You Promised Me Geeks: UK Summer

Two minutes to go, Tracy let her eyelids droop, the crowd seemed to go far away. Then her eyes popped open. She'd seen two people, yellow-white hair, a man and a woman, the man in simple beige shorts and a pale yellow t-shirt, the woman in a thin, cottony red mid-thigh sundress. Both had been close to six feet tall. She looked again, couldn't see them. She blinked.

Were they the same two she'd almost run into? That Asha said she'd had a drink with after Tracy had fallen asleep? She shook her head, closed her eyes, thought again of Janet and opened them.

Wait. The couple again? How did they get to the outer ring so quickly? Yellow-white hair, yellow t-shirt, red sundress, seemed shorter. But most of the crowd continued their slow procession. She leaned forward, looked past Asha's back, inhaled roughly. They were over there. Definitely. That hair. Red and yellow clothing. They. More than one pair, more difference between the heights of the men and women. Definitely. Weirdos. It struck her that she was glad she'd passed out the previous night, prevented Asha from inviting that couple along.

Asha's eyes remained closed, her breathing slow, her left hand wrapped in Tracy's left, her right hand still on 'their' Saracen stone, Tracy recalled her insisting it be called. She looked at her watch.

Thirty seconds, she looked up, clear blue sky, the sun still high in the western sky to her left. Green fields, the distant stands of trees. The murmuring of the crowd had increased, what seemed to be a cheer built as the second hand on her watch swept the final ten seconds to the solstice.

"Hip, hip," the crowd began in almost precise unison as the second hand on Tracy's watch swept its way the last few seconds to 5:29 pm.

"Hooray..., hip...," the crowd cheered as one with near-perfect timing. Tracy opened her mouth to join the second round when her left hand was nearly crushed by Asha's sudden squeeze, the thin girl's voice turned to a moan of unexpected pain. At the same moment she heard a second expression of pain, Asha's voice its own ragged moan under the crowd's joyous chant. Tracy looked, saw her friend's eyes closed, her face a mask of surprised misery with tight muscles and an open mouth.

Tracy turned to face Asha and reached and grabbed at Asha's right wrist, her hand gripped the stone tightly. As the crowd began another round of cheers she finally jerked her left hand free from Asha's grip and reached it to try and pry Asha's vise-like grip from the stone.

The crowd's chant died raggedly as a sudden and horrifically loud buzzing sound caused Tracy and the vast majority to flinch, the sound so loud it was almost painful. Tracy saw people's hands go to their ears and many bent at the waist and a few even dropped to their knees. She blinked rapidly and felt tears run onto her cheeks but after a moment mastered herself and wedged her back against the stone and used all of her strength to finally force Asha's hand off of the stone. The taller girl half-collapsed, her weight dropped and Tracy groaned with the sudden burden. But she held then slowly lowered the two of them to a squatting position.

"The... fuck... wha...," Asha's voice choppy and low, her mouth next to Tracy's ear the only reason she heard it over the ubiquitous buzzing and the rising panic of the crowd.

"You ok, Asha?"

"Oh, god, so... much energy... then, wham. Sucked. Out. Tired."

"Something's up," Tracy said firmly, she glanced around, she saw people break and run from the circle, some colliding with others.

Asha's voice had regained a share of its usual brio but her eyes were hooded and blood-shot. "Ya think? Fuck my mother..., red-headed body-stealing alien bitch."

The Veil Between Worlds

Screams were clear and ululated as recent celebrants devolved in panic-stricken terror. Tracy kept her crouched position as Asha took more of her own weight.

"What... a nightmare," Tracy said, when Asha shook her head at her she leaned closer, "a nightmare. What the hell?"

The buzzing had intensified to the point it rattled Tracy's jaw, the little hitch in the left side of it seemed to resonate. She clamped her teeth but that was even worse so she loosened her jaw and suffered the vibration. She nudged Asha to stay still and lifted herself a few inches to look for the security detail.

"Shit," she huffed as she watched a man she guessed was somewhere in his thirties run blindly into one of the other Saracen stones to leave a bloody stain on the stone and drop backwards to the grass. She couldn't find any of the security contingent in the swirling mass of humanity.

"Oh, goddam...," Tracy put her mouth next to Asha's ear, "those white haired people, red and yellow, your friends, they're out there. They're controlling this!"

She sidled sideways and pushed Asha and guided her eyes outward, where one of the white-haired couples stood, seemingly unbothered by the buzzing din and sense of panic.

"They're... directing people," Tracy said into a veil of crimson hair, "it seems. Over there."

She pointed into the circle where it seemed two couples standing a short distance apart separated a few, select people who calmed and stayed in the circle while others were cut loose and wasted no time in getting far away. How they did it, Tracy wasn't sure but the male half of each couple held a hand close to his mouth while the female gestured with an arm and hand. We're they selecting? Based on what?

Asha and Tracy kept close to each other and stayed low while they peeked around stones.

"The buzzing, it's... talking...," Tracy muttered as she squinted her eyes, "saying... but I can't tell..."

"What buzzing?" Asha said, her eyes closed again. "Where's the police?"

"Huh? Now what?"

Tracy looked up at what had been a clear blue sky on a bright sunny day as a dimness covered the entire stone circle with its significantly diminished population. It was like when Tracy had hidden under a blanket to hide from her parents when she was young. She saw crowds of people outside only as silhouettes. Inside of the stones the white-haired couples herded the people they'd chosen into the very center of the stone circle. Tracy sidled to keep the two of them out of sight and pulled or pushed Asha as necessary as her usual live-wire friend did little more than simply follow.

The veil around the stone circle hadn't relented but the tooth chattering buzz had softened to a loud background hum. Tracy exhaled slowly and shook her head as Asha beside her dropped to her knees. Although dim Tracy could see three white-haired couples approach the center, each pair seemed to have three or four dazed people in tow, oddly most of them appeared to be women and most of those had red or reddish hair. All of their concentration seemed to be on their captives, or whatever they were, so Tracy shifted to get a clearer view.

As she'd seen, the controlling couples were all dressed alike, the men's casual beige shorts and yellow t-shirts and the women's red mid-thigh sundresses. They all had that white-yellow hair she'd seen at both pubs the day before. But their faces were subtly different from each other and their skin tones ranged from pale, like hers, to a shade closer to what Asha called her coffee with milk skin.

"Shit," she said under her breath, ducked behind the stone and pulled Asha close to it as she looked around, none of the three couples were the pair from the first pub. She had only a fuzzy memory of the second encounter but she was pretty certain it had been the same pair. She looked around, tried to crane her neck without standing or further giving away their hiding spot. She didn't see any other people and with the background hum now low she thought she could hear chants from the spot where the people had been gathered.

"Asha," Tracy nudged her friend, a strained face looked at her, she'd never seen her usually ebullient friend look so tired but beneath the heavy eyelids the golden eyes still had some of their sparkle, "have you seen any more white-haired couples? Like the ones last night? They're doing this."

"What? They were... kinda strange...," Asha said, her low, ragged voice carried the fatigue her eyes showed, "but harmless. Odd accents, but Brits of some sort."

"They're not here," a firm feminine voice said from somewhere not quite with the group of captors and captives, both Tracy's and Asha's heads jerked, "you've missed them."

The two friends squatted as low as they could with stones on two sides, looked where they could but couldn't spot the speaker. Tracy nudged Asha so they faced each other quickly and mouthed 'her?' Asha nodded.

"You said a redhead in a dress," an answering male voice, continental accented English, "we have them. And a few extra."

"Big tits, with a tiny, dark-haired girl, both of them," the female's voice was closer to the full group, controlled anger in the voice, "everybody else, just distractions, practice. They promised us she'd be here."

'Shit,' Tracy mouthed to Asha, she winced in response.

"They didn't leave," a different female voice, an American accent, "maybe they weren't in here."

"Hellfire," a male voice, that slightly off kilter British accent again, "veil's dropping. Need to move. Now."

Tracy looked up and had the impression the veil, whatever it was made of, was indeed thinning.

"Bring those two, that man, eliminate the rest," the female not-quite-Brit voice, "let's go."

Tracy glanced around their stone and saw the pair from the pub in the lead. They separated two women and a man who'd been chosen, three of the white-haired men put their wrists to their mouths, spoke quietly into some sort of watches. The remainder of the captives suddenly jerked to their full heights, their backs arched. The mouths that Asha and Tracy could see opened wide as if in silent screams. Both put their own hands over their mouths to avoid screaming themselves.

Almost as suddenly blood ran out of the ears and noses of the victims. The mouths of the two that faced Asha and Tracy gurgled blood and their eyes seemed to fill with blood as well. All seven of the victims dropped to their knees then fell forward. A few feet twitched but they were otherwise still.

Beyond them each other white-haired couple had a person from the crowd between them, the first a red-headed woman in a dress simlar in style but certainly not fit to Asha's, a second red-headed woman in a longer skirt and a dark-haired young man in jeans. They continued past the stones in the direction opposite of where the security tent stood. Tracy pushed Asha and they duck-walked to keep close to the party. The captors and their hypnotised trio stopped at the edge of the stone circle, Tracy peeked and could see clearly beyond the stones and to the road. All of the people must've somehow been chased in the other direction. One of the men sprinted off and she saw the not-quite-Brit woman reach into a pocket.

"Bring the car, meet us at the warehouse in Bath," she ordered as she tossed what looked like keys to the woman with the American accent.

A moment later a panel van screeched to a stop at the road, the sprinter behind the wheel. It had to have been somewhere close.

"Let's go," the whole group left at a jog.

"We've gotta follow them," Asha said.

"Wha, no—," Tracy objected.

"What, stay here and be the only ones with the bodies...," Asha said sourly, her face was drawn and haggard, her eyelids droopy, "what do we say, costumed hypnotists snapped their fingers and they died?"

"Shit, ok..., that way, those bushes," Tracy said, "can you run?"

Asha pushed her and they ran, squatted in the bushes. When they looked back they could see silhouettes on the far side of the stone circle.

"Their car," Asha said, her voice hoarse, "that woman. I... need... and go find them, rescue those three they have."

"What?!? Um," Tracy's face scrunched, "ok, you need to feed, on her. Fine. But how will we find that warehouse?"

"She's American," Asha said, "she'll have a map..."

"Fucking hell," Tracy snorted, "parking lot's far side of the buses, past the portapotties. We'll circle and find her. I hope."

Tracy grabbed Asha's hand and her friend followed mechanically, Tracy was surprised that she could get her friend to an almost running pace as the sounds of yells and other voices receded.

Drive on the Left

"Gotta be around here somewhere," Tracy muttered as she walked and tried to see over the cars as Asha walked unsteadily in the opposite direction.

"This way," Asha croaked, Tracy looked and saw her friend point, she stepped quickly to her side. They saw a white head a couple of car rows over walking quickly to their left.

Tracy squeezed Asha's hand. "I'll delay her, okay?"

She didn't wait for an answer and stepped quickly past two more cars and turned right. Past two cars to her left she saw the woman in her red dress just as she turned right four cars down the row. Tracy crouched and ran, stopped just at the last car, stood quickly and tried to catch her breath. She stepped forward and just as she got to the corner of the car heard a sharp exclamation.

"Goddamn limey cars," clearly an American accent, but with no clear regional marker, a car door slammed as Tracy stepped around the last van. The woman in her haste had opened the passenger door. Tracy smiled despite her discomfort at the meeting.

"Ah, um, excuse...," Tracy said, the woman turned rapidly and her eyes went wide, her hands were empty but Tracy wondered if she had some hidden weapon or their invisible one, in for a dime though, "excuse me, could you give me a ride?"

The woman glared at her and backed up. Tracy didn't know what the model of car was, it was four doors but small, grey, nothing you'd notice in a crowd.

"No, sorry, I need to meet some people, can't..."

The confidence she'd shown in the stone circle corralling and killing innocent people seemed to have drained, or was it that she was alone here, Tracy wasn't sure.

Tracy tried to sound desperate, it was barely an act.

"Please, you saw what happened, I want to..."

The woman tried to put her right hand into a pocket but fumbled the keys to the ground, she looked down just as a burst of red hair appeared from her left and bundled into her, they teetered for a moment before they fell out of Tracy's sight behind the car.

Tracy dashed to the corner of the car, bent down and picked up the keys and saw Asha and the woman wrestle on the gravel. She shoved the keys into her pocket.

"Get off me, oof," the woman grunted, tried to throw a punch but Asha rolled them at just that moment and it had no force, "uh..."

The woman went silent as Asha locked her mouth onto the woman's, her limbs flailed for a moment before they went still.

"Asha," Tracy said, "don't, not like Jed... Asha!"

Tracy shook Asha by the shoulders. Her head almost hit Tracy in the chin when she snapped away from her prey onto her knees but the standing girl was able to react quickly enough to avoid it. Asha's face matched Janet's angry glare before she calmed. Her eyelids closed and she took three slow deep breaths. She opened her eyes and stuck her tongue out.

"Yuck... just... yuck. This bitch loves fleet week. Every sailor has a port if she's around."

"What?"

"Later..." Asha looked down at her victim, the white-haired woman's eyes were closed and her breathing was choppy. She was still..

"She's not... like Jed?"

"No, but, well, not sure what she'll be but she'll be out a while."

"Whatever, Let's get her up and go. I can hear sirens..."

Asha shifted and they wrestled the woman up, Asha took most of the weight. They dragged her around the car to the rear door.

"Shit," Tracy balanced the woman as she fished the keys out of her pocket, found the right key on the second try and she pulled the door open. She backed into the car and pulled the woman as she slid across the back seat. They laid her down with her feet on the floor behind the driver's seat. Tracy unlocked the door and stepped out with her head still inside the car as Asha finished pushing the woman's legs into place.

"Asha, can you drive? Wrong side!"

"You need to get out more, American girl, keys."

Asha's mood was definitely improved with her quick snack. Tracy tossed them and Asha hand wrapped around the missile, they pushed the rear doors closed.

"Sirens coming," Tracy said as they climbed into the front seats, "do you know where Bath is?"

"West of here, somewhere, further away from London, all I know," Asha said.

Tracy pointed. "That way, then, let's get out of here and I'll look for a map or something..."

The car purred when Asha turned the key, she slipped it into gear. She turned right and they fortunately saw an exit to some road.

"Turn right, away from the monument," they saw flashing lights on the larger road to the left. Asha gunned the engine and managed a smooth shift change as she hit the paved road.

"Duck down," Asha said, "anyone sees they'll think it was just one person..."

The Ancient Roman City of Bath

Asha turned on the radio and it seemed they'd just dodged the ring of roadblocks hastily erected around Stonehenge. Tracy had a map she'd pulled from the glove box and a small compass she'd pulled from her pack.

"Turn right," Tracy said, "now! Greater Lane!"

They were in the small town of Edington, Tracy had called it the B3098. Asha growled but hit the brakes and downshifted quickly and the little car spurted across the road, a horn indicated the oncoming driver wasn't happy about it but both cars continued on their ways.

"Bit more warning would be appreciated, we're not in one of your donkey carts. Although this is a donkey path you've put us on."

"It's not like anything's well marked, and I'm trying to keep us off the main roads. Left up there where the road tees. Then stay on that and it'll take us through West Ashton and through Trowbridge and Bath is past there."

Asha turned the car onto Bratton Road, pushed the speed as much as she dared but didn't want to attract attention.

"Yup, donkey path. All you country mice know how to read maps?"

"Not all, but camping, hunting, useful skill. And my dad took me on some digs, need to be precise about location for those. But, I can get us to Bath, or wherever, but then what?"

"Isn't there anything on that bloody map?"

"Um, here, 'Salter's' and 'BA14 8AT.' What?"

"That's a postcode, like a zip code, but, well, doesn't help much."

"I need to pee," Tracy said an hour layer as they entered the outskirts of Trowbridge, "like, really soon."

"There's a pub up ahead," Asha said, "not gonna be dark for couple more hours. Would be the longest day of the year... Ah, car park behind the place."

She turned right into the little gravel lot, parked at the far side and left a car's gap. She hoped no one would walk past or park next to them for now.

"Our guest?"

Tracy turned, checked the blanket they'd pulled from the trunk at a quick stop along a country road, no, the 'boot' and laid over their guest. She heard the still choppy and slow breathing but she was hidden and nodded at Asha.

"Okay, let's see if they'll be nice to two innocent American girls."

The pub was all dark brown wood which drained most ambient light. There was only a knot of men along the bar, the youngest seemed well past middle age. Clearly off the beaten path.

"Evening, gents," Asha said in an overcooked American accent as she tilted her head slightly and stood straight to emphasize her chest, "might two desperate Yanks use your loo? We've been driving for hours."

Asha smiled, had the feeling at least a couple sets of long-idle genitals were trying to recall old memories. Finally the barman smiled and pointed to the far wall.