Blackteeth, page 23
She clutched herself closer and adjusted her t-shirt. Even if she could see it, the kitten had gotten dirty beyond recognition, and the caption “If I fits, I sits” was unreadable. Staying dirty was an integral part of staying alive in the builders’ world. If one wanted to avoid the Blackteeth’s unerring noses, then one rolled in dirt and shit and was happy to do so.
Hesper figured it out quickly after she escaped the very first time. She’d made it all the way across the long gallery and then realized they were following her. She’d seen the lights and their patterns. She’d come to the conclusion they were following the lights she was causing to come on. It also occurred to her that they couldn’t see her, so they had to be hearing her or smelling her. Once she’d found a place where there were no lights by climbing up on a rooftop, she saw that they still followed her. It was loosely but in her direction all the same. They couldn’t see her, she concluded. They couldn’t hear her because she was making little to no noise. Therefore, they had to be smelling her. She’d found dirt and fungi in one of the wall gardens and smeared her body with it, obscuring her scent as much as she could. It was all part and parcel of what her grandfather had taught her about tracking animals in the forest.
“If they can smell you, they will know you’re there,” Pawpaw had told her once as they tracked a deer through the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee. It had been just after Thanksgiving, and the hunters were avid on plugging their first buck. Hesper hadn’t really wanted to kill a deer. She wanted to spend time with her grandfather because he treated her like any of her male cousins, and she enjoyed the attention. If she wanted to learn, and she had, he was happy to teach her. “If I can smell the shampoo you use,” he said sagely, “and that body spray your mama gave you for your birthday, they can, too. They won’t stick around. Then we won’t have venison stew this winter because you smell too pretty.”
Hesper hadn’t thanked her grandfather for the words that had later saved her because he’d died of heart disease in the time she had been missing.
Thank you, Pawpaw. One guard.
Hesper adjusted her shirt and then she adjusted her brassiere. It was the wrong cup size because obviously Moss had misjudged the size of her boobs, but she hadn’t minded much when she’d put it on after her long bath at Pinehurst Lodge.
I would love a bath. Wait. One guard.
The Blackteeth were like stupid, smart animals. They were a contradiction, and they’d underestimated her many more times than she had them.
Why am I still alive?
She answered herself. They have something special planned for me. They wanted to make a big deal out of killing the one who had killed so many of them.
And there was that tenacious thought that pestered her brain. One guard.
Hesper’s fingers grasped her sides, and she rested her aching head on the wall.
She touched her sweats and found the string in the elastic waist. Not long enough. There was her underwear. Boy-cut briefs in plain jane white. She guessed that Moss hadn’t been adventurous enough to buy her an exotic color. There was the t-shirt with the no longer discernable picture on it. There was her bra.
Nothing.
Wait.
Hesper touched the bra again. Hanes brand. White. 32C. Underwire. She clicked her tongue thoughtfully and then heard movement above her.
The Blackteeth glared down at her again, interested in why she had made the sound that was so close to the way they spoke.
Hesper took her right hand and made a fist. Then she jerked her right forehand up and she slapped her bicep with her left hand, directing the entire gesture at the Blackteeth.
The Blackteeth snarled again and disappeared.
One guard. It was a Blackteeth with hair parted on the right side and mud on its left cheek. The same one had looked at her twice and perhaps more when she had been unconscious. In all likelihood if there had been more, then both would have stared at her. They were like that. They were curious about her. If more had been present, they all would have looked, but there was only one at the moment. One.
Furthermore, it hadn’t looked down at her when she had talked with Luna, probably because it wanted to listen to their conversation. Or it wanted her to have a conversation with Luna.
Hesper carefully reached behind her, unhooked her bra, and slipped one arm free under the t-shirt. She did the same with the other arm and got to work freeing the underwires. The wires were rough semi-circles with rubber coated ends. She’d had one or two since she’d escaped and discovered that she liked wireless bras better. Especially when exercising because wires worked themselves loose and sometimes poked you. That was why she’d had changed to sports bras. No wires and lots of support. But Moss hadn’t known that when he’d purchased replacement clothing for Hesper. Maybe Moss thought that all girls needed a little underwire support.
Hesper had to use her teeth on the fabric, but she got both wires out. Then she was able to remove the rubber on the ends rather easily and was pleased that both ends were sharp enough to cut without her filing them against the walls. She glanced upward and saw nothing. She straightened the wires using her body weight against the wall. She put both pieces together so that she would have a heavier weapon. She used the bra’s cloth to make a rough handle around one end of the wires. It wasn’t an ideal weapon, but it was better than nothing. She tucked it into the right side of the sweats’ waistband, pleased with her creation.
Why am I still alive? She answered herself again, They have something special in mind for me. Might they be interested in keeping me alive until they could do that something special to me? Surely, I think that they might.
Clearing her throat, Hesper coughed loudly. She coughed even louder. She beat the wall with her left hand, slapping it to make as much noise as possible. She hacked again and sounded like a cat trying to hack up a really large hairball and not much like a human at all. She didn’t look up, but she immediately became aware that the Blackteeth had returned. It blocked out the meager light from above and was staring down at her as if she had just grown a tail.
Hesper bent over and choked as if a giant meatball had stuck in her esophagus. She reached for her throat and fell onto her knees.
Drama queens unite! Hesper thought. I deserve a medal for this performance. Come on, bitch, take the bait. You know you want to.
Between coughs she heard a clicking from above as if the Blackteeth was asking a question. There wasn’t an answer, so it must have been directed at her. It was as if it was actually asking Hesper what in the name of whatever god they worshipped was wrong with her.
Hesper could imagine the way the conversation would go. It: Human, what the actual fuck is going on? Hesper: Choking. Come save me. It: Humans suck. Hesper: Backatcha. It: Oh for Pete’s sake, all right. Hesper: Sucker. It: Wait, what?
One guard. Well, there you go.
Hesper fell face down in the grime and filth at the bottom of the hole. She stopped coughing, and her left hand twitched in the air while she tucked the right hand over the handle of the makeshift weapon.
That hand continued to twitch spasmodically as though she was having a seizure or a heart attack or whatever someone might have if they froze up like that. Maybe the Blackteeth didn’t see it much because they typically dealt with children. Perhaps the convulsing movements would alarm the one above her all the more.
The clicks sounded a bit frantic. They suddenly stopped and something hit the ground beside Hesper’s head. She saw that it was a canteen with a jungle camouflage cover. It wasn’t her canteen but something the Blackteeth had obtained from the human world. The canteen being dropped to her was actual proof that they wanted to keep her alive for some reason.
Hesper let out a low moan that trailed off dramatically. She allowed her hand to twitch some more and then tightened every part of her body.
The Blackteeth above her clicked and made a whirring noise that sounded like alarm. It had offered her what was probably water. Next, it might come see if she was dead. If it was dumb enough to fall for it, and it was her experience that they were susceptible to tricks, then it might do just that.
Hesper’s left hand abruptly dropped into the dirt as she let out a long gasping breath that ended at the same time her hand fell. Plop. El dead-o. Oh noes. Human is nonmoving and not making noises. What to do?
There was a moment of utter silence. Then Hesper heard movement above her, the rasp of skin and limbs against cloth, and then something else dropped into the hole with her. She had a good idea what it was because she’d seen it and used it before. Each hole had a length of rope made from God knew what hung on a hook beside the hole. It was just out of reach so that the occupants of the holes couldn’t get to it but close enough so that the Blackteeth could use it to retrieve their prey without being trapped in the holes themselves.
Hearing another movement above her, she could tell that the Blackteeth was lowering itself into the hole using the rope. The rope bounced against the edge of the rock and the monster thudded against the sides twice before its feet hit the bottom with a thud.
It gingerly touched Hesper’s side with its foot. It pushed at her and clicked in what Hesper thought was an angry fashion.
Oh, these sorry humans, Hesper thought. Good for nothing. Dying at the drop of a hat. I should just poke the woman with my appendage and see if it comes to.
At long last, she felt its long-clawed fingers pulling at her shoulder, turning her over.
Hesper firmly grasped the makeshift knife in her hand. As she was rolled over by the creature, she brought the right arm back across her chest, using the momentum of her move to strengthen the strike. It hit the thing right at the neck, and it pushed back from her frantically even while blood spurted from the lethal wound she’d inflicted upon it. With its last bit of strength, it tried to leap for the rope, but Hesper scrambled up, grabbing it and yanking it back from its escape. She followed up with a front kick directly to its face because there wasn’t enough room to do a sidekick to its ribs. Then she scissored its head between her legs as it bent over. She brought the Blackteeth down and slammed her left elbow into its head. Bones crackled and more liquid flowed.
Like a crocodile who hid under the lily pads in a slow-moving body of water, Hesper had her prey trapped. She used her elbow twice more on its head and then made work of the wires from the bra. When she was done, the Blackteeth was dead and she was breathing heavily.
Hesper pushed its body away from her and stood, rubbing her forehead with her left hand, wishing the ache to vanish. After a minute, she realized she desperately needed to be elsewhere. She grasped the rope and climbed up, happy to have found some remote bit of energy from somewhere. A minute later and she had Luna out. Luna was a very small child who was not more than fifty pounds soaking wet. Hesper thought she must have been around ten years old, but she had a certain look in her eyes that bespoke of an untimely maturity which had been forced upon her.
Luna cringed back from Hesper’s appearance, and Hesper realized she was covered with black blood from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. “I had to kill one,” she whispered to Luna. “Now we have to move.” She knelt and used the dirt at their feet to cover the young girl with whatever she found there. She also used the dirt to smear the blood around. The smell would confuse the Blackteeth because she’d done it before.
Hesper whispered in her ear, “Keep quiet, no matter what. Hold onto my shirt. We’ll get you clothing when we can. And here”— she thrust the canteen at Luna and the girl caught it— “drink this.”
Luna unscrewed the cap, drank for about twenty seconds, and then handed it to Hesper. Hesper drank from the canteen, screwed the cap back on, and held the canteen in her left hand. Luna took hold of Hesper’s shirt, and she could feel the girl shaking behind her as if her bones were vibrating in place.
Hesper looked around slowly. They didn’t have any more time. If a Blackteeth had already smelled the blood, it would have been too late. Since one wasn’t shrieking at them in a frenzied rush, it was all right for a moment.
She was familiar with the area. She’d been there many times. Once, no twice, as a prisoner, and a dozen or more times to free others. If they kept the other two separate, then they would be on the opposite side waiting for the Blackteeth’s pleasure.
Taking Luna with her was a risk, but Hesper couldn’t leave the girl alone, and she couldn’t leave her in one of the holes. Since the child was still breathing, it meant that her father was still in play in some fashion or possibly it meant that the Blackteeth thought that they could still use him. If he’d been arrested for shooting the lodge owner, perhaps they didn’t realize what it meant. Perhaps he’d misrepresented his power after they’d taken his daughter hostage. He was a sheriff’s deputy and not a sheriff, and he wasn’t privy to everything they might have thought about him.
Still Luna could die of thirst before the stinking Blackteeth thought to give her some water, and if they suspected the deputy had become a liability, then she was merely meat like all the others.
Consequently, Hesper didn’t have a choice. Furthermore, if Tam had returned for the others and not found Hesper, what would the South African girl do? Would she return to the other side forever and more? She didn’t owe any allegiance to Hesper, and Mun-Hee had shuddered at the thought of returning. If he and the other children were clever, they would run as far as they could from the river they had appeared in, screaming all the way. Their sudden appearance amidst their various disappearances over the years might convince the authorities of their strange story. If the reality didn’t fit, then they would make something up that would fit, but there would be a thousand questions from thousands of people who wouldn’t be fooled. It wouldn’t be swept under the carpet this time.
I can’t think about that now, Hesper decided suddenly and violently. She pushed them into the darkest shadows and kept an eye on the doors to the tunnels. She knelt beside Luna and took a breath.
“This is going to be hard, Luna,” she whispered into the girl’s ear. “We’re going to see if we can free the others. Then we’re getting out of here. It’s dark and there are a lot of these things around. You have to be quiet and do what I do. Can you do that?”
Hesper felt Luna’s body shaking and wondered if the girl would abruptly fall to pieces beside her. Once Hesper had been like her. Once, and no more. Then she’d escaped, and she was still scared. She still had nightmares. She still feared, but overcoming that fear had been principal.
Now it was more important than ever.
“You have to be brave, Luna,” Hesper breathed into the child’s ear. “I won’t lie and say it isn’t going to be scary, but we can make it, if you just do what I say.” She touched the side of Luna’s face and the child nodded.
Hesper stood up and steeled herself. Whoever said that life was going to be easy had lied like a sonuvabitch.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It takes two blows to make a battle
– English proverb
The Blackteeth lived in a section that Hesper would have called the main offices of the builders. There were what she thought of as desks and chairs constructed from rock. There were shelves with piles of dust on them. There was seating for whomever was to wait. All were made for taller, thinner beings. If Hesper sat in a seat, her feet would dangle a foot above the floor like she was a small child. She would need a stepstool to climb in it.
The halls led to rooms where there were rows of rock-hewn benches built for some reason indecipherable to Hesper. Was it a meeting room? A church? A hall? A waiting room for the alien DMV?
Everything had been sculpted from the caverns; they had taken advantage of what their environment offered them. The entire section had been fashioned from rock. Other long-lived components had been added, such as the machines that lined the walls. Rows of lights sputtered weakly, still running after God knew how long. Since all things organic had become piles of dust in the fairly humid caverns, she figured it had to be centuries.
That odd thought occurred to Hesper again. The Blackteeth had changed the settings of the lights in the area where they’d held the children. It said something about both the Blackteeth and the builders. She knew she needed to remember the peculiar detail, however rescuing and escaping were foremost on her mind.
Hesper crept along what might have been a ventilation system. It was a narrow tunnel running parallel to the grand hallway and bypassed where the Blackteeth socialized, et cetera. She passed openings and counted the creatures and came up to a total of twenty before they reached the other side where the other holes were located.
She was less concerned with the number of Blackteeth than she was with the number of holes. There were four on one side, and four on the other. Whatever their original purpose was, they were now prisons. It was a hole with an opening on top and effectively jailed whatever the Blackteeth threw inside.
Hesper moved carefully, gingerly even, while Luna moved behind her, clutching the edge of her t-shirt, not making a noise. They’d made good progress. Even when the Blackteeth found them missing and the body of their kin, they wouldn’t know where they’d gone. She had an idea that she could go to the holes to see what was happening there. If she had time and the opportunity, she would free the children. She could set them up in Mun-Hee’s place until she could get her hands on another key. She could teach them to survive, so they could do just that if something else happened to her.
If Mun-Hee or Tam came back, they would return to the place they’d slept because it hadn’t been compromised. They’d find the children and possibly Hesper. Then she could do what she wanted to do all along.
First things first.
Hesper came to a halt, sat on her ass, and gave the canteen to Luna. Luna made the minutest of noises as she took off the cap and drank then handed what was left to Hesper in the quietest way. Hesper would have thought she was one of Mun-Hee’s rescues who had been recaptured by the composed way she was acting. Maybe she’d heard things that she didn’t ever want to hear again and based on that was able to keep silent.
