THE DEAD HOSPITAL
[Hakeem]
The demon was gone or at least for the moment. I was unsure when it would come back. I knew one thing for sure though that it would be back. Only I knew that a demon like that would never be able to do die, especially if it kept getting away. No, a creature like that would have to be torn apart. With the weaponry that we were packing, it didn’t seem likely to happen. Nobody seemed to care about my opinion or what I thought. That to me was just fine, I didn’t mind. They were fools, all of them. They thought that they could control the situation, but they were the ones that were left in the dark. The paralyzing powder that I had put on my wound had done the job. However, I could feel myself beginning to limp again. My wound was starting to ache. I had only one bandanna left filled with a ball of the same powder. I didn’t want to break it unless I absolutely had to. I followed the group south, but I tried to stay towards the back. My appearance frightened them. They were right to think that. That blonde piece of art walking several bodies ahead of me would not give me the time of day. She was unimpressed with me and wasn’t a simple minded fool that could be bent with parlor tricks. She was a one of a kind piece of art. I wanted to have her before somebody else could take their chance again.
My mind drifted in and out of their conversation as that white boy Chris continued to question everything. I wanted to teach him that sometimes belief takes precedence over science. “I just don’t understand how a werewolf can stay that form the entire time! I mean it defies all legends and myths. Jacob, Jacob when you caught the creature did you…” “Let me stop you right there white boy, when I first caught the creature I didn’t know what it was, nor did I care! All I cared about was the money that’s it.” We continued to walk and I noticed the “Mona Lisa” of beauties walking sluggishly as she seemed to stumble drunkenly. “I just wish I knew the answer,” Chris continued until Raska broke his muttering, “oh will you just up white boy…questions…questions, always questions! If you really want to know, why don’t you ask that dirty voodoo shit? He might have the answers you want!”
I didn’t think that I would wait so long until the white boy came up to me for answers. He acted like he was sucking up his pride as he approached me. “So, um…Hakeem, you have been quiet pretty much this whole time. What is your take on all this?” We continued to walk, “you aren’t ready for what I have to say.” “I have explored every option, and I can not come up with even a possibility.” I shook my head, “then you have not discovered all possibilities.” Grabbing my arm he gave a quick, “then tell me freak, tell me what I am missing! It is a werewolf isn’t it?” I threw him off of me as I felt my eyes grow wide with anger, “do not lay your hands on me boy! I assure you that it is what you mortal men call a werewolf and that it will be back!” I turned and stormed away continuing to follow the group, “How…how can it keep coming back? How is it still in wolf form during the daylight?” “It is a demon and has always been a demon.” Chris shook his head as he continued with the group, “So, it never changes form?” “Indeed,” I replied as we continued to march south. I watched Nikki continuing to move as I began to catch up with her. I watched her eyes opening and closing. She seemed on the verge of sleep walking. I turned and saw Jacob leading the group rifle raised high with that mutt sniffing ahead of him. “How do you know that it will come back?” I didn’t respond to the white boy’s questions. He was growing tiresome, and I bored with his thirst for knowledge. I also saw out of the corner of my eye Raska. He was eyeing Chris like a hungry lion waiting for the right moment to pounce on a zebra. “HEY,” Chris was yelling at me and just when I was about to respond there came a loud, SNAP!
Nikki screamed loudly as she gripped her leg. Blood covered her hands as she had stepped in a rusty bear trap. Her screaming made me place my hands over my ears. I could feel Mumbato curling in his leather satchel. Jacob made his way over to the trap and began to examine it. “GET IT OUT!” Jacob spoke as loudly as he could, “Nikki you need to calm down, don’t pull at it. NO, don’t pull at it, you’re just gunna make it worse!” Jacob examined it over and over again before he muttered, “leaf spring trap, very hard to remove.” Chris was going to speak but Jacob yelled, “Quiet, I need everybody to be quiet!” Jacob motioned his hand under the plate and began to fiddle around with the trap. He pushed down on the springs and the plate until the trap’s teeth creaked open enough for Nikki to slip her leg out.
She pulled it out and then fell backwards resting against a thick tree. Blood was running down her ankle and soaking her shoes. She groaned and held her leg. Her teeth clenched in agony to show the masked pain she was holding in. “Et’z…ok…I tink…I can ztill…valk,” Nikki groaned her statement. She slowly lowered her leg back to the ground and tested it like a calf walking for the first time. She applied pressure to it, but nearly fell over as Raska came over to grip her. She pushed him away violently. Jacob shook his head, “This is a modern day trap, so she won’t be able to walk on it.” Chris came forward and began to examine her leg, “does this hurt?” She hollered loudly “Vat do vou tink vhite boy?” Chris backed up, “I don’t think it’s broken, but she has severely fractured her tibia and fibula bones that’s for sure.” Jacob shouldered his gun, “she is dead weight.” Raska smiled, “I’ll carry her!” Nikki gritted her teeth, “so vou an kop more pheelz on me, no a kance en ell. Kris an vou elp me?” Chris groaned slightly, “I already got a busted up arm so, no. If somebody else wants to that’s fine but like Jacob said you’re nothing but dead weight now.” “I vant nobody elze vo karry me yust vou,” I watched Chris contort his face in thought. Tearing off his sleeve of his corrections suit, he sloppily tied it around Nikki’s wound, “that’ll hold...for awhile.”
Chris did carry Nikki, but he grumbled the entire time. How did she get Chris to do what she wished? All she had to do was flash her puffy lips, and bat her eyes leaving Chris to drool over her. However Chris was tougher than I had given him credit for. Her arm around his shoulder her promise of a well earned blow job was the icing on the cake for him. However I knew that she was a liar, and that lie promised her continued survival. We continued to walk eventually breaking through the forest and ending up in an open grassland. It looked fairly familiar, and Raska seemed to shout my thoughts. “What the hell Dundee, some tracker you are! I wouldn’t hire you to find my missing keys! You have taken us in a complete circle!” Raska began arguing with Jacob as Aednat came up to Chris and said, “hey Chris I know you are kinda busy in your head and all, but there is something that I have been meaning to ask you. I know that you’re trying to figure everything out. Have you thought more on how we get off these ankle bracelets?” Chris grunted under Nikki’s weight, “You’re the explosive expert aren’t you? Why are you asking me?” Aednat gave an angry, “You said last night that you were going to think on it! Besides this is different than a mere pipe bomb or rigging a car with sticks of dynamite.” “I really don’t know Aednat, but when we find a place to rest I can take a look at it again.” Raska’s shouting voice filled the air, “what do you mean that we’re not going in circles…take a look around!”
“Raska, my loud mouth friend do you notice something here that we have not yet seen.” Raska began to look around and then back at Jacob who gave a little sigh of frustration. “You see,” Jacob pointed down a small hill to reveal two steel rails running the entire land. “A train track,” Jacob nodded, “yes Raska, a train track, we haven’t seen that before.” Raska grew silent and Jacob smiled in a small sense of satisfaction. Jacob turned and instead of heading south he started to follow the tracks east. “Jacob, shouldn’t we be heading directly South!” Aednat was running up to Jacob who gave a quick, “no we should follow the tracks, because the tracks will eventually lead us to a city.” “Or to Chernobyl,” Chris’s was pointing towards a set of radiation cooling towers in the distance. Looks like the tracks are heading that way. We can’t go that way, Jacob…Jacob? Jacob we have to head around it. It’s too dangerous.” I watched Jacob turn and snarl at him, “Listen boy you guys wanna hit the wall right? You think we should go to Kiev, right? You say Kiev is south of Chernobyl right? Well that is where we are going! You know the old saying when lost in the woods follow the river. Train tracks are necessarily the same thing, ok? So if you wanna go a different way be my guest!”
An hour later Jacob’s directions had been proven true. The tracks combined into other tracks merging with several more. Soon we were in an abandoned train yard. Scattered trains littered the tracks and some were even lying on their sides. We walked through it as Jacob still muttered out to everybody about foot prints and bullet casings. I saw red flags scattered over the area, which the group had discovered were land mines. We avoided those at all costs as we continued towards the large buildings that stood in the distance. “Where the hell are we?” Aednat was gazing around at everything and finally I had realized where we were. There painted on one of the buildings’ walls was the hammer and sickle. “I think that we’re in the outskirts of Chernobyl. I hope that we don’t get radiation poisoning.” I watched Raska push past me laughing hysterically, “white boy you funny! We got one more day to live and you’re worried about dying from radiation.”
I heard them arguing, but I just repeated the name “Chernobyl.” I stared around at the sight of our abandoned surroundings lying like a ghost town. The buildings were loosing against their mutual enemy, nature. “Look this one must be another apartment complex and this one is a hospital,” Aednat was pointing to a large three story building shaped like a lunch box. “Let’s go there we can rest up and figure out our next move,” Aednat didn’t need to speak twice. Chris gave an exasperated, “whatever we’re going to do let’s make it quick! This bitch is getting heavy!”
Nikki was growing slightly pale. She tried to comment but couldn’t find the strength. Her injured leg was bleeding profusely still. Everyone seemed to agree about staying at the hospital. Even the racist white boy was pushing ahead. His machine gun slung over his back with his hands crossed behind him as well. He was acting like he was a commanding general out for a morning stroll. He stared up at the building and said, “We should go up to the top floor and seize the high ground. This will give us the perfect vantage. We can see the creature coming a mile away, including if it tries to sneak through the train yard.” Nobody responded to Anton, everyone seemed tired and growing weary from all the walking. Even my feet were starting to throb with pain, plus the worms in my feet weren’t making it any easier. The stinging in my leg began to intensify. I just hoped there was something in the hospital to help me.
We sluggishly moved up the stairs as the sun was now starting its descent in the sky. It was mid-afternoon and seemed to cast a hopeful light on a dreary event. We made our way into the large building after walking for what seemed like hundreds of miles. Aednat called out staring at the large dusty atrium, “yep, this looks like the safest place to stay…” “Well a hospital would be a great place for us to address our injuries you stupid Irish…” “VOULD VOU PEAZE RASKA?” Nikki yelled arm still slung over Chris’s shoulders, “I svear if vou eep fiting I vill cill vou!” Nikki snarled one last time before we all made our way up the stairs. “Jacob what is going on,” Jacob was bent down with that mutt and tracing something on the ground. “There are more footprints here than I have seen before Irish. Lefu is on edge and nervous.” Bullet casings littered the stairs and atrium. Jacob picked one up and smelled it, “It’s old. There was a firefight here.” He picked up another casing, “different rounds…different guns.”
We headed up the stairs as Jacob continued to scan the ground, “There are footprints everywhere, a lot of foot traffic.” Everyone seemed to ignore Jacob’s comments. Jacob raised his hand to stop the group on the second floor as dried blood ran across the walls. The second floor was completely destroyed with the addition of bloody hand prints everywhere. Jacob approached a blood smudge on the wall and traced it with his finger. It took several seconds before Raska broke the silence. “Well, what should we do next Einstein?” We all were silent even Jacob remained silent. Jacob scratched off the blood from the wall and then had Lefu smell it. Lefu gave a startled look and growled. Jacob cleaned his hands off and turned to us all, “we can’t stay here.” “What,” yelled Chris almost out of breath and continued, “fuck you Jacob we’re staying here!” Shaking his head, “this is not a safe place to stay.” Chris began to push past him, “get out of my way…” I watched Jacob grab him,” listen to me boy and listen good ok? I am a man that knows how to survive and if you want to survive this night we will go someplace else, now!”
Chris now was looking interested, “why, it’s a hospital we can find supplies here and patch up.” “You see this,” Jacob was pointing to the bloody spot, “this is a shoulder mark. This blood trail lining the wall is somebody dragging their body across it. This blood here is not normal blood. Lefu doesn’t like it...I don’t like it. I think this place is a trap. We’re made to think we can be safe here, but it ends up being…” Chris cut him off, “look Jacob, let’s just patch up, find what we can, and then get the hell out alright? Almost everybody is injured and…” “FINE,” Jacob was beet red, “but as soon as we’re patched up we’re out of here ok?”
We all marched up to the fourth floor seeing an almost blown out building with dirt and broken pieces of concrete everywhere. There were some overturned gurney beds and more bullet casings. We all headed to the far right corner of the room. “I guess this is as good as it’s going to get,” muttered Aednat. The large room had two large missing windows spanning its entirety, “we got a perfect view of everything. Jacob and I can take points at opposite ends of the floor. We can have a total three hundred and sixty degrees of the building.” Jacob leaned down at large pile of black ashes. He ran his hand over it and then stood back up, “people have used this room before.” Aednat turned towards Jacob, “can you just take the room down the hall that way we can cover this place fully. You know the one that looked similar to this one.”
Jacob checked his gun over and said, “Lefu and I are going to take a look around make sure everything is clear. There is no need for any of that just patch up everybody and then we move. You got twenty minutes, so if you’re not done I’m leaving.” Jacob took one final look at everybody as Chris had set Nikki down on a muddy gurney bed mattress. “Only a white girl would pick the room with a near collapsed roof.” “Just don’t hit those support columns, and you’ll be fine Raska.”
Coming over to Nikki Aednat laid her gun on the wall and pulled out a few remaining medical supplies that she still had. “Chris go around and see if you can find anymore supplies.” “Oh yeah right away, I just dragged that bitch 20 miles with a broken arm while the rest of you.” “Listen Chris, you are prisoner! Raska, Anton, and I have combat experience who do you think should be watching who?” “What about Hakeem or Kiyoshi,” Aednat stared at us both, “Look I don’t want that walking disease anywhere near us, but we need him. Kiyoshi has patience and discipline. He is somebody you would want watching. Now go look for supplies...besides she asked for you.” “Don’t you ever talk that way to me you stupid Irish bitch, after I’m through skull drilling her guess who I am coming for…” “Hey, what the hell Kiyoshi,” Kiyoshi was tugging on the scarf of Aednat. “What the hell are you pointing at,” shaking her head she turned to Anton, “Fine Chris don’t’ do anything ok? Listen can you go around and check for any medical supplies that might be in the building.” I was too busy paying attention to everything else that I didn’t even notice Aednat yelling at me. I turned to her as she scowled, “you deaf too?” I smiled, “I hear more than you could possibly imagine little lady.” She smiled sarcastically, “Oh yeah do you think you could build a small fire for the time being?”
I began to build a fire as everybody took off to make a camp. I left the room looking for things to burn. I walked into the room across from us. It seemed like a nursery a long time ago. The roof was in bad shape and dead leaves scattered the floor. In the middle of the floor sat a model train set probably the most popular toy. Other toys scattered the floor moldy teddy bears and rusted tin toys. There was another room in the far right corner. I moved towards it realizing that it was a large bathroom. I noticed several urinals and toilets on the right wall and a couple glass showers on the left.
I continued my search for burnable items making my way down the deserted hallway towards the opposite end. I found Chris and Kiyoshi together as he was showing Chris something in the distance. “It’s the wall,” he said loudly. We reached the border.” Kiyoshi nodded, and I left them alone in the room. I gathered up broken chairs and wooden boxes and brought them back to the makeshift camp. I started making the fire when Kiyoshi made a motion to where the wall was and then motioned towards his bracelet. Aednat shook her head as she tended to Nikki’s leg, “I don’t know what that means…Jesus, I wish you could speak.” “He says that Chris and him found the outer wall,” Aednat stopped with Nikki and raised her head to me. I saw her eyes open wide, “the border,” I nodded and continued, “so he’s going to check something out with the ankle bracelet. Is that right?” Kiyoshi nodded at me, and Aednat shook her head returning to Nikki, “He shouldn’t have gone alone. What if the creature comes back?”
I had built a fire although I was unsure as to how to light it. Aednat had cleaned Nikki to the best of her ability especially with the limited amount of medical supplies that Anton could find. A couple strips of gauze, a container of Hydrogen Peroxide, medical tape, clean sheets, and some over the counter pain pills. Jacob had returned and gave a little, “building is clear but there are many entry points. It’s impossible to cover them all. I need to take a breather before we move out.” Jacob pulled up an empty milk cart and sat by my unlit fire. “Why are you building a fire?” “I might need to cauterize her wounds in a minute. I need to see how the bandages hold up. Besides Chris left to go check the wall,” “Check the wall,” Jacob repeated. Aednat was running her hands over Nikki’s calf, “yeah we reached the border.” Jacob watched her and then said, “How do you plan on lighting that fire?” I shrugged at him, “that’s what I thought, move aside now boy move aside.”
Jacob lit the fire faster than I expected. I joined him and even Nikki was able to hobble her way to the fire. She began pulling up very close to Jacob as Aednat made her way towards the window. She posted up her rifle and stared out across the urban landscape with everyone gathering around the fire. “I guess there’s no point in moving out if we are where we need to be. What do you think Lefu? Lefu was watching Nikki, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
We all sat unsure of what to do or how to plan our next move. There was no doubt that I saw the confusion in Jacob’s face. He was a man torn between leaving and staying. Anton spoke what I had been thinking. “So what’s our next move? We can’t necessarily sit here all night. According to the guy on the tablet we only have one more day.” Aednat continued to stare out the window, “we wait for Chris to come back. If anybody can figure out anything he could.” “If he comes back,” Nikki continued to stare at Jacob seemingly waiting to make a move. “He’ll be back Jacob, he’ll be back. You watch for awhile,” Jacob shouldered his weapon seemingly happy to be rid of Nikki and her current ditzy manner.
Aednat sat against the wall and began to relax. “How do you know he’ll be back?” Aednat lowered her black scarf and gave a little huff, “because he needs us just like we need him.” The very room filled with scoffs and even Raska lying on a dirty mattress said, “I don’t need that white fish.” Staring at Aednat, Nikki said almost dreamily, “ow do vou no dat?” Stretching her legs Aednat gave a quick, “because…because he knows he can’t take on the creature alone.” “And why the hell do we need him,” “he’s smart…don’t give me that look Raska! It’s because of him we were safe last night, and that we know what the creature is. He even gave us an idea as to who is behind all of this.”
“No, he took a guess, his theory could be just as plausible as aliens abducting us!” Rolling her eyes Aednat grabbed a red crayon and twirled it in her hand, “he solved the riddle…and he wasn’t lying about that symbol he keeps seeing in his head.” “How do you know Irish, he’s a liar!” Shaking her head at Raska she snapped, “I have seen that symbol before! And I thought I told you to stop calling me Irish!” Everyone who was in the room stared at her, “and you didn’t think to bring this up last night!” Aednat shrugged, “it really didn’t cross my mind until literally a couple minutes ago.” I saw Raska and Jacob look at her skeptically, “whatever, I don’t need to impress you two shits!”
[Aednat]
I began to write on a spare piece of paper that I pulled from an overturned desk. It took several minutes before somebody had said what we must have all wanted to say. “Well, are you going to tell us?” Raska was still leaning on his mattress as he picked at the paint covering his AK machine gun. “I was once paid to complete an assignment for a certain somebody. I will not mention his name, but let’s just say there was something suspicious about the man and his request. All I remember is seeing that symbol on a pin the man had on his lapel. When he left the meeting I watched the man bump into another man from parliament. I watched them press there fingers together to make a large diamonds or as they probably saw it, a pyramid. They took their other hand and made a circle over there eye.” Raska gave an almost uninterested, “what was the request?” “He wanted me to kill a man, not only kill the man but display him for the world to see. He wanted to send a message. I hung him from a rope outside his penthouse suite in Portugal. It was the only assassination I ever did that wasn’t to further the cause.”
“That’s it,” Raska smiled widely, “Irish I once stuck a violin spider in a man’s mouth and let him die like that.” “This is not a competition Raska! We’re trying to piece together this puzzle and all you do is shoot off your mouth. You don’t contribute anything to help.” “Contribute, contribute…shoot off my mouth! How about I shoot off my AK here and send you…” “There you go again shooting off your,” Raska rose from the moldy mattress and pointed his AK at me. Luckily I expected this and quickly removed my mini-crossbow pistol from my boot. We were inches from each other eyes locked. “You think you’re indispensable, you think that…” “Raska we can stand here the entire time and eventually I can send you to Charon. I’ll die, but so will you…are you ready to cross over? My life for the cause…and if I have to sit here keeping this group from killing each other to get back to that cause then I will. I have made us a group that is working together! I have kept us all from killing each other! I have kept us all alive this entire time! If it weren’t for me, we would all still be out there in a dick measuring contest! Do you wanna die for your pride? Die like they want you to?” We stood there as Raska’s aim stayed true to my forehead. We stared at each other for a bit longer, “you’re a man that lives for the fight, right? So let’s go out fighting then! If we’re gunna die, then let’s die for something!” Raska gritted his teeth as he seemed to be fighting the urge to shoot me. He turned and kicked over a busted coffee table screaming loudly.
[Hakeem]
The fire began to blaze as we all sat around it. Waiting for something to change, waiting for answers that’ll never come, we were all lost sheep without a shepherd. “Hey yo, it’s time we switch spots Irish!” “Stop calling me Irish,” Aednat proved to be much tougher than I had anticipated from this group. After the showdown with Raska she returned to writing on that scrap piece of paper that she had found. “What’re you writing there,” Aednat staring up at him black scarf dangling loosely from her shoulders, “none of your business Jacob.” Dropping the crayon she scowled again, “none of your business. Just let the Irish do all the work after all that is how you see us all, right?”
All our attention had changed to Lefu who now stood on all fours staring at the crumbling door frame. Jacob held out his arm and silenced Aednat, “what the hell…” but Aednat fell quiet as well. A shuffling sound seemed to be coming down the hallway. Raising our guns we all held our own as the shadow grew closer and then a figure appeared. We all breathed a sigh of relief when Chris showed up. “Hello,” he said staring at several guns pointing at him. “You expecting somebody else?” The guns lowered and even I withdrew my hand from the coiling snake in my satchel. Chris entered the room and took a seat next to Nikki, whose eyes seemed to light up.
“So what did ‘The Mind’ find out on his little expedition?” Aednat said continuing to write as her eyes periodically gazed up to Chris and then back down to her paper. Chris ran his hands over his nearly bald head and then over his face rubbing it profusely. “Well these things around our ankles they activate when we get close to the wall. You see this red light, it starts blinking green when we get near the wall.” “Can we get over it,” Raska asked unable to hide his curiosity. Shaking his head Chris gave a defeated, “no it’s too high…and even if we were to make it up that high our bracelets would explode. Don’t give me that look Aednat I told you there is no way for us to get over the wall…just give me a minute and let me think alright?”
Chris fell silent, and I returned to staring at the fire. I began to fiddle around with the brown pouch around my neck. I needed answers and the only answers that I trusted were the ones from the other side. I opened the pouch and removed the chicken bones that I had carried for as far back as I can remember. I took the bones in my hands and shook them several times muttering the ancient spells of old. I tossed the bones on the ground and watched them scatter in many positions.
Everyone seemed to go their separate ways, and Chris fiddled with his bracelet again. He stared at my bones and then made his way over to me. He sat down as I examined the angles that the bones had fallen, “So what do they say?” I stared up at him and then back down at the bones, “what does who say white boy?” Chris leaned in closer to me and said, “The other side.” Eyes raised I stared at him, “I thought you said Voodoo was crap? You needed facts right?” “Well at this point I think I’m willing to accept any answers no matter the source. So, what do the bones tell you,” I glared at him for several more seconds before returning to them.
“Why should I even tell you?” Chris gave me a look of pure hatred and then scowled, “Listen and I want you to listen good freak! If you want to live, which by the look of your skin might not be too long then your only hope is me. You think any of these fools are going to be able to get you out? The ditzy blonde that tries to sleep with any man that’ll help her get out of here! How about the loud mouth darkie that wouldn’t survive a real battle? Maybe the World War 2 white boy that learned combat from his rich daddy?” I stared at him my eyes bulging, “I’m the only one that can grasp the situation, and the only one that can get us out. So, if I ask you something you better give me an answer!”
At that moment a fi re rose up inside of me, and at that moment I wanted his soul. A brave little white boy thinking he knew what was best. I knew he didn’t have a clue. The minutes seemed to tick by and a smile spread across my face. I turned back to the bones and gazed down at them. I traced my fingers over them muttering softly, and I knew the white boy was waiting. “The demon will be back...wait,” I paused as I now dropped my smile. Something did catch my attention and confusion settled in my voice, “I see people...strange people.” He waved his hand, “you’re just seeing us.” I shook my head making my dreads hit the side of my head, “no, no, not us…cursed ones.” “Cursed ones,” he repeated and I could feel my face fall. “We are not alone in this place.” I glanced over and saw Chris smile, “no shit, what do you think we’ve been running from this entire time?” I shook my head, “no other people,” “you mean other people like us...like another team?” Shaking my head I gave a firm, “no, these people are different, and they are coming…they are coming.” “Are you talking about the man that Nikki and Kiyoshi saw at the river?” I nodded, “there are more, so much more.”
I heard several stomps from a heavy boot when a slightly raspy voice said, “Well looky looky Lefu, it’s a poem! It seems Irish has a soft side.” I gazed from the bones and saw Jacob jangling the piece of paper in front of his beast. Snatching it from his hands as Jacob was laughing heartily, “I told you drop it!” I traced my f ingers over the bones and muttered many things as I read them. I looked up and saw many eyes staring at me. However I didn’t respond or acknowledge them. I needed answers and the bones were mysterious to me. They continued to say, “cursed ones... cursed ones.” Irish returned to the window and placed her leg on the crumbling stone wall. “What the hell…”
I raised my head and saw Irish staring through her scope, “That’s weird.” I saw Jacob stand up almost a little too quickly. Nikki had been rubbing his shoulders and making kissy faces at him. Jacob took up his rifle, “what’re you looking at?” Aednat lowered her rifle and simple replied, “Yakov?” Jacob stared out the large glassless window, “what about him?” Aednat gave a confused, “he’s just…I don’t know, standing there.?