The Post Sunday Experiment | COMPLETED 2020

Chapter 8

"Post... Sunday... Experiment... 73324... At... Gmail.com," Penny read aloud as she scribbled down the email address on a piece of notepaper. Looking at her work, then back up at her brother, the girl grinned.

"Look up those numbers." Her pride radiated from her big brown eyes in excitement.

"Five numbers," Ody was catching onto his sister train of thought. "Penny, is it a zip code?"

"I'm not sure where does the zip code lead to?" Penny leaned over his shoulder trying to catch a glimpse of the screen.

"It appears to be... a large plot of land for sale about a mile away. There doesn't appear to be any buildings or anything on it, though, so I am sure that isn't what the numbers mean."

"No. Just because the internet doesn't show anything doesn't mean there ain't anything there."

"Well, even if there was, it's not like we could do anything about it. We leave in the morning anyway, remember?" Ody sighed. "You should go back to bed."

Frowning, Penny turned to leave the room. Just before she left Ody, she noticed something. He'd sent her to bed. He hadn't made a move to go to bed too. Turning to take one last glance around his room, she noticed his eyes.

It only took one look to see the sparkle of mischief behind them. In that one stolen glance, she knew exactly what was going to happen.

***

Several hours later, Ody's eyes shot open. Rolling out of bed, he did his best to listen for any footsteps. All he could hear was the ticking of the hall clock. He smiled and stuffed both the note and his cell phone in his sweatshirt pocket.

Slipping out into the hall, Ody tip-toed down the stairs and out the front door. He made his way around back to pull his old bicycle out from behind the shed. Little did he know that his pounding heartbeat was not alone in the crisp night air.

Ody glanced at his phone that had the directions just before riding his bike and heading down the dirt path.

It was pitch black outside due to a lack of streetlamps. The stars shone bright in the midnight sky. The tires of his bike rattled, blocking out the noise of another set rattling not far behind him.

Flicking on the old flashlight, he had secured to the front of his bike, he lit up the dirt path.

The night was nearly silent excluding the rattle of tires and occasional chirp of a cricket. There was a slight chill in the air so Ody peddled faster.

Struggling to catch up with him, Penny switched gears. She rarely rode her bike. Her muscles protested as she did her best to keep up with her brother.

She knew where he was headed, but not where it was located. So, she blindly followed her brother though the dark. Penny had never stayed up quite this late. Her mind was a little fuzzy because of it. Ody might be able to figure out what she had been piecing together for the past two years. Penny though and that was enough reason to follow him to God knows where.

Pushing harder through the night, her curiosity burned brightly. After two years of looking through her father's studies and watching the people who came through the house, this might just be her chance of finding what he was truly working on.

Ever since that woman came over to Pa's house that one time, Penny had been curious. She'd been frightened at the time, so she'd quietly watched the woman's every move from her perch on the stairs.

She had overheard a conversation about chemicals and plants she hadn't understood. The conversation was dull and Penny had considered going to bed many times before its conclusion.

Just before she made up her mind to head to bed, she heard it. 'Did Mae ever know, Devlin? Did you ever tell her what was really going on?'

'No, maybe I should've, but it's dangerous. You know perfectly well why no one can know. I couldn't accept it if anything happened to her because she let the secret out. It was best that way,' he'd replied.

After the woman had left, Penny lay awake in bed, pondering the meaning of her words. She didn't know the full story but as she biked through the black of the night, she felt like she was closer to the answer than she had ever been before.

The bikes turned into the woods and the road faded behind her.

Ody continued to pedal hard. His eyes were glued on the ground as he continued to push forward. He was confident that in a few kilometers, he would come across the dirt road leading to the zip code 73324.

The boy didn't know what he might find, but he did know that it was a large plot of land owned by the military. The plot was large enough that if a person were to stand on the edge of the property, they wouldn't be able to see what was in the middle. Ody planned to find what, if anything, was in the middle.

As he pushed through the dark, he pushed his fear to the back of his mind. He ran on anger now. He was sure that nothing could possibly happen that would be worse than the past two years had been. After all, what did he have left to lose anyway?

On the other hand, Penny rode on her fear. Her head constantly whipped from right to left in search of monsters that might jump out of the forest.

She wished she knew where they were headed. The pounding of her heart and the turning of her stomach made her uneasy.

She glanced up just in time to see the light from Ody's bike a few paces in front of her blink out.