by Ryan Casey
He lifted his rifle. Pointed it at the trees.
“Come out,” he said. “Whoever you are, come out. I’ve got my eye on you.”
“Give it up, Jack.”
He frowned. Lowered his rifle.
And then he saw the person step around the trees.
It was Hazel.
She was panting, like she’d been running.
She was holding Mrs Fuzzles in her arms.
And carrying a rifle from the farm over her shoulder.
“You don’t half shift when you want to, do you?”
“Hazel,” Jack said. “You shouldn’t be here. You should be back at the farm. Waiting for—”
“Waiting for what? To defend it? Me and Mrs Fuzzles? Fat chance of that. I’m better out here. Better searching for Wayne and Candice with you. Besides. I won’t sit back while Wayne’s out here. Not while I can actually help.”
Jack didn’t feel good about this. But he supposed Hazel had a point. She couldn’t defend the farm on her own anyway. She might as well be out here searching for Wayne and Candice with him.
Besides. There was still time before midday.
But they had to work fast.
They searched further through the woods. Still no trace of Wayne, no trace of Candice. Villain sniffed at the ground, then lost interest. Mrs Fuzzles trailed alongside Hazel, occasionally distracted by odd-shaped leaves and fighting with jagged twigs. The urgency grew. Time felt like it was running out.
And as much as Hazel wasn’t saying anything, Jack felt like there was something on her mind. Something other than the obvious.
“You okay?”
“I just… I can’t help feeling like this could’ve been prevented.”
He knew what Hazel was saying right away. “So it’s my fault.”
“I’m not saying it’s your fault. But… but perhaps we could’ve done things differently. Perhaps things would’ve played out better if only—”
“I’d learned to trust other people. If I hadn’t shot someone. If I hadn’t started this whole mess. Yeah. I get it. I… I see what I’ve done wrong. What I’ve always done wrong. I see how I’ve pushed people away. How I’ve closed myself off and forced conflict in situations where there should’ve been none. And I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry.”
Hazel scanned Jack’s eyes. She looked like she was searching for something in them.
And then she just shook her head. “You’ve apologised enough. Now it’s time to be different. Now it’s time to act. And… and there’s only one more chance.”
Jack heard Hazel’s words loud and clear and he felt the urgency of the situation building even more.
He knew what he had to do.
He turned away from Hazel and went to keep walking.
That’s when he saw it.
A trail.
He crouched beside the trail. Footprints in the grass, no mistaking it.
Villain sniffing at them.
“See a sign of them?”
Jack grew uneasy as he scanned these footprints.
Because there was something else about them.
He reached the footprint a few ahead, well ahead of Hazel now, and he froze.
There was blood.
He swallowed a lump in his throat. The birds had gone silent all around him. The wind had grown still.
“Jack?” Hazel called. She was too far behind him. Villain and Mrs Fuzzles were with her, out of sight.
“We need to keep a low profile. Keep our heads down. We need to…”
And then he stopped again.
He saw the movement up ahead.
The figures appearing between the trees.
And then as these people appeared, all Jack could think of was that fire a few days ago before the crisis started. The people who had stolen from him. The man who he’d killed.
All he could think about was reality catching up with him as these figures surrounded him.
“Stay back, Hazel,” he muttered, clinging to his rifle. “Stay back.”
A bald man with a spear stepped forward.
Smiled.
“Been looking forward to meeting you, matey.”
Jack went to lift his rifle and gun this man down in his tracks.
But before he could, he felt a hard smack against his head.
His body went weak.
Everything went blurry.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The sun was creeping towards its highest point and there was no sign of Jack or any of his people.
Logan stood at the top of the hill. The breeze was light; the air was dry. He couldn’t get over the silence of this place. Nothing but the singing of the birds, the leaves from the trees tapping against one another. The occasional call from a cow in those barns.
But there was no movement. Everything was silent.
And Logan didn’t know how to feel about that.
He looked at Emma, who stood by his side. She looked on cautiously, too. He knew how he wanted to approach this. He knew how he wanted to go about it.
He turned around to Bella, saw her standing there. There were no ties around her wrists anymore.
“We’ve got to be patient,” Emma said. “He… he might show. There’s still time.”
Logan sighed when Emma spoke. “Emma, the agreement was midday. You said it yourself, didn’t you?”
“It’s not midday yet. And he seemed serious. He… he seemed like he wanted this to work.”
“And what if he changed his mind?”
Emma looked away. It was like she didn’t want to consider he might be right. Like she was in denial about everything.
“I’m just saying,” Logan said. “Enough time has passed for Jack to figure out a new plan. For him to change his mind. We have to be careful. We have to stay on guard. We can’t go taking any chances. Not now.”
Emma looked like she wanted to say something in response.
Instead, she just nodded.
Logan turned back to the farm. Stared at it. Waited. He wanted to give Jack the benefit of the doubt. He really, truly wanted to believe this exchange was going to go exactly as Emma had described.
Partly because he felt confident he could lull Jack into a false sense of security and move towards taking the farm eventually, sure.
But they were just dark thoughts. They were just possibilities.
There was a lot of decisions to be made.
The decision whether to go ahead with this, or to keep on pursuing the farm.
He felt torn between what he felt was right morally, and what was right for him and Emma.
But it didn’t matter anyway.
All of these options.
None of them were valid if Jack didn’t show.
He thought about Candice. The option Emma had spoken of. Giving her up, too. Would it be so bad? Just him and Emma, then. Candice back with Wayne. Bella back there, too.
But no. It would be giving too much ground.
Perhaps if he could just pretend he was standing firm. Maybe if he could just get Jack to give her up, only to hand her over once he’d taken all his power from him, seen how far he’d kneel for those he cared about…
He shook his head. He supposed it didn’t matter if they didn’t show.
He felt that breeze brushing against him. In the air, he thought he heard whispers. Everywhere he looked, he thought he saw eyes looking at him, staring intently.
And all those fears made him even more determined to go down to that farm himself, before it was too late.
“We could take it,” Logan said.
Emma frowned. “What?”
“This farm. We could take it right now. It’s sitting right there. Right in front of us.”
Emma shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. Especially now.”
“And sitting here in neutral ground right as Jack planned isn’t?”
“I… I’m not saying it’s not risky.”
“We’re right where he wanted us, Emma. Exactly where you said
we’d be to him. I can’t believe we’ve walked right into this. We need to make a move. We can’t just fall in line—”
She grabbed his arm, then.
Looked right into his eyes.
“I know you’re worried,” she said. “You’re bound to be worried. I am too. But he’ll turn up. And if he doesn’t… the last thing we need to do is go down to that farm. Especially now. It could be a trap. Think about it, Logan. Think about it.”
Logan knew Emma was right. But he still couldn’t shake the feeling that they were passing up an opportunity here. It felt like something had happened. Nobody was home. So why not make the most while they had the chance?
He looked around at Bella, who he’d tried to avoid interacting with. “What do you think?”
She looked exhausted. Her eyes were glazed. Seemed like everything was catching up with her; like she was just as uncertain about all this as he was.
“Me?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Logan said. “You know him better than us. What do you think?”
Bella puffed her lips out and shrugged. “If I know one thing about him, it’s that he’s ruthless. But he cares dearly about those closest to him. He wouldn’t do anything that might put them in danger, even if they aren’t exactly rosy with him.”
Logan nodded.
“But,” Bella said.
His stomach sank.
“Wayne’s serious about Candice, too. He… he loves her. Loves her far more than I can begin to explain. He spent the first few days searching endlessly for her. It’s how we met. Eventually, he resigned himself to the fact he was never going to see her again. That he was never going to find her. But now he’s seen her… now he has a chance… I don’t know, Logan. I just don’t know. Only that I can’t see him letting Jack give her up.”
Logan felt tension inside. He appreciated Bella’s honesty, and knew it couldn’t be easy, especially in a situation like the one she was in.
He didn’t feel any more at ease about any of this.
But then he remembered Emma, too.
The promise he’d made her.
The promise that he was going to try, at the very least.
He turned around. Looked over at the farm. Felt those two opposing forces dragging him either way once again.
Wanting to go with the plan.
Wanting to take the upper-ground; take the farm.
He gulped, and then he sighed.
“We wait a little while longer,” he said. “If there’s no movement, that’s when we make our move.”
Emma frowned. “Our move?”
He looked at Emma, at Bella, then back at the farm.
Then at the hunting rifle beside him.
“We take that place.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Jack woke to a sharp pain splitting through his skull.
He opened his eyes, but he couldn’t see anything. It was dark. Night? He wasn’t sure. Something wasn’t right. He couldn’t remember falling asleep. He couldn’t remember anything of the last day. He couldn’t remember a thing.
All he knew as he sat there, disoriented, was that his head ached like mad.
And he could taste blood in his mouth.
He tried to move, but he was stuck. His wrists were tied together, and he was tied around the waist, too. It felt like he was tied to something. Something behind him, perching him upright. Something that felt like a tree.
He tried to pull against this thing holding him, heart racing, nerves picking up, trying to figure out what was happening, when it all came crashing back.
The exchange.
The exchange at midday.
He’d gone into the woods to search for Wayne and Candice, who had gone missing.
He’d found a trail, Hazel, Villain and Mrs Fuzzles alongside him.
And then…
The taste of vomit filled his mouth.
There was a group.
A group stepped out of the trees.
Led by a bald guy.
They stepped up to him and before he’d been able to do a thing, he’d felt a crack against his head.
And now here he was.
A wave of urgent anxiety swallowed him. He tried to drag himself against those ties around his waist. He knew who these people were. He’d seen all the evidence he needed to see. They were the mystery group. The group who had tried to steal from his farm. Who had then gone on to steal a couple of cows.
The group who had started the fire, stoking so much paranoia.
They had captured him.
As far as he knew, they had captured Hazel and Villain too.
And now here he was. Trapped.
That deadline to midday ticking away.
If it hadn’t already ticked away.
He thought about what might happen if he didn’t meet his own deadline. The paranoia it would spark. Logan standing there, waiting.
And he knew if he was in Logan’s shoes what he would do next.
He’d wait.
Make sure it wasn’t a trap.
Make damned sure he was completely clear.
And then he would move on the farm.
“Shit,” Jack muttered, realising fully now that it wasn’t dark, it was just a sack over his face. “Shit.”
He tried to pull against whatever he was attached to once more.
Tried to yank himself free.
But it was no use.
He leaned back against the tree. His home. Everything he’d worked to build after everything he’d lost. The farm he’d promised Stan he’d look after and protect.
The place that was supposed to be a sanctuary. It was supposed to be secure.
He knew it was slipping out of his fingers.
He felt himself cursing Wayne under his breath. If he hadn’t run off with Candice then he wouldn’t have come out here and got caught up in this mess. They could’ve made the exchange. It could be done with.
But at the same time, if he was playing the blame game, he was the one who had fired that rifle. He was the one who had shot the girl called Jean. He was the one who pulled the trigger and sent this sequence of dominoes collapsing.
Any wrongdoing since then was all a consequence of what he’d done.
This was his mess to clear up. He had to get to work on it.
He gritted his teeth and pulled against the sharp ties around his waist once again, but to no avail. He was stuck. There was no getting out of this.
But he couldn’t just give up. He had to try.
He pulled his legs back. Tried to contort himself into an impossible position; tried to dig his feet under the ties around his wrists.
But it was impossible. He couldn’t make that stretch. It was insane even trying.
He tried pulling his wrists apart once more. His arms were sore, the ties digging deep into them. The more he pulled, the tighter and more painful they got.
He dug his teeth into his bottom lip and he cursed under his breath. This might be impossible, but it was non-negotiable. He knew what he had to do; he just couldn’t do it.
He thought about that other group and hoped he’d get a chance to speak with them. Hell, maybe he’d even be able to offer something to them from the farm. Was that how far he’d really come?
He tried once more to yank himself free of those ties when he heard footsteps rustling right ahead of him.
“You can try all you like,” the voice said. “You’re not getting out of this.”
He froze.
Then, suddenly, light.
He squeezed his eyes shut. The daylight was blinding, and staring at it made his head even more sore. He had no idea whether he’d been out minutes, hours, or days. Just that it was daylight.
He blinked a few times, squinted, adjusted his vision.
The sun was… right above.
Midday creeping ever closer.
He saw the bald man standing over him.
It was the man he’d spoken to earlier. That same wry smile on his face. Those narrow,
pronounced cheekbones. Yellowing teeth. Torn clothes.
He looked at Jack, four other people standing around him, and his smile widened.
He was holding a sharpened spear.
Two of his friends were holding rifles.
“Good to see you awake,” the bald man said. “The name’s Yuri. And I’d say we’ve got a lot of talking to do.”
Jack was about to ask him where Hazel, Villain and Mrs Fuzzles were, as he searched around, vision still blurred. There were no signs of them anywhere.
There was no…
And then he saw someone by his side.
Not who he thought they were. Not at first.
They had no sacks over their heads, but they had tape over their mouths.
They were tied to trees, just like Jack.
And they were beaten and bruised.
“Wayne,” Jack said.
Wayne and Candice were captured alongside Jack.
“So,” Yuri said, standing up. “How about we talk business?”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Jack looked over at Wayne and he felt a mixture of emotions.
He still didn’t know what time it was exactly, whether it was the same day or later. But he was starting to grow a little hopeful that he hadn’t been unconscious for twenty-four hours. That didn’t feel right.
The sun was nearing its midpoint, though. It was getting closer to the exchange point. So if this really was the same day, time was definitely running out.
“You could’ve just let us take a few cows for ourselves,” Yuri said. “You didn’t have to come chasing us. And you didn’t have to steal what wasn’t yours from our camp either, did you? Now you have the cheek to act like you’re the victims here. You’re not the victims. Not even slightly.”
Jack looked into Yuri’s eyes and he knew he was going to be difficult. He looked like he’d made his mind up already. There was going to be no negotiating with him. He was going to punish him for what he’d done.
So he had to fight his ground.
“I had to do what I had to do,” Jack said. “I found our cows, found our tents and took what you had. Consider it compensation—”
“Bullshit,” Yuri said. “You stole because that’s what you do. I’ve seen it. We’ve all seen it. The bloke who tried to take some cows before we did? Yeah. We saw what you did to him. And the man in the woods the other day. Throat cut. Anyone gets close and you take them out. People try to trade and you don’t even give them a chance. We’ve seen it, mate. We’ve seen it so we’ve had to do our own thing. Steal from you. We’ve been trying to have a conversation with you for a while. It’s nice we can finally talk like this.”