Chapter 4: Sister Sadie

“Wait!” the cute girl hesitated. “You’re telling me that while those horrible men kept us captive in that cellar, the end of the world came?” She looked between us. “You expect me to believe that?”

“Sofia,” I answered seriously, “I swear. We’ll let you do whatever you want to do and we’ll take you wherever you want to go. But we have an opportunity here to figure out WHO did this to you, and maybe even where that other girl is. Just please, put everything else aside for now and answer a few questions.”

The redhead looked at me like I was certifiable. “What?”

“Do you have ANY idea where they’ve been keeping you? Do you at least know which direction they brought you here from?”

“Um ... no. They came into our cell and put a cloth over my mouth and nose. They do that a lot; before they rape us; before they hunt us. I hate the cloth. It makes me feel all dopey. I usually go to sleep.”

“Chloroform?” I asked aloud. Sofia shrugged.

“Sounds more like nitrous oxide,” Doriana said. “Still dangerous, but a lot less toxic; and it takes longer to work. If it was in liquid form, it evaporates very quickly, so it would have felt extremely cold.”

“It was freezing!” the girl said. “So cold ... then I’d get dizzy ... then SO tired! And I’d finally just give up. I’d usually go to sleep.” She looked down at her feet and held herself. “Sometimes, they’d rape me while I was too groggy to do anything about it. A couple times, I’d wake up and I knew they’d done it to me while I was asleep. The same thing happened to Sadie.”

“Two of you in a cell?” I asked. “And they’d just take one of you?”

“There would always be two of them. Two men, I mean; and they’d drug us both,” she told us. “Once, I woke up alone in the cell. Sadie was gone. They brought her back several hours later. She told me they’d hunted her. The other times, I’d wake up in a moving car. I guess it was a van. Bench seat. Tied up and blindfolded. I could tell we were on windy roads. Sometimes, it would make me sick to my stomach. Then, they’d pull me out and let me go. They said if I escaped, I was free. But someone would always find me. And shoot me with one of those darts. And rape me. And once, Sadie was with me, and we both ran together. But ... we got separated. And then a guy found me. It was always the same.”

“They’re moving the body to the van,” Doriana told us, looking at the monitor.

“We’re running out of time,” I groused, thinking hard. “I have to make an educated guess. The second drone doesn’t have much charge left! East or west?” I couldn’t decide. “Sofia, did you hear anything while you were in that cell that would give us any clue? A train? Church bells? Anything?”

She looked down, considering, shaking her head. “I heard a back-up beeper once, like they use on trucks, you know?”

That wasn’t really helpful. Or was it? “So,” I thought aloud, “you could hear SOMETHING outside.” Finally, the idea jelled. “Did you ever hear seagulls?”

She thought about that hard. “No. No, I think I would remember that. I never heard a seagull.”

“SO ... it probably wasn’t Reedsport. East then!” I grabbed a map and pointed. “Send the third drone here!”

Doriana nodded and grabbed the map from my hands. “I don’t know if it has that much juice, but I’ll launch it in that direction.” She gave me the controller for the drone that was already airborne and stalked off toward the third aerial device.

“Why?” Wanda asked. “I can’t figure out why you’re in such a hurry; and why you’re sending our last drone to a particular spot.”

“That van is three times faster than the drone,” I said.

“So?”

I looked over at Sofia, who seemed to be hanging on our every word. “You probably don’t believe us yet. I’m sure I probably wouldn’t either, if I was in your shoes. But ... there are only three inhabited towns that we know of southwest of Eugene.”

The third drone buzzed to life, lifted off straight up, then shot off toward the east. In seconds, it was out of sight. Doriana, holding the craft’s controller, walked over to us to listen in.

“Anyway, as far as we know right now, Yoncalla, Reedsport and Acton are the only towns in this part of the state that survived. If you hadn’t been in one of those, you wouldn’t be standing here with us right now. I’m still watching that van, but this drone’s charge isn’t going to last forever. If we had the last drone take over in the same spot, we’d see their first turn. If they turn west, toward the coast, then it has to be Reedsport. BUT, if it turns east, we STILL won’t know which of those other two it is. The van would quickly outrun the drone, and we’d never find out. So, I’m trying to preposition the last drone at a road intersection. If they turn south, they’re going to Yoncalla. If they don’t turn, it’s Acton.”

Sofia was looking between the three of us imploringly. “You ... You guys are really scaring me,” she said in a small, little-girl voice.

“They’re on the move,” Doriana said, pointing toward the tablet that showed the image from the second drone. It showed the van turning around, then making its way slowly back out to the state road. It didn’t stop at the intersection; it turned right. “East!” she said. “You were right!”

I pushed a button on my console, ordering the second drone to return automatically. The tablet went blank, and I handed it to Doriana so that she could sync it to hers. Slowly, thinking as I went, I walked over to the middle of our clearing and set down the console that was paired to the second drone. It would use the signal to fine-tune its return and landing.

I turned to Sofia. “Look, I know it’s an understatement to say that this is confusing...”

“My parents and my little brother in Eugene ... you’re telling me that they’re ... they’re all dead?”

I shrugged. “Well, the jury’s still out on that one.”

“He always says that,” Wanda told her, putting her arm around the smaller girl. “I’ll explain it to you later.”

Rather than pull away from the embrace, Sofia leaned into her. “I ... I don’t feel so well.”

“It’s the drug cocktail in that dart,” Doriana said confidently. “It might take a few days to get it out of your system. Why don’t you go and lie down in the back seat of the truck. This might take us a little while.”

As Wanda led her to the vehicle, they had to pause while our number-two drone suddenly showed up overhead, hovered for several seconds, descended softly to the ground and shut down. Wanda stayed with our new friend for ten minutes, and then finally, she was back. “She’s sound asleep. I feel SO sorry for her! After all she’s been through, and now she’s worried sick about her family. AND the girl she was with in that cell. She calls her ‘Sister Sadie.’ They’ve been fellow prisoners for more than a month.”

“There’s the van,” Doriana said.

I checked the monitor and saw it, but the perspective was all wrong. “Is it upside-down?” I asked.

“It’s about to drive past, underneath the drone. I have the camera with the longest lens looking backwards. It’ll be right-side-up after it passes.”

I found the whole thing to be horribly disorienting. After about five minutes, though, the camera was looking straight down on its target as the van wove back and forth along the curving route. And then finally, finally, there was a sliver of horizon at the top of the screen, and the van was a too-rapidly diminishing image out in front of the craft.

“I don’t think we’re going to make it,” Doriana sighed. “Three more minutes and it’s going to auto-return.”

“Can we override it? Can we force it to stay longer, then have it land so we can pick it up?”

“Nope,” Doriana answered. “Didn’t you read the whole manual? Safety. It has to follow that protocol. Can’t have drones going rogue. Once it reaches ‘Bingo Charge,’ it automatically returns to its takeoff point.”

“So close,” I whispered. “Just a little further. Just a little...”

“It’s past!” Wanda said. “I see it! Don’t you? It went straight! It didn’t turn!”

“Are you sure?”

“She’s right,” Doriana confirmed. “It didn’t turn. It’s going straight.”

“Crap!” I said dejectedly. “I can’t believe it! Shit!”

“What’s the matter, lover?” Wanda asked, coming behind me and giving me a hug.

The screen on the tablet went blank. An indicator on the controller told us that the drone had switched to auto and started back on its own.

I sighed. “More than a month,” I said. “For more than a month, I’ve been going to school, hanging around and just living my life. And at the same time, some asshole has been kidnapping young women and keeping them captive in his basement! And then he let people go out and hunt them down and rape them! And it was all happening in my home town!”

“You know,” Wanda said thoughtfully, “Doriana and I are going to be spending the rest of our lives with you.” She waited while I gave her a questioning look. “I think it’s about time you took us home and introduced us to your friends. There are some people I’d REALLY like to meet in Acton.”

Doriana nodded. “We should swing by home first,” she said. “I’d like to change into some better clothes. And get some better guns.”

“I have no idea where to start,” I faltered. “It’s a town of a couple thousand people, most of whom are probably still there. We can’t spot a basement cell using a drone.”

“No, but we could spot white a van without license plates,” Wanda said. “We could get the cops to help us.”

“Unless the cops are in on it,” I said thoughtfully.

Doriana had just gone over and placed the third drone’s controller in the middle of our flying area. “In the absence of evidence, that statement would normally sound paranoid,” she told me. “People are supposed to trust the cops.”

I shrugged. “Normally. But there’s obviously something seriously wrong in Acton. Sofia is exhibit ‘A.’ The teacher I’ve been talking to says there was some sort of political power struggle following The Event. Sounds like the mayor and the sheriff hate each other’s guts, and most of the townspeople are just ignoring both of them and doing whatever they like. The ‘pretty girl hunting’ thing has got to be pricey; if not in currency, then in some other ‘Post Event’ commodity. It would actually make sense if some political figure WAS involved.”

We started packing up everything for the trip back. We left the drones configured, simply disconnecting their battery packs and tying them down in the bed of the pickup. Just as we finished, as if on cue, the last drone showed up, hovered for about ten seconds, landed next to its controller, and shut down. In another short minute, we were ready to roll.

It had been a pretty tight fit going down there, since the truck’s back seat was narrower than most. Now, it was really cramped. The puppy lay half-draped over Sofia, but she didn’t seem to care about that, and petted and stroked it all the way home. Rocko had a new best friend.

The redhead seemed justifiably nervous when we told her that we wanted to go home first, but we were completely honest and forthcoming with our ideas on the matter. The last thing we wanted to do was inadvertently deliver her back into the arms of her abductors. Wanda handed over her phone; but of course, there was either no answer at any number Sofia tried; or, more commonly, she got a network error. I drove her through three smaller towns and let her see firsthand the complete lack of human occupation. We pointed out the little piles of clothing; and, of course, the numerous cars off the roadway were impossible to ignore. She began crying silently, while the pup whimpered in empathy.

Getting in our driveway was beginning to be pain in the ass, though none of us was willing to do anything differently. I unlocked the big padlock, removed the heavy chain, drove through our new gate, and then reversed the process to secure it again. Twice we stopped and slid the metal plates full of spikes out of the way, only to put THOSE back and camouflage them again.

I dropped everybody at the big farmhouse, then waited until Wanda had checked the tamper-strips we’d hidden. Once she gave me the thumbs-up, I drove to the barn, where I unpacked the drones and put them away; then I plugged in their battery packs for recharging, even though the power was still off in the barn. Finally, I plugged in the truck, as well, then I secured the barn door and walked back to the house. Lastly, I cranked the generator, which supplied power to the barn, as well as the house. I wondered how long the fuel supply would last. We only ran the thing four or five hours a day, but I imagined it was going pretty fast.

All three girls were in the kitchen, making dinner. If you’ll recall, I didn’t have a shirt on, but Sofia was now wearing a pair of shorts (with the belt cinched tight to keep them up), along with a too-large blouse. She looked sort of free-spirited, like a hippy from back in the Twentieth Century. I accepted both my shirt back and her thanks for allowing its use.

Some of the produce from our store escapades was still fresh enough for a big salad, and they boiled a huge pot of fettuccini, which they combined with two jars of Alfredo sauce. Cans of crescent rolls and a bottle of Cabernet made the feast memorable, indeed.

We stopped grilling Sofia with endless questions when she started feeling self-conscious, but we still learned quite a bit. She was eighteen, and a high school senior in Eugene. She’d been out at a party with two of her girlfriends. Someone, of course, had some marijuana, and she hadn’t said no; but it had hit her pretty hard. Her friends had put her in their car, and she’d fallen asleep, only to awaken in that basement room. We learned it was a room – with a door – rather than a “cell” with bars. It had two single beds, bolted to the floor, a sink and a commode. There was a single window on one wall, set high up; which is why she came to think of it as a basement room; but that window was boarded up and painted over. They’d never figured out any way to alter it enough to look out, fearing that their captors would notice any attempt to do so.

“Sister Sadie” had shown up very quickly after Sofia had arrived. Two men had carried her unconscious form in and dumped her onto one of the beds without explanation or comment. From the beginning, they had been kept naked. They were given plates of food twice a day and glasses of water four times. These were only estimations, of course, since there had been no way to keep track of time; though there were long periods when the lights were turned off. They just assumed that was done when it was actually night outside. There were cameras in every corner of the ceiling. The one time they had gotten mad and destroyed one of them, they had endured a seemingly endless beating that had left both of them black and blue and bloody. They had never rebelled or resisted anything after that.

“Poor Sadie,” Sofia said softly, tears misting her eyes. “I don’t know if she can survive that place without me. I almost feel like I’m abandoning her. Neither of us ever had a sister, and that’s what we swore we were now. All we had was each other in that place. And now, she has no one!”

I really wanted Sofia to feel like part of the group; I think we all did, though she most likely wouldn’t be with us after she could pick somewhere else to live. For whatever reason, I called a “Family Meeting” after dinner; and, as soon as the dishes were done, we all congregated back around the dining table. I set my watch on a paired comm console, brought up the menu, and called my teacher again.

“Hello, Mr. G. I hope you’re well. I don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to talk like this.”

“We have several residents that work in big comm-centers in Eugene,” Mr. Gonzales replied. “They think they can keep comm and data flowing for a while. It took a few portable generators in the right places, plus switching some of our receivers to target an orbiting platform. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. What have you got for me tonight, Jacob?”

“I have a big favor to ask you. It requires a lot of discretion, Mr. G. I need to know that we’re secure, and that you’re not going to share any of this info. Do you feel okay with that, sir?”

“You have my word. I’ll provide any help I can. What do you need, Jacob?”

I spent the next ten minutes describing everything that happened on our first drone reconnaissance outing, including why we thought the culprits were in Acton. None of the girls said a word, but I was constantly casting questioning glances their way to make sure I was getting my facts right. They all simply nodded their concurrence.

When the tale was finally told, there as a long silence. Then, my teacher shocked me. “Is the young girl in question there with you now?

“Yes, sir.”

“Can we go visual, please?”

I thought carefully about that. “Are you sure we’d still be secure, sir?”

“Jacob, sophisticated spy networks take adequate personnel. The people are gone. Yes, I think we’ll still be secure.”

I pulled up the menu on my watch and tapped in some commands. While I was doing that, Wanda and Doriana brought their chairs over to Sofia and me and set them down facing the vid lens. The holo-display immediately materialized into a view of my science teacher. “Good to see you again, sir,” I told him. I introduced each of the girls in turn, including where they were from and what they had been doing before The Event.

“Sofia,” Mr. G said seriously, “I thought it would be difficult to ask you to trust me without you seeing my face. I’m very sorry this has happened to you, and that my community has been part of it. But now, I’m going to ask you to put your faith in me for one more day, while I try to figure out some way to provide the safety you would need by coming here. I have several ideas, but I want to talk them over with some other trusted friends. Will you allow that, please?”

The girl looked down and blushed for some reason. “Yes, sir,” she said in a small voice.

He asked several rapid-fire questions: her last name (Roseman), her parents’ names (Henry and Rebecca), her address in Eugene. She answered them all, though many of them were queries that she’d answered for us already.

“Thank you,” he told her. “And now, Jacob, I get the feeling that you’ve acquired several stockpiles of ... um ... necessary items. I must admit, I never considered drones. That was a stroke of genius.”

“The genius was not me, sir. She’s sitting right here.” Doriana smiled at that.

“Well, all of you obviously make a great team. But, am I incorrect in assuming you’re in possession of some firearms?”

“You would not be wrong, sir.”

“Would you be willing to part with a few more exotic pieces in order to help young Sofia? And, perhaps, one of the drones you used today? You’d be donating them to the town. I think we’d need to get a large group involved; the larger the better. I believe I can put together an emergency meeting of the town council. You could consider the items a good faith gesture to gain the trust of the people here.”

I nodded. I could envision a few plans that might incorporate that course of action. “I’ll send you some pictures. And we could use the items when we mount a rescue operation.”

“My thoughts exactly,” my teacher said. “We’ll talk tomorrow to finalized plans. Also, I need to tell you that a week and a half ago was my mother’s birthday.”

Alright, that statement threw me. “Um ... Please give her my best wishes.”

Mr. G ignored me. “We had a big party. The whole family came.” He turned away from his comm device’s lens. “Hey, you fat ugly dip-wad! Get your ass in here!”

Off camera we heard: “Go fuck yourself, cum-bucket!”

“There are pretty girls...” Mr. G told him in sort of sing-song voice.

Another man was suddenly there; a slightly older, slightly fatter, slightly balder man cut from the same mold. “Well, HELLOoooo, there,” he said, smiling. “Ladies, I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“May I present my brother, John: Full professor of Applied and Theoretical Physics at UCLA.”

I was struck into dumb, shocked immobility; except that I eventually realized I was standing up. Suddenly cognizant of that, I made a concerted effort to close my gaping mouth and take my seat again. “Um ... Please forgive me, Doctor G. It never dawned on me that somebody like you had ... um ... made it. Am I wrong in assuming that there are no institutions of higher learning left in the whole country?”

The man’s goofy grin vanished, and he suddenly looked at me seriously. “You’re right,” the older man said quietly to the man standing beside him. “The boy has a head on his shoulders.” He nodded at the vid lens. “If my suspicions are correct, there are no universities or colleges remaining still-populated on this earth.”

“ ... One of the words in that sentence being much more important that any of the others,” I said, nodding. I stared hard at the man. “Do you know? Do you know who it is?”

He shrugged. “I have a few ideas.” He was really studying me. “How did you figure it out?”

I shook my head. “Come on, doc. It might take a rocket scientist to build a rocket, but anybody can understand all the principles behind it. All they have to do is want to learn. If a high school kid can put it together, then not only can anybody do it, but a whole bunch of people probably already have. The noose will form, and then it will start to tighten. I would give anything to be there when it does.”

“You realize it was just a simple snapshot,” he told me, smiling slightly, almost sadly.

Alright, I had been impressed up until now. I scowled at him. “What the hell has THAT got to do with anything?” I snarled. “There’s absolutely nothing WE can do about it!” I paused, suddenly confused. Did he know something I hadn’t considered? “Is there?” I asked him.

Again, he gave that sad smile. “Please forgive me. You are right. There is nothing that can be done now. By us. That paradigm has been rendered moot.” He thought some more. “Assume we form a society of ... uh ... hunters. What do you think we should be looking for?”

I shrugged. “Biggest damn AI on earth, of course. The asshole could plan it. But no way any living person could implement that strategy. And, assuming it’s a snapshot, like you’re suggesting, there’s got to be more data storage than most people could even imagine. Brontobytes, at least.”

“I look forward to meeting you, Jacob,” he said, nodding.

“And I you, doc. Take care of yourself. You’re one important dude in this world.”

“ ... One word in that sentence being more important that the others,” he mumbled.

I disconnected the call and looked around. The girls were staring at me as if I were an elephant in the zoo.

“What?” I asked them defensively.

“One person did this?” Wanda shouted. “You think that a single man caused the world to end?”

I shrugged. “No, it could be a group. But I suspect it’s only one individual. It certainly doesn’t have to be a man, though.”

She looked thoughtful. “What led you to that conclusion?”

“Just about everything. The more info we added, the more that was my conclusion. Like the animals.”

“What animals?” Sofia asked, obviously startled.

“The animals all disappeared when the humans did,” Doriana explained. “But only WHERE the people did. There were animals on this farm; cows, horses, chickens, cats. They all disappeared along with the people who lived here.”

“What about Rocko? He’s here.”

“Rocko is mine. I picked him up at the vet’s office near where I worked before I went home from an all-night shift. My husband and I had just gotten him, and I dropped him off for a checkup. But when we got home, my husband, along with everybody else in my home town, had vanished.”

“Oh, Doriana...”

“Okay,” Wanda said. “So, the disappearing animals underscores your opinion that this was caused by a person.”

“Empathy for animals is a uniquely human trait. I mentioned that to you before. Everything about this so-called ‘Event,’ screams of human intervention. That’s underscored by what Professor Gonzales just confirmed about the colleges and universities being targeted. Whoever did this didn’t want people figuring it out for a while. So, the people who could identify all the top scientists in that field had to vanish.”

“Which field?” Doriana asked.

“The professor’s field. Theoretical Physics. People like me, the amateurs; we might make some guesses about generalities. But the doc! I can guarantee you that he has a list of suspects! Probably a very short list! He, along with everyone like him, were targeted because of that. But he just happened to go home to a birthday party before The Event! And it just happened to be in one of the little towns that was spared! I mean, what were the chances? There’s very little doubt in my mind that our bad guy ... or gal ... has no idea he is still here. And that gives us good guys ... and gals ... a distinct advantage.”

Wanda was desperate for more. “But if a person made everybody disappear...”

“I know!” Sofia exclaimed. “It’s like on that old video series. It’s, like, eighty or ninety years old now. He...” she tried to find the word in her memory. “ ... TRANSPORTED them! Beam me up, Scotty! He took all their atoms apart and transported them to, like, his secret laboratory someplace or something!”

“By golly, I think you’ve finally stumbled upon the proper subfield, at the very least,” I said, giving her a nod of approval.

“Wait a minute!” Wanda asked, dumbfounded. “They were all ‘beamed’ somewhere?”

“No, of course not,” I said. “That’s ridiculous!”

“But you just said...”

“Enough!” I barked. “We can reconvene our family meeting tomorrow night. All of this conjecture doesn’t get us any closer to finding Sofia’s abductors or to rescuing her friend. We need to make some plans!”

“Can I ask one more question?” Sofia asked meekly.

Doriana responded before I could. “Of course, Sweety.”

The slight redhead looked from one of us to the other. “Can I join the family?” We all stared at her, dumbfounded. “I mean,” she continued meekly, “how else am I going to find out how all this happened?”

“I TOLD you we should have printed more application forms!” I complained. Wanda slugged me on the arm.

We each in turn told the girl that we’d love to have her join our group; but Doriana, being the “adult in the room,” told her not to make her decision for another day or so. “You’ve just been through a horribly traumatic experience,” she said seriously. “You shouldn’t jump at joining the first group that looks a little normal to you. You have lots of options and lots of time. We’ll always be your friends, and we’ll always be here for you.”

Wanda nodded animatedly. “Yep. Normal. That’s us, alright.”

We started talking about how we’d be walking into a “town council meeting” in Acton, what we should expect, and what contingencies we might make in preparation. Other than her “cell mate,” Sofia had seen five faces during her captivity, three of whom had been the men who “hunted” her out in the mountains. Wanda asked her if she would be able to identify any of them again if she saw them. She thought so, but there had been drugs involved in most cases, either through the use of nitrous-soaked cloths or the darts. There had been lots of sexual assaults, and lots of tears.

The more dramatic question was: what if THEY saw HER? Right now, they most likely thought that the best probability for what happened earlier that day was that Sofia had somehow gotten her hands on the dart gun, killed her antagonist, and then by some means, she’d gotten the collar off and escaped. Realistically, the chances of a naked girl getting out of those mountains alive was next to nil. However, if she suddenly showed up in a town meeting, there’s no telling what would happen. We would need to keep her hidden, or at least disguised.

We would be joining a meeting of a lot of people; and, in my opinion, the possibility of at least one of them being guilty was very good. The head bad guy had to have a pretty large house to have extra rooms available where no one would suspect what was going on. And, of course, he was rich enough to hire a couple thugs to run the operation. Money and power went hand in hand, as far as I was concerned.

“Who are the major players?” Wanda asked me.

I thought about it. “I’ve never met the mayor. My Mom liked him; she campaigned for him during the last election cycle. He won pretty decisively, as I recall. The sheriff is sort of an asshole. He’s pretty conservative, and his department has been accused by the online media of both sexual harassment and racial discrimination, though they denied all allegations.” I thought harder. “You know, I don’t remember how those cases were resolved. Or if they were. He keeps getting reelected, though. He’s been in office almost as long as I can remember. That’s probably because of his name. Hardcase. I’m not kidding. Sheriff Hardcase.”

“So,” Doriana said, nodding. “One mayor that everybody likes, and one sheriff that’s a horse’s ass. In a mystery novel, the kidnapper would be the mayor, just to keep the reader guessing.”