REMAINS OF THE GREY
by Sarah L. Blair
“What do you mean, you’re pulling funding?” Anna’s breath caught in her chest. She pressed the cell phone to her ear. “August, you can’t do this. Please, give us another sixty days.”
“You know I would if I could.” His voice faded and crackled over the line. “The board approved the budget this morning. It’s out of my hands.”
“We found pottery. There’s more there. I know it,” she pleaded. “We just need more time.”
“I’m sorry.” To his credit, he sounded sincere. “Stop by my office when you get back. I’ll buy you a drink.”
“Fine.” There was nothing left for her to say. She cut the call off, tempted to throw the phone to the ground.
“So… I take it we should start packing.”
Anna turned to her research assistant, Lorenzo “Renz” Maas. He looked just as despondent as she felt.
“This is bullsh—”
“Doctor Oliva!” A shout sounded outside the tent.
Anna rushed out, with Renz on her heels. One of the interns, Jordan pounded up the embankment, and stopped with her hands on her knees to catch her breath. “We found—we found—”
The girl’s usually tawny complexion had faded. Her lips were white. Renz put his hand on the girl’s back, and tilted his black goatee to Anna.
“Go on. I’ve got this.”
Anna rushed down the hill, nearly sliding head over teakettle on the muddy path. Rain had slowed their progress, which was another reason she desperately needed the funding extended.
The rest of the crew crouched over something at the edge of the bog, Wellies ankle deep in the soggy peat. A blue tarp outlined what looked like a muddy rag doll that had all of its arms and legs stretched to an unnatural length.
Air rushed from her lungs.
“We did it?” she asked. Another intern, Peter, caught her. His stony face matched the rest of the crew. She glanced up into his dark eyes. “What’s wrong? What is it?”
Emilio turned and threw up in the short scrub.
“See for yourself,” Peter told her in his thick accent before he let her loose.
Her heart quickened as she turned to the tarp to get a closer look at their discovery. The body was the same color as the black peat, and only the general details of the outline registered in her brain.
Two legs, met in an elongated torso. The arms were odd. Too long, reaching past where the knees would be once they cleaned off the grime.
Anna’s gaze traveled up the torso toward the head. Her knees turned softer than the mud they were standing in and she fought to keep her balance. Footsteps squelched down the path.
“Mary, mother of God,” Renz muttered behind her. “We found it?”
“We found something.” Anna stared at the grotesque figure on the tarp.
“Neanderthal?” Peter offered.
“Doc, you need to see this, too.” Jordan handed her a piece of metal the size of a playing card with etchings carved into it. “It wasn’t pottery like we thought. There’s more in the cleaning station.”
Anna followed Jordan. They made their way to the nearest tent where they were cleaning and cataloguing all the pieces they pulled up. Renz traced a path around a large rock about ten yards away while he spoke on his phone.
The pieces were spread out on a table like confetti, in various stages of the cleaning process. But there was a method to the madness. Each piece was meticulously photographed, detailed, and catalogued. They were clearly in the middle of something huge and Anna wasn’t about to let anything go undocumented.
She traced the tip of her finger across the strange symbols and turned to Jordan. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”
The linguistics expert shook her head, her hot pink ponytail swinging wildly across her shoulders. “No, Doc. There’s nothing modern that looks like this. And it’s too advanced to be any kind of ancient writing. Cuneiform has a distinctive wedge shape form. This is closer in nature to Runes or Ogham, which were developed around the first century. But those used straight lines. Small inscriptions on metal from the Roman occupation have been discovered in Bath, but anything metallic of this size and shape is unheard of.”
“You’re doing a great job, keep it up. Make sure you get lots of photos. Document the hell out of it,” Anna said.
“You got it.” Jordan hunched over the table and returned to her work.
Renz hung up his phone leaned in close to Anna as they headed back to the others, still gathered around the body. “Any clue what that thing is down there?”
“I have no idea,” she admitted. “It’s messed up.”
“Heh.” He shook his head and stared out over the wide expanse of the bog. His eyes traced back to the thing they’d pulled up from the muck. “I picked a lousy time to quit drinking.”
Anna started to smile, but her appreciation for his snark was cut off when Emilio shouted.
“I’m telling you it has to go back!” He paced a line at the edge of the tarp. “All of it. Some things you just don’t screw with, and this is one of them.”
Anna sighed, and she and Renz joined the others.
“Let’s slow down, okay?” She held up her hands. As much as she wanted to avoid looking at the body, her gaze was drawn to it like a magnet. “I get that this is…not something we were expecting to find. But instead of freaking out, we need to determine what we do have.”
“What is there to figure out?” Emilio jabbed his finger at the tarp. His words came out tight and clipped. “That is a fucking alien.”
A series of groans and curses echoed through the group.
“What? I’m just saying what we’re all thinking.”
Anna winced and exchanged a glance with Renz. She hitched up her shoulder. “If this doesn’t get us an extension, nothing will.”
She took out her phone and lined up a decent shot of the entire body, then took a close-up of the head and texted it to August without comment.
A few moments later, her phone pinged. She checked the message.
Nice try.
She rolled her eyes and selected his number from the recent calls list. He picked up on the first ring.
“You’re hilarious.”
She stepped away from the others. “This isn’t a prank. We just pulled it up. The pottery we found wasn’t pottery, either.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the line. She checked to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.
“August?”
When he answered, he sounded drained. “What do you expect me to do with this, Oliva? Seriously.”
“Are you for real?” A knot formed in her throat, and she silently cursed the fates for making her anger erupt in the form of tears. “This is everything we set out to accomplish and more. Do you know what kind of press this is going to get for the University?”
“Tabloids don’t count as press.”
“Oh yeah? Let’s see what you think when I drag it down there and dump it on your desk, you jackass!” She screamed so hard her throat went raw. This time, she really did throw the phone.
When she turned around, the others gaped in silence.
“What?” she yelled.
None of them responded. She stomped back up to the caravan where the main office was set up and slapped open the door.
She grabbed a stack of papers and flung them into the bin. It felt good. Cathartic. The map with the search grid came off the wall with a satisfying rip. Her field journal met the bottom of the bin with a loud thunk.
Renz caught her wrist before she could send her laptop flying.
“That’s enough.” He removed the computer from her grip and placed it on the desk, then tugged the door shut and lowered his voice. “What are they going to think if you lose your mind? You’re the only thing keeping this all together.”
“And I’m done.” Tears traced a hot trail down her face. “What difference has any of this made? What good is any of this if nobody’s going to believe it? How are we supposed to take that… that thing back and show it off? I’ve banked my entire professional reputation on this, and even August thinks it’s a joke.”
“Okay, I don’t know what in the world that is out there, but it’s something big. It’s bigger than anything we could have imagined. Anyone who sees it is going to know that.” He pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her. The beat of his heart thumped steady against her ear. “You’ve been in the mud too long. We all have. It’s jacking up our brains. I don’t know about you, but I’d give anything for a hot shower and a cold beer right about now.”
She lifted her face to his. “I thought you quit drinking.”
“That’s what you’re gonna throw back at me?” He showed her his straight white teeth.
She stretched her arms up around his neck. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to distract me.”
“Mm. So what if I am?” He touched his nose to hers.
She tilted her chin and met his lips with her own.
“It’s working,” she murmured against the edge of his mouth.
An urgent tap sounded on the door.
Anna groaned, and smoothed her hand over the bulge in her assistant’s cargo pants. “Hold that thought.”
“You’re evil, you know that?”
She grinned and went to the door. Emilio shifted his weight from foot to foot outside.
“I’m sorry, Doc, but I need to split.”
“Excuse me?”
“I can’t be near that thing. It’s freaking me out.”
“It’s almost dark. You know what it’s like trying to get out of here even in the daylight. What if you get stuck? We’ll never find you out there.”
“I’m happy to take my chances. I’ll catch you back in the real world.” He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.
“Emilio, wait.” He headed out to one of the Land Rovers. She tore after him. “Would you stop?”
He paused with his hand on the open door. “I don’t expect you to get this, but that thing gives me a solid case of the heebie jeebies. What if its friends come looking for it?”
She scrunched her face. “If anything was coming for it, it would have been gone by now. Clearly they didn’t find it. But we did. Nobody else is getting credit for that, but us.”
“Yeah, well, I hope that credit’s worth getting your teeth drilled for.” He slid into the driver’s seat and shut the door. The engine started and he rolled down the window. “Enjoy that anal probe.”
She crossed her arms and leveled a look on him as he pulled out. The taillights faded into the distance before she returned to the camp.
“Emilio left?” Peter asked.
They were all crammed inside the main caravan.
Anna sighed. “It sucks that he bailed, but we only have two days left. We need to focus on pulling up everything we can manage tomorrow morning, then getting it all sorted and packed up to move out after lunch. We’ll head home Friday. Right now, preservation is our primary goal. We can’t study this thing if we don’t take care of it between here and the lab. Peter and Jordan, make sure the body gets wrapped well. Get it airtight. I know we’re all wound up, but try to get some rest. We’ve got a busy schedule ahead of us. The real work is only beginning.”
With a series of good nights, the team filed out. Renz stayed behind.
“So, Emilio just hightailed it out of here? What a jackwagon.” He shook his head.
Anna rolled her eyes. “He’s convinced we’re all going to get an anal probe.”
He arched a brow. “I didn’t realize you were into that kind of kink. But, if you want….”
He stepped up to her, smoothing his hand under the waistband of her jeans, and grabbed her ass cheek.
“Don’t start.” She wiggled against him, which only made him more frisky. “We have so much work to do.”
“Oh, please. What are we going to do in the dark? You know we have to save the generators for an emergency.”
“Everybody’s spooked.” She gave him a lingering kiss. “We have two days left, and we’ve got to make the most of them.”
“Whatever you say, Boss Lady.”
Anna scrunched her nose. “I told you not to call me that. It’s weird.”
He grinned and traced his fingers down the crack of her cheeks. She writhed under his touch, but it only drove her harder against his erection.
“You’re awful,” she said.
“Awful horny.”
She gasped and dug her fingers into his shoulders when he found the spot he was searching for. He captured her mouth with his, and her eyes fluttered shut.
All work and no play was never a good idea. Anna backed him over to the small bed at the end of the caravan. He sat and she straddled him, eager to find a release for the day’s multitude of stress.
***
It was the piercing bluish-white light that woke her, but the accompanying noise was what set Anna’s heart racing. Renz threw his arms around her, cradling her against his chest.
A scream tore from her lips, but she couldn’t even hear it above the noise. He kissed her hard as the door flew open.
Wind sent the papers on her desk erupting into the air like a swift tornado. For a split-second, she expected Emilio to be correct in his assessment. But her fears were short lived when the recognizable form of a yellow HAZMAT suit pushed through the narrow doorway.
She squinted against the blinding light of an industrial flashlight.
“Get up. Let’s go!” The person in the suit ordered in a muffled voice.
“It’s okay,” Renz pressed his lips to her ear. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
“Now! Move it.” The suit grabbed Renz and dragged him off the bed.
“Stop! Where are you taking him?” Anna clung to his hand. It didn’t do any good. His fingers slipped from hers and he disappeared out the door.
“You have to come with us. It’s not safe here.” Another man in a yellow suit took her arm and tugged her down the narrow center of the caravan. “There’s been a natural gas leak.”
“What?” Nothing she thought she was hearing made any sense. She squinted against the bright light as she skidded down the short steps of the caravan. Her bare feet slid in the mud, but the yellow suit didn’t slow his pace.
“Where are we going?” she demanded.
She stared back at the caravan as a herd of men who looked like they were dressed for a funeral funneled inside with boxes. They tossed everything on her desk inside.
“Wait! What are they doing? That’s my research!” She dug her heels into the ground. “You can’t take that. Where are we going?”
The source of the noise was revealed as she ducked under the whirling blades of a helicopter. She caught a glimpse of pink hair in the flash of light.
“Jordan!” she screamed over the din.
Jordan turned her head, searching out who called her name before she was shoved into the back of a black van with Peter.
“Where are you taking them? Renz!” She twisted in the grip of the man, throwing her weight downward at the same time, and slipped free. “Stop.”
She made a break for the van as it pulled away. Renz wasn’t there. She had to find him before they hauled him away, too.
Yellow suits converged around her and tackled her in the chilly mud. She writhed and struggled, even chomped down on a hunk of yellow rubber.
It was no use. Strong hands pressed her wrists and ankles deeper into the mud. The sound of the helicopter and the shouts faded.
The world around her tunneled into black.
***
Anna sat slumped in a hard metal chair.
For a second, she thought something had happened to her eyes. All she could see was white. She blinked and pinched her eyes with her fingertips, swiped away a smear of drool from the corner of her mouth and straightened her spine.
Panic threatened to strangle her as she searched the world around her and saw nothing but white. The only thing that eased her mind was the sight of her own hands.
They were cleaner than she’d seen them in months. As short as she kept her nails trimmed, as much as she scrubbed, she’d become accustomed to being covered in the grime of the bog. Now, even the dark lines of silt under her nails were gone, and her skin was a fresh pale pink.
The surface in front of her blended into the background. She could feel it when she pressed her palms to the cool white surface, but with the bright light coming from every angle, there was no shadow to define anything.
Anna held up her arm, swinging it around, looking everywhere for a shadow, but there was nothing. Her mind reeled, and a wave of dizziness overcame her. The room was entirely disorienting. She couldn’t hear anything but the sound of her own short breaths, the rush of blood in her ears.
The only way she knew she even existed was because she could see her body. But even that was dressed in white scrubs. She pressed her feet down and felt a solid surface beneath her.
“Hello?” Her voice cracked. Her mouth was parched, but she wasn’t so dehydrated that tears couldn’t sting her eyes.
“Is anyone there?” she tried again.
Anna planted her feet and attempted to stand. Her legs shook beneath her. She couldn’t see anything below her, only feel that a floor was there.
She held her arms out in front of her as she moved until a few steps later, her fingertips hit a wall. Palms pressed flat into the same surface that was underneath her. She side-stepped, one foot at a time, easing to the right until her shoulder bumped into another wall.
Two walls. A floor.
Even though she couldn’t see it, she brought her hands together in front of her and found the place where the two walls met. Running her finger downward, she found the corner.
It felt good to sink down and press her shoulders back, one against each wall. She’d never realized how important shadows were to help her feel grounded in a space. The expanse in front of her extended into infinity. Wherever she’d been sitting had disappeared. Or at least she couldn’t see it anymore.
She spread her arms out wide along each wall, fingers splayed to cover as much space as possible. Toes dug into the surface under her, planting her feet. Slow steady breaths, in through her nose, out through her mouth, helped to quell her panic.
She hadn’t expected infinity to feel so claustrophobic.
Did dead people have a heartbeat? Breath?
She blew on her palm, then pressed it against her chest to confirm what she was feeling inside was something that existed outside as well.
Even removing the one hand from the wall made the world tilt around her. She slapped her hand back against the surface.
An echo sounded.
She tried again.
If there was a wall, maybe there was someone or something on the other side of it. She jumped to her feet and pounded her fists against the surface. As she thumped, she listened. It was solid. She moved around the edge of the wall, pounding and slapping her hands against the barrier.
“Let me out, assholes! I know you’re out there,” she yelled. “Let me out!”
She wasn’t sure how many times she went around, how many walls there actually were. She kept going, until she lost her bearings completely. Frustrated, she gave the wall a kick.
Pain flashed up her toe, radiating into her leg. She curled into a ball, rocking and cradling her foot in both of her hands. Anna scooted back into the corner again. She pressed her forehead to the cool, smooth wall and shut her eyes.
The darkness came again, and this time it was a relief.
***
“Ms. Oliva?”
Anna stirred. Her forehead knitted together and her neck stuck to the side with a sharp crick when she sat up.
“Ms. Oliva.”
She opened her eyes to see a man crouching in front of her. He wore a black suit, same as the men who’d raided her caravan.
A gasp escaped her, and her instincts kicked in. She struck out with her fist, but he caught her wrist easily.
“It’s all right. I’m not here to harm you.” His face was unassuming and congenial beneath a gray fedora. “Quite the opposite, in fact.”
He offered a hand, palm up and open.
Anna considered the offer. Instead she eased up on her own, using the wall to brace herself as she stood. It felt good to stretch out. The circulation returned with a rush to her blood deprived legs.
They were still in the white space. The man didn’t seem affected at all by their surroundings.
“Who are you?” she asked. “What do you want from me? What is this place? Where is everyone else? What did you do with my research? Why are you keeping me here? Am I under arrest? Do I get a phone call? I want a lawyer.”
Once she opened her mouth, she couldn’t control the words that flooded from her.
He pressed his lips together, canted his head to the side, reminding her of a bird. “At this point, names and locations are of no relevance.”
He strode away from her a few paces, reached out into the space and a sound she recognized as a chair scraping against a floor echoed around her.
The man stepped around and sat.
Anna blinked. It looked like he was sitting in midair. He was so casual about it. Her brain told her there was a chair there, but her eyes couldn’t discern it. The line of something else obscured his leg.
A table?
In all her pounding and exploring earlier, she hadn’t bothered to venture out into the middle of the space again. It was too terrifying to leave the anchor of the wall.
The man rested his arms on the table with his pale fingers woven together into a loose fist. “I understand this can all be a bit disorienting at first. But you’ve handled yourself marvelously.”
He gestured to the space across from him. “Please, have a seat.”
Anna pushed away from the wall, easing out into the empty space. She reached her hand out, leaning slightly forward until her fingertips bumped into something solid.
The table was fashioned from the same smooth material as the wall. Anna leaned over and checked underneath, but it all looked the same. The only way she could determine any lines existed was up against the stark contrast of the man’s black suit.
“How are you doing this?” She fumbled for the chair, and scooted herself into the seat facing the man.
“Nothing more than a trick of some very powerful lighting.” He gave a noncommittal shrug. “An optical illusion.”
Anna wasn’t entirely sure how to respond so she didn’t.
“May I offer you something to drink?” he asked. “Coffee or tea perhaps?”
Her mouth watered. “Coffee sounds great.”
“Very well. To answer your other questions, your crew is perfectly safe, as is your research. Phones are not allowed in this facility, nor would they work should anyone consider smuggling one in.” The man gave a slow blink. “You are not under arrest or being charged with any crime. As such, your need for a lawyer is unnecessary.”
A door opened in the wall to her left. Another man in an identical black suit and hat entered. He placed a steaming cup of lightly tanned coffee on the table in front of her.
The smell made her groan.
Anna picked up the cup and blew on the liquid before she took a cautious sip. It was the most perfect cup of coffee she’d ever had.
“Oh, my God.” She took another sip. It was just the right temperature to drink without being scalded. “This is amazing. How did you know I like cream and no sugar?”
The corner of the man’s lips turned upward. “A perfect cup of coffee is only the beginning, Ms. Oliva. We can do so much more.”
Anna stared at him while she sipped, waiting for him to tell her the rest. He wasn’t forthcoming with any information.
“Like what?” she urged.
“That’s what I’d like to discuss with you.” He spread his hands out flat on the table. “You have two options. The choice you make after I present them to you is entirely yours alone.”
Anna clung to the cup with both hands as she sipped and listened.
“The first option is that you may return to your life as it was right before you were brought here. You’ll continue research on a brand new subject. Publish your findings. Obtain tenure at the University. Work until you decide you’ve had enough. Retire comfortably, and die.”
Anna scrunched her nose. When he laid it all out like that, her life plan sounded so…mundane.
“The second option is that you may choose to work here at the facility. You’ll never be allowed to share your findings in a public setting. Your name will never be attached to any of your discoveries. But your research will have an impact on all of humanity, perhaps even shape the course of the future forever.”
Anna stared at him long enough to figure out that was the extent of his presentation.
“That’s it?” she asked.
He gave a slow nod.
She laughed. “Do I get to choose between a red pill and a blue pill? Are you going to use one of those flashy things and erase my memory?”
She glanced toward the door where the other man had entered. “Where’s Will Smith?”
“This is not a ‘90s blockbuster film, Ms. Oliva. I can assure you of that. While we do tend to enjoy our work, we also take it very seriously.”
Anna sipped her coffee and took the hint. “Does this have anything to do with that body we found? Because I have absolutely no clue what that thing was.”
The man’s eyes sparked and he leaned in with a conspiratorial whisper. “Oh, but wouldn’t you like to find out?”
The outline of his head blurred. Anna blinked and shook herself. He sprouted a second head that drifted sideways against the bright white backdrop in front of her.
“You have twenty-four hours to decide,” he said.
***
Anna sat up with a gasp. She was wearing her own clothes. Swimming in the covers of her own bed back in her flat. It was a bed she hadn’t slept in for weeks.
Once her heart rate evened out, she fumbled for her phone. It was spotless, and the scratch from when she’d thrown it was gone.
Renz was the top number on her favorite contacts. She chose him off the list and waited for the ring. Instead, she got an error message saying the number was no longer in service.
“What the hell?” She dialed again and received the same message. Then she tried Jordan’s number.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Jordan. Thank, God. Are you all right?” Anna’s breath hitched.
“Other than a gnarly hangover, and being freshly unemployed I suppose I’m well enough.” A heavy sigh rushed over the line. “How are you holding up?”
“I think I might be losing my mind.” Anna scowled. “Where did you end up last night?”
“Crown and Beaver. Peter was there. We drank each other under the table.” She groaned. “Massive regrets. What about you?”
“I—” Anna searched for the words to explain and came up empty. “Have you heard from Renz?”
“Not since we left. Why?”
“His number’s disconnected.”
“Weird,” Jordan said. “You’ll let me know if anything comes up on your next project, right? I really appreciate the experience. It sucks we didn’t find anything, but there’s value in the life—oh, who am I kidding, right? This whole thing blows. There was definitely something out there, I know you were right. We just needed more time.”
Anna’s mind reeled as she processed the information. She realized Jordan was waiting for a response. “Um, yeah. Exactly. You were incredible. Top of my list for the next time around.”
“Thanks, Doc. Guess I’ll be seeing you.”
Anna twisted the quilt in her lap. “Sure. Keep in touch.”
They ended the call and Anna tried Peter with similar results. Neither could remember what happened.
Maybe because none of it had happened at all? There was no way for her to tell if it had been a bad dream or something else. Her head pounded.
She slid out of bed and tried Emilio. His phone rang, but he never picked up. She left a brief voicemail while she grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and opened it.
She guzzled the water and nearly choked when she remembered the photos she’d texted to August. Flipping through her messages, she checked, but they were gone. Or, they hadn’t been there at all?
Anna threw on some clothes, grabbed her keys, and dashed out the door. She headed straight for August’s office at the University and pounded on the door.
“It’s Anna.” She persisted. “I know you’re in there, I can hear your fan.”
“All right, come in.”
She opened the door, and he greeted her with a sheepish look as he rolled over in his automatic chair to greet her.
“I thought you were one of my students.”
Anna skipped the pretense. “Please tell me you still have those photos I sent yesterday.”
“You’re flushed. Are you feeling poorly?”
“No, I just really need those pictures I sent. Someone deleted them off my phone.”
“What photos?” He set aside some papers on his desk. “I keep telling you. Back everything up to the cloud. Then you don’t have to worry about losing any of it.”
“What do you mean, ‘what photos?’ The ones I messaged you yesterday.”
“I never got any photos from you yesterday.”
“No? Of course you didn’t.” Anna grabbed the roots of her hair and tugged. “This is utter madness. I’ve gone nutters.”
August watched her in silence.
She stopped. “This is the part where you tell me I’ve been under too much stress and I just need a vacation.”
“Anna, you’ve been under so much pressure lately,” he said without even so much as a pause. “I’m worried the stress is getting to you. Maybe you should take a vacation.”
A grin broke across her face.
“How about I buy you that drink?” he offered.
“You remember that?” Anna perked up.
“Remember what?”
“The conversation we had yesterday. You said our funding was pulled and you offered to buy me a drink.”
“Two days ago, and yes.”
“Today is Friday?” Anna asked.
“The 21st.”
She twisted her lips thoughtfully. “And you really didn’t get a text from me right after?”
“No.” He paused. “Will you please explain to me what in the world is going on?”
“As soon as I figure it out for myself.” Anna stood. “Can I take a raincheck on the drink?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks. I’ll call you later.” She headed back out into the warm summer sun.
It occurred to Anna that after so many weeks of solid rain, now the project had come to a close and the sun was finally out. She silently cursed the fates and shook her head.
“Doctor Oliva,” a quiet voice whispered.
Anna turned to her right to figure out where it had come from. A hand closed around her left wrist and dragged her into an alcove along the walkway.
“Emilio?”
“Please tell me they haven’t gotten to you, too.” His scalp was drenched with sweat and his usually light golden skin looked sallow.
“Who? What are you talking about?”
A soft whine came out of him, like an injured animal. “I told you to put it back. Didn’t I? Now they got to you and you’re a pod person. Lizard creature. One of them.”
“I’m not a lizard creature. Relax.” Anna patted his shoulder. “And I do remember.”
Emilio threw his arms around her. “So I’m not crazy.”
“If you are, then so am I,” Anna said.
“Have you talked with the others? Jordan and Peter?”
She nodded. “It’s like the past two days never even happened. Renz’s phone has been disconnected.”
“Something’s up. It’s a conspiracy. You believe me, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.” Anna nodded. She wasn’t sure if she should mention the white room and the offer. He seemed so agitated already, she didn’t want to freak him out any more. She still wasn’t even entirely sure she hadn’t dreamed the whole thing.
“Why don’t you go get some rest?” she told him. “You have my number, right?”
“We can’t use phones. They’re listening. They can hear everything we say. I’m going to lay low for awhile.”
Anna grabbed him and gave him a tight hug. “Take care of yourself, okay?”
He nodded as he returned the embrace. “Yeah. You, too.”
Emilio stepped out of the alcove, looked both ways and set off to the left. Anna continued on through the courtyard, winding her way through the familiar buildings and cobbled paths of the University.
The idea of spending the rest of her life surrounded by the history contained within these stones was not a terrible one. It comforted her, knowing all the people who had come before her pursuing the same goals of knowledge were only as far away as the nearest book.
It also didn’t hold the excitement of being out in the field. As tough as it was living in caravans, covered in sweat and grime, being out on a dig held a thrilling appeal. The work was back breaking, but the reward of discovery was priceless.
Anna realized there was no way she could possibly mention to anyone what they had discovered out in that bog. All evidence of it was completely gone. Six weeks of hard labor, gone in a swirl of helicopter blades.
If she decided to go public with her discovery, there was nothing to back up her claims. She’d be a complete laughing stock, and she could kiss her tenure goodbye. Maybe what she had seen really had been a dream. Brought on by the stress of losing the project’s funding. A way for her brain to process her life moving forward.
But it felt so real.
Eventually, she wandered her way home again, unsure of what to do next. The man said she had twenty-four hours to make a decision.
The red pill or the blue pill?
Anna flopped down on her bed. Should she be like Alice and take a tumble down the rabbit hole? Even if she wanted to, she had no idea how to contact the man from the white room.
And when did the clock start ticking anyway? There was no way for her to tell how long she’d been out. What would happen when the twenty-four hours were up?
She reached for her phone to try Renz again, but the same error message came up. It wasn’t like she had access to any of her files. She didn’t even know where he lived.
“Ugh!” She let out a sound of frustration. Then she remembered what Emilio had said about how they were listening. “I’m ready! Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
Anna scrubbed her face with her hands and rolled over on her pillow. “I really have lost it.”
A knock sounded on the door.
Her heart stuttered in her chest.
She eased off the bed, grabbing one of her silver candle sticks along the way and went to the door.
“Who is it?” she called out.
“A friend.”
Anna licked her lips, slid the peephole cover aside, and peered out. The man stood outside her door.
“Wow.” She opened the door. “How did you do that?”
“I trust you’ve made your decision.”
The reward of discovery was priceless. In that moment, she knew there never really had been a choice. This man stood before her, offering answers to the questions she’d never even known to ask.
“I’m coming with you,” she said.
“Excellent.” He moved down the hallway.
Anna rushed to grab her keys and phone, anything else she might need for… where was she even going? This was madness.
“There’s no need to lock up, Ms. Oliva. It’s all taken care of.” The man continued toward the stairwell and out the front door.
She dashed out behind him. He stood on the sidewalk holding open the door to a sleek black car that looked like it had been zapped through time right out of the 1950s.
Anna slid in and found herself seated on the softest white leather seats. It felt like sitting on a cloud. A man was waiting on the seat next to her. She followed the black fabric of a perfectly tailored coat sleeve up to see a familiar face partly covered by a gray fedora. A smile revealed perfectly straight bright teeth.
“Hey, Boss Lady.”
“Renz?” She gaped. “How did you—what are you—this whole time?”
“I hope you’ll forgive me. I didn’t want to keep you in the dark, but it was for the best. We’ve been searching for the final pieces of that ship for a long time. It broke apart when it entered Earth’s atmosphere 70 years ago. The pieces spread out all over the Western hemisphere. We never would have found them without you.” He took her hand in his. “I’m glad you made the right choice.”
Anna glanced to the front where the man slid in behind the wheel.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“You can call me Joe.” His blue eyes met her gaze in the rearview mirror and crinkled around the edges with a smile.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Renz kissed her fingers. “To a place called Dreamland.”
Bio:
Author Sarah Blair loves all things sexy, snarky, and supernatural. She grew up completely obsessed with The X-Files, honing her writing skills with Mulder and Scully fan fiction. After forcing her peers and professors to sit through countless workshops of her romantic vampire saga, Sarah graduated Summa Cum Laude from University of Tennessee.
Sarah can usually be found sitting on the back porch of her home in Georgia which she shares with her husband and two children, sipping sweet tea and dreaming of new ways to get her characters into trouble and between the sheets.
Sarah's debut novel and Book One in the Tides of Darkness series, Darkness Shifting, is available now on Kindle Unlimited. Watch for her upcoming novella, Darkness Loves Company, and Book Two Darkness Rising coming soon! You can find Sarah on Twitter @SarahLBlair, or visit her on FB http://www.facebook.com/sarahlblair, and check out her website http://www.sarahlblair.com
No comments:
Post a Comment