by Hunt, Jack
Bo continued. “Planning on stealing something, were you, kid?”
“No, I…”
Before he could finish the guy cracked him with a right hand. Sophie reached over the seat and retrieved the handgun, but Alex took it from her. “It won’t be much use without a magazine.”
“Where is it?”
“There’s some extra ones in the bag. Let me take a look.”
She kept a watch while he searched.
“How about you tell us what you were after?”
Any second now he would say the truck needed a tire. Alex loaded a magazine and put a round in the chamber. “Stay here,” he said.
“Like hell, I’m coming with you.”
He wasn’t going to argue. She slipped out being careful not to make a noise and went around to the rear of the truck and grabbed the tire iron. None of the men were holding guns.
“Boy, we can do this all night. Who else is with you?”
“It’s just me.”
“Really? So where’s your truck?”
“I don’t have one.”
He got slapped again. “You were seen entering in a truck. Now you lie to me again and…” Baldy turned his head as if he’d heard something. He motioned with a finger toward the yard. “Go see what that was.”
“That won’t be necessary!” Alex said emerging from the darkness between stacks of old rusted vehicles. Baldy slowly raised his hands up, but his pals didn’t.
“Ryan, over here.”
He tried to move but was forced back down.
“You know breaking and entering is against the law. It’s within my right to shoot you.”
“We haven’t taken anything.”
“You’re still trespassing.”
“We’ll be leaving now,” Alex said.
“That’ll be a little difficult. The gate’s closed.”
Alex nudged his gun toward it. “So open it.”
He sucked in air. “No can do. Not until the police arrive.”
“News flash, asshole. The police are busy.”
“Ah, so you figured you would just come and help yourself, is that right?”
Sophie had been waiting in the shadows, eyeing the two that were slowly inching their way forward while Baldy kept Alex busy. She cursed inwardly wishing she’d not entered, but there was no way of knowing this would happen.
“Let him go,” Alex said. “I won’t ask again.”
Baldy gritted his teeth. “You gonna shoot me, pal? Huh?”
“If I have to.”
The guy glared at Alex then nudged his buddy who released Ryan. Ryan hurried back but not before flipping them the bird. Alex backed up. “We’re leaving now. Open that gate.”
“Open the gate, Dwayne,” he said over his shoulder. One of his guys went back to the gate and unlocked it, pulling a large, thick chain out and dumping it on the ground. “This isn’t over.”
Alex didn’t reply, he hurried to the truck and told them to get in. Just as he fired up the engine, a round lanced the windshield, followed by another which entered the engine. Alex floored the accelerator and gunned it out, causing the tires to squeal as he zipped past the men. Bo fired two more rounds before they escaped.
“Don’t ever do that again!” Alex bellowed.
Sophie glared at him. “I was trying to help.”
“Yeah, well next time run it by me before you get any bright ideas.”
The truck roared down the road.
“Stop the vehicle”
He ignored her.
“Stop the vehicle!”
“And deal with more trouble? No thanks. You want out, you’ll have to wait because right now I’m putting as much distance as possible between us and them.” He held the accelerator flat to the floor as they fishtailed out of the road and back onto 125.
They hadn’t made it more than three miles when Alex saw two sedans parked at an angle blocking the way. Two men dressed in hunting gear were standing out front with rifles in hand. Alex eased off the gas, slowing the vehicle. The engine made a clattering noise, as a thin veil of white smoke seeped out the edges of the hood.
10
California
No flashlight. A minimal amount of water. And no means of reaching the pipe to refill the bottle. The situation was getting more dire by the minute. “Thank you,” Elisha said as she pulled her knees up and wrapped her one good arm around them. “I thought you couldn’t get through?”
“Guess I just needed motivation.”
All she had to go on was the vague memory of what he looked like. After he saved her, they’d crawled through the maze of concrete back to where Liam had been sitting.
“It’s so dark.”
“It’s evening.”
“How do you know?”
“Because there was a strand of light that filtered through an area just over there.” Then he chuckled. “Right. We can’t see shit so you wouldn’t see what I was pointing at.” It was strange how the eyes adjusted to the dark. Even though there was no direct light to speak of, at times she could still make out faint shapes.
A clanging noise followed.
“I’ve been doing this since we’ve been down here. Figured someone would hear but I’ve got no response. It must be bad out there.”
“Do you remember seeing anything?”
“Um,” Liam began. “Not really. I heard several explosions one after the other and turned to see and then a blast knocked me down into this grave.”
“Please don’t use the word grave.”
He chuckled. “Well, we should try to get out of here or it might be ours.”
Liam continued banging.
“If there was a way out you would have found it by now.”
“That band of light is proof that we can’t be that far from the surface.” Another clatter of wood against steel and concrete.
“You know you’ve been doing that since we’ve been down here and it’s not getting you anywhere.”
“You want to stay down here?”
“No, but we could be sitting inside a house of cards and all that pushing up might make it collapse.”
“Maybe, but we’ve got to try. It’s that or die of thirst. We can go three days without water but I don’t intend to stay down here that long. Besides, I’m pretty sure I know what this is above us.”
“Yeah?”
“A collapsed shed.”
In a flash, Elisha thought back to the layout of her mother’s property and the neighbor’s. The shed was in the rear. If that was true, either they had been blown back or the explosion had hurled pieces of it to the front of the house.
“Was there anything in the news about the U.S. having trouble with any country?”
Liam laughed. “When don’t they. The world is like one big playground and countries keep prodding each other. It was only a matter of time before someone got a slap.”
“One hell of a slap. Who’s your money on?”
He let out a groan as if dropping a heavy weight. “Iran. The U.S. has been prodding that wasp’s nest for some time.”
She heard him exhale hard.
“It’s crazy, isn’t it — we’re all human and yet there’s always someone who wants to be on top.”
“Everyone wants to be the chief, and no one wants to be the Indian,” he replied.
There was a pause and she heard him unscrew the cap on the bottle.
“Ugh, damn that tastes awful. I would rather drink my own piss.”
“We might have to,” she said.
“You mean like that lady,” he replied. “The one who was hiking in the Joshua Tree National Park?”
“That’s the one. Yeah, brave woman.”
“Lucky, you mean.”
“Both,” Elisha replied. A few years back a freelance writer had gone on a six-mile hike in the national park and had taken a wrong turn. She ended up plunging twenty feet down into a stony canyon. She remained there for three days with the bare minimum of water, a boiled egg and
a mobile phone that was no longer getting a signal. At some point she opted to drink her own urine.
“Well let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” he said.
That must have motivated him as he returned to pushing and pulling. The fear of a collapse was at the forefront of her mind especially after that slab of concrete gave way. She figured the ground must have experienced some form of fissure and opened up.
“Your family. Why did your dad kick you out?”
“What?” he asked, half listening as he continued pushing up on the wood trying to improve their situation.
“Your dad. You said he kicked you out.”
“Ah, we never really got along. He had this plan — you know, what I would do with my life after high school and I didn’t know. I wanted time to think it over, take a year off, but he didn’t agree. Said I was a leech. Can you imagine that? A father who thinks so little of you that he calls you a leech.”
“Sounds like a real winner.”
That got a laugh out of Liam. “It’s not like it was for a lack of trying. I landed a few jobs here and there working in construction but they didn’t pan out. Either the boss was an asshole or they just needed a guy temporarily. Anyway it doesn’t matter.”
“You still chat with him?”
“No. We haven’t spoken since I was eighteen. He still lives here in town and I chat with my mother but… no. What about you? You must be the pride and joy. A daughter that follows in her father’s footsteps.”
The clang of metal was almost deafening.
“Actually he was against it.”
“So… why did you join?”
“To serve.”
“Please. No one joins to serve. That’s just a slogan they slap on marketing banners to guilt people out. Serve your country. Be all you can be. Then people use that excuse to cover up the fact they couldn’t get a job in the real world.”
“The real world? What the hell are you talking about? No, I wanted to serve.”
“You mean impress.”
“Impress?”
“Daughters adore their daddies. They’d do anything to impress. You said your brother passed away. Let me take a stab in the dark. He was the apple of your father’s eye. The older sibling of the family. Am I right?”
She grumbled.
“Am I right?”
“You’re a dick.”
He laughed. The truth was he wasn’t far off. She’d always found herself vying for her father’s attention, whereas Michael got it without effort. Of course her dad didn’t ignore her and he was encouraging but she could still tell he favored Michael. Maybe in some small way, Liam was right. Perhaps she did join the Coast Guard to earn his respect. And, maybe that wouldn’t have happened if Michael had not… she pushed the thought from her mind. Elisha rose as much as she could within the cramped space to help him. One arm or not, this was not going to be her final resting place.
11
North Carolina
There was no escape. On either side of the road were ditches and nothing but open fields. The thought of going back crossed his mind but that would have been madness. That bald-headed, tobacco-spitting freak would probably be minutes behind them. Turning and fleeing would only incite a chase, and the truck looked as if it was about to give up the ghost.
“You think they’re with him?” Ryan asked.
No one answered. There was no way of knowing for sure. How could he have contacted them that fast? Radio?
“Turn around, Alex,” Sophie said.
“No. For all we know they might not have any connection to this guy.”
“You want to take another risk?”
He looked over at her. “After what you pulled back there?”
“Go ahead. Say I told you so. Rub it my face.”
Alex looked beyond the men at the way they’d parked their vehicles. The two sedans were almost nose to nose with a small gap between them. Certainly not enough for a vehicle to squeeze through but enough if he gunned it. The collision would be brutal but it was that or turn around and risk running into junkyard thugs.
“Screw it!” He jammed his foot hard against the accelerator and gunned the engine. The truck surged forward, tires spinning, smoke billowing up. The eyes of the men widened, their rifles rose for a second but then self-preservation kicked in and they hustled to the edge of the road as the truck barreled toward them.
“Stay low,” Alex yelled.
A number of rounds erupted as the truck busted through the piss-weak barrier. Steel collided and sparks spat as the sedans spun out and his truck broke continued on. Rounds continued to be fired. He glanced back and saw them rushing toward their vehicles.
He continued north then headed west on Highway 903. The engine sounded like it was gargling large bolts, steam poured out of the hood threatening to choke the engine. Fortunately, it kept going, at least for another five miles.
Darkness enveloped them as the truck coughed and rolled to a standstill not far from a church.
“Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful,” Alex said, grumbling under his breath as he got out and lifted the hood. Hot steam rose. The front end was mangled, the radiator a shell of its former self. The damn thing was dead and they were stranded, still thousands of miles from Elisha. Alex cursed as he slammed the hood and gave the bumper a kick. Sophie was already out and walking away.
“Uh, you want to give me a hand pushing this off the road? If these assholes come by looking for us, this is going to be a big red flag, don’t you think?”
Sophie turned back but wouldn’t look him in the eye. She returned and put it in neutral while he and Ryan got behind it and rolled it off the road into a grove of trees where they could conceal it. Immediately after she headed for the church.
“Sophie. We need to keep moving.”
“I’m tired. I’m stopping here.”
“No. That’s not smart.”
“Neither was you going after those guys with gas but you did it.”
Tit for tat. He could tell she wanted to get into it, and he was ready to blow his top.
Ryan looked at him and shrugged, then picked up the pace to catch up with Sophie. Alex looked down the road. Was it safe? Hell no, but what choice did he have?
He jogged over to where Sophie had broken a window with the tire iron. Ryan climbed in ahead of him. For such a small community they sure had a lot of church buildings. He’d seen signs for three, and could see another just across the road. It certainly gave people a choice if they got fed up with the sermon.
He turned on a flashlight and made his way down a narrow corridor to the chapel. Inside it smelled musty and old. Sophie had taken a seat on one of the wooden pews and was staring up at a cross on the wall. Neither of them were religious, per se, but after Michael, Sophie had returned to the Christian faith her family had raised her in. She never asked Alex to go with her to church and he wouldn’t, as by that point their relationship was strained and going out to some religious setting would have just seemed like a big lie. He’d gone in his younger years but only out of duty. The problem was he saw through all the masks people wore. The fine clothes on a Sunday, the fake smiles, people acting like they were the nicest people on the planet and yet cursing up a storm, taking drugs, and cheating or beating on their spouses outside of Sunday.
Nah, it just seemed like folks grasping for something to cling to in an ocean of nothing, instead of swimming and trying to save themselves. Of course, it wasn’t his place to say that so instead he kept his thoughts to himself.
He tossed his duffel bag down.
“I know you’re tired, okay. I am too but staying here is not safe.” He thumbed over his shoulder in some random direction. “We are only five miles from those nutjobs.”
“Why didn’t you tell her that you signed the papers?” Sophie asked.
He shook his head. “What?” The question blindsided him.
“The papers. Elisha. Before I lost her on the phone she said you’d phoned her. She had to ask
me if you’d signed because you wouldn’t tell her. Why?”
He inhaled deeply and slumped down beside her.
“It’s not my place.”
“You’re her father.”
“I never initiated the separation.”
She scoffed. “Ah, so you want me to look like the bad guy.”
He ran a hand around his jawline and looked at Ryan who was checking out some of the rooms. “You wanted the divorce. I never.”
“Oh come on, Alex. It was pretty clear that we hadn’t been man and wife for some time. And don’t go using Michael as an excuse.”
“I’m not.”
“So tell me. Why?”
Alex looked up at the cross on the wall. He sighed. “Why do you have faith when everything around you says different?”
“Because I choose to believe.”
“Believe what?”
“In God.”
“That things will work out for the better?” he asked.
“Something like that.”
“Well there’s your answer,” he said getting up and walking off.
“But you and I are over, Alex.”
“Not until a lawyer finalizes it,” he said without looking at her. Alex walked into an office area. Ryan was sitting at the desk rooting through the drawers. “Find anything interesting?”
“No. Clean as a whistle. Just paperwork and books.”
Alex went to the window and pulled down the blind just a little. His paranoia was high, but the worry was justified. The parking lot was empty as was the road.
“What will we do now?” Ryan asked.
“Hike. Find another vehicle.”
“I don’t mean to be a naysayer but do you really think your daughter is alive?”
Alex cast a glance over his shoulder. “I have to believe she is.” He looked out again. “So what’s the deal with your family? Were they drug users?”
Ryan shrugged. “Don’t know. Was given up for adoption when I was a child,” he said.
“So before this, what did you want to do with your life? You got any talents?”
Ryan chuckled. “Some say I do.”
Alex was about to ask him what he meant when yellow headlights washed over the parking lot. A silver SUV. It parked outside and the driver kept the lights on but didn’t exit the vehicle. Alex stepped away from the window. “Sophie.”
