Vampires aRe ReaL by R.G. Richards
Allie waited until her parents fell asleep before sneaking out the back door. She carried her backpack which held the halogen flashlight from school, her mother’s digital camera, her binoculars, and snacks. She eased out of the back door and picked up her bicycle, walked it to the front of the house and took off down the road. Allie rode as fast as she could, thinking this would be her chance to get her proof on film and finally let the world know what she had seen.
She rode her bicycle to the school and climbed back on top of the shed and then the bus. Allie bent and opened her backpack and pulled out the flashlight and camera. After shining her flashlight on the roof, a chill came over her and she shook. She took a shaky breath before aiming her camera to take a picture of the image. She smiled and took another picture, then another, and another.
There was a janitor’s shed around the back of the building, so Allie went to that next. Inside was a ladder she used to climb on top of the lowest point of the school’s roof. Once on top, she went to the middle of the roof, shining her light as she went. She stopped when she got to an area where the image started to show up. Allie took out her camera and began snapping photographs at a pace faster than the butterflies roaming her insides. The image was so big she had to photograph it in sections to get it all.
As she got ready to climb down from the roof she heard a familiar bang behind her. Allie stood on the edge of the roof near the midsection. She saw before her a young blond teenage boy she had never seen before. Was he a member of the club? Like Shelby, he pursed thin lips to give a devilish smile and then raised his right arm. Instantly his fingernails grew over an inch long. They were a dirty yellow color and curved inward. Allie could not move or speak; she only gasped, and then willed her feet to move. The boy gave a wide smile to show razor-sharp teeth. The sight of them made her gulp. She diverted her eyes so she could think. After careful thought, a single word came to her: fangs. She looked at the boy to verify and he obliged and showed his killer fangs. They seemed to drip with saliva. She gulped down a dry throat.
Instead of heading toward the ladder, she moved slowly toward the image. The young man advanced, matching her stride for stride. Allie backed up but kept her wits about her. She remembered Shelby and the roof of the bus, she remembered the car and the headlights, and she formed a plan that just might work. Allie reached into her pocket; she took out her flashlight and kept backing up until she was sure she stood over the image. If this did not work she was dead. She gazed at the far-off ladder and for a fleeting second thought to run to it. She stopped and turned on her flashlight, lowering it from his face to his chest and then downward to his feet, but nothing stopped his advance on her. Perhaps he wanted to create as much fear as he could in her before the kill and toyed with her for as long as it gave him pleasure by advancing slowly.
Then the flashlight’s beam crossed the roof – and the boy stopped. He looked down, up at Allie and back down again. He bowed his head as if in apology and walked backward from her. In a quick move, he leaped from the roof into a nearby tree, and then to another and was gone from her sight.
“Oh my God! I don’t believe this and neither will anyone else. Aw! You idiot!” she yelled at herself. “Why didn’t you take pictures?” Allie took out her camera and looked at the pictures. “At least I still have you.”
Allie sat down and took a couple deep breaths and then started hyperventilating as she relived what actually had taken place. As she tried to regain her composure, she tried to piece together everything . She had stumbled on a mystery that she never dreamed would lead her here.
“Vampires, my God, vampires!” She rolled on the roof laughing, “Of all the things in the world to find, I found vampires.”
She laughed and laughed, partly from elation and partly to keep from being terrified. “Mystery solved: Shelby and Brad are freaking vampires!”
When finally she was home, Allie laid in bed and tried to sleep, but could not. She thought of Brad and remembered what Brad had asked her, if she was inviting him into her room. From all the movies she watched she remembered that vampires cannot come into your home unless you invited them in, and she had done just that. She wondered how it took her so long to figure it all out before finally falling asleep in the early hours of the next morning.
In the morning she had her usual breakfast of cereal but decided not to share her news with her mother. She went to school with her camera and looked for Sara. She saw Sara look around before walking into the gym; this made Allie uneasy. Slowly she crept up to the door but before she could go in she looked through the glass pane in the door and saw the young man who tried to kill her last night. Sara was on her cell phone talking and when the young man came near her he touched her on her back and she turned and gave him a hug. She bade whoever was on the phone farewell, then she and the boy talked for a minute before leaving together through the other door.
Allie felt sick to her stomach. Her best friend, her only friend – was she a vampire, too? Was the whole school full of them? Vampire High? What had she stumbled into? “God, I can’t tell her now!” Allie was so confused she had no one to talk or tell her story to. Now what?
She made up her mind that she would get to the bottom of everything no matter what it took. She burst through the door and ran across the floor to the other door to find them. When Allie made it to the door she cautiously peeked through the glass pane and saw them again. Now they were partway down the hall and talking to Brad. Allie wanted to confront them all, as if they had somehow betrayed her, but before she could open the door the bell rang and they vanished.
Allie went to class and sleepwalked through her day until lunch. She waited at her usual table, not sure of what her response should be to Sara. Perhaps she was wrong and had jumped to conclusions or had made her friend an enemy to ease her conscience. Allie did not want to trust anyone now and seeing her friend with the others gave her a reason to stay isolated and keep her news to herself. She played with her lunch, poking at it with a fork as if deliberating whether to take a bite.
“Hey, girl,” said Sara as she sat down.
“Hey.”
“You all right?”
“Fine.” She took a bite of her food so she wouldn’t have to talk anymore.
“You’re acting strange. What is it?”
Allie kept her voice low and even toned. “Nothing is wrong. Eat your food before your time runs out.” She shoved more food into her mouth while staring at her plate.
Sara again watched her carefully but began to eat her food. “What are you doing after school today? Do you want to come over my house?”
“No. I am going with my mother to visit my dad; he is out in the field and can’t get away so we are going to him. Maybe when I get back we can get together and do something. I will give you a call, okay?”
“Okay,” said Sara.
Allie did not say much the rest of the school day. She did not want to tip her hand as to what her plan would be because she no longer fully trusted her best friend. She would have to wait and determine whose side Sara was really on before revealing her secrets.
After school she went home and had a normal day until bedtime. She decided to go to bed early in the hopes that her mother would also. When her mother fell asleep, she snuck out of the house with one objective in mind: prove Sara’s loyalty. She strapped on her backpack and rode her bike straight to Sara’s house. She peeked through windows to find no one moving about and presumed them all to be sleeping. Like the school, her friend had a small shed next to the back porch which Allie climbed on top of. She softly jumped on to the roof of the house and unpacked the flashlight she was supposed to turn in to Mrs. Braller, who had been, fortunately, out sick for the day. Allie shined the light down on the roof and checked it carefully. Near the end of the roof she saw the sign. “Yes! It’s here.” She took several photos with her camera.
What did the sign mean? Who could help her solve this? She needed to trust someone, but whom? Allie would tell her father but he was
away and her mother would not believe her without proof of every single incident.
Allie climbed from the house and when she turned, she jumped with fright, Sara was there staring at her.
“Oh my God, you scared the life out of me.” Allie produced a false smile, avoiding eye contact.
At first, Sara did not speak; she merely eyed Allie carefully. At last, she asked, “Why?”
The butterflies stopped circling long enough for Allie to respond. “I had to know and you wouldn’t tell me.”
“What did you need to know?”
“You are a vampire like the others, aren’t you?”
Sara half smiled. “No.”
“Yes, you are!” Allie moved closer to take a bolder stance. Sara motioned for her to be quiet. “I was on your roof and saw the sign.”
Allie held up her flashlight and Sara took it, turned it on, and put her hand in front of it. She smiled and shook her head, clicking her tongue. “Girl, you are just too nosy for your own good.”
“What are you going to do with me?” the words came out soft and shaky.
“I tried to lead you away from the truth, but it didn’t work. I guess I will have to kill you,” Sara said dryly. She took a step toward her and Allie recoiled. Sara chuckled. “Girl, you stupid!”
“Are you going to kill me?” Allie asked fearfully. She knew if she could get back to the roof she would have some protection against vampires from the image on the roof. But Sara had the flashlight and stood between her and the ladder, making her feel all the more helpless.
“I should,” said Sara, watching her reaction. “I don’t think you will ever stop being nosy, will you?”
“Yes,” she said quickly, taking the opportunity before her. “Yes, I can be normal – I mean, not nosy. You don’t have to do anything to me.” The words Brad spoke resounded in her head in an endless loop. If you keep asking questions someone will stop you! “I will forget what I saw, everything!” her voice wavered.
Sara judged her not to be telling the truth. She snatched her backpack and opened it, examining the camera and the images on it. “If I let you go you will be back here tomorrow night or some other night. This has to end now!” Sara leaned in to Allie with a scowl plastered across her face, but before she could do or say anything, they heard a whistling noise in the trees. She looked up and saw the trees swaying.
Allie saw her opening. She took off running toward her house, frightened at the thought of vampires in the trees coming for her.
Sara had a look of fright on her face as she watched the trees and saw her friend running. She ran after her and caught up to her and said, “Come with me, hurry!”
Allie had run so fast and so far that she was in the woods unprotected, trying to reach home by way of shortcuts. Sara led her through the woods with the noise following them as they went. Sara ran ahead and Allie followed her along a narrow dirt path between the trees. Every so often Sara would look behind her to check on Allie and then up into the trees, trying to see which way they were moving. They ran for a long time and the path narrowed and then grew larger before narrowing again. They went through a small stream and jumped across a deep ditch on the other side. Allie yelled as she fell and rolled down a small hill as she tried to catch up to Sara, who had opened up a lead ahead of her. Sara heard her yelling and looked up into the trees before going back to help her.
“Come on!” she yelled, dragging Allie to her feet. This time Allie stayed with her as they raced along a rock face and into a railroad tunnel that extended for two miles through solid rock. One third of the way in they stopped and Sara pressed a hidden panel then pushed open a wall; the two went inside. They went down some stairs and then ran to the right for a while before ducking down into a chute. The girls yelled as they slid down a dark slide that curved around inside the rock face. A small amount of light streamed in through tiny overhead crevices. The slide eventually dumped them out onto a dirt floor. They climbed to their feet laughing as they brushed the dirt from their clothing and hair.
Allie’s heart thumped wildly as she looked around the cave-like room and saw no windows. There were rock walls with lit torches in stands on each wall. There was a small wooden door at the end of the room. They walked hand in hand to the end of the room and Sara pushed another hidden panel near the door. A door opened to reveal a closet with white jackets on hangers all neatly lined up in various sizes. Sara looked through them and pulled out one of the jackets and gave it to Allie. “Here, put this on and keep it on. Do not take it off for any reason, understand?”
Allie nodded and took the jacket. But for a patch on the right-hand side, it was just like a normal lab coat. The patch was of the same bird clutching a crest that she had photographed on the roofs. She put the jacket on. “What does this mean?” Allie asked.
“That is what keeps you safe, girl. Keep that jacket on, you hear me?” Again, Allie nodded. “Look, Allie, you shouldn’t be here this early, but I didn’t have a choice. The crest is a badge of protection that will keep you safe. As long as you wear it you are a friend and no one will harm you. It is your only identification. You are about to enter a world that is more visual than what you are used to, more distinctive than you have seen before. Behind that door are people who take their cues from signs – you know, like sign language – instead of ordinary sight. What I am trying to say is that they don’t recognize you by your face or even your color: they recognize you by the sign you carry.” She put on her jacket and then pointed to the crest, hoping she was being clear enough in her answer. “Do you understand what I am trying to say to you?”
“I think so.”
“Ready?”
“I guess.” Allie said with a panicked yet excited voice.
Sara pulled a necklace from under her shirt that had a cross and a key on the end of it. She unlocked the door and stepped through it, Allie following behind. Sara locked the door from the other side and then turned around to find her friend staring up at the ceiling. She laughed and hit her on the back of her head. “Close your mouth; you’re attracting flies.” She chuckled again, remembering how she did the same thing on her first trip; she then led her down a hallway.
Allie was fascinated by everything she saw. Emblazoned across the door they had just come through was a familiar image: the school crest. This image featured an enormous eagle that held a crest in its wings similar to that of the crests on the jackets of the Double E club members, only it featured the eagle clutching the moon with its claws, a deadly look upon its face. They walked on a white tiled floor. The walls, too, were covered with white tiles, and stood twenty feet high. The ceiling was wooden and arched. Six gold chandeliers hung ten feet apart. At the end of the hall was another door, this one thick wood with brass accessories. How could all this exist underground with no one knowing a thing about it?
“Wow! This must be a vampire kingdom.”
Sara ignored her comments and led her to the end of the hall, coy smile on her lips. They stepped through a door into a square chamber room. The room had white brick walls with a hallway at either end, a desk placed between them. Allie thought about her father’s old hospital and this room reminded her of its entrance, complete with a receptionist and information desk.
Sara waved at the woman behind the desk and they walked toward her. “Hey, Bethany!”
Bethany looked like the perfect person to be a vampire. She had red hair and wore it loosely behind her. Her hair was long and straight and dropped down past her shoulders to the middle of her back. She took the right and left sides and pulled them back and put a tie clip on the pieces to hold them in place and let them drop down behind her to finish off her manicured look. She wore a three row, white pearl necklace that was connected to a large, emerald-cut ruby jewel in the center that was surrounded by small diamonds. Her skin was pale, probably because she couldn’t be out in the sun; Allie thought she could definitely use a tan. The only color to her face came from her red lips and blue eyes.
“H
ey, Sara. Who is your friend?”
Allie slightly leaned to whisper to Sara, “I thought they couldn’t see me?”
“We see you fine, lassie,” said a booming voice from behind her. Allie turned around; it was the bus driver.
“We hear you fine, too,” Bethany added.
Allie turned back redfaced. “I... I... I am sorry,” she stammered.
Bethany smiled awkwardly at her to put her at ease; she had never been able to master smiling. “Relax, sweetheart, you are fine.” She turned her gaze to Sara and her look became more intense and troublesome.
Sara knew the look. “Who is out right now?”
The woman looked at the bus driver. “Malcolm?”
The two girls looked back at the bus driver. “Taylor, Jake and Denton. They are supposed to be on the Back 40. I’ll go check on them.”
Allie had not paid attention before but she now realized that both people had on similar jackets. “Who are they?”
“Never you mind, sweet pea,” said Malcolm before he turned and left the room by going down the hall on the right.
“Allie, go sit down over there for a minute.” Sara pointed to a chair behind them. Allie complied.
When she was out of earshot, Sara moved forward and said, “I am sorry, Bethany. I had no choice; she saw them and took off. There was nowhere else to run.”
Bethany looked over at the small girl staring back at her. She turned up her nose at the ghastly brown hair. “Can she be trusted?”
“Yes, if we tell her what she wants to know. She is like me, Bethany: just curious – curious enough to get herself killed without our help.”
Bethany considered the child again. Then the phone rang; she snatched it up, talked for a few moments and then hung up, face worried. “The boys are being hunted by the locals for killing livestock. Farmers are chasing them with rifles close to here. She will have to stay the night. Talk to her. If she cannot curb her curiosity, I will have to do it for her.” She flashed a look to Sara that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
“I will.”
Sara collected Allie, and at Bethany’s indication they headed down the left hallway.
Bethany rose from the chair and went to a wall behind her desk. She waved her hands, and an open doorway appeared in front of her. Bethany went inside and stood in her control room. She went to a black wall and after waving her hand the wall lit up with monitors. These showed camera feeds from every area of the structure. As she motioned across those she did not need, they switched off and disappeared from sight.
In one feed was Sara and her friend. Bethany enlarged this display. The girls passed several doors on either side of a long hall and went to the door at the end. Sara opened it and they went inside, Allie pausing to touch the door’s crest momentarily, and closed the door behind them. Sara had led her into a room with toys on shelves at the right and tables and books on shelves at the left. They went through this room down a hallway to another door, and inside Allie found herself surrounded by incubators and equipment.
This was a nursery. Three incubators nearby housed tiny babies. They were enclosed in glass containers with wires running into them that connected them to monitors. Two women and a man stood next to them watching the monitors and checking their connections. They paid no attention to Sara but briefly looked at Allie before writing on charts and exiting the room.
Allie moved to the nearest incubator and saw a beautiful baby wrapped in a pink blanket smiling up at her. “Oh, she is so pretty!” She tapped on the glass and made baby noises. “Aw, goo goo.”
“Careful, girl. You stick your finger in her mouth and it will get bitten off.” She laughed, but tapped on the glass just the same.
Allie got a serious look on her face. “Tell me the truth, Sara. I need to know.”
“I work here, in the nursery.”
Bethany waved her hand and the monitors turned off and the wall went dark. She returned to the front desk to await further word on the boys.
Chapter 7 Cavers
She rode her bicycle to the school and climbed back on top of the shed and then the bus. Allie bent and opened her backpack and pulled out the flashlight and camera. After shining her flashlight on the roof, a chill came over her and she shook. She took a shaky breath before aiming her camera to take a picture of the image. She smiled and took another picture, then another, and another.
There was a janitor’s shed around the back of the building, so Allie went to that next. Inside was a ladder she used to climb on top of the lowest point of the school’s roof. Once on top, she went to the middle of the roof, shining her light as she went. She stopped when she got to an area where the image started to show up. Allie took out her camera and began snapping photographs at a pace faster than the butterflies roaming her insides. The image was so big she had to photograph it in sections to get it all.
As she got ready to climb down from the roof she heard a familiar bang behind her. Allie stood on the edge of the roof near the midsection. She saw before her a young blond teenage boy she had never seen before. Was he a member of the club? Like Shelby, he pursed thin lips to give a devilish smile and then raised his right arm. Instantly his fingernails grew over an inch long. They were a dirty yellow color and curved inward. Allie could not move or speak; she only gasped, and then willed her feet to move. The boy gave a wide smile to show razor-sharp teeth. The sight of them made her gulp. She diverted her eyes so she could think. After careful thought, a single word came to her: fangs. She looked at the boy to verify and he obliged and showed his killer fangs. They seemed to drip with saliva. She gulped down a dry throat.
Instead of heading toward the ladder, she moved slowly toward the image. The young man advanced, matching her stride for stride. Allie backed up but kept her wits about her. She remembered Shelby and the roof of the bus, she remembered the car and the headlights, and she formed a plan that just might work. Allie reached into her pocket; she took out her flashlight and kept backing up until she was sure she stood over the image. If this did not work she was dead. She gazed at the far-off ladder and for a fleeting second thought to run to it. She stopped and turned on her flashlight, lowering it from his face to his chest and then downward to his feet, but nothing stopped his advance on her. Perhaps he wanted to create as much fear as he could in her before the kill and toyed with her for as long as it gave him pleasure by advancing slowly.
Then the flashlight’s beam crossed the roof – and the boy stopped. He looked down, up at Allie and back down again. He bowed his head as if in apology and walked backward from her. In a quick move, he leaped from the roof into a nearby tree, and then to another and was gone from her sight.
“Oh my God! I don’t believe this and neither will anyone else. Aw! You idiot!” she yelled at herself. “Why didn’t you take pictures?” Allie took out her camera and looked at the pictures. “At least I still have you.”
Allie sat down and took a couple deep breaths and then started hyperventilating as she relived what actually had taken place. As she tried to regain her composure, she tried to piece together everything . She had stumbled on a mystery that she never dreamed would lead her here.
“Vampires, my God, vampires!” She rolled on the roof laughing, “Of all the things in the world to find, I found vampires.”
She laughed and laughed, partly from elation and partly to keep from being terrified. “Mystery solved: Shelby and Brad are freaking vampires!”
When finally she was home, Allie laid in bed and tried to sleep, but could not. She thought of Brad and remembered what Brad had asked her, if she was inviting him into her room. From all the movies she watched she remembered that vampires cannot come into your home unless you invited them in, and she had done just that. She wondered how it took her so long to figure it all out before finally falling asleep in the early hours of the next morning.
In the morning she had her usual breakfast of cereal but decided not to share her news with her mother. She went to school with her camera and looked for Sara. She saw Sara look around before walking into the gym; this made Allie uneasy. Slowly she crept up to the door but before she could go in she looked through the glass pane in the door and saw the young man who tried to kill her last night. Sara was on her cell phone talking and when the young man came near her he touched her on her back and she turned and gave him a hug. She bade whoever was on the phone farewell, then she and the boy talked for a minute before leaving together through the other door.
Allie felt sick to her stomach. Her best friend, her only friend – was she a vampire, too? Was the whole school full of them? Vampire High? What had she stumbled into? “God, I can’t tell her now!” Allie was so confused she had no one to talk or tell her story to. Now what?
She made up her mind that she would get to the bottom of everything no matter what it took. She burst through the door and ran across the floor to the other door to find them. When Allie made it to the door she cautiously peeked through the glass pane and saw them again. Now they were partway down the hall and talking to Brad. Allie wanted to confront them all, as if they had somehow betrayed her, but before she could open the door the bell rang and they vanished.
Allie went to class and sleepwalked through her day until lunch. She waited at her usual table, not sure of what her response should be to Sara. Perhaps she was wrong and had jumped to conclusions or had made her friend an enemy to ease her conscience. Allie did not want to trust anyone now and seeing her friend with the others gave her a reason to stay isolated and keep her news to herself. She played with her lunch, poking at it with a fork as if deliberating whether to take a bite.
“Hey, girl,” said Sara as she sat down.
“Hey.”
“You all right?”
“Fine.” She took a bite of her food so she wouldn’t have to talk anymore.
“You’re acting strange. What is it?”
Allie kept her voice low and even toned. “Nothing is wrong. Eat your food before your time runs out.” She shoved more food into her mouth while staring at her plate.
Sara again watched her carefully but began to eat her food. “What are you doing after school today? Do you want to come over my house?”
“No. I am going with my mother to visit my dad; he is out in the field and can’t get away so we are going to him. Maybe when I get back we can get together and do something. I will give you a call, okay?”
“Okay,” said Sara.
Allie did not say much the rest of the school day. She did not want to tip her hand as to what her plan would be because she no longer fully trusted her best friend. She would have to wait and determine whose side Sara was really on before revealing her secrets.
After school she went home and had a normal day until bedtime. She decided to go to bed early in the hopes that her mother would also. When her mother fell asleep, she snuck out of the house with one objective in mind: prove Sara’s loyalty. She strapped on her backpack and rode her bike straight to Sara’s house. She peeked through windows to find no one moving about and presumed them all to be sleeping. Like the school, her friend had a small shed next to the back porch which Allie climbed on top of. She softly jumped on to the roof of the house and unpacked the flashlight she was supposed to turn in to Mrs. Braller, who had been, fortunately, out sick for the day. Allie shined the light down on the roof and checked it carefully. Near the end of the roof she saw the sign. “Yes! It’s here.” She took several photos with her camera.
What did the sign mean? Who could help her solve this? She needed to trust someone, but whom? Allie would tell her father but he was
Allie climbed from the house and when she turned, she jumped with fright, Sara was there staring at her.
“Oh my God, you scared the life out of me.” Allie produced a false smile, avoiding eye contact.
At first, Sara did not speak; she merely eyed Allie carefully. At last, she asked, “Why?”
The butterflies stopped circling long enough for Allie to respond. “I had to know and you wouldn’t tell me.”
“What did you need to know?”
“You are a vampire like the others, aren’t you?”
Sara half smiled. “No.”
“Yes, you are!” Allie moved closer to take a bolder stance. Sara motioned for her to be quiet. “I was on your roof and saw the sign.”
Allie held up her flashlight and Sara took it, turned it on, and put her hand in front of it. She smiled and shook her head, clicking her tongue. “Girl, you are just too nosy for your own good.”
“What are you going to do with me?” the words came out soft and shaky.
“I tried to lead you away from the truth, but it didn’t work. I guess I will have to kill you,” Sara said dryly. She took a step toward her and Allie recoiled. Sara chuckled. “Girl, you stupid!”
“Are you going to kill me?” Allie asked fearfully. She knew if she could get back to the roof she would have some protection against vampires from the image on the roof. But Sara had the flashlight and stood between her and the ladder, making her feel all the more helpless.
“I should,” said Sara, watching her reaction. “I don’t think you will ever stop being nosy, will you?”
“Yes,” she said quickly, taking the opportunity before her. “Yes, I can be normal – I mean, not nosy. You don’t have to do anything to me.” The words Brad spoke resounded in her head in an endless loop. If you keep asking questions someone will stop you! “I will forget what I saw, everything!” her voice wavered.
Sara judged her not to be telling the truth. She snatched her backpack and opened it, examining the camera and the images on it. “If I let you go you will be back here tomorrow night or some other night. This has to end now!” Sara leaned in to Allie with a scowl plastered across her face, but before she could do or say anything, they heard a whistling noise in the trees. She looked up and saw the trees swaying.
Allie saw her opening. She took off running toward her house, frightened at the thought of vampires in the trees coming for her.
Sara had a look of fright on her face as she watched the trees and saw her friend running. She ran after her and caught up to her and said, “Come with me, hurry!”
Allie had run so fast and so far that she was in the woods unprotected, trying to reach home by way of shortcuts. Sara led her through the woods with the noise following them as they went. Sara ran ahead and Allie followed her along a narrow dirt path between the trees. Every so often Sara would look behind her to check on Allie and then up into the trees, trying to see which way they were moving. They ran for a long time and the path narrowed and then grew larger before narrowing again. They went through a small stream and jumped across a deep ditch on the other side. Allie yelled as she fell and rolled down a small hill as she tried to catch up to Sara, who had opened up a lead ahead of her. Sara heard her yelling and looked up into the trees before going back to help her.
“Come on!” she yelled, dragging Allie to her feet. This time Allie stayed with her as they raced along a rock face and into a railroad tunnel that extended for two miles through solid rock. One third of the way in they stopped and Sara pressed a hidden panel then pushed open a wall; the two went inside. They went down some stairs and then ran to the right for a while before ducking down into a chute. The girls yelled as they slid down a dark slide that curved around inside the rock face. A small amount of light streamed in through tiny overhead crevices. The slide eventually dumped them out onto a dirt floor. They climbed to their feet laughing as they brushed the dirt from their clothing and hair.
Allie’s heart thumped wildly as she looked around the cave-like room and saw no windows. There were rock walls with lit torches in stands on each wall. There was a small wooden door at the end of the room. They walked hand in hand to the end of the room and Sara pushed another hidden panel near the door. A door opened to reveal a closet with white jackets on hangers all neatly lined up in various sizes. Sara looked through them and pulled out one of the jackets and gave it to Allie. “Here, put this on and keep it on. Do not take it off for any reason, understand?”
Allie nodded and took the jacket. But for a patch on the right-hand side, it was just like a normal lab coat. The patch was of the same bird clutching a crest that she had photographed on the roofs. She put the jacket on. “What does this mean?” Allie asked.
“That is what keeps you safe, girl. Keep that jacket on, you hear me?” Again, Allie nodded. “Look, Allie, you shouldn’t be here this early, but I didn’t have a choice. The crest is a badge of protection that will keep you safe. As long as you wear it you are a friend and no one will harm you. It is your only identification. You are about to enter a world that is more visual than what you are used to, more distinctive than you have seen before. Behind that door are people who take their cues from signs – you know, like sign language – instead of ordinary sight. What I am trying to say is that they don’t recognize you by your face or even your color: they recognize you by the sign you carry.” She put on her jacket and then pointed to the crest, hoping she was being clear enough in her answer. “Do you understand what I am trying to say to you?”
“I think so.”
“Ready?”
“I guess.” Allie said with a panicked yet excited voice.
Sara pulled a necklace from under her shirt that had a cross and a key on the end of it. She unlocked the door and stepped through it, Allie following behind. Sara locked the door from the other side and then turned around to find her friend staring up at the ceiling. She laughed and hit her on the back of her head. “Close your mouth; you’re attracting flies.” She chuckled again, remembering how she did the same thing on her first trip; she then led her down a hallway.
Allie was fascinated by everything she saw. Emblazoned across the door they had just come through was a familiar image: the school crest. This image featured an enormous eagle that held a crest in its wings similar to that of the crests on the jackets of the Double E club members, only it featured the eagle clutching the moon with its claws, a deadly look upon its face. They walked on a white tiled floor. The walls, too, were covered with white tiles, and stood twenty feet high. The ceiling was wooden and arched. Six gold chandeliers hung ten feet apart. At the end of the hall was another door, this one thick wood with brass accessories. How could all this exist underground with no one knowing a thing about it?
“Wow! This must be a vampire kingdom.”
Sara ignored her comments and led her to the end of the hall, coy smile on her lips. They stepped through a door into a square chamber room. The room had white brick walls with a hallway at either end, a desk placed between them. Allie thought about her father’s old hospital and this room reminded her of its entrance, complete with a receptionist and information desk.
Sara waved at the woman behind the desk and they walked toward her. “Hey, Bethany!”
Bethany looked like the perfect person to be a vampire. She had red hair and wore it loosely behind her. Her hair was long and straight and dropped down past her shoulders to the middle of her back. She took the right and left sides and pulled them back and put a tie clip on the pieces to hold them in place and let them drop down behind her to finish off her manicured look. She wore a three row, white pearl necklace that was connected to a large, emerald-cut ruby jewel in the center that was surrounded by small diamonds. Her skin was pale, probably because she couldn’t be out in the sun; Allie thought she could definitely use a tan. The only color to her face came from her red lips and blue eyes.
“H
Allie slightly leaned to whisper to Sara, “I thought they couldn’t see me?”
“We see you fine, lassie,” said a booming voice from behind her. Allie turned around; it was the bus driver.
“We hear you fine, too,” Bethany added.
Allie turned back redfaced. “I... I... I am sorry,” she stammered.
Bethany smiled awkwardly at her to put her at ease; she had never been able to master smiling. “Relax, sweetheart, you are fine.” She turned her gaze to Sara and her look became more intense and troublesome.
Sara knew the look. “Who is out right now?”
The woman looked at the bus driver. “Malcolm?”
The two girls looked back at the bus driver. “Taylor, Jake and Denton. They are supposed to be on the Back 40. I’ll go check on them.”
Allie had not paid attention before but she now realized that both people had on similar jackets. “Who are they?”
“Never you mind, sweet pea,” said Malcolm before he turned and left the room by going down the hall on the right.
“Allie, go sit down over there for a minute.” Sara pointed to a chair behind them. Allie complied.
When she was out of earshot, Sara moved forward and said, “I am sorry, Bethany. I had no choice; she saw them and took off. There was nowhere else to run.”
Bethany looked over at the small girl staring back at her. She turned up her nose at the ghastly brown hair. “Can she be trusted?”
“Yes, if we tell her what she wants to know. She is like me, Bethany: just curious – curious enough to get herself killed without our help.”
Bethany considered the child again. Then the phone rang; she snatched it up, talked for a few moments and then hung up, face worried. “The boys are being hunted by the locals for killing livestock. Farmers are chasing them with rifles close to here. She will have to stay the night. Talk to her. If she cannot curb her curiosity, I will have to do it for her.” She flashed a look to Sara that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
“I will.”
Sara collected Allie, and at Bethany’s indication they headed down the left hallway.
Bethany rose from the chair and went to a wall behind her desk. She waved her hands, and an open doorway appeared in front of her. Bethany went inside and stood in her control room. She went to a black wall and after waving her hand the wall lit up with monitors. These showed camera feeds from every area of the structure. As she motioned across those she did not need, they switched off and disappeared from sight.
In one feed was Sara and her friend. Bethany enlarged this display. The girls passed several doors on either side of a long hall and went to the door at the end. Sara opened it and they went inside, Allie pausing to touch the door’s crest momentarily, and closed the door behind them. Sara had led her into a room with toys on shelves at the right and tables and books on shelves at the left. They went through this room down a hallway to another door, and inside Allie found herself surrounded by incubators and equipment.
This was a nursery. Three incubators nearby housed tiny babies. They were enclosed in glass containers with wires running into them that connected them to monitors. Two women and a man stood next to them watching the monitors and checking their connections. They paid no attention to Sara but briefly looked at Allie before writing on charts and exiting the room.
Allie moved to the nearest incubator and saw a beautiful baby wrapped in a pink blanket smiling up at her. “Oh, she is so pretty!” She tapped on the glass and made baby noises. “Aw, goo goo.”
“Careful, girl. You stick your finger in her mouth and it will get bitten off.” She laughed, but tapped on the glass just the same.
Allie got a serious look on her face. “Tell me the truth, Sara. I need to know.”
“I work here, in the nursery.”
Bethany waved her hand and the monitors turned off and the wall went dark. She returned to the front desk to await further word on the boys.
Chapter 7 Cavers