by Lee West
She placed her arms around his shoulders and moved her body towards his.
“How long ago?” he demanded as he stepped back slightly.
“I have no idea. I was asleep.”
He gave her a strong shove back, nearly knocking her to the ground. Spinning around, he took off down the trail back to the Center.
“Chet!” she screamed as she ran after him.
Bruce and Noland sat on one of the benches around the fire ring. A bottle of scotch passed between them. Kim struggled as she pushed herself to keep up with him.
“We’ve got a problem,” said Chet as he approached. “Joe and the others left already! We need to find them! NOW!” he screamed.
The men stood quickly in response.
She caught up to Chet and stood by his side. Suddenly he turned on her and shouted, “Where’s your husband? Did he leave with them?”
“No! He’s back at the cabin. He would never do that! I swear!” she whimpered.
She’d fantasized that Chet would bring her into his house and bed, rewarding her for leaving her husband. Instead, he reacted with an anger she did not realize he could show toward her. The change in him scared her as much as it turned her on.
“Let’s go! We need to find him and figure out where the others went! They can’t escape through the locked front gate,” said Chet.
“They have no place to go! We’re all fenced in! Eventually we’ll find them!” said Noland.
The men ran toward Kim and Jeff’s cabin. She followed behind them as best she could through the dark trails. Chet and the others raided the small cabin, screaming for Jeff.
“He’s not here! No one’s here!” shouted Noland.
She could hear the commotion in the cabin as she stood outside it waiting. Finally, Chet emerged from the darkness inside the cabin. Moving quickly, he grabbed her, shaking her for information.
“Where is he?” shouted Chet.
Noland and Bruce stood on either side of Chet, ready to do his bidding.
“I told you! He was here when I left! I have no idea where he went!” she whimpered.
Although in that moment he terrified her, she believed he would eventually calm down and embrace her lovingly. Instead, he slapped her hard across the face, knocking her to the ground with the force of his blow.
“I’ll deal with you later! Dumb bitch!” he hissed. “Let’s go! We need to find them! They couldn’t have gone far.”
The men ran from the camp while Kim sat on the ground, rubbing her cheek and wondering what to do.
— 25 —
Immediately after Kim bolted, Jeff ran into the living room. He hastily tipped over the recliner and grabbed his weapons. With the pistol and knives on him, he ran from the cabin. Now that Kim had clearly made her choice, he needed to save himself from Chet and the others. He ran down the path in an effort to catch up with his brother.
Jeff had never been much of a runner. Even though he only carried the small stash of weapons, his progress to catch up with them felt painfully slow. He tried to sprint in short bursts so that he could gain distance. However, the sprints did not help his situation. Instead he needed time to recover from the exertion.
Finally he made it to the point along the walk where he knew he needed to turn toward the forest. A commotion coming from the direction of his cabin caused him to stop and stiffen. He listened intently, only able to hear unidentifiable sounds. Unsure if the sound came from Kim, or Chet and the others, he froze. He hoped that Kim had changed her mind and decided to return to him.
Listening closely to the sounds around him, he convinced himself that she was looking for him in order to reconcile. His spirits immediately lifted. Betrayal gave way to the hope of reuniting with the woman he loved. He turned from the forest, intent on returning to her.
A bright light blinded him. Instinctively he drew the gun out of his waistband and pointed it toward the light. Unable to see who was walking toward him, he waved the gun wildly in a futile effort to protect himself.
“Look what we have here!” shouted Noland.
“We’ve got him! The traitor was too stupid to leave with his brother!” shouted Bruce.
Through the shadows Jeff could see that Chet was walking slowly toward the men as they waited. Jeff’s life was held in the balance between freedom and Kim.
“Jeff, you know weapons aren’t allowed at the camp, don’t you?” asked Chet.
Jeff could not decide how to respond. Terror gripped him, causing him to feel frozen, unable to move. He continued to wave the gun at them.
“Don’t come near me! I’ll shoot!” he shouted shakily. His voice cracked as he addressed the men, sounding like he had been crying.
“You’ll shoot? Really? Go ahead. I suspect you haven’t shot that thing in a long time. You’ll probably end up shooting yourself, not us! That’ll save us the bullet!” Chet laughed.
The men laughed at his expense, causing him to flush with anger. The heavy gun shook in his hand. Backing up, he tried to get himself into the forest toward the fence. Unable to watch his footing, he stumbled backward and fell onto his backside. The men roared with laughter.
“Careful! You could hurt yourself in these woods!” shouted Chet.
Jeff scrambled to get back on his feet. With his free hand and feet, he pushed himself off the ground, took another step back, and fell again.
“This is getting silly. Why don’t you just settle down? We’ll go back to the Center and talk this out. All we want to know is where your brother and the others went. No one’s going to hurt you. Put the gun down. You’re only making things harder for yourself,” said Chet calmly.
The bright light in his face prevented him from seeing the location of the men. He assumed they were clustered around the holder of the flashlight. Suddenly, a swift kick into his side told him he had been wrong. Noland and Bruce had flanked him while Chet held the flashlight, blinding him.
The men took turns kicking his abdomen. He turned his body in an effort to shield himself from their blows, to no avail. The hard kicks rained down on him.
“Get him up! We need to get him farther into the forest!” yelled Chet.
Noland and Bruce each took one of Jeff’s arms. They muscled him off the ground. Jeff’s eye had swollen shut from the repeated kicks to his face. He could no longer see where they took him. They lifted him off the ground, dragging his limp body deep into the forest. In the last moments of his life, he wondered if Kim would be okay without him.
— 26 —
Joe ran to the fence with the bolt cutters in hand. Mike and Meg flanked him, keeping an eye on the forest behind him to prevent any surprises. Cutting the heavy-duty wire fence with the small tool his brother had provided would not be easy. He clenched the handle of the tool, trying to close the sharp edges around the fence wire. Closing the handles together, he tried with all his might to snap a hole through the fence. Instead of effortlessly cutting through the fence as he imagined, the tool rolled off the side of the sturdy wire.
“Damn it! The fence is too thick. I can’t even keep the tool straight on it!” said Joe in a loud whisper.
“Keep trying! Getting through the fence is our only hope!” said Mike.
Joe refocused his efforts on the task at hand. He took the tool in both hands in an effort to concentrate his force onto one spot.
A gunshot rang out through the forest. Then another two in short succession. He stopped and looked to Mike and Meg.
“Hurry! They know we left! They’re coming for us!” shouted Meg.
“Shh! We don’t want to make it easy for them to find us! I need to turn off the light. You good with that?” asked Mike.
Joe nodded his head, agreeing. Seeing the fence had been the least of his problems. He knew where he needed to cut the wires, but the small tool would not be enough for the task.
“This bolt cutter is way too small to get through the fence! We’re trapped!” he finally said.
“Let me try! Maybe I’ll be
able to snip them,” said Mike.
Joe handed the cutters to Mike. Mike crouched, assuming the same position Joe had just been in. They could hear the shouts of others in the forest around them. The darkness prevented him from knowing the location of the search party.
“There’s no use. You’re right, these won’t do it. We’re trapped!” said Mike.
They stood for a moment. Finally Joe said, “No. We aren’t trapped. We need to go under the fence. It’s our only choice! Help me dig!”
The three frantically clawed at the damp cold earth, trying to clear enough space under the fence for crawling. Rocks and bits of hard matter cut Joe’s fingers as he desperately dug for freedom. Mike used the small bolt cutter to snap through tree roots as they frantically dug their way out of the camp. The voices in the forest sounded as though the men were making good headway toward their location. With every sound, the three dug with all their might.
“That should be enough! Meg, GO!” said Joe.
She handed him her small pack and dove onto her belly. Wriggling, she managed to get most of the way when the waistband of her pants got caught on the fence.
“Shit! I’m stuck!”
“I’ve got it! Hold still,” said Mike.
He used the cutters to hack away at her pants, enabling her to pull herself out of the fence to the other side. Joe handed her the pack and then dove under the fence after her.
A light shone through the forest as the men came closer to them. Joe could now fully hear the voices of Chet, Noland and Bruce. It sounded as though they were moving quickly through the trees, intent on finding them. The men seemed to be heading toward a location of the fence farther south than where they were attempting their escape.
“Come on! They’re coming!” he said to Mike.
Mike failed to get low enough to the ground to make it under the metal fence. Instead one of the wires caught his forehead, ripping open the skin. Involuntarily he let out a yelp. Suddenly, three beams of light flipped direction, heading toward them.
Mike struggled to pull himself the rest of the way as Joe and Meg each grabbed him under the arms, pulling him to freedom. Once on the other side, they ran as fast as possible away from the fence.
The confusion of the situation made Joe question if they were headed toward the road or away from it. Instead of worrying about the direction they traveled, Joe merely urged them to keep moving as fast as possible, hoping they would eventually find the road.
Bullets whizzed past them during their chaotic sprint from danger. Fragments of tree trunks flew around their faces as the bullets ripped through the solid objects.
“Keep going! We need to get out of their range!” he yelled to Meg and Mike.
Taking a chance, he glanced over his shoulder to see if the men had breached the fence. The distance and tree cover prevented him from determining if the men shot at them from inside the camp or if they too had crawled under the fence.
“Are they following us?” asked Mike. “I can’t tell!”
“Me neither! Either way, we need to keep running as far from this shithole as possible!” yelled Joe.
“NO! We need to hold up for a minute. I have no idea where we’re heading,” shouted Mike over his shoulder.
Before Joe could answer, a flurry of gunshots rang out all around them. It sounded as though they had wandered into the middle of a firing range. Just as quickly, bright strobe lights hit them, blinding them instantly.
“Halt! U.S. ARMY! Get down on your knees! Hands in the air!” a man shouted at them.
Joe and the others immediately complied with the demand. He dropped to his knees hard, hitting a large sharp rock as he went down. A warm, wet sensation on his kneecap indicated that he torn his pants and skin in the process.
“Joe? What’s happening?” asked Meg softly.
“I don’t know.”
Heavily armed men poured out of the forest in every direction. One of the men gave him a hard shove in the back, pushing his face onto the ground. Other soldiers zip-tied his hands together behind his back. He watched helplessly as they also tied Meg’s and Mike’s hands.
“Get up! We need to move!” shouted one of the men.
He struggled to get to his feet without the help of his hands. A searing hot pain bolted through his injured kneecap, causing him to groan. Rough hands grabbed him by the arms and pulled him to his feet. Other hands pushed him forward.
The soldiers walked them out of the forest to the main road. They had been moving in the right direction. Eventually, they would have found their bikes, enabling them to ride back to the university.
“Where are you taking us?” demanded Mike.
None of the soldiers would answer him. Instead they continued to forcefully urge them forward on the road.
One of the men talked into his radio. “We caught three civilians. Requesting immediate transport.”
Joe could not hear the response to the soldier’s request. Then the man said, “No. We need immediate pickup. We can’t babysit them. The entire mountain is crawling! It’s a mess out here!”
Another inaudible response came, prompting the man to say, “We’ll be at the LZ in five. Over.”
Turning to Joe and the others, the man said, “Looks like it’s your lucky day! You get to leave this mess!”
“Where are they taking us?” asked Meg.
“My guess is that they’ll probably take the three of you to the civilian-processing center outside Lawrence,” said the man with a shrug. “Not my problem.”
Heavy-duty military trucks whizzed past them as they walked on the side of the main road. Finally they stopped walking. One of the men said, “This is it!”
Waiting in the dark, Joe feared for their safety. During the entire crisis, they had done everything possible to prevent being caught by the soldiers. Now they had no choice but to go to a civilian-processing center.
A large canvas-covered military truck slowed and then stopped in front of them. One of the men yelled, “This is it! Let’s move out!”
The men shoved and pushed Joe, Meg and Mike into the back of the truck. As soon as Joe’s backside hit the hard bench, the truck lurched forward, speeding away from the camp and university.
The canvas opening at the back of the truck flapped open as they drove, affording Joe a retreating view of the mountainside. Green and red tracers crisscrossed the landscape as high-intensity explosions lit up the dark sky. The tracers and explosions seemed to be concentrated on the area of the camp. Intense gunfire filled the gaps in sound between the loud explosions.
“What’s happening out there?” said Meg as she glanced outside.
“I have no idea. Maybe that guy was right and it is our lucky day. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near all of that,” said Joe.
“Sorry about your brother, man. I hate to say it, but I’m not sure anyone could survive those blasts,” said Mike gently.
Joe looked in the direction of the camp and finally said, “Jeff was dead the moment he chose to stay with Kim.”
— 27 —
Nancy stood leaning against the window frame of a classroom. She and Brett had volunteered for the midnight until four a.m. shift. Even though their hobby involved looking at the night sky, neither one of them had an easy time staying awake throughout the night. Tonight had been no exception. Fortunately their watch would be over soon, allowing them to get some much-needed rest. Earlier Brett had put his head down on a desk for a few minutes of sleep. Those minutes quickly added up to over an hour of her listening to his snores. Glancing at her watch again, she realized they only had about thirty more minutes until their shift ended. She decided to let him continue to sleep until their replacement arrived.
She did not know who would replace them. However, she assumed Larry would arrive shortly. He always volunteered to sit at this particular location. She and Brett moved watch locations as the need arose. For the life of her, she could not understand why Larry consistently asked for this location almost exclus
ively.
She looked at her watch yet again. Soon, dawn would lazily break on the horizon, ending the darkness. She could hardly wait to get down to the tunnels for food and sleep. A door slamming somewhere in the building caught her attention. She looked at her watch yet again; they still had twenty minutes until the end of the shift. The noise could not be from Larry; it was too soon.
Stiffening, she turned to Brett and shook his arm. “Brett! Wake up. Someone’s inside the building!” she said in a loud whisper.
“What? So? It’s got to be Larry here to relieve us,” he said through a yawn.
“No. It’s too early for him. He always comes right on time. Wake up! I’m scared and don’t know what to do!”
“Okay. I’m awake. You want me to head out there and look to see who it is?”
“No! We need to stay together.”
Loud footfalls thumped up the closest stairwell as though someone was running in their direction. Adrenaline coursed through Nancy’s body.
“Hide! Whoever it is will be here in a second!” said Brett.
Brett grabbed her and shoved her down to the floor. They crouched on the dusty linoleum under one of the desks. Although the hiding spot would not conceal them entirely, it would have to do, given the situation.
Loud steps in the hallway indicated that whoever had come into the building now walked right outside the classroom. The faceless person entered the classroom and then seemed to stop. She willed her breath to slow and quiet.
“Hello? Brett? Nancy? You guys here?” said a male voice through the darkness.
“We’re here,” said Brett in response.
Brett stood and then pulled Nancy up next to him. She shone the flashlight in the direction of the new person in order to see his face.
“Larry? You’re early! And you scared the crap out of us! We assumed someone broke into the building,” said Nancy with a shaky voice.
“Nope. Just me. I decided to relieve you guys a few minutes early since I couldn’t sleep anyway,” he said.