Freak City Read online

  Chapter Seventeen

  Sylvia knew the way so she safely ignored Seth's shouted directions, which she really couldn't hear well anyway. She had spent many hours as a child along the harbor, helping her dad with the rigging of his sailboat. Her father had been a sailor who was often at sea, but whenever he was home he spent most of his time as close to the water as possible. He had been dead for many years now, and Sylvia felt a bit sad as she drove by their old familiar haunts. Her passengers, of course, were oblivious to that, and to most everything else as well. Many of them were pretty well drunk, and the ones that were not were thinking about the mission at hand. As they got closer they began once again talking about the adventure.

  Every one seemed to have a different idea of what could possibly happen. Seth simply thought there'd be a package by the fence, a birthday present from Argus' brother. Brian concluded there'd be a big sign with a face with its tongue sticking out, saying 'nyaah nyaah nyahh'. Todd thought there'd be Treasure Hunt Two, with another small package with more random clues. Maribel assumed it was cake. Jolene figured that the person responsible would be waiting there, shouting 'SURPRISE!', and that it was someone from Argus' past. Mikael didn't make a suggestion, but privately he was agreeing with Todd. Only Argus thought there'd nothing. Nothing and no one, nothing at all, and that soon they'd be back in the car, heading home, and everything would finally go back to normal.

  Normal was the last thing they saw as the car turned and entered the block. The previous streets had been empty, no people, no traffic, which wasn't surprising. It was a weeknight, nearly eleven o'clock, and it was a sparsely populated and strictly residential neighborhood. On the last street, however, there were people, maybe a dozen or more, in groupings of one or two or three at most. They were all walking, slowly, right down the middle of the road, towards the end of the block.

  Sylvia slowed the car down to a crawl and came up behind them. None of the people moved out of the way. Mikael whistled, softly.

  "This doesn't look right,” he whispered, as the passengers quieted into a hush. The people on the street staggered forward, steadily onward, each in silence, intent on their final destination.

  "I think I'll park here,” Sylvia said, and she did. They were still several houses away from the end.

  "The cars aren't there,” Seth announced and when people looked back at him questioningly he added, "the Audis. The red ones. Those cars aren't there.”

  He was right. There were no cars at all on the block except Sylvia's. All of the houses were dark and the few streetlights on were quite dim. Mikael opened his door and stepped out. He turned and pulled open the sliding middle door, and starting with Jolene, all the passengers began to emerge. Only Todd in the back didn't move.

  "Um, I think I'll stay here,” he quietly said.

  "Me too,” said Maribel, as she jumped back into the car.

  "That's a good idea,” Sylvia said. "You two should really spend a little more time together, alone, if you're even considering marriage some day.”

  Todd and Maribel looked at each other and shrugged. Then Maribel reached over and closed the side door. Brian and Seth were already joining the line, though by this time the others were well down the road. Argus and Jolene followed behind, with Sylvia and Mikael behind them. It was a very odd looking procession. The ones in the front were dirty and ragged. Most of them looked like they'd never been washed. Their clothes were smelly and torn. Most were old men, unshaven and stumbling. A couple were women, with twisted up faces and clothes that didn't quite fit. One was a young man, the last in the line, with wide open eyes as if startled.

  In silence they arrived at the house, the last house, and squeezed through the gap in the tall cyclone fence. They walked up to the door and went in.

  "Damn spooky,” said Brian, and Seth only nodded. They were the first to arrive of the group, and they waited for the others to join them.

  "There's no lights on in there,” Brian added.

  "No sounds coming out of there either,” said Seth.

  "What's the story?" Jolene asked, coming up to meet them. Brian and Seth shook their heads.

  "I don't know.” When Mikael and Sylvia arrived they all stood and stared at the house, which remained as silent and dark as the rest on the street.

  "There's no packages waiting out front,” Seth noted.

  "Think we ought to go in?" Jolene asked.

  "Well, we did come this far,” Brian said, but nobody moved.

  "What do you think?" Mikael asked Sylvia, and she thought for a minute, then said,

  "We might as well see what there is,” so it was decided.

  Brian went through the gap in the fence first, and when the whole group got to the steps, and Brian went up to the door, he looked back and asked,

  "Wasn't there a key in that package?"

  "Oh man,” said Seth. "Did you bring the key?" he asked Argus.

  "Sorry,” said Argus. "I didn't even think of it"

  "Damn,” Brian said. "Well that's that,” and he really felt very relieved. He started to move down the step when Mikael spoke up and said,

  "Maybe the door is not locked. I didn't see any of the other people knock or use a key." Brian turned back and tried the door knob. Creaking, the door swung wide open. Brian hesitated, so Seth brushed right past him and he went in first. He tried the light switches. They didn't work.

  "I'll bet nobody brought a damn flashlight, either,” he said, but then there was light. It was Sylvia.

  "I thought to bring mine out from the car,” she said as she handed it to Seth, who was leading the way.

  "Okay, thanks,” he said, then took a deep breath. "No more excuses, people. Let's move out, and see what is what.”

  It was a small house. From the front entry way you could go right or left, into the sole bedroom on the right, or through the living room on the left, then on the kitchen, with a bathroom past that. There was no one inside besides them, and from the looks of it, no one had been there for a very long time. The dishes in the cupboards were grimy, but dry. No food was in evidence anywhere. The couch and the chair in the front room were dusty and covered in cobwebs. In the bedroom, a rusty box spring sat with no mattress, and there were no signs of residents other than mice, whose droppings were all over the floors.

  "Where'd they all go?" Brian asked. "They were right there in front of us. We saw them go in. What the heck?"

  "Maybe they all went out back,” Seth suggested, so Brian and Seth headed out through the back steps into a yard that was littered with stuff. Old stuff, broken stuff, metal, cloth, and wood. It looked like a long abandoned ship-building site.

  Jolene had stayed back in the kitchen, where she inspected a very old stove, an antique that was quite to her liking. Mikael and Sylvia had retreated back out to the street, where they stood in the front yard and talked about math. Brian made his way through the clutter to the very back edge, which opened straight to a long drop down to the water with no fence or wall to keep you from falling right in. He peered over and thought he could see the remains of a pier, or at least pieces of timber sticking out of the water.

  Seth, in the meantime, had found a storm door, an entry way into the crawlspace. 'At least I have the flashlight', he said to himself as he pried it open with a stray crowbar and let himself in.

  Argus was left all alone in the bedroom. He just stood there, thinking 'I ought to do something'. He noticed a closet door next to the bed and went over and opened it. Nothing inside. 'No surprise', he said to himself. He took a step inside and peered around in the darkness, and felt a strange sensation of dizziness, as if the world was suddenly spinning faster.