Madelyn's Nephew (24 page)

It sniffed the air. When it exhaled, Madelyn smelled the rotten breath of the thing.

Gradually, the head withdrew.
 

She stayed there, frozen in Elijah’s embrace for several minutes. He climbed off of her and held out a hand to help her up.

She took it without thinking and rose to her feet. Madelyn stared up at the sky. Elijah brushed the leaves from her shirt and hair.

“I don’t understand,” she whispered.

Elijah looked up and then shook his head.
 

“I think we just found out what scared Gabriel.”

Madelyn put up her hand to silence him. For a second, she thought she heard something moving through the forest. It was nothing. She spun every direction, looking for a sign of the thing. Both the approach and retreat of the giant were undetectable.

She looked back to Elijah and raised her hands. She was afraid to speak again.

He broke the silence.

“We better get someplace safe,” he said.

Madelyn blinked and looked down, biting the inside of her cheek and trying to think of what to do. What was safe with a thing like that out there? What did it want? Something that big could stomp the truck into a pancake. It could rip the roof off of her grandmother’s cabin. How could she hope to hide?

“Madelyn,” Elijah said. He took her arm.

She let him lead down the path. He was pretty good at picking out the tiny clues that indicated the way. Once or twice she pointed when he slowed down. Some of the sections of the trail had to be taken on faith.
 

Elijah stopped when they got to the spot where the ground fell away and their path crossed through the dry marsh. He scanned the horizon, looking for danger. Madelyn looked at the woods behind them. The trees could have been hiding anything.

“How much farther?” he asked.

“About half a day at this pace,” she said. “Assuming he hasn’t destroyed the camps over there?”

“He?” Elijah asked.

Madelyn turned at a sound. It was probably just a bird, but her nerves were on edge. She wanted to keep moving. After scrambling down the bank, Madelyn continued at a fast walk through the tall grass. She locked in on a distant tree to make sure that she kept a consistent heading. It was easy to veer off course in the grass. She heard Elijah moving behind her until he got the hang of putting his feet in the right places. The grass grew in firm clumps. The dry grass rustled whenever his steps missed them.

They didn’t slow down until the other side of the field.
 

Madelyn hunched down to catch her breath. She wanted to climb the rocky hillside instead of circling through the woods. The hill would leave them exposed for a good twenty minutes, but it would cut off a good portion of the trip.

“I’m not going to slow down until we get to the top. Watch your step. You twist an ankle and I’m leaving you behind,” she said to Elijah. He nodded.

He didn’t have any trouble matching her pace. Elijah seemed perfectly at home on the rocks. She thought about his time in the mountains and nodded to herself. Once they reached the top, it was a relief to be back on flat ground. Madelyn took off at a jog to burn off her anxious energy. They were far from the truck and moving farther away from her grandmother’s cabin with every stride. Madelyn was starting to feel like she no longer had a home.
 

“Slow down,” Elijah said as he pulled up next to her.

She turned. “If you can’t keep up then stay here.” It was an absurd thing to say. Staying there wouldn’t do Elijah any good.

“I can keep up, but you’re not going to be use to anyone if you’re exhausted. Save some of your energy in case we have to run from something.”

She refused to slow down. “We’re running from something
now
.”

Elijah didn’t respond. His words got into her head and made her doubt her own stamina. She hated him for that. When they finally climbed through the leaves and broke into to the clearing, she could hardly catch her breath.
 

He gasped at the sight of the lake. She could admit that it was pretty from that side, but Madelyn wasn’t impressed. It was just something they had to circle around to get to the camp where Gabriel and Harper had last stayed. While she let her heart rate decrease, she squinted at the camp and looked for signs of life.
 

“It’s one of those?” Elijah asked, gesturing at the buildings.

She pointed out the exact one. He started down the shore. Madelyn looked to the sky. The carpet of gray clouds were moving fast. It almost looked like a quilt of smoke overhead. Just above the clouds, shrouded by the mist, she saw darting shapes, moving like giant dragonflies. She followed Elijah at a distance.

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“Intrusion detected,” the kitchen said.

“Greetings,” Madelyn said. Elijah said the word at the same time. She looked over at him.

“Unwelcome intrusion,” the kitchen said. The windows began to dim.

“Greetings,” Madelyn repeated. She held up a hand to silence Elijah. The kitchen clearly didn’t like him.

“We request evacuation of unwelcome intruders,” the kitchen said. “Our environment will be rendered uninhabitable until the unwelcome intruders comply.”

Elijah grabbed her elbow and pulled her towards the door. A white gas began to spill from a vent on the wall. It pooled and then spread across the floor.

“Mode?” Madelyn asked.

“We request evacuation.”

“We have to go,” Elijah said.

“It’s just a bluff. It’s probably just harmless fog. They wouldn’t put lethal measures in a vacation home. The builders would have had their pants sued off.”

He still pulled at her arm. “You want to take that chance? She’s not here. Let’s go.”

Still, Madelyn resisted. She didn’t like the idea of being turned away by a house, especially one that she had been in before.

“Last occupancy?” Madelyn asked.

“We request evacuation.”

She pulled her arm away from Elijah. “Let go of me.”

He frowned at her and folded his arms.
 

“Turn off that smoke,” Madelyn said to the kitchen. “I will burn this damn place to the ground if you don’t turn it off.”

“We request evacuation.”

“We
deny
your request. Who was here last? Your mode was hospitality the last time I was here. Who changed your mode?”

The kitchen was silent. Madelyn looked to the vent. The white gas had stopped coming out.
 

“Hello?” Madelyn asked. She remembered the protocol. “Greetings.”

“We request evacuation of…” the kitchen began.

“We
deny
your request. Greetings.”

“Welcome,” the kitchen said. Despite the message, the voice was cold.

“Where’s Harper?” Madelyn asked. “Locate young woman who was staying here recently.”

The kitchen paused before it responded. “That information requires justification.”

“Gabriel sent us to locate Harper—the young woman who was staying here,” Madelyn said.

This time, the response was immediate. “Information is available on lower display.”

“Come on,” Madelyn said. She pulled on Elijah’s shirt and headed for the stairs.

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They stared at the screen.

“Zoom out,” Madelyn said.

The screen didn’t respond.

“Like this,” Elijah said. He reached forward and gestured at the screen. The map zoomed out and showed them an overhead view of the lake, the camp, and the ridge line.

“A little more,” Madelyn said.
 

They saw the creek at the edge of the display. She turned her head so she could match the map to the one in her head. Elijah made another gesture and the display turned around. Madelyn nodded. She had her bearings.

“So where is she?” Elijah asked.

Madelyn pointed. The green marker was subtle on the view of the terrain.
 

“Turn off vegetation,” she said.

Elijah reached for the control, but this time the house did her bidding. They saw a shaded relief map in tan and gray. The green marker was obvious on that view. It was sitting, unmoving, on the hill to the south of the lake.

“I wonder if she’s alive,” Elijah said.

Madelyn looked at him.
 

“Has to be,” she said. “The marker would be red otherwise. Haven’t you used one of these scanners before?”

“No. Maybe.”

“Zoom out more,” Madelyn said. “Let’s see where the truck is.”

Elijah started to zoom, but jerked his hand back at what the display revealed. To the south and west, from the direction they had come, a big blue mass was hovering over the terrain. Madelyn cupped her chin and then moved her hand up over her mouth.

“Zoom out,” she ordered.

Elijah did it carefully, like the blob on the display could somehow sense them.

It looked like a cloud hovering over the map. The edge of it swirled and probed, like little fingers. Madelyn darted her eyes to the north and saw that the colors of the shape were more intense in one area. It happened to be the area where her cabin was located.

“We’ll have to go around the lake this way to avoid that thing. What do you think it is?” Elijah asked. He motioned to the east side of the lake.

Madelyn shook her head. “If we go that way, we’ll have to cross the ridge and hike down through the valley to come up the other side. It will take a long time. There’s a good chance that we were just under that blue shape. I’m not sure we need to consider it to be deadly or anything.”

“But what could it be?” Elijah said.

“I’m assuming it’s part of that giant goat man thing we saw near Circle Poke. It has to be.”

After a moment, she realized that Elijah was staring at her. He cocked his head.

“What?”

“Goat man?”

“Yes. The thing that put its head down through the trees and looked at us?”

He was still staring.

“You tackled me off the path and held me down until it left?”

“The bees?”

“What?” Madelyn asked.
 

“The cloud of bees. You think that the blue here is a representation of the swarm of bees? How could it be that big? There would have to be billions of them.”

Madelyn scratched her head and tried to think it through. The first and most obvious explanation was that Elijah had been hallucinating. Before she could say anything, she realized that it was just as likely that she was the one who had hallucinated.

“Maybe we should go the long way,” she said. “Maybe it’s best if we don’t find out which one of us is right.”

Elijah nodded.

Madelyn started to move for the stairs.

“Wait,” Elijah said. “You say she’s alive, but she’s not moving. Do you have healing wraps?”

“No. I gave the last big one to Oliver.” She thought for a second. “We’ll have to go back to the cabin.”

Elijah pointed his finger towards the ceiling. It took Madelyn a second before she understood.

“Greetings,” she said. “Do you have any large med-kits?”

“None available.”

Madelyn shrugged.

Elijah shook his head. “Greetings. Where are the med-kits? We will burn this damn place to the ground.”

The house paused, like it was contemplating whether or not he was serious.

“Med-kits are located in the closet under the staircase.”

He gave Madelyn a quick smile and then went to look.

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“Wait,” Madelyn said.
 

It was almost dark. She could barely see. Still, she made a wide circle around the young woman. There was something wrong with the situation. Elijah watched the sky nervously as Madelyn made her approach. Harper wasn’t moving. Madelyn held still until she saw the young woman’s shoulder move with the intake of breath.

“Harper?” Madelyn whispered.

When she grunted, Madelyn moved forward. Harper jerked back as Madelyn laid her hand on her shoulder.

“Harper, we’re going to get you out of here.”

“No,” Harper said. “They’re coming.”

Madelyn got her hand under Harper’s arm and started to pull her up. She shot a look at Elijah. He saw the motion in the last light and moved to help. Harper moaned as they lifted. Elijah was fumbling with the healing wrap. Madelyn wanted to tell him it could wait, but they had a long walk ahead of them. Harper would need the energy to keep up. It was getting dark and Madelyn wanted to be indoors as soon as possible.

She lifted the back of Harper’s shirt while Elijah spread the wrap. Without enough light to inspect her, the back was as good a place as any. She perked up immediately.

“Climb,” Harper said. She pulled against Madelyn’s grip. Harper still needed help supporting herself, but she propelled both of them forward. The sound was terrible. It was impossible to stay quiet as they shuffled through the leaves and climbed the hill. Elijah dropped back so he could listen for danger away from their noise. Madelyn’s senses were overrun with the sound.

They climbed.

Harper waved her arms in front of her, pushing away trees when they got in the way. As soon as they got to a level place, Harper stopped.

“I don’t know which way,” she said.
 

Madelyn pointed her the best she could and the two of them moved forward. Elijah had the compass. He didn’t correct her, so Madelyn assumed they were still moving in the right direction.

Harper stopped.

“Do you need another wrap? We have one more,” Madelyn whispered to the young woman.

“Stand still,” Harper said. Her voice had been little more than a breath in Madelyn’s ear.
 

Madelyn listened for trouble. She heard nothing more than her own thudding heart.

When Harper spoke again, her full voice shocked Madelyn to her core.

“They’re coming!” Harper said.
 

Madelyn heard Elijah start to run. Harper lunged forward and tripped. Madelyn propped her up so she didn’t hit the ground, but Harper’s churning legs were working against them. They stumbled forward in the dark.