“Who? The foggy man?”
WHO ELSE?
Who else indeed? Eric rubbed at the swollen knot on the side of his head. Slowly it came back to him. The factory. The residuals. The young man in the black tee shirt and jeans.
A real person hiding among the residuals…
He felt as if he should’ve known. But he’d been expecting more than a sucker punch. He thought he’d find a golem. He never expected to be attacked by a mere human.
The phone chimed again.
I DIDN’T SEE HIM IN TIME
“That’s okay. Me neither.” Eric realized that he had begun talking directly to Isabelle. The phone did nothing but relay her messages to him. Even from the other side of the world, she could hear him. If his head wasn’t pounding, he might have found this unbelievably surreal.
YOU OKAY?
“I think so. I have a pretty hard head.” He rose shakily to his feet and groaned. “Good thing, too. What the hell did he hit me with?”
I DON’T KNOW
Looking around, Eric found that he was outside one of the factory’s loading docks. The door was rolled up behind him. He recalled being dragged across the floor. There was a metallic rattling noise that must have been the door opening. Bright sunlight. Falling. Landing on the hard asphalt.
The bastard tossed him out the loading dock door.
When he first looked down on this factory from the hilltop, it was standing amid hayfields with an old, paved road leading away from it. But he could see no hayfields or roads from here. A rocky valley stretched out before him. Tall pine trees stood scattered across the terrain. Once again, he appeared to have been transported out of Wisconsin and into a distant mountain range.
He recognized this area. Eventually, he had found these doors in his dream. He’d continued onward from here, along the valley. He was back on the path.
Why the hell would someone club him from behind and then drop him off right where he’d wanted to be in the first place? What was the point?
“Any idea where he went?”
I THINK HE WENT ON AHEAD
Eric gazed forward. An odd-looking lizard was slowly making its way through the weeds where the broken blacktop gave way to hard earth and rock. It was at least twenty inches long and bright red. It had a long horn protruding from the top of its head. He couldn’t recall ever having seen anything like it before. It likely existed solely in the fissure.
It didn’t seem concerned with him. Hopefully it was as harmless as the coyote-deer and the mutant livestock.
Again, Eric rubbed at the knot on his head. He recalled seeing someone standing over him while fighting for consciousness. Was it the foggy man? Or was it someone else? He didn’t recall seeing that weird illusion of invisible fog. But then again, he hadn’t seen much of anything. “I guess we should keep going.”
BE CAREFUL
He nodded and began walking, circling well around the red lizard.
Just in case.
The pain receded a little, but only a little. His head continued to pound, his shoulder throbbed. He ached all over. But he was slowly regaining his focus.
Making his way through the valley, he checked the cell phone, but still it had no signal. Only Isabelle could talk to him without a signal.
He also saw that his battery was starting to run low. This surprised him a little, since he’d never had to recharge it after only a single day. But then again, he’d never used the stupid thing this much.
He hoped it lasted long enough to see him through the rest of this odd journey. As much as he hated the phone, he’d grown accustomed to having some connection with the world outside the fissure.
Besides, without the phone, he couldn’t talk with Isabelle.
He returned it to his pocket and glanced up in time to see a hawk soar overhead.
The pine trees grew denser, the terrain flatter, the ground rockier. Then, just as quickly, the mountain terrain gave way to hayfields again.
His cell phone signal came back.
He’d missed only seven calls this time.
Among these missed calls, Karen had sent him the picture Paul took of the creature that chased him into the cabin. It really did look like a little rhinoceros, except that it appeared to have legs more at home on a greyhound, though much shorter, and teeth similar to a boar’s tusks, though much bigger.
He’d almost forgotten about his brother’s sticky situation.
The next time he talked to Isabelle, he’d have to remember to ask her where Gold Sunshine Resort was located so that he could send directions to Kevin if he needed them. But even as he made himself a mental note, his cell phone received a new text message.
I ALREADY TEXTED KEVIN DIRECTIONS
Right. She could read his mind. He kept forgetting.
“When did you do that?”
WHEN YOU WERE TALKING TO PAUL
“Oh.”
FORGOT TO TELL YOU
SORRY
“It’s fine. So you talked to Kevin, too?”
I JUST SENT HIM DIRECTIONS
“You didn’t tell him who you were?”
I SAID I WAS A FRIEND OF YOURS
“Cool.” Kevin probably wouldn’t have thought much about such a message. He would have even dismissed the curious way Isabelle’s messages were always fast-tracked straight to the screen, never bothering with those YOU HAVE A NEW TEXT MESSAGE notices. He would’ve just thought it was an odd glitch with his phone.
At least he knew Kevin was on his way. Now he only had to worry about Paul remaining safe until he could arrive. He would have to call him soon. But for now, he might as well wait for Karen to call. It wouldn’t be long now.
And it wasn’t. Within a few short minutes, the phone rang.
“Aren’t you there yet?” she asked him.
“Not yet.”
“This is taking forever.”
“I know. Some idiot keeps leaving weird stuff in the path. How’d Toni like her cake?”
“Loved it.”
“I had no doubt. How did you decorate it?”
“Clown.”
“Oh. I don’t like clowns.”
“I know you don’t.”
“They’re creepy.”
“Mine wasn’t.”
“I’ll bet he wasn’t. Your clown would be cute and cuddly.”
“Very cute and cuddly.”
“That’s your thing.”
“It kind of is.”
“I don’t know what it is. You see a clown on television, he’s fine. You see one on a street corner, he’s scary as hell.”
“Toni said good luck, by the way.”
“You told her about all this?”
“Just that you’d been having some disturbing dreams and now you’re out trying to clear your head.”
“That’s a nice, clean summary.”
“The thought of trying to explain the whole thing to her was just way too exhausting.”
“I know what you mean.”
“So now where are you?”
“The usual. More fields.”
“How’d it go at the factory?”
“Exceptionally weird. And painful.”
“What happened?”
Eric told her about the residual factory workers and its one not-so-residual resident.
“Are you okay?”
“I’ll live.”
“Why would he hit you and then just dump you back onto the path?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s like he just decided he wanted to go out of his way to hit me upside the head.”
“Well, there are days when I can relate.”
“Ha-ha.”
“I’m just saying.”
“I can’t figure out why he doesn’t just go to the cathedral, find whatever’s there and leave. He had a huge head start. Why does he feel the need to come back and torment me?”
“Maybe he can’t get at whatever’s in the cathedral.”
Eric considered this for a moment. “That’s not a bad theory,” he decided.
“Maybe he’s already been there, but he can’t get to it, or else can’t find it, so he’s trying to slow you down.”
“That would make sense. Except why just knock me out? Why not kill me? He definitely had the opportunity.”