Marcus took a step back.
Tonya could read his body language. “You know something, don’t you?”
Marcus nodded his head. “It’s why I’m here.”
Tonya knew the routine. She had seen it on a hundred TV shows – how an officer or somebody important from the military would stop by the house of a KIA and give the bad news. She wouldn’t have had that, seeing she wasn’t his wife or even a family member. She was thankful to at least hear something. To put her mind at rest. “Tell me what you know.”
“The last time I saw Darrick was over a year ago, in Musayib, Iraq. Darrick and I were members of a quick-response force. We were given a snatch-and-grab assignment. It should have been an easy one too, but it turned out to be an ambush. Darrick was a breacher. I was interior perimeter security. Found out later that the bad guys knew who our inside contact was. Instead of killing him, they gave him bad intel. We walked into a trap. Mortars rained from the heavens. RPGs came from everywhere. Security barely made it out alive. Only four members of the security force survived. I was one of them. They told me that nobody on the entry team survived. I didn’t finish out my tour with 2nd Marines. I was hospitalized for a couple of weeks and never spoke to anybody from 1st Battalion 2nd Marines again. I was released from active duty after that. When I was ready, I started searching for you. Darrick told me to give you a message.”
Tonya was crying.
“He told me to tell you that he had every intention of marrying you.”
Tonya began crying even more.
Marcus pulled her in and caressed her. “I don’t have the words,” he said. He just held her and let her cry on his chest.
Enclave Camp – later that night
“Marcus! Marcus, wake up,” a feminine whisper went off in his ear. Marcus startled awake.
Marcus opened his eyes. The crows were circling overhead, and they appeared to be centralized over him. Several had already landed on the hog pen and were watching him, most likely anticipating their next tender morsel. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said, looking over his shoulder at Kara.
“I’m gonna get you outta here,” she said.
“I don’t think you understand,” Marcus insisted. “You shouldn’t be here. It’s not safe. Not even in low-light situations.”
“It’s good. I brought help.”
Marcus gave her a dirty look.
“Don’t worry,” she whispered. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
“What secret? I didn’t tell you anything.”
“I’m not stupid. I put two and two together. Besides, you’re a sleep-talker. You were rambling on about Tonya in your sleep. It’s quite apparent you were dreaming about her.”
“Who’d you bring?”
She smirked at him. “Tonya,” she said, cutting the rope from his wrists. He was now free to stand up. She grabbed him by the arm and tried to help him up, but his weight was too great for her. “Help me out, bud.”
Marcus had a charlie horse in his side from being outstretched for so long. “Where’s she at? Someplace safe, I hope.”
“I’m here,” he heard from the other side of the trough. He looked over to see Tonya standing there.
“Neither of you should be here. I accepted my fate.”
“Well, we didn’t,” Tonya said.
“Then we need to beat some dirt. I doubt you made it in here without being seen.”
Tonya threw Marcus’s right arm around her neck, and Kara did the same with his left arm. Together they made their way northwest, hoping and praying not to be seen. Tonya and Kara had seen a patrol of three men whom they didn’t recognize on their way to rescue Marcus. They agreed to take a slight detour to the north to avoid the men. In so doing, they passed a small one-bedroom house that was dilapidated.
Marcus saw the house on their return and said, “It’s getting dark. We need to shelter up.”
“We can make it,” Kara said. “We’re not far now.”
“Kara, I can’t make it,” Marcus said, lying so she’d let him stop at the house. He had no intention of returning to the Mitchells’ home.
“Fine. We’ll stop, get some rest, and move under cover of darkness.”
“No. I’m done for the night. I’ll finish in the morning. Those men really did a number on me.”
When they reached the house, Kara dropped her pack, and both Marcus and Tonya sat on the floor. It was pitch black and they couldn’t see a thing with the roof sheltering them from the moonlight. Within minutes, Marcus was snoring.
“That didn’t take long,” Kara said. “I figured it would have taken longer seeing how he was recently unconscious.”
Tonya didn’t answer with the response Kara was expecting.
“Kara, what exactly are you up to?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why are you trying to bring him back home when you can clearly see I lied to keep it from Darrick?”
Kara, being one to discourage dishonesty, chose to answer with a question of her own. “What are you keeping from Darrick that’s so important we can risk our lives to save Marcus, but not to bring him home?”
“I can’t believe I’m telling you this. Me and Darrick were an item several years ago. We were high school sweethearts. He left his home at an early age, and his dad never bothered to come look for him. My parents took him in under one condition. They saw that he was a troubled teen, so they told him that they would not allow me to date him unless he joined the military. He did. A little before he got out, he joined a special team.”
“Magtaf,” Kara interrupted.
“Magtaf?”
“The special unit he joined.”
“How do you know that?”
“He shared it with me.”
“Funny. He never shares that stuff with anybody.”
“I’m not anybody.”
“Anyway, he went missing. He disappeared for nearly a year. I never heard back from him until –”
“Until what?”
Pleasant Bray, Georgia – 9 years 9 months earlier
Knock, knock, knock.
Tonya jumped up from the couch and ran for the door. She pulled it open and saw Marcus. She reached out and grabbed him, pulling him into the house. “I can’t believe you’re still knocking,” she said, laying a kiss on his lips.
“I wouldn’t want to make a beautiful girl like you mad because I’m too rude to knock first,” he answered with a smile on his face.
Tonya didn’t answer at first. She looked deep into his eyes and gently smiled back at him. Marcus understood. He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom.
Several minutes later, Tonya and Marcus were cuddling under the sheets in the bedroom. Marcus was on his back and Tonya’s head was resting on his pectoral muscle. His arm was around her when somebody knocked on the door.
“Expecting company?” Marcus asked.
“No.”
Tonya jumped up and ran to the front room, where she peeked through the peephole of the door. Her heart leapt within her.
It’s Darrick. Oh God, it’s Darrick.
Tonya ran back to the bedroom and picked Marcus’s clothes up off the floor and threw them on his chest.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“It’s Darrick,” she replied with an intensity he’d never heard from her before.
“Darrick?”
“He’s alive. He’s here. He’s on the front porch.”
“It can’t be Darrick. Are you sure?”
“I’m positive.”
Knock, knock, knock , they heard again.
Marcus ran to the front room and looked through the peephole. Astonished, he said, “It is Darrick!”
Tonya pushed Marcus all the way through the house to the back door. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I thought he was dead. You told me he was dead. How could you?”
“I –”
Tonya shoved him out before he could finish, and locked the back door. She ran back through the house an
d pulled the front door open, grabbing Darrick by the arms and pulling him in.
The dilapidated house
“It all makes sense now,” Kara said. “Darrick doesn’t know that you had an affair with his Marine buddy.”
“No, he doesn’t, and he can’t find out. You’re the only other person that knows. That’s the reason why we can’t take Marcus home.”
Kara rested her head against the wall. An inner turmoil within caused her mind to race with thoughts.
Get it out of your head, girl. The man is married. She loves Darrick, but what if Darrick found out about Marcus? Tonya doesn’t treat Darrick as good as she ought to. Wouldn’t she be happy with Marcus too? I’m alone. I don’t know what to do.
Her mind ran wild with questions, and she tried to justify her logic that both of them could be happy if Darrick were to find out. She hadn’t yet convinced herself one way or another before she dozed off to sleep.
August 16th
The sun seemed to rise early on the old dilapidated house. Tonya’s eyes eased open to let the light in. The ceiling was in shambles and looked as if it would cave in on them at any time. The doors were off the hinges and leaning against the framed corridor. The smell hadn’t changed. It was still a pungent mixture of musty construction material and urine. She sat up from her sleeping position and looked over to Kara and Marcus. Kara was still zonked, but Marcus was nowhere to be seen. Tonya jumped up from the floor and ran outside to see if she could find Marcus. She yelled, “Marcus?”
That startled Kara awake. She jumped up and walked outside with squinted eyes. “What’s going on?”
“Marcus isn’t here. He must’ve left sometime in the night.”
“Well, that’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? Marcus saved, but out of the picture.”
“Kara, don’t start with me.”
“I’m just stating the facts. You want Marcus on a string in case something happens to Darrick.”
“What gave you that notion?”
“You still have feelings for Marcus, but you’re married to Darrick and have a kid with…” Kara interrupted herself. “Oh my god! Andy! You don’t even know if Andy belongs to Darrick. If he finds out –”
Tonya went back into the house to collect her gear. She was trying desperately to ignore Kara. Some of what she was saying sounded like psychobabble. The rest sounded accurate. Since Kara knew so much about her and Marcus, Tonya thought it would be best if she played nice with Kara. The last thing she needed was for Kara to let her secret out. She had no idea Kara had been a counselor before the Pulse and had a talent for keeping things quiet. The risk was too great, so she offered her an olive branch. “Kara, I’m really not interested in having a relationship with Marcus. I can’t deny that I have feelings for Marcus, but I’m in love with Darrick. He’s my husband and the father of my son. I’m asking you, please keep the things you learned here to yourself?”
“Okay,” Kara said. She knew about Tonya’s cancer. She wasn’t going to bring it up, although she was tempted to let Tonya know that she had it in her to wait her out. The thought made Kara feel dirty. She pushed it from her mind, hoping to keep the peace. Despite the way it made her feel, she gave in to the temptation to be patient and to keep Darrick close. She knew that one day Tonya wouldn’t be able to be there for Darrick, but Kara would be there to support him. It was the thought of being with Darrick that drove her to stick around. It was the same thought that made her feel terrible and nauseous. She was her own worst enemy.
Kara was so engaged with internal dialogues and conversing with Tonya that she failed to take notice they had been walking for some time, headed back home to the Mitchell house. “I forgot my gear,” Kara said, breaking away from Tonya and running back.
Tonya rolled her eyes and kept going. She hadn’t liked Kara from the get-go. Attractive, intelligent, seductive – basically everything alluring. Tonya was content walking home alone. She believed that Kara had come and got her to help with Marcus for one reason – to reunite her with Marcus so Kara could have Darrick.
Why didn’t she fetch Darrick? Was it because she didn’t want to place him in danger? Was it because she assumed there would be no private romance between me and Marcus if Darrick knew? I think she wanted to divide and conquer. There’s no doubt in my mind, she wants Darrick to be hers.
***
Kara walked into the dilapidated house to grab her gear.
“I knew I heard a woman’s voice,” a man said from behind her. It was a grizzled-looking man in a plaid-colored shirt. The sleeves were ripped off and he had a rope in his hand that he dropped when she saw him, and a sniper rifle in the other. He set that down in the inside corner of the doorway.
The encounter startled Kara. When she realized what was happening, she dropped her gear and attempted to yell. Before she could complete a couple of syllables or shift her rifle from her back to her front, the man jumped on her. Kara began hammer punching the man in the chest, but it seemed to have no effect. She was overpowered and weighed half as much as her attacker. Her rifle was swaying about and creating more of a concern than a security device. He knocked her down and took a straddled position over her to maintain his control and eventually was able to grab both of her arms.
Once he had complete control, he wrestled the rifle from her body and slid it away from them. It came to rest at the door. He used the rope that he’d dropped to tie her hands together. The man was clearly in control. Kara was having traumatic memories that she was not able to isolate so that she could focus her attention. The man’s intentions were clear. She had seen that look in a man’s eyes before. She was terrified.
Once he had her secured, he began going through her belongings. “You have some good equipment here. Both beautiful and prepared.” His hands were busy shuffling through the pack while she tried to wriggle her hands free from a poorly secured knot. She knew if she was going to be able to make any kind of an escape, she’d have to do it while he was distracted.
The man began pulling items out of the bag. “A compass, a first-aid kit! That’ll come in handy. Rope! Look what I found. Rope!” he said, looking at her. Her beauty caught his attention. He took the rope and started to tie her ankles together, but she kicked him in the chest, knocking him from his position. Kara saw movement at the window behind him. It was Tonya.
She must’ve heard my yell.
Kara looked at her as the man once again overpowered her and got back into position. Tonya held her finger up to her mouth, signaling that she wanted Kara to remain silent.
Is she going to help me? She’s just standing there watching.
The man slapped Kara. She was caught off guard by the sudden jolt to her head and face. She looked back up at the window, and Tonya wasn’t there.
She must be sneaking up on him from behind. I’ll relax and wait for her to do her thing.
Kara looked toward the door, but she seemed to be alone. The knot that she was working on was finally loosened enough to break free. She punched the man in the neck hard enough to jar his balance. She arched her back just enough to throw him off. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a pocketknife. The man stood up behind her, and she ran out the door, stepping over the rifle as she went. It would have been too risky to grab. He was too close behind. She made a calculated choice to run instead of taking a couple of seconds to grab the rifle and shoot the man.
When she was outside, she looked around, hoping to see Tonya, but she was nowhere. She ran around the side of the house in a futile attempt to find her. Nothing. She turned around to run in the other direction and, in so doing, ran right into her attacker. He winced. She stepped away. Her knife was stuck in his abdomen and it was hanging loosely. “That’ll cost you,” he said, pulling the knife from his belly.
Mitchell Homestead
Darrick was on the rooftop with his binoculars, hoping to catch a glimpse of Tonya and Kara. He took his rifle with him just in case there was any sign of trouble. The night before, his wife and
Kara had run off together and never said a word to anybody, not even Carissa. Darrick had no idea where they went.
Crack.
Carissa and Andy heard the noise from inside the house. Elder Mitchell was unfazed by the morning ruckus. The sound was distinctly rifle in origin.
“Andy, come on, honey, let’s go to the safe spot.”
Andy jumped up and ran upstairs. Carissa looked out the window and saw Darrick climbing down off the old television antenna with rifle in hand. She stepped outside and said, “Darrick, is everything fine?”
“I don’t know. Can you stay with Andy? I just shot somebody.”
Carissa pushed the door shut.
Darrick ran down the driveway to find the man he’d shot lying on his side. He was still alive, but bleeding profusely. Darrick kept his rifle pointed at the man just in case he made any sudden movements. He appeared to be unarmed. Darrick let out a sigh of disappointment. He’d shot an unarmed man. He had a holster on his side, but it was empty, as were his hands. Darrick used his foot to roll the stranger over onto his back. He looked to be in his mid-fifties.
“Why are you here, mister?” Darrick asked.
The man didn’t answer. Instead, his arms went limp and fell to the ground. With that, Darrick knew he killed him.
“I had to,” Darrick said. “He could have been armed. He could have had ill intentions and I wouldn’t have known until it was too late.” Darrick was alone with the dead man, but spoke aloud as if to reason within himself and to the man he killed that you couldn’t walk onto a stranger’s property in dangerous times and not expect to get shot.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked. It was Carissa.
“You didn’t know. He could’ve been here for the wrong reasons,” she said. Her comment made him feel better, but it didn’t answer the burning question on his mind – “Where’s Tonya and Kara?”
After The Pulse (Book 1): Homestead Page 12