Chapter 16 - THE TOWN THAT LISTENED
Blackpine had been infected for years.
Mara understood it in one terrible moment.
Enough.
Each turned toward Lena with the same slight delay, like signals reaching separate receivers.
Dr. Park locked the clinic doors.
“What is happening?”
Mara opened Halverson’s notebook to the map.
“The mine network reaches the river.”
Park stared.
“The river runs beneath half the town.”
Caleb said, “And everyone drinks the water.”
Mara shook her head.
“The creatures need ears, not stomachs.”
Park’s face changed.
“Ear infections.”
“What?”
“We’ve had an unusual number this winter.”
Children.
Older adults.
Workers from the water plant.
The Echoes had not been waiting underground.
They had been entering people quietly.
The mine fire only forced them to act.
Outside, Lena raised one hand.
The people in the street moved closer.
Dr. Park whispered, “What do they want?”
Mara looked at Caleb.
“Doors.”
Hosts. Voices. More people.
The clinic phone rang.
Park answered before Mara could stop him.
He listened.
His face softened.
“Dad?”
Mara ripped the phone from his hand.
The line whispered in an old man’s voice.
“Owen, open the door.”
She smashed the receiver.
Park stared at her.
“My father died twelve years ago.”
“I know.”
A crash hit the front windows.
Then another.
The townspeople were not attacking.
They were pressing their faces against the glass.
Listening.
Lena’s voice came through the door.
“Mara, the fire hurt us.”
“Good.”
“You hurt people too.”
Mara looked at the infected crowd.
“Let them go.”
Lena smiled.
“You still think there’s a difference between them and us.”
Caleb whispered, “There is.”
Lena’s eyes shifted to him.
“Not for long.”
He grabbed his ear.
Mara’s heart stopped.
The extracted parasite was gone.
But a tiny black vein had appeared again behind his ear.
Not from inside.
May you like
From the skin at the base of his neck.
The organism had left something behind.
