Watchers

Chapter 45: Hot Pursuit

Sasha had been sitting at the table by herself, listening to Old Man Catchphrase repeat his line about the pale green horse and waiting impatiently for Daniel and Jane to return, when the Watchers appeared. Everyone else seemed nervous, but Sasha felt like her heart was going to burst right through her chest. She knew immediately why they were here, and it was a miracle they didn't zero in on her right away.

Instead, something kind of incredible happened.

Without knowing who they were protecting or why, everyone else in the room banded together and became politely uncooperative. When Father Gary tried to line them up, they bumbled about, confused and apologetic as they obstructed the Watchers' mission. Sasha did her best to blend in and knew that she would have done the same if they were looking for someone else.

Everyone in this room has no doubt been on the wrong end of the camera lens more than once in their lives, and now they are doing what they can to protect one of their own.

Sasha is keeping her head down, shuffling through the crowd when she sees Daniel and Jane in the doorway. She can't avoid looking at them, and it's the look in her eyes that finally gives her away.

"There!" Father Gary snaps. "I recognize her."

"Run!" Daniel barks, and Sasha obeys.

She darts for the great room door and the closest Watcher reaches out and snags her shirt sleeve. She feels her forward momentum being challenged and blindly flails in Daniel's direction, and then Old Man Catchphrase suddenly careens full-force into the Watcher, freeing Sasha and sending the old man to the floor with a heavy thud.

Sasha doesn't take the time to look back, but as she reaches the door she hears him say, "This is the way the world ends," and the Watcher bellows, "Arrest that old coot!"

"Come on," Daniel says, taking Sasha's hand and pulling her down the hall with Jane on his other side.

"Where?" Jane asks breathlessly.

"Downstairs," Sasha says. The recycling center still seems like a sound idea, and even though it didn't work last time, it's their only option with so many Watchers swarming the Haven.

They fly down the hall, faster than Sasha's feet have ever carried her before, and when Nurse Benedict steps abruptly into the hall, they don't even slow down. Daniel clips her with his shoulder, sending her into the wall with a yelp, and they keep going. It's impossible to know who's friend and who is foe right now.

When they reach the stairs, Daniel pauses at the top of them. Sasha's already halfway down before she notices that he isn't behind her.

"Hurry," she hisses.

"Are you sure?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

She's just beginning to think that she'll have to go back up and take him by the hand, pulling him into the basement by force if necessary, when he looks behind him and groans.

"Crap, they're coming," he says, and that gets him moving down the stairs at last.

"Who?" Sasha calls over her shoulder as she descends, Jane right on her heels.

"Father Gary," Daniel says, pounding the steps behind them. "And three Watchers."

Sasha's pulse is racing so fast she's sure that she would pass out if it weren't for the adrenaline. They reach the bottom of the stairs and run down the long, dark hallway. Ahead of them, she hears the soft, metallic sound of a knife being sharpened.

She wonders if Daniel and Jane can hear it. If they can, wouldn't they choose to turn around and take their chances with the Watchers?

Then again, maybe it's just in her head, a byproduct of her racing heart and the terror that is turning her veins icy.

When they get to the end of the hallway, though, recycling room on the left and the unspeakable lair of Father Gary's monstrous acts on the right, the door is open. The same large, hulking woman in a nun's robes is standing there, newly sharpened knife in her hand.

Edna.

Sasha could never forget that name.

She doesn't look mean. Sasha never got a good look at the woman when she was hanging from her ankles and trying not to become her next victim. If anything, Edna looks embarrassed.

"Oh my god," Jane says when her eyes go from the knife to the partially butchered body hanging behind Edna. Her voice goes shrill as she asks, "Is that Peggy?"

"She gave herself for the greater good," Edna says.

Then Jane's legs give out and it's lucky that Daniel is ready to catch her before she hits the floor. She's out cold and they don't have time to rouse her.

"They're coming," Daniel says as Father Gary and the Watchers reach the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh no," Edna says, running her hand over her habit and leaving a bloody streak through the material. "I forgot to lock the door again. He's going to be so mad at me."

She slams the door and they hear a lock click into place as Daniel hisses to Sasha, "Help me!"

She breaks out of her momentary stupor and throws one of Jane's arms over her shoulder. Daniel takes the other, and then they drag her through the door to the recycling center.

The smell hits her full-force, but even without a mask it doesn't seem as bad as it was before. Nothing could be as bad as what's going on across the hall, and she's too distracted to think about rotting garbage, anyway. With Jane passed out, they're moving at less than a quarter of their former speed, and they still have to figure out a way to shove her through the hole in the wall that leads to freedom and the city beyond the shelter.

A shadow falls on the floor as they drag her through the recycling center. Father Gary has reached the doorway and Sasha knows that at any moment, she'll feel his fingers wrapping around her arm - or her neck.

But it doesn't happen.

They don't stop dragging Jane toward the end of the conveyor belt, but behind them they can hear the Watchers. One of them retches as he looks in on Edna's subterranean operation, and another throws Father Gary up against the wall.

Something akin to hope begins to lift Sasha's chest as she realizes that they're arresting him and she and Daniel have become yesterday's news.

Jane comes to just as they're laying her down on the floor in front of the wall opening. Her face twists into a caricature of disgust as she realizes she's laying in a heap of garbage that didn't quite make it back outside, but Sasha and Daniel don't give her time to react to it.

"Go! Crawl," Daniel says, pushing her toward the hole.

She does, then he waits for Sasha to follow. It's tight, sticky, smelly, and it lets out on a dumpster full of more of the same, but she's never been more relieved to be dirty as Daniel drops into the garbage beside her.