Page 29 of After the Fall

“Sir, the ruby tea.” Gloria rested her hand on my shoulder and gave me a wink as she set down the pot of tea on the table. Gloria had found our names for the various mosses that we used rather boring, so instead of red tea, it was ruby; the green moss, emerald of course. She had come to our community years ago as a little girl, and was one of the few humans on planet Earth that knew with absolute certainty the legend of Bigfoot was real.

“What’s that?” Connor asked.

Gloria gave Connor a warm smile. “Why, it’s my own blend of hibiscus, ginger, and garlic. Good for the tummy.”

Connor grimaced. Gloria was a smart woman and knew to keep the details of the moss a secret from outsiders.

Atticus poured two cups. Tank remained stationed in the basement with the prisoner, unaffected by whatever was going on with me and Atticus. As soon as the ruby tea hit my throat, the nausea started to wane. Once I’d finished the entire cup, the patio lights stopped pulsing. I inhaled deeply and rubbed my forehead, hoping to massage away the remnants of the headache that had come on like a sucker punch to the face.

Harper held my hand, her eyes studying me. “You’re feeling better.”

It was a statement, not a question. She knew me. “Yeah. I have no idea what happened down there.”

“What about you, Atticus?” Harper squeezed my hand and turned her attention to him.

“Same.” He stretched his arms above his head. “I thought that maybe the beer was bad, but Wyatt didn’t have any.”

“No. And we didn’t eat any of Tank’s foraged blueberry jam either.”

Harper’s brow furrowed and she tilted her head.

“I’ll tell you about that later.” I gave her a smile. The situation was weird as fuck, and now that we’d brought two humans and a goddamn werewolf into the mix, I realized just how stupid we’d been. Making light of the situation might help. We couldn’t risk one of them… well, who was I kidding? We couldn’t risk Savannah freaking out and running to the FBI or the cops.

Atticus laughed and then belched. “There we go.” He rubbed his stomach. “Maybe we just needed some air. That guy was rank.”

“Thatguy’s name is Jim. And he’s got a family.” Harper crossed her arms. “What are you guys going to do with him?”

Connor stared at me like he was studying my face to paint it later. “Yeah, what are you going to do? It sounds like Genocorp is responsible for the missing hikers. This has been happening under your watch for way too long.” He crossed his arms.

For the longest time, we’d attributed the missing hikers to the rogue sasquatch, the one that we’d killed in August. I’d justified the killing of one of our own because of Harper, and the fact that he’d been murdering members of the Seattle hiking community. Knowing that I was wrong sent a shiver up my spine. How could this have been happening in our county? “Well, we can’t just release him to his family. Not in his condition.”

Harper seemed to think about it. “So if he was human, you would just… let him go?”

I glanced to Harper. She wasn’t going to like this part. “After giving him a dose of the forgetting serum.”

“You can do that?” Savannah had been curled up in a ball, nestled against Connor, but she sat up straight, her eyes on Harper. “You can decide what he remembers?”

I sighed. It wasn’t the time to explain the way the potion worked. “Kind of. It’s not an exact science, but we can make sure he doesn’t remember anything about us or Genocorp.”

“So then what?” Savannah pursed her lips, like she was trying to do a complex equation in her head. “You’d just drop him somewhere and he wouldn’t know how he got there?”

Atticus set down his tea cup. “It’s best that you don’t know any more than that. But yes. We’d make sure he was safe. And then as far as he, the cops, or anyone else would know, he’d been lost in the woods and come home with amnesia.”

Savannah looked unamused. “Really? This guy’s been missing for who knows how long, and at some point, everyone is just going to accept that he doesn’t know where he’s been this whole time?”

“She’s got a point,” Connor said. Savannah patted Connor’s knee and relaxed back against his body. “And how do you guys even have that kind of power?”

Fuck.

“It’s none of your damn business,” Tank growled.

I turned to face him. He was supposed to be guarding the hiker. “What are you doing out here?”

“That guy isn’t going to try to escape. He’s way too weak. And who cares if his family buys his story or not? Not that it even matters while he’s in this state. Besides, we’ve got a bigger problem to figure out. What the hell is Genocorp doing experimenting on humans, and how are we going to stop them?”

A murmur spread amongst everyone. For once, Tank was the voice of reason. “We checked out the site when we were out there today.” I stroked my chin and closed my eyes, trying to recall all the details I could from the Genocorp building. “They’ve got a helipad and it’s gated. Seems to be mostly underground. We were too far away to see if they have any guards, but it’s likely they have a state of the art security system.”

Harper cleared her throat. “Maybe I could—”

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