Beneath the Veil Page 5

“No, please,” she said, putting her hands out in front of her.

  “My name is Jen. I don’t mean you any harm.”

  Daniel lowered the shovel slightly.

  “I saw the smoke from your fire,” she added.

  Tonya emerged from the storeroom with Katy behind her.

  “Tonya, get back,” Daniel snapped.

  “Daniel, I don’t think she’s one of those things,” Tonya said. “Being she’s out during the day and all.”

  He raised his shovel again.

  “Are you with the hunters from the mining camp?” he asked.

  “No. I don’t know anything about any camp,” she answered.

  “Daniel, it’s getting dark,” Tonya said.

  He turned and looked up the stairs at the dim light filtering through the kitchen window and then at his sisters. His parents were gone, killed the same day their car broke down in Auraria. He was fourteen now, and it was his job to look after them.

  “Okay, get up,” Daniel said. He threw the shovel down.

  “It’s getting late. We need to hide in there,” he said pointing at the storeroom.

  Jen brushed herself off, collected the backpack from the ground and slung it over her shoulder.

  “I’m out of here,” she said. “I need to find my brother and boyfriend.”

  “It’s too late, you can’t leave,” Daniel insisted.

  “Where are your parents, anyway?” Jen demanded.

  “They’re dead,” Tonya answered stepping from the shadows. “Those things got to them.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Next week will make a year, I think,” Daniel answered.

  His face was smudged with dirt and his hair was long and matted. He looked nervously at the fading light above where the kitchen was nearly dark. He picked up the lantern and turned up the flame, the glow created ominous looking shadows within the confines of the cellar.

  “Please stay here tonight,” Tonya pleaded.

  “I can’t,” Jen argued, then took a stumbling step towards the stairs.

  Daniel caught her arm and kept her from falling, then helped her into the storeroom. The room, lined with makeshift shelving, was filled with fruit and vegetables and buckets of water. Lanterns, tools, and various other items were neatly organized in one of the corners. Daniel swung the heavy wooden door closed, then placed a piece of timber into brackets hung on the back of the door.

  “That should hold,” Daniel said.

  “Time for night-night Katy,” Tonya said softly.

  She took a strip of cloth and wrapped it around the girl’s ears, then laid her back on the cot under a frayed blanket.

  “It helps with the noises, they get pretty bad most nights,” Tonya said.

  “I’ve heard them myself,” Jen responded. “What are those things?”

  “People, I think,” Daniel answered. “At least they used to be.”

  “Sometimes they talk to us,” Tonya said. “Tell us to come out.”

  “But most nights they don’t say anything at all, they just try to get in,” Daniel added.

  Tears rolled down Tonya’s face. Jen sat down and put an arm around the girl’s shoulder.

  “It’s okay. We’ll get out of this place and find help. There must be other towns nearby,” Jen said.

  “You can’t leave,” Daniel said flatly. “They won’t let you.”

  “We’ve tried,” Tonya said. “Daniel took that bike and rode for help.” The girl pointed at a rusty Schwinn leaning against a wall. “But every road ended up back here.”

  “Nearly didn’t make it back in time,” Daniel added.

  “Then we tried getting out on the river. Daniel made a raft from logs and rope and it floated real well,” she smiled at her brother.

  “But the river looped back where we started,” Daniel said. “It’s hopeless, we can’t leave.”

  “But that’s impossible,” Jen said.

  “Impossible, but true,” Tonya insisted. “Our mom used to say there was no such thing as monsters. But now we know there are.”

  Daniel wound an antique Victrola, then touched the needle to a spinning record and the room came alive with the sound of a gypsy violin.

  “They’ll come soon,” Daniel said.

  He blew out his lantern, sat back and put his hands over his ears. Jen found a car seat propped against a wall and stretched out. Her head pounded, but she was exhausted and quickly fell asleep. The bad ones came shortly after one a.m. The creak of the stairs woke Jen, she sat up and the car seat rocked as she shifted her weight. Someone moved inside the room.

  “Quiet,” Daniel whispered.

  He stood in the darkness in front of the door holding a pitchfork, the last line of defense if the door failed them that night. Something pushed against the bolted door and the wood creaked from the pressure. Fingernails scraped and then a fist struck the door, the sound loud in the room. Katy woke and began to cry.

  “Keep her quiet,” Daniel snapped at Tonya.

  But the little girl would not be quieted and cried louder when another blow hit the door. Daniel fumbled in the dark to light a lantern and then rewound the Victrola which had quieted hours before. Something big hit the door with tremendous force, causing dust to fall from the ceiling. The door rattled in its frame but held. Tonya held her baby sister and began to whimper herself. Another hit and the door frame cracked. Daniel paced the room with his fists clenched, then climbed on a chair and looked out a vent to the outside. It was still completely dark.

  “Daniel, its worse this time, they’re going to get in,” Tonya said.

  “No, they won’t. They can’t,” he snapped back at her.

  Another tremendous impact struck the door and the sound of cracking wood obscured the music and Katy’s cries. Jen grabbed Daniel’s shoulders.

  “Is there another way out of here?” she demanded.

  “We can’t leave. Those things are out there,” he answered.

  Another smashing blow and the bracket holding the timber dislodged and rattled across the floor.

  “There’s a way out behind there,” Tonya said.

  The girl pointed at a corner of the room. Her sister’s tiny arms were wrapped tightly around her neck. Daniel went to the corner and pushed a cabinet to the side, exposing a drainage pipe underneath.

  “It goes to the river. I checked it out a few months ago,” he said. “I don’t think those things like the water, they’ve have never tried to get in this way.”

  Another smash against the door and the stone wall crumbled where a wood beam was attached.

  “Daniel, that door will not hold much longer. We need to get out of here,” Jen said.

  “Okay,” he answered.

  He grabbed his lantern from the floor.

  “I’ll go first.”

  He shot a sad look at his makeshift fortress then climbed into the black hole of the drain pipe. Tonya followed him in and Jen handed Katy down to her. Jen climbed into the hole and tried to slide the cabinet back into place.

  “Forget it, Jen,” Tonya said. “They can smell us anyway.”

  C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - F O U R

  “Doc, we really appreciate your help,” Barry said.

  A group of men gathered outside the mine building loading weapons on the back of a flatbed truck. One of the men unchained a gate and swung it open.

  “Watch yourself, buddy,” the man said.

  Jackson stepped out of the way while the men pushed the flatbed from behind. Once up to speed, the driver popped the clutch and the truck roared to life.

  “She starts every time. We make our own fuel outta the crops. It’s not too bad for drinking either,” Fred said with a wink.

  The men grabbed their weapons and climbed onto the back of the truck. A trunk full of ammunition was mounted behind the cab with Property of the U.S. Army stenciled in white letters across the front of it. Jackson and Barry approached the back of the truck.

  “You fellas bette
r ride up here with me,” the driver said. “No telling what these boys might be shooting at back there.”

  The driver’s name was Hector Sanchez, he wore a baseball cap and had a pistol tucked in a homemade shoulder holster. The truck’s windshield was splashed with mud and a CB radio hung below the dashboard with wires dangling from it. Hector pushed the clutch in and the transmission made a grinding sound when he found first gear.

  “She’s a little touchy till she gets warmed up,” Hector said. “A little like my ex-wife.” He laughed heartily at his own joke.

  They were both too preoccupied with finding Jen to appreciate his humor, but it didn’t stop Hector from talking. He told them he worked as a salesman for a lumber company when he got lost and trapped in Auraria several years back.

  “Debajo del velo,” Hector said. “Beneath the veil, that’s what we call it here. This town, this place, has something terrible covering it, something evil.”

  “What about the local people?” Barry asked. “Aren’t there any left?”

  “They’re still here,” Hector answered. “But they’re not people anymore. We’re all from the outside, all trapped here. The first was Gus Johnson. He died last year at the age of ninety-four. His wife Betsey’s still with us. The two of them were on their honeymoon, heading for Atlanta, in ‘37 or ‘38. Old Betsey can tell you about it, she’s still sharp as a tack.”

  “You’re telling us people have been trapped here for that long?” Jackson asked.

  “Maybe, maybe longer. There could have been others we never knew about and some that didn’t last too long. You guys are lucky you found us,” Hector answered.

  “We’ve got to find Jen,” Jackson said, feeling near panic at the thought of her being alone.

  “We’ll do the best we can, my friend,” Hector answered as they drove further from the safety of the compound.

  C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - F I V E

  Mud squeezed through Jen’s fingers as she crawled through the dark pipe. Panic rose up in her when the tunnel narrowed, but she fought back the fear and concentrated on the light from Daniel’s lantern.

  “How much further, Daniel?” Tonya asked. She was tired from crawling with her sister clinging to her back.

  “Almost there,” he answered.

  Jen heard a low muffled growl inside the pipe behind her. She scrambled forward and smashed into the Tonya legs.

  “They’re in the pipe,” Jen whispered.

  “We’re almost there,” Tonya answered.

  Daniel climbed out of the pipe and dropped down to an embankment.

  “Hand Katy down to me,” he said.

  Tonya handed him the sobbing child.

  “Hurry,” Jen shouted.

  When Tonya cleared the pipe, Jen looked back and saw one of the creatures close behind her. Its right arm was paralyzed and dragged useless in the mud leaving a trail behind it. The creature lurched forward and grabbed the back of her jacket. She slipped free and then tumbled out of the pipe and onto the river bank.

  “Hurry, get into the water!” Tonya called to her.

  She climbed to her feet then jumped into the icy river where Daniel and Katy waited on the raft. The creature was out of the pipe, joined by a snarling woman wearing a torn flowered dress and a boy in ripped overalls with bare feet. The woman’s hair, matted and filthy, hung in clumps across her face. All three had the same vacant black eyes. Tonya climbed onto the raft and sat with her arms wrapped around her knees shivering violently. Jen waded through the chest high water, navigating past unseen rocks and sunken logs on the muddy river bottom.

  “Hurry, Jen,” Daniel shouted.

  Dozens of creatures appeared in the field behind the cottage, jerking silhouettes barely visible in the shadows. Jen climbed aboard the raft, while Daniel struggled to keep it in place. When she was safely aboard, he pulled the paddle from its mooring and they were swept away by the current.

  C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - S I X

  One of the men on the back of the truck slapped the roof of the cab.

  “Hector, take a left up here.”

  “Sure Jimmy,” Hector replied.

  Hector turned left and slowed, avoiding broken branches scattered across the road.

  “That’s Jimmy Downs,” Hector said. “He’s been here a while, crashed his plane in Potter’s field a few years back. He’s a good fella, used to be some kind of Navy pilot.”

  “Where’s the plane now?” Jackson asked.

  “Wrecked. Jimmy said it was a total loss with nothing worth salvaging. The other two back there are the Edwards brothers, Ralph and Bobby. They don’t look much like brothers and come to blows at least once a week. Ralph’s more level headed, but not much. Do yourselves a favor and stay down when the shooting starts,” Hector said.

  “Shooting?” Barry asked.

  “With Ralph and Bobby there’s always shooting. That’s how they got stuck here in the first place. They went hunting, got drunk and ended up lost in the woods south of town. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not all bad...just reckless,” Hector answered.

  Hector brought the truck to a stop in front of a cemetery where the grounds were overgrown with crops and white marble headstones were blackened by time. Ralph and Bobby hopped off the back of the truck and Jimmy handed a gas can to each of them. The two brothers walked through the gates of the cemetery and began splashing clear liquid around the plants. Ralph handed his can to Bobby, then lit a match and dropped it on the ground. The liquid ignited and fire spread rapidly with black smoke rising as the vines burned. Ralph stood staring at the fire, entranced by the leaping flames.

  “Come on pyro,” Bobby said. “We got searchin’ to do.”

  “Alright,” Ralph said, pulling his gaze away from the fire. “Let’s get on it.”

  The men, surrounded by fire, walked back to the truck. Jimmy, on point, trained an M-16 on the graveyard in case of trouble. He didn’t expect any problems. The days were quiet, it was nighttime when the crazy shit happened.

  “You boys get yourself some of that corn?” Jimmy asked.

  “I am gettin’ hungry,” Bobby answered.

  Ralph chuckled and spit out a wad of tobacco, then reached into his pocket and refilled his cheek until it bulged. He slapped the roof of the truck and said, “Vamanos Hector.”

  Hector crunched the gear shift into first, and the truck lurched forward. Barry rubbed his temples and winced in pain.

  “You alright, man?” Jackson asked.

  “Headache,” Barry answered. “A bad one, I’ve been off my meds for a few days.”

  “There’s aspirin in the glove box,” Hector said.

  Jackson opened the compartment. Inside, a bottle of aspirin sat next to a revolver. He reached in and took the bottle.

  “Take that pistol too,” Hector said. “It couldn’t hurt to have an extra gun.”

  Jackson handed the aspirin to Barry and then retrieved the weapon. He made sure it was loaded and then tucked it in his waist band. Hector idled slowly, turning down every road.

  What’s up with those farms in the graveyards?” Jackson asked.

  “Pretty screwed up, huh?” Hector asked. “No one knows why they do it for certain, but Davy Ross back at the camp has a theory. He’s one of the few that managed to escape those things. He says they use the farms to make more of their own kind. Although, since he got away, Davey’s developed a taste for the corn liquor and doesn’t always make much sense. I guess you can’t blame the man after what he’s seen.”

  C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - S E V E N

  The sun was up for a full two hours before they decided to leave the safety of the raft. Daniel and Katy were dry, but Jen and Tonya still wet from the river, huddled together shivering. Their raft, caught in a perpetual loop, circled the river many times during the night. When Daniel spotted the cottage again, he paddled them to shore. Jen climbed to her feet, her legs stiff from the cold.

  “Tonya, wait here with Katy,” Daniel said.

&nb
sp; Jen followed Daniel to the back of the cottage where the only sound was wind whipping through tall field grass. He pushed open the back door and peered inside. Seeing no movement, they both entered the kitchen. During the night, a series of symbols had been carved into the doors and walls. He retrieved a lantern from a cupboard and then descended to the cellar. The door to the storeroom was smashed to the ground and the room was littered with broken furniture and ruined supplies.

  He stared at the hideaway for a few moments, then began to clean up the room. Jen walked over and put her hand on his shoulder.

  “Daniel, let’s get what we need and get out of here.”

  He didn’t respond. He tried to lift the door off the floor.

  “Daniel,” she said again. “We need to leave, your sisters are waiting.”

  “Where will we go?” he asked in a weak voice. “Those things will be back again tonight.”

  Fear and frustration were etched into his face and he looked on the verge of tears. He picked up Katy’s torn doll and looked at it sadly. Jen walked over to him and opened the backpack she was holding. With resignation, he threw the doll in and began collecting items off the floor.

  “I have a truck a few miles up the road. With your help, I think we can get it running,” she said.

  Daniel continued collecting supplies, but didn’t answer. They gathered up as much they could carry and left the storeroom behind.

  C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - E I G H T

  “Hector, hold up,” Jimmy yelled from the bed of the truck.

  Hector brought the truck to a stop in the middle of the intersection. Jimmy jumped down and walked across to an oak tree with a shirt hanging from its branch.

  “I got tire tracks heading that way,” Jimmy said pointing towards one of the roads.

  He climbed back onto the truck then slapped the roof. Hector put the truck in gear and drove past more abandoned farms.

  “Take a left up here,” Jimmy said, slapping the roof again.

  He continued scanning the ground, while the truck bounced along on worn shocks. He flew reconnaissance planes for the Navy and was trained in tracking.