Chapter 3 The House That Wasn’t Home

Hailey slowly opened her eyes and wondered why she was staring at the dull brown ceiling instead of the bright white paint of her bedroom ceiling. She felt groggy and a dull pain throbbed at the back of her head. What was she doing on the floor and not on her bed? Why did it sound like she was under water and why did her pillow feel so strangely uncomfortable?

“Is she awake?”

The voice broke her out of her sleep and she came fully awake with a gasp, the memories of the night before rushing back.

“Hailey…”

Her head snapped when she heard that voice and her eyes immediately snapped in the direction of it. It was something familiar she could latch onto in the midst of all the confusion, a voice that was etched in a very special part of her brain. “Aaron,” she cried when she found him sitting right behind her, his legs the pillow that had been supporting her head. From the way he had folded it to make it more full and comfortable for her she knew that could not have been comfortable for him. How sensitive of him, she thought, her heart breaking just a little. She was already reaching for his face when her senses kicked in and she remembered they were not alone.

“Is she awake?” Someone asked and she raised her head to see a blonde girl peering down at her hands on her knees.

“Yes,” Aaron answered as he helped her seat up. “But I think she is still feeling a little bit dazed.”

Hailey looked around her, a little bit confused. The room she was in looked big with wooden floors and no furniture except a rickety-looking mountain chair and table with one leg missing. The windows were covered with old newspapers except for some where the papers had peeled off. Looking up, she saw an adjoining room that looked like the dining room even though she didn’t see any chairs or tables in there. Beyond that was the kitchen. The house felt stuffy and dusty and Hailey felt lightheaded having to breathe the stale air in.

“Give her some water,” a boy said just to her left and she turned in that direction. “Hi,” he waved when she looked in his direction and Hailey couldn’t help but fantasize about how cute that smile was. “You had us scared there for a moment.”

“Come on,” a girl pushed a water flask in her direction, “drink some water.” She raised the flask to Hailey’s lips and Hailey greedily opened her mouth to drink. Even she didn’t know she was that thirsty until she tasted the water. After a while, the girl pulled the flask back and closed it. Then she turned to Hailey with a big smile.

“Welcome back. You may not remember me…What am I saying? Of course you don’t remember me. I am Sidney and I am the one who helped you after you fainted.”

“Fainted?”

Aaron took Hailey’s hand. “Yes, Hailey. You fainted and I swear I was scared something bad had happened to you. Sydney helped though.” He looked at Hailey and saw she still looked confused. “Do you remember anything that happened? Anything at all…”

Hailey slowly shook her head. “The last thing I remember, you and I were walking down…” Her eyes suddenly widened and she gasped as the gaps in her memory became filled. “We were walking to the store to get chips and drinks for everyone. Then you stopped to tell me something and we were going to…” The both of them glanced at each other and Hailey blushed prettily before she looked away. “Then someone attacked us from behind and that’s the last thing I remembered.”

“You didn’t see what happened beside the truck?” a boy asked her. He was standing beside the handsome boy with the pretty voice, almost leaning into him. He was also wearing thick glasses with large square frames and every few minutes he would push the glass up along the bridge of his nose.

Hailey shook her head. “What happened?”

“They shot Jim,” one of the girls suddenly cried out. Immediately, two of the girls quickly went to her side and began to console her.

Hailey looked to Aaron in the midst of all the confusion. “Who shot who?”

“The men that abducted her, they counted us and then they shot a boy and…”

“…a girl,” Hailey suddenly remembered and she gasped. “They shot her. Those men. They shot both of them. Oh God! Aaron, where are we?” She reached for him, seeking for the little bit of solace she could find in his arms. “What do those men want with us?”

“I don’t know,” Aaron replied. It was a question he had been asking himself since he opened his eyes to find himself with his hands tied behind him and men pointing guns at him. “Somehow, I think that answer is the only thing that can save us from this place.” He looked up at the girl who had been crying and was glad to see she had stopped. “You okay?”

She nodded slowly.

“I swear if I lay my hands on those men,” Sydney swore as she slowly patted the girl.

“What are you going to do?” the boy with the pretty voice asked, sneering at her. “Do you see how they moved? Like they were in a video game or something. Trust me, those guys have military training. I’m thinking Black Ops or something.”

The boy beside him rolled his eyes. “This is not one of your video games, Deangelo.”

Deangelo glared at him. “I know what I am saying.”

“Don’t mind, Deangelo,” the boy said to the group. “He plays video games too much and thinks everyone is a spy or a terrorist.”

“Well, they kidnapped us, didn’t they?”

His friend just shook his head. “My name is Quinn, by the way.”

Aaron stepped forward. “The two of you were together when they kidnapped you guys, right?”

Quinn nodded. “Yeah, we were…”

“…heading to the gym,” Deangelo quickly said. “We were coming back from the gym when they just came from our back, slapped this nasty smelling thing on our nose. Next thing I know, some bastard is pulling a rag from my head and I am with you guys.”

Aaron frowned at the both of them. Deangelo definitely looked like he used the gym but he doubted Quinn could hold his hand up for more than three minutes, talk less of being at the gym. With his glasses and slightly chubby build, he looked like the kind of guy who knew the best corners in the library where you could read and not be disturbed. Still, their story confirmed something he already suspected. But he had to be certain. He turned to Sydney.

“How about you, how did they kidnap you?”

“Jack and I were coming back from a date.” She glanced over at her boyfriend who until then had mostly stayed silent. “We weren’t ready to go home yet so we stopped at this place where kids used to make out and were…you know, fooling around. That was when these men just came out from nowhere. Deangelo is right when he said they must have had training because they were done in seconds. The last thing I saw was Jack trying to fight back before two men held him down and they placed a cloth over his head.”

Jack squeezed her hand. “I heard something an instant before they attacked. If I had been paying more attention maybe I could have helped you escape.”

Sydney grinned at him. “My knight in shining armor. I told you, there was nothing you could do. Now stop beating yourself about it.”

“Yeah, Jack.” The girl standing next to Sydney said. “Camilla and I were coming home from cheerleading practice when they attacked us. I swear I thought we were being pranked before something told me this was real.” She pointed to the girl who had been crying. “Rosa and her boyfriend were just strolling around their neighborhood. Whoever these guys are, they did their homework. I just don’t know why us. Even Jerome too.”

The last guy nodded in agreement. “Me and Emily were meeting for our first date.”

Aaron looked at him and saw grief and anger in his eyes, mixed with guilt. A lot of guilt. He couldn’t blame him. Even he was feeling guilty. If he had reacted faster, been more vigilant, didn’t stupidly suggest she come with him to buy drinks. But this was not the time to wallow in grief. They needed to find a way back. He stared at the door and then at the group.

“Alright,” he said in a loud voice and everyone turned to him. “We need to know what we are dealing with and there is only one way we can do that.”

“Tell me you are not suggesting we go outside again.” Jerome stepped forward. “I already told you, it’s better we stay inside here until someone comes for us.”

“And how are you sure someone is going to come?” Aaron countered.

“Someone has to,” Elaine's voice shook in fear. “I mean, someone would have figured that we are missing. They would be looking for us now.”

“Sure. But can they find us?” Deangelo asked her. “Think about it. The way they took us, they got at least a few hours to execute their plan and bring us down here. We don’t even know where we are.”

“And we won’t know if we don’t go out there and try to figure out what we are dealing with.” Aaron looked around them. “We also have to worry about food.” He pointed to the little that was left of the rations the abductor had left for them. “It’s been almost a day since they gave us anything else to eat and we haven’t heard a peep from them since then.”

“They are bringing food,” Jerome mumbled, but it was clear he didn’t believe that himself.

“Come on,” Deangelo stepped forward. “Let’s get going. I’m psyched to check this place out.”

Quinn rolled his eyes. “You realize we are not on a reality show, right? Like, we were really kidnapped.”

“Don’t be a spoilsport.” He fake punched his friend then turned to Rosa. “Hey, you could come with me and Quinn.”

Aaron frowned. “What do you mean come with you?”

Deangelo shrugged “I’m thinking, this place has to be huge, right? It would be better if we split up into two or three groups and take different directions. Then meet back here.”

Aaron shook his head. “I don’t know…”

Jerome shrugged. “He’s probably right.”

Aaron turned to Hailey. “You think you are okay to walk?”

She gave him a small smile and got to her feet. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

He helped her up and placed an arm around her. Hailey knew she could manage on her own but it felt good to be able to lean on him especially since she still had no idea how to deal with the reality around her. Outside the house she turned around and stared at the one-story Victorian style house. Most of the exterior was made of wood. Rotten wood that had broken off in some places. There was a sagging wrap around the porch and the stairs that led down were missing some steps so she had to be careful where she stepped. Aaron helped her navigate a part down the steps. To the left of the building was a garage but the door was pulled halfway down and she couldn’t see anything inside it. The house was surrounded by overgrown weeds that came to her thighs except for the path that led from the building to the road in front of them. They seemed to be high up because looking around she couldn’t see any other houses. In the far distance was a mountain and around them, a curtain of trees cut them off from the rest of the world.

“Where are we?” she asked Aaron.

He shook his head. “We don’t know. Quinn says it’s most probably a ghost town. We found some pictures in the attic of the house but they are all really, really old and the people in them look like laborers or something. Jack says it reminds him of an old mining town. We don’t think there is anyone here, though. Haven’t heard a single thing. Deangelo and Sydney even stood outside screaming for a while but we didn’t get any response except for some birds they scared away.”

“So how do you want to do it?” Elaine asked Aaron and he turned around to find everyone looking at him.

“Uhm, I don’t know.” He shrugged, not sure why everyone was looking to him for directions. “I guess we split up into two groups and one group goes left and the other goes right.”

“Rosa can come with me,” Deangelo said again, giving her a small smile and Aaron hoped he wasn’t trying to hit on her, especially after what happened to her boyfriend.

“I’m going with Deangelo,” Quinn quickly said.

“Me too,” Jerome added.

“That’s four already. Elaine,” Aaron pointed at Elaine. “Join them so they can be five and the rest of us would go the other way.”

“I’m going anywhere Elaine is going,” Camilla piped up.

For a moment everyone stood, wondering what would happen then.

“Jerome,” Aaron turned to him, “Maybe you should join us then.”

Jerome shook his head. “I want to stay with Rosa.”

“Why?”

“Does it matter?” Jack stepped forward. “He wants to stay with her and I don’t see any reason why not. I mean, he probably feels the closest to her because…” he stopped and stammered for a bit.

“Come on, Jack.” Sydney rolled her eyes at him. “I guess what Jack is trying to say is that everyone wants to be with the person they were kidnapped with and Jerome and Rosa are the only ones who don’t have anyone so they would want to be there for each other.”

“Yeah,” Jack nodded. “Besides, I don’t see why you think anyone has to listen to you. No one made you leader…”

“Jack,” Sydney warned him. “Babe, don’t start something again.”

Jack stubbornly shook his head. “No, I need to make him understand that he doesn’t know better than any of us.”

Aaron raised his hand in surrender. “Trust me, I don’t want to be the leader of anything. You have an idea what to do, you tell us and we’ll do it.”

Hailey glared at Jack, wondering why he had to be a douche. Aaron had only been trying to help.

“Don’t mind, Jack. He still thinks he’s captain of the football team.” Sydney scowled at her boyfriend before turning back to the group. “How about we just go like this. I mean they can be six and we can be four in our own group, right?”

Everyone nodded and made sounds of agreement.

“Okay, we’ll go left and you guys can go right. Except anyone has a problem with that.” Aaron stared pointedly at Jack. When Jack just stared at him he continued. “Also, try and note markers along the way as you walk so you don’t get lost. Remember, we are looking for food, clean drinkable water or maybe a river, anything that looks like a house or a way out of here. Keep your eyes out for trouble and come back in like two hours.”

“How would we know when it’s two hours?” Elaine asked. “We don’t have our phones…”

“…or wristwatches,” Camilla finished.

Aaron looked up at the sun high in the sky. It was still somewhat early in the morning. “We are going east so when the sun is behind us we start coming back to the house. When the sun is in front of you guys, start coming back to…”

“HQ,” Deangelo suggested with a grin. “You know, like our base of operation.”

“Sure, whatever. When you see the sun in front of you start coming back to HQ.”

“And if you see or hear anything strange, just start running back to HQ,” Sydney added.

“Yes,” Camilla spoke next. “And stay together. We should not separate for any reason.”

Everyone nodded and there was a few moments of silence before Jack spoke up.

“And let everyone be brave and know that together we would pull through this.”

“Dude…” Elaine chuckled and shook her head. “That sounded so corny.”

“Not one of your football games, babe.”

Jack scowled at Sydney. “Whatever…”

“This is three bottles of water,” Aaron handed the bottles of water he had picked from the supply in the house to Deangelo who kept one and handed the rest to Rosa and Elaine. “It’s not much but we’ll need to manage. Alright, let’s get going.”

All ten of them walked down the path to the wooden gate that separated the house from the road and walked around it through the broken-down fence. They all stood awkwardly for a few moments before Aaron led Hailey, Jack and Sydney in one direction while Deangelo and the rest took the other direction. Everyone looked back at the other group and waved until they got out of sight.