Wayward State

by A. R. Shaw

  Trying to steal her nerves for what lay ahead Dane had control of her motives but could not help her own initial reactions and it took a great effort to tamp down the sudden urge to fight or flight. It had been years since the incident that night, that cost her a life. She wanted to kill him then and there but knew that was impossible. If it meant only her life she had to protect, she’d gladly give it to rid him from the world, but she also had one other quest in mind and she couldn’t afford jail time. Not at the moment. Not until that was done. That meant, she had to control her own reactions. And yet still he stood there bragging about his latest conquest when she was giving him a mercy he didn’t deserve, which fueled her desire to end him sooner. There are limited dawns in this guy’s future.

  Dane eyed the exits again. The guards posted at every one of them. She watched how a few people who were discharged left through the doors and observed if the guards routinely stopped them at the exits or if they were allowed to pass through. It seemed most of the security measures were aimed at those trying to get into the hospital. Not the other way around. The couple got through and then an elderly lady approached the exit and the guard stopped her. Why would he stop her?

  She only had seconds to get out of there before Mr. Falconer’s missing fob was discovered and all hell broke loose. She had to take a chance soon. Perhaps the guards were only stopping every other person? She watched for a pattern. Suddenly with the combination of, at any second, the eminent lockdown of the entire room and with her, and her rapist, imprisoned in it, Dane acted and headed for the exit. Head down. There was no time to detect a pattern.

  Raising her watch to her ear, she acted as if she had a call and set out at a brisk pace toward the opened doorway to take that call sans all the noise in the room. Ten feet away, she avoided all eye contact and drew her brows together in an attempt to look focused and busy as if she was all about a mission…one perhaps less nefarious than that of the true mission of killing him. She passed right through the exit. The guard did not attempt to stop her.

  Outside, she noticed the fog had burned off and the sun again revealed what a glorious place the gem city could be. It was like a magic trick. Several small groups of people gathered outside as Dane increased her brisk pace toward the gate’s entrance and then suddenly, what she thought eminent before…happened.

  From behind her, the alarms went off with a screeching vengeance. The noise so loud, causing a piercing pain in the inner ear. Dane found herself crouching next to a father with two little kids and they automatically dropped to the ground. The children holding their ears, mouths open wide, eyes round in terror. Screaming but no voices were heard above the piercing screech so loud, they’d all fallen to their knees. In her tortured mind, she realized this was a weapon.

  She jerked her head back the way she came, the doors to the emergency room were now sealed shut and guards were running with weapons in hand shouting commands to get down. Dane suddenly realized, she had escaped the hospital but was still locked in the yard before the gate entrance.

  Outside the noise weapon ceased suddenly, but Dane saw the children were still screaming with wide open mouths in terror as if the weapon were still torturing them. Drool ran from their mouths, tears from their eyes, snot from their noses. Breath after ceaseless breath. The father tried in vain to reassure them that everything was all right. Someone had stopped the weapon, but you couldn’t tell a child that. Dane saw the screaming, but she couldn’t hear them yet, despite the sudden quiet. Her ears were still blank and void, stunned. Only a strong hum kept up.

  She shouldn’t do what she was about to do but she had to do something before she was caught. She tapped the father on the shoulder and asked him, “Are you okay? Can I help?” She barely heard her own yelling voice…it merely echoed within her chest. Certainly, she was shouting at the man, but to her, she was only trying to speak up. She wasn’t sure if he heard her either or if they were all reduced to shouting over the drum in their own heads. Perhaps, like the children, she too was only mouthing the words? Him, attempting to read her lips.

  He nodded and eyed her with concern and looked back at the hospital and then again at the guard shake at the gate. He crouched protectively over his children in a huddle on the ground, unsure of what the armed guards would do next.

  Meanwhile, Dane put the palm of her hand on the back of the little girl in front of her and patted the white cotton t-shirt, the fabric rolled beneath her palm as she rubbed up and down. The child turned around and clung to Dane, without even looking up to recognize she was a stranger. She burrowed her head within Dane’s neck and shoved her little hands over her ears. The child held onto her as the father picked up the son and they walked toward the guard station. Then a soldier, with a rifle approached them and pointed the business end of his rifle toward the ground. His mouth moved with words and then his hand was out, his palm facing down. He lifted it and lowered it again. The father, beside her, nodded and knelt down to the ground. Dane did, too.

  Moments later, their hearing cleared enough for them to hear conversations. The weapon was some kind of sonic cannon. She’d heard of them used in crowd control methods like all the recent riots, but she’d never experienced the effect herself. It was effective…stopping all of them in their tracks. It certainly got their attention. Unfortunately, the children were now traumatized in the process.

  The little girl still sobbed at intervals and Dane continued to run her hand protectively up and down the child’s back in an attempt to sooth away the new memory that would haunt her from that day forward.

  “ID’s,” the guard said as he approached though Dane only heard the hard dee.

  As the father pulled out his wallet slowly. Dane too, pulled hers from her pocket. There was no way around that part, now.

  The officer took both of their cards and looked at them intently just as they had done on entrance.

  “Name?” the officer asked the father.

  “Waylon Peters. These are my children, Charlotte and Sawyer,” he added, “They’re frightened. I need to get them home.”

  The guard ignored him. “You’re name?” he said with a jut of his chin.

  At first, she wondered why he didn’t read the name on the ID she’d given him and then realized he was looking for a slip-up.

  “Dane Talbot.”

  The guard nodded and handed back the ID’s. “Stay seated right here until further notice.”

  The father nodded but blew out a hard breath after he walked away and snuggled the child a little closer.

  “I’m sorry. Thanks for helping out. These guys have been through the wringer today. First, they wanted to arrest me for sneaking them in this morning,” Waylon said with a shake of his head. “I thought that incident was going to be an epic tale for later on, not this.”

  “No problem,” Dane said and then added, “I think this one’s gone to sleep.”

  The father looked his daughter over as she was held by a stranger. The man looked torn and she didn’t blame him. He had his hands full.

  “Do you mind holding her a little longer? I think they’ll let us go soon. They’re letting those people out over there,” he said motioning toward the gate.

  “I don’t mind. Don’t worry. She’s fine. What were you guys here for?”

  He chuckled. “My wife went into labor this morning suddenly with our third child. I’ve never driven so fast in my life. I barely got her in there and I couldn’t leave these guys in the car.”

  It was too much to explain but she’d overheard the doctor and a guard discuss this situation earlier. So this was the dad that snuck his children in somehow without a fob. “How did you get them in?”

  He rolled his eyes, “My wife was in labor and when we went through, I…told Sawyer,” he pointed to his son, the older one, asleep in his arms, “to take his sister, Charlotte, through the kid tunnel under the table.” He gave her a wry grin. “They were waiting for us on the other side of the gate by the time we came through. It was
all a game for them. I know I shouldn’t have done that, but I had no choice, Shalyn was in serious labor and I could see how long it was taking the guards to react even with children. My wife didn’t have that long to wait. And I wasn’t going to leave my kids out here on their own. Or let Shaylen give birth in a parking lot because of these numbskulls”

  “You’re a good dad and husband. That was creative. You did what you needed to do.”

  He laughed, “Well now, I can’t leave town until further questioning.” He added under his breath, “That’s gonna be fun. Apparently, I’m on a list.”

  “How’s your wife and new baby? That’s what matters.”

  He smiled a big goofy grin then. “They’re great. I have another daughter.”

  “Awe, that’s awesome. What’s her name?”

  But before he could answer the guard with the gun, came back to them and said, “You can follow me.”

  They stood, and the knees of Dane’s jeans were now damp from kneeling in the moisture of the grass. When they got to the guard station they again asked for their id’s.

  “You go first,” Waylon said to Dane. “I have no doubt this will take us a while. And, thank you for your help.”

  He maneuvered his sleeping son first into one arm and then reached for his daughter, Charlotte with the other. Dane transferred the sleeping girl over to him. Her wispy blond curls tickled the side of her cheek as she did. A pang of grief struck her as she handed the little girl over, all limp arms and bobbing head.

  “I hope they won’t remember the alarms,” Dane whispered.

  Waylon nodded, “Me, too,” the dad said with wide eyes.

  “Good luck to you and your wife,” she said and walked away through the gauntlet of security. She noticed two guards stepped right behind her with their weapons out front as soon as she handed the child over to her father. This was not good.

  A guard stepped in front of her then and said, “Scan your fob right here.”

  Dane pushed out her left arm and then said, “Oh, it’s not here. It must have fallen off in the commotion.” She looked back the way they’d come across the grassy field. “Maybe it’s in the grass.”

  “I’m going to need you to step over here a moment.”

  Those words, were not what she wanted to hear. Then she felt the two guards behind her take hold of her arms.

  21

  Matthew

  “Dane?”

  Nothing.

  “Dane. Are you there?”

  A scuffling noise and then a few distant voices.

  “She’s butt-dialed me?” He stared at the watch again. But then, that wasn’t like Dane, so he listened more intently. Perhaps she was in trouble and trying to signal him? There were a few noises in the distance. People talking. He couldn’t make out any of the words and then suddenly he jerked the speaker away from his ear when a terrifyingly loud screeching noise pierced his hearing.

  “What in the…hell?”

  Matthew looked down at the watch. It still said, Dane Talbot. “God, is she okay?” The penetrating tone still emanated from the speaker.

  Then it stopped.

  His pulse raced. Is that what an explosion sounded like over a speaker? He raised the watch again to his ear. “Children crying? Dane!” he shouted. Nothing. Silence. Then Dane’s muffled voice. She was talking to someone, but he couldn’t make out the words. A male’s voice answered. “Dane, can you hear me?”

  Then silence again.

  “What the f*#^ was that?” he said out loud. He brought one hand to his brow. His heart pounding. She was in some kind of danger. Something to make babies cry. What the hell was that sound? Matthew pressed two fingers into his brow and looked uphill at the flames and his men chasing them. He shook his head. They’d both made their choices. They both had to do the things they’d committed to. He took a step forward and walked on with his heart still racing even though it was still pierced by a dagger that no one saw but him.

  It was later that night, after he heard Rebecca’s soft snores, that the others also took up the cadence as if they were in an agreed silent sentinel until she was at peace. Everyone slept, but Matthew. He laid there, one arm bent under his head as he stared up at the ceiling. He doubted sleep would come at all that night. Too much had taken place during the day and he couldn’t stop thinking about Dane’s safety.

  “Blah!” he finally whispered and sat up. It wasn’t worth laying there doing nothing. He flung off the covers and lightly padded in bare feet to the kitchen wearing only pajamas pants that hung loose and low on his waist. After grabbing a coffee mug, he used the hot water settings on the coffeemaker and plunked a chamomile tea bag in to steep. While he waited, he looked at his watch again…scrolled through the recent contacts. It couldn’t have been a dream. Dane Talbot, her name listed there as the last contact that reached him. It was true, he minded himself. She really did call. She didn’t mean to. It was a mistake, an accident. But then again, Dane didn’t make too many mistakes. Perhaps it was intentional. Maybe it was a sign. What the hell was that damn ringing sound? It was some kind of alarm. Maybe, she was trying to call out for help. Maybe she needed him.

  “Christ!” Matthew rubbed his rough hands over his tired eyes. “I have to stop doing this to myself.”

  He picked up the hot mug and went to the table and took a sip, nearly scalding his tongue. “But, seriously, what if she needs help?” he whispered and realized he was doing it again. The nagging questions would never go away.

  “Screw it,” he said and before he could talk himself out of it, he hit the callback button and waited for her to answer while his heart took off like a rocket.

  22

  Dane

  “Please hand your bag over to the officer so he can inspect the contents. Take off your jacket and turn out your pockets. Stand over here, your legs spread and your arms above your head.”

  Dane complied with the movements. They even made her take off her shoes and socks after that. But, when the officer came at her with gloved hands, intending to pat her down, Dane willed herself not to lose her composure. Her eyes burrowed into his in a momentary flash. She knew she could give it all away right there because her first instinct was to sock him in an undercut beneath his scrawny chin. To let this man, touch her, pat her down wasn’t easy. But it was a price she’d have to pay to get through with her mission. She thought about that, long and hard. So while they rifled through her belongings and checked the crevices of each of her pockets and her person, Dane kept shoving away the desire to kill the smarmy bastard. Dane got the impression it was probably the only opportunity he got to feel up a woman. Especially when, he pressed, with more vigor, against her breasts and her ass than the rest of her, as if she carried a Glock in her bra. And when she was allowed to lower her arms against her side, she couldn’t resist the temptation to grasp at the air along her thigh where her Pulaski ax usually was by her side.

  Hs smiled at her afterward with an almost embarrassed lift of the side of his lips as if he knew he’d gotten away with something he wasn’t allowed to do and it turned him on.

  He skirted behind his desk again and said, “We have no record of a Dane Talbot registered to a fob in our system.” He sat back in his chair shooting her a burrowing gaze. She was certain he’d define it as steely, but actually it was just annoying. He was playing that game some people think is clever. As if she were the idiot. It’s where they make a statement and then stare at you with a deadened silence, expecting you to fill it with an answer to an unspoken question. Most people would end up offering, much more information than they intended, like a sacrifice. Anything to get the staring and the silence to stop. But Dane didn’t take the bait. She wasn’t the idiot here. That belonged to him. She just stared back without even squinting her eyes at him…like he was out of his mind.

  He was a mealy looking guy, as if he still sat at his mother’s dinner table in the evenings refusing to drink his milk and complained about his pasta sauce not having enough swee
tness to it. Short cropped hair, a pencil-thin mustache and a pale complexion. Why was it these guys usually became mall security guards? In this case, he’d become a National Guardsman. No one would ever respect him, and he knew it so he sought a career of authority just so he could demand respect when he’d not earned it and get the occasional opportunity to feel up a woman’s breasts. It wasn’t because he was good at his job. It was so he could harass those he felt inferior to. Sadly, there was always one of them in a squad. And they gave their colleagues a bad rap. This one was probably going to make her day much more difficult than it needed to be.

  After a time, he sat forward in his seat and said, “Well?” When he too got tired of the silence.

  She was annoying him. Dane smiled slightly and said with a small shake of her head, “Was that a question?”

  He blew out a frustrated breath and rolled his eyes at her. “Dane Talbot, why are you not listed in our system next to your missing fob?”

  “I…don’t know why you guys didn’t put my name in. I walked through this morning along with everyone else and gave my name and someone put a fob around my wrist.” She looked around with the guise of recognizing the officer that assisted her that morning and hoped the guard she met earlier wasn’t actually there.

  He scanned the computer in front of him. “So you’re calling us incompetent. You’re saying one of us gave you a fob, that you’ve since lost, and didn’t input your name in properly in the system or at all?”

  She raised her shoulders. “Incompetent or not…I don’t know. There was a lot of confusion this morning. Am I right, you guys just started this system this morning? I don’t need to tell you how to do your job, but do you happen to have any fobs without names assigned to them in your system?”

  He cleared his throat and scanned the computer in front of him and then another officer came by and shot a sympathetic glance to Dane and then whispered something in his ear. He nodded his head as if he’d just received grave news.