“You? Alone?”
“Yes. You head south until the next house, find a phone, and call the police.”
“And tell them what?”
“Whatever you have to in order to get them to descend on Romeo’s place. Tell them he’s a terrorist or child pornographer.”
“No,” Amber said. “It doesn’t make sense for me to go for a phone. You’re the cop. You’re going for the phone. I’ll go through the woods and head towards Romeo’s.”
Ricky stood up straight and thought about it. She had a point. Even without making something up, he would likely be able to get through to someone and convince them to pay a visit to Romeo. But then what?
“You’re right,” he said. Ricky folded the map and dug through the other stuff packed into the vehicle. They had flashlights, bags of sunflower seeds, Borax powder, and stakes. They had everything to fight bloodsucking creatures that attacked at night. None of them had thought to pack much that would work on a living, breathing human.
“Good. I’ll go through the woods and you’ll…”
“No,” Ricky said. “I mean you’re right that it doesn’t make sense for you to head for a phone. I’m still going through the woods.”
“Then we’re going together,” Amber said.
“I guess so.”
They packed fast.
Before they left, Ricky studied the side of the road in front of Amber’s rental car. It took a full minute. Amber started to get antsy.
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
He spotted what he was searching for and pointed.
“Just confirming,” he said. “Same knobby tire tracks.”
“If we’re going, let’s go.”
“Of course.”
They crossed the road together and walked side by side until they found a place where they could descend into the gully and follow the stream. They had to stay a decent distance from the water so they could find firm ground. Slightly up the hill, the trees thinned out and they picked up their pace. His phone still didn’t have any signal, but Ricky had downloaded the maps, so he could use it to track their progress. He figured that if they got to the train tracks within the hour, they could easily reach Romeo’s before sunset.
“We need to go faster,” Amber said.
Ricky didn’t argue. When Amber started walking faster, he matched her.
“I can’t believe we left her there,” Amber said.
It took Ricky a second before he figured out who she was talking about. He surprised himself with his callousness towards the old woman that he had found dead. It simply didn’t matter all that much to him—there was nothing he could do to help.
“I don’t know what else we would have done,” he said.
“Yeah. I guess.”
They walked fast through the woods, keeping the stream within sight when they could. Ricky slowed a bit so he could check his GPS and the map. They were still on course. As long as he focused completely on moving quickly and safely putting one foot in front of the other on the difficult terrain, he didn’t have to think about…
“Hey, I’m sure your brother…” Amber started.
It was like she had picked the thought right out of his brain.
“He’s fine,” Ricky said. “Romeo grabbed him. I don’t know why, but he grabbed him.”
“What would have made George follow him back to my car?” Amber asked.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“He’s an older guy, right?”
“Seventies, I would guess.”
“So he didn’t overpower your brother, right? George isn’t weak.”
“Sure.”
“And the pack and everything were back at my car,” Amber said. “So I’m guessing that George took them there.”
Ricky tried to picture it in his head. She had a good point. Why would Romeo bring George’s things out to the road? The only way it made sense to him was George walking out on his own.
“Gunpoint, maybe?” Ricky suggested.
“If he had a gun, why not use it on Jan?”
“Because…” Ricky didn’t finish the thought. He was going to say something about the intimacy of using a knife, but that contradicted his impression of the murder. It seemed to him that Romeo hadn’t wanted to kill Jan and had felt guilty about it while he committed the act, so why wouldn’t he wanted to distance himself with a gun?
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Ricky said.
“I think maybe he said something to George and talked him back to the road.”
“He still would have had to overpower him,” Ricky said. “We didn’t find any blood, but somehow Romeo got the pack away from George and took George away.”
“True,” Amber said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ricky said. “However it happened, I know that George is fine, wherever he is.”
Amber glanced at him and then nodded.
“I’m just wondering if maybe Romeo has a way to hypnotize people, you know? However he persuaded George, couldn’t he try to do that to us?”
Ricky didn’t answer.
Twenty-Eight: Amber
Amber climbed the gravel embankment with Ricky right on her heels. She stood in the middle of the train tracks and waited while Ricky checked his maps again. The sun was descending fast towards the trees.
“Maybe we should jog,” she said.
He didn’t answer.
She shifted her pack, thinking of everything stuffed in there.
“He doesn’t know me. Maybe I should just go to the door and ask to use his phone.”
Ricky didn’t look up from the map but gave a small laugh.
“Seriously. It could work.”
Ricky folded the map and they started to walk.
“I think we can go all the way to Route 6 without the risk of being spotted,” Ricky said.
“Just like at Jan’s,” Amber said. “I’ll go to the front door and knock to distract him while you loop around back. Maybe you can figure out where George is, or even sneak inside to jump him.”
“He had ultraviolet lights wired up so that they blasted anyone who came through the door. I think he probably has some decent security systems all around the place.”
“But it’s possible that he put it all in place anticipating only unwanted monsters, right? What was that you
