Camp Alien (31 page)

“Though we didn't get far,” Abigail added. “We checked all these containers first, since Uncle Richard felt they'd be prime holding cells.”

“I'd agree. But no?”

“Not for a long time.” White looked ill and Abigail shuddered.

“Put it this way,” she said. “Uncle Richard was right, but they were used decades ago. Our prisoners aren't in them. Thank God.”

“Yeah, I think I'll pass on taking a look-see.”

“Should we go back to the car and get our phones?” Lizzie asked.

Checked my phone. “Nope, still have no coverage here, and per Adriana, we probably want to get farther from the car, not closer.” Was about to suggest we try to determine where the cellular blockage or scrambling or whatever was coming from, in case it wasn't coming from the limo, when my music changed to “All the Pretty Ones” by the Exies. Clearly this was a hint. Looked around. “Have you seen the Poofs or Peregrines?”

Before anyone could answer, heard a whole lot of squawking and bird screaming coming from the other side of these containers.

Didn't hesitate, just ran for the sound of my Peregrines in trouble.

R
AN INTO THE AREA
littered with android parts, but no Peregrines were in evidence, or Poofs for that matter.

However, the screeching was still going on, but as I listened, it was clear that it wasn't coming from one area, but from all over. And it was echoing, which made determining where the birds were more difficult. Stopped running and tried to focus.

The others reached me quickly. “I hear them,” Mahin said. “But they don't sound like they're in any one area.”

“That means we have to split up.” We all looked at each other. No one was excited by this idea.

“Hyperspeed handles so many things,” White said as he took Lizzie's hand. Abigail grabbed Mahin and Adriana.

My music switched to Cher's “Living in a House Divided.” Chose not to argue or question Algar's musical choices right now. “Look, the Peregrines are either in trouble or they've found something. I'm with you on the idea that we should use hyperspeed. I just think that we should split up. And, since we're already in teams, let's go with that.”

“You don't have a partner.” White took my hand. “Two teams is fine. But no one goes off alone here,” he said firmly.

“I agree,” Adriana said. “I'd prefer we all stay together, but I agree that the birds seem very upset. We'll take everything to the west, you take the building ahead of us and everything to the east.”

“Ah . . .”

“We're taking all the buildings near the basketball courts. You go the other way.”

“Gotcha.”

“How do we stay in touch?” Lizzie asked nervously.

Adriana dug into her backpack and pulled out two walkie-talkies. “These should work. They're already set to the right channel to communicate.” She handed one to Lizzie and kept the other for herself. Then she took out two flashlights and gave me one and Mahin the other, after which she put her helmet into the backpack.

“Room in there now that you used all your ammo?”

She smiled. “Of course. We like to be efficient.” She took Abigail's hand again and they zipped off toward the left.

Examined the building ahead of us. It was another brick building, though nowhere near as large as the main building we'd had so much “fun” in. Probably a quarter of the size, if that. Only one story, decrepit like every other building I'd seen since we'd arrived.

“Remember that the invisible helicarrier is around here somewhere,” I said to White.

“Yes, we spotted where we believe it is based on the flattened foliage. We considered trying to see if we could feel it, but since it's truly invisible and we have no idea what we'd be touching, discretion became the better part of valor.”

“So it's not cloaked with what Centaurion normally uses?”

“No, it's not. Which, since it's from Vatusus, isn't that much of a surprise, though I'll admit to disappointment.”

“Can all A-Cs see through the Invisibility Shields?”

White gave me a look that said he felt I might be overtired. “Not the ones used for the vehicles. Not normally, at any rate. Those shields are a more concentrated form of the cloaking we use. Why?”

“I think I know how Crystal Maurer got into the White House at o-dark-thirty this morning.”

“Does it matter for this situation?”

“I have no idea.”

“Good to know. At any rate, duty awaits. Shall we?”

Lizzie and I both nodded, and we took off at the slow version of hyperspeed, I presumed to avoid slamming ourselves into the helicarrier, and headed for our first target. White circumnavigated us carefully and took us far wider than probably necessary to avoid the helicarrier, but who was I to complain?

The doors were open, so we went in.

To discover, as “Haunting the Chapel” by Slayer came on, that we'd indeed found the chapel. There was graffiti and lots of dust, but it wasn't nearly as destroyed as the main building. We searched quickly but found nothing, though there were a couple pairs of shoes here and there. Still heard the Peregrines squawking, but they sounded farther away now.

“I don't think any kind of God was ever here,” Lizzie said quietly.

“Too true,” White replied. As the former Supreme Pontifex, I had a feeling that he, even more than the rest of us, found this entire place upsetting on a deeply personal level. “May they all be in the embrace of a loving deity now.”

We left, and now it was time to choose where we went next. There were buildings across the street, so we went to them. The one directly across from the chapel was two stories. The doors were ajar, though they did say that there was No Trespassing. We chose to ignore that and ran inside.

It was dark in here, not that there weren't windows and such, but if the main building had been murky and foreboding, this one took those elements up to eleven. Couldn't hear any birds as well once we were inside, but we did a fast run through the place just to be sure. This building was easily two-thirds the size of the main one but it contained no Peregrines.

Besides all the horrific elements we'd seen already, this one had even more hospital-type stuff, though it was loaded with shoes, too. Wondered if there was some horrible reason for it and had to figure there was. Maybe the ghosts kept the shoes around so they could escape or something esoteric and creepy like that.

Bottom line, though, was that we'd either found the infirmary or this place had really been the Home for Aspiring Dr. Mengele Wannabes. Had a feeling that I should bet on both, especially when Van Halen's “Somebody Get Me A Doctor” came on my airwaves.

There were stairs going up and down. We went down first. The basement appeared to be more medical and what I was pretty sure was a morgue. It was in horrific shape, and parts were impassable. Didn't know whether to be grateful or not that Adriana had given us a flashlight. Was hugely happy we were going through it at full hyperspeed.

Nothing other than old horrors discovered, we headed upstairs. Most of this floor was just the usual decay, debris, garbage, and shoes, but there was a big room on one side that, when I entered, was really reminiscent of all the Labs of Horror I'd seen in the past few years.

The walls looked thicker, as if they were reinforced, and there was weird medical machinery, what looked like a small assembly line, and what looked like a freestanding room or giant freezer or similar.

“What do you think?” White asked.

“I think we open that freezer and get prepared for what we'll find.”

White nodded, let go of me and Lizzie—who I shoved behind me—and pulled the door open.

Nothing leaped out at us, and I took a careful look inside. There were a lot of what looked like standing coffins, only they were made of glass. They were all open and empty. Counted. There were twenty.

“Looks familiar, doesn't it, Missus Martini?”

“Yeah, similar to the cloning lab we found under Gaultier, but it's not quite the same. My guess is this is where the androids sleep or rest or are programmed or whatever when they're made. But I don't think this is where they hang once they get clothes.” My music changed to “Déjà Vu” by Iron Maiden. Decided Algar was enjoying himself again.

White cocked his head. “There's something else . . . familiar about this.”

“What?”

He shook his head. “I can't remember what it is. The tickle of memory feels quite . . . old.”

“Well, it'll come to you, I'm sure.”

“Think we'll find something like this but made for twelve?” Lizzie asked.

“Not sure. Honestly, I think that once they get clothes they go elsewhere. But since there are no androids, hostages, or Peregrines, it's time to check out another
Cabin in the Woods
and see what we luck into.”

As we were ready to leave, Lizzie looked out the far window. “Is that civilization?” She pointed off to our left, where there was a flash of something that didn't look brick.

“I suggest we find out,” White said. We linked up and
headed downstairs and out. It was still cruddy outside, but so much less horrible than inside.

“Hey, it's totes quiet again,” Lizzie pointed out. “What's happened to the Peregrines?”

“I'm going to hope that Adriana's team found them and that they're okay.”

“We should still continue to search, however, regardless of the Peregrines' potential situation,” White said. “Or shall we see if we can get help?”

Social Distortion's “Prison Bound” hit my airwaves. “I wonder if that's a detention center or something.”

“Meaning we can get help,” White suggested.

Lizzie grimaced. “There's no way we're supposed to be here, not after what Mahin said about this place. You know what they'll do if we ask for help.”

“No, I don't,” White said. “What will they do?”

She shrugged. “Tell us we aren't supposed to be here, lock us up, and wait for our parents to come get us. Totes metaphorically speaking, of course.”

“Of course. Lizzie's right, though, I think. Let's see if we can find our hostages first. I don't really know how we're going to explain that we think there's an invisible helicarrier sitting here without causing some kind of incident that's only going to hurt Jeff's presidency.”

“While us trotting around in an abandoned mental asylum won't cause any problems, I'm sure.” White's sarcasm knob was going well past eleven.

“Right. So, where to next?”

“Next door, so to speak, seems the most prudent.”

We were about to head for the building that was east of this one when Lizzie jerked. “Hey, has anyone checked to see if the car that brought us is still here?”

W
HITE AND I
looked at each other. “I doubt it,” White said.

“Adriana's team is doing the same thing we are, searching, so probably not.”

“With all haste, then,” White said, as we headed down what claimed to be 2nd Street, at least per a very old, very bent street sign. This street was as badly maintained as the one we'd driven on when we'd arrived.

Reached the curved driveway to discover that, yes, the car was still here. Lizzie took the opportunity to retrieve her cell phone and turn it on. Like me, she had no bars, no service, and an attempted text to me was not received.

“We need to find the Kendroid, don't we? I mean in addition to all our missing people, Poofs, and Peregrines.”

With the main building to our left, there were three buildings on this street, and we were in front of two of them. The one that was farther away down the street to our left was quite large, and there were two matching buildings that were, for this complex, smaller. We headed for the rightmost of these, since we were practically in front of it.

White nodded. “We have no idea how to get into the helicarrier, let alone fly it. He could be inside it for all we know.”

“It's not firing at us, and I'm sure we'd know if it had or was taking off, so my money's on no. However, I don't see any scorching on the ground, so who knows?”

“Perhaps it's a Vatusus specialty.”

“We can but hope.” We reached the rightmost building.
Another three-story brick monstrosity. Could not wait to see how many pairs of shoes were on display here.

As with the other building, we ignored the No Trespassing sign and zipped through. Unlike the other one, there was no basement here. There was also nothing that indicated that anyone was hanging out here for any length of time. Severely lacking in anything resembling our hostages, Peregrines, the Kendroid, or Stephanie's actual Evil Villain Lair.

Still, we checked every room on all three floors. Other than feeling like I'd never want to go out in the dark by myself ever again, there was nothing of note unless you counted the many shoes that were in rather neat piles here, all things considered. Decided I didn't want to note them and moved on.

Out of this one and onto its twin, as “Slaughter House” by Front Line Assembly appropriately provided my soundtrack. This building was the same—debris, shoes, dirt, graffiti, broken windows, creep factor up to eleven—only it was clear that people had been living here.

Well, “people” was too strong a term. There were several rooms on the top floor that appeared to be lived in, to use the term loosely. But they were slightly less filthy, dusty, and decrepit. “I think we've found the Finished Androids Bunkhouse.”

“There's only eleven rooms that look sort of lived in,” Lizzie pointed out. “Where was TK sleeping?”

Had some suspicions, but kept them to myself for right now. “No idea. Presume we'll find out.” My music changed to “Bright Lights” by Matchbox Twenty. Checked the BT. It was the same yellow-green as when we'd gotten here. Dropped it back into my purse.

Out again and down a wide path at the other side of these buildings that led us to the bigger building off this street. This brick building was shaped like a cross, with four wings of equal length spreading out from the center. It also had three arches and kind of looked interesting, at least as compared to the other buildings we'd seen so far.

We discovered this was the cafeteria. Considering how gigantic this place was, that the cafeteria building was huge wasn't all that shocking.

As with the others, it was murky, creepy, and had shoes scattered all over. Unlike the others, this place looked like
there had been a riot inside before it had been abandoned. However, by comparison to everything else we'd seen, it was kind of innocuous. It also didn't look like it possessed a lot of hiding places.

My music changed to “Look Around” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Clearly Algar felt that I was being too quick to judge.

There was nothing of interest on the main floor, but there were stairs going up and down. We went up first this time, because the building didn't look like it had two stories from outside.

Turned out that it had a weird attic where they stored nonperishables. And naturally it was someplace where not even Lizzie could stand upright.

“Do we need to go in there?” Lizzie asked.

Realized that “Look Around” was on repeat. “Yeah, unfortunately, I think we do.”

There was a clear path between all the expired foodstuffs and, go figure, we could easily walk side-by-side, but we had to walk like we were pretending to be furry apes. So we had both uncomfortable and unsafe going for us.

“Do you hear something?” Lizzie whispered as we crept in at human regular, because White wasn't confident that the floor was going to hold and we didn't want to slam our heads onto something.

“Sort of a . . . scrabbling?” Made sure to keep the flashlight aimed firmly in the middle of the path.

“Yeah.” She sounded as nervous as I felt.

White cleared his throat. “If anyone's here, please speak out or make some noise,” he called, definitely projecting his voice. “Other than scrabbling.”

There were some thumps. And also some scrabbling. Thought about where we were and how long this place had been abandoned.

“There are rats or woodland creatures or both nesting here, aren't there, Mister White?”

“Oh, possibly.”

“You saw some, I know it, don't even try to lie.”

“Fine, yes. However, the thumping is continuing, and I don't believe that rats or woodland creatures are quite advanced enough to be making that noise in response to my request.”

“Ghosts would be,” Lizzie pointed out.

“But we don't believe in ghosts,” White said, as we walked very carefully toward the thumping, which was coming from the farthest end of the attic from where the stairs were because the cosmos just wouldn't have it any other way in my experience.

We reached an intersection where we could go right, left, or straight when the thumping stopped, because naturally. It was a shorter walk to the end going straight, so that's what we did. We went as far as we could to find another door.

“Oh, goody. Who gets to do the honors?”

“I will again, Missus Martini. Please try to only scream if flight is necessary.”

“Oh, roger that and I'll do my best and all that jazz.” Considered our situation and that I wasn't the only one ready to scream. “Quick Girl, that goes for you, too.”

“Check.” Lizzie sounded a little better, so congratulated myself as I ensured that I had a firm grip on the flashlight and Lizzie both.

“Go for it, Mister White.”

He pulled at the door—it appeared to be locked, but after some serious straining the door sort of burst open. And I managed not to scream. But only just.