He slammed on the brakes just before he hit the tree that was laying across the driveway. His father was on the other side, walking towards him and squinting into the headlights.
Ricky stopped his car and got out. He left his headlights on to illuminate the mess.
“What’s going on?”
“Your brother left me without any gas for the chainsaw is what’s going on.”
Vernon was holding his chainsaw in one hand and the gallon tank in the other.
“I mean what happened to the tree?”
“It fell over. Took out the phone line and cable. Just missed taking out the power, too.”
Ricky pulled a flashlight from his pocket and walked towards the trunk of the tree while his father filled the chainsaw and bent over to try to start it.
There was no sign of rot or disease, as far as Ricky could tell. The tree had simply split near the base and then toppled over the driveway. Aside from the saplings that had been crushed in the fall, none of the surrounding trees looked damaged.
“George broke this thing,” Vernon said with a curse.
“Did you try the choke?”
His father stood up slowly, put his hands on his hips, and stared at Ricky.
“Did I try the choke?”
“Sorry.”
“No, I want you to ask me that again,” Vernon said. He wasn’t angry—Ricky knew better than to jump to that conclusion about his father—but the question had been dumb enough that it was going to be a topic of conversation for quite a while.
“Sorry,” Ricky said. He approached and picked up the saw.
In between pulls of the cord, he heard his father mumbling, “My own son asks me if I tried the choke.”
Ricky was lucky that the saw started. He handed it to his father and started walking towards the house. Amber was in the kitchen, sitting at the table with her hands wrapped around a coffee cup.
“Hey,” she said. Her shoulders were up and just her toes were touching the floor.
Tucker wormed his way out from under the table and came to Ricky to sit next to him and press against Ricky’s leg.
“What’s wrong?”
“They were here,” she said.
Ricky stopped in his tracks.
“They?”
“They’re gone now,” Amber said. “I’m sure of it. I could feel them when they were in the woods. Your dog woke me up and I felt it. I turned on every light I could find and I was just about to wake up your parents, but then… I don’t know. I felt them leave.”
Ricky noticed that one of Amber’s stakes was leaning up against the wall next to her. He went and took the seat across from her. He wanted to reach out and take her hand, but kept his hands to himself.
“You’re certain?”
“A moment after I felt them retreating, the tree came down. Your father heard it fall and he got up. I don’t know. I think maybe they wanted to trap us here. I wish I knew why,” Amber said.
“What about Alan and his family?” Ricky asked.
Amber’s eyes went wide.
“I was so preoccupied that I didn’t even think of them. My phone is upstairs.”
She jumped up and ran for the stairs.
Ricky patted his own pocket and remembered before his hand touched the empty space—he had left his phone at his house. It had been two shifts since he had checked it.
Amber came running back down the stairs while Ricky was pouring his own cup of coffee.
“Nothing,” she said. “No messages. Let me send him one to see what he’s…”
Ricky turned as he saw that a new set of headlights had joined the ones from his car. He went to the window.
“Don’t bother,” Ricky said. “I think he’s here.”
# # #
“Is everyone okay?” Alan asked over the sound of the chainsaw.
“Yeah,” Ricky said. “Just a downed tree, although Amber thinks there might have been foul play. Everything okay at your house?”
Alan shook his head. “No. We had a long night. They were trying to get into our place. I mean, they tried and succeeded, but we all made it through. We have a safe room that we put in several years ago, after the troubles.”
Ricky nodded.
Behind him, the chainsaw cut off. Amber and Vernon were rolling a big log out of the way.
“I’m going to take a shower and then I have to get to work,” Vernon said. “Can I trouble you two to move those cars so I can get by? Ricky, I assume you’ll have some time to finish cleaning up some of these branches.”
“Sure, Dad. Alan, why don’t you pull up over there, next to where I park. We can coordinate which vehicles we’re going to take to go up…”
Alan stopped him with a raised hand.
“I’m sorry. I can’t go with you.”
Amber stepped up, joining their conversation to ask, “Why?”
“It was him, Amber. I’m certain of it. I saw Prescott—the current form of him, at least—at my house. I think he was controlling the others. They’re just foot soldiers, maybe, and he’s the commander. I think he’s angry that we disturbed his resting place.”
“Alan,” Amber started.
“I’m sorry,” Alan said again. “Listen, I just came to make sure you guys made it through okay and to tell you that we’re going away. We haven’t decided how far we’re going, but we can’t be around here. They know where we live and I think they’re going to try to turn this into a war. I wish I could stay, but…”
He shook his head.
“We understand,” Ricky said.
Amber shot him a sharp look, but didn’t contradict him.
“All I can say is that maybe you should consider going too.”
“Where, though?” Ricky said. “We don’t have the ability to just pick up and move.”
“Then try to kill one of them on your property,” Alan said, glancing
