The truth of the matter

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Sneeze I opened my eyes. The images of the past broke apart in my mind and drifted away like the mist breaks up and drifts away when the sun burns through it. Where was I? I remembered: the woods. I understood: I had had another memory attack. The car chase… The shootout… The police had arrested some of the Homelanders… And now they were after me, searching for me in the woods.

I became aware that I was cold, very cold, chilled to the bone. I was weak too. Completely exhausted. The effort of escaping the car… the pain that had been rampaging through me during the attack… hunger, cold… My body felt like a rag that had been wrung out and now lay tossed away, limp and dry.

I blinked up into the branches of trees, past the branches of trees into the sky. Blue darkness. Blue mist. Night was falling. I figured I’d been unconscious for a long time and now…

Now I heard voices.

Catching my breath, I sat up quickly. There were people talking. They were nearby.

“Rose really wants this kid bad.”

“You think? He hasn’t let me forget it for ten minutes at a stretch.”

“I guess we better keep searching then. I mean, the kid can’t be far, right?”

“Why not? Why can’t he be far? He can be plenty far. He can be anywhere.”

“Come on. He’s got to be around here someplace.”

It was the police. They were looking for me. Judging by the sound of them, they were close, very close. I tried not to make any sudden movements. I didn’t want to attract their attention. I turned my head slowly, scanning the area, searching for them. It was hard to see anything through the gathering dusk. The trees were fading into silhouettes. The sky was going purple.

The voices continued, not more than a few yards away.

“This forest goes on forever. He could have gone off in any direction.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“I don’t care what Rose says. We’re gonna need dogs, that’s what. Dogs and trackers. I mean, I’m not exactly Daniel Boone here.”

“Tell me about it.”

I saw them. Or that is, I saw the dark shapes of them moving among the dark shapes of the trees. There were two of them. Maybe the same two who’d come down the slope after me, I wasn’t sure. They were no more than twenty yards away, moving in a straight line behind a row of trees. I could make out their footsteps now-shoes on macadam. They were on the road. I remembered the road. I’d been heading for the road when the attack struck me down.

“All right, all right,” one of the officers said wearily. “Call Rose and tell him it’s getting too dark. We’re giving up till morning.”

“Me? Why do I have to call him?”

“Well, I’m not gonna do it. I’ll search all night if I have to.”

“Great. All right. I’ll call him.”

The two figures paused. I heard the squawk of a radio.

“Bravo-90.”

As he talked into his radio, the dark continued to gather. I thought if I sat where I was, very still, not moving at all, they might not see me, even though they were so close.

The answer came back over the radio: “This is Rose.”

I shivered. My body temperature had dropped while I’d been unconscious. The cold had gathered with the dark. The damp of the ground had seeped into my clothes. I was chilled all through.

“Look,” the trooper was saying, “unless we get some dogs and trackers out here, we’re never going to find him in the dark.”

Another shiver went through me-I realized I was feeling muddy-headed, maybe even feverish. I was getting sick.

And suddenly I realized something else: I was going to sneeze!

I clapped my hand over my mouth. I pressed my finger up hard under my nose. If I let out a loud sneeze now, the police would be sure to hear me, sure to find me.

“He could get miles away overnight,” I heard Rose say angrily.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Detective. We’ve got the roads covered and we’ve been calling for backup for over an hour. We’re way off the beaten path out here. It’s tough to reach.”

“I know, I know.” Rose’s weary sigh came over the radio clearly. “All right. Pack it in. We’ll get some dogs out there in the morning.”

The sneeze continued to build in me. I pressed my lips together.

“Well, that’s done,” said one trooper.

“Yeah, no thanks to you,” said the other. “Our man Rose was not a happy camper. Next time, you call him.”

“You’re a hero to your people.”

“Oh, shut up.”

Their voices were getting softer. They were moving away. I could see their shadowy shapes fading into the night.

Then I sneezed.

It burst out of me. There was nothing I could do to stop it. I forced the noise down as low as I could. The sound of it came out weird and muffled.

The two policemen went silent. Had they paused? I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t see them anymore in the night.

“Did you hear something?” one of them said. He was farther away now, well along the road.

“I don’t know,” the other trooper answered in a tired voice.

“I heard a noise.”

“It’s the forest. You know? There’s all kinds of noises.

Crickets, frogs, werewolves. It’s a busy place.”

“Werewolves?”

“Whatever. I’m a city boy.”

There was another silence. I sensed them listening to the night, listening for another noise.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” one of them said finally. “It is noisy, now you mention it. We can’t just wander around here all night following every sound we hear.”

They were moving away again. Their voices grew softer and softer. Soon, I couldn’t hear them at all.

I let out a huge sigh of relief. Then I shivered again. I really wasn’t feeling very well at all.