The Compound by Gwenna McAllis

Author:Gwenna McAllis [McAllis, Gwenna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oracle Hawk Press
Published: 2023-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

Aunt Geri and the other drivers backed in toward the barn, pointing the noses of their vehicles at the road to save them a few seconds if they needed to make a speedy escape. Everyone climbed out at once, moving with a careful, unsettling silence, and assembled at the rear of their vehicles.

The first thing Daniel noticed was the shocking, vacuum-like absence of sound. The field around the barn was too quiet. The knee-high wild plant growth should have been teeming with life, with chirping and buzzing insects. It was July. Shouldn’t there have been something out here in the tall grass making noises?

Daniel had been standing on the property for approximately ten seconds, and already, he could tell something was wrong. A peculiar heaviness filled his chest. The air itself felt oppressive and dismal.

Residual negative energy.

Had Aunt Geri meant… ghosts?

Were lingering spirits of the dead real, too? Was the Jenkins’ farm haunted? Perhaps knowing the history of the place, the mass murder that had occurred here decades ago, clouded Daniel’s judgment. He’d been primed to expect an encounter with the ghost of Earl Jenkins. He could all too easily picture a transparent, overall-clad farmer wandering the field, blood-stained axe in hand, searching for his next victim.

Daniel’s pulse quickened. This was a bad place. He could feel it, and he wanted to leave.

He forced himself to breathe and ultimately dismissed his feelings as nothing but anxiety about what they were here to do.

Aunt Geri raised the Jeep’s lift gate and began unloading, the sounds of her movements echoing strangely in the silent field. She passed the bag of medical supplies to Lena, handed Daniel and Heath each a small duffel, then slung a backpack over her shoulder.

“Wait a second,” Aunt Geri whispered. “Daniel. Let me see the bag I just gave you.”

Daniel returned the duffel. With trembling hands, Aunt Geri unzipped it and reached inside. She removed a few flashlights and passed them around.

“Sorry,” she said, looking annoyed with herself. “Damn nerves. Let’s go.”

Aunt Geri’s group met Vern’s at the barn entrance. The spacious wooden structure loomed ominously before them in the darkness. It was hard to make out many details in the shadows, but Daniel could see enough to make him even more uneasy. Its steep gabled roof had caved in so much in some areas that Daniel thought entering the place was a bad idea, period, regardless of ghosts or demons.

“Are we sure about this?” the bifocals-and-flannel-wearing man asked. He was staring up at the dilapidated roof, most likely having the same thoughts as Daniel.

No one answered him.

Eddie, Marion, and Zarah came up behind them. Daniel was alarmed, initially, to see shotguns in their hands. “Well?” Eddie sneered. “Y’all gonna stand around out here all day like a buncha pansies?”

Zarah rolled her eyes. “Knock it off, Dad.”

Heath gripped the ivory-handled knife he carried around his waist and removed it from its sheath. He stepped ahead of the others. “Stay behind me,” he whispered to Daniel and Lena.

Aunt Geri tapped Daniel’s elbow and, keeping her voice low, added, “And stay close.

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