“I know. But I’ve got a good feeling about you. You seem the type of man who’ll do right by us. So you go on and put what you feel is fair for a charter with a restroom on it and your time. And of course we’ll cover your food and hotel expenses on the trip too.”
I must have surprised him, because his eyebrows shot up. “Well, that’s real good of you, boy. My name’s Bud Preston, by the way.” He held out his hand.
My insides tried to catch a little as I told him my real name. Would he recognize the connection to my father? But he didn’t hesitate as he shook my hand. I’d learned lately that Dad had been wrong about a lot of things over the years. But right then I hoped he had at least one thing right, that you really could judge a man by the way he shook your hand. If so, then my instincts about this guy were also correct. Bud’s grip was firm despite his years, with none of those power plays of using his free hand to cage mine or grip my arm or shoulder like my father did to voters around election time. Bud’s handshake said he was a simple, honest, strong man, the calluses promising he was also a hard worker.
We’d all have to hope his handshake didn’t lie.
“Well, let’s get this show on the road then!” Bud said, cracking his first smile yet. It transformed him, lighting up his eyes.
Tarah would probably like him a lot.
“What do you say we meet up over in Clemens?” I suggested, naming the neighboring town our group was waiting in. “Our group’s in the Wal-mart parking lot behind the bookstore, if you know where it is?”
He nodded. “Yeah, that sounds real good. Give me, say, forty-five minutes. I’ll get the ole girl warmed up and gassed up, give her a good check up and all that. Maybe run by my house, call my brother and grab some clothes and a razor.”
“If you need longer—” I started to say, sweat sliding down my back at the thought that he might agree.
He waved me off. “Naw, old man like me, I don’t need much for a trip. Besides, we got to get those young ones warm and back on the road.”
“Alright, see you there.” Still smiling, I headed out the building, jumping into the truck with more hope than I’d felt in a long time. Maybe Tarah was right about this positive thinking stuff after all.
Steve wasn’t quite as optimistic, judging by the way he slammed the truck door shut after climbing inside.
As we headed back to our group in the festering silence, I wondered if Steve would continue to hold his tongue or let it all out. Minutes later, I had my answer.
“I guess it was just too much of me to ask you not to make any stupid mistakes back there, huh?”
I counted to five before replying nice and slow. “Something on your mind?”
“Yeah. Your stupidity. Do you want to get us all killed?”
“We need to get there safely. Or do you really have a CDL and know how to drive a bus after all?”
“I could’ve figured it out.” His tone was sullen.
“Before or after causing a wreck? Besides, why break the law if we don’t have to?”
“How do you know he won’t learn the truth and run off to the authorities the first chance he gets?”
“Like I said, it’s a necessary risk. We need him to get us there safely and legally. I’ll make sure to pay him more than enough to keep him quiet.”
Silence.
As we turned off the interstate and headed back into town, he muttered, “Just so you know, if that bus driver finds out the truth and turns us all in, I’ll be holding you one hundred percent responsible.”
“Yeah, you and everybody else,” I muttered.
I eased the truck into the bookstore parking lot and around the building to the back. And got another sucker punch to the gut that robbed me of the ability to breathe.
The military trucks were gone.
Steve cursed loudly.
“Don’t panic,” I said, more to myself than him. “Maybe they had to move the trucks somewhere out of sight nearby.”
We cruised around the store, even checking the nearby Wal-Mart parking area and the neighboring gas stations. No military trucks anywhere.
“Do you think...” His voice trailed off, like he couldn’t stand to even finish the idea. My mind finished it for him, dark possibilities instantly exploding into life fueled by what I’d seen with my own eyes in the last two days. What if they were hauled off by the police? What if...
No. They had to be around here somewhere, or at least had left behind some kind of clue or something to let me know what had happened to them. Tarah would have made sure of it. She would have trusted that I would try to find her.
I turned around in the Wal-Mart parking lot and headed back towards the bookstore again.
“What are you doing? They’re not here!” Steve was definitely panicking now, both hands buried in his hair as he bent over and braced his elbows on his knees.
I didn’t say anything as I slowed the truck to a crawl.
Suddenly, it was as if an invisibility curtain parted behind the bookstore, revealing Tarah’s disembodied head then her floating hand as she cheerfully waved to us from several feet up in the air. What the...?
Steve seemed to understand, though, tearing out of the truck before I even had it fully stopped. I followed a few seconds later as soon as I had the truck parked.
“Pamela?” Steve called out.
Pamela’s head appeared beside Tarah’s.
Steve reached up and hugged his wife as best he could without the ability to see a bumper to climb onto. “God, you scared me!”
Well, at least we could agree on one thing.
Tarah bit her lower lip. “Sorry. There was a sheriff’s car that kept passing by out on the street. So we got Mike to do his cloaking spell on the trucks. Pretty good, huh?”
I choked down the insane urge to laugh. “That’s an understatement. We thought...” I cleared the knot from my throat. “Never mind.” I told her about the latest developments with the bus driver. “I know it’s a risk hiring him, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Her smile flashed bright, lighting up her eyes. “You followed your instincts?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you did the right thing. We’d better warn everyone about keeping our new cover story, though. Especially the kids.”
I nodded. “I’m going to move my truck so it doesn’t draw attention before Bud gets here.” I hadn’t even left it in a parking space. It was still in the way of other drivers.
“What’s he like?” she asked before I could turn away. “Bud, I mean.”
I paused, trying to think of how to describe him. A farmer. An old man. Weathered, lonely and bored. A man I sure hoped I was right about hiring. “I think you’ll like him.” I turned away, then had to pause again. “We’re going to have to ditch these trucks somewhere after we get everyone loaded onto the bus. When you were looking up local bus rentals, did you happen to see—”
She held out a slip of paper with a cheeky grin. “GPS coordinates for the nearest lake. It’s supposed to be a deep one too.”
I had to smile at that. “You are a mastermind’s dream.”
“I know. And speaking of which, I had another idea…”
Tarah had suggested we get walkie talkies so I could keep in contact with the bus for the rest of the trip. She also thought at least one of the outcasts would be able to jam Bud’s cell phone signal if he tried to call his family and tell them our destination. So while she plotted with her truck’s half of the group, I ran back inside the superstore to do a little final shopping, returning with walkie talkies and batteries only minutes before Bud was supposed to arrive.
And that’s when I realized just how good Mike’s abilities were. Even knowing their approximate location and slowly walking all the way around them, I still couldn’t see a single hint of the stolen vehicles. Now that I was on the receiving end of the illusion, I was blown away by the spell’s complexity. This had to be way harder than simply gathering your energy into an orb to throw at so
mething or directing the wind or even creating fire on the palm of your hand. What Mike was doing with his mind was directly messing with other minds, making our own eyes lie to us.
“Tarah,” I whispered, stopping a couple of feet short so I wouldn’t run into the invisible trucks face first and make a fool out of myself.
Her head popped into view. “Is it time?”
I nodded.
She whispered something over her shoulder to her group then climbed down. We worked together with the tailgate till we managed to find and release the catches to lower it. Then we started the process of guiding everyone out of the truck.
“Steve,” I hissed in the general direction of the other truck. “Time to get moving.”
He peeked out at us, then climbed down and dropped his truck’s tailgate. I noticed he only helped his own family down from the cargo area, ignoring the others as they struggled to exit as well. Most of the adult passengers didn’t have too much trouble jumping down or else stepping onto the flat metal bumper and then hopping the rest of the way to the ground. But the younger kids and the elderly found the distance to the ground to be too much to manage on their own. Muttering a few choice names for Steve under my breath, I left Tarah and Mike to help their group while I went to assist Steve’s.
Once they were outside the trucks, everyone began to shiver as the wind cut through their thin wool blankets and their breath made puffs of fog in the air. Thankfully Bud showed up right on time, so our group didn’t have to stand around in the cold for long. As soon as the charter bus pulled into the parking lot and stopped, Steve hurried his family over to it. The rest of the group trailed more slowly after them, with Mike and the trucks’ drivers hanging back to maintain the cloaking spell on the trucks till the last possible moment.
The bus’s door opened with a hydraulic whoosh, then Bud eased down the stairs. “Ladies and gentlemen, your chariot awaits.”
Smiling so the wrinkles in his face turned into folds, he grandly swept out an arm, indicating the group should climb aboard. Steve and his family eagerly took the first seats.
Tarah took a dazed elderly woman’s elbow and slowly helped her up onto the bus. As they passed Bud, Tarah paused to tell him, “Thank you so much for helping us out on such short notice.”
Bud’s leathery cheeks turned pink. “Well, that’s alright, little lady.” He must have been a John Wayne fan. He sounded just like The Duke.
Tarah and I worked as a team, me on the outside guiding the shell-shocked group onto the bus, while Tarah helped everyone find a seat inside. Most had no trouble getting settled in. However, the mother and child who brought up the last of the group didn’t seem so eager to board. It was the catatonic woman, the one who had lost her baby, and her little girl. The child clung to her mother’s seemingly unfeeling hand as they stood there, the child’s eyes darting from side to side in fear, the mother’s eyes open and unseeing.
I bit back a curse. I’d thought for sure the mother would have come around by now and started taking care of her surviving child. From the look in the little girl’s eyes, I had to wonder if anyone had even explained to her what was going on.
I squatted down in front of the kid. “Hey, sweetheart. I’m Hayden. What’s your name?”
“Kristina.” She had a strong lisp. It came out as “Kwithina.”
“Nice to meet you, Kristina. Listen, we’re all going to go on this bus together because it’s nice and warm and comfy. Doesn’t that sound much better than riding in the cold?”
Her big brown eyes blinked at me. She didn’t respond.
Great. She’d probably been told not to speak to strangers, and her mom wasn’t making any move to get on the bus on her own. I could just lead the mother on board and the kid would probably follow. But what if Kristina freaked out from confusion or fear at some point when her mother didn’t reassure her? I didn’t know much about people in shock, and there was no telling how long it might be before the mother came around. In the meantime, her daughter at least deserved to know she could rely on others in the group to help keep her safe.
“What’s your mommy’s name?” I asked her.
One tiny shoulder lifted and fell. “Mommy. She doesn’t talk anymore. Can she hear me?” Her voice was so quiet I had to strain to hear it under the wind as it whipped around us.
“Yeah, kiddo, she still hears you. She’s just kinda sad and doesn’t really feel like talking much right now. But if you keep talking to her, I bet that will make her feel better soon.” Please, God, make it true.
Kristina nodded solemnly. Straightening her shoulders, she took her mother’s hand in both of hers and tugged the woman towards the bus. “Come on, Mommy. Let’s get on the warm bus.”
Her mother shuffled along behind her, Kristina’s blanket dragging up the stairs after them. I followed them onto the bus, picking up the tail end of the grungy fabric and handing it to Tarah at the top of the stairs so the mother wouldn’t trip over it. Tarah and I shared a look as the little girl led her mother to a pair of seats near the end of the bus.
“Pamela and some of the other women are taking turns looking out for them,” Tarah murmured. “They’re making sure they both eat and drink and stay warm.”
“Where’s the baby?” I’d noticed the woman wasn’t carrying the sheet-wrapped bundle anymore.
“The others buried it outside the camp before we left.”
I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Kristina couldn’t be more than four or five. She’d lost her baby brother or sister. And now she was surrounded by strangers and trying to take care of her mother.
Shaking my head, I exited the bus again, feeling the hours of stress starting to pile up on me.
Then I caught Bud still standing on the ground by the open door and frowning after the pair too, the questions clear on his face in the light spilling out from the bus’s interior. “They gonna be alright? They sure look shaken up for just a broken down bus.”
“She lost a baby recently,” I murmured. “I’m hoping being with our group will help bring her out of it.”
He sighed and slowly shook his head. “That’s a shame. Sure hope the momma pulls out of it. Little girls need their mommas.”
“Yeah, I hope so too.” I took a deep breath. “Well, that should take care of most of the group. But I’ve still got a couple of guys who needed to get a few things for the road. They took off a while ago; I’ve got to go get them and bring them here. Shouldn’t take more than a half hour or so to round them up. Will everyone be okay on the bus in the meantime?”
Bud waved a hand. “She’s got plenty of gas. We’ll just let her idle so they can stay warm while they wait. I just wish I’d gotten those newfangled DVD players installed like John’s been suggesting.”
I smiled and patted his shoulder. “You’re already doing more for them than you realize. And the kids have coloring books to keep them busy for a while. Mostly they’ll probably just sleep, though. It’s been a rough trip so far.” I went to rest my hands on my hips and bumped into something. “Oh yeah, nearly forgot. We’ve got walkie talkies we can use to communicate. I thought they’d be easier to manage instead of trying to dial buttons on a phone while we drive.” I unclipped one from my waistband where I’d attached it earlier while waiting for Bud to show up. “I already put in fresh batteries, so you’re good to go for awhile.”
He took it with a slow nod. “Good thinking.”
I turned towards my truck.
“You’re not riding with the others?” Bud asked me.
I silently muttered a curse. Bud’s likeability made it way too easy to relax around him and forget the charade we were supposed to be maintaining here. It didn’t help that my liking this man also made me hate lying to him.
Tarah saved me as she came down the steps. “Hayden joined us after we’d already gotten started on the trip. The goofball overslept and had to catch up in his own truck. He’s been tagging along ever since.”
Of course her story would invol
ve my looking like an idiot. I smiled my thanks at her. “All right, I’m off to get the guys. We’ll be back in a few.” I gave Tarah’s ponytail a tug, earning a quick flash of a grin from her in return. “Call me if you need me.”
I got back into my truck, waiting until Tarah and Bud were on the bus with the others before I slowly cruised back to the where the truck drivers were waiting. Following the plan, Mike dropped the cloaking spell, leaving the trucks in full view. I was tempted to ask him to put it back on. Driving the trucks to the local lake would be a lot safer if no one could see them. But then I remembered how both Mike and Steve had said their abilities had limited range. Mike probably couldn’t even hide both trucks at the same time while we drove them down the road. Better just to get rid of the trucks as quickly as we could versus their suddenly popping into view in front of other drivers and really drawing attention. Or worse, causing a wreck when someone ran into the invisible vehicles.
Also according to plan, we got another guy to replace Steve behind the wheel of one of the trucks. Without Steve’s volatile temper around, things went a lot more smoothly. Tarah’s researched coordinates and my truck’s GPS also made reaching the lake pretty easy. Unfortunately, finding a way through the trees to the water wasn’t so simple. Other than driveways to people’s lakehouses, the shoreline was surrounded by an unbroken forest that even a golf cart would have had a hard time squeezing through. We had to drive along a dirt road that skirted the lake for ten minutes until we found a break in the trees wide enough for the trucks. Then there was the small matter of how to get the trucks into the water without any of us having to go in with them. None of us knew any spells that would help. Thankfully the trees themselves gave me the idea of wedging branches between the seats and the gas pedals, a crude but effective method.
The other driver was still in his borrowed guard uniform. He shucked off the camo, revealing a blue t-shirt and jeans underneath, and stuffed both his and Steve’s uniforms under the trucks’ front seats. Then we lined up the stolen vehicles, braced the branches in place, and the drivers jumped out. I had worried that the weight of the trucks would cause them to get stuck in the dirt along the shoreline. But here the winter season proved a benefit for once...the cold and the lack of rain had dried out the bank, turning what would have been a sloppy mud pit into a rock hard path of doom. Their engines roaring, our group’s twin monsters of transportation slid right down the short bank and into the water, quickly sinking beneath the black surface. By the time anyone found them, if they ever did, we would be long gone.
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