Chapter 5

Truth.

That was all Gretchen cared about.

Oh, she knew her daughters thought she was some horrible anti-knowledge luddite, but, no. She loved the truth.

And only the truth.

Fiction was bullshit. She had no time for it. Never had. Not since that horrible day when she had discovered, at age ten, that the Nancy Drew books she had been reading over and over were NOT tales of a real girl detective, but ... made up! She had been made a fool of! All those hours planning her future based on these tales of real life mysteries ... wasted! Now, some children might have blamed the mother, who had told that lie to get her daughter interested in quality literature, but even then Gretchen knew what the real evil was.

Fiction.

Give her facts. Give her reality. Give her real people to read about, and watch on TV. Biographies. Histories. Reality TV had been a godsend, a welcome change from only really being able to watch documentaries and the news. Now she had REAL people to watch for her entertainment.

This was not to say, though, that Gretchen had any interest in discovering what was fact or reality for herself. Nancy Drew had seen the end of that side of her. No, she was more than willing to wait until brilliant people like Shirley and Oprah told her what was real. Then she could just accept it and move on.

Which was why she had no problem with accepting Ai.

The blue girl thing was sitting on the couch between the two kids, and obviously real. Shirley had said she wasn't evil so that was that. Time to move on.

"So what ARE we trying to figure out here?" Gretchen took another sip of her coffee, and turned to her best friend sitting next to her. Shirley put her own cup down on the coffee table in front of them, an unusual use for that piece of furniture despite its name, and sat back looking at the trio across from them. She gathered her thoughts.

"Well, I think what we need is to set up a support system for Ai." Bill leaned forward at that, nodding. "We have to protect Ai. Later, we'll think more about how she's going to survive in the world beyond our houses, but one thing at a time. That's a project of years, or a lifetime." Shirley's expression suddenly became contemplative. Yes ... that's what this was. A lifetime commitment. This wasn't like a pet, or even a child. Ai ... would need her son forever. She put that aside. Again, that was for later.

"So, what to do now. Thanks to a minor hiccup in our plans we have to think of a strategy for hiding her. This was always going to come up, if for no other reason than others WILL be coming and going in this house and we can't just lock her in a closet." Ai suddenly smiled at her.

"Closet in bedroom is fun! Bright clothing everywhere!"

Shirley blinked. Ah. That's why the door had been open. Well, at least she was finding ways to entertain herself.

"Well, glad you like my fashion sense." Ai nodded happily and leaned in to snuggle Bill. Julie gave her a look that only had a slight tinge of jealousy. "However, as fun as closets are they make bad emergency shelters. We need options." She looked at Gretchen. "Can she go to your place, if need be?"

"Of course! You don't even have to ask! I'd love to have her!" She smiled at the creature. Her kind must be mentioned in the Bible somewhere. Was she an angel?

"But how could she get there?" Julie asked. "We can't send her outside in public!"

"For an emergency, yes," Shirley said, confident. "We can have an outfit ready by the front door for her that would cover most of her, at least well enough for a thirty second run across the street. Ai, if you hear the phone ring you'll have to go over next to the answering machine, and if you hear us telling you to leave the house, you're to go across the street to Julie's house and wait. OK? We'll have some pictures of Bill there for you." Ai nodded, face now serious.

"That's not good enough, Mom! What if we need to go someplace SAFE?" Bill looked at his friend. "Can't you just send the two of us somewhere ... where I can protect her?" Ai reached up a cold hand and caressed his face, and Bill looked over at his mom. She sighed.

"Not unless we have to. If we hadn't sold your grandparents house ... but, even there, most of the farmland had already been sold off and houses were going up all around it, so you wouldn't have had privacy there really. Where else could you go?"

The five were silent for a moment. Gretchen took another long sip of her coffee ... then sat up, eyes wide.

"The mine!"

Shirley sat up next to her, looking at her old friend, and blinked. She blinked again. A wide grin appeared on her face, and she hopped up.

"That's it! The mine!" Gretchen stood as well, cup set down, and accepted the congratulatory hug that came her way. Bill just stared at the two. The mine? What good would the flooded ... his eyes got wide.

"Wait ... the shelter is real?!?"

"Yup," his mom said, grinning at him, "and Gretchen has the key."

It was legend.

Myth, even.

Long ago, back in the 20th century, there had been mining outside what were now the eastern suburbs of Buffalo. Gypsum, mostly, dug out of the ground by extending a shaft down a hundred feet and sending out tunnels. They were everywhere ... well, except where houses were now built, in theory. Nobody would be stupid enough to put a housing development over these now abandoned and flooded mines. Unless they could get away with it, of course.

One of the mine entrances was not far from Bill's house: a large, narrow, four story red barn like building with no front and a huge pile of rock spilling out from it. This, Bill had been told, sealed the shaft so nobody could get in.

But ... the legend...

Back, almost lost in the mists of time, in the 1970's or 80's, a group ... built a fallout shelter in the mine. Nobody knew where, of course. You didn't tell the public where your private hiding hole with limited space was located. Even Bill knew that. He had seen the Twilight Zone episode, after all. But ... knowledge of its existence was passed on. From kid to kid, from old street resident to new home buyer. Everyone knew, but nobody believed.

And it was true!

"Where?! How?" Bill was on his feet, excited. Saving Ai was forgotten for a moment. The shelter was real!

Laughing, Shirley motioned her son to sit, which he did with a plop. Both mothers also sat back down, and eyes twinkling at her son's excitement Shirley told the tale.

"Remember the Stanfields? In the house at the end of the street? Well, when they were thinking of putting a huge plaza behind West Ledge instead of houses, your dad and Mr. Cutter discovered there was actually a Ledge Lane street association left over from some previous battles. Mr. Stanfield was the only remaining member, and it still had a treasury, so your fathers joined and the three fought the good fight. Afterwards, after he lost his wife and was about to sell the house, Mr. Stanfield let us in on the secret: it was the association that built the shelter! He was the only one left with any knowledge of it, and as Tom and Nick were now in his eyes in charge of the street, he passed the keys on to them."

Bill looked at Julie. She was as excited as he was, her body as tense as a spring. He wondered if much of it was learning something new about her late father. Bill couldn't even remember much about him, but then he'd always been at work when Mrs. Cutter had been babysitting the four of them, and that had been awhile ago.

Shirley turned to her friend.

"When was the last time someone was down there?"

"Hmm ... I think Nick was down there a few months before the accident, so maybe four years? Everything was fine, he checked the generator and all that. Said there was no point having an emergency shelter if you weren't going to have it ready in case there was an actual emergency." There was a small catch in her voice, and Shirley briefly touched her hand.

"Nick knew his stuff." She turned to the children. "So, Bill, why don't you pack some emergency clothing and such for you and Ai that we can stock the shelter with, Julie's mother and I will raid the cupboard for boxed and canned goods, and we'll head over and see what it's like."

Julie jumped up.

"I'll grab my stuff! I'll be back in a couple minutes!"

The two mothers looked at her, expressions questioning, and the teen suddenly realized what she was assuming. Julie blushed.

"Um, I mean ... they'd be lonely if they went there ... alone! And, Bill could use my help with Ai! I can cook!"

Her mother just stared at her, then burst out laughing. She turned to Shirley, expression triumphant.

"I win! Pay up!"

With an exaggerated sigh, Shirley took a folded five dollar bill out of her pocket and handed it over. Gretchen chuckled evilly, gloating. Julie looked between them, thoroughly confused.

"Wait, what?"

"I won the bet!" her mom told her, grinning.

"What bet?"

"When you two were born, we made a wager on how long it would be before you two hooked up."

Bill and Julie exchanged horrified glances.

"You WHAT?!?"

"Another few months and that money would have been mine," Shirley told her offspring, sadly. She turned to Gretchen. "I'll get you on the second bet, though."

"What's that," Julie said, disgusted, "the date I pop out the first kid?"

"Nope! How long before your sisters hook up."

Betty gathered her courage, and walked through the mass of eighth graders towards the open locker.

Her brother was counting on her. He had put his trust in his little sister, and there was no way she was going to disappoint him. Not now, not ever.

But, damn, that Cindi scared her.

The withdrawn, gothy girl was slow taking off her coat, performing the usual morning locker rituals every student could do in their sleep. And ... it's almost as if she was sleeping. Her movements were slow, deliberate. There was a space around her, as if she was in an invisible bubble that kept her apart from the rest of the world.

Betty wondered exactly which side that barrier was protecting.

"Um, ah, hi, sorry to bother you..." Her voice sounded high and nervous to her own ears, and only the need to keep going kept Betty from wincing. She wished Jenny was here for support, but she had gone to the office to drop off the notes for Bill and Julie. Betty was on her own.

Cindi paused, hand reaching into her locker. That could be good or bad. Best to continue.

"My brother, Bill, he ... well, he's not here today, but he wanted to say he's sorry. About the call, if he said anything to upset you."

"Nothing others do upsets me." Her voice was cold. Betty saw her eyes flick up to something near the ceiling, and gulped.

"Um, good? Look, Bill just wants to talk to you some more. Please."

"I don't need his help."

"Well, he needs yours!"

Betty spat this out at the annoying bitch, finally tired of being nice. It was instantly regretted when Cindi's head whipped around at her, eyes wide. Betty backed up a step.

"He NEEDS you," she whispered.

Spinning, Betty ran off to class.

"Snow!"

Ai was having fun. Who would have guessed how fun frozen water could be? Always before, she had just passed right through the stuff as if it wasn't even there, which it really wasn't so far as her kind were concerned. Now, however ... she could walk through snow the right way!

Bill, walking behind her with Julie, grinned. His blue girlfriend had consented to wearing a long winter coat and a hat, in case they were observed from a distance, but shoes were not for her. She was stomping and hopping barefoot through the snow drifts, waving her large shovel with the joy of a four year old. Instead of, he realized, the four DAY old she really was ... depending on how you calculated it.

The five of them were crossing the empty field that backed up to the Darrow house. About fifty yards wide, it ended in a patch of woods. Beyond that, in a much larger empty field, lay the mine. All four boot wearing humans had either a backpack or some other bag. Bill had his old camping backpack, full of summer outfits as it should be warm down there once the generators got going, as well as a duffle bag of food. Not much, as Mom said they'd stock it properly later, but enough so that if needed they could flee there as early as tonight. Bill was feeling much better about everything now.

"We're not really sneaking to our secret hideout," Julie observed, looking back at the clear trail behind them in the snow. Her mother chuckled.

"Can't be helped! If you're going there at night it won't matter, but maybe we should have the kids run through this field after every snowfall, just so new tracks won't be noticeable."

"Good idea," Shirley agreed, stepping over a small log. When they got to the tree line, she looked at Ai. "Ai, would you have any trouble running through this area alone if you had to, to get to the shelter and pictures of Bill?" Ai looked back where they had come from, thought, then returned Shirley's gaze with a serious expression.

"Would not like ... but can."

"That's all we can ask, Ai. Lead the way, Bill."

Bill had done the most exploring in this area, and confidently led them on the easiest route through the trees and brush. It probably took thirty minutes, all told, before the five looked out at the snowy wasteland surrounding the mine. They had come out behind the large barn, and maybe a hundred yards away from it. The woods stretched on to the left and right of them, before curving to the east, meeting the road on the far side of the structure. Chances of being seen here were slim to none. Bill turned to the two mothers.

"Which way?"

"Follow me!" With a spring in her step, which caused her to almost fall into a hidden hole under the snow, Gretchen led the way. They marched between snow drifts, which probably hid old timbers and such from the mine, and around leafless bushes. About twenty or thirty feet away from the barn, she stopped. Pointing at the ground ahead of them, she looked at Bill. "Dig!"