Torn (24 page)

“
There
you have it,” Chuck said.

“I never liked h
er pot roast anyhow. Burnt r
amen noodles sounds better.” He walked to the kitchen.

Chuck laughed, following Colin to the kitchen. He was amazed at the lack of
surprise
on Colin’s face as Andi and Casper sat at the breakfast counter eating
ramen
noodles. Lu
ke was nowhere to be found;
the kitchen was a mess and Colin just smiled.

He asked Casper if she’d make him some
r
amen
then took a seat at the counter with the girls. He informed them
,
as if it were nothing, that he needed them to be the best actresses they could and pretend
their mother was dead.

“Do you think maybe
. . .
you could have told me?” Bret snapped at Darius. She stopped
,
fixed her shoe and then her backpack.
“
Or else maybe we wouldn’t be walking.”

“Oh, okay
, let me get this right. I was supposed to stop you in the middle of your sentence and tell you that we can’t say we survived that
crash
because it would look suspicious.”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, right.” Darius scoffed. “That’s real smart.”

“Are you s
a
ying I’m dumb?”

“You aren’
t
acting bright at this moment.”

“Asshole.”

“
Thank you for that.” Darius shook his head. “I
would
have thought you would have caught on. Or at the very least
, saved your bitching for when we
got to town.”

“So it’s my fault that the
truck
driver kicked us out.”

“Yes.” Darius answered adamantly. “You bitched.”

“You started it.”

“You screamed.”

“You did, too.”

“Liste
n
to us.” Darius sighed out. “I probably would have kicked us out as well.”

“No you wouldn’t have,” Bret said. “Neither would
I. I would have told us to quit
, or shut up. I would
n’t have mad
e us walk in this heat.”

“True.”

“We’re both too nice for that.”

“I agree.”

“He wasn’t a nice man,” Bret said. “I could tell.”

“You know what? I picked that up as well.” Darius adjusted his bags. “See
,
we can agree on some things.”

“I never said we couldn’t. We’re just in a bad spell.”

“Which we’ll get out of.”

Bret laughed.

“What? What’s so
funny?
”

“I’m just thinking
we’re in trouble if we don’t. We’re the future of society.”

“It’ll be a long end of the world.”

“Just like it’s a long hot walk,” Darius said.

“Could be worse. A freak storm could brew.”

They both stopped and looked at
the sky.

Sunny.

They walked on.

Darius didn’t mean to see her naked. It just happened that way. The plush hotel room had two doors to the bathroom, and Darius wasn’t even thinking they led to the same one. He went in to shower. She was enjoying the bath.

Bret was so exhausted that she just released a slight ‘peep’,
slid down in the bath, and accep
ted his apology. Darius himself
didn’t realize
how tired he was until the
apple
he was eating
re
vitalized him.

The shower would do wonders.

After the long walk, they arr
i
ved in some
small
no
-name town
which had been
pummeled
into blackness.
A nice
older gentleman driving a pick
up truck – without air conditioning—offered to take them into Austin, or anywhere nearby.
T
hat’s w
here he was headed to stay
.

They vowed not to argue
and were silent
during
the ride.

They were off on their calculations of where their plane crashed
.
T
hey were a bit more south, but not too far south, as the trip to Austin took a couple hours. H
ighway driving became crowded
the further south they rode.

“That’s the only place with power,” the
kindly
man said. “South Texas. Most folks would think it’s the apocalypse without power.”

“Why are you headed there?” Darius asked.

“See m
y
son.”

As long as the man didn’t mind, they took the ride all the way there. Little did they know how many people would be flocking
south.

The only ho
tel available was one that cost
over three hundred dollars a night, and the presidential suite was a grand.

“We’ll take it. At least two nights,” Darius said without hesitation.

He would have paid two grand a night the room felt so good.

Bret didn’t take a long bath
. He wanted to tell her that he had heard from Blain who was arriving via chopper – brave man
.
  The bus ride down proved too troublesome and the high
-
class
reporters took the offer of a chopper.

Colin gave
Blain
the number.

Before Darius
could
tell her, Bret staggered from the bathroom wearing the
thick
, huge, complimentary robe
and dropped face first on the bed.

She was out in seconds.

Darius let her sleep just like that, on top of the bed. An
d
surprisingly
enough, when he woke up the next morning, she was still in the same position. Only her wet hair had dried.

That made Darius laugh.

The coffee pot in the room brewed
its
last drop and the aroma filled the air.
He
poured
a cup for himself, then one for Bret.
Carrying
the mug he went into her room, set the mug on the stand and crouched by the bed.

“Wanna get up?” he asked. “Blain will be here shortly.”

Bret’s head cocked immediately as if she was startled that she was
sleeping
. “Doesn’t he understand we want to get some sleep?”

“Sure,” Darius said. “He arrived a few hours ago and already started
things
for us. I made coffee.” He stood. “By the way, nice hair.”

“
What
?”

“I never thought anyone’s hair could look li
k
e that,
but
then again, yours dried in that position.”

“Fuck.” Bret sat up, trying to pat down her hair. “It dried sideways.”

“I’m sure you have fix
-
it stuff in that diaper bag.”

“I have a brush.” She swung her legs over the bed and grabbed the coffee. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Darius began to walk, but stopped. “Hey, uh, since you and I were
cloth
e
s
-
less
, I called down
stairs;
I told them to send something up from the clothes shop. Comfortable. Everyday. Stuff we can sight
-
see
in
.”

“You told them to send tourist clothing?”

“No, no.”
He shook his head.
“I just didn’t want them to send formal wear. Shorts. Tee shirt
s
. Underwear. That type of stuff.”

“Thanks
” Bret stood. “I’m going to go into the bathroom,
in
case
you are thinking of going in.”

Darius chuckled. “No,
I’ll
let y
ou have your privacy. I’ll wait.
…” he smiled at the knock on the door. “Bet that’s our clothes now. I’m
bringing
them in. I hope they’re all right.”

“Anything, right now, is going to be great.”

Darius took stock in what she said and even agreed. Anything was better than their dirty clothes, or the oversized white robes they were forced to wear.
Besides
, it was a high priced hote
l;
the clothes had to be good.

Bret
turned
from the mirror as Darius walked back into the room. “Oh, do we look gay or what?”

“We look like tourists.”

Bret checked out her reflection again. “Oh my God.”

“
Could
be worse.”

“How?”

Darius walked up to stand beside her and check
out his reflection as well. “Okay
, it’s worse.”

Both of them wore
k
haki
thigh
-
length shorts, slip
-
on loafer
s
, and green flowered buttoned
-
down golf-style shirt
s
.

“We’re
Madge and Marv Miller,” Bret said.

“Who?”

“They were this couple in their fifties who constantly went away in their RV when Marv retired early. They dressed alike, and God, they dressed like this. All we need is a camera.”

Knock-knock-knock

Darius
smiled. “Close.”

“Huh?”
Bret
asked confused.

Darius walked to the door.

Blain stood in the door. “Hey, sorry it took so long.”

Darius opened the door wider. “Were you able to get a rental
car?
”

Blain dangled the key. “Nice outfit.”

Bret
emerged
from the other room.

“Oh, my God.” Blain laughed. “You two are the cutest thing.”

Bret tilted her
head
.

“All you need is a camera hanging around your neck,” Blain said.

“Okay, okay
,” Darius held up his hand. “No, matching tourist jokes. It’s the only option we had. So tell us.”

“Yes.” Blain nodded. “I went to the real estate agency
l
ike you
asked
because we have to keep your name out of it. She wasn’t really happy that I came by at such an early hour, but when she found out who I was, she pepped up. She took me out to see it.”

“And?”
Darius
asked.

“It’s really worth seeing it Darius.
It is ‘it’.
”

“Okay
, can she meet us?”

Blain shook his head. “Nope.
Family picnic. But
. . .
”
he held up another set of keys. “My celebrity
status
is worth something.”

“She gave you the
keys
?” Bret asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Blain answered. “When she
saw
how interested I
was
in the property, she was on it.
I mean, let’s face
it;
the price tag is high
.
And
when she found out I was willing to pay up
front, s
he got giddy.
”

The corner of Darius’ mouth r
ose
. “Then she hasn’t a clue.”

Blain shook his head. “Nope. It’s not even in the disclosures. It states a barracks style property on 350 acres.”

Darius
chuckled.

“Wait. Wait.” Bret walked up. “If this is the pro
perty you have been looking for
. . .
”

“One of four,” Darius corrected. “We believe it is.”

“Okay
.” Bret nodded then continued. “
If the real estate agent doesn’t know, how do we know for sure this is one of th
e four urban legend properties?
”

Blain smiled. “Like Virginia
. . .
I saw the floor. I saw the markings.”

Darius cocked his brows a few times. “
He
saw the markings.”

Sarcastically, Bret nodded. “Markings. Sweet. How do we know someone didn’t mark it for a joke? We don’t. So b
efore we hand out three million, l
et’s take a ride out there and see if this is truly the
property
you say
it is
and see for ourselves if this is one of the
F
our
H
orseman
of the
A
pocalypse complexes.”

Darius shrugged. “I’m up
for it.” He swiped the room key
from the table. “Let’s go now.”

“Me
too.” Blain jingled al the keys and turned “Let’
s go. Ready
,
Bret
?”

Bret grabbed her diaper bag. “Ready.”

Blain paused by the door. “Ok
ay
, if we go out in public with you two, can you not hold
hands?
”

Bret nudged him as he laughed and all three walked out.

The expression on Bret’s face would be forever etched in Darius’ mind. The gate was weak and flimsy, and they drove up a long dirt driveway
. The barrack structure was plain, and as they approached the door a blast of wind
h
it
them smacking them with hot air. It took Bret by
surprise
. Her eyes rolled slightly,
her
mouth opened a bit
,
and she coughed a
nd
gag
ged
.

“I ate a bug,” she coughed then spit.

“That was weird,” Blain said. “Felt like God hit us with a blow dryer.”

Bret shook her head. “The world is going to pot, and yo
u think hot air is weird. Try
dropping from the sky. Open the door.”

Blain removed the box and then unlocked the door.

The barracks were dusty
, but not completely empty. Bunk beds
were
lined up. A few long wooden tables, like something from the forties, were in the middle.

“Oh, yeah, this is a survival place,” Bret said sarcastically.

“The markings, Blain,” Darius said. “Where are the markings?”

“This way.” Blain led them to the back. “It’s in the
back
corner of the office.”

They walked across the long
rectangular building. At the far end was a
short
hall. Clearly at the end of the building was a main bathroom.
The sun peeked through the windows, lighting the room.

Blain and
Darius
turned into the office right before the bathroom. Bret did not.

“Bret?” Darius called. “You coming in here.”

“
I want to check out the old bathrooms. Go on
. Look at the markings.”