by Chris Bostic
More backpacks hit the ground as people gathered up in the shade to munch on granola and take swigs from water bottles. Despite all the revenge talk that kept circling around, I managed to keep my thoughts off of my own loss. Instead, I wondered how rifles were enough to take down armored vehicles and massed enemy troops. The cover of darkness clearly wasn’t enough of an advantage. If anything, I wondered if it was a disadvantage.
Spotted Owl circulated among the group, offering words of encouragement to everyone as he passed.
As he walked up on me, I was compelled to ask, “How do we blow the bridges? We used propane tanks to take them out the first time.”
“We’ve got a little surprise waiting for them.” Spotted Owl flashed a sly grin. I thought it made him look more like a maniacal clown than a rogue warrior. He leaned over and added, “Let’s just say we’ve been waiting for this moment for a while.”
“Alrighty,” I said, still unconvinced. And I certainly didn’t like surprises. “Such as?”
“ANFO,” Spotted Owl answered.
“Anpho-what?” I looked to Katelyn, who shrugged in reply.
“The world’s first IED,” Spotted Owl half-explained, and stood tall again. He spun around. “I need to find Mouse. Anyone seen her?”
Katelyn and I didn’t answer him.
Spotted Owl turned back to me. “Where’s your brother?” he asked, and quickly read the answer on my poor poker face. “Oh…”
“Is that a bad thing?” Katelyn asked innocently.
“I reckon she’s got him down by the road by now, probably rollin’ in the mud.”
“Say what?” I said, thinking more like what I wanted to do with Katelyn.
I definitely couldn’t hide my immediate reaction, and Spotted Owl saw right through it—especially when Katelyn said, “Ewww.”
“I hope not that. I meant for camo.” Spotted Owl wiped at his brow again. “She’ll want to get him all painted up to go scouting, like commandos.”
“He’ll love that,” I deadpanned, and had a hard time stifling a smirk. I figured my brother might as well have a little fun, and there was no doubt he’d eat up every second of getting to play real life Call of Duty, especially with the cute girl.
“I swear that girl loves to smear mud all over her face,” Spotted Owl said. “I should’ve named her Sewer Rat.”
That sounded strange to me, and I asked, “You should have?”
“Well, yeah. The little runt’s my daughter.”
CHAPTER 18
“No way. How old are you?” I asked.
“Better yet, how old is Mouse?” Katelyn asked right after me.
Spotted Owl looked from one of us to the other and said, “Thirty-eight and eighteen.”
“No way,” we uttered in unison.
“You didn’t think I looked that old?” he asked, seemingly offended.
“No, and she definitely doesn’t,” Katelyn answered. “I thought she was twelve.”
“Me, too.”
Spotted Owl chuckled. “She gets that a lot, but I sure wouldn’t tell her that. There’s no telling what she’ll do.”
“Yeah, she seemed kinda feisty,” Katelyn said.
I was the one to chuckle. “She’ll get along great with Austin then.”
“Not too great, I hope.” Spotted Owl glanced back down the path in the direction they had disappeared. “If they’re not back soon, I’m sending out a search party.”
Lucky for Austin, he showed up with Mouse right when Spotted Owl had almost fully transitioned from anxious to aggravated. He scowled at Mouse, and didn’t bother saying a word to Austin. With a growl, he announced to the group, “We’re burning daylight.”
“It’s time to split up,” the bearded man codenamed Box Turtle added. “My group over here.” He stepped toward the trail that Austin and Mouse had just walked back up.
I scrutinized my brother as we gathered around Spotted Owl. He’d definitely spent a little time rolling in the mud. He had two big swipes of dirt below his eyes that made him look like a baseball player. His pointed nose had been similarly covered, though not quite to the extent of his cheeks. The mud did nothing to hide the grin plastered all over his face.
“Have fun?” I whispered.
“You have no idea. She’s wild.”
“I really didn’t need to know that.”
“No, dude. I just mean she’s like so, uhm…free. Like not a care in the world.” He swallowed slowly, and the smile slowly disappeared from his face. “I guess I needed that.”
“Now you know how I feel,” I mumbled under my breath and edged over closer to Katelyn.
I stood next to her, waiting for Spotted Owl to give the order to move out. For all the supposed rush, he kept standing there as the other half of the group disappeared down the trail.
“We don’t have quite so far to go,” Spotted Owl explained to several questioning looks. “Might as well give them a little head start.”
Mouse had already sidled over next to Austin, and I hadn’t even seen her move a muscle. The little girl slipped a hand through the crook of Austin’s arm and looked at him like a baby bird waiting for a meal.
The stupid grin crept across Austin’s face again, and I felt happy for him in a way that I never had before. Everyone needed someone to be their cheerleader, or just to be there for them. And Mom has no one, I thought, and stole a look at my stoic mother.
“Not so long that you can get comfortable,” Spotted Owl clarified, having apparently seen his daughter snuggle up to Austin. He stared at them. “We’ve still gotta get to Tow String to grab the supplies, so we might as well get moving. Come on.”
I soon learned that we wouldn’t have a trail to follow all the way to the old horse camp. We took off down a slope leading away from the knob, and crossed a ravine on a path no wider than a game trail. Soon we were huffing and puffing as we headed back up a steep incline.
Spotted Owl showed no signs of stopping. I noticed that he turned around often, and scowled every time he noticed Mouse and Austin right on his heels. I was happy to be back bringing up the rear with Katelyn. Still, it irked me that Spotted Owl looked at my brother so contemptuously. As far as I was concerned, I was the only one allowed to do that.
Mouse seemed itching to get out ahead of the group. She often ran right up on her dad’s heels, dragging Austin behind him. I was impressed with my brother’s endurance. Certainly, showing off for Mouse had a good deal to do with it. Austin’s only exercise prior to our time in the woods was flexing his thumbs on the newest video games.
After clearing the hilltop, I stiffened at the view ahead. Far below and off in the distance, I caught sight of a little ribbon of asphalt glimmering in the noonday sun.
“That’s the highway,” I told Katelyn, though she could have easily figured it out for herself. I stared for a moment longer before feeling too exposed on top of the ridge. The craggy slope knifed into the sky, and I had to hop over a few rocks that seemed sharp enough to slice us in two.
I helped Katelyn down, and hurried her along to the waiting woods. We hunkered under a huge bush to wait while her parents finished the climb.
“Did you see the camp?” she asked me.
It took a moment to catch my breath. “Not really. Seemed like there might have been a little clearing down by the river, but I don’t remember if that’s the place or not.”
“You’ve been there…to Bow String or Two String or whatever it is.”
“Tow String,” I corrected her, “though it never meant anything to me. Bow sounded a lot more logical, especially with the reservation on the other side.”
I thought I saw a cartoon light bulb pop on over her head. Slowly, she said, “Duh. Cherokee.”
“Exactly. It’s a town inside the reservation. Anyway…I’ve been to Tow String a few times. They used to rent horses out of there.”
“I’d love to go horseback riding sometime.”
I flashed back to what had become my least favorit
e movie, and got an image of the teens in Red Dawn riding horse like Afghan rebels as they attacked Russian helicopters. It didn’t end pretty, and I shook my head to clear the image. Though not completely like the night before, it hit way too close to home.
“Zach?”
“Nothing. I just…” I paused to collect my thoughts and sort out the bad ones. It took a while, but Katelyn waited patiently. “Riding’s kinda fun, I guess. It’ll make your butt sore, especially on these hills. But the horses were real tame.”
“I’d like that,” she insisted. “It’s a shame we can’t do that kinda stuff anymore.”
“We will someday.” My countenance firmed up, and I looked at her with more determination than I’d mustered in weeks. “We definitely will.”
She nodded, surely humoring me, I thought. But somewhere along the way, a tiny flame had been lit inside me. I wouldn’t look at the same orange leaves and see decay. I’d see fire, or so I hoped.
As the fire smoldered, Spotted Owl walked along the edge of the rocky spine to gather up the troops. “Follow me. It’s down to the creek, then out to the road.”
A few groans replied, but no one offered any disagreement. In short order, we were working our way back into our usual places as we trudged down the slope toward the bottom of the canyon.
Austin skipped past me trailing behind Mouse. I called out to him.
“Bro! How’s this awfo stuff like an IED?”
“Awful? What are you talking about?” He seemed anxious to follow after Mouse, but slowed to listen.
“Spotted Owl said he had a surprise for the soldiers. Something like anpho, or awfu, or something that was like an improvised explosive device.” The IED word I had no trouble understanding. Too many people knew too much about those kinds of weapons.
“Oh, ANFO,” Austin said. “It’s an acronym.”
“What for?” I wracked my brain. Words came to mind, but not a single one made any kind of logical sense. Finally, I admitted, “I don’t have a clue. Enlighten me, smart guy.”
“The A-N is Ammonium Nitrate. F-O is fuel oil.” When I shook my head, Austin said, “A fertilizer bomb.”
“How do you know about that?” I asked, looking at him incredulously.
Austin seemed more concerned about whether Mouse was going to wait for him. I saw her skipping on ahead, right behind her dad. I would let him go, but only when I got a couple more answers.
“So how do you know?”
“Grandpa used to talk about it. They used to blow up tree stumps at the farm by mixing diesel fuel with fertilizer.”
“I vaguely remember that,” I said, though it was about as miniscule a recollection as possible. Given all the times that the Feds had bugged our phones and confiscated our computers, I had to point out, “At least you didn’t research it on your computer. That really would’ve set the Feds off.”
“Not that it could’ve gotten much worse,” Austin said. “But, yeah, it was mostly Grandpa. Oh, also that nut who blew up those offices in Oklahoma City. Pops told me how the guy had mixed up a big batch in a van or truck or something and parked it outside the building.”
“And totally destroyed it,” I said, cringing at the memory. We’d driven past there once, and my folks had wanted to stop to look at the memorial. “My God, that was sick.”
“I remember hearing about that,” Katelyn said. She slipped her hand into mine as we reached a wider place in the trail. “That was so awful. I can’t believe anyone would do that to innocent people.”
“Yeah, but it happens all the time,” Austin said, his mood shifting like a storm cloud, growing darker by the second. “No different than what they’re doing to us now.”
“You think?” I objected at first, though he could see Austin’s point in a way. Evil was evil, no matter the purpose or cause or whatever.
“Could you imagine the power?” Austin said with a maniacal grin spreading across his face. “Just think of the fireworks we can make. Forget propane bottles. If Spotted Owl has the right ingredients, we can do all kinds of damage to the Feds. This time, they’ll deserve it.”
I shuddered at the thought. Even though they’d killed my dad for no reason, it was a hard argument to swallow. Even though they’d killed civilians and bombed cities. Even though the fire was smoldering inside me, begging for revenge, I wasn’t sure I could pull the trigger when the time came.
I tapped the rifle on my shoulder reflexively and shivered.
Austin ran on ahead to catch up to Mouse. Probably to cheerlead the plan, I thought, and found myself wracked by tremors again.
“Are you okay?” Katelyn asked.
“Not really. My stomach’s killing me.”
“It’s a lot to process,” she whispered.
I wanted to keep hold of her, but the woods thickened up again with brambles that forced us back to single file. As I let her go ahead, I thought back to the picture of the crumbled building at the memorial site, the names of the deceased, and the photographs of the families with all their tears.
I fought back my own, and mumbled, “No one deserves that.”
CHAPTER 19
“How you holding up?” Mom asked me once we stopped again. Spotted Owl had just told us that the highway was a scant hundred yards away, and had wanted everyone to get another snack and a drink.
“Fine,” I replied, but it couldn’t have been much further from the truth.
The guilt ate at me as I realized that I’d barely even spoken to my mother the whole day. First, I’d run off to hide half the morning with Katelyn. Then I’d been distracted packing to leave, followed by a long, thought-filled hike across the mountains.
I glanced up at Mom and patted the ground next to me. Katelyn went to leave, and with my other hand I grabbed for her wrist. “Stay,” I pleaded with a whisper.
She settled back down and munched on some granola as I turned to my mother. I analyzed her face and thought I caught a glimpse of anguish behind her steely eyes. But so little. The woman was a rock. I wished I’d gotten a little more of her iron constitution and perhaps a little less of my dad’s sense of obligation. He had been one to please others, except for the new regime.
“And how are you holding up?” I asked. “For real.”
“One day at a time,” she said, and patted me on the shoulder.
“None of the platitudes, or whatever they are.” I focused on her like a laser beam. “Are you okay?”
“I’m torn in half,” she admitted, and it broke me. I swallowed down the tears and listened as she explained further. “It’s like a piece of me is gone. The most important one…the one that kinda holds me together. When I was crazy and impractical and bouncing off the walls, your father was the glue that held me together. And I don’t know how to go on.”
I was too choked up to reply.
“Mrs. Walters,” Katelyn said. “I don’t guess I could know anything about that, but I…I just have a feeling you’re gonna be fine. I mean like someday, you know? Soon, I’m sure. It’s like, uhm, you’re always so prepared.”
“Not for this, hon,” she replied. “I don’t know how anyone could be.”
“Oh, gosh.” Katelyn stammered, “Th-that’s not what I meant. I was just thinking that you’re always so tough. I don’t know anyone as strong as you.”
“Thank you, dear,” she said softly. “I’d say there’s two kinds of strength. The outside is holding up alright, I guess. But that’s as thin as wallpaper.”
“The way I remember it, wallpaper is impossible to remove. My mom made me help her once, and it was like the hardest job ever.”
“Good God, girl. You’re right about that. That stuff sucks.” Mom chuckled. It was a good, deep belly laugh that soon had all three of us smiling. Tears ran down Sunning Bear’s face the harder she laughed. “Then maybe I just need to work on the inside a little more.”
“No one cares about the outside,” I offered. “You never did.”
“You calling me ugly, kiddo?” she sai
d playfully.
“No, uhm…it’s just what you always taught us, right? About being better people on the inside.” I cracked a smile upon seeing that she wasn’t upset about my unintended insult, and tried to continue lightening the mood. “And not letting Maddie wear too much makeup. You wanted us pretty inside and out, not covered in black eye shadow.”
“At least you listened.” She smiled at me. “And I think it worked. You’re even nice to your sister.”
“Usually,” I agreed. “But if she had a code name, it would have to be Raccoon Eyes or something like that.”
All three of us belly laughed again. Spotted Owl hurried over and stopped just short of calling us out for being too loud. We needed this, and a stern look from me was enough to send him back the other way.
The point was taken, nonetheless. I knew it was time to get back on our feet and finish the first part of the mission. The sun had started its descent several hours earlier. It wouldn’t slip behind the mountains for a little while longer, but there were only a couple hours left until dusk. Then things would really get serious.
“We’re following the creek down to the road,” Spotted Owl told the group. “Stick right behind me.”
“We’ll go ahead,” Mouse said, chattering like a squirrel. “I can run on up there to check it out.” She reached back to grab Austin’s hand and pulled him up next to her. “I’ll take Big A with me. We’ll be careful.”
“Big A?” Sunning Bear said to me. “Is that your brother?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It came as a bit of a surprise.”
“That’s a curious nickname. It’s…not all that fitting.”
“He is kinda tall, I guess.”
“And hanging all over that girl,” Mom whispered incredulously.
“I thought you’d be more upset about him running off ahead to scout.”
“I don’t like it, but he can take care of himself.” She kneaded her hands together as she watched the two speak softly to Spotted Owl. “It’s more that she looks like a child.”
“She’s like eighteen,” I guessed, having not exactly remembered Mouse’s age.
