Having had enough tension, I stepped from the tree line despite Emilie’s efforts to hold me back.
Em and Susan joined me, although I could tell it was against their better judgment. Emilie held my arm at the elbow. Her grip told me she was frightened. I could sense Susan standing just behind us.
The shock of our home burning was beginning to set in. I wanted to scream, cry, or somehow throw a fit. With strangers there holding rifles, I felt compelled to not do much of anything. No one spoke for a moment, and my ears were filled with the sound of the fire continuing to rumble. I watched helplessly as it destroyed the remainders of the home and life we had built.
At last one of the men facing us spoke. “We can take you with us.” He was slight in stature, clean-cut, and well dressed in black slacks and a black knit turtleneck.
“To where?” asked Gus. I could tell by his posture and his voice that he was leery.
“We’re running a colony not too far from here,” answered the man. “We saw some of the dead nearby, so I’d strongly suggest you take us up on the offer.”
“How near were they?” asked Gus, obviously not believing a word that the stranger in black had said.
“Bastards ran off,” replied the short man. “Some of them headed this way. We figured the dead fucks set the fire.”
“Uh-huh,” said Gus. “Mind lowering your weapons?”
I didn’t understand how Gus could actually be talking to these men. It was obvious they were lying. Still, I trusted Gus fully.
Boggs had slowly backed up to be closer to me. He now stood at my side. “Zo,” he whispered. I didn’t answer, but rather just listened. “You can’t let them know about you.”
The heat from the burning building was starting to grow uncomfortable. “Ok,” I said under my breath.
“Not you, and not the baby,” he added.
“’Kay.”
He took hold of my hand. “Stay close to me.”
I squeezed his hand in acknowledgment.
I focused back on Gus.
The man in black signaled his two companions forward. “Help any of them that needs help,” he said.
“We need to leave,” said the smallest of them. “We’ll take you to our compound.”
Tension surrounded us. Gus held his hand back to signal us forward. Boggs guided me onward and I could hear Susan and Emilie walking behind us. “Keep your cool girls,” I heard Boggs say under his breath.
Gus spoke quietly. “Follow my lead. Stay together. We have no choice, nowhere else to go.”
One of the men had fallen in behind all of us. Before long we were marching down the drive. My feet had grown cold and my stomach growled.
“Nadine!” barked out the short man as we approached the military truck. “We have company!”
“Send em on back,” said the woman. “You have a knack for picking up stray pups, Miles.”
“Let’s go,” said the short man who we now knew was named Miles. “I want to be back before breakfast.”
We were ushered to the back of the vehicle, where dark green canvas covered the rear opening. We were told to climb in. The step up was tall, so Boggs helped boost me up. Gus had climbed in first, so was there to receive me. Boggs assisted Susan and Emilie before joining us. There were bench seats on both sides of the truck bed. The five of us sat together on one side, while two of the three men who met us at the burning cabin sat across from us. They remained silent, and never stopped watching us. Miles and the woman named Nadine sat in the cab, out of our view.
Boggs held one of my hands tightly.
“Adam?” I asked quietly. I knew by using his first name it’d alert him in some way.
“Hmm?”
“Your picture of you with your parents. It’s gone.” I hadn’t been sure of what to say, and it’s the first thing that came to mind.
“It’s ok, Zoe. It’s just a picture. It’s not important.”
I sighed. I wished I felt able to speak freely. I wanted to mention that there had been none of the dead near the cabin. That my mind had never sparked with their signatures. I wanted to cry freely over the loss of our only home. I looked at Boggs, meeting his eyes with my own. I hoped he would look into them and know how scared I was.
“Zoe.” Hearing my name, I looked at Gus. He was looking back intently. “How’s your head feeling, darlin’?”
“Fine,” I said knowing we understood each other. “I’ll let you know if my headache comes back.”
He answered with an almost imperceptible nod.
“Is she sick?” asked one of the men sitting across from us.
Boggs looked at the man and took his time before speaking. “No.”
“Where are you taking us?” asked Susan.
The other man who sat across from us smiled at her. I didn’t like the way he looked at her. I didn’t like it at all.
“You’ll like it there,” he said.
“I liked it at our cabin just fine,” said Susan almost venomously.
“Mind your manners, girl. The guys in charge don’t like sassing,” said the man.
“My name is Susan. Not girl.”
“And who is in charge?” asked Gus in a calm yet commanding voice.
“You’ll be introduced soon enough,” said the man directly across from me.
I heard a whimper coming from deeper inside the truck. I looked, my eyes growing used to the shadows. Sitting on top of a folded canvas in a dark corner was a little girl. She was thin and her clothes dirtied. I smiled at her gently.
“Hi,” I said.
She shrunk back as if trying to hide.
“We’ve been calling her Jane,” said one of the men. “We picked her up a couple of hours before your little house fire attracted us. She won’t talk.”
“Picked her up from where?” asked Gus.
“An old gas station. She was hiding in one of the bathrooms,” answered the man who had spoken to Susan.
“Hi darlin’,” said Gus. “Do you want to come out and sit by us?”
The little girl shook her head back and forth. She looked cold.
I looked over at the two men. “Do you have any blankets I can take to her?”
The more talkative of the two men shook his head no. “We put her on the canvas hoping it’d help.”
I squeezed Boggs hand then stood. I walked carefully, battling the movement of the vehicle, until I was near the little girl. I crouched down. “Honey, is it ok if I sit by you to keep warm?”
She looked at me with big brown eyes, obviously scared. I crept closer.
“I promise I won’t bite.”
It was hard to tell with the poor lighting but I thought she might have hair even redder than Emilie's. She was maybe six years old. I sat a few feet away from her. The truck bed was cold against my bottom.
“It’s really cold here,” I whispered. “I bet it’s warmer on the canvas you’re sitting on.”
She watched me carefully. I looked back at her. Eventually she scooted over, slowly. I followed her lead and scooted toward her at a snail's pace until I was on the canvas. After several minutes she was leaning against me for warmth. I wrapped an arm around her.
We continued on in silence. I took comfort from the warmth of little ‘Jane’ against me. Time passed, although it was hard to judge just how much. I had an ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Grace Lost (The Grace Series) Page 26