turned back to his right and ran up the wide stairs that were Post Avenue on the north side of Seneca, directly opposite from the oncoming dogs. He made the first landing and was scrambling up the next set of stairs when a strange sound brought him to a halt. The dogs behind him had begun to yelp in a tone that Anton recognized immediately as fear and he turned to see them all standing at the bottom of the stairs not thirty feet from him now, but all of them had their tails tucked between their legs and were looking sheepishly all around them as if looking for a predator. He stood for a moment watching them and their whining went silent and they stood sniffing the air and looking around in all directions. The first dog whimpered a bit and looked up at Anton and growled once more. The other dogs were not so brave and huddled close around the first dog while they continued to scan the street and the sky around them. The first dog stared intently at Anton, but made no move to advance. After a moment, Anton’s curiosity got the better of him and he took a step towards the dogs. All of the dogs suddenly cowered as one and drew their lips back in terrified snarls, exposing their white fangs, but no sound emerged from their mouths and Anton could see the white rims of their eyes. They were literally shaking with fear as he took another step towards them. He paused for a moment as the dogs crouched down onto their bellies and turned to crawl away from him. He took another step forward and all five dogs bolted, yelping and screaming as if they’d been beaten. They ran back down Post the way they had come and turned and ran into the parking garage entrance from where the four had earlier emerged.

Once the dogs were out of sight, silence engulfed the street. Anton didn’t know what to think. He looked around for some explanation for the dogs’ strange behaviour but found none. He sat down on the steps and studied the surrounding buildings carefully. Still there was no clue as to what had scared the dogs so badly. He was about to stand up when he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He nearly jumped out of his skin. He spun quickly to find the girl standing there, looking up at him. He had not heard her approach and had not seen her earlier when he descended the stairs from Seneca, even though he remembered glancing up the stairs of Post Avenue before he encountered the dogs. 

“Where were you?” he asked quietly, but knew better than to expect an answer. The girl just looked up at him and then turned her attention towards where the dogs had disappeared into the parking garage south of them. She stood staring at the spot for a few moments and Anton found himself wondering if the girl had anything to do with the strange reaction of the dogs. Almost as if she had listened in on his thoughts, the girl turned once more and looked up at him and a faint smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. The smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, however, and the cold, still expression there sent a chill down his spine. Anton shivered involuntarily and then dismissed his fears. The girl was simply traumatized and would probably need psychological counselling before she would ever have a hope for a normal life. And with little chance of finding a child psychologist in what’s left of our world, Anton thought, she’s stuck with me. He rubbed her head and turned west back towards the waterfront. 

He had only taken a couple of steps, however, when a noise brought him up short. It sounded almost like a long, drawn-out wolf howl, but it was over-articulated. Anton knew immediately that a person had made that noise. He looked around trying to discern where the sound had originated, but it had been rather faint and seemed to echo down into the alley as if it had come from above. Anton looked up scanning the roofs of the adjacent buildings but saw nothing. It was then that the girl grabbed his hand and tugged him back towards the Post Avenue steps leading north. She once again had that troubling look of anxiety that Anton had come to learn preceded dangerous situations. He grabbed her hand tightly and turned and jogged up the steps of Post Avenue towards University Street and the Harbor Steps. They were about midway through the block when the girl suddenly tugged on his hand to get him to stop. Anton stopped and looked down at her and she led him into the breezeway that connected the Post Avenue alleyway and 1st Avenue. Originally the breezeway served the lobby and the elevators for the apartments above, but now it was all boarded up. The elevator doors stood open and dark. The cables hung limp in the empty shafts. The girl ignored the doors and the elevators and ran instead to a corner of the breezeway and pointed up. Anton followed her and looked up.

At first he saw nothing except an HVAC exhaust vent in the ceiling, some ten feet above his head. Then he noticed it. A small string protruded from the vent and hung in a lazy arc to where the end was looped over a hook placed high on an adjacent pillar. It almost looked like a spider web and indeed that is what Anton’s mind had thought it was until the girl had drawn his attention to the HVAC vent and he saw the string for what it was. He reached up and was just able to reach the string on his tiptoes. His fingers caught it and he pulled, expecting it to open the vent or something. Instead the string pulled through the vent and he felt it gain tension somewhere beyond the vent up in the duct. The string had a bit of spring to it, almost like a slack bow string. He tugged on it a couple times and it felt like he was doing nothing more than stretching something hidden up in the vent somewhere.

Perplexed, he looked down at the girl and she motioned for him to step over into an alcove adjacent to the pillar. Anton followed her and the girl stood still, occasionally peeking to the right and left out of the alcove.

As they stood there, Anton heard another wolf call, this time it sounded closer and as if the sound were at street level. He looked down at the girl and she stepped further back into the shadows of the alcove and now she gave her undivided attention to the end of the breezeway that opened into 1st Avenue. Anton was pretty sure the sound of the wolf call had come from that direction and as the realization dawned on him, the hair on his neck began to prickle once again. There were a couple moments of silence and then Anton heard three more wolf calls in rapid succession. Each from a distinct location and they sounded closer than before. He was starting to get worried that maybe their location had been discovered and so he took the girl’s hand to prepare to run, but she pulled him sharply back against the wall and brought her finger to her lips, signalling silence.

Anton stood with the girl, stock still, waiting for God only knew what. Then he heard the soft patter of footsteps out on 1rst Avenue. He crouched down and backed as far into the alcove as he could. The pillar where the string was tied, hid their position from the street. Anton crouched down and peeked around the pillar. He saw three men out on the street. All were wearing strange clothing. They had several layers of shirts and pants and they had multiple scarves wrapped around their necks. They also wore knit caps with more scarves wrapped around their heads, like turbans, giving them the look of desert bedouin raiders. And raiders are exactly what they appeared to be as they were all carrying automatic rifles slung over their shoulders and each had large dogs on leashes, straining ahead. Two of the dogs were Dobermans, the third was a large mastiff of some sort. All three dogs were, like their handlers, scanning the street and the buildings. The dogs sniffed the air and their ears twitched as the three men walked them down 1st Ave towards the building where Anton and the girl were hiding. Anton was getting more and more nervous as he was sure the dogs would eventually hear or smell him and the girl and betray their hiding place. The girl, however, although attentive and serious, had a look of calm. She placed her left hand firmly on top of Anton’s, which was gripping her right. Anton looked down at the girl. She patted his hand and then brought her finger to her lips once more and then sat back and closed her eyes.

Anton turned his attention back to the men on the street. They were now within a hundred yards and closing. They looked dirty and disheveled, but also cruel and hard. Anton was convinced that the men were searching for him and the girl and he was having trouble understanding her sudden calm. He was about ready to bolt and run. He watched with growing concern as the men made their way down 1st Ave until they were directly across the street from the opening to the breezeway. At this point, all three dogs stopped suddenly and turned as one and stared at the opening to the breezeway. The men all noticed immediately and focused their attention there as well. It was all Anton could do to keep from jumping up and running in the other direction. The only thing that prevented it was the fact that now the men and dogs were so close, he knew he would never be able to outrun the dogs and especially not the rifles. So instead, he cowered in the shadows with his eyes fixed on the men standing outside in the fading sun.

The dogs appeared to have turned to stone. The men, after seeing nothing moving in the breezeway had started scanning the upper floors of the building and one of them had stepped off the curb to cross the street towards the breezeway, but had only made it a couple of steps before he noticed his dog was not following. The leash went taught and the man turned to look at the dog who, like the other three, was still staring intently at the opening to the breezeway. Anton felt that those dogs could see him--knew right where he was hiding and were pointing it out to their masters. But the dogs did not move. The man who had stepped into the street now gave a hard tug on the leash and hissed a soft whistle. The dog, the larger of the two dobermans, still did not move or give any indication that he had heard or felt his master’s urging. Now the man gave a hard tug on the leash, but the dog anticipated the tug and squatted into his haunches and again did not budge, his eyes never leaving the opening to the breezeway. Now all three men were staring at their dogs. All three dogs had not moved since they first had turned their attention to the breezeway. The men now all turned as one and looked towards the breezeway and, as if on some subliminal cue, they raised their rifles to their shoulders and aimed at the breezeway opening. The men started to cross the street, leaving the dogs behind. Anton was panicking now, but the girl still sat stone still with her eyes closed and a somewhat peaceful expression on her face. Anton watched in terror as the men each took a measured step towards the breezeway and paused once more. It was then that he heard a new sound. The men heard it as well and the three each turned their heads to look back at the dogs. The sound was emanating from the three dogs. It was a soft whine that slowly built in volume. There was fear in the whine and the men recognized the sound immediately. The three of them stepped back to where the dogs were and now studied the breezeway with what appeared to be some measure of concern. The man on the far left held up his hand and made a couple of quick gestures and the other two men nodded and the three men took up the dog leashes once again and looked as if they were going to split up. Two started to head south on 1rst Avenue while the other started to cross 1st Avenue but headed north as if he were headed to the main Harbor Steps walkway. All three were once again interrupted, however, when their dogs once again refused to move from where they stood. 

Anton saw confusion in the faces of the men. Now all three men tugged viciously at the leashes, physically pulling the dogs off their feet, but to the surprise of the men and Anton as well, the dogs, instead of submitting, suddenly bolted back in the direction they had come. Two of them, the mastiff and one of the dobermans, pulled their leashes free and escaped, running full tilt back up the street, yipping in fear as they went. The third was not so lucky. The man holding him had slid the loop of the leash up onto his forearm, near his elbow, so that he could have both hands on his rifle and now as the dog bolted for freedom, the leash caught on the layers of clothing and the dog’s momentum pulled the man off his feet and the dog dragged him for a couple yards. The other two men, finally recovering from the surprise of their dogs’ behavior, ran to his aid. They caught hold of him and the additional weight of the two men halted the dog mid-stride. The dog, however, appeared to be in full panic at this point and began lunging against the leash and growling and yelping in a frenzied, apoplectic fit of terror. The two men grabbed the leash to try and subdue the dog and the dog immediately turned on them in a vicious, desperate bid for freedom. It bit the two men savagely, and the men, totally unprepared for such an attack stumbled backwards away from the dog, who once again tried to bolt but the leash was still stuck on his master’s arm. The dog then turned its attention to the man with the leash and attacked him with the same ferocity as he’d attacked the others. The man was still on the ground and now spun so that his feet were towards the dog and he kicked at it trying to keep the dog from biting him with little success as the man’s screams attested. The other two men shouldered their weapons and took aim at the dog. There was a staccato of gunfire and the dog yelped once and then fell, legs stiff and twitching, blood spurting onto the concrete sidewalk. 

One of the two shooters shouldered his gun and knelt to assist the man on the ground while the other kept his gun at the ready, scanning up and down the street. They were able to get the man to his feet, but he was walking with a limp and leaned heavily on the man assisting him. The two of them slowly made their way back up 1rst Avenue in the direction of Westlake Plaza. The third man followed behind, turning every so often, rifle at the ready, to cover their retreat. They turned east on Union and disappeared from view behind the museum.

Anton turned to look at the little girl and, as if on cue, she opened her eyes. He wanted to ask her what had happened to the dogs, but then he remembered the similar actions of the pack of dogs back on Post Avenue… and that their strange behaviour had immediately preceded the girl’s arrival on the scene. Anton blinked twice at the realization and stared down at the girl. Could she have something to do with what happened to the dogs, he thought. He found himself shrinking away from her a bit. She looked up at him with a rather puzzled look on her face. Then she stood and held out her hand. Anton, regaining a little of his composure, stood as well and took her hand. She led him out the back of the breezeway back towards Post Avenue, but turned north into the little courtyard that separated the Harbor Steps apartment buildings from the building to the west. She stopped in the middle of the courtyard and turned to face the taller of the two Harbor Steps apartment towers. She stood looking up at the tower for several minutes and then led Anton back into the breezeway where she sat down on the concrete and started doodling in the dust with her finger. Anton wasn’t sure what to make of this. He stood looking down at her for a moment and then his gaze wandered across the courtyard to the west where the sky was devolving into an evening mix of oranges, reds and purples. The movement of the sunlight across the clouds held his attention for a moment and he found himself lost in memories of quiet sunny afternoons as a child. He may have been daydreaming for a minute or two when a soft noise brought him back to the present. He turned towards the dark elevator shaft and saw that one of the cables was swinging a little from side to side. He was just about to lean into the shaft and look up when he felt the muzzle of a gun against the back of his neck.

“Down on your knees… nice and slow”, a calm steady voice stated from behind him. Anton kneeled instinctively. “Now cross your feet and sit on them”. It took Anton a moment to realize what the man was asking and then he crossed one calf over the other behind his knees and sat back on his crossed heels. 

“Keep your hands where I can see them,” the voice instructed and Anton, who had immediately lifted his hands above his head when he felt the gun on his neck, now lowered his elbows a bit so that his hands were more or less level with his shoulders, but still in plain sight. 

The man with the gun now stepped around in front of Anton. He was dressed in a polar fleece jacket and pants and was wearing high-end hiking boots. His face was unshaven and his hair was unruly but otherwise he looked pretty clean and healthy. He was also holding a rifle which was presently pointed at Anton’s chest. Anton noticed it was a Springfield M1A with a synthetic stock and a Leupold scope. “Nice gun”, Anton muttered. 

“What was that?” The man said, stepping forward a half step and tightening his grip on the rifle. 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean anything. I’m a pretty avid hunter and I was just admiring the rifle.” Anton responded. 

“How did you find us?” The man said.

“What?” Anton asked, rather confused.

“You heard me. How did you know we were here?” The man stood stock still, rifle still pointed at Anton’s chest. 

“I, uh, I didn’t know you were here...” was all Anton could think to say.

“Oh, so out of all the buildings in Seattle, you just happened to run into this one. Then you just happened to find a hidden string. And then… and then… you just *happened* to give that string a tug for no reason. Then you went out in the courtyard and looked up at us, knowing durn well we’d be looking down to see who was ringing the bell since none of our own were out scavenging at the moment. You sayin’ you just happened to do all that, even though you didn't know we were here’?”

Now Anton was nervous. 

“Listen, man, I had no idea. The girl was the one that showed me where the string was… though I have no idea how she knew about it. She told me to pull it and then she was the one that led me out to the courtyard.”

“What girl?” the man said. 

Now Anton turned to look over his shoulder to where the girl had been sitting. She was nowhere to be seen. 

“She was just here! We came here together. You must have seen her when you looked out the window?!” Anton was kind of panicked now. He was starting to feel like he was going crazy. He looked all around the breezeway trying to figure out where the girl had hidden herself. 

“Mister, the only people that knew about that string are all upstairs. Ain’t nobody down here, girl or otherwise, who knew about it. Where did you find this supposed girl?”

“I.. we… I found her in Juneau… been a couple weeks. I was out scavenging and found her alone. So I’ve kind of been taking care of her.”

The muzzle of the gun lowered a bit and it looked to Anton like the man was thinking through his story. “Juneau? Juneau, Alaska?”

“Yes.”

“How’d you get here?”

“I’m pretty sure I flew…on a plane, I mean,” Anton answered sheepishly.

“What?” the man asked.

“Well, me and the girl left Juneau on a fishing boat. I found one that was still functional in one of the harbors up there. We made it all the way to Ketchikan before we ran into anyone else.”

“Who’d you find there, a pilot?”

“He must have been, but I’m not sure. He knocked me out, caught me unawares, and when I woke up I was here in Seattle.”

“Just like that, standing in the street and pulling on strings?” the man responded, with an evident sarcastic tone in his voice.

Anton’s temper flared a bit. “No, not just like that. As a matter of fact, I woke up tied to a chair in an interrogation room up at the old courthouse a couple blocks east of here. And when I did wake up, the guy that flew me down here proceeded to beat the shit out of me while trying to get information out of me, information that I knew nothing about… not unlike what you are doing now,” Anton replied.

Anton noticed that the man’s expression had changed from one of contempt to one of worried suspicion. “The courthouse? Interrogation room? What was he asking you about?”

“About a man that died up in Juneau. Apparently the guy was an associate of his.”

“Associate? So some sort of government agent?”

“I assume, but not like any I’ve ever seen”, Anton replied.

“What do you mean?”

“The guy that took me was tiny, maybe five foot two. Probably weighed around a hundred and fifteen pounds. He looked like he was close to a hundred years old and his skin and joints looked sick and arthritic.”

“And this guy jumped you unawares? That doesn’t say much about your abilities.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” Anton replied.

“How so?”

“That little old man moved faster than anything I’d ever seen, well, except for his buddy in Juneau. They were both so fast you couldn’t see them move. And strong, stronger than ten men. That little old man picked me up by the throat, while I was tied to a chair and threw me and the chair across the room hard enough to knock me out when I hit the wall. And he did it with one hand.”

Anton saw a look of fear creep into the man’s eyes. The man shifted his feet a bit and then steeled his gaze once again on Anton.

“How’d he die?  The associate in Juneau, I mean.”

Anton paused. He knew the truth wouldn’t help him in this situation. No one would believe what had really happened. No one could comprehend the power and speed of that black beast. 

“I said how’d he die!” the man interrupted.

“He was killed by a large animal.” 

 

“You said you saw this guy so I am assuming you saw him get killed, right?”

Anton nodded, but now a prickle was once again running up his spine. He didn’t like where this interrogation was heading. 

“You want to tell me what kind of ‘large animal’ can kill a man who can move so fast you can’t see him move and is so strong he can toss a full-grown man like you across a room when you’re tied to a chair? I don’t think even a good-sized grizzly would be able to toss a man like that.”

“Just like the men, the animal… the beast… wasn’t normal. It was fast too, just like them… No. Even faster, cuz it caught that guy without difficulty, before he even had time to think. And then it crushed his head in his claws.”

“So you saw this beast. What did it look like?” As the man asked the question he stepped forward again and brought the rifle to bear on Anton’s chest once again.

“It’s big, over ten feet. All black. It has long hands kind of like a man’s but much bigger and the fingers end in long black claws that are at least a couple inches long. The legs look like a cross between a wolf and some sort of large bird. It has large, clawed toes splayed out from the foot kind of like a bird, but the skin and joints look more like a dog. It had an ankle high up the leg, ten or twelve inches off the ground, like the rear leg of a wolf. It is muscled heavily and moves nearly silently.”

“What about its face?” 

“That’s the weird part…” Anton knew that sounded silly even as the words came out of his mouth, but he continued, “... it is like the face has no shape, or it is constantly changing shape. You try to look at any particular feature and it changes into something else. It’s almost like looking at a superimposed video or something. But the eyes… “

“What?” the man asked, with a hint of trepidation in his voice.

“The eyes, or at least the place where the eyes should be, seem to be empty. So empty that you feel like they are looking right through you, inside you, into your mind. Like it knows what you’re thinking.”

Anton expected the man to argue or claim that Anton was making up the story, but neither happened. The man lowered the gun a bit and cocked his head as if contemplating what he’d heard. He looked back at Anton with a worried look in his eyes. “How did you get away?”

“What?” Anton asked.

“From the courthouse. You said you were tied to a chair. How’d you get away from this guy who can move so fast?”

“The beast was there too. It attacked the old man and I was thrown against a wall in the commotion and lost consciousness for a bit. When I woke up, the rope around my chest had been torn free. The old man was unconscious on the floor and he was breathing like he might have been seriously hurt--kind of gurgling, you know? Anyways, I didn’t stick around. I got out of there quick. This all happened just a bit ago. I just came from the courthouse.”

“What about the girl? You said there was a girl with you. Where is she?”

“I’m not sure. She kind of comes and goes…” Anton’s voice trailed off as his mind wandered back through the various points of contact with the child.

“What do you mean, she comes and goes?” The man said, with a hint of suspicion in his voice.

“Well, like I said, I found her on the street in Juneau. I tried to find out where she was from but she doesn’t talk--AT ALL. I think she understands me, but I’m not sure if she understands what I say or is simply able to guess what I mean. Anyways, I was squatting at a house when I found her so I brought her back to the house with me. I mean, she’s like five or six years old--way too young to be running around by herself. But after the first day at the house, she up and disappeared during the night. I looked all over for her, but couldn’t find her anywhere. I had been preparing to leave Juneau when I found her, so I just kept to my plan. I found a boat, loaded it with fuel and supplies, and was getting ready to leave town when she showed up again.”

“She just showed up, out of the blue?” the man asked, the barrel of the gun was now slowly descending and Anton began to feel more at ease.

“Yeah. Right after that guy got killed. I’m freaking out because the guy tried to kill me and the beast jumps out of the water and kills him. The beast jumps back into the water and I’m looking around trying to find out what the hell is going on and there she is, kneeling next to the man’s body. She actually folded the guy’s arms over his chest and put some flowers in his hands…” Anton’s voice trailed off as the strangeness of what he was saying sunk in.

Anton went on to relate the rest of his experiences with the girl. Her disappearance prior to his meeting with the woman in Ketchikan and then her reappearance here in Seattle, just a couple hundred feet from where they now stood. “And she was just here before you showed up.  She was sitting on the concrete right over there drawing in the dust.” Anton jerked his head in the direction of where the girl had been sitting. 

The man glanced over Anton’s shoulder at the spot Anton had indicated and his eyes narrowed a bit. He looked back at Anton and brought the gun back up to his shoulder and then stepped around Anton to where the girl had been sitting. Anton watched the man as he stepped past and turned a little bit to see what he was doing. The man had walked over to where Anton said the girl had been sitting. The spot was now lit by a wayward ray of sun as it sunk low on the horizon. Anton heard the man mutter something under his breath and he turned back to Anton. 

“Get up,” he said. “You’re coming with me. We’ve got some stuff to talk about.”

Anton stood and turned to face the man, who was still staring down at the ground. Anton walked over to him and saw what the man was looking at. There, on the concrete, was a symbol drawn in the dust. The symbol consisted of an equilateral triangle in the middle with a cross projecting from each angle of the triangle outward and at the top of each cross was a circle. 



Anton had never seen the symbol before, and yet it somehow seemed to be familiar. He cocked his head, trying to remember where he might have seen it before. As he was lost in thought, the man stepped forward and smudged away the drawing with the toe of his boot. Anton noticed that the man also glanced around him as he did so as if he felt he was being watched. After the drawing was wiped away, the man shouldered his rifle and motioned for Anton to follow him. The man walked back over to the alcove and reached up and tugged on the hidden string. Anton noticed that the man tugged on the string in a specific pattern. The man then turned and walked back towards the dark elevator shafts. The four shafts all stood open, the doors removed. The elevator cables hung limp in all four. Anton peered into the one nearest him and saw that the elevator was sitting at the bottom of the shaft a level below where he now stood and that the cable had been cut. The man had walked to the shaft at the other end of the breezeway, closest to 1rst Avenue, and was standing there, waiting and looking at Anton. As Anton walked towards him, he heard a faint noise coming from the shaft, almost like a soft wind. He was just about to ask the man about it when a knotted rope ladder dropped into view, hanging halfway down the dark opening. The man reached out and took hold of the end of it and offered it to Anton. “You first,” he said

Anton stepped forward, took the end of the ladder from the man and stepped towards the opening. He looked up the shaft but saw nothing. There was no light up there. No way to tell how far up the ladder went. Anton hesitated and looked back at the man.

“Go on. If we had wanted to kill you… you’d already be dead.”

Anton turned back to the ladder and began to climb. He climbed up into the darkness for about twenty to thirty feet before a sudden blaze of light shown down from above. Somebody was shining a flashlight down on him. Anton looked down and saw that the other man was just a few feet below him. Anton saw hands reaching down to assist him up through the open elevator doors. There were several people in the hallway as he stepped up out of the shaft. Two were aiming rifles at him. No one spoke. A couple of them reached down and helped the other man off the ladder as well. He stood up and started walking down the hallway to the left. Anton followed and was in turn followed by the two fellows with rifles and the rest of the group. Halfway down the long hallway, the man opened another door and entered. It was the stairwell. The man took one of the flashlights from one of the other folks and then turned and led the way into the stairwell and up the stairs. Anton noticed the large number 4 on the door as he passed and he glanced down the middle of the staircase. In the gloom, he could see a couple floors down and then nothing but darkness. The man led the group upwards. They climbed up 21 more floors to the top floor. When they stepped out of the stairwell on the top floor, Anton could see sunlight from windows at the ends of the hallway. Most of the doors to the apartments stood open as well and light spilled out of them into the hall. The man led Anton and the group about halfway down the hall and then stopped at one of the open doors and waved Anton and the others inside. The two men with rifles followed Anton but were now simply holding their rifles at the ready rather than pointing them at Anton.

Inside the apartment, there was very little furniture. Anton immediately noticed the high ceilings and realized that this apartment had originally been one of the top floor penthouses. Now there were just a couple of tables and some chairs placed just inside the door. Beyond that, the entire room look like a large greenhouse. There were all sorts of plants arranged along the floor to ceiling windows. The plants were two rows deep along every window and were set in wooden structures that went from floor to ceiling. Anton saw tomato plants, squash plants, several types of chard, and there were green pea and bean vines winding through many of the plants. There were several other types of plants as well that Anton didn’t recognize. He also noticed the passive water lines that were dripping water down from hoses attached to the ceiling. The water apparently travelled down through several layers of pots, and the leftover was reclaimed at the bottom of the vertical column. The whole system looked extremely well organized and the lush growth attested to the success of the planning. 

The man motioned for Anton to sit down at one of the tables. As he did, all the others in the group sat as well. Anton took a moment to look around the room and found that there were seven others besides the man and himself. There were three men, two with rifles, and four women. One of the men with the rifles was tall and heavy and had a thick black beard. He was balding and had a huge gut hanging over his belt, but looked to be quite strong. The second man with a gun was short and stocky. He looked like he might be polynesian or maybe hispanic, with black hair, a heavy brow and a wide flat nose. The third man was older, probably mid fifties or early sixties. He had salt and pepper hair and wire frame glasses. He had a thin beard and was wearing a thick, cable knit sweater and brown corduroy trousers. The women were equally distinct. One of them was unnaturally tall, well over six feet, and big-boned. Anton figured she probably weighed more than he did even though she was not fat. Her arms and shoulders were large and muscular. She had her hair cut just above her shoulders and was wearing a Seahawks t-shirt and jeans. The woman next to her looked to be the oldest of the group, and the tiniest. She was nearly the opposite of the first, very slender and short, barely five feet, and probably in her seventies. She had her hair close-cropped and looked quite fit. There was a sparkle in her eye that reminded Anton of the old man who had brought him here. The realization sent another chill down his spine. The third woman looked like she had stepped right out of a stereotypical Italian restaurant. She was about five foot four and probably twice that in circumference. She had her dark hair tightly knit in a bun on the top of her head and she was wearing black from head to toe, consisting of an oversized, long sleeve t-shirt and black sweatpants. The last woman was more teen than adult. She was whip thin and had black hair cut short in a rather goth-looking, I-cut-this-myself kind of haphazard hairstyle. She was wearing men’s jeans and a leather jacket over a t-shirt with INXS stenciled across the front. She had a silver hoop piercing her right eyebrow and another though the direct center of her upper lip. Her eyes were dark and brooding. After this cursory examination of the group, Anton felt as if he were an interloper and knew that most of them here didn’t trust him. Their expressions were uniformly ones of worry and concern. Anton turned back to look at the man who had brought them here.

The man had remained standing and stood just looking at all of them in silence. Then he looked directly at Anton. 

“My name is Jake. Jake Whitfeld,” he said. “Welcome to our little community.” With that, he held out his hand for Anton. Anton shook the offered hand. “I’m Anton Peters. Just travelling through but I’m glad I’ve found other survivors.” The other folks at the table whispered back and forth a bit. 

“Anton, let me introduce you to the rest of the group.” He pointed to the large bearded man, “That’s Gunnar Peterson,” the man grunted. Jake continued,“To his left is Tommy Lutai.” The polynesian fellow raised his hand in a small wave. “Next to him is Gerald Hendricks.” The older gentleman nodded his head slightly. “Next to Gerald is Peggy Watson.” The tall woman had been resting her forearms on the table and did little more than raise one index finger at the mention of her name. “Next to Peggy is Judith. Judith Wells.” The little old woman smiled and nodded. “Next to Judith is Anna Nicoletto.” The heavy woman in black nodded her head. “And last, but not least, the little sprite over there is Becca Lyman.” The girl with the piercings merely jutted her chin a bit at the mention of her name and stared intently at Anton.

“As you can see, we have built ourselves a little garden here,” Jake continued, waving towards the plants behind him. We have converted most of the space adjacent to the south and west windows in all four towers to the same purpose. The other areas are divided up for living quarters, storage and recreation.” Jake paused a moment and looked around the room at all the faces once more. Anton could tell that most of the group was uncomfortable with him being there and that they were, in turn, not happy with Jake for bringing him up to their little hideaway. No one ventured to interrupt the silence, however, and Anton got the impression that they all looked to Jake as their leader.

Jake looked down at the ground for a moment, then back at Anton. Then he looked at the rest of the group. “Is there anything anyone wants to add?” 

The room was completely silent for several moments. Then, Peggy spoke up. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll be the one to put into words the painfully obvious question on everyone’s mind… Jake… why is he here? Why did you bring him up here? We had a deal. No new members unless they were approved by everyone.” Peggy didn’t even glance at Anton. Her eyes bored into Jake with what Anton thought might very well be strong, but controlled, anger. The rest of the room murmured consent, except for Judith, who just sat staring right at Anton. Her eyes were twinkling again and a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. Before Jake could respond to Peggy’s question, Judith spoke.

“It’s him, isn’t it?” She said, never taking her eyes off Anton. Jake looked as if he were about to speak and then his mouth snapped shut and he simply smiled back at Judith.

“It’s who?” several of the group intoned as one, each looking at the others trying to discern what Judith was talking about.

“What’s it been, Jake, nearly a year?” Judith finally looked away from Anton to concentrate on Jake’s face.

“Almost.” Jake said. The rest of the group had a singular expression of confusion that slowly faded across all their faces to be replaced by one of sudden realization and then, immediately after, disdain. Tommy spoke first, “You’ve got to be kidding, Jake. You think he’s the guy Billy Redfish was talking about?!? The monster man, what’d Billy call him? Koosh-something.”

At the mention of ‘monster man,’ Anton’s blood ran cold. 

Jake smiled at Tommy and said nothing. It was Gerald who spoke up next. “‘Kooshdakhaa’, Tommy. The word you are looking for is ‘Kooshdakhaa’. But I’d say I have to agree with you on the rest. I don’t see why this guy would be the one Billy was talking about. He looks pretty much like most of the other tunnel rats we see all the time. And besides, Billy said the man would be travelling with a girl. Where’s the girl?”

Anton jumped out of his chair now. The whole room turned to look at him, Tommy even grabbed the rifle from where he’d leaned it against the table. They all stared at Anton, except for Jake. Jake was watching them instead. His eyes scanned the group as they reacted to Anton’s action and a smile tugged at his lips once more.

Jake turned now towards Anton. “Do you want to tell them or should I?” 

“Tell them what?” Anton said.

“What you told me downstairs,” Jake replied. “Did you come here alone?”

Anton stood stock still. He could feel the eyes of everyone in the room on him and for the most part it wasn’t a friendly feeling. 

“Fine. I’ll begin,” Jake continued. “We all heard the bell ring, right?” There was a murmured consent. “And we all walked to the south wall, looked down, and saw the same thing, right?” Again there was a murmur of consent. Now Jake looked at Tommy directly. “What did we see Tommy?”

“We saw him,” Tommy said, pointing at Anton. “He was standing down there looking up.” 

“Did you see anyone else?” Jake asked, but now he wasn’t looking at Tommy, he had turned instead to look at Anton. Anton stared back at him as the prickles started to run up and down his spine once more. 

“You saw it the same as me, Jake. That guy was standing down there all by himself,” Tommy continued.

Jake stared silently at Anton. Anton's attention flicked around the room from face to face. Everyone was looking at him and Jake. They looked at Anton with confusion and at Jake with morbid anticipation. They knew now that Jake knew something about Anton, something important. 

“Tell them, Anton,” Jake said. “Tell them who brought you to our doorstep.”

“It was a girl,” Anton replied and a collective gasp filled the room. 

“Where is she--” Tommy started, but Jake’s raised hand cut him off mid-sentence.

“Continue, Anton,” Jake stated calmly.

So Anton proceeded to recount his trip from Juneau to Seattle as he had done earlier with Jake down in the breezeway. When he got to the part where the girl mysteriously vanished when Jake arrived, there was a collective murmur of disbelief. But Jake still smiled as he looked at Anton.

“Judith, do you remember how Billy told us we’d be able to identify the Kooshdakhaa?”

Judith smiled again. “Of course, Jake.” 

“Would you mind?” Jake asked, turning to look at Judith. She smiled, rose, and left the room. When she had stepped out of the door, the others began to speak all at once. “Jake, this is foolishness, we can’t trust--” Jake raised his hand once again. “Wait for Judith to get back.” They all huffed and moaned but slouched back into their seats and sat staring at anything other than either Jake or Anton. The room was awkwardly silent for several minutes and then the door swung open and Judith walked in holding a rolled up paper. 

The group looked at the paper and then back at Jake. The look in their eyes was not one of distrust or disdain now, but one of intrigue. 

Jake held out his hand to Judith and she handed him the rolled up paper. Jake walked over to Anton and looked at him for a couple moments. Then he turned back to the others. With his back to Anton, he unrolled the paper so that the group could see it. “This was what Billy gave us to identify the girl and the man, is it not?” The group all nodded in assent. Jake then turned and showed the opened paper to Anton. A look of panic flashed over his face and he sat back down heavily, staring up into Jake’s eyes. There, on the paper, was the exact same symbol that the girl had drawn in the dust on the sidewalk below. 

“Have you ever seen this symbol before, Anton?” Jake asked. The silence in the room was oppressive as they waited for Anton to answer. He merely nodded his head. 

“Where?” Jake continued.

“The girl drew it in the dust downstairs on the sidewalk. Did she know you were coming?”

Jake appeared to ignore Anton’s question. “Do you know what the symbol means, Anton?”

The question caught Anton off guard. He’d not considered up to this point that the symbol had any meaning. He’d thought it was just the doodling of a young girl. He shook his head as he watched Jake.

Jake turned to Judith. “Judith, would you care to inform Anton as to what Billy Redfish told us this symbol means?”

Judith smiled. “Well, Anton… Billy Redfish is Duwamish. Do you know what that is?” Anton shook his head. “It’s the local native american tribe. He lives out on the Olympic Peninsula somewhere, keeps to himself for the most part. But about a year ago, he came paddling up to the pier downtown. Tied his canoe at the ferry dock and walked straight up the hill to this building. At that time we didn’t have all the security in place that we do now. We didn’t have the secret doorbell, we just tried to keep the criminals from coming up the stairs. Since then we’ve sealed off the lower floors and started using the bell and ladder system. Lost a few good folks before we figured that out. Anyways, Billy shows up and tells us that someone is coming. Someone important. He said that someone would show up here and would need lodging and food for his journey. He said that someone was the Kooshdakhaa. We asked him what the Kooshdakhaa was and he said that the name was an old word from the northern tribes, north of Seattle, the Tlingit and the Haida. He said it was a name they had created for a creature that was even older still. A creature that walked like a man but could change shape at will. He could be a child who called the weary hunter into the woods to be lost, he could be the beast that stalked the dark forests devouring the defilers, and he could be a man, just like any other and walk among us unrecognized. Billy told us that the legend said that the Kooshdakhaa could take on just about any living shape and that his strength and speed were matchless.”

Anton felt dizzy. The story was making him feel sick to his stomach. Visions of body parts strewn across the lawn in front of the house in Auke Rec flitted through his mind. Then the image of the girl, hiding under the bed, looking at him with terror in her eyes. Then his mind shifted to the images of the two native americans he had met on the way down… both of which seemed to know a lot about him and had appeared and disappeared much as the girl had. Anton was about to mention this and thought better of it. He could always tell them about the other encounters later if need be. Right now he wasn’t sure who to trust and didn’t want to divulge any more information than absolutely necessary.

Judith was watching him closely. After a moment, she continued. “Billy said that the Kooshdakhaa was ancient but that it inhabited a mortal form every generation. He said that sometimes, the mortal form was unaware of its true nature and lived its entire life without ever transforming. He said that it was during times of danger or catastrophe that the change came without warning, unexpectedly. He also said that the Kooshdakhaa was ambivalent to right or wrong. It merely existed. It protected itself by any means. But Billy said that this iteration of the kooshdakhaa was special. It was more powerful and it had demonstrated an aversion to evil, destroying those that would prey on others.”

Now the burned out houses on Meander Way came to Anton’s mind. The video camera, the log book of entries, and the dead bodies littering the premises. He felt an odd welling in the pit of his stomach, a feeling like he had forgotten something really important and was just on the cusp of remembering what it was.

Judith continued. “Billy drew this symbol and told us that the Kooshdakhaa would give us this symbol as identification of his true nature.”

Anton was visibly shaking now. He looked down at the paper that Judith had laid out on the table between them all. The strange three sided symbol looked mathematical, like something from an alien race. It didn’t look like any native american art he had ever seen. 

“What does it mean?” Anton asked, to no one in particular. 

This time it was Gerald that spoke up. “Billy told us the symbol was very old. Older than any of the tribes. He said it had been handed down from mother to daughter for generations. It was painted on door posts on potlatch houses to ward off the Kooshdakhaa and protect children. He said it was the symbol that represented the plurality of the Kooshdakhaa’s existence.” Gerald fumbled in the pocket of his corduroys and withdrew a small golf pencil. He then tore a strip of paper about two inches wide off of the side of the drawing, being careful not to damage the drawing itself. Then he took the strip and tore it into three roughly equal parts. On each piece he drew a stick figure of a man, much like a child would--a circle for the head, a line for the body, two angled lines for the legs and a line across the body for the arms. He drew the same thing on all three pieces. Then he took the pieces and stacked them one on top of the other, rotating each by 120 degrees. With all three stick figures overlapped like this, it created the symbol that Billy Redfish had given them. The symbol that the girl had drawn in the dust.

“It represents the three main components of the shape-shifter,” Gerald continued. “The man, the child, and the beast.” He laid the pencil on top of the stack of papers and looked up at Anton.

The silence in the room was deafening. All of them stared at Anton with renewed interest. Anton felt like his chest was caving in and struggled a little for breath. He could hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears and his face flushed. “I don’t know anything about any of this... “ he started to say, but didn’t know how to finish. He looked down at his hands.

“We don’t know much either, Anton,” Jake responded, “but you’ve got to admit you have presented us with a rather intriguing situation.” Jake looked around the room, but no one else spoke. After a moment Jake continued, “I’ll admit it now… I thought Bill Redfish was full of hooey. I listened to his story and thanked him for making the journey all the way here to warn us. But I didn’t believe any of that story… not for a second… until I saw that drawing in the dust downstairs.”

There was some almost imperceptible nodding of heads around the room as Jake spoke. 

“So what about the monster?” Everyone turned to look at Becca. All the attention flustered her a bit and Anton got the impression that she didn’t speak much. “What?” she continued. “We’ve heard about the girl--although we haven’t seen her yet. We see the man sitting here. What about the monster? If Billy was right, the monster is here too, right?” Now she stared right back at those looking at her with a bit of defiance in her gaze. 

Jake turned to Anton once more. He just looked at him for a moment and then spoke softly. “Have you seen it?”

Anton didn’t have to ask what ‘it’ meant. He knew, and he nodded his head silently. 

“Where?” Jake asked again, in the same soft voice.

“The first time was in Juneau. I was all alone. I had just burned the bodies of my wife and child. I kind of lost it a bit..” Anton’s voice trailed off. The entire group was silent now. Some were nodding softly in silent sympathy with his loss. “I found a car and was driving around Juneau looking for other survivors. I didn’t see anyone after driving through the large suburban neighborhoods so I headed out the road. Juneau is land-locked, no way in or out except by boat or plane and there is only about sixty some odd miles of roads. Most of the people live in a fairly densely packed area in a glacial valley, but the road continues out of town for nearly forty miles. There are homes along this road that are more secluded and I thought that maybe someone out there had survived so I was driving out towards the end of the road. I was listening to some music… there was a cd in the car… and I looked down for some reason, but when I looked back up I saw something big… really big… run across the road about a quarter mile in front of the car.”

“Wait? A quarter mile…” Tommy tried to interrupt, but again Jake held up his hand and nodded for Anton to continue.

“Yeah, it was up ahead of me quite a ways and that’s why I wasn’t sure I had really seen it. The other reason I thought it might have been my eyes playing a trick was that it moved so fast. Something that big just can’t move that fast. I drove up to where I’d seen it run across the road and pulled over. I looked around but the brush was really thick there. I didn’t see anything. No tracks on the sides of the road, nothing in the brush, nothing.” Anton looked around the room and then, feeling a little embarrassed, he stared at his hands folded in his lap.

“How big?” Gunnar asked, his voice was deep but Anton thought he heard some uncertainty in it.

“Really big,” Anton replied. “Over ten feet.”

“You judged that from a quick glance,” Gunnar asked.

“No. I saw it again. A few times. A couple were up close and personal.”

There was a collective gasp, then silence. They all looked at Anton and he knew he had to continue. He related the story of the stranger’s death at the Auke Bay harbor when the beast had saved him. Jake, who had already heard the stories, was watching the faces of the others. He saw the same scared confirmation there, that he had felt when he first heard the stories downstairs. When Anton got to the part about escaping from the old man at the courthouse, the rest of the group shifted uneasily in their chairs and looked from one to another. Anton was confused by their reaction and turned to Jake who was still watching the group. As Anton finished his story, Jake spoke.

“The old courthouse has been an enigma as of late. The reason everyone seemed kind of jumpy when you mentioned it is that it has been the center of an--up till now--unexplainable phenomena.” Jake looked for a moment at Anton then continued. “We aren’t the only survivors here, as you’ve already seen. In fact, there are more of us here in the towers. This group here is merely today’s security team. You will meet the others later on. But more importantly, there are other survivors outside of our group. You saw some of them downstairs with the dogs, right?”

Anton nodded, but said nothing about the strange behaviour exhibited by the dogs.

“There are quite a few survivors living in the old transit tunnels below the city. I think a lot of them were homeless even before the pandemic began, but their numbers have increased since then. They are pretty nomadic and seem to follow no other law than ‘might makes right’. They are raiders and take whatever they can get. Food. Clothing. Women...” The last word hung in the air.

Anton looked up and Jake nodded. “We secured this place to protect our own interests, but more importantly, to protect the women with us. The raiders are constantly out and about in search of goods.”

“What does that have to do with the courthouse?” Anton asked, puzzled.

“Well, I was getting to that. You see, we also have to scavenge the things we can’t produce ourselves, medicine mainly, and clothing, but some other foodstuffs as well. Out of this necessity, we have learned to be very quiet and observant. Our best defence is our anonymity. We have kept this place hidden and we never use lights anywhere that can be observed from the outside, especially at night. Likewise, we venture out to scavenge in  small groups and we keep track of where we see the tunnel rats during our hunts.”

Jake paused for a moment, scratched his head a bit, and then continued, “Obviously, no one can account for every possible security threat as sometimes it is nothing more than bad luck that compromises your security. We have had several instances where our scouting parties have inadvertently come upon raider parties. We knew this would happen eventually and we had a policy in place. In the event of unexpected contact, our standing rule is to never lead enemies back to our hideout. In the event of a conflict, we are to lead them away from our home. Well, during our occupancy here, there have been several such incidents, but a couple were notable. The encounters occurred east of us and our scouting parties ran eastward seeking shelter. The folks in the party noticed that when they approached the courthouse, the raiders would fall back. It was as if they were afraid of that building. After we had seen that happen a couple times, we sent a group to check the building, but all the doors and windows were locked tight and the glass appears to be bullet-proof. Since we didn’t think there would be much of use to us in a courthouse, we’ve not tried to breach it further, but now whenever we encounter raiders, that is where we tend to head as the raiders won’t go within a block of the place.”

Jake paused again and looked at Anton. “What happened with the raiders downstairs?”

Anton looked up at Jake with suspicion in his eyes.

“We watched from up here. You’d already rung the bell, remember? We heard the raiders wolf call signal and saw the three of them coming in from the north. We watched them until they left. What happened down there?”

Anton stared at him for a long while. “I heard them coming and I wanted to run but the girl grabbed my hand and pulled me back into the alcove, where the string for your bell is. She just sat down and closed her eyes. I was freaking out. I could see the men and the dogs and I figured that the dogs would find us. But then something happened. It was like the dogs didn’t want to come in the building. I thought maybe it was the girl because of what happened with the other dogs.”

“What other dogs?” they all asked. 

Anton related the story of the pack of dogs on Post Avenue and how they had reacted when the girl had arrived. “It was kind of the same thing. I thought maybe she had something to do with scaring the dogs off.”

“I think the dogs sense there is something bigger here. They sense a predator, a predator that is greater than them and it scares them.” It was Judith talking now. “I think that is why the raiders won’t go near the courthouse either. I think their dogs are scared of something there too. I felt it when I walked up there. There is something there. Something evil. Powerful. A presence.” The room was nodding in agreement. “I felt something similar as soon as you stepped off that rope ladder,” she said, and now she was pointing at Anton. 

Anton lifted his hands in a show of subordination, “I’m just a guy, I’m not a monster.”

“I said ‘similar’,” Judith continued, “not ‘the same’. I feel a presence here now, even stronger than the one at the courthouse, but it doesn’t feel evil like the one up there. It just feels powerful. Cold and powerful, like a storm brewing on the horizon.”

Anton slowly stood up and kept his hands raised apologetically, “Listen, I know this all sounds really weird, and I’ll admit that the story you told me about the indian guy is pretty scary, especially with the drawing and all, but I don’t think I’m your guy. I think maybe this thing is following me. Maybe it uses the girl to find me and point me where it wants to go. I think, realistically, it would be best if I just kept moving along and got out of your hair.” As he spoke Anton was edging himself towards the door. 

“Anton, sit down. We are not accusing you.” It was Judith speaking again. “We aren’t claiming you are a monster. We are just trying to put the pieces together. Something is going on. Times are changing. People are changing. The men you told us about have abilities that we have not seen before. Your experience with the dogs is also unexplainable right now. We need to use our heads. Panic will get us nowhere. Believe me, we mean you no harm.” As she said this, she turned and gestured towards the rest of the group and they all nodded. Anton slumped back into his seat. 

“It’s getting late,” Anna said, “let’s break and get some dinner and we can discuss this later. Maybe after a good night’s sleep.”  

“I hear ya!” Tommy agreed.

“It’s always about the food with you two!” Becca snapped, but Anton detected a note of humor in her voice.

“Of course!” Tommy replied, “I’ve got more cubic inches to fuel than that little single cylinder you’re riding, half-pint!”

The whole group laughed and they all stood up. Jake stood and offered his hand to Anton once more. As Anton shook his hand, Jake turned to the group. “Let’s take Anton down to meet the others.”

Again, Jake led the way, but this time it was Anna who fell in behind him along with Peggy. Judith hooked her arm into Anton’s and guided him out the door after the two women and Becca and the men brought up the rear. Jake led them back to the stairwell and down several flights of stairs to the 18th floor. He opened the door and held it while the entire group walked past him. Anna then took the lead and led them down the sunlit hallway to one of the apartments on the north side of the building. Once inside the door, Anton could tell that the apartment had been heavily modified. The sections of wall that had separated the six apartments on the north side of the building had been removed. Only the weight-bearing beams remained. You could see through the entire floor from east to west. There were several large tables set up in what had been the two central apartments and there were sounds emanating from the two adjacent kitchens, which from the aromas that now reached Anton, were still functional. Judith leaned towards him, “This is our mess hall, so to speak. We don’t eat here all the time but when there are things we have to discuss, we have everyone come here to meet. When I went to get the drawing earlier, I rang the other towers to let them know we would be getting together tonight. Looks like they are working on dinner as we speak!”

As the group gathered around one of the tables, folks started peeking out of the kitchen doorways and Anton caught several quizzical glances tossed in his direction. Then Gerald, Gunnar, Tommy and Jake sat down and Peggy joined them, but Anna and Becca walked directly into the closest kitchen and Anton heard animated voices and questioning tones. He heard men’s voices from the kitchen as well. As he sat taking it all in and enjoying being around people again, he saw more people come in from the stairwells. There were some older folks and some teenagers as well as a handful of young children who all came in together accompanied by a woman who looked to be about Anton’s age. She looked eastern european, Russian perhaps with dark hair, light skin and striking green eyes. She was tall and lanky and dressed in painter pants and heavy hooded sweatshirt that looked to be a couple sizes too big for her. She glanced at Anton as she walked in with the children and he felt as if she were sizing up a threat. Anton sat quietly next to Jake as everyone made their way to the tables. Anton was surprised by the number of people. Once everyone had come up and those in the kitchen had brought out the food, there were twenty-eight people seated around the tables. Anton made it twenty-nine. 

Jake stood and made introductions while the people began eating. Each person nodded towards Anton as their name was called. Most of them concentrated on their food, but the children stared at Anton with some fright in their eyes. All in all there were 20 people other than the eight Anton met originally. Jake gave a bit of background on each of them, allowing them to flesh out the details for themselves if they chose. 

There was a retired couple, George and Lydia Lyman, Becca’s parents,  who had been tenants of the building before the sickness started. Becca had travelled from her university in Bozeman, Montana to be with them before travel restrictions had locked down interstate travel. There was another elderly lady who had come up the stairwell with the Lymans and she was introduced as Ginny Hendricks, Gerald’s wife. Working in the kitchen were two men: Tony Nicoletto, Anna’s husband, and Scott Daniels. Tony was thin and wiry with a pencil thin mustache and heavily tattooed arms. Scott was also thin with a shock of blond hair that stood on end an inch above his forehead. Scott had been a chef at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant on the Harbor Steps and Tony had worked in Luigi’s Grotto on 1rst and Cherry. Also in the kitchen were three more women: Sisi Ostero, Betsy Calhoun, and Elsa Breck.

Sisi and her husband Ben had had three children: Sarah, Emmett and Tyrone. Sarah was 11, Emmett was 9 and Tyrone (who went by Ty) was 15. Ben Ostero had worked as an electrical engineer for Boeing before the sickness. Betsy Calhoun and her husband Mike had two young boys, Joshua and Nathan. Mike had been a fire inspector for the county. Ben and Mike had accompanied the Lyman’s and Ginny Hendricks up the stairwell. In addition to the Ostero and Calhoun children, there were three orphaned children in the group as well. Daniel and Samantha Sells, both teenagers, had lost their parents early on and had lived on the streets for a while before finding refuge with the group in the Harbor Steps Apartments. Likewise, Liza Humphries, a cute little button of a five year old was found by one of the tower scouting parties. She was playing with a cat in the abandoned ruins of Pikes Market. She had been nearly incoherent from dehydration when they found her, but she had recovered well. Elsa Breck was a corporate sales representative from Atlanta, Georgia and had found herself stranded in downtown Seattle when everything went tits up. She had holed up in the room service closet of her hotel for nearly a week when the worst of the riots were going on downtown and had met up with Veronika Tkachenko, a human trafficking investigator with Interpol, one night when they were both searching for food in a burned out Walgreens. The two of them stuck together and survived pretty well till they were cornered one night by a group of raiders. Fortunately, Tommy Lutai, Ben Ostero and Jake saw the women get cornered and intervened. The five barely escaped with their lives as raider reinforcements arrived.

Veronika, or Niki as they called her, was the one whom Anton had seen herding the children upstairs for dinner. She had been chaperoning them for the afternoon while their parents were busy with other chores. She had an almost invisible scar on her lower lip that Anton only noticed because she was biting her lip nervously as she listened to the whole introduction process. The small white pucker would fold her lip a bit as she bit at it. He found himself staring at it until he noticed she was watching him as well and he quickly averted his eyes.

After Jake had finished introducing the new arrivals, he went back over the people that Anton had already met, giving a little background on each. Tommy was a diesel fitter who had worked in the shipyards south of Seattle. Gunnar was formerly the maintenance and facilities supervisor for the Chase Mortgage complex on 3rd Avenue between Seneca and University. Gerald had been a history professor at University of Washington in Bellevue. Judith had worked with UNICEF all over the world, but had retired just before the pandemic and was a yoga instructor in a shared studio space just north of Pikes Market. Anna had worked with Tony at the restaurant. That is where they had met several years back and after they married they had negotiated with the previous owner to buy the business when he retired. Peggy had been the HR manager for the Washington State Ferries.  

Once Jake had finished introducing everyone, he turned to Anton once more. “And that brings us to me,” he said with a smile. “I’m just a kid who builds stuff. A tinkerer.” At this, everyone in the room burst out laughing. 

Gerald spoke up immediately, “Jake is always the most self-deprecating of our little group. Truth be told he is something of an engineering genius. He developed several patents while working as a subcontractor for the aerospace industry and the resulting revenue stream allowed him to retire at the ripe old age of, what was it Jake? 24?”

Jake waved him off. “I just play with blocks,” he said, and smiled. With all the introductions out of the way, Jake then began relating to the group the story of Anton’s arrival, the strange occurrences with the dogs and the symbol drawn in the dust. As Jake spoke, more and more eyes turned towards Anton. The children were no longer interested in eating and were staring openly at Anton while the others turned their attention from Jake to Anton and back again. Anton could see fear in many of their faces. He knew that most didn’t want to believe what Jake was saying about who he was. Hell, Anton himself didn’t want to believe it. But he couldn’t explain away what was happening anymore. Something was going on and he had to finally admit that whatever it was seemed to be localizing around him, specifically. As Jake drew to a close, he turned once more to Anton. “Did I miss anything?” he asked, with a sly grin on his face. Anton shook his head. “Is there anything you’d like to add?”

Anton stood up and looked around the room for a minute. “I just wanted to thank you all for letting me share your home. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anything resembling society. It is good to see people helping each other again and trying to rebuild some semblance of community. I hope I haven’t compromised your safety by coming here.” With that, he nodded to everyone as he sat down once again. 

“Does anyone else have anything they want to say?” Jake asked, from where he sat with his plate of food in front of him. 

“Let’s eat!” Tommy piped up from the back table and everyone laughed as one. Anton felt some of the foreboding fear leave the room as folks began to eat and chat among themselves. 

After dinner, Jake walked among the adults and whispered a bit and Anton saw heads nodding and then whispers being passed along. As Jake made his way around the group, Sisi Ostero and Betsy Calhoun called out to the kids and told them it was time to get their homework and chores finished up before bedtime and the two women ushered the eight children out of the room. Once they had left, Jake spoke up again.

“Anton, we wanted to chat with you a bit more about your experiences with the two… what should I call them? Supermen? You see, we’ve seen some things here that we couldn’t explain and now that I saw for myself how the dogs reacted to you, I think there may be some things we can learn from each other.” Jake looked around the room and the other adults were all nodding. “We wanted to have just the adults here for this, don’t want to get the kids scared unless we absolutely have to. So Ben and Mike will catch their wives up after we’re done here.” Everyone nodded once again.

Anton raised his hand as everyone turned to look at him. “Go ahead, Anton,” Jake said. 

“I just wanted to say right off the bat that I am not convinced that your interpretation of who I am is correct. I am still not convinced that I am this Kooshdakhaa that Billy told you about. I think there are a lot of strange things going on, but I feel more like I am being dragged behind the bumper more than the one who is driving the car. The experiences you folks have had do seem to have some sort of bearing on my arrival and there are things about my own trip that just don’t add up, the constant appearing and disappearing of the girl being the most obvious… and the most aggravating.” The last statement caused more than a few of those in attendance to smile in spite of themselves. “Having said that… what do you want to know about me?”

Gerald spoke up. “Give us your story. Where’re you from originally?  What did you do for a living? What happened in Juneau when the pandemic broke out? You know, give us some background.” Everyone was nodding again.

Anton gave them the condensed version of his life history. He had grown up in Juneau, graduated from high school at Juneau-Douglas High School. Went on to University of Alaska Southeast, the campus was also in Juneau. He had gotten a degree in biology. It was at college that he had met Larissa. She was a marine biology major from Austin, Texas. She had come to Juneau for her degree, but even before she met Anton, she had decided to stay in Juneau. The two of them found work in the government sector after graduation. Anton worked for the city in the Mendenhall Wastewater Treatment Facility and Larissa worked for the Department of Fish and Game as a marine mammal specialist. She spent a good deal of time away from home out on research trips and the rest was spent working at the NOAA facility at Lena Point. After two years of marriage, they had Celeste, their daughter, and bought a home downtown, in the Highlands Subdivision. Celeste would have been just old enough to start kindergarten when the virus took her and Larissa.

Anton paused and the room was silent. He saw the look of loss on many of their faces. His story, though terrible, was not unique. The loss of friends and loved ones to this illness was universal. Spouses, siblings, children, parents, friends and neighbors. Everyone had lost someone to this unimaginable tragedy.

“When did you first encounter the superhuman guy?” This time it was Ben Ostero who spoke. Ben was tall and thin and kind of frail looking, but Anton sensed strength in his voice. 

“The first time I saw him was when he was killed by the beast,” Anton responded, but then paused. “But I should back up a bit. There were some related events that led to him showing up at the harbor that day.” Anton then went on to relate how he had found the girl on the bridge in Juneau, hiding under a car. He talked about how he had been shot at several times by men on the bridge and that it was probably only through the intervention of the beast that he and the girl were able to escape. He then related how he had taken the girl back to the house at Auke Rec and the horrific scene in the driveway the next morning. He also told of how he had found the two houses on Meander Way looking like they had been in a war and he also told of the supplies he’d found stashed in the house and the video camera and the log book. At that point, Anton paused. His mind returned to the last date he had seen in the book. The strange fear immediately returned. He looked up and everyone was looking at him, waiting for him to continue. 

“What day is it?” He asked suddenly. 

“What?” nearly everyone answered in unison. 

“No really. What is today’s date?”

The group all looked at him like he had just taken leave of his senses. “It’s  August 9th,” Jake replied. “Why do you ask?”

“What year?” Anton almost whispered.

“2014, of course. What is going on?” Jake demanded.

“Somewhere between the death of my wife and child... and when I found that video camera... I lost a large chunk of time…” Anton replied, as he stared off into space.

“How much time?” Jake asked.

“They died on September 25th of 2013. I kind of lost it a little. Sat in the dark by myself. I thought it was just a day or so. But then, a couple days later, I found the camera with the date of July 31st, 2014 on it. I remember everything up to the death of my family… and everything after deciding to burn their bodies and walk away. But something happened to me in between. And ten months passed.”

Now the expressions on the faces of those listening bordered on incredulity. “How do you lose ten months?” Tommy asked immediately. “There’s no way,” Gerald was saying and the women were whispering among themselves.

“I can’t explain it either,” Anton replied. “I’ve tried to figure it out, but unless I found food outside my own house somehow while I was ‘out of it’, I don’t think I ate or drank anything during that period. None of my supplies had been touched. I literally thought I had just kind of withdrawn into my grief for a day, maybe two at the most. But I remember that even when I came out of it I was surprised that I didn’t feel hungry or thirsty. I also noticed that the neighborhood seemed to have aged suddenly.”

Now it was Peggy who spoke up. “What do you mean?”

“I remember that there was a thick layer of dust on my car in the driveway when I left my house. And the other houses were more run-down looking. Not like they were falling apart or anything, just dirtier and more overgrown. I still cannot fathom that I passed an entire winter without any knowledge of it.”

The little tug was pulling at the corner of Judith’s mouth again. Anton noticed the knowing look in her eyes just before she spoke. “Had you been going out fairly regularly before your wife and daughter died?”

Anton nodded. “Yeah, I would go out every couple of days or so. I wanted the people in the neighborhood to know we were still alive.”

“Were there still survivors then?” she continued.

Again Anton nodded. “I’d see people fairly regularly. There were a few in our neighborhood, in fact. And there was quite a group that would fish down on the piers during the day. We all kept to ourselves, but we at least acknowledged each other. We’d wave and go our own way.”

“And was the bridge with the cars near your home?” Judith continued.

“Yeah, the pier that I liked to fish from was directly underneath the bridge.”

“And I’ll wager all those cars weren’t parked on the bridge when you used to go there to fish, were they?”

Anton was starting to feel uncomfortable. This woman seemed to be able to see into his mind. The twinkle in her eye again reminded him of the knowing look the old man gave him the first time they met. He replied to Judith haltingly. “No… I don’t remember them being there.”

“So, it is entirely possible that all the scary, disturbing developments--the cars parked across the bridge, the armed men guarding it, the shattered bullet-ridden home with the video camera and the burned cars blocking the road to it--ALL of it, could have happened while you were ‘blacked out’?”

The question hung in the air for several minutes. Everyone in the room was absolutely silent. Everyone was staring at Judith now. And Anton was starting to feel sick. He nodded again. 

“What are you getting at?” Jake asked, but even Anton suspected they were all thinking the same thing.

“I think that maybe that missing ten months was the beginning. The start of the Kooshdakhaa thing. Maybe Anton wasn’t moving… or even eating or drinking. But it sounds like the beast was. If Billy is right, and Anton, the beast and the girl are really just different facets of the same being, then maybe Anton doesn’t need to eat or drink if the beast does. Might work that way for the girl too. Maybe if you are eating she doesn’t need to and the beast doesn’t either.”

Anton was barely aware of the murmurings that now arose from the group. His head was spinning with possibilities. He remembered now that the girl never ate anything when Anton did. She would just play with her food and leave it uneaten. And as he thought of this, his mind began to wonder what the beast might eat… and then he remembered the various bodily remains he had encountered and, more importantly, the missing pieces. Then he felt sick to his stomach. He seriously thought he was going to throw up the meal he had just eaten. He could feel the bile rising in his throat and the cold sweat beading on his forehead and neck. The room started to spin a bit and he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, and covered his face with his hands.

“I’m just pointing out the possibilities,” Judith said. “I don’t know one way or the other what happened up there. But from how you tell it, you have to admit the possibilities.” She looked around at the others and no one spoke. They all stared at Anton now. 

When he finally felt well enough to open his eyes again, they were still all just staring at him expectantly. He shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t believe I am in any way connected to this thing. The girl and the beast are as weird and terrifying to me as they are to you. They don’t talk to me, they don’t interact with me. They just appear. The girl usually when something bad is about to happen and the beast just in time to stop it.”

“Rather convenient, that.” Judith stated flatly, and smiled once again.

Anton figured she had more to say and stated as much. 

“Think about it. Maybe your mind is still trying to figure it out,” she said.

 

“What do you mean?” Anton asked.

“Do you think about how you stand up? Or how to listen? Or how to chew? No, we just know how to do it. We don’t analyze it, we just accept it. Instinct or whatever you want to call it. Maybe these two, the beast and the girl are nothing more than reactions to your environment, much like a lion flicks his tail at a fly. Maybe the beast and the girl are similar--parts of you that act instinctually rather than with your active participation… you know, like shivering or blinking or breathing.”

Anton was still not convinced. “While I understand what you are trying to say, even with totally involuntary actions like my heartbeat, or goosebumps… I feel attached to those actions. I feel that they are a part of me. I don’t feel that way about the girl or the beast.”

“I’ve got a question…” It was Mike Calhoun now. He was big and blonde, like a farmer from Iowa. He had clear blue eyes and his hair was stiff like brush bristles. He also had a crooked front tooth that caused him to slur the sounds of certain letters, like the ‘s’ in ‘question’. It came out sounding more like an ‘sh’ and immediately made Anton think of Sean Connery’s famous accent. “You say you don’t feel attached to these two creatures. But has there been any instance that made you feel you were more than just a normal human being? Something that made you think you were like these supermen, perhaps? I am only asking because I agree with Judith. I felt something different as soon as I walked into the room here with you. I can’t put my finger on it, but it is almost like there is a presence in the room that can read us somehow and is… oh I don’t know… sizing us up, somehow? Do you feel that or have you felt anything else that makes you feel like you’re different in some way from the rest of us?”

Anton was about to brush off the answer with a quick ‘no’ when he remembered the incident at Auke Bay harbor. He had heard the attacker’s thoughts. It had totally startled him and caused a bit of panic even because he didn’t know what was going on. He had forced it out of his mind, but now he remembered it. And he also remembered wanting to kill the man just a millisecond before the beast crushed the man’s head--almost as if in response to his unspoken wish. Anton stared down at the floor while these thoughts ran through his mind.

Jake was the one who broke the silence. “You’ve remembered something, haven’t you.”

Anton nodded and told them about the experience at the harbor, relating how he had heard the man’s thoughts in his head, even as the man was thinking them. He even remembered responding to a question the man had been thinking and he remembered the look of fear that his response had created in his attacker’s eyes. Anton thought that just maybe it was this fear, and the resulting anger at having been scared, that had caused the man to attack him.

“The mind is a complex thing,” this time it was Niki. The smooth, velvet tone of her voice sent a shiver up his spine. He looked across the table at her and she held his gaze easily this time. “As a detective, I was taught to try and think like the criminals I was pursuing. During my career, I have encountered many that seemed almost schizophrenic when confronted with the reality of their atrocious crimes. They seemed almost afraid to admit that they were responsible, like they were trying to block it from their minds. This happened frequently with the families of the accused as well. They didn’t want to believe that their loved ones had done such horrific things, so they would deny it, but it wasn’t like they were lying. They actually believed it or wanted to believe it so badly that it bordered on religious fervor.” She paused for a moment and bit her lip once more as she continued staring at Anton. The vulnerability of the action juxtaposed with the intense gaze of her eyes stirred feelings in Anton that he’d not felt since before his wife died. His heart beat a little faster. And Niki continued.

“Maybe your body is trying to protect you from yourself… so  you don’t have a mental break or something. Maybe the girl and the beast, appearing the way they do, are the evolutionary result of the Kooshdakhaa’s rebirth--something that has evolved over time to make the transition easier. You begin to trust the girl and she in turn gives more of her power to you. Perhaps the beast is the same way. You are unaware of what it does because you are not ready to control it yet.”

Anton felt a great conflict in his chest. On one hand, what the woman was saying was terrifying him, but on the other, he found himself inexplicably attracted to her. Something about her was drawing him in… and the fact that he couldn’t pinpoint what it was also caused him fear. She was beautiful, no doubt, but it was more than that. He felt like she was pulling him into her mind. The sound of her voice, the clarity in her eyes as she met his gaze, the subtle changes in expression and body language all seemed to be conspiring to seduce him. And yet Anton was pretty sure that Niki had no such intentions. It was something either he was imagining or it was beyond the level of rational thought. 

Anton was still trying to analyze this strange attraction he felt for Niki when he realized the room had fallen silent once more. He looked around and everyone was staring at him expectantly. He thought maybe they had asked him something and he had been oblivious. “What?” he asked sheepishly.

“Do you think anything Niki said is plausible?” Jake asked. 

Anton turned to look at Niki once again and stared at her for a moment. Again, she held his gaze easily, her bright green eyes boring into his own. “Perhaps,” he replied. “I’m beginning to think that I may know less about what is happening to me than any of you.” Anton’s gaze dropped to his hands in his lap once more and the room was silent once again.

“Well,” said Anna, “we don’t have to solve ALL of the world’s problems tonight. This is a LOT for all of us to mull over. Let’s take it one day at a time. I think we can all use some rest at this point, it’s been a rather eventful day.”

“I agree,” Jake said, and most of the room was nodding as well. Folks started to stand up and walk towards the door. Jake stood next to Anton while folks were making their way out. “I’m going to take you to one of the floors up above. We have a couple apartments on the north side of the 21st floor that aren’t being used. We can find a place for you to sleep there.” Anton noticed that Tommy and Gunnar were waiting for the others to leave as well. The three men escorted him up to the 21st floor. Jake led them to one of the doors in the middle of the hallway and opened it and gestured for Anton to enter. The apartment looked like it was used for storage of extra furniture. There were several twin size mattresses and bed frames leaned against the living room wall.  There were also a few folding tables stacked up in one corner. 

“You can set up one of the beds to sleep on tonight. There are some wool blankets in the closet at the end of that hall there if you get cold.” Jake paused and looked around at Tommy and Gunnar. “Anton. We want to trust you, but we have to be careful. You understand. You’ll be the only person on this floor. There is nothing but extra furniture here. No weapons. No food. All the staircase doors are steel fire doors and they are locked so that anyone in the staircase can’t open them. You can make it out of here by going down to the fourth floor and finding a way to climb down the elevator shaft to the lobby, but you won’t be able to get to any other floor. Do you understand?”

Anton nodded. “I would probably do the same thing in your place. You guys still don’t have much reason to trust me.”

Jake shrugged a bit. “Tommy and Gunnar are also on night duty tonight, they will be taking shifts at keeping watch over the access points. Since we don’t use lights at night, we tend to shoot first and ask questions later, especially when we know all of our own are bedded down for the night. So, if you think you do want to move on, now would be the time. Otherwise, I’d recommend that you wait till morning when those who might otherwise shoot you will be able to see and identify you.”

Anton nodded again. “I’m fine here, Jake. Thank you. Tommy and Gunnar, thank you both as well. You all are being more than kind, taking me in. Thank you for your hospitality.”

The three men shook Anton’s hand in turn and then left him alone in the apartment. The sun had already set but there was still some fading light in the western sky. Anton used the remaining light to pull out a mattress and to find a blanket from the hall closet. He didn’t bother with a bed frame, he simply laid the mattress on the floor, wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and rolled onto the mattress. As his head hit the mattress, he realized just how tired he actually was. The day’s events had drained him emotionally and physically and the soft mattress was a welcome escape from the foreboding thoughts ringing through his skull. Within minutes he was sound asleep.

Hours later, while Anton slept softly two floors above, Niki was wide awake. She lay in her bed staring at the ceiling, her mind racing. She looked at the window across the room and judged by the darkness that it had to be close to 2AM. She usually had trouble sleeping, but tonight the reason was entirely different. She couldn’t get her mind off Anton.  If she closed her eyes, all she could see was his face--and that bothered her. A lot. 

She didn’t like that she felt inexplicably attracted to him. She knew nothing about him. And on top of that, she felt a growing trepidation that there was some sort of dark presence gathering around him, like a growing evil… No, that wasn’t quite right. Evil wasn’t the right word. Whatever the presence was, it was indeed very powerful, but evil didn’t seem to describe what she felt. It was bigger than that. Whatever it was, it scared her. She felt the fear in the pit of her stomach.. Yes, it was definitely fear, but she suddenly realized it was not a fear of Anton, or of the presence that surrounded him. Her thoughts raced ahead. The fear she felt was that Anton’s arrival precipitated something. Something bad was going to happen and she was somehow involved. 

She had spent most of her adult life meticulously avoiding relationships, and any social situations that might lead to them. She had concentrated fully on her work and left little time in her life for anything else. She had retreated inside herself and her profession. She had felt attraction to no one--until now. 

Anton’s face filled her mind once more and she chided herself for what she felt was some sort of adolescent crush, a crush on a total stranger no less. But she knew it was something more. She could feel it deep down in her chest, down below the rush of attraction and sexuality, there was something more... Something dark and quiet, beating slowly and softly like a great black heart. The heavy rhythm washed over her, calming her, slowing her own racing heart. Her mind cleared and her breathing slowed. She felt her eyes finally growing heavy with sleep. She fought it a little, making mental notes of how she would question Anton more thoroughly in the morning, trying to convince herself she could think her way out of her attraction to him, but eventually the soft, dark rhythm lulled her to sleep. She was just drifting off when she heard it. The sound wasn’t loud, but the nature of it was strange and brought Niki immediately awake. She sat bolt upright in bed with her hand resting on her pistol on the nightstand. She held her breath and listened, but heard no further sound. Her brow furrowed a bit and she stepped lightly to the floor and padded softly to the window, pistol in hand.