I was frantic, desperate not to return to those awful, gloomy depths, but there was little I could do about that. I couldn’t stay up here, it was too risky, and I was starving. I also didn’t want anyone else to know about my weakness. Certainly not Bret, he already thought I was fragile, already thought I was someone that always needed protecting, even when I didn’t.
I tried to choke back my alarm, but there was little strength and courage left to draw upon. Those resources seemed to be quickly drying up. I clung to my pride as I relented enough to be pulled back down the stairs. I didn’t look at Cade again, I couldn’t. I didn’t want to see the displeasure over being interrupted, or the pity I was certain was burning within his eyes.
He knew, no matter how much I tried to hide it, he knew about my phobia and he pitied me for it. I kept my attention focused on my feet and concentrated on simply breathing in and out as Cade closed the door behind us.
We stepped off the steps and into the shadows. Someone had been waiting for us as the bulb immediately clicked on at the bottom. Aiden stood beneath the bulb, string in hand as he surveyed the three of us. His clear mahogany eyes, so similar to Abby’s, were still swollen with sleep, but he was alert.
“What’s going on up there?” he asked.
“It’s quiet, for now,” Cade responded.
Aiden nodded, his hand slid off the string. The door to the secret room creaked open and Abby poked her head out. “Can we eat now?”
“I told them to wait until everyone was here,” Aiden explained. “Yes.”
Abby ducked back into the room, she reemerged with the bag of food. My stomach felt empty, I needed nourishment, but my appetite was gone. “Is there any change in them?” I inquired about Peter and our mom.
“No.”
Abby handed me a package of peanut butter crackers. “Will they ever wake up?” she asked.
My gaze drifted toward Cade as thoughts of the man from the street flashed through my mind. He had woken up. He had come back to life, either because the pain had been so excruciating, or because there was something about those suckers that reawakened their victims. Or maybe it was the aliens themselves that somehow triggered a reawakening in their victims. Maybe the aliens enjoyed watching people suffer before they died such an awful death.
I shuddered, the crackers crunched in my clenched hand. “Bethany,” Abby scolded.
“We saw one wake up,” Cade said guardedly.
“When? What? How?” Jenna squeaked.
Cade held my gaze, but I wasn’t going to explain about the man’s reawakening. I couldn’t. He turned away from me. He told them what we had seen, and how the man had come back to life. And then he told about the man’s death.
The silence that followed his statement was thick and heavy. No one made a sound, no one moved, I was fairly certain that no one even breathed.
“So extreme pain, or those creatures, maybe even the aliens themselves, can wake people up,” Aiden pondered as he tapped his chin thoughtfully. I could almost see the wheels in his curious mind spinning as he tried to solve the mystery. He would have made an outstanding doctor or scientist if the aliens hadn't arrived to rob him of his dreams.
“It could have just been that one man that was able to wake up again,” Bret pointed out.
I tossed the crushed crackers back to Abby. We couldn't afford to waste any food, no matter how destroyed it was, and I wasn't going to eat it. “Well how do we find out which one it is?” Jenna asked.
The answer was obvious but no one could voice it. “The old man…” Aiden’s voice trailed off when Cade bristled at the suggestion.
“What would we do to him?” Jenna asked breathlessly.
A muscle in Cade’s cheek jumped but he didn’t offer any protest. “I don’t know,” Bret responded.
“Who would do it?” Abby demanded.
No one answered that time. We would have to deliberately harm Peter, deliberately be cruel to him in order to see if he would come back to life. The intentions were good, but carrying them out wouldn't be. I already knew who would be the one to do it.
Cade wouldn't look at me now as he stared into the hidden corner of the cellar with his jaw clenched. I wanted to tell him that it didn’t have to be him, but I knew it would do me little good. I couldn't lie to him either, I couldn't offer him false words; everything inside of me was against doing such a thing.
“I won’t be long,” he muttered.
I took a step toward him, hating the haunted look on his face and the pinched set of his mouth, but he had already disappeared into the hidden room. Bret tried to stop me as I turned away, but I shrugged his hands off. Biting on my bottom lip I strained to keep my tears from spilling over. I didn’t hear anything from the room, I didn’t know what Cade was doing to him, but the smell of burnt hair drifted toward me.
I cringed, my hands dug into my arms to the point of bruising. I didn't hear a yelp, or a burst of motion like the man outside had shown. My heart sank. I didn’t turn back around when Cade reemerged, I wasn't disgusted with him; I was disgusted with all of us.
“Nothing.”
The simple word was like a dagger to my chest. What had we done? What had we stood by and allowed to happen?
What were we going to do?
“How long can they stay like that before they die?” No one answered Abby’s question. "They can’t stay like that for long, can they? I mean they have to eat, they have to drink; they have to go to the bathroom for crying out loud! Don’t they?”
Still no one responded to her. “Don’t they?” she demanded.
“We don’t know Abby,” Aiden said calmly.
A low sob escaped Abby. I didn’t know the answers to her questions either, but I could at least give her some sense of comfort. I moved to my little sister and wrapped my arms around her as I took comfort in her warm body, and small arms. I still had Abby, I still had Aiden. I was more fortunate than most.
Far more fortunate.
I couldn't feel pity for myself; I couldn't cower in here, trapped and cornered. We had to survive, somehow. Abby had to survive, no matter what happened.
“What are we going to do?” Jenna's voice was smaller than usual.
“Not stay here,” I answered.
“Bethany, how are we going to get mom somewhere else?” Abby whispered.
It was Cade I looked toward, but it was Aiden that answered. “We don’t Abigail.”
I closed my eyes as anguish tore at my heart, shredding it, destroying it, turning me into something that I wasn’t. I wasn’t cold, I wasn’t uncaring, but I could feel something creeping over me, through me, that left me frozen.