Human Bait

Chapter 19: Farmhouse

The farmhouse Rekkan mentioned had held up surprisingly well. Constructed of brick and mortar rather than wood, the walls stood firm against the wind. Instead of broken windows and a field of bodies, a red-painted door and floral welcome mat greeted us. I could almost imagine we would find an elderly woman baking cookies while her grandsons played with dolls.

The front door was locked, but the backdoor unlatched with a jiggle of the handle. Inside, a pair of workboots, a couple pairs of sandals, and a pair of child-sized sneakers lined the shoe mat. The absence of rain and wind somehow just made me shiver more, the unfulfilled expectation of true warmth.

Rekkan gripped my forearm and ushered me through the nearest door. We entered a bedroom with a shuttered window, a threadbare mat, and a bulky wooden bedframe. The patched-together quilt tucked neatly under the edges of the mattress. A few charred logs laid crisscross in a dusty fireplace like an abandoned bird's nest.

Without releasing my arm, Rekkan examined the closet and then knelt to peek under the bed. Finally, he fixed me with a stern gaze.

"I'm checking the rest of the house. Lock the door when I leave, and don't unlock it until I tell you to."

"Seriously? I'm not that helpless."

"Zaf... please." He unzipped his backpack, retrieved the book, and pressed it into my hands. "Here, you can read this while you wait."

I licked my lips, hesitating. Though I itched to explore the book, I didn't like the idea of Rekkan exploring the house alone. The Freshly-Baked and Overcooked were not interested in him, but what if he encountered a Fully-Fermented? Or hostile humans?

When I glanced back up at Rekkan, he was studying the door, gaze contemplative.

"Rekkan."

"Mm."

"Are you considering how you can lock that door from the outside?"

He darted a guilty glance back toward me. "I... no, why would I consider that? Because you'll stay here... right?"

I sighed. "I'll stay. But be careful?"

He shot me a crooked smile. "I will."

Rekkan slipped through the door, and then his footsteps stopped. In the silence of the house, I could even hear his breathing. Expelling another sigh, I strode to the door and turned the lock.

When the footsteps departed down the hallway, I sank down on the bed and cracked open the book. I started in the middle, where the leather creased from use. Handwritten notes with arrows and cross-outs and tiny amendments littered the first half of the page. The second half was blank.

As was the rest of the book.

I backtracked, devouring the notes the way I devoured food the first time Rekkan fed me. My still-shivering shoulders and chattering teeth faded to a recess of my mind. The book started with vague allusions to a research group called the Sentries and their Peace Project, but the following pages focused on predictions... predictions which had all come true.

All but one.

Circled in the margins, I read the last words I had heard my mother speak: Even Ether will fall in the third phase.

Ether was the source of life and the connection between us all. What did it mean for Ether to fall? The end of humanity? The end of all life?

The notes gave unsettling but vague allusions to the Noble Forces. One scribble in the margin read: Create a better future for who? And at what cost?

My eyes caught on several other notes that provided little clarification, and the back of my neck prickled with icy-hot unease. The Seven Sentries = humanity's only hope. More successful trials required before mass experimentation. Recommended course of action: exterminate...