Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Iwasn’t prepared for what I saw inside the cave.
Hesitantly, I stepped inside, every nerve ending screaming that this crazy man was luring us to our death, but the sight before me stole my breath.
The roof of the cave was strung with bright orange light bulbs, their coiling filaments casting a hazy yellow light.
A large, flat-screen television, displaying a vibrant image, hung on the wall above a plush couch and loveseat.
The living room’s perimeter was lined with bookshelves, leading to a full kitchen with stainless steel appliances, ample cupboards, and a large prep island.
“Wh-what is this place?”
The six of us were in shock, our minds unable to grasp how this crazy old man had such an excellent living space. While the world was struggling, he was living a luxe life, it almost didn’t seem fair. To everyone except Gabe and I, this was unheard of.
“Welcome to mah home!” The man smiled. “I’ll start fixin’ ya some food. Yeh must be starvin’. He looked at us huddled together, our mouths agape. “Come on in, yeh don’t need ta be scared. Make yerself at home.”
“Th-thank you,” I whispered. “Why are you being so nice to us? We’re strangers.”
He shrugged. “Don’ see many people up here.
Figured I’d help yeh out, yeh’d either freeze ta death or da Dogs woulda ripped yeh apart.
My life’s almost at its end, so if bein’ a good person is goin’ to be the death o’ me, it’s a good way ta go out.
” The man walked to a beautiful bar separating the living room from the kitchen.
Each of the bottles sparkled, their faded labels disguising the liquid inside.
He carefully arranged seven short glasses on the polished bartop before pouring a precise ounce of amber liquor into each.
“Name’s Pete, I’ve been livin’ here for the past fifty years. Come, have a drink an’ warm up.”
We followed him to the bar, and I took a seat on one of the stools. The last time I was at a bar was The Carlton, right before I got kidnapped. It seemed like so long ago. A different life.
But was it a better life?
The six of us introduced ourselves to Pete, then, with a quick cheers, we downed the brown liquid. The alcohol burned my throat with a searing caramel flavor. Every drop of liquor reached my stomach, but Pete wasn’t wrong—I was warm.
The old man wiped a dribble of alcohol from his mustache. “What brings yeh up here?”
“Our mission is confidential.” Jude’s authoritative voice boomed as he puffed out his chest, his presence filling the room.
I rolled my eyes, and Gabe shook his head. “We’re looking for a large building hidden in the snow within these mountains. Do you know where that may be?”
Jude’s head snapped at Gabe. “Don’t release confidential information! We don’t know if we can trust him!”
“He trusted us.” I pursed my lips. Why was he being so difficult?
“Fuck off, dude,” Gabe huffed.
“Yeh mean the laboratory in the valley?” Pete walked to the refrigerator. “The one that fixes the Dogs?”
Once again, our mouths dropped. Would this place cease to surprise us?
A deep guffaw rumbled from Pete’s chest. “Why’re yeh so surprised?
Livin’ here for so long, o’ course I know about that place.
I steal da food that’s sent ta it. Ain’t no one livin’ up there, so why not?
” He opened the refrigerator and rummaged around in the back.
“Speakin’ of…care for filet mignon tonight? ”
Another surprise: filet mignon!
“You know where it is?” Jude’s eyes lit up. “So you can bring us there?”
Pete nodded. “Aye, but we have ta wait ‘till mornin’ when da Dogs leave ta hunt. Yeh could find it by climbin’ the mountain, but there’s a shortcut down the hallway over yonder.
” He nodded to the far end of the room. “This place used ta be a storage room, so they built a tunnel that leads right outta the lab.”
“If this used to be a storage room, how did it turn into…this?” Gabe asked.
“I ain’t no angel.” A sly smirk crossed Pete’s face. “Them vampires left one person in charge up there, an’ when they stopped comin’ ta visit, I took their food an’ equipment for myself.”
One of the military guards named Nine spoke up, his demeanor completely unreadable. “So there’s someone still in the laboratory we need to be concerned about?”
“He ain’t there anymore. It’s empty.” Pete solemnly shook his head.
Jude, Gabe, and I all exchanged uneasy glances. We were all thinking the same thing: Dante. But where did he go?
“I go there once a month to fill out the order form, them vamps must think he’s still up here an’ alive.” He raised an eyebrow. “Yeh didn’t answer my question: will everyone eat filet?”
I laughed and nodded.
“Good, I’ve been savin’ these fer a special occasion.
” He grabbed a rectangular black remote control and pressed the bright red button in the upper right corner.
The television on the wall flickered to life with a soft hum and a static hiss.
“Why don’t y’all get cozy an’ relax. Watch a movie while I cook dinner.
” He turned to me and winked. “I’m limited on entertainment. See anything you like?”
On the TV were four rows of digital movies, which must have been downloaded over sixty-five years ago.
I mean, they had to be; the internet hadn’t worked since the societal collapse.
We’d tried to get it back online, but nothing worked.
At least, that was what my father told us, but he’d clearly figured out some way to have the computers communicate with the Dogs.
“Oh my God,” I breathed. “I haven’t seen Mamma Mia in years!”
If they didn’t know I was gay, I fear my comment made it obvious.
“Me neither,” Gabe laughed. “Remember when we were in high school, and you forced me to watch it with you?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, you said it was the worst experience of your life because I quoted the movie the whole time.”
“And you did interpretive dances to all the songs!”
Tears welled in our eyes as we laughed together at the shared memory. I noticed Jude scowling at us from the corner of my eye, but I didn’t care. This was a happy memory. A memory before all of this. Back when my mom was alive, and the world was so carefree. At least to me.
How I yearned for those days back.
“I think we found a winner!” Pete clicked the remote, and the screen shimmered to life, displaying the glistening blue waves of Santorini. “Takes a few minutes ta load, but it’ll get there.”
One of the plush couches sank under the weight of the three military guards whose names were all distinguished by numbers—Fifteen, Nine, and Four—their heads tilted back.
“You knew my brother, didn’t you?” Four’s kind eyes looked toward me, legs spread wide on the couch. “Three?”
My mouth dropped as I looked at the man before me.
He was a very tall, muscular man with a bald head and a black bushy mustache sitting on top of his lip.
I stared, dumbfounded, at the uncanny resemblance—the same eyes, the same smile—it was as if I were looking at his brother.
The last few seconds of Three flashed through my memory as I remembered how he valiantly saved me from a Dog right before his death.
My lips formed a straight line, and I looked toward the ground, nodding. “I did, he was a good man.”
Four wiped the top of his head, which was beading with sweat. “He was a good man, the best brother.”
A pang stabbed through my heart, and I had to look away before the pain deepened.
The television screen held Jude captive, its mesmerizing glow reflected in his wide, wonder-filled eyes.
I suppose it never dawned on me that humans had never watched a movie before.
In Elysium, each of our living quarters contained a device that housed every movie made before the collapse.
Now that I think about it, there aren’t TVs in Silvertown at all, so this must be an otherworldly device to them.
I picked up the three snowmobile batteries. “Where can I charge these?”
“Wherever yeh can find a plug,” Pete waved his hand. “When yer done, come help me prep dinner for all o’ yeh.”
I knelt on the ground and attached the three rechargeable batteries to the wall.
Each device emitted a small, warm light, indicating the start of the charging cycle.
I stopped to glance at the television before heading into the kitchen to join the old man.
This was a movie my mother and I watched together.
It was our comfort movie. I smiled as the main character, Sophie, and her best friends ran around Greece, reading her mother’s diary.
Gabe looked at me while sitting at the dining room table, far away from Jude, and smiled as I mouthed the words to the song they were singing. “Dot, dot, dot.”
I met Pete in the kitchen, where he maintained a perfect mise en place setup in front of him, complete with knives, produce, and cutting boards. “Where do you want me to start?”
“I’ll help too!” Jude stood abruptly from the couch, interrupting Donna’s mid-song lament about her financial struggles.
“Me too!” The chair Gabe was sitting in screeched backward.
The two men nudged each other out of the way, trying to be nonchalant, but it was incredibly obvious. I didn’t know how much more of them trying to top the other I could take.
Pete whipped around, sporting a white apron and putting a fist on his hip.
“Calm down, yeh two. Me an da young man here got this. Yeh just relax, an dinner will be ready soon.” His wrinkled eyes grew hard, and without another word, both men retreated from the kitchen, finding seats in the living room.
“You must be magic,” I joked. “Those two usually never listen to anyone’s orders.”
Pete laughed. “They’d be losing da battle with me, son. I haven’ cooked fer more than one in a minute.”
“Really? When was the last time you had visitors?” I grabbed the bag of green beans, tearing open the paper-thin wrapping. “These are the skinny ones! My mom and I used to cook together. Would you mind if I make the vegetable dish?”
He nodded at me with a warming smile. “My wife, Patty, and I found this place an made what yeh see here. We loved camping in these mountains before the Da Great Worl’ War.”
I began to slice the ends off each of the beans, the knife gliding smoothly through the firm skin. “If you don’t mind me asking, where’s she now?”
He tossed a pile of potatoes into the bubbling, steaming pot, his expression turning somber.
“Yeh’d think with everything that happened—pandemic, war, the Dogs, that one o’ those got her.
But it was her own clumsiness. She tripped while we were out walking one day, an’ she fell off the side of a cliff.
” He shook his head. “Patty was a clumsy gal, but I knew that. I shoulda been holding her hand.”
With a fine grater, I moved the lemon back and forth, its pungent scent tickling my nostrils as the zest collected in the bowl. The acidity of the juice stung the microscopic cut I didn’t know I was there. A sharp, burning sensation spread through my fingertip, and a quiet yelp escaped my lips.
“Thought ya’ll would be immune ta pain or somethin’.” Pete strained the steaming potatoes and began mashing them, adding sharp cheddar and rich cream. “Yer one of those vampires, aren’ yeh?”
“Me and Gabe.” I nodded before instantly regretting my decision to tell him. “But-but you don’t have to be scared or worry about us.”
“I wasn’t scared of yeh.” He laughed. “I knew yeh weren’t a threat when I saw those two bozos fightin’ in the snow. What were the fightin’ about anyway?”
My cheeks blushed as I grabbed a bowl full of water, adding a few ice cubes before I boiled the beans.
My mother always blanched her green beans, plunging them into ice water afterward to give them an extra bright color and a delightful, almost snappy, crunch.
Each time, she would offer me one to sample, a treat I never refused.
“Me,” I answered. “Their egos, I suppose, too.”
“Ah, ego. Always da downfall of men.” Pete took out a frying pan and added some olive oil, waiting for it to heat up before adding the steaks. “Yeh must be pretty special ta them if they were fightin’ over yeh.”
As the beans chilled in the ice bath, I went to the stove, where Pete was already working.
The clatter of pans and sizzle of oil filled the kitchen with noise and a delicious scent.
In a frying pan, I added some oil and minced garlic.
As the fragrant smell of the herb wafted into the air, I added the beans. “They seem to think so.”
“Don’ be so modest, yer in demand!” The last piece of steak landed in the pan with a loud sizzle, the rich smell of browning meat filling the air and silencing the music from the TV.
“My Patty was a big believer in doin’ what makes yeh happy, so follow yer joy.
It may be one o’ them or neither. Do what’s right fer you. ”
I laid the steaming, tender beans into a ceramic bowl and added a sprinkle of lemon zest. “Can I borrow the potato peeler?” I took it from him and shaved off some strips of a block of parmesan, then tossed the two new ingredients, incorporating them into the beans.
I reached my hand into bowl and brought a single bean to my lips.
The familiar crunch and flavors on my tongue unveiled a long-forgotten memory.
“I think with everythin’ that’s gone on over the past fifty or so years, everyone forgot how ta live their lives.
What it means ta be happy. We gotta get dat back, even when da world seems grim.
” Pete piled the cooked filet mignon on a platter and handed me a large black bottle. “Yeh might like this with yer meal.”
I opened the cork and put my nose to the entrance. I expected the familiar cranberry and spice notes of wine, but a strange metallic sweetness filled my nostrils instead. “Is this blood?”
Gabe’s ears perked. “Blood? I’m almost out of my reserves.”
“Aye, they included it with the shipment. Take all yeh want!”
I threw the bottle to Gabe. “I’ve never heard stories or rumors that Dante was a vampire. Why would the lab be sent blood?”
He shrugged. “Either he’s a vampire…or someone else is.”
I looked at the movie and smiled. “This is a good place to stop, after dinner, Gabe and I will show you the dance we used to do during the Super Trooper song.”
“No, we won’t!” Gabe’s cheeks were red, but a hidden smirk was tugging at his lips.
“Everyone, come an’ get a plate. Dinner is served!”