Page 44 of (Mostly) Human Resources

Silas ignored her. “I believe you are capable of making the hard decisions and doing whatever it takes to achieve your goals. I also know you wouldn’t let a Warden die in the field under your watch.” He grinned. “Prove me right.”

Alexys didn’t know how to respond. The whole situation was too bizarre. In the end, she simply nodded, in part to appease him and to end the conversation.

“Of course I want to find Elliot.” Her voice was merely a whisper.

“Excellent.” Silas flashed another grin. Alexys thought his mouth looked full of far too many teeth. His brown eyes glittered with amusement. “Best hop to it then, Miss Keane. Places to be, people to rescue, and all that.”

Silas turned away from her, and Alexys took her opportunity to flee. She slipped around the tree behind her and broke out into a sprint, not daring a single glance back.

CHAPTER 26

“Despite the most recent headlines, Entity is not in the business of ghostbusting. We are a largely research-based company that strives to protect humanity from the ever-growing population of, for lack of a better word, monsters that have started appearing over the last few decades.”

Frontline Newsinterview with Drew Harlowe (Entity CEO)

When Alexys was certain she wasn’t being followed, she slowed her pace, not quite running from Silas but not stopping either. She walked for several hours, unsure of where she was going and even less sure she would find Elliot. Her leg muscles protested the endless cardio, and with a quick look around to be sure she was alone, she sat on the ground and put her head between her knees.

Wheezing words out between heavy breaths, she gasped, “What is going on? Where are you, Elliot?”

“Are ya lost?”

Her head snapped up, and once the world stopped spinning, she was relieved not to see Silas, but a young boy, standing a short distance away.

He was leaned up against a tree, a stick hanging from his hand, lazily tapping the ground in front of him. His overalls were a dusty denim that must have been handed down through several generations before they reached him. His feet were bare and covered in thick mud. There was a scrape on his chin that was clearly fresh, but it didn’t keep him from smiling at her. He was a total mess, but much to Alexys’s delight, he appeared absolutely harmless.

“I might be a little lost,” Alexys finally admitted, pushing herself back up to her feet. “You’re not lost too, are you?”

The boy laughed. He couldn’t have been older than eight or nine.

“Naw, I’m never lost in these woods.” His accent was thicker than any she’d heard so far. He waved his stick, like a king gesturing to his kingdom and proclaimed, “Been playin’ here every day since I could walk.”

Alexys perked up a bit at that, but she was still breathing a bit too heavily to feel very hopeful. “Have you seen anyone else out here? I’m looking for someone, he’s older than you, likely wearing the same backpack?” Alexys turned sideways to show him. The boy didn’t show much interest.

“What’s your name?” he asked instead, as if he hadn’t even heard her question. His attention drifted to a rock a few feet away from her. “Mine’s Waylan.”

She exhaled. “Hi, Waylan,” she said, taking a step toward him. “I’m Alexys.”

Waylan flashed her a bright smile, but he turned right back to the rock. It was too big for him to pick up, about the size of a bicycle tire, but that didn’t prevent him from pulling on it with all his might. After watching him struggle for a few moments, she offered to help.

Alexys ended up holding up one side of the rock while Waylan dug underneath it with his stick.

“Waylan, what are you looking for?”

He looked up at her like that was the silliest question he’d ever been asked and, with a matter-of-fact tone, said, “Roly poly, ’course!”

She frowned down at the ground and tried to see what he was talking about. “A what?”

“A roly poly.” His sigh was full of frustration, and he shoved a closed fist up toward her face. She barely had time to rear back as he nearly knocked her nose. Opening his fingers, he held up a palm full of pill bugs.

“Ah.” Alexys grimaced and gently pushed his hand away from her face. “Interesting.”

Waylan stared down at the bugs in his hand and muttered, “I wish I was a roly poly.”

Thinking to herself that she did as well, the urgency of her situation settled over her. Alexys was supposed to be looking for her lost (read: potentially dead) employee. Instead, she was playing with a wayward mountain urchin and his pill bugs. Her ability to get distracted was genuinely astounding. And lest she forget the suit-wearing psychopath who had followed her into the woods.

With the most elegant of segues, Alexys said, “My friend kind of looks like a roly poly.” It was impossibly desperate, but it worked.

Pill bugs quickly forgotten, Waylan sidestepped the rock and stood toe-to-toe with her. He tipped his head with a look of excitement on his dirt-smudged face. “Does hereally?”