“I don’t know who went after Flynn, and Eddie and Cera are just down the hill a hundred yards or so.” Danny pointed behind him. “Cera hit her head hard on a tree branch when she landed, and Eddie’s cleaning her up in a stream.”
“Do you know where we are exactly?” I directed the question at Danny, but Ava answered.
“Pretty close to Big Bear.”
“I asked Danny.” I’ll wipe that smug smile off your face.
“Whoa.” Danny clearly didn’t like me snapping at Ava. “Hayley … come on.”
I rolled my eyes and turned away from the two of them.
“Hayley—”
“Danny, I just want to find out what happened to Flynn. It’s getting light.”
“I know.” He walked up and placed his hand on my shoulder. “We need to find them soon, and we will, I prom—”
“Damn it, Danny. Don’t …” I shrugged his hand off me and stepped away. “I just want to know where we are.”
I don’t know what I was expecting from him after my outburst, but it wasn’t what I got. “You know what, Hayley.” There was heat in his voice. “Like Ava said, we’re close to Big Bear Lake. That’s what I know.” And then he walked away.
I watched him return to the rock where Ava was sitting and watched her reach out for his hand. To his credit, he didn’t take it—this time—but he didn’t look back at me either. Who are you? I shook my head. “I’m going to try to find where they landed,” I called out to Danny’s back. He didn’t reply or turn around. Fine. Stay here with your mistress and her pillows.
I was emotional—furious, nervous, scared, and hurt. I stormed down the hillside in the direction I’d last seen Flynn falling and that chute opening. I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. The first gunshot marginally missed my head. The bullet tore into the tree right beside me. The second shot exploded the top off the boulder I dove behind. I dropped myself flat to the ground, looking frantically around for better cover. I glanced around the boulder and could vaguely see the outlines of at least six men making their way up the hill toward me.
It’s amazing how circumstances can change your feelings. As I watched the men close in, I could hear myself begging. “Please, Danny—please—come save me.”
FIFTY-FIVE – Mind Over Matter (Tara)
Early Morning Hours.
---------- (Thursday. August 11, 2022.) ----------
When Kate and I made it back to the cliff, we called down to make sure Jenna and Ollie were both still there. They were. The storm continued to rage around us, but either our eyes were adjusting better or the sky was somehow lightening. I could see the entire outline of the tree house hanging over the cliff, and I was even more amazed at how it was still hanging there.
There didn’t appear to be any way one of us could climb down to Jenna and Ollie. Our only chance was to throw the rope down close enough to where they could pull themselves up. After a dozen or so attempts, it finally swung close enough for Jenna to grab it. When she had a hold of it I took the other end over to the tree Kate and I had climbed down from—about fifty yards away—and tied the rope to the trunk. Jenna wanted us to pull Ollie up first and called out that she was tying the rope around him.
We waited for her to do so, and just as she yelled that it was attached to him, the tree house began to slide. No, no, no, no, no… The way the rope was wrapped over it, I knew if the house fell completely off the cliff, it would not only take Ollie with it, but the entire tree behind us we’d attached the rope to. I heard myself scream at Jenna to untie the rope, even though it was the last thing I wanted to say, and then I heard myself scream again as the tree house slid off the cliff.
The rope whipped out but didn’t snap, and the tree behind us remained where it was—somehow. Jenna had managed to untie the rope before the tree house had fallen, but the house had been what was holding them in place.
“Jenna!” Kate screamed as the tree house plummeted to the rocks below. “Jenna!” Kate yelled again.
“Help!” She’s still there somehow. How? And what about Ollie?
Kate didn’t waste any time. She grabbed onto the rope. “I’m going down.”
“Kate, no… let me.” She was drained and in excruciating pain. It made far more sense for me to try, but she shook her head. “No, I’ve got this. I can do this.”
“Kate …” I wanted to match her assertiveness but couldn’t. Not being able to hear Ollie’s crying anymore I assumed the worst. That pessimism took everything out of me.
I helped Kate lower herself over the edge and watched her quickly rappel down the side of the cliff. I lay flat on my belly and peered over the edge with the flashlight following Kate’s movements. At the farthest extent of the light, I could see Jenna holding on to a ledge about thirty feet below us. She was holding on with one arm, while her other arm was wrapped around…Ollie!
Dear God! No way!
I gasped but couldn’t say anything. I opened my mouth but again couldn’t get anything out. I watched Kate slide quickly down near them, and then she stopped. She screamed up at me, “I need more rope!”
I turned and pulled on the rope behind me, but it was taut. Panic tore at my chest. “There isn’t any!” I screamed. She wasn’t going to be able to reach them. She was five or six feet short. There should have been enough! I saw her reaching out toward Jenna, as far as she could reach. She wasn’t even close.
I watched, horrified, as the next ten seconds unfolded in slow motion. I saw Jenna push off from the cliff and shove Ollie upward toward Kate. I saw Kate grab my baby and Jenna fall away from the cliff—dropping into the darkness. I could hear Ollie crying again, but even his cry was temporarily drowned out by Kate’s loud long scream. I covered my mouth, swallowing my own scream, and listened to the rain mutilate the ground around me.
Please God ... Where are you in all of this?
“Hang on, Kate,” I yelled. I pushed myself away from the cliff, and stood to begin pulling at the rope. At first it was dead weight—I figured Kate was too stunned to assist. “Kate, come on,” I screamed, grunting and tugging in futility. Finally, I could feel the rope moving a little.
“One second,” she yelled up. “Gotta … tie … Ollie … there. Pull!”
I pulled and she climbed. I couldn’t imagine what she was going through but knew she was doing this for Ollie.
As she reached the top, I gave her one last pull and then sprinted to drag her and Ollie up by hand. Even though she held my baby, and there was nothing more in the world I wanted than to hold him myself, I stepped back a little as she squeezed him closely and sobbed. I knelt beside them and wrapped my arms around both of them. I didn’t know which of them was crying harder, but I knew who was hurting more. “I’m so, so, sorry, Kate. So sorry…”
She was wailing now, and her hands tore into my back as she released Ollie and dug into me. I could feel tears streaming out of my own eyes and knew there was nothing I could say to make this better. I was pretty sure—at this moment—Kate was wishing she too were dead. She’d lost her baby. She’d lost her best friend. She might have even lost Danny. For Kate, there wasn’t any way she could imagine it could possibly get worse.
It was my turn to be the strong one. It was my turn to pull her through. Kate was screwed.
I found enough boards to build a small shelter, to at least keep us out of the direct rain. The wind—fortunately—had almost completely subsided. We huddled together under the random pieces of plywood—soaked, shivering, tired, sad, and angry. The sum of our losses was staggering. It was about this time I started wondering why the anti-tsunami system hadn’t kicked in. Shouldn’t that have saved us?
FIFTY-SIX – Back to Reality
Early Morning Hours.
---------- (Thursday. August 11, 2022.) ----------
When Damien powered the Hexagon back up and all the surveillance systems kicked in, he quickly realized the worst of his security fears had come to fruition. An enormous storm surge—perhaps combi
ned with a meteotsunami—had slammed into the Hawaiian Islands during the three-hour outage. Nicole stood over his shoulder, pointing out the most impacted areas on the screen. Kauai had clearly endured the most structural damage, though the less inhabited island of Ni’ihau appeared to have been wiped clean. That didn’t bode well for Redemption.
On Kauai, the marina buildings and houses lining the west coast—including the prisoner compound—had been demolished. Left in their place were piles of trees, mounds of mud, and mountains of debris. There were a few people moving about the debris, but Damien wasn’t able to identify the Pack specifically—by satellite—and their beacons weren’t showing up on Area 52’s tablet. That, in and of itself, wasn’t alarming—yet.
Oahu had been hit as well, but the damage here didn’t appear to be as bad. The surge level hadn’t reached nearly as high—though a dozen ships had been flipped in Pearl Harbor.
As soon as the power had been restored on the islands Stacy and Dewey came back down from the transmitter. They claimed to have been shocked pretty good—manually powering up the Shield—but were both otherwise fine. They had the next shift so they went to get some sleep.
Nicole thought she should check on the governor, given that he likely had no idea what was going on. Damien’s goals were to find the Pack, try to contact them and remove the blackout zone covering Redemption. He had no way of knowing the extent of damage out there, but he was assuming—based on Ni’ihau’s feed—that it was bad.
It took him twenty minutes to get a satellite feed of Redemption established and the imagery horrified him. Only a handful of trees remained upright, there were no buildings of any kind and thermal scanning revealed only two red dots—there were only two survivors. Damien managed to track down a chopper pilot and instructed him to get out to Redemption as soon as it was safe enough to fly out. Even with his training and skills, the pilot told Damien it would be another hour or so before the hurricane would allow air travel. They’d have to wait.
When Nicole reached the governor’s mansion, she was drenched through to the bone. She rang the doorbell multiple times, and he answered the door himself. He ushered her into the main room, eager to know what was going on. “What took you guys so long to get here? Why didn’t anyone come check on me?”
“Sir, why didn’t you come to the Hexagon?”
“I was ordered to stay here, no matter what.” His reply was calmer, but still loaded with frustration.
“And even in all this—you thought this was the best place to be?”
“Well …” Barnes handed Nicole a towel and some of his wife’s gym clothes he’d grabbed from the laundry room. “I’ve erred before by not following my instructions. This time I just did as I was told.”
Nicole wrapped a towel around her waist. “Okay.”
He turned away so Nicole could change, and she quickly shed her wet clothes. “The power outage scared the shit out of me though.”
“We had to do it.” Nicole tossed the sports bra on the couch. The governor’s wife was petite. That wasn’t going to work.
“What?” the governor turned his head slightly sideways watching her in the mirror as she pulled a shirt over her head.
“I said we had to.” Nicole met his gaze in the mirror and he quickly looked away. “We had to shut the power off for the rescue attempt.” She pulled a hooded sweatshirt on over the shirt and stepped into the laundry room to toss her clothes in the dryer.
“Rescue attempt? But what if you guys had been—”
“We shut the power down everywhere.” She knew what he was worried about. “The Hexagon, all the islands—everything. No one knew what we were doing.”
“The Shield too?”
“Everything.” Nicole nodded. “For three hours. We didn’t have a choice. We couldn’t take the chance anyone could tip them off.”
“So, did it work?”
Nicole paused. “We don’t know.”
“You don’t know? How do you not—”
“Well.” Nicole took a deep breath and shook her head. “When the power was off, we were slammed by a meteotsunami.”
“A what?”
“Storm surge on steroids, basically.”
“Holy shit.” Barnes sat down. “Hurricanes don’t…storm surge?”
“Yes, sir.” Nicole sat down across from him. “Damien’s trying to get some answers now—from Kauai and Redemption. We haven’t reached the Pack or anyone else out there yet. We know the prison compound house and walls in Kauai are completely gone. There’s nothing there—nothing but rubble.”
“But my wife—” It suddenly occurred to him that Nicole might not know his wife was being held captive.
“We know she was there.” Nicole read his mind.
“You do?” The governor looked up at her.
She nodded. “The Pack filled us in.”
“Shit.” Barnes put his head in his hands.
“Sir, I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.”
He looked at her again. “But you know what I’ve done?”
Her bobbing head confirmed his fears. “Yes, sir.”
“It’s all my fault. All of this—”
“Sir, I’m sorry.” Nicole moved over and sat beside him, placing her hand on his knee. “But that’s just not true. I don’t know of anyone who wouldn’t have done exactly what you did.”
“Nicole, I appreciate what you’re trying to do—and what you’re saying—but no one else is the governor. I vowed never to do exactly what I have done.” Barnes stood and walked over to the window.
“Sir, you’re human, and even if what you did defied all national security protocols, you did it for love—you did it for your wife. There’s no question you’ll lose your job, and you probably deserve to, but that doesn’t mean—”
“It was wrong no matter what, Nicole.” He sighed deeply and stared out into the darkness. “Did that metro-whatever hit us too?”
“It did,” she replied, standing as well. “A little. There’s some damage in Pearl Harbor, but not nearly as…” She paused. “Not nearly as bad.”
“Nothing from Danny’s family yet? Nothing from anyone out there?”
Nicole shook her head. “No, sir. No contact at all from Redemption.”
“Do you think it’s okay if I go with you to the Hexagon now?”
“Yes, sir. Let’s go.” Nicole stood. “You have any rain jackets.”
“For?”
“Grab ‘em.” Nicole walked towards the door. “We’ll need them.”
“It’s just rain. We’ll be all right.” Barnes followed her to the door.
“Trust me, sir.” Nicole held the door open for him, pulling the hood up on her sweatshirt. “It’s not just rain.”
FIFTY-SEVEN – Corner of a Circle (Hayley)
---------- (Thursday. August 11, 2022.) ----------
Near Big Bear Lake. California.
Danny must have heard the shot. I know he did. But I hadn’t heard a response from him yet, or seen him for that matter. All I could see were the men spreading out in a circle around me. It was getting light quickly—had to be close to 6:00 a.m.—and in minutes they’d have their kill shot. My bow was useless at this point, as I’d never be able to kneel—or stand—and aim before they’d get me. They knew exactly where I was and probably had me pinned by a sniper or two—beyond the six of them.
Two quick shots thundered through the valley. Then another two. Or maybe they were single shots with echoes. I couldn’t tell. Another bullet tore a chunk of rock off above my head. I flinched and ducked even lower than I already was. Do they think I’m shooting blindly at them from behind this rock?
Another four shots rang out—or two with echoes—this time from below me to my right. I hadn’t even seen anyone coming that way. Crap. I’m more exposed than I thought. I pulled my body in tightly, making myself as small as possible, and closed my eyes tightly.
Suddenly gunfire erupted all around me—a mixture of rapid fire a
nd single shots. I expected every shot to be the one that hit me—the one that killed me—but I was never touched. When an eerie calm finally settled on the valley, I heard a voice about twenty feet to my right. It can’t be. I opened my eyes and turned toward the voice. There she was, gesturing at me. Am I dead? Flynn?
Blake was right behind her, his gun trained on the valley below.
“Hayley.” Flynn was still waving at me. “Crawl over here.”
I reached out and grabbed my bow and then turned to crawl from behind my rock. Rock and dirt exploded beside me, and I shrunk back to my original hiding place. Another shot resonated from the rocks over my head. I glanced back at Flynn and Blake, and this time Blake was looking at me.
“He got him,” Blake called over. “Get over here, Hayley. Run.”
I stood up and sprinted toward them. One more bout of automatic gunfire sent more dirt chipping up and hitting me, and one final loud crack echoed above me. As I slid across the ground into Flynn’s arms, Blake stood and looked up the wall of rocks above us. I followed his eyes to a boulder and watched Danny step out from behind it. Danny didn’t immediately look down at us—he was probably looking for more soldiers—but when he did look down, our eyes locked, and I’m certain the gratitude was evident in mine.
A few minutes later, he was standing beside me, and I was wrapped in his strong arms. Ava stood a few feet behind him. I wasn’t quite sure what had happened to the Rambo Barbie I’d seen back in the Cheyenne Mountain tunnel. This girl looked scared to death. I pulled away from Danny finally and asked her if she was all right. She didn’t answer. Instead she reached out for Danny’s hand. A half hour ago I’d have considered this a play for attention—and it would have pissed me off—as I watched Danny take her hand. Now, as he began leading her down the hill, it was clear this was no act—she’d been deeply shaken. I needed to cut her a little slack.
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