Chapter 15

Thomas was never very good with damage control. When he got home from the meeting with Isaac, Sam was already asleep. Part of him was relieved that he didn't have to talk to her right when he got home, but he knew the consequences of letting issues dwell unresolved, especially one this serious. He didn't know what the meeting was about before he went, but he definitely didn't leave when he should have.

He wasn't sure which was worse; Sam finding out or the slim possibility that Walker could find out that he told Isaac, and all of the others, everything. Either way, he was screwed.

That night he let Sam sleep. No use explaining it to her now. He woke up early to make her breakfast, filling their house with the smells of smoked meat and fresh fruits. As he was finishing, Sam woke up, a grim look plastered on her face. Thomas started to speak, but Sam immediately covered her mouth, eyes shooting open. She ran to the bath where she began vomiting. I didn't think I was that bad of a cook.

After she had time to recover, the two of them talked for the next hour, the food left untouched. They talked about the visitors, they talked about the meeting, and they talked about their relationship. Thomas clarified that he didn't know what the meeting was about beforehand, that Isaac only handed him a note. To his relief she believed him, but by no means was she happy about any of it.

One thing he never mentioned was his plan to take the others to the red dot. His relationship with Sam was not worth that trip. He truly loved Sam, and his decision to stick with his obsession with the visitorrs was having an obvious strain on their relationship. He needed to tell Isaac that he couldn't help them anymore.

Tomorrow. I'll tell him tomorrow.

Sam went back to bed, still not feeling very well. Thomas started cleaning up after his cooking fiasco and throwing away the food that he made. He lost his appetite after making Sam throw up. As he was cleaning, he heard a knock on the window. He put down a plate and made his way to the door, opening it to find Daniel standing in front of him. “Mr. Walker wants to see you, Mr. Conway.”

Thomas’s heart stopped. This wasn’t a coincidence. Walker must have found out he told Isaac what happened. Stupid. F*****g stupid. But how did he find out? There was a possibility that it was about something else, and Thomas hoped it was about something else. Anything else. “Thanks, Daniel.” Daniel smiled as he turned and ran, playful and naive.

Thomas walked back inside to where Sam was sleeping and kissed her on the forehead. “I love you,” he whispered to her, smiling. Reluctantly, he left his house to go to Walker’s, walking under the bright noon sun. People were walking around everywhere, huddling in groups around the bulbs going up around town, marveling at the new technology. As he walked, he passed the statue of Jackson Weld, thinking about the man that died there. What else have you seen, hmm? Jackson stared back at Thomas, his eyes cold, unfaltering.

Before long, Thomas arrived at Walker’s house. He reached up to knock on his window but held off inches before his fist struck. He closed his eyes and inhaled, then slowly breathed out in a futile attempt to calm his nerves. Thomas closed the final few inches to the window and knocked once. Twice. Three times.

Walker opened the door and greeted Thomas, beckoning him inside and offering a place for him to sit. Thomas accepted the offer and sat down in the same chair he once woke up in after being knocked unconscious. “Thomas,” Walker said, “I think we both know why I asked you here.” Walker sat across from him and crossed his legs, looking relaxed.

“I, um…actually am not too sure.” Thomas had never been a very good liar, but with the slim chance that he was here for another reason he didn’t want to unveil his discussions with Isaac.

Walker snickered. “You told them. After I specifically told you not to, you told them.”

Damn.

“I let you off with a warning last time. Now I don’t think I can be so forgiving. Come with me.” Walker stood up and walked to the back of his house to another door that led outside, behind his house. Thomas looked to the front door and considered running out, unsure what Walker had planned for him. “Don’t even think about it.” Thomas turned to see Walker staring right at him. He got up to follow Walker out back where he found Isaac sitting on the ground, his back to a fence and a piece of cloth tied around his mouth. Thomas’s eyes opened wide at the site of seeing Isaac tied up, doubtless because of what he told him.

“So you two think there’s a conspiracy happening, eh? You want to play detective and solve Dawn’s big mysteries?” He glanced back and forth at Isaac and Thomas, disappointment strewn across his face. He walked over to Thomas and lowered his voice, “No more, Thomas. You got that? No more.”

Walker pulled something from his pocket, a curved piece of black metal that he gripped, pointing the other end at Isaac. Thomas had never seen anything like it. It was shining in the sun, the light glaring off the sleek body of this…thing. Taking a couple steps closer, Walker put his finger on some sort of lever that rested right where the metal curved. Suddenly, Thomas’s ears were rocked by an incredibly loud noise, startling him as he blinked. He grabbed his ears and covered them, realizing the noise came from the black, smoking metal object in Walker’s hand.

Thomas then looked over at where Isaac was sitting. He was now lying on the ground, the cloth still in his mouth, his eyes open and staring at nothing, lifeless. Blood gushed from a hole in his forehead, creating a puddle around his head that grew as the seconds slowly ticked. Blood smeared the fence behind where Isaac once sat. Thomas felt incredibly overwhelmed. He just killed Isaac. As fast as I could blink, he killed Isaac. Thomas bent over and began vomiting into the grass. “What did you just do?” Thomas managed to say in between heaves.

“Consider this your final warning, Thomas. His blood is on your hands.” He put the curved metal back into his pocket. “That should be you right now, but you’re doing incredible work for Dawn. Invaluable work. I don’t want it to go to waste, but if I have to kill you, I will not hesitate to do it.” Thomas wiped the bile from the sides of his mouth. “Do you understand?”

Thomas nodded, not even making eye contact with Walker.

“We have another visitor coming soon. I don’t want to see you anywhere near him. I don’t want to hear of any plans to investigate him, or anyone else, any more.” Thomas looked once more at Isaac. The pool of blood ceased to grow underneath him. “As collateral, I have taken Sam.”

Thomas filled with rage, filled with guilt. “Don’t you hurt her.”

“You are in no position to tell me what to do!” Walker growled. “If I had my choice, you’d be dead by now. Good thing for you, it’s not. If you behave, you will see Sam again. If not…” Walker stopped in the middle of his thought and lowered his voice. “Leave.” Thomas looked at Isaac one more time then walked through the house and out the front door into the streets of Dawn. He overheard discussions of a loud noise, people talking feverishly to try and find its source. Thomas kept his gaze on the ground, wanting to yell and curse at someone, at anyone. He felt lost and alone.

Sam… I’m so sorry…

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Thomas returned home hoping to find Sam sitting at the table in the kitchen, clueless to Walker’s threats. He hoped nothing more than for the threats to be a bluff, for Sam to be there smiling with open arms. He searched the house for any trace of Sam, for signs of a struggle.

He found nothing.

Walker took her and would hold her until Thomas played by his rules. He began to cry, racked with guilt and blaming himself for losing her. If he had listened to Sam and stopped pursuing the visitors, she wouldn’t be involved in any of his mess. He fell to his knees and began to cry, overwhelmed and confused. Sam would know what to do.

Yeah, she would have stopped looking for the visitors the first time, you idiot.

Weeks went by and no visitors came to Dawn, but rumor of one arriving soon spread through the town quickly. Thomas promised to himself, to Sam, that he wouldn’t go see the visitor. He’d stay at his house until it all blew over and Sam would be returned to him.

It sounded too easy. I have to see her again; I have to know that she’s okay.

He left his house and made his way to Walker’s residence. He walked quickly, the afternoon sun setting and casting a reddish haze on the square as he neared the house. There weren’t a lot of people out walking around, just a few kids playing a ways down a nearby street, running around and laughing. Thomas let out a little smile, remembering conversations with Sam about kids. They didn’t have any yet, but they were hoping to in the near future. Sam wanted two daughters, Thomas always told her they would have sons instead.

Two daughters, Sam. Whatever you want.

Thomas arrived at Walker’s house and took a deep breath in. He reached out to knock on the window but hesitated, hearing a conversation coming from the inside. He looked in and saw Walker sitting in his chair, smiling and talking to someone he couldn’t see. Walker laughed and pushed himself out of the chair, embracing the woman that was with him. Thomas couldn’t see her face, but she looked incredibly familiar. She was about a foot shorter than Walker, her dark hair gracing the top of her shoulders.

Oh no…

She stood on her toes and pulled Walker’s lips to hers, a kiss that shattered every thought in Thomas’s head and engulfed everything he knew and loved in the world, swallowing it whole. He took a few steps back from the window and tripped, falling backward onto the stones lining the path to Walker’s front door.

Part of him wanted to lie there forever, become consumed by the ground and to end it then and there. The rest of him wanted to kill Walker, to yell at Sam, to uncover just what the f**k was going on. Why, Sam? Why were you kissing him?

He got up, took one last look at the house and turned to walk back home. Home. Bah. Without Sam, nothing was holding Thomas from finding out more about the visitors. When the next one came in, he would find out once and for all, even if it killed him. Thomas had nothing left to lose.

The last remnants of the setting sun shone on Jackson Weld's statue, the eyes hollow and emotionless. They followed Thomas as he strode past, silent in their gaze. A new dawn was approaching.