Sondranos: The Narrative of Leon Bishop (15 page)

Each home could house at least
four people inside, some as many as eight. Fifteen houses, and
somewhere between fifty five people, would stand in our way before
the Belovores would reach Annalise’s home. We would see far less
than that in the coming moments.

Lancaster
tripped on the threshold
of the door when
he burst in. Kayt’s eyes were puffed, and a scowl looked
permanently pressed into her lips. Lancaster, on the other hand,
stuck his chest out and spoke through heavy breaths. “They just
came in on the far side of the neighbourhood.”

“
We counted
thirteen,” Kayt added.

“
They headed
towards the first house and the one across from it, two by two,
while three stood in the middle of the road. They must have started
a while ago, as they’ve already got a group of ten or so people
with them.”

“
They’re
taking prisoners,” Kayt finished.

“
How close
were they to here?” I asked.

“
A couple
dozen, maybe? I don’t know. Once we saw the three coming down the
road, we hauled butt in here,” Lancaster said.

The door into the garage
opened. Davion came through wringing his hands. He wiped them off
on his pants. The black goo he’d gotten all over his hands and
smeared on his pants hardened as if it were some non-Newtonian
solid. It gripped his pants, but dripped off his fingers. Annalise
startled at it and put her hand to her forehead.

“
If you guys
couldn’t fix it, you should have told me,” moaned
Annalise.

“
The good
news is: we can turn it on at any time,” he said, ignoring the
exasperation in Annalise’s voice. “The bad news is: you have an old
car. The magnetic guidance system is still tied in with the
steering console, so we will need another half hour. The even worse
news is: even if we had that hour, starting the engine up to access
the panel will be very loud. I doubt we could stay hidden for the
half hour we need.”

“
I can do
it,” cried Melanie from the garage.

“
There is no
sense in refusing to accept failure, Melanie,” Davion turned and
stood in the doorway. Melanie appeared from beneath the car and
hovered in the doorway, holding a driver in her hand and pointing
it at the priest.

“
I told you,”
she started. “I’m not giving up. I can do this. Your God as my
witness.”

“
God is not
mine to own,” he placed a hand on Melanie’s shoulder. “You can
allow his presence in your life as well. Just keep the right amount
of faith alongside reason and action. But your God cannot help
where you are inexperienced.”

I bowed my head and closed my
eyes. “Can you do it or not?”

Melanie looked at Davion, and
he at her. The connection between the two was impenetrable. Melanie
set the screwdriver against her side, and lost the stoic expression
keeping her eyes and lips like stones. “I’ll do it. Just give me
the time. I’ll give you a working car, or I’ll push this thing out
of here myself.”

Davion turned to us and smiled.
Melanie disappeared into the garage just as Davion did the same.
The four of us were left with a feeling of emptiness in the room –
like we’d all just witnessed the middle of a film, and had no clue
where it had begun.

“
Does anyone
else feel like we just got played?” Lancaster asked.

Annalise took my bag. She
handed both hers and mine to Kayt, who was surprised by the weight
and let them drag on the floor. “Give these to Davion. Tell him to
put them in the trunk,” she said. “Since the Belovores are already
on their way. We have to find a way to delay them if they get too
close, or at least keep them from hearing the engine start up. Tell
him not to start the engine until he hears my signal. How far did
you say they were up the road?”

Lancaster stammered as Kayt
took to the garage. “A couple houses.”

“
Do you think
we can get across the street in time?”

“
Time for
what?” His eyes shot around the room, and his brow
furrowed.

“
She wants to
know where we could go without being seen,” I said.

“
I don’t
think we can do that,” Lancaster said. “But the crowd of people
they had was pretty big. The three guarding them might be
preoccupied.” Lancaster, easily flustered, turned his gaze to the
ground, and held his hands close together. Kayt returned and he
shot her a bug-eyed look, refusing to focus on any one thing. Kayt
touched his shoulder, having to straddle her own arm behind his
shoulder blade to make it seem comforting.

“
Don’t,” she
said. “I know you want to, but don’t be an idiot.”

“
I’m not,” he
rasped. Annalise and I stepped back, as yet again we felt like
intruders. We let the scene play out, and opted to ask questions
later.

“
Keep a happy
mood,” Kayt added. “Bright. Don’t think about what we were talking
about earlier – everyone’s fine. Your parents are fine, mine are
fine, and everything is going to be happy. There will be time
enough for grieving.”

“
Shut up!
Stop. Just stop – the city wasn’t decimated, it was destroyed. You
keep saying that word to make me think only ten percent of
Sondranos is gone, but it’s not. All of it is. We won’t ever see
any of our parents or friends again,” Lancaster said. His chest
heaved. His fingers trembled, as if they could shake off his
hands.

I mentioned
before that Annalise
and I stepped back
when Kayt and Lancaster began arguing. Now is as good a time as any
to explain what Annalise and I had missed:

In the sitting room, Lancaster
had been a portrait of nerves. While Annalise and I had been
gathering food and talking about Beaumaris, Kayt began the incident
by asking him a simple question.

“
Are you
okay?”

“
Maybe we can
talk sense into the Belovores. They look somewhat human, and we’ve
both lived on the same planet – so why not?”

“
Lancaster,
you know what I mean. I have been doing my best not to break down,
not to think of Victor or my family, or everyone else I know that
might be dead right now.”

“
The response
isn’t changing.”

“
I mean,
everything is different between us.”

“
Of course
things are different now. Are you awake?” he said.

“
It’s been
like this since before Sondranos was decimated. You haven’t been
yourself. It’s like you’re more distant than ever, just because of
what I said. Much more far-off than when you are in a sour mood.
Sometimes I can’t tell if you’d rather I have been in Sondranos
when it was hit, or not. It used to be a simpler
answer.”

“
That’s not
fair. You know I’ve been in love with you since we were last
together. You’re the one who kept pushing the subject afterwards.
Then you went off and met this other guy. I want you to be happy
and all, but why does it have to be so hard reminding you that you
once loved me that way too? When did you stop?”

“
I stopped
because I stopped. I was your first, Lancaster. And you were mine.
I used to think that’s all that love was. But I found something in
Victor that made me better – and I know you can do the same. Like
when you were with Angela, or Naomi.”

“
They broke
it off with me.”

“
Because you
couldn’t let go.”

“
I let go
well enough, but you kept coming back saying you missed the old
times. We got pregnant and I was ready to take care of it, but you
couldn’t. I know, Kayt. I was there. We were both underage, and I
know what it would have meant to our lives.”

“
You know I
would have had it if it weren’t for Alpers disease, and my family’s
history of genetic heart problems…” she cut off, and held back a
sob. “Stop putting all the blame on me; the doctor told us that
with a hundred percent certainty. If we’d have stayed together, I
wouldn’t have known if we were together because of a baby, or
because we loved each other.”

“
It could
never be both.”

“
That’s
harsh.”

Kayt had been crying, but
Lancaster didn’t notice. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve, and
then returned to watching the road. The last words Lancaster said
to her before sighting the Belovores were: “It’s just not right,
Kayt. I never used to be this scared when I was with you.”

Back in the
kitchen, Lancaster
turned to Annalise and
bolstered his strength. “If you’re going to go out there, I’ll go
keep watch.”

“
Sounds
good,” Annalise said. She nodded to him, and kept her features
calm. Tight lips, eye contact – no flaring of the nostrils. She was
cold, mechanical. That’s what she had to be. That’s what I had to
be.

Lancaster left the room, hardly
giving Kayt any attention. She came to us – much like she had in
the tree farm, and confided. “I’m worried about him. He’s not
thinking rationally.”

“
How so?” I
asked.

“
He mentioned
reasoning with them.”

“
That’s
ridiculous,” I said. “He can’t think that would work.”

Kayt held her tongue.

Annalise stepped away from the
island and disappeared down the hallway, the sound of a door
opening and closing reverberated down the hallway, from her
bedroom. She returned just as quickly as she’d left with a small
box. Tiny pinprick holes dressed the front corner, and a dime-sized
red button pulsated on top. Annalise held it close to her stomach.
With the pause, I’d like to think we’d all calmed, or started to
think more rationally.

“
He’s just
worried,” I said. “We all are.”

“
Let him
worry,” said Annalise. “He’s scared, and if he thinks he’s safe
inside watching, then let him. Meanwhile, we have to make sure the
Belovores don’t get here before Melanie fixes the car.”

As crazy as it
sounds, we
left through the front
door.

Annalise’s porch was shadowed
by a large black awning, something I’m sure the Homeowner’s
Association complained about since it didn’t match the rest of her
house. A scattering of leaves had started to flake through, and
littered the porch with enough refuse that we had to step beyond it
carefully, so as not to make any excess noise. Daniel popped into
my mind in that instant, saying: ‘The Homeowner’s Association of
Covenant Street – the only realty group in the world who hates it
when you turn your house into a home.’

We looked to our right
immediately upon leaving, scanning down the street – sure that was
the direction they came from. Kayt pointed to a thin crowd of
people. Just as they’d said, three Belovores circled around their
prisoners. I tried to count the heads, but lost them in the shuffle
around sixteen. Most were crying, or eyeing the Belovores with
fear. I motioned for the three of us to duck, even though all that
concealed us was a thin white railing.

After a moment, Annalise looked
up and over the railing surrounding her porch.

“
I want to go
across the street – their house will be perfect. Plus, Robby Bruce
is the only friend I’ve had here,” Annalise said. She looked out
again – the three Belovores had turned into the crowd to greet four
more people into the group led by a single Belovore. Once the four
had joined, the escort turned and headed back the way it’d come.
Annalise inched out into the yard. She ushered Kayt and I close. I
looked behind long enough to see Lancaster peeking through the
slats in the blinds.

We dashed into the road, across
it, and trampled the row of yellow and white crocuses planted as a
territory marker across the yard. The three Belovores committed to
crowd control hadn’t noticed us. Annalise stopped when we got to
the door, and tried the handle first. She didn’t have to knock –
the door swung open and a large, ancient looking man with more
wrinkles than Davion motioned us in. He closed the door behind us
and dashed to the window. We followed. Annalise didn’t say
anything; I’m sure that if she had, the man she called Robby Bruce
would’ve shushed her. It was a different perspective on the
triumvirate of Belovores, but we still didn’t learn anything
new.

“
Homeowner’s
Association sure has changed their looks a bit,” Bruce said. He
then frowned, letting the joke slide away. “They’re collecting ‘em.
But ain’t lettin’ us all live. You’d best take your car and leave,
Lise.”

Annalise stood on the tips of
her toes to see over his shoulder, and gasped. “Trying to do just
that. Need a distraction though. If the Belovores started on the
other end of Covenant, where is everyone else?”

“
Power’s out.
Communication blocks are down too. Can’t even spark a connection.
Would’a yelled out my window, but was afraid those things would
hear me. I don’t feel much like dying today,” he said. “You said
Belovores?”

“
Yes, don’t
ask how I know. Just get out,” Annalise said. “Please, get out now.
Or hide. You need to be somewhere safe. They destroyed the city and
they’re probably going to do worse to whoever they catch. Leave,
Robert. Please.”

“
I got my
place to hide, right back there. They won’t find me,” he turned and
pointed a crooked finger to the stairwell. A small door had been
propped open, and another stairwell led down to a basement. It
smelled musty, and like dust.