by Angela Foxxe
“Like I said, we have been watching you for a while. There isn’t much I don’t know about you, and those things make you the perfect martyr. Trust me, you’re safer with me than with Tom Decker.”
“Are those my only choices?”
“For now, they are. If you want me to let you go, you’re free to go. I’ll even give you some money so you can run and start a new life elsewhere.”
“I have money.”
“Not anymore, you don’t. Tom drained all your accounts when you left to meet me.”
“I don’t believe you. You couldn’t know that.”
“I know a lot of things you need to know,” he said, handing over a PDA device. “Look up your accounts. You will see they’re all at zero.”
Sabrina took the device, opening up the web browser and choosing the secret mode option, which didn’t save websites on its browser history. She typed in her information, pulling up her offshore account and cursing under her breath. She tried her domestic account, coming up with the same zero balance, the history showing that the money had been drained almost immediately after Sabrina had locked her personal cellphone in her locker at HLF Headquarters.
“That son of a jackal,” she said under her breath.
“Do you believe me now?”
Sabrina nodded.
“How could I not believe you?”
“Good. Now that you’re onboard, I need to show you something. It’s a long drive, but I think once you see it, you will see the truth.”
“Are you taking me to Montana?”
“No. We’re not going there yet, but we are heading in that direction. We’re stopping in Wyoming first. There’s something I need you to see there, before we get deep into the safe zone.”
CHAPTER THREE
Sabrina was lying still in the back seat, watching Paul, when he stiffened.
“What is it?”
“Roadblock,” he said, turning the car down the next street slowly so he didn’t call attention to them. “It’s over a block away, so they didn’t see us, but this is bad.”
“How bad?”
“If there’s a roadblock on this road, then there are probably roadblocks on all the roads going north. They know what I am, and they’re going to assume that we’re heading toward Montana.”
He turned on the radio, switching to a news station and grimacing when the news reported that manhunt underway for a man traveling with a woman against her will. Sabrina listened to the description they gave of both of them, noting that they mentioned her lack of shoes and cocktail dress, and the description of Paul was so vague that they hadn’t mentioned a hair color or hair length, just his size and the fact that he was traveling with her and considered dangerous.
“It looks like they’re looking for us everywhere, like I thought,” Paul said.
“What are we going to do?”
“Head south, then west and come back around.”
“Do you think that will work?”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“I do, actually.”
“Well?”
“They’re looking for me and a man with me, right?”
“Right.”
“Then I’ll get out of the car. Look, there’s no one on this road. Go through the roadblock and I’ll meet you on the other side.”
“How do you intend to do that?”
“I’ll jog. I’m dressed for it.”
“Not really.”
“No one will see me. And if they do, they’ll just think I’m training for some marathon or something. It’s normal for runners to overdress when it’s chilly to force their bodies to sweat. This street is all residential and not one of the main streets. Everyone is still asleep, and no one is going to think anything about me, it they notice me at all.”
“Fine. But for the record, I don’t like this.”
“Noted. I’ll run five blocks down this road and meet you at that intersection.”
“Are we going to do that at every roadblock?”
“No. Because once we get there, I know where we need to go to get out of here without getting caught.”
He looked at her then.
“You do?”
“Of course, I do. You don’t think I’ve lived here all this time, working in the line of work I do, without finding a few escape routes out of the city that are off of the beaten path? I’ve got this. I let you jump off the fourteenth story balcony with me, the least you can do is trust me now.”
Paul laughed.
“Touché. I’ll see you on the other side.”
Sabrina shoved her back pack under the front seat and held the door handle, waiting to jump out. He paused long enough for her to get out of the car and then turned around, heading back the way he came to go through the roadblock. Sabrina walked a few yards, stretching her muscles as if she were starting her run. A quick look at her watch revealed that it was just after four in the morning, and she doubted that anyone would be awake to wonder why she was running down the sidewalk at this time of night. Still, she stayed in character so that no one would think twice about seeing her there.
She took off running, jogging slowly at first and then picking up the pace. Her legs stretched out, eating up the distance quickly. When she crossed from the second to the third block, she turned her head and saw the roadblock and the car that Paul was driving going through the line. As she had predicted, they saw a single rider in the vehicle and had waved him through without even giving him a second glance.
Bolstered by their bold move and wanting to beat him, she stretched her long legs further and pushed herself to run her fastest. Even though he had gone through the actual roadblock, he still had to wait while the crush of cars jammed on the road lurched back up to full speed. She would probably be waiting on him to come around the corner.
She heard the chopper before she saw it, and she had to force herself not to jump into the bushes. She slowed a little, then went up a driveway and up a walkway and onto a covered porch, the front door obscured by a large privacy hedge that wrapped around the front and side of the porch, only leaving an opening for the walkway that ran parallel to the front of the house.
The chopper continued its search of the streets, seemingly fooled by Sabrina pretending to end her jog and go into “her home”. She waited for a few minutes until she was certain that they were too far away to see her, and she went back to the sidewalk, walking the last block quickly and crossing the street. She hid behind a tree near the stop sign, watching the oncoming traffic. She smiled when she finally saw Paul’s vehicle turn from the long line of cars slowly traversing down the main road after being delayed by the roadblock. He stopped at the stop sign, looking out his window, down the road that she had gone down.
She got into the car and chuckled when he visibly startled at her sudden appearance.
“You’re better at this than I gave you credit for.”
“You should never underestimate me,” she said as he pulled away from the stop sign and followed her directions.
“I won’t make that mistake again,” he said, his tone almost ominous.
Sabrina smiled, sitting in the front seat and watching the streets ahead for any signs of trouble.
“So, where in The Zone are we going exactly?”
“Wyoming, or what used to be called Wyoming, before the country was divided.”
“You said that, but where exactly are we going?”
“Kaycee.”
“In the disputed area?”
Paul shook his head in disgust.
“That entire state is disputed. The government gave us everything from the northernmost border of California to the Canadian border and straight across the five states to the Dakota borders. When they split Wyoming, they caused a bigger mess than trapping us in one area already closed.. We pretty much stay out of Wyoming unless we’re passing through, and then, we stick to the wilderness.”
“Why leave the safety of The Zone at all?”
“Wh
o is it safe for? Not shifters. The Zone is a farce, set up by Decker to make people feel like he’s keeping them safe. It’s a glorified, multi-state internment camp where we have the illusion of freedom. It’s overcrowded, food is scarce and there are way more shifters held in that area than there should be. There is plenty of land, but so much of it is so rugged that it’s hard to carve out a life as we’re used to. The Zone isn’t safe for us.”
“I guess I never thought about it like that.”
“How could you? We were made out to be lawless tyrants by our own government. It didn’t matter that we have been contributing members for decades, and it didn’t matter that there was no proof of the allegations against us. Not to mention the fact that Decker’s entire reasoning for relocating us to The Zone and creating a way to keep shifters and humans separated was his insistence that shifters were using their magical powers to seduce human women and breed with them, weakening the human species.
It was icing on the cake when Annie disappeared not long after The Zone was established. Suddenly, the slow effort to clear out all the humans was given a priority. And now, more than a year later, it’s like our nation has always been divided. We just never knew where we stood.”
Sabrina watched him as he spoke, trying to read his expression in the darkness as they got onto I-25 North and headed toward Wyoming. She was skeptical, but his words sounded genuine and his expression said the same. He was either the best actor she’d ever encountered, or he was telling the truth.
Or he believes that he’s telling the truth, she conceded. If he honestly felt like his kind were being used as some kind of scapegoat, then it would make sense that he would be passionate. His perception of the truth might vary from hers, but at the very least, he believed the words he was saying.
Still, Sabrina would watch him closely. She didn’t trust him yet, even though she had come with him willingly. A part of her wanted to see where and how the other half lived before she made up her mind. There was obviously something going on, and she wanted to get to the bottom of it before she decided on her next move. Whether it was Paul or Tom Decker, someone wasn’t being honest with her, and she was going to find out who.
“I know you don’t trust me yet, but I promise you that I’m a good guy. I’ve been waiting until the right moment to contact you, but when I realized that you were in trouble, I had to get my guy on the inside to make things happen faster.”
“You have a guy on the inside with HLF?”
“I have several. Decker uses them to contact me, and he thinks that he knows who is on his side and who secretly isn’t. But he’s wrong.”
“I didn’t know we had any double agents.”
“There are a lot of things that you don’t know about the HLF.”
“And I suppose that you’re going to tell me everything I need to know and not a bit more?”
Paul shook his head.
“No. I’m going to tell you everything I know, and hopefully, when we put our heads together, we’ll have more information.”
“What makes you think that I trust you enough to give you classified information?”
“You will,” he said, and Sabrina ruffled at his confidence. “It won’t be tonight, but you will tell me.”
“It’s almost sunrise now,” she said, indicating the clock that read just after six. “I think we should grab something to eat soon. I don’t know about you, but chocolate-covered strawberries don’t really keep me sated for long.”
“We have a few hours before we get where we’re going,” Paul said. “You’re right; we should grab some food and some supplies.”
He turned on the radio, moving through the channels until he found a local station that was coming in very clearly. He listened for a few moments until the song ended and the commercials came on. Sabrina knew what he was doing, but she didn’t say anything. When ten minutes had past, he got off the freeway, stopping at a retail shop and pulling through the parking space so that he was parked facing forward and could leave in a hurry.
“There doesn’t appear to be any widespread coverage of our escape, and I think that they assume that we’re trapped by the roadblocks in Denver.”
“But?”
“But I still think we should go in separately so that we don’t draw suspicion.”
“I agree.”
He was already getting money out of his backpack, handing her a stack of hundreds, as well as some smaller bills.
“What all are we getting?” she asked, counting out the money and surprised to find that he had given her over five grand.
“It’s not just for supplies.”
“I don’t understand.”
He looked at her, his expression hiding his thoughts.
“Look, I know that this isn’t what you signed on for, and I need to know that you’re with me of your own free will. That’s enough money for you to leave if you need to. There’s more in your backpack. I put it in there when you were jogging down that residential street.”
“How much more?”
“Twenty thousand. You can go into that store and disappear, and I won’t stop you. I can feel you in the seat, thinking about a way out and plotting my demise if you decide that I’m not truthful. You’re on edge and you’re worried that you’ve fallen for lies and I won’t continue like this. I know you have no reason to trust me, I just need you to know that I’m not forcing you to come with me. Coming with me is your choice, and leaving is your choice. But, if you come with me, I have to know that you’re all in. If we get into trouble, I need to know that I can trust you.”
Sabrina closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before opening them again.
“I never considered that you would worry about being able to trust me.”
“Are you kidding? You showed up to that hotel room with the express purpose of killing me. You have to admit; I would be a fool not to worry about turning my back on you.”
“At least I was going to make sure that you died a happy, satisfied man,” she said, winking at him.
“I have to agree with you there.” He took the key out of the ignition and grabbed his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder and getting out of the car. “You don’t have to tell me what your choice is,” he said, looking at his watch. “I’m going to be back at this car in exactly thirty minutes. Get what you need for a week on the run, maybe more. If I come back here and you’re not in the car, I’ll know that you made your choice.”
Something flashed across his face and for a moment, Sabrina was certain that she had seen a fleeting moment of sadness when he said the last sentence. She shook the feeling off, reminding herself that he wasn’t her ally. Yet. There were a lot of unanswered questions that she needed the answer to, and until then, she didn’t know anything about him, aside from what she had learned in the last few hours.
“I haven’t made my decision yet,” she said.
“Fair enough. There’s a fast food place in here. If you do decide to come with me, hot food is going to be a luxury you won’t see for a long while.”
“Got it,” she said. “I’ll see you when I see you.”
“I have no doubt that you mean every word,” he said, laughing softly.
He left her on the aisle where they had parked, ducking between a few cars and jogging to get ahead of her and come from a different area of the parking lot so no one would suspect that they were together. Sabrina watched him go, and a sudden anxiety welled up within her. She almost called out to him, afraid she would never see him again. But as quickly as the moment came, it was gone and she felt like herself again.
“That was weird,” she muttered.
She hurried through the parking lot and into the store, trying to think of what she would need for a week in addition to what she knew was already in the bag. The man at the door didn’t even give her backpack a second look as she walked into the store, and she wondered if he had even noticed. She hoped that she didn’t have any issues leaving the store, but judging by the sleepy
smiles of the employees that bothered to acknowledge her and the others with their cellphones plugged into their ears while they worked, Sabrina was pretty sure that she could walk out with half the store and go unnoticed.
Sabrina looked around, noting that they were still in Colorado, but close to the Wyoming border. Once they crossed the border, the human populations thinned and were slowly replaced by outliers. If she wanted to run, this was really her last chance. Once they crossed the border, she would be on her own in more ways than one.
She hurried through the store and straight for the camping aisle. She grabbed handfuls of freeze dried meals, waterproof matches, waterproof socks, and a few other things, as well as a small emergency blanket that was said to hold body heat up to twenty below freezing. She topped her selections off with some waterproof spray that she was planning on treating her boots with as soon as she was back in the car. It would help with any water, as well as keeping her feet warm by keeping them dry. It wasn’t winter yet, but the mountains grew cold at night much earlier than the rest of the state, and they were heading north. It was only going to get worse. Several packs of instant hand warmers topped off her purchase as she went to the knife display case and looked at what they had available there.
“Can I help you?” a man asked from behind her.
“Yes,” she said, looking at the knives in the display. “Can I look at number eleven and number six?”
“Sure,” he said, getting his key and opening the case. He laid the two display knives on the glass and Sabrina picked them up, weighing them in her hand. “Do you like that one?” he asked, pointing to number six.
“I do.”
“Let me show you another one then,” he said, perking up a little as he pulled out another knife and laying it before her. “Pick this baby up and tell me that you don’t love it.”
Sabrina picked the knife up, moving it around expertly in her hand and smiling.
“It feels fantastic,” she said. “But I think it’s too long, and I don’t have time to wait for the grace period. I’m leaving this morning to go on a spiritual retreat.”
The man shook his head.