Project Lazarus Read online

  Project Lazarus Series- Book No. 1

  By Michelle A. Packard

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter 1- The Lazarus Man

  Chapter 2- Charlie Dempster’s Secret

  Chapter 3- Back From the Dead

  Chapter 4- Forgotten History

  Chapter 5- The Amazon Man

  Chapter 6- The Rowan Tree

  Chapter 7- The Unexpected Visitor

  Chapter 8- A Gifted and Cursed Cotter Resident

  Chapter 9- Revenge Served Cold

  Chapter 10- Old Enemies and Older Rivalries

  Chapter 11- Closed Doors

  Chapter 12- Charlie’s Secret

  Chapter 13- I Have Your Word

  Chapter 14- Desperate Times

  Chapter 15- More Than One Witness

  Chapter 16- Soul Searching

  Chapter 17- Prison Number 12

  Chapter 18- Roll Over and Play Dead

  Chapter 19- Story of a Lifetime

  Chapter 20- Undercover

  Chapter 21- Silent Witnesses

  Chapter 22- Collisions

  Chapter 23- Playing with the Truth

  Chapter 24- Judge Not

  Chapter 25- Worth It

  Chapter 26- Bought and Sold Pieces and Prices of the Truth

  Chapter 27- Doppelganger Stealth

  Chapter 28- Crossing Boundaries and Lines for You

  Chapter 29- Plans and Every Man for Himself

  Chapter 30- For They Know Not What They Do

  Chapter 31- Hellvolution

  Chapter 32- Did You Read that Medical Thesis?

  Chapter 33- One Way to Retribution Road

  Chapter 34- When the Fan Blows

  Chapter 35- Playing with Imposters

  Chapter 36- In Deep

  Chapter 37- Beginnings of Endings

  Chapter 38- The Runaways

  Chapter 39- Loyalty, Silence and the Message

  Chapter 40- Strong Bonds

  Chapter 41- The Prisoner’s Tale

  Chapter 42- Judgment in This Lifetime

  Chapter 43- Unknown

  Chapter 44- Mustard Seeds

  Chapter 45- Predestined Lies

  Chapter 46- Back Roads in Cotter

  Chapter 47- Loose Ends

  Chapter 48- Lost Souls

  Chapter 49- The Wolf, the Sheep and the Sheepdog

  Chapter 50- The Picture of His Life

  Chapter 51- One Man’s War

  Chapter 52- Prey or Pray

  Chapter 53- Spinning Webs

  Chapter 54- Game Changer

  Chapter 55- Invisible

  Chapter 56- Beginnings

  Chapter 57- History Never Repeats but History Twists

  About the Author

  Copyright 2015, Michelle A. Packard, All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved, without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced by copy, written or any other manner, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book. This book is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, locations, events, brands, circumstances and incidents are of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

  For my mother Hilda and sister Natalie who have encouraged my work since my earliest poems. I am so fortunate to know two brilliant women who humble me with their elegance, beauty, knowledge, honesty, love and encouragement. I credit my mother Hilda for her talent in writing and my sister Natalie for her truth as a reporter. These lessons I share in my own work. If anyone has been blessed to know my mother or sister, they have been fortunate to have such graceful footsteps marked by wisdom and sincerity tread ever so lightly bringing joy and refinement into their lives. I can only attempt to bask in their genius and await more of their creative endeavors and success which shadows their endless inspiration. Words aside, simply thank you for being in my life.

  To God for his favor. To my grandfather for his unconditional love and grandmother for her ambition. To all those I have met along the way who offered a kind word or helped me with no gain in return may you be blessed.

  To my reader, this is for you. I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. May we meet again many times through words.

  Chapter 1- The Lazarus Man

  Gilbert and Ivan Chuttle snuck closer to the fence. They had never dared this close before. They could almost touch it. The boys couldn’t imagine the dangerous outcome of their innocent actions. It was child’s play. But it would become a fatal error.

  The brothers peeked with laser eyes that honed in fifty feet past the barbed wire to the building. What was inside occupied their every waking thought that summer. It would be a defining moment in their young lives but they couldn’t possibly know the world was filled with evil. At that age, they were consumed with a world filled with wonder and the unknown, naivety has consequences that can last a lifetime.

  “There’s something going on,” Gilbert whispered to his brother Ivan, pointing wildly at the building beyond the fence.

  Ducking low behind his older brother, ten year old Ivan, followed the quick pace, the stop and look eyes that darted and the finger that went to the mouth, “Hush.”

  He followed without question, his belief in Gilbert, two years his senior, never wavered.

  “I know,” he resounded.

  Ivan trusted his older brother like any other normal sibling relationship. But still, he sensed it, that feeling, that dread that comes with knowing you’re right about something. Something dangerous. But you just can’t help yourself.

  So, Ivan followed. Through the tall weeds, behind the large trees, as Gilbert led them to the steely fence.

  They were out in the middle of nowhere that cool June day. Worse, than being out in the middle of nowhere, was residing in the middle of nowhere. Cotter, Arkansas. It was the kind of place, the boys deduced on their two hour long bus ride to school, where dirt roads never end.

  Most small boys grow up and vow to never return to a place like Cotter, Arkansas. They long for the pace and excitement of the city and the opportunities of travel. They could dream about leaving Cotter forever but they boys would learn it was impossible.

  The building found their eyes and the brothers gave each other a quick look, thrilled with their discovery. Yet, there it was. Boring and large. Much like a warehouse. Bland on the outside. Colorless, really. Nothing special. A building just behind that fence. That big long fence that surrounded that building.

  Billy Wildly had told the boys last week in school during lunch that the military used small planes to drop down over the big empty fields over Cotter looking for pot fields.

  This was no empty field. This was dirt. With a building. With a fence.

  Perhaps, this is where the dirt road ended, Ivan thought, adding a bit of humor to the fear that wrestled inside him. The knots in his stomach weren’t much like the clenching he felt last year on the roller coaster ride. No, these physical reactions were different, primal almost, fight or flight was kicking in and being younger both fight and flight seemed like good options.

  Both boys, lanky, with sandy brown hair might have well passed for twins. They looked a lot alike; at least that’s what the town of Cotter thought. Small towns were always right. So, if Cotter said they were twins, they were twins, even though they were two grades apart in school.

  “What’s keeping you Ivan?” Gilbert asked, annoyed, as the boy settled down for a rest by the tree.

  “I’m scared Gilbert,” the thought finally came out as words, “Maybe we should go back.”

  Ivan eyed the fence again.

  “We can’t go back now. We’re almost there
,” Gilbert’s heart raced.

  Both boys loved a good adventure.

  Gilbert spurred on ahead with his feet before the clasp around his wrist that was Ivan’s small hand jerked him back.

  “What?” He asked irritated, out of breath and getting tired of waiting.

  “Look,” Ivan pointed.

  They watched as the man dressed all in green, military like, walked back and forth across the grounds.

  “Told you it was military,” Gilbert announced, obliviously not worried about being seen, at least for the moment.

  Ivan sucked in his breath, as they both ducked close to the ground. It was open all around them. There was no tree to hide behind.

  Motionless they crouched for what was at least a half hour on a good Sunday afternoon.

  “I think they’ve got an alien in there,” Ivan whispered to Gilbert.

  “Yeah maybe,” he mulled it over, “I’ve bet they’ve got a spaceship too.”

  “You think?” Ivan asked excitedly.

  “Yeah and we’re gonna be the ones to discover it,” Gilbert announced proudly.

  “You got your camera?” Ivan asked.

  “Right here in my pocket,” he patted the item concealed in the pocket of his half sleeved button down plaid shirt.

  They watched the military man.

  “He must be their best guard,” Gilbert conspired.

  “Well, he’s gotta be,” Ivan agreed, “I mean that UFO has to be big and he’s got to make sure no one gets in to see it.”

  “Think they’ve got a lot of military men inside too?” Gilbert asked.

  “Well, the first time we saw one was last month. He looked different. Shorter. I think.”

  “True,” Gilbert agreed.

  “They must be special agents inside, after all they have to deal with the aliens,” Ivan deduced.

  “Lots of training I suspect,” Gilbert said.

  The military man kept up his pace. Back and forth he walked, across the entire stretch of the fence. He had never done that before. Not for this long. Not past 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

  No, the military man usually went in around 2 o’clock which is why the boys chose to sneak out to the fence after 3 o’clock.

  They knew all this because they had been coming out to investigate the remote building with the fence for over a year, after chasing their dog Dewey into the woods and discovering it.

  That day, Gilbert scooped their dachshund Dewey into his arms and returned home. But neither boy could stop talking about the mystery. The mystery of the place in the woods.

  It was getting late. Even for summer. The night air was setting in a bit and so was the sun. It was unusual. But the desolate area had a gloomy feel.

  It hit them like a train. Set them barreling to the ground. Their hands to their ears.

  That piercing sound.

  What was it?

  Both boys eyed each other, from a fetal position, the fear was consuming, the pain in their eardrums unceasing. They never heard a sound like that before in Cotter, Arkansas. This was no ordinary alarm. This was a warning.

  Ivan and Gilbert shivered in the cold grass, partly from fear, partly from pain.

  Gilbert turned just enough to watch military man running into the building.

  He blinked. The noise ceased. He blinked again. Long enough, to see many men run from that building. Some military men. Some men in suits. Some men just ordinary.

  Were they running or escaping? What happened?

  Ivan and Gilbert didn’t have time to ask each other.

  Something very unusual happened inside the building and it appeared the men behind the big fence and the large walls were not orderly anymore. They were in complete disarray and they were scared.

  It wasn’t before long, there was an audible noise coming behind them, footsteps, walking closer and closer.

  Both boys would lose partial hearing that day. But that was nothing. Not compared to the fact they were the only living witnesses who had no right to be there that day. The only two people in Cotter, Arkansas with a wild story to tell.

  Gilbert looked back at his younger brother. What had he done? The footsteps stopped right behind them. Giving them just enough time to sit up and regain some of their senses.

  “What are you doing here?”

  The man before them was very tall dressed in a black suit, crisp white shirt, black tie and shiny black shoes. He had on glasses and held a crucifix in his hand.

  Gilbert shook his head; he could barely hear the man.

  “What happened?” Ivan asked, staring at the man, the crucifix gripped tightly in both his hands, resting across his stomach.

  “I don’t know,” said the man.

  “How did you get here?” Asked the man.

  “We live here, here in Cotter,” Ivan answered.

  Gilbert was still struggling to hear. It appeared that wasn’t his only problem. Apparently, Ivan, the younger brother, had also turned out to be the braver of the two.

  “Were you inside? Did you come to arrest us?” Gilbert, now regaining his wits was ready to bolt any minute.

  “Inside?” The man looked at them quizzically.

  “No, that’s not where I come from.”

  “Where then?” Asked Gilbert.

  Had they just seen their first alien? Did they look like us? Gilbert was in awe. The man he was speaking to was not from this world. It didn’t take an adult to know.

  The man stared at the boys blankly, although summing them up, “I come from hell,” he answered matter of factly.

  Gilbert and Ivan Chuttle ran faster than they ever had in their whole lives. Cotter, Arkansas would never be the same.

  Chapter 2- Charlie Dempster’s Secret

  “Millie…Millie…Millie are you there?” The man’s voice called out in the darkness.

  Fifty four year old Millicent Dempster was sitting on the couch with a drink in her hand. Hard liquor, she had given up the champagne dreams long ago.

  “Millicent?” The man’s voice, now more authoritative, woke her from her alternate state of mind, the one she preferred.

  “Charlie?” She answered back.

  The lights flickered on.

  “For God’s sake Millie why must you sit here in the dark night after night?”

  “I’m waiting for you,” she responded blankly.

  She stared at him, the man she married when they were both in their early twenties. That job had killed him, sucked the life out of him and out of her. Just like the town Cotter. Small towns could be cruel like that.

  His graying hair matched hers, like their thinning gold wedding bands.

  Charlie was frazzled, moving about the room in a hurried frenzy.

  She squinted through her alcohol eyes. Charlie was in a big hurry. No, Charlie was terrified.

  He picked up the duffel bag.

  The duffel bag.

  Her heart almost stopped. Her hands went cold. Her body numb.

  That duffel bag was a lifeline. So was the camping tent out back in the shed. Then there were the canned goods, the gun, the medicine, the supplies, everything required for survival in the wilderness.

  Where the wilderness would be, they never determined. They always prayed it would never come to that.

  She stared at the cross on the wall. Good God was it possible? Had it really happened? She thought it would take longer. Maybe a few more years. But how much more of this life could she and Charlie take anyway?

  “Come on,” he shouted, having pulled himself together, “we’ve got to get going.”

  Shocked, her trembled hands, reached her face, in time to catch the tears that now meant the miserable life she knew was about to end. Yes, it had been miserable for the both of them. But it had been theirs.

  Now their life belonged to no one but their God. And they had betrayed him long ago. Charlie in his work. Her in her silence.

  She got up from the old brown couch in one quick motion. Unsteady, everything was spinning
about her. Yet, everything around her moved in slow motion, like a bad movie.