The Vanishing (6 page)

“
A door down here. The
combination to get in. And then a room full of people who looked
like they were sleeping.”

“
Did you see
Marianne?”

“
No. But the alien told me
that I would find her there.”

She bit her lower lip. Could it be this
simple? Would they find her sister at the end of this long
corridor? All she could do was press forward and find out. She
continued walking beside Alex, hoping for the best but fearing that
the angel was right—that they shouldn’t be here.

They reached a steel door and he
directed his flashlight to the number pad. He pressed a series of
numbers that resulted in the sound of something being unlocked.
That something, naturally, was the door. He turned the knob and it
opened. Peeking through it, he said, “It looks good.”

She followed him through it. It led to
another dark tunnel, except this time, there was a light ahead.
That meant they were getting closer to getting their questions
answered. Or at least that was her hope. Something in the air
stirred. Surprised because the tunnel was airtight, she glanced
over her shoulder.

“
What’s wrong?” Alex
whispered.

In one instant, she was standing, aware
of the pervasive feeling of cold air that swept through the
corridor and circled them, and in the next instant, she was
engulfed in a sudden warmth that made her collapse, rendering her
unconscious.

***

The first thing she became aware of as
she regained consciousness was her breathing. Her lungs ached as if
something had stepped on them. After a few moments of lying still,
the feeling receded. Then she became aware of the cool floor. It
was concrete, just as the floor had been when she and Alex started
down the dark corridor. Was she still in that strange
tunnel?

Opening her eyes took effort, for her
head hurt and the dim light up ahead made her wince. She closed her
eyes for a moment, willing the headache aside. She groaned. Her
entire body felt as if someone had taken it and bashed it against a
wall. It hurt all over. She remained still, wondering what happened
to her. One minute, she was standing up with Alex, and the next, a
mixture of cold and warm air surrounded her. After that, everything
went dark.

Something peculiar happened; something
that made her journey into the land of nightmares all that more
intense. Silence hovered over her, and for some reason, that made
it even more bizarre. When she could lift her head, she did. A
quick glance around revealed that she was alone. Where was
Alex?

A feeling of dread welled up in her
stomach. The angel had been right. They shouldn’t have come here.
For some reason, she knew they took Alex and left her there. What
did they want with him? They had to be aliens. It was an alien that
told him to come here. Maybe they meant to lure him into a trap?
That was the only plausible explanation she could come up with,
especially in light of the angel’s warning.

Finally, she managed to roll onto her
back. She should be afraid here—alone in the dark, shouldn’t she?
But she wasn’t. What she needed to fear was further ahead...where
the light was. The question was simple: did she dare
continue?

She had to. She couldn’t leave Alex
here. Whatever the aliens wanted, she couldn’t let them succeed.
Besides, if Marianne was here, she had to find her. No. Marianne
wasn’t here. Suddenly, she just knew that wherever Marianne was,
she was far away. So now she needed to focus on getting Alex and
finding a way out.

Grunting, she rolled onto her side and
pulled herself up. The aches were fading in slow intervals, so with
each step she took, she felt better. She pressed forward with timid
steps, not sure of what she’d find...or what she’d do when she
found it. The light grew brighter and bigger. She wondered how much
time had elapsed since she collapsed. Pulling out her watch, she
noticed that the hands were spinning. She sighed. So much for
that.

An image came into focus, and she
realized she was approaching a large rectangular window. Actually,
there were a series of them lining the corridor. Along each side of
the wall was a row of windows and doors. When she reached the first
window, she peered into the room.

She frowned. There was a small blue
light in the corner, but the rows of bassinets had to be for
babies. How many were in there? She estimated about fifty. The
place looked like a nursery. An arm shot up from one of the
bassinets. Startled, she jerked back. Hugging herself, she
continued to the next window. Another nursery? What on earth were
all these nurseries doing here?

After about six nurseries on both
sides, she looked into rooms where children were playing. The
children didn’t seem to notice her. She estimated that there were
twenty of them per room, and unlike other children, these all
played alone. One actually levitated a pen and wrote something on
the paper. Another child picked up a bowling ball with little
effort. Another one jumped up to the ceiling and came back down,
landing on his feet. Odd children. Or maybe they were
super-children.

She passed those rooms. For some
reason, they gave her an unsettling feeling in the pit of her
stomach. They couldn’t be normal. But what were they doing here?
She was near Area 51. Shouldn’t she see aliens?

Where are you,
Alex?
She noted a slight drop in
temperature, so she quickened her pace. Something was with her, in
the hallway. She glanced over her should but didn’t see anything.
Just because she couldn’t see it, it didn’t mean there wasn’t
something there. If she wasn’t so spooked, she would have laughed
it off. But something
was
wrong. Seriously wrong. And no
matter how hard she tried to rationalize it, she couldn’t dislodge
the feeling that she was being watched...and closely so. Oh man,
she really could use a cigarette right about now!

As she hurried down the corridor, she
looked through the windows of more rooms and noticed that adults
were lying—unconscious—on what seemed like hospital beds. Men and
women were hooked up to monitors. Each room had only one person in
it, and as she stepped up to one of the windows, she realized that
this particular room had two extra people in it. She recognized the
man and woman who stood above Alex’s sleeping form.

Alex!

She inched out of their viewing range
so they wouldn’t notice her. The man with dark hair stood above
Alex with a needle. She squinted. He was injecting something behind
Alex’s left ear. But what? From where she stood, it was impossible
to tell. There was no doubt that the man was the same one who had
returned the blouse and the one she’d seen entering the capitol.
The woman who wrote something into her clipboard was Ms. Hayden. So
this was her new job.

Autumn wondered how she was going to
get Alex out of there. The man and Ms. Hayden looked in her
direction, so she quickly stepped back. She took a deep breath and
tried to figure out what to do. Should she just stay there? Should
she try to hide?

She saw the doorknob to Alex’s room
turn.

Oh great! This is just
what I need!
She rushed to the nearest
door and realized it was locked. Things were quickly going from bad
to worse!

The door opened and the man and woman
left the room.

Autumn had nothing to hide behind. She
was exposed in plain sight. Feeling like a moron, she pressed her
back against the wall and tried to blend into the background. As if
that was possible. The wall was light blue and she wore dark
clothing.

“
I’m still kind of
nervous,” Ms. Hayden told the man. “I’ve never done anything this
important before.”

The man closed the door and locked it.
He glanced over his shoulder and Autumn held her breath, which was
stupid. Really, just because he couldn’t hear her, it didn’t mean
he wouldn’t see her.

Suddenly the angel appeared in front of
her, his wings extended enough to hide her.

She would have yelped out in shock had
it not been for the warmth that surrounded her, calming her down in
less than a second. Since he was facing them, she could only see
his back—and the majestic wings that sheltered her.

“
Devon?” Ms. Hayden
asked.

Autumn couldn’t see them, and even if
she wanted to, the angel wouldn’t let her.

The man—Devon—didn’t reply for a
moment. Finally, he said, “I thought I saw someone.”

“
Where?”

“
Over there.”

“
Hmm... I don’t see
anything.”

“
Must’ve been my
imagination.”

She giggled. “Well, this place is
eerie.”

He chuckled. “You get used to
it.”

Their footsteps echoed off the floor.
“Do you? You’re the one seeing things, not me. And you’ve been
doing this for a good ten years now.”

Once Autumn heard them enter another
room, the angel turned to face her. “I warned you,” the angel
whispered.

Her face grew warm with embarrassment.
What could she say? He had warned her, and she came here anyway.
“I’m sorry.”

“
Don’t be sorry for
yourself. Be sorry for your friend.”

What is that supposed to
mean?

Before she could ask it, he motioned to
Alex’s room. “You need to get him out of here before any more
damage occurs.”

More damage? She debated on whether or
not to ask but finally decided she didn’t want to know. At least
not right now. Not when her nerves had returned to high alert.
Since she disobeyed the angel before—and look where that got her
and Alex!—she realized she couldn’t afford to disobey him now. She
rushed over to Alex’s room and tested the doorknob. “It’s locked,”
she whispered.

He waved his hand over the knob which
clicked.

He didn’t need to tell her to try
again. She opened the door and shivered. The temperature had to be
in the low 60s.

“
Be quick.”

Startled, she jumped. Right. There was
no time to stand around and wonder what was going on here. For most
of her life, she’d heard fairytales of Area 51 and the unusual
stuff going on there, but this was no fairytale, and the more she
learned, the less she wanted to know.

She took a deep breath to
calm her shaky hands and detached the wires from Alex’s body. She
shouldn’t have been surprised when the monitors continued
displaying activity as if he was still hooked up. That must have
been the angel’s doing.
If I get out of
here alive, the first thing I’m going to do is smoke a
cigarette.
She no longer cared if it was
good for her or not. She needed something to settle her
down.

Alex’s eyes opened, and she shrieked.
Quickly pressing her hands to her mouth, she stood still. Had Devon
and Ms. Hayden heard her?

“
Where am I?” Alex asked,
lifting the sheet. “And what am I doing in a hospital
gown?”

“
Shhh...” She quickly
searched the room for his clothes and found them neatly folded in
the small closet. She stopped as she picked them up from the shelf.
Pulling out one of the folders stacked on a higher shelf, she
opened it and nearly gasped. Copies of his medical records? What
was going on here?

“
You don’t have time for
this,” the angel warned.

She glanced at Alex. He stood up and
walked over to her.

“
Do you see him?” she
whispered as she handed him his clothes.

“
See who?” he
asked.

She glanced at the angel who motioned
for them to hurry. No. Alex couldn’t see or hear the angel either.
For some reason, she was the only one. But why? “Forget it. Put
these on. I’ll turn my back.”

She approached the window and looked
out of it. The hallway was empty. That was good. She looked at the
angel. He didn’t seem concerned at the moment, so that had to be
good too. She hoped. How she hoped. Right now she just wanted them
to get out of there alive.

“
I’m ready,” Alex said,
coming up behind her.

The angel pointed out the door and down
the hall back to where she’d come from.

“
Let’s go this way,” she
softly said as she bolted from the room.

Alex obeyed without question, his
footsteps light behind hers.

She took a moment to look over her
shoulder when she heard Ms. Hayden laugh. The angel stood in the
center of the hallway, his wings extended so she couldn’t see Ms.
Hayden...and Ms. Hayden couldn’t see her or Alex. Autumn didn’t
know how the angel managed it, but she figured that angels had
abilities of protection that humans didn’t. Angels! She couldn’t
believe it. A month ago, she didn’t even believe in such things.
But so much had changed in the course of a month. Her entire world
had been thrown upside down, and she couldn’t tell what was real or
imaginary any more. For all she knew, this was all a strange dream.
One she couldn’t wake up from no matter how hard she
tried.

By the time she and Alex reached the
door at the end of the corridor, she reached for it but something
cold reached up and grabbed her hand. Startled, she looked up and
saw something fading in and out of the light.