Runaway

by Anne Laughlin

  The man looked at Martin with a question in his eyes. He wore a colonel’s insignia, shiny on his worn lapel. “Report.”

  “Colonel, we got a report of the fencing being activated, and when we investigated we found these two trespassing. They were headed straight here, Colonel. They did not appear to be lost.”

  “Remove their gags. And radio the others to maintain their patrol. There may be more of them out there.”

  Maddy heard Kristi take a huge breath when her gag was removed, and Maddy worked her jaw to ease the ache hers had caused. Then she spit on the floor of the cabin. The gag had been her guard’s dirty bandana.

  Martin reached over and slapped Maddy hard across the face, which made her stumble and fall, again against her back, straining her shoulders. This time she screamed. The colonel sat back in his chair as Maddy was picked back up to stand in front of him.

  “Now, you’ll tell me quickly what you’re doing on our land, or you will regret not telling us. Your choice.”

  Kristi looked at Maddy.

  “Look, mister, I’m sorry if we came onto your land. It was an accident. But I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal about it. We’re happy to leave.”

  The colonel stared at her. “You’re not going anywhere just yet. Now, tell me why you’re on my land.”

  “Didn’t I just say it was an accident? We didn’t know it was your land. We were just taking a walk in the woods. We live on the ranch on the other side of your property.”

  “There is no ranch on the other side of my property. You’re lying.”

  Now Maddy looked at Kristi, and she could see her own confusion reflected on Kristi’s face. She turned back to the colonel.

  “I don’t know what your problem is, but you can’t just hold us here. Let us go and we’ll be on our way.”

  “I’m giving you one more chance to tell me who sent you here. You better take advantage of it.”

  The colonel looked calm except for his eyes. They were a deep, almost black color, eerie and frightening. Maddy could see he was furious and quite possibly crazy. She knew these people weren’t Drecker’s Idaho cronies, and she dearly wished they were.

  “Okay, I’ll tell you everything, but this is all I’ve got. I was running away from the people who own the ranch nearby and that’s why we accidentally came onto your land. We didn’t know any better.”

  The colonel reached over and picked up a poker from the fireplace. Without missing a beat, he swung it at Kristi’s knee, catching it full on the side. She screamed and fell, her hands still tied. Maddy moved toward her but one of the men grabbed her arm again and held her close.

  “There’s no accident involved when you continue into our land after hitting the electric fence. Now, you can tell me the truth, or we can continue along in this manner. Again, it’s your choice.”

  Maddy could find nothing to say. With every word she seemed to make things worse, and for some reason they kept taking it out on Kristi instead of her. The room was perfectly still as the colonel stared at her. Kristi was groaning as she lay on the floor.

  “I would tell you what you want to hear if I had any idea what that is,” she finally said. “Telling you the truth doesn’t seem to be enough.”

  For a moment, the colonel almost looked impressed. He regarded Maddy for a bit before his eyes hardened again. He looked up at Martin.

  “Lieutenant, I think our prisoners need some time in the stocks to think their situation over. See to that.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Martin led them out of the dark cabin and into the clearing. He held them there while the two other men disappeared into the cabin next to the colonel’s and came out with a set of stocks, rolling it on a cart to the center of the clearing. It took two of them to lift the wooden contraption off the cart and set it up. Martin pushed them forward toward the stocks. Things were getting worse by

  the minute.

  Chapter Eleven

  After ditching the car halfway back to the county road, as far out of sight of the access road as they could manage, Jan and Catherine hiked north along the western edge of the property. They kept their guns in hand. Jan didn’t doubt that the uniforms were spreading out in the forest to keep them from getting to the property again. Between the compass and the map on her phone, Jan led them far enough north to be able to circle around to the rear of the ranch. Catherine remained silent as she walked behind her, and Jan was glad to have her at her back.

  As they moved east, the barn became visible, and then the rest of the ranch behind it. They knelt while still at the edge of the trees, scanning the area for signs of anyone. No one seemed to be about.

  “Let’s give it a few minutes here,” Jan said. “Maybe we’ll be able to see what building they’re hiding in.”

  “We can’t do much if they’re armed,” Catherine said.

  “True. But I’m betting at some point they won’t be at the ready, and that’s when we’ll have to make our move. First we have to see how they’re set up here.”

  After a few minutes, the barn door creaked open and a young man walked out, the same one Drecker had sent running an hour before. He stood in front of the barn door, slowly turning a full circle as if he were surveying the scene as well. Then he sat on the ground and leaned against the barn, staring off into space.

  “You go right, I’ll go left,” Jan said. “Let’s meet on either side of him and see what he knows.”

  They slipped away from their cover and split in two directions, coming around the barn on either side of the young man. He shot up as soon as he saw Jan approaching from his right with a gun pointed his way. He turned to run and saw Catherine coming at him from the other side. He put his hands up in front of him.

  “For God sake, don’t shoot me,” he said.

  “We don’t want to shoot you,” Catherine said. “We want information from you.”

  “What’s your name?” Jan asked.

  “Tommy.”

  “Tommy, where’s Maddy Harrington? That’s all we’re here to find out.”

  He put his hands down and looked at his feet. “I can’t tell you that. David would be furious.”

  Jan and Catherine looked at each other.

  “So she is here?” Catherine said.

  Tommy didn’t respond.

  “Tommy, David will be in a lot of trouble if the authorities come in and find he’s been harboring a minor. You don’t want that to happen, do you?”

  “I don’t. But he knows what he’s doing. He’s got it under control.”

  “I think not,” Catherine said. “It doesn’t look to me like he’s in control at all.”

  “I’d say it’s the guys with the guns who are calling the shots around here, don’t you think, Tommy?”

  He shrugged.

  “We need to get Maddy out of here,” Jan said. “You don’t want it on your shoulders if something bad happens to her because of these soldier friends of David’s, do you? Just let us know where she is and we won’t let on that you told us.”

  “Where are David and Drecker and everyone else?” Catherine asked.

  “I sent the others into the woods to look for Maddy and Kristi,” Tommy said.

  “Which way?”

  Tommy pointed to the west and Jan and Catherine moved toward it immediately.

  “But you won’t find Maddy and Kristi there,” he said.

  Jan stopped and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “‘Cause I sent them that way,” he said, pointing to the north.

  “You’re a good man, Tommy,” Jan said.

  “Who’s Kristi?” Catherine said.

  Tommy paused. “She’s Maddy’s friend. She’ll look out for her.”

  Catherine and Jan headed north.

  *

  As they moved as fast as they could through the woods, the feeling of strangling familiarity washed over Jan again. It was as if they were in an Amazonian forest, the cloying heat and humidity making it hard for her to bre
athe, rather than a backwoods forest in crisp, dry air. She pulled at the collar of her shirt, felt herself gasping a little for air.

  She tried to concentrate on tracking the two girls. Her tracking skills were excellent, even after all these years, for she depended on them when she hunted as a girl and had been taught by the best tracker she could ever imagine, her father. When they entered the woods, she began to pick up the broken twigs and trampled undergrowth that kept them on pace behind Maddy and Kristi. But each step brought her into more intense rebellion, as if her body was trying to keep her from going forward. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath.

  “What’s the matter?” Catherine said. She put a hand to Jan’s face. “Are you ill?”

  Jan stepped away, trying to shake off the feeling as well as Catherine’s concern.

  “I’m fine. Just trying to keep us on their trail. I’m not entirely sure we’re still behind them.”

  She thought they were, but it was impossible to know. She looked around, trying to act as if searching for trail markers was the reason she stopped.

  “It’s just that you looked a little green for a minute.”

  “I said I’m fine.”

  “Wait, is this around where your father’s camp is? Is that what’s going on with you?”

  Jan’s eyes fell on a fallen tree just to their east and she went to inspect the ground in front of it. “I think they rested here. See how the leaves are moved around?” She walked a few paces farther east, looking at the ground, before turning back to Catherine. “Let’s head this way. I’m pretty sure they changed course”

  Jan moved quickly now, drawn by the fresh scent and by something more primal, the same thing that makes a horse pick up its pace when its rider turns toward home. Home, without comfort, without love, without even a bag of oats waiting, still had its pull. Jan hated every step forward, but could not have turned away. Maddy Harrington seemed a secondary part of this journey.

  She stopped to check her compass and saw they were heading straight east. The sun was overhead and bright, doing its best to penetrate the treetops. They heard a sound farther east and Catherine pulled Jan down to lay flat on the ground.

  “Militia guy about twenty yards on,” she whispered.

  They lay perfectly still as the sound of a single person picking his way toward them grew louder. Jan slowly drew her gun from her jacket pocket. Catherine already had hers in her hand. When it seemed that there was only a tree or two between them and the man, he turned away. They heard his steps recede to the north. They lay quietly for another few minutes before sitting up.

  “Fuck,” Jan said.

  “Who do you think it was?” Catherine asked.

  “It’s either someone from the welcoming committee at the ranch, or . . .”

  “Or what? You think it’s someone from your father’s camp, don’t you?”

  Jan looked Catherine in the eye. “I had a feeling we were somewhere close to it, and now I have more reason to think we are. And I know one way to find out.”

  Jan headed east again, softly now, with her eyes straight ahead.

  “Clue me in here,” Catherine said. “I don’t like an operation where I don’t have the facts.”

  Jan looked back at her. “There used to be an electrified fence around the whole perimeter of the Colonel’s property. Unless he finally gave up on maintaining it, we should be able to see it. I don’t know if Maddy would see it though. If she ran into it, it would give her a pretty good shock.”

  “Does it signal anywhere when it’s activated? I mean, would your father know if someone hit the fence?”

  “Not when I was here. Maybe he’s gotten more sophisticated since then, but I doubt it.”

  They crossed a creek and crept forward another fifty yards before Jan spotted it, the wires of the fence a greenish color and so thin that they’d be easy to miss. They stood and stared at it.

  “This is what you had to get past when you ran away. When you were sixteen?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s unbelievable. It’s mad, really.”

  “I think Maddy’s in there. We have to go in,” Jan said. She said it urgently, as if she thought Catherine needed convincing.

  “Of course we do. Let’s find a place to climb and get over the fence.”

  Within minutes they had climbed up and over the fence, and Jan was back in her own heart of darkness. She knew the way now. It was all as familiar as her hand, as any home would be.

  *

  Maddy looked straight ahead as a little girl addressed her solemnly.

  “Did you do something bad?” the girl asked.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Because people only have to stand there like that when they do something bad.”

  The girl seemed confused, but no more so than Maddy was. A woman came up and shooed the girl away, looking at Maddy and Kristi with disdain before walking away from them. Maddy could see others from the corner of her eye, but she could barely turn her head to get a look at them. When Kristi and Maddy both angled their heads toward each other they could just see the other’s face. Kristi’s was white, as if she’d seen a ghost. Maddy felt like hers must be bright red. She’d never been so mad in her life.

  Their heads and hands had been stuck into an old-fashioned set of stocks, planted in the center of the camp so they’d be scorned and mocked by the residents, just like in Puritan days. Behind them was the colonel’s cabin. To their right was the larger building that seemed to be some kind of community house. The women and children congregated there, making occasional forays to stand in front of the stocks and stare at them. A few little boys threw rocks at them, but one of the mothers put a stop to that. Maddy heard her say they “were not that kind of people,” whatever that meant. They were not like any people Maddy had ever heard of.

  Straight ahead were the shacks, and she assumed that’s where people slept. There didn’t seem to be any men about, and if they were, they were in with the colonel deciding their fate.

  “What the fuck are we going to do?” Kristi said.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think these are the guys who know Drecker. I don’t know what they want from us.”

  A tall, gangly boy came up to them, holding a long stick. He poked Maddy in the thigh with it.

  “Be quiet,” he said. “There’s no talking when you’re in the punishment.”

  Maddy had a feeling these stocks got dragged out here with some regularity. “What happens to people from the outside who end up in these things?”

  He looked surprised that she had asked him a question. “I don’t know. We’ve never had someone from outside here.”

  “I don’t understand. What kind of place is this?”

  The boy poked her again. “No questions,” he said, poking her once more. He seemed to want to stay and continue poking, but a woman’s voice called him and he ran away, dropping the stick as he went.

  They stood locked in place for what seemed hours, but may have been minutes. Maddy’s feet barely touched the ground, and the strain on her calves was painful. Kristi’s knee hurt and she kept shifting her weight around. They both were sweating, though the air was cool. Eventually, they heard boots approaching from behind and the colonel telling the women and children to get into the cookhouse and stay there. Maddy’s anger started to dissolve into fear.

  “I don’t want to fucking die,” Kristi said.

  Maddy didn’t either. She watched as the colonel and two of his men gathered in front of them, and the thought that she was about to die lay over her like a shroud. The colonel looked much older in the brighter light. His wrinkles were cavernously deep, his jaw sunken by too many missing teeth. But still, he held his body straight, and had about him the air of someone who was used to being obeyed. His men were behind him, two steps back on either side. He looked squarely at them and spoke in a clear voice.

  “We have conducted a tribunal to determine the charges against you and the sentences to be imposed.�
��

  “A tribunal?” Maddy said. “Is that like a kangaroo court?”

  The colonel raised his hand as his men stepped toward Maddy. They held back.

  “Unless you’d like your gag replaced, you will listen silently as I pass sentence. You’ll have your opportunity to speak.”

  A radio crackled and one of the men stepped a few feet away to respond.

  “Colonel, B squad is reporting in. They’ve spread out and covered the property. They’ve found nothing. Should I have them come in?”

  The colonel looked directly at Maddy and Kristi as he spoke. “They stay out there until I tell them to come in. These two are not acting alone.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The colonel took a step closer to the stocks.

  “You’ve been found guilty of trespassing and are being charged with espionage,” he said. His voice was cadenced as if he were reading from a grand jury indictment. “You’ll be punished for the first. In regard to the second, we will find out who you’re working with. Now, your punishment for trespassing is twenty-four hours in those stocks. You may end this punishment at any time by telling us who sent you here. If you don’t offer this information within the twenty-four hours, a second tribunal will be held to determine your guilt on the espionage charge.”

  Maddy’s neck ached from holding her head up to look at the colonel. But she didn’t want to hang her head in front of him. She looked over at Kristi and saw she’d given up that battle. Her head was hanging, and Maddy thought she was crying. She turned back to the colonel.

  “I’m not sure where you got the idea that you have this kind of authority over me, but I’m a citizen of a country that has laws. And procedures. Call the police if you think I’ve done something wrong. This is crazy.”