Cul de sac, p.22
Cul-De-Sac, page 22
He grinned, but also knew that he wasn’t going to be telling his new friends at school all about it, either.
Instead of propping him up, pointing out that she was the cream of the grand-motherly crop that way, she just nodded.
“How have you been doing on your runs?”
“Ah.” He just started nodding then. “I knew I was forgetting something. To be fair, I’ve been a little busy. Really, I should start that now? Today. I can make breakfast first. As long as I don’t load up, myself? I’ll do that.”
Then he left, at a jog, to show he was serious about exercising. Which he really was. Not doing it had been a mistake, and absent minded, but not done because he hated moving around or anything. After five minutes or so, he heard one of the upstairs showers starting, and by the time he had the food ready, nearly twenty minutes later, Laura was coming down, dressed in camo fatigues for the day. Boots, too. With a side arm on, which hadn’t been there before, when she’d left in the morning.
She settled at the table, and let him bring the food to her, instead of helping out with it, this time. She got a plate with two eggs on it, and four large pancakes. He had the same, though kind of suspected he wouldn’t be able to finish his.
Pouring real maple syrup over the decent looking golden disks, she started speaking. Not about how good the food looked, or how messed up the last few days had been for him, either.
“We ended up going to Maine. Forest people problems.” She paused then and scowled. “You know, werewolves, bigfoot, dogmen and that kind of thing? There are really about fifteen different types. Most of them get called bigfoot, but they’re different cultures. They have varied abilities as well. The thing is all of them are at least related to human beings. So, when they start to eat the neighbors, it’s cannibalism and we tend to have to frown on that. We can bring the pain, having better weapons, but even the augments have to struggle with them in a fight. We used to send special forces at them, but the attrition rate was miserable. Three to one, on average. That’s three of ours going down to everyone of theirs.” She ate for a bit and gestured at her plate with the fork. “This is good. Thanks for making it.”
He ducked a bit, to show how humble he was, and also that he didn’t want to talk with his mouth full.
“Is that a problem around here? There aren’t a lot of forests.”
Waggling her left hand in the air, Laura seemed to be thinking for a bit, then pretended to eat, to buy time. Finally, she answered.
“It’s more complicated than that. The main portion of them, the largest groups, are in the Pacific Northwest region, up into Canada. The most violent tribes are in the east. They’re smaller and more violent by far. Super humanly strong and fast and hard to hurt. If you see something hairy, with glowing yellow eyes, run.” She shook her head in a strange way, jerking it to the left. “That... Honestly, if you see that, you’re probably dead, unless you have a team of seasoned fighters at your back. Red glowing eyes means werewolves. Those... Really, they look more like bears. Lycans are tall, with snouts that stick out and all that and sometimes come into cities, especially in South America. They do have the red eyes, but they aren’t shape shifters. None of this should be confused with Skinwalkers, who are all human magic users. Evil ones. To gain that ability you have to sacrifice a family member, so... yeah. None of them are really great people. Fortunately, they’re rare.”
He ate, wondering if there was going to be a test on it all, later. Then, if there was, he might be running for his life, so Jake just tried to put it all together, in his head. Not speaking, until he held his fork up for a moment.
“Dogmen are dangerous, glowing yellow eyes. Basically, avoid their areas?” That got a nod. “Werewolves are shape changers, and are people, but they aren’t Skinwalkers. Those are evil magicians. Lycans also have red eyes and are tall and kind of wolflike, but weren’t ever human?”
That last one had him pointed at.
“I didn’t say that. They start as human, then get stuck like that. They tend to be insane, but most of the time they eat small animals. Cats and dogs, since they’re attracted to cities. The rules for hunting them are pretty much what you’d think. Large weapons and big, well trained, troops. Don’t even imagine you can handle one on your own. You can’t. We can’t. Vampires avoid them, to give you an idea there. Some of the names are a bit goofy, but the truth is that the only thing keeping them from being in charge instead of us is their birthrate. That tends to be low, for all the groups, thankfully. We outcompete them by enough that we don’t notice when people go missing to them as much as they do going the other way.”
Jake ate, finishing the eggs and leaving half the pancakes.
“So, they aren’t avoiding us out of fear of our mighty weapons and fighting skills?”
That got a snort, that was funny sounding.
“Not even the tiniest bit. If anything, most of the groups are offended when we bring weapons into it. A pistol is fine, since they seem to think of that as safe. It won’t take most of them down at all, for various reasons. Like with a vampire? Rifles make them annoyed and if you show up with a fifty caliber BMG, they’ll go insane on you. Except that the BMG can actually take one of the big guys down and makes a mess of the smaller ones, so guess what we carry when we have to?”
He didn’t, but it made sense to him.
“This area, though?”
Shrugging, Laura seemed to think again.
“Okay, the thing is, while there are some in the area, and it isn’t really safe, it kind of is, at the same time? You can go to the woods here and not be bothered, as long as you don’t break their rules. For the most part, even without knowing them, people don’t. I mean, don’t kill their friends and family, don’t directly poison the water and don’t eat all the animals in the area. If you camp out, don’t risk setting the area on fire. Simple things, really. They aren’t even that picky. I’ve seen them forgive a car accident, where one of their people went down. Then, so did the driver, so it might have been that. They smell a bit, so if you catch whiff of a skunk, about one in ten times it’s actually one of them. At least down here and in the southeast.”
That was good to know, he supposed. Then, not knowing about it would have been fine, too. At least at the moment.
“So, my slow jogging won’t annoy them too much?”
“Exactly. They won’t come here, most of the time, unless they have a real problem. Then... They know to go to the men wearing all black. They could approach you, I suppose, if you’re doing work outside. That’s never happened, but they’re clever enough to pick up on things like who actually works different places. Running should be fine though, since we all look alike to them.”
Small and hairless. He could get that being hard to see past.
“On that note, I should probably get started, before it gets too warm. I have some things to work on and animals to feed. Oh, we should have a cow, in... Probably on Friday? We’re passing that out, but also need to get a barbeque together or something. Also, it’s the summer solstice that day? I’ve never celebrated that, but I think some of the people here do.”
She stood up, but took her plate with her, eyeing the dirty pans that had been used, as if she was tempted to wash them, before she left.
Instead, he got there first, scrapped his plate into the trash and took hers, since one of them had things to actually get to, it sounded like. Preventing people from being eaten was kind of important.
She waved at him then.
“Thanks. As for parties... That sounds like a job for Jake. If you can get something together, I’ll gladly show up and help. If I can, which... This has been a busy few months, you know?”
He kind of did, what with his parents dying and then being locked away for it, pending a trial that had never happened. Then the other things there.
Which wasn’t what she had going on at all. It didn’t even relate. Except the attack there, of course. Jake refused to ask about that, just hoping that, if another attack were going to happen and they knew about it, he’d get a heads up. At least enough to be told to run. Which, just in case it was going to happen, he needed to practice. Right then, in fact.
“I’ll see what I can pull off that way? Probably not much. Just in case, I’ll ask around? You can have some people from the base come in for it? They’re cleared to be here, or can be? Even if we have to watch them the whole time, so they don’t, you know, soldier all over everything?”
That got the woman to nod, seriously, even if it had been at least marginally funny.
“That works. We need to do some team building and part of that being here isn’t a horrible plan. We end up working on the same projects every few months. People knowing the names and faces in a friendly context might not hurt. I’ll run it by the higher ups. We need to get you a phone, soon.”
He agreed, since being able to look things up and occasionally call people would be a treat.
“I used to have one. I need to see what my paycheck looks like, before I buy anything like that though. Plus, it will need to be encrypted, right? Or... Can I just have a regular one of those? I figured that it wasn’t allowed, since you don’t have a computer here or anything, but you both have phones.” They only made calls on them, that he recalled seeing.
Only, once he’d said it, Laura made a face.
“We’re never here, so don’t have a television or computer. You can have that kind of thing. We can even get you set up that way. We just haven’t had time. As for an encrypted phone... That works, if you’re willing to use one. It will limit who you can call and all that. We can do that for work, here, and a regular one so you can call your friends and school? Really, I bet you can just order those and write it off as being for the community here. At least if you use them for work.”
Since that really was his main idea, so far, he decided to look into that. Laura gave him a brief, one armed, hug, and he got to work, cleaning the dishes and then the rest of the house, vacuuming. Realizing he honestly was putting the run off. Changing into shorts and his one pair of sneakers, wearing his second oldest shirt, he headed out, jogging at a slow pace, around the entire complex. Twice. It was mainly flat, but the trip did let him look around. He didn’t smell any skunks, but kept that in mind, just in case it came up.
Then he did five minutes of sit-ups and blew off working with his arms, because that was still going to hurt, where the stitches were rubbing. Doing all of that meant cleaning up before going in to try and beg for electronics. He had a whole little speech worked out, when he went in, but needed to give it to Calley, who wasn’t going to be there until nine. Unless it was her day off, which he sort of thought it might be. That ended up being confirmed, when instead of her showing up for the day shift desk duty, it was Mick.
Jake left the poor guy alone, just going over his plumbing book again. Then he went to the garage for practice and finding some supplies, set up an on-demand flow valve for the animals. Two of them, really. The chickens had to be tended separately, since he wasn’t building a coop for them. What he did do, was spend most of an hour scooping up cow and goat waste and taking it to the composting area.
Then made a separate pile for each, not certain how to do that sort of thing. There was sign, but it didn’t mention animal waste, just branches, lawn clippings, leaves and food scraps, which couldn’t contain meat.
It was, he thought, the sort of thing he could look up, if he could get online.
It was another idea to point out to Calley, when he saw her next.
Chapter fifteen
Jake wasn’t actually comfortable being out at night. Not there, in Terrace Springs. Regardless of how he felt, the various vampires who showed up that night, six of them this time, apparently expected him to be there, personally, before they touched any of the animals. He protected the one that Mr. Prentis needed to kill and explained that part openly.
“I don’t know if it will impact the magic or not. On the good side, there are goats? They’re fresh?”
That was acceptable, to one of the new people, a smaller woman, who looked to be in her thirties or so. She was dark haired and seemed different through the face. Like a Native American, but very light skinned. Once again, they all manage to feed without it showing at all, and while Bix fed, the accountant looking man didn’t bother. The other new person was a man as well and wanted to get in on some delicious cow.
He shrugged.
“I can share, though. I just want to take the edge off, if that’s all right? Goat is... A bit gamey. It works, but the flavor is a little off for me.”
The woman, or girl, from the day before, rolled her eyes, catching Jake’s. She wasn’t huge either, and was sort of adorable, in a dead way. Pale, but round faced and thin, with enough of a bustline that it was hard not to stare at her a bit. He didn’t and was glad of that fact, a few minutes later.
“Mom? Do you want to share this one? I just took a taste. I’m good, energy wise.”
“Sure, honey. Is that all right, Mr. Hines?”
That meant him inspecting the animal first, again, pretending he knew what he was doing.
“That looks like it should work.”
She took more than a sip, but this time he was invited over to watch them all. Uncle Roger was there, but this time, none of the guards came out. Julio was covertly watching, from the guard booth, but the men and women weren’t being babysat that day. Not that Jake let his guard down. Doing that would have probably meant hitting on Bix’s mom.
Given he was supposed to be friends with the guy, due to the nature of their shared school and life situation, and Bix was cool, so far, he decided to avoid doing that. Plus, even if she looked to be about his age, she clearly wasn’t. That would mean being shot down, if he’d tried it, so it was just as well it hadn’t come up.
He could have been weirded out by the being dead part of things, but it was clear to him that wasn’t really the truth. They were different, but if you moved, breathed and could still talk, you weren’t dead. How it was different otherwise, Jake didn’t understand. He also wasn’t going to end his days by asking, if it might be taken as being rude.
Instead, he checked, petted, patted and gave treats to the animals, who were working, even if they didn’t really seem to notice it happening. When all the vampires were full for the evening, they headed home, to their multiple houses, as it turned out. It was after dark, but for some reason, when he called for someone to give him a ride back to his place, even if it felt weird calling the place that, he noticed something odd. His radio was dead.
Like the battery had drained on him. Which was possible, since it had been on for well over half a day. Instead of worrying about it, he tucked the radio into his bag and just started to walk toward the garage area. It could be seen from the new animal pens, except for the fact that there were some thick shrubs along the border between the two places.
Even that wouldn’t put him out of sight of Julio, who was still watching the front gate that day. What did work to steal him from view was stepping across the border, between the two places, himself. It wasn’t some kind of dynamic matter, either. His foot lifted, as was normal, he moved it forward and when it fell, moving from dirt and grass to pavement, his foot simply didn’t land on it.
In fact, looking around, he noticed that the entire world was gone.
“Well... That’s not what I expected. I was thinking it would be more like a stinging sensation as I was hit from behind, really.” He sounded glib and probably foolish.
Which didn’t keep him from yelping, when a voice spoke from directly behind him.
“Hello, Jacob.”
He spun, ready to fight, and probably lose, as a large white mantis stood there. Wearing a black robe, with a hood. Because, clearly it had good fashion sense. A good sense of dramatic timing, too.
Smiling, and looking up at the alien, Jake sniffed.
“Wallace! You said you couldn’t show up anymore... I missed you.” That was, he realized, a simple truth. “You showed up in a dream of mine...”
The large being, his friend and teacher, clacked a few times. A move meant to simulate laughter, even if his species didn’t have that kind of thing. What they did have, of course, was both time travel and advanced time ship technology. Wallace had shown him a lot about both of those.
Other things as well.
After a few seconds, the being, neither male nor female, truly, being another thing all together that way, spoke. Its voice was calm and gentle. Another affectation. Oddly, they had emotions. They were simply so different that it was nearly impossible to describe them. At least as more than a series of common actions to specific stimuli. Which was how, he knew, Wallace had to work with humans, as well.
He’d learned what different actions and words meant and had to figure out what the emotion behind it was. Most of the time they failed, of course.
It was part of what being alien meant.
“Of course, you missed me. I’m fascinating and intelligent. Also, fairly attractive. The nemesis has sent their agent for you, twice now. They will do so again, in some months. We can assume this to a probability that is greater than half. I do not think they know what you hold inside, truly. They would be trying harder to end you, if they did.”
That was probably another simple truth.
“So, why the visit? This place is monitored on a level that I’m not sure I consciously understand, yet.”
There was a step back, by the giant insect being, which made a soft clacking sound. It had three skeletal systems. One an exoskeleton, which was why Jake thought of it as being insect like. It also had one that was decently similar to the kind he had, being on the inside like it was. The third was a structure of membrane sheets that could stiffen at need, internally, to provide impact resistance.
Jake recalled being taught that, when he was a small child. Very young, though the age of that instruction wasn’t clear to him. Something like three or four. Then the data had been given freely, in the hopes that it would never be needed. He had it all and thought about it.
