Colony Z: The Complete Collection (Vols. 1-4) (23 page)

Owen ran faster than Hannah and, at some point, he decided it would just be easier to pick her up again and run with her. She told him to put her down, just as she had tried back in the woods, but he didn’t want her new blouse getting destroyed in the rain. It was so beautiful and she’d bought it just for the fair and their ‘secret date’.

When they finally reached the structure, Owen knew it was the city morgue. What a place to bring your girlfriend the night you propose to her, right? Owen mentally chided himself for not looking up the weather in the first place to make sure this wouldn’t become a problem. Why was he so stupid?

And why did this place look so empty?

Memories flooded back to him. Nights upon nights upon nights of watching his dad in the downstairs ‘body-room’ working on the bodies. At first, it had terrified him. But the idea became one that he entertained. Being a doctor? Working to find out how dead people had died? It almost seemed exciting.

And then his dad left them alone. And never came back.

He’d spent so much time in here as a kid, when his dad worked there and was actually
around.
It had never been empty. Not ever. And, despite everything he told himself on the contrary, he didn’t think it was supposed to be empty right now. Not based on what he’d been told.

But he didn’t have time to argue with himself about something so silly. Right now, the morgue was shelter. And that was good enough for him.

Owen pulled Hannah underneath the cover of the front of the building, but it hardly did anything at all. The wind had picked up and all the shelter did now was create a vortex that shot the rain right into them. A ferocious battle raged inside Owen. Did he open the door and lead her into the morgue? The one
that shouldn’t have been empty
like it was. Or did he let her get drenched in the rain in her brand new shirt? One that she’d bought just for him…just for tonight.

He ended up throwing the door to the morgue open and gesturing for her to go inside. He hadn’t expected the door to actually open, and was a little surprised when it had. He forced himself to get over it and go in. She, not realizing what this place was, followed him inside immediately, looking incredibly grateful that she had such a resourceful boyfriend.

If only she knew what she was really getting into. Then she wouldn’t be so fast to do as he said.

Something still wasn’t right here.

Once he shut the glass door behind him the place became almost pitch black, minus the moonlight and rain-shine coming in from the entrance. The farther in you went, the more the room was cast in ominous shadows.

Hannah was still for several moments before actually looking around. Then, she realized Owen was being awfully quiet. Usually, he’d take triumph in the fact that he’d brought her to safety or saved her, or something proud and boy-ish like that. Instead, he was eerily silent. Even for Owen this was odd.

“What’s wrong, Owen?”

“…do you know what this place is, Hannah?”

“Umm….no?”

“This is the city morgue.”

Hannah shivered a little, and at first had every intention of gagging out loud. She didn’t like dead things, or scary things. She couldn’t even watch a horror movie with Owen without hiding against him. She thought she’d made that incredibly clear. The very last place she wanted to be was in a morgue, especially in the middle of the night with no one around.

But Owen
had
saved her. And she didn’t want to repay him by making him feel guilty and bad for her. It was bad enough that she’d ruined his proposal by thinking too much about something that, in a few years, wouldn’t really matter anyway. And when you’re talking about forever, the little things don’t matter quite so much. And this was one of those little things. So, she put on her bright face and smiled at her boyfriend.

“It’s alright. As soon as the rain dies down, we’ll get out of here.”

“…Hannah, I’m so sorry. I should have known it was going to rain like this. I was so excited, I didn’t bother to look and…”

“Babe, stop.” Hannah interrupted, not wanting anything on this night to go wrong any more than Owen did. “Just think, it’ll be something to tell our kids about.”

“…you think you’re funny.”

“I think I’m hilarious.” Hannah said, smiling again. That made Owen calm down. She sure was beautiful when she smiled. Owen returned the smile half-heartedly, but felt better that Hannah was at least pretending to be grateful.

So they stood there in the lit part of the room talking, chatting, and Owen keeping mysteriously quiet about the reason he was so nervous himself about being here. He’d spent a lot of time in this morgue. He’d worked as a temp in the phone-area one summer when he really needed the money for this new football uniform he wanted. And the only reason he’d been the one to land that job was because of his dad.

But his dad hadn’t been around for a real long time, respected as he was. His dad had died a long, long time ago. Not here, thank God, but somewhere far away at some other morgue in some other small town with his other wife and other kid…but still, it was a place he knew well. And he knew that there was something incredibly too odd going on.

“What’s wrong, Owen.” Hannah said, not even asking a question, but more making a statement. He could tell she was getting frustrated, because she knew he was holding something back. She always knew. But he couldn’t bring himself to say the words. Not tonight. All he had to do was wait five more minutes for the rain to stop and they’d be home free….

“I’m checking the weather,” She said when he didn’t answer her. “And if this thing doesn’t die down, we’re gonna be spending an awful long time in here together. And if we do, I want to know exactly what you’re thinking.”

Owen crossed his fingers that her phone would bring good news, but it didn’t. The weather station said that this could go on through half the night. There didn’t seem to be an end anywhere in sight. Hannah gave Owen an expectant look and, instead of telling her what she wanted to know, Owen looked down at the floor.

“Maybe we could call one of my friends to come get us.” Owen said quietly. Even though he didn’t have very many close friends that he actually hung out with, he was sure he could get someone to swing by and pick them up. Sure, they’d have some funny questions asked, and Owen would be teased at school for a while, but at least then they’d be out of here. And Owen would have given anything to be out of there right now.

Hannah debated with herself over lecturing him about not telling her what was going on, or being the good girlfriend and praising him for using his head. Since he’d proposed to her that night, she decided the latter was probably the better and more fair idea. So she nodded.

“That’s a really good idea, Owen. Why don’t you try that?”

Owen whipped out his phone and called the only three people he knew would come rescue him in the middle of the night.

The first was Molly, his sister. She lived a town away, even though she was only eighteen, because she constantly tried to get away from their mother. They didn’t get along too well, but she and Owen sure did. If anyone would come help them and keep her mouth shut about it, it would be Phoebe. But Owen got nothing but an answering machine. He tried three more times, and even left her a vague voicemail that would let her know it was an emergency. But she still didn’t come to their aid.

“She’s probably sleeping.” He said reluctantly, knowing he’d have to move on to someone else. His next thought went to Rusty, the football coach. Or, at least, one of the football coaches. He was Owen’s dad’s friend a long time ago, and he’d taken a special liking to the boy. Owen figured he’d get some mean jabs about right and wrong places to sleep with your girlfriend, but at least it would be kept quiet.

“Hello?” A loud, booming voice said over the phone after several moments of intense waiting.

“Coach?” Owen said. “Coach, it’s Owen. Are you there?”

There was just silence on the other end of the line for about a minute, and Owen was absolutely sure his coach had either walked away from the phone or fell asleep holding it.  But he couldn’t think of a respectful way to wake him back up, if he had even slipped away again.

“Coach?”

“I’m here, Owen. What do you need?” Coach’s voice was as loud as ever, and he sounded wide awake. He also sounded kind of annoyed. Then again, who wouldn’t be annoyed at getting called around three in the morning?

“Listen, Coach, I…I mean…can you do me a favor?”

“A favor? At three in the morning? What the hell kinda favor?” Coach sounded downright angry now, and Owen considered dropping the whole thing and telling Coach he had sleep-called him when he saw him next time. But Owen wasn’t going to just let Hannah sit here waiting for the rain to stop. If they got her home late…the amount of trouble she’d be in was unimaginable.

Owen took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts.

“I need a ride, Coach. Can you help me?”

No answer.

“Coach?”

“A ride from where, Owen? Why can’t your mom come get you?”

“Are you busy with something, Coach?” Owen was getting irritated now. He did people favors when they’d never done anything for him. And here his own coach, someone who’d helped raise him, couldn’t do him this one little favor? It was one car ride, not a cross-country trip. But his attitude must have came across in his voice.

“Damn right I’m busy with something. I was in the middle of sleeping, and tomorrow’s the draft pick for the team. Do you really wanna be messin’ with me right now, boy?”

“Jesus Christ in heaven, Coach,” Owen said, pissed off now. “Then don’t help. See if I care about your draft pick.”

“Owen!” Hannah whispered frantically, immediately trying to calm him down so he wouldn’t do something he would regret because of her. “Owen, stop it!”

“Boy…”

“What if I was dying out here, huh? What if I was stuck in the city morgue with my poor girlfriend, who needs to get back home before it gets light outside, because it started pouring on us while we were lost in the middle of the woods? Huh? What if I really just needed a favor from someone I trusted and they were too worried about their
draft pick
in the morning to really care, huh? Then what?”

Hannah stood horrified throughout this monologue. As much as she understood where Owen was coming from, he was going to get himself into serious trouble with the school. And that wasn’t something they could afford to be doing. And, on top of that, Owen had just told an
adult
that she was out here with him. And everyone knew who Owen was dating…what if Coach told her parents? Was Owen even thinking straight?

“So I’m supposed to leave the comfort of my home all because
you
snuck your girlfriend out of her parents’ house, got her lost in the woods, and then got her trapped in a morgue? Let’s assume you
didn’t
get her pregnant along the way. What do you expect me to do?”

“Obviously, I don’t expect you to do
anything at all,
since it seems to me you’re completely incapable of being anything besides useless.”

“Owen!” Hannah said, loudly enough to be heard this time. “Owen, stop it!”

“Yeah, Owen,” Coach chimed in. “Listen to your girlfriend and watch your mouth.”

“Don’t talk about her.”