“Where exactly will that be?” Katrina asked, keeping the fear from her voice.
“Somewhere safe,” the man said while extending his arm out. “What shelter are you from anyway?”
“17,” Katrina answered as she walked toward the guard. Her heart was beating fast. They can’t find out what I know, she thought. I can’t go with them. She looked down to the pistol clipped to the man’s waist.
“It’s your lucky day then,” the guard said in humorous disbelief. “We have some more Shelter 17 kids coming with us too.”
Katrina and Dreya locked eyes as they allowed themselves to be led back to the road. “Becca?” Dreya whispered. Katrina could only shrug.
They stepped back onto the snowy asphalt. The guards from the other vehicles standing in the road. Out of the back of the third truck came a tall, Ken doll looking guy.
Katrina’s heart dropped like a stone. Lark.
Anthony and Brett crawled out after him. The boys stared wide-eyed at Katrina and Dreya. Lark started laughing.
“This is perfect,” he said when he caught his breath. Katrina swallowed hard. She felt Dreya stiffen beside her.
“I take it that you know each other then,” the husky guard said.
“We sure do.” Lark smiled his toothy smile. “Those are the ones who ran away to fight with the Resistance.”
The guards immediately pulled out their guns again and pointed them at the girls.
“Stop,” Katrina shouted with her hands raised. She stepped in front of her friend. “Please don’t shoot her. She is pregnant.”
Lark’s smile fell from his face. “You’re kidding right? You actually chose to have a baby with that weak guy instead of me?”
“Seriously?” Dreya asked as she stared at him in confusion. “You are so full of yourself. Did you actually think I would ever choose you?”
“Right now,” Lark smirked. “I bet you wish you did.”
“What do we do?” one of the guards asked the leader.
The husky man chewed his lips as he looked at the girls. “Bring them in,” he finally decided. “The bigwigs will know what to do with them. Secure their wrists.”
Katrina’s thoughts raced as she weighed the options. If we go with them, it buys us time. But I can’t risk them finding out what I know. There are eight guards. She looked over to Dreya.
Her friend’s face was resolute as she mouthed the word “fight.”
Katrina turned and lunged for the husky guard’s pistol. Her hand locked on top of his as she kneed him in the groin. When he doubled over, she slammed her elbow into his face. The big man toppled to the ground and she pulled the pistol free as he was falling. Dreya and Katrina ducked behind the closest truck as the other guards began to fire.
“What do we do now?” Dreya asked as she peeked around the vehicle.
“What do you want to do?” Katrina yelled as she fired off a bullet at one of the guards. “This is your plan. You said fight.”
Dreya glared and Katrina smiled. “We can make a run for the woods,” she said.
“Good idea,” Katrina nodded. She stood up and squeezed the trigger, aiming for the guard nearest to the tree line. He fell and Dreya screamed.
Katrina whipped around to see Lark grabbing a handful of her friend’s hair. Dreya stomped on the insole of his foot and he loosened his grip as he hopped back. In a fluid swoop, Dreya wrapped her arm around his neck and squeezed hard until he fell limply to the ground.
“Did you just kill him?” Katrina’s jaw dropped open.
“No,” Dreya spat. “He’s just asleep. Let’s go now.”
The bullets from the remaining guards peppered the vehicle as Dreya and Katrina crouched down to run. Suddenly, Katrina heard the loud blasts of rifles being fired from the hill behind them. The guards stopped shooting.
Katrina turned back and looked carefully over the hood of the truck. Dreya’s head came up right beside hers. Creeping down the mountainside with their rifles pointed were Mia, Tripp, Tom, Ziggy, and more people from the village. The bodies of the guards laid motionless on the ground.
“Are you okay?” Mia called out. Dreya and Katrina left the cover of the vehicle as they ran to embrace the girl. “I’m never leaving you again,” Mia cried.
“Thank you so much Tom,” Katrina said as she clasped the man’s hand.
Tom smiled at her. “Think nothing of it. We owed you one.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” Mia lifted her rifle as Lark struggled to get up from the ground. He froze upon seeing the weapon pointed at him. “How is this even possible that he is here?”
Dreya put her hand on the barrel of her sister’s rifle. “Let them go,” she said. “They are just dumb kids.”
“Are you sure about this?” Tom asked as he eyed the boys.
“Yes,” Katrina sighed while looking back over her shoulder. “It’s the right thing to do.”
“But what if they come back?” Tripp stepped closer to Mia. “I say we kill them.”
“We won’t come back!” Anthony yelled as he and Brett hurried over to Lark.
Dreya shook her head. “Just let them go. They aren’t worth the bullet.”
“Forgiveness is an amazing thing,” Ziggy said as he shouldered his rifle. “Probably a stupid thing too. We need to make sure they can’t find their way back here.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Tom said. He looked up at the grey clouds rolling over the sky. “You girls get home now. It looks like it’s going to snow.”
Katrina and Dreya thanked them once more before they rushed to move the 4Runner back on the road.
“Hey Katrina,” Brett called as he helped Lark into the truck Tom was driving. “I’m sorry I tied you up.”
Katrina smiled as she looked back to Dreya. “Just don’t ever let me see your face again and we’ll call it even.”
Chapter 25
A week later, the real snows came. It fell soft and steady at first, then overnight they got three feet. The girls shivered as they cleared a path to the creek. The waterline froze so they melted the snow or carried buckets up from the brook.
They stacked as much cut wood as they could on the porch and inside the cabin. Katrina taught them how to walk in snowshoes and she laid her trapline closer to the house. The cold kept the meat fresh for longer and they didn’t have to worry as much about preserving it.
“That stinks,” Dreya grimaced as Katrina tacked the tanned coyote skin over a board to let it dry.
“Everything stinks to you right now,” Mia said while breaking in the already dried fox pelts. “You have some kind of super nose. Just try not to breathe.”
Katrina lowered her head to hide her smile and she pinned the last corner. The smell of the tanning solutions and drying flesh always grossed her out as a child, but now she saw the necessity of not wasting anything.
By the light of the lantern, the girls played card games at night. The radio couldn’t pick up a signal. They finished reading all the books Katrina brought. More snow fell and the girls kept busy clearing paths.
The valley below was blanketed in deep snow. Mazes of the streams and ponds cut through the frozen landscape. When the ponds solidified and the snow hid them, Katrina tied on her snowshoes and crunched her way into the valley. Mia decided to tag along.
When they reached the pond that had given them the most fish, Katrina cleared the snow away and cut two holes in the ice. It took most of the afternoon, but the girls managed to rig a net between the two holes by feeding a stick tied to the rope from one opening to the next under the ice. They secured the rope for the night.
In the morning, they chipped away the ice that had formed over the holes and pulled up the net at an angle. There were six fat trout caught inside. The girls cheered. Then they cleaned the fish and hauled ice chunks up to the cellar so the meat would stay safe from predators. They ran the ice net rotation until the cellar was full of fish.
“I like fish cakes,” Dreya smiled as she fried up a s
econd batch. Her stomach was starting to grow. “They don’t stink as bad as the animal hides.”
Mia shook her head. “Your weird nose changed again. That smell is stinking up the whole cabin.”
The snow made it impossible to go visit Tom in the 4Runner. They decided to wait it out instead of snowshoeing across the mountains.
“It wouldn’t be that far,” Mia grumbled, but she didn’t want to leave her sister, so she stayed.
*
The grey clouds from the previous night passed without dropping more snow. Katrina let the girls sleep in as she went to check her trapline. The snare up the hill held a rabbit. The second trap, a leghold on the ridge, was empty. As she walked to the third leghold past the creek, she looked at the valley below.
The sun formed diamonds that reflected in the icicles and snow. The creek was moving faster as some of the snow began to melt. Another month or two of winter, Katrina said to herself, and then the spring will come.
She walked to where the third trap should have been. The sticks were scattered and there was blood on the ground, but she couldn’t find the chain or the stake. Katrina stepped back and circled the area. There was a trail of footprints, but they blurred together.
It must have run with the leghold still attached. Katrina scratched her head. But how did it pull out the trap?
She squatted down in the snow to try and make out a footprint left by the tree. As her eyes focused, the hair on the back of her neck started to rise. She quickly stood up and lifted the .22, scanning the area with the rifle pointed. Nothing moved.
Then she heard a rock fall from the cluster of boulders to her left. She looked to see the trap discarded at the base of the rocks with a bloody fox leg sticking out from it. Laying on the rocks above the trap was a form that didn’t fit with the white of the snow.
Katrina’s heart stopped beating as two bright yellow eyes stared back at her. That’s a damn mountain lion, her brain screamed. Katrina’s heart started pounding again with a jolt. I’m not going to be able to kill it with this gun. As her mind turned into an uproar of inarticulate sounds, she did the only thing that made sense.
Katrina turned and ran as fast as her legs would take her to the cabin. Only when she reached the front door, did she turn back to see that nothing was following her. She quickly went inside and slammed the door shut. Her body began to shake as she stood there letting her eyes adjust to the safety of the room.
“What’s going on?” Mia jumped up from her bed on the couch and switched on the lantern.
“There is a…” Katrina took a deep breath. “Holy hell there is a freaking mountain lion outside. He ate one of my traps. Not the trap itself, but the fox that was in it.”
“What do we do?” Dreya got up from the bottom bunk.
“Did you shoot it?” Mia screamed with her hands on her hips.
“No Mia.” Katrina pulled out a chair to sit down. “I made a mistake. I only brought the .22 with me. From now on, we don’t go outside alone, and we take the .308 or the .30-30 with us.”
“Should we go find it?” Mia asked as she sat in one of the other two chairs.
“You want to go hunt a mountain lion?” Katrina stared at the girl. “Be my guest.”
“So, you’ll shoot some guards but not a mountain lion?” Mia raised her hands up.
“Mia!” Katrina said in frustration. “Have you ever looked a mountain lion in the face? It’s a heck of a lot scarier than any man. I don’t think the guards wanted to eat the intestines out of my body.”
“Stop fighting,” Dreya snapped at them. “No one is doing anything rash. Let’s just think about the best way to handle this.”
“He is going to keep coming closer the hungrier he gets. I’m not trapping for a while.” Katrina drummed her fingers on the table. “We can keep ice fishing as long as we all go together. Someone has to help pull out the fish and someone needs to stand guard.”
“Why don’t we just track it down and shoot it?” Mia asked.
“Because I’m not tramping through the woods into his territory to find him. If there isn’t food here, he’ll move on.” Katrina ran a hand through her knotted hair.
“And what if he shows up on our doorstep?” Mia asked.
“That’s different. Then we will shoot him. This is our territory.” Katrina smiled.
Dreya put on her shoes. “What about going to the outhouse? Is that too far to go alone?” Katrina nodded. “Well I really have to go now,” Dreya said as she put on her jacket.
Mia put her head in her hands and groaned. “But she has to go all the time.”
*
Two days later, fresh mountain lion tracks crisscrossed the front yard.
“We were out here at 2am standing guard by the outhouse,” Mia whispered to Katrina as they kneeled in the snow to check the tracks. “How did we not see it?”
“Maybe he wasn’t here then. Or maybe he was watching us.” Katrina stood up.
“I don’t like this.” Mia shivered. “Just waiting for it to attack us.”
Dreya came out of the outhouse and pulled her gloves onto her hands. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go see if there are any fish.”
Katrina and Dreya pulled up the catch while Mia stood point with the rifle. Katrina quickly got the net back under the water so it wouldn’t freeze in the open air while Dreya started cleaning the trout. She tied off the rope and rushed to help her. They scooped the fish into the bucket and hiked back to the cabin.
Once inside, Dreya stood by the woodstove warming her fingers. “I wish we didn’t have to clean them down there. It’s so much easier to do it inside.”
“Yeah but I don’t want to leave any scent outside. It’s better than having to walk all the way back down to get rid of the guts.” Katrina took off her boots.
“We can’t live like this forever.” Mia sat down on the couch. “I hate staying indoors all the time.”
“I’d prefer to not get eaten by a mountain lion,” Dreya sighed. “Even if we have to smell your feet all day.” Mia threw a pillow at her sister which Dreya caught and threw back.
Katrina watched the tension rise between the two girls. “Hang on,” she said as she looked down to the bucket of fish. “What if we did leave something outside? We can lure the cat to the yard and watch for him all night.”
“Could that backfire?” Dreya crossed her arms.
“If we miss, we have an angry, potentially wounded mountain lion on our hands. But we should be safe enough inside for a while. It’s not much different than we are living now.” Katrina gathered some fish on a plate.
“I think we should try it,” Mia said as she held the pillow to her chest. “I’m going crazy being cooped up with the two of you. I’ll take the shot, so we don’t miss.”
Chapter 26
The girls napped away the afternoon. Dreya fried fishcakes and canned corn for dinner. Before the sun set, Katrina took the plate of fish outside and set it in front of the porch on the ground. She hung a lantern from the pine poles holding up the roof and turned on the light.
They cracked the single cabin window slightly and moved the chairs beside it. Katrina loaded the .308 and handed the rifle to Mia. All three sat silently as they stared out of the amber tinted glass to wait for the predator to come.
Three hours passed with no movement. Dreya kept nodding off so they moved her to the couch.
“I want to help you stay awake,” she mumbled drowsily.
“We know,” Katrina said. “But take another nap first. We’ll wake you if we need you.”
The moon was high in the sky and cast a glow on the snow in the yard. Katrina and Mia continued to diligently watch the window. Dreya had started snoring in the last few weeks and the noise filled the cabin.
Katrina smiled at her friend and moved another blanket on top of her before adding more wood to the fire. Dreya had become a drooling, snoring hormonal mess, but it was kind of cute to see.
“How do you feel about being an aunt?”
Katrina asked as she took her chair by the window again.
“I’m excited,” Mia said, her eyes never leaving the glass. “I’m also scared and overwhelmed and mad.”
“Want to talk about it?” Katrina asked, turning her gaze to the yard.
“There isn’t much to talk about. Nothing I can do anyway. It’s just annoying. This is why the new government saved us, so that we would have perfectly submissive dandelion children who would follow their every order. And here my sister is, doing exactly what they wanted.” Mia rolled her eyes.
“It isn’t like that though, and you know it. Yes, it was an accident, but it was made on her own terms. Not because she was told to do it.” Katrina glanced over at the girl.
“I know,” Mia sighed. “It’s just a horrible time to have a child.”
“I think she knows that too,” Katrina chuckled. “And I don’t think there is ever a right time. But she doesn’t have a choice.”
“It seems we all don’t have many choices.” Mia shifted in her seat.
“We do.” Katrina ruffled the top of Mia’s head. “We get to choose how to react to the choices we don’t get to make.”
Mia nodded. “I’m scared something will happen to her.” She looked briefly to her sleeping sister before turning back to the window. “She is all I have left.”
“I’m scared too,” Katrina said. “But we will do everything to make sure she is safe.”
Mia sat up straighter in her chair. “We will. I know that. It’s also overwhelming though. Like how am I supposed to be an aunt?”
“I think you are just supposed to love it and take care of it,” Katrina laughed. “That’s all that matters.”
“I know I can do that…”
“Shh,” Katrina interrupted. “There’s our lion.” The girls watched the ferocious animal stalk across the yard and come up to the plate of fish. Its long teeth caught the moonlight as it greedily grabbed up the food.
“I got it!” Mia screamed after firing the rifle. She quickly quieted down and looked over to her sister who had slept through the blast. “At least I think I did,” she whispered as she turned back to the window. “I don’t see the body though.”
Project Dandelion: Resistance Page 11