Fear and Aggression (17 page)

“
Alright, so carrots are
off its menu. Write a report on its eating; that will be real
important.”

“
I’ll make sure Danny gets
you a full report,” said Bob.

“
Great. Now if she starts
acting sick, or if any other problems come up, let me know.
Otherwise, I desperately need some sleep.”

“
Sounds great, Tammy. I’ll
get you that report. We’ll take good care of her,” said Danny, and
then Tammy was gone.

The creature was not privy to the
conversation, as it took place within their helmets, and the
helmets were sound-proof. The helmets also did not allow her to
have any access to seeing their faces. She continued to look at her
captors. After a few minutes, she turned again so that her side
faced them. She grabbed her shins again, and bowed her head down,
so that her forehead touched her knees. Soon her eyes were closed,
and it looked like she may be going to sleep. Her eyes were closed,
but Danny noticed that her lips were moving, almost like she was
talking to herself, as no sound was audible.

Roloff was glad for his solitary evening
walk after his meeting. It was very dark outside, which was
soothing to him. He had found the agenda irritating this night.
There was a small feud between two families in town, regarding
fence repairs. Roloff found these things the least appealing aspect
of his mayoral duties. He knew that he would be spending countless
hours talking to the families. If it was really all about the
fence, it would be easier to just go and repair it himself. But, he
suspected that this was just the manifestation—the tip of the
iceberg.

Rapid footsteps up ahead interrupted his
thoughts. “Hello?” he called.

“
Father!—is that you,
Father?”

“
Caryell?”

“
Father, Mother is in
trouble!” Caryell was running, and had just come into
view.

“
What’s wrong?—where is
she?”

“
I don’t know! You must
come at once, she’s missing! I’ve been looking for her—for the past
hour—but she is missing!”

“
Perhaps she has been on a
visit.”

“
No, Father; we were both
at home, Mother heard something in the woods; she went out to the
woods with the lantern. I heard her yell my name from the woods. I
went out to see her. I could see her lantern light in the woods. I
called after her, but didn’t hear anything. The next thing I saw
was the lantern getting thrown. So I started to run. I found the
lantern on the ground, and I picked it up. I kept calling for
mother, but I didn’t hear anything. As I was looking around I found
a deer down. It didn’t look hurt. But it was sleeping, and wouldn’t
wake up—even when I nudged it. Father, I looked everywhere that I
could think, and I kept calling for her, but nothing. So that is
when I ran to find you. I am so sorry!”

“
Caryell, go to Seryen
now. Tell him what you have told me, and ask him to get a search
party together. I will meet you and the party in the woods near our
home.”

The boy ran down the path, and soon
disappeared from sight. Roloff wanted to run and get to Aspiria as
quickly as possible. But first he dropped to his knees. He began to
pray. He prayed harder than he had ever prayed in his life. Roloff
prayed regularly. He led his family in prayer. He prayed for his
family, his friends, and neighbors. He prayed for his community.
But now his prayer was filled with deep humility. He put this in
God’s hands. He knew that something had happened to Aspiria, and he
feared that he would not be able to help her on his own. He then
got up and ran.

He first stopped at his home and ran
inside.

“
Aspiria!” he shouted. No
answer. He looked in the room. He quickly ran through every room.
He then went into the woods. The deer was still down. He felt the
animal. It was alive, but in a deep sleep. There was no visible
wound, or injury. But he could see by the deer’s tracks—through his
lantern’s illumination—that the animal had been running and then
fell abruptly. He quickly found other tracks. Aspiria’s footprints
were not hard to discover. They led up to the deer, and then she
had fallen herself. There were other tracks, also. Perhaps they
were men’s footprints. There were several of them; the evidence
showed that they had been near the deer. A few indentations lead up
to some trees that were nearest to his home. They may have been
watching his home. Many tracks indicated walking, but then four
sets led away—clearly at a run. One set was deeper, it was from
someone heavier—perhaps this one was carrying something—perhaps
carrying Aspiria. Caryell’s footprints were everywhere. The poor
boy, he didn’t know what to do, but he was trying desperately to
help his mother.

Roloff knew that he needed to follow the
running footprints that let away into the dark. But he didn’t want
to be too far away when the search party came. He didn’t want them
worrying about him. He wanted all efforts to be on Aspiria. But he
was concerned that the town would be coming to help, and he would
be showing them the tracks of the men that had taken Aspiria. He
worried about what a panic could be created by this. This town had
been as safe from harm as any place could be. When bad things
happened, they were mistakes, or acts of God. Malicious behavior
was heard about from the city, occasionally, but it had never been
seen in this town before. Roloff knelt by the deer, and offered
another prayer, this time for inspiration. He wanted to know if he
should follow the tracks, likely well over an hour old, or if he
should meet the party and follow the trail together with the search
party. He felt that he should wait for the party.

The wait was not long; he began to see
lights and heard voices coming towards his home. He walked towards
the search party. He was both the townsman in need of assistance,
and, being the Mayor, the leader of the party. His leadership would
be critical, but he also knew that the people would want to help
and comfort him. Seryen must be in charge of the group, he decided.
It made more sense. He would guide Seryen.

“
Roloff, is that you?” he
heard Seryen shout in the distance.

“
Yes, come quickly. Thank
you all for coming.”

Perhaps thirty to forty men were coming up
behind Seryen. Many brought lanterns, and those with older boys had
their sons with them, too.

“
Have you found
Aspiria?”

“
No. But I’ve just found
tracks, and I would love help in following them. I’m afraid that
this doesn’t appear to be an accident. I see multiple sets of
prints, and I think that someone is up to no good. I can only hope
that it is a prank. Seryen, I will show you what I’ve found, and
you lead these men. I will assist where I can. Is Caryell with
you?”

“
I’m here,
Father.”

The boy was behind the pack and out of
breath. He had been running frantically for about an hour and a
half. “Come here, Caryell.” His father embraced him closely, and
looked at him in the eyes. “You must pray, Caryell. Your Mother
needs your prayers right now.”

“
Yes, Father, I have been
praying.”

“
Come with me and
Seryen.”

Roloff, Seryen and Caryell walked a little
ahead of the group, and towards the fallen deer. Roloff explained
his findings to Seryen as they walked. When they got to the deer,
Roloff showed him some of the tracks, and pointed to the trail that
was running off from the spot. As the men behind them came up, a
murmur could be heard.

“
What is going on with
that deer?” asked Bastian from behind them. Bastian was a strong
and portly man. He had been athletic in his youth, but now had a
large pot belly and a fat face with a double chin. He had light
brown hair, and a confident—almost conceited—way about
him.

“
The deer is not dead. It
is neither hurt nor injured. It is sleeping, and it cannot be
woken. It must be drugged. Aspiria’s tracks lead to this spot, and
then her tracks are gone. Other tracks lead that way,” he pointed
in the direction of the fleeing tracks. “One set of tracks are
deeper, and I suspect that whosevers prints they are, was carrying
Aspiria. Seryen, please lead this search party in pursuit of those
who left these footprints.”

“
Let’s go, men,” said
Seryen.

The men followed, but whispers and concerned
conversation could be heard among the group. The town loved
Aspiria, and would do anything for her. But the men began to be
concerned that they had left their women and children alone in the
town and that foul play was at hand here. “I think that we need to
send a party back, to protect the town,” called Bastian.

“
No,” called back Seryen.
“The town is fine, and we must help Aspiria.”

Roloff whispered to Seryen, “Perhaps we have
more men than we need. Sending a party back could add protection
for all of our families.”

Seryen did not answer back. He kept walking
for a few paces in silence. Roloff was his boss, at least under
normal circumstances. But Seryen was leading this party, and he
needed to make the decisions. Seryen struggled with Bastian.
Bastian never showed respect to Seryen. He was feeling undermined
by Bastian and wanted to show his strength and leadership. Seryen
finally stopped, and walked up to Bastian. “Bastian, you are right.
This is an unusual event. You take back with you fifteen men. I
will take the rest to find Aspiria.”

Bastian ended up with over
half of the men returning with him. Seryen was about to protest,
but thought better of it.
We will still
have a good number with us
, he thought.
They will be the most willing and helpful anyway. The men continued
on their track, and came to the other edge of the woods. The ground
was much harder, and all but one set of tracks seemed to disappear.
The deepest tracks could be followed somewhat, with difficulty.
They led to a clear rocky area. The tracks were gone, and nothing
else appeared to give the men a clue.

“
Let’s spread out and
search.”

The men searched for several hours, but
nothing could be found. Seryen called off the search until morning,
when there would be light. Sorrow and concern filled the hearts of
all the men present. Roloff returned home with Caryell. The two men
walked in silence. Caryell had the look of exhaustion and
exasperation. Roloff had tears welled up in his eyes. He knew that
he would not be able to sleep, and he feared that neither would
Caryell. But he hoped that at least some rest—some shut-eye—would
help them when they began the search again the next morning. The
father embraced his son, and told him to rest. They knelt together
and Roloff offered a prayer of pleading, then the Paladors went to
try and rest.

Aspiria finished her meal before she
realized that she had not prayed over it. It was the first time in
her life that she had eaten without a blessing being offered first.
She got back up on the table, and asked a blessing. She had been so
scared—so overwhelmed—but now she felt a little better. She offered
her prayer, and asked for a blessing of protection on her family.
She knew that Roloff and Caryell would be worried sick, and she
asked that they would receive comfort.

Aspiria did not know who her captors were,
but she sensed some kindness; at least from the two that were with
her now. It was the worst meal that she had ever eaten in her life,
but she still expressed gratitude for it. She worried, a little,
that they might be offended that she didn’t eat all of it. She
worried even more that they might force her to eat those horrific
orange things again. Aspiria had never been a picky eater, but she
had never had such horrible smelling and tasting food put in front
of her. The meat wasn’t too bad. She had never heard of orange
food, and she had never smelled something so rancid in all of her
life.

She felt tired, but not sleepy. Her head
ached, worse than ever before. She didn’t know how long she had
been away from home; in a way it felt like minutes and in other
ways it felt like days. She wanted to look at her right thigh,
where she had been shot with the dart, but was not comfortable
lifting her dress up high enough to see it with these people
looking on. She felt like she had been seen and inspected. She
could see small injuries on her arm, and she suspected that she had
been examined while she was out. Her underclothing had felt just a
little off when she had woken up. It was not a pleasant thought,
but she did think that she had already been undressed in front of
them. She couldn’t tell if they were men, or women. So far, she had
not heard a sound from them, and she had only seen them in their
strange suits. When she spoke, they did not seem to understand, but
when she gestured, they seemed to be very interested.

What do they want with
me?
she thought.
Maybe I interrupted something that they were doing in the
woods. Perhaps I got in their way. Maybe I was shot with the
drugged dart on accident. This seems like a medical clinic of
sorts. Perhaps I was brought here to recover from the drugged dart.
Did they save my life? Those suits seem like they are trying to
protect themselves from me. No, they were wearing them when I got
shot. I remember seeing that before I went out. I’ve been awake for
at least a few hours, why don’t they let me know what’s going
on?