Chapter 5
Charlie sat at his kitchen table. When a coffee cup was placed before him, he glanced up. "Thanks, Mom."
"You need to eat, Charlie."
"I'm not hungry." He ran his hands over his face. "How's Bella?"
Helen sighed. "I had to help her out of the tub. Poor thing's teeth were chattering; she let the water go cold."
"Has she said anything?"
"Just that she and Angela were in the restroom when it happened."
"Then she knows two, no three, of her friends are dead. Tyler Crowley's body was found just outside the restroom. Jake told her about Mike Newton and she basically saw Angela die."
"How bad is it, Charlie?" Geoffrey asked his son.
"Every person in the junior high, so roughly 60 people. We found 40 in the cafeteria. Another 10 in the halls of Building A and seven in Building B. Total of approximately 120."
"And no words from the National Guard."
He shook his head. "We're totally cut off. Two communities went from 500 people down to 380 in less than a minute."
"Go get some sleep, honey," Helen said, kissing his temple. "We'll figure out what to do in the morning."
Charlie walked into the station the next morning. Steve met him at the door. "What is it, Steve?"
"It's bad, Charlie. Real bad. I gotta show you."
"Holy God," Charlie muttered as Steve drove him down his residential street. "Get a hold of the others. Start at one end of town and do a sweep. Go door to door. Write down whose left."
"Got it, Chief. What about La Push?"
"I'll head there and get with Billy and the guys."
Ephraim Black opened the door to Charlie's knock. "Chief Black."
"So it's formal then. Chief Swan. How may we help you today?"
"On the way into work today, Deputy Johnson spotted bodies on a few of the lawns. He is taking a census of Forks right now. I've come to see if La Push had anything similar." Ephraim just look at him. "Body parts, Chief Black. All ages. We need to check the Res."
"Billy," he called back into the house.
"Yeah, Grandpa?"
"Get Quil on the radio. Tell him to send Senior over. Tell him to pick up Josh and Greg on the way over. And Billy. Tell Quil the Soul Eater is here."
"I can only name the survivors, Charlie," Greg said. They could still hear Jake puking inside the house. "The Blacks, the Atearas, Sue and the kids, the Lahotes, the Calls, Jared Cameron and five other families. We're all that's left of the Quileute people. Fifty people are still breathing."
"Christ. That's how many are dead in Forks." He looked over at the last two elders left. "What is the Soul Eater?"
"Just as it sounds," Quil said. "It takes the most remote place and makes it a ghost town. Roanoke is tributed to the Soul Eater."
"So we're dead. All of us. We just don't know it yet."
"Pretty much," Ephraim answered. "The Soul Eater isn't just a spirit or a wraith. It chooses a vessel, one that will seem like the most unlikely person. He, or she, will have no knowledge that it hosts this evil. The bombs at the school? That was the work of the Soul Eater. The people during the night? It visited them, whispered things into their ear. We woke to the aftermath."
"We have to get some of the children out," Quil interjected. "No one over 18. They are the better ones who has a chance away from here."
"Who do we choose, Dad?" Quil IV, better known as Senior or Four, asked.
"Leah and Seth, Sam, Paul, Junior, Jared, Jake, and the Wilde girls."
"We can't afford to loose any more people," Billy said. "I know this sound like I'm callous, but I hope it concentrates on Forks."
"The end of the week, Charlie. By Saturday, the kids need to be outfitted to go."
Charlie nodded. "Bella, the Cullens, Whitlocks, Hales. Those are the ones I have at the top of my head."
Charlie sat with his deputies in his office. He just relayed everything he learned at the Res.
"You actually believe that Native mumbo-jumbo bullshit, Charlie?" Dave asked.
"Yes, I do. We are cut off from the rest of the world, Dave. Have you seen the trees that are blocking the road? Phone lines are down. Hell, the cell tower got blown up yesterday. We cannot contact anyone. Thank the Lord that the power lines are buried, so we still have power."
"You really gonna send a bunch of kids into the wilderness?" Lonnie asked. His son was 10 and in with the group.
"Yes, I am. Every kid over 14 that's going knows how to live off the land. The Quileutes know how to live off the water. If we send them in any direction, they have a fighting chance. If it saves my daughter, I will fight the fires of Hell to get her safe."
Rosalie and Charlotte huddled together in Charlotte's room, listening to their parents argue.
"I know, Sharon! I found out! You can drop the innocent act!"
"Know what, Richard! That I like to drink at night!"
"You and Charlie Swan! You've been fucking him for years!"
"What the hell are you talking about? I went out with him one time in high school to make you jealous!"
"You named Charlotte after him!"
"We named her after your grandmother!"
"Let's go," Rosalie whispered.
"Where're we going?"
"To Jasper and Peter's."
The girls quietly made their way downstairs. Rosalie punched in the alarm code and pulled her sister outside. They ran around the house and down the street. Two blond boys were sitting on the curb.
"Your parents at each other's throats too?" Peter asked.
"Yeah." Charlotte sat next to him. "They were fighting about Chief Swan."
"Then that where we need to go," Jasper said, standing.
"Where, to the Swans? Why?" Rosalie asked.
"I got a bad feeling, Rose," Peter said as he dusted off his pants. "If we're in those houses tonight, we won't see the morning."