“We don't give up,” Wyatt said with vehemence. “We fight back. We need to get it together. This isn’t how we do things. We don't accept anything without giving it a good fight, first. We’ve tackled bigger challenges than this.”
“Um, I don't think we have. The dam was different. McDaniels and his gang weren’t trained and they didn't have the weapons and technology these guys do,” Bryan stated.
Megan would normally be irritated by his negativity, but in this case, she was with him. Wyatt was crazy if he thought the four of them with their one gun could fight an army. A literal army. It was asinine.
“I think our focus needs to be on finding where our family is,” Megan said, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall at the mere mention of the missing members of their group.
Wyatt nodded. “Of course. We regroup and then we plan an attack.”
Megan looked at him, wanting to tell him it was over. They lost, but she held back. He needed to hold onto that hope and she wouldn't take that away from him.
“I'm sure Chase realized something was up. No way, Neil overpowered all of them. Those men couldn't have been hard to miss. Chase would’ve gotten them out before all that happened. They’re out here, somewhere. We have to find them. Where would he go?” Wyatt said, looking thoughtful.
“The hunting cabin we retreated to during the dam situation?” Bryan offered.
Wyatt looked at him and smiled. “I think that's exactly it. Let's go!”
The four of them scrambled to get to the cabin. Because they didn't know how many bad guys were lurking, they took a wide berth around the lodge and up the mountain to where the old cabin was. It was nightfall by the time they finally reached the place. Once again, Wyatt ordered Willow to stay back. Megan volunteered to stay with her. She would never forgive herself if something happened to Willow and JJ. She would rather wait an extra ten minutes to see Caitlin than take that kind of risk.
She and Willow didn't talk while they waited. Megan had no words. She couldn't comfort Willow. Although she was hopeful everyone had made it out safely and had sought refuge at the cabin, deep down she knew that wasn't likely. This wasn't a Hollywood movie where the good guys won and everyone always survived. This was the real world and things were never quite so easy.
4
Wyatt crept closer to the cabin. The darkness provided him with the disguise they needed to go undetected. He did his best to survey the outside, but couldn’t see anything. The single window in the cabin was on the opposite side. He was beginning to suspect they were wrong. The place was empty. His heart sank as he realized his family didn't make it to the retreat.
That is until he heard a burst of barking.
Instead of running, he smiled. “Duke!”
Bryan hooted and they both took off at a much faster pace, still mindful it could be only Duke who’d sought refuge in the old cabin.
Chase stepped out of the cabin, backlit by a faint glow from inside. He had a gun aimed in their general direction. “Stop, right there. I will shoot.”
Wyatt chuckled. “It's us. Boy, are we glad to see you.”
He stepped closer to his old friend, staring at him in the glow of the candlelight filtering out of the open cabin door. It wasn't the happy reunion he’d been hoping for. Wyatt froze when he saw the look on Chase's face.
“What happened? Who'd we lose?”
Chase sighed, lowered the gun and shook his head. “I'm so sorry.”
Wyatt felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. His breath swooshed out. “No! Mom?”
Chase didn't look at him. He stared down at the ground. Wyatt couldn't breathe. He felt as if the entire world was spinning and he couldn't stop it. Would fate be so cruel as to take his entire family? He couldn't believe that. He couldn't believe he’d have to endure that much pain and grief.
“Where's everyone else?” Chase asked with dread.
Bryan answered. “Megan and Willow are down there. We wanted to check things out before we brought them up.”
Wyatt looked up in time to see the look of horror on Chase's face. “JJ's fine.”
Chase's shoulders sagged in relief. He looked around again. “Evan?”
Bryan shook his head, but didn't say the words.
“Wow,” Chase said. “That's too bad. He was a really good guy.”
“I'll head down and get Megan and Willow. Megan is chomping at the bit to see Caitlin,” Bryan said.
“Um,” Chase started.
Wyatt's eyes grew huge. “No! It can't be! Don't you dare say it, Chase!”
He pushed his friend to the side and rushed inside the cabin, quickly doing a head count. He counted over and over again, looking at the faces staring back at him. Caitlin and Rosie weren’t there. His mind refused to acknowledge the fact. He looked around the small one-room cabin again as if he missed them on his first scan. He ignored the eyes all looking at him. He couldn't greet anyone. Not right now. His mind warred with what he was seeing. He couldn't accept the loss of his mother and Caitlin. It couldn't be true. There had to be a mistake.
Running a hand through his hair, he walked back outside to where Chase and Bryan were quietly talking. “I can't tell Megan. This will kill her, Chase. What the hell happened?” he half screamed.
“I'll explain once you get her and Willow up here,” Chase said with a great deal of sadness. “I have to say, I’m almost glad Evan isn't here to come back to this. We lost Tara and Amy as well.”
Wyatt was shaking his head, refusing to hear the words. Right now, he felt like a failure. They’d left them alone. Hadn't Bryan lectured Megan for doing exactly that? He should’ve told Neil to leave. He should’ve fought Megan a little more. So many wrong choices led them to this very moment. It was overwhelming, but he wouldn't break. He had to be strong. He had to be the guy that kept it together.
Taking a deep breath. “I'll go get her,” he said, walking back the way he’d come. His feet felt heavy, as did his shoulders. He couldn't stand up straight. The burden of guilt and devastating grief was weighing him down. In that moment, he suddenly understood what Megan had been feeling these past few months. It was catastrophic.
The guilt was clouding his mind, interfering with his ability to think straight. So much of what had happened over the past few months and days became clearer to him. Megan had been coping with so much. He hadn't fully understood it until this moment. His training had always given him the luxury of compartmentalizing all the crap he’d seen and dealt with. It was different when it was your own family. He couldn't chalk it up to service for the country or tell himself they died as heroes. These were people he loved with all his heart. They died because he left them to fend for themselves.
He mulled over the advice he’d given Megan when she was feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders. Could he heed his own words? He had to. As he walked back to Megan and Willow, shock quickly turned to anger. He didn't feel the tree branches sideswiping him, cutting his arms as he stomped through. He was on a mission. He would exact revenge. He may die doing it, but he would kill Neil and every single one of those men.
“Megan?” he called out, barely above a whisper. They didn't know if the men had spread out and he didn't want to take any chances.
She stepped out from behind a large tree. “Clear?” she asked.
He nodded, then realized she wouldn't be able to see him all that well in the filtered moonlight. “Yep. We have a lot to talk about.”
Willow stepped out and the three of them walked up the hill in silence. Wyatt didn't know how to tell Megan her daughter wasn't with the others. He’d been too afraid to hear the answer to the question; was she dead, kidnapped or missing in general?
He sensed she knew something was wrong. If she didn't ask, she wouldn't have to hear. He figured that was okay. It would give her some time to brace herself for what was coming. He wouldn't take that from her.
5
Megan took several deep breaths before approaching the cabin. Duke ran
out to greet her, jumping and yapping and licking all at once. She reached down to scratch behind his ears while doing her best to calm him down.
“Hi,” she greeted Chase who was standing outside the doorway.
“I'm so happy to see you. All of you,” he said, expressing his relief. She smiled when he reached out for JJ. Willow quickly removed him from the carrier and let Chase cradle him close.
“I've missed you, big guy,” he cooed, rubbing JJ's head before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Well? What did you find out? Is JJ going to be okay?” Chase asked, clearly anxious to hear the news.
Willow sighed. “Honestly, I don't know much more than I did before we left. The doctor confirmed it was a heart murmur, but how big and how serious it is was never established. The stupid building exploded before we got a chance to get any tests done,” she said with frustration. “Where's Ryland?”
“Inside. The building exploded?” he asked, moving JJ to his shoulder where he was gently patting the baby's back like a pro.
“Long story,” Wyatt answered. “Do you have any water? We had to leave everything behind and we’re all dehydrated.”
Chase nodded. “We do. Not a lot, but enough.”
Megan was excited to get inside. She’d been dying to see Caitlin and know that her little girl was okay. She felt there was still some serious tension, but figured it was with the situation of being holed up in the tiny one room cabin.
She walked through the door and froze. This couldn't be right. The absence of her daughter and Rosie was the first thing she noticed. She looked around the room and saw Albert and Brenda sitting on the floor, propped up against the wall. They wouldn't look at her.
Frankie was sitting close by with his head propped up on his knees. Ryland jumped up from his spot next to the boy and ran to his mother. Her eyes scanned over the two new faces in the room, before moving back and forth.
“Where is everyone else?” Megan asked in disbelief. The group felt too small. For so long they’d been living as one large, cohesive unit. It didn't feel right to have such low numbers. “Who is that?” she gestured at the identical twin faces staring at her.
Albert started to stand, but was unable to do so on his own. Brenda quickly jumped up and pulled his arm, giving him the leverage he needed. Albert walked towards her with sadness in his eyes.
She was shaking her head no, demanding he not say the words she knew were coming. “No. Uh-uh. Don't you dare tell me she's, she's,” she couldn't say the word that terrified her more than anything else on this earth.
“We don't know,” Albert said, shrugging his shoulders. She could see the tears in his eyes along with the exhaustion. Albert looked as if he’d aged ten years in the time they’d been gone.
Megan held onto his words like a lifeline in an ocean of despair. He didn't know. That had to be good, right?
Her head stopped shaking no and suddenly started bobbing up and down. “Okay, okay. You don't know. That means she ran away with Rosie, Tara and Amy?” She said the words as a question, praying someone would say yes. All she needed was one of them to tell her Rosie and Tara had escaped with Caitlin and Amy.
Albert looked behind her. She spun around and looked at Chase. “Well?”
“I don't know, Megan. I honestly don't know. Everything happened so fast,” he replied, sorrow in his voice. “We looked, but we haven't been able to get close to the lodge. We haven't been able to do much of anything but sit here.”
“We'll find them. It's okay,” she repeated. Saying the words over and over helped calm her racing heart. “Tomorrow morning, we'll go out and we'll find them, right, Wyatt?”
He put a hand on her arm. “Yes. We'll find them. Let's take care of us so we can start searching. We all need to drink some water. We can talk about what happened and formulate a plan. One thing at a time.”
“Yeah, like who are they?” she asked again, looking at the obvious identical twin teenage boys sitting on the floor.
Chase answered. “That’s Aiden and Jayden.”
“And you picked them up where?” she asked.
He smiled. “Actually, we found them here. They've been making this little cabin their home the past couple weeks. When we showed up, they welcomed us in.”
She looked at the twins, taking in their tall, thin builds. They stood, held out their hands and in unison said, “Pleased to meet you, ma'am.”
She raised an eyebrow before looking at Chase. “I'm Megan. How exactly did you end up here?”
“I'm Aiden,” the one on her left said. “We've been kind of roaming around the past few months. Our folks were killed some time back and we wanted to see if we could find somewhere safer.”
Megan's heart softened a little. She guessed the boys couldn't be older than eighteen and here they were, on their own.
“Where'd you come from?” she asked.
The other twin smiled. “The middle of nowhere. We had a family farm. We were living there, minding our own business, then one day, some guys started to take our cattle. My dad tried to warn them off, but well, they shot him. My mom shot one of the guys before his buddy shot her.”
Megan nodded, knowing their story wasn’t uncommon. They’d all ended up here for similar reasons. It was hard to imagine young, innocent kids going through such horrible tragedies. This stuff happened in third world countries not the United States, or that's what she kept telling herself.
“I'm real sorry to hear about your parents. Cattle, huh? I bet that was nice,” she said, with only a hint of jealousy. “Are you boys planning on sticking around or are you passing through?”
Chase answered. “We kind of took over their home, Megan. They've been working on making this place sustainable and livable. We encroached on them,” he stressed. “They've been kind enough to let us stay here and have been helping us out.”
Again, Megan raised an eyebrow, questioning him without saying the words. Technically, this cabin wasn't theirs, so why she felt they had a claim to it, she didn't know, but it felt as if the twins were in her territory. Clearly, Chase felt otherwise and in this matter, she accepted he had the final say.
“The boys hunt, fish and have been raised on a ranch their whole lives,” Albert added. “They have a lot of know-how and are handy to have around,” he said with a smile. “Especially when it comes to guns. They told us they've been shooting since they were old enough to hold a gun.”
Megan understood the motivation behind keeping them all together. They could always use more people who knew their way around a gun. The fact they could hunt was another huge bonus and once things settled down, would take a lot of pressure off of her. That was assuming their lives would return to the new normal to which they had become accustomed.
Aiden and Jayden both had that “aw, shucks” look about them. Their shaggy brown hair made them appear much younger than they actually were she suspected. They were thin and looked as if they hadn't had a proper meal in some time.
“How old are you?” she asked, not caring if it sounded harsh or forward.
“We'll be eighteen next month,” the one with the green shirt, answered.
This could be problematic. “Great, um, how am I to tell you apart? You guys take identical to a whole new level.” She chuckled, trying to make up for her earlier rudeness.
“Jayden is a hair taller than me,” Aiden replied.
Megan looked back and forth between them. There was no way to see that unless one had a measuring stick.
“You'll figure it out, our friends always did. Jayden is shy. He doesn't talk a whole lot. I tend to do most of the talking for us.”
If he was talking about Jayden that would make him, Aiden, she surmised.
“Okay, well, I guess you'll have to correct me when I'm wrong so I can learn who's who,” she said with a smile. “Don't change your shirts. That's about the only way I can tell the difference between you two for now.”
“How about some water now?” Albert said.
A plan. That was what she needed. Planning her daughter's rescue gave her something to focus on. She was barely holding it together. It felt as if a million needles were stabbing all over her body. She didn't know whether to cry and wallow in misery or run into the night screaming for her daughter. Nothing felt right. Her skin felt too tight. Wyatt gestured for her to take a seat on the wood floor, but she refused. She had to keep moving. He pushed her down, demanding she sit. She wanted to argue and fight back, but once she sat, she didn't think she could get up.
Brenda poured cups of water for each of them, instructing them to drink it slowly. She added a little salt and sugar to the water to help replace the electrolytes they’d surely lost in their mad dash to get home.
When Megan questioned her about the additions, Brenda explained. “This is some of the stuff we left up here. The buckets kept it dry.”
Megan remembered they’d taken almost everything from the cabin, but after a small debate, had decided to leave some basic emergency supplies just in case. They’d hoped never to need the stuff, but now, she was grateful it was here.
The exhaustion set in as she thought back to the breakneck speed they used to get back home. They’d managed to cut a week-long expedition in half. The heat had been extreme. It wasn't until they were closer to their mountain that they got any relief from the temperature. They were all sunburned, which earned them a lecture from Brenda. Megan shrugged. There was nothing to be done about it. None of them was willing to sit in the shade and wait for the sun to set when they knew their family was in jeopardy.
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