by Chris Bostic
I knew she meant leaving the cave, but I couldn’t resist a little flirting when she was standing there looking so good in tight jeans and a sweater. “We can go as far as you like.”
“Hush,” she said, her rounded cheeks blushing. “You know-”
“I’m kidding, babe. Well, sorta.”
“So tonight, a creek. Sounds cold, but I’ll bet you’ve got a way to warm me up.”
I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her close. “There’s something else I want to show you. There’s this awesome waterfall-”
“Waterfall? Why you gotta be a jerk?” She harrumphed and turned her back on me. “You’re always picking on me.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.” I reached for her and tried to coax her into turning around. ”C’mon, babe. I was just thinking it was time, you know, for us to get outta here for a while.”
“Yeah, we’ve been over that,” she deadpanned. “I wouldn’t count on it now that we have visitors. Mom will be all freaked out that you even brought them here.”
“We can still slip away. Not for long.” I flashed a quick grin. “What could be more romantic?”
“Not a waterfall. Like I’d really want to be reminded of Jonas unconscious on the rocks, or my leg twisted up like a pretzel.”
“You can’t blame yourself for Jonas. Besides, it wasn’t that bad,” I said. “But alright, we’ll forget the falls. There’s still a pretty sweet stream out there. Not too far.” I raised an eyebrow in a failed seductive look. “Full moon tonight.”
“Mom’s not gonna let us leave.”
“Probably not. That’s why I mentioned sneaking out.”
“With strangers, and soldiers on helicopters, and all that…”
I shook my head. “Yeah, I get it. Thanks for killing my joy.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to go.” She squeezed my hand. “I’d be happy going to get water.”
“I heard that. So let’s work on that plan instead.”
“Deal.” She leaned in to nuzzle her head against my shoulder, but only for a second. “Now tell me more about those strangers.”
“The clean-shaven guy in the brown jacket, that’s Noel. He said something about big plans that he needed to tell our leaders about.”
“What kind of big plans?”
“He wouldn’t say. It was real vague. Something about how he needed to talk to the adults, but I’m not sure that I trust him.”
“Trust no one, right?”
“Exactly.” I looked across the cave and found both sets of our parents gathered around the new arrivals. Noel seemed shrunken back a little as the others trained a withering fire of questions and sharp glances in his direction.
“I’m not really sure about that guy. Drone flights and the helicopters all came outta nowhere as soon as he showed up,” I said, but the look on Katelyn’s face made me immediately change my tune. I didn’t want her to worry. “Anyway, I’m sure that’s all a coincidence. I really kinda wonder if he was just saying that because he needed a place to stay, like he was trying to trade something.”
“That’s how this whole thing works,” Katelyn said. “We get along with the others by trading supplies, information.”
“Yeah, the barter system. Dad says that’s the way the new republic is going to have to rise until things get all sorted out. Kinda like twenty-first century people living a pioneer’s life.”
“Can’t say that I’m a big fan of all that.” Katelyn pulled on my hand to slowly lead me over to the adults. “Anyway, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say.”
“Judging by the scowl on your mom, you might not want to know.”
“She’s always like that.”
“Not this bad.”
Right on cue, Katelyn’s mom took off running for the front of the cave. She locked eyes with Katelyn. “Did you see your father? We need to stop him.” She kept running, and over her shoulder called, “Find John too. Hurry!”
“Okay, yeah,” Katelyn whispered to me. “That’s a total freak out. Definitely bad news.”
CHAPTER 7
“John was right with us,” I told Katelyn, though she seemed to have no interest in finding her brother.
“I hadn’t even noticed my pops had left too.” She shrugged. “I thought they were all together a second ago.”
“He has a way of blending into a crowd,” I blurted. Fortunately, she took no offense at my unintentional jab at her relatively boring father. It’s not like mine was any more exciting. Apparently it was just something about accountants, at least according to our mothers.
Before I could change the subject, Katelyn took off toward the back of the cave. I followed behind. My mom and dad were the only ones left gathered around the table of plastic tubs. Noel and Spotted Owl sat on collapsible camp chairs behind them. A small solar-powered lantern lit up a well-worn map spread out on the makeshift tabletop.
“This looks serious.” I nodded my head toward Noel. “So I guess he told you guys the big secret or whatever.”
“Yeah, you could say that,” my mom said.
She stepped around the tubs to give me a quick embrace. I held up a hand to try to stop her, but she was her usual unrelenting self.
“I’m so proud of my big boy,” she gushed.
“Jeez, Ma. Stop.” I pulled out of her grip, and jumped behind Katelyn as a blocker for my overprotective mother. “You’re so embarrassing.”
“I’m just proud. Leave it to my boy to bring home the first prisoner. That’s great work.”
“Prisoner?” I said, and quickly turned to Noel. He watched us, but remained quiet back in the shadows.
The deserter certainly didn’t look like he was being treated like a captive, but I knew my mother had a way of overemphasizing my accomplishments. My dad had never been one to cheerlead or praise me at my peewee soccer games and tee-ball, but my mother’s voice could be heard from three fields over. Thus, my athletic career ended at a very early age.
“You know what I mean,” she replied. “You subdued him and brought him in.”
“I guess I sorta did do that,” I agreed, “but the whole subdued thing might be a bit of a stretch.”
Katelyn poked me in the side, and I flinched so hard I nearly fell to the ground.
“That’s my hero,” she beamed, obviously more playful than serious.
I shot her an icy stare that quickly turned into a chuckle as she came after my fleshy sides with the dreaded tickle fingers.
“Stop it,” I pleaded, failing at being manly as I playfully slapped her hands away.
A narrow-eyed stare from my mother put an end to any joking around. I fell in next to Katelyn and zipped my lips.
“Busted.” She snickered, and I bumped her with my shoulder to quiet her down.
“So, Mom…” I paused for a second to erase the untimely grin. “What’s up with Mrs. Jennings?”
My mom looked to Katelyn. “Your dad went up the mountain a minute to, uhm…get a signal.”
“What for?” I asked. “And what about John?”
“Sort of a change of plans, so John was gonna go run after him and bring him back.”
“Alright, I’m confused.” I looked from Katelyn back at my mom. “So, Sunning Bear…you gonna explain this, or do we have to stay in the dark?” I waved an arm around the cave. “Pun intended.”
“Good one,” Noel said out of the blue, reminding me that he was actually close enough to hear us when I raised my voice.
As I stared at Noel and Spotted Owl wondering how the two played into this, Katelyn continued with the interrogation for me. “So, uhm…would you please tell us what’s up?”
“Your dad was going to raise the other camps, hon. We’ve kinda got something big to discuss.”
“What’s wrong with right here?” I asked. “You guys never needed to climb the mountain before.”
“You need kind of a direct line of sight to use the walkies,” she explained, albeit cryptically.
&n
bsp; I frowned. It took me a moment, but I figured out what she meant. “And you need to talk to the camps on the other side of the mountain.” I gestured with my hand toward the back of the cave which, through the depth of the mountain, was in an easterly direction. “You mean the camps behind us…in North Carolina.” I paused when I realized what that meant. “And that’s rare. Very rare.”
Sunning Bear nodded.
“So what’s going on?” Katelyn asked. All trace of hilarity had long since disappeared from her soft voice.
My mother looked to my dad. “Harold, what do you think?”
“It’s your call, but I’d tell them,” he said before I could jump in and plead my case.
“Fine.”
I didn’t like the way my mom’s eyes shifted to the roof of the cave. Before she spoke, she ushered me and Katelyn off to the side away from the new arrivals. In a hushed voice, she said, “If we can verify what these guys are telling us, there’s been a bit of a change in plans.”
Katelyn’s voiced dripped with kindness as she said, “You mentioned that.”
“We have plans?” I wisecracked. Even when my mom narrowed her eyes at me, I didn’t let up. “I thought we were just hanging out eating powdered eggs and pretty much trying to stay alive.”
“Very funny, mister.”
“I’m just saying that it’s not like we’re doing much. After the big trip into town, it’s like we’ve been sitting around here hiding out.” I looked over at my dad. The low light wasn’t kind to him. I was suddenly struck by the way he seemed to have aged a dozen years over the last four months. “What happened to Dad’s rebellion, or whatever it is?”
“We’ve made a few other trips to town. We’ve been making contacts with the other groups. It takes time to build up a trust level.”
“Apparently a lot of time.”
My mom didn’t disagree. Instead, she said, “I’d say things are about to get a whole lot more interesting from here on out.”
“Ma, please. Enough with not answering the question.” I brought out Dad’s favorite line, and added, “It’s like you’re a politician or something.”
“Fine. Here’s the deal. It’s sort of a weird coincidence that both these guys show up on the exact same day, each with a little piece of a story. When we put the two together, especially along with everything else, I get the feeling that we’re going to stay plenty busy the next few days.”
Katelyn shook my hand, and I looked down to realize I’d tightened my grip unknowingly. “Sorry, babe,” I mouthed, and watched with regret as she slipped her hand from mine and massaged her fingers.
Taking a deep breath, I turned back to my mother. “Just spill it. Please stop being so cryptic.”
“I’m getting to it, kiddo.”
Before she could, Katelyn’s mom came hurrying back toward us with her dad and brother in tow. John seemed less happy to follow, seeing how he shared a lot of the leadership qualities of his mother.
“I didn’t quite…get there in time.” She was so winded that she needed to stop to catch her breath in the middle. “But it worked out okay. We have corroboration.”
“Really?” Sunning Bear replied. “I guess I mean to say I thought it would check out. Spotted Owl seems legit.”
“Yeah, we got three others to say pretty much the exact same thing,” Katelyn’s dad said. “It’s definitely time to make a move.”
“Then it’s settled,” my mom said. “Ready or not, we convene the War Council tonight.”
Saliva caught in the back of my throat, and I choked myself trying to swallow it down. The adults shot me annoyed looks, but I was more worried about breathing than creating a disturbance. Katelyn patted me gently on the back until the wracking coughs ended, and I sucked in a deep breath of dank cave air. It was yet another thing I disliked about our dungeon-like home.
“Did she just say what I think she said?” Katelyn whispered.
I grabbed for her hand, but made a conscious effort to not squeeze it to death like a python. “Yeah, and this can’t be good.” I paused to reconsider. “Well, you know what I mean.”
“I think so.” She offered me a sad smile.
When I finally focused back in on the adults’ conversation, I heard my dad saying, “The best defense is a good offense. You keep coming after them. You keep the ball in the red zone, and hammer away until you wear ‘em out. Control the clock. Uhm…and whatever else the announcer guys are always saying.”
“Oh, Harold,” my mom said. “You don’t have to pretend like you watch sports. Nobody out here cares about that stuff.”
“Ouch,” I whispered under my breath. The way she could cut my dad down in front of the others was an art form. But he never took it badly. Instead, he usually let the comments roll right off him—unless the antagonist held contrary opinions on treasury bills, interest rates, or the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. The Constitution that had basically been suspended by the new regime, as he often explained, in the name of law and order. Only the law was corrupt and order enforced by a police force so oppressive that ordinary citizens feared for their lives—just like me and my family.
Though I had practically begged for action, the idea of some kind of offensive set me on edge. I knew the risks of going into town to face the soldiers. We’d nearly lost Katelyn’s mom in our earlier foray into Gatlinburg, as well as several others.
As I focused back in on the adults, I heard Spotted Owl saying, “Harold is right, Sunning Bear. We need a preemptive strike.”
I’d always wondered why my dad hadn’t been worthy of a code name. I supposed it had something to do with the prepper forums that my mom frequented. For all I knew, she actually administered several of them.
To my detriment, Dad had always been slightly less concerned about anonymity, which led to him losing his job and the federal agents showing up to raid our house and threaten him with imprisonment.
I had also always wondered why they hadn’t locked my father away. They’d taken him in to their offices a few times, but he’d always come back home a few hours later. Apparently, he was a master at hiding his most inflammatory work under aliases, and encrypting all the files on his computers. So there was never anything damaging enough to pin on him.
In person, he was a soft-spoken, humble bookkeeper, who probably didn’t trigger enough alarm bells to make them want to rough him up. Lucky for him, he’d never put up a fight. That might have ended horribly.
Then I realized what we were about to do. It was one thing to hide in the woods—and become a hero like I had today, I thought with pretend pride. Going on some kind of mission sounded dangerous, especially given how it had something to do with the strangers.
But I wouldn’t be left behind again. Our parents had gone into Gatlinburg without us, so Katelyn and I had luckily followed them and arrived in time to save the day. I wasn’t about to wait behind with the little kids again.
A newfound confidence stirred in my chest. Tugging Katelyn forward, we stood side by side with the adults. As soon as I heard what we were up against, I wished I was back on babysitting duty.
CHAPTER 8
“Cherokee?” Katelyn’s shoulders were hunched so far over I thought she resembled my grandmother. “We’re seriously going to North Carolina. That was a shocker.”
I steered her over toward her pallet, and let her sink onto the air mattress. Settling in next to her, I wrapped her thin, cartoony sleeping bag around her shoulders and chuckled. Princesses and ponies were totally out of place in the war camp. Unicorns would’ve almost been fitting seeing how it felt like an extreme fairy tale land.
“This is bad, Zach,” she said, and leaned her shoulder against mine.
I wanted to encourage her, but couldn’t lie. Finally, I settled on, “At least we’ll be prepared this time.”
“For what?” came a high-pitched voice from behind us.
I spun around to find my baby sister, Maddie. Granted she was only two years younger, but I’d alwa
ys thought of her as a little girl. Perhaps because she often acted the part, or she had until recently.
Camp life had been good on her. She wasn’t wearing heavy layers of makeup anymore, especially the dark eye shadow. Her black hair was still shiny, though more of a raven tone than the unnatural purple. Like our father, she’d aged about ten years as well. Unlike him, it suited her nicely.
“What’s up, guys?” she asked, settling next to me on the air mattress. Thankfully, she was still rail thin; otherwise I might’ve been concerned that she’d pop it. Then Katelyn would’ve really been hating life.
“Not much, sis.”
“Yeah, right.” She leaned across me to look at my hunched over girlfriend. “Are you crying?”
“No, Mad.” Her sad eyes had no trace of tears. That didn’t surprise me. She was as drama-free as any girl I’d ever met, and not one to turn on the tears in any situation, even if they were deserved. “It’s just that things kinda got real for a second.”
“Sounds like every day to me.” Maddie switched sides to go wrap an arm around her.
“I’m not one of your kids,” Katelyn told her sharply. “I don’t need watching over.”
Maddie’s dark eyes pinched to slits, but she didn’t let go. Apparently realizing what she had done, Katelyn twisted to give her a hug. “I’m sorry, Mads. That was really nice of you.”
“I’m here for you,” she said, which seemed preposterous to me given how she was better suited to babysitting kindergartners than hanging out with people closer to her own age.
Katelyn disagreed with my assessment. “Thanks. You’re the best.”
“No problem.” Maddie patted her on the back while I sat there feeling useless.
“Your whole family is so great,” Katelyn said, straightening up. “If we had to be stuck here with anybody, I’m glad it was with you guys.”
“Except for maybe Austin,” I said.
“That’s true,” Maddie agreed. “Where is our brother?”
“I dunno. I thought he’d be all up in the planning. He loves the idea of a good fight.”
