The Unexpected Guest (Part 2)

Daniel approached cautiously. The force-field hadn't hurt anyone yet, but it was talking to Ellis, and that wasn't a great sign. He felt his hair stand on end as he approached the building, it was like walking towards a giant static charge. The magic was heavy in the air here, weighing it down like fog. A very dangerous fog, he knew.

The windows were dark, and this close, Daniel could tell that they were unusually dark. It wasn't just that the rooms were not lit nor that the glass itself was tinted or darkened. It was more like the inside of the building had been darkened. Lights from the police cars didn't seem to affect the rooms inside. Ellis kept herself a few steps behind, which wasn't lost on him. It felt especially galling given that 'let's walk into the dark murder building' was her idea.

They reached the side door, an anachronistically modern glass door with a cardboard sign in it that read 'PULL'. Daniel looked at Ellis. She shrugged. He pulled.

They were somewhere else in the same instant. He could smell it in the air. It was wet and alive, like a greenhouse. A warm air, entirely unlike the cold chill of the Philadelphia spring, was wafting out from the corridor.

"I can see them now!" Ellis said excitedly. "The office workers are inside."

"We've moved." Daniel said, more cautiously. Ellis frowned, tightening her forehead.

"What do you mean." She glanced backwards at the still present police officers. Bennet looked concerned. Daniel realized he couldn't hear any of them anymore. The entire time he'd been able to hear the soft chatter of the officers at work. The rumble of their car's idle engines, the hum of the streetlights and power grid, the rush of distant traffic (rerouted away from the phenomenon). All of that was gone now.

"I can't hear any of them. The air smells different." Daniel looked through the window. "The light is different. I think we moved to the place where the office workers are, and I don't think it's the same place they were a few hours ago."

Ellis nodded, looking through the open door at a now well-lit office corridor, sparkling in a sunlight that wasn't being cast from behind them. "Do you think we can go back?"

Daniel didn't, and there was no point lying to someone who can read minds. "We need to find the tether."

He'd called them Sources until Ellis had spoken to the thing in the Peters house. Now he was pretty sure his theory was right. When the creatures emerged into their world or occurred, there was usually an object nearby overloaded with magic. He'd found a few while working with Henderson. Now was the perfect chance to learn more or at least test the theories he had without anyone looking over his shoulder.

He trusted Bennet, mostly. But it was still ideal to have him on the other side of a brick wall. He could decide what to tell him later. Of course, there was the problem of whatever was on this side of the brick wall with them.

They headed inside, down the lit hallway and into the inventory room of a long-shuttered clothing store. Decaying racks of dusty clothing hung languidly forming near human silhouettes.

"Which way are the people?" Bennet asked. He assumed they would be on the opposite side of the complex. Where the tech offices had been.

Ellis concentrated. "Most of them are together, on the far side, second floor."

She had an odd look, like there was something bothering her. Daniel decided she'd tell him if it was important.

"Lead on" he said.

They advanced through the storeroom and into the empty storefront. Broad windows opened into a brightly lit central walkway. It had a glass ceiling six floors up, held together by thin iron bars. The sun streamed in, the source of the illumination they'd seen in the hallway. Which didn't make sense at this time of night.

"What the hell?" Ellis asked. She was looking at something down the walkway, just out of sight. Daniel joined her at the glass. A wall of ivy climbed the brickwork and then morphed into an entirely different sort of plant. Long tendrils of vines had latched onto the ground, finding purchase in the cobble of the walkway.

Daniel pushed open the door and walked out into the central street. The ivy was everywhere, reaching four floors up on the walls, crawling across the wrought iron arches that segmented the building's 'Streets', sneaking into stores through cracks in their doors. It morphed freely between plants, sprouting roses from the middle of a cluster of vines, growing ivy out of patches of lawn. A water lily merged seamlessly into a nearby shrub at the edge of a still flowing fountain.

The air here was stifling. Like a greenhouse, Daniel thought, remembering his first instinct upon opening the door. He looked closer at one of the vines, it had grown through a door hinge forcing the door open. Dust gathered on both sides but not the inside of the frame which had now been exposed. Which meant "These plants are new".

Ellis looked at him, the door, and seemed to decide to take him at his word. "Something to do with the phenomenon then?" she asked. "And the temperature?"

"It's a safe guess." Daniel said.

There was one more thing bothering him though. "What are the plants eating?" he asked.

Ellis shivered and backed away from the water lily's she'd been studying. "Maybe they just grew on their own?" she said hopefully. Their eyes met and Daniel didn't need telepathy to know they'd reached the same conclusion. There was only one living thing in this building the plants could have been growing on.

"Which way are the office workers?" Daniel asked.

Ellis led him through the center square, where the few still operating restaurants were deserted. It was hard to tell. This was the most densely overgrown section so far. A thin layer of moss had spread over the cobble. One of the restaurants, an 'Authentic Italian Experience' was so completely overgrown that Daniel couldn't see inside. He made a mental note. If the Tether was an object, it was probably in there.

"You know what's wrong?" he said.

Ellis looked at him like he was dumb.

"Besides all the plants." He said, feeling a slight flush rise into his face.

"Besides all the plants?" she asked incredulously.

"There's no animals" Daniel finished, powering through. "It's totally silent."

Ellis nodded. "Well, it would be weird if they were inside."

"But when you see an ecosystem like this, you expect it to be complete."

Ellis smiled suddenly, an earnest grin appearing from nothing. "I'll pass on your notes to the plants, once we figure out how to talk to them."

"There could be something making the plants."

"I think that's worse." Ellis said nervously.

Daniel would prefer it. It was hard to shoot plants. He really didn't want to have to go into that Italian restaurant. He glanced over his shoulder. It felt uncomfortable even putting his back to it. It felt like he was being watched somehow.

Ellis' smile had vanished at the same time he'd felt the sensation.

<<WE'RE NOT ALONE>> she sent suddenly. Daniel managed not to flinch this time, but it was still violently disturbing to suddenly have another voice in his head. He hadn't ever thought about what his own 'voice' sounded like inside his own head, but the second he heard one that wasn't it, he became extremely aware of it.

Ellis picked up her pace and continued in their heads. <<I THINK IT'S A PERSON. FEELING SCARED. BUT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE RIGHT BEHIND US.>>

Daniel glanced over his shoulder again.

<<DON'T LOOK. THEY FREAK OUT EVERY TIME YOU DO.>>

That was horrible, Daniel thought. It meant that whoever was following them could see them. And he couldn't see a thing. He forced himself to relax and focused on his other senses. He could smell Ellis, a mix of deodorant and sweat after a 14-hour day. His own sweat mingled in with the traces of dozens of people working and visiting here regularly. The plants were blooming, filling the air with pollen and appealing scents.

He could hear Ellis' heartbeat, elevated a few steps in front of them. His own, pounding more than he'd like to admit. Their footsteps. Daniel watched Ellis carefully and counted them out.

There!

He could have sworn he heard it. A single footstep out of pace with Ellis or his own. Then again. About ten feet behind him. He concentrated on the sound and tried to push the sensation towards Ellis, like she had sent him a sensation outside of the building.

<<CAN YOU ALWAYS HEAR THAT MUCH / WHAT DO WE DO?>> Ellis came back. Confused.

<<Wait.>> Daniel decided.

Whoever it was, they were following at a distance. They walked with shoes on, sneakers it sounded like, and they smelled enough like a dozen other humans to blend in. It was more likely a Tracer than anything else. Maybe, Daniel thought in a rush, the one from San Francisco.

Although, that one had been armed.