by Mike Kraus
Tina took the small box and looked at it. “We toss this as they’re pulling out, get them distracted by it, then make a run for the trailer?” She shook her head. “What’ll we do when they find it? They’re going to know someone’s around.”
“So?” Jason grinned, his mood bolstered by the formation of their plan. “By the time they figure out what’s going on, we’ll be nice and hidden beneath their noses. They’ll search the area, find nothing, assume that the scraps of this thing were contained within the supplies they brought back from the house and that it must have fallen off. They’re bound to remember the traps, so they’ll put two and two together and then keep going. They have no reason to search inside the trailer which is where we’ll be.”
“This is insane.” Tina rubbed her eyes and took a long, slow breath. “But,” she sighed, “what choice do we have?”
“Wait till they leave then storm the center?” Mark replied. “What if they immediately start searching around after they hear the device go off? They’ll find us before we get anywhere near the trailer.”
“See?” Tina jerked her thumb over at Mark. “He’s got a point, Jason. This little strategy is dependent on a lot of variables.”
An exasperated expression crossed Jason’s face. “What do you want to do, then? Assault the fortress? Get shot before we get halfway across the road? We’d need some sort of insane distraction to pull that off. Something a lot bigger than a couple of shells going off. We can do that if you want, but I don’t think it’ll go well.”
“No. No it won’t. But I know what will.”
“What’s that?”
Tina looked over at Mark, then at Jason. Her worry, frustration, exhaustion and fear had all melted away, replaced instead by a cool demeanor that showed that she knew exactly what she needed to do. She took off her backpack and jacket as she spoke and began rubbing dirt and grass across her clothing and skin. “Neither of you are going to like this, but it’s the best solution. We’re going to do a combination of the plans. I’m going to be the distraction. They won’t shoot me if I come in unarmed, looking like I barely survived a fire. They’ll take me in, put me with the others and I’ll be able to get Dianne and the rest ready to help once you two carry out the other part of the plan.”
“What?” Jason shook his head emphatically, trying to reach for Tina, but she slipped away, moving a few feet further down the ditch.
“You two are going to get in that trailer. I’ll make sure you have ample time to do it. Get inside, wait for them to get to the house, then take them out. Every last one of them. Once you do, wait a few hours and head back. I’ll make sure everyone’s ready to do anything we can to take advantage of whatever chaos you can bring with you.”
“Tina, there’s no way that we’re going to go along with something as idiotic as that!” Jason’s eyes were wide and he hissed at her, but she kept slithering back through the ditch, staying out of his reach.
She smiled at him before looking at Mark who was slowly nodding his head in understanding and agreement. “You don’t have a choice, Jason. And Mark? Make sure he gets on that trailer, okay?”
“I will.” Mark nodded.
“Tina!” Jason whispered again, but she was already gone, half crawling and half slipping through the ditch, covering herself with dirt and debris as she went along.
“Damn fool! She’s gonna get herself killed!” Jason shook his head and leaned back, slipping down the slope as he watched her go. A moment later she was a hundred feet away, still keeping out of sight, when the sound of an engine roaring to life brought both him and Mark up to the top of the ditch to see what was going on.
Across the road the truck and trailer began moving, making a wide turn in front of the community center. Five men sat inside the truck as it went along, the trailer bumping and squeaking behind it, barely held to the truck with a collection of chains and a half-broken hitch. Down the ditch, farther than either Mark or Jason would have thought it possible to crawl in such a short length of time, Tina was nearing a shallow portion. She peeked up and over at the truck and watched it closely. Revealing herself too early would mean that the trailer would be in the wrong position for Jason and Mark to hop aboard but waiting too long could mean an immediate search of the surrounding area which would also keep them from slipping into the trailer.
Truth be told, Tina had no idea why she was risking life and limb with a plan that could easily end up with her being shot and Mark and Jason being discovered. They didn’t have many options, though, and if—by some miracle—they took her captive and Mark and Jason were able to get on board without being seen, they might have a shot at rescuing the captives.
Might. The word ran through Tina’s mind repeatedly as she watched the truck bump along the gravel drive of the community center, slowly pull onto the road and begin to straighten out. Well. Here’s hoping ‘might’ works out.
Chapter 14
Ellisville, VA
“I can’t believe she’s doing it.” Mark whispered to Jason as they both crouched low in the ditch watching Tina.
“She’s insane.”
“She’s just trying to help.”
“And she’s gonna get herself shot doing it.”
Mark and Jason stared as Tina shuffled down the road, limping in an exaggerated manner toward the truck. She kept her head low as the truck pulled to a stop and four of the five men inside jumped out, weapons drawn, and began shouting at her. She stopped in the middle of the road and looked at them before slowly raising her arms and starting a backward shuffle.
“Hey! Stop right there!” The group advanced, keeping their weapons trained on her as they ignored what was going on around them.
“We’ve got to go now, before anyone comes out of the community center!” Jason whispered to Mark who nodded and pulled himself up to the top of the ditch.
“Ready when you are.”
“Go!”
The pair scurried across the road, keeping as low as possible as they took a direct path for the rear end of the trailer. Ahead of the truck Tina tracked them for a split second before she diverted her attention back to the men, ready to try and continue distracting them. “Please, you have to help me!” She groaned at them, intentionally making as much noise as possible.
“Keep your hands up!” The men circled around Tina and the driver of the truck honked the horn several times, causing the others around the community center to start moving toward the road.
“Now! Get inside!” Jason pulled on Mark’s shoulder and they slipped around the back of the trailer. The doors were held together with a tightly-wound bungee cord which Jason quickly slipped off of the handles. He opened one door and Mark went inside, then Jason went inside and looped the cord around the open door handle before pulling the door closed. He tied the cord off on a metal securing ring on the floor before turning back to Mark and motioning toward the front of the trailer.
“Inside more, quick. In case they search this thing.” He whispered inside the stuffy air of the trailer, his nose wrinkling as they stirred up swirls of dust with each shuffling footstep. The trailer was dark, the only source of light coming from an opaque plastic window mounted on the ceiling and a few cracks in the back doors. A few cardboard boxes were stacked up on one side and old scraps of wood littered the floor, remnants of some long-forgotten home improvement project. The smell of old manure clung to the floor and walls and Mark couldn’t help but pull his shirt up over his mouth and nose.
“Smells like they hauled horses in here.”
“Or just their crap.” Jason glanced at Mark. “Poop. Sorry.”
Mark smirked and raised an eyebrow. “I can handle the word ‘crap.’”
“Good. Here, behind these boxes.” Jason pushed the stack of boxes around and crouched down, hiding himself from view of the doors at the back of the trailer. “Get down and stay down. Sounds like things are heating up out there.”
The pair pressed their ears up against the side of the trailer as
Tina’s shouting cut through, followed by the angry shouts and conversations of several nearby men. It was impossible to make out exactly what everyone was saying, but Tina was clearly very much alive and was acting the part of someone who was very upset to be taken prisoner. The men, meanwhile, were busy binding her hands while simultaneously wondering where she came from. Jason wondered with every new exclamation whether or not they would start searching the area and, if so, if they would search in the trailer. There was no reason for them to do so, but the fear persisted for several long, agonizing minutes until things began to change.
“She’s getting quieter.” Mark spoke softly.
“They’re taking her inside or out back, I’ll bet.”
“Maybe that means we’re going to be moving soon.”
The telltale clicks of doors opening and the soft thunks of them closing again signaled that the men from the truck were climbing back inside. The pitch of the engine changed abruptly and the trailer lurched as the truck pulled forward, sending Mark and Jason tumbling into the boxes.
“Does—does that mean it worked?” Mark pushed himself up into a crouch, keeping his center of gravity low to help counteract the swaying motion of the trailer.
“It got us on the trailer, so yeah. I just hope they aren’t going to hurt her too badly.”
***
“Where are the others?!”
Tina kept her eyes closed as Nealson struck her with an open-palmed slap across the face. She was old but never frail, and though each blow stung worse than the one before, she kept to the same line she had been using ever since she was dragged inside the community center and thrown into a chair.
“They burned to death. Like I keep telling you.”
Nealson turned and grabbed her by her jacket collar, pulling her roughly to her feet. His eyes were wide, his breath was rancid with the scent of stale coffee and his hair and beard were unkempt. “I know there were more people there with you! A man, maybe more children! Another woman, perhaps? Where are they!?”
Tina stiffened as he hit her again, then she shook her head and opened her eyes. It wasn’t hard to force a few tears out; the pain in her face ensured that. Getting her tone and her look just right was the difficult part. Her arms were free, the temporary binding having been cut away after he threw her into the chair. With the way he was holding her all she wanted to do was rip and claw at his face, tearing at his eyes and throat and making him suffer like he had made her husband and so many others suffer.
Doing so would jeopardize everything, though. Her life, Dianne’s life, Sarah’s life, the kids’ lives and more. So, instead of taking revenge, she unlocked the bottled-up pain from her husband’s death and used it. She breathed it in, letting it envelope her entire body and drive her every emotion.
“They’re dead.” She let loose a few ragged breaths before looking Nealson in the eye. “If you want to kill me, too, then just do it. It’s not like I have anything to live for anymore.”
“Why did you come here?”
“Was just trying to find shelter. How would I know you’d be here?”
Nealson growled at her before dropping her back into the chair. “Take her out back, with the others.” Two of the other men who had been standing nearby grabbed Tina from the chair and pulled her along in between them. Nealson watched her go, calling out just before she was taken out through the back door to the building.
“Nice to have you back again! Try not to leave us so soon this time, okay?”
***
The trailer jostled and shook, nearly throwing Jason and Mark off balance. They reached out and grabbed at the side of the structure for support as the road noise increased along with the bounciness of their ride.
“We must be close; road just turned to gravel.” More bumps accompanied a drastic sway of the trailer, confirming Jason’s words.
“So just a few more minutes till we get to the house. How are we going to do this when we get there?”
Jason put his hand on Mark’s shoulder, steeling himself for the uncomfortable conversion that he had been trying to avoid. “I think you should hang back, Mark. Hang back and let me do this.”
“Hang… back? To do what, try and flank them somehow?” Mark glanced around the trailer. “There aren’t any other exits from this thing. I’m not sure how—”
“No. Just to hang back. Out of danger.”
“I don’t understand.” A confused frown passed over his face. “Are you saying you don’t want my help?”
“I want it, yes. But… your mother… she would—”
“My mother, my brother and my sister are chained together back at that place.” Mark’s voice remained relatively quiet, but his tone and facial expression changed completely. “They’re chained together with your wife, Mrs. Statler. The men in the truck in front of us want to do… terrible things to them all. And to other people. My mother would want me to do the right thing.” Mark hesitated as he stared through Jason, remembering back to when he watched his mother shoot the man who had been trying to break into their property. He snapped back to reality and shrugged Jason’s hand off of his shoulder.
“Even when the right thing is hard,” Mark finished with a defiant and definite tone, “we still have to do it. That’s why it’s the right thing.”
Jason’s internal struggle was complicated by the unexpected burst of maturity from Mark, and he didn’t know what to say. They knelt, quietly, as the trailer bumped and rocked along until the situation itself forced Jason to accept the inevitable. A slowing of the truck and trailer, then a motion to the left indicated that they were making the turn to the house.
“Fine. Just stay behind me and do what I tell you. Okay?”
Mark nodded and Jason slipped quietly to the back of the trailer. Taking a piece of old lumber from the floor, Jason quietly slipped it into the grooves running alongside both of the back doors, near the bottom. He then took the bungee cord and wrapped it around the wood before tying it off, creating a crude—but effective—bar for the doors.
“That’s your plan?” Mark whispered to Jason, befuddlement thick in his voice. “To keep them out of the trailer?”
Jason walked back up to Jason and knelt back down. “If you have to shoot fish in a barrel, you want them in the smallest, most compact barrel you can possibly get.”
Mark’s eyes lit up and a devious smirk spread across his lips. “So you want to gather them all at the back of the trailer before we let them know we’re here.”
“Exactly.” Jason nodded before shrugging off his pack and his rifle. He dug through his backpack before pulling out the shotgun shell trap he had proposed using as a distraction earlier. “Once they’re gathered, I’ll loosen the board and set this thing up. Once the doors open and this thing goes off, we go out there guns blazing.”
Mark gulped hard and looked at the pistol in his hand. “I’ll do my best.”
Jason put on his best smile and gave Mark a quick squeeze. “I know you will. Now get some more boxes stacked up to hide us behind while I get my rifle squared away.”
While Mark did as Jason requested, Jason gathered his meager assortment of spare magazines and triple-checked that his rifle was loaded with the safety off and one in the chamber. He had never been in war, nor had he ever been in a shootout until after the event. That didn’t matter, though. His wife’s life was in his hands and one of his friends’ children was sitting next to him trying to mentally prepare himself for what was to come.
The right thing was hard. But that didn’t matter. It still had to be done, no matter what.
Chapter 15
The Waters’ Homestead
Outside Ellisville, VA
While Mark and Jason couldn’t see the expressions on the faces of the men in the truck, if they had they might have enjoyed a hearty chuckle in spite of the gravity of the situation. Confusion reigned supreme as the five all leaned forward in their seats, staring at the home standing directly where they expected a pile of ash and bl
ackened debris. All of them started talking at once as they climbed out of the truck, their weapons loose in their hands as they spoke to and over each other, all of them trying to decipher what they were seeing.
Inside the trailer Mark and Jason kept their ears to the wall, listening to the muffled shouting and arguing as they tried to figure out when the group would start making their way toward the trailer. The voices slowly grew louder and easier to discern as the men walked back from examining the scorched patch at the front of the house.
“…sense why it didn’t catch. There was plenty of accelerant.”
“Maybe someone pissed it out. Who cares? We’ve got a house to ransack now. They had some nice looking plants in the basement; maybe we can get something fresh out of the place, eh?”
“I care. And so will Nealson.” The sound and reverberation of someone being pushed roughly against the trailer nearly caused Mark and Jason to fall over. “We need to call him and let him know about this. It could mean that someone survived the fire!”
“Nealson’s already beyond pissed. Did you see him with that one from the road?”
“You realize that was the one that they came and pulled out from the station base, right?”
“Well yeah, but everyone else is dead. So who cares?”
Another thud. “I told you that I do!”
A different voice, one that hadn’t been understandable, interrupted the argument. “Hey, check it out. They’ve got a ton of chickens down there and some other stuff, too. Barns are full of food for ‘em, too. We’re gonna have to make several trips to get everything!”
“No. Nealson wants this done fast.” It was the voice of the one who seemed like he was in charge. “We’ll prioritize on what we need the most, then come back for the rest later.” Another thud. “And you—get the trailer open, then call Nealson on the radio!”