The water seems even colder the second time and almost forces the extra air from Reid’s lungs as he swims hard toward the tunnel. He reaches the lip just as panic sets in. Maybe he should surface, take another gulp of air? But he is already being drawn in by the current and has no choice.
He swims as best he can in the narrow way, finding it widens as he goes, the undertow slowing. Reid realizes they were lucky the front end is a bottleneck. It creates enough pressure to make the current possible.
The light is stronger ahead but his lungs are burning and his legs feel like useless weights trailing behind him. Something brushes against his face and he lets fear drive some of the precious oxygen from his lungs. It’s a shoe, someone’s foot. He swims up as the boy’s body spins slowly around, the dead and staring eyes meeting his. It’s Eric, his broken arm hanging free of the sling he wore it in.
Fury races through Reid’s body, spurring him forward, dragging the still form of the boy behind him. The water drags at them both but Reid lets his rage loose, feeding it on purpose. They left the kid to die, all of them. Not one tried to save him. The anger is enough to propel him all the way to the light and the surface.
Reid bursts to the top, gasping for air, Eric’s quiet form bobbing up to float beside him. Reid heaves the boy onto the shore and begins chest compressions, breathing into the kid’s mouth, trying to remember his CPR training from his last year at summer camp before his life went to hell, not sure if he’s doing it right or not but refusing to quit.
He feels hands on him, a quiet voice murmuring in his ear, but he won’t stop. They leave him alone to try and try.
And fail.
He finally has to give up, his own energy ebbed low, the last of his anger fuel burned up in the effort. Reid collapses to the side, caught in Leila’s arms.
“You did your best,” she whispers.
He jerks away from her, a bit of fury left after all. “Who left him behind?” Reid climbs to his feet, wobbly and weak. “Who left Eric to drown?” The kids are all staring at him in the faint yellow/orange light coming from somewhere to his left. “Who let this kid die?”
Their silence is as powerful as his accusation. He has his answer, then.
They all did.
Reid spins from them, his disgust replacing any need he had to protect them. How could he care when they didn’t? When their cowardice let an innocent kid drown? They make him so sick he can’t stand to look at them.
He loses his train of thought when something bright shines in his eyes and he blinks, hand rising to shade his face from the setting sun.
Reid gapes at it, not believing it’s real at first. He stumbles forward to the wide cave mouth, tripping over rocks and debris, falling to his knees in the thick grass just outside the opening. Below him, spread far and wide, is the most beautiful sight he has ever seen.
Trees, more trees, and hills in the distance. The best part, the most amazing sight, however, is the town. A whole town, lights on, smoke coming from chimneys in happy puffs. A real place with real people.
Reid knows what it means and it makes him laugh.
Against all odds, they’ve made it past the fence.
He collapses again, this time drained by relief, making his limbs rubbery, his vision blur.
“We did it.” Milo crouches next to him. “You did it. You got us free.”
Reid shakes his head. “That doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”
Milo looks off into the distance, at the town, civilization so close Reid can smell the wood smoke drifting toward the cave. “Still,” Milo says, voice very soft. “Thanks.”
He leaves Reid in grateful peace. He’s in no condition to talk to any of them. It’s almost worse, knowing how close Eric was to freedom.
“We’ll have to be careful,” Leila is saying. “We have no idea if these people know what’s going on. They might be in on it.”
But from the sounds of their growing excitement, the kids don’t want to listen to her.
“A real bed,” Alex says.
“Hot food,” is Megan’s squeaky wish.
“A shower.” Even Leila is being sucked in now.
“I’m not waiting.” Marcus. He shoves past Reid and heads out.
“We agreed!” Cole calls after him. Reid is stunned they’ve made a decision without him while knowing he shouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore. “We don’t go until full dark.”
Reid agrees despite himself. And wonders when the nighttime became more comfortable to him than the day.
Before he can act or say anything about it, Marcus is moving. The rest of the kids can’t stand it, obviously, because they follow in an eager, shoving mass.
Reid gets to his feet. Time to move on. He glances back at Eric, wondering what to do with the body and sees Leila gently composing his little arms over his chest.
“We’ll be back for you,” she says to the soaked, limp form, now empty of any care for what happens to him. When she stands and turns, she catches Reid’s eye. “We will.”
He shrugs and looks away. Cole is standing in front of him. He looks as keen as the others but holds back, shuffling from one foot to the other in quiet impatience, wet hair clinging to his face and cheeks like strings of dirty thread.
“Go on,” Reid says.
Cole grins at him wide enough to split his face and runs out the cave mouth and down the slope, sneakers squelching loudly, full of water, as he disappears into the forest.
Reid goes more slowly, Leila beside him. It’s not long before they catch up with some of the kids. Their immediate excitement-fed speed has worn off, the water soaking their clothes dragging them down. But their joy is no less and they smile and laugh and talk in loud voices as they hurry as best they can down the wooded hillside to the town.
Reid glances back over his shoulder, up at the cave mouth, a sudden fear winding its way through his heart. The hunters obviously have an aversion to water, but if they somehow manage to follow, things could get very bad very quickly.
That thought makes him hurry.
They catch up with Marcus, bent in half, gasping for air. Reid’s anger returns when Leila goes to see what happened. There is blood on the guy’s face and he looks angry himself.
When she touches his arm he jerks himself free of her. “Just fell.” She nods and backs off. Her eyes lift to Reid’s and for a moment he considers rejecting her. She saved Marcus and let an innocent boy die.
But he can’t, not while under the influence of her clear blue eyes. His heart softens and lets go of all the pain of the past few days in that moment he is connected to her. So, he smiles at her instead, not sure why it’s important she knows he’s forgiven her, and is thrilled when she smiles back.
The trees thin ahead, at the edge of town. Reid’s smile fades all at once. Something is wrong. His instincts have kept him alive this long. He can’t ignore them anymore. And while he can’t pinpoint what the exact problem is, there is an absence that troubles him.
Then he gets it. Sound. The town is silent. The only noise he hears is the kids talking and laughing. No cars, no dogs barking. Nothing. It’s enough to make him slow and pay closer attention.
Something is horribly wrong. He calls out to the others, to tell them to wait, but some of them are further ahead, right on the edge of the tree line and they are laughing so loudly they don’t hear him. He starts to run, a stumbling, halting jog all he can manage, yelling louder, but they don’t hear him, they can’t and they are stepping over the threshold into the town and his terror shoves him forward, right on their heels.
He stumbles over a root and then he is free of the trees, his heart pounding out his terror, waiting for the attack to come.
The kids turn around, suddenly silent, and stare at him, their own fear rising again. No one says a word, the silence only broken by the soft hoot of an owl waking from its daytime rest.
Reid holds his breath, waits for it. But nothing happens. No attack, no hunters, no death and blood. Only the stillness of a small town that shouldn’t be so quiet.
For a heartbeat he wonders if he is just being paranoid. The rest of the kids exit the trees, going more slowly, following his lead at last. But the draw of the houses and cars and little general store are too much for them to resist for long. They break into eager clusters, going their own ways, exploring without concern.
Reid stands at the top of what looks like the one main street in the place. The asphalt feels odd under his sneakers, the scent distinctive. He realizes he missed it, an element of civilized life he never knew was such a big part of him.
Reid turns and looks up the road. It winds away into the trees, two lanes, a jagged and much faded yellow line bisecting it. A grin splits his face when he sees a familiar sign. The interstate. There’s a ramp up ahead for the interstate that means he is right after all.
Quiet or not, weird or not, they’ve made it. Still, his mind tries to justify the silent town. As he walks past a parked car, he notices it’s filthy, covered in dust and rust. Maybe whoever created the experiment emptied the place because it was too close to the testing area? That makes sense. A lot of sense, actually. Reid wonders if there are other abandoned towns around the perimeter of the fence, havens just like this one, the residents paid or forced to leave their homes behind.
Reid continues down the street, into town. There are a handful of houses, a couple of storefronts and what looks like a gas station at the far end. So, a transient place, more of a rest stop for travelers. It makes his argument about the abandoned state of it even more likely. Not many folks to move. A little money would set them up elsewhere, probably better than they had it before.
Reid stops in the center of town and listens again. The kids are audible, calling out to each other to come see this or that. There is a faint breeze, just enough to rustle the treetops. The odd birdcall. But above it all there is another sound, a familiar hum he has heard before.
Reid turns on his heel, trying to find out where it’s coming from. His right. In the direction of the off ramp and the outside of town. He follows the sound, wondering if it’s the buzz of cars he’s hearing, his heart lifting. That would be perfect. A short rest here and a walk to the highway and they are saved.
The trees are thick on the backsides of the houses. He has to push his way through the undergrowth, holding branches back, starting to sweat almost immediately despite the chill of his still-wet clothes. Cobwebs wind over his face, making him sputter and he pauses to wipe them free. When he does, he sees something looming in the distance, just through the trees, and goes toward it.
Reid steps through the last of the shrubbery and stares. He isn’t capable of anything else. There before him, towering over him in the early light of the waning moon, humming to itself in self-satisfaction, is the chain link fence.
***