The Dark Ones (15 page)

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Authors: Anthony Izzo

BOOK: The Dark Ones

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“Still trespassing,” he said, and pulled a cell phone from his pocket.

That was all they needed was cops showing up. “That’s not necessary,” Dave said.

“I got a job to do, buddy,” the guard said, and went to dial.

Dave reached up to snatch the phone, but the guard took a step back, moving out of Dave’s reach. Dave started to open the truck door, intent on separating the guard from his phone. This whole thing was a bad idea, coming down here in the first place. He should have been on his way to Buffalo by now. Sara was out there alone and here he was messing around with a rent-a-cop. He said, “Give me that damn phone.”

He felt a hand on his arm. It was Frank, now shaking his head. Frank leaned across the seat and said, “You seen anything strange up here, my friend? We’ve heard stories.”

The guard held the phone away from his ear. At least Frank had gotten his attention.

“We came to see about things that go bump in the night. We mean no harm.”

The guard paused, regarded the cell phone. Dave hadn’t seen him dial the number yet.

“What can you tell us? There’s a twenty in it for you.” Frank pulled a twenty from his pocket and was waving it in the air. It had to work, because if the guard completed his call and they wound up in jail, the battle would be over before it started. The guard punched a button on the phone, and it made a warbling, beeping noise. He returned it to his pocket and approached the truck.

He held out his hand. “Let’s see it.”

Frank extended his arm, leaning over Dave. The guard snatched the bill and in one smooth motion tucked it in his shirt pocket. Dave had a bad moment where he thought the guard might laugh maniacally, whip out the cell phone, and summon the police. Instead, he grinned and said, “What do you want to know?”

“Is there somewhere we can go. Close?” Frank said. “We’re in a hurry.”

“The guard shack. This way.”

They followed him, the man’s ample rear end swaying in the headlights. He led them to a steel shack with rusty patches on its front. A dim light emanated from behind the curtained front window. The guard waved, indicating they should follow.

Once inside, the guard sat at a card table. On the table were a desk lamp, a travel mug, and a legal pad with messy handwriting scrawled on it. In the corner was a file cabinet with a dusty boom box on top. The closeness of the space made Dave feel as if the walls might press in and crush them. It was close enough to smell Jenny’s spicy perfume. Not that it was a bad thing.

“Name’s Bernie Myers, been with the mine thirty-eight years. Once a miner, now a rent-a-cop. What else you need to know?”

Dave cracked a grin. “Tell us about the mine.”

They learned the mine had opened in 1919 with sixty employees on the payroll. By 1921 there were five hundred employees and they were mining coal as fast as the mine carts would move. The mine did well up through the Second World War, then things started going badly. In 1956 a cave-in killed nine miners. In 1961 an explosion killed eleven more. But the mine kept going, despite eleven more deaths between the last explosion and the fall of Saigon. By then the government started buzzing around, hitting the owners of Harben in the pocketbook with all types of violations.

“What about recently?” Frank asked.

“Strange things around.”

“How strange?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told ya.”

Jenny said, “Try us.”

“Those houses closest to the mine? All empty. People vacated them.”

“Real estate market bad?” Dave asked.

“Boy, that’s real funny,” Bernie said, rolling his eyes. “They seen stuff.”

“Dark’s coming,” Dave said. “He’s told us nothing.”

“Another twenty might loosen my lips.”

David moved the curtain and looked out the window. The sun had nearly disappeared beneath the crest of the hills. If the mine was acting as a hiding place, its occupants would soon be coming out for the night. “I’ll show you where to put a twenty,” Dave said.

Frank intervened. “Hard times?”

“Why do you think I stay here? I worked in that mine twenty-nine years, made a decent living. Got bad lungs and a worse back, but I fed my family. I need all I can get.”

“Yeah, can’t make a living so extortion’s the next best thing,” Dave said.

Frank put up a hand. “Times are tough. How about another forty to help you remember?” He took out his wallet and handed Bernie two twenties.

Bernie took the money and muttered a quick thanks under his breath. He tucked the bills away in his pocket. “They come out of the mine at night. Started about a week ago. People seeing faces in their windows at night. Things that look like Halloween masks, only real. Half the folks around here have gone up to the Holiday Inn in Chancelorsville.”

“And you?” Dave asked.

“I stay in the shed. That reminds me.” He turned off the lamp and shut the curtain, cloaking the room in shadows. “They ain’t bothered me, but I hear them stomping and muttering in the dark.”

“But have you
seen
anything?” Dave asked.

“I peeked out the door one night. It was a clear night, all the stars out like little diamonds. One of them things flew over top of the hills, must have had a wingspan of eight or nine feet.”

“I suggest you find a new line of work,” Frank said.

“No other work around. I got the start of emphysema, need insurance.”

The man had no idea how much danger he was in. Dave wanted to go, even though they had only been here a short time. He couldn’t imagine spending a night alone with the Dark Ones roaming the desolate hills.

He went to the window again and looked out. To his dismay, the hilltops were now as dark as the sky. Night had fallen.

Frank, Chen, and Dave piled into the truck. From the cab of the truck, Dave watched the guard shut the door, blotting out the light. He pulled down the blinds and a moment later the light went off.

Dave backed the truck up, did a quick turn, and drove through the open gate and back down the road. Behind him, the steel machinery diminished in the rearview mirror. He realized he had the truck going fifty. It would be best to slow it down.

“Pull over,” Frank said.

“You nuts?” Dave asked.

“We’re a good distance away. Turn it around and pull over to the side. I want to see.”

From the backseat, Chen said, “Frank, I don’t know about that.”

“Do it.”

Dave looked at him. The bushy eyebrows had set themselves into a serious frown and when the Reverend got that look, there was no arguing. David eased the truck to the side of the road, checked the mirror, and turned it around. He parked on the opposite shoulder. The framework of the mining operation rose against the sky like an industrial leviathan.

“Frank, we can’t stay.”

“Just a moment. Look.”

From the mine entrance at the foot of the mountain rose a cloud, blacker than the night. It swirled upward, curled on itself. It seemed velvety, thick. Dave imagined the deepest reaches of space would not be that dark. The cloud, perhaps a hundred feet wide and now two hundred feet tall, rose and corkscrewed above the hills.

“That’s how they travel. That’s how they can track us and keep up so fast,” Frank said.

“Frank, let’s go. It might head this way, then what?” Dave said.

Chen leaned forward and put a hand on Frank’s shoulder. Maybe he would listen to her. “We’re outnumbered, Frank. No telling how many in that cloud.”

“Why do you think they’re coming out now?”

“To hunt,” Frank said. “I’ve seen enough. Let’s go.”

The cloud dipped low and twisted, like a serpent. It spread across the hills, fanned out. David turned the truck back around, his tires spinning on the gravel shoulder. He thought for a moment that he couldn’t get traction, but the tires dug in and the truck darted out onto the blacktop, back toward Routersville.

“You think they’re coming now?” Dave said. If that were the case, Routersville would be the scene of a slaughter. They’d had no time to prepare defenses and the town would be overrun.

“No, I have a feeling they’re waiting for something. Just not sure what.”

They reached Jenny’s house. The cloud had loomed in the rearview mirror for a few miles and then spread out to the east and west, among the hills. David pitied anyone living in the vicinity of the mine. He hoped they had the sense to move out, as the residents of the mining town did.

Frank had settled on the couch. He yawned enormously and removed his cap. His hair looked about as neat as a briar patch. Dave stifled a laugh.

Jenny came in with a ginger ale for the Reverend, and a Rolling Rock for herself and Dave. As she took a seat next to Dave on the love seat, she pressed her hand on his thigh, gave a little squeeze, presumably to steady herself.

“How fast can you organize a meeting? I’m thinking come daylight. We don’t have much time,” Frank said.

“We can go door to door. I’ve been stockpiling supplies at the armory, canned food, bottled water, guns, ammo, flashlights, crank radios,” Jenny said.

Frank nodded his approval. “What will we tell them, the non-Guardians? They’re not likely to believe us.”

“Come to the armory or die a horrible death?” Dave asked.

“Subtlety is really not your specialty, is it, Dresser?” Jenny said, and favored him with a smile.

“It’s the truth.”

“I’m afraid he’s right,” Frank said. “We can mention the death of the Little family, imply that the same thing will happen here. It’ll be difficult to persuade them.”

Jenny took a swig of her Rolling Rock. “I can get some. They’ve seen us piling up goods at the armory, just not sure why.”

“And the ones that don’t?” Dave asked.

“There’s nothing we can do,” Frank said. “They’ll perish.”

“So that’s it? Just like the hotel.”

“Dave, think about it. Someone comes to your door and tells you the town is having a meeting. And the meeting’s about a band of demons preparing to lay waste to the town. So just come on up to the armory so the good old Guardians can protect you.”

Dave took a drink of beer. It was cold and good, and he could see himself downing this one in a hurry and then polishing off its brothers. “You’re right. That answer sucks, but you’re right.”

“Most of the town owns guns. They can protect themselves,” Jenny said.

David snorted out a laugh. “Hopeless, then. No one will come with us.”

“You’d be surprised,” Jenny said. “Like I said, they’ve seen the stockpiles at the armory. People are suspicious. If they think maybe the end is coming for some reason, and the prep at the armory fuels that belief, then maybe they’ll join us. Paranoid enough to.”

Frank swigged down the rest of his ginger ale. “So your people can start when, six, seven?”

“Seven. I’ll get Hank Peters, Mickey McGill, and some of those guys to organize phone calls. They’re retired, up with the roosters all of them.”

Frank set his coaster on the end table. He picked up his hat, ran a hand through the tangle of hair, and placed the cap back on his head. “I’m turning in. You two?”

Jenny said, “We’re going to stay up a while. ’Night.”

Frank tipped his cap and walked down the hallway to the spare bedroom.

“I need to leave, first thing,” Dave said. “I have to find Sara.”

“She’s a brave one, setting off on her own. But she’s also smart and capable. I’m sure she got where she’s going.”

That was what frightened Dave. “It’s what she’s going in to that worries me.”

“How bad do you think it will be?” Jenny said, and sipped her beer.

“Judging by the clouds we saw and the way they’ve pursued us, it’ll be an all-out assault.”

“Do you think we’ll survive?”