Daniela gave the stranger a friendly smile. “No problem. Let me get my keys, and I’ll meet you over there.”
Christina returned from the little girl’s tree, and to her dismay found that almost everyone had moved over to the fire near the river, where they sang and kept on partying—including Robert, his sister, and her friends. Her annoyance was displaced by her subconscious mind offering her something it had worked out, as it dawned on her where she remembered the new guy from. He was the man who had helped her on the road after she’d fallen into the river. She looked around for him; the very least she could do was to thank him. She saw Daniela walk to her car and fire it up, and in her headlights she recognized the man who had saved her. She walked over to them.
When Daniela turned on her baby and all twelve cylinders woke up with a thundering roar, so did her in-dash TV, which was still on from earlier when she’d been watching CNN as Rohan drove. As she maneuvered around the truck belonging to the man she knew only as Ted and started to roll the car forward to park in a new spot, the picture popped up with a news bulletin about Skull Creek. She stopped short when she heard the name of her hometown, providing updates on the massacre earlier that day. Being a bit under the influence, she had to really concentrate on the newswoman to get what she was saying.
“Authorities still aren’t saying anything about the massacre, but we’ve learned from our own sources that all the terrorists died in a suicide explosion that caused at least another three officers’ deaths. These images were taken by hikers, and if you watch closely, you can see part of the mountain sliding away right after the detonation. Homeland Security…”
Daniela stopped listening, because in one corner of the screen popped up a tiny image of a man. It suddenly filled the screen.
“Authorities are also searching for this man, and want to question him about the murder of Sheriff Carlos da Silva. Ted Hagglund is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. Should you…”
* * * * *
NERO LOOKED in his rearview mirror as the big Mercedes backed up, then started to pull around him, only to stop suddenly. Well, he could get out now. He backed up, and as he pulled next to the car he lifted his hand towards his forehead, nodding a thank you—and that’s when he saw himself on the TV screen on the dash. Daniella had frozen, staring dead ahead. She slowly turned her eyes toward him, and Nero looked back at her calmly. She, however, looked anything but calm. He removed a hidden cover on his door and removed a Glock handgun with a SilencerCo Osprey Suppressor attached. Too bad about the woman, but she was just another two-legged, and he would do what he had to in order to survive.
* * * * *
“THERE YOU are, Christina!” Adrianna shouted. She hurried up to Christina, who was heading over to the parking area. “We were wondering where you took off to. Are you leaving?”
“Me? No, but I just saw the guy who told me about the car accident—you know, the bad one? Anyway, he’s the guy who saved me, and I thought I’d say thank you.”
“Oh, you mean the guy who said that a woman caused the accident.”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
Adrianna stopped for a moment, and then her cop-brain took over. “How did he know about that accident?” she said out loud to herself, looking at Christina.
“What do you mean?”
“We hadn’t released much information at the time about that accident, because it was new to us. You discovered it, actually—the truck on the cliff, remember? That was an earlier accident than the big one. A least a day older.”
Both girls looked at each other suspiciously, and then headed together to the parking area.
Daniela was sweating profusely. She couldn’t move, and tears streamed down her face; she was shaking uncontrollably, and suddenly her entire life flashed before her eyes. When she saw the man walking behind her car and up to her side, she noticed the long, dark object in his hand; and now she cried out loud, and slammed her hands on the controls in the center of the steering wheel. The radio blared to life as she hit the accelerator, flooring it. The engine’s 621 horsepower decided to go for a walk in the woods.
Adrianna reacted instantly, tackling Christina to the ground; the Mercedes missed them by inches. The car jetted away like a dark monster, engine roaring, horn howling. It reached a tilted rock that lay on the ground like a launch pad, then the car flew right into a tree, smashing the passenger side. But that didn’t stop the car; the impact only altered its direction, and now it headed into camp. It flew over the first campfire, scattering flames and burning logs all over, and then it wobbled and rolled on two wheels while the other two brushed the table with all the food, jetting it in all directions.
Rohan, sitting on the opposite side of the food table, just stared in disbelief, still holding a chicken wing in his hand as the car passed by, a foot away. Then he stood up and yelled, with his fists clenched overhead, “Woohoo! Go baby go!”
People threw themselves to the sides as the car tumbled back onto all four wheels and raced into the second fire, nearer the river. It struck the fire pit like a missile, scattering more burning debris. The car passed between two of the several large logs that had been used as benches as it roared by, and went straight into the river. It was a miracle no one got hit. People just stared in disbelief at the Mercedes when it spun in circles in the water; and then the river started to get ahold on the car.
Sammy and Gavin reacted instantly, diving into the water toward the Mercedes. They reached it quickly, while it was stuck for the moment on the river bottom. Sammy got a rock in his hand and smashed the window, and with the help of Gavin, they pulled out an unconscious Daniela. People screamed and panicked, not understanding what they had just witnessed; some tried to calm everyone down, but the chaos was inevitable. More than two dozen people stared in disbelief at the floating car from the safety of the shore. The lights were still on when the car pulled lose from the river bottom and started on its own rafting tour downstream, ironically as Paul Robeson’s Ol’ Man River wafted from the radio.
Adrianna lay on top of Christina, and both were coughing up dust. After a moment, the policewoman rolled to the side, and she and Christina sat up, looking around, bewildered. Part of the tree line had caught fire, the bright headlights from a pickup forcing its rays through the rapidly-building smoke. They saw a shadow of a man walking towards them, and then, suddenly, Adrianna was yanked to her feet.
Christina dragged herself backwards, still lying on the ground. The man who held Adrianna had a gun to her head. When Christina saw the weapon, a new spike of adrenaline hit her bloodstream, and she began breathing faster. Adrianna resisted briefly, but stopped after the person holding her whispered something in her ear.
Christina, having had her share of dangerous encounters with stalkers, reacted instantly. Without any hesitation, her hand went for her necklace, and she turned it on as she squeezed it lightly. As she had been taught, she then scratched her neck, as if she were doing something normal.
Nero sensed someone behind him; he turned to the side, and fired one round at his attacker.
“Blake! NO!” Tammy screamed as her date went down, bleeding from his forehead. She ran up next to him and kneeled, in shock and screaming hysterically. Then, suddenly, she went utterly, eerily silent. She rose to her feet and charged Nero, who backhanded her in the face, sending her crashing to the ground next to Blake.
Nero focused on Christina and said in a low, friendly voice, almost whispering: “You. Yes, you, the pretty one. You make sure all your friends keep away, now. You make sure you tell them, or I’ll kill all of them. Nod your head if you understand.”
Christina couldn’t really grasp what had happened—she was in a state of shock. Nero knew this, knew he had to act fast; hence his calm voice. Unless she complied, he would have to make one more kill, maybe two, to instill a paralyzing fear into the crowd.
It wasn’t long before the crowd on the riverbank noticed that something was going on over by the parking
area. Gavin and Sammy tried to organize parties to stamp out the scattered fires before they spread. Dex and Lucy, however, sneaked away towards the tents.
Rohan shouted, “That man has a gun, and I think he just shot someone!”
Sammy and Gavin, along with the rest, walked slowly towards what seemed to be a few people standing and lying near a truck with its engine running and lights on. But as they got closer, Christina intercepted them and shouted for them to stop. She had to raise her voice more than once.
“If you don’t stop, he’ll kill someone else. Don’t move! Please!”She was crying and trembling; she wanted to run away, but she didn’t dare; she could sense the killer’s eyes on her back.
“C’mon, Christina, what the fuck is going on?”
The rest had stopped, except for Sammy, who had a strange expression on his face. It was anything but afraid; it was more a curious or perhaps a longing expression, something very few would understand. Christina knew that Peter suspected that Sammy and Gavin were former Navy SEALs, and that thought did give Christina some measure of comfort; but she had just witnessed a man murdered in cold blood. She didn’t know what to do. She just stood there, turning her upper body, while crying almost silently. Sammy took a step closer, but when she raised her hand, Sammy stopped.
Gavin suddenly appeared next to his partner and lay a hand on his shoulder, whispering something to him. Sammy glanced towards the tent area and calmed down. Gavin mouthed, How many? Christina held up one finger halfway, still shaking uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, the crowd had gathered in a half circle facing Christina, who kept telling them not to move forward any more. Suddenly, she got help from both Gavin and Sammy, who spread to the sides. Their normally friendly faces had suddenly changed into something frightening, almost taunting. She felt a pang of worry and repeated, "Please, please, don't come any closer. Don’t try anything. He killed Blake and he has Adrianna, and I think Tammy is injured too.”
Through the smoke, two people moved in unison, only a few feet; Nero held Adrianna hard by her neck and long hair, making sure the gun with the sound suppressor was easily visible.
“Okay, pretty one, come on over here,” he said calmly.
Gavin gestured for her to do as she was told. The tension in the air was thick as a cloud, and no one noticed the drizzle that had started falling. Christina moved slowly towards Nero.
"Tell me, Christina Dawn, what do you think of animals?" Nero asked, like they were having a friendly conversation over coffee.
She looked at him, surprised, and then she said truthfully, “I love animals. I’m in the process of adopting a kitten, and I’m dog-sitting this winter.”
“Really? How wonderful. And what about our Mother?”
“Mother?”
Nero smiled. “Mother Nature?”
“I love her, too. I’m sorry to say that nature is being ruined by greed, though. I had to force some prospectors off my land recently under threat of legal action.”
Nero chuckled as he motioned for her to move closer. “What’s your friend’s name?” he asked, gesturing with the pistol.
“Adrianna.”
“Adrianna. Lovely. Adrianna, I want you to take a few steps over to my truck and look in the back, under the big green plastic cover, and then I want you tell everyone what you see.”
Adrianna did as she was told, as he kept his gun trained on Christina; and when she returned, she looked pale and more frightened that ever. “He’s got enough C-4 rigged up back there to crack the world open. Back off, everyone.”
Nero ordered everyone to their knees. When Christina started to kneel, he reached out and pulled her to her feet, as easily as a child might lift a building block. “No, not you, my pretty little one; you must never kneel for anyone. You’re different, you see. You might not know it, but you are. No harm must ever come to one of our females, or it will be the end. Fear not. Now: please tell those two guards of yours to lower their weapons. One is by my truck, and the other behind a tree near what’s left of the table over there.”
Christina called oud loudly, “He knows you’re there, and Adrianna says there are a lot of explosives in the truck.”
Peter shouted from back of the truck, “Hope you don’t mind me getting a second opinion.”
Nero smiled, knowing full well he had won. “By all means. Take your time.”
After a few moments, there was a low whistle from Peter. He carefully approached Nero and tossed his gun on the ground, shaking his head towards Kevin, who remained hidden. Peter then turned towards the tents, and shouted for Dex and Lucy to back off too.
Peter looked around; then, with his back towards the crowd, he faced Nero. Something in Nero’s expression changed, and Peter noticed Robert walking straight towards Christina. Peter reached out with his right arm and slammed it into Robert’s chest, hard. “Don’t. Just stay by my side.”
Robert shot him an angry glare, but settled back. Christina reacted, though, and Nero noticed it. He squinted at Robert and then Christina, and felt a stab of something alien to him. For the first time in his life, Nero was in love; and with that most wonderful sensation any human can feel came a more morbid reality, the sensation of feeling jealous. Nero was unfamiliar with these two new emotions, even though the first one had crept over him slowly these past weeks. But being jealous; that was something awful. Should I just kill the bastard and take the pretty one? No, then she would hate me, he thought.
Nero shook his head a bit wildly, trying to rid himself of this new sensation; but it wasn’t that easy. Worse, he had become hesitant, and he didn’t like that at all. Would this be his Greasy Grass, his Little Bighorn, his final stand where he would honor his berserker ancestors and go wild?
No, not yet. He had secured the secret, the legacy, when his second skin was vaporized in the blast. Now he was a man on the run; but that didn’t matter. There had been no surviving witnesses to his other actions, except for Carlos’s murder, evidently. Now he was glad he hadn’t had his second skin on that day. No; this would not be his end, not here. He wanted a better challenge; and besides, killing himself wasn’t an idea he cared for. He would if he had to, but he would rather go out fighting Mother’s enemies, just like his ancestors had.
“You two, over here,” he ordered Robert and Peter, who both reluctantly complied. Nero looked at Adrianna and tossed her some plastic Cobra Cuffs. “Put these on them.” Then he said, “No, not on the pretty one or yourself, stupid girl, on them.” He pointed on Robert and Peter. Now everyone looked surprised.
“Wait!”
Kevin suddenly appeared next to Nero, pointing his gun at the berserker’s head. Nero smiled at Kevin and aimed his gun at Christina, and for an instant, Kevin hesitated. The gun changed direction instantly, and discharged with a muffled thump. Peter fell to the ground, bleeding from his abdomen; two more shoots lashed out, hitting both Lucy and Dex in the legs. All three were injured but not killed. Nero wanted to delay them; hurt a few, and take out the entire unit. Adrianna stepped quickly between Kevin and Nero with her hands held high. “Don’t, you’ll kill us all! He has enough C-4 to wipe us all out. Please, Kevin, don’t!”
Kevin shook his head, and finally lowered his gun. He took one step closer to Nero, who aimed his gun at Christina’s head, his cold, hard stare boring into Kevin’s eyes. He leaned close to Adrianna and whispered something.
“Robert, Kevin, you guys have to go with him. If you do, we live; and if you don’t, we all die right now.” Adrianna stopped talking, trying to hold back her tears, feeling completely helpless.
In less than a minute, both Kevin and Robert lay inside the secret compartment of Nero’s truck, equipped with a breather each, unconscious. Nero had injected both with a powerful tranquilizer. Meanwhile, no one dared to even move except Pat, who screamed for her brother; but strong hands held her back as she snarled and called them all gutless cowards, and after Gavin clipped her on the jaw to shut her up, a strange silence fell over the campground
.
Nero walked up to Christina, and tilted her jaw up some. He smiled and said, “Boy howdy, you sure are a pretty one, aren’t ya.”
Christina had stopped trembling and crying. She steadied herself and looked into the killer’s eyes, and then she said something that surprised everyone: “Hurt them, and I’ll hunt you down until I find you, and then I will kill you.”
Nero knew from past experience that whenever an average two-legged threatened to kill someone, it was always bullshit talk; no normal individual lacking experience from having killed a person in self-defense or in a war would ever say such thing. He doubted that the pretty little girl had ever killed anything in her life; but looking in her eyes, he also knew that she had told him the truth. She would hunt him to the end of his days if he hurt his hostages.
He looked seriously at Christina, who had taken center stage in his drama. But this wasn’t a film, where one could rehearse or re-take the scene over and over again until it was perfect; this was real life, her facing a monster with only one take. Nero could do nothing other than admire her. Nodding thoughtfully, he turned and walked to his truck, where he grabbed a case from behind the seats. It was made out of ancient cracked leather, carrying an equally old Winchester rifle and a very old ammunition belt. He walked towards Christina, and extended the weapon to her until she took it.
“That’s the spirit, little girl. Use this gun when you come for me. It was once Long Hair’s, and he carried it with him when he invaded the Paha Sapa of the Lakota, to force them to give up their gold. The Son of the Morning Star who attacks at dawn, they called him; but remember too who the Christians call the Morning Star. He was an evil man, and no matter what anyone else might say otherwise, this rifle was his. You see, my great-grandfather was the man who killed him and took this trophy.
“You come find me, now. Alone, you hear? You and only you.”
He turned his back on her and walked towards his truck.
“Why me?”
Nero looked back, eyes hooded and blank as a lizard’s. “You earned it. You are my Croatoan.”
The Lumberjack Page 34