Cry For Tomorrow (8 page)

“Halie, you’ve got to go without me. I’ll take care of things here and follow.” Seeing the glazed look in my eyes, Jennie gave me a little shove. “Go. Hurry!”

“Thanks,” I gasped in a hoarse whisper. I left my backpack and everything else that might slow me down for Jennie to take care of and raced toward the street. The house was only a few blocks from here and I could get there faster by foot. I didn’t even notice the dog running at my heels.

Rosa and Jack had chosen the large, rambling Victorian home on Oak Street because of the beautifully landscaped yards surrounding it and its location on the edge of the hundred acre city park. The neighborhood was run down, and most of the old houses were empty, but they loved it here because of the illusion of privacy it presented while still being so close to the hub of the business district and all of its activity.

But today I wasn’t interested in the scenery. I sprinted the last few yards down the cracked sidewalk and leapt over the low picket fence. I was nearly to the front porch when a large, burly police officer grabbed me by an arm and jerked me to a stop.

“Whoa there, young lady! Where do you think you’re going, now?” he demanded as he spun me around to face him.

Dusty immediately lunged and snapped at the hand gripping my arm.

“Hey! Easy there, dog, I’m not going to hurt her,” said the officer as he quickly withdrew his hand and took a step back.

“Th-the people who live here—” I gasped in near hysteria, “where are they? Are they okay?” I was going to be sick. I tried to dodge around him, but he boldly ignored the growling dog and stepped in front of me.

“Hey! O’Brian, what are ya’ doin
’? Let that girl go,” barked the grey-haired man that was suddenly standing at the top of the porch steps.

“Thanks,” I managed to gasp as I took the steps two at a time. “Do you have any idea what happened?” I leaned from one side to the other but I couldn’t see into the deep shadows filling the open doorway or past the bulk of the large man in the rumbled suit.

When I tried to step around him, he put a firm but gentle hand on my arm to keep me from entering the house. “Just a minute now, young lady, how about you tell me who you are before you go charging in there?”

I could only stare at him, too terrified to even form words.

Smiling sympathetically, the man led me to one side of the porch.

“Okay, kid, first of all, let me introduce myself. I’m Lieutenant Brodsky, but my friends call me Ski, and I was kinda hoping you might be able to help me out here.” His gaze wandered over my frightened face and the tone of his voice said he understood my fear. “Now, let’s just take a minute here and find out who you are and what your relationship is to these folks, okay?”

I was suddenly afraid of actually facing what might be waiting for me inside. My knees sort of crumbled and I was sitting on the old white wicker swing but my eyes were still locked on that dark doorway. I just couldn’t seem to focus them so well right now, guess it was the tears leaking from them blurring my vision.

I finally stopped trying to avoid him and stared up into the man’s concerned face. “Are th-they all d-dead?” I finally managed to get the words past my frozen lips. “Oh God, they are, aren’t they?” I sobbed.

The lieutenant lowered his eyes and sadly nodded his head. Taking one of my hands in his big paw, he patted it gently with his other hand. “Now, why don’t we start by you tellin’ me your name?”

“I-I’m Halie Weston. M-my friends Rosa and Jack live here. There were six or seven kids living here too, kids they rescued from the s-streets,” I sniffled, “an-and my s-sister, Kelly, was here too.”

“I see,” said the man softly. “Halie, do you know anyone that might want to hurt your friends?”

“N-no,” I couldn’t stand not knowing another minute. “Oh Gods, is Kelly d-dead, too?” I sobbed. Slipping my hand from the man’s grasp, I ran for the door. I easily ducked past the fat, sluggish police officer trying to keep me from entering. I didn’t stop until I was standing in the middle of the big living area.

It was difficult to remember the charming, homey room that had always been filled with sunshine, the smell of fresh baked goods and laughter. Now the room looked more like a slaughter house. Staggered by the sight, I grabbed hold of the back of a big, over-stuffed chair that I had once helped Rosa re-upholster and stared around the room. There was something sticky under my hand but I didn’t dare to look down.
It could just be spilled jam, couldn’t it?
begged my terrified mind, but the thick black stains spattered across the walls and floors screamed
no!

Of their own volition, my stiff legs carried me across the room to stand over one of the sheet-covered forms scattered about the room.

“Damn!” growled the lieutenant. He cast a withering look at the officer that had let me pass before lurching into the room behind me. “You shouldn’t have come in here.” He put a hand on my arm and tried to lead me away but I jerked it away from him.

“
No!
I have to know!” I slowly bent and grabbed one corner of the sheet and raised it.

“This is Lanie,” I said softly. Letting the cloth drop, I moved on to the largest mass in the center of the room. “Rosa, Jake,” I sobbed, and looked back at the police officer. “They were the best people I ever knew—they were more loving and concerned for me than my own mother ever was.”

I was nearly choking on the sobs caught in my throat and it was getting hard to see through the tears running from my eyes but I had to do this. On fear-stiff legs, I slowly moved from one sheet to the next, identifying each of the slain children from six-year old Keven to fourteen-year old Mandie. The slaughter of these innocent children was devastating, but my mind clutched at a single thought. Some of the younger children were missing—and Kelly wasn’t among the dead.

Trying not to get my hopes too high, I dropped the cloth over the face of the last body and stood up. I let my gaze flash across the room—there had to be some kind of clue. I spotted a splash of bright red lying near the door to the kitchen beyond. I was holding the hat with its floppy red flower to my chest, sobbing softly when an argument erupted in the doorway behind me. A moment later Jennie burst past the policemen and charged across the room.

“Halie, I’m so sorry,” Jennie whispered as she pulled me close and held me.

“Shshsh,” I whispered through the tangle of our hair. “I don’t want them to know. Kelly’s not here, but I think I know where to look for her.”

The big police lieutenant crossed the room and patted my shoulder. “Hey, I’m really sorry you kids had to walk in on this. They’ll be loading,
hurrummff
,” he coughed into his handkerchief and shook his head sympathetically, “loading the bodies up now and taking them to the morgue. As soon as the coroner is done with his examination, you and whatever family you have can claim them.”

“Thanks f-for everything,” I managed to stammer through my tears. I didn’t protest when he led Jennie and me back out to the front porch and away from the bloody room.

A hard-faced police woman came out after a few minutes and took down all the names and information I could give her. She never noticed that none of the names she wrote down matched mine.

It didn’t take very long for the police to finish loading the black body bags into the ambulance and seal off the entrances to the house with strips of yellow tape. It was a battle to keep my anxiety under control. I needed to find Kelly, but I forced myself to stay huddled in Jennie’s arms until the last hover-cruiser disappeared around the corner.

“Come on, I think I know where Kelly would hide if there was trouble!” I pulled away from Jennie’s arms and charged off the porch. Running so fast that I stumbled in the thick grass a couple of times, I raced around the end of the porch and through a narrow gap in the hedge that hid the rest of the house and yards from the street. Jennie and Dusty were right behind me.

The yards behind the big old house were a maze of small vegetable and flower gardens interspersed with trellised berry bushes and grapes and fruit trees, all standing gaunt and naked in the winter sun. And in the midst of this stood a large shed sided with wood that had turned silver with age. A lean-to covered in wire-mesh hung off one side and housed Rosa’s prized flock of chickens. I’d spent many pleasant hours wandering the stone-paved paths, enjoying the flowers and nibbling on fresh-picked fruit but today that was all forgotten as I trampled through the dead flowers and brittle remains of the gardens to reach the door of the shed.

The rusty hinges squealed in protest when I threw the door wide but I stopped there, frozen in the doorway.
What if I’m wrong?

“K-Kelly?
Kelly
are you there?” I called in a voice raspy with fear as I tried to see through the dusty half-light that was all that filtered through the one small, dirty window.

My call was answered by the crash of cans toppling and breaking glass and the indignant clucking of chickens as they scattered to avoid the shadowy image of something larger bolting across the room. Before I could say anything, I was slammed back into the yard by the slender body wrapped around me.

“Oh, Sissy, I was so scared!” sobbed Kelly, “and it was all my fault!”

“Shshsh, it’s all right now, I’m here and I won’t let anyone hurt you,” I tried to reassure her but the sobs kept coming. At the sound of Jennie’s soft voice two other children emerged from the shadows and threw themselves into her arms.

“How did you kids manage to get away?” Jennie asked the children gripping her like she was the only life-vest in a flood.

“Mama R-rosa, she sent us out here to gather eggs,” gasped the little brown-haired boy.

“W-we heard all the shouting and then there were some loud bangs, like explosions,” piped the little girl with long black ringlets and big brown eyes. “We were really scared and wanted to go to Mama Rosa but Kelly made us hide out here ‘til she went and looked in the window.”

Kelly raised her head and sniffled loudly. “Th-there were some strange men an-and they had a
real
g-gun, you know, like the ones in the old vids.” The terror she still felt was in her eyes when she looked up at me. “H-Halie, I-I saw them shoot one of the k-kids and then the big man in the black suit, I think he was an a-agent—he hollered at Jack for him to tell him where you were or he was going to shoot another one of the kids, o-only h-he called us a b-bad name.”

She wiped her eyes and nose on her sleeve and went on. “I was really scared and I was going to go in the back door and tell ‘em not to hurt anybody else ‘cause it was all my fault that I called Mama and she sent the agents b-but, it was like Mama Rosa knew I was out there. She was crying but she looked right at the window where I was and said real loud an-and clear, “
We aren’t telling you anything”.
I g-guess she knew they’d already broken so many laws that they couldn’t leave an-any witnesses,” Kelly stutttered. “That w-was when that man sh-shot her and the other men in suits started shooting too,” Kelly gasped out. “I-I couldn’t stand to watch anymore and I ran as fast as I could back to the shed and Merry and Jon an-and we hid really quiet-like so they wouldn’t find us.”

“Yeah,
really
quiet, ‘specially when we heard the back door open and feet stomping around in the garden.” Jon whispered as loud as his little voice allowed him. “We were afraid they were going to find us, but then we heard the police sirens and the bad men ran away!” He buried his face in Jennie’s shirt and sobbed.

“We were too afraid to come out ‘til I heard you call my name. I was afraid the police would take me away and give me to the C-Company,” sobbed Kelly. When she turned her head I saw the look of total devastation and guilt in my little sister’s eyes and my heart broke for her pain. “An-and it was all my fault ‘cause I took my cell phone when I left and I-I called Mama last night and told her that you brought me here. I j-just didn’t want her to worry. I think she thought you were here, too, cause I heard her tell Eric. H-he must of called the Company to come and take you away, Sissy. I’m sooo sorry,” she cried.

“Where’s the phone now?” I barely managed to get the words past the lump in my throat. If I had only held my temper and not shocked Eric he would not have known about me and this would never have happened.

Kelly reached into her jeans pocket and brought out the folded cell phone. It was hard to believe that such a small, common accessory had just been the instrument that brought so much destruction and death.

I took my sister firmly by her shoulders and gently shook her. “This was
not
your fault. You had no way of knowing that our own mother would turn her back on us like this and allow Eric to send the agents after me. And you remember, it was
me
they were looking for, not you.” Taking the phone from her shaking hand, I dropped it on the stone path and ground my heel into it until there was nothing but crushed plastic and broken electronic chips left.

“Hey Halie,” interrupted Jennie, “I really hate to hurry you along and all but I really think we should get out of here as fast as we can.”

“C-can I get my pack first? I don’t have very much but it’s all I have-please?” begged Kelly with big, watery eyes.

I thought about it a minute and then nodded. “Yeah, give me a minute and I’ll go with you.” I quickly moved to the front of the lean-to and jerked the wobbly wire gate open to release the clucking hens to forage for themselves.

“Okay, let’s do it.” Taking one of my sister’s hands, I let her pull me toward the backdoor.

Jennie was following us at a slower pace. “I really don’t like any of us going back in there, but if you’re determined then we’d really better hurry,” she said in a hushed voice.

When we reached the doorway I cast a quick look back at my friend who was still nervously watching the open gardens and yard behind us. She was right-we should get the devil out of here before someone found us. I pulled back at Kelly’s insistent grip, intending to drag her away but the look of devastation in her eyes was too much.