to catch a skylark || onc2022

eight

"Eh, it's chill," Baz said. "Place is obviously abandoned."

Sadie nodded. "They don't even have cameras or anything."

"I don't know..." Lewis said. "A crime is a crime, cameras or not."

Sadie and Baz exchanged glances.

"I mean, it's not like, murder, is it?" Sadie said.

"Seriously, it's nothing to sweat about," Baz nodded. "If someone comes along, we'll just say we got lost."

"Ah, right, and 'accidentally' climbed the fence in our panic?" Lewis said dryly.

Baz gave him a thumbs-up. "See, now you're getting it. Come on, up ya get..."

Lewis shook his head. "You two look around. I'll keep watch."

"Nerd," Baz muttered, just loud enough for Sadie to hear. She nudged Baz hard in the side.

"Suit yourself," she said, over Baz's yelp of pain. "Signal if someone looks like they're coming."

Lewis relaxed a little. "Alright. What should I use?"

Sadie shrugged. "I dunno," she said. "A birdcall or something? Like a ka-kaw sort of thing."

Lewis thought about it for a moment. He cleared his throat, then made a high-pitched trill.

"The hell was that?" Sadie said.

"Well, it was supposed to be a jay," Lewis said. "But I might have started leaning towards chaffinch at the end there..."

"What are you, one of them oncology people?" Baz said.

Lewis blinked. "You may be thinking of an ornithologist," he said, politely.

"Uh, no," Baz said. He hesitated for a second, then took out his phone, typed something in, narrowed his eyes at the screen and added: "Actually, yes."

Sadie snickered. "Let's go, before you embarrass yourself any further," she said, tugging on his sleeve.

"I can't believe Etta made friends with that nerd," Baz said. He had an old polaroid camera up to his face, pointing it at the compound ahead. 

Sadie frowned; she'd definitely seen that camera before. "Did you take that from Etta's room?"

Baz grinned. "I had to. These old cameras are so cool." He snapped a picture to demonstrate. The camera whirred and rolled out a small, glossy black square. "They print out a little photo for you and everything! How wild is that?"

"Yeah, and then you lose it like ten minutes after," Sadie said. "I know what you're like."

Baz lowered the camera and scowled. "God, you're no fun at all these days." He slipped the photo into his coat pocket. "What are we even looking for, anyway?"

"We just want to see if that building looks like it did in Etta's picture," Sadie said.

Baz stopped short. "Wait. That's it?"

"What do you mean, that's it?"

"I dunno. The way you reacted to that drawing, it was like you'd seen the second coming of Christ or something. Is that really what you dragged us all the way out here for?" He nodded over at the abandoned warehouse. "'Cause we can pretty clearly see it isn't."

He was right. The derelict building stood just as it had in the picture, but aside from the trees fringing the fence around the compound, there was barely a flower in sight. The concrete was barren, and the electricity cables stretched unadorned over their heads.