by Dave Bowman
He swept his eyes over the meadow below. A movement to the west caught his eye, and he readied his rifle. Squinting, he craned his neck to get a better look. What he saw made his chest tighten.
There was a person running from the edge of the forest and entering the meadow. He aimed his rifle and flashlight in the direction of the movement. Realizing it was Liz, he lowered his weapon. He jogged down the slope as she ran up the hill. As she approached, he could see that she had been through hell. She had been hit on the head, and there was a bloody gash on her forehead. Blood and scrapes covered her arms and face, presumably from running through the woods.
When she got close enough for him to see her face, he felt fear leap through his throat. Instead of being relieved to make it back home, she was terrified.
“They’re behind me!” she said, running toward him.
Liz was feeling ill from fear and exhaustion from having run so far without a break, but she still pushed on. She was glad to see Nick outside with his gun, but she knew the men would be arriving at any moment.
“Who?” he asked, looking her over.
“The men who kidnapped me,” she said, panting as she pushed ahead toward the darkened lodge. She wanted to get out of the open and behind cover. “They’re going to try to take the lodge. We have to get inside. Now.”
He helped her inside. “How many?”
“Three of them.”
He opened the door for her and she ran inside, not stopping until she got to Charlie’s room. Nick glanced back at the woods one last time before he stepped inside, but he saw nothing.
“Charlie!” Liz called as she pounded on his door. “Wake up!”
She moved to Jessa’s room and threw the door open, walking over to the bed and shaking her. “You have to wake up now! They’re coming!”
Jessa groaned, still asleep, and Liz shook her by the shoulders. “Wake up, wake up,” she pleaded.
While Liz tried to rouse Jessa, Nick got his weapons ready and stationed himself at the window, keeping his eye on the stillness outdoors.
“You’re back,” Jessa said, finally realizing that Liz was in front of her. “What’s wrong?”
“Get up and get your gun!” Liz said. “Three men are on their way right now!”
Jessa finally understood and swung her feet onto the floor. After a moment’s pause, she sprang into action, grabbing her pistol.
Charlie burst out of his room holding his rifle, instantly ready for action. He moved to Nick’s side, where Nick informed him what was happening in a low voice.
Mia opened the door of her bedroom and looked out, frightened by all the noise but not seeing anything in the dark house. Liz rushed to her side, and Mia threw her arms around her neck when she saw her.
“You came back!” she said.
Liz returned the hug quickly, then scooted Mia back in her bedroom. “Stay in here and don’t come out until it’s all over, OK? Hide in the closet, and don’t open it until one of us comes for you and tells you it's safe. Don’t light any candles, and stay away from the window.”
Mia looked scared and confused, but retreated into the room as she was told.
Nick and Charlie waited crouched down by the windows on the west side near the door, and Jessa moved to the south-facing window in the living room. Nick handed Liz a rifle, and motioned for her to take the window on the east side. Pushing open the window, she pointed the barrel of the gun into the night air, and positioned herself so that she could just see out the window.
“Stay down as much as you can,” Nick whispered to the others, his eye still watching the meadow below. “Remember your breathing, Liz,” he said. She was grateful for the reminder, because she had been panting, and she needed to take a few deep breaths to slow her respiration down. Otherwise, if she needed to shoot, her aim would be shaky.
They waited in silence for several minutes, seeing and hearing nothing. Liz’s heart was still pounding. Suddenly she froze, her eyes going wide.
“I have to get to the bedroom!” she whispered. “They think you’re all asleep. They’ll try to come in that way.”
Without waiting for a response from the others, driven by panic, she began to move away from the windows, walking while crouched down.
A movement at the edge of the forest caught Nick's eye just as she spoke.
“Wait!” he said. “Get down!”
Before she could respond, she heard a loud sound of a shot being fired and glass breaking. An unimaginably powerful force knocked her forward onto the floor.
Pain was all she could focus on for a moment. The sharp, searing, fiery pain in her lower leg. She realized she’d been shot, but she didn’t move her hand to the wound. She was afraid to feel it.
When her wits returned to her, she remembered she had to get to the bedroom. She was on the floor now, and she began to pull herself toward her target. Nick’s room was first, and it had the largest window, so she went toward it. The noise was deafening now, with shots ringing out from all sides. Bullets shot into the walls and windows, breaking glass. The noise and pain added to her confusion, but she tried to focus on what she needed to do.
Behind her, Jessa, Charlie, and Nick were shooting at the men. One man had taken cover behind the latrine, and one was behind the tool shed. Nick ducked as the window shattered by his head, then took more shots in the direction of the man behind the shed.
“One’s down!” Nick said as he watched one of the men get hit, fall to the ground and drop his weapon at his side.
Liz was almost at the bedroom door. She gritted her teeth and grabbed the door frame, pulling herself into Nick’s room. She hid herself from view of the window behind the foot of the bed and waited with her gun ready. The deafening noise of gunfire continued outside in the living area.
She froze when she heard the window rattle, then open. Holding her breath, she watched as the third man, the largest and most threatening, pushed the window up quietly and efficiently. He hoisted his body onto the window sill. Liz took a deep breath, long and quiet. Just in the moment he ducked his head under the raised window and pulled his torso inside, she aimed her weapon and squeezed the trigger.
He was blasted backward, his body thrown outside the window. She seized up, her breath caught again in her lungs, too afraid and too shocked to move.
Outside the bedroom, the gunfire had stopped abruptly. She heard the voices of her friends, but what they said was not registering in her brain. She only became aware of Nick rushing into the room with his gun aimed toward the window. Approaching it slowly, he pointed his gun through the window opening, and then he shot twice more at the body that was lying just outside the house. Soon he was at Liz’s side.
“Are you OK?” he asked loudly. “Can you hear me, Liz?”
She tried to answer, but she felt so tired. Her ears were ringing, and his voice sounded so distant. She tried to tell him she was freezing, but she couldn’t find the strength. She saw Charlie's face, and Jessa’s. And then she closed her eyes.
35
September 10
“Jessa! She’s waking up!”
At first Liz was filled with fear, thinking she was still held captive by those three awful men. She frowned and began to move her arms as if to break free of the rope again. She heard Mia’s voice, but it took a moment to register.
I’m back home at the lodge, she thought. She opened her eyes to see Mia look down at her, smiling. In a moment, Jessa’s face appeared, too.
“You’re awake!” Mia said. “I was so worried!”
Liz managed a weak smile as she oriented herself to her surroundings. “I’m OK…” she said in a faint voice.
Jessa took her hand. “You don’t have to talk. Just rest.”
Liz closed her eyes again for a moment. Her body felt heavy and weak. She opened her eyes once more, looking at the two faces above her and trying to make sense of what had happened. It was daytime. The horrible night was over.
“Is everything OK?” Liz asked.
Jessa nodded while Mia answered. “The bad guys are all dead. We’re safe.”
Liz felt relieved as she looked up to see Mia. Liz was lying in her own bed and her own room. She felt pain in her left leg, and looked down to see her lower leg wrapped in bandages.
“I got shot,” she said, remembering.
“Yes, you did,” Jessa said. “But you’re going to be OK.”
She handed her some juice and three pills. “Take these. Painkillers and antibiotics.”
Jessa helped prop her up in the bed with a pillow, and Liz took the pills and swallowed down the juice.
“We stopped the bleeding and I gave you some stitches,” Jessa said. “It was good you passed out, because I’m sure it would have hurt like hell.”
“It hurts like hell right now,” Liz said, wincing.
Jessa brushed the dark, wavy hair out of Liz’s face. “I know it does. The pills will help. But your leg’s going to be all right. You were really lucky, Liz. The bullet went through the belly of your calf muscle, and came clean out. Not too much area was affected.”
“I'll be able to walk again?”
Jessa smiled. “For sure. It was pretty superficial – no bone, all in the muscle. It was just a little bit more than a grazing. Could have been so much worse.”
Jessa stroked Liz’s hair. She was relieved to see Liz coming back to life little by little.
Liz felt hungry all of a sudden, and Mia fed her a few bites of soup. The little girl couldn’t resist chatting to her friend.
“I stayed in my room the whole time, just like you told me to,” Mia said. “It was really scary! And so loud. But it’s over now.”
Liz smiled at the little girl peering down at her. Mia was gifted with a keen intellect, but she was as innocent and earnest as any little girl. “I'm so glad it's over,” Liz said between bites.
The warm food felt good in Liz’s stomach, and she was revived a little.
“The guy that was coming inside…” Liz started to ask. “Did I… kill him?”
She looked up to see Nick in the doorway. “You saved all our lives by shooting him. He would have snuck into the lodge and taken us by surprise.”
Liz’s face twisted in guilt. “No, it was all my fault this happened in the first place.”
“What are you talking about?” Charlie said, standing beside Nick. “They kidnapped you and were trying to kill us. If you hadn’t come back to warn us, we might have been slaughtered.”
Liz shook her head. “No, no. It was my fault.”
She blinked back the tears as they all protested, but she held her hand up to quiet them.
“I had seen James, one of those guys, before,” she said weakly. “Twice before.”
Nick frowned and sat on the bed opposite Liz. “What do you mean? When did you see him?”
“The first time was by the vehicles. I went there alone one morning soon after we arrived. He walked out of the woods and asked me for food and water. He said his friends had died and left him all alone. I thought he was starving.”
Charlie and Jessa looked at each other, but Nick waited for her to continue without a word.
“I gave him some food and water. Just a few things I had gotten from the Olsen store. I couldn’t say no to him, not when I had been so lucky.”
“And the second time you saw him?” Nick asked.
Liz felt the tears fall down her cheeks, unable to contain them now. “I’m so scared to tell you. I feel like such a fool.”
“It’s OK, Liz. I need to know this,” Nick said.
“The second time was yesterday, when you and Jessa were in Santa Fe. I was at the tool shed, and he just showed up again. Scared me half to death.”
“Yesterday?” Charlie asked, taking a seat next to Nick. “Where was I?”
“You and Mia were down laying the trip wire. When I went to the tool shed, James appeared out of nowhere and asked for more food. I told him I’d leave some out for him down by the truck.”
She took a deep breath.
“So I went down just before sunset to leave the food out, then I started walking back to the lodge. Before I could make it back here, though, they grabbed me.”
She looked down at her hands. “They hit me on the head, and I passed out. When I came to, I was at their cabin. Two of them wanted to know all about the security here. They asked about any traps we had and if there were any guards on duty. I tried not to answer, but they hit me, so I told them what I knew. They planned to take you guys by surprise and move into the lodge. I guess James had been spying on us the whole time, and just got me to trust him so he could get information and plan their attack.”
She looked up at Nick and the others. “I feel so ashamed. I’m so sorry that I put us all at risk by trusting James. I was just doing what I thought was right, but it was all a big mistake.”
There was silence for a moment, and Liz feared the worst. She was afraid she had lost their trust, their friendship.
“I’m so sorry,” she mumbled again, her voice shaky.
Nick took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “It’s OK, Liz. It’s still not your fault. This would have happened whether you helped James or not.”
Liz looked up. “You think so?”
He nodded. “I’m sure of it. They would have attacked sooner or later.”
“Yeah, those guys were psychos,” Jessa added. “It was horrible. They just snuck up on us and started shooting. It was brutal.”
“They wanted to take the lodge and our supplies, and they didn’t mind killing us to do it,” Charlie said. “I think they would have tried it with or without you, Liz.”
Liz smiled weakly. “Thanks for saying that. I still feel horrible about the whole thing. I know I shouldn’t have snuck around like that.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Nick said. “We’ll have to talk about that later. We can’t have secrets from each other if this whole thing is going to work out, and we have to all be on the same page with how we use our resources.”
Liz nodded, looking back down at her lap.
“And Liz, you have to tell us if you see anyone else. Let us know if there’s someone who needs our help,” Nick said.
“I will, I promise,” she said. “My days of sneaking around behind your backs are over.”
“Good,” Charlie said, smiling. “I wouldn’t want you to give away the stash of candy Nick and Jessa brought back.”
Liz laughed. “I won’t, I swear.”
“One thing is for certain: we need to beef up the security on this place,” Nick said. He ran his hand through his hair. “We can’t let ourselves be so vulnerable.”
They all agreed, and planned to discuss it further. For now, though, Liz needed to rest. The three adults left the room, but Mia stayed a bit longer.
She sat at the foot of Liz’s bed.
“I’m sure happy to see you,” Liz told the little girl.
“Me, too,” Mia replied. “I was so scared I wouldn’t see you anymore when you disappeared. And then you looked so bad when they shot you.”
Her little face looked so worried and frightened. “I don’t want you to leave me.”
Liz took Mia’s hand and squeezed it. “I’m not going to leave you, sweetie. I’m not going anywhere.”
Mia nodded and smiled at Liz, then kissed her friend’s forehead.
“Talk to you later?” she said as she got up to leave the room.
“You betcha,” Liz said.
36
Nick found himself once again digging a grave. This time the act was not marked by grief over losing a loved one. The loss of life had sprung from the cruelty and senselessness of the three men. He did not relish the act of burying more bodies.
He was relieved that they had defeated the three invaders and defended their home and their own lives, though more death was not something he had hoped to see. He had already seen enough dying. It amazed him that the few people who had survived the horrible virus could be capable of more horrific a
cts.
He dug the hole in shifts with Charlie and Jessa, and the work thankfully went quickly. They didn’t speak much of the night before, but he knew it had shaken them all. To see those men enter the property and begin shooting with the intention of killing them and taking over their home chilled them all to the bone. People could be heartless. It was a fact that seemed to confront him often since the virus had claimed so many, leaving the remaining few to fight for resources.
Liz was inside resting, and he knew Mia was inside too. She didn’t want to stray too far from Liz. The little girl had become attached to Liz, and Nick was glad the two had formed a bond. It gave him hope to see that not all people had lost their capacity to love – the thing that made them human.
After burying the three men in the woods, they walked out to the vehicles. They were armed everywhere they went now, and their weapons had become part of them.
Making a few trips between the truck and the lodge with wheel barrows, they unloaded all the food and supplies he and Jessa had obtained. By the time they had brought it all inside, Liz was awake and feeling a little better. She heard all the commotion as they unpacked, and was animated by the festive mood. Nick and Charlie carried her into the living room where she could watch everything.
Liz saw that some of the windows had been broken, though the glass had been swept up. Nick saw her looking worriedly at the windows, and assured her they'd be able to replace them.
“I'll find some new windows somewhere, don't worry,” he told her. And it'll have to be soon, he thought grimly to himself.
But Jessa turned their attention toward more cheerful thoughts as she began to unpack the food. Seeing the abundance and variety of the scavenged cans and boxes lifted their spirits.
It was almost like Christmas as they distributed all the valuable goods found in Santa Fe. They filled the pantry to the brim with food, and then moved to the cupboards and cabinets. There was so much food that they had to move some of it out to the tool shed. They would later inventory all of it, but at first glance they were sure there would be enough to last them for a few months. Especially if they could hunt and fish, they wouldn’t go hungry before the spring. Nick was still concerned about the hunting trip that had yielded no kills, but he pushed that nagging worry away for now.
