Crystal Beach (Crow Hill Book 1)

by Tom Larcombe

  Jeff shook his head and walked over, the boy had a worried look on his face.

  “What's wrong Jeff? You look like you've got something on your mind,” Michael said.

  “Michael, did Liz come up here today?” Jeff asked.

  “I haven't seen her.”

  “Mom hasn't seen her since lunch time. She said Liz went outside right after they were done eating. So, I think she's missing. She doesn't normally wander off and she's been gone for more than five hours. I'm worried that she might be hurt or something.”

  * * *

  Chapter 13

  “Debbie told me you claimed to take out those guys with magic,” Todd said.

  “Yeah, well I gave in and told her I used an aerosol can and a lighter,” Rynn replied.

  “Why would you lie like that?”

  “Maybe I was just trying to see how trusting she was so I told her it was magic?”

  “No, I mean why would you lie about the aerosol can and lighter? Trust me, even if I hadn't believed in magic before, I'm healing so much faster than I ought to that I'd believe it now.”

  Rynn was shocked into silence.

  “I mean, I can't explain it any other way. Cindy sits here for hours on end and I can feel myself growing stronger. I can feel the wounds itching like things do when they heal, except the itch is stronger and lasts longer. Then I look and see that a big hole is now a tiny hole. I don't have any other way to explain it than magic.”

  “Yes, I used magic,” Rynn confessed.

  “Then why lie about it?”

  “She was all upset because she wanted some secret trick to use to defend herself. So I gave her a possibility to cling to. And maybe because I'm tired of people looking at me like I'm some sort of nutcase when I tell them I'm a wizard and I don't want to be on the receiving end of those looks, and that attitude, again.”

  “Okay, that I'll believe. I may not use magic, but I've had my share of those looks, or ones like them.”

  “Since you believe me, I'll give this to you,” Rynn said, handing over the sun crystal. “If you keep it in the sun all day long, it should shine through the night. It stores the sunlight. You can tell Debbie it's a new kind of solar light or something so she doesn't look at you that way.”

  “It does? That's cool... I wish I'd had a few of these back in the day. No more trying to figure out how to keep the cops from checking out my grow ops because I had a high electric bill. I got around it, greenhouse style, but these would've been better.”

  “I know, Eugene found your setup in the barn,” Rynn said.

  Todd blushed.

  “Oops,” he said.

  “It's fine, I just told the younger kids they couldn't go out there again because of all the old farm tools. I trust the older ones to not mess with your grow op.”

  “Thank you. Speaking of thanks, you said you still had a ways to go, right?”

  “Around a hundred and fifty miles, I think.”

  “Then you'll take Debbie's car. She and I agree that we don't want to go back to the city at all. So we don't have much use for the vehicles. I'd offer you my truck, but she's got almost a half tank of gas in her car, my truck has less than that. It's an old beater so you probably won't make it all the way on what's in there, it'll get you closer though.”

  “I can't do that.”

  “Yes, you can. We insist. If it weren't for you and Cindy, I'd be dead and Debbie would be worse off still. It's the least we can do.”

  “I'm guessing the two of you talked about that?”

  “It was her idea actually. I don't think she wants the memories that seeing the car would bring back.”

  “There's more to you than you let on Todd. Is that intentional? Do you use the retro-hippie thing as some sort of defense?”

  Todd's speech slowed and he spoke the same way he did when he was high.

  “Man, it's amazing what folks will let a stoner get away with. They just kinda roll their eyes and mutter under their breath instead of taking offense.”

  Rynn chuckled.

  “We're probably going to leave later on today or first thing tomorrow. Is there anything else you need before we go? Cindy's going to spend a little more time with you today and you should be mostly mended by the time she's done,” she said.

  “I think we'll be okay. I'll have to get mobile again soon though. I need to let the chickens out to forage so I can save their food for later in the year when they can't.”

  “Well, Eugene made a crutch for you. It should give you some mobility, but don't push it. You'll need more time to heal completely.”

  “Then there is one more thing I'd like you to do for me. Up in the attic, there's a rifle. There's also a whole bunch of bullets for it. My dad swore by having one nearby all the time. After he was gone I put it up there because Debbie didn't like guns. I think I'll want that down here now.”

  “Good, I'm glad you have something to defend yourself with.”

  “I don't know about that, it's only a .22, but it's better than nothing. If we have any more problems I'm hoping that the sight of the rifle will be a deterrent.”

  “Where's the attic? I'll go get it right now.”

  “It's in the upstairs hallway, one of those pull down staircases. You'll want to take Eugene with you if you don't want to make multiple trips. I wasn't kidding when I said a lot of bullets. My dad used to buy a brick of them every time he went to the store.”

  Rynn found Eugene and brought him along. Even with the extra help, they still needed to make two trips. She brought the rifle down to Todd on the first run while Eugene carried three bricks of ammunition. Then they made a second trip and Eugene carried three more while Rynn took four.

  “You weren't kidding. You've got five thousand rounds of ammo for this thing,” Rynn said.

  “There's more still down in the basement. I figured the stuff in the attic should come out first and I could probably get the stuff downstairs myself if I needed to. Now I kind of regret selling off dad's other guns.”

  “Are you willing to trade some of the ammo?” Rynn asked. “I've got this little .22 pistol, but it's only got seven rounds in it.”

  “Help yourself, take a brick if you want. I have almost as much downstairs as you just brought down.”

  Rynn opened one of the bricks up. The ammunition was packaged in individual boxes of fifty rounds each inside the brick.

  “A whole brick is too much. I'll give you two cans of powdered drink mix for two boxes of fifty rounds. The drink mix has vitamin C added so it might be useful at some point,” she said.

  “Sure, you can just take the ammo if you want though. You don't need to give me anything for it.”

  “I feel like I should, especially if we take you up on the offer of the car.”

  Todd shrugged.

  “I won't turn it down.”

  “It's settled then.”

  Rynn immediately broke open a box and filled the pistol's magazine to its full capacity of twelve rounds. She slid the two boxes into her pack and removed two cans of drink mix.

  “I'll put them on the table in the kitchen, or you can tell me where you want them,” she said.

  Todd waved her off. It looked like he'd tired himself out talking with her, so she went into the kitchen and dropped off the drink mix. Eugene followed her.

  'Car?' he wrote on his pad.

  “Todd and Debbie are offering to let us take her car. They said it probably doesn't have enough gas to make it all the way, but it should get us most of the way there.”

  'Will we?'

  “I hate doing it, but like Todd said, I won't turn it down. It'll get us there faster and hopefully let us avoid some potential problems that being on the road that long would cause.”

  'Probably ought to ask Andi to look and see if she can drive it,' he wrote.

  “Good idea. I think I'll do that now. Do you know where she is?”

  Eugene pointed out the back door. Rynn went out back and found Cindy and Andi lying in
the sun, talking. She told them about the offer and asked Andi to go take a look. Andi returned in a couple of minutes.

  “Sure, I can drive it. It's an automatic, an older model too, so hopefully we won't have any problems with it.”

  Cindy stood up.

  “Rynn, I'm going to go in and work on Todd. Did you want to feed me some extra energy again? If you do, I'll probably have done as much as I can for him by lunch time,” she said.

  “Eager to be moving again?” Rynn asked.

  “I want to get where we're going. I want to feel safe again. I don't feel safe here after what happened.”

  Rynn nodded.

  “We'll leave either this afternoon or first thing tomorrow.”

  By lunchtime Todd was up and hobbling around on his crutch. It didn't take long before he was tired and out of breath, but he was happy just to be able to move at all again.

  In the middle of lunch, Eugene pulled out his notebook and started writing. He tore the page out and handed it to Todd.

  “Sure, go ahead. I got plenty,” Todd replied.

  Rynn was about to ask what that was all about when Andi interrupted her train of thought.

  “Rynn, you know I don't have a license right. I know how to drive, but if we get pulled over...”

  Rynn laughed humorlessly.

  “I'd love to get pulled over. That would mean there was a cop still doing his job somewhere and things were normal,” she said.

  After lunch, Rynn sat down with Todd again.

  “If you don't mind, we'll stay one more night. That way when we run out of gas it will still be light out. It'll leave us time to find a place to camp,” she said.

  “You're welcome to stay as long as you want.”

  He glanced at Debbie who'd just entered the room.

  “Plus, if there's any problems with your solar light thingie, you'll be here to show me how it works.”

  “It should be automatic. Leave it in the sun all day and when it gets dark, the light will turn itself on. Really it's just a glorified version of those solar driveway lights. Gives better light though,” Rynn said.

  She winked at Todd since Debbie couldn't see her face.

  “Thank you for that,” Debbie said. “There aren't a lot of candles and they go fast. You're sure you can spare it?”

  “Oh yeah, the place we're going to, or more appropriately the guy who lives there, tinkers with this type of stuff all the time. I'm guessing he has a few himself. If not, I have two more we can use.”

  Rynn and the older students busied themselves making sure everything was ready to go when they left in the morning. When it got dark out the sun crystal did indeed start glowing. It gave off enough light that the entire living room was bright enough to read in. The younger students begged and pleaded until the playing cards came out and the evening was spent playing different card games.

  * * *

  In the morning they bid farewell to Debbie and Todd. Then they all went out to the car.

  “We're going to be a little cramped, but it sure beats walking,” Rynn said.

  Eugene and the two younger students got in back. Cindy, Rynn, and Andi crowded into the front.

  “Good thing it isn't a stick shift or I'd be sitting in someone's lap,” Cindy said.

  The car started on the first try and Andi backed out of the driveway. There were a few jerks and one almost stall before she got a feel for the car.

  “Wow, this thing is totally under-powered,” Andi said. “You were right though, it beats walking.”

  The fuel gauge read closer to a quarter tank than the half Debbie had claimed. Without knowing what kind of mileage the car got, Rynn had no idea how far they'd make it before they were back on foot, but after getting sidetracked for several days she'd take whatever extra distance they could manage.

  Two hours later the needle on the gauge hovered near empty. They'd just passed through what might have been a town, if a gas station, convenience store, and a few other small businesses with a single stoplight could be called a town. The gas station featured a hand lettered sign that read 'No Gas', so they hadn't even considered stopping.

  A few miles down the road from there, Andi slowed the car. Rynn glanced up and saw a pair of police cruisers parked nose to nose, blocking traffic in both directions.

  “Is that a roadblock?” Andi asked.

  “It looks like it,” Rynn said. “But why here, out in the middle of nowhere? I don't like this. Pull over to the side of the road and I'll check it out.”

  Rynn sent out a small portion of her consciousness towards the cars in the road. Just beyond them there were two men, not in police uniforms. They had rifles at their sides and were watching as Andi put the car in park.

  She rushed back to her body.

  “Turn around, it's a trap. Those might be police cars, but the men on the other side aren't police,” she said.

  Andi put the car in gear and gave it gas. The car was facing the other direction by the time they saw the pair of beat-up pickup trucks approaching. There was a truck in either lane. They slowed, swung out to the sides, then angled themselves so they were also nose to nose and blocking the road.

  “Rynn, what do we do? They've got us blocked in both directions,” Andi said.

  “For now just stop the car. I think it might be a good time for all of you to bring those self defense lessons I gave you to mind. They'll have guns, at least the two behind the police car did, but if they want to do anything other than shoot us they'll have to get close. If they start shooting, run out into the field. Find a ditch or somewhere else to hide and I'll see what I can do.”

  Rynn fingered the pistol in her pocket.

  Handgun against rifle. They've got the edge if it comes to shooting. So we'll have to make sure it doesn't come to that.

  The drivers of the pickup trucks got out and started walking down the road. They had rifles as well, but they were slung over their backs. A glance in the opposite direction revealed that the two men from behind the police cars were approaching also.

  “Just sit still and do as they say, at least to start,” Rynn said. “I'll let you know when you should defend yourselves. It will be more effective if we surprise them with it.”

  One of the men from the pickups twirled a finger. He had taken the rifle off his back and was holding it in his other hand. Rynn rolled down the window an inch.

  “All of you, out of the car,” he said.

  Rynn opened the door and slowly got out, then motioned for the children to do the same. As Cindy and Andi got out of the front, one of the men approaching from the police cars gave a wolf whistle. Rynn rolled her eyes.

  “Here's the situation,” the man who ordered them out of the car said. “This is our road now and if you want to use it, you need to pay a toll.”

  “We don't have much,” Rynn said.

  “I'm sure we can think of some way you can pay us,” he replied.

  The man gestured with his head and the other three men each grabbed one of the students. Randall and Sean were left alone for the moment, until the man talking to Rynn lunged and grabbed Sean.

  “Now, how do you want to pay? You can give us food, at least enough for the four of us, or we can extract payment in some other fashion.

  “Hell with that Frank, I'll just take this one. Screw the food, we got enough for a couple of weeks,” the man holding Andi said.

  The man had his rifle slung on his back and one hand on Andi's arm. His other hand reached for her stomach and started moving up.

  “Let them go!” a deep voice boomed out.

  Rynn looked around, trying to spot who'd said that. She noticed that the men were obeying the command, releasing their captives.

  “Now drop your weapons!” the same voice boomed.

  The sound of rifles hitting the ground was followed by a thump as Eugene crumpled onto the asphalt. Rynn resisted the very strong impulse to get her pistol out of her pocket and drop it.

  Not going to get a better chanc
e, she thought.

  “Now,” Rynn yelled.

  She spun to face the man who'd been holding Eugene. With the boy lying on the ground there was no-one to engage his former captor.

  Don't want to burn Eugene. Don't want to burn anyone if I have a choice.

  She charged the man. He was bent over, reaching for his rifle, when her kick took him in the jaw. Rynn heard the crack of bone as he went over backwards. He started to stand back up and drew a pistol from behind his back.

  Guess I don't have much choice, she thought.

  Rynn was now between the man and Eugene so she gestured forward and sent a torrent of flame from her hands. The pistol clattered to the ground as the man tried to beat the fire out. When that didn't work, he dropped to the ground and started rolling. The reek of burnt flesh filled the air, but Rynn kept her concentration on him.

  “Rynn, look out!” Andi screamed.

  Rynn turned, just in time to see the man who'd been holding Sean level his rifle at her. He pulled the trigger as she dove for the ground. A massive explosion left her ears ringing and she looked over and saw the man lying on the ground, the barrel of his rifle shredded and torn.

  A quick look around showed the man that had been holding Andi on all fours, his hands and legs trapped in the asphalt. Cindy was staring at the man that had been holding her. He was staring off into the distance, a blank look in his eyes.

  Rynn took a quick look at the man who'd just tried to shoot her. He was unconscious. Half of his face was already bruising up. A look at the rifle showed that the bolt had blown back into his cheek when the barrel exploded.

  She turned her concentration back to Eugene's former captor, ensuring that the flames continued to burn until he stopped moving. Then she turned her back on the sight. She swallowed, trying to remove the taste of bile from her mouth.

  “Cindy, are you okay?” Rynn asked.

  “Yes, holding him though.”

  “Need help?”

  “Please.”

  Rynn grabbed the man's rifle from the ground near him and made sure none of the other guns were within his reach.

  “Let him go,” she said.

  The man shook his head as if coming out of a daze. He looked around and his face paled.