The Massacre Mechanism (The Downwinders Book 5) (19 page)

“The Jeffs
motel?” Carma asked. “That’s the scene of the massacre, my dear. It’s best if
you not return there, at least until Winn and David can finish up with Lyman.”

“I have to,”
Deem said. “There’s something there. Something important.”

“What?”
Warren asked.

“I’m not
sure,” Deem said, hoping that strength would return to her legs. She took a
step and quickly fell. Warren helped her back onto the sofa.

“Here,”
Carma said. “Stop this walking and drink some more tea. Trust me, you need it!”

Deem took
the mug from her, her arms cooperating to hold the tea without spilling. She
raised it to her lips and drank.

“What’s at
the motel?” Carma asked.

“There’s a
room there,” Deem said. “When I was in it, Lorenzo could talk to me.”

“Lorenzo?”
Warren asked.

“I was able
to talk to Lorenzo the whole time I was in the soul cage,” she replied. “He’s
the reason I got through it without losing my mind. He kept me sane. Once I
found myself in the ghost at Mountain Meadows — her name was Katherine, by the
way — I couldn’t talk to Lorenzo anymore. I couldn’t reach him. I could only
talk with the other members of the wagon train as we walked to Caliente. But
when I was at the motel, when I found this room, Lorenzo could speak to me
again. He said I had to find something in the room. He said the room was
special, and that was why he could talk to me. I tried, but I didn’t have time
to search it. I got pulled away by my sister, and…”

“Your
sister?” Warren asked.

“Katherine’s
sister, Marion,” Deem replied. “After they finished attacking Dayton’s people,
they turned on each other. Then they all disappeared; Marion too. That’s when I
felt myself back here, downstairs on the table — with that thing on my face.”

“We’ll go
there,” Warren said, grabbing her hand. “Just let more of Carma’s medicine work
in you, OK? You won’t be able to travel anywhere until you can stand.”

She turned
to Warren. To hear he’d been an ally in the effort to release her and the
effort to destroy Dayton made her think she’d misjudged him. She had plenty of
time to think about him after Blackham Mansion, stuck in the soul cage, and for
most of that time she’d dismissed him, still angry that he’d sided with Dayton
at their picnic. She had rehearsed many little speeches she was prepared to
give him if she ever got out. Now, hearing how he risked his life to help
release her, she began to realize that the picnic might have been just history,
something not worth worrying about. He was here, beside her, helping her — and
obviously with the trust and confidence of Lyman and Carma. She decided she’d
talk with him about the picnic later, after they’d had more time together.

Another sip
of tea, and she began to feel even better. She reached to take another, and
Carma pulled it away.

“Once you
start to want it,” Carma said, “that’s when you stop. Now. Just let it sit for
a couple of hours, and you’ll be cooking with gas.”

Warren
turned to her. “Cooking with gas? What are you talking about?”

“You know,
cooking with gas!” Carma said. “Haven’t you ever heard that expression before?”

“No,” Warren
said.

“I haven’t
either,” Deem replied.

“Millennials,”
Carma mused, sitting in a large chair opposite them. “It means you’ll be in a
good spot. You’ll be productive.”

“Oh,” Deem
replied. “Good. Then, I’ll be cooking with gas.”

She gripped
Warren’s hand and felt him squeeze back. The physicality of it felt good; she’d
been disconnected from physical sensation for so long, his touch was more
stimulating than she expected. She felt herself leaning, her body coming to
rest on Warren’s shoulder. His arm went around her. He felt solid and warm. She
decided to wait and follow Carma’s instructions, even though her mind was
racing, wanting to explore the motel room in Caliente.

“I was
expecting blood,” David said as they bounced along the small road, headed into
the dense forest of the Pine Valley mountains, back across the Utah border.

“Didn’t you
drop into the River?” Winn asked. “There was more blood in those rooms that
I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“I meant for
real,” David said. “You know, on their physical bodies.”

“The River
is real, my friend,” Winn replied. “Just because they were attacked with
weapons that only harmed them in the River doesn’t mean they weren’t torn
apart.”

“But their
physical bodies seem fine,” David said. “You could feel them breathing while we
were moving them.”

Winn hit a
bump in the road. They heard the sound of the bodies thumping in the trailer.

“He wants
them alive for some reason,” Winn said, feeling the impetus to trust Lyman this
time. He’d misjudged him when he almost smashed the mechanism. As he thought
about how things had played out, he decided to give Lyman the benefit of the
doubt going forward, and not let suspicion or doubt creep in.

Might be
the enemy creeping in,
he thought.

“Do you
think Deem has revived yet?” David asked.

“If what
Carma and Lyman described has occurred, then yes, she should be up. I hope so,
anyway.”

Winn pulled his
Jeep off the road into a small spot hidden away in the dense forest. He’d last
seen it years ago, when he and Deem had sought out the Blood River. He wasn’t
excited about squeezing through the narrow passageway to get to it, and he
wasn’t looking forward to carrying all of the bodies in the back of the trailer
through that passageway, either. However, Lyman was inside, waiting. He’d have
to get it done.

“You’ve been
here before?” David asked as they removed the first body from the back of the
trailer. The mesh made it impossible to see features, but it did offer the
benefit of buoyancy, removing some of the weight.

“Deem and I
came here when we needed to turn a spirit corporeal,” Winn replied. “The guy
had been stung with bees, or wasps — something like that. His face was covered
in swollen welts.”

As they maneuvered
the body through the narrow passageway, Winn kept pausing the story, but David
kept asking him to continue. Winn found that talking about the incident helped
him divert his attention from the claustrophobia he felt every time they turned
sideways to make it through the thin crevice. The story was complete by the
time they’d moved half the bodies.

“How many
more?” David asked as they approach the trailer.

“Six,” Winn
replied, counting. “It’s always twelve with Mormons. They’re obsessed with
twelve.” He pulled the next body from the trailer, and David assisted.

“It’s the
apostle thing,” David replied.

“The apostle
thing?”

“You know,
the twelve apostles,” David replied. “They’ve got twelve apostles running the
church, like Jesus did.”

“I thought
the prophet ran the church?”

“They both
do. The apostles are like Congress, and the prophet is like the president.”

“Oh, you
mean the prophet can veto things?”

David
considered Winn’s question. “I think I used a bad analogy. The prophet speaks
for God, so no, it’s not really a veto. And the apostles have to vote in unison
for anything to pass, so it’s not really like Congress.”

“How do you
know so much about Mormons?” Winn asked. “Were you raised one?”

“I was
raised in Utah,” David replied. “How can you not know about Mormons if you’re
raised in Utah?”

“Guess it
never interested me that much,” Winn said as they began to move the body
through the tight passage and into the cave. “The whole thing reeks of a cult,
if you ask me.”

David didn’t
reply, and the conversation fell silent as they moved the rest of the bodies
from the trailer and into the large, open cavern where water was moving rapidly
in a bed, appearing at one end of the chamber and moving like a river through
it, disappearing into the other end.

Once the
last body was in place, Winn could see the faint, ghostly form of Lyman
standing next to the bodies. Winn dropped into the River, and Lyman became
clear. He was kneeling next to one of the incapacitated men, inspecting the
mesh.

Good,
good,
Lyman
muttered.
You did it perfectly. I couldn’t have done it better myself.

What is
this mesh, Lyman?
Winn asked.
It made them lighter, which, honestly, came in handy having to
haul them all the way in here.

It’s a hybrid
version of a rare tool found in The Dark River,
Lyman replied, continuing to inspect
the bodies.
I’m going to take these men into The Dark River with me, and the
mesh will force them to come along, although their bodies will stay here. We’ll
be gone for about an hour. This access point is rarely used, but I would ask
you and David to remain here and ensure that their bodies stay undisturbed
while I take them. Will you do that?

Sure,
Winn replied.
Whatever you say.

What are
you going to do to them?
David asked.

It’s important
that I do this quickly,
Lyman replied, inspecting the last body,
so forgive me if I explain
after it’s done.

Winn saw
Lyman offer David a quick smile, and David nodded his head in agreement.

Lyman turned
and was gone. Winn and David walked to where the small camping lantern sat on
the floor, casting just enough light to see the line of bodies and the moving
water behind them. They sat on the ground.

“An hour,”
David said. “Wonder what he’s doing with them.”

“The Dark
River,” Winn replied. “Lyman mentioned it before. Or was it Carma? It’s a place
Lyman goes to, to cook up all this weird shit like the soul cage.”

“Is it just
for for the dead?” David asked, rubbing his hands together to take off the
chill.

“No, I think
any gifted can go to it,” Winn replied.

“You ever
been?”

“No.”

“Wanted to
go?”

“Didn’t know
much about it until now. And I still don’t.”

“The name
sounds ominous.”

“It’s not
like we don’t have enough threats to deal with here in the real world.”

“It makes me
wonder,” David said, rubbing his hands against his arms.

“You cold?”

“I should
have brought a jacket. It’s cold up at this elevation.”

Winn stood
and peeled off the light windbreaker he was wearing and handed it to David.

“Now you’re
loaning
me
clothes,” David said, smiling. “Thanks.”

“You’re
welcome.”

“You’re not
cold?”

“Nope,” Winn
replied, watching as David pulled on the jacket. It fit him well, and Winn was
silently pleased he’d been able to do something for David in light of all the favors
David had recently done for him.

David turned
to look at the bodies lying motionless a few feet away. “If he’s not taking
their physical bodies to the Dark River, why did we have to move them here? Why
not take them from the motel?”

“There’s
something about having to be within a certain physical distance of the access
point.”

“To The Dark
River?”

“Yes. Your
body stays outside, the River part of you enters.”

“And Lyman
has no body, so he comes and goes without worrying about that.”

“Something
tells me Lyman’s use of The Dark River isn’t normal, or the way you and I might
go.”

“Nothing
about Lyman is normal,” David mused.

They passed
the time chatting, turning occasionally to check that the bodies were still
lying next to the river. Eventually they stopped talking and just waited. Winn
checked his watch; it was close to 3 AM. He felt David’s body slump up against
him, David’s head landing gently on his shoulder. He had fallen asleep.

He decided
to let him sleep, not minding the weight.

▪ ▪ ▪

Winn wasn’t
sure if he’d fallen asleep, too, and when he opened his eyes, the faint image
in front of him seemed like it might be the fogginess you have upon waking.
After a few seconds of consciousness, he realized it was Lyman. He reached over
to shake David gently, and felt the kid straighten up.

Winn dropped
into the River, bringing Lyman’s features into view.
Done?
he asked.

Done,
Lyman replied.

Winn stood
and looked at the bodies. The mesh was gone. Their chests rose and fell slowly.

What did
you do?
Winn asked.

They’re
infected,
Lyman
replied.
Look.

Lyman led
Winn to the closest body, pointing to the man’s arm. Winn moved the lantern so
he could inspect where Lyman was indicating. There, on the man’s triceps, a
bulge appeared; a one-inch long rise in the flesh, sticking up like a welt. As
Winn examined it he could see movement under the skin.

Something’s
in there,
Winn
replied.
It’s like the welt that Deem got from the skinrunner. But what’s
inside isn’t bone…it’s alive. It’s moving.

Indeed,
Lyman answered.
It’s a hybrid
form of a common insect found in The Dark River. Larva stage. Hundreds of tiny
maggots looking for a way through a barrier that surrounds them, like the
membrane of a cyst. If they find a way through, they’ll kill the host.

You’re
delaying their deaths?
Winn asked.
Here they are, all laid out. Why don’t you just kill them
now?

And set
off red flags when a dozen high-level church leaders suddenly disappear all at
the same time?
Lyman
asked.
No, that’s not the smart move. This achieves my ends. They’ll wake up
in a while and make their way out of here and back to their lives.

You’re
letting them go?
David asked.
After all this work?

I am
letting them go,
Lyman answered,
but with two big differences. You see the first, there on
their arm. Each of their membranes are timed to dissolve at different rates over
the next year. It won’t be long, and they’ll be all dead.

Can’t
they just cut them out?
David asked.

They
would be committing suicide,
Lyman replied.
If they expose the membrane to air or
pierce it in any way, the rest of it will dissolve, and the larva will enter
their flesh. Highly risky. This way, they go back to their lives and everything
seems normal. When their time comes, it will look like an accident, or a heart
attack, or cancer, or whatever else I can dream up. Nothing for Salt Lake to
become concerned about. No reason to mount some counter offensive.

And the
second thing?
Winn
asked.
You said there were two differences.

They’re
now inert,
Lyman
answered.
While we were in The Dark River, I had their gift removed. In the
time they have left, they won’t be able to threaten me or my work.

Wow,
David replied.
You really thought
this out.

The
benefit of years,
the sixteen-year-old Lyman replied.
I’ve taken out groups of them before,
only to suffer retaliation that was worse than the original problem. This seems
a better option.

They’ll
hate you for removing their gift,
Winn said.
I know I would.

How do
you even do that, anyway?
David asked.
Remove someone’s gift? Seems impossible.

I have a
friend,
Lyman
answered,
who figured out how to do it many years ago.

In The
Dark River?
Winn
asked.

Yes,
Lyman replied.
Now, I think you
should consider leaving. We can reconvene in Leeds. These men will begin to
wake in the next few minutes, and they have no idea of your involvement. Let’s
keep it that way. One last thing though.

They watched
as Lyman walked to the men, searching. He located the body he was after and
stood over it. Winn saw a tip emerge from Lyman’s palm, slowly extending
several inches, lighting up the cavern with an eerie blue glow. Lyman knelt next
to the body and positioned the blade next to the man’s arm.

This is
for David’s parents, you evil son of a bitch,
Lyman said, shoving the tip of the
blade into the man’s flesh. He pressed his other hand down on the man’s chest.
You’ve
got a day to get your affairs in order, my friend.