Obstacles

by David Wilson

  Turning, Talon sprinted to the wire cut and half slid through and half crawled through the opening. Ben muttered something along the line of slow ass old man. Ignoring him, Talon scrambled to his feet, and they both took off for the cut in the wire Ben had made. Diane was squatted down just inside the tree line, and Ben took her hand and began leading the way through the woods. After just a few steps, Ben stopped and handed me his rifle and, without asking, told Diane to get on his back, as she was obviously in no shape to be running through the woods.

  Talon had to give Ben credit, the young man was in great shape. Even with the woman on his back, Talon struggled to keep up with him. Breaking out of the tree line immediately behind the house where they had left Billy and the horses, Talon stopped and turned back in the direction of the FEMA compound. Scanning the woods with his night vision and listening for any signs of pursuit, Talon stood there for a couple of minutes.

  Not picking up any signs of hostile pursuit, Talon turned and crossed the yard to help Ben get the hobbles off of the horses. Talon ignored the reunion taking place between Billy and Diane. Pulling the last of the hobbles off the big Belgian, Talon stuffed the hobble into the saddlebag and secure the saddlebag.

  Walking over to Diane, who had Billy pulled into her lap and was just holding the crying boy. “Sorry for the rush, but we need to move right now. Can you ride?” asked Talon.

  Diane stood, sitting Billy on his feet and said, “Yes, I can ride, it won’t be comfortable, but I can ride.”

  Talon nodded, “Ok, we really don’t have to far to go, about three miles to a safe house I know, get saddled up we brought your horse and saddle. Ben, grab Billy and get him saddled up, we need to move right now.”

  Everyone moved at once, Ben got Billy saddled and strapped in the harness Ben had made to help him stay in the saddle. By the time Ben was finished, everyone was ready to ride. Talon nudged Shadow and led off at a fast walk, having to hold the big horse in from breaking into a trot from his nervous energy. Turning south at the first crossroad, Talon allowed the horse to move up to a trot. Cringing at the ring of each horse's hoof striking the pavement, Talon moved to the side of the road and looked back to check on the other riders. Everyone had followed suit and moved off the pavement.

  After about 20 minutes of riding at a trot, Talon pulled Shadow back to a walk and turned into a housing development. Taking a couple of more turns over the next few blocks, Talon pulled his horse to a stop and dismounted. Pulling a couple bottles of water from his saddlebags, Talon walked back to Diane and handed her one bottle and then handed Billy one of the bottles. Diane started to ask a question, but Talon just held up one finger and moved over to talk to Ben.

  “Ben, I’m going to clear a couple houses real quick. Hold everyone here until I give you a call. The horses will go in the back yard of the second house on the left after you turn right on the next road. If I call and tell you to get out, go to the Burke Lake Park and wait for me until nightfall. If I’m not with you by then, I never will be. If you leave, tie my horse to that mailbox and get out of here,” instructed Talon.

  Ben nodded his understanding and moved over to talk to Diane and Billy. Talon walked towards the next street, ignoring Diane. He didn’t have time to explain everything to her just yet. He could see from her body language that she was not happy with the lack of attention, but it is what it is, thought Talon.

  Moving down the block until he could see the house on the corner, Talon stood and observe the house for several minutes. Wishing he had a thermal scope, Talon shook himself, no use wishing, he didn’t have one, so get on with it, he told himself. Walking over to the house, Talon cut across the yard and walked directly up to the door of the house. Knocking three times on the door drew no response. Turning from the front door, Talon walked around the side of the house and approached a side door partial covered by ivy growing from a lattice by the door.

  Reaching under the ivy, Talon flipped open a well-concealed cover revealing a manual door keypad. Punching in his five-digit code, Talon pushed on the door, and it swung open into darkness. Reaching up, Talon turned on his IR light and stepped through the door but did not step over the red line draw on the concrete floor of the garage.

  Swinging the door closed behind him, Talon turned to the wall and picked up a can of Silly String from the shelf next to the door. Gently shaking the can, Talon directed the nozzle of the can towards the door leading into the house from the garage. Pressing down on the button on top of the can, Talon sent a thin stream of the Silly String across the garage to the doorway. About two feet from the door and a foot off the ground, the Silly String draped its self across as almost invisible wire. Moving carefully, Talon approached the wire and disarmed the tripwire. Using the Silly String at several different locations within the house, Talon was satisfied he had disarmed all of the booby traps. Checking the sofa one more time, Talon approached the front door and called Ben and gave him the all-clear.

  Meeting Diane and Billy at the front door, Talon asked them to go sit on the couch in the living room for the time being, and he promised he would answer any and all questions when they finished up with the horses.

  Talon moved past them and walked over to the next door backyard. Ben already had the saddles and the rest of the tack off three of the four horses. Talon uncinched the saddle and pulled it and the saddle blanket off of Shadow carrying the equipment inside the neighboring house. Removing his saddlebags from the saddle, Talon pulled Shadow’s halter and rope from the saddlebag and got it on the big horse, and the bridle hung up. Once he was finished with Shadow, Talon asked Ben to give the horses a quick wipe down and to make sure they had water before joining the rest of the team next door. Picking up a couple of the food sacks, Talon headed over to the safe house.

  Talon didn’t really look forward to explaining everything to Diane. He did figure they would have to stay here for a day or two, giving Diane a chance to heal up and get some strength back from her time in the FEMA camp. They still had five days to make it back to Leesburg to meet their escort to Winchester.

  Walking into the safe house, Talon carried the food sacks into the kitchen area of the house and dropped them on the island. Walking back into the living room, Talon began stripping off his equipment. Feeling their eyes on him, he glanced up and caught Billy’s eyes. “You doing ok, Billy. You did a great job guarding the horses for our escape,” Talon stated.

  Billy lit up and smiled great big, but was shut down by the look his mother gave to him. Talon’s eyes opened wide in surprise at this and noted the anger on Diane’s face.

  Talon keyed his radio and ask Ben to step over to the house for a moment. Turning to Billy, Talon asked, “Billy, can you give Ben a hand in rubbing down the horses and feeding them.” Billy looked at his mom, and she nodded her approval. Running to the front door as it opened, Talon asked Ben to take Billy for a few minutes to help with the horses. Ben instantly realized what was going on and nodded his agreement. Taking Billy by the shoulder, he began talking to him as he guided him outside and shut the door.

  Talon turned and walked into the kitchen of the safe house. Going to the food sacks, Talon sat down on one of the bar stools around the island and pulled out the folding stove and began assembling it. Diane followed him into the kitchen and stood watching him with her arms folded across her chest. Once Talon had the stove assembled, he reached into one of the food sacks and pulled out a battered coffee pot and a couple of bottles of water. Carrying the stove and coffee pot over to the kitchen counter, he sat the stove in front of the window and slid the window open about six inches. Going back to the food sack one more time, he pulled a can of Sterno out of the sack and took it back to the stove, opened the can, and lit it with a Bic lighter.

  Turning back to Diane, Talon said, “I’m Talon, sorry we couldn’t get to you before that bastard had a chance to work you over.”

  Diane just stared at him, before reaching into her pocket and began pulling a pistol out. She froze when
she realized that Talon had moved, and she was looking down the barrel of his pistol from a range of about three feet.

  “Lady, be real careful what you do next. I came down here to get you and Billy because your Father and Mother-in-Law ask me to. I do not know why you are so mad with Ben and me for rescuing you, but what you do in the next few second’s matters a lot,” stated Talon in a cold voice.

  Diane stared back into Talon’s eyes before letting her breath out in a long sigh. “I was not going to shoot you if that is what you are thinking. I was going to give you back your pistol that you armed an eight-year-old with. What the fuck were you thinking of giving Billy a real gun!” she retorted angrily, laying the pistol on the island top.

  Talon laughed holstering his pistol, which didn’t make Diane any happier. “Look, Lady, we could not bring Billy with us while we came to save you ass. And he has as much right to protect himself from the scumbags running around all over the place right now, as anyone. We discussed how and when he was allowed to use that weapon, and you should be proud of him on how well he handled this whole kidnapping of you. So get the fuck off your high horse. Ben and I have had to kill a whole bunch of people to save your sorry ass, and so far, I’m not sure it was worth our time and effort. Now either get your act together or Ben and I will ride out of here and tell Jake and Maggie you had your head up your ass and wanted to go on your own and didn’t need our help. Please just say the word, and we are out of here.”

  Diane stood stock still in shock from Talon’s words. Finally, after a few seconds, her shoulders sagged, and she dropped her eyes from Talons. When she looked back up, she had tears in her eyes. She started to speak several times before she got herself under control. “I’m sorry I came across like I was ungrateful. Hopefully, we can blame this on shock and start over. I was just a little crazy from everything that has happened.” As she was talking, Talon noticed she was having trouble standing up straight. He moved around the counter and caught her just as her knees gave out, and she started to crumble. Catching her, he helped her back into the living room and began to sit her in one of the easy chairs. She gasped when her back came into contact with the chair back, and Talon quickly moved her to the sofa and helped her lie down face first on the sofa.

  Talon said, “Get that jumpsuit off, and I’ll get some hot water to clean the whip marks.” He caught the frown on her face, and he came back with, “Those need to be treated, or they could become infected, your choice, I’m trained as a combat medic, and I’m married, very married with eight-year-old triplets.”

  Diane nodded and began struggling to get the jumpsuit off. Talon helped her to stand again and carefully pulled the jumpsuit off her shoulders as she gasped again and would have fallen if Talon had not held her up. Once the jumpsuit was off her shoulders, Talon gently pulled the jumpsuit down and helped her step out of it. Adverting his eyes as she had nothing on under the jumpsuit, Talon quickly spread out a blanket on the sofa and helped her lie down. Talon ran into the hallway to the linen closet and returned with several bedsheets. Using one, he covered Diane with the sheet. The welts on her back, butt, and upper thighs were an angry red and stood out, almost looking like burn marks.

  Talon told her he would be right back and ran back into the kitchen and retrieved his saddlebags and a couple of bottles of water. Pulling his medical kit from the saddlebags, he opened up a smaller bottle and removed two 800 mg pain pills with codeine. Talon asked, “When was the last time you had something to eat?”

  Diane replied, “Nothing in the last two days, and not much water.”

  Talon thought for a couple of moments then pulled out a couple of packets of crackers and peanut butter from his saddlebags. “I know you are in a lot of pain, but these pain meds will knock you for a loop without anything in your stomach. Try and eat these crackers and drink some water before you take them. The guy that whipped you with that rod almost did some serious damage to you, but it’s going to be a couple of days before you are ready to ride anywhere. I don’t know how you did it tonight.”

  Diane smiled through the pain and said around the crackers stuffed into her mouth, “Thank you for taking care of that bastard, he had tried to rape me on the first night, and I almost bit his dick off.”

  Talon smiled at that, “Well, I wish I could have made him suffer a little longer, but we were in somewhat of a rush, but at least he won’t be raping anyone else, ever.” Talon saw that she had already finished off the two packets of crackers and peanut butter, so he handed her the pain pills. “These are going to make you sleepy, but know that you are safe now, and we will take care of everything. Try and drink some more water before those knock you out. If you wake, just yell, I’ll be in here on the floor.”

  As anticipated, the pain medicine knocked Diane out within 30 minutes. Talon had just sat and talked with her until she dozed off under the effects of the drugs. There wasn’t a whole lot he could do about the welts caused by the beating she had received. Carefully he wiped down the welts with alcohol pads and hydrogen peroxide, then covered the welts with an antibiotic ointment. Diane slept through the process of Talon cleaning the welts and bruises, but several times she moaned when he wiped down several of the deeper welts.

  Ben and Billy came back inside the safe house after finishing taking care of the horses. As they came in, Talon had covered Diane up and held up a finger to his mouth for them to be quiet. Billy had come over to look at his Mom, and Talon explained that he had given her some medicine to help her sleep. Ben had then taken Billy to the kitchen and fixed him something to eat.

  After finishing doing what he could for Diane, Talon returned to the kitchen and fixed himself a cup of coffee. He grabbed a barstool and sat down and watched Billy and Ben finish destroying a large jar of peanut butter and a new container of grape jelly they had found in the pantry. Billy appeared to be a bright kid, with the typical curiosity of an eight-year-old. Ben was very patient with him as he took the time to answer all of the ‘why’ questions Billy was throwing at him. Talon snorted at one of the questions Billy asked, and Ben turned and looked at him, “This reminds me of home, I have four younger brothers and sisters and just like Billy here, and their first question on anything is why.”

  Ben returned his attention to the now-empty peanut butter jar as he attempted to scrape out what little bit remained. Licking off the plastic knife, Ben sat back and expressed his satisfaction with a loud burp. Billy laughed as only an eight-year-old boy can at Ben’s crude table manners, then surprised both Ben and Talon by ripping off a huge burp of his own, which sent him into another fit of laughter.

  After the laughter died down, Talon looked over at Ben and asked, “Were you able to find water for the horses.”

  “No problem, the neighbors had a bunch of extra 5-gallon water jugs inside their garage, and we were able to use a couple of clean buckets they had to water them. I will run back over there in an hour or so and re-fill the buckets. But they are good for right now,” replied Ben.

  “Good,” said Talon, “Do you guys want to help me see what we can find of any use around here. Billy, if you are tried, we can make you a place to crash out in the living room.”

  Billy shook his head vigorously, “No, I’m good to go, and I’m excited to see the kinds of stuff that is in a real safe house.”

  Talon laughed. Billy’s excitement was evident as he jumped down and grabbed Ben’s hand, pulling on him, “Is there a secret room full of all kinds of spy stuff,” he asked.

  Talon looked from Billy to Ben and smiled, “Yes, there is a secret room, but a lot of the stuff in there is dangerous, and I’m not so sure your Mom would approve.”

  Billy’s shoulders slumped as he dropped his eyes to stare at the floor, “Mom wasn’t too happy when she saw my pistol, she took it from me and told me not to touch another gun. I tried to tell her that I was old enough to help rescue her, but she said no.”

  Talon stopped him by saying in a serious voice, “If you promise to not touch anything
unless Ben or I say so, you can come with us. But you do have to promise to not touch anything, and you have to stay right beside Ben the whole time. Can you do that?”

  The smile on the kid said it all as he tried to maintain a serious look, “I promise to not touch anything without permission,” Billy said, raising his hand to cover his heart.

  Talon nodded and motioned for them to follow him. Talon stopped by the desk in the small office off of the living room and retrieved a box of chemical lights. Opening the box of lights, he pulled out two and removed them from the foil package before he handed them to Billy. Billy smiled and bent the two chemical lights to activate them. Talon smiled and then handed Ben several of the lights and pulled out the remaining lights for himself. Ripping the foil off the lights, Ben and Talon activated the lights the same way Billy had. Once they all had the lights working, Talon led them to the garage door.

  Leading them into the garage, the lights showed that most of the garage floor space was covered in neat stacks of green containers and at least two pallets of metal ammunition cans. Talon walked around all of the containers, and they saw an old fashion bank safe sitting in the corner of the garage. The safe was massive and must have weighed several tons. At least six feet tall and five feet wide, it looked out of place. There was a dial on each door just above large handles. Talon walked over to the safe and began turning the left-hand dial. After spinning the dial back and forth several times, he moved to the right-hand dial and repeated the process. Finished with the dials, Talon took a step back and grasp both handles, turning them both downward at the same time there was a solid sound ‘clunk’ as the handles hit their stops. Talon glanced over his shoulder and motioned for Ben to grab the left-hand door handle. After both men had a hold of the handles, Talon nodded to Ben, and they both pulled on the handles. The first attempt was unsuccessful as Ben jumped back in surprise.