Instinct (57 page)

“Who was the guy?”

“I don’t know. I saw him around at the farm, but I didn’t know his name. I think he knew Judy.”

Robby nodded. Lisa was staring at the light.

“Do you think it’s going away again?”

“Yeah,” Robby said.

“Will it just come back again in a couple of months or whatever? I mean, we thought it was gone before.”

“What would you do differently?” Robby asked.

Lisa didn’t answer. She narrowed her eyes and tried to figure out what he meant.

“If it’s coming back, would you change your plans?”

“I don’t know. I’d like to be prepared.”

“There’s no way to prepare,” Robby said. “But if it makes you feel better, I’m certain that it’s not coming back. Not for thousands of years.”

Lisa sat for another minute and then began to make her way to her feet.

“I’m going back over to the clinic to see if they need help. I couldn’t stand to sit around there while they worked on Romie. She’ll be fine. She’ll be fine,” Lisa said.
 

Robby glanced after her as she left, but he stayed in his spot, watching the ball of light as it grew dim. A warm breeze took away the chill of the melting snow. Robby stayed there until it grew dark and the world became very quiet.
 

Robby saw a couple of other people standing vigil. The rest had wandered away. The back of Robby’s pants were wet from the melted snow, but he didn’t move. He sat and watched as the ball of light shrank to the size of a baseball. It hovered only a few inches above the ground and was no brighter than the rising moon.

Robby heard a small pop when the thing finally disappeared.

CHAPTER 47: FARM

W
ITHIN
A
COUPLE
OF
days, Romie was the last patient in the little clinic.

Robby and Lisa stayed there with her. Ty came back a few times a day to check on her progress. When he was satisfied that she was safe to move, he had Tim drive the ambulance back over.

“I don’t know why we can’t just go out on our own. We could find a house and Robby could set it up for us,” Romie said.

Lisa guided her up from the bed and helped her to the wheelchair. Robby stood to the side.
 

“We will,” Lisa said. “There’s no rush. We’re going to stay at the house for a while, just to make sure everything is okay. Brad’s there. When you’re both ready, we’ll decide what to do.”

“What about Pete?” Romie asked.

Lisa stopped and looked at Robby. Romie had asked that same question several times after her surgery. She’d been on a lot of pills then, and had asked a lot of strange questions. The one about Pete came up the most, and was always the most difficult to answer.

“What about him?” Lisa asked her.

“I mean what about his body? Is someone going to bury him? Isn’t he still down there somewhere?” Romie asked.

“Oh,” Lisa said.
 

Robby answered. “Some of the Beardos are going to demolish the tunnels. They’re waiting on everyone to clear the area first. They’ve got explosives.”

“Oh,” Romie said. “Good. Did you say a few words?”

“I did,” Lisa said. “You were still out, but before Brad left we had a remembrance. After everything is demolished, they’re talking about having a ceremony back here with everyone. A lot of people lost someone.”

Romie nodded and looked satisfied with the response.

Robby sat in the front seat of the ambulance. Cedric sat at his feet. He’d heard stories about the farm, but he wasn’t prepared for what he saw. As they turned down the long driveway, everything looked pretty normal. The white fence still swept up between green pastures. He even saw one or two rescued horses grazing in the field. They bolted at the sound of the ambulance and grouped over near the far fence.

The house still stood, but the skyline behind the main building had changed. The big barn was gone, as well as several of the other outbuildings. In one of the side paddocks, a big tent had been set up.

Tim saw the direction Robby was looking. “They pulled that tent from the football field. Apparently, a lot of people want to sleep in one big space now,” Tim said.

They pulled up next to the house and Robby got a look at the area where the barns used to be. There was still a big pit carved out of the earth, but a backhoe and a plow truck were working to push dirt into the hole.
 

“Did they find anything of the underground base?” Robby asked.

“Not a trace,” Tim said. “But I heard someone say they spotted some scrap metal on the roof of a house a couple miles away. I’ll find it as soon as I can get up in the air. It should be easy to spot the path of the tornadoes from up there.”

When Tim shut off the ambulance, Lisa began to get Romie ready to move. They had a bedroom set up for her in the house. Robby jumped out and held the door for Cedric.

Ty came out through the front door wearing a fresh set of surgical scrubs. His broken arm was secured with a tight cast and strapped to his torso. He examined Romie quickly and then gave instructions to Tim and Lisa on how best to move her into the house. Robby wandered through the dooryard, towards the sounds of construction.

It was a beautiful day, and the air was filled with noise. Everywhere Robby looked, people were working. From the pit, the engine of the plow truck either roared, or the little alarm rang to alert everyone that it was backing up. Near where one of the barns had stood, a generator rumbled. There was a steady rhythm of power saws and thumping hammers. A small group was building new housing for the remaining horses.

Robby walked towards the big tent.
 

All the flaps were open to allow a breeze, but it was warm inside. One end of the tent was set up with beds. The other end was the kitchen. Robby walked through the tent and found the garden on the other side. Robby was amazed to see that some of the plants had survived the tornadoes and the snow. They were interspersed with the new plants.

He stood at the edge of the garden and watched as dedicated hands worked the soil. A girl, younger than Robby, was moving between the plants and picking weeds. Robby knelt in the grass beside the rows and started picking weeds too.

CHAPTER 48: AIR

“R
IGHT
THERE
,” R
OBBY
SAID
.

He shifted in his seat and directed the vent towards his face. It was hot in the little cabin. They’d been flying for a while.

Tim brought the plane lower and turned to do another pass.

“That’s where Lane Cottage used to be, and Mr. Dyer’s place was right there,” Robby said, pointing. Tim glanced, but Robby figured it was just to be polite. He’d taken a few people up to go survey their old homes. People always came back depressed. It didn’t seem to stop the next person from asking to go up.

Most of the roads had survived on the island. The runoff of melting snow had cut through a few chunks of pavement. Robby guessed that a tornado had taken out the houses on his road. On the hill, his old school still stood. The airplane spooked a couple of deer and they ran between houses towards the woods. Robby looked back at Cedric. The dog was sitting in the back seat of the plane and wearing headphones over his ears. With his panting mouth open and his tongue hanging to the side, the dog looked like he was smiling. Robby smiled back at him.

After a couple more passes, Tim’s voice came over Robby’s headphones.

“Seen enough?”

“Yeah,” Robby said. “I guess. Can we go back over the land?”

“I’ve got to stick to the coast. There aren’t many good landmarks left in Maine. It’s all just mud and weeds.”

Robby nodded.

The erosion from the melting snow had taken out most of Maine. North of Portland, almost everything was gone. Some of the people from the farm were putting together a big map of the region. A lot of Maine was simply shaded yellow to indicate that it was impassible.
 

Tim steered the plane towards land. He flew south and west, following the coast. Robby got a good view out his window of the land. Between the tornadoes and the floods, the land had been stripped. There was a carpet of green vegetation on the fertile soil, but little else to look at. Robby felt himself drifting off in the warm cabin. The drone of the engine was almost hypnotic.

He woke when Tim banked the plane to line up his approach. Robby watched carefully until he started to feel queasy. Sweat popped out on his brow and he wished they were back on the ground. He’d made it the whole trip without being sick. The last thing he wanted to do was throw up right as they landed.

Everything was fine once they were back on the ground. Robby’s stomach settled immediately, although he felt weary and dehydrated.

“Do you mind if I head back without you?” Robby asked.

Tim had come in a car, and Robby on a motorcycle.

“No, you go ahead,” Tim said. “I’m going to refuel.”

“Thanks for the ride.”

“Any time.” Tim smiled.
 

Robby suspected that Tim would have gone up anyway. He seemed to always find an excuse to go up in the airplane.

Robby threw his leg over the motorcycle and decided to try kick-starting it. Jackson could do it every time, but Robby’s success rate was dismal. He usually resorted to the electric start after the lever bit him in the calf. This time, he managed the trick on the third try.

CHAPTER 49: FARM

R
OBBY
PULLED
HIS
MOTORCYCLE
up next to the van and shut it off.

“I thought we had one more day?” he asked Lisa. She was standing in the doorway and lifting a bag up onto the top of the van.

“Tell it to the boss,” Lisa said. She turned and smiled.

Robby saw Brad coming down the steps. He had a cane in one hand and a bag in the other. Robby ran to help him.

“I can manage,” Brad said.

“Nonsense,” Robby said. He took the bag and walked alongside Brad. The man’s limp was better, but he was still terrible on stairs. He still didn’t have much strength in his leg. “You’re okay leaving today?”

“Why not?” Brad asked.

“I just thought we’d have another day to say goodbye,” Robby said.

Brad stopped.

“Do you want to stay here, Robby?”

Robby shook his head immediately. “No.”

“We wouldn’t blame you if you did. As soon as we get settled, we’ll come back and tell you exactly where we are. You could come visit any time.”

“No,” Robby said. He shook his head again. “I want to go too. I want to do some more exploration, and a lot of people around here…”

“They’re superstitious,” Brad said, finishing Robby’s thought. “I’ve noticed.”

Robby nodded in agreement.

The screen door of the house banged open and they heard Romie’s voice.