The Meridians(76)

"How can you say that?" she said.

"Easy," answered Scott. "I just move my lips and the sound comes out."

He got the sense that Lynette would have said more, but at that instant a horrible grinding rent the air as something inside the car began to shred itself to pieces, metal on metal grinding away to nothing.

"What's that?" asked Lynette.

Scott shrugged. "Car's been through a lot tonight. We should find someplace to turn in."

"Like, go home and rest?"

"Not if you want to survive the night," answered Scott. "I was thinking someplace a little bit more off the grid than going home right now."

"Like what?' asked Lynette.

He turned then, hoping without much hope that the car would make it at least far enough that he could get it off the road and bury it in some brush somewhere. When he told this to Lynette, she looked askance at him. "Why are we hiding from everyone? From Mr. Gray, I get, but why hide from everyone? Wouldn't it be safer to get somewhere crowded and stay there?"

Scott smiled grimly. "First of all, if you know a place that's crowded in Meridian in the middle of the night, I'd be very interested to hear about it. More important though: the only reason to get to a crowd is if you're being chased by someone who doesn't want to make a scene. I don't think Mr. Gray cares much about that type of thing."

"Well, do we even know he is coming back?"

Scott was silent for a moment when she said that. She had a point: Mr. Gray's appearances, though terrifying and dangerous, were also sporadic. Months or even years had gone by in between visits.

There was a sound from the backseat that Scott couldn't place for a moment. Then he realized what it was: Kevin was typing on his computer.

A moment later, Lynette sighed. "I guess we do have to hide," she murmured.

"Why? What happened?" asked Scott.

"Kevin just wrote, 'He's coming again. Soon,' on his computer," said Lynette.

Scott felt a sinking in his stomach. And it grew greater as he turned the car and heard the grinding again. "We better find somewhere quickly," he said.

More typing. Then Lynette, clearly speaking for Kevin again, said, "Soon."





***





36.

***

They finally settled on going to Scott's office at the school. It was a weekend, so no one should bother them, and it was as safe a place as they could think of, mostly since it was a place that Mr. Gray had never appeared or even hinted that he was aware of. Plus, it had a small cot in it - ostensibly for injured athletes - that would serve well enough for Kevin. The boy was still in his pajamas, and had started nodding in the car, as though wanting to doze but not trusting himself to do so until they found a safer place to operate in.

There was a small farm near to the school, one that Scott knew had been foreclosed on in the most recent credit crisis and now stood empty. So rather than park conspicuously in the school's parking lot they went to the farm and Scott used the car to gently push on the padlocked doors to the vacant barn. The padlock parted with a ping, and then the doors could be rolled open easily. He parked the car inside the barn, threw a mildewed tarp over the vehicle in the hopes that it would buy them an extra hour or an extra day, and then they quickly walked to the school.

The walk itself was miserable. Though days were still quite warm, the nights were beginning to cool off significantly, and none of them was really dressed for the weather. Kevin in particular started shivering almost immediately as cool wind whipped through the thin cloth of his pajamas. He didn't complain though, either in word or via his laptop, but merely trudged forward with the adults, as stalwart as any pilgrim traveling across the Old West.

And not only was the walk uncomfortable from a weather standpoint, but it was mentally taxing as well. Meridian wasn't a big city, so there weren't many cars out at this time of night, but there were a few. And each time they heard one coming, or saw the distant pinpricks of light that signaled the headlights of an oncoming car, they would have to hunch down in whatever cover they could find at the side of the road and pray that whoever it was, wasn't looking for them.

At one point they had a scare when one of the cars stopped suddenly, and Scott felt certain it must be the police looking for them. Not that they would have had time to run forensics on the car Mr. Gray had been driving - and crashed - but if they had found the destroyed vehicle, they could easily be doing spot-checks for anyone who might be wandering around after such a massive accident, confused and in shock.

It turned out that the car was just a solitary man in a car, no doubt coming back from a late date or from hunting or one of the few other nocturnal activities that the people in the area engaged in - other than sleeping.

During the walk, Scott told Lynette about his most recent encounter with Mr. Gray, about the alley turning into a perfect rendition of the alley in which he had lost his family all those years go, about Mr. Gray's attack, and then, when he got to the part where Lynette had come to his rescue, he added, "How did you know I was there, anyway?"

Lynette stared pointedly at Kevin. "Oh, right," said Scott. "Our ESP kid to the rescue."

"Scott," said Lynette, "I'm scared."

"You could have fooled me, the way you swung that piece of wood at Mr. Gray," he said.