SLAM.
The door to the room flies open. A light skinned black man steps into the room, pointing a gun at the torturer's head. The pliers drop to the ground. I blink a few times to clear my vision.
Carter? Is that you?
Am I hallucinating? The surprised look on Carter's face when our eyes meet reassures me that this is no dream; he is surprised too.
“Get against the wall.” Carter yells. “Don't reach for a thing.” The soldier goes to the wall and drops the pliers. Carter moves to me and starts to undo the strap at my wrist with one hand while the other continues pointing the gun. Carter gasps; he must see my fingers.
“Cait, what did he do to you?”
“I'll be fine,” I manage to say as he undoes the lashings on my ankles. Carter reaches into his bag with his free hand and hands me a white towel. It looks clean. I wrap my hand and hold pressure where two fingers once were.
“Cait, we need to get going. We think there are more on their way, and we don't have enough people here to fight back. Let's go.” Carter waits for a second. “Is Sara here?”
“No.” I say, “Another dead end...”
I walk to the corner and sling the bow and quiver onto my shoulder. I walk towards the entrance, and Carter still stands in the center of the room. His gun is still focused on the man who removed two of my fingers. The torturer cowers with his back against the wall, and falls to a sitting position.
“What do you wanna do?” Carter asks.
“Leave us for a minute.” I demand. My voice nearly cracks as I get out the words. Carter seems to want to argue, but then he moves towards the door. He holds his pistol out to me; I shake my head. Carter opens the door and walks outside.
“I'll be right here.” He leaves the door slightly ajar.
I drop the towel to the ground. My missing fingers still drip onto the white floor. I grab the bow, but now with my right hand and notch an arrow with the only two fingers on my left hand.
I taught myself to be ambidextrous with a bow these past years. Yet, I will never shoot the same way again.
And it was his fault. Luckily, he is right in front of me. This is a shot I can't miss.
I pull the arrow back to my ear. I angle it down and point it right at his head. He holds his hands up.
“Please... I am just doing my job. Please, I have a family...”
“Shut up,” I yell. Blood runs down the shaft of the arrow and begins to drip from the arrowhead at the end. The drops of red land in the man's lap. He shakes as his eyes go between my eyes and the arrow.
I align the arrow right between his eyes. The droplets fall onto his chest.
Unexpectedly, tears run down the sides of my cheeks.
Chapter 15: Carter
First Jocelyn and now Caitlyn. I will keep my promise to Jon, even if it is barely kept.
It's been nearly a minute since I left Caitlyn with that guard. What is taking so long? I know what I would want to do to him. I almost pulled the trigger for her. I push the door open a bit to check, but Caitlyn is already opening it and pushes past me. She immediately shuts the door behind her. The towel is now gone and blood continues to leak to the floor from her hand that hangs to the side. She doesn't even seem to notice it.
“Caitlyn, come on.” I take her bow and pull it over my shoulder. I take sterile gauze from my pack and clamp it over the missing fingers on her left hand. I grab her right hand and hold it onto the gauze.
“I will take care of shooting if it gets dicey. If you lose much more blood you are going to pass out. Hold it tight around your hand. Keep quiet too; there's still a few of them around and they don't know we are here yet.”
We make our way down the once sterile hallway of the former care clinic. So far, the guards have no idea we managed to get inside. I turn my head back a few times and make sure Caitlyn is right behind me. Her cheeks look paler than usual - from what I remember anyway. We need to get her to the truck immediately. She needs rest and proper treatment. We round the corner and step over one of the dead bodies from earlier. The pool of blood has grown around his corpse on the hard carpeting.
“Carter, let's go,” Ryan whispers from behind the filing cabinet in one of the offices; Jocelyn is crouched down beside him. She looks at me and then sees Caitlyn. I am quickly pushed to the side from behind by a blur. Jocelyn drops the rifle and wraps her arms around Caitlyn who nearly collapses into the embrace. Caitlyn's eyes are watering, and Jocelyn's eyes do the same. They are nearly the same height now.
“I'm so glad we found you,” Jocelyn whispers.
“I've missed you all.” Caitlyn turns back and looks at me. For a minute, I wonder if this is Sara and not Caitlyn. Caitlyn was never this emotional.
“Guys,” Ryan adds, “I'm sorry to interrupt, but we have to go now. There will be time for this later.”
The girls break their embrace and Jocelyn grabs the rifle from the floor. Slowly, we make our way towards the back door that we managed to quietly pry open earlier. It seems too easy. The few pools of blood we passed outside showed that Caitlin helped to thin the numbers, but I worry that our luck will soon run out. We get to the rear door and peak out. We left David crouched in the back to keep an eye out and our exit clear.
“David...” Ryan whispers. He pauses as we both look around in the darkness outside the door. “David, where the hell are you?”
A group of guards walks around the side of the building, and we quickly retreat back inside and keep the door open a fraction of an inch. The guards are talking, and I barely make out their words as they get closer.
“...will be here tonight. Higher ups don't want any more screw ups like at the Mill. So, they sent us to reinforce. I want your men all over this building as the buses roll in. Who knows how many others were with that girl. The buses should be here in a half hour. Again, thanks for showing up here so fast.”
Ryan swears.
“Ryan, what are we going to do? It looks like they are bringing in more workers to be examined, and they are on high alert. These guys must have just showed up to provide reinforcements. There's a lot more out there. If they wander back here, we are dead,” I inquire.
“I dunno. Where the hell do you think David is?”
“We have to help those workers,” Caitlyn whispers. Ryan looks at her and glances back and forth on the floor for a moment. He always wants to do the right thing. I already know what his answer will be, but it is still not an easy decision for him.
“We would if we could. We are in no position to save anyone else.” Ryan answers. He grabs the radio on his belt and goes to call David, he looks at it briefly then angrily slams it back in his belt, cursing again.
“The battery is already dead. We may have to fight out.”
Ryan shakes his head. I reach down and check the chambered round in my pistol. Ryan does the same to his shotgun. Jocelyn shoulders the butt of the rifle. Caitlyn forcefully grabs back her bow and she struggles out an arrow and holds it with the pointer finger of her bow hand. The other hand is a bloody fist clenching the gauze. She releases the gauze and struggles to get a grip with her shaking hand of the bow's string and the arrow's fletching. Caitlyn is never going to be able to shoot. After looking at me hopelessly, she releases the arrow and retrieves the gauze to her bleeding hand.
“It's okay,” I whisper, “Just stay with me.”
This reunion may be short.
A few more minutes go by as we wait for some sort of opening. Ryan seems to be working out a plan, but he keeps shaking his head. Outside the door, several guards have made a perimeter. It is much more secure than when we sneaked in.
“Do you think they got David?” I ask.
“No. There would have been a commotion out here,” Ryan responds. “We may just have to shoot our way out and hope that wherever David is, he can do the same.”
I knew I should have come alone. If we all die, it's on me.
I push the back door open a little bit more after the guards walk by and
peer straight ahead. I can see into the forest. A few meters in and the darkness would hide us. If we run, maybe we can make it... we probably won't, but it may be our only plan. They will have trouble seeing us in the night among the trees and shadows.
All of a sudden, in the darkness of the forest, two red lights illuminate through the trees. The lights move around tree trunks and seem to get closer and closer to the medical center. Several of the guards yell.
Rear car lights.
David's gray truck rushes out of the forest and heads straight at us. The back tires ride off the curb and find traction on the parking lot. The guards fire upon the truck. Dave still has at least forty more feet to go.
Before I can say a word, Ryan kicks the back door completely open and fires at the guards who are now distracted by the truck. His gunshots are hidden by their own. Immediately, the rest of us are behind him and firing. Caitlyn stays close behind me, slightly hunched over. In just a few brief seconds, we drop several guards, but more come from around the side of the building. Amidst the chaos they still don't see us. They concentrate on the truck rushing towards the building. The back window of the truck shatters apart.
David, don't get yourself killed.
I reload the clip in my pistol and abandon the empty one on the ground. The truck bed comes closer and skids to a stop right in front of us. Ryan reaches the handle on the trunk latch and throws it down and quickly dives in. He holds his pistol over the side and fires blindly out as he lifts himself to his knees to take better aim. Jocelyn leaps in and lies on her back with her pistol facing over the side and fires blindly, too. I nearly throw Caitlyn on and dive into the back. The gunfire continues, and we hear the ricochets off the sides.
The truck instantly takes off back into the forest as soon as I leap into the back. Jocelyn begins to stand up and aims her rifle, but I pull her back down into the safety of the bed. Ryan pulls the tailgate back up to cover us as we drive. A few more shots follow us, but soon it is quiet as the truck bounces over roots through the small path amongst the trees.
Ryan kneels up slowly and looks back. He goes up to the back of the cabin and rustles David's hair through the shattered rear window.
“David, how the hell did you think to do this?” Ryan yells.
“While I was at the door I saw a convoy of trucks move up with reinforcements. I figured our exit would be hairy so I made a break for the truck. I hoped you all would either be waiting, or I'd meet you halfway. Luckily the water was shallow under the bridge and I followed a path into the forest.”
“Nice driving.” Jocelyn smiles. She reaches to Caitlyn's hand and hold's the bandages down.
David looks up into the rear-view mirror and smiles. “It wasn't a...”
BAM!
David shoulder explodes. Blood sprays onto Ryan's face. The truck swerves hard to the right as David slumps to the side. Ryan leaps through the shattered window and straightens out the wheel. David's head jerks back up and he yells.
He's still alive. I finally breathe out.
“I'm okay,” David cries out. His other hand takes the wheel and the car straightens out. Ryan stays beside him, with a hand on the wheel. “Just... take care of that...”
I turn behind us and see a Jeep rolling fifty yards behind us. Three men inside hang rifles out the window and shoot them in our direction. Most shots miss, but I hear a few ricochets off the truck's body. While kneeling, I push Jocelyn and Caitlyn against the truck bed to keep them out of danger. My hand finds my pistol and I try to line up a shot by balancing it on the tailgate. One of their bullets ricochets off the back of the truck. I duck back down.
“They are too far for that.” Jocelyn says while looking at my gun. She pulls her rifle up. No it's too dangerous for her.
“Give it to me.” I yell over their gunfire and the roar of the truck as it shakes back onto the asphalt road. The ride becomes smoother. “It's too dangerous.”
She ignores me and rolls onto her knees. Caitlyn remains silent but looks up at Jocelyn. Jocelyn places the gun on the top of the tailgate.
“Come on Carter, you can't make this shot.” Jocelyn yells as she peers into the scope.
“Are you sure you still can?” I retort. She glares back at me, and then returns to the scope.
She fires. Miss.
She fires again. Miss.
Another bullet ricochets off the tailgate. I react, but Jocelyn doesn't move a muscle.
She fires. I peek back over the tailgate. The Jeep is still coming strong and getting closer. I could nearly make out their faces at this point. She doesn't have it any more.
She fires again. The Jeep's windshield fills with blood and the vehicle rolls off the road and into a telephone pole. A body flies through the shattering windshield and drags along the cement and through the broken safety glass.
She did it. I feel my face light up.
“I can't believe you got that.” I rise to my knees beside her. She pulls the rifle into the truck bed and drops it. I can't believe... I feel a tug at my hair and it catches me off guard. Jocelyn's hands pull my head... into hers. Our lips meet. For a second, I am five years ago. I realize how much I have missed her, but this wasn't what I missed. I pull myself together and delicately push Jo away.
“No... Not now...”
“When you two are done with whatever the hell you two are doing back there. Dave's kinda shot up here.” Ryan yells.
“No,” David struggles out some words with a wry smile on his face. “Don't worry about me. It's not the first time I've been shot in that arm this month.”
We come to a stop a few miles down the road into an open garage - some sort of old oil change place. The inside is dark, and covered with random tools as well as the remains of a few cars. Some vending machines along the wall are shattered open and stripped of all their contents. An odor of gasoline fills the air. Ryan pulls the garage doors down as I help pull David down from the cab. Jo begins to help Caitlyn out of the back of the truck. She takes her to a seat and holds onto the bleeding hand. Jo's eyes meet mine. I really have no clue what to say to Jo at the moment.
I guide David from the truck to a nearby workbench and lay out my medical satchel. His face winces with pain, but he manages to conceal it well. His shoulder is pretty messed up, but the bullet went right through. I don't know how the use of his arm will be after both shots, but he is in no immediate danger. Jo says Caitlyn's fingers have stopped bleeding as much, I hand her some more gauze and tell her to keep the pressure on. I quickly stitch up the remains of David's skin after cleaning out the tissue on his shoulder. His teeth clench together as the needle works its way in and out. David is the toughest of us all, but he has to be hurting. Ryan walks up to me as I finish bandaging the wound.
“The sun is almost completely up. Let's stay here for a while and gather some strength. Those two can't get right on the road in that condition. Then we will head back out. How's David gonna be?”
“He'll be okay. Just a scratch, right?” I say. David glares back at me. “It's gonna take some time to heal, and this time keep it in the sling.”
David's eyes go to his truck. He winces when he stands and takes a few steps towards it. Nearly all of the glass is shattered and bullet holes cover the body. “I'll heal, but look at my baby. She's completely shot to hell. I'm gonna cry.”
David hobbles up and goes to a line of chairs against the wall by his ride. “I'm gonna lie down for a while and drown in all my sorrows.”
Somehow traces of his humor are still intact.
I reach into my bag and pull out a bottle of water and a few high dose painkillers. That will help him sleep more.
“Take these first.” I stand up and hand them to him. “Then we are going to have to get you some food. You lost a lot of blood.”
“Sure, let me get right on that.” After washing a few pills down his throat, he sets the bottles beside the chairs and lies down. I imagine he'll be asleep after the pills kick in. He is good at playing cool, but I
know that wound is throbbing.
Next, I bring Caitlyn to the table and take a look at her fingers. The bleeding has pretty much stopped, but they are anything but clean. I give her a few low dose aspirin to help. I want to give her something more powerful, but I didn't want to repeat mistakes from the past. I reopen some of the wounds as I clean them of some dirt. She winces in pain and looks away. Tears swell in the corners of her eyes. She's grown up so much since I've seen her last, but somehow, she still looks the same to me.
“Sorry; try not to look at it.” I begin. Hopefully conversation can provide some distraction as I work on her hand. “I've been looking for you all these past five years and it finally paid off. I've got a home we can take you to.”
I start to talk about my last five years with the Resistance. I tell her that compared to the cabin, it's a five star hotel. Eventually she interrupts and tells us about the last five years and the search for Sara. She tells me she’s had a little help, but mostly she has been completely by herself. She seems to be leaving something out of her story, but I don't want to press her about it now. Jo joins us and pretends like nothing happened on the truck. Both of us are too concentrated on what Cait has been through. I have been through a lot. Jo has been through a lot. Yet, Cait has been through the worst of it, and she tells her story so nonchalantly. We share a few uneasy looks as Caitlyn talks about some of her scars, and the people she has watched die. This poor girl has been through a lot in these woods all this time. It's a miracle she survived.
After I have her hand all clean, closed, and covered, I find another line of chairs for her to lie down on and elevate her hand. She needs rest badly, too. I again contemplate giving her something more powerful for the pain, but I don't want to chance it. Giving her my medical bag as a pillow, she lies down with a faint smile that speaks volumes. Despite the pain, she is happy we are together again. I am too.
The sprinkle of shattered glass falling onto cement turns my attention away from Caitlyn. Ryan stands on the trunk bed with a broom that he managed to procure in the garage and sweeps out the glass. I walk to the table and gather all the bloodied gauze and find a dusty trash can to dispose of it all in. I take a seat on the table facing the truck. Jo comes and sits beside me. I contemplate moving farther away, yet I remain. I still like her being close. Just not too close.
Humanity Gone (Book 2): Facade of Order Page 9