Joe then swung another left and tore down the main drag, where he had earlier made the first pass in trying to clear the streets. Large mounds of snow lined the curb in front of the stores, making the street a single lane.
“They’ll chase you to the ends of the earth. They won’t let any of you leave,” Verna said.
I saw Joe’s jaw clench as he took a rough left turn. “Please don’t have locked the shop. Please don’t have locked it.”
“We’re going to your store?” Verna asked.
“Not my shop,” Joe grunted as he turned in an alley. “Ron’s place. When he’s slow on business, he lets me park the truck there if it’s gonna snow and I have to work late. I hope he’s not working on anything.”
The truck came to a sudden stop and Joe jumped out, leaving the truck running. “Roxanne, you’ll have to take off if they come. Got it?”
“Yep.” Roxy winced, touching her leg.
I held my breath, waiting to hear the engines of the Humvees as they tore down the alley. Instead, there was the small squeak of worn hinges as Joe opened two huge, metal double doors. Once he opened them as far as he could, he slid back into the truck.
He quietly pulled into the mechanic’s shop and turned the engine off, running back to close the doors behind us.
We sat in silence, looking back to see Joe peering out a rectangular window to the alley. We waited for military vehicles, expecting angry pounding on the door.
After several minutes of nothing, Joe crept over and leaned in the cab. “Stay in the truck,” he whispered. “Ron’s got the heat way down low. Don’t dare turn the lights on. You’ll stay warmer in there. I’ll keep watch out the window.” He shut the door.
I turned back to Roxy. “Tell me what happened.”
“It’s not as important as what happened to you. William, I can’t believe it. You’re here. You’re really here,” Roxy said, touching his head.
“It matters to me,” I whispered. “I thought you’d been killed. Did you crash?”
Roxy shook her head. “These bruises are courtesy of one of this town’s finest after I got the van stuck. He was on me as soon as I slid off the road, like he knew where I would be. He didn’t like my response when he asked for my ID and proof of insurance. I knew I was a goner at that point. Things got ugly fast, and it became clear very quickly I was not supposed to walk away from that encounter. But he didn’t know how mean I can be. I even got his gun, can you believe it? But I’ve got terrible aim, and I shot up more of the van than him.”
I almost laughed in relief, then, thinking of the picture Deanna had shown me on her phone. It had been Roxy shooting, not the other way around.
“He got the gun back fast, but it was out of bullets. He was a sick son of a bitch too—started taking pictures of me laying in the snow, and the van, I guess someone wanted proof. I was in a real bad way when Joe rolled up and saw the guy using me as a punching bag. He underestimated Joe too. For an old guy, Joe used that crowbar in the bed of his truck and showed him who was boss—”
“Are you OK?” I reached over to Roxy’s swollen cheek.
“I hurt everywhere. My foot and face are the worst. But I insisted Joe get me back to you, and when we got to Miss Congeniality’s house, she was so bombed she could barely make it to the door. Joe thought some sudden exposure to this wonderful Colorado weather might perk her up, so we went for a ride—”
“Kidnapped, more like it,” Verna grumbled.
“Didn’t have a choice,” Roxy said with a glare. “Joe said we needed that damn code of yours from the kitchen to get in. If Armageddon hadn’t started when we showed up, I would have personally forced your butt through that hospital till we found Lynn and William.”
“Didn’t you want to come get me?” William asked quietly, looking at his teacher.
I watched whatever was left of her binge seep from the old woman’s face. She reached out and gently squeezed his arm. “Miss Cliff was just tired, honey. And I’ll admit it,” she sighed, “I was a little afraid of the sky tonight.”
“Afraid?” I whispered. “You knew… this… those ships, those… things, were coming?”
“Things?” Verna asked.
William curled up closer to me, burying his face in my side.
“Oh God, you actually saw them? I don’t know if anyone here ever has. When I saw what kind of storm was brewing, I knew the ships would come. They always do when the weather gets this bad. And when all the phones and computers stopped working, I knew it for sure. But it didn’t happen… like it usually does. They aren’t dropping off people. They’re taking them back. Everyone who’s been marked. All those people, all my kids…”
She looked out the window, her eyes glinting with tears.
“You know… about the markings?” I asked in a hush, knowing I should cover William’s ears.
Verna ran her fingers over the back of William’s hair. “Honey, do you still have that bump on the back of your head from when you fell off the bed that night? The one that hurts sometimes?”
“Yep,” William yawned. “Are we gonna be here for a while?”
“Close your eyes honey,” Verna said, looking at me. “That bump, it’s always hurting him. The other kids complain about it too, but it goes away in time. It’s under his hairline, you’d never see it. You have to know it’s there.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Roxy whispered from the front seat, “Why does the military stand there and let those… ships… take those people?”
Verna smiled with traces of anger. “Because the government can’t stop them. Believe me, they’ve tried. It hasn’t been pretty. The military has tried to communicate with them, but they’re not interested. It’s like pigs trying to negotiate with a butcher. They’ve always just dropped off the ones they’ve abducted. I don’t know why they’re taking them back.”
I do, I thought. You don’t want to know.
I understood then that Verna’s drinking wasn’t to momentarily escape the sadness of what she’d seen. It was how she survived all those long years, watching the doctors and staff leave after working at the hospital for just a year or so—
I quickly looked to her, remembering her own words: They say they can’t handle it or they’re too sick to work anymore. Won’t even get close to the kids.
Those doctors found out, too late, what happens if they’re around the returned who have been activated. How not long after the patients scream in pain, their ears ringing and bleeding, the doctors themselves start dying.
Only Verna remains unaffected, and she doesn’t even realize why. Even though she said she was mesmerized by the lights from the ships, she doesn’t even realize she’s one of us too—
“Lynn Roseworth,” came a loud voice from a megaphone.
William sat up whining, and I looked around in panic. The voice came from outside the shop.
Joe ran from the garage window to the front of the building as the voice continued. “Lynn Roseworth, please come out. We know you are inside. Do not make us open fire. We do not want to harm you or your grandson. Come out, now.”
Joe hurried back from where he peered out the small window facing the street. He slid into the front seat. “They’re sitting there at the intersection, looking all around. They must not know where we are other than downtown somewhere.”
“Don’t doubt them. They will start shooting,” Verna said.
“This is a mechanic shop, can we hide somewhere? Down in a pit or something?” Roxy asked.
“Where’s the bathroom in this place?” Verna asked.
“Are you kidding me?” Joe hissed.