by Stalter, D
Riley slowly laid down in the ditch and sighted down the long barrel. Megan lay beside him and aimed at the man standing next to the car.
“Will is too close to my line of sight to the guy,” she said in Riley’s ear.
“Don’t shoot until Will is clear,” he said softly. “Take a look at the back-passenger window.”
Megan adjusted her focus and saw the barrel of a rifle slowly easing out of the window. “I’ve got a shot at this one.”
“Okay. Get ready to take it. I’ll tell you when.”
“You want to know what your biggest mistake was?” Will called out to the guy.
“What?”
“My name’s not James.”
“Now!” yelled Riley.
Megan’s shot took out the wind shield. She took a second shot and was rewarded with a scream.
Instead of jumping into the closest ditch, Will took three long strides and flung himself into the ditch on the far side.
Another shot tore through the night as Will took out the driver of the car who had been standing with his mouth open.
“Possibly a third guy in the car,” Riley said into the radio.
“I’ll take the driver’s side.”
Riley didn’t bother to keep his voice low. “Stay behind me. And don’t shoot me.” He scurried through the ditch towards the car. When he was five feet in front of the car, he exited the ditch slowly. Megan went just behind him.
Riley looked at Will who nodded and they both slowly crept towards the car. Yanking the doors open, Riley stepped back. “Well, that was lucky.”
“What?” Megan asked, stepping up behind him.
“That first shot of yours that went through the windshield and took out the guy in the front passenger seat.”
“Really?” She stepped up beside him and quickly stepped back gagging.
“Hey.” Riley put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I know how hard the first time can be. Are you okay?” He pulled her close and held her. She relaxed into his chest, her breath coming in gasps, until she pushed away and looked up at him.
“Is it always this hard?” she asked. “I feel like I’m the one to blame. I know I had to do it to protect our group, but I keep thinking there should be another way to do it where people don’t have to die.”
“What you are feeling is normal. To be honest, this feeling doesn’t ever go completely away. If you are forced to kill another bad guy, you’ll still have those questions running through your head, but you understand that you did what you had to do. You allow yourself to feel a little remorse and then you move on.”
He put his hand to the ear bud and then looked down at her again. “That was base. They are sending some guys out to help clean this up. I want you to go on back to base now. I promise you will feel better in the morning. We’ll talk then.”
She nodded.
In the light of the full moon, Riley watched as she passed several men coming from the bunkhouse. She lifted a hand as she passed them. They turned to ask her something. She kept walking, head down, ignoring them.
When she was almost to the bunkhouse, Allison emerged with Kim. They appeared to be arguing with Allison holding onto Kim’s wrist and pulling her towards the scene of the attack.
The group from the bunkhouse reached Riley and he asked them to help Will while he waited for Allison and Kim.
Will had pulled the man from the front passenger seat and dragged him next to his dead friend. He’d left the bodies in the middle of the road and stacked their weapons to the side.
When the group from the bunkhouse arrived, Will was sitting in the back seat with the man who had been inching the rifle out. The man was more of a boy. About seventeen. Skinny. The dark t-shirt he wore hung off his shoulders – at least 2 sizes too big. The side of his neck was ripped open by a bullet wound.
“Just take his arms and pull him out. He ain’t gone yet, but he’s pretty close. I see Allison is bringing that new girl. I want her to identify these jerks.”
“Did ya get anything out of him?” One of the guys from the bunkhouse was pulling on the guy’s arms while Will shoved from the back seat.
“He said that she shouldn’t have stolen the clothes. They wouldn’t have come after her if she hadn’t taken the clothes. They can’t replace them. Then he just said ‘help me’ over and over. There ain’t no help for him. He isn’t going to make it. It’s too bad. He doesn’t look like a hard-core guy. He was probably just following along.”
Allison and Kim reached the group as they were laying the kid out next to his dead friends.
“Tell me who they are,” Allison said. “Are these guys the ones you were staying with?”
Kim stood with her head down. Her dark hair hung down over her face. Her body shook. She took huge gulps of air causing her shoulders to heave.
The near-death kid opened his eyes and looked at her. He blinked once and then grinned, his teeth stained red with blood.
Kim took one step back, and then in a move an NFL punt kicker would be proud of, she kicked his head. It snapped away from her foot and a gush of air whooshed out. The head ended up laying at a ninety-degree angle to the body, the eyes staring blankly at Kim.
Kim slipped on the bloody gore covering the road and landed on her butt next to the bodies of the first two men. She whimpered like a puppy. The whimper turned to a moan. The moan turned to a scream.
Riley stepped over and scooped her into his arms. Her legs and back were covered in the sticky, red mess. He turned towards the bunkhouse calling over his shoulder, “Allison, run ahead and start getting the tub ready.”
When Riley stepped in to the barn, Kim screams had stopped. She still whimpered. Riley spoke in a low soothing voice. “It’s all okay,” he said. “They can’t hurt you now.”
The metal water trough that was used for baths sat in the middle of the tack room. Clean towels hung on bars above the tub. A chair sat next to the tub. He sat Kim on the chair.
Allison stepped in carrying a bucket of steaming water. Riley took it from her and said, “I’ll take care of the water. You take care of her. Hang the curtain and as I get each bucket of warm water, I’ll just open the door and set it here for you to add.”
Allison narrowed her eyes but nodded.
Forty-five minutes later, Allison emerged from the tack room with Kim. Kim’s eyes stared blankly but she was moving on her own.
The bunkhouse was quiet. All doors to the bedrooms were closed. Riley and Megan sat at the table next to the stove. He was holding her hand and stroking her hair. When Allison and Kim entered, he leaned over and whispered something in her ear. Megan nodded and stood.
Riley stood with her and gave her a hug before she turned and climbed the stairs that led to her room. Riley watched her go and then turned to Allison.
“Bring her over here by the stove,” he said. He picked up the coffee mug Megan had been using and placed it in a plastic tub next to the sink. Then he pulled two more mugs from the shelf above the counter, sprinkled a dark powder into each and filled them with warm milk from the pan on the stove.
He set the mugs in front of Allison and Kim. Allison took a sip.
“Where did you possibly find cocoa?” she asked.
“Your friend Don is a handy guy. He brought a case of it a couple days ago. I stuck it in the pantry and forgot about it til now.”
He studied Kim before turning back to Allison. “Did she recognize those guys?”
“I’m right here,” Kim said. “I can talk.”
She raised her head and looked directly at Riley. Her green eyes flashed. “Yes. I recognized them. The heavier guy was Dutch. He was the father. The guy in the green jacket was Booger. I don’t know his real name. That’s all they ever called him. And the youngest one was Dillon. He was the worst.”
“What do you mean ‘the worst’?” Allison asked. “Were these the people you stayed with for the last two months?”
“I was o
nly with them for a little over a month.” Kim took a sip of cocoa. She used the back of her hand to wipe the chocolate off her top lip. “I was traveling with my friend Bridget, and her boyfriend, Dean, when those guys attacked us. They killed Dean right away. They grabbed me and Bridget and Kelly and took us back to their house. Bridget fought with them and they killed her. Just pointed a gun at her head and pulled the trigger.”
She lifted her hands to her face and rubbed her eyes. “They killed her. Right in front of me and Kelly. Then they asked me if I wanted to fight too.”
She looked back and forth between Riley and Allison. “If I hadn’t gone along with them, they would have killed me and then Kelly would have been alone with them. So, I told them I’d do whatever they wanted. What they wanted was someone to wear Victoria’s Secret and be ready and willing any time they wanted.”
Allison felt the hairs on the back of her neck stiffen. Her heart lurched at the thought of what Kim had been through. She leaned forward and took Kim’s hand. “Oh, Kim!”
Kim yanked her hand out of Allison’s and wrapped it around her mug. Her shoulders hunched as she bent over the cocoa breathing in the sweet chocolate. When she raised her head to look at Allison, her eyes were hard.
“You would have done the exact same thing, Allison,” she snapped.
Allison drew back, her mouth hung open. “I’m sure I would have,” she stuttered.
“Stop judging me. You know you would have.”
Riley drained the remainder of his cocoa before setting the mug on the table. He leaned forward. He clasped his hands together and he spoke softly. “Kim, can you tell me how those guys knew where Allison lived?”
She jerked her head and stared at the stove. “I don’t know.”
“Did you tell them about Allison?”
“No!”
“Kim,” he said.
She slowly turned her head to face him. Her jaw was set, her eyes narrowed.
He lifted his hand and pointed at her. “They knew Allison’s name. They knew James’ name. They knew that Allison made medicine with herbs. The only way they could have known all that was if someone told them.”
A tear trickled down her cheek. “I don’t remember telling them about Allison.”
“But you must have. Is there anything else you might have told them that could cause more trouble?”
“No!”
“Think hard. Think back to when this all started. Did you tell anybody else about your friend Allison and the fact that she could make medicine?”
Kim’s forehead wrinkled in thought. She inhaled sharply and turned to Allison.
“Your sister,” she said.
“Abby?” Allison felt the air leave her lungs. “You talked to Abby? How?”
Chapter 3 Allison
Kim grinned. “She’s working in the kitchen at the Army Reserve Center in Davenport, Iowa. Her husband is a reservist there.”
“Her husband? Abby isn’t married.”
“She is now.” Kim looked down at her manicured hands before looking back up at Allison. “She gave me a letter to give to you, but those jerks burned it with my clothes.”
Allison leaned forward. “Tell me everything.”
Riley held up his hand. “If you have this under control, its almost shift change. I’d like to catch Will before he goes to bed and go over what happened here tonight. There may be some changes we need to make in our security details.”
Allison nodded. “We’ve got this. Tell Will I truly appreciate his actions tonight.” She turned back to Kim. “I want to hear everything.”
Kim scratched the inside of her wrist. “Well, we were staying in Iowa City…”
“I thought you were living in Cedar Rapids.”
“Well, yeah. We were but there was this guy…”
Allison bit her tongue. There was always a guy with Kim, she thought.
“The guy was a friend of Dean’s. Bridget wanted me to hook up with him so that we could be best friends and our boyfriends could be best friends. It would have been cool. Except that Dean’s friend was a jerk.” Her voice faded and she paused.
“Anyway,” she leaned forward, “Iowa City is a college town and they have the coolest stores. Me and Bridget decided to run to a couple of stores down the block and then we’d take off and head back to Cedar Rapids. Dean was going to watch Kelly while we went shopping.
“While we were shopping, the power went out. It wasn’t bad at first. But, by the time we got back to Dean’s friend’s house – and that was only about an hour – people were going bonkers. Some cars were sitting dead in the middle of the street. Other cars were racing. They were wrecking into cars on purpose. Have you ever seen a Demolition Derby?”
Allison nodded.
“Well, that’s exactly what it looked like. We got back to the house and packed our shit. But, when we went to leave, Dean’s car wouldn’t start. So, we were standing there wondering what to do when an old lady pulled up and asked us why we had a little kid out in this mayhem.
“We told her that we wanted to get home to Cedar Rapids but our car wouldn’t start. She said that Cedar Rapids wasn’t a good place to be and offered to take us to Davenport. Bridget is from Davenport, and had family there, so we climbed in and headed to Davenport.
“The lady dropped us off a block from Bridget’s parents’ house but when we got to her parents’ house, the front door was wide open and there were some mean looking guys standing outside. The other houses on the block looked the same way. Doors were open and some houses had furniture flung all over the yards. One of the guys looked at us and pointed. We took off running.
“We only had to run about three blocks. There was a four-lane street called Division. There was a huge brick building surrounded by really high fence. Army guys were inside the fence and when they saw those guys chasing us, they pointed their guns at the guys and then let us in the gate.”
She held out her mug. “Can I have a little more?”
Allison took the mug from her outstretched hand and moved to the stove. There was enough cocoa left to fill Kim’s mug. Rather than taking the time to make more for herself, she returned to the table and handed the cocoa to Kim.
“So, you ended up at the Army Reserve center on Division Street and Abby was there?” she asked.
“Yeah. They took us to the dining room. They said that if we had somewhere to go in Davenport, they’d make sure we got there safely. If not, then the FEMA guys would take us in the next time they came.
“A lady came out of the kitchen with a tray of sandwiches and drinks. I thought it was you. I jumped up and ran over. I said, ‘Allison. I’m so happy to see you!’ She looked at me like she’d seen a ghost. She told me that she had a sister named Allison that lived in Princeton and I told her that we were best friends and I was heading to Princeton to stay with you.”
Allison held up her hand. “So, you saw my sister, thought she was me, and then decided to come here?”
“Well, yeah. We didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
Allison sighed. “Okay. Tell me how my sister is married.”
Kim took another drink. “I just know this is gonna give me the runs later, but it’s so good that I don’t even care.
“Okay. I asked Abby if she wanted to join us but she said she’d rather stay in Davenport and help. She does plan on coming here when things settle down.
“We stayed at the Reserve Center for almost a week. We didn’t have to go with FEMA when they came because we had somewhere to go. The boss guy at the Reserve Center had a truck going to Geneseo in a few days. They promised to get us that far.
“So, I had a couple days to talk to Abby and she wrote a letter for me to give to you – but those jerks burned it.
“Anyway… Abby said that the day of the solar flare this guy had asked her on a date. His name was Josh. But the flare happened before the date. She was at home and didn’t know what to do. She was thinking about getting in the car and driving over here but Jos
h came and rang her doorbell. He said that he’d been called in – he was an Army Reservist. He asked if she would be Okay or if she wanted to come to the Army Reserve Center with him.
“She went with him, but when they got there, the rule was immediate family only. Josh told the guard that Abby was his fiancé but the guard said that unless they were married, Abby couldn’t come in. Josh asked him to call the Commander. I guess the Commander and Josh were friends. And, well, in the end they let Abby in but three days later they held a wedding ceremony so now she’s married.
Allison sucked in her breath. “Married on a first date? That sure doesn’t sound like my sister. She always swore she’d never get married.”
“Yeah, well get this… she loves being married. Her and Josh are so cute together. I think they both got lucky.”
Kim finished her cocoa and set the mug on the table. “She plans on bringing Josh to meet you when this all settles down.”
“She told you that?”
“No. It was in the letter.”
“You read the letter to me?”
Kim had the grace to look embarrassed. “I was bored.”
Chapter 4 Riley
The blustery wind caused Riley to turn his coat collar up. The sun was up but hadn’t yet warmed the cool autumn air. He knelt behind a fallen oak at the edge of a stand of trees three miles east of the bunkhouse. Will sat with his back to the same fallen tree. They were surveilling a farm that Don had asked them to check.
“The farm belongs to Bill Hayson but Bill and his wife live in Florida. I’m positive they were in Florida when the flare hit. But it appears that someone is living there,” Don had told them.
So now, here they were, huddled behind a fallen tree, freezing their butts off waiting for movement. The house sat in a clearing at the end of a long driveway. The fallen oak they settled behind was a mere fifteen feet off the driveway, about 50 feet from the house.