Lost in the Echo (11 page)

25

Frost drove as fast as she could without careening off Winslow’s long, winding, uphill driveway. They arrived at his house squealing to a stop. Winslow had his door open before the Humvee stopped rolling. He jumped out, stumbled and nearly fell on his face. He managed to keep his balance, though, and hurried toward the front porch, just as the door opened and Avalon stepped outside.

She tried saying something to Winslow, tears in her eyes, but he pushed past her into the house. She turned then and saw her father getting out of the Humvee. She ran down the steps and threw herself into his arms.

“What happened?” Griffin asked, holding her head to his chest. Dodge had headed inside, but Frost was lingering. Griffin nodded at her to go on ahead.

“It’s all my fault,” Avalon sobbed.

“What is?”

“She should have stayed inside with the girls. But I—I—I was scared. She saw I was scared and she—”

Avalon burst into even more tears. Griffin held her close. He wanted to go inside, find out what happened, but he wasn’t going to let go of his daughter after the experience he’d just survived. For a time, he had been certain he was never going to see her again.

Finally, Avalon got herself under control. She wiped at her eyes, sniffed back tears.

Griffin said, “Tell me what happened.”

She did. It came out in fragments, but she told him about Radar and Lisa in the observatory, about the wasps, about how there were at least six crawling all over the observatory, and how they had needed to get the kids out. How the plan was for Monty to draw the wasps’ attention so Avalon could run out and bring Radar and Lisa back, and how Carol changed everything up at the last moment and took Avalon’s place.

“She went and got the kids?”

“No.” Avalon shook her head, wiping away more tears. “Monty did that. She went out front and started shouting and hollering and doing everything she could do get their attention. And it worked—it really worked. The bugs left. Monty went out, grabbed Radar and Lisa and brought them back inside. But then Mrs. Herman—I mean, Carol—she started screaming…”

Griffin then noticed two of the oversized wasps, dead on the lawn several yards away. He knew without Avalon telling him that after bringing the kids back inside Monty had gone out and found Carol being attacked by the wasps. Monty was good with a gun, and probably he had killed two of them, maybe injured more, enough so that the rest had split.

“Let’s go inside.”

He helped his daughter up the porch steps, a hand draped around her shoulder. Just before he opened the door, Avalon spoke again.

“Dad?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not going to let something like that happen again.”

He pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “Sweetheart, it’s not your fault. From what you told me, it could have been Monty who...” But he didn’t want to say it. Not knowing Alice and Joy had just recently lost their mother.

They went inside. Voices murmured deeper in the house. They followed the sound and found Frost standing with Monty outside an opened doorway. Griffin peeked inside. It appeared to be a guest bedroom. Winslow sat in a chair beside the bed. Carol lay across it, a quilt covering most of her body. Her eyes were closed. Her skin was discolored. Dodge stood off to the side, ready for when he would be needed to give a prayer. Kyle was cleaning up some supplies.

Frost touched his arm and led him farther down the hallway. In the living room, the TV droned on with some cartoon. Alice and Joy sat on the floor in front of it, while Radar and Lisa sat on the couch. The dining room was deserted except for the Scrabble tiles spread across the table.

“Radar and Lisa are keeping the girls preoccupied,” she whispered.

Griffin nodded. “How’s Carol?”

“She’s unconscious, but alive.”

“Does Kyle think she’ll pull through?”

The slightest shake of her head. “It doesn’t look good, but he said he was hopeful.”

“Why?”

“He said if there weren’t any human beings in that world, it was unlikely that the venom would work the way it was intended on human physiology. But that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be deadly.”

She rolled her neck and sighed. “We can’t just keep reacting like this. We need to get ahead of it somehow. But I have no idea what to do next.”

“Nelson Florider.”

“What?”

“Does the name ring any bells?”

“I don’t think so. What was the last name again, Florida?”

“No, Florider. I think.”

He turned to the table and began sorting through the Scrabble tiles until he had spelled it out:

NELSON FLORIDER

“Look familiar?”

Frost stared down at the name for a long moment, then shook her head. “I don’t think I know anybody named Nelson, let alone Florider.”

“I do.”

They turned. Radar stood in the doorway.

He saw their expressions and offered up a sheepish grin. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, I swear, but I was wondering if either of you had seen my father? After what happened... I just wanted to see him. He’s still my father.”

Griffin wasn’t sure how to answer that appropriately. He had never cared much for Charley, but the man had just gone through a traumatic event, and Griffin wasn’t quite sure Radar needed to hear the details yet.

“He’s okay,” Frost said. “We’ll find him soon. But, Radar, how do you know Nelson Florider?”

“Oh, I don’t really know anyone named Nelson.”

Griffin frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s an anagram. Here.” Radar approached the table and started rearranging tiles.

“And you just looked at the table and saw the solution?” Griffin asked. He’d known Radar a long time but had never seen him playing a word game.

“It’s kind of a gift, or a curse if you’re a teenager.” Radar stood back. “See?”

Griffin said nothing. All he could do was stand there, staring down at the eighteen-point name. A name he knew very well. A name everyone in town knew very well.

RENFORD ELLISON

REFUGE is a serialized novel, co-authored by #1 Amazon.com horror author, Jeremy Bishop, and five other authors, including Amazon.com bestsellers Kane Gilmour and David McAfee,
USA Today
bestseller, Robert Swartwood, and newcomer Daniel S. Boucher. The novel will be released in five parts, every two weeks. The first part was released November 12, 2013. The story will also be available as one complete novel, as soon as the fifth episode is released. So read along as they appear or hold out for the completed novel. Either way, you're in for a creepy ride.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

JEREMY BISHOP
is the #1 Amazon.com horror author of THE SENTINEL and THE RAVEN, published by Amazon’s
47 North
imprint. He is also known as Jeremy Robinson, the bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including SECONDWORLD, ISLAND 731, PROJECT NEMESIS and the Jack Sigler Thriller series. His novels have been translated into eleven languages. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and three children.

Visit him online at
www.jeremybishoponline.com

or
www.jeremyrobinsononline.com
.

ROBERT SWARTWOOD
is the
USA Today
bestselling author of THE SERIAL KILLER’S WIFE, THE CALLING, MAN OF WAX, and several other novels. His work has appeared in
The Los Angeles Review
,
The Daily Beast
,
Chizine
,
Space and Time
,
Postscripts
, and
PANK
. He created the term ‘hint fiction’ and is the editor of HINT FICTION: AN ANTHOLOGY OF STORIES IN 25 WORDS OR FEWER. He lives with his wife in Pennsylvania. Visit him online at
www.robertswartwood.com
.

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ALSO by JEREMY BISHOP

Horror Novels

Torment

The Sentinel

The Raven

Refuge:

Book 1 - Night of the Blood Sky

Book 2 - Darkness Falls

Book 3 - Lost in the Echo

ALSO by JEREMY ROBINSON

New Standalone Novels

SecondWorld

Project Nemesis

Island 731

I am Cowboy

Project Maigo

Xom-B (2014)

The Last Hunter

(Antarktos Saga Series)

The Last Hunter – Descent

The Last Hunter – Pursuit

The Last Hunter – Ascent

The Last Hunter – Lament

The Last Hunter – Onslaught

The Jack Sigler Novels

Prime

Pulse

Instinct

Threshold

Ragnarok

Omega

Savage
(2014)

The Chess Team Novellas

(Chesspocalypse Series)

Callsign: King

Callsign: Queen

Callsign: Rook

Callsign: King 2 – Underworld

Callsign: Bishop

Callsign: Knight

Callsign: Deep Blue

Callsign: King 3 – Blackout

Jack Sigler Continuum Novellas

Guardian
(2014)

The Origins Editions

(First five novels)

The Didymus Contingency

Raising The Past

Beneath

Antarktos Rising

Kronos

ALSO by ROBERT SWARTWOOD

Man of Wax Trilogy

Man of Wax

The Inner Circle

Standalone Novels

The Calling

The Dishonored Dead: A Zombie Novel

The Serial Killer’s Wife

No Shelter

Walk the Sky
(with David B. Silva)

Collections

Phantom Energy: [Very Short] Stories

Real Illusions: Stories

Novellas

Nomad: Wayward Pines

Through the Guts of a Beggar

The Silver Ring

In Solemn Shades of Endless Night

Spooky Nook

In the Land of the Blind: A Zombie Story

The Man on the Bench

At the Meade Bed & Breakfast
(with David B. Silva)

Refuge Book 3 - Lost in the Echo
(with Jeremy Bishop)

As Editor

Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer

Omnibus

Two Shot: The Serial Killer’s Wife and No Shelter