by Chris Bostic
“I said your name’s too long.”
“You woke me up to tell me that?”
“Uh, no. I woke you up to tell you that Big A and Mouse are back.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“With news,” she added with extra emphasis.
“Oh.” I sat up straighter and looked around. The others were gathered around the new arrivals. Katelyn pulled me up, and we walked over to join them. Mouse had everyone’s attention.
“There’s a bridge right past the trail, right about where the road curves,” she said. “They’re working on it now.”
“Our guys?” Katelyn’s dad asked.
Mouse shook her head. “No, silly. There’s soldiers crawling all over the dang place. Can’t you hear them?”
I had assumed the lower-pitched buzzing in my ears was lingering effects from the gunshots and bombs, but came to realize it was the whining of heavy machinery. “Oh, great,” I mumbled.
“The soldiers are lowering a temporary bridge into place right now,” Austin said. “What do we do?”
“Stop ‘em,” Spotted Owl said as matter-of-factly as if he was talking about going to get groceries or taking a stroll on a city sidewalk.
“Don’t we have to find the others first?” John asked.
“Oh, crap. I almost forgot,” Mouse said. “I saw them taking some of our guys away, like all handcuffed.”
“What?” Spotted Owl asked. “Where? How?”
“I mean they were walking, but not real well. There were two, kinda hurt looking, ‘cause they were limping like really bad.” She scratched her head. “It looked like Turtle for sure…maybe Duck or Eagle or whatever that bird guy is.” She finished with a non-committal shrug that set her dad off.
“Mouse,” he growled. “You got that close and you don’t know who it was?”
“Guys with beards all look the same in the dark.”
“Great. This changes everything.”
“How so?” Katelyn’s mom asked Spotted Owl.
“They bombed my guys, and now they have prisoners.”
“Well, yeah…”
“They’ll kill the prisoners if we attack,” he told Katelyn’s mom. “We’ll have to get ‘em loose first.”
“We could still set our bombs, right?” John said. “Just not trigger them until it’s time to make a distraction or whatever.”
“That could work. But we’ll have to get real close, especially to that crew working on the bridge. I want that thing blown.”
“So how do we coordinate without radios?” John asked. “I don’t even have a watch.”
“That’s why we don’t carry radios on missions like this. No need to let the soldiers grab ‘em when something goes wrong…”
“So how do we pull this off?” Katelyn’s dad asked Spotted Owl. “John has a reasonable question, and you’re stalling.”
“Yeah, I am,” he admitted. “We were set to launch the attack at dusk, at the Visitor Center. Now we’re gonna be a couple hours behind, and the other group might be out of commission.” He paused and looked to James. “Where do your people take prisoners?”
“I wouldn’t know.” He paused, before adding, “I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think we ever had any.”
Noel’s gravel voice rose from behind John. “They’d want to interrogate ‘em,” he said. “If they don’t have prisoners, then they don’t have intel.”
“So they’ll torture them,” Spotted Owl said.
“Yeah,” my mom said, finally entering the discussion. “I think we can pretty much guarantee that.”
I waited for her to add something along the lines about how we couldn’t let that happen, but she grew quiet again. Though I wasn’t opposed to having someone else like John speak up for my concerns, I would’ve preferred that Mom took a stronger role. But I couldn’t complain when I couldn’t bring myself to do the same.
“Alright, so prisoners first,” Spotted Owl said. “Okay?”
A few heads nodded in agreement. If anyone objected, they kept their thoughts to themselves.
“Good. That settles it.” Spotted Owl fished into the cargo pocket on his pants and pulled out a couple of long, shiny metal objects no bigger than a pencil. Wires extended from each of them. From his other pocket, he rummaged around and pulled out a cell phone.
The appearance of the phone particularly surprised me seeing how Spotty had just made a big deal about keeping out of contact. Before I could ask, the big man said, “I like John’s idea. We set the charges for a distraction while Mouse and Austin go locate the prisoners.”
“What’s that?” Katelyn’s mom asked, pointing to his hands.
“Blasting caps and the trigger device. We’ve got to remotely detonate it, and I need to show one of you how to use it.”
Austin immediately volunteered. Spotted Owl seemed okay with that, but also insisted on John joining them for some hands on instruction.
Spotty seemed hesitant to have Noel or James overhear, so the rest of the group was kept in the dark, literally and figuratively, as he whispered instructions to the two guys. It didn’t take long, and soon they were back in the circle with the rest of us.
“Now about those prisoners,” Spotted Owl said. “Where would they take them?”
“I’d assume they’ll take ‘em to the Visitor Center,” John said, drawing nods from James and Noel.
“That part of the plan remains unchanged,” Spotted Owl said. “We set bombs on the way to the Visitor Center, then blow ‘em all up at once to make a distraction while we bust our guys loose.”
“And if we run into tanks?” Katelyn’s dad asked.
“There’s no tanks,” Spotted Owl said quickly. Once again, Noel nodded along.
“Armed vehicles, or whatever,” her dad snipped back. “You know what I mean.”
I wasn’t entirely sure I did, but that didn’t matter. So long as the more informed adults were convinced we weren’t going up against tanks, I was happy—or at least I wasn’t completely terrified or feeling utterly hopeless.
“Well, whatever,” Katelyn’s dad was saying when I focused back in again. “It’s gonna be impossible either way.”
The more I heard the guy talk, the more I thought he might be as pessimistic as I was. Probably more so.
“We’ll worry about all that later,” Spotted Owl said. He turned to his daughter. “You two run on ahead and scope out the Visitor Center. We’ll be coming up behind you. We’ll meet you back in the woods, along the west side of the road, just this side of the parking lot.”
“Ten-four,” she said. In a rare moment of softer emotions, she stepped across the circle. Spotted Owl was so stout compared to her that she couldn’t even wrap her arms all the way around him. She tried anyway. “Love ya, Moose.”
“That’s a good nickname,” Katelyn whispered to me. “That guy is large and in charge.”
“Definitely better than Owl. Other than stocky, I don’t get that one.”
“I dunno. He is kinda wise, I guess.”
“Maybe. Either way, Moose is way more fitting than Big A,” I replied as I watched my brother give our mother a quick hug. Before he slipped away, he flashed a thumbs up to me.
“Good luck, bro,” I called after him. I could think of nothing else to do or say as my only brother left on undoubtedly the most dangerous mission yet. So I just stood there watching the two shadows disappear very quickly into the forest.
From far down the road, a huge metallic boom echoed through the hills.
“What was that?” Katelyn’s dad asked.
“I’d say that’s more of the new bridge going into place,” James volunteered. “It’s all metal, like a prefab thing. So they just kinda drop it into place when they’ve got everything set up.”
“Which means they could be driving this way any minute,” Spotted Owl said.
Before I could freak out about that, I had a sudden realization. “So…as long as we don’t care about them getting behind us, it could ac
tually mean that they’ll be leaving the bridge unguarded.”
“Sort of,” James confirmed. “I wouldn’t quite guarantee that, but they’ll probably move most of the equipment up the road. If anything, they might only leave a squad behind to guard it.”
“Unless they’ve learned their lessons about that,” John said.
“That’s true, thanks to us,” James agreed. “Or…they could be done working for the night, and they’ll all camp out at the bridge to protect it ‘til morning.”
So much for being optimistic, I thought, but I was almost happy that I didn’t have to be the only pessimist for a change. James seemed like a good fit for that job. Or Katelyn’s dad, who continued to pace around the woods.
I had enough of the chatter. Right when I was about to complain, Spotted Owl finally got the group headed off. I felt a little stronger after the extended rest, though a couple more metallic booms did nothing for my nerves. The never-ending jolts rattled my confidence, and seemed to sap my strength like I’d used up all my adrenaline bursts and had nothing left in the tank.
Spotted Owl led us across the highway at a run, at least as fast as we could go with the homemade bombs, and then back into the woods on the other side. I stayed up by the front. There was no particular reason, but deep down I supposed it had to do with keeping closer to my mother. With Austin gone on ahead and the enemy at hand, I didn’t want to be away from her if anything went wrong.
Being up by Spotted Owl helped me overhear him tell John, “It’s almost a blessing to be this close. They won’t use the thermal imaging if we’re right next to their troops. They won’t be able to tell us apart.”
“So that’s why you’re keeping us so close to the road?”
“Exactly.” He held up a hand to stop the group for a moment and leaned over to John. “I might need a volunteer to help me set the charges.”
“You stay with them,” John replied without delay. “I’ll do it myself.”
Spotted Owl looked like he wanted to object, but John wasn’t having it. He quickly asked, “Is one bucket enough, or should I take two?”
“Might as well do two, if you’re sure you got this.”
John nodded confidently.
“Alright. Sounds like the soldiers have been working hard, and we’ve got the goods to spare.” Spotted Owl turned back to the rest of us. “We’re gonna drop off John here to set the charges. Then we’re gonna get going nice and quiet like. He’ll catch up.”
Against my better judgment, I found myself saying, “I’ll go with him.”
Katelyn latched onto my arm, but didn’t say anything.
“It’s okay, bud,” John said. “I can handle this.”
“It’ll be easier with two people like Spot-”
“Not really. One person moves more silently.”
“I don’t like this one bit,” Katelyn said, but I wasn’t sure if she meant me going with him, or having her brother go off by himself.
Spotted Owl broke into our conversation, and was more definite about the numbers that time. “I reckon one is good enough. John’s gonna go quick, but safe, and catch back up to us.”
“Will do,” he said.
Spotted Owl quickly reexplained to him how to set the blasting caps. Then it was Katelyn’s turn to wish her brother well. She offered him a hug, and watched as he carried a pair of buckets off into the woods toward the bridge.
I couldn’t concentrate on anything other than the sound of engines whining and metal clanking out by the bridge. They couldn’t have been more than fifty yards away. Everything sounded plain as day, but I couldn’t see any trace of the workers.
When Spotted Owl adjusted course, the woods gradually lit up around us. Not much at first, but muted yellow beams of light eventually poked between the trunks of the trees. As far away as we remained, it was such a mild glow that it didn’t help me avoid a single trip or tangle on the forest floor.
And then the beams shifted to stab deeper into the woods.
“They’re moving out,” Spotted Owl turned around to tell us, though I assumed everyone had figured that out already.
The metal bridge creaked as heavy vehicles drove over it. I hoped that meant the personnel carriers were all moving on ahead—preferably more than just a squad or two. With any luck, that would leave a smaller force for us to deal with back at the Visitor Center. However, I’d learned a long time before that luck was rarely on my side. Other than somehow winning the heart of the prettiest daughter of a fellow prepper mom, I wasn’t having much success. That feat alone must have used up about all the luck I’d ever had, or so I often thought.
I had no clue how John could get close enough to the bridge to blow it up, but I hadn’t heard everything Spotted Owl had told him about setting the charges. For all I knew, using two buckets might have had enough power to wreck the bridge from fifty feet away. I felt like John would surely be able to get that close. He was always careful. Anyone who could stalk sharp-eyed turkeys in broad daylight could certainly hide from a few soldiers in the dark.
When rifle fire blasted from around the bridge, I suddenly wasn’t so confident.
Flashlights popped on along the road, bathing the woods in bright, white light. I hit the deck as the lights raked over my head.
CHAPTER 27
“Stay low, but get moving,” Spotted Owl urged as we crawled deeper into the woods away from the light. The shooting had ceased about as quickly as it had begun, but beams of bright white still cut through the darkness. The one saving grace was they were diffused enough that I thought we could escape without notice if no one did anything stupid.
We stayed low like crawling under smoke in a house fire. It wasn’t easy to keep the buckets from thumping on the ground, and Katelyn’s dad began complaining almost immediately. First about the effort, then more understandably about John.
“We can’t go check,” Spotted Owl insisted.
“That’s my son over there,” Katelyn’s dad pleaded.
“Bob, no. He’s right,” Spotted Fawn said, letting her husband’s name slip in front of the strangers. Then again, I figured he didn’t have a code name. I’d never heard him called anything other than Dad before. If he didn’t have a nickname, I’d have suggested one of the Seven Dwarfs. Grumpy would’ve been perfect, with Dopey a close second. But I never would’ve shared those with Katelyn.
“It’s our son, Margie,” he protested. “Our only son.”
“You’ve gotta get it together,” she replied, and I was inclined to agree with that. But there was no way I was going to get involved in the family squabble. I had enough of my own, rather I used to. Losing Dad had definitely changed the dynamic, though I supposed that it might swing back to bickering with my siblings eventually. It wasn’t worth considering in that moment.
After quickly checking to make sure James or Noel weren’t looking like they were going to do anything traitorous, I turned to Katelyn. Her parents continued battling. Her brow was furrowed so deeply that her helmet had slipped down over her eyes. She pushed it back up, and I couldn’t help but notice the way her hands trembled. There seemed to be nothing I could do about it, but I wasn’t going to stop trying.
“We could go look for him,” I whispered to her.
“No. Mom’s right.” She sat up on her knees. We seemed to be far enough out of danger, but still kept a low profile. Her lips curled downward to match her frown. “He’s got body armor and stealth. He’ll be fine.”
“And a helmet.” I tapped my own. “And he’s the sneakiest guy I know.”
She nodded, and crawled over toward her dad. Wrapping an arm around his, she whispered something to him that I couldn’t hear. I watched as she talked him down from the ledge, and somehow convinced him to carry on without checking on John.
Spotty gave her a thumbs up when her dad wasn’t looking, and seemed happy to get the group moving again. With a hand motion, he rose into the shape of a dad giving his kids pony rides and slunk off toward the south, leadin
g us away from the lights.
“He calmed right down,” I said when Katelyn returned to my side. “What did you say?”
She shrugged. “Just tried to tell him that John would be fine.”
“Seemed like a little more than that.” I didn’t press the issue. I was just glad to be moving away from where the shooting had occurred, though my stomach was tied in more ugly knots than a kindergartner’s shoelaces.
I felt like I walked half a mile in the form of a hunchback before I tried to straighten up all the way. The buckets had really worked over my back while I had been in the uncomfortable crouch, and I could only stand partway up at first. The burning tore through my hands. But as long as Katelyn wasn’t complaining, especially with her brother still missing, I wasn’t about to make a peep.
I noticed we were starting to lag behind the others. Again, I didn’t mention it. I guessed it might have something to do with intentionally slacking as if she was waiting for John to catch up. I wasn’t going to ask that either.
Finally, Katelyn spoke up. “What are you thinking?”
“Nothing,” I replied quickly. Too quickly.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“Says who?”
“You. The tone of your voice is a total giveaway.”
I tried to change that tone, and wisecracked, “Maybe I’m just tired.”
“Then you’d reply slower, not quicker.”
I snorted softly. “Alright, you caught me. I was thinking.”
“And now you’re being a smartass…again.”
“I didn’t mean to be,” I protested. “I’m just, uhm…”
“Worried.”
“Yeah, that,” I said. “I guess there’s no fooling you.”
“Nope. Not a chance.” She smiled, though it faded faster than my endurance on a steep slope. “I’m worried too.”
“I figured. And I was trying to not mention it.”
“You don’t have to watch what you say around me.”
“Yeah, right.” I laughed softly. “Girls don’t say what they mean. It’s like I’m supposed to do the opposite.”
“That’s crap,” Katelyn said. “I’m not like that.”
