Billy's Lumberyard
by
Nathanael Smith

She was smiling as she ran along, bits of skin showing through the threadbare patches on her knees and elbows making her look like a peasant more than the orphan that she was. Her long, raggedy hair was blowing in the breeze as she turned the corner into the alley. Then she stopped. A strange knot of fear began to crawl into her stomach as she looked carefully behind every box, trash can, and pile of trash before passing it. She hated this alley. But there might be a reward...

Tina Gayle stopped at a drainpipe coming down from the roof of an old warehouse with 'Billy's lumberyard' written in once-bright colors. A smile flashed across her lips as she thought about the previous day. A cash reward was out for knowledge about a group of kidnappers who had been blamed for the disappearance of over fifty kids in the past three months. She thought that she had some idea of where they kept the hostages.

Tina looked up the drainpipe and made an estimation about how long it would take to climb to the top. She then began to shinny up the tall, cold metal pipe. Before she had made it even half way up, she heard a man's voice:

"Hurry up, Jerry, we gotta be headed out in less than two hours."

Somebody answered the first voice, "I know, I know, but if we don't make sure that everybody's tired, we might as well not do this at all."

Tina kept on going up. She liked the idea of sleeping. After all, it wasn't just every day that she got a full nights sleep. But she kept climbing. Soon she came to a large hole in the old brick wall. She carefully slid in and looked around. It was much darker in here than it was outside, and so she sat down to allow her eyes to accustom themselves to the darkness.

In less than five minutes, Tina was in a large room in the basement of the building. in it there was a large pile of wooden boxes, each roughly honeycombed by a some planks. To one side, there were several rolls of nails, a pair of hammers hanging on a nail, and a large pile of crumpled newspaper. She carefully climbed to the top of the crates, grabbed onto a shelf, and pulled herself up.

Almost immediately, there were footsteps in the hall. Hundreds of them. Then the door was thrust open. a man dressed in blue and with blue sunglasses stepped through the doorway and walked over to the crates. He pulled one from the side and laid it on the ground, then waved.

Two men stepped out of a door on the other side of the room, near the pile of newspapers. They were pulling chains, and on the chains there were kids. Lots of kids. They all showed signs o' being tired, and they were all frightened. Soon there were over two-hundred and fifty exhausted children standing in scraggly rows, one by one they were dropping off. One by one they sank to their knees, and one by one they were lifted by the men and put into the crates, one per person. Then crumpled newspapers were added, making the fit snug but not tight. Tina kept looking, wide eyed in astonishment. She didn't dare make a sound. The man in the blue was standing around, looking down the hall, checking his watch, and then he spoke. "They oughta get here soon, don'cha think? Jerry and Bob, watch the kids. I'm calling Moe."

When the last of the kids were in and packed, the men, apparently Jerry and Bob, started nailing slats of wood over the top. By the time that was done, the man in the blue had returned, carrying an uzi and with a toy poodle chasing his feet. He walked quickly over to a sliding door and opened it a crack, then, apparently after seeing all was well, he slid it the rest of the way open. A truck was waiting at a truck loading dock. The man in blue smiled.

Jerry and Bob quickly loaded the crates onto the truck, in which they fit perfectly. Just as they got the last crate in, a mouse crept by Tina, kicking up dust and cobwebs as it passed. Tina couldn't stop herself, and she sneezed. The man in blue grabbed his uzi and pointed it in Tina's general direction. "Jerry, check that out"

Jerry blinked quickly and began a wary approach. "Who are you," he queried, "and, why aren't you with the rest of the kids?" he asked, as he saw who she was. "I thought that we had you all."

The man in blue asked if there was more space in the crates, to which Jerry replied that there was not, and then commented that she would have to be the first of the next load. Tina looked between Jerry and the man in blue. She looked at the crates of kids. She looked at the gun, and then at the poodle. She looked hopeless, and Jerry smiled. "Well... I guess that's settled, then."

He winked maliciously. Tina took a step at him, then reached out to smack him on the side of the face. Moments before she did, though, a strong hand caught her from behind. "Sure, girlie. We don't want anyone to get... hurt, or anything... Maybe you should just... Sit there." He reached out one hand and grabbed her chin, forcing her to her knees.

Fortunately, being raised on the streets, by and with other street kids, Tina was prepared. She slid a foot back, hitting the big man at the ankle, which was followed by a loud crack. He immediately let go of her, and spun around. There, behind him, was a tall boy with a broomstick, swinging at his head. Again the broomstick connected with hard bone, and a loud crack filled the air. Tina didn't think that she had hit his ankle hard enough to make as much noise as she did.

The man had been hit hard three times and was showing no sign of giving up. As a fourth blow hit him on the ribs, knocking the air out of him and causing him to crumple to his knees, the man in blue raised the uzi, and said in a commanding voice "That's enough, boy. We don't want to have to do anything to you, that's enough."

Tina stood up and pushed her former tormentor onto his face, where he groaned and pushed himself into a corner. "I think I'll just lay here... for a minute." He gingerly rubbed his head and his chest.

The boy grabbed her arm and drew her behind some boxes, then into what looked like an even smaller box. She was stunned, however, when he disappeared. She followed him, then found that it was more of a tunnel, with a breeze blowing down it. He whispered for her to keep going, and she numbly did. He turned around and pushed a box so that it fell over the hole, then latched a small, heavy mesh door.

A loud crash was heard outside, as one crate after another was un-stacked, then checked through and tossed onto another on the other side of the room. The boy looked at Tina, then at her chin, which was still red from the big man's hand. "Hi. I'm Bill." He stuck out his hand, which Tina shook slowly.

"I'm Tina. Where are we?"

Bill looked around, then smiled and said, "This is... Ah... the air conditioning pipes, kinda. I guess they're from when Mister Billy still kept this as a lumberyard... I don't know. I do know, though, that if we don't start moving soon, that Mr. Fauntleroy'll find us. And that's not good from any point of view. C'mon."

Bill kept moving up the long tunnel, Tina slowly followed him up the almost-vertical pathway. They passed several off-corridors, and he seemed to be counting them. "One, left... One right... two, three left... two right... four, no, five left... three, right. Okay. Here." He turned to the right, followed it for a short way, then pushed on a panel on the side. It fell down with a quiet whoosh, and Bill crawled across. He then signaled for Tina to cross, too, which she did, though slowly.

When she had gotten across, Bill put the panel back into it's upright position, and it clicked. Just as he turned and walked across a short area of rafters, a noise was heard down the ducts. He turned to look back. Tina was kneeling on the floor looking like she had fallen asleep while running. _Great he thought _Now I have a sleeping girl and the poor girl's worst enemies close behind. He looked at Tina _Probably by the same stuff used to knock all the other kids out...

He picked up Tina's limp body and began to clumsily dodge down a trash-strewn hallway, then into the little room that Tina had found her way in though earlier that night. He put her into a corner, hidden by the darkness and protected by an old radiator that was tilting at an angle that proclaimed that it was no longer a radiator, but rather a late radiator. He then used a corner of his shirt to wipe her face, reasoning that a lotion would be the most economical and easiest to apply sleeping potion.

_Now for those big men, he decided. He ran down the hallway, and back to the duct entrance. There was alot of noise as the men scrabbled their way slowly up and down. Where Bill and Tina had crawled out, there was a three-foot gap between the ducting and an old guard-less balcony. That's what he used the panel from the ducting for. As a bridge.

Now he heard the loud scraping of the men squeezing down the tube to where he and Tina had crossed to the balcony. Suddenly, the panel started to move. A muffled voice came from inside, proclaiming that he had found a "possible point of exit". The panel popped out and fell down, down, down, until it hit the bottom with a loud clang. There was the man in blue, sitting with his glasses half-off, and a speaking into a small cell-phone.

He called for Jerry to come and help him, and a grumbling came from below. Apparently, Moe was waking up. He sat up and rubbed his face. The man in blue yelled at him, for being such an idiot to catch a whiff of his hand. Moe looked up and smiled, then fell down in a pile of apparent contentment.

Suddenly, Bill realized that the man in the duct had pointed a gun at his chest. As he realized this, and as he was trying to react to it, Tina rushed past him and jumped onto the duct, which began to sway. The man lost hold of the gun, which slid down the duct and was heard to smash something when it hit the bottom. He said something which Bill couldn't hear.

The duct kept swaying, and, even, seemed to increase. Tina was still on the duct, when, suddenly, one of the supporting rods snapped, causing the entire duct to fall six inches, then remain steady for a moment. Bill tried to reach Tina, then jumped, grabbing both a rafter and Tina as the ducting suddenly continued with a free-fall.

Tina was suspended by her left arm about fifty feet above the remaining wreckage of the ducting. Bill was holding on with his right arm to the rafter, and with his other arm to Tina. She started to swing back and forth, and back and forth, until she swung herself onto the balcony, again. Then she moved back as Bill swung to grab the balcony, too.

He missed, but hit the next balcony down, a short drop. He motioned to Tina for her to follow him, which she did, though she didn't quite jump, but climbed down the old shelving on the wall.

Bill was on an old phone. He looked disgusted as he threw it down. "No dial tone. This old place must be out of the system."

Tina looked at him. "So? Why else would that guy use that Cellular phone? C'mon. I'm going to go get it."

Bill looked, for a moment, dumbfounded. He blinked several times, as if to clear his mind, then nodded. "Why didn't I think of that?? Lets go."

They climbed down the shelving, which, good and sturdy though it was, was scary, especially if one chose to look down at all the places where a body could hit various objects as it hurtled down. Neither liked the thought.

The last fifteen feet were piles of crates, making it both safer and more protected, if anyone would try to jump them. When they reached the edge of the boxes, the truck outside started up. Tina ran to the sliding doors and peeked out. Bill carefully crept to the fallen ducting, then looked inside. The man in blue had hit his head, and most of the rest of his body. He wasn't dead, yet, although if he didn't get help, he might be, soon. Tina walked over and took the still-live phone from the man's hand, then called the police. "Um... I'm Tina Gayle. Could you keep a watch on a large truck bearing an out-of-country license plate?? I have reason to believe that there are coerced persons within... Yes, sir... Yes, sir, 1L7MrJ... Mexico..." She looked at Bill and whispered, "how many men?" then turned back to the phone and said, "three," to his signal.

In the distance, there was the sounds of sirens. The truck started up, and peeled off down the alley. Bill peeked out long enough to see that the truck was, indeed, stopped. Then he ran to the drain used to keep the water off of the former lumberyard floor. After lifting the grating, he realized that Tina was following him. He let her down before he went down, too, then replaced the grille as a group of police burst through the doors, guns blazing.

Meanwhile, Bill led the way down the complex storm-sewers to a manhole. He carefully peeked out, and Tina saw that there was full sunlight. He finished pushing up the cover and crawled out, then turned to lift Tina out, but she scrambled out by herself. They were in an alley, but it was a clean, residential kind of alley. Tina had torn the hem of her already ragged skirt.

Bill muttered something like, "Boy, will I get it this time," then led the way to the front of the block. There was a police car in front of a white house with green trim. "That's my house. C'mon, since you don't have any parents, I betcha mine wouldn't mind."

Tina looked slightly uncomfortable, but followed Bill, anyway. He walked in through the front door and yelled "Hey, guys!"

There was a scrambling in another room. A woman rushed into the room, followed closely by a man. A fat policeman followed.

Bill stood there and smiled a guilty smile as his mother came over and hugged him, "Mom," he complained. She stopped hugging him, then looked at Tina. The policeman looked at Tina, then back to Bill.

He pulled out a photo of a man in a nice beige suit with some slightly tinted glasses on. " d'you guys know who this is?".

Tina looked at Bill, and Bill looked at Tina. She answered the policeman, "Uh... well... to be perfectly honest..."

Bill cut in, "Well... um... I don't know him, but from what I saw of him, he was in some pretty sorry shape."

The policeman cocked his head.

Tina smiled and added, "of course, it was all his fault, I mean, if he hadn't tried to follow, then he wouldn't have fallen."

The policeman smiled. "Aha! I thought so as soon as I heard yer voice, you're the sprite who called in the police half an hour ago... caught an old truck full of kids... Well... I need to ask you a few questions."

Bill's mother looked disapproving. Then she looked at Bill. Then at Tina. "Well... OK... But can he stay here?"

"Sorry, Ma'am, but I need them as witnesses to vandalism. They need to come with me."

The police car was packed as it backed out of the driveway and onto a road that led down about a mile to an old warehouse, Billy's Lumberyard. The policeman asked a million questions, until they got to the truck loading-dock, then they got out of the car. There was a police line already in place around the building.

"Hey, mom. You haven't met Tina."...