CHAPTER 9

“Ha! I did it!” Rey exclaimed. “I tased her. I fricken tased her!”

“Yeah,” Ian said, entering the tunnel behind her. “Now maybe ease up on the trigger before you kill her?”

Rey let go the trigger and Sandra stopped convulsing. Ian pulled a handful of zip ties from his pocket and bent to secure her wrists and ankles.

“Get her gun,” he said.

Rey put the taser down and reached for the gun.

“Well, don’t just leave the taser there,” Ian complained.

Rey rolled her eyes and bent to collect the taser and pluck it’s discharged probes from Sandra’s back.

“Happy?” She asked.

Brock’s arrival spared her an answer.

“Where’s the other guy?” Ian asked.

“I hit him over the head with a rock,” Brock answered. “We can collect him later.”

Ian grunted, then pointed at Sandra. “Who wants to carry this sack of crap?”

Brock looked at her, his eyes steely. “I’ll take her.”

Ian glanced up at him and his expression softened. “Hey, man, you don’t have to. I can do it. I was just-“

“I said I’ll take her,” Brock cut in.

Ian shrugged. “Sure, man. If that’s what you want.”

Brock glanced over at Emmet, and some of the tension came out of his jaw. “How you doing, kiddo?”

“Great,” Emmet slurred.

His tongue felt like a foreign invader in his mouth and his cheeks were kind of numb.

Ian frowned. “Whoah. What did they give you?”

Emmet rolled one shoulder weakley in an attempt at a shrug.

“Okay, I’ll take her,” Brock said, toeing Sandra in the ribs, “you help Emmet get back to the car.”

“Yup,” Ian said, coming to help Emmet to his feet. “Come on, kid, I got you. It’s a bit of a walk back to the car, but sometimes that helps with this stuff. Gets the blood flowing.”

Emmet nodded mutely, his head lolling against Ian’s shoulder.

It was slow progress, the walk back. As they wended their way along the path, Emmet started to feel better, although he did have to stop and sick up once. After that, though, he was at least able to hold his own head up and get his feet into some sort of marching order.

Brock had gone ahead of them and put Sandra in the trunk of the car already so he could go back and collect the other man. He re-appeared, empty handed as Emmet, Ian and Rey finally made it back to the car. He was using some of the same words Ian had used driving up through New York.

“He’s gone,” he said finally.

“Gone, like he got up and left? Or gone like someone came and got him?” Ian asked.

“No idea,” Brock said, “but I think we’d better get out of here. Now.”

Ian helped Emmet into the car, then climbed into the seat beside him. Rey hopped into the front passengers seat as Brock slid in behind the wheel.

“You don’t think she’ll die back there, do you?” Rey asked.

“I don’t know if I care,” Brock said, reversing down a section of paved trail until they came out in an empty parking lot. He flipped the car into drive and hit the gas.

“H-how did y-you g-guys find me?” Emmet managed to say, the slurring significantly less than it was before.

He never thought he’d be so happy to have only his stutter to contend with.

“You can thank Rey for that,” Brock said. “She was following Sandra when Sandra went to pick you up. She came and got us.”

“W-why w-w-ere you f-f-following her?” Emmet asked.

“Because something was weird,” Rey responded. “Ever since Turner died-”

“Sh-she k-killed him. T-turner. They were w-working together.”

“Son of a-did they say why they needed to open that many rifts?” Brock said.

“N-no. T-they w-were working for someone.” Emmet said, then he told them the rest of what he’d overheard.

“Does Frank know about this?”

“I don’t know,” Rey answered. “I don’t think so. Frank’s an idiot sometimes, but he’s a loyal idiot. Geez, he would never kill a kid.”

Brock thumped his thumbs on the steering wheel. “Nothing much we can do anyway. We’ll have to give Sandra over to head office and let them find out what they can.”

His glanced back at Emmet through the rearview mirror. “You sure you’re okay?”

Emmet nodded, and then suddenly he was crying. Great big, heaving sobs. Ian reached out and wrapped one arm around him, pulling him into an awkward hug.

“Yeah, it sucks, kid,” he said. “Just let it out.”

And Emmet did. When he finally got himself under control, he pulled away from Ian and wiped at his eyes. Rey and Brock were quiet in the front seat and for a while, no one said anything.

“I-I’m sorry I b-broke rule five,” Emmet said, breaking the silence.

“Ah, we all break rule five eventually,” Ian said.

“Y-yeah but-“

“I know,” Ian said, and Emmet knew he didn’t have to say anymore.

He came to a realization right there that despite everything. Despite these last few terrible days. Despite Danny and the boy under his bed, and despite almost dying, Emmet had finally found the one thing he had always been looking for. People he could count on. And that was worth everything.