Posted on October 10, 2007

Part 41

He stumbled forward, half running, more sure of his footing now because of the light coming from Evajean’s cupped hands. “Evajean,” he said, overwhelmed, “you’re okay. What happened? How–”

“Don’t shout,” she said, turning her attention back to her hands. “This is amazing, Elliot.” She added, “Where were you?”

“I went to find a way out,” he said, sitting down next to her. “I found it, right through there, but you– You were sick. I thought–”

“Oh, it wasn’t that bad,” she said, dropping her hands into her lap. Elliot didn’t bother to look into them, didn’t care what she had, because what mattered was she was safe. She wasn’t sick. She wasn’t crazy. Evajean continued, “It was just my stomach, like you said. But if you found a way out, I can get that drink of water. I must have fainted though–did I faint? Because I remember laying down to rest for a minute and then I woke up and you were gone.”

“I just went–” He stopped. “No, Evajean, you were sick.”

“I was what?” The thing in her lap was entirely forgotten. “Elliot, I’m fine. I still feel kind of queasy, but I wasn’t sick. Not like that.”

“Yeah,” he said, “you were.”

“But I feel fine.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “You were sick. Like Callie, like Clarine, like Henry and everybody else. That kind of sick. You were laying on the ground, kicking and babbling and I thought you were dying. I left you there–I’m sorry, but I had to do it–and I found a way out. This tunnel,” he pointed, “leads to, I think, a mine shaft opening and then out into the woods again. It’s safe there. But, Jesus, Evajean, I’m just glad– I thought about killing you.”

This last he didn’t mean to say, didn’t know why he let that terrible secret out, but Evajean didn’t flinch away. Instead she leaned against him. “It’s okay,” she said. “I understand. But I’m better now, okay? Not sick. And you have to look at this.”

She held her hand up to him and Elliot looked inside the basket of her palms. A golden brick, three inches on a side, rested within, and it was from that the light poured, bright enough to read by, bright enough to make getting back out through the tunnel easy. He reached for it and ran his finger across the surface. The box was warm and apparently seamless, a perfect cube of polished metal. “Where was it?” he asked.

“Right here,” Evajean said. “When came out of the faint, it was by my head. I think the light’s what did it, actually. What woke me up. I’ve never seen anything like this. What do you think it is?”

“Treasure, maybe? Like what the Nahom people I saw in the woods before I found you were hunting for? That’s my guess. But let’s take it with us and get out of here. I’m sick of being underground.”

Evajean nodded, smiling. “Out, then,” she said. “And then we can find the dog.”

He led her through the tunnel, staying close the entire way, pessimistically sure he’d hear the strange words at any moment, that she’d slip again into the sickness. But she didn’t, and soon they could see starlight. Evajean tucked the box, which had lit their way this far, into the pocket of her jacket. They’d figure out what it was later. Right now, however, they needed to find a way out of the woods and back to the road.

Evajean made an excited noise behind him as they came to the opening of the shaft. “This is great, Elliot,” she said. “I don’t know how you found this, but it looks far away from town.”

“I think it is,” he said. “I can’t hear anything, anyway.”

“Or see any lights.”

“Or that,” he said. “I tested the stairs and they should be safe–you for sure, since they held my weight.”

Evajean nodded and began picking her way slowly down. Elliot waited until she was near the bottom before he did the same. The wooden steps held and shortly they were both standing on the tiny strip of land between the stairs and the creek. “Oh, my God,” Evajean said. “I can’t believe were out of there. What do you think happened? I mean, at the end before we went down that tunnel.”

“I think they killed that girl,” Elliot said. “I think they cut her throat and Uncle Jeffry did something to them, I don’t know what.”

“The shapes. The ones around their bodies.”

“Yeah,” Elliot said. “I saw that.”

Evajean shook her head. “I don’t know, Elliot. All of this, it’s more than I expected. I mean, that’s crazy, of course it is, because who could’ve expected all the crazies and this town, and what they did to that girl. But I never expected just how bad it all is.”

“I understand,” he said. “I didn’t expect it, either.”

He jumped across the creek–it was really more of a wide trickle–and tested his foot against the opposite slope. The ground was spongy, but it ought to hold if they stayed low and use their hands to help the climb.

“Elliot?”

He looked back and saw Evajean hadn’t moved. She was gazing up at the stars.

“Elliot, let’s not stop for any people we see, okay? For the rest of this time–for the rest of our journey. Let’s just let it be you and me. Because I can’t go through that again.”

“We’ll do that,” he said, “but first we have to get out back to the road. Here.” He held his hand out to her, across the creek. She took it and he steadied her as she came across.

“We’re not going to go back for the dog,” she said, when they stopped to rest half way up the hill.

“No. I don’t really see how we can.”

“Okay,” she said. “I knew that.”

“But maybe we’ll get lucky. Stranger things have happened, you know?”

“Definitely,” Evajean said.