The idiocy of my thoughts struck me funny – to the point of actually laughing out loud. All eyes were on me. Jesus, I was going crazy.
Avery thought my outward showing of madness meant it was time for conversation. He said something, but I was preoccupied trying to think up something that might justify my untimely bout of mirth.
“Huh?” I said.
He looked annoyed having to repeat himself. “Should we at least talk about what happened?”
Not knowing what to say, I shrugged my shoulders.
“No one cares what those things are?” He persisted.
He wasn’t going to give it a break. Besides, Sam and I needed to clear the air. “Alright, let’s talk about it.”
Sam was reading off the same queue card as me. “Well, son, it’s pretty damn simple for me. We just up and left Tom, without carin a fuck about it.”
“That wasn’t Tom, Sam. And you know it.”
“We didn’t even try, ’ough. We just left him ’ere ta fend for hisself.”
Titouan gave me a look. I shook my head. I then turned to Sam, and in a sullen tone, I said, “I just know that—”
Sam raised both arms and pointed at Titouan and me. “What, you and ’at little sonofabitch over ’ere in cahoots with one ’nother now?”
“Come on. Stop it, man,” I said.
“It’s bullshit, what it is – pure damn bullshit.”
“Sam,” Titouan said.
Oh shit, I thought. Please don’t talk, Titouan. Not now.
He continued in an as controlled and respectful tone as I had ever heard from him. “What Tom did back there… wasn’t normal. Something happened to him. You have to know that. You have, too,” he said, his voice trailing off.
“What Titouan is trying to get at is they ate the woman in the kitchen,” Avery said, with a slight tremble to his voice.
“God,” Tish said, and I seconded.
“I might be an ignorant ass from Eastern Kentucky, but I done know what happened back ’ere. But ’at don’t mean I can’t feel like shit for not least tryin.” He tugged a few times at his mustache, refusing to make eye contact with anyone during his moment of contemplation. After several absent tugs, he continued, “I heard the same damn things you’ins did. I lost a friend—we all did back ere— but if what we all seen and heard was real, and I’m pretty damn sure it was, we all lost a hella lot more ’an ’at. Things are bad. Real bad.”
My legs were freezing. Needing to get some blood circulating, I walked over to the small window that faced the direction of Barrow High School. With the combination of the full moon and the snow mercifully tapering off to just a few flakes here and there, I could see a decent distance up and down the barren street that ran parallel to the maintenance building. “We’ll be able to see where we’re going now.”
“That means those things will be able to see us, too,” Titouan said.
“What do we do, then?” I asked. “We can’t stay in here forever.”
“Wait for the authorities to show up and hope whatever those things were back there don’t find us.”
“Ain’t heard a single siren or nothin ta lead me ta think ’ere is any authorities. We own our own, fellers,” Sam said.
“Somebody is doing a lot of shooting. Who you think is doing that?”
“Lotta guns in Barrow, Tit.”
Titouan bristled at being called Tit, but remained even tempered, for him anyway. “I think it’s a little too early to say things have gone completely to shit.”
Sam chuckled. “Yeah, ’em monsters back ’ere are pretty normal.”
Getting back on point, before Sam and Titouan could further escalate their tensions, I said, “The point is, we can’t defend ourselves. If those Grays come looking to do the same thing they did back there at that house, we’ll be near powerless to stop them. That’s just the truth.”
“Grays, huh?” Sam asked.
I nodded. I wasn’t feeling very imaginative with my naming conventions. They were gray. Why not.
“We’re safe in here for the moment,” Tish said, stone-faced and cold.
I sighed heavily. “If someone wants in that door bad enough, it won’t be much of an issue for him. We have the rifle, but it’ll be of little use if all of them try to get in here.”
Making eye contact this time, and with more vigor, Tish said, “But they’re not here now. We know they’re out there. Why chance it?”
“I say we sleep on it, son. We safe for the time bein.”
“Sleep? How in the fuck are we going to sleep in here?” Titouan said.
“Close our damn eyes. How else,” Sam said, with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Anyone besides Titouan disagree?” I asked. No one said anything.
There were some tarpaulins on a shelf. We spread them on the floor to lie on. They weren’t especially comfortable as bedding goes, but they were better than lying directly on the diesel-soaked and grease-stained floor. Normally stress made me want to sleep, but I was so scared and confused, sleep was the last thing on my mind. It being so cold inside that building only pushed it further away.
They say misery (and self-interest where Titouan was concerned) makes strange bedfellows. It seemed to be true. Instead of sleeping like Sam and Tish, Titouan and Avery were more interested in talking. I drifted in and out of their conversation, spending most of my time glued to the window, and hoping they wouldn’t get into another argument. That was until Avery brought up something that tore me from my indifference. He brought up Titouan’s ghost.
“I did not exactly tell the truth about what I saw on the ice. I did see a person. His coloration was very similar to the woman back at the house.”
Titouan’s eyes got wide and a scowl etched at his face. “You made me look like a complete fool, Avery. Why would you not say anything?”
There was a long pause before Avery finally spoke. “When your nickname is Faux Mulder, no one tends to take what you say very seriously.”
“It makes you wonder what he was doing out there alone,” Titouan said, miraculously devoid of malice, especially given Avery’s admission.
“My guess is, he was not out there alone. Why would he be? They appear to run in packs.”
“Only one attacked Tom,” Titouan said.
In the dim light, I saw Avery’s head turn toward where I stood next to the window. “I believe there were many in that area. William would attest to that.”
Apparently, Avery had heard some of the same strange noises I had. It was quite clear the stigma around his nickname had affected him more than I thought. “There sure seemed to be.”
Something occurred to me. “Jack said he and Tom had heard the sound of a diesel engine near the Patch. The question is why would a truck or whatever it was be out there? If what he said was true, and he had no reason to make it up, this opens up a hell of a lot more questions.”
There were several moments of silence before Avery spoke up. “What if the truck transported some number of Grays out there?”
Titouan countered. “What if the noise of the truck lured them out there? They seem to be drawn to noise.”
Avery nodded. “And smell.”
“Lost delivery guy?” Titouan asked.
“I asked Sam about deliveries. None were due for five days. I doubt very seriously they’d send a truck out in that weather even if one had been scheduled. I don’t think it was that,” I said.
“There are several issues here. None of which we know enough about to speculate,” Avery said.
I almost laughed out loud at the notion of Avery fearing to speculate. “Never stopped you before.”