“Sam, how’s it looking?”
Taking the binoculars away from his face for a moment and turning to look at Austin and the boys, Samuel tried to offer a reassuring smile. “Same really,” he explained. “They’re just sitting around the table talking, one of them just got the fire going.”
“Let’s give it another half an hour or so,” Austin decided, checking his watch and the blackening sky above him. “We need to have as much cover as possible for the first dash across the road.”
Samuel nodded and then turned back, repositioning the binoculars and continuing to watch the two men. He wondered what their stories were and how they would react if they caught people trying to cross the barricades. Earlier that evening he had watched as a couple of them almost broke out into a fight, the matter being settled by a rather one-sided arm wrestling match in the end. Thankfully the most aggressive one in the group had left shortly after, but Samuel was still wary about the remaining men. The pistol which sat on the table made it clear to him that they weren’t on guard to ask questions.
It had been a difficult day trying to keep out of sight as construction was carried out just beyond the barricades on the watch tower. Mason and Noah struggled to sit still and were both excited to return to their home now that they were almost able. Mason understood better than Noah did that they couldn’t just approach the fences and ask to be let back inside. If the city was happy to blow the bridge and make no effort to search for the two lost boys, they had to assume that they wouldn’t simply welcome them back in either.
One blessing of the construction work nearby was at least that they could talk to each other freely and not have to worry about being overheard. The noise was tremendous, echoing throughout the surroundings due to the silence that penetrated everywhere else. It reminded Samuel of the hectic New York streets and how rare it was to find a moment of quiet in the busy city, a fact that was far from the truth any longer.
In the newer world, it was more often the deathly quiet that plagued places. The people that had once yearned for peace now desperate for the melee of voices that the collapse had taken away with it.
“Okay,” Austin announced after the allotted time had passed. “Let’s do this. Everyone ready?”
Samuel nodded, putting the binoculars away. It was too dark to see anything more than shapes now and as they crossed the road the four of them simply had to hope neither of the men on watch took notice. They would make the dash in pairs, with Austin and Noah going first.
“Good luck.”
“See you on the other side I hope,” Austin grinned, taking Noah’s hand and squeezing it for support. “Stay low little man, we’ve got this.”
As Austin and Noah disappeared around the side of the building, Samuel felt Mason press up against his leg. “They’ll be fine,” Samuel whispered in reassurance, counting the seconds in his head and listening for any noise or commotion from beside the blockades.
“How long do we have to wait?”
“Just another minute,” Samuel replied, putting his arm around Mason and holding the child closer to him to try and comfort him. As intense as this period was for Samuel, he knew it had to be even more frightening for both of the boys. Noah certainly didn’t understand why all the precautions were in place and while Mason nodded and spoke like he was aware, Samuel doubted whether all the pieces were in place. Both boys had to feel like their parents didn’t care about them, given the lengths that they needed to go to in order to see them again.
As the time ticked by and Samuel didn’t hear anything, he had to assume Austin and Noah had made it to the other side of the road unseen. He was pleased, but it shifted the pressure onto him and instantly that made him even more nervous. Mason was counting on him and Austin and Noah would be waiting to make their next move. With one last look at the little boy by his side, Samuel took a deep breath and stepped out into the open.
Quickly glancing beyond the barricades, he could still see the rough outline of the two men sitting around the table. With Mason’s hand in his, Samuel crouched low and jogged toward them, sticking on the right of the road for the time being. His footsteps sounded like clanging drums in his head as he scuffed the asphalt on a couple of occasions, wincing every time he made a sound. His heartbeat hammered in his eardrums and set a rhythm to his movements, creating the scurried dance of a fugitive trying to reach a forbidden land.
As he and Mason reached the point opposite where Austin and Noah waited in the shadows, there was nothing to do but to make the dash across. Samuel shielded Mason’s body with his own and without looking over at the two men, the ran as quickly and quietly as they could over the tarmacked road and down the grassy verge on the other side. Sliding onto the ground, Samuel held his breath as he listened for the sound of voices, for any indication that they had been spotted. But there was nothing. The beautiful silence filled his ears once more and as he let his head loll back against the ground as his eyes closed and he heaved a huge sigh of relief.
“Can’t relax just yet pal,” Austin’s voice whispered in his ear, immediately disrupting the few seconds of comfort Samuel was taking. “Come on.”
Austin was right, they still had the first barbed wire fence to cut their way through, followed by the mountain of abandoned cars and rubble that they would be forced to climb over. They might have been able to walk through the initial road blocks but now things were going to get a lot harder and they needed to be careful of the noise they were making along the way.
“Keep an eye out,” Austin instructed, reaching around to the side pocket of his rucksack and taking out his pocketknife which housed small but reliable wire cutters. “Give me a whistle if there’s any movement or anything.”
Samuel nodded and Austin flashed him another positive grin and turned away, leaving Samuel with both of the boys on lookout. Inching closer to the fence, Austin tilted his head back and squinted through the distance, satisfying himself that no one was about to discover them and set to work on the fence. He held the wire cutters of the pocketknife over the first link in the fence and squeezed, cutting through it with relative ease. The fencing shook slightly from the movement and created a sort of ripple which carried a couple of yards before fizzling out. Austin held his breath as he watched and listened, anxious that the men on guard would hear.
Despite the high-pressure situation, Austin managed to keep his heartrate low and steady, aware that adrenaline was gradually starting to pump through his veins. He couldn’t shake the excitement he was feeling about hopefully seeing his son in a matter of hours, but he knew he had to focus on the matter at hand first, in order to reach that end goal. After how far he had already come, he refused to stumble at the final hurdle.
Moving the wire cutters onto the next link, Austin squeezed again and continued to carve a hole in the fence. Once he’d severed a few of the cross-hatches he was forced to hold onto the material to stop it rattling and giving away his position. Each cut sounded like a bomb going off in his ears, but little by little he created a gap wide enough to push his body through and all of a sudden, he was on the other side. One step closer to Poughkeepsie and one step closer to his son. Pursing his lips, Austin let out a quiet whistle as a signal to Samuel and waited for the rest of his group to arrive.
“Careful,” he whispered in the darkness as Mason appeared first on the other side of the fence. “Watch you don’t catch yourself.”
One by one, Mason, Noah and Samuel all shuffled through the gap in the fence and crouched low on the other side. There was now another stretch of no man’s land; about fifty meters of empty road until the crudely constructed pile up of cars and rubble. Once again, they had no option but to run for it, though thankfully the vehicles now provided them with some level of cover from the watching eyes of the two locals.
“All okay?”
Austin’s voice was barely audible as they sheltered against the wheel bay of an old pickup truck. No one vocalized a response, but a nod from Samuel and a thumb’s up
from Mason was enough. This was the hardest part of their infiltration – for Mason and Noah there was the option of shimmying along the ground and underneath the vehicles – but for Austin and Samuel they had no choice but to go up and over. After hearing the crunch of glass underneath his shoes, Austin decided he didn’t really want the boys crawling on the ground anyway. Broken glass and nails littered the asphalt and in the dark, there was no way for either of them to know what they were slinking over. All four of them would need to make the climb.
Poking his head up and over the pickup, Austin knew there wasn’t any straightforward or simple way for them to approach it. They just had to climb and hope they didn’t get caught. Offering a look of confidence to his companions, Austin stood up and put his foot into the wheel bay of the pickup to hoist himself up onto the truck.
The metal creaked underneath him with the added weight and groaned as he maneuvered himself into place. If he was just darting over by himself then the noise would be far less, but Austin had to reach back over to help Mason and Noah and he needed to be in a position where he wouldn’t slip. Noah’s knee slammed against the side of the truck as Austin lifted him, the small boy letting out a low yelp before he could control himself. Lowering him into the body of the truck, Austin knew they just had to keep working – there was no time to check over his shoulder after every small sound they made.
Moving at what felt like a snail’s pace, Austin finally had both boys in the bed of the pickup truck with him and could start helping them move across onto the next vehicle while Samuel climbed up. The pile up of vehicles was three or four thick in some places, meaning they had to scramble over the hoods of cars and avoid falling into the tiny gaps between them. Most were old and creaked with their weight, the suspension on the wheels shot and close to giving out completely. Austin felt like it was only a matter of time before there was a noise loud enough for the two men on guard to hear. They not only had to be careful, but also move as quickly as they could.
“Hey! Stop!”
No sooner had the thought crossed Austin’s mind, than a shout carried out of the darkness and as he looked up, he could see the vague outlines of the two men moving in the distance.
“Come on,” Austin encouraged his small group, knowing there was no point trying to keep his voice down now that they had been spotted. “Quick!” Bounding past Noah who was edging across the trunk of an old beamer, Austin made it down onto the asphalt with one final leap and quickly helped Mason clamber down next to him. “Hurry,” he called over to Samuel, the sound of approaching footsteps growing louder and louder.
“Dean! Put a call in back to base. One man and two children on foot!”
Austin focused on the voice, surprised to hear that they hadn’t spotted Samuel. There was still a fair distance between them and the pursuing man, Austin had enough time to help Noah down from the last car as the three of them now desperately waited for Samuel to catch up. Looking over to his friend who stumbled across the vehicles, Austin tried to figure out what to do.
“Go!” Samuel shouted as he almost slipped on a car, seeing Austin and the two boys waiting for him. “Run!”
Although Austin understood what Samuel was suggesting, he couldn’t bring himself to leave his friend behind. “Over there,” he pointed into the distance and directed Mason and Noah to make a run for it. “Go and hide. I’ll find you.”
Mason looked up at Austin for a second before nodding and taking off, dragging his younger brother with him. Feeling a tiny breath of relief as they fled the scene, Austin began to turn around when a fist slammed into the side of his head and sent him crashing to the ground. His skull bounced off of the road and he yelled out in pain, his vision blurring as he struggled to make out the figure who had just thrown him to the ground. But almost as soon as Austin found himself on the asphalt, Samuel lurched off the closest vehicle and landed on the attacker’s back.
“Arrghhh! Dean! There’s another one! There’s two of them!”
Scrambling to his feet, Austin saw another man approaching in the distance, sprinting toward them from across the road. In his dazed state and with the two children hiding in the distance, Austin struggled to figure out what to do. The huge man whose back Samuel was on eventually managed to overpower him and threw Samuel to the ground with a thud, then quickly retreated a couple of steps and drew a handgun from the waistband of his pants, pointing it first at Samuel, then Austin – alternating between the two of them.
“Don’t move,” he spat at them, drawing out the time until his friend reached them as well. “Don’t make me shoot you.”
At the sight of the gun, Austin remembered the police officer’s gun that he and Samuel had acquired as they were leaving New York City. The Glock sat in the rear of his pants, nestled against his back and hidden from sight. With his head still slightly fuzzy from the impact with the ground, Austin wondered whether he would be quick enough to draw the gun and fire before the other man realized what he was doing and shot first.
With the thought of seeing his son again in his head, Austin acted on instinct, withdrew the weapon and immediately squeezed the trigger.
Chapter 3
There was a moment of pure, unadulterated silence in the immediate seconds after Austin fired the gun. Time seemed to stop as the bullet whizzed through the air. Austin himself wasn’t entirely certain what had just happened; it was all a blur in his head. It almost felt like it hadn’t happened, but the sight in front of him said otherwise.
The man who had previously drawn his gun on Austin and Samuel cried out, clutched at his shoulder and fell to his knees. Blood immediately began to pour from the wound and puddle around him.
“Come on,” Samuel urged Austin as he reached his friend, trying to pull him up from the ground. “We need to get out of here.”
“Parker! Oh my God!”
Dean had finally arrived on the scene and knelt down over Parker, helping to apply pressure to the gunshot wound on his shoulder. Samuel had no doubt that Dean had also brought a weapon with him. Once he was sure his friend was okay, it would be shoot first, ask questions later. They needed to get away while they had a chance.
“Come on,” Samuel pressed Austin again as his friend remained on the ground, spellbound by what he had just done. Samuel gave him a shake, tried to snap him out of it. They had to move. Mason and Noah still waited just out of sight and the two men had to reach them before it was too late.
Dragging his friend up from the ground toward where the two boys had run, Samuel tore Austin away from the scene. He could still hear Dean speaking to Parker, reassuring him that help was on its way. That last part worried Samuel a great deal. He had no idea how many men Dean had put the call out to but with word of intruders out, he knew the place could be swarming with men in a matter of minutes. They had to find the kids and get somewhere safe. He needed Austin to get his head back in the game.
“Austin get it together. Where do we go from here? What’s the plan?”
Austin’s head was still spinning, though the pain from where he’d been hit had all but subsided. He’d just shot a man. He’d have to live with that for the rest of his life. As Samuel shouted at him, he tried to clear his head and think about anything else. They were in Poughkeepsie now. They’d made it past the barriers. He could finally see Bowie again.
That thought calmed everything down. It gave him the moment of clarity he was looking for to continue moving forward.
He let out a low whistle that alerted Mason and Noah to their whereabouts and told them it was safe to come out. The whistle was the simplest form of communication the four of them had been able to agree on before tackling the route into Poughkeepsie through the barricades. It was subtle enough to be mistaken for the wind, yet precise so that if one of the four of them heard it, they would understand what it was. Just as planned, Mason and Noah emerged from behind a low sign at the side of the road, clutching one another’s hands firmly.
“What happened?” Mason asked, pe
ering beyond Austin and Samuel into the darkness. “What was that bang?”
“It was nothing,” Samuel replied quickly, still uncertain how Austin was going to react. “We need to get into the city fast now though. They know we’re here.”
“This way,” Austin moved to the front of their group and led them at a steady jog down the road, the pace slower than he would’ve liked. Once they were deeper into the city, they’d have a chance to hide themselves better. But he needed to find the right street first. While Austin had been to Poughkeepsie a number of times, in the dark and with everything else that was swimming around in his head, it difficult to remember his way.
“We need to get off the main road,” Samuel said, pointing to a turning just ahead. “Down there?”
“Sure,” Austin nodded. They needed to put distance between them and the barricades. Finding his family could wait another few minutes to guarantee their survival.
They took the left-hand turn and, after a couple of minutes, were running through more urban areas. A new subdivision of houses part-way through construction lined one side of the road. All of them panted for breath from what they’d just been through. Looking at the empty shell of houses that towered over them, Samuel stopped and called to the others.
“Let’s hide in here for a second,” he suggested. “Catch our breath.”
“We need to keep moving,” Austin argued, worried what would happen if they were caught. “We need to get as far away as possible.”
Samuel still wasn’t sure if Austin was thinking clearly. If people were searching for them, then heading into the more populous areas of the city probably wasn’t the wisest choice. Locals would be emerging from their homes and heading to the roadblock to find out what happened. They could end up running into them head on. Samuel was sure that laying low for a little while was a good idea and refused to change his mind.
“They’re going to be looking for us,” he explained, ushering Mason and Noah toward the entrance to one of the half-finished houses. “We need to get off the streets and hide for a bit. Figure out what our best plan is. Where we’re going. Come on boys, through here.”
Wipeout | Book 4 | Overdrawn Page 2