Chapter 21:
Kidnapped
The group drove about a hundred more miles into northern South Dakota—neutral territory. Armstrong found a spot on the side of the road, in a wooded area near a mile marker. He buried Bones there, and carefully stepped off the distance from the mile marker. After the burial, everyone gathered around his grave while Chad gave the eulogy.
“Today, April 12th, I say good-bye to my friend, Robert Shipley. I called him Bones because at 6-1 and all of 160 pounds he looked like he was all skin and bones. I think, if given a choice, he would have wanted to come with us. My wish is to bury him in the New World, but it’s uncertain how long it will take us to get there. Bones was more than a good soldier, he was my friend. He had all the skills one could want: smart, fearless, and strong. I will sorely miss him. I consider this innocuous place to be only a temporary resting spot. I’m going to come back for you, buddy. I don’t know when, and it may be a long time, but I’ll never forget to come back for you. We’ll give you a proper funeral and burial in the New World. After all, you died to make this happen for the rest of us. God bless you, my man. Rest in peace old faithful friend. Rest in peace.”
The new pilgrims pulled into a motel and grabbed five rooms. Eugene went to Pamela’s room and found Sandy there. “Oh, is this a bad time?”
“No, Gene, it’s all right,” Pamela said.
“So, I’m Gene again?”
“Oh, that’s right.”
“What’s going on?” Sandy said.
“I called him Phillip. That was what outsiders know him as. I couldn’t be sure at first, so I told you his name was Phillip.”
“But it’s Eugene, or just Gene,” he said.
It was a good opportunity for Eugene to get to know Sandy, of whom he remembered Fernando speaking so fondly. Sandy had no groceries, and Armstrong didn’t think it safe for anyone to be off on their own. Eugene found an old restaurant menu in his room that delivered and invited Sandy and Pamela over for pizza.
“You two go. I have something here,” Pamela said.
Sandy smiled and told Gene she’d come.
“Tell me about Fernando. You didn’t get a chance to answer when I asked you that before because the Hogs showed up. He was in many of my dreams. I think I truly loved him.”
Eugene relayed to Sandra everything he remembered from that time in Joliet, and then his experience in Hell House.
Sandy just looked at him curiously. “So, why did they put you in there?”
He then told her the story of his life up to Catherine’s death. Sandy listened sympathetically. They drank much of the last of the wine. Finally, Eugene just said, “I had a good life where I was. I had a well-paying job and a terrific wife, whom I miss very much.”
“Tell me about her, Gene.”
“She was quite beautiful and smart. She taught high school—mostly history and literature—but she could teach math below calculus in a pinch. Then she began drinking heavily. She’d be forgetful, and was always going out a lot. I learned that she was forced into an affair with… Jaydan Casimir, your husband. It was before he met you. When Catherine couldn’t handle it anymore, she killed herself on drugs and booze.”
“Oh my God, Gene. What did you do?”
“No sooner than she died I found myself fighting for my own freedom. That’s when they stuck me in Joliet. It was after Catherine died that Casimir came after you. He came after me too. He thought I’d go radical on him, blame him for Catherine’s death, so they stuck me in Hell House. It turns out that Dennis, Ray’s brother, was just using me. He’s the one who brought me there. I thought he was my friend.” Eugene looked downcast at this point.
“My husband is such a bastard. They say he’s the second most powerful man in the country after this guy named Martinez.”
“Imagine that. It used to be the President.”
“How did this ever happen in the first place?”
Eugene just shrugged. There was a knock at the door.
“It must be the pizza man,” Gene said. He looked out the spy hole and then opened the door.
Sandy smiled and ran to the door, and then shrieked. Eugene looked at Sandy, and then at the stunned pizza guy.
“It was another flashback,” she exclaimed.
“What do you mean?”
“Yeah. I keep having them. Something about that guy triggered one just now, but I can’t make sense of it.”
They sat down and had some of the pizza when Sandra, lost in thought, suddenly realized something. “Fernando!”
Eugene just looked at her. “Fernando? What about him?”
Sandra wasn’t sure. She just remembered something. “A package,” she said. “A package from Fernando.”
Eugene just stared at her, and then realized something. “Sandy, I asked Ray to see if he could find out something about Fernando. This was a while back and he never got back to me about it. Maybe this would be a good time to check in on him.”
Sandy and Eugene went to Ray and Cassandra’s room, and confronted them about Fernando.
Ray invited them in and the four sat around a table. “I decided not to tell you, Gene,” Ray said.
“We decided,” Cassandra said. “Something awful happened.”
“You couldn’t do anything about it,” Ray said. “We thought it better not to tell you.”
“Tell me what?” Eugene said.
“Yes, please tell us,” repeated Sandra.
“I’m sorry, Gene, but your worst fears were realized. I heard it from Judy. They did take him to a Hell House, like yourself.”
Ray relayed all that he heard from Judy, which was based on the formal report delivered to the Commandant. Then he told him what he’d done to Grifton.
“Good for him. That bastard,” Eugene said.
They were all silent when Eugene spoke up. “Why did they stick Fernando in there? Jesus, I get it with politicians, journalists, Populist agitators—I mean, it’s wrong—but I get it; but Fernando?”
“Eugene, when Fernando was released from Joliet, he wasn’t taken to Hell House. His boss wanted him back at work. He just wanted to frighten Fernando into working off the loan.”
Eugene was confused. “Then how did he get to Hell House, and how did he get into the Fortress?”
“Getting in wasn’t difficult.”
“Yeah,” Sandy said. “I just remembered. They called me asking me if I was expecting a package. I told them to let him in because Jay was always getting packages.”
“Okay, but what about Hell House?” Eugene asked again.
After he was released from Joliet he didn’t go back to work. He went looking for you, Sandra. Somehow—and I don’t know how—he found out that you married Jaydan Casimir.” Ray stopped briefly. He looked reluctant to go on, but Eugene and Sandra wanted to hear more.
“He found the commandant’s address, and went over to your house,” looking at Sandra. “He had a messenger’s uniform on and a package in his hand when he rang the doorbell.”
“That’s what I was starting to remember,” Sandra said. “He showed up at my door and tried to come in. He was talking crazy and I screamed. I didn’t know who he was. He told me, but this was before my dreams started. Oh, my poor Fernando. I scared him away. He dropped the package and ran off. I told Jay about him and what he said to me, and he told me he’d take care of it. That was all I remembered.”
Eugene was upset. “I still don’t understand how he ended up in Hell House or how he got in. Because he looked up Sandy?”
“Partly. And getting in to the Fortress isn’t that difficult. Delivery people come and go all the time.”
“Yeah, they called me up and asked me if I was expecting a package. Jay gets packages all the time so I told security to let him in.”