by Kenny Soward
“Fine.” Sara placed her rifle on the ground, and Tex followed her lead, placing his gun next to Sara’s. The two other soldiers came over and roughly patted Sara and Tex down, relieving them of two more pistols and pulling their hands behind their backs to bind them.
“Easy buddy,” Tex growled when one of the soldiers tightened a pair of nylon cuffs around his wrists.
The soldier binding Sara zipped her cuffs tight enough to bite into her skin. “Ow,” she grumbled, shooting him a dirty look.
Once they were bound, Yi made a gesturing motion that indicated any direction she wanted to go. “Lead us to the Box, Sara.”
Sara turned on her heel and marched toward the bridge with Tex coming alongside. She hated losing sight of her daughter, and she feared they would shoot her in the back right in front of her. Steeling herself against the fear, Sara kept walking. She listened to the crawlers’ boots and Zoe’s soft sniffles, estimating them to be ten yards back.
“They must have scaled the cliff to reach us,” Tex murmured under his breath as they crossed the wooden bridge. “That makes them pretty dedicated.”
“It makes them sneaky,” Sara spat.
Tex glanced up at the sky. “You doing okay?”
“I am. But I swear, Tex. If those men hurt Zoe, I’ll kill them. Especially the big one.”
“I know you will,” Tex said. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Someone suddenly appeared at Sara’s side, and she turned her head to see that Yi had come up without making a single sound, though he didn’t act like he’d just heard Sara’s death threat.
“I saw the pictures on your mantel,” the man spoke softly, his eyes straight ahead and his rifle cradled in his arm. “You have a handsome family.”
“I didn’t think you cared, Yi,” Sara spat back with a dark tone.
Yi smiled. “I’m just making conversation. A way to pass the next few minutes. Simply do as we ask, and—”
“You’ll kill us like you did that family at the lodge? Are you going to torture us first, or just do it execution-style?” Sara’s words dripped poison as she thought about Kayla’s story and what these crawlers had done to her family.
Yi shook his head. “That was unfortunate. My counterpart on this mission has very dark proclivities that I do not share. Executing you and your family does not further our cause. My goal is to retrieve the Box and continue our mission, so I consider your help valuable. That is why I made a deal with you, and I will honor that deal. You should be thankful I am here, because my counterpart would not be so merciful.”
“Is your counterpart Katrya?” Sara remembered Kayla mentioning her when she’d talked about what happened to her family.
Yi nodded slowly in confirmation.
“How do you know I won’t come and find you after you let us go?”
“Because you have too much to lose,” Yi grinned knowingly. “My guess is that you will stay here and bolster your defenses. Try to hold out against what is to come.”
Sara nodded, because she could not argue with the man’s logic. The question was whether or not she could trust him.
They rounded the first curve and were working their way down the hill toward the first set of cabins. The Bird’s Nest. Sara was surprised that Yi was so willing to talk to her. It didn’t make him any more human in Sara’s eyes, but maybe she could find a weakness.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked. “I mean, why are you in my country?”
“You may not understand it, but your country has brought great suffering to the world. Your imperialistic and capitalistic ways have drained the world of beauty and honor.”
Sara chuckled drily and shot Yi a hard look. “Are you serious? I know we’re not perfect, but to say your country—wherever you’re from—doesn’t have its share of problems would be hypocritical.”
“That is my viewpoint,” Yi glanced at Sara, then he shrugged. “But like I said, I’m—”
“Just a soldier. Right.”
They were coming up on the first set of cabins, and Sara angled toward the middle one. The anxiety in her chest grew as she started to go up the first set of stairs, but Yi put the barrel of his rifle in front of her to make her stop.
“Chen,” he stated, gesturing to the cabin.
A soldier Sara presumed was Chen took the stairs and peeked in through the door glass.
“There’s no one inside,” Sara assured them. “This is an empty cabin.”
Chen turned and nodded to Yi. “I do not see anyone.”
“Enter,” Yi gestured. “Elsa, please assist.”
The soldier put his shoulder against the door and broke in easily. The door flew back and slammed against the doorstop, and Chen plunged in with Elsa following close behind. Less than thirty seconds later, Yi nodded at some communication he received in his helmet and then gestured with his rifle for Sara to go inside.
Sara entered the cabin to find the two soldiers standing in the living room with both rifles pointed at her. It was unnerving to see them in their soldier’s stances, legs bent at the knees and rifle stocks against their shoulders. Still, Sara did her best to hide her fear. She held up her chin and turned toward the stairwell leading down.
“Wait!” Yi snapped, and Sara stopped on the top step. Only when everyone was inside and the front door was shut did Yi direct Sara to move to the basement level.
Like most tourist cabins, the recreation room was downstairs. There was a pool table, foosball, and a couple of pinball machines up against the wall. Adjoining the recreation room was a master bedroom and the utility room which housed the furnace and water heater.
Sara stepped purposefully away from the utility room and stood near the master bedroom door. Then she turned to face Yi and waited. Her palms were sweaty, and her throat was dry. She felt the flash of hot anticipation leak down her spine, knowing what was to come.
Tex came down next. He, too, stepped away from the utility room and stood by the pool table. Chen and Elsa followed. Ivan came last, filling the entire stairwell with his massive bulk as he ducked beneath the basement ceiling and stepped over near the sliding glass doors with Zoe in his grasp.
That wasn’t optimal placement for the big Russian, but his rifle was slung over his shoulder and could not easily be brought up to fire. He placed the little girl down on her feet, and her knees buckled for a moment. So, Ivan lifted her again with an order. “Stand.”
This time, Zoe got her legs under her and stood on her own. Her swollen, tear-filled eyes stared longingly at her mother. Sara returned a half smile to comfort the little girl.
“Where is the Box?” Yi asked, looking around.
Sara’s heart thudded wildly in her chest as she nodded at the closet with the furnace and water heater inside. Her voice was slightly shaky. “It’s in the back of the utility room. We wrapped it in tin foil to block your communication. We assumed it was bugged.”
“Very smart,” Yi said with an impressed nod. “Had you not done that, we would have located you much sooner.”
“I knew there had to be a locater,” Tex said awkwardly, then he gave Sara a nervous smile as beads of sweat ran down his face.
“The Box is inside, behind the furnace.” Sara gestured with her head again to keep the soldiers focused on their prize while she figured out how to get her daughter away from the big Russian. He’d likely be the only one left standing when the array of shotgun shells in the utility room sprayed buckshot at everyone standing in the vicinity of the doorway.
It had been Tex’s idea to set a trap in case one of the crawlers stumbled on the place. Sara had reluctantly agreed, although she couldn’t have possibly predicted being taken by surprise the way they had. She couldn’t have predicted her daughter would be held captive right next to the trap.
Yi motioned for Chen and Elsa to check inside the room.
With their hands bound, Sara couldn’t imagine a way to tackle the Russian, and she also couldn’t guarantee her daughter would not be h
it by the buckshot. If the trap went off, Zoe could be blown to bits.
Sara shot Tex a panicked look. “Wait!” she called out, her resolve breaking. “It’s booby-trapped.”
The soldiers backed out of the room quickly as Yi looked back and forth between Sara and Tex.
Tex nodded. “I’ll disarm the trap.”
“Please do.” Yi and his soldiers stepped aside to let the older man into the utility room. “And please bring the Box out here when you are done.”
With a grin, Yi turned to Sara. “That was honorable. My soldiers could have been killed, and probably me along with them.”
“I don’t care about you or your soldiers,” Sara said. “I only did it to protect my little girl.”
“That’s fair.” Yi nodded.
“There’s nothing about this that’s fair,” Sara said, sourly. “You’ve got your precious computer. Now let me have my daughter back.”
“Not until we have it in our hands and are safely away,” Yi said. “Do not let your impatience be the cause of your demise.”
Chapter 8
Sara, Gatlinburg, Tennessee | 8:35 a.m., Tuesday
Yi forced Sara and Tex down the hill at gunpoint, and Ivan still held little Zoe in his arms. Chen carried the Box after having stripped off the aluminum foil. Sara had no idea what they were going to do with it, nor did she care. She simply wanted her daughter back and these people off the mountain.
Sara’s boots pounded the concrete as gravity pulled her down the steep incline. And as they rounded the curve leading down to the Squirrel’s Nest, some of the Good Folk waiting in front of Karen’s cabin noticed them approaching and let out warning cries even as they lifted their weapons and trained them on the crawlers.
Lifting her hands high in the air, Sara slowed down. “Don’t shoot!” she called out. “Theyave Zoe. They have my daughter.” Then she half turned and gestured to the big Russian, who held his rifle in one arm and the little girl in the other.
Yi added his voice to Sara’s. “If anyone harms my people, the little girl will be shot, along with Sara and this old man!”
The Good Folk lowered their weapons, and Sara continued walking toward the roundwood gate. She had no idea how far Yi wanted them to go, though Sara was determined to stay on the mountain, even if it meant trying to escape and risking her and her daughter’s lives. Kayla had told her what these crawlers liked to do—at least the one called Katrya—and Sara would rather they die than suffer through that.
As they passed in front of Karen’s cabin, Natasha and Dion shoved through the front door and fell against the porch rail. Dion held his pistol in his hand and wore a helpless expression on his face. Sara shook her head before facing forward again.
A half-dozen Good Folk, led by Steven, stood in front of the roundwood gate with their rifles pointed at the ground.
Yi came up beside Sara and jammed the barrel of his gun into her hip. “Stand aside or she will die.”
“You’re the crawlers’ leader.” Steven’s voice resonated with violence, and it didn’t seem to faze him that the crawlers looked like a crack military unit compared to his flannel-shirt wearing brethren.
“I’m one of them,” Yi replied flatly. “We came here for the Box. Sara provided it. We will release them and move on as soon as you let us pass.”
Steven hesitated, his own cold expression giving Yi’s a run for his money. Sara appreciated the man’s bravery even though it might get them killed.
“Steven, please,” Sara pleaded. “Once they’re through the gate, they’ll let us go.”
Steven scoffed. “You believe him?”
Sara looked askance at Yi, and his eyes shifted to meet hers. All she saw was a cold, hard darkness. This wasn’t a man who cared about her family; however, she could see he bore himself with a certain sense of pride she could understand. One didn’t have to be warm inside in order to be duty-bound, and Yi had made a promise to them.
Nodding, Sara looked Steven in the eyes. “I have to believe it. He told us he would.”
Steven ground his teeth together for a moment, eyes slipping back and forth between the two, before he stepped aside with an over-exaggerated gesture. “Come on through, you evil son of a bitch.”
“Thank you.” Yi nudged Sara with his rifle, and she stepped past Steven and ducked beneath the roundwood gate.
The Good Folk had parked their vehicles along the guardrail, so the road was clear. Sara walked a few yards away from the gate and turned around. Tex, Yi, Chen, Elsa, and the big Russian, with Zoe tucked under his arm, stepped over the gate. Tex came to stand next to Sara while the big Russian took Zoe off to the side and held her tightly in one arm, with his rifle in the other. Yi and the rest of the soldiers strode past Sara a few yards and turned around to face her.
Weapons cocked behind her, and she knew the Good Folk were preparing to unleash hell on the crawlers the first chance they got. Sara stared holes into Yi, eyes begging and pleading for the man to let her daughter go.
“We’re going to back away,” Yi announced loudly. “Ivan will bring the girl until we reach the bend in the road. At that point, he will let her go. Do not attempt to follow us. If you do, you will meet our reinforcements, and you will die.”
Yi and his soldiers began backing down the hill with slow footsteps, drawing Sara’s daughter farther away from the safety of the Good Folk and their cabins. Zoe kicked and screamed in the Russian’s arms, calling, “Mom! Mom!” in a panic-filled voice.
Sara took two steps after them, clenching her fists as she leveled her glare between Yi and the Russian. She wanted to run toward her daughter despite the rifles pointed in her direction.
“Here comes more of them!” a woman called out from behind her.
“More crawlers!” someone else yelled. “Get ready. There’re more crawlers!”
A company of black-clad warriors marched around the bend and moved toward Yi and his soldiers. They were led by a tall, lithe woman wearing the same combat gear as the rest of them. Her cold, blue eyes glanced at Zoe before she marched up the hill toward Sara and the Good Folk.
Yi’s expression turned aggravated, and he followed the woman up the hill with swift strides, making gestures before finally clenching his fist and pounding it against his leg when the woman wouldn’t listen. The crawlers spread out across the road, some of them taking positions behind the vehicles parked along the guardrail.
Sara counted almost twenty of them, two carrying long tubes on their backs.
“I made a deal,” Yi was telling the woman as she came to a stop in front of Sara. “We have the Box. Our priority is to make contact with central command and receive our next orders.”
The woman’s eyes bored into Sara, and a deliberate smile stretched across her face. “We don’t make deals with peasants, comrade. Especially ones who have killed our friends.”
“You must be Katrya.” Sara stood taller, trying to be brave, although Katrya still towered a good six inches over her. The woman’s shoulders were wide and thin, and she held her arms out at her sides. In Sara’s mind, she seemed as lanky and sharp-limbed as a black widow spider.
“You’ve heard of me?” Katrya said, seeming pleased.
“You’re the torturing bitch who killed Kayla’s family.”
“That is what I came to talk about.” Katrya’s eyes lifted as she searched the Good Folk and the cabins behind them. “I want the girl who got away. We have unfinished business.”
A spike of anger rose in Sara, and she stepped forward with a clenched fist. In one swift motion that Sara barely saw, the woman slammed her palm into Sara’s chest and sent her flying back to land on her backside. Sara clutched her breastbone, struggling to catch her breath. She coughed and sputtered and looked for her daughter, still in the hands of the big Russian. Then she struggled to her feet, eyes stinging with tears.
“We made the deal,” Yi said to Katrya, gentle anger in his tone. “We must honor the agreement.”
Katrya raised her
nose to the Good Folk. “We will leave after you turn over the girl, Kayla, to us. We know she is with you. She belonged to me before this woman took her.”
“That wasn’t the deal,” Steven shouted back where he knelt behind the gate with his rifle resting on top.
“If you make me wait too long, we will take the little girl, too. I can make use of her just as well. I will give you ten seconds to—”
Sara charged the woman, her fist coming up in a roundhouse swing that might have landed in brutal fashion on anyone else, but Katrya knocked the blow aside easily and struck Sara in the stomach before kicking her to the ground once more. While it had been a long time since Sara had been punched, she didn’t remember it hurting so badly. It was as if lightning had struck her in the gut.
She lifted her head, glaring up at Yi. A decision to trade Kayla for Zoe was a no-win proposition. Whatever delicate trust they’d established with the crawlers had been ruined by Katrya. But if Katrya wouldn’t listen, maybe Yi would.
“You’re a liar,” Sara gasped the words at Yi, trying to stand even though her body protested. “You claimed to be here for some better cause, but you’re no better than anyone else. You have no honor at all. You’re no better than the snake standing next to you.”
Yi’s eyes narrowed as Sara’s words sunk in. The corner of his mouth twitched. A gleam lit his eyes. Something clicked in his brain. And then Yi became a whirlwind of motion.
He stepped to the side as he brought his rifle up, firing a shot point blank at Katrya’s head.
She wasn’t in the same spot she’d just been standing. The woman had ducked under his rifle as the bullet hit the mountainside. Then she grabbed the rifle as she spun, tearing it out of his hands before she flung it to the ground. Yi grabbed the strap of Katrya’s rifle as she finished her spin. He yanked the weapon off her shoulder, sending it clattering across the concrete.
Both disarmed of their primary weapons, Yi fell into a fighter’s crouch and lunged at Katrya. He landed a glancing punch across her chin before she slipped away in a twirl that would have put a ballerina to shame. A knife flashed in Katrya’s hand, and then it was her turn to go on the attack. Face drawn into a grimace, she lunged and stabbed three or four times before Sara knew what was happening, and Yi looked like a frantic puppet trying to keep up with her raw fury and speed.