The Rescuer Ch. 03

Shelly grabbed the clipboard next, and at least read the big bold header at the top, then dutifully filled out her section. But as usual, Keeley's boyfriend just had to quietly grouse a bit, although he clearly never expected that the lead guard would have ever heard him.

"... this is insane... the legal penalties... the financial clauses... did you even see those amounts... you just gave away every right you ever had... this isn't any normal non-disclosure agreement... why should I even sign it... "

The deep voice of the young man, with one hand resting lightly on the holster at his belt, had a slight British accent to it. Upon hearing it, Keeley started to shake even harder.

"You'll sign it, or get out, and start walking down the road. I'm not sure what the hell the weather is doing tonight, but I doubt you'll want to take the shortest route home. Unless you like swimming. You could just sign it falsely, planning on breaking the contract terms, and we'll be glad to visit you. Personally. In fact, that's one of the new rules here. If we let someone thru that eventually causes trouble later, they make that exact eight man crew go out and pick them up! We won't get another paying shift until we haul you back in. Sort of forces us all to be a bit more cautious about making mistakes. So do we yank you out of the cab, make you walk back across the bridge at gun point, or are you going to sign the release form and behave? It's your choice."

A flashlight from one of the shotgun wielding guards, shined on her purse, reminding Shelly to get out her driver's license. The lead guard took a picture of it with his phone, and handed it back to her. When Keeley fumbled around to get her own identification out, her boyfriend finally relented and signed. By the time all the formalities were done, the redhead was in even worse shape than ever before.

The lead guard's accent made her flinch strangely each time he spoke to their driver.

"Remember, wait for the red lights to bring all the other vehicles to a full and complete stop. Wait for your personal green signal, then drive across at exactly the proscribed speed. Don't be like that idiot who was late for work last week, tried to rush across, and got half his dozer crushed!"

The heavy reinforced steel gate could have easily stopped a tank, and it slide noiselessly aside to let them in. Seeing the same rather unremarkable road as before felt almost anticlimactic to Shelly. At least until they had gone down it a little ways. The trees suddenly parted, and a huge brightly lit amazing construction yard full of gigantic vehicles suddenly made them feel terribly small and vulnerable.

Like a mouse, who had accidentally rushed out onto a kitchen floor, full of hungry cats.

On either side of the yard, two extremely wide roads went out into the darkness. Endless lines of equipment, of all kinds, drove around crazily in all directions. The antique bus was almost empty of passengers again, as the workers quickly returned to whatever tasks they had been doing, before they'd had to take a break to act as ferry drivers. A small forest of all kinds young trees, were all bundled up and ready for planting, and completely filled one corner of the yard. Huge piles of dirt, clay and various sized stones, separated by tall concrete barriers, were in another corner. A giant open sided shelter, as big as a football field, was a hub of all sorts of maintenance activity. Some vehicles were being completely torn apart and put back together. Others seemed to be having just routine work done on them. The last corner held row upon row of idle equipment, and one small management shack.

Shelly felt that some small countries didn't have as much money invested in the mechanical hordes swirling around in front of them. Their cab slowed and stopped right in front of the only visible stop sign. A text dinged on their driver's phone, and after a single word answer was sent back, all the overhead work lights in the yard switched to red. Some of the larger vehicles never stopped though, and deliberately finished their tasks before halting.

Keeley pointed out her side of the cab, almost in wonder, as an earthquake seemed to be approaching from the right hand side of the yard. The dump truck was so large, that Shelly couldn't even see the top of it's wheels, much less the driver in its cab. The last of the big dozers and huge trucks filled with trees to be planted, stopped well away from the gargantuan's path.

"Out here, size really does matter. The bigger you are, the less you have to stop. Those things never do. You get in their way, you're usually dead. They'd never even feel this cab underneath one of their wheels. It would be like we weren't even a speed bump for it!"

As the unimaginably enormous dump truck passed, Shelly could see the load of broken bits of concrete jostling in the back of the bed. Some of them still had twisted bits of steel rebar, sticking out of the overpass sized chunks. Another identical monster crawled out of the darkness from the opposite direction. By the time it disappeared into the huge trees, that looked like weeds beside it wheels, she could see the mounds of perfectly uniform garden dirt inside of its payload area.

Finally, one lonely little green light, in the murky darkness at the back of the construction yard glowed to life. The rest of the overhead floodlights were still glowing red, putting a sort of an evil cast onto the entire lot. No other vehicle had begun moving again, and their cab used the eerie stillness to resume its prescribed pace, and swerved around and thru the motionless fleet. If Shelly hadn't personally seen the two giants that had already vanished, she would have been much more worried about passing so close to their slightly smaller cousins.

Again, she felt the analogy of a terrified mouse slowly creeping back into a hole in a kitchen baseboard was perfect.

The cab swung back and forth a few more times, avoiding one stalled vehicle or another, but Keeley made no comment whatsoever. She still seemed almost half out of it. Something clearly was bothering her about this odd new section of their planned night out. With one last rough shake back onto the proper line, their driver straightened his path out just in time, and the cloyingly dense wall of trees simply swallowed them up.

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As soon as the tight almost claustrophobic road enveloped them, Keeley turned around and got up on her knees to desperately looked out the back window of the cab.

The harsh red lights instantly changed to green, and the largest construction vehicle still in view slowly moved out of frame. As if sorted by size, the next larger sized dump truck crossed past the tiny opening in the dense forest wall. Eventually the slowly shrinking view let her see smaller vehicles pass by. The yard looked extremely busy again just as the green lights switched back to white.

Their new road suddenly jogged left, then right, then left again. All of the precious contact with the real modern world had vanished again, leaving her at the mercy of her own confused memories. Seth angrily pulled her back down into her seat, but she found herself unable to look at him. The oppressive feeling of deja vu only got worse, as she began to stare intently out her side window, and at the base of the trees on either side of the extremely narrow road.

Her heart suddenly pounded wildly inside of her chest.

Now there wasn't any undergrowth out there.

None at all.

It was as if someone had painstakingly combed the floor of an entire forest. No broken limbs. No rough piles of stone. No fallen trees. No bushes or climbing vines. Everywhere before tonight the spaces between underneath the trees had been a choked mess. Before Keeley could easily imagine her dress and skin being ripped and torn, by thorns and thin switches of wood, as she fled thru the nightmare landscape.

Somehow this too neatly manicured and overly controlled setting frightened her even more. Worse, they had begun to drive lower and lower along their road. Thoughts of the recent floods that should have covered up at least part of this strange forest, but hadn't, wouldn't leave her mind alone.

An odd tightening in her chest began making her entire body ache.

The horrible nightmare that had danced just out of her conscious reach began taunting her again. In ever tightening mental circles, it began to surround her. Poking at all of her dreams and desires, that so often were in direct competition with each other. The brief feelings of joy of the concert, corporate headquarters and the museum preview began to rapidly fade.

The peace she enjoyed each Sunday night... in the arms of her favorite customer... did it's best to hold on a little longer as her mood abruptly turned even darker.

She almost jumped out of her skin, when Seth gently nudged her, to get her to pay attention to what their cabbie was saying. He hissed quietly enough that just maybe only Shelly heard him berate her, but so far their kind driver hadn't missed much.

"What is wrong with you! I know this place is spooky, but I certainly didn't pick this route on purpose! I had nothing to do with this shortcut! If there is really something bothering you? Out with it!"

Keeley hated the feel of Shelly's intense blue eyes on her at times like these. The blonde, eventually, used any evidence of a personal weakness in others to her own advantage. Always and without fail. At the club, her roommate certainly never let such displays go uncataloged. Customers, management, wait staff, bartenders and other dancers all knew better than to ever let their guard completely down around her.

They didn't call her THE Bitch behind her back for nothing.

The feel of another stare... this time from their understanding driver... helped Keeley past her normal reticence at times like these.

"... I keep feeling like I have been out here before... I mean this exact place... in fact... I know that I have... something horrible happened... I feel like I could almost describe what's coming up on the road ahead... and maybe... just m-maybe... I can... "

Her boyfriend abruptly let go of her arm, and finally she could make herself stare back at him. The look in his eyes said volumes about his own mental state. Seth clearly was hiding something from all of them, too. Deep down, he was beginning to get as upset as she already was, but his blustering male pride took control again.

"That's crazy! I've had enough of this shit tonight! Well? Prove it! Since for some reason we seem to be stuck in a slow gear? You should have plenty of time to tell us what's up ahead, long before we get there! Go ahead, Keeley! I dare you! Do it!"

If the taunt about their speed was supposed to have gotten their driver to make a change, it didn't work. The needle on the cab's speedometer remained motionless, but this time there was no comforting support from him. Even Shelly stayed completely neutral in this new fight, as if she too wanted to know the truth, no matter how painful it might become for them all.

"... it's the forest... look at the trees... they aren't natural... there's no little limbs to bump into... no broken branches to stumble over... no fallen tree trunks to sit down on... I remember at least that much about this place... it's too perfect... there should be an ornate iron fence... somewhere up ahead... with a tall wide arching double gate... made out of gray stones... not bricks... maybe just a little drive further on... a sort of a town... or tiny village I guess... all abandoned... but not falling down... just lost... alone... all alone in these horrible trees that have swallowed it up... a very long time ago... "

Seth laughed, in open derision, but no one else made a single sound.

"All sorts of those old short ghost stories, that you used to obsessively read in school, start out like that! You're just remembering one of those! That's all! Be more specific! Quick! Before we crash into that ornate gate of yours! This isn't like that bridge at the corporate headquarters! It just can't be! Seeing that stupid thing tonight has got you all messed up! Even worse than you usually are!"

Keeley tried to muster up the internal energy to get angry, but the normal relief she got from that sort of emotion was denied her. The twisting smoke-like figures from her worst nightmare were filling up the corners of her eyes. Her thoughts struggled to push them away and quickly failed. Only concentrating on remembering the small group of buildings, that she was almost certain had been real, helped her regain a little control.

"... there is an old well... no... a huge fountain... right past the front gate... the road splits around it... a few low buildings are on each side... right behind the fountain is a tall high peaked church or school... with a bell tower but no bell... lots of glass windows... but none of them are broken... nothing is broken... just old... dark... abandoned... cursed... and beyond that... up on a little hill... was... was... "

Her eyes refused to remain open, and Keeley gladly let them shut tight, expecting to get ridiculed for her over active imagination. But again there was complete silence in the cab. Another minute passed, and Shelly let out a deep gasp of fear. Seth slid a little bit more away from her on the bench seat, as if in revulsion, even as their cab driver spoke softly.

"How did you know that? Look! There it is! No one has been allowed out here for decades! Open up your eyes! I can't stop! I'm not allowed to stop on this road at all! Our passage thru this route is being timed on the other end. They'll know if I stop! That is why I have to drive at this stupidly slow speed! They had to cut down huge trees, to reveal the old road thru the forest to get here! This place has been abandoned for over half a century! How did you know it even existed? You just described it perfectly!"

Keeley's hands shook as she covered up her eyes, and then she slowly let her fingers spread apart to be able to peek between them.

It was true!

All so horrifyingly true!

The fence, the gates, the outbuildings, the strange church-like structure, the missing bell. It was just like she kept dreaming about, and had only just now been able to consciously remember. In their cab's bright lights, the walls of the church had faded deep stains from old repeated floods, but the huge tightly mortared stones still looked strong and undamaged.

The raging flood waters hadn't been that high in years and years.

Shelly was pointing at what was on the small rise, but Keeley just couldn't make herself look. She already knew that the remnants of the huge old lawn and garden had been completely overgrown with enormous trees. That was taking it one step too far. What was beyond the garden she remembered all too well.

Seth quietly echoed whatever comments Shelly must have been making.

"That place is huge! It would be worth an absolute fortune, if it ever got fixed up! The floods don't seemed to have ever gotten into that place! I wonder what's still inside of it! Or when was the last time anyone had ever walked thru those huge doors! I bet we can't even see half of the mansion, not thru all these damn trees! Is that what all the guards are for? To keep people from knowing this place is even out here?"

Their cabbie suddenly seemed even more worried, and the tone of his voice made it clear that he wished he could speed up and drive away even faster. Thankfully the road began curving gently away from the mansion, and everyone else held their breath, as a series of violently tight and confusing jogs completely scrambled their sense of direction.

"No. It's what's just up ahead that's the worst thing. If any of you even breath a word that it exists, to anyone, there will be trouble for us all! Horrible and unending trouble! Down here in this part of the valley, they carefully cut away the undergrowth and the bare minimum of tree branches, just so we could use it. Our biggest shuttles and buses will just barely fit thru here. It'll be worse in a minute. We will have to zig zag are way thru. Even if this wasn't a totally restricted airspace, I don't think it could be seen underneath trees this big. Just forget you ever saw it! Please? Please?"

Keeley forced herself to open up her eyes.

The tracks of all the vehicles that had passed by earlier had only made a few ruts in the soft dirt. This wasn't an old road that was winding thru the forest. Here, the trees mattered the most, and their newly constructed temporary path wiggled and waved around the huge trunks. The bigger transport shuttles, that she had seen on the county road, would have had barely a few extra feet on either side of their windows and mirrors.

Still the forest floor itself looked too pristine. Too perfect. Only a stray few leaves seemed to mar the soft grass and moss surface. The inside of their cab grew very quiet, as the material of the road abruptly changed. Here bits of real gravel and clay had been risked, and finally another slow soft arc began leading them gently upwards.

The trees began to feel even more oppressive, as their branches completely covered the sky above them. If there had been a moon out tonight, it's light would have never reached them down here. Her nightmare suddenly flared to life again as the ramp leveled out, and they moved towards a place directly out of her worst night terrors.

Her head quickly swiveled all around the cab to make absolutely sure... but it was all too horribly true... she was finally back here in this awful place and not just in her dreams!

She was here in real life again!

The cab's back window revealed a perfectly straight old road behind them. Totally hidden by the intersecting tree branches high above them. The middle of the trunks were so close to the roadway that it was unclear if the ground sloped up to meet them, or if there was a sharp cliff-like drop off on both sides of the road. Where before heavy equipment had been used to clear their way, here all the work to restore their new path had all obviously been done by hand.

Looking out the front window again, Keeley could still see bits of undisturbed grass and weeds, where bushes had been laboriously dug up. The heavy wheels of the cabs and limos had barely disturbed the natural dirt surface. Ahead was the unending nightmare tunnel from her dreams.

The huge branches were like arms... reaching down to capture her... and tear her to pieces.

Grasping.

Clawing.

Ripping.

Restraining.

Invading.

Keeley couldn't control her own breathing anymore. She could only get air in short ragged gasps, that were growing louder by the second. Sometimes, she couldn't get anything into her lungs! Then just enough oxygen would make it thru to keep her from passing out. Their driver grew alarmed, and tried his best to calm her back down, even as he refused to stop the cab, and kept on going down the strange road from her very worst dreams.

"You could've never driven all the way out here! The little path and that huge curving ramp below wasn't even made until this spring! Some outside crew they shipped in, from all the way up state, just finished making this road passable after that! I don't know how in the hell you described that damned abandoned, flooded and ruined estate so well! But I promise you! You've never been here on this road before! Relax! Please? It was absolutely impossible for you to drive out here!"

When Keeley made herself lean up against the back of the front passenger seat, the driver almost lost control of the cab. The moment he finally turned around to look her directly into her eyes, he almost swerved and plunged them of the edge to their deaths.

Whatever he saw in her eyes made him truly frightened, but that frozen expression only got worse, when words she had never dared to tell anyone ever before simply fell out of her mouth.