Anyone? (27 page)

Cole shrugged. “Maybe this was his way of protecting you in
case someone else found it.”

“Someone else? There is no one else!”

“We don’t know that. We don’t know much of anything, if you
think about it.”

He had a point, but really? “Okay, so what does this mean?
‘Follow
the arrows. Wait by the window. 2:37 a.m. Watch for me.’
That doesn’t make
any sense. What arrows? What window?” Could he have made this any harder?

“I don’t know, but I suggest we start looking. We only have
a few more hours of light before this scavenger hunt becomes a lot more
difficult.”

I tucked the strange little note into my pocket and followed
Cole’s lead. He moved around the room and ran his hands over the log walls, feeling
them like he was reading Braille, so I explored the guest check-in counter, the
bar, and each piece of furniture, doing the same. Nothing.

Arrows, arrows, arrows... where are you?

I examined each large window, thinking maybe I could skip
the first step, but none of the windows were marked with anything other than a
layer of grime. “I don’t know what I’m looking for. I might have already run
across an arrow and didn’t know it.”

“Then we keep looking until it becomes clear.” Cole crept
along the dusty floor boards on his hands and knees. “You want to find your dad
then you need to start looking harder.”

“Harder? I am looking hard! This is impossible.”

He sat back, smiled, and pointed to my bracelet hanging from
an antler. “Where there is a will, there is a way. You’d know that if you still
had your bracelet.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah, thanks for reminding me. Except,
that’s not always....”

No friggin’ way!

My fingers brushed across a notched-out emblem along the
edge of the bottom stair. A tiny carved arrow pointed upward. My breath hitched
in my throat and I blinked several times. I ran my finger over and over it.

Hotcakes on a burner! I found it!

“Except it’s not always what?” He stared at me, waiting for
me to continue. “If you can’t finish your thought, then there is no exception
and I win.”

I couldn’t speak, but waved frantically for Cole to come see.

“What? You found it?” He jumped to his feet and ran across
the room to where I knelt next to the stairs. I pointed to the tiny arrow, and his
face broke out in a huge grin. “All righty, then. Now we know what to look for.”

Each consecutive arrow became easier to spot: one along the
balcony railing; another along the edge of the carpet; a third notched into the
picture frame hanging on the wall. Ten total arrows led to a small room on the
far end of the lodge—maids’ quarters.

I would never have guessed the window, the size of a book,
was the one mentioned in the note, but a small arrow had been carved into the
frame. It overlooked the lake and part of the valley, and even though the
window was small, a whole lot of land was packed into that space. Miles and
miles of it.

Cole had gathered Callie from downstairs, and now the three
of us sat on the edge of the twin bed, staring out the box-sized window as the
sun faded to darkness. We had no way of knowing the correct time, not really,
but it didn’t matter; the blackness outside captivated us like a movie screen.
If there was something to see, we would see it.

Time ticked by, and we sat in silence, watching, each of us
lost in our own thoughts. Cole wrapped his hand around mine, and we sat
together, waiting.

At first, I thought I might have been seeing things, so I
scooted forward on the edge of the bed and blinked my blurry eyes. “Do you see
that?”

A white light, steady and constant amid the blackness. A
light where there shouldn’t be any.

“I do.” Cole released my hand and jumped up from the bed. He
looked out the window several minutes before running to the side table and
circling a section on his worn map with a Rockport Lodge complimentary pen. “I
think that’s where it’s coming from. I don’t know how far it is, I can only
guess, but I’m estimating maybe five or six miles. Ten at the most. We can be
there tomorrow if we get going first thing in the morning.” He went back to the
window and fiddled with his map by the light of his fading headlamp, double-checking
his markings. “What do you think? Leave here by dawn?”

He swung his head in my direction, and the light from the small
headlamp illuminated the slick dark substance coating my shaking hands and running
from both my nostrils. The coppery taste of blood dripped down my throat,
choking me.

I couldn’t speak, but at the rate the blood flowed, picking
up pace as it raced over my fingers and soaked the front of my t-shirt, waiting
until dawn wasn’t an option.

Trees zipped past as though caught in a spinning vortex.
Their shapes and sizes blended together becoming blurred lines in my peripheral
vision. The crunch of snow beneath Cole’s feet developed into a soft hum—solid,
consistent, and without pause.

“I wish you’d told me.” He kept repeating the words. “You
should have told me, Tess.”

Maybe, I should have, but honestly, I thought I had more
time than this. And if I was even more honest, I’d hoped this wouldn’t happen
at all.

It didn’t hurt, not really. Only when the blood oozed down
my throat, making it difficult to breathe, did I panic at all. The rest of the
time, I lay in Cole’s arms and stared at the swirling stars above me and the
flash of dizzying trees around us.

It felt like flying, and I really hoped we were.

Because there was no way we were going to make it in time.

And I really wanted to see Dad.

Large industrial fans whirled over head and their giant
blades moved without sound. Florescent light bulbs faded in and out, popping
and hissing in my ear, and the corrugated walls reminded me of Dad’s underground
bunker. Similar, but different.

Wherever we were, we moved quickly. Multiple footsteps
slapped the cement and echoed down the long corridor. Indistinct faces hovered
around me, coming into view and then receding. A steel gurney pressed into my
back, cold and uncomfortable, its creaky wheels carrying me away.

“Where did you find her?”

“By the entrance.”

“Alone?”

“Yes.”

That wasn’t true. Cole was with me. Where was he?
Cole?

“That’s impossible. She shouldn’t be alive, not after all
this time.”

“I’d have to agree, but impossible or not, she’s here. She
made it.”

I made it.

“Jon insisted she’d find a way.”

“I can’t believe that fool turned out to be right.”

Dad? Where is he?

The table rolled on and bumped over the divots in the floor.
I’m not sure how I didn’t slide off, we moved so quickly. My eyes began to tear,
and I blinked several times, but blinking only made the tears fall faster,
though I wasn’t crying. The tears distorted my vision, giving everything a crimson
hue.

Where’s Dad? Why isn’t he here?
I needed to see him.

Blood gurgled in my mouth. I coughed and left a splattered
mess on the passing wall. I couldn’t catch my breath. My lungs filled with my
own blood, drowning me, and I pounded the table.
Help me, please!

“Hold her down!”

Hands gripped my body from all angles, pressing down on my
shoulders, hips, and ankles. The gurney didn’t stop moving.

I struggled to sit up, to fight them off, to force a breath,
but an unfamiliar face bent near mine. “This will hurt, but it will help.”

The front of my shirt was ripped away and cool air chilled
my bare skin. Before I could understand why, a man climbed on top of me, and
straddled my waist, though not putting his entire weight on me. He raised my
left arm above my head, and someone held it, keeping me from lowering it back
to my side.

What are you doing?

He nodded to the others, then leaned forward and without
warning, stabbed me between the ribs. I screamed and couldn’t stop.

At least I think I screamed.

The man continued to ride on the gurney with me, sliding a
plastic tube into the incision he’d made between my ribs, while the others pushed
us along. Blood ran down my side, and I could breathe—not deep breaths, but I
no longer struggled. The more he inserted the tubing, the more my head swirled
with pain, and I wished I’d pass out. That luxury hung out of reach, and instead,
I felt everything.

“Tess!”

Dad?

I tried to lift my head, to search for him, but the hands on
my body held me in place.

“Get out of the way, Jon!”

“That’s my daughter!”

I turned my head toward his voice, and smiled as my father forced
his way toward me. He ignored those who yelled at him to stay back and pushed
through them. He ran along the side of the moving gurney, holding on to it with
one hand while tentatively touching my face with his other. His fingers quivered
against my skin and tears rolled down his cheeks.

“Oh, Tess. Oh, my sweet girl.”

I wanted him to pick me up and carry me away, but he only
cried and smoothed the hair from my eyes.
I want to go home, Dad.

“You can fix this, right?” He glanced to the others, but
continued to stroke my face. “Right?”

“That’s what we’re trying to do here, but she’s lost a lot
of blood, Jon, and it’s not showing signs of stopping.”

“Take mine then! Do what you have to do!” Dad cursed. “Give
her my blood!”

“If we can’t get her stable right now, your blood won’t
help.”

Dad looked at the man who sat on top of me for a long moment
and neither of them spoke. Finally, Dad glanced to me and forced a smile. “He
doesn’t know you like I do. He doesn’t know what you’re capable of, so you
fight this, okay? You fought to get this far, so now that you’re here, I expect
you to stay.”

My eyes drooped, feeling heavy.
I want to stay too. I’m
not going anywhere.

“Where is she?” Toby’s voice echoed down the corridor. He
sounded so far away. “Where’s my sister? Tess!
Tess!”

I’m here, Toby. I’m here!

I couldn’t see him, but heard him running toward me and
despite the differences we’d had the past few years, I
needed
to see my
brother. The gurney turned down a smaller corridor heading for a set of large
doors faster than he could catch up.

They told Dad he could go no farther, something about
isolation and contamination, so he released my face and slipped away from view.
“You’ll be okay,” he called to me. “You’ll be okay.”

Dad?
I had just found him, and now I had to leave
him? They planned to isolate me?
No.
I tried to reach my hand out to stop
him from going, to stop them from taking me away, but couldn’t muster the strength
to lift my hand from the table.
Don’t leave me.

This wasn’t fair. A handful of minutes with my family wasn’t
enough.
I just got here!

I turned my head in time to see Dad standing next to Toby—the
two of them side by side, both looking defeated.

“We love you, Tess!” Toby’s voice cracked as he hollered
after me. “We love you!” He hadn’t said those words to me in years.

I love you, too.

The double doors swung closed behind me.

“Tess, can you hear me?”

Grogginess held me captive in its powerful grasp. I couldn’t
quite open my eyes or turn my head, but I answered, “Yeah.” The oxygen mask
muffled my words.

“Sweetheart, I need you to wake up now. Can you do that for
me?”

Dad? Why does his voice sound so weird?

A crackling, buzzing sound filled the room. “Open your eyes,
honey.”

I really didn’t want to, but I forced one eye open and then
the other.

He smiled at me through the glass and pressed a button on
the wall. The crackling sounded again and his voice came through the intercom
imbedded in the ceiling. “How are you feeling?”

I slipped the mask off. “Not so good.”

“I know, baby. I know.”

“Then why did you wake me up?”

He didn’t say anything, and I wondered if the intercom had
stopped working, but I could see his finger on the button. “Toby’s here, too.”
He motioned to my brother and Toby stepped into view, his face grim.

“Hey, Tess.”

“Hey.”

Toby glanced to Dad, and Dad nodded at him. “It’s okay,” he
whispered, and the emotion in his voice carried through the intercom, something
I didn’t think I was supposed to hear.

“Dad, what’s going on?” I glanced around, taking in the
sterile room, the IV bag hanging above my head, and sensors attached to my
chest. A large tube ran from my side to a machine next to the bed; other machines
displayed my inner workings. They beeped and hummed, filling the room with
their droning. “What’s happening?”

Dad looked at Toby but neither of them said anything for a
long time. He turned away, his back to me, his shoulders rising and falling. My
big, strong dad was crying.

“Dad?”

My brother moved closer to the intercom and held the button.
“It doesn’t look good, Tess. They’re trying, but nothing seems to be helping.
You keep getting sicker.”

Behind Dad and Toby, two men sat at a table with computers.
They seemed intent on the screens in front of them rather than listening to our
conversation. It gave our family reunion a clinical feel. Not at all how I
imagined this moment to be.

I tried to shift on the bed, raise myself, but couldn’t. I
gave up and sank back against the pillows. “What’s wrong with me?”

Toby took a minute to speak. “Toxins in your blood are attacking
your immune system and shutting your organs down.” He paused, glanced to Dad,
but Dad kept his back to the both of us. Toby turned to me again and his eyes
met mine. “Your case is pretty severe, Tess. They’re doing everything they can,
but the things that have normally worked for others... aren’t working for you.”

I lifted my hand and pointed at the men sitting at the table
behind my brother. “They say this? Are they the ones saying they can’t fix me?”

Toby nodded.

“Are they even doctors? Do they even know what they’re
doing?” I peered around the sterile room, taking in my full surroundings. The machines
beeped louder. “Where are we?”

“Tess, don’t... don’t get worked up, please.” He peered over
his shoulder at the two men. One of them made a sign with his hand, and Toby
turned back to me. “I’ll answer your questions, but take it easy, okay?”

“Take it easy? How exactly am I supposed to do that?” A
machine went nuts at my side and let out a high pitched beep that wouldn’t
stop. One of the men got up from the table, put on a surgical gown, hat, mask,
and gloves, and then stood inside an adjoining room the size of a closet. Air
whirled around him for thirty seconds, before he punched in a code and came
into my room.

“Are they doctors?” Toby didn’t answer me and I rolled my
head to the side and faced the masked man. “Are you a doctor?”

He adjusted a machine. “No, I’m not, but I’m the closest
thing you’ve got.”

I recognized his voice. “You stabbed me in the chest, and
you’re not a doctor?”

“You’re alive and breathing because I did.”

“But not for long, right?”

He lifted my oxygen mask and held it close to my face. “You’ve
been given a chance to say goodbye to your family. I suggest you do it. A lot
of people never had that opportunity.”

Say goodbye?
I turned to face my brother again. “Who
is this guy? I don’t understand. Please, tell me what’s going on.”

Toby brushed his dark hair off his forehead. “You’ve seen
the mess outside,” he said. “Once those meteorites hit the ground, all hell
broke loose. Radiation levels are higher than normal. We can hardly breathe the
air because of all the crap in it and the water is so contaminated it’s
impossible to drink. You’ve been out there in it longer than everyone else, so
you’ve seen how crazy it is. What more can I explain?”

I had seen every miserable aspect of it, but I still didn’t
understand anything. “Why isn’t anyone fixing it?”

“Sometimes things are too catastrophic to be fixed. And
sometimes instead of fixing anything, people in charge make things worse. Those
of us stuck in the middle are doing what we can to survive—pulling together,
gathering resources, and doing what we can to keep from being more exposed than
we already were.”

“Is that why the government killed everyone?”

Dad turned around, approached the window, and shouldered
Toby out of the way. “How do you know that? What did you see?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t see anything. A friend, before he
died, told me about the planes.”

The lights above my head flickered and the alarms on the
machines sounded. My chest tightened and one of my arms began to twitch. The “doctor”
inserted something into my IV, and heaviness fell over me. He left my room in a
hurry. The mask, gown, and gloves were tossed into garbage cans, and the gust
of air sprayed him again.

The lights stopped their flickering, the machines whirled,
and my chest rose in relief.

I could see them talking through my heavy lids, but couldn’t
hear a thing. Dad seemed to disagree with the two men, but when his shoulders slumped
forward, I could tell that whatever argument they were having, Dad had come out
the loser.

After a few minutes he approached the glass window, defeated.
“I know you have a lot of questions. Hell, we all do, and I want to answer
every one of them, tell you what I know, but honey,” his lips quivered, “I don’t
want to waste what little time we have left together.”