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“Andie!” Roni called before I could go to Molev and tell him to come inside for something to eat.
She waved me over to the housing building, adding, “You need to see this!”
I started jogging at the urgency in her voice and watched her disappear inside before I reached the door. The guards nodded to me as I went in.
“First door on the right,” one said helpfully.
I found Roni grinning at a homemade fey look alike abomination. She and the three other women with her had done more than just stuff some Molev-sized clothes. They’d sewn a replica of his head from a grey pillowcase, added button eyes, pointed ears, all the facial features, and even black bootlaces for his hair.
But that wasn’t all.
If his slightly realistic face wasn’t creepy enough, they’d ensured he had the same build. From the breadth of his shoulder to the thickness of his thighs.
My gaze stopped there. Or more specifically, at the enormous arm-sized bulge prominently displayed on the inside of his right pant leg.
“Realistic as fuck, right?” Roni said, nudging me.
“You have issues,” I said with a head shake.
“He doesn’t just stand there,” one of the women said. “We can discreetly change his position too.”
She walked around behind him and moved something. The Molev scarecrow folded down into a squat, braced by a tripod-looking thing coming out of his ass.
“Let’s get this on the roof and see if it does the trick,” Roni said. “If it does, Molev gets a little sleep, and we can send him out for more fuel.”
It took almost twenty minutes and two guys plus Roni to get fake-Molev onto the roof. I called Molev down from his spot, and we watched them from the ground as they worked fake Molev into a squat and then stood him up. They did it in a way that looked natural enough, like they were helping a friend stand, not positioning a dummy. Would it be enough, though?
I looked at the dried blood caking my Molev and hoped so.
“Come on. Let’s get you showered, fed, and in bed. Hopefully, the infected won’t catch on to the switch.”
I left him alone to shower and waited in our room with food. He ate then pulled me into his arms. We both crashed pretty hard. At least, that’s how it felt when I finally woke.
His arm tightened around me when I lifted my hand to check the time.
“Five hours,” I said. “Were you here the whole time?”
“Yes.”
“Good. The dummy works then.”
He grunted.
“We should go take him down and see what happens,” I said. “If the infected start coming at us again, then we’ll know it was keeping them away.”
He reluctantly released me.
We ate again in the room then went outside to see how things had gone. The roofs had their usual lookouts in addition to the Molev dummy standing prominently visible against the midday overcast sky.
“We were about to wake you,” Roni said, spotting us and jogging over. “We’ve had a few sightings of watchers, but a group just started creeping closer from the west.”
“Perfect timing,” I said, looking at Molev.
“Yes. I will help them believe that it is me,” he said with a glance at the dummy. “Make him disappear.” Then he vanished, himself.
Roni waved to the lookouts lying against the roof at the feet of the fake Molev, and they knocked the stand out from under him, sending him tumbling down off the roof.
I glanced at Roni, and she shrugged. “He’s down.”
