The Vanishing (5 page)

“
Tonight.”

“
But shouldn’t you get a
good night’s sleep first?”

“
I won’t sleep. Not with
that thing hovering over me and staring at me with its creepy black
eyes.”

She saw his point. If she was going
through that, she wouldn’t want to sleep either...at least not
alone. “I’ll tell you what. We’ll take turns driving. That way, you
can get some sleep on the way to Nevada.”

His body relaxed and he smiled.
“Thanks, Autumn.” He stood. “I should pack. Is seven
okay?”

“
Sure. I can get off
early.” And if Hampton had a fit, let him. This was her first real
chance to find her sister, and there was no way she was going to
blow it.

Chapter Five

The drive through the night should have
worn Autumn out, but it didn’t. Something, deep down, told her that
a piece of the puzzle was about to fall into place. She was doing
more than sitting around and wondering what to do next. She needed
this. Needed to act. To do something. Anything. Her sister was out
there...or up there. She glanced at the clear sky. The stars
twinkled. The spaceships were only over the major cities of the
world, and North Dakota apparently was too small for aliens to
bother with. Well, except for that strange occurrence at the
capitol. Nothing about that was reported on the news, and it should
have been.

She sighed and shook her head. Changing
the radio station, she glanced at Alex who slept in the passenger
seat. She wondered what the alien standing over his bed at night
wanted with him. The irony wasn’t lost on her. If anyone had told
her aliens visited them while they were trying to sleep a month
ago, she would have called them crazy. As much as she wanted to get
back to a sense of normalcy, she feared that nothing would ever be
normal again.

The radio played out a soothing tune.
Good. She needed something mindless to listen to. Up ahead the
vacant road, she saw a figure in white standing in front of her.
Startled, she pressed her foot to the brake, careful not to slam
it. As she slowed, she blinked several times. She was seeing
things. There was no way she could be seeing what she thought she
was seeing. But as the car came to a stop, the headlights bounced
off the man’s body.

This can’t be happening.
First aliens and now angels?

The man in white with his wings almost
hidden behind him motioned for her to leave the car so she could
talk to him.

She gripped the wheel as she debated
whether to obey him, wake Alex up, or just drive around him. The
figure standing before her was imposing, to say the least. His
expression was grim, making him seem more intimidating than he
might actually be. The only assuring thing about him was the
concern in his eyes. But even as her heart slowed, she couldn’t
fully relax. After all, he wasn’t a cute little baby with wings
fluttering around with a bow and arrow. Licking her lips, she
decided to talk to the angel. She softly opened the door and shut
it, careful not to wake Alex. Her steps were hesitant. This thing
was different from the dark shadow she’d seen emanating from that
man in the mall.

“
You must turn back,” the
angel said.

She didn’t know why but she thought
he’d sound more...angelic. He sounded like an ordinary man. He even
looked like an ordinary man, except for the long white robe and
wings.

“
Don’t go to Area
51.”

“
Why?”

“
There are some things you
cannot change, and this will not bring your sister back. Your
answer does not lie in the direction you are going.”

Hope fluttered in her chest. “Do you
know where my sister is?”

“
Yes. She is safe. You
have no need to worry for her. Worry for him.” He motioned to
Alex.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw
Alex stir in his seat. “Why?”

“
He must not go to
Nevada.”

She stuffed her hands into the pockets
of her jacket and debated the logic of pressing an angel for more
information. After all, did angels engage in a question and answer
session with humans? Finally, she decided to press her luck.
“Why?”

“
They want him
there.”

“
They? You mean the
aliens?”

“
That is what they call
themselves.”

That is what they call
themselves?
Did that mean they weren’t
really aliens? If they weren’t really aliens, then... “Who are
they?”

Suddenly, he disappeared.

Surprised, she stepped back.

“
Autumn?”

She turned to Alex who was opening the
car door.

“
What are you doing in the
middle of the road?”

“
Uh...” She moved her hand
through the space where the angel had been standing. All she felt
was a warmth that quickly dissipated in the cool air around them.
So he had been there. She hadn’t imagined it.

Alex approached her. “Are you
okay?”

“
I don’t know.” She sighed
and rubbed her eyes. “I don’t know anything anymore.”

“
Hey, don’t worry about
that one.” He rubbed her back. “Everything’s out of
balance.”

She brushed her hair away from her face
and looked at him. “Do we really have to go to Area 51?”

He put his arm down and frowned.
“What’s going on? I thought you agreed that this was our only
lead.”

“
I know. But...” She
crossed her arms, feeling vulnerable. “I saw an angel here, and he
said that we should turn back.” There. She said it.

“
An angel?”

“
Well, I think it was an
angel. It looked a lot like one. You know, the wings and all.
Anyway, he said that we should go back.”

“
But I was told to
go.”

“
I realize
that.”

He turned and took a few steps away
from her before he returned to her. “I’m going. I have to
go.”

“
You can’t! The angel said
that you mustn’t, even though they want you there.”

“
You mean the
aliens?”

“
I’m not sure. The way he
said, it sounded like they’re not what we think they are. And he
said that Marianne isn’t there.”

“
Where is she?”

“
I asked him but he
wouldn’t say.” She was starting to get frustrated. Couldn’t the
angel stick around and answer Alex’s questions? This way was
getting to be complicated.

“
I’ve been going through a
living nightmare, Autumn. I have to find Marianne and bring her
back. I don’t want to spend my life without her. I love
her.”

She knew that. It was obvious in the
way he used to look at Marianne, and she respected him for
that.

“
When I do manage to
sleep, I get images of Marianne. She’s comatose with all the others
who disappeared, and I keep seeing the number 51. Doesn’t it make
sense that whatever is happening, Area 51 is the key?”

Alex had a point—a good one. She
couldn’t deny that.

“
I’ll drive you home, but
I have to keep going. I have to find out whether or not she is
there. It could be that nothing is there. But I owe it to her to
get her out if I can.”

“
The angel said you could
get hurt.”

Alex shrugged. “So what? She’s worth
the risk. I don’t want to go through the rest of my life without
her.”

But the angel said Marianne—wherever
she was—was safe. Did she believe the angel? Did she believe the
alien that told her Marianne was safe? Both things told her the
same thing, but they stood on opposite ends of the spectrum. Didn’t
they? What if they weren’t? What if they were in this mess
together?

She needed a cigarette. Hurrying back
to the car, she dug the cigarette out of her purse. Her hands shook
as she lit it. She hated this. For a moment when she spoke with the
angel, she felt safe. She inhaled, struggling to grasp what was
going on. Who could she trust? Maybe she couldn’t trust anyone.
What if they were all screwed?

“
What are you doing?” he
asked, coming up to her.

“
Trying not to run down
the road screaming and pulling my hair out.”

“
I thought you
quit.”

She took another drag. “I started back
up.”

He looked as if he wanted to say
something but sighed. “I can’t blame you.” After a moment of
looking up at the sky, he said, “I’ll drive you back to
Bismarck.”

“
No. I’ll keep going with
you.”

“
Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I don’t know who...or
what...to trust any more, except for Alicia and you.” She finished
smoking her cigarette and threw it on the road where she stomped on
it. “Do you want to drive or sleep?”

“
I’m wide awake. I’ll
drive.”

She went to the passenger side and
slipped into the car.

He got in next to her and shut the
door. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough if she’s there or
not.”

She buckled her seatbelt and settled
into the seat. “Yeah. I guess so.”

Chapter Six

A full day passed before Alex parked
the car close to Area 51.

Autumn examined the flat landscape.
Nothing was around for miles. “Why did you park here?”

“
I have an image in my
mind. The alien I told you about, the one that stood by my bed,
sent it to me—telepathically. It said that I would know where to go
when I got here.” He took a deep breath and motioned to the still
night in front of them. “This is it.”

That didn’t make sense at all, but that
was just one more thing that didn’t make sense so she wasn’t
surprised. Instead, she shrugged and got out of the car. “Well,
let’s find out what’s going on.”

He turned off the car and
lights.

She waited for him to approach her
before she spoke. “Where do we go?”

“
This way.” He motioned
south, so they proceeded along the desert terrain in
silence.

She shivered and zipped
her jacket. Though there wasn’t a breeze, she felt as if something
cool passed by them. Glancing behind them, she noted that nothing
out of the ordinary was in sight. Still, it spooked her to no end.
Were they being watched? And if so, by what? She didn’t detect any
cameras. Perhaps a satellite had picked up their location? No.
Whatever it was—if
it
was a person or alien or whatever—it was close. Suddenly, she
got the nagging suspicion that they should have obeyed the angel.
Well, it was too late to turn back now. They were here, and for
better or worse, they had to find out if Marianne was here or
not.

He stopped.

Surprised, she halted her steps and
watched him.

“
It’s somewhere along
here.” He pointed to the ground.

Turning her attention to the sand, she
squinted in the moonlight until she noticed a faint line in the
ground. She knelt down and brushed the sand out of the
way.

“
It continues through
here,” Alex said, tracing the area with his hands. “It forms a
square.”

What would something like this be doing
out here...so far from anything?

“
It’s a door.” He wiped
the sand until he exposed a latch. “I think we’re supposed to go
down here.”

Autumn rubbed her forehead
in disbelief as he pried the door open. Who would put a door
leading into the ground out here? And more importantly,
why
would they do
it?

He pulled out his keychain and turned
on the flashlight he had on it. “Take a look.”

She reluctantly obeyed. Down the hole
was a series of rungs. Great. It wasn’t exactly something she
wanted to do—plunge into a dark abyss where who knew what laid at
the end of the path. But she’d come this far, and she wasn’t about
to turn back now, especially not when she was about to find out if
her sister was somewhere down there. “Did the alien show you this
too?” she whispered, even though there was no one around them.
Well, there was no one that she could see. And that thought made
her shiver. What if someone or something was watching
them?

“
The alien sent me a
series of images, and this is one of them,” Alex answered. “I’ll go
down first and you follow. Okay?”

She nodded.

The descent into the darkness might
have spooked her, but it wasn’t as scary as she imagined. At least
no creepy, slimy creatures slithered up to kill her. If she’d been
watching a movie or dreaming, that’s exactly the kind of horrible
thing that would have happened. No. She wasn’t watching a movie,
nor was she asleep. She reached the bottom without incident. The
passage was quiet enough that she could hear their breathing in the
small concrete horizontal tunnel that led to more darkness. Of
course. It had to be dark. She stayed close to Alex as they slowly
made their way down the path. Even if Alex beamed his flashlight
ahead, it was hard to make out where they were going.

“
What other images did the
alien show you?” Even though she whispered the question, her voice
echoed.