Page 11 of Fence

“You know what I wonder?” Gate asked in a tight voice. “I wonder why we haven’t seen any signs of a struggle."

“I have to admit, I expected to see bodies.” I turned to them with a grimace.

“Me, too,” Gate admitted. “It’s a relief.”

“Yes, but this begs the question: where are they? If not here, then where?” Miles shone his flashlight straight down the tunnel, which seemed to go on forever.

“Maybe they left a clue behind.” I started walking again, this time looking for rooms. There had to be rooms set up the way we’d set them up in our cave. I remembered having a makeshift bedroom of my own once I was deemed old enough to deserve one. I wondered if I could find it if I tried.

The first room I found was the control center, like back home. They had computer monitors, too, just like we did. All that time, and we could’ve been in communication with them. If only we had known.

I made for the fuse box as Miles and Gate caught up with me. A flip of the breaker and the lights went on.

Miles turned off his flashlight. “Good. I was getting tired of being in the dark.”

“Should we turn on the computers?” Gate asked, crouching to take a look at the setup.

“I don’t know—what happens if there’s somebody out there, monitoring the activity on the server? It’s possible. It could be how they tracked the clan down.” I ran a hand over my jaw, then over the back of my neck.

My dragon didn’t like what we’d found so far, though there was nothing inherently ominous. Nothing except the absence of all other lifeforms.

There’s another here. I can feel her. Find her, the dragon’s feelings were transmitted, loud and clear.

Her? I didn’t feel anyone.

“Do either of you feel like there’s somebody else here? Besides us, I mean?”

They both gave me a blank stare which answered my question sufficiently. I wondered if my dragon wasn’t a bit overstimulated after all the travel and the rush of memories.

“Come on. Let’s keep looking around. I don’t care for the idea of there being nothing for us to go on here.” I watched Miles and Gate walk out into the tunnel, both moving deeper into the cave.

Something told me to hesitate. My dragon, insisting there was something for us to find. Somebody. She needed us, whoever she was. A member of the clan, left behind?

I stepped out of the room, too, and it was much easier to see the layout of the space with the lights on. There were dozens of doors stretching as far as the eye could see. The guys went in and out, muttering to each other, both dissatisfied.

None more than me. But my dissatisfaction came from another source. I wanted to find some clue from the clan, of course, but something else pressed harder on my consciousness... Somebody needed help.

My dragon kept warning me to go back. That she was there. I didn’t bother to ask who the dragon was talking about, since I wouldn’t get an answer. Still, I followed my instinct,, turning back in the direction from which we’d come and following the tunnel. It was easier going, since I was able to see.

And I saw her almost immediately. How had I missed her the first time?

“There’s somebody here!” I shouted.

Running footsteps pounded down the hall as I rushed to the crumpled female figure against the wall. There was a dent in the sheetrock and a smudge of blood. She’d hit it, hard.

I was careful as I turned her onto her back, pushing aside her backpack as I did. Who was she? One of the clan? No, I would’ve been able to tell, even if she were unconscious. I brushed blonde hair back from her forehead to get a look at the bloody bruise.

“What happened?” Gate asked, crouching beside me.

“No idea. We weren’t focusing our flashlights on the floor, and she was out of the way. We might not even have seen her if it weren’t for the lights.” I was careful to keep her modesty in mind as I ran my hands over her shoulders and arms, her ribs, her legs to check for breaks. It looked as though only her head had borne injury—and that was enough, since not even our voices or my hands on her body had woken her.

“How would she even have gotten in?” Miles asked.

“How would I know? Perhaps any enchantment on the place has dissolved since the clan’s no longer here.” It was all speculation, and nothing I particularly had time for. I wanted to do something for the girl. She was breathing. I lowered my ear to her chest to detect her strong heartbeat.

“Here.” Gate handed me a bottle of water, and I poured some over the wound on her head, washing away the dried blood to get a better look at what we were dealing with. There was a lump forming, too. The blood was fresh, to the point where the wound still oozed, so she couldn’t have been there for long.

“Perhaps something frightened her,” Miles suggested.

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