James Moore - The Haunted Forest Tour

“You’re preaching to the choir.”

“Is Booth flipping out?”

“Nobody knows where he is.”

“ What ?”

Hannah nodded. “Nobody can reach him.”

Mark was so dumbfounded that for a long moment he couldn’t even speak. How the hell did the head honcho of H. F. Enterprises go AWOL at a time like this? Unless…

“You think it’s sabotage? Maybe somebody kidnapped him?”

“I’m not even going to pretend to speculate.” She resumed walking down the hallway toward the main control room.

“So what’s Steve doing?”

Steve Bradford was second-in-command at H.F. Enterprises, and the guy who presided over most of the day-to-day operations of the company. Mark liked him a lot. He was basically the rich kid who liked to share his playground with his employees, and as corporate superiors went, Mark had never had a better one.

“He’s called in the Security Detail.”

Mark nodded his head. The Security Detail was a troop of heavily-armed soldiers with the best body armor around and enough firepower to take over a small nation, at least according to Steve. They were all familiar with the Haunted Forest and had done duty inside of it. They were the guys who kept the construction crews safe when it came time to put down more tracks. Screw the National Guard. He’d bank on the Security Detail every time. The guy who was in charge of them, Hal Ordover, was as scary as half the monsters Mark had seen. Only half of them, true, but still an intimidating man.

Mark and Hannah walked into the main control center. Steve sat there, his thinning hair soaked with sweat. The other H.F. Enterprises employees in the room spoke in hushed, panicked whispers, and several of them frantically typed on keyboards. At least half of the monitors were blank.

Moments later, Ordover came into the room dressed in his heavy armor and carrying what looked like a howitzer on his shoulder. Steve moved in his direction quickly, not even acknowledging that Mark had joined them. Mark might have been offended under some other wildly different circumstances, but not these.

“We’re ready to go in.” Hal’s voice was as gravelly as ever, as if he’d been gargling with hot sand. Every time the man spoke, Mark wanted to offer him a cough drop, but it was just his natural voice, which seemed to feel the need to be as harsh as the rest of him.

Steve nodded his head and shrugged his shoulders simultaneously in a gesture that looked uncomfortable as hell. “We’ve got to get those people out of there. Let’s do this. Be safe, Hal.”

Ordover nodded and turned away, already speaking into the com-link he wore on his head. As he walked, he slipped his helmet in place. The uniforms were red, white, and blue, not your standard-issue military olive. Made them stand out better while they stood guard over the workers in the forest, giving the often-reluctant but well-paid employees a better sense of security.

Mark watched the security team’s progress on one of the working monitors as they left the western side of the building and marched toward the three trucks meant to take them to the tram line.

The oversized trucks were gone from sight within four minutes.

“Do you think they’ll be okay?” Hannah’s voice was very small.

Mark looked at the entrance into the Haunted Forest and shook his head. He had his doubts. “Christ, I really hope so.”

Barbara and Lee paced around the building for a few moments, and while they did, Mindy did all she could to make Brad comfortable. He was looking anything but comfortable. In fact, he looked like a man who was half a foot away from death’s door and about to step onto an oil slick. His skin was so pale that it almost looked translucent, except for the deep gashes on his face, which emphasized the sickly tone of the rest of his flesh.

Lee came back into the room and stared at Mindy for a moment before turning his attention to the little boy who was currently drawing on the dusty desktop with his fingers. He sighed sadly and looked back at Mindy. “Listen, if you get too bored waiting for everyone, you can keep trying the computer and the light switches. A lot of these municipal buildings have backup generators or even bomb shelters. We’re going to see about finding one of those while we’re looking. Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and find both.”

“Okay, Lee, I can see the generator, but why a bomb shelter?”

The older man smiled. He must have been a knockout in his earlier days, because that smile brought back a ghost of his youth. “It’s a stretch, but you never know. If there is a shelter, they might have bottled water or even some food. I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink of water and some canned green beans right about now.”

Part of Mindy didn’t think she’d ever be hungry again, but the idea of a glass of water was mighty appealing. “Well, good luck, and be careful, Lee.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” He looked away from her and focused on the boy. “Tommy, you take care of Brad and Mindy, okay? I’m counting on you.”

Tommy nodded his head a little listlessly but managed a weak smile.

A moment later Lee was gone and she was alone with the boy and the man lying nearby, sweating and whimpering in his restless sleep. Mindy didn’t like to think about it, but Brad’s chances were not good. Not at all. Aside from the whole monsters-are-trying-to-eat-us issue, he was suffering from God alone knew what sort of internal injuries. Even if they were sitting in a top-notch medical facility instead of an abandoned building, she didn’t think he’d make it through the night.

Lee and Barbara were gone, and Tommy, bless his little heart, was staring into space and writing on the dust that covered the workspace as if his life depended on it. She didn’t want to think about what scars his young psyche was already experiencing, and she definitely didn’t want to be the one to pay the bills. Near as she could tell, that particular privilege was going to whatever state he was from, or to his next of kin. His dad hadn’t gotten off the tram in time, and she hadn’t seen his mother in a while.

God, what if he’d seen his mother get eaten? The thought made her shiver.

Mindy looked around the office space and tried to take in any details that could keep her occupied. There was mold in all of the corners, which wasn’t very surprising for a water reclamation plant; the humidity almost guaranteed the growth of some sort of fungus. Water stains covered the lower edges of the walls, and if she dwelled on it, she could smell the musty odor of the black spots that were pushing through the paint. Four years of going unattended hadn’t hurt the place too much, but there was no escaping mold and the like. They were almost as inevitable as death, taxes, and tedious celebrity scandals.

Brad coughed violently, his face getting actual color for the first time in a while. He sat up long enough to heave a few drops of dark red spittle across the front of his shirt.

He opened his eyes for a moment and called Tina’s name. When he didn’t get an answer, he settled back down and started whimpering again.

Baby sitting. That’s what I’m doing. I don’t mind really, but what if Christopher needs me? She pushed the thought away angrily. Her son was a grown man, and there was a little boy right over at the desk who needed watching. She turned to look at Tommy, who had already gone through so much in just a few hours.

Tommy was gone.

“Tommy?” Her voice was soft and scared. Mindy stood up quickly and almost lost her balance. Her heart was jack-hammering away merrily in her chest as she scanned the room and tried to see where he might have gone.