by Dave Bowman
“Yeah. And so far, I haven’t seen anything. I just hope we’re headed in the right direction.”
Nick came to a patch of mud a few moments later. He froze and waved Jessa over.
“This is a new print. They must’ve come through here just an hour or two ago,” Nick said.
“And that’s definitely Mia’s shoe size.”
They continued on, veering to the left as Mia’s footprint led them. They stopped talking, communicating with hand signals to keep quiet. But after the footprint, there were no more clues to lead them. They had no idea if they were on the right track or not.
The more time passed, the more impossible it seemed to find them. The woods were endless, and they were looking for a needle in a haystack. The kidnapper could have led them in a zigzag or a loop to try to throw off anyone tracking them. For all they knew, they could be going in completely the wrong direction.
Nothing to do but keep going. Stay alert. The forest is a canvas. Look for anything out of place.
Jessa got Nick’s attention with a wave from her spot several feet to the right.
He walked over to her location and looked at where she was pointing. It was a broken twig. The snapped half bent to the right.
Jessa kneeled in front of it. “It’s a new break,” she whispered. “The wood is wet. Not enough time to dry it. I think we should veer to the right in the direction this is pointing.”
“It could have been an animal,” Nick muttered.
He looked around. It was a weak clue. They could follow it and lead themselves in a completely wrong direction. But they had to take the risk.
“Let’s follow it. It’s the only sign we’ve had in a while,” he whispered.
Jessa nodded and continued to the right.
Nick ignored his growling stomach. Traveling over the rugged terrain made him even hungrier, but he pushed on. Mia and Bethany were in trouble, and he couldn’t waste a moment in finding them.
A few yards ahead, Nick noticed the pine needles had been tousled about on the ground in two separate places.
Like two people walking side by side.
He continued forward. They had to be on the right track.
They scaled another hill and looked around. The woods stretched out before them and there was nothing out of the ordinary. His chest began to tighten. It was taking too long to find them. Something terrible could have already happened.
He stepped over a rotten log on the ground. Something shimmering in the dappled sunlight that filtered through to the forest floor caught his eye. He bent down to pick it up.
It was a long, curly strand of brown hair. Undoubtedly Bethany’s hair.
Seeing her hair gave him the motivation to push forward more quickly. He charged ahead, his eyes taking in as much information as possible. Using the full spectrum of his range of vision, he scoured the forest floor while staying aware of what lay ahead.
His vision became fine-tuned. The forest began to light up with evidence. Some kicked up dirt here, a break in the carpet of pine needles there, another few twigs snapped off to the side. Nick picked up his speed. Jessa walked by his side now, both of them focused on the trail they had found.
Finally, he noticed that Jessa froze. She turned to him with big eyes and pointed at her ear.
Listen.
Nick stopped. The sound came again, and he could barely make it out. It was a muffled scream in the distance.
Jessa and Nick charged forward silently in the direction of the screams, clutching their rifles. A cabin came into view, and they paused to survey the scene.
Mia and Bethany were in that cabin.
Nick motioned for Jessa to go around to the rear of the house. She kept a wide berth around the cabin as she crept through the woods.
Nick moved forward, drawing closer to the house. Bethany’s screams were bloodcurdling.
God only knows what’s happening inside there.
Nick paused behind a large tree, just a few yards from the front door. The view through the window gave little information about the interior. It looked dark inside, and he could only make out some vague furnishings in the front room.
He wanted to kick in the front door immediately, to go in and save his friends. But he had to be smart about this. He had no idea how many people were inside or how many guns they had.
Nick skirted around the side of the house in the opposite direction Jessa had gone. There were no windows on the side wall.
He met Jessa as she waited behind a large aspen.
“Any doors on the far side of the house?” he whispered.
She shook her head. “Just one window back here and one on the other side.”
Nick strained to look in the window, but this one was also too dark to see much.
“I’m going through the front door,” Nick said. “Keep your eye on this window. Hold your fire until you’re absolutely sure of your target.”
Jessa nodded. Nick turned and disappeared around the corner of the house.
He tried to steady his breathing as he approached the front door.
He prepared himself for the worst. What if there were five guys behind the door? How could he take them all on?
Or what if he was too late?
Whatever happened, he had to succeed. He had to get Bethany and Mia to safety.
This was the time to move. He had to act before the doubt took hold.
He broke out of the cover of the forest, running straight ahead toward the front door. Stopping a few feet from the door, he drove his back foot into the ground. With his other foot, he kicked the door next to the deadbolt.
The lock broke. The door swung open.
He drew his Glock from its holster and charged in. He stood in the entrance of the room for a split second, looking around.
The front room was empty. But Nick could hear Bethany struggling in a back room.
“It’s over!” Nick shouted. “Let them go!”
“Nick!”
It was Mia’s voice. She was in the closet. Nick took a few steps toward the door, but then he stopped.
A crazed looking man emerged from the back room clenching Bethany in his arms with a pistol against her head. She looked terrified, her eyes round and panicked as she stared at Nick and was led out of the room.
“Be careful, he’s crazy,” she said.
Nick looked the man over. The man holding Bethany hostage was clearly unstable. His eyes moved wildly about the room. His hands shook.
“Is there anyone else besides him?” Nick asked.
Bethany shook her head. The man held her more tightly.
“Just let go of her,” Nick said slowly. “Let them both go, and no one gets hurt.”
“I’ll never let you take my son,” the man said, his speech agitated and rapid. “She’s carrying my baby, and he belongs to me. You can have her back after the baby is born.”
My son?
Nick tried to keep his voice steady and calm. “Her baby’s not ready to be born yet. We have to keep Bethany nice and safe so her baby can be born healthy.”
The man squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head violently.
“Stop calling her that! Her name is Judy! And you don’t know anything about her or my son! She was supposed to be my wife. But she was bad. And now I have to start all over again.”
Nick nodded his head in understanding.
A man in a breakdown like this is unpredictable. He could be capable of anything.
“I understand,” Nick said slowly, his gun still raised at the man. “But why don’t you let Mia go? She’s not involved in this. You don’t need her.”
“Her name is Suzy. And I do need her! I need her to help take care of the baby.”
His hand began to shake more violently.
“Just put your gun down,” Nick said. “Just set it down and all this will be over.”
“So you can take them from me? You’re not getting your hands on either one of them,” the man hissed. “I’d rather shoot t
hem both than let you have them.”
He looked Nick up and down, scowling.
“You don’t understand anything,” the man said.
“Well, I guess we have a problem here,” Nick said evenly. “Because if you shoot either of them, I’ll have to shoot you.”
The man narrowed his eyes. “I’m not letting them out of here alive. Either they stay with me, or I kill them.”
“But there’s something you don’t know about,” Nick said.
The man squinted. “What’s that?”
“I’ve got the house surrounded. And my friend has a short temper. If you shoot anyone, she’ll come in here and put a bullet in your head. You’ll never get out of here alive.”
The man grunted. “I’m done talking to you.”
He flipped the safety off and moved his finger to the trigger.
“No!” Bethany screamed.
She threw her body against the man’s outstretched arms. Her shoulder knocked up against him, pushing his arm in a wide arc to the side. He fired and hit the window behind Nick.
Bethany continued in her forward trajectory, falling to the floor.
Just before the man could fire again, Nick aimed at the man’s shoulder and pulled the trigger. The man groaned and fell to the floor, toppling backward and groaning in agony.
Nick picked up the pistol the man had dropped and made sure he had no other weapons on him. Then he turned to Bethany. She had fallen on her side, with her hands still tied behind her.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he untied her.
She grimaced in pain, but nodded.
“Go get Mia,” she said.
Nick helped Bethany to her feet, then rushed to the closet. He opened the door to find Mia crouched down and crying.
“It’s all over,” he said to her soothingly. He untied her hands and looked her over.
“Did he hurt you?”
Mia shook her head. “No, but he was going to. He – he was going to kill both of us.”
Her voice trailed off and she broke into tears again. Nick lifted her up and carried her across the room. She trembled in his arms.
“I’m so sorry, Mia,” Nick said. “You’re safe now. I’m never going to let anyone hurt you.”
Jessa appeared in the doorway, breathless. She took in the scene quickly.
“Is anyone hurt?” she asked.
“Bethany fell,” Nick said. “But I think she’s okay.”
They turned to Bethany, who had picked up the man’s pistol while Nick was at the closet. She now lifted her arms, revealing the gun she clenched in her hands.
“Bethany, wait –” Jessa began.
The man, who lay bleeding but still conscious on the floor, looked up at Bethany. His eyes suddenly went large as he saw Bethany looming over him. He stared at the gun and shook his head. He was filled with terror.
“No, Judy, don’t! I didn’t mean to hurt –”
Bethany pulled the trigger.
He stopped talking. In a moment, his body became still and lifeless.
Bethany lowered the gun and let her arm hang at her side. She stood for several moments, watching him bleed.
Jessa approached her slowly, reaching for the gun and taking it from her. Bethany let go of it without resistance.
“It’s over now,” Jessa said. She switched the safety on and slipped it in her waistband. “Why don’t you come sit down and rest, Bethany?”
She tried to lead Bethany over to a chair, but Bethany refused.
“No! I don’t want to be in this house anymore.”
They watched as she walked out the front door slowly and started to the woods.
“Go stay with her out there,” Nick said. “Make sure she doesn’t run off. I’ll just be a few minutes. We can’t leave here without taking some food.”
He set Mia down on her feet.
“Go wait outside with Jessa,” he told her quietly.
She looked up at Nick. “There are some things I need to get. He –”
She broke off and looked at the man lying on the floor. Then her eyes darted away.
“He was a scientist and he studied the Hosta virus. His notes are priceless. I – I think we should take them with us.”
“Okay, Mia. But first I need to make sure the rest of the house is safe.”
She waited while he went from room to room to make certain that the threat was over. Even a quick look through the rooms was enough to paint the picture of a severely disturbed man. Nick was relieved that he and Jessa had found the cabin in time.
What if we had gotten here just a few minutes later?
He shuddered.
In the bedroom, he saw an empty pill bottle on a table.
Haloperidol.
Nick had a vague recollection of hearing the name once or twice. It was an anti-psychotic medication.
Suddenly, he felt a twinge of something like sadness. The man had been mentally ill, and he had run out of his medication. It didn’t make his actions excusable in any way. He had preyed on a woman and child. Bethany and Mia had to be rescued, and the man hadn’t given Nick any other choice but to shoot him. Still, it pained Nick that things had ended this way.
The man was essentially another victim of the Hosta virus.
Nick walked out to the main room where Mia waited with her back to the dead man.
“It’s safe.”
Mia nodded and passed by the body, careful not to look at it. She entered the office and quickly began to search through the stacks of notebooks and texts.
There was so much to choose from, but she selected what she thought would be the most useful things and loaded them in a large backpack.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Nick filled a canvas bag full of dried foods. He shook off the nagging uneasiness he felt about taking things from the guy.
We need this to survive.
They didn’t have time to spare. They had to hike back down to the vehicles and drive to the cabin they had selected as a hideout for the evening. The state road that stretched out for dozens of miles before their destination was practically a warzone. And the longer they took, the more chance there was of running into the gang members who were out for vengeance.
“Are you ready, Mia?” he called.
A moment later, she appeared in the kitchen, dragging a stuffed backpack behind her.
He smiled.
“I’ll carry that.”
He hefted the two bags over his shoulders and picked up Trina’s and Charlie’s rifles off the kitchen table. He glanced at the corpse once more. There was nothing to do but to leave him lying in his cabin just as he was.
“Let’s go,” he said.
They walked outside and approached the women who were waiting, seated on the ground, at the tree line. As Nick drew closer, he noticed the tension and stress etched on Bethany’s face.
“What is it?” he asked, his stomach tightening.
Jessa looked up at him, then back at Bethany.
“Her water just broke.”
29
Anne drove in the direction of White Pine Falls. Her dark, shiny hair blew in its ponytail, and the tiny turquoise earrings she always wore dangled as they traveled on the bumpy road.
She had only one shot at getting Daniel antibiotics. If she failed, she didn’t know what she would do.
Deciding not to worry about it, she tried to focus on the road for the next several dozen miles. At some point, maybe an hour or more after giving her son roadside first aid, she suddenly realized that she was feeling much better.
Her sickness had passed. It had left her body just as soon as it had come.
It made no sense. Why had she abruptly gotten flu symptoms in the first place? Why had those symptoms disappeared so quickly?
She looked at her son, anxious to share with him the good news.
“How are you feeling, Daniel?”
He had been quiet for a while now. He turned toward her.
“I’m all right,” he said.
But she could see through his words. He was in pain. The ibuprofen wasn’t enough.
“I’m going to try to find some medicine for you,” she said. She reached over to feel his forehead.
“Where are we going?”
“If we’re lucky, the clinic in Chama will have some supplies.”
Daniel groaned. “There could be people there. It could be dangerous.”
She looked at him. “We have to try.”
“Fine.”
Daniel looked at her again, more curiously this time.
“You look different, Mom. Better.”
Her eyes twinkled. “I feel better.”
His face lit up in a smile. “Really? Since when?”
“Just a few minutes ago,” she said. “It’s the strangest thing. That cold, achy feeling I had just vanished.”
“You’re better? So fast?”
Anne nodded. “It’s weird, isn’t it? I feel back to my old self.”
“How can that be possible?” he asked. “Wait, you’re going to say the ghosts in that town back there made you sick, aren’t you?”
Anne shook her head. Not even she could explain this with her superstitious beliefs.
“No, I don’t think it was the spirits, Daniel. Anyway, I fell sick before we got to that town. I don’t think the two things are related at all.”
“Then what could it be?”
“I don’t know. If it was the regular old flu, it was a strange case of it.”
She looked out the window at a fallow field, then back at the road.
“I imagine there’s a lot we don’t understand about viruses,” she said.
“What does that mean? You think it was just the flu, then?”
“I don’t know, Daniel,” she said, shaking her head. “I just know it’ll be hard not to worry any time someone gets sick now.”
“I’m just happy you’re better, Mom,” he said. “Very happy.”
He leaned back in his seat. A weight had been lifted from his shoulders. His mom was going to be okay.
He looked down at the bloody shirt in his lap. He thought of the look in that man’s eyes who shot him. Daniel had never seen a look like that in his life.
“Mom, do you think life will ever feel normal again?”