by Lukens, Mark
Josh remembered Luke finding the tracks in the snow yesterday.
“But it was like they already knew that, wasn’t it?” Emma prodded.
Rose’s eyes widened in shock. “Yeah. It was like they knew something, but just wanted me to admit it.”
“Or fill in more details for them,” Ray suggested.
“They told you to come here,” Emma said.
“Yeah,” Rose answered. “They told me to find a way inside this cabin or they were going to do what they’d done to Heather to every one of us. So I did what they wanted.”
“And why did they want you to get inside?” Ray asked. “To hurt us? To kill us?”
“They didn’t tell me to do that,” Rose said.
“Then why did you put a knife to my son’s throat?” Ray said.
“I . . . I panicked. I didn’t know what else to do. I knew they’d be coming, and I wasn’t sure I was doing what they wanted. I just wanted out. I just wanted help.”
“Hell of a way to ask for help,” Josh grumbled.
“We can still help you,” Ray said, taking another step closer. “But you have to help us.”
“I am,” Rose said, nearly breaking down in tears again.
“There’s more,” Emma said, facing Rose, seeming to stare at her through her dark glasses even though she couldn’t see.
Josh knew it was freaking Rose out because she kept looking away from Emma.
“What did they want you to do when you got in here?” Ray asked, still keeping his tone even.
“It . . . it just seemed so strange.”
“What?”
“Like I said before, they wanted me to look around, to see everything, to remember everything. Find out as much as I could.”
“But there’s more,” Emma pressed. “Isn’t there? What else did they tell you to do?”
“They told me to dream.”
“So he could see,” Emma said. “So the Dragon could see, and then so he could show the Dark Angels outside our defenses and the supplies we have.”
Rose didn’t bother answering.
“Luke’s still out there,” Josh said. He stared down at Rose. “If we’d known about this attack sooner, he’d still be in here. We could have planned for this.”
“We should’ve already been planning for this,” Ray mumbled. “We all knew they’d find us eventually. We knew they’d never give up.”
“She still should’ve told us.”
“I’m sorry,” Rose said. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t think you’d be able to fight back.”
“Why?” Josh snapped. “Because you guys couldn’t fight back?
“Okay,” Ray said. “That’s enough. We can’t change what’s already happened.” He went back to the window near the front door and peeked out between the curtains.
Josh went to the other window. He saw the trucks at the far end of the clearing near the dirt drive. They were parked in a line, much like they’d been parked in front of the buildings in that small town where they’d met Luke. But there were more Dark Angels in the woods—Josh saw them moving around in the brush and trees, crouching down, aiming rifles toward the cabin. Then they opened fire.
As bullets pelted the cabin’s log walls and the metal front door, Josh dove to the floor. He suspected the glass on the windows was bullet-proof, but he didn’t know for sure, and standing in front of it was crazy.
He looked across the floor at Ray who was also down on his side.
The gunfire stopped.
“I guess we’re about to find out how much money your buddy really put into this place,” Josh told Ray.
CHAPTER 44
Ray
The shooting stopped for a moment, and for those few seconds Ray had been rattled. He’d faced more life-threatening and unthinkable situations in the last few weeks than he had in his whole life. He thought he might have been prepared for the Dark Angels shooting at the cabin, but he wasn’t. His mind was scrambled, and for a panicky few seconds he was afraid he couldn’t think straight, that he was never going to think straight again.
But then he calmed down. It was like the alpha waves in his brain had kicked in and time seemed to slow down. It used to happen to him on the football field, time would seem to slow down, the game would seem to slow down, and his mind seemed to work on autopilot for a few seconds as he tackled a player or tried to intercept a pass.
And that had happened now, an eerie calmness washing over him.
First he needed to make sure the bullets hadn’t penetrated the two windows or the front door. Like Josh had said: They were about to see how strong this fortress really was.
The door seemed okay; there were no holes in it, no shafts of daylight shining through.
“The windows?” he asked Josh.
“Looks like they held,” Josh answered back from below the other window.
Ray looked toward the kitchen where Mike, Rose, and Emma were huddled. He was up on his feet and across the living room in a flash, keeping low even though the shooting outside had stopped and none of the bullets had penetrated the cabin.
“You guys okay?” Ray asked.
“The windows and door held?” Emma asked.
“Yeah,” Ray answered. But what if the Dark Angels used a more powerful weapon? What if they used some kind of machine gun? Or some kind of explosive? How much could the cabin really stand?
He needed some kind of plan. But what? Fight back? They couldn’t shoot from the windows because they were sealed shut, and they couldn’t take a chance on opening the door—they were trapped in here.
Hunker down and wait the Dark Angels out? They had plenty of supplies down in the bunker. Even if the Dark Angels managed to destroy the solar-powered well, they still had a few large storage tanks of water in the bunker, along with the pallets of bottled water. And they had enough food to last for years.
But the Dark Angels weren’t going to wait around outside. Eventually they’d try to ram their way in, or burn down the cabin, or use bombs.
Josh came up to Ray. “They stopped for now, but I’m sure they’ll start again soon.”
Just then Ray heard a noise from the basement. Someone was coming up the stairs. Was it the Dark Angels? Had they found the tunnels?
Josh must have had the same thought. He looked at Rose. “Do they know about the tunnels?”
Rose was crying again, shaking her head no. “I don’t think so. I don’t know how they would.”
Ray looked at Mike. “When did you tell her about the tunnels?”
“Just a little while ago. Right before she . . .” He let his words trail off.
Ray knew Mike felt bad about Rose attacking him, embarrassed about being swindled by her. He’d wanted a friend so bad, but it was more than that. Mike had been attracted to Rose; Ray had seen that right away.
The noises from the basement were louder now.
“Okay,” Ray told Mike. “Take Emma and Rose into the bedroom.”
Mike didn’t argue about it; he led them to the bedroom.
Ray and Josh backed up toward the couches, crouching down and aiming their guns at the basement door.
The noises beyond the door were a little louder.
What were they going to do if Rose was lying about the Dark Angels knowing about the tunnels? Or maybe she really wasn’t sure. Maybe the Dragon had seen things through her eyes while she was awake—maybe he was more powerful than Emma suspected.
Backup plans tried to form in Ray’s mind, but nothing was coming together. The tunnels were their only escape. They couldn’t go out the back door. Even if the Dark Angels hadn’t surrounded the clearing yet, they would spot them running across the field to the woods—they’d be picked off one by one. Ray saw an image of Mike being shot down from behind, his arms flying up, falling forward in slow-motion like a scene from a war movie.
The walkie-talkie on Josh’s belt crackled with static.
“Josh, come in,” Luke said on the walkie-talkie. “It’s Lu
ke. I’m coming up from the bunker. Don’t do anything stupid like shoot me.”
Ray and Josh glanced at each other, standing up quickly and dropping their weapons down to their sides.
The door to the basement opened slowly and then Luke stepped out. He had his gun in his hand, his backpack on, his rifle slung over one shoulder. He walked up to them in the living room, looking right at Josh. “What the hell? Why weren’t you answering me earlier on the walkie?”
“Why weren’t you?” Josh said.
“I had to turn it off for a little because of our friends out there. What’s your excuse?”
“Rose took Mike hostage down in the bunker. I left my walkie up here when I went down there.”
Luke’s face fell in shock.
“It’s okay now,” Ray said. “We got things worked out.”
“Why would she take Mike hostage? How?”
“She had a knife to his throat,” Josh said, his voice low, his eyes flicking to the bedroom door.
“Let’s go over by the stairs,” Ray whispered.
They all hurried to the foot of the steps that led upstairs.
“Why didn’t you kill her?” Luke asked.
“We don’t need to kill every person we see,” Ray said. “She was just scared, that’s all.”
Luke stared at Ray. “What exactly did she tell you?”
“She said the Dark Angels came to their camp and threatened them. They hung one of them upside down from a tree. A woman. They tortured her. Rose said she’d seen our cabin the night before and it was like the Dark Angels knew about it. She told them she’d seen our cabin and they told her to get inside somehow or they were going to kill everyone in her camp.”
“Does that make sense to you?” Luke asked. “Why not make her tell them where this place is and then storm it like they’re doing now?”
“She said they wanted her inside. They wanted her to look around, to see what we had.”
Luke shook his head like the idea of it didn’t make sense to him.
“What about her people at her camp?” Josh asked.
“All dead. Some were hanging from trees and others were staked to the ground inside a cave. I thought she said she had to escape from some bad group.”
“She told us she’d said that because she was scared.”
“Then why attack Mike?”
“She said she was afraid of not doing what the Dark Angels wanted, afraid that we’d throw her back out to them.”
“She didn’t think we could fight back,” Josh said.
“Speaking of fighting back,” Ray said. “We need to make a plan. Our only hope is that the Dark Angels don’t know about the tunnels.”
“No one saw me enter the hatch,” Luke said. “I’m sure of it.”
“You can’t know that for sure,” Josh said. “You don’t know how long they’ve been in the woods watching us.”
“I’m sure,” Luke said. He looked back at Ray. “We need to go out there and pick them off one by one. I could go alone or take dipshit here with me.”
“Thanks,” Josh mumbled.
“We could go out when it gets dark,” Luke continued. “They’re right out there by the driveway now. They’ve got trucks. I don’t know how many are in the trucks, but I guessed about ten in the woods at the camp. Fifteen at the most. But I don’t think any more than that. And I already killed two of them and wounded another.”
“Rose said she thinks there could be twenty to thirty of them,” Josh said.
“Yeah, sounds right to me,” Luke agreed. “Probably closer to thirty, counting the guys in the trucks.”
“And you think you can take thirty of them?” Ray asked Luke.
“I don’t see what other choices we have. As long as we can get in and out of those tunnels we could spread the attacks out over a few days if we had to. We could use the crossbows and bows and arrows. Rig up some kind of explosions, or Josh’s favorite, the Molotov cocktails.”
“I don’t think we have a lot of time,” Ray said. “I’m sure they’re thinking of the same things: explosives, bombs, fire.”
Luke nodded. “They might try to burn us out.”
“I’m sure they’ll try,” Ray said.
“At least the doors and windows have held so far,” Josh said. “It could buy us some time.”
“We need to think about an escape plan,” Ray said. “We still need to get the van and the Jeep loaded up and get ready to leave if we can. It’s only going to be a matter of time before some of those Dark Angels get into the garage and steal any supplies we have in the vehicles, or steal the vehicles or disable them.”
“That’s why it’s even more important that we pick them off like Luke said,” Josh offered.
“They’ll figure out that we’re getting in and out of the cabin,” Ray said. “They’ll figure out we have some kind of tunnel system.”
“Maybe not,” Luke countered. “They know I was out there in the woods not too long ago. They spotted me at Camp Rose and shot at me. As far as they know, I’m still out there. And maybe even Josh.” Luke paused, staring at Ray. “Something’s bothering you.”
“Rose was sent here to see what we had,” Ray said. “Our supplies and defenses. They told her to get inside and dream.” Ray saw Luke’s face light up with revelation.
“So he can see,” Luke said. “That makes it even more important that Rose doesn’t ever know about the tunnels.”
Ray and Josh glanced at each other, but didn’t say anything for a moment.
“What?”
“Mike told Rose about the tunnels.”
“Why?”
Ray shrugged. “They were down in the bunker playing video games. I think she might have been snooping around and pumping him for information. I think he may have been trying to impress her.”
“Has she seen the tunnels?”
“I don’t think so, but she knows about them. She’s seen the doors down there.” Ray shrugged again. “I don’t know what happened down there, but something scared her enough to take Mike hostage.”
“She had it planned,” Josh said.
Ray turned to Josh. “How do you know that?”
“She didn’t get that knife down there in the bunker; she got it from the kitchen when she and Mike were eating breakfast. She hid it on her and took it with her when they went down there to play video games.”
“So she went down there to attack Mike, but she was looking specifically for something.”
“Let’s not jump the gun here,” Ray said. “I think she was just doing what she thought they wanted her to do.”
“She can’t see the tunnels—even if she knows they’re there, we can’t let her actually see them,” Luke said. “But it’s more than that. We can’t let her dream. We can’t let her send any information she already has to them. You know what we have to do to her.”
CHAPTER 45
Ray
Ray’s heart jumped for just a second, his skin tingling. Was Luke saying what he thought he was saying? “Kill her?” he asked Luke. “Is that what you’re talking about?”
Luke just stared at Ray, not answering.
“We can’t just kill someone.”
“Ray, the rules have changed. We don’t live in a civilized society anymore.”
“I don’t think you ever lived in a civilized society.” Ray had always had his concerns about Luke, but he realized now that he had vastly underestimated what lengths Luke would go to. “She’s just a teenager. A girl.”
“She’s the enemy.”
“Wait a second here,” Josh said. “I kind of agree with both of you. But I think Ray’s right; we can’t just kill a teenage girl.”
“She broke in here,” Luke said.
“No, we let her inside. The worst she did was trespass on property that none of us even own.”
“She got in under false pretenses,” Luke argued, his voice rising just a little. “You even said yourself that she admitted that she lied about getting away from t
he supposed bad people at her camp.”
“I think we know why she had to lie,” Ray said. “She was scared. They were torturing people, threating to kill all of them.”
“Or everyone in that camp was already dead.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe she’s with the Dark Angels.”
“You think she’s one of them?”
Luke didn’t bother answering.
“I haven’t seen any women among the Dark Angels so far,” Ray said. “And no children.”
“And she doesn’t have the adorable matching logo on her forehead,” Josh reminded them.
“So she’s a mole,” Luke said. “A spy. Maybe they don’t mark their spies. Maybe only the soldiers or grunts are marked. Maybe she turned against her camp and joined the Dark Angels. We don’t know enough about the Dark Angels to make any of those conclusions. What we know is that she lied to get in here and that she snooped around in here and then attacked Mike.”
“But she didn’t kill him,” Ray said. “She could have slit his throat in a heartbeat if she wanted to.”
“And to be fair, Mike got away from her on his own,” Josh said and looked at Luke. “He said he used some moves he learned from you.”
Luke almost cracked a smile.
“Maybe we can solve this problem in a different way,” Josh said.
Ray looked at Josh, waiting for him to continue.
“Maybe we don’t have to kill her. But we can’t have her in here with us. So we just make her leave.”
“Send her out there with them?” Ray said.
Josh nodded.
“They’ll kill her.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I told her I wouldn’t send her out there. I gave her my word.”
“Killing her would be easier,” Luke said. “We shouldn’t even take a chance on opening the door to let her out.”
“We could send her out the back door,” Josh suggested.
“They might have the clearing surrounded by now,” Luke said. “They’ll be communicating with each other. I know they’re not an elite military unit, but they’re not something to be taken lightly either. It’s too dangerous to open any of the doors, and we can’t let her go out through any of the tunnels because what she sees eventually the Dragon will see.”