by Ted Hill
The sound of running feet approached them from behind. Samuel scooted to a stop, took a second to catch his breath and then smiled. “You guys are all right. How’d you escape?”
“How’d you know we were captured?” Hunter asked.
“They took Catherine about an hour ago. Said they had captured you, and that they’d kill you if we followed.”
Hunter jumped on his bike. “Where’s my brother?”
“Over at Ginger’s house.”
“Get on,” Hunter said.
Samuel followed the order without hesitation and looked over at Scout’s bike. “Who’s the tied-up chick?”
“She’s one of them. Her name’s Jolanda,” Scout said, getting back onto his Suzuki.
Hunter broke out a grim smile when she tried to scream through her gag. Jolanda’s torment even gave Scout some small amount of pleasure. Samuel scratched underneath his stocking cap without comment.
“How did they find out about Catherine?” Scout asked. “I thought you were watching over her.”
“After they locked up Molly for torching your house—”
“Wait a minute. Molly burned all my stuff? Why?” Scout asked, and then he considered Hunter and added everything together. “You dumped her and she sets fire to my stuff.” He started rubbing a hand over his face, but stopped short because of the scratches from his recent scuffle with Jolanda. Instead, he shook his head in disbelief.
“I’m glad I wasn’t here when she came over,” Hunter said.
“I’m not. Maybe she would have stopped with you, instead of torching the whole place.”
Hunter frowned and closed his eyes. His head pitched forward like he was going to pray for forgiveness. They’d both lost their home, Scout reminded himself. At least Hunter wasn’t smirking about this. Scout didn’t think he could handle it if Hunter played this off with his hotshot attitude.
“So how did Chase and his crew find out about Catherine?” Hunter asked.
“That’s what I was trying to tell you,” Samuel said. “They broke Molly out and she led them right to Catherine. Jimmy and Ginger were there and after Molly whacked Jimmy in the head that kid Patrick beat the hell out of him.”
Hunter sat up and turned back toward his passenger. “Is Jimmy okay?”
Samuel looked at him. “Barely.”
Hunter started his big orange bike, gunned the throttle, and the engine roared. Samuel’s eyes widened as he grasped for Hunter’s waist before Hunter shifted into first and patched out.
Scout waved off the dust cloud that engulfed him from their departure. He gazed at the scorched debris that was now his stuff and grappled with emotions that threatened to turn him into a blubbering mass. The tears returned, rolling down the fresh scratches on his face.
He looked over his shoulder and found Jolanda studying him. A shudder walked through his body. He leaned over his fuel tank until his inner turmoil settled.
“Raven, why does God continue to punish us?” He started his Suzuki and sat. The idling engine rumbled softly. “I’ll tell you what I believe. He isn’t out there to help us. No one is out there. It’s just this messed-up world and us. Soon, it’s just going to be an empty rock ’cuz we’ll all be dead.”
He waved one arm towards his house in a grand gesture. “Welcome to Independents.”
• • •
Scout pulled up to Ginger’s house and slipped off his bike, careful not to kick Jolanda. Hunter was already inside, leaving Samuel by the front porch.
“Looks like you got into some trouble,” Samuel said.
Lightly, Scout touched the scratches and felt his sore nose. “I’m all right.”
Samuel motioned towards Hunter’s orange KTM. “Is that a new motorbike?”
“Yeah, it belonged to one of the dudes that kidnapped us. Hunter crashed his old one so many times that he decided to make a trade. He thinks the bigger bike will make him a better rider.” Scout forced a weak smiled. “Here, help me with Jolanda.”
“Why does she scream like that when you say her name?”
“Because she thinks she deserves some cool name like Cardinal or something, but she’ll always be Jolanda to me.” Scout untangled the diamond hitch that strapped his captive to his bike and tore away the excess duct tape. “I can’t wait ’til Vanessa gets hold of you.”
Jolanda’s eyes bugged out. She rocked on top of the bike like she really needed to get off and go pee. Scout caught her before she landed face first on the ground. He propped her upright with her arms still tied and the gag in her mouth.
“That’s right,” he continued. “I’m giving you over to my big sister. She’s still angry about the time you stole her bike. Let’s see how tough you get when she’s up in your face.”
The front door of Ginger’s house burst open. “Thank you, Lord! David!” Vanessa leaped the steps of the porch and embraced Scout with an emotional rush of love and tears. “First I thought you had burned alive and then I heard you were captured. Then I prayed and you came! You came home to me just like I asked. Thank you, Lord!”
Scout hugged her back with everything he possessed. This time he didn’t care who saw his tears. “I know, ’Nessa, I know. It’s all right. I’m all right. I’m here.”
Vanessa’s hand pressed the back of his head, holding him tightly cheek to cheek. She was there for him like always. She would protect him. He closed his eyes, wanting the hug to continue forever with his sister that had become his mother in this world of children.
“Why is that girl tied up?” Vanessa asked when she finally pulled away, wiping her tears.
Scout reluctantly let her go and introduced his hostage. “She’s one of our captors.”
“She’s not very good at it,” Vanessa said.
“She had unreliable help. Remember when we were little, a girl stole your bike and her big sister said it was hers?” Scout smiled at Jolanda and returned her earlier eyebrow waggle.
Vanessa tilted her head. Her eyes regarded Scout’s captive. “Jolanda Lewis?”
Scout made extravagant hand gestures like a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat. “Here in the flesh. And she’s dying to help us rescue Catherine.”
Vanessa stepped up to face Jolanda while Samuel struggled to hold the frightened girl upright because her knees kept collapsing. “Take her to Catherine’s room,” she said. “And Samuel…”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t play with the dolls.”
Scout chuckled, but could tell there was more to the story by the way his sister bounced with laughter, and how Samuel’s face flared into a bright crimson.
“I can’t believe you’d joke like that now.”
Vanessa shrugged. “It’s been a long night and I needed the laugh or I might have started crying again.”
Samuel walked Jolanda onto the porch and guided her into the house.
Vanessa inspected Scout’s face and brought her palm to his cheek. “Are you okay?”
He nestled in her touch. “I am now.”
Mark hung in the doorway. His face carried that faraway look of someone not ready to believe part of his life was now altered forever. He hid his hands deep in his coat pockets and his chin was ducked below the collar. His eyes were misty from the cold, or sadness. Scout decided not to guess which.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Mark said.
“Thanks, man. How are you doing?”
“Fine.” Mark sighed. “I guess you’ve heard already.”
“Molly? Yeah, I heard.”
“I just wish I knew why she did it. I keep thinking it’s my fault.”
Scout placed his hand on Mark’s shoulder. “We’ll find her. We’ll get Molly back. I promise.”
“Why would we want to get her back?” Mark turned to go inside. Vanessa took Scout’s hand and they followed Mark out of the cold morning air.
Jimmy lay on the long dining room table, his head resting on a roll of royal blue fabric while Luis tended to his various injuries. Ginger’s pale
face glanced up with worry set in her features. She held Jimmy’s hand. Scout checked off another slot on his matchmaking card.
Hunter spoke in hushed tones to his brother. The fear in Hunter’s eyes disturbed Scout almost as much as losing all his stuff. Maybe Hunter did care after all.
Jimmy slowly turned his head toward Scout and nodded. His face resembled a rotten prune. One eye was swollen shut. A white strip of tape bandaged his nose, but the shine in his good eye said everything. You can’t keep a guy like Jimmy down.
Scout nodded back.
TWENTY-FOUR
Molly
Day broke gray and cold as Molly sat beside Chase in a truck driving away from Independents. She pressed her hand against the roof because of all the bouncing, fearing she might snap her neck if she got tossed any higher. Her sore butt complained from the squeaky springs in the bench seat and she worried her spine would be permanently crooked by the time they arrived at the place where Hunter was being kept.
“Are we almost there?” Molly asked after a series of bumps slammed her against the passenger window repeatedly.
Chase peered straight ahead through the cracked windshield and ignored her. It had been that way ever since they made their escape.
Kessie shot an evil glance at Molly; her white knuckles gripped the steering wheel. “We’ll get there soon enough. Maybe you could do something useful like find me a better road to follow. You live around here, right?”
Molly shrugged and looked away. “I stayed in town where I was needed.”
“That why you burned that house down?” Kessie asked. “That boy no longer needed you?”
The comment stung more than Molly wanted to admit. Was that really why Hunter broke up with her? He’d get a chance to explain soon enough, she thought. But part of her never wanted to know. She noticed a corner of Chase’s mouth curling.
“You think that’s funny?” she asked him. “Tell her to stop and say that to my face.”
Kessie slammed the brakes and everybody pitched forward, including Patrick, who was watching over Catherine in the truck bed. He pounded the top of the cab. “What the hell!”
Kessie pointed at Molly. “Look, bitch, I don’t know why Chase decided to bring you along, but he doesn’t have to tell me anything. If you want to stay pretty, you better keep your mouth shut. Or I will seriously rip out your tongue and leave it on the side of the road.”
Molly ignored Kessie’s threat and smiled at Chase. “Is she always like this?”
“Pretty much. I wouldn’t want to go up against her.”
“Hear that?” Kessie said.
“Oh, I hear it,” Molly replied. “Too bad, maybe he’d like to go up against me.”
“I knew it! Chase, this chick is trouble. She burnt down her boyfriend’s house and clubbed her town leader. She’s crazy in the head!”
Chase flipped his hand at the windshield. “Let’s keep moving. We have to hurry and meet Raven so we don’t lose our head start.”
“Who’s Raven?” Molly asked.
Kessie stomped on the gas. “She’s another chick that will kick your ass if you talk anymore of that trash.”
Molly braced herself for more bouncing and bruising as she tried to figure out her next move. Obviously Chase was in charge of wherever they were headed. She appreciated the fact that he busted her out of jail and the way he allowed Patrick to beat up Jimmy. Chase was a bad boy and he needed a bad girl like Molly, at least until she got bored. She’d have to wait until he kicked whatever illness made him so pale and sweaty.
Molly knew one thing: People around here better start giving her respect.
Kessie eventually stopped the truck in the middle of nowhere and they waited. Chase grew irritated after ten minutes of silence passed and instructed Kessie to go to the house. Kessie drove faster and faster with Chase constantly telling her to speed up. The trip was brutal.
Twenty minutes later, they pulled in next to another truck and a row of motorcycles at the rear of an old farmhouse. Chase reached a black leather glove across Molly, opened the door and shoved her out. Molly landed on the hard ground, jarring her back even worse. He stepped over her without a word.
Molly used the door for support, squirming to her feet, and brushed the dirt off her butt. “What’s your problem?”
Chase continued toward his destination. He threw the backdoor open with a bang. “Everyone outside now!”
Five boys tumbled out, drawing up to attention like they were in the military. Molly wondered why their eyes widened with fear. Chase was short and a little creepy, but hardly intimidating. Then she noticed Patrick leaning on his toes with his nostrils flaring. After the beating Jimmy received, Molly figured she’d be frightened to if she stood in that monster’s path.
While she found all of this entertaining, she was also starving. She realized she hadn’t eaten at all yesterday and hoped some food appeared soon or she would really get cranky.
“Where’s Raven?” Chase asked. “You were supposed to meet us on the road.”
Three boys pointed back to the house, the others stood there shivering without their coats. Two of them didn’t have shoes on; Molly smiled at how miserable and stupid they all looked.
Chase disappeared inside the house. The boys traded glances with each other and shrugged. They caught Patrick staring them down and dropped their gazes to the ground. Molly wondered if their shaking was related to the chilly temperature after all.
Chase reappeared. “Where are the hostages?”
They all turned toward the one kid who appeared to be the oldest, probably because he was the tallest. He performed a frantic search up and down the line for support. Finally, he resigned with a nervous eye-tick and stepped forward.
“They’re tied up in one of the bedrooms. We tied them up real good.”
“No, you didn’t. They’re gone. Didn’t you keep watch?”
The leader peeked back to four pairs of accusing eyes. He bowed his head. “We figured they couldn’t get out,” he mumbled.
Kessie inspected the motorcycles and then lifted the hood of the truck. “Somebody cut all the belts and hoses. They cut the wires on the motorcycles. They’re all useless.”
Patrick stalked over to survey the damage, and then kicked over a bike at one end of the line. The rest fell over like dominoes. “They fucking stole my bike!”
Molly finally understood what all the commotion was about. Hunter had escaped. Her feelings were torn between what she wanted. She wished she could have seen Hunter one more time, maybe find out what really went wrong with their relationship and why he acted like such an asshole. But she was also relieved he was gone, allowing her a clean break. Now she could start her new life without any distractions.
Patrick jumped into the leader’s face with spit flying as he yelled. “They jacked-up the truck and all the bikes! There’s no way we can get them running now! They even stole my bike and left me with this piece of shit!”
Molly recognized the bike, and smiled. Then she cursed herself, wishing she could get thoughts of Hunter out of her head.
Chase chuckled softly. The five boys took a jumbo step backward.
“Where’s Raven?” Kessie asked.
“Don’t know,” Chase said.
The leader spoke up quickly. “She knew the black kid. They went to the same school before the plague. Maybe she snuck back and untied them.”
Chase smiled. “She told me about him when I met with her last night. Nice try.” Chase scratched underneath his chin like he was contemplating murder. “Patrick.”
“Yeah?”
Chase pointed at the leader of the five. The boy’s legs wobbled as though he were a turkey standing in a bowl of Jell-o. Molly really missed Jell-o. Her stomach gurgled.
Patrick’s face stretched into an evil grin. He removed his gloves and pounded a fist into the palm of his other hand as he advanced on his victim.
“The rest of you siphon all the gas tanks and put the fuel in that truck. We
’ll find something else to drive soon enough. Leave everything we don’t need; there won’t be much room. Better bring all the blankets and sleeping bags, though.” Chase surveyed the sky. “Snow’s about to fall.”
Molly turned from the brutality of Patrick hammering without mercy on the one kid. She couldn’t stop hearing the sounds though without covering her ears and appearing weak. Patrick’s breathing was hard and heavy. The boy receiving the beating pleaded for help, and then sobbed when the punishment ended.
Molly leaned against the cold, metal side of the truck, thankful she wore her parka, but wishing she had warmer clothes on underneath. She joined this group on the spur of the moment when they broke her out. She would dump them when she got the chance, but for now she’d go along for the ride—anything that took her away from here. She refused to care about Hunter.
“They’re a pretty violent bunch, aren’t they?”
Molly jumped at the sudden voice. She found Catherine next to her, dressed in a pink nightshirt and shoeless. Catherine didn’t seem to notice the cold.
“It’s really sad,” she said.
She was a weird little girl who Molly avoided ever since their first meeting when the town council had gathered to discuss the healings of both Hunter and Vanessa. Catherine walked into the room and headed straight to Molly. The girl’s blue eyes held her captive.
Those blue eyes gazed up at her now. Molly spun around to regard the dismal, neutral-colored horizon. “Would you just leave me alone?”
“No. Be careful with Chase.”
Kessie stared at them. Catherine tugged on the bottom of Molly’s coat.
“What?”
“I forgive you,” Catherine said. The little girl started pawing at her, but Molly was in no mood for hugs.
“Let go of me.”
Molly moved away from the brat and followed Kessie over to where Chase stood watching the clouds. A frost worked through the air, biting flesh and brightening cheeks and noses. The clouds were rolling up dark and gray, as though they were attending a funeral.
