Blood Memory: The Complete Season One (Books 1-5) (46 page)

“It’s fine.”

“In the other situations,” Jessie said, sniffling, “I was going to be dead, and dead is fine. But with him, with what he wanted to do with me… That would have been worse than death. Something inside me snapped, and I woke up.

“Y
ou can’t imagine what it’s like. To be trapped like that. To hear everything and see everything, but be unable to speak. To not have a voice. It was the worst feeling in the world. Do you think that’s what it’s like to be a Lurcher?”

No one spoke.

“I’m glad you’re okay, kiddo,” Stan said, hugging her close. He reached into his pocket and came out with the bracelet.

Jessie took it and fingers the jingly bells.
“I’m glad to be back.”

“The sun will be up soon,” Jordan said. “Let’s get out of this
hell hole.”

Jordan looked out over the calm west-facing scene before him. The sun was just beginning to rise behind the forest, sending long fingers of light over the lawn, a lawn that for all the world appeared to be prime farmyard grazing land if it wasn’t for the severed animal parts scattered like confetti.

“Frank said he put mines to the north and east of the property,
” Jordan said, “and traps to the west and north. He said he deactivated them to let the Lurchers in.”

“But we’d best not take his word for it,” Stan said.

Jordan snapped a branch off an apple tree and pruned it of its foliage. He walked to the very edge of the patio, shoe tips nudging the grass of the field they’d entered the day before.

“Jordan, be careful,” Anne said.

Jordan tapped the ground before him like a blind man with a cane. The stick met resistance. There was something hard and flat buried beneath the surface. He brushed the dirt away, revealing a trap. Jagged rusty teeth poked above the surface like budding metal shoots. He stabbed the sensor plate hard. Nothing happened. He hit the plate a few more times, all with the same result.

“How does it look?” Stan asked.

“Appears to be off.” Jordan tossed the stick aside.

“That means the mines will be off too, doesn’t it?”

They walked around to the east side of the farmhouse. They ducked under the white picket fence. A bumpy field met them. The rain had dislodged the dirt clinging to some mines, partially unearthing them, making the unblinking red lights visible.

“Stand back,” Jordan said. He picked up a handful of gravel and tossed it out over the minefield. The stones tinged off the metal casings.

“All clear,” he said. Jordan stepped out onto the muddy minefield. “Let’s go.”

“Jordan, wait,” Anne said. “Are you sure we should be walking this way?”

“Frank put traps all around his property. I don’t know about you, but I’d sooner get away from this place as quickly as possible.”

The molehill-like bumps stretched off, lost in the distance. Stan and Jessie led the way, Jord
an and Anne coming up the rear.

They walked in silence.

“I had the dream again last night,” Jordan said.

“Oh?” Anne said, failing to sound nonchalant. “Anything new?”

“I went into the house.”

“But you said it was on fire.”

“I was wrong. It wasn’t fire. When the fire touched the objects in the house they didn’t burn.”

“What was it then?”

“Fear, I think. The house was burning with fear.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know exactly. But every step I took toward the house filled me with excruciating pain. And the woman and young girl – they weren’t Mary and Stacey. The girl was seven or eight with blond hair. The woman looked like a grown-up version of the girl.”

“Who do you think they are?”

“I don’t know.”

Anne nodded, her eyes not leaving his. “I’m sure it will come to you.”

It began to rain, the droplets making soft patting noises on the parched earth. Jessie raised her face up to it, spread her arms out wide, and swirled them round in circles. Enjoying the movement, enjoying being alive.

Jordan felt warm fingers interlock with his own. Anne
smiled at him, and drank in the scene of Jessie running, spinning and turning, heedless of the minefield around her.

Then the bleeping started.

It began low, but grew in pitch as well as rhythm, beating faster and faster until it made a single high-pitched tone. The small green lights flashed, peeking out from the undergrowth like the eyes of a demon.

“Oh my
God…” Anne said. “The mines! It’s the mines! They’re turning back on!”

Jessie, unnerved by the tone, stopped dancing. She stepped toward the others.

“Jessie! Freeze!” Jordan shouted. “Don’t move! Stay there!”

“Why?” she said, voice thick with fear. “What’s that noise?”

“I said don’t move!”

T
he noise stopped, the lights turned off. A chill breeze blew across the field emphasizing the thick silence. Stray leaves drifted, skittering across the landscape, too light to set anything off.

“The noise stopped,” Anne whispered. “Maybe it’s safe…”

“Don’t you believe it,” Jordan said. “Don’t move, Jess.”

He got down on his stomach and crawled over to one of
the bumps. He took out a knife he’d commandeered from Frank’s kitchen and slowly removed the top of the molehill layer by layer.

“Anne?” Jessie called, voice quivering. “I’m scared.”

“We all are. Just wait right there, Jess darling.”

The knife clinked
against something solid. Jordan dusted away the dirt. There was a green light on a flat metal plate. Jordan cursed.

“I thought they were all deactivated,” Anne said.

“They were.”

“How could this happen?”

Jordan wiped the rain from his brow, leaving a dirty smudge. “They must have been on some kind of timer. Frank wasn’t the kind of person to just leave his defences down.”

“What if we set them off on purpose?” Stan said. “None of the mines are that close to us.”

“We can’t take that risk.” Jordan turned to Jessie. “Jess, can you see your footprints?”

Jessie cast around. “Yes.”

“Good. Now listen to me carefully. I want you to follow your footprints back to us, okay? Don’t step anywhere but your footprints.”

“Okay.” Jessie twisted to take the first step.

“She can’t do this!” Anne hissed at Jordan. “One false move…”

“I know, An
ne. But what choice do we have? The mines are so close together one explosion might set them all off.”

Jessie paused, looking for her next step. She took it, but her balance was off. She waved her arms to straighten up. Anne turned away, unable to watch. Jessie regained control and took another step.

“Slowly, Jess,” Jordan said.

Jessie pulled at her foot, but it was trapped by the mud and she fell forward. Anne whimpered. Jessie’s foot fell randomly. Jordan shut his eyes.

Nothing happened.

Jessie peered around at the waterlogged ground at her feet. “I can’t see my next footprint. There’s water everywhere! I can’t see it…”

“Okay. Don’t move,” Jordan said.

“There must be another way to get her back safely,” Anne said.

“One of us could go back to Frank’s house,” Jordan said, “try to disable the mines electronically. How are your tech skills?”

“There is another way…” Stan said behind them.

His face was thin and drained, a thick film of sweat on his brow. He looked older than his sixty-two years. He stood up, clutching his arm tight. He looked deep into Jordan’s eyes. They were shimmering.

“Take care of them, Jordan.”

“Stan, what are you doing?”

Stan ran into the minefield.

“Stan?” Anne shouted, standing up. “Stan! What are you doing?”

“Anne, don’t move!” Jordan said. “Stan! Stop!”

Stan didn’t stop, or look back. He just ran hell-for-leather into the minefield. He hopped over the lumps protruding from the surface, never slowing his pace.

“Stan!” Jessie yelled. “Stop! Turn around!”

She stepped forward.

“Don’t you move!”
Stan yelled. “Don’t you dare!”

Stan had cover
ed half the distance to Jessie. He came to a bunch of mines clumped together. He moved to go around them, stepping into a narrow crevice. His foot sunk to the ankle in the soft earth. His momentum threw him forward. He landed on a mound. His eyes were clenched shut. He opened one eye, then the other. A smile crinkled his lips. He put his hands on either side of himself, preparing to push himself up.

“
Stan!” Jordan said. “Don’t move! That’s a pressure switch! If your weight come off it, it’ll go off!”

Stan smiled up at Jessie.
“So far as you can tell, are you away from the mines, love? Good. Cover your ears. It’s going to be a tad noisy.”

Stan pushed himself off the mine.

BOOM!

A thick wall of air knocked Jordan to the ground. Chunks of meat and bone rained down, finding their mark, creating a domino effect. The world erupted and turned white.

Colour began to filter into his vision like ink soaked up by blotting paper. His ears rang with the death throes of tinnitus. Jordan sat up, his hands and arms covered by what looked like dirty dust. He peered around at the scene.

A mist hung over the area. The land was red with entrails, pockets of bloody puddles
in dozens of miniature craters. Somewhere a pheasant honked and flapped its wings.

“Anne?” Jordan called. “Anne?”

There was no answer.

“Jessie? Anne?”

“Jordan…”

Jordan zeroed-in on the voice and found Anne getting to her feet a short distance away. She was covered head to foot in mud
. Faint red clots had congealed on her cheek.

“Are you all right?” Jordan asked. “You’re hurt…”

“It’s not me.” Anne reached up and touched Jordan’s neck. “You’ve got red on you too.”

“We need to find Jess.”

They called out for her, careful of their footing. They found her curled up in a ball, sobbing her eyes out, every bit as dirty and beaten as they were, but uninjured.

“Why did he do that?” she mumbled between sobs. “Why would he jump on a mine like that? There must have been a better way.”

“He felt like he had no choice,” Anne said.

“If I hadn’t run away from you, dancing like that, he would still be alive.”

“No, Jessie,” Anne said, looking into her eyes. “This is not your fault. Okay? Stan chose to sacrifice himself, not you.”

Jessie nodded through tears. Anne hugged her close.

Boom!

Jordan wrapped his arms around Anne and Jessie, but the explosion had come from the middle-distance somewhere. As the dust settled, Jordan saw a small shadow lying in the middle of the field. Jordan gave Anne a look that said,
Stay here.

Jordan
stepped across the field and fell to his knees as he took the remains of his good friend in his arms. His upper torso was all that remained. His skin was pale as snow. An eye had swollen shut. His mouth hung open, and a thick yellow liquid hung out the corner of his mouth.

“Stan…” Jordan said, voice cracking. “You old fool.”

He sobbed, shoulders heaving. When Jordan pulled back, Stan’s eye was open. He blinked. Jordan fell back, dropping him.

Stan stared at Jordan with as much shock and surprise as Jordan had. He tried to speak, but gurgled up a mouthful of blood instead.

“Jordan?” Anne said, approaching. “Jordan, what is it?” Anne’s hands flew to her mouth. “No! Oh God, Stan… No, no, no… He can’t still be alive… How could this happen?”

Jordan saw Jessie hugging her knees some distance away, thankfully unaware. “It must have been when we fought them earlier. One of the Lurchers must have scratched him.”

Stan’s rude voice croaked. His bottom lip was missing, and all but a handful of teeth remained. “J… Jor… Jor…”

“He’s still alive…” Anne said.

There was a gurgling sound, and Stan reached up with a pincer-like hand – the heat having fused his fingers together.

“Stan?” Jordan said. “Stan, are you-?”

“Jess… Jess, is she-?” Stan garbled.

“She’s fine.”

Stan squinted, but his remaining eye was misty and clouded over. He managed a pained smile. “P… Pill,” he said. “Ch… Chill.”

Jordan reached into his pocket. He had two left. He put one in Stan’s open hand.

“Thank you for everything, Stan,” Anne said. “Go to Mary.”

Stan smiled – just one half of his face moved – and nodded jerkily. “H…Help… Help you.”

“Rest,” Jordan said.