Silo

Chapter 29

It took me forever to get Meredith back into my room. I had to lie, tell her I'd sooner see Tyler dead than let him near her. Even then, she made me light every candle and set a fire that rivaled a small blaze in the tin barrel. Not that it mattered. I didn't need the light to warn me of Tyler's arrival. It was so damn quiet down here that my own breath thundered through my ears.

I couldn't sleep; I couldn't lay here any more staring at the ceiling, replaying years of memories. Keith confirmed everything Meredith had said. He'd seen Tyler come out of that hatch and had purposefully baited him with my glove. But I still couldn't wrap my head around it. I'd wanted a name for so long, needed a face to pin her suffering on, and now that I had it, I felt worse.

I got up and stumbled into the hall, not even bothering to bring a lantern. I travelled these tunnels so often that my feet guided my eyes. I knew when to turn and when to stop, could clearly visualize every dark crevice Tyler must've used to conceal himself this past week.

The belts were still secured over the grate, and I toyed momentarily with taking them down. I wanted an explanation. For my own sanity I needed an explanation, and if it was the last thing I did, then I was going to make Tyler give it to me.

The chair was right where Keith had left it-tucked into the corner, his noose and shards of glass still covering the seat. I pulled the chair over and cleaned it off with a sweep of my hand. before I climbed up and tugged at the belts to make sure they were secure. Evan was good, had tested the strength of the belts with his own weight but that didn't stop me from checking them again. If I was going to leave Evan and Keith alone in this silo...if I was going to leave Merry alone, then I wanted to be damn sure that no one was going to slip in unannounced.

I grabbed an old lantern from our supply stash on the way out. We hadn't been topside in a few days, and I didn't trust the clear night sky to guide my way. A broken-off axe handle propped up in the corner caught my eye and I lifted it up, tested its weight a few times before deciding to take it with me. Even without the metal axe head, it was heavy and damn solid. If Tyler did come looking for me . . . for us, I'd be ready.

A cold blast of air hit my face as I pushed my way to the surface, but even that didn't stop me. If anything, it gave me the extra surge of adrenaline I needed to solidify my plan.

The area surrounding the hatch was free of tracks, a fresh dusting of snow making its silence clearly evident. I decided to walk the perimeter, figured I'd circle back to the ventilation shaft we'd belted shut and wait him out there.

It was quiet, the sound of melting snow dripping from the trees my only company. Not wanting to give my presence away, I'd killed the lantern. I was pretty sure Tyler would be coming from the west, at least that's the direction we'd always headed in. but just to be safe, I picked a wide tree facing the west, kept an eye in all three directions while trusting the tree-trunk to cover my back.

The peeling bark grated my already wired system, and my toes were going numb from the cold. Sitting here, huddled into the darkness, I prayed that he was alive so that I could talk to him just one more time. I prayed for daylight so I'd have another day to rethink this. And I prayed that he was dead, because if what Merry was saying was true, then I'd kill him myself. And that...that I'd never come back from.

I'd just about given up, was waiting for the red glow in the horizon to morph into daylight when I heard the crunch of ice, the cracking of frozen earth under his boot. Silently I inched forward, making sure keep to the timber. I expected him to reach for the shaft, to pop it open and slide on down. He didn't, rather tossed his pack to the ground and opened it up, laid out every single weapon he had in the snow, carefully surveyed his cache before reaching for his weapon of choice.

Any sane person would've stayed put or locked him in that shaft from the outside and given Keith the opportunity to finish him off from below. But my ability to think rationally disappeared the second I read Meredith's first journal entry.

I approached him, walked right out into the clearing and stood face to face with the ghost from my past.

"Tyler," I said, and he turned, the look on his face reinforcing everything Keith had said. The feral eyes staring back at me didn't belong to the kid I once knew, the kid I would've once given my life to protect. The savage grin, the howl of laughter that echoed from his chest, was all the warning I needed. In one swift move, he slashed the serrated edge of his knife in my direction, barely missing me as I slammed the axe handle into the side of his head.

Tyler's legs buckled beneath him, his eyes drawing closed as his body crumpled into an unconscious heap at my feet. Blood trickled from his scalp just above his ear. From what I could tell, the wound was shallow, not deep enough to cause any permanent damage and fortunately not serious enough to kill him. I still wasn't sure what I planned to do with him, but I didn't want him dead...not yet.

The ropes I had in my back pocket were long, almost too long Evan would say. I did my best to mimic his knots, triple bound Tyler's hands and feet just to be safe. It didn't stop him from fighting me, his body jerking against my hold as I heaved him down the ladder. I thought about knocking him back out so his guttural protests wouldn't wake Merry. In the end, I settled for gagging him with my shirt, rolled it up and shoved it into his mouth, hoping it would keep him quiet just long enough for me to get him downstairs.

The door to my room was still closed. Evan's was ajar, but the space beyond it was dark and silent. It was Keith's room I headed towards, the small shadow I saw flickering against the wall telling me he was awake and on high alert like me. I kicked the door open and shoved Tyler in, his bound body falling to the floor by Keith's bed. Keith stopped pacing, gave Tyler a passing glance, then settled his attention on me.

"I got questions I need answered, and I figured you'd be the most willing to help." Keith nodded and stepped forward, gave Tyler one swift kick in the gut before he hauled him up and slammed him into the wall. Tyler grunted something inaudible behind the gag, his eyes promising revenge.

Keith pulled up a crate and flipped it over, sat down right in front of Tyler, their eyes mere inches apart. "I'll let Jake ask his questions, but when he's done, you're all mine."

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