The Repossession (33 page)

ago. They don’t talk any more.’

Genie felt for Miho. Another messed-up family.

Cary was thinking. ‘Maybe it’s all right. Maybe because she called Abbotsford it might not have alerted them?’

Rian shook his head. ‘You don’t get it. Marshall’s in hospital, the Fortress put him there, they know there’s no one here. The phone gets used and immediately they’ll be interested.’

Genie put aside her anger and went to embrace Miho.

‘I’m sorry you called and I’m sorry about your mother. I just hope and pray it hasn’t started something.’

Cary picked up the phone and took the batteries out of it. ‘I’m keeping these.’

Rian nodded. He was about to do the same.

‘I’m sorry,’ Miho repeated.

‘I’m just sorry we don’t have a real plan yet,’

Rian said.

‘We need to talk to Officer Miller,’ Genie said firmly.

‘We need protection.’

‘A cop?’ Cary queried. He looked at Rian for support.

‘I don’t think we should. I don’t think there’s anyone we can trust in Spurlake.’

Genie went back to stacking the boxes. ‘He’s all right. I mean it. We can’t do this alone, Cary. If we ever want a

normal life again, we have to trust
someone
. Now more than ever.’

Rian looked at Miho. ‘We won’t tell the others about your call. It will only make them fret.’

Miho nodded, mouthing ‘thank you’, then turned and left the room, her face impassive.

It was later that afternoon when the screaming started.

Randall was sorting the picked apples into the boxes.

Rian had organized everyone, two to a tree. One to pick and one to catch and place in a sack so they wouldn’t bruise or spoil. It was a warm day and at Genie’s insistence they all slapped on a ton of sunscreen she’d found in the bathroom and they wore the paper hats Miho had made for them all. Genie was well tanned already, but the others’ skin was so unused to sunlight they could so easily burn. It was hard work and although the apples were sweet and tasted good and they’d eaten three or four (in Randall’s case ten) they’d pretty much had it with apples until next year already.

Julia was the first to scream. She literally fell to the ground clutching her head, hands clamped over her ears.

Cary slumped to the ground soon after and then one by one they fell, yelling with pain. Rian couldn’t hear anything but their screaming. When Genie began to

scream too he knew he had to do something. But what? At first he thought it was the apples. They’d all eaten them, but then why wasn’t he screaming or lying in a foetal position on the grass?

‘What is it? Genie? Tell me?’

But all of them were in excruciating pain, rocking from side to side, their eyes full of terror. Genie looked at him with imploring eyes, expecting him to do something
, but what?

Randall suddenly started running and ran smack into the brick wall at the end of the orchard, as if he’d forgotten he was made of flesh and bone again.

Rian cradled Genie in his arms. ‘Talk to me? What’s going on?’

‘Mosquitoes,’ Genie gasped. ‘Thousands of them.

Mosquitoes. Can’t you hear them?’

Rian couldn’t hear a thing and there were certainly no mosquitoes anywhere to be seen. He looked up into the sky for inspiration and then he saw them. Two slow-flying helicopters flying in formation some distance north of the farm. Was it coming from them?

‘Genie? Look. Choppers. I think . . .’

Genie was looking, dizzy and nauseous now. She understood what she was seeing and, she, like Rian, guessed this was the source of their ‘noise’. ‘Get us

inside, Ri. Don’t let them see us.’

Rian didn’t need telling. He was running for the wheelbarrow. He tipped out the apples and ran from figure to figure loading up the kids. He could get two on it at once. He raced them towards the farmhouse, literally tipping them out there before going back for the others.

He made four trips, Genie staggering home on her own.

He could see the choppers more closely now as they made their way towards them, the Fortransco logo visible on the sides.

Rian had just recovered an unconscious Randall and slammed the front door when the two choppers directly flew low over the house, shaking the whole building, making the windows rattle. He’d made it just in time.

Minutes later, Denis uncurled his limbs and looked around him, astonished to find himself in the kitchen.

‘Jesus,’ he mumbled. ‘I thought I was back in the Fortress.

I thought they’d got me.’ He stood up uncertainly. He looked deathly pale. Suddenly he ran for the door, managing to wrench it open, and was violently sick.

Rian winced – it sounded real bad. One thing was sure, it wasn’t the apples.

Cary was trying to revive Danielle. He was feeling

pretty shaky himself but Danielle wasn’t moving at all.

‘Rian?’ he called.

Rian was there quickly, feeling for Danielle’s pulse. He looked up at Cary in alarm. ‘Shit, I think she’s dead.’

Genie staggered over to check for herself. She pressed her head to Danielle’s chest and listened.

‘I can hear a heartbeat.’

Cary looked at Rian and they clearly disagreed with Genie. This girl was gone, the mosquito attack must have affected her worse than the others somehow.

‘Get her up, put her on Marshall’s bed,’ Genie told them. ‘She might just be taking longer to recover, that’s all.’ Genie wasn’t even convinced of this herself.

The others said nothing. They’d had a big scare.

‘Why do you think she’s so messed up?’ Denis asked as he helped carry her through the house.

No one answered, each knew it could have so easily been them.

They left Danielle to sleep. There was little else to do for her. Denis discussed electric shock but short of sticking her fingers in the wall socket and killing her for sure, Rian didn’t think it was a great idea.

‘Let her be. We’ll check on her later. Let’s have a break to recover, then finish the job we started –and everyone, keep an eye on the sky. We don’t

want to go through that again.’

Half an hour later they were almost back to normal, shaken definitely and worried about what had happened.

Rian had made everyone iced tea and they sat around the kitchen table trying to make sense of it all.

Renée had described it as a mosquito attack as well.

They all heard the same thing, thousands of the bugs buzzing in their head and the pain was so intense you just lost control of your mind and body. She knew what it meant though. ‘They know we escaped. Don’t they? Those bastards are hunting us.’

‘How do they know?’ Julia asked, looking at Renée for an answer.

Rian looked at Genie and she pulled a face. They knew exactly why. Miho’s phone call. It was just as they had feared. Cary said nothing, couldn’t even look at her. It would be their secret.

Denis pulled a face. ‘Maybe it’s because we’re not there. They can’t control us, but they can try to blow our brains out.’

‘Well, they know exactly what to do,’ Cary told them.

‘They can jam our brains with that mosquito signal. We wouldn’t be able to do anything; we don’t know how to stop it. We could be anywhere and they just need to turn

it on and we’d fall to the floor. That’s why Rian couldn’t hear it, it’s just aimed at our frequencies.’

Randall shook his head. He could still hear an echo in his ears. ‘It works. I’m still dizzy.’

‘You’re dizzy because you ran straight into a wall,’

Rian reminded him.

Denis laughed but Randall wasn’t amused.

‘Look, they don’t know exactly where you guys are,’

Rian added. ‘That’s why they had to broadcast it from the choppers. Right?’

Cary nodded. ‘And that’s the good news. But the bad news is . . .’

‘We can’t go home,’ Renée chipped in. ‘If we did, they will know exactly where to find us.’

Denis kicked a chair in frustration. ‘Then we have to get them before they get us.’

‘How?’ Julia whined. ‘We’re just kids.’

‘We need to speak to Miller,’ Rian told them. ‘He’s the only guy I trust.’

‘Who’s he?’ Denis asked, not sure he was ever prepared to trust anyone.

‘Marshall’s son. He doesn’t believe that teleportation is possible, but he’s going to get a big surprise,’ Rian replied. ‘I should go down the track to the next farm.

Maybe I can call him from there. He knows about

Reverend Schneider and he’s been making enquiries.

He just wants evidence, that’s all. You guys are all the proof he needs.’

‘So why hasn’t he shut them down already?’

Denis asked.

‘He needed proof, I told you, and because, as we’ve discovered, it seems they employ half the town,’

Rian told him. ‘They’ve got a lot of power and he’s just one cop.’

‘If we want to do anything, we’ll need him on our side,’

Genie told them. ‘We can’t just throw rocks at the Fortress. We have to plan something, something that will get people to realize what we’ve all been through.’

‘Just turning up. Won’t that do it? People think we’re dead. At least, they think Denis is dead,’ Julia pointed out.

‘And all they have to do is turn on that mosquito thing and we drop like flies. Literally,’ Cary pointed out.

‘If we do anything, it has to be a surprise and then we have to get the hell away.’

‘And how do we do that? How do you make your mom move house just because we say so?’ Randall asked.

‘Because if you don’t, Randall, you’re dead meat. We’re guinea pigs, we’re worth millions to them,’ Cary repeated.

Miho said absolutely nothing. She knew she’d

caused this with her phone call, that was the guilt she’d have to bear.

They all heard the scream. Randall spilled his tea, Rian jerked his chair back in shock. Everyone at the table missed a heartbeat.

‘I’ll go,’ Genie said getting up. ‘It’s Danielle.’

No one else moved, as if they had been nailed to the floor. That had been a powerful, terrified scream.

Cary watched Genie go. ‘Well, I guess she’s not dead after all.’

Renée shuddered, pouring some more iced tea for herself. ‘Not funny, Cary. If we call the cops, they’ll be listening. One thing I did learn at the Fortress – they listen and read everything. They’ve got ways of finding out anything anyone says about them. I’m not being paranoid. They use some word-pattern recognition software, just like Homeland Security. It listens for keywords. I don’t think you can even call from the next farm, Rian. It’s too close.’

Genie was tired of all this arguing. They should call Miller and have done with it. She headed to Marshall’s bedroom, scared to death of what state Danielle might be in. That had been one frightened scream.

Danielle wasn’t lying on the bed. The pillows were covered in blood, bright scarlet blood. Genie heard her

throwing up in the bathroom and ran to join her.

Danielle was wiping blood from her face. She glanced at Genie as she entered the bathroom.

‘Can’t stop the bleeding.’

Genie knew how to deal with this.

‘Stand in the bath, put your back to the wall and put your head back, right back and pinch the top of your nose.’

Danielle turned to face her, blood was still streaming from her nose.

‘Now, Danielle. We have to stop the bleeding.’

Danielle climbed into the bath and did as she was told as Genie soaked a flannel with cold water.

‘Head back, lean back against the wall so you don’t fall, OK?’

Danielle followed the instructions. She put her head back and pinched the top of her nose. Genie got in beside her and slapped the wet flannel on her neck and held it there.

‘Will this stop it?’ Danielle asked, fear in her voice.

‘Yes. Don’t move, don’t talk.’ Genie wiped blood from her mouth. ‘This is one hell of a nose bleed. You get them a lot?’

‘Not since my brother beat me one time.’

‘I mean, aside from that?’

Danielle shook her head.

‘The mosquito thing must have started it. Affects you more than the others maybe.’

Denis poked his head around the door. Did a double take when he saw how much blood there was.

‘Jeez, guys. Gross.’

‘Get me some ice, Denis. Now. Go fetch,’ Genie told him.

Denis vanished.

‘Ice?’ Danielle queried.

‘Got to keep your neck cold.’

Danielle was feeling faint, could feel her legs giving way.

‘Stay up,’ Genie told her. ‘We have to stop the bleeding.’

‘I’m scared, Genie. They know we’re out, don’t they?

They’re going to come looking for us.’

‘We’ll be just fine, Danielle. We’ll expose them and they won’t be able to touch us. Ever.’

Denis was back with six ice cubes and handed them to Genie. She wrapped the flannel around them and put them back on Danielle’s neck. It was so cold all thought of fainting vanished.

‘She looks so pale. Need to get her out in the fresh air,’

Denis suggested.

‘In a minute. Get Ri. We’ll get her out on to

the stoop. It’s shady there.’

Denis wandered off again.

‘I’ll be fine,’ Danielle protested. ‘We have apples to pick.’

‘You’re not picking anything, girl. You need to rest.’

Rian came at last, saw all the blood everywhere and grimaced. ‘All this from a nose bleed?’

Genie signalled for him to say nothing more.

‘Help me get her outside. She’ll be fine in a few minutes.’

Rian looked at Genie again and shrugged. Danielle sure as hell didn’t look fine.

‘It’s beginning to slow down,’ Genie told Danielle. ‘Five minutes and we can get you outside.’

‘I’m scared, Genie. I don’t even want to go home. I’m waiting for something to go wrong. I’m bleeding today, but tomorrow? What else? How do we know we’re OK?

We’ve been teleported, for God’s sake. How do we know we aren’t going to die or get sick or get cancer or— ?’

Genie squeezed her arm. ‘We don’t, Danielle. But right now, everything works. I’m thinking if it works now, it’ll work tomorrow. OK? One day at a time.’

Danielle said nothing. She wasn’t convinced. Not convinced at all.

*

They got her out to Marshall’s favourite chair eventually, made her lie there with her head back to make sure the bleeding didn’t return. Everyone was still debating what to do, still spooked by the mosquito effect. They were all gathered on the stoop in the shade, reluctant to start picking again.