The Skylar Experiment : Dead Ending (second draft)

75. One Hell Of A Fire (PART 2)

THE RAIN HAD STOPPED several hours ago, leaving slippery asphalts and snow. She stood in a small field after dusk, waiting for the world to turn dark enough to favor her. Damp, yet parched blades of grass emerged from the dying layer of snow at her boots. Lauren figured today's weather would be as good a time as any to visit the hunters in their own homes. 

Well, more like their back yard. 

There was no predicting how they'd react now that her flash drive was in their possession, but she was confident enough to test the waters. Lauren grinned weakly. 

Caldwell loved nothing more than a good show, and she was by chance offering her just that. 

Beyond those trees, the homes were lined up in orderly fashion. Their grey, gable roofs rose among the treetops, casting stretched shadows onto the field. She remembered children and teenagers coming here to play baseball after school hours, before most of those houses got emptied to make room for the seasonal hunters. 

She sensed the wind on her cheeks grow warmer as the familiar tension ran across her limbs. Her arm raised itself toward the troubled sky and shot a beam of light, then another one. She continued to show them intermittently, making sure it'd be seen from afar. 

All around her, car alarms blared and doors began to flap in the wind. 

And then, Lauren fell mute. Her hand that had opened under the clouds slipped back into her coat pocket, and she waited by a fallen log as lights in the windows came on. The car alarms lasted longer until the owners killed the sound. 

Faces peeked outside from behind curtains. Soon, the sound of people rushing to their driveway and that awful clinking of metal chains reached her. A handful of Jeeps and minivans rolled into the neighborhood several minutes later, with some riding all the way to the meadow. Tires sunk into deep puddles of mud before pushing uphill. Only then did Lauren feel the overbearing signal of various devices, hidden in the impenetrable shade. 

Headlights flashed as the vehicles had their motor cut. She watched the group file out, all decked out with their clubs and rocks. 

A bristle washed through the trees as she caught sight of the men and women coming forth. Behind the first row, she discerned the chemistry teacher's son, but his father was nowhere to be seen. Finally, the show could begin. 

"My apologies if I disturbed your evening plans to bring you out in the cold," she opened with a smirk. "But I thought you all might be getting too comfortable in this town without me." 

"And what brings you out of hiding so suddenly?" echoed one of them by the car, a man in his late fifties in a sheepskin coat and an aviator hat. 

Lauren's controlled smile vanished. "The flash drive. I want to know where it is and I'm not leaving without it." 

As she steeled her shoulders to act fast, she scanned the many faces across from her. She didn't exactly expect an agreement to unfold so soon, and knew that the opposite was more likely, but the lack of answer still sent a numbing chill down her spine. She kicked a rock with her heel. 

"Going once... going twice..." 

"We don't have whatever you're talking about," aviator hat stated. "I'm surprised to hear that."