Grandfather (45 page)

“We celebrate the end of
these bastards!” Edgar yelled out. He walked up and took an entire
bottle of wine from one of the men. He popped the cork and drank
straight from the bottle. I couldn’t help but laugh at
him.

The bottles were sat down
on a table and even more were brought in. Everybody grabbed a glass
and filled it up. Even Mae grabbed one for her and allowed Marley
to sip on one.

Edgar returned to the
table, carrying two additional glasses. “Celebrate,” he said,
shoving one at me and the other at Ashton. We took it.

I had never tasted wine
before. I had never had any kind of alcohol before. I saw it plenty
of time because the houseladies at the orphanage would sneak some
inside and drink all the time. That was probably why they didn’t
seem to care for anything going on there. I did have to say that
the wine was a pretty red color. I took a small swig. The dry
liquid with a hint of apple slid down my tongue and down my throat.
My chest warmed up.

“Now Edgar,” Mae said as
Edgar started on another glass. “Don’t be drinking too much of
that.”

“Ah, Mae,” he said
laughing. He stood behind her and patted her on the
shoulder.

“You wouldn’t want to be
impaired on such an important journey.”

Edgar laughed again, but
then sat his glass down. “As usual, you’re right,
Maebelle.”

Mae laughed. “Oh, of
course I am.”

The dining hall was filled
with laughter and eventually singing. I even caught Dr. Mac doing
some sort of dance. I was pretty sure it wasn’t an actual dance
because it looked like he was just jumping in every direction. It
was pretty funny, and a couple of people didn’t let him do it
alone. I had never seen so many happy people before. They were even
happier than the rich people – at least the rich people before they
learned of Grandfather.

I finished my glass of
wine and even had another small one. I felt more relaxed and knew
that was when I should quit, especially since I would be sneaking
out. Marley stuck with her one glass while Ashton grabbed a few
more.

Belladonna, Edgar, Robert,
and the others were to leave at 9:30 since the whole trip would be
made on foot. By the time 8:30 came, they began getting ready,
growing more serious. Other people in the dining hall took breaks
from their good times in order to wish luck to those going on the
mission.

By 9:00, the wine forced
Ashton to go to bed. It was funny to see him stumble around while
on crutches. Mae was so scared that he was going to fall over, but
he made it. Right before 9:30, Edgar came up to me and put a hand
on my shoulder. “Carsyn,” he said, letting out a quiet
burp.

“
Manners!” Mae said, though
not sounding upset at all as she sipped on her drink.

“
Yeah, yeah,” Edgar said,
smiling at her. He turned his attention back at me and grew
serious. “Son, you’ve come a long way in such a short period of
time.”

I said nothing, returning
the eye contact.

“
Before, ya didn’t want to
have anything to do with Grandfather. Said it had nothing to do
with ya.” Edgar chuckled. “Learned how wrong you were, didn’t
you?”

I nodded.

“
You were annoying too.” He
laughed. “Boy, you asked so many damn questions, I thought I was
gonna lock you up in a room ‘till this was all over.”

I had to laugh with him,
remembering all of the questions I asked and how angry Edgar would
get. Sometimes, I think I did it on purpose, just to see him
Cringe.

“
Grown on me, you have,”
Edgar said. “Glad you’re here . . . and I think you got a lot of
potential. Anxious to see what’s in store for ya.”

Then, he hugged me. It was
the second time he had ever hugged me. It was still hard for me to
believe that a man like Edgar could be a tiny bit sentimental.
Perhaps it was the wine. Either way, I hugged back. Just as I
annoyed him before, he annoyed me. Just as I had grown on him, he
had grown on me.

Edgar let go and turned
around. “Let’s take them down!” he screamed, spit flying out of his
mouth. Edgar, Belladonna, Robert, and the other soldiers marched to
the door leading to the cave exit. For a second, everybody quit
their singing, laughing, and dancing, and they applauded, bursting
out in cheers.

“
Take them down!” I heard a
man scream.

“
End it!” a woman
screamed.

They went through the door
and were gone. The laughter and singing continued. I turned to look
at Marley and Mae who were just as happy. I wanted to stay, but I
couldn’t. It was time to seem a little buzzed from the
wine.

“
I think Ashton’s got the
right idea,” I said, standing up. “Goin’ to bed. Will you wake me
up in a couple of hours?”

“
Bed so soon?” Mae asked.
“With all this excitement?”

“
Unfortunately yeah,” I
told her. “Gonna . . . gonna sleep good.” My cheeks were burning. I
was such a bad liar.

Marley looked at me
suspiciously. Mae agreed that she or Marley would stop by to wake
me up before everybody returned. With nothing else to say, I left
the dining room, looking behind me to make sure I wasn’t being
followed. I wasn’t. I rushed into my room and grabbed the handgun
and stun gun. I thought about changing into a suit, but the one I
had was still covered in dust. Mae hadn’t gotten to cleaning it.
Honestly, there wasn’t a reason to wear one. I wasn’t going to be
seen by others. And I didn’t really care if I was seen or not. It
didn’t really matter at that point. The stun gun was small enough
to fit into my pocket. I placed the handgun under my waistband. I
wanted to give Edgar and them time to get ahead of me, so I waited
impatiently for ten minutes before going to the door to peak out. I
looked down the hall. Nobody was there. I snuck out and ran around
the corner. Thankfully, I had remembered to grab a flashlight I saw
in the meeting room. I turned it on and ran toward the
ladder.

I was also thankful that I
had actually taken the time to memorize the map Edgar used for the
plan. That a way, I knew exactly where I would be going. Edgar and
them would be ahead of me, but I knew the exact route they were
taking. That would keep me from having to get too close to
them.

I reached the ladder and
climbed up. After I was up, I walked toward the road. As they had
marked, I didn’t walk directly alongside of the road. We didn’t
want anybody driving by to see us. I stayed hidden, in the dark,
within the tree lines. I was sure to turn off the flashlight so
that Edgar and them didn’t catch a glimpse of the light. And I was
definitely sure to stay quiet, just in case I got too close to them
without knowing it. I didn’t want them to hear me. But I doubted
that would happen since I couldn’t hear any of them. They were
further ahead. I definitely wouldn’t be able to see them because
they weren’t using any flashlights either to keep from being
spotted.

I continued walking for
about another hour before I heard leaves rattling. I was moving
quicker than them. Of course I was . . . there were fourteen of
them and one of me. It’s always more difficult to travel in groups.
I slowed down, looking to where they were. It just looked like a
bunch of walking shadows. I followed them cautiously.

This went on a while
before my clumsiness got to me. I tripped over a rigid slab of
concrete, nearly falling to the ground. I froze and held my breath,
listening, hoping nobody heard me.

They were a few hundred
yards away from me, and I could hear mumbling. Oh no, they heard
me. At least that’s what I kept thinking. I listened more closely
until I finally was able to make out Edgar’s voice. “Down here,” I
barely heard him say. “Hurry the hell up.” Yup, that was definitely
Edgar.

Then, I heard the very
thing I didn’t want to. “They didn’t hear you,” somebody whispered
behind me. I swear, I nearly fell over again. I’m pretty sure I
almost yelled out too, which wouldn’t have been good. I reached for
my gun as I turned around. Should have known. It was Marley. Why
did this keep happening? She and Ashton were always figuring out my
plan. And I was always coming up with stupid plans.

“
No,” I whispered. No, no,
no. Go back.”

“
No, Carsyn,” she said.
“I’m worried about you.”

“
Go back to Mae,” I said,
still whispering. “Celebrate with her.”

“
She’s fine,” Marley said.
“She’s talking with Dr. Mac and some others. And besides, she
started dancing, which was kind of embarrassing. She’s not very
good.”

“
Marley,” I snapped,
forcing myself to not accidently raise my voice. “This is too
dangerous. Go. Back. Now.”

“
You want me to go back?”
Marley asked.

“
Yeah,” I said. “I’d be
furious with myself if something happened to you.”

“
Aww,” Marley said. “You
really have changed since I first met you. You actually care for
people now.”

“
Be quiet,” I griped.
“There’s no time for this.”

“
You’re right,” she said.
“Let’s go. Before they –”

“Go back,” I declared
again. I listened for the others. I heard nothing. They must have
entered the subway tunnel.

“If I’m going back, you’re
going with me,” Marley said.

“Um, no,” I
said.

“Well, um, you don’t have
a choice,” Marley snapped with some sassy attitude. “All I have to
do is start screaming for Belladonna and Edgar.”

I said nothing. She had
played me again, and it made me so angry. I honestly didn’t know
what I’d do if something bad happened to her. I definitely wouldn’t
have been able to face Mae. But I wasn’t going to let her stop me
from going.

“How did you know I left?”
I asked.

“Really?” she asked. “Do
you think I’m that dumb? First of all, you said you were going to
go. And second, you didn’t have that much wine. I knew you weren’t
going to bed.”

I should have known Marley
would have figured it out. I had no choice. I shook my head at her
in annoyance. “Fine,” I whispered. I took out the stun gun and gave
it to her. She refused to take it. She reached into her pocket and
took out her own stun gun.

“I’m prepared,” she
said.

I wanted to be annoyed,
but it was too hard. I just grinned and shook my head.

“Let’s go,” I told her. We
walked toward the entrance. I didn’t know what it looked like, but
I figured it would be pretty easy to recognize. I was right. We
reached a set of steps covered in grass that had grown through the
cracks. Only a few bushes and weeds covered the place up. How had
nobody discovered this? I guess not many people were nearby. The
wall stood tall in the distance. We were going to spend the next
hour and a half walking across it from underneath. I took a deep
breath, dreading the journey. This was it. And now I had Marley to
worry about.

Chapter
Eighteen

W
e walked down the steps slowly. It grew darker the further
down. By the time we reached the landing, I couldn’t see anything
But I knew it was the platform right before the tracks. Edgar had
talked about it. I slowly walked to where the platform ended,
leading to the tracks of the abandoned subway. Marley and I knelt
down and jumped. I immediately tripped on the metal track, catching
myself with my hands. I froze, hoping they didn’t hear that. Down
the tunnel, I could see a faint light. There was no way they heard
me, unless there was an echo. But I doubted it. Marley helped me up
and we started walking, staying close enough to use the light ahead
as a guide but far enough to keep from being heard. She walked
beside the track, being extra cautious to keep from
falling.

This went on for what I
think was about an hour. We could hear the faint voices of them
talking, but I couldn’t tell what they were actually saying. But I
could tell that they were no longer moving. I stopped
Marley.

“What are they doing?” she
asked when they still didn’t move.

“I bet they’re taking a
break,” I said. “Makes sense. We must be close.”

I was glad they stopped
because it allowed Marley and me to rest too. I didn’t know what
would be happening over the next hour, but I knew I didn’t want to
be restless.

I don’t know what they
were talking about, but it must’ve been funny because several
times, they burst out in laughter. They were probably still in
celebratory mode. I didn’t blame them.

It was about fifteen
minutes later before they started moving again. Marley and I
followed. I was still afraid that I was going to trip over the
track again, so I was extra careful.

I did lose track of time,
so I had no idea how long we had been in the tunnel. But
eventually, the light ahead went away, just like that. Great. We no
longer had a guide. Marley and I moved quicker while still being
careful. I did end up tripping again but caught myself before
actually falling.

Why did they turn their
lights off? Did they know we were behind them?