Ten
The shockwave of the impact set Caitlin's insides to
vibrating. The glare of the object's passage momentarily blinded her.
Only after the jolt beneath her feet and the dissipation of the blinding
afterimages did she see that something had blasted its way through a
nearby apple tree, splitting the trunk asunder and scattering the canopy
of leaves and branches across the ground. The acrid smell of ozone and
burning vegetation seared her lungs. For the moment, the scattering of
fires provided plenty of light to see by.
The fallen object had left a scar in the earth. At
the end of the furrow of churned dirt, it glowed with incandescent heat.
As she drew closer, the black, foamy-looking rock the size of a large
basketball turned dark, and then began to emit a white vapor. She watched
in amazement as frost form on its surface.
And then the cold, too, faded away. Nothing more
happened.
Caitlin reached down with her wrists still cuffed,
and she touched it. Part of the black foam crumbled beneath her finger
tips. Deeper inside the object, she could see a pale, shiny surface.
With a sigh of determination, knowing full well she
should leave well enough alone, Caitlin brushed aside the crumbly black
coating and picked up the thing inside with both hands. It was hot,
and it had something
alive inside, but this one had not been broken open. Estimating its
weight at no more than ten or fifteen pounds, she carried it to a nearby
outcropping of rock and into the flickering light of burning underbrush.
What she set down in the dim light reminded her of an oyster shell about
two and a half feet long.
The light from the scattered fires rapidly faded.
The ludicrous aroma of roasted apples filled the night air. Enveloped by
a feeling of unreality, Caitlin didn't know what to do next. She looked
down at herself all scratched and bleeding. The oyster would have to
wait. Deputy Rex Hogan had to see for himself the monster her stepfather
had become. She slipped the shell into a dark wall of nearby underbrush,
then turned back to the deer path and the two miles of dark woods left
between herself and Brighton Hollow.
"Hold it right there, Caitlin."
She froze in place, looked around slowly, and spotted
Leon Biggs at the edge of the clearing in the dying firelight. He pointed
his gun at her.
"They'll catch you if you shoot me!" she cried,
outraged that he could get the best of her every single time.
"I just want the handcuffs, Caitlin. I had other
plans, mind you, but I’m hurting to bad at the moment to take it any
further than that."
"I won't! I'm going to show Rex Hogan what you did
to me!"
Caitlin turned boldly away. The echoing gunshot that
cracked through the night made her jump. A shattered branch at her feet
spun in midair and painfully smacked her bare ankle. The explosion
continued to echo between the unseen hills in the dark.
"We're going to have to talk and come to some mutual
understanding," Leon said in a perfectly calm, conversational tone of
voice.
"Like hell," she muttered, but without daring to move
an inch.
"I could drop you right where you stand and nobody
would be the wiser. The critters in the hills will turn you to bones in a
day. Is that the way you want it?"
Caitlin bowed her head. Tears came to her eyes. He
had told her a thousand times. The foothills of the Appalachians were
filled with the buried corpses of abused women and children, victims of
drunken and violent fathers and husbands, some of them forever repentant,
others smugly pleased by their crimes and known only to God.
"I'd rather not do that to Katrina's daughter," Leon
said quietly, knowing perfectly well what she was thinking, "but you have
to think about possible consequences to what you do."
Caitlin glanced back at him with fire in her eyes.
"If I go to jail, the bank takes back the house you
live in," Leon said. "Vivian goes back to the hills. You'd have to go
with her, and you'd both be in more danger than you can imagine. Is that
what you want?"
It wasn't what she wanted. He would never understand
what she wanted.
"I ain't mistreated you in any way that counts for
crap, Caitlin."
Caitlin burst into open tears. He had and he didn't
even seem to know it.
"I just want the cuffs. We’ll put the rest of it on
hold and talk it out later. I've got to get back to town and sort out
this mess.”
She turned and held her bound wrists out to him,
hoping he was telling the truth and wouldn't take advantage of her
helplessness. It seemed likely that he genuinely had to get back to town
after all the excitement. The things from the sky could have hurt people,
or set buildings on fire, and Sheriff Biggs was the only law the three
towns in Brighton County had.
Leon drew closer. His eyes dwelled on the pale
outline of her body highlighted by the ruddy firelight. He gave a cold
chuckle. "I keep telling you to wear more clothes. Now look at the
situation you got yourself into." But he unlocked the cuffs without
touching her.
Then he said gently, "Remember that it's your word
against mine. Don't start trouble you can't finish."
He turned and waddled away, hopefully destined to
drop dead during the long walk back to town. It would be for the best.
He had life insurance. If she had killed him when she had the chance,
Vivian would have gotten his house and all his money. If only she could
think a little faster in moments of crisis and with a little more clarity.
Caitlin waited until Leon's footsteps could no longer
be heard in the darkness, then started back toward the house using another
trail. If nothing else, she needed Vivian's assurance that the end of the
world wasn't upon them all. Nothing that had happened during the evening,
not even the worst of her nightmares, would matter more than a mosquito's
fart if some truly horrible catastrophe had befallen the world.
