Dark Direction

Chapter 23: Cult Compound

Liam is startled awake by the sound of his cell phone ringing. Not realizing he passed out on his couch, he stumbles to his feet and grabs his phone from the coffee table.

“Yeah?” he answers abruptly while fumbling for the TV remote to switch off the obnoxious sound of static.

“Liam . . . it’s Amy” she says barely audible.

“Amy?” Liam asks while checking the time on his watch. “What’s wrong?” Liam sounds concerned.

“I’m sorry . . . did I wake you?” she asks apologetically.

“No I was just relaxing, I stayed til closing at the club tonight. Are you okay? Has something happened?” Liam is becoming alarmed.

“No, just frustrated. . . I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have called.” Amy almost hangs up, but then hears Liam.

“No wait! Tell me what’s going on?” he says as he turns on the lamp next to him.

“We may have tracked Louis down but haven’t actually confronted him yet.” She lets out a sigh. “It’s hard to explain”. She says almost embarrassed for calling him so late.

“I’m listening” he says giving her his full attention.

“Okay, well we heard that he has been seen in an abandoned funeral home, so we checked it out and inadvertently stumbled into the Fallout Shelter Tunnels.” She starts rambling.

“Wait, hold up. . .funeral home?” Liam asks in total confusion, but before she answers him she continues to ramble.

”Liam, you don’t even want to know what we found in there!” she says in despair.

“Are you sure we’re talking about the same Louis? And what fallout shelter tunnel?” Liam asks in a joking manner.

“We were looking for the back door or hearse entrance when we discovered a sliding book case. We followed the tunnel to a set of storm cellar doors. They lead us outside to abandoned brick buildings. And I swear I heard whistling while we were in the tunnel, it was kind of creepy.” She said with a big sigh.

“Did you just say whistling?” Liam asks taking a deep breath.

“Yeah, why?” Amy asks casually.

“It was something Louis and I did to each other out of spite.” Liam places his palm over his forehead trying to suppress a painful memory.

“Well, there’s not much more to say. We heard the whistling again and ducked behind a building, we could only see the silhouette of him as he went back into the tunnel.” She continued after taking a breath. “but what I haven’t been able to figure out is what goes on in those abandoned buildings .” Amy said with frustration in her voice.

“Let me ask you, where did you say these buildings were located?” Liam asked as he headed into his kitchen.

“I’m not quite sure.” Amy paused “being underground I lost my bearings.” She said as she shut down her computer.

“What did they look like? Can you describe them? Liam asked quizzically.

“You know, the typical . . . graffiti, broken and boarded up windows.” She said as she prepares herself a cup of tea.

“How about a chain link fence?” Liam asked as he grabbed a bottled water from his refrigerator.

“I don’t know, it was too dark.” Amy retorts.

“I don’t know how much help I can be; I’m not familiar with that side of town. But I do know there is a cult compound in the vicinity.” Liam continues “And from what you’ve described, it sounds like Louis is involved and has gone rogue.” Liam says as he sits on a stool in the kitchen.