by Dirk Patton
I looked at her with a grin but she didn’t seem in the mood.
“What’s wrong?” I asked when she didn’t take her attention off the fire.
She shook her head, then sighed.
“I was thinking about the pics on that memory card. We should have sent them to someone while we had a signal. Posted them online, or something. Now, if something happens to us, they’ll never be seen.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to us,” I said with absolute confidence. “Help’s on the way. Whoever it is my mom called, they’ll be people we can trust.”
“Who do you think she called?” Tanya asked, turning to look at me.
“If I had to bet, I’d put my money on some of the Marines my dad served with.”
“You don’t think she’d call the cops, do you?”
I was shaking my head as she spoke.
“No way. Not after what happened!”
Tanya nodded slowly before turning back to the fire.
“I still wish we’d done something with the pics.”
“Maybe it’s better we didn’t,” I said, then had to tend to dinner.
Clicking the knife open, I leaned forward and used the tip of the blade to turn the strips of meat that were starting to brown.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” I said, closing the knife, “that if we put those photos out there, the people who did this might find them. Change them somehow and claim their version is real. Then, when what we have comes out, they say we modified them. How could we prove who was telling the truth?”
“There’re ways to tell if photos have been doctored,” Tanya protested, turning to face me.
“Sure. Ways to tell if you or I did it. But what about some real expert? This is the federal government we’re talking about. If even half of what you hear about their capabilities are true…”
She stared into my eyes for a long moment before nodding. I couldn’t tell if she was agreeing with me or just didn’t feel like arguing about it. She surprised me when she raised her arms and wrapped them around my neck, burying her face into my chest. After a moment, I circled my arms around her, pulling her close.
This wasn’t passion or romance, even if my body did begin responding to the feel of hers. I’d been around long enough and had watched my parents during lean times on the ranch. Remembered the times my mom had grabbed Dad and held him tight. Just like Tanya at this moment, she’d only needed a hug.
So, as difficult as it was, I just sat there and held her. Until my stomach rumbled long and loud and she pushed away, giggling at me.
“Think the rabbit’s done?”
In a slight daze of emotion and physical desire, I had to force myself to turn away and check the meat. It was done, or close enough to not matter. Spearing the sizzling strips of rabbit with the knife, I lifted them off onto a third stone I’d washed in the stream and placed well away from the fire. We gave them less than a minute to cool, then we dug in, hunger winning out over concern for a burned tongue.
“Whatta ya think?” I asked, grease running down my chin.
“Needs salt, but it’s tasty!” Tanya said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Never had rabbit before.”
“My favorite,” I said around my last bite of the slightly chewy meat. “Just gotta be sure they’re well cooked. Lots of things you can catch from a wild one.”
Tanya froze with her mouth open, ready to take a bite.
“Are you messing with me?”
“No, but relax. We’re good. That’s why I cut it into thinner strips. Easier to heat it all the way through and make sure it’s safe to eat.”
She looked at me for a beat before responding.
“Okay, but if I catch some weird rabbit disease and turn into a zombie, you’re the first one I munch!”
Laughing, I sat back and began licking the grease off my fingers. Tanya smiled at me as she polished off her half. She looked at what I was doing, then glanced down at her hands before getting to her feet.
“I’m going to wash up in the stream,” she said, heading for the door.
“Hold on,” I called, getting up. “I’ll come with you.”
I was about to pull the door open when I paused and looked back. There was only a momentary hesitation before I grabbed the rifle off the floor and slung it over my shoulders.
“Expecting trouble?”
“Rather have it and not need it.”
I shrugged as I quoted one of my dad’s favorite sayings. Pulling the door open, I involuntarily shivered when a blast of cold air hit me in the face. After being nice and cozy in front of the fire, the frigid wind blowing down from the north was like a thousand tiny needles on my exposed skin.
Tanya was either immune to the cold or had more self-control than me. She didn’t visibly react as we stepped out and pulled the door closed. The fire hadn’t been bright, but I was night-blind at the moment, looking around the clearing but unable to make out anything other than vague shapes. Overhead, a half moon hung in a sky full of stars and I knew I only needed to give my eyes a little time to adjust.
“Feels like snow coming,” Tanya mumbled next to me.
“What does ‘snow coming’ feel like?” I asked, never having understood when I’d hear an old-timer say it.
“Like this. Cold and dry. If it’s snow, the water’s frozen and the humidity drops. Feel how dry the air is?”
“Guess so,” I said, finally able to make out details of our surroundings in the faint moonlight.
We walked the few yards to the stream and I carefully scanned the tree line. I’d seen wild bears before when on hunting trips with my dad, but had never had an encounter with one. Now wasn’t the time for a new experience.
Seeing nothing concerning, I knelt beside Tanya and thrust my hands into the icy water. Rubbing them briskly, they quickly went numb and I had to trust that the grease from the rabbit meat had been washed away. Leaning forward, I scooped water and drank my fill, rocking back onto my knees and taking another look around.
There wasn’t a bear waiting to pounce. No predator streaking in to carry Tanya away. I wasn’t being paranoid or childish. The wilderness is exactly that. Wild animals do kill humans. Especially with the smell of freshly cooked rabbit in the air to entice them to attack.
Still on my knees, I looked around as Tanya straightened up. I just happened to glance up the slope at the saddle we’d crossed earlier in the day, freezing when I saw a flash of movement.
“Stay still,” I mumbled to Tanya.
My eyes were locked onto the area where I’d seen something moving, hoping to catch sight of it again.
“What did you see?” Tanya asked so quietly I could hardly hear her.
“Movement at the saddle. Could’ve been a deer or elk.”
“You don’t think so,” she said, having picked up on something in my voice.
“Just didn’t seem like it,” I said. “Hard to explain.”
“The people your mom called?”
“Maybe. But if it is, they got here awful damn fast. Didn’t expect to see them until tomorrow at the earliest.”
“Who the hell else could know we’re here?” she asked.
“Maybe they found the Suburban.”
My focus remained on the spot where’d I’d seen something. It was a high point, a few hundred yards away, and whatever it was had momentarily silhouetted itself against the sky. That’s the only reason I’d noticed. If it was coming down the slope in our direction, I wouldn’t be able to see it in the dark forest.
“The woods,” Tanya said, touching my arm. “Until we know it’s not the FBI, we shouldn’t go back inside the cabin.”
I glanced at the dark tree line to our front, nodding in agreement. Taking Tanya’s hand, I was standing to lead her across the stream, but she pulled me back.
“The water’s reflecting the moon,” she said. “The stream will be visible from a long way off. We cross, it’ll be real obvious.”
I kicked myself, realizing she was right. That stream would appear as a ribbon of silver, shining in the darkness.
“That way,” I said, pointing to our right.
It was farther to the forest, but better than drawing attention to ourselves. Tanya stood and moved quickly along the side of the cabin with me right behind her. A minute later, we were fifty yards into the forest, huddled behind the massive trunk of a fallen tree.
We could just make out the cabin through the underbrush. Settling in to wait, I tried to ignore the cold wind that was slicing through my thin T-shirt as if it wasn’t even there.
Chapter 30
BK glanced over his shoulder, noting that Ashley was falling behind. He wasn’t irritated. In fact, he was impressed. They were setting a fast pace and she had kept up, without complaint. Calling a halt over the radio, he moved to where she stopped, pushing the night vision goggles away from his eyes.
“You okay?” he mumbled.
She nodded, but he could just make out the sweat beaded on her face.
“Leg?”
Pushing her own goggles up, she looked at him and nodded.
“Sorry. I’m slowing you down,” she said.
“Sit,” he said, helping her support herself on the way to the ground. “Drink some water.”
While she did as instructed, he called Doc on the radio. A moment later, he simply appeared out of the forest and leaned over Ashley. They spoke softly for a moment, then she undid her pants and worked them below her hips.
“I need to see,” Doc said to BK, helping Ashley with her pants.
“Trippy,” BK muttered into the radio. “Doc needs to show a light.”
“They close, boss,” he answered quickly. “If they’s watchin’ the back trail, might be seen.”
BK mumbled a curse to himself and quickly shrugged out of his pack. Withdrawing a rain poncho, he held it up and Doc nodded, lowering himself until he was almost lying on top of Ashley. BK draped the poncho over his head and tucked in the edges to keep any light from leaking out. Tapping Doc lightly on the back, he lowered his goggles back into place and turned to scan their surroundings.
A few seconds later there was a low hiss from Ashley, but it was the only sound she made. Doc worked for a couple of minutes, then stood and handed the poncho back to BK.
“She gonna be okay?”
“Just some pain from the earlier shot wearing off. Wound looks good,” Doc said, nodding, then he turned and was gone.
Ashley got to her feet, pulled her pants up and was ready to go. BK gave her a smile and slung the pack onto his back as he radioed the order to start moving.
Continuing up the slope, he was happy to see her staying close and again forced himself to reconsider his original opinion of her. She might have been way too far left politically for his taste, but had been willing to listen to opposing viewpoints. And she was sure as hell a lot tougher than he’d expected.
Twenty minutes later, Trippy brought them to a stop just below the crest of a saddle between two towering peaks. Leaving Ashley hunkered down, BK carefully moved forward for a look.
“One guy on rear guard,” Trippy muttered when BK crawled up next to him. “Rest went over the saddle ‘bout five minutes ago.”
BK looked through his rifle at the location indicated, spotting a single man well concealed in a thick stand of brush. Not for the first time, he was impressed with Trippy’s skills in the woods. He’d never have spotted the watcher until it was too late.
“How many?” BK asked, still watching the rear guard.
“Six went over the top. Figure they must’a found them kids. Got their tracks, too. Few hours old. Smell that?”
BK glanced at Trippy, then raised his face to sniff the cold wind. After a moment, he shook his head.
“Cookin’ fire,” Trippy said. “C’aint tell what they et, but can smell it.”
BK grunted, taking another look at the sentry. If the kids had made a fire and cooked dinner, that most likely meant they had stopped and set up a camp. Time was running out.
“Can you take him quiet?” BK asked.
Trippy held up a long bladed knife, flashed a grin and moved off in silence. Within a few steps, he disappeared from BK’s view, even with the night vision. Keeping the rifle focused on the sentry, he waited and watched. He’d been through this drill with Trippy more times than he could count and knew the man would never hear the demon that was coming for him in the night.
It wasn’t long before an arm suddenly snaked out of the darkness behind the guard and a big hand clamped over his mouth. He arched his back in response to an incapacitating knife strike to his kidney, then was pulled back and lost to view. Two seconds later, Trippy called an all clear on the radio. BK brought the rest of the team forward and took Ashley to the dead sentry’s position.
“Stay here and stay quiet,” he breathed into her ear. “Kids are down there and the bad guys are already here.”
She looked back, fear at the idea of being left alone etched on her face. After a moment, she began to shake her head.
“Listen,” BK said, looking around to make sure the rest of the team was ready to go. “You’ll be able to see us down there. If this goes bad, you stay put until dawn, then get your ass down the mountain. Keys for the van are under a rock by the rear tire on the left. Head back to the ranch and Mr. White will take care of you.”
He held her eyes with his until she finally nodded understanding. Giving her a smile, he moved away and joined up with the rest of the team. Trippy was already watching five of the six men as they cautiously moved around the perimeter of a clearing, heading for a cabin. When BK asked about the sixth, Trippy shrugged his shoulders.
“Where you think he is?”
“If’n it was me, I’d be in the woods back o’ that cabin, comin’ up nice and quiet.”
BK scanned the scene through his rifle scope, noting a thin wisp of smoke rising from the cabin’s chimney. It was whipped away by the wind almost immediately, but he could now smell the fire.
“Go get him,” BK said.
Trippy nodded and a moment later melted away into the forest that led down to the clearing. Giving him a couple of minutes’ head start, the rest of the team slithered over the crest on their bellies so they didn’t outline themselves against the star filled sky.
Ashley, nearly terrified out of her mind, watched them disappear from sight. Looking around, she took a deep breath and decided it would be a good idea to have the pistol in her hand, ready to go. Drawing it from the holster, she gripped it tightly and turned her attention back to the clearing as several figures ran to the side wall of a cabin.
Chapter 31
We hadn’t been in place for more than five minutes when Tanya gently touched my arm. It was very dark in the forest, but I finally figured out the direction she was looking and cautiously turned my head. Movement. No sound accompanying it, but something was very slowly working its way through the trees. If it hadn’t been between us and the moonlit clearing, I didn’t think either of us would have spotted it.
I momentarily lost sight of it and more motion from the far side of the clearing caught my eye. This was definitely a human figure, moving along the edge of the trees. I couldn’t identify the rifle he was carrying, but recognized the general outline. Was I right to be paranoid, thinking that the men my mom had called couldn’t have arrived this quickly? Was I hiding for no reason?
Unsure what to do, I took Tanya’s hand and stayed perfectly still. Other than the pressure of her grip, I couldn’t feel anything. Body heat was leaching out in a hurry, my hands feeling like not much more than blocks of ice swinging at the ends of my arms.
What if I needed to shoot? Would I be able to operate the rifle? Pulling away from Tanya, I shoved my right hand into my left armpit and clamped down. Hopefully there would be enough warmth to keep my fingers limber in the event I needed to defend us.
I watched the man on the opposite side of the clearing for a moment, then there was
more movement in the forest directly in front of us. This time I saw the clear silhouette of an armed man as he stepped from behind a tree. He was moving very slowly, the cabin apparently his destination.
If I hadn’t been focused on him, I never would have seen what happened next. One second, he was in motion, the next, a dark figure rose up from the forest floor and pulled him down. There was a brief flash of steel, then an almost inaudible thump that sounded like something striking flesh. A bush rattled briefly before going still.
Fear ran through me. It was like the forest had just taken the man. I exchanged a glance with Tanya, but it was too dark to read her expression. Turning front, I stared at the spot where the man had disappeared, trying to control my imagination. Then it dawned on me that I should have the rifle up, ready to protect us from whatever had just silently taken out an armed man.
Raising the weapon, I aimed at the bush I’d seen move and clicked off the safety with my thumb. There was a soft snick as the lever moved into the fire position that sounded like thunder to my hyper alert ears. Staring through the scope, I focused but couldn’t spot any sign of the man or his attacker. Gently moving the rifle to each side, I began checking the surrounding area. Nothing. Damn it! What the hell was going on?
Tanya leaned against me and pressed her lips to my ear.
“We should get the hell out of here,” she mumbled so low I could hardly understand the words.
I agreed with her, but part of me was afraid to move. Whatever had taken down that man had to still be in the area and if we started moving and making noise, we’d draw attention to ourselves. But if we stayed put, it might find us anyway. Tossing a mental coin, putting some distance between us and whatever was going on came out the winner.
Nodding, I began to turn, shocked when a hand with a grip like iron suddenly clamped over mine, pinning my finger outside the trigger guard. Frozen for an instant, I tried to twist away as Tanya threw herself over my back, attacking whoever it was.
There was a brief scuffle, the sound of a sharp blow and Tanya’s full weight came down on me. She didn’t move, which sent me into a rage, turning and reaching for my pistol as I tried to rip away from the hand pinning the rifle.