Page 83 of Uriah's Orbit
This was taking way more bravado than I actually felt. Keeping up my ‘tough gay’ face was going to wear me the hell out.
The limo finally pulled down a dark, two lane road that led to a driveway about a mile later. There was a single streetlight at the driveway, and then we were completely swallowed by the blackness. The headlights illuminated nothing but a tunnel of trees.
The only thing I’d been able to see after the sun went down was what was through the front window. Now there was nothing.
We drove on for about another five minutes when the trees finally pulled back and revealed the tiniest, most run-down compound I had ever imagined.
There was a main house that looked like it was still being built. There were a few sheds, a few trailers, a few larger campers. A rotting barn stood on one end, and a new barn on the other. The area was lit with sodium lights, showing everything in a state of terrible orange-tinted decay.
The back door of the limo opened a moment after the vehicle stopped moving. I could hear the chuffing and huffing of a generator somewhere, and the smell of diesel fumes floating through the air.
Carly gagged, and frowned and I saw tears in her eyes. I grabbed her and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close.
“What’s wrong, Car?”
“I hate the smell of this place,” she whispered. “It smells like evil.”
“It’s all right,” I said, and pressed a kiss to her head. “We’re going to be fine.”
Gerry climbed out of the limo and barked orders at the people standing around. Someone poked their head in and growled at us, “Get out. You’re going to the back shed. All of you.”
I motioned Devon to the door, and helped Carly out behind me. Devon wrapped his arms around my waist, and I tucked Carly under my arm.
“I need a medical kit,” I said. “She’s got a cut that needs attention. Proper attention. Something more than a goddamn wet wipe.”
A hard smack landed on my cheek. “We don’t use the Lord’s name in vain.”
“I wasn’t using it in vain, I was cursing,” I snapped. “Medical kit. Before this gets infected.”
The man who smacked me shoved me away from the limo, and toward the rotting barn on the right. The generator noise grew louder, but we stopped long before we reached either.
He stopped us in front of a literal shed.
Popping open the doors there was a filthy mattress on the floor, some hay and a single bulb in the ceiling. There was a cut out on the right that was covered over with translucent molded plastic—probably the only source of light we’d have in the daytime.
“In,” he said, pushing me at the door.
“You can’t possibly think that—”
He shoved me in, and the kids tripped inside with me. “I don’t get paid to think. I get paid to do.” He snapped his fingers, and a young woman—not more than eighteen—ran forward with a box. “This has water, trail mix, and your stupid medical kit. Try to escape from here, and they’ll mow you down from the lookouts. Try to run in the dark, and they’ll let the dogs out on you.”
“Got it,” I mumbled, and the door slammed shut with a cheap clang, and the sound of a lock being closed.
This was…so fucking beyond me I didn’t know what the hell to do.
Austin
“He took the kids!”
Aubrey crashed into me as I walked up to the theater, mascara a mess and hair flying.
“What?”
“He’s got the kids! He took them at the school and drove away with them!”
“Did you call the cops?!” I yelled.
“He’ll kill them if I do!”
