Chapter 12
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S teele stared at Cyan and nodded. “You’re right. That laughter was unnerving. But let’s not give them the satisfaction of knowing that. Somebody is just having fun with us.” He hesitated, then asked, “Could it be somebody from the hotel?” he asked. “Could they have followed you?”
She stared at him and shrugged. “I don’t know. Why would anyone care?”
“Who were you talking to?”
“When?” she asked, turning to him, even as she marched back toward the gate, no longer even there.
“Outside, when you went for food.”
“Oh, the manager,” she said dismissively. “He was just making small talk.”
“Or he was questioning you?”
“Sure, and that’s also why I told you to stay out of the way and to not let anybody know you were there.” She stopped and asked him, “Did you?”
“Did I what?” he asked deliberately. “Did I stay out of the way? Yes. Did anybody see me? Not that I know of. Could somebody have seen me? It’s possible, but it certainly isn’t likely.”
She didn’t say anything, just nodded. “And I won’t say the manager was friendly, but he wasn’t unfriendly. He just seemed casual, making small talk.” She walked right back to where the gate had been. She reached out a hand as if expecting it to be in front of her.
He watched and waited.
She groaned, her hand falling away. “Things like that don’t just disappear,” she declared, turning to him.
“So… it still must be there and, for whatever reason, we’re just not seeing it. Or we’re just not allowed to see it,” he suggested.
She frowned. “And now you think the Beacon has some mechanism in place that allows some of us to get through and not others? But why would we be allowed to get through one and not the other?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I can’t answer that. Maybe they only want us to move forward. These questions can’t easily be answered unless we set out to answer them.”
Pushing a lock of wayward hair off her face, she nodded. “You’re right. Yet I’m not sure I’m up to more questions and tests today. I need sleep and more food. And maybe I can tackle this in the morning.”
He pointed to the sun slowly sliding down the bright blue sky. “That’s a good idea. We could go back to the hotel and regroup. Get some rest, then continue in the morning.”
“If it weren’t for that laugh,” she muttered, “I would have no problem staying here. But something about it…”
“I know,” he acknowledged. “I’m on the same page there. So, have you got a way to get out of here?” Glancing at her, he took several steps forward, then another. His next step brought him straight up against something hard, and he hit it with such force that he almost bounced off.
She cried out in delight, “You found it.”
“Found what?” he snapped.
“The gate,” she exclaimed.
An odd shimmer filled the air. As Steele shifted from side to side, he could see it. It was a play of light and shadow, hiding it all at once and yet showing it in its entirety when he looked almost out of the corner of his eye.
With it now visible to them both, and, with a little coaxing on her part, the gate opened.
She reached out, caught his hand, and dragged him through to the other side, without Steele even realizing it.
After a few minutes of brisk walking, they were there,… in the field, the trees behind them, and ahead, across the road, were both of their vehicles.
When they reached her car, she leaned against it, closed her eyes, and muttered, “Thank the heavens for this.”
He stared at her for a long, hard moment. “I know you don’t want to consider this, but we may have left someone in there. I get that the laughter freaked us both out, but it’s possible someone is still caught in there.”
She glared at him. “I don’t care if they’re stuck or not,” she declared. “Nothing was nice or good about that laugh. I’m not going back in there until we sort this out.”
“Maybe not,” he replied, “but considering this is all based on frequency, how is it that we can leave that person stuck in there, when it’s obvious that, if they could have gotten out, they would have? They are more of a prisoner than we ever were.”