I found Amelie and Sadie struggling to carry their doe from the legs. Abandoning their method, Sadie lifted the doe onto her back. Halfway back to camp, she and Amelie switched off. We cleaned the animals in the old restaurant building, using their metal countertops and wood butcher blocks. Slicing some steaks, Turner grilled them while Mace pieced together a smoker for the larger pieces. Without refrigeration or salt for preservation, the meat would last longer cooked than raw.
We sat around the cookers eating our dinner in silence. The Utah and Lovelock teams would be there within twenty-four hours. I dreaded and celebrated their pending arrival in equal parts. But I’d endure a little risk to have Nave and Mom back.
As we finished the meal, Sadie stood. “I know you kids aren’t very modest, but my parts aren’t quite as pretty as they once were. I’d appreciate some time alone to bathe in the pond. I promise to yell if I see an alligator or snake or the like. Not that I’m that important.”
My face warmed as she mentioned modesty, but I wouldn’t have her thinking she didn’t matter.
“You’re part of this team. That means you’re important to us.” Turner spoke before I could voice the opinion. “But it’s your choice. Go alone if you feel compelled.”
“I think I will.” She picked up her pack and walked towards the pond.
Grateful to have time alone with Amelia, Mace, and Turner, I waited until Sadie’s camo jacket vanished from sight. Still, I motioned for them to move closer.
“We have to figure out how to maintain our cover with the ex-Lovelock crew. I need to train with them so I can make sure to be included in the capitol takeover.” I explained my plan to linger on the fringes of the group, stay quiet, and prove my skills so that I’d be invited to help the team that lead the coup.
Mace shared his ideas on Turner flying under the radar. He could pretend to be a tech genius, Mace suggested.
“Hey.” Turner slapped Mace’s arm. “No pretending needed.”
“Well, it’s going to be hard for you to keep your mouth shut. You always want to be the center of everything.”
“That’s because I’m the smartest.”
Mace rolled his eyes. “Well, you’re going to have to act like a savant or something. Feed me what you want to share, and I’ll be your voice.”
“All that works. But I think you guys missed what Jema said.” Amelie used my real name. “She thinks she’s going to the capitol. She can’t go across the border. It’s too dangerous. If she’s captured, this is over.”
I shook my head. “I have to get Nave. The others can figure out taking the capitol building. I’m going for Nave and my mom.”
Turner squatted in front of me and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Amelie’s right. You can’t go in. If something happens to you, we have nothing.”
“Nave won’t trust anyone else.”
Turner slid his hands down my arms and gripped my palms. “She’ll trust me.”
“You can’t go. You’re even more important than me. They couldn’t figure out the cure till they found out about you.”
Mace swiped the dirt from his pants. “She’s right. You can’t go in.”
Amelie wrapped her hand around my arm. “Nave knows me. I’ll go in and get her. Mace and I can do it.”
I hung my head. “I can’t be sure Nave and Mom will trust you. I must go. If you want protection for me, fine. You, me, and Mace can get Nave and Mom.”
Turner clasped his hands behind his neck. “I’m not letting the three of you go in.”
Sliding my arm from Amelie’s grip, I crossed to Turner. “You’re outvoted. At least one of us must come through this alive. And you’re the most important one.”
“Don’t talk that way. I won’t lose any of you. I won’t accept this.”
“Sorry, Turner, but Jewel’s right. You’re outvoted.” Amelie turned to Mace. “I think you have to stay with Turner, make sure he’s safe.”
I kicked at the dirt. “I think both of you have to stay with Turner.”
“Who’ll protect you?” Turner threw up his hands.
“Sadie. Sadie will.”
“You can’t. We can’t—” Turner paced away. “We can’t tell anyone. And whoever is with you needs to know. So, either Amelie or Mace is going with you.”
“Dude.” Mace followed Turner. “They’re right. It’s you we have to protect. Sadie likes Jewel, and they’ll have a whole team. As soon as the building is in our control, everyone will be safe.”
“You’re assuming the team will be successful.”
“Damn right. I think we all have to believe it for it to work.”
Turner spun to face us, his eyes scanning our group. “You’re right. We have a highly trained team that knows Butler like no one else. They’ll have schematics for the building, and I’ll get good intel. This is going to work, but it doesn’t mean that I have to like her going in.”
“Her going in where?” Sadie’s voice startled me. Patting her wet hair with a towel, she approached the group. “Wow, what’s up with you guys? Feels like my hair should be standing on end with the tension I’m sensing.”
“Turner doesn’t think I should be on the team that goes to the capitol.” I flicked a stick from my path.
Sadie crossed to the smoker and shook out her hair. “Seems like we’ll have to assess everyone’s skills and see who has what it takes. We need as many soldiers as we can get. Speaking of which, I’m going to need some shooting practice. It’s been a while since I’ve used a gun.”
The next morning Turner took Sadie into the cave to create a target practice area. Mace worked on our alarm system, and Amelie and I set up our sleeping area inside one of the wider hallways equal distance from two of the exits. When the meat finished cooking, we stored it in bins we found inside the kitchen and brought it into the cave.
Stowing the smoked venison sparked an idea. If we got enough animals, we could use the meat to make jerky. Jerky could serve as a food source during travel. That way we wouldn’t be dependent on hunting every day. Extra hunting would keep me away from the others, but then they might not see my skills and exclude me from the coup team. Sadie had been right though. They needed every soldier they could get. Hitting a deer wasn’t much different than taking down a person. I cringed at the notion and shut it out of my thoughts. I wouldn’t be on the strike team. My mission was Nave and Mom. If I stuck with Amelie and Mace, maybe I could avoid killing another human. That thought brought me to Amelie and Mace. I didn’t want them to experience taking a life either.
Focusing on remembering how to prep jerky, I recalled my uncle cooking the meat in thin strips at low temperature for hours, perhaps three to four. The cookers would work well for that and getting them to 80 degrees Celsius wouldn’t use much wood. Thinking the recipe at a minimum required salt to preserve the dried meat, I asked Amelie to go with me to the restaurant, hoping staples would be there. The stock room had been emptied, but we found shakers of salt on each table. Searching for a container for storage, we came upon a box of small packets of salt and pepper. We hauled all this along with packets of fake sugar into the cave for safekeeping.
Why anyone would ingest artificial sweeteners eluded me, but I figured they may be good for something. My watch beeped, and we wove through the tunnels to find Sadie, Mace, and Turner. They took the first sleeping shift, and Turner and I got the first decent span of time we’d had alone in weeks.
“Are you doing okay?” Turner gripped my hands as the sounds of footsteps dissipated.
“Every task feels excruciating. We’re making progress but it’s slow.”
“There’s got to be a solid plan before we move. You’re going to have to be patient.”
I rested my forehead on his chest. “I know. I just hate waiting. Plus, I’m anxious about the Lovelock crew being here.”
“Me too.” He kissed my head.
Lifting my chin, I pushed up on my toes and kissed his lips. We couldn’t afford much time away from the monitor
s and wound back through the tunnels to the command wing. Mace set up the surveillance system and computer bay near an exit for a fast getaway. Loss of any tech equipment could cripple us. With nothing to do but watch the screens, we talked about my jerky idea, laid out a map of where each team could bunk, and wondered aloud about our family in Port Orford. The next day’s task would be to set up an antenna so we could get a radio signal into the underground compound.
We recited satellite coordinates to stay awake as it neared midnight. Halfway through our list, Turner stopped.
“We’ve been so stupid.”
“What?” I leaned down to view the screen as he tapped on the laptop’s keyboard.
“We don’t even have an evacuation plan.”
Snatching the cavern map from the desk, I held it up. “Yeah, we do.”
He explained that we needed more of a plan, to memorize coordinates for a meetup location for Amelie, Mace, him, and me. He panned out from our location on the satellite view. The rendezvous point should be remote enough to be outside a search zone, have good cover, and be accessible within an eight-hour window. Figuring a five-mile-per-hour running speed through the jungle, Turner made a semicircle forty miles to the east, south, and west of our location.
The Mississippi River, just a kilometer to our east, posed a problem. But we decided it could be a night getaway option. Sticking to the banks, we might be able to navigate south by water under cover of darkness. Plus, if they were on foot, it would be too wide to cross. We put making a raft on the chore list for the next day. Other cave systems were too far, at least one hundred twenty miles to the south, and we couldn’t risk getting stuck in the tunnels of this cavern without an exit. In the end, we picked coordinates due south in a dense portion of jungle. Even if we lost our radio or phones, we could navigate using the sun or stars and estimates of time. It wouldn’t be perfect but would get us close enough.
I made the case to include Sadie in our group, suggesting she might be of use if our cover was blown. It probably was the only argument that I could have used to get him to include her. My affection for her was irrational, and he made me promise to get her up to our running speed before I shared the coordinates. There’d be no room for anyone who couldn’t pull their own weight.
Next, we brainstormed other backup protocols we might need. Aside from our packs that we kept a day’s worth of food, weapons, radios, and first-aid supplies in, the water escape was the only scenario we didn’t have a route for.
“Unless the Chinese use an atomic bomb, that is. Then we’re all toast.” Turner shut the laptop.
“We’re all toast if what?” Mace’s voice startled me, and I swung around to see Amelie behind him.
“The Chinese drop an A bomb.” I slumped onto the dirt floor.
“What purpose does that really serve?” Amelie paced in the narrow space.
Turner expected Zhou to pick a target on the west coast, maybe in Alaska, explode a small bomb, just as a show of force. After all, their threats would mean nothing if they didn’t back them up. Not wanting to think about a nuclear bomb being dropped, I steered the conversation to the emergency rendezvous coordinates. Amelie and Mace agreed with our plan, and we started a design for a raft. Pine wood weighed less than deciduous oaks and were smaller in diameter. The Kudzu vines would make good twine if we couldn’t find enough rope.
A yawn escaped my lips, and I realized the time reached 0200. Setting alarms for five, Turner and I made our way to the dorm. I longed to snuggle in beside him and not think of anything but his smell, feel of callused fingertips, the warmth of his skin. But survival trumped all that. Sadie couldn’t know about our relationship, couldn’t put together who we were. No one could if I wanted my sister and mother back.
My alarm sounded three hours later. I opened my eyes to the green glow of my watch light on the orange rock beside me. Orange from iron or perhaps decomposition of leaves and plant matter above, deposited on the limestone of the cave walls. Cave. T minus sixty-three days. I shot straight up. There was work to be done. I needed to assess Sadie’s fitness level.
“You let me sleep seven hours?” Sadie’s raspy voice further spurred my adrenaline.
“You needed the sleep. We have lots of chores.” I kicked out of my sleeping bag. “Me and you, PT, outside, five minutes.”
I winked to Turner as I passed him in the tunnel. Making my way to the latrine and back, I found Sadie waiting outside the main cave entrance.
“What’s this all about?” Sadie shook out her legs.
“You need to be in top physical shape if you want to be on the coup team. We’re starting training today. I need to see what you can do, so give it your all.”
Heading for the trees, I broke into a jog at our emergency evacuation speed. The first mile would be crucial. If she could do an eight-minute mile through the jungle and keep a ten-minute pace for nine more, I figured Turner would be happy. I jumped a log and ducked under a low limb. Her footsteps sounded behind me at first, but as we got farther into the brush, she lagged. Still, I didn’t stop till my watch beeped at the mile mark. I’d made enough of a path through the underbrush that I knew she’d be able to follow. I paced the small space under an oak, waiting for her and checking my watch.
It took two minutes for her to catch up. Stopping in front of me, she doubled over, resting her hands on her thighs. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“No, I’m hoping to save you.”
“From what? A cheetah? We haven’t seen an animal that can run that fast out here.”
“No, but Jeeps, airplanes, trucks, guns are all real and formidable enemies in the right hands.”
She nodded. “I could be in better shape.”
“Let’s just do a slow two-mile loop back. You ready?” I wanted to tell her about the evacuation plan, that it was my job to keep her occupied while the others made and hid the raft. Instead, we would train. Run, hide, use the guns for target practice in the caves, hunt deer for jerky in the woods, and teach her how to use the radios. I prayed that within a week she’d be able to make the cut. I hated the prospect of her being rounded up by UNS soldiers, jailed, tortured for information she didn’t even have.
Back at camp, we ate some meat and packed arrows. Pre-dawn offered great hunting, and I hoped to get at least six, maybe eight, deer.
“What are the others doing?” Sadie asked as we started out in the opposite direction from our earlier run.
“Getting the generators into the cave. Making sure we can vent the exhaust, that the air quality is okay inside with them running. Also looking for fuel in town.”
“Is that safe?”
“We’re very good at what we do.”
“That’s already been established.”
I put my finger to my lips as we left the clearing. Twigs crackled underfoot, and I slowed my steps, watching the ground beneath. The crickets and cicadas rested with the blackest part of the night upon us. Even the birds seemed to still be slumbering. As tree branches intertwined above our heads, the forest darkened and seemed to swallow us. I switched to my night-vision goggles. Our stealth paid off within half an hour, and I brought down a large doe. Tying her legs, we hauled her back to camp.
Amelie volunteered to prepare the meat while we ventured back into the woods. By noon we had three additional deer, and I sent Sadie to the cavern for a nap. I took over slicing strips as Amelie tended the cookers. The task left me with too much idle brain time, and within the hour, I’d reached my limit. I needed to be moving. I found Sadie rousing from sleep. We ate and hydrated before heading out again.
Movement, focusing on each footstep, scouting for danger, and looking for our next source of food kept me from thinking of the thirty-some-odd ex-Lovelock soldiers who would be sharing a camp with us soon. Anger pulsed in my veins at these men for what they’d done to Troy, used him like a commodity. Even if they’d left Butler, I still couldn’t get it out of my head. Also, the fear of being discovered tugged at my psyche. Were we c
razy to stay? No, this was our best chance at getting Nave out, our best shot at doing the right thing for people everywhere. I prayed we weren’t aligning ourselves with the devil to do it.
I hadn’t allowed myself to think of them as individuals, but it felt good to know Garrison and Chuck were among those who defected from Butler’s group. They’d been our team leaders for provision runs. Turner knew River and Shooter, having been closest to them during our stay at Lovelock. We had to be most vigilant about concealing our identities with these people. Clutching my bow, I realized I’d have to keep it hidden as much as possible. It was these small things that could blow our cover. Our anonymity was the only thing keeping us alive.
My mind circled back to my uncle. Why wouldn’t he share the cure? I got the risks, but we had ample scientists who could make sure the formula stayed safe, right? How had he become so twisted and wrong? The man I knew—the one who taught me to use a bow, tie a slip-not, whittle a twig down to roast rabbit over the flames—wouldn’t let hundreds of thousands of people die. Maybe it was Dena. They were joined at the hip. He loved her. Perhaps she’d poisoned him, crafted some delusional world that he couldn’t see through. It had to be her.
A flash of white caught my eye, and I crouched down. Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I flinched and the doe turned her head to stare at me.
“I can take this one. I’m ready,” Sadie whispered. Her arrow whooshed past me to land in the rib cage.
The animal’s leg buckled, and it fell to the ground. Jumping up, I ran to the deer. Sadie caught my hand before I could drive the arrow farther into the lungs to finish the job.
“Let me do it. I need to learn.”
I showed her the angle, and she pushed the arrow into the doe’s torso. It drew in a breath, and then the head fell limp. We tied the legs and heaved her onto my shoulders. Sweat beaded on my forehead and rolled down my nose as we trudged back to camp. Thinking we could suspend our hunting till later, I ticked through my list in my head. Even with my concern about being recognized, the potential for having a real army with tech and weapons brought me comfort.
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