by Harley Tate
“All right. Let’s go.” She led him out of the store and down the small side street. “I’ll warn you, it’s a long walk. Most people take the bus, but…”
“Transportation’s a bit of an issue these days.”
She nodded.
“It’s fine. I need the exercise.”
After a few blocks, they fell into step, Colt a few paces behind, head always up and eyes alert. Every once in a while, Dani would steal a glance behind her to make sure he was still there. Every time he gave her a nod and resumed his surveillance. He seemed like a guy straight out of the movies.
One of those FBI types who helped people out of bad situations when everything seemed hopeless. But no one was like that in real life. Everyone had baggage. Secrets.
Dani learned a long time ago that nothing was as simple as it seemed at first. They walked in companionable silence for almost an hour until Dani slowed. She pointed up at the dingy gray building with a call box out front.
“This is your place?”
She nodded. “My mom’s.” Dani glanced up at the building with a mixture of hope and dread. “You’ve seen me home. You can go now.”
Colt lifted up his glasses and peered at the windows above them. “Naw, I think I’ll walk you inside, make sure the place is safe, if that’s okay.”
Dani shrugged. He might as well know where she came from. Pride didn’t keep her safe. But she needed to warn him about what he might find. She motioned to the holster on his hip. “You might want to be prepared. My mom can sometimes…”
She trailed off, unsure what to say.
Colt drew the pistol and nodded. “Thanks for the heads up. Lead the way.”
Chapter Eight
COLT
489 Bellwether Street
Eugene, Oregon
2:00 p.m.
If the tattered name tapes on the call box were any indication of the type of residents at 489 Bellwether Street, Dani had been right to warn him. The whole area looked one step up from the ghetto. No way the army had made it this far in their patrols. From where he stood, Colt counted five busted-out windows, new car up on blocks, and two buildings burned from the inside out.
Riots had already gripped this part of Eugene. He wondered how many people were still left.
As Dani fumbled with a key for the scratched and scuffed front door, Colt squinted to look through the glass. Dilapidated cardboard boxes leaned against one wall like a row of laborers who toiled all day in the sun, the backs bent and soaked in sweat. An empty counter that once held a doorman sagged beside a shabby set of stairs. Run-down was the charitable way to describe the place Dani called home.
She pushed the door open and the smell forced Colt to hold his breath.
Garbage. Lots of it.
He slipped in behind Dani and the putrid odor almost knocked him smack on his butt. “What is that?”
She winced at his words. “I guess no one’s taking out their trash.” She pointed at a hallway toward the rear of the lobby where bags spilled over each other in a stinking heap. “The dumpster’s out that way, but it looks like there’s a backup.”
“Why didn’t someone set the bags outside? Then the place wouldn’t smell like this.” Ugh. He brought his arm up to his nose, but it did nothing to ward off the smell.
Dani shrugged, but he caught the frown on her face. He shouldn’t ride the girl so hard. He shoved down a wave of nausea and tried to lighten the mood. “The people who live here… They’re not big on housekeeping, I guess?”
“Something like that.” Dani walked through the lobby and started up the ragged stairs. Years of foot traffic had worn holes in a faded red carpet, exposing fifty-year-old linoleum beneath. The middle of each stair sank with use and Dani kept to the edges, trying to step where fewer feet had gone before. This wasn’t her first time.
Something inside Colt began to ache. A low throb that echoed with every step. She wasn’t the first kid he’d seen living in a situation like this, but she was the first one he felt an obligation to help.
Maybe because all the others had been while on active duty or because he’d been halfway around the world with more than a language barrier between him and all the little faces peering out of doorways and windows without glass.
The paint in the hall, once white, now streaked yellow from fingers and smoke. The railings were mostly black from a million greasy palms.
It was the kind of place reserved for drug addicts and their dealers, not a fifteen-year-old with clear eyes and a backpack full of food for someone else. Colt eased up the stairs a few behind Dani, letting her slight frame lead the way. She paused before stepping onto the third-floor landing.
Holding herself still with one arm wrapped around her middle, she clutched the key to the apartment like it could teleport her out of there. Whatever waited inside, she didn’t want to face it alone.
Colt stopped beside her. “Maybe I should go first.”
With a shake of her head, she refused. “No. I should do it. If Mom is home and she sees you, she’ll freak.” After a another moment, Dani stepped forward, her feet steady even though her hand never left her middle. So young and so brave.
She stopped outside apartment 304 and knocked loud enough to be heard down the hall. “Mom? It’s Dani. I’m coming in.” She unlocked the door and pushed it open. The door swung on squeaky hinges to reveal an apartment even worse than the hall. A bag of trash sat by the front door, half open and stinking, pizza boxes and beer cans spilling onto the dirty floor.
“Mom?” Dani took a step forward, but Colt shot out his arm. He couldn’t let her go in there unprotected. Not based on his glimpse of the place.
“Let me go first. Just to clear it.”
She hung back with a frown and Colt entered the apartment. It started with a hall, long and dark without any overhead lights. “Do you have a flashlight?”
“I’ve got a lighter.”
Colt shook his head. “That won’t work. All it will do is blind you.” He crept forward, gun held comfortably down at his side. “Hello?” He called out. “Is anyone home?”
Even an addict riding a high would have heard his booming question. He eased down the hall to the living room. It opened in front of him and the sight fell like a brick into his stomach. Dani rushed past him to open the sagging brown curtains, stained from smoke and grime.
Sunlight fell on the coffee table and Colt forced his lips not to curl in disgust. Tented foil sat on the table, burn marks snaking down the middle, a lighter tossed beside it. Empty corner-cut bags littered the pocked wood tabletop.
He motioned to the mess. “This all your mom’s?”
Dani nodded, eyes never leaving the obvious signs of drug use. “I never touch the stuff.”
“Good.” Colt brushed past the couch and entered the tiny kitchen. He sucked in a breath before opening the fridge, but he didn’t need to. The only thing inside was an empty jar of pickles and a single can of beer. He shut it and glanced around.
No food in the cabinets. Nothing to drink on the counter. “Did you eat everything before you left?” He hated to ask the question, but Colt had to know. How bad did this kid have it?
Dani picked at the sleeve of her sweatshirt. “Mom wasn’t big on groceries.”
Damn. “Where are the bedrooms?”
“There’s only one.” She stuck out her thumb toward the right. “It’s down the other hall.”
Colt followed where Dani pointed, clearing a tiny bathroom covered in grit and mold before heading into the bedroom. God. A mattress sat on the floor, sheets gray with dirt and soil haphazardly thrown on top. A dresser sat in the corner, piled high with empty beer cans and liquor bottles.
A hollowed-out light bulb with burn marks sat on the floor beside the bed. Colt bent to pick it up. Meth. It had to be. He set it down and strode back into the living room. Dani hadn’t moved.
“Is that everything?”
She nodded.
“Where do you sleep?”
&nbs
p; She pointed to the threadbare couch, worn to the stuffing on both arms. “My mom can’t afford a two-bedroom.”
Colt couldn’t bear the thought of leaving this kid here, alone. What if her mother came back? He turned and glanced again at the empty kitchen. What if she didn’t?
He swallowed. A kid? He wasn’t cut out to raise a kid. Not before the power grid failed and certainly not after. He couldn’t be a father to her, but he couldn’t leave her there either.
She looked so small standing in the light of the afternoon sun, her dirty hair highlighting gold in places. If she cleaned herself up and ate a million sandwiches, she’d be cute. A good kid that didn’t deserve to live like this.
Embarrassment and shame rolled off her in waves as she focused on the floor. Her fingers never stopped rubbing the hem of her sweatshirt, the little motion like a knife into Colt’s conscience.
If he left her there on her own, what kind of a man would he be? Not worthy to be called a SEAL. Not worthy to be called a man at all.
He scrubbed a hand down his face and exhaled. “How about you come with me?”
Dani jerked her head up, eyes wide and shimmering with unshed tears. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
She swallowed. “I have reasons.”
Colt rubbed at his temple. He had to get through to her. She needed to understand her options. He tried not to let his disdain infect his words. “Your mom, is she good to you?”
Dani looked away.
“Damn it, Dani. You can’t stay here. There’s no food, no water. It’s not safe.”
“I can—”
Colt held up his hand to cut her off. “Just hear me out, okay? I’m not a family man. I don’t do kids or relationships or dogs or any of that stuff. It’s always just been me and me alone. I don’t want to be your surrogate dad.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Then what do you want?”
“I can protect you. As long as you’re with me, no one will hurt you. I can promise you that.”
Dani’s brows furrowed, shielding her brown eyes from his patient stare. She focused on him for so long, Colt wondered if she was working up the courage to say no.
At last, her chin shot up. “I’m not alone.”
Colt remembered her plea to the soldier in the street. “Your grandmother?”
She nodded.
“Where is she?”
“Sunnyvale Convalescent Hospital. It’s by the college.”
“Then we’ll go get her.”
“You mean just walk in and wheel her out?”
Colt nodded.
Dani shook her head. “It’s not gonna be that easy.”
Chapter Nine
COLT
Downtown
Eugene, Oregon
3:30 p.m.
“You lived with her until you were twelve?”
Dani nodded as she walked beside Colt, her posture more relaxed every block they moved closer to the nursing home. “We lived in a little apartment across town. It was small, but there were two playgrounds and a basketball court, and I could walk to the library.”
“Sounds great.” Colt couldn’t imagine growing up in a place like that only to end up living in the squalid apartment they had left behind.
Dani didn’t say anything for a while and Colt wondered if he’d brought up painful memories. He still didn’t understand how her mother fit in to all of this. “So, your mom…”
“She’s got some problems. When she went to prison the first time, that’s when Gran took me in. I was four.”
Colt couldn’t imagine a toddler in that hellhole Dani’s mother called a home. “Was your mom living in that place back then?”
Dani shook her head. “No. She had a job. A real good one working the cash register at a service shop.” Dani’s voice dropped a bit and Colt leaned closer to listen. “But she never had good luck with men. One of her boyfriends was a real jerk. Gran said he beat her up real bad. Put her in the hospital.”
Her voice quivered and Colt guessed he shouldn’t push her anymore. Whatever her story, he’d learn it eventually.
Colt went back to canvassing the neighborhood. The closer they got to the college, the quieter everything became. No kids out playing. No people chatting on their front porch. It didn’t make any sense. It went from burned-out crack shack to ghost town in less than a mile.
About five blocks back, they’d come across a couple of men gathered in the shadow of a tree, heads together, speaking low. But the minute they saw Colt and Dani, the pair rushed off, ducking into a side entrance basement and out of sight. They acted afraid.
Colt brushed it off. He couldn’t do anything about a couple of strangers now. Dani walked beside him, kicking at the pavement and keeping her eyes on the road. They were a few blocks from the college when Colt saw the familiar camouflage at the end of the street.
He grabbed Dani’s arm. She started to protest, but Colt put his finger up to his lips. “There’s an army guy at the next block. We should hide.”
Dani’s pale cheeks flushed and she nodded, all of a sudden looking so much younger than her fifteen years. “Where should we go?”
Colt glanced around. They were in the middle of a mixed-use area, half residential, half business. “Let’s use the alley behind the shops. Maybe we can skirt around him.”
He led Dani toward the small road barely big enough for a compact sedan. He was the third one they had avoided so far. Always a single, armed guardsman, canvassing the area on foot. Were they there to only keep order or was something else going on? Colt didn’t know and he didn’t want to find out.
As soon as he figured out how to ensure Dani’s safety, he would hit the road. She was a good kid, but he’d told her the truth: he didn’t do family.
They crouched behind a rank dumpster and Colt put on a smile. “Okay, Dani. You stay hidden right here and I’ll check it out.”
She opened her mouth, but Colt shook his head. “Don’t even think about coming with me. He could be dangerous. It could be the guy who caught you before or someone else we don’t want to run into.”
“But if it isn’t, then we don’t need to hide.”
“You don’t know that. There aren’t many people out on the streets. I’ve been inside the college since I got here; I don’t know what’s going on out here. For all I know, the army could have standing orders to detain anyone they meet. We can’t risk it.”
She palmed her hip and scowled, but didn’t argue anymore. Colt’s smile turned genuine. “Good. Just stay here and stay quiet. I’ll be back soon.”
Colt set his bags down beside Dani’s feet and pulled the M-4 off his shoulder. He didn’t want to use it, but better to be safe than sorry. After creeping to the end of the building, he eased out just enough to catch a glimpse of the street beyond.
The soldier walked down the road, rifle perched on his shoulder, head on a slow-motion swivel. He hadn’t seen them. Colt pulled back and thought about their options.
They couldn’t walk into the road and make themselves known; Colt carried a stolen M-4, they both probably had a warrant out for their arrest or whatever the Guard was coming up with these days, and he couldn’t explain his connection to the girl. No, that would never work.
He crept back to Dani. “The way I see it, we have two viable options. One, we wait the guy out. I don’t know how long it will take or whether more guys are coming, but we could hunker down here and wait until the coast is clear and go.”
She fidgeted with the zipper of her hoodie while she thought it over. “Okay. What’s the other option?”
“We run for it.” They had done it twice before, but never with a soldier this close.
“What if he sees us?”
Colt glanced up at the blue sky. “If we’re fast, he won’t.”
“If we’re slow?”
“Then we’ll probably get caught and have to fight.”
She frowned as she ran her fingernail over the tines of the zipper. “If I weren’t
with you, what would you do?”
Colt exhaled. “I might try to talk my way out of it. But it’s too risky now. The guy I disarmed had to have made it back to the base by now. Our descriptions are all over the unit.” He leaned out away from the dumpster to check the alley one more time. “If we don’t try to sneak by him, we could be here all night.”
“Gran will be worried sick.”
“Then you’re willing to try?”
“Running?” She looked up at him with eyes full of hope and determination. “You bet.”
“Good.” Colt reached down for his bags. “Any chance you have room in that backpack for one of these bags? They’re too loud on their own.”
Dani slipped her pack off her shoulders and pulled it open. Colt managed to stuff not one, but both bags inside. She hoisted it back up and onto her shoulders.
“Is it too heavy?”
“I can manage.” She tightened the straps and flashed a brave smile. “Ready?”
Colt nodded. “Let’s go.”
Dani followed a pace behind as Colt eased around the dumpster and down the alley. As they neared the exposed edge of the building, Colt stopped. “How far to the nursing home?”
“About a mile.”
“Can you get there if we separate?”
“Yes.”
“All right. Then let’s go. If he sees us, I want you to take off. Run as fast as you can all the way to the nursing home. If anyone follows you, try to hide.”
Dani’s face pinched in alarm. “What about you?”
“Just give me directions and I’ll find the place.”
After Dani rattled off the address and the best way to get there, Colt nodded. “Got it. Deep breath and we go on three. One, two…”
On three, the two of them took off, running in a half-crouch down the side of the building and to the street. Colt held out his hand and Dani stopped just behind him. He leaned forward and scoped out the street. The guardsman still walked straight down the middle of the road. From the distance, Colt couldn’t make out anything but the green of his uniform as it stood out against the asphalt.