“You can wait for your signature until the cows come home. I’m not signing anything over to you.”
Raymond’s phone rings and he listens to a message. Then he turns to me.
“I’ll be back in an hour. It’s in your best interest to sign. If you care about him,” he points at Scott, “you’ll sign. You don’t want to be around for the alternative.”
With these words, they leave the room and the large iron door falls shut with a thud. How could we ever think the guy is nice? Have Scott and I been so blind?
“Scott, can you hear me? Scott?”
“I’m okay. I’m just frustrated that I was stupid enough to walk right into his trap. Self-sustained community, my foot. What about you? What did he do to you?”
“I’m good. A bit wobbly from the drugs they knocked me out with, but other than that okay. You don’t look okay.”
He pulls his face into what I assume he intends to be a grin, but it looks even more frightening than before.
“It’s just cosmetics. We need to get out of here.”
“I’m sorry I got you into this.”
“Don’t be, it wasn’t your fault. We didn’t expect this.” The way he lets his head drop down to his chest tells me that he is struggling.
“At least one of us needs to get out and call the police. Once they raid the place they’ll hopefully find enough evidence of their activities.”
“Oh, I have good news for you. I broke into Raymond’s office and found lots of stuff on his computer. Reports of the children they used, heaps of photos and video clips, dates they posted them on the net, bank account payments, all the shenanigan. I couldn’t make copies, but I backed up his document folder to my Google drive and emailed a copy to Officer Burke in Wellington.”
“You did? You mean we have evidence of everything?”
“Of everything. And this time there is lots of info about their connections in Asia and their Internet consumers. You see, deep inside Raymond must be a very, very anal, tidy, bean counter. The nice guy, the abuser, the organizer, the CEO is nothing but a lowlife criminal.”
“You are amazing, do you know that?” If his face weren’t black and blue and swollen, I’d say he looks at me with admiration.
“The trafficking involves the whole community. Everyone is in on it. They’ll all go to prison. But first, we need to get out. We can’t rely on the police to arrive in time to stop him from hurting us.”
“You are right, we need to get out of here.” He pulls and wiggles his hands behind his back. “Can you free your hands?”
“Not sure.”
I tried loosening the knot … with no success. We’re never getting out of here.
“If you let me into the body, I can get us out. I have smaller hands than you.”
Sweet little Toby comes to the rescue. I’m not convinced he can help, because we all share the same adult body. But there is a small chance that Toby gets more bend out of this body than I can.
“Thank you for letting me help.”
Toby wiggles and wiggles, with no success. The skin of my wrist is scraped off and raw. I’m about to tell him to stop when I hear a click and the door opens. I let out a sigh of relief when the little girl that greeted me in front of the community hall slips in. Her eyes blink nervously and she puts her index finger over her lips.
“I can help,” she whispers. “They don’t think we kids are good for anything.”
She pulls out a knife and starts slicing through the rope.
“She is amazing!” Toby is full of admiration.
Not much later my hands spring free of the rope.
“See? Ama always says together we’re strong.”
I feel sorry when he disappears again into the back of my mind.
“You’re hurting.” Rena looks at my hands. When it happened I didn’t feel anything. Now, however, it hurts like hell. Ignoring it, I scoot over to Scott and slice through his ropes too. We both get up and stare at each other in wonder. My fingers glide over his face. I lift to my toes and kiss his bruises until my lips find his.
He is my home and if I read his body right as we find comfort in each other’s arms, I am his.
“We need to go.” Sky’s reminder brings us back.
Rena’s glance goes between Scott and me. She swallows.
“Can you take me with you? I’m scared.”
“What about your parents?”
“I don’t have parents. This is a bad place. They hurt children here.”
I look up to Scott and he shrugs. “We can’t leave her behind.”
No, we can’t. She rescued us. Without her knife … I hate to think what might have happened. I bend down to her and smooth her bangs away from her eyes.
“We have to run very fast. Can you do that?”
She nods so hard, her braided crown loosens and her beautiful hair flows over her shoulders.
Scott looks around the room.
“The bastards took our shoes.” He grunts in anger and opens the door. He looks at Rena.
“Do you know the quickest way to the forest?”
She nods and takes his hand, rushing down the stairs with him in tow. I follow, somewhat stunned that Rena is not afraid of Scott. On the ground floor, we open the door. These arrogant bastards didn’t even think to lock the door. They were so sure they had us. Nobody was standing watch either. Outside, I take my bearing.
“We are in the building across the park from the Community Hall. The forest must be right behind us.”
There is a one hundred yard sprint to the tree line. After that, the trees and the bush will protect us. It is the kind of terrain Scott is at home in. He will lead us out safely.
He slings Rena on his back.
“Hold tight, little peanut.”
Then he grabs my hand and we run toward the trees as if our lives depend on it. And it does, going by the sound of four-wheel-drive SUVs coming our way.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lilly: 24 March 2017, Gateway
They’re after us.
And this time it’s not to invite us for afternoon tea and a musical performance. The tree line is almost in our reach. Always a step behind Scott, we race over the soft grass still wet from the rain a few hours ago. My lungs are bursting and my heart is racing in a bid to get oxygen to my screaming muscles. My sides are burning and I have the stitch. I stop and let my head hang, my hands propping up on my knees. I’m gasping for air.
The building across the park already looks smaller. We’re making progress—but the cars are getting closer too. I can almost make out the vile faces of the guys in the vehicles. Then gunshots crack into the air like thunder. I hold my breath.
“They are shooting at us. Don’t stop.” Scott shouts and pulls me by the arm toward the trees.
I’m not freaking out. I’m not freaking out. Repeating that mantra in my head is not helping. I’m freaking out.
“I’m scared.” Rena’s eyes are wide with fear as she looks down at me from atop Scott’s shoulders.
“I’m sure Scottie will get us to safety.” I’m trying to convince myself as much as her. All I know is this can’t be the end. We haven’t come this far for it to be over now. Did I comfort Rena? Perhaps. She burrows her face into Scottie’s neck and closes her eyes. Behind us, men are shouting commands to each other. They are organizing their pursuit.
“Don’t look back, three guys are close. We are almost there. No more than thirty yards.”
Scottie’s words break up. How can he run, carry Rena, and talk all at the same time is beyond me. I stumble ahead, more falling than running. Everything hurts.
“Run!”
Luke, my trusted brother, is close and gives me another burst of energy. I didn’t know I had it in me to run even quicker.
Ahead of us is the tree line. The moment we reach it, Scott ducks and after a few yards turns sideways to the left. He sits Rena down and pulls me to the ground as well.
“Hush, quiet. The men are here.�
�
I don’t dare to look up, because men are rushing right past us, obviously assuming we kept running straight ahead. I know we’ve won the first round. He winks and a big smirk turns his face into a macabre mask. I better not tell him that he looks more frightening than our pursuers.
“We have to keep moving”
We jump up and dash ahead into the forest away from our pursuers. After about a hundred yards we stop. I lean against a rotting tree stump to catch my breath and stare at the river that blocks our path, cold water raging over the stony riverbed.
“We have to cross this, or we’re toast.” Scottie breathes heavily and puts Rena down again.
“I love it when you are so positive. At this moment I don’t mind being toast. My lungs are burning and I don’t think I can take another step.” I don’t want to be a negative Nancy, but let’s face it, we’re fighting a losing battle.
He opens his mouth to say something when he pulls me down to the ground and puts his arm around Rena as people break through the undergrowth close-by. My stomach tightens. The group following us is getting larger. They are firing shots and shouting commands.
If that’s meant to scare me, I can report it’s working.
“Are they shooting at us?”
“Don’t be afraid. They don’t know where we are. Whatever they are shooting at, it isn’t us.”
Scott slings Rena on to his back again, pulls me up, and steps behind me.
“Go, I’ll cover you.”
“I don’t need you to protect me.”
“No, but I need to protect you. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you. Come on, old girl.”
I only send him a nasty stare. I’m not old, but there’s a time to fight and a time to cross a tricky river. Right now, crossing the knee-deep, wild water is taking all my concentration. It’s either that or slipping on the moss-covered boulders and landing in the water.
“Hurry, hurry, they are coming.”
Caught by fear, the Tribe is screaming for attention. I can report, the shortest way for moving from fearful concern to paralyzing panic is having voices inside your head yelling what you already know. I’m aware they’re coming. The shooting is getting closer.
Breathe! Breathe!
“They must have noticed we’re no longer ahead of them.”
The urgency in Scott’s voice is telling me to hurry. He grabs my hand and pulls me across the stream. I don’t mind wet feet. It’s better than being shot. But they don’t shoot us. Small mercies. We have to get out of the water and back into the bush if we want a chance of surviving. I stumble over slippery boulders as fast as I can.
“You are doing well, darling.”
Scott crawls up the bank of the stream and pulls me up too. Rena sits on Scottie’s shoulders and is excited about her horsey. Who can blame her? The bush ahead is a mixture of fern, prickly Manuka trees, and a whole lot of tall trees and bushes I don’t have a name for.
“Thanks. Do you think we’re safe?”
Scottie has a serious look on his face. “I don’t think so. We haven’t shaken them off.”
“You must be hurting like hell. I didn’t even think you were alive when I saw you in the white room.” My hands want to stroke his body and take the hurt away.
“I felt worse when I thought they’d gotten to you.” He brushes my hair out of my face and kisses my forehead. “We have must keep going.”
We rush through the undergrowth, swatting branches aside, breaking through bushes, and climbing over fallen trees. Scott stops at a small clearing and squints in the direction of our followers. They’ve stopped chasing us. At least, we can’t hear them. The bush is quiet. Even birds and insects seem to hold their breath. I lean against a tree holding my side, trying to draw air into my aching chest.
“Let’s keep going.” He sounds tired.
“I can walk now. I’m too heavy for you.” Rena is sweet. She’s trying to make it easier for Scott. The fact that he puts her down tells me he’s running out of strength as well. We leave our clearing and march on. It’s me ahead, Rena in the middle, and Scottie picking up the end when a cascade of shots crack in the air around us from the other side of the stream. How did they find us?
Scott cries out and holds his arm. Blood is seeping through his fingers. He looks at me and shakes his head.
“Nothing serious. Run, run. They are already crossing the stream.”
We rush ahead and bat branches aside. Quick. Quick. Out here we’re just moving targets for their shooting practice. The moment they cross the stream they’ll catch us.
Sudden sounds to my right make me freeze. They’ve found us and are breaking through the bush.
“Run,” Scottie shouts and picks up an arm-thick branch from the ground. Is he losing the plot now? Who’s crazy enough to bring a stick to a gunfight? That’s when a wild pig breaks through the undergrowth and charges at him. He rises to his full height and attacks the pig with the stick.
I guess pigs don’t expect strange beings running toward them with a stick. At least this one didn’t. It immediately does a U-turn back to where it came from. Scottie makes sure it keeps running by throwing his stick at its rear. When he returns to us, he drags Rena and me under the leaves of a large fern.
“With a bit of luck, the people following us will think it’s us and follow the pig.”
“Do you think they are that stupid?”
“They might be. Trained soldiers would’ve caught us ages ago.”
“They can’t be good scouts if they don’t recognize pig trails.”
“Haven’t you seen the trails? They are all over the place. We must have come upon a playground for pigs.”
Scottie’s voice is becoming labored. Chasing after the pig took a lot out of him. He gasps for breath and his face looks even more like a battlefield than it did before. I point at his bleeding wound.
“Let me bandage your arm.”
I try to tear a piece of material from my hospital gown. It’s harder than I thought it would be. Are these damn things meant to last forever? Finally, it rips and I get a decent strip off the seam.
Just before I finish bandaging his arm he slaps his hand to my mouth and points up.
“Listen.”
He was right, they must have heard the pig breaking through the bush and are running after it. I’m sure there will come a time when I see the funny side of this … I just don’t right now.
We get up and make our way in the other direction when Scottie pulls us behind a bush.
“I think I saw movement ahead of us.”
He gasps for air. We have to go sideways again and be very careful. We snake along the stream on all fours, hoping we are not giving away where we are. Ahead of us is a small suspension bridge crossing the steam. Scottie stoops and pulls me to him.
“Listen! That’s the main road.”
I heard nothing until he mentioned it.
“You mean the faint hum in the distance? That’s the road?”
“Yes, we followed the sun, so we must have run straight northwest. So yes, that would be the road.”
A few yards ahead is a small hollow formed behind a fallen rimu tree. He pulls us behind it. We duck into the ground and survey the opposite side of the stream for movement.
“Did we lose them?”
“I’m not sure. I’d rather wait and give it some more time. We should wait here until we’re sure. Then we can cross the bridge. After that, it shouldn’t be more than a quarter of a mile to the main road.”
We hover behind the tree. Each time there’s a cracking sound or a bird takes off flapping its wings, my heart stands still. I reach for Scottie and burrow into his chest. He pulls me closer and I know I’m safe.
Rena has fallen asleep leaning against us, her eyes busy behind her closed lids. I hope whatever she’s dreaming is not too scary.
“Do you think we’ll make it?”
“We are as good as there. If the gateway people were legionaries or othe
rwise battle-trained guards, we wouldn’t stand a chance. But going by their shooting and tracking skills, they are just civilians getting all excited about a manhunt.”
I rest my head on his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. All will be well. Careful not to knock his injured arm, my fingers glide over his bruised face while my heart whispers, I love you.
“You know, life with you will never be boring.”
That wasn’t the right thing to say. Scottie almost sits up.
“Don’t you think the shoe fits the other foot? Before you showed up at Wright’s I lived an ordinary life, by myself, with my horse in the bush, being bothered by nobody and nothing, hunting my rabbits and the occasional hog.”
Before I can launch my defense, I hear cracking nearby. I hold my breath and point to the side. He puts his index finger to his lips and we sink further into the hollow, all but merging with the forest floor. I move as close to him as possible, holding Rena between us, engulfed in his arms. He hisses when I accidentally touch his wounded arm.
“Sorry.”
Two men with rifles are pushing through the brush on this side of the stream. One, not much older than twenty years with a face covered in acne scars, looks at the ground. He must take himself for some kind of trapper who can read tracks. I doubt very much that his experience went past watching the two Crocodile Dundee movies. But he has a gun, and even an idiot can cause lots of damage with a gun in his hands.
The other one is canvassing the bush. I try to sink even deeper into the ground even though he can’t possibly see us, hidden by the ferns, and bushes. He holds a phone to his mouth.
“There is nothing here. They must have run to the right when we lost them.” He listens to a response and says, “I saw them running to the left before they disappeared. Maybe they tracked back, that’s possible.” He ends the call and motions to the Crocodile Dundee wannabe. “We’ve to turn back and check the bush to the left on this side of the river. Keep your eyes open. If we don’t find them, Ray will have our hide.”
We wait another ten minutes before we decide to leave our hiding place behind the tree. I awaken Rena and hold her close in my arms.
Beyond the Tree House Page 18