Open Roads (4 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

The sky was overcast, looking as if it might open up at any moment and bring forth a storm. They’d only driven a few miles down the road, but had yet to come across much resistance in the form of either piled cars or stray Empties.

Successive gasps for air sounded from the middle row of seats. Bodies shuffled, and an aura of panic hung in the air.

“Pull over,” Jessica said, glancing over to Gabriel from the seat beside him.

“What’s wrong?” Gabriel asked.

“Stop the car!” Holly demanded.

Gabriel cut the wheel, and before the mini-van had come to a complete halt, Holly threw open the sliding panel door on the passenger side.

“Come on, sweetie,” Holly said.

Gabriel looked back to see Holly and Dylan assisting Mary Beth with getting out of the vehicle. Jessica opened her door and jumped out, slamming it behind her. Will slid over the middle row of seats to join them outside.

Gabriel opened the door and stepped onto the highway. He scanned the area, realizing they appeared to be the only sign of life around on this desolate stretch of North Carolina freeway. They’d be okay to stop here for now.

He walked around the side of the van, where Jessica, Will, and Dylan stood in a semi-circle. Holly sat on the ground, her arm wrapped around Mary Beth.

“She okay?” Gabriel asked.

“She’s having some kind of panic attack,” Jessica said. “Probably stress. She’s starting to calm down, though.”

Mary Beth had her head nestled into Holly’s chest as Holly rocked back and forth, and continuously said, “Shh, it’s okay.”

“Let’s just give them a few minutes,” Will suggested. He put his hand on Dylan’s shoulder, and led him to the other side of the van. His face blush with concern, Dylan turned back and kept his eyes on Mary Beth as Will urged him away.

When they’d moved to the driver’s side of the van, Gabriel could see for himself just how upset Dylan was.

“She’s gonna be okay, buddy,” Gabriel said. “She’s just scared.”

“It’s just…” Dylan’s voice trailed off as he wiped at his eyes.

“It’s just what, buddy? You can talk to us if you need to,” Gabriel said.

Dylan took a moment to gather himself, then he looked up to Will and said, “The way she was breathing… it reminded me of seeing you on the ground after the accident.”

“And just like me, she’s going to be fine. It’s like Gabriel said — she’s just scared.”

A few minutes later, Holly and Mary Beth appeared from behind the van. Though her entire face was red, Mary Beth appeared to be much happier now. A smile grew on Dylan’s face, and he went to Mary Beth and hugged her, an embrace she allowed with her own open arms.

Holly walked past the children to join the adults.

“She’s better now,” Holly said.

Gabriel leaned in and whispered, “Has she said anything about where she came from or how she ended up at that farm?”

Holly shook her head. “Not to me. I’m not sure what Dylan knows.”

“I’m ready.”

Gabriel looked past Holly and saw Mary Beth standing there. She reached over and opened the closed panel door on the driver’s side of the van, and jumped into her seat.

The rest of the group loaded in, and Gabriel cranked the engine as he buckled his seatbelt. He looked to the gas gauge. The needle hovered around the letter E.

And as he pulled back onto the open road, that’s when Mary Beth started to talk.

CHAPTER FIVE

The Day of The Fall

Dawson Home - Maryville, TN

“22, 21, 20, 19…”

Fourteen-year-old Susan Dawson continued to count down from sixty as her younger sister, Mary Beth, looked for a place to hide.

The woods behind their house stretched for what seemed to the children like miles. It was their favorite place to play. Since Mary Beth had been old enough, the two girls had spent hours upon hours playing out here. A bit off the grid, it had always been safe out in these woods; this place was truly the childrens’ sanctuary.

Curled up with her knees at her chin, Mary Beth hid behind a large log. Her sister sat on the tree stump about thirty yards away. They’d named the stump ‘Home Base’; it was where the seeker always counted while the other went to hide.

“2, 1,” Susan said. “Here I come.”

Mary Beth stilled her breathing. Autumn was quickly approaching, and the leaves that had fallen to the ground made it easier for her to hear her sister approaching. This was a welcome advantage for Mary Beth, who’d never been very good at hide and seek. Susan routinely found her sister in one of the three spots she liked to hide, but the games almost always lasted longer once Autumn came.

Sitting on the broadside of the log, Mary Beth’s nose started to itch. Something in the air had triggered her allergies, and she now found herself trying to hold in a sneeze. She rubbed her nose with the heel of her hand, but it only made the sensation worse. Then, just as Susan’s footsteps started heading the other way, Mary Beth sneezed.

She heard her sister’s footsteps stop, and instead of waiting on Susan to come get her, Mary Beth revealed herself.

“Dangit,” Mary Beth said, crossing her arms in a pout.

“Come on,” Susan said, laughing. “We gotta head back so we can finish school.” The girls‘ mother home-schooled them.

“Race you home?” Susan suggested.

Mary Beth bowed her head, signaling she wasn’t in the mood to play. But it was all a ploy. Looking down at the fallen leaves, Mary Beth smiled, and then bolted away from her sister.

Both girls laughed as they ran, and Mary Beth could hear that her sister was using her slightly longer legs to catch up to her, the leaves crunching under their feet. Mary Beth was determined to win something today, and chugged her legs harder to try and pull away from Susan.

“I’m gonna beat you,” Mary Beth said, smiling as she swung her arms and ran.

But something felt strange. It sounded as if only
her
feet were beating the ground.

Mary Beth stopped running and turned around. Susan no longer followed her. Instead, Mary Beth’s older sister lay face-down, about twenty yards back.

“Susan!”

Mary Beth rushed to her sister’s side and kneeled down beside her. Susan lay with her eyes closed, her head staring off to the side. Her entire body was limp.

“Susan? Are you okay?” Mary Beth shook her sister’s shoulder, but Susan didn’t move. “Please, Susan. What’s wrong?”

Mary Beth reached down to grab her sister’s wrist and check for a pulse, and Susan grabbed onto Mary Beth’s arm and gasped for air. Mary Beth yelled, falling back onto her butt.

“Gotcha!” Susan said.

Mary Beth pulled her arm away and stood, scoffing at Susan. “That’s not funny!”

“Sure it was,” Susan said. She pushed herself up onto her knees and patted the front of her dress down to knock off the loose dirt and grass.

“You’re a jerk,” Mary Beth said. She patted dirt off her backside, then turned away and continued to make her way toward the house.

“Come on, Mary Beth,” Susan said. “Don’t be a baby.”

Mary Beth ignored her sister, continuing home. Susan hurried to try and catch back up.

Then Mary Beth heard a thud behind her, and turned around to see that her sister was on the ground again. Only this time, she lay on her back.

“Yeah, okay,” Mary Beth said, shaking her head. “Now you’re really being annoying.” She started to turn away again, but something didn’t feel right. She kept her eyes locked onto Susan, closely watching her sister’s stomach. Mary Beth waited for it to rise and then fall, but nothing happened; it remained completely still.

Mary Beth crept toward her sister, keeping her eyes focused on Susan’s body to see if it would move. The woods were dead around her, the leaves beneath her sneakers making the only sound she could hear. She arrived at her sister’s body. Susan lay there with her eyes and mouth wide open, and Mary Beth could see now that she definitely wasn’t breathing.

“Susan?” Mary Beth kneeled and shook her sister. Susan’s head rocked, but her facial expression didn’t change.

Tears rolled down Mary Beth’s face, and she shook her sister again. “Susan, this isn’t funny! Wake up!”

Mary Beth put her hand on Susan’s face, and realized that her sister’s skin felt cold. Susan could fake a creepy face, but she couldn’t make her own skin feel chilled.

Standing up, Mary Beth stepped back, not letting her eyes leave her sister. The tears flowed more intensely now, and the emotion came to a boil when Mary Beth finally screamed.

She turned and sprinted home.

***

The Dawson house was a quaint, all-brick home, sitting on five acres of land. It had been built on top of a hill, the front yard sloping upward toward the entrance, and the back a steep downslide into the vast woods that covered the land behind the house. Charles and Maria Dawson had bought the 1951 ranch-style house just a year after they had been wed, and they’d hoped it would not only be their first home, but their last.

Mary Beth’s voice had been wearing thin, with her screaming all the way home as she raced in between the trees. When her house came into view, she ran faster, gaining momentum to dart up the hill. She used a combination run and crawl to mount the yard, still using her hollow voice to call out to her mother.

She climbed up onto the large wooden deck and blew through the door, not caring that it had swung all the way around on its hinges to slam against the shared wall. She scanned the living room, looking for any sign of her mother.

“Mom! Mom, where are you?”

She ran through the living room and headed down the hallway toward her parents’ bedroom. She heard the sound of water running through the pipes come to a stop, and when she reached the bedroom, her mother came walking out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel.

“What is it, honey?” her mother asked, concern in her voice.

“It’s Susan, something’s wrong with her.”

Her mother’s eyes widened. “Where is she?”

“She’s out in the woods! Hurry! You have to help her!”

Her mother moved faster than Mary Beth had ever seen, not caring that the towel dropped, revealing her nude back side to her youngest daughter. Within moments, she had on a shirt and jeans, and had laced up a pair of tennis shoes.

Without hesitation, she took Mary Beth by the hand and raced for the back door.

***

When they arrived at the place where she’d last seen Susan lying face-down, Mary Beth was stunned to find that her sister had vanished.

“She was right here,” Mary Beth said.

“Are you sure?” her mother asked. “It’s pretty wide open out here. There’s a lot of places she could be.”

Mary Beth nodded and pointed to the stump sitting in the open with no trees around it. “There’s Home Base. We always walk straight out this way when we head back home.”

Mary Beth took a few steps forward, then noticed something on the ground. She bent over and picked up the pink, polka dot headband that her sister had been wearing.

“Maybe she went back home,” Mary Beth said.

“But you said that you guys always go back the same way that we came,” her mother said. “We would’ve passed her.” She sighed and put her hand to her forehead, clearly stressed, and said, “Let’s split up and scan the area.”

Mary Beth nodded and walked toward Home Base as her mother veered off somewhere behind her, looking for any sign of her sister.

“Susan?” Mary Beth called out repeatedly. “Where are you?”

No response.

A cold, dark feeling crept up inside Mary Beth. Something just wasn’t right.

“Susan?”

Leaves rustled nearby and Mary Beth halted where she stood. She looked toward where she thought the noise had come from, and remained still so that she could listen. The leaves rustled again, this time joined by a strange, inhuman sound; it was not so different than the sound of an angry dog.

“Susan?”

A figure appeared from behind a tree, and Mary Beth’s eyes widened.

She wore the same dress, the same shoes, and her hair was styled the same. But her eyes, her skin — both were so pale.