Unbeaten

by A. R. Shaw

  17

  Jason

  Another glance through the screen and Jason thought he’d lost his objective. What if he went through the back door? Even as the thought came to him, he maneuvered the drone to the back side of the building, though there was nothing to see. The windows were too small and too smudged or broken and he didn’t dare fly too close to get a better look.

  Instead, he waited outside in the tree line for what seemed like forever when he realized he needed to recall the drone for another battery switch. It was running low already but that wasn’t going to happen. He had to let the drone hover and wait. If he took that chance, he knew he’d likely never find him again. In the meantime, he’d move closer himself, so that the drone had less distance to cover to get back to him. That meant endangering himself, he knew, but it was a chance he had to take.

  It was taking too long, whatever the man was doing in there. Looking at the energy feed, Jason made an involuntary growl; he could tell from the vibration in his throat. He quickly looked around himself, ensuring his safety. What if someone nearby heard him? He needed to be more careful. He couldn’t make mistakes like that.

  He circled the building again with the drone; perhaps he decided to leave out the back entrance after all. But when Jason finally brought the drone out to the front of the building again he saw the man walking to the side of the parking lot with a worn metal case. Breathing a quiet sigh of relief, Jason drove the drone around again, farther back to conceal the slight sound.

  Jason himself was only about two blocks from the man he followed. The distance wasn’t far enough to comfort him. Knowing he was in danger, despite the cold, he began to sweat. Concentrating on the controls, Jason drove the drone closer to the man, he was fiddling with something, and Jason couldn’t tell what it was from his view over his shoulder.

  That’s when the man threw the case away and began yelling like crazy.

  Jason pulled back the drone and that’s when he remembered the battery was nearly shot and raced the drone back to him. Only…did that just happen? He couldn’t be sure, but he thought the man caught a glimpse of the drone. If he had, he’d better run.

  Jason quickly grabbed his pack and darted off to the left into the tree line. Stopping within sight of the road, he realized the drone’s battery light had begun flashing. He was out of time. Okay, he thought, trying to calm down enough to think, and turned the drone around to see if the man followed. Not finding him in the viewer, he said to himself, I’ll land you somewhere and find you later. It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it was the only option he had at the moment. The man might track the drone right to him, so he picked a large pine tree cluster and landed the machine safely. He’d have to hide out until he could surveil the drone and retrieve it when it was safe enough. That would also mean losing the man…temporarily, he hoped.

  With his heart pounding through his chest, he stepped deeper into the forest for cover, but still within sight of the roadway. He crouched down low and waited.

  Moments later, Jason saw him coming.

  18

  Sloane

  After the town was set to rights from the previous day’s chaos, Sloane began to head home when she saw Ace tagging along beside Nicole and Mae’s forms up ahead in her path. Catching up to them, Sloane placed her hand on Nicole’s shoulder. The girl immediately looked up and pulled away, drawing herself to the other side of Mae.

  “It’s all right, Nicole. There’s no need to feel this way. We love you. We care about you. We all make mistakes. Please don’t shy away from me. We don’t blame you for what happened.”

  Nicole didn’t respond. She only studied the ground as they walked along.

  Sloane realized Mae was looking at her and shrugged. She took a breath, knowing it would take more time for Nicole to come around. The guilt the girl carried had weighed heavily.

  “Have either of you seen Wren?”

  “I uh, saw her last night. She was asking about Jason. Funny that you ask, because as we were finishing up, just a few minutes ago, the old man asked us if we’d seen her.”

  “Yeah. I asked him to keep track of you guys.”

  They walked on in silence a few more minutes when Mae said, “Wait, Mom. When was the last time you saw Wren?”

  Sloane stopped in her tracks, her boots skidding on the gravel-topped road. “Last evening right before dinner, when I asked her to find you. I made what we had but left before you girls got back, remember? I thought you would have seen her. I came in late last night and went straight to bed.”

  Mae stood there shaking her head. “I only saw her briefly right after that. But that’s it.”

  “Okay, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. She’s probably at home,” Sloane said but whipped out her radio anyway. “Kent, hey, have you seen Wren today?”

  “No,” he said, “I haven’t. Chuck said he saw her last night as she was coming home. Why?”

  “Mae saw her right after that when she was asking about Jason. No one’s seen her since. I’m a little worried, Kent.” Once she said those words, she then realized her hands were shaking like crazy.

  “Boyd…ask Boyd if he’s seen her. He’s watching out for them.”

  “Actually, I put him to work today. He was resetting the store.”

  “Ah…we did leave quite the mess in there. Sloane, don’t worry, she’s probably at home. I’ll be there in a few minutes to check on things, but I’ve got to come back and take care of this guy. His name is Marvin, by the way.”

  But she barely heard what Kent said. Suddenly she knew she’d screwed up. She knew Wren wasn’t at home. Nor was she anywhere in town or running along the beach. She knew her daughter had gone after Jason.

  Without answering his words, Sloane took off and ran for home.

  “Mom, wait up!” Mae yelled but Sloane didn’t stop. She ran past the post that Boyd usually occupied. She ran up the steps to the house and flung the door open. Nothing had changed. No one was there. “Wren!” she yelled out and so help her…she was suddenly cast back into the torture house, yelling her daughter’s name again.

  Telling herself to knock it off, she went to Wren’s room and saw that nothing was amiss.

  Out of breath, Mae caught up to her, “Mom…she’s probably fine. What are you worried about? She’s probably on the beach or something.”

  Whipping around face her daughter, she said, “You’re worried about her yourself or you wouldn’t have brought it up. You were the last one to see her. What exactly did you discuss?”

  Mae shook her head. “Just about Jason. She asked where he was, what he was doing.”

  “What did you tell her? How would you know what Jason was doing?”

  “Mom, Mom, calm down. She’s around here somewhere.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I just said he was working on something for you and that he knew a lot about drones so it probably had something to do with that…and the guy we let go yesterday.”

  “Oh, Jesus! She’s gone after him! That’s what she did.”

  It was Nicole that finally spoke and broke through the onslaught of panic rising up through Sloane.

  “She would take a pack with her.”

  “What?” Mae said.

  Nicole nodded. “If she was going after Jason, she would take a pack with her. Are any of them missing?”

  “You’re right. She’s not stupid—well…” Mae said.

  And then Sloane called Kent quickly.

  After a few torturous minutes, Kent called her back. “Yes, Sloane, one is missing and so is one of the handguns.”

  “She’s on her way to Astoria, then. She’s going to get herself killed!”

  “You should have told her,” Mae yelled suddenly.

  “What?”

  “You should have told her what the plan was with Jason.”

  “It was a secret plan. It wasn’t my idea to keep it quiet.”

  “She cares about him. You don’t understand that. We keep things from he
r. We all do. It isn’t right. She has to function just like the rest of us. You’re harming her by keeping things easy on her. That’s what’s happened. This is your fault.”

  “What? This isn’t my fault. We’ve tried our best to protect her. She’s been through too much already.”

  Calmer, Mae said, “We know that, Mom, but that was in the past. We don’t live there anymore.”

  Stunned by her daughter’s wisdom, Sloane said after a moment, “All right, she’s not stupid. She took a pack and she’s armed. She has training and supplies. Jason’s mission was to follow the man, at a distance, as far as he could to find his base location and then return. It’s nine hours on foot to Astoria back when civilization existed. Now… we stay out of contact with others. She’s probably still looking for him. Crap…I can’t believe this is happening.”

  Mae stepped in front of her mother, “It is happening…now what are we going to do about it?”

  19

  Wren

  Wren tried out various theories that might lay ahead. She could, at any moment, see Jason walking her way. In which case, he’d frown at her at first, but then eventually smile and they’d camp for the night somewhere and head back home in the morning. Or she’d find him walking in the same direction as he followed the man he hunted, and she’d join him whether he liked it or not. He needed her help. She could at least watch his back. Or she never came across him and she kept walking almost all the way to Astoria until she felt it wasn’t safe. Then…she told herself, she’d turn right around and go back to Cannon Beach to face whatever punishment her mother wanted to throw at her. Whatever happened, it would happen today. She’d either find him or not, and that excited her and scared her to death at the same time.

  “Knock it off, Wren,” she said out loud, knowing she was speaking for her mother again. Despite it all, despite all of her mother’s toughness, she knew she loved her and would do anything for her. She’d proven that.

  “One foot in front of the other,” she said in a clipped mantra to refocus her mind. “Keep moving…time to move on.” As the cadence stomped out, she wound her way through the debris-covered highway, keeping vigilant of her surroundings. The highway kept coming like a conveyer belt beneath her boots. She’d broken stride a few times to step over large branches or fallen trees scattering the roadway. A few rusty vehicles still hung out on the sides of the roads like skeletons, their occupants having long ago taken to new destinations or one beyond. Their glass windshields mostly crunched underfoot. “Last thing I’d want to do is walk barefoot through this stuff,” she muttered and that’s when she suddenly caught movement up ahead. Squinting, she saw someone running toward her around the curve in the road…and it wasn’t Jason.

  20

  Kent

  They came spilling into his office, but it was too late, Kent was already tossing supplies into his truck that Chuck had refueled. Before Sloane and the girls arrived, half the town had taken action to secure the gates and to get a squad ready for a search and rescue mission.

  “I’m coming with you.”

  He’d heard her speaking, but he had other ideas. He was pretty sure she wasn’t going to like it. “You have to stay here.”

  “What? No,” she said, dismissing him as she topped off the magazine to her Glock with a few more 9mm rounds.

  “You’re not going, Sloane. You have to stay here.”

  He’d noticed the girls standing in the doorway. It was one of the few times Mae looked at a loss for words. Her mouth even hung open slightly. He knew she was scared for her sister, but he also knew…no one really argued with her mom. Not like this.

  “That’s insane.”

  He took a step forward and held down the arm holding her weapon. He had to make this count. “You’re staying here. With them,” he pointed to the girls. “With the town. You’re not coming with me. I’ll keep you informed.”

  She didn’t look at him. She stared at the ground. She also didn’t try to raise the Glock to shoot him…yet.

  “Think about it, Sloane. They need you…here. I’ll be in touch.”

  Slowly raising her eyes to meet his, she finally said, “You can’t go alone.”

  Breathing an inner sigh of relief, he said, “I’m not. I’m taking Marvin.”

  “Who’s Marvin?”

  “Our prisoner.”

  “I thought he couldn’t be moved.”

  “We need him for this. I’ll take him for insurance if needed, along with as much morphine as we have.”

  The old man spoke up then. “I thought you said we didn’t have anything like that.”

  “I lied!” he yelled.

  Kent walked out of the office carrying several loaded packs and tossed them into the back as Sloane followed behind him.

  “Just keep me informed,” she said. Her words sounded helpless to him as he watched the men load Marvin into the cab of the double truck bed. “Easy now, don’t bang him around.”

  “You knocked him totally out,” Chuck said. “He won’t feel a thing.”

  Kent didn’t even answer that. He just gave Chuck a death stare.

  Right after the realization that Wren was missing and probably trying to meet up with Jason, a plan had instantly formed. What he needed to do immediately. There was no question in his mind. Before anything else, he immediately filled a syringe and walked into Marvin’s room.

  “Hey, I don’t think I can answer…” was all Marvin had the chance to get out before Kent plunged the needle into him. “Hey, what?” Marvin said with a look of betrayal and confusion on his face.

  Kent could not take the chance that he’d argue with him. They had time for that later. He’d awaken in the cab and he’d either help or hurt. It didn’t matter; Kent had medication for both scenarios.

  The cab door was slammed shut on the passenger side as a man sat inside.

  “Aren’t you taking Chuck?” Sloane asked, looking confused.

  “No, I’m taking Boyd. I don’t want to risk anyone else. He’s volunteered. He has his own reasons. I’ve got to go. She’s on foot. I don’t know how far I can get on the highway in this truck, but I’ll do whatever I can. I’ll let you know. Stay linked up. Nicole, help your mom. It’s time to stop this, now. You’re needed,” he said and pulled Sloane into him.

  “I’ll bring her home if I can. Sloane, don’t cry, please. I can’t handle that right now. Listen,” he whispered in her ear, “get things ready for you and the girls. If something happens, you take them and leave here. Don’t wait. Run. I love you.” He kissed her quickly and without another word, he stepped into the truck, slammed the door and sped out the gate. Looking through the rearview mirror as he passed the opening, he held the vision of her and the girls. They were terrified. That was the last image he saw of them, as the gates were closed immediately behind him.

  21

  Davis

  Davis was no stranger to the sound of a drone. He knew one when he heard one. What he didn’t anticipate would haunt him later. Thinking the sound was in his head was a mistake he’d regret.

  Suddenly he knew. If he could catch the droners…his family might survive. He just might be able to save them.

  In a split-second action, there was suddenly no searing pain to deal with. Davis ran like hell after the drone to save his family. He was barefoot then, shredding the bottoms of his feet on the glass- and debris-strewn pavement. He stopped when it stopped, turned and darted into the forest. The operator could be close by or a few miles away. He had no way of knowing but there was the smallest of chances. However slim it was, he took it to save his family’s life.

  The drone accelerated, and Davis found himself losing speed. The distance between them lengthened. Then the damn thing stopped in midair, moved to the right, and into the forest more slowly.

  Davis slowed his own pace, crouched to catch his breath with sweat dripping freely off his face. When the little machine veered into the tree line, Davis said, “Oh, no you don’t,” and took off again after t
he thing. But within the forest, he lost track of the machine. It was nowhere to be found.

  “He’s got to be close by. He’s hiding it.” Scurrying back to the road, Davis picked up speed again and continued his relentless pace. A bend in the road came into view and once he curved around…he saw someone in the distance.

  Never before had Davis wanted something so badly. Not in wars in foreign lands, not on his own soil. That person, whoever he was, held value like none other. But the closer he came into view, he realized the person wasn’t a he…the damn drone operator was a woman…a young woman…a teenager, maybe. It didn’t matter to him. She was the commodity he needed to save his family. Her life meant nothing to him.