by Matt King
“This is such a dangerous world,” said Coburn. Two of his Horsemen walked past him into the store. “So many random acts of violence.”
“PLEASE!” Burt wailed. He heard something crash out in the store. There was a familiar ring as the cash register opened.
“Even in a small town like this, you find people willing to slit a man’s throat just to rob a few dollars from his store.”
The sound of a knife ripped from its scabbard rang in Burt’s ear.
“I swear! I swear to you I won’t say a word!”
Coburn tipped his hat. “Thank you for your assistance,” he said as he walked toward the parking lot door. “I’m sure the Lawsons will appreciate how forthcoming you’ve been.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
August had never been so happy to see an old farm house in the middle of nowhere. The smells from the kitchen pulled him through the doorway. God, he was hungry.
“Daddy,” Bear said. “You’re…standing up.”
“And you’re getting dirt on my rug. Now that we’ve got the obvious out of the way, why don’t you boys come in and clean yourselves up. There’s ham sandwiches in the living room.” He sounded dour and annoyed, like the air in his strengthened voice wasn’t welcome. Still, he couldn’t hide the look of relief in his eyes when he saw them.
Bear stopped at Meryn’s side on his way to the stairs. “I thought you were going to look after him. He shouldn’t be walking around like that.”
“He seems to be feeling better,” she said.
“Leave her alone,” Ray called from the kitchen. “They put wheels on this oxygen tank for a reason, Bear.”
Bear left August with Meryn as he marched up the stairs.
“Ray’s looking good,” August said. “Something you did?”
“Perhaps I've had some positive effect just being close to him, but there is little he will let me do, I’m afraid.”
“Listen,” he said, moving closer. “I don’t mean to criticize, but your warning could've come a little earlier, seeing as how we were already on our way home after getting our asses handed to us when we got it.”
She wouldn’t meet his stare. “I know.”
“So what happened?”
“We’ll talk when Bear comes back,” she said. She walked into the living room and sat in one of the chairs arranged around the coffee table. She hung her head.
“We’re okay,” August called out, looking around, “in case anyone cared.”
“We’re all thankful for that,” Ray said. He came up behind August in the hallway carrying a plate of country ham and bread. “Here, take this and put it on the table in there. I need to get the tea.”
“I fought monsters today, you know.”
“That’s nice. Do you want lemon?”
August took the plate and carried it into the living room. He sat it on the long oak coffee table that centered a sofa and two love seats.
“August, do you have to wear those things in the house?” Ray asked. He sat the tea pitcher on the table. He pulled his oxygen tank in the other hand, using a handle to roll it around. “I already have a knife for spreading the cream cheese if that’s your worry.”
“Look, as far as I’m concerned, this sheath is surgically attached to my back from here on out.”
Bear came into the room still buttoning his shirt. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail. He took Ray’s arm to help him settle into the chair before sitting beside him.
“We need to talk,” Meryn began. August didn’t know if gods cried, but she looked like she was on the verge. As usual.
Bear put a hand on her knee. “I’m sorry we couldn’t catch him.”
“Sorry?” August said. “How about ‘sorry we got sent directly into a trap?’ How come you didn’t warn us until it was too late? I, for one, would’ve loved to know that Talus was going to be there.”
“It’s not her fault,” Ray said.
“Not her—Ray, this is the woman who can skip across the universe like she was crossing the road.”
“August is right,” Meryn said. “I should have taken measures to mark their location, and I didn’t. It won’t happen again.”
“Well that’s reassuring. What are we supposed to do now that Gemini is loose?”
“We regroup and try again,” Bear replied.
Meryn shook her head. “No.”
“No?” August asked.
“No,” she repeated. “I was a fool to think I could end this war before it started. Amara would never chance that happening. It seems I have miscalculated things so far.”
“Oh, well that’s just great.”
“Here, eat something,” Ray said, tossing a ham sandwich into August’s lap.
He took it and fell back against the cushions.
“If we’re not going after them, what do we do? What happens next?” Bear asked.
“There’s nothing we can do to avoid war. Amara and Galan will have their armies ready. It is likely that they will strike soon. Galan's forces will lead her vanguard. When he comes, we will meet him on the battlefield.”
“What about that other guy?” August asked. “The creepy dude with the pipe?”
Bear looked between them. “Who is he talking about?”
“Paralos,” Meryn answered. “Another of the Circle. We cannot count on his help. He continues to believe I have allegiances to Amara.”
“You can’t blame the guy,” August said. “You basically served us up to her in one big present with a bow on top.”
Ray poked him with his cane. “Sandwich.”
“I’m not hungry anymore.”
“Sandwich.”
Meryn took a deep breath before continuing. “We need to concentrate on gathering forces.”
August patted the pockets on his jacket. “Well, I’m fresh out of forces. Bear, do you have any spare forces lying around? Ray? Can we count on your bridge club?”
“We are not completely helpless,” Meryn said. “I have armies in waiting. It will take me some time to retrieve them.”
“How much time?” Bear asked.
“A few of your days. Perhaps three.”
“Why so long?”
“They had to be hidden somewhere that Amara could not sense, I suppose it is best to say. They are in another system. Not far, but it will take me some time to get them here.”
August grabbed another sandwich to head off Ray throwing anything else his way. “So in the meantime we’ll just have to hope that Amara and Conan—”
“Galan.”
“Galan, whatever. We just hope that they don’t get here before you do?”
“I said I would hurry,” Meryn replied.
Ray was lost in a stare. “I can’t hardly believe this is happening,” he said. “War’s about to break out and nobody knows.”
“There’s something else,” Meryn said. She got up and walked to the bookcase behind the seat. She took a newspaper off the shelf. “You should see this.”
August opened the paper on his lap. As soon as he saw the front page, he jumped up, jabbing a finger at the photo on page one. “That’s me! On a freakin’ newspaper!”
“Congratulations,” Bear said.
The newspaper dropped from his hand. He’d been so careful and he was close. Close to the war that was supposed to free him. He ran his fingers through his hair as he began to pace. “No no no no noooo, this isn’t happening.”
“What isn’t happening?” Bear asked. “August, what’s going on?”
August hurried to the window behind the couch and looked outside. Nothing yet. He snapped the curtains shut. He ran to the window next to the bookcase and did the same. “We need to go,” he said. “We have to get out of here. You guys like to go camping, right? Let’s go camping. Preferably somewhere in another country.”
Bear grabbed his arm as he sped toward another window. “You want to tell us what this is all about?”
August shook free and showed him the paper. “This…this is a picture
of me. Newspaper pictures get put online, and copies are sent out to other newspapers, all of which adds up to the fact that I might as well lean back and kiss my ass goodbye because I am dead!”
Bear turned to Meryn. “Do you understand this?”
“His former employer,” Meryn replied. “He is worried they will find him now.”
“Yeah, I’m worried. Know why? Because that’s what they do! They find people!”
“Settle down, son,” Ray said. “What kind of employer are we talking about? The government?”
“No. Not on record, anyway. Can we go on that camping trip now?”
“Just tell us,” Bear said. “We can help you.”
August sighed. He moved away from the front of the window just in case. “You know those security contractors in Iraq you hear about in the news sometimes?”
“Yeah.”
“I worked for one of those, called Phoenix. They took freelance military jobs in Pakistan and Afghanistan and a bunch of other places, including here.”
Ray sat his half-eaten sandwich on the tray. “What sort of things does this organization do?”
“Some parts of it do security,” August replied, “but mostly they track people.”
“Like bounty hunters,” said Bear.
“You got the ‘hunters’ part right. The man I worked for was never interested in bounty. They sent him out for one reason: search and destroy.”
“So why are they after you?” Ray asked.
“Mercenary jobs aren’t the kind you retire from, if you get my drift. You hear and see a lot of bad things. They pay you obscene amounts of money, you do whatever they say and don’t ask questions. Only a few people make it in, and once you’re in, you can’t get out. Not unless you desert.”
“No offense,” Ray said, “but aren’t you making a little much of this, given your abilities?”
“You don’t understand,” August replied. “Coburn will be coming and he’ll have his Horsemen with him. He’s the man I told you about, the one who thought of me as some kind of long-lost son. He's a sociopath who keeps a set of quadruplets as his pets. Think of themselves as a Wild West gang. They only go after one type of job, and that’s the kind that doesn’t care if the subject comes back alive or not. Coburn won’t stop until he sees me dead. It's personal for him now and it won’t matter that I can heal myself; he’ll hurt me until he can find a way to kill me.”
“Oh,” Ray said.
“Yeah. Now you know why I never wanted to get a speeding ticket, and why I rode the trains. The only way you beat these guys is to stay off the grid.”
“You only need to survive until I get back,” Meryn said. “Once this war starts, nothing that happened before it will matter.”
“In the meantime, maybe August is right,” said Bear. “They’ll come here first. We should head for the mountains to lay low.” He turned to Ray. “Daddy, I think this time you better come with us.”
“Yes,” Ray replied. He nodded slowly. “I think you might be right.”
Meryn rose and Bear did the same. “Stay safe and take care of each other,” she said. “I will be back as soon as I can. Until then, I want you to wear these.” She handed August and Bear each a rawhide necklace. Dangling at the end was a chunk of yellow stone.
“What’s this for?” August asked.
“It will ensure I never lose you again,” she answered. “Now go. You should hurry.”
August tied the ends of the necklace behind his head and then looked back down at the stone. He turned it between his fingers. Neat, he thought, but you’d be a whole lot neater if you were a Kevlar vest.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It was well into the night before Bear turned the truck onto the last of the fire roads. Ray slept in the back with his head leaned against the window and his mouth open wide. He kept the oxygen tank beside him on the seat. As soon as Meryn left, his breathing began to get worse. It took a dose of steroids to get him out of the house and into the truck. August sat in the front, slouched in his seat but unable to sleep. He was far too busy thinking of what Coburn would do if he found him. He’d never wished so hard for an apocalyptic war to take place in his entire life.
“Are you sure you haven't seen anyone following us?” he asked.
“For the third time, yes,” Bear answered. “I've been watching the mirrors more than the road. Relax. No one’s going to find us out here.”
August drummed his fingers on the handle of his sword. He held the sheath on his lap. “How soon until we get there?”
Bear slowed the truck. “As much time as it takes me to park. This is it.”
When they came to a stop, August looked around before opening the door. They were parked on a raised plateau of rocks and dirt that dropped down to another flat area beside a creek. He could just make out the water flowing over rocks at the end of the Chevy’s headlight beam.
The truck bed sank as Bear jumped in back to toss August the gear. The Lawsons had a large tent that wasn’t exactly fit for backpacking. It probably weighed thirty pounds by itself. August agreed to sleep inside with them, at least for one night. He didn’t like the idea of snuggling with two other guys in a confined space, but it beat the alternative, which was to snuggle in between the Horsemen as they dragged him back to their little hut of horrors in the swamp.
Paranoia didn’t sit well with his appetite. Bear heated up a few cans of beef stew on a one-eye burner after August vetoed the use of a fire. He finished off a second helping while August pushed his around with a spoon.
The depth of the forest’s darkness should have been comforting. He couldn’t see past the blue light of Bear’s burner once Ray turned off the light in the tent to go to sleep. The two of them sat in silence, listening to the wind toss around the tops of the trees. August repeatedly clicked together the ends of his swords, popped them apart with the release, and then snapped them back together again. He wondered if there were eyes watching him in the shadows. It felt strange to hope that the eyes would be orange, or purple, or some shade other than earthly. He’d rather see a gang of snake monsters again than have Coburn ride up with his posse.
“Stars are out,” Bear murmured.
August took a quick look through the break in the tree cover. Maybe Coburn hadn’t made it to Fairview yet, but August bet that he had, and once Coburn got that close, he never let his bounty get away. More importantly for Bear and Ray, he never left witnesses either. He was a fool to think he could stay off Coburn’s radar. He’d never spent much time with the eggheads in Research, but he’d heard enough about their operation to know that the Lawsons’ hiding place wouldn't remain hidden for long.
I never should’ve come with them. They’re in danger now because of me.
He glanced to the tops of the trees again. A meteorite cut across the sky, momentarily distracting him from his hand-wringing. Behind it, a red light blinked next to a star. For a second, he thought he'd gotten lucky and caught a satellite passing by, but it was only a plane. No government in their right mind would put a flashing light on a--
As soon as he realized his mistake, he felt like throwing up every bit of dinner. Satellites. I forgot about the god damned tracking satellites!
“I’m turning in,” Bear said. He shined his keychain flashlight at August’s feet. “You coming?”
August's answer was lost in a swirl of frantic planning. If they'd been tracked to the woods, he only had a few minutes to act. The Horsemen might not be able to take down Bear if he phased, but Ray… Ray wouldn’t last a second. He couldn't risk sticking around any longer. His eyes flit to the truck.
“You all right?” Bear asked.
“I think I’ll stay up a while,” he replied. “Stomach’s kinda…iffy. Hey, do you mind if I borrow the keys? I think I left something in the truck.”
“You barely own anything. What’s to forget?”
“I left my, uh…actually, I was going to grab some of the wipes I saw in the glove compartment.”
“You want me to come with you?”
“To take a shit? No, thanks.”
“Oh, that.” Bear glanced over his shoulder, eyeing the darkness. “I don’t know…”
“A man needs his privacy.”
Bear considered it for a moment before dropping the keys in his hand. “Just make sure you do it downwind.”
August gave a mock salute. He waited until Bear zipped the door of the tent behind him before he tucked his swords away and started for the truck. This is insane, he thought. I might as well jump off a cliff. It’ll be safer. Any way he looked at it, though, a showdown with Coburn and the Horsemen was unavoidable now. If he had to do it, leading them away from camp was the only way to keep both of the Lawsons safe.
He got to the driver’s side door and took a final look back at camp. “See you boys again soon,” he said under his breath. “I hope.”
As soon as the engine came to life, Bear came rushing out of the tent. August threw the truck into reverse, kicked up a cloud of dirt and rocks as he turned it around, and gunned it down the road.
The truck handled like a tank. He swung it around the curves of the fire road with all the grace of an eighteen-wheeler. When he felt like he was getting close to pavement again, he happened to glance in the rearview mirror. A single headlight appeared behind him, then another. When the fourth one showed up, his heart sank. “Shit.” He made it to the parkway and cut the truck hard to the left.
The Horsemen sailed out of the fire road in pursuit. Within seconds, they'd closed the gap with the lumbering Chevy. August centered the truck between the two lanes of the highway, hoping to take up as much room as possible. Two of the bikes broke off and tried to flank him on the sides. He swerved to keep them at bay. The Horsemen were forced to fall back as they rounded a sharp corner. Good. Curves were good. He could fend them off in curves.
Once he was through the hairpin turn, the road opened up ahead of him in a long straightaway. “Oh, come on!”
The Horsemen sped forward again. They danced around him like bees, and all he could do was swat at them clumsily. He gunned the truck as fast as it would go. The Horsemen flew by, two on each side, regrouping once they raced past his headlights. He gripped the steering wheel as he waited for them to make their move. At once, the foursome tore away, disappearing around a sharp corner at the end of the straightaway.