Burning Nation

by Trent Reedy

  I was hauled roughly across the room and buckled back into my chair. I sat there naked as the lights and heater were turned back on. The doctor started the IV again.

  Captain Peterson leaned toward me while he adjusted my chains. “I’m sorry this is happening to you,” he whispered close to my ear. “Try to hold on.”

  Try to hold on? What the hell did that mean? I dropped my head back. Why wouldn’t they just let me die? Seconds later, an electric shock woke me up again. Why did he say hold on? Why would he say that? Whisper it.

  I thought about that for a long, long time. I’d never been so tired in my life, but I could still think things through. I wasn’t losing my mind. Yet.

  A jolt woke me. “They still even alive out there?” I smiled. “Maybe they’s dead. Maybe Swee —” I realized I was talking out loud. I shook my head, shook myself around in my chair against the handcuffs. Shut up, Wright! You damn near gave Sweeney away. Or did they already have him, know about him? Just couldn’t talk. Not at all.

  No end. No sleep. Sit. Exist. So many shocks. What if they never let me go? What if they kept this up forever? They could. Sweat caked my body. The doctor and captain came sometimes to check my blood and change my IV. New feeding tube. I asked them, “How long? What day is this?” They never said nothing. This wasn’t gonna end.

  “Oh, God, I need to sleep.”

  “If you say the names of your fellow Idaho soldiers. Say where they used to live. Say where the Idaho soldiers are now. Then you can go to sleep, Danny.”

  I forced my head up. Squinted my eyes in the glare. Who said that? Nobody in the room. “God? Why won’t you help me?”

  “Just say anything, Danny. You’ve been in this room for days. Your friends have moved on to another location by now. It won’t hurt to tell them about the old place. Where was your old base?”

  What? “Aren’t you God? Don’t you know?” God would already know. Unless … “You ain’t God! Alsovar, you son of a bitch! I’m not telling you nothing! Stop trying to trick me!” Shocks woke me up. If I shut down. Just … If I sleep and can’t wake up. Will the shocks … just fry me? What if … if Alsovar was right. “They aren’t there no more. Leavin’ no clues.” If I said it. ’Bout the cabin. Would he really let me sleep? Really?

  * * *

  Another shock. I jerked awake. Dizziness wouldn’t stop. “Danny, Shawna Sparrow already told us the names of your friends. It’s over now, Danny. Time to sleep. She already gave you up. You might as well tell us about your old base. About where you think they’ve gone.”

  “Sparrow! She told you? She …”

  “She’s already sleeping comfortably on a nice, soft bed. She gets to sleep whenever she wants. No handcuffs. Nice, cool room. She had steak and eggs for breakfast. You could too, if you’d just tell us where you think your friends are. Tell us the location of your old base.”

  “Seriously? A bed?”

  “Where was your old base? That’s an easy one, Danny.”

  I thought about it. We had ham and eggs in the morning sometimes when we were guarding the border. She’d take my ham. Me her eggs. “Sparrow don’t like eggs! She won’t eat ’em! You damned liar! Ha! Ha! Alsovar, you bastard! I win again! ’n if she was telling you stuff … If she told you all that. Names. You wouldn’t need me to tell you nothing.”

  My head drooped but I shook off the sleep. “Why don’t you come fight me, Alsopussy? Unchain me.” I shrugged. “I’m tired. Okay. I am. I admit it. But you … you give me a fair fight. I’ll whoop your ass.”

  Not givin’ in. Never gave in before.

  * * *

  So much time. Heat. Doctor, captain checked blood. Changed IV stuff. Many times. Many shocks. Sing me some Hank McGrew.

  “When I was a … a country boy down on the farm

  I never knew nothing that could do so much harm

  As that blue-eyed girl who lived down the lane

  She loved … she loved tractors, and huntin’, and … huntin’,

  And me all the same.”

  Another shock hit me. “What? Don’tcha like Hank McGrew?”

  * * *

  Me and Becca were on guard duty back in the igloo, only it wasn’t cold. “You’d think a snow fort would be really cold.” I turned to Becca. She was naked. “What are you doing?”

  “It’s about to get a whole lot hotter in here, Danny.” She leaned forward and kissed me, so deep and so sweet. I wanted to slide my arms around her back, to feel her soft skin, but I couldn’t. She backed away from me and I opened my eyes.

  JoBell was lying there, with her long blond hair. “What’s the matter? Don’t you want me, Danny?”

  “I love you.” I smiled. “I love you.” I wanted to say her name, but for some reason didn’t think I should. “I will always love you.”

  “Danny, who is your leader? Who is your best friend in your team? Who do you love? Who will you always love?”

  “I love … It’s so hard to know? I guess I love them both. What’s the right thing to do?” Wait, this was Alsovar. How long had I been asleep? What had I told him? “No! I won’t tell you. You lose, Major. You can’t beat me. I’ll never break.”

  * * *

  Door opened. Three Fed assholes. “Okay, Danny,” said the major. “The doctor thinks your heart is in good-enough shape. It’s bath time again.”

  What? “The hell you talkin’ ’bout?”

  Doctor removed my feeding tube and IV. Then the chains were gone. I tried to fight, but they had me on the table. The decline bench. Strapped in. Waterboarding!

  “No! Hey! Come on! No, we don’t gotta do this again!” I wouldn’t last. I’d wanted to talk last time. I’d been close to talking lately. “No! You bastards! Let me up!”

  Alsovar’s voice was low and close to me. “Where is your old base?” Water splashed right next to my face. I could hear it. Feel it. “Last chance, Wright.”

  I could tell him about the cabin. It wouldn’t hurt nobody. They’d be long gone by now. And he probably knew everybody on my team. He knew all the Idaho Guardsmen who hadn’t shown up for Fed duty. He probably knew all about my friends. Only JoBell. He didn’t know nothing about JoBell.

  “Okay.” Alsovar sighed. “Have it your way. Let’s get the cloth on you.”

  A damp cloth was draped over my face. My heart pounded. Ached in my chest. The doctor had said it was strong enough. Really? Boom. Boom. Then a cracking sound.

  “What the hell is that?” Alsovar said. An alarm shrieked. I thought it was an alarm. The screaming could be going on in my head. “Keep the prisoner here. I’ll be right back.”

  Blinded under the wet cloth, I heard the door slam. A moment later it opened again. “Insurgents. It’s an attack! Doctor, get to your med station. We’ll have casualties. Captain Peterson, with me.” The door closed again.

  The cloth was taken away. Captain Peterson leaned over me. “Don’t fight me. Don’t yell.” He unbuckled the restraints from my legs. “Your pants and underwear are over there on the floor. Wait here until the time is right.”

  Was this a dream? That subconscious stuff Alsovar had talked about? Peterson tapped my face. “Hey. Hey. Look at me.” I forced myself to focus on the captain’s eyes. “Private Wright. Your friends are coming for you. Be ready.” He released the strap that held my head. Then he freed my arms and ran to the door. “Wait here until it’s time. This is your last chance if you want to live.” Then he vanished.

  I put on my underwear and jeans, but my shirt had been cut off me, and they’d taken my boots. How did he even expect me to finish dressing? More shouts and explosions went off outside. But since I’d been locked in this room, I’d heard gunshots. The gunfights I’d been in had become dreams, but the dreams didn’t stop when I was awake. And I was always awake in this damned place.

  And wait here? What the hell was he talking about? I didn’t want to be here. My legs wobbled like a newborn calf’s as I walked to the door. That was as far as I’d walked in how long? “Let me o
ut of here, you bastards,” I said quietly. I turned and yanked the doorknob. Fell back on my ass. The door thudded closed. It was unlocked! I could go. My sore muscles fought as I struggled to my feet. I opened the door and peeked out into an empty hallway with a cement floor and cinder block walls. Gunfire went off somewhere close, and I backed into the room fast.

  I needed a weapon. What had they left me in the room? A rubber hose hooked up to a spigot on the wall. Weak at best. Tubing, some bandages, and some syringes. Not much help in a fight. I shuffled around through a pile on top of the little table that had been behind me for so long. The light glinted off the sharp blade of a scalpel. I picked it up.

  Alsovar. This is for you.

  The door burst open and I spun around, slashing out with my new blade. TJ stood in the door frame. He wrinkled his nose. “Oh no.”

  I frowned. How could TJ be here? This had to be a trick. Another of Alsovar’s games.

  “Wright, come on. Let’s go!” The image of TJ motioned with his M4.

  “Are you even real!?”

  “Real? What? The hell you talking about?” He moved toward me, reaching out to grab me. “It’s me — TJ. We’ve come to get you out of here, but we gotta move now.”

  “How did you figure out his name?” Had I broke? Had Alsovar accessed my gray zone, tapped my brain or something? I could finally see the camera where they’d mounted it behind the huge spotlight. “How did you learn his name!? I never told you nothing!”

  TJ looked from me to the camera and back again with his mouth open. Then he frowned, turned, and shot the camera. “I’m not the Fed, Danny. Would the Fed shoot their own camera? If they did that, they couldn’t watch you. Come on. I know you hate my guts, but you gotta trust me. JoBell’s waiting.”

  This could be a trick. A camera was easily replaced. But Alsovar had said there was an attack. Captain Peterson said people were coming for me. “Travis?” I felt tears starting up. I dropped to my knees.

  “Hey.” TJ ducked down under my arm, wrapping his arm behind my back and picking me up. “It’s me, buddy. Whatever these bastards did to you, it’s over. We’re going.”

  “Going home?”

  He checked up and down the hallway as he led me out of the room. “Yeah, we’re going home.”

  “Shopper, this is pickup. Where the hell are you!? Over.”

  I pulled away from TJ and crouched to the floor, looking all around. “Alsovar must have cameras everywhere.”

  “Danny, it’s my radio.” TJ keyed the mike on a little Motorola. “Pickup, this is shopper. I have the package, but he’s, um, kind of got a problem. They messed him up good. He’s not quite lucid. Not moving very fast. Over.”

  “Shopper, pickup.” It was a different voice this time. A girl’s voice. JoBell? “Use your old football rivalry.”

  TJ radioed back. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. He’s got a scalpel.”

  “Just do it! We’re taking shots here.”

  “I heard what she said. You aren’t going to trick me,” I said.

  “I know,” TJ said. “That was JoBell’s worst idea ever. There’s no football rivalry when you barely played this year.” He tried to pull me down the hall.

  “I did better than you!”

  “Yeah, but then you quit. I was getting better, and I’m faster, so it’s probably good for you the season was cancelled.”

  “This is a lamer trick than the Feds would try to use on me,” I said.

  We were almost to the stairwell at the end of the hall. The sound of gunfire roared outside. TJ shrugged. “It’s not a trick. You’re just not as fast as I am.”

  “Go to hell, TJ!” Trick or not, I could outrun that jackwad. We raced up the stairs. Three Feds ran into the stairwell from the hallway on the first floor, but bullets cut through their chests, arms, and necks. TJ slung his rifle so he could pick up two of the Feds’ weapons.

  “Wright!” Sweeney stood on the first landing with a smoking M4. TJ handed one rifle to me and another to Sparrow, who leaned against the wall behind Sweeney. She looked pale, her hair had been buzzed off, and her eyes were ringed with dark circles. She wore Fed MCUs with a bloody hole over the heart and no shoes.

  “I’m okay, Danny,” Sparrow said.

  Sweeney pointed out the door. “We go out and run like hell to the plane. Then you two sit back and let us handle the rest.” Sparrow looked down at her bare feet. “Sorry,” Sweeney said. “If you run fast enough, maybe the snow won’t be so bad.”

  “Plane?” I asked.

  “No time to explain,” TJ said. “Sweeney, you lead. Wright and Sparrow go in the middle, try to protect our side. I’ll bring up the rear.”

  Sweeney took his position by the door. He gave me a light punch on the arm. “You ready for this, dude?” Was this really happening? “Wright! With me all the way?” I nodded. He shoved open the door. “Go, go, go!”

  We ran out into an open snowy field past a sign that read SILVER LODGE. We were at Silver Sunset Resort. They’d turned the ski resort into a base? The roar of heavy machine guns echoed down the mountain from the summit of the ski slope. Bullets rained on the base village, shredding the three lodges and pinning down the Feds there. A big chain-link fence ran about three hundred yards down the slope from the lodges. A fierce firefight was going on by the gate they’d built across the access road. How many people were involved in this attack?

  The snow froze my feet until I ran on numb, wooden pegs. I would have given anything for a shirt or shoes.

  “Pickup, this is exit,” Luchen’s voice said over TJ’s radio.

  “Exit, this is pickup. Go ahead, over.”

  “Pickup, exit. We got a problem. They found us. We’re set to blow the fence, but we’re trapped down in the vehicle ditch. Y’all want to hurry with the package?”

  TJ keyed the mike on his radio. “Exit and pickup, this is shopper. Package is moving. Hang in there.”

  “How are we —” I started to ask about the escape plan when up ahead I saw the old red-and-white seaplane that Cal’s boss owned, the one that gave rides to tourists on Freedom Lake. The plane had no wheels, only big, long cylinder floats. I guess they could skid to a stop on deep snow as easily as they could on water.

  We were within thirty feet of the plane when Cal hopped out of the copilot seat, aiming an AR15 up the hill. He took a couple shots at someone up by the lodges. “Come on! Get in.” When we’d covered the last distance, Sweeney opened the back door. JoBell leaned out and beckoned to us. She was so beautiful, and right there. How could this be happening?

  Sparrow reached the hatch first, but she didn’t have the strength to climb up into the plane. I laced my fingers together so she could use my hands as a stirrup, then followed her into the bench seat in the back, where we sat close together to try to keep warm. JoBell slid in beside me and wrapped her arms around me.

  “Remember way back when you said I shouldn’t take the lake job ’cause it didn’t pay enough?” Cal settled in the copilot seat and slipped on some ridiculous mirrored sunglasses. “Well, today it’s gonna save your life. You remember my boss, Lee.”

  Cal’s boss down at the lake, Lee Brooks, was gripping the controls tight. “Um, I’m glad you’re okay, Danny,” he said. “You better strap in.”

  Sweeney and TJ scrambled to each of the two middle seats and fastened their seat belts. JoBell buckled me in. She tried to reach around me to do the same for Sparrow, but Sparrow knocked her hand away.

  “Okay.” Lee pushed up on a red-handled lever in the middle of his controls. “Throttle up.” He patted the console. “Come on, baby. We’re going downhill. Nice slick snow. Just like the lake. You can do it.”

  The seaplane sped up, sliding down the hill toward the Fed fence.

  JoBell keyed the mike on her Motorola. “Exit, this is pickup. We have the package. Clear our way. Over.”

  “Pickup, this is exit. Do you have … both of them? Over.”

  JoBell radioed back. “Roger that, exit.
We have them both. She’s safe.”

  “Well, safe is kind of a shaky term here,” Sweeney said.

  Sparrow silently took my hand. She stared straight ahead, tears welling in her eyes.

  The plane began to bump up and down on the snow. We were two hundred yards from the fence. “I was right,” said Cal’s boss. “We won’t make it with that fence in the way.”

  “Exit, pickup,” JoBell radioed. “Status report?”

  “Pickup. This is Luchen. We got a problem. Feds are all over. Two of my men are dead. It’s just me and a couple of Brotherhood guys in this anti-vehicle ditch next to the fence. We can’t make it out. I’m gonna blow it anyway. Danger close.”

  Sparrow sat up straight and squeezed my hand hard. “No! No, wait, what? No! JoBell, you tell him … Give me the radio. Give me the radio! You tell him to get his dumb ass out of there.”

  Tears ran down JoBell’s face. “I can’t, Sparrow. He’s got the mike keyed.”

  “Pickup, this is Luchen. Tell Shawna … Tell her I said … It’s worth it. For her. She’s worth it. This is Private First Class Luchen. Out.”

  A white flash popped at the base of one fence post ahead of us. A half second later, snow, fire, and dirt blasted out in all directions.

  “No! Noooo! Luchen, no!” Sparrow tried to get out of her seat, but I held her back. She slapped at my arms, screamed, shrieked like a cat. She shook around on the bench, and I held on to her. She beat my back. “Luchen, noooooooo!”

  “Come on, baby, fly!” Lee Brooks pulled back on the control stick. Finally, the plane rose up off the ground. Three feet up. We passed the smoldering pit where Luchen had blown the fence. A couple bullets cracked against the side of the plane. Five feet up. Twelve. Twenty. Fifty.

  “We’re up,” Lee said, finally smiling.

  “Yes!” Cal said. I could tell he wanted to shout, to celebrate, but he stayed quiet. The only sound was the drone of the engine and Sparrow’s sobs as she buried her head in my shoulder and cried.