"Frank," Gary said. "I think it might be best if we stay here for tonight, instead of going into the city. I also think we ought to pull the Jeeps inside the service bays for the night... keep an eye on them. Probably ought to keep the rifles with us from now on too."
For what, Frank wondered. There wasn't anyone in that car to shoot. Aloud, he said, "I guess you're right, Gary. Annie, why don't you and the others go back inside and get the doors up. We'll pull the Jeeps in... Okay?" She hugged him fiercely before she let go and walked back into the station. The three of them quickly drove the Jeeps into the service bays, and then locked the wide doors behind them. They locked the front door to the station as well, and they all walked back into the rear section of the garage bays by a small parts room.
Frank propped open the door to the parts room, and turned a small light on inside. The bulb was dim, but flooded weak yellow light out into the garage area, it was enough, he felt. If the Lincoln came back he didn't want them to be perfectly silhouetted inside the station by the florescent overheads in the garage bay.
Annie and Connie began to fix some cold sandwiches, while the others unloaded the sleeping bags and ice chests from the Jeeps.
Frank was into his second beer and his heart was just beginning to resume a somewhat normal beat. Mike walked back from the front of the garage where he had been staring out into the rain. They all half expected the Lincoln to come roaring back at any second. The rifles were out of the Jeeps now. Close at hand, just in case. Annie and Connie brought a large stack of sandwiches over, and both grabbed a cold drink, sitting down as Gary began to speak.
"This changes everything," he said to no one in particular. "I don't think it's a good idea to just ignore it either."
Frank took a deep gulp of the beer before he spoke. "I guess you're right, Gary and, it was stupid to think we should keep it to ourselves. I shouldn't have suggested it." He looked around at the small group of frightened people and his eyes locked on Annie's as he continued to speak. "I thought it would shake everyone up for no reason," he said. "I didn't want to believe there was no one in that car either. In fact I was trying to convince myself that it might have been a young kid...slumped down in the seat maybe." The argument seemed empty and somewhat foolish even to him. "Gary's right though. We started to discuss it back in Watertown, and didn't. Maybe we should have...I don't know."
His eyes were sad, Annie noticed, and he shrugged his shoulders helplessly when he finished. Silence hung thick in the air for a few minutes until Gary reluctantly began to speak again.
"I don't pretend to have an answer for one," he said quietly, as he looked around from one to the other. "I guess we can only go with what we know for now. What I mean is what we know from our own personal experience back in Watertown. We know that all the children are gone, at least in Watertown," he looked at Annie. "I'm sorry, Annie... I don't mean to be insensitive about it." She nodded her head, but Gary could see the tears that had started just from the mention of her children.
Annie was trying hard. Not to forget the children, but to find a way to deal with the pain. It wasn't the first time she had known pain in her life, but it was by far the worst pain she had ever felt. It was a sharp pain which she could not push away. Only try to deal with second by second. She struggled to hold back the tears as Gary continued.
Frank walked over and tried to hold and comfort her as best he could. He could sympathize. He missed his own children a great deal, and it was impossible to keep them out of his mind. He could only try to talk, and think around them. He supposed it was the same for her.
Gary continued. "There are also those vines to wonder about. I said before that I spent the night at the gravel pit, and I did. But, I didn't sleep. I couldn't. I was too keyed up. Hell, we all were. They seemed to grow out of nowhere at all, and quickly too. Does that sound right?" Several yes's, and a few nod's answered him. "So I guess that's it. At least for concrete things we know to be fact, that is. The other thing is that empty car. I saw it, and I really looked. It was empty, no ifs, ands, or buts. There wasn't a soul in it. Bob, you were inside the station. How did you feel?"
"Scared, I guess," Bob said. "It was like one minute I felt okay and the next I was scared...Well, maybe more like terrified," he finished and stared vacantly back at Gary.
The others, Annie included, that had been inside, echoed Bob's statement.
"It felt like something evil to me," Lisa said, looking as though she were about to cry. "I can't explain it any better than that."
"You don't have to," Gary said, "we felt the same way outside. It was sort of like I knew the car was empty, even before Frank shot out the rear window. Well... Not empty, but... I guess what I felt is that there were no people in it. Not that the car itself was doing it, but, hell, I can’t explain it right... I felt," he said forcefully, "as though there was something evil in the car. Something evil that wanted us dead." Gary
