Snap, Crackle ... Read online

  “Maybe not, but don’t you want to find out for sure?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, “but still, you’re making me go back here.”

  He pulled the vehicle off to the side of the road. “Making you?”

  She frowned, not liking that he was pressuring her. “I don’t want to be here.”

  “Enough that you want me to turn around and leave?”

  “Yes,” she cried out. Then immediately said, “No.”

  He stopped and waited.

  “I don’t want to be here.”

  “You keep saying that,” he said, “but how will anything change otherwise?”

  “I don’t know,” she cried out. “I’m scared.”

  At that, he smiled and gently grabbed her hand. “I get that you’re scared,” he said. “I really do. I know that you went through something horrific that nobody should have to go through and certainly not on their own. That’s why we’re here. Together.”

  “But nobody’s here to rescue,” she said, “so no good can come of being here.”

  “But you don’t know that no one is here. And you don’t know what information we can find from here,” he murmured. “We have to check at least. Maybe it’ll be all for naught. Maybe we’ll walk in, find an empty collapsed building that’s not even safe to walk inside anymore, and it’ll be all over.”

  “I wish,” she said. “But what was that about its energy?”

  “Buildings have energy too,” he murmured quietly.

  She stared at him for a long moment and then gave a decisive nod. “That makes sense.”

  He frowned. “You never considered such a thing?”

  “Of course not,” she said. “Why would I?”

  He shrugged. “I was just thinking in terms of all that you’ve learned over time.”

  “Well, not anything that didn’t come up,” she said. “I didn’t put any direct thought into that.”

  “Okay,” he said, “that’s fine. I’m not judging you for it.”

  “I’m just being supersensitive,” she said, rubbing her face with her free hand.

  “Take it easy,” he said. “No right or wrong here. We’ll just do our best.”

  “But that’s not enough,” she said quietly. “I can already hear the screams.”

  He looked at her with concern. “From here?”

  She nodded.

  “So we must be getting close,” he said.

  “Maybe, we have to be,” she said. “I already said that.”

  “You did, but you didn’t tell me which way we’ll go.”

  “I can’t see that as the problem,” she murmured. “It should be here.”

  “I’m sure it’s shielded in some way, don’t you think?” he said.

  “But that would take a ton of energy at this point,” she said. “It makes no sense to do that after all this time.”

  “Another good reason we need to go find out what’s so important here.”

  She looked at him. He was right. “It’s a terrible place.”

  He nodded and squeezed her fingers gently. “I know it is,” he said. “You’re not the only one to have suffered like this in the world. Assholes have been doing all kinds of unimaginable things to people all over the world, and unfortunately it’ll keep happening with the boss if we can’t stop it.”

  “I don’t even know if that’s possible,” she said quietly. “He’s been operating for a very long time.”

  “He has been operating for a long time because people allowed him to,” he said. “We have to stop it. Now is the time.”

  She took a long slow deep breath. “I get that, I really do, but …”

  He nodded, with a smile. “And it always comes back to that. You’re afraid, and that’s okay.”

  “Well, it doesn’t sound like it’s okay,” she said, disgruntled.

  He chuckled. “Nothing is perfect in life.”

  “Nothing is perfect,” she said. “Nothing is perfect in any way. This is just painful.”

  “And that’s okay too,” he said. “Listen. You want me to go alone?”

  “No.”

  “So you want to come with me?”

  “No.”

  He waited patiently as she had some internal argument going on.

  “Yes.”

  “Good, we’ll push through it and get to the other side. Now, can we continue?”

  She nodded. “Okay, but I’m warning you,” she said, “there won’t be anything there to find.”

  “Then what are you so scared of?” he said. Hearing no response, he went on, “Regardless, we still have to try.”

  She nodded, and he started up the car again, looked at her, and said, “Now where?”

  “Just go straight ahead,” she said, “we’ll be there in no time.”

  “And, if we aren’t, it means they’re cloaking it,” he said, “and that’s okay because that means something is more important here than we thought. But it also means we weren’t expected to find it. And it also means,” he said, with a smile, “that, when we do find it, which I’m sure we will, we’ll find something very interesting.”

  And, with that, he drove forward.

  *

  Hunter wasn’t sure Beth would hold up when they got to the location. He felt the energy up ahead. Definitely something was in front of them, almost like a generator buzzing, which was an interesting thing to consider. Maybe they hadn’t thought of energy workers finding it, and yet they should have because they were always looking at other people with similar skills to what Hunter and Beth and Stefan had.

  But then the boss could also be complacent, cocky, and could think he owned the world, which in some ways, apparently he did. Hunter had to wonder what financial backing the boss had. Where had the money come from to run this place? Hunter sent a message to Stefan to get that in motion. Surely the boss had developed into a team of support people. With the energy amassed here, Hunter was sure one man was still in control, but this was more than what the boss could handle alone.

  When you brought in somebody else, you took a chance of your whole system weakening. You had to learn to trust, and trust wasn’t something these guys did very well. Stefan, any chance we can trace employees, any team, to turn them? Stefan agreed and would look into it. Except that the threat of death and other intimidation practices often worked wonders to silence victims and teams both.

  Fear was like that; it could grip anybody but, for those dealing with difficult situations dominated by fear to that extent, could be almost impossible to let go of it.

  He drove forward, and now they saw nothing but a black wall up ahead. The road showed no recent traffic. In fact, it was overgrown with weeds, as if no one had come this way in years. He slowly pulled off to the side, shut off the engine, and said, “We’re here.”

  He looked over to see Beth, eyes wide and her bottom lip trembling, as she stared out the windshield. If he ever needed confirmation that they were here, that was it.

  He grabbed her hand again and said, “Do you want to stay in the car?”

  She immediately shook her head. “No,” she said, “no, I really don’t.”

  “That’s fine,” he said, “but it could get ugly.”

  “It will get ugly,” she murmured, “but sitting here and waiting for something bad to happen, that’ll never be a good thing for me.”

  “Why is that?”

  “I’ve spent way too much of my life waiting for something to happen,” she murmured. “I don’t want to do that anymore.”

  “Okay,” he said, “let’s go then.”

  He opened up the car door and waited for her to slide out on her side. She did manage to stand, but she was trembling. He frowned. “I’m not so sure this is a good idea.”

  “If it goes wrong you can blame me, it was my idea originally,” she said, looking at him sideways.

  He quirked his lips at her. “Nope, I mean the part about you coming with me.”

  “You’re not leaving me behind,�
�� she cried out, and he heard the pain of the ages echoing in her voice.

  He walked over, put an arm around her shoulders, and said, “That’s not what I meant.”

  She took a deep breath. “Good,” she said, “because I don’t want to ever hear that come out of your mouth again.”

  “I won’t walk away and leave you,” he said. “You have to trust me.”

  “Trust is hard to come by,” she murmured.

  “Of course it is,” he said, “and, for some people, it’s impossible. But you have to start somewhere.”

  She frowned. “I don’t even like the idea, much less the reality.”

  He laughed. “And that’s okay too,” he said, feeling some affection coming up between them. It surprised him, but he gave her another hug and said, “Let’s walk. Surely that’s harmless.”

  “You don’t know,” she said. “You just don’t know.”

  “Are you ready to tell me?”

  “No. Never. I’ll never be ready for that.”

  “Okay then,” he said, “in that case, let’s go, so I can find out for myself.”

  “Nothing to find out,” she said, “it’ll all be hidden away.”

  “Hey, they don’t call me a hunter for nothing,” he said quietly.

  She looked at him and frowned. “But are you really a hunter?” she asked. “We had guys who were beyond good,” she said, “and anybody who wasn’t didn’t make the grade.”

  “And were they killed?”

  “I don’t know if they were killed, but they sure as heck didn’t have much of a life afterward.”

  She believed that was the truth, but he had to wonder if she was right. “I get that,” he said, “but it’ll still be okay.”

  She shook her head. “If you say so,” she said, “but it’s your funeral.”

  He smiled, nodded, and said, “Agreed.” With that, he pushed her forward toward the black wall. Just as he was about to go, he heard the electricity snap and crackle off to the side. As he watched, an almost electric zing crossed the road in front of them. “Wow,” he said quietly. “Is this electrified?”

  “That’s one word for it,” she said. “That is how he kept us in.”

  “So that’s also how he’s planning on keeping us out,” he said to himself. “Let me talk to Stefan.” He immediately called on Stefan. A massive electrical field is around the place.

  I can see it, Stefan said, and Hunter winced as Stefan crawled into his head, looking out of his own eyes. Interesting, he said. An energy source is on the left.

  Hunter turned and walked toward the other side of the road. I can feel it, he said, but I can’t see it.

  I can, Stefan said. Originally a generating station was here. It’s on the other side of those bushes.

  But that surely can’t be working all the time. No legitimate power service is around here.

  No, it’s apparently being charged from another power source, Stefan said. This is fascinating.

  Well, we need to shut it down, so I can get in.

  I think I can do it.

  How will you manage that? Hunter asked.

  You just have to interrupt the waves, Stefan said, but he sounded so preoccupied that Hunter wasn’t exactly sure if Stefan was listening clearly to what Hunter was saying. Suddenly an odd crackle sounded in front of him, and then the field went out. Hunter turned to face Beth, who stood there, staring at the electrical field in shock.

  “Did you do that?” she turned to him and asked.

  “I think Stefan did.”

  Her eyebrows shot up, and then she slowly nodded. “He was always good at that stuff.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Causing trouble,” she said succinctly. “But he didn’t handle electricity well back then.”

  In Hunter’s mind, Stefan whispered, I still don’t.

  And then he winked out.

  Chapter 14

  Beth turned to look at Hunter. “You know that they realize we’re here now, right?”

  A muscle in his jaw ticked, as he considered her words. “It would make sense that they would know something was different. It doesn’t mean that they know we’re here.”

  “It won’t take him long,” she said gently.

  “Then we don’t have much time.” And, with that, he grabbed her hand and crossed the area where the force field had been.

  “It feels strange just being two of us. I feel like there should be a whole team behind us.”

  “Well, we have a team in one sense,” he murmured. “There’s Stefan.”

  “But that’s not a physical body here right now,” she said. “I’m not even sure how it is you’re talking to him,” she murmured. “And I’ve seen some shit.”

  “And have you seen real psychic phenomena?”

  “Definitely with Lizzy,” she said. “Most of the others not so much but Lizzy was real.”

  “And she’s the one who they worked on so hard?”

  “Yes, she’s the searcher, the one who can go out and hunt, like you’ve never seen before.”

  “So, can we expect her to come in our direction?”

  She looked at him, terrified. “If she does, it’s all over,” she warned.

  “Because she has the ability to kill?”

  “I think everybody has the ability to kill,” she said.

  He waved a hand. “I meant, with energy.”

  She shrugged. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised, but remember. I haven’t been here for a few years.”

  “But she was their prize pupil?”

  “Yes, and I was their prize failure,” she said.

  “That’s a bitter way to put it.”

  “How else would you put it?” she murmured.

  “How much older is Lizzy than you?”

  “She’s not, not by much anyway,” she said. “We’re pretty close to the same age.”

  He nodded. “Presumably she was treated better?”

  “I don’t know if she was or not because I wasn’t in the same space as her. I would like to think so,” she said. “I didn’t hate her by any means.”

  “Good,” he said, “if you don’t put out energy into that kind of thought form, then it keeps your energy a little cleaner, a little less ratcheted, so it’s a little easier to heal.”

  “Maybe,” she said, “never was part of my makeup to feel that way.”

  “Good, that’s all the more reason to keep going in this direction. Karma is a real bitch to argue with.”

  She snorted at that. “I don’t even know that I believe in karma.”

  “Don’t mock her,” he murmured.

  She looked at him. “Are you serious?”

  “Absolutely,” he said. “I’ve seen things come around and bite people in the ass, when it just seemed like there was no other rhyme or reason for it, except for something they’d done to hurt somebody else.”

  “But that would imply that somebody is out there, keeping a checks-and-balances sheet,” she said, “in which case my side of that sheet is in a deficit.”

  “As long as you keep being the good person you are, then I’d like to think that good things will come to you.”

  She stared at him, shook her head, and said, “I can’t believe anybody could have that Pollyanna attitude.”

  He smiled. “I’ve seen a lot of shitty things in this world,” he murmured, “but I’ve also seen a lot of good. We can’t forget that one doesn’t negate the other.”

  “Maybe not,” she said, “but it doesn’t mean that the other exists either.”

  He smiled and said, “Where to?”

  “We’re here,” she said, looking around. “This is it.”

  He stared at her. “What do you mean, this is it?”

  “We already crossed the field. The compound couldn’t have been much farther, and we’ve already been walking for ten minutes,” she said. “Look. Just trees are here. Nothing is here. It’s all gone.”

  “What’s all gone?”

  “The compoun
d,” she said. “I thought there’d be at least something left.”

  “Are you sure it isn’t a case of something being hidden?”

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “I would imagine that they blew it up, if nothing else.” She pointed out some old darkened timbers. “Maybe they burnt it to the ground.”

  He gave a startled exclamation and walked over, studied the burn damage, and followed it. She followed behind, watching as he checked out a very large area burnt into the ground, new growth coming up around it.

  “I thought you said concrete,” he said, turning to look at her. “That doesn’t burn.”

  She shrugged. “I thought so. But what did I know?”

  “The concrete explains why Stefan may have had no connection to you all those years ago.” He nodded, as he looked around at the area. “It’s fascinating though.”

  “In what way?”

  “So much damage,” he said, “but Mother Earth has tried hard to regain her sense of balance here too.”

  She looked at him curiously. “You always talk about Mother Earth as if she’s alive.”

  “Well, she is. She lives in the plants, the soil, the wind, the water. I certainly wouldn’t want to make her feel like she wasn’t alive.”

  She laughed at him. “It’s so strange to think that you feel that way.”

  “Maybe,” he said, not turning to look around. He stepped back. “Surely something is here.”

  “Well, the underground, if it still exists.”

  “What’s in the underground?” he said, spinning on his heels to look at her.

  “A basement.”

  He said, “Let’s keep looking.”

  She twisted and turned, oriented herself. “Everything looks so different,” she said. “I don’t know if even that is here anymore.”

  “Well, we need to keep looking,” he said. “That electrified black wall was guarding something.”

  “Says you. I’m not sure there is though,” she cried out, looking around. “I feel like I’m completely turned around.”

  “How long were you driving with the blindfold on?”

  She stopped and looked at him, her memories flashing through her brain. She stopped and said, “Longer than that little distance we just walked,” she said, frowning.

  “Any chance that you drove around in circles or that the compound was maybe bigger than you thought? This could be just an entranceway.”