Trapped

by Dean Murray

  I felt my shoulder blades crawl as we walked past the three boys. They all looked rough in ways that made me think they weren't just a bunch of posers who dressed like toughs because it was fashionable.

  Fifteen seconds or so after we passed them I heard them start walking. They were obviously following us. I took a deep breath and tried to remember everything that Ash had taught me in our brief stay at his cabin.

  I was still working myself up when they moved. The first guy, a skinny blond, grabbed my left arm as his friends grabbed Ash's wheelchair. My knife cleared its sheath in one smooth motion and then I slashed his face. It wasn't the right strike, but he let go of me, backing away with his hand on the cut.

  The next guy was at least twice my size. He moved forward and immobilized my knife hand, but I didn't fight for control of the knife. Instead I slammed my heel into his instep and then brought him down with a combination leg sweep and corner throw.

  The third guy's hoodie obscured most of his features, but he'd already started moving in to help his friends before he realized that they'd bitten off more than they'd meant to. My kick caught him in the stomach hard enough to fold him around it before he hit the ground.

  I rode the momentum of the impact backwards as my right hand whipped my pistol out.

  "If any of you move, I'll kill all three of you."

  The words came out calmer than I'd expected them to, but they apparently did the trick. All three boys froze in place.

  "You're all going to go into that bathroom and stay there for at least the next hour. If you come out before then I'll shoot you."

  They all slowly backed away and then filed into the bathroom. I watched until the door closed and then went back to Ash and recovered my knife. I punched our new destination into the kiosk with one hand and then fed in one of the prepaid credit cards and hit the 'accept charges' button.

  Our magnetic cards were dispensed a few seconds later and one of the doors further down the terminal started flashing. I debated for a couple of seconds and then slid my pistol back into my shoulder harness. It was risky, but there was no telling when someone else would come into view and I didn't want to create any more problems than I already had.

  My breathing had remained more or less even during the confrontation, but after I'd swiped our cards and passed the first checkpoint I found that my hands were shaking. Even a minute or two later, after we'd made it to the boarding point for our car it was still almost more than I could do to pull my burner phone out and dial Anya's number.

  "What the helicopter?"

  I had to clear my throat a couple of times to get my part out.

  "Shut the front door."

  Anya paused for several seconds before continuing. "Dear…Jane, what happened?"

  "We just ran into some problems. I need the security footage from this terminal to disappear. It would be good if you can do something with regards to the records showing which car we jumped onto as well."

  Anya sighed. "I see you've already picked up his habit of calling up with difficult requests at short notice. I don't think I can have anything done about the latter bit, but I should be able to at least do something about the cameras. You're going to want to change cars at the first available opportunity and then we'll just have to hope for the best."

  I nodded even though I knew she couldn't see the action. "OK. Thank you. I'll try not to get into any more trouble for a little while."

  **

  The next switch went smoothly, and then Ash really came to for the first time a few minutes after our third car started into motion.

  "Where are we?"

  "Louisiana. On one of The Express trains. For the most part I've managed to keep us in motion and off of the radar."

  "Most part?"

  "Three guys grabbed me the first time I had to change cars. I slashed one of them and held a gun on all of them. Anya is supposed to have taken care of the camera footage by now and hopefully the fact that we've changed cars again since then will help throw the police off of our scent."

  Ash thought for a second before nodding. "Anya and her family have arranged for transportation when we get off of the train?"

  "Yes, they'll have an SUV with all of your gear waiting for us in Colorado."

  Ash sighed but then he offered me a smile that I couldn't seem to categorize.

  "Thank you for saving me yet again."

  I bit back a chuckle when I realized he was serious.

  "I think I'm the one who owes you still. Honestly, I can't believe you survived that let alone rolled back onto your stomach and put half a dozen rounds into Anton."

  Ash's shrug was even more minimalist than normal, probably because he was trying not to tear any stitches.

  "I've got advantages you don't have. If I had even half the speed and strength of an average wolf I would have managed to kill him rather than just drive him off after he savaged our entire team."

  I rubbed my eyes and then gave him a very frank, appraising look. He was absolutely serious and this kind of second-guessing wasn't at all like him.

  "What gives? You just saved our butts yet again. Sure, you're not as fast and strong as some, but that didn't stop you from fighting Anton to a standstill three times. I heard what you said to Anya back there. Anton isn't your garden variety psychopath. What happened the last time someone like him came across the border?"

  "I wasn't alive for it, but I'm told we had someone of similar skill and ability cross into California back in the Fifties. He tore through the San Diego pack in one engagement and the survivors had to call in the Coun'hij for help. The equivalent of three full packs were flown into the area to bring him down."

  "OK, so just surviving is quite the accomplishment in and of itself."

  Ash nodded but didn't seem any less morose. I waited him out and he finally cracked after ten minutes.

  "It's not that I'm unappreciative of what I've accomplished, of what we've accomplished. As you say, it's the kind of thing to be proud of, especially for two such as us. The problem is that I'm out of good ideas. As Anya said, it's down to a decision to run or a decision to fight and all of the variations along those two themes are incredibly unsatisfying."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Flight is just giving up. Nobody can run indefinitely. Eventually we would tire of moving around and we'd stay for just a little too long in one place. He's not in any hurry so he would choose the time and place of the attack and eventually we'd be killed."

  I spent a couple of seconds imaging that kind of life. I'd always been interested in the idea of travel, but Ash was right. Living while always looking over one shoulder didn't seem like the way to go.

  "So running doesn't sound like a great plan. Let's talk about fighting."

  "It's no better. More ambushes with more people, bigger guns and all they will end up doing is racking up a higher body count. We could exhaust the supply of mercenaries in North America and still not manage to bring him down. He's perfectly capable of just choosing not to engage us until the odds come down to something he's comfortable with. We'd be left sitting in a desert somewhere with dozens of men waiting for him to make an appearance which puts the initiative squarely in his court."

  "Is that so bad? I mean if we end up with a standoff, I could live with that I think."

  Ash shook his head.

  "No, there is no such thing as a real standoff. When you see something that looks like a standoff it's just one or both of the parties choosing not to engage temporarily while they look for another route to achieve their goals. He could buy off one of the mercenaries, bring in a second southerner, hell, he could even just let the Coun'hij know where we were located and let them come in and capture me. The only thing that's saving us from an even worse set of opponents is that he doesn't realize just how much any one of a half-dozen packs would love to get their hands on me so that they could attempt to shake loose some of my family's wealth."

  I hadn't forgotten how determined Ash was to make su
re that he didn't end up sucked into pack life again. I didn't want that for him. As much as I didn't want to spend whatever little time I had left running, I didn't want to see him forced to do the thing he'd spent his entire adult life so far avoiding.

  "Then we need to run. I know that means we'll probably never even see the proverbial bullet coming, but that's what we need to do."

  Ash nodded, but I could tell he didn't have much left in his reserves. He'd been through too much lately to face the question of our future yet.

  "Let me get you something to eat. We don't have to decide anything right now."

  Maybe Ash was right and there wasn't really any hope. Still, a life spent on the run, even if it was short, couldn't be all bad, not if it was spent with Ash.

  Chapter 14

  I woke to find that Ash had opted for more of a direct route to Colorado than I'd been taking, which meant that we arrived much faster than I'd expected. He didn't say much and it didn't feel like the right time to be pushing him, so we spent the last little bit of our journey to Denver in silence.

  The SUV was exactly where Josef had told me it would be and we were driving away from the station less than half an hour after the train pulled in. I took the first shift as a way of letting Ash catch up on his sleep. He obviously wasn't back to full strength yet, and even if he had been, I figured that it wouldn't hurt to give him a little time to think.

  I drove for what seemed like forever, headed north into Wyoming and then into Idaho, but finally I felt my eyes grow too heavy to continue so reached over and shook Ash.

  "Hey, Ash. I'm sorry, but I'm almost ready to fall asleep and we don't dare stop."

  Ash slowly stretched and then looked up at me with a tired smile.

  "It's OK, I've been drifting in and out for a little while now. Means I'm mostly back to normal."

  "That's great news!"

  Ash shrugged, but he didn't particularly look satisfied with his recovery.

  "Still worried about Anton?"

  He turned a little so he could look out the window, but I suspected that he just wanted to avoid meeting my eyes.

  "Yeah. Still no options out there that I really like."

  I'd returned my hand to the steering wheel, but I reached over once again and pulled him around so I could see his face.

  "Ash, I was serious yesterday before when I said we should just run. I know it's not ideal, I know we probably won't live for decades, but I still think it's the best option for us."

  He shook his head. "I don't think you understand what that means, not really."

  "That's OK. How often in life do any of us really understand what we're getting into? I know it will be tough, and I'm willing to roll with the punches even when things get worse than anticipated."

  Ash didn't say anything for several seconds. "What if I told you that I could come up with a way for you to go back and live your normal life, but you'd have to do it yourself? I'd be busy keeping Anton occupied."

  I didn't even have to think about it.

  "No. We're in this together. The only way I'm leaving you is if you tell me you don't want me around."

  "Maybe you should take some time and think about that."

  "Ash, I don't need to think about it. If you'll have me, I want to stay with you. Anton being after us or not doesn't change that."

  I was still skirting around the issue, still giving hints as to how I felt without actually coming right out and saying it. I wanted to just tell him that I had feelings for him, but that was scary. There was no way to really tell how he'd respond to something like that, but I kept thinking back to my dream, the one where just before Anton had killed us, I'd said something stupid, something that had caused Ash to back away from me.

  It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that had probably been. I'd been halfway to the point of declaring my interest in him that night before I'd gone to bed. As much as I wanted to just come clean, I couldn't risk it.

  I stifled a yawn, and Ash pointed at a gas station. Fifteen minutes later the SUV was topped off and we were back on the road with Ash in the driver's seat. My last thought before I nodded off was that Ash still looked incredibly troubled, conflicted even.

  **

  I lost some hours in there at some point. When I finally woke up I felt rested, and Ash didn't look too worse for the wear. In fact, he greeted me with a smile that was very nearly how he'd looked those first few days between when we got to his cabin and when Anton had turned up.

  "Do you feel better?"

  "Yeah. How long did I sleep, where are we, and how are you feeling? Probably not in that order."

  Ash's chuckle loosened up something inside of me that I hadn't realized had been knotted up.

  "I'm not sure, more than twelve hours at least. We crossed over into Utah about an hour ago, and everything has healed up nicely."

  He pulled up his shirt, showing off angry red lines that would probably fade to thin white scars before the week was out, but I barely noticed them despite the fact that they were welcome evidence he was fully recovered.

  Instead I found my eyes travelling over the expanse of skin he'd just exposed. It wasn't the first time I'd seen his chest, but it still hit me like a bat. It seemed impossible for anyone to look that tight, that shredded when he was relaxed like that.

  I found myself swallowing, trying to find my voice. On the second try I finally succeeded.

  "I'm glad you're feeling better. What's the plan, where are we headed?"

  "Food first. I don't know about you, but with my body still trying to recover from having to put itself back together for the second time in less than two weeks, I have to eat about every two hours."

  "Now that you mention it, I could do with something to eat. I know we can't do a sit-down meal, but can we do something better than junk food out of a gas station?"

  Ash nodded. "Sure. We've got plenty of options and it's your turn to choose."

  I'd actually asked the question with the intention of getting a bit more of a long-term plan than just what was happening in the next fifteen minutes, but I was hungry, and I didn't want to push just yet. We had time and I didn't want to ruffle Ash's newly-regained calm.

  Half an hour later, my belly full of some kind of gourmet sandwich that had been the best thing I'd tasted in roughly a week, I was content, but still curious.

  "So you seem better. I don't mean healed up, I mean like you've got some clarity around next steps."

  I'd been right to be wary of pushing. Ash looked at me out of the corner of his eye, obviously concerned about where the conversation was going to go. He waited for a second to see what else I was going to say and then sighed.

  "It's kind of hard to explain."

  "Try me. Like I keep saying, we've got nothing but time."

  "You know that popular song I always turn off every time it comes up on the radio?"

  "The anti-war one?"

  "Yeah, that's the one."

  It wasn't something he'd made a big deal about, but I could tell he didn't like it. Beyond that I hadn't thought much about it.

  "What about it?"

  "I guess it comes down to the fact that I don't believe in peace. I mean it's not that I think every war is just and right, there are plenty of examples in history where you can see that's not the case. By the same stripe, though, just because a war is kicked off doesn't mean it's automatically the wrong thing to do."

  He stopped and looked expectantly at me and I felt myself blushing.

  "I…ah, it's not something that I've ever really thought about. I should have, but I'm not even old enough to vote yet. I was always worried more with getting into a good school so that I'd have the ability to do what I wanted when I graduated. Sorry, I know that makes me seem like a shallow idiot, but I hadn't ever thought much beyond that."

  Ash shook his head. "No, not silly or stupid. Just fairly normal. Most people do exactly that, but the big danger of focusing on your ability to make a difference before y
ou decide what you truly believe is that you run the risk of selling your actual values down the river without realizing it while you pursue your short-term goals."

  It made a kind of straightforward sense that left me wondering why nobody else had ever pointed it out to me. Barring that, it was the kind of thing I should have arrived at on my own.

  "OK, I agree. With me needing to decide what I believe regarding certain things I mean. So how did you decide that war was an OK way to resolve certain things?"

  "Nobody ever disputes the need for police officers. Sure, sometimes people complain about tickets and the like, but most people understand that there are real nutjobs out there and that we need a group of people who will protect us from them. The place where it breaks down for a lot of people is that they don't understand that deranged people come in a lot of different shapes, sizes and socioeconomic varieties. Sometimes they take over the police, sometimes they take over entire nations."

  What he was saying was chilling. It was the kind of thing everyone knew at some level, but I got the feeling that Ash had personal experience with some of what he was talking about. I found myself opening my mouth and adding to his narrative.

  "So if you do nothing and they aren't ambitious then you're condemning their people to all kinds of suffering. If they are ambitious then eventually it comes down to some kind of confrontation between them and another country."

  "Exactly. Only keep in mind that the kind of person to take control of an entire country, even a small one, isn't likely to be short on ambition."

  I could see where he was going.

  "So you view justified war as nothing more than a police action?"

  "At its root, yes. The biggest problem is that often it's much less black and white than you'd expect. Is a given leader gathering forces to attack their neighbor, or are they just trying to ensure their people are protected? The decision on when to strike becomes one that is fraught with all kinds of risks."

  We sat in silence for several minutes as I processed everything he'd said. Finally I looked back over at him and shrugged.