After a time the silence, broken only by the never-ending drip of water, became too oppressive. Danni stood and approached the bars, straining to see on either side of them. The way looked clear so far as she could tell, but that didn’t mean anything. “Are you there, Sa...?” She hesitated, realizing she had almost said Sarah. “Sophie, can you hear me?”
After a few moments, the other woman replied, “Yes.”
Though she didn’t want to ask what she’d been thinking, she found the words forming on her lips regardless. “You said there was another woman here. That she was close. What did you mean by that?”
After several long seconds had passed, Danni feared she wouldn’t answer. That she was perhaps reaching the same fugue state that Abby had been in, a place where a person became so damaged, so terrified, that they retreated deep into themselves, the only safe place left for them.
But then Sophie spoke up. “They took her away to give birth. She ... Sarah’s been here longer than the rest of us.”
“Don’t call her that. It’s not her name.”
“It’s the only name we have here,” came the bleak reply.
“I told you. I have friends.”
“And what good is that? My husband worked for the state.” Sophie’s voice broke. “Have they come looking? Have they found us?”
Danni considered her next words carefully, but then realized the truth probably didn’t matter. What could they do to her? Punish her for saying it? They’d have to find her first. If so, she’d gladly welcome whatever they decided to do to her in retribution. “The state is why me and my friends are here. They called us in to search for you. We’re a ... special team. We have guns.”
“Didn’t seem to help you much.”
Danni wanted to punch the bars in frustration at her response, but she knew the other woman was right. “They caught us by surprise, an ambush. We were searching for one ... perpetrator. We didn’t realize there were so many.”
“And soon there’s going to be even more,” Sophie replied. “That’s what they use us for. We’re just livestock to them, bitches to be bred.”
“I’m nobody’s bitch.”
“You say that now, but you can’t fight them. They’re too strong. Whatever it is that’s been done to them, however it is they’ve been born, it makes them strong, tough. The one they call Noah, I fought him when they brought me here, fought with everything I had. Raked my nails across his face, figured I’d take a chunk out of him while I could. Nothing. I didn’t even draw blood. We can’t win. All we can do is ... hope they finish with us quickly.”
By the end, Sophie’s voice became devoid of everything, all emotion, all hope. It was like listening to a voice from beyond the grave, chilling Danni to her very bones.
Soon, all became quiet in the dingy prison again, except for the dripping water and occasional low sob from Sophie’s direction.
Unsure what to say, Danni looked across from her at the now empty cell. She hadn’t dared ask what their captors had planned for Abby, mainly because she realized a part of her didn’t want to know.
What she’d heard from them had been more than enough to turn her stomach. She could only hope that it was quick for the young woman and that they didn’t hurt her – a sentiment which echoed Sophie’s spoken despair.
That was little more than a pipe dream, though. These bastards had already hurt her, done far worse if her suspicions were correct. Danni had only spoken a few words to the girl, but it was enough to know she was broken, possibly beyond fixing. Whatever they were doing to her now, it obviously wasn’t the first time she’d been taken from her cage to whatever torture they had in store for her.
Danni had never considered herself a particularly religious person. Nevertheless, she said a silent prayer to God – not for herself, but in the hope that he might show mercy to Abby, Sophie, and anyone else stuck in this hell.
♦ ♦ ♦
“You must be the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet,” Mitchell said. “No fragmentation, a couple of clean exit wounds, and the rest all small caliber ... or this.” He held up what appeared to be a musket ball.
“And yet,” Derek replied, lying on the conference table that currently served as a makeshift bed, “somehow I don’t feel like it.”
“Let the pain meds kick in, but don’t expect to feel like a million bucks anytime soon. Hell, don’t expect to feel like a buck-fifty either.”
“I can live with the pain, but I can’t live with...”
“Being a normal person and taking the next several weeks off? Yeah, I figured that.”
“Hate to say it,” Derek said, wincing as he gingerly sat up and swung his legs off the side of the table. “But the governor’s yes-man might be doing us a favor. Pretty sure a hospital wouldn’t be too keen on letting me walk out right now.”
“And they’d be right. There’s all sorts of complications that could happen between now and...”
“Hand me my shirt, please.”
Mitchell did as asked. “I don’t suppose I should waste my breath telling you to let the rest of us handle this.”
“There isn’t any rest of us,” Derek replied. “At least until we get some backup.”
“Then it’s a good thing I stitched you up extra well. Gonna leave some scars, though.”
“I don’t have any beauty pageants on my calendar. Any word from Norah?”
“Not yet.” Upon their arrival back at the campus, ushered in the back door so that as few people as possible saw them, Eric Zeist had tried to confiscate Mitchell’s cell phone, but the medic had put a quick end to that. Zeist’s men had grudgingly let Mitchell put in a call to their superiors but had been watching his group like hawks ever since.
“Dammit! We can’t wait for her to comb through red tape. Danni and Frank need us now.” Derek took a deep breath then indicated the door. “What’s the word out there?”
“It’s ... a bit tense.”
“Define tense.”
“They’ve got Julia locked up in a conference room down the hall. Two of their gestapo buddies are guarding her.”
“I bet she’s pissed.”
“A bit. Can’t say I blame her. They dragged Arthur out of bed and brought him here before placing the building on lockdown.”
“Why?”
“Containment. Seems our buddy Eric is acting on orders from the good governor.”
“Great, just what we need.” Derek stood and shuffled to the door. “Let’s get out there and take control of the situation before this entire thing goes to hell.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Arthur stood up as Derek and Mitchell re-entered the room. “Are you all right?”
“I’m alive,” Derek replied.
The college student walked toward them. “What happened to Danni? Nobody here will tell me anything.”
“Sorry,” Mitchell said. “I’ve been ... a little busy.”
Arthur hooked a thumb toward Zeist’s men. “I meant these guys.”
“I’m not going to mince words,” Derek replied. “She’s in trouble, but we’re going to do everything we can to save her.”
“Trouble? Does it have anything to do with the samples we’ve been analyzing?”
“A lot to do with it.”
“Because I’ve been looking over the results all night and have some ideas.”
“That’s enough,” Eric barked, stomping over to them. “The kid doesn’t need to know any more than he does.”
Derek turned to him. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
“You can barely walk.”
“That’s more than enough to make a judgment call.” Derek held his gaze. “So here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to let our friend out of that closet you’ve got her in and bring her here. Then you’re going to back off and let us do our jobs.”
“The governor’s on his way. He’ll...”
Though the comment caught Derek by surprise, he didn’t miss a beat. “But he’s not here yet, is he? And until he is, this is my expedition and those are my team members out there. So you’re either going to help or get out of my way. Those are your only two options.”
The two men glared at each other for several seconds until Eric finally blinked. He turned to one of his men. “Go get the woman and bring her here, but don’t let her even look in the direction of a phone.”
“Better.” Derek motioned Arthur over and took a seat. The small amount of time on his feet had been an effort, reminding him that overdoing it wasn’t going to help anyone. Sadly, there didn’t look to be much choice in the matter. “So let’s talk about what you’ve got, kid.”
Nervousness flashed across Arthur’s face, as if he remembered he was a student intern talking to someone who was both a celebrity and a government agent. “Is this going to help her?”
“I won’t lie. There’s no way of knowing. But anything more than what we currently have is better than where we are now.”
Arthur took a seat between Derek and Mitchell. “Those samples we found. At first I thought they were degraded because of contamination, but now I’m not so sure. I think they’re actually human, but ... at the same time not. Almost an offshoot species, but more because of external factors, not evolution.”
“Go on,” Derek said.
“You’re going to think this is crazy.”
Mitchell chuckled. “Try us, kid.”
“The toxins in the samples. At first, I thought they were external, like maybe whatever DNA was in there got mixed in with something else, but I spent a little more time with it and now I think that sample was some sort of excretion.”
“Like saliva?”
“More like pus or maybe phlegm. But whatever was in it originated from the source, not after the fact.”
“So whatever this thing is, it has toxins in its body.”
“Heavy metals, industrial waste, we’re talking some serious shit.” At that, Arthur looked embarrassed. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” Derek replied. “I’m not your parent and you’re not being graded. Speak frankly.”
He adjusted his glasses, but smiled anyway. “Thanks. But yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. I’m pretty sure this sample is from a human who’s been badly affected by whatever is in their system, but at the same time, I don’t think this is a freak occurrence. I’ve never seen anything like this, but my gut tells me you couldn’t introduce this sort of damage to the human body all at once and have it survive.”
“How then?”
“I think it’s ... hereditary.” Arthur paused, looking nervous as if he, too, felt his story was ridiculous, but then he nodded. “I know it sounds crazy, but...”
“Not as crazy as that thing opening its mouth and talking to us.”
“What?!”
“Sit back. Let me bring you up to speed.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Derek’s recounting of their ambush was interrupted by the sound of someone cursing up a storm in the hall. The door opened and Julia was led in, escorted by two of Zeist’s men. She was busy chewing them out about civil liberties and freedom of the press. All were valid points as far as Derek was concerned, but not particularly helpful for her current situation, especially since he was certain his team wouldn’t be allowed to back up her claims once this was over and done with.
Her sister was still out there somewhere, though, and he was certain she’d agree that was the far more pressing issue at the moment. “Miss Wilhelm, can you please join us over here?”
“Screw that! If this gorilla thinks he can...”
“Julia! It’s about our friends and your sister.”
As expected, that got through to her. She gave Eric and his men one last dirty look, then stalked over.
The security director, for his part, said, “Any of you tries to give her your phone and I’ll smash it myself.”
“Try it and I’ll smash you in the...”
“That’s enough, Mitch,” Derek said before turning to Julia. “We’re going over what we know, trying to piece together who or what it is we’re up against.”
“What do you mean ‘what’? I thought you said it was a group of people.”
“That’s what we’re discussing. Turns out, calling them people might be generous if what I’m hearing is true.”
That caught her attention and she stopped complaining to listen in.
“What you said about this possibly being hereditary has got me thinking,” Derek said, nodding toward Arthur. “Ezekiel Lesterfield.”
“The museum proprietor?” Mitchell asked.
“One and the same. You saw him on the film. He’s not what I would call a pleasant-looking fellow. At first, I didn’t think much of it, but then he showed up in the swamp to save what we thought was the Jersey Devil. And he wasn’t alone. The others who were with him, I didn’t get much of a chance to examine them, but from what I could tell, Ezekiel and the devil represented two extremes.”
“Extremes?” Julia asked. “I don’t understand.”
“That’s okay, I’m just beginning to myself. According to what Ezekiel said, the devil is related to him. Called him Noah. It sounded like they’re all family and kinda looked that way, too. There’s Ezekiel, who looks normal enough to fit in with society, but at the other end of the spectrum is Noah. He’s ... hard to explain, but it’s like evolution decided to run in multiple different directions at the same time. Based on what he’s presumably done to our own people and others, I’m not entirely shy about calling him a monster inside and out. As for the rest of the group who ambushed us, they were all somewhere in between – a veritable smorgasbord of birth defects and deformities, but apparently nothing so debilitating as to keep them from doing what they did. From that aspect, they were all hale and hearty.”
“So ... a family of, what, freaks?” Mitchell asked.
“In a nutshell.”
“I don’t get it,” Julia said. “Did a circus break down and the performers all decide to run away into the swamp? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Derek shook his head. “No, it doesn’t, and I don’t think that’s the case anyway. According to Ezekiel, his family has been here for a long time, even before that crazy preacher grandpa of his.”
“But I thought you said he and this Noah were related.”
“Yes, and it’s all starting to make sense now ... sorta anyway.” Derek turned to Arthur. “What you said about it being hereditary, I think that might be the key here. The missing link, if you will.”
The college student looked confused. “How so?”
“What if Jedediah Lesterfield’s exorcism was less about god and religion and more about protecting his family?”
“You think this Noah guy is over a hundred years old?” Julia asked.
“Not at all. That would be crazy.”
“And the rest isn’t?”
Derek smiled at her. “Crazy is my line of work, but even I have limits.”