Free Beneath the Veil by William McNally Page A

demanded of Jackson. “He’s sick. If he doesn’t get help, he’ll die.”
    “Jen,” Barry stuttered. “I am fine. Let’s not get into that right now.”
    “What’s ailing you, Barry? Sully asked. “Maybe Doc can help. He was one of the top surgeons in Charleston till he got stuck here with us.”
    Doc sipped a cup of black coffee, looking slightly embarrassed by Sully’s description.
    “I would be happy to take a look at you, Barry,” Doc added.
    Jen stood up and took her plate and silverware.
    “Jackson, kids, why don’t we give these guys a little privacy?” Jen said.
    Jackson and the children gathered up their own plates and walked towards the kitchen.
    Doc stared at Sully but didn’t say anything.
    “It’s okay, he can stay,” Barry said.
    Barry poured himself a cup of coffee from a dented metal coffee pot. He held the pot up to Doc and Sully, but they both waived him off. Barry hesitated for a moment, then described the history of his illness and the family he was looking to find. Both Doc and Sully reacted when he mentioned the name Rhodes. He could see in their eyes his medical problem had been replaced by something far worse.
    “The Rhodes family is damned,” Sully said. “All of ‘em. They are the ones that started this whole mess.”
    “Sully’s our camp historian,” Doc added softy. “He has been trying to piece together the history of this place.”
    “It all began with a man named Ezra. Ezra Rhodes,” Sully said. “He went off to serve his country in WWI and returned four years later a changed man. But Ezra didn’t return alone, he brought home a woman named Evangeline. He claimed she was his sister who had run away years before. According to Ezra, she was wandering in the mountains of Montenegro, half starved and naked. He rescued her and brought her back to Auraria when the war ended.”
    Sully swiveled on the picnic bench to face Barry.
    “Ezra never could explain how he found his sister in such a place. Only that a miracle was delivered onto him and his family. You see, when Evangeline returned to Auraria something amazing happened, the Rhodes family stopped dying. Before she arrived, most of their kin died early and often, afflicted by a disease that took ‘em at a young age. Afterwards, the family no longer feared disease or death itself. They soon rose to prominence in Auraria and eventually owned the town and everybody in it.”
    Barry looked at blue veins on the back of his hands and then shifted away from Sully’s intense stare.
    “Sorry. I think I need to lie down for a little while. The last few days is catching up with me. Doc, maybe I can get a rain check on that examination?” Barry said, getting up from the table.
    “Sure, Barry. We can do it later,” Doc answered.
    When Barry walked out of the tent, Sully slid closer to Doc.
    “Poor fella,” Doc said. “I wonder who got him out of here when he was a boy.”
    “How did he get out?” Sully asked. “That’s the question.”
    Doc nodded in agreement then pushed his cup of cold coffee away.

C H A P T E R  T H I R T Y - F O U R
    B arry left the tent and walked out into bright sunlight, where the high walls of the quarry cast shadows on the ground. He guessed it was nearing noon, based on the angle of the sun.
    “Barry?” Jen called out.
    She and Jackson sat with the children. Katy ran and giggled completely ignorant of her surroundings. Daniel and Tonya appeared relaxed, allowed to be kids again.
    “Hey, bro. How’d it go with Doc?” she asked.
    “Good.”
    “That’s it...good?”
    “He plans to look into my condition to see if he can find a way to control it,” Barry lied. He didn’t want to worry her over something that couldn’t be helped.
    “Well, it’s a start, right?” she asked.
    “Yes. Yes it is.”
    “Look what we found,” Tonya said, hand outstretched. A gold nugget rested in the palm of her hand. “There’s gold here, lots of it.”
    The quarry was rich