Ella paced the front lobby of the town hall like an expectant father who’d just packed in his sixty-a-day habit. Something felt wrong, very wrong. The entire Collective had gathered save for six of them, four she could account for, two she couldn’t. Sam and Dane had a valid reason for not being there. Their outing was of the utmost importance to the future survival of the Collective, but not being able to reach them on the cell phone she’d given Sam, pissed her off no-end.
The brothers, Sheldon and Mervyn, they were out keeping watch, one in the schoolhouse, the other in the garage. But Hal, and Young Billy Fisher, they were the cause of her concern; the bane at the root of her anguish. They should’ve finished and joined them well over an hour ago; there was no reason for their absence, other than trouble.
Ella entered one of the rooms just off the lobby and made her way over to a large window where Zach Jackson and eleven others stood watching the rain. With a few irritated snaps of her fingers, she roused him. ‘You need to collect one of your dogs, Zach. Get down to that station room, and find out what the hold up is with Hal.’
‘Why, ya think there’s a problem?’
Ella looked abscently from the window. ‘Young Billy ain’t showed up either,’ she said, seeming not to hear his question, or simply ignoring it. ‘See if he’s there too!’
‘How long’s it been?’
‘Well over an hour now.’
Zach looked at her for a few seconds, nodded, then turned, making his way from the room.
After watching him leave, Ella stared out once again. The view she had looked south along Main Street, but because of the torrential downpour, she could see little further than fifty-yards before the rain blacked out the dim street-lights. Off to her left, a thin, orange hue, started to break over the horizon, it would soon be dawn, the birth of a new day, and if all went well with the transfusion, the birth of a newer, stronger Collective.
Not counting the tiny basement, which was only used to gain access to the tunnels, the town hall consisted of two floors. The ground floor had the main entrance doors in the centre with five large windows either side. The upper floor had one large arched window above the doors, and again, five windows either side of that. Ella’s residence was the whole of the upper floor, but she only used two of the rooms for personal use. The ground floor was for the use of the Collective, like now, to watch when a storm hits.
The town hall stood at the north end of Martinsville at the top of Main Street. Culver Drive was the road running both left and right of that, which contained ten houses on either side and gave the town its “T” shape. Further along Main Street were sixteen houses on the left, and sixteen houses on the right. Behind the houses on the left were the dog kennels, where Zach was now headed. Staying on the left and further south, was a garage, a cinema, and three stores. Facing these were the schoolhouse, the library, and the police station and courtroom.
When Ella first began to oversee the running of the Collective, everything ran like clockwork. Nourishment was an ample commodity, as taking workers from the nearby clay-pits proved easy-pickings, especially with most of them being loners. And let’s face it, who bothers to look for missing loners anyway? But when the pits had to close just over a year ago, they needed to find their victims elsewhere, so moving further-a-field wasn’t just an unavoidable option, it was their only option.
In recent months, however, things changed for the better in that respect, or she thought they had. Ella struck a deal with an outsider who’d stopped the need for them taking people. But that deal rapidly turned sour, literally speaking, and because of that, the population of Martinsville began to die off, reaching as low as 104. She vowed to repay the outsider for what she’d done to her people, especially after what Ella had done to help her all those years ago, and with any luck, and if Dane and Sam get back with the girl in time, today was going to be that day.
The investigator will no doubt be dead by now, just bones and bits of flesh ready to be swept away with the storm’s debris, leaving her to concentrate on the task she was about to undertake.
Once he’d entered the lobby, Zach put on a thick coat, a leather pair of gloves, and a hat with a wide enough brim to cast a shadow over John Wayne’s shoulders. But more importantly, a wide enough brim to shield his shoulders from drips as he traversed the soaking tunnels. He hated those tunnels, really hated them, almost as much as he hated Ella for sending him into them.
After passing through the large kitchen, Zach lifted a heavy wooden hatch that lead into the basement. Feeling his way down the dozen steps, he slid both hands along the walls until he reached the bottom, once there, he could flick on the light. Why the hell the switch wasn’t at the top of the stairs pissed him off every time he went down there. Cold, damp, and dark, were three things he could do without.
Once his feet were firmly on a flat surface, he felt for the switch and flicked it. To his right a small table held half a dozen flashlights, after grabbing one; he turned to a second wooden hatch and opened that. This gave him access to the tunnels connecting the whole town to the town hall. In the floor behind him, lay yet another hatch, this one, steel in construction, and electronically controlled. A code known only to its occupant and Ella opened it, where beneath, lay the Primary One’s inner chamber.
Zach switched on the flashlight and headed down to the tunnels, each descending step filling him with dread. He reached the floor only to hear the one sound he detested more than any other … the splish-splashing of a puddle. Shining the flashlight over his rubber boots, he saw them half covered in brown muddy water, and then prayed there weren’t any holes in them.
He’d entered the tunnels more times than he cared to remember, and every time he did, he’d flick the flashlight around, checking for major leaks, or crumbling walls, anything he could use as an excuse to turn back. The wooden floor over the years had turned rotten with damp, and every time he took a step, water and mud oozed from underneath, again covering his boots. The walls were bare earth and saturated, and during a heavy downpour like this one, the tunnels were prone to flooding, and twice in recent years had actually collapsed.
Walking with caution in his step, being careful not to put his foot down too hard, Zach listened to the tiny thuds of dripping water as they struck his hat. But that didn’t bother him too much, it was only if the drips hit his clothing did he panic. When he reached the tunnel leading to the kennels, he shone his flashlight along it. He saw at least a foot of rainwater covering the wooden floor. And even though it would have to be two-feet deep to reach the top of his boots, it was still a good enough excuse for him not to go down there.
‘I ain’t goin’ down there,’ he told himself. ‘No sir-ree. The dogs can sit tight; I don’t need em’, and I ain’t fetchinum.’
It hadn’t taken much to convince Zach just how right he was. Why did he need one of the dogs anyway? He was only going to get Hal and Billy, who no doubt would be sat there watching that investigator as he melded into his surroundings. Again, after another look at the small lake at his feet, he'd assured himself that fetching one of the dogs would be absolutely pointless.
It wouldn’t be long before he reached the tunnel taking him to Chambers, and then into the station room. And once he got there, he would, and without any qualms or remorse, or the slightest twinge of guilt, vent his anger on Young Billy Fisher.
