Huian watched it go and then walked over to the motorcycle and kicked the stand up before pushing it into the shadows at the side of the gas station. She cast a glance back at the garage and then started walking directly toward us. Luke started to raise his crossbow but I put my hand on his arm and shook my head.
He lowered the weapon, but I could tell he was tense after what he had just witnessed. I had the .38s in my pockets with my hands on them when she pulled open the door and stepped into the darkened interior of the gas station. She spotted us immediately and her hand dropped imperceptibly toward the pocket where she had deposited the pistol she had so recently used against her countrymen.
She stopped but made no move to draw it. She looked both of us over in a quick and matter of fact way that I found somewhat unnerving. I could see she was assessing what, if any, threat we were to her. Even more unnerving was how she seemed to dismiss us right away.
“I must speak with Sonny,” she said. “You follow him?”
“Actually, it’s the other way around at the moment,” I said. “Sonny got hurt so I’m in charge until he’s feeling better.”
“Hurt? What happened to him?” she asked. There was no effort to hide the concern her voice held.
“He was shot, when we went to get the truck you left for us,” I replied. “The bullet didn’t hit anything vital, but he lost a lot of blood.”
“But I called the surveillance teams away from there,” she said, surprise in her voice.
“Too bad you couldn't do the same with the Tigers gang,” I said. “They’re the ones who shot him.”
“Damn it, I told him to be careful,” she said.
“I’m Isaac and this is Luke,” I said. “Luke, can you run and get Sonny for Miss Huian here.”
“Sure thing,” Luke said, looking Huian over much as she had looked us over.
I couldn’t help but do the same. Although she was unmistakably an adult, she wasn't much taller than me, standing maybe five and a half feet tall, and her shoulder length black hair fell straight from beneath her tight-fitting black cap.
Looking at her black uniform, I could see very few insignias except for the epaulettes on her shoulders. Each had a single gold star, the Chinese Army designation for the rank equivalent to a Major. She was thin, with small breasts, but there was nothing weak looking about her, and she moved with the easy grace of a cat getting ready to pounce on a mouse.
“How do you know my name?” Her raised eyebrow and the way her eyes drilled into me told me she was reassessing her first impressions.
“I overheard part of your conversation with Sonny the other night,” I said. “Why are you here now?”
“As soon as word of the incident at the bridge came across the radio, I thought that it might be Sonny and his followers,” she replied. “I came to see if I could throw them off your scent again.”
“By killing a whole patrol?” I asked sarcastically. “How did you know that we were here? I’m glad you came but you must admit, it looks suspicious.”
“I knew you were here,” she said with a slight shrug. “We intercepted real time satellite data of the bridge incident and its aftermath. I saw the truck pull into this filling station before our technician corrupted the data and passed it along to the proper department.”
“Who is ‘we’?”
“We are the group that tried to stop this whole tragedy from happening in the first place and, having failed in that, we are now working to make amends as best we can. We are ‘The Shadow Cloaked Seven.’”
“Seriously? That's what you call yourselves?” I asked, one of my eyebrows arching slightly.
“It sounds better in Mandarin,” she replied, with a hint of irritation at my lighthearted taunt. For the barest of moments, I thought I saw her aura of supreme confidence slip a little. “Why you? Why are you the leader with Sonny injured?” she asked.
“I think it’s because I was the leader of my own little band when we joined up with Sonny and his students,” I said. “After Sonny went down, we held a vote to see who would be the one to make the decisions when they needed to be made. We knew we wouldn’t always have time to form a consensus. I was chosen. Although, right now, I wish they’d chosen somebody else.”
“Why is that?”
“Two of our people are injured too badly for us to safely transport. We have to get out of here soon or risk being discovered. No offense to you for helping us, but your little massacre out there only makes things worse. It’s just a matter of time before they’re missed. We have to move quick now and I don't know what to do with Mark and John.”
“You should leave them behind,” she replied. “It’s harsh, but sometimes as a leader you have to make hard decisions ... decisions for the good of the group. Whatever you do, you need to do it as soon as night falls.
“That’s as long as my group will be able to delay action in this quadrant. And, believe me, I didn’t have a choice about the massacre. It was them or you. There is no way I could have explained calling them off. Leave your two injured people; if they do not fight back when the soldiers find them, they will not be killed. In fact, they will probably have their injuries tended to.”
I looked at her dubiously. I had a feeling that when the Chinese Army arrived and found what was left of the patrol, they would not be kind to survivors, but I had no option but to trust what she said was true. We had no way to care for the critically injured, but the very fact I would have to rely on our enemy ate at me.
“So they’ll be tended to and then shipped off to be slaves?” I asked, not concealing the look of disgust on my face.
“In the short term, yes,” she said. “But one thing my group is trying to do is to get the government to recognize the freedom and rights of the children of America. It is too late to save the United States, but, if we are successful, its descendants will be able to live as free and equal citizens of Greater China.”
“Jesus ... Greater China? Seriously? I think the definition of freedom that American kids know is a bit different than what you people offer ...” I said, bitterly. I saw the hurt in her eyes, and I softened my tone.
“Look, I know that you mean well, but you have to understand, your government murdered our country. Killed nearly everyone in it and there are still kids dying ... babies. What did you think would happen when you killed mothers and fathers? China gave a death sentence to everyone who wasn’t old enough to look after themselves. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m never going to forgive that.”
“I understand you’re angry, but we’re not all against you. In time things will get better, but for now, resistance is futile – you have to try and avoid capture and adapt to survive. Things can never go back to the way they were...”
“Huian, what are you doing here?” Sonny’s voice came from the doorway, and we both looked over.
“I came to help if I could,” she replied, turning from me. I half expected her to run to Sonny, but they looked at each other with almost a sense of mistrust. “There’s not a lot I can do, but if you tell me your route from here, I can do my best to keep the searchers from zeroing in on you.”
“Well, after that performance, I’d say you just made things a lot worse for us, not better,” he said, echoing my sentiment. “I’m not telling you where we’re going, that might be just as dangerous as staying here.”
“You still don't trust me?” she asked, her voice shaking a little. “Just give me the route for the next 50 miles then. After that, you should be out of the search radius.”
“I honestly don’t know who or what to trust anymore,” Sonny said, before looking over at me. “Isaac, can you give us a few minutes?”
“No problem,” I said. “I’ll go keep an eye on the others. I have some aspirin for John. It might help take the edge off.”
I had decided I would give him the option of pain relief after explaining the dangers of blood thinning. I know I would want that choice if it were me in that much pain. I squeezed past S
onny where he still stood in the doorway and jogged back to the garage.
9
As much as I hated to admit it, Huian had given me plenty to think about with regards to the fate of John and Mark. She was right. I had to put the group ahead of any one of its members. When looked at from that point of view, I really didn't have a decision to make at all.
I just had to figure out how I was going to tell the others we were going to have to leave Mark behind. I knew it was the right ... no ... the only course of action we could take, but that didn't make me feel any better about it. Maybe I’d ride up front with Sonny when we left, after all. I didn’t think that I’d be able to sleep with the regret eating away at me. Being a leader was hard.
“How’s everybody doing?” I asked Samara, who was still crouched on the mat by the wounded.
“Mark woke up for a few minutes a while back,” she said, quietly. “He asked for some water and passed out again right after he drank it. I still don’t think he knows how bad he’s hurt.”
“I can’t walk and my leg hurts like hell,” John replied for himself. “But I’m in better shape than he is. What the hell were they shooting at us?”
“Vehicle mounted auto-cannon,” I replied. “Luke said they were probably armor-piercing rounds.”
He shook his head.
“Here, these might help take the edge off, but they can thin your blood.” I pulled out one of the small bottles of aspirin and tossed it to John. “Don’t take a lot, just in case. I guess we should be glad more of us didn’t end up like Mark and Karen. You’re lucky to only have a broken leg, although I’m sure you don’t feel very lucky right now.”
“I do, actually. We all thought we were toast when we heard that helicopter outside and all the shooting. What the hell happened?” he said.
I gave him and the others a brief version of the short but nasty clash between Huian and the patrol. John whistled
“They took out a whole patrol? No wonder she told us to get the hell out of Dodge.”
While Luke and I had been searching the gas station, Sonny had straightened John’s leg as best he could and duct taped a couple of two by fours to each side of the break, a makeshift splint to keep it straight. It would probably work for now, but the break had looked really bad, and if he didn’t have any other problems, like internal bleeding or infection, I doubted he would ever walk again without a limp. It had looked to me like the type of break that would require rods and pins to hold the bone together.
I decided I’d give him a choice. Stay so maybe the Chinese would fix his leg or come with us and remain free but at the cost of maybe never walking properly again. It was a choice that the unconscious and more gravely injured Mark wouldn’t get.
John chewed a couple of the aspirin and washed them down with water. I glanced through the open back door of the truck and saw Indigo and Allie were both curled up in sleeping bags on top of the raised mat we had set up for Sonny.
They were sleeping soundly, so I decided to leave them for the time being and continued around the truck. Near the front of the truck I found Ben and Brooke. Brooke was seated on a small wooden crate, one of the many things lying around the garage. Ben was sitting cross-legged on the floor next to her. Brooke looked up and smiled as I approached.
“How’s the ankle?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s feeling much better since Ben taped it,” she replied. “Not going to be running sprints any time soon, but I can walk on it with no problem. I think I just turned it, not even a sprain.”
“Good to hear,” I said, nodding. “How about you, Ben? How are you holding up?”
“What’s that term you Americans say? Keep on trucking ... well, I’m trucking,” Ben said, glancing up at me.
“We’re not bugging out of here until nightfall,” I said.
I explained quickly what had happened outside. I was surprised by Ben’s lack of response. He was clearly emotionally and physically exhausted.
“Why don’t you both try to get some rest in the meantime? It looks like Allie and Indigo are already asleep in the back of the truck. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if you two joined them.”
“What about you?” Brooke asked. “You look like you need to rest as much as we do.”
“I plan on trying to get some sleep when we leave,” I mumbled, trying not to think about Mark. How would I be able to sleep knowing what had to be done? I had a feeling that even when I got to rest, sleep would be a long time coming.
“Something’s wrong,” Ben said. He was looking at me keenly, suddenly more alert now that he sensed a friend’s distress. “There’s something that you’re not telling us.”
I felt my shoulders sag as I leaned against the fender of the truck; the metal was dented and scraped from the collision with the Chinese vehicle back at the bridge. I opened my mouth to speak but didn’t know how to start.
“Well, spit it out,” Ben said.
“It’s Mark. He is hurt too badly for us to look after him,” I said, looking at the dirty concrete floor instead of meeting their eyes. “We are going to have to leave him behind, and John too if he wants, in hopes that the Chinese will find them and provide any needed medical treatment.”
“That makes sense to me,” said Ben. “If Brooke or I were too injured to carry on, that is what I’d want you to do with us. As long as there is life, there is hope, even for a prisoner.”
“Just because it makes sense doesn’t make me feel any better about it. I feel like a bastard for even considering it. The Chinese aren’t known for their sense of compassion. It could be a death sentence.” I shook my head. “I don’t think Luke will like the plan.”
“Luke’s the one who convinced everybody to make you the leader,” Brooke said. “He’ll keep following you, even if you make a decision he doesn't agree with. He’s not a wanker.”
“I’ve heard that word before, but I’m not really sure what it means.”
“What word, wanker?” Brooke asked, with a giggle.
“Yeah.”
“Well…”
“At the risk of sounding like I’m an expert, you better let me answer this, sis,” interrupted Ben. “A wanker is like… someone who – you know.” He made a vague pulling movement with his hand.
“I didn’t mean it that way though!” said Brooke, her face glowing red. “It’s the same as what you Americans mean when you call a person a jerk.”
“Ah, got it,” I said, smirking. “Wanker, I like that word.”
“Who’s a wanker?” Luke asked, emerging from around the corner of the truck.
“You,” I said. Ben laughed but Brooke clapped her hand over her mouth.
“I see,” he said, his eyebrow raised.
“Just kidding, Ben and Brooke were giving me an English lesson.”
“Okay. So they’re teaching you the cool words first, then?”
I smiled, and then put my hand on his arm.
“We should talk about Mark,” I said, my tone serious. “You’re probably not going to like this, but he won’t be able to come with us.”
I told him my plan. His face darkened while I spoke and the deep frown on his face told me I was right about him not liking it, but so was Brooke when she had said he would accept my decision nonetheless.
In the end, with some dissent, the others in the group also agreed leaving Mark behind was the best for the good of everybody, especially him, although nobody particularly liked the idea.
Samara decided to stay, too. She wanted to remain behind and watch over him, despite the fact we all tried to talk her out of it. Much to my surprise, a pained John also decided to stay and allow the Chinese to capture him in hopes of having his leg treated properly.
“It’s too painful, and who knows, if they fix me up, maybe I can gather some information that can be used in the future. I know roughly where I’ll be able to find you guys if everything works out.”
I felt better about leaving Mark now that John had elected to stay, although I didn’t ho
ld out much hope that I would ever see any of them ever again. Indigo and Brooke tried to talk Samara into coming but she was adamant, and I could tell that it wasn’t only for selfless reasons. It was clear she was tired of running.
We unpacked some food and water to leave with them while they waited for the Chinese to find them and I left the other small bottle of aspirin with John, as well. I offered to leave them a weapon too, but it was declined. John and Samara felt their chances were better if they were found unarmed.
Sonny had come back into the garage about twenty-five minutes after I left him in the gas station with Huian. I heard her go, the high-powered motorcycle was loud, and she was clearly in a hurry. He told us that she’d try to delay the discovery of the missing patrol until the next morning, hopefully giving us plenty of time to get away if we left at nightfall, as we planned.
He looked unhappy and I guessed his feelings for her still ran deep. He said he was feeling up to driving for a while, but it was decided that I’d ride up front with him to spell him if he needed it. Now that the decision about who would stay and go was made, I felt bone-tired and knowing I had a long night ahead, I finally managed to lie down and fall asleep for a few hours.
10
Luke woke me at sunset. I rose slowly, stretching my sore muscles. The sleep had done me good, but I was still groggy, and there was no way it had been as much sleep as I needed. The stress of the day was wearing on me in ways I had never imagined it could. I don’t like stress, but I knew I was in for a lot more of it, at least until we arrived at the safe haven.
“Here, you look like you need this more than I do,” Luke said, handing me an energy drink from his stash. I don’t know where he kept them, I never saw him pack or unpack them, but he always magically seemed to be able to produce energy drinks as needed. “You still going to ride shotgun tonight?”
“Yeah, that’s the plan,” I said, taking the can from him and cracking it open. “Unless somebody else really wants the spot.”
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