by Kate Morris
“Professor,” Cory says in a playful tone, “you’d miss me too much if I didn’t come with you.”
“Like a damn kidney stone.”
Cory laughs loudly, earning a sneer from his friend. He pats Simon on the back and also leaves. They’ve had dinner, but Hannah and Sue have packed them food for the night. Sometimes a snack helps keep the mind fresh and frosty as those long, tedious hours between midnight and dawn drag on.
They load into the truck, now running efficiently on natural gas and leave, waving to the family as they pull away. Kelly drives while Simon rides shotgun and keeps watch out the window with his scope. Cory gets to sit in the back with Paige and also helps keep an eye on the roads through his binoculars. The sun has set completely, and it seems like it’s going to rain again tonight. Fall in Tennessee seems to bring a lot of rain. It sure didn’t rain much this summer when they’d needed it for the gardens. Apparently, mother nature has a sense of humor.
“Dave’s going to meet us and show you guys where he wants you,” Kelly says from the front seat.
“Sure thing,” Cory says agreeably. This is the first time he’s gone on one of these missions. He’s anxious to get involved in this. He wants these bastards dead for what they’ve done. “Where are you gonna be?”
“I’m taking the Professor to set up on the overpass,” he says. “We’ll stow the truck, run in, all of us. There’s a lot of broken down vehicles on the freeway. We holed up there the other night in the box trailer of a semi.”
“Where will we be?” Cory asks.
“Not sure. Dave’s got it scoped out, though,” Kelly says as he speeds along the back roads towards Nashville.
“I’d rather work with Paige,” Simon puts in as Cory knew he would.
“Cory’s better with her,” Kelly says.
Simon’s head whips to the side, and he glares at Kelly.
“Take it easy, bro,” Kelly pleads with a low chuckle. “I didn’t mean it that way, Professor. It’s just that she’s your sister. We don’t want you distracted.”
“And Cory won’t be?” he argues.
Kelly just laughs again. “She’s your sister. That’s a distraction. I’ve seen it in action.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“The other night when Pleasant View was attacked by these clowns? When Samantha and Paige were in it? You weren’t acting like you normally do in a battle. You were emotional and all over the place and making bad decisions. It means you’re too involved. Until you can control your emotional side on a mission with your sister, she pairs up with Cory.”
Simon growls and turns his attention back out the window. He mumbles something under his breath that Cory is pretty sure is not a compliment of his brother. Instead of arguing with Simon or trying to make him see reason, Cory smiles at her and resumes watching out the window.
They make small talk the rest of the ride and meet with Dave at the BB King restaurant like they always do. He has brought with him plenty of men and also Sam, who hops out of Henry’s truck, surprising Cory.
“Hey, kiddo,” Cory greets her and gives Sam a one-armed hug.
“Hi, Cory,” she says with a bright smile and then hugs Paige.
She does not offer one to Simon. He looks rejected.
Cory asks, “What are you doing here?”
“Same as you,” she answers with pluck and walks away to join Henry with two of his friends.
Simon takes a malevolent step toward them, his eyes zeroed in on Henry, but Cory braces him with a firm hand on Simon’s shoulder. “Take it easy, man. For tonight, we’re on the same team, remember?”
Simon storms away angrily, and Cory is left to wonder if his friend will touch off a spark that will start World War III with the highwaymen just to end this so that he can have a go at Henry, who seems like a nice guy to Cory. Could be some friendly fire action happening tonight between those two. However, if someone was making such a serious play for Paige, he’d want them dead, too.
“I’ll go and talk to him,” Paige says and jogs after her brother.
They have a strategy session with Dave, who assigns him to the top of a movie theater very close to the Gaylord. He worries about taking Paige to a location that would put her in danger, but Dave assures him that it’s abandoned and not occupied by the highwaymen. During most of the meeting, Simon sends stares containing various degrees of contempt toward Henry, who seems to be picking up on it and even offers one back. Cory lightly nudges his friend in the arm, which does the trick because he calms down.
Sam gets assigned to Henry and his friends, which also seems to piss off Simon. Cory is glad for the assignment, though, as they’ll be stationed behind the Gaylord in a Catholic church. It is well-built and solid brick but closer to the hotel than any other spot. He knows Dave would never put any of the women in danger, so both locations where the girls are going to be stationed will be the safest tonight. Cory wishes he was going to be somewhere that he’d see some action. So far, nobody has. He’s getting sick of this spy shit. He wants blood. He knows John feels the same way.
Dave points to various locations on the map and says, “This is the bridge where Kelly’s going to be tonight. I’ll be south of him on the other bridge, here. We’ll be moving around, my team. Try not to plink any of us.”
“Don’t tempt us,” Kelly razzes, getting a smile from Dave.
“Cory, I may have you and Paige do some maneuvers tonight, too,” he adds. “Are you up for that?”
“Yes, sir,” he answers and looks at Paige who offers a firm nod.
“I’ll let you know. Keep your mics open,” he says and looks at the rest of the group. “John, Derek and I were looking this area over the other day on the aerial map I’ve got. When we get closer to making our move, we’re gonna blow these two fucking bridges. Those are their main points of ingress and egress. They seem to be using them to move in and out of their compound every time they leave and come back. When it’s time, we’ll corner them like the fucking rats they are. We’ll close off their exit. We’ll cut off their reinforcements.”
“Great,” Cory says. “When are we doing this?”
Dave laughs, “Easy, Cor. We’re still in the fucking planning phase, eager beaver. Man, you woulda’ made a good D-boy. Fuckin’ killer.”
He shrugs with a smile, “I just want this over, sir. Whatever way we can make that happen sooner, doesn’t matter to me.”
“Hang in there, Death Stalker. We’ll get you your war soon enough. First, we’re going to whittle their numbers down a little bit.”
“Good,” Cory says and punches his fist against Dave’s.
Some of them pile into the back of Henry’s truck while others go with Kelly and Dave and ride closer to the Gaylord. Kelly, Simon, and Dave will go at their position from the north, and they’ll come in from the south. When they get within a mile or so, they ditch the truck at the Two Rivers Golf Course.
“Be safe,” he says to Henry and Sam. She smiles and nods.
They disperse, and Cory takes Paige with him while the others go in their own directions. He knows where he’s going, at least the general direction, but he is taking her very close to the hornets’ nest. They pass a mall, a rather large, three-story structure with vinery growing up the sides of the building. The parking lot has flooded the abandoned cars there many times over because they are covered with vinery, mud, and mold. The Cumberland River runs through this area, so he’s not sure how the Gaylord was spared from flooding.
“There it is,” she whispers as they jog slowly, staying close to the mall’s front façade to add protection.
Cory pulls her to a nearby wall and stops. “Let’s go at this carefully. I know Dave said it was empty, but this is really close to those bastards. I don’t like it.”
“It’s a big complex,” she adds.
“Yeah,” Cory agrees.
She’s right. It is a large complex, one of the new, hip movie theaters that included a full arcade boasting ga
ming for adults and kids, a laser tag course, an ice-cream shop, usually more than one restaurant and bar, roller-skating rink, coffee shop, and even sometimes a spa where women could get their nails done. The failing movie industry realized they needed to bring in money in other ways, as well, so they super-sized their facilities to draw in more patrons. In Cory’s opinion, all they had to do was make better movies like the old westerns with Clint Eastwood and John Wayne. Those were the best.
The heavy rains have caused a lot of flooding in the area, and his boots splash through deep puddles. He’s glad she has the waterproof boots on that he found for her. Next, they pass what looks to have been an aquarium next to a two-story restaurant. The movie theater is just after that, and they pause before trying to get in.
The back door of the theater near the old, faded dumpsters is stuck closed or locked from the inside. They will have to go around and find another entrance.
Winds whip between the buildings, which worries Cory that Paige will get sick. The temperature must’ve dropped to the low fifties, and the starless sky hints of more rain to come. He doesn’t want her out in a cold rain.
“Cory, over there!” she whispers and points to a new door.
He jogs over and pries at it. Still nothing. “Damn it,” he swears under his breath. Kicking it in is not an option when he needs to move around quietly. “Come on, Paige.”
He leads her toward the front of the building. There is another door near the corner of the structure, so he tries it next. With luck, it opens but makes a lot of noise on its rusty, unoiled hinges as he shoves inward. He takes a fast look inside and ushers her in. Cory doesn’t want to spend any more time outside exposed if he can help it, especially not with Paige tagging along tonight.
“Let’s head for the roof and see if it’s still sturdy,” he says to her and gets a nod.
“Yeah, hope it is,” she says.
Cory pulls the door shut and shoves hard to engage the deadbolt lock to prevent anyone else from coming in behind them. Then they make their way slowly through the first floor of the theater. The building has survived surprisingly better than some of the others he’s been in. There isn’t the typical black mold crawling the walls, and the carpeting is still intact and doesn’t look wet or damp. The snack bar was clearly raided years ago, and the glass of the display counter, meant to entice sugar addicts, is smashed to bits. The coffee shop across the wide foyer is also trashed.
He moves on toward the entrance to the gaming center, noting that most of the visible game machines in that massive space are also looted and destroyed. They keep going and pass a hallway that leads to the movie theater rooms, or so the faded sign would indicate. Another sign gives directions going the opposite way toward the bar.
“Over there,” she says, pointing to their right in a dark corner. “There’s an exit door.”
“Maybe,” he agrees with a nod and moves that way.
Paige is right again; it’s a service access stairwell, so he goes through first. The hallway and stairs are covered in cobwebs and paper litter. He pulls out a flashlight and leads the way.
“Careful,” he warns and steps over a box. Behind him, Paige walks around it.
They travel up to the top floor and come out to a long hallway. He can see over the balcony the rock climbing wall that reaches to the ceiling of the three-floor building. There is an entrance at one end of the hall to a restaurant that boasts a waterfall and live shows with drummers and Hawaiian fire dancers.
“How do we get to the roof?” she asks, looking around.
Cory is more concerned that they are still alone and nobody is in the facility with them. He spots another shorter hallway and leads the way. It dead-ends with a door that states it is only for employees to use.
“This has to be it,” he says and pushes the door, which opens more easily than the outside door. “Come on.”
She follows silently behind him as Cory climbs the stairs to the next floor, which seems to be the last. He has to shove the door hard to get it to budge enough for them to slip through.
“Paige, wait,” he says and grabs her arm as she tries to walk ahead of him.
“We need to go slow, make sure the roof is still stable,” he warns.
“Right. Don’t want to fall through a floor or something crazy like that,” she reminds him with a soft chuff, which he does not return because he does not like remembering that day at the college.
He flicks off the flashlight, “Use your goggles. No flashlights. They could draw attention to us up here.”
They make it to the other side of the rooftop without problems, and Cory tells her where to kneel in position right next to where he’ll be in order to spy on the highwaymen in the Gaylord. Then he leaves her and inspects the rest of the roof in case he needs to jog to another area of it throughout the night. When he rejoins her, she has their equipment out and set up.
“See anything yet?” he inquires and squats behind the knee wall with her.
“Yeah, men. They look like guards or something. Not sure,” she says and moves away from the infrared night-vision telescope on the tripod. “See over there?”
He searches where she’s pointing and then looks through the telescope in that direction. “Yeah. Oh, yeah,” he says thoughtfully. “Moving around like rodent vampires. I see…four…no, wait…six.”
“That’s about how many I counted.”
There are men posted as guards near the driveway into the Gaylord. They pace back and forth there and walk a long perimeter until they circle half the building. Cory twists the telescope to his right and sees the same amount of men guarding the back of the facility doing the perimeter checks on that side. It angers him. He wants them to be bumbling buffoons who aren’t prepared for a fight. This is organized preparedness. Either way, he wants them dead.
“Cory, over there,” she taps his shoulder and points. “Three vehicles going in.”
“Got it,” he says and swings the telescope back. There are, indeed, three vehicles, two trucks and a car pulling past the guards. They slow down but are admitted entrance into the compound.
“They’re driving up to the front doors.”
“Yeah,” he agrees as he watches.
Many men jump out of the trucks and begin unloading freight and boxes of supplies. They even remove crates from the trunk of the sedan. Again, like everything else they’ve seen or heard from these men’s victims, the vehicles are like brand new, which lets him know that the car dealer looted his own lots before they were looted for him after the fall began.
“Women,” he says to her. “And more men. They’re coming out of the hotel to help bring in the loot.”
She peers through the night-vision binoculars, which don’t pick things up in such great detail. “I see.”
“And…yep, looks like a few kids, too,” he says.
“Laborers,” Paige adds.
“The men who just came in must consider themselves the hunter-gatherers.”
She scoffs, “Yeah, right. The only thing these jerks hunt are people, more victims, and steal their crap.”
“Not for long,” Cory promises.
“That’s what scares me,” she admits softly.
Cory stops to look at her and watches fear begin to take hold in her moonlit eyes. “Don’t be scared. Not for us. You should be scared for those ass clowns down there.”
Her lopsided grin lets him know that she feels better. He presses his throat mic and shares their intel with the others.
“Yeah, those shitheads seem to come back from the day shift at the Looting Express,” Dave states in his ear, “and then the next crew of fucknuts goes out on the old midnight shift for a merry evening of plundering the villagers.”
“Roger,” Cory says and cuts the transmission.
“I think he’s right,” she says. “Look there, Cory.”
He nods and peers through his scope. “There they go.”
“We’ll apprehend and eliminate once they get out two cl
icks,” Dave tells them.
“Need a couple ride-alongs?” Kelly offers his services.
“Sure thing, big guy,” Dave says. “Death Stalker and Red, hold down the fort for us. We’ll be back for the second half. We’re takin’ an intermission.”
“Ten-four on that,” Cory tells them.
“Dave said that he’s had men on this stakeout every hour of the day,” Paige remarks beside him. “That’s gotta be hard on his camp.”
“Nah,” he says. “He’s got the manpower. Plus, we need to study their patterns. That’s how he knows they’re sending out day shifts and night shifts to do their dirty deeds.”
They hang out and spy on the comings and goings of the settlement, which is sparse at this hour. There is lighting inside the big complex, dim and probably from candles and oil lamps. Their prisoner told them that the place has electricity, but the other rooftop does not boast solar panels. His curiosity about the place is piqued. He’d like to know how they have electricity working and in what sections. Apparently, they only use it sparingly because the tell-tale orange glow coming from inside definitely seems like candles and fires, maybe wood-burning stoves they’ve rigged up.
“Have you given it any thought, Red?” he inquires as he looks through the telescope.
“I’m not at liberty right now in our lives to even consider your offer,” she answers, knowing full well what he means. “You know that. Simon needs time to adjust.”
“You’re not using your brother as an excuse, are you?”
She clears her voice uncomfortably and lies, “Um, no.”
“Somehow, I think you might not be telling the truth, sweetheart,” he points out.
“I did have fun the other night with you, though,” she says and touches his arm gently.
Cory foregoes caution since they are alone and slips an arm around her waist and pulls her forward for a kiss. She doesn’t protest or pull away. He likes this more agreeable Paige. He was tired of her pushing him away and denying their relationship. She’s not exactly singing it from the rooftops yet, but at least she isn’t rejecting him. He hadn’t technically promised Herb not to fool around out of wedlock on his farm, but Cory understood that was what the McClane patriarch was hinting at during their private conversation about her. However, not being able to at least spend time with her the other night was not an option, either. His longing for her company had been making him desperate. It had been so long, too long since he’d held her, touched her, even spoken to her privately. Although it wasn’t sex, he was still very appreciative of the visit.