by Erin Lorence
She leaned forward, as if she rooted for something in my features she couldn’t quite find. Something familiar she didn’t see but guessed was there. “You don’t know the full name of the person you’re here to find?”
“He wore a black shirt.”
Her eyes slid to my arms and lingered on the tattoos.
I tugged at Rebecca’s shirt. If only it had long sleeves. If only its owner were here, drilling this guard about Wolfe’s whereabouts instead of me.
I squared my shoulders the way Rebecca did. How would she, a gifted speaker, handle this suspicious female? I’d watched her yield her gift enough that I should remember.
She’d be confident. Yes, and she’d flatter this woman, make her think she was her friend. And she’d appeal to the guard’s sense of rightness, even if this uniformed human was Satan’s.
I envisioned myself four inches taller. My blonde strands were black, and I possessed the power to persuade others with my fantastic words.
I marched forward two paces. “You are a good person because you chose this job to protect and help people. So, you’ll help me. Yes or no, did you see the guy in the black shirt come in?”
Why didn’t the woman relax her face and cough up the information I wanted? Had I said it wrong? I smiled bigger and shifted back a step.
She rose and pushed a button on the radio that hung from her waist. “What was his last name?”
I retreated another step. My grin stretched wide, the cool air chilling each tooth. You will tell me where Wolfe is.
“Let me guess. His last name was...Pickett?”
Even when masquerading as someone who often lied, I couldn’t. “Yes.”
“Pickett, it’s you! I’ve got Pickett!” She scurried from behind the desk.
The metallic door behind her swung open, and two men in uniforms charged forward. From the fluorescent-lit hall behind them a voice shouted. “Dove...not here! Run!”
10
The guard’s rough hand slipped off my sweaty skin. I twisted away and barreled through the glass doors. Wolfe’s command rang in my ears.
Run!
The panic in his tone spurred my legs to move faster than my pants allowed. Rip. With more looseness around my knees, my strides lengthened. The excited, rasping voices dropped back.
“It’s Dove Pickett! Grab her!”
“The fanatic from that show?”
“She came back like the caller said she would. She came to break out the other radicals—”
“Then quit wasting breath and catch her! Don’t let her reach the woods! No, don’t shoot. Not yet...”
I weaved between two trucks and kept my gaze on the sienna branches at the front of the dying pine forest. The white Jeep in my peripheral vision didn’t exist. Trinity didn’t exist...because if she did, and I turned my head to check if she was OK, my pursuers would see and guess.
Stay still, Trinity! Don’t follow. Don’t give yourself away.
The pavement ended at the pines. With a leap, I gained the elevation covered in slippery needles. From habit, my eyes skimmed the trunks as I sprinted past. None of these trees had decent branches, but I didn’t need them. The footfall behind me had slowed with the increase in panting, as if my enemies were accepting defeat.
My steps didn’t falter as two familiar figures slid out from behind a cluster of tree trunks and joined me. Gilead took his position to run on my left, Micah on my right. The three of us plowed through dry foliage, the Brae feet making more noise than mine or Gilead’s.
Keeping half a step ahead, my brother led us into a small clearing where an unexpected, bare-board shelter appeared. An ancient truck, the type that ends up rusting on our property, crouched at its side. I swerved away, but Gilead tugged my elbow to steer me towards the wooden structure.
He wedged his knife blade into the crack of a boarded-up window. I pressed my slick palms against the door next to it, brushing against its solid lock and chain. Ominous. A prickling ran down my spine.
A guard’s shout carried up the slope. “This—no, that way!”
“Please, Gil.” I gestured at the incline of trees where we could still disappear.
Micah stuck his streaming face close to mine. “No. You’ll see Dove. Trust us. We know what we’re doing. We found this—”
My brother’s hand cut the air in a slashing motion. Silence. Then it reached out and hauled me through the window opening.
My hands and knees knocked against the cracked cement floor. I rubbed the sting in my elbow where it’d scraped against a strange, sharp corner. Half a dozen steel, chest-high boxes lined the wall where I crouched.
The guys’ silhouettes dropped through the square hole into the stifling smokiness that burned my nose and throat. With a squeak of wood against wood, Gilead replaced the board over the window. An artificial light chased away the sudden, pitch-blackness.
I blinked at my brother who pointed his flashlight like an accusing finger.
“What—are you doing—in the trees?”
I crossed my arms over my heaving chest. “Since you were too chicken to go into the center after Wolfe, I did it.” I left out the part of being recognized as a Christian and escaping into the woods for safety. That part was obvious.
Tap. Tap. Someone was at the door.
Gilead cut off the flashlight beam.
“Let me in,” Trinity’s voice demanded in Amhebran.
“Could be a trap, Gil.”
He disregarded Micah’s caution and removed the board to allow Trinity in. He dropped her next to the steel box, being more careful to avoid its sharp corners.
“Anyone see you?” He replaced the window cover and switched on his light.
“Of course not. I’m not d—” My cousin’s hand released the capped water bottle she clutched, and her backpack slid unnoticed onto the crook of her arm.
I turned and found myself gazing into the blank eyes of the biggest elk I’d ever seen.
Micah strutted forward and grabbed its antler. “See him? He’s dead. Don’t worry. You’re safe.”
I rolled my eyes. The elk’s severed head was mounted on the cabin’s wall and surrounded by a sea of antlers and a couple of skulls.
Trinity quit hyperventilating and sniffed. “Deer meat?”
“Neat, right? See what me and Gil found!” Micah moved to one of the six metallic, waist-high boxes that lined two walls. He threw open the door of one as if producing a miracle. Tada! Inside, rack after rack of shriveled brown meat dehydrated in its pungent essence.
Creak. A rough rectangle with crude red letters shifted on its hook on the rafters above.
ELK JERKY FOR SALE.
Plastic bags of meat swayed in the blast of warm air from the smoker.
“Eat up, everyone. Dove, what’s all that greasy gunk on your eyes for?” Gilead grabbed handfuls of elk strips while Trinity presented a water bottle to Micah.
With my back against the locked door, I slid down it and chugged from my water bottle. I splashed the few drops left over onto my face and rubbed. Soon black grease covered the bottom third of Rebecca’s shirt.
With a final swipe, I sat up straighter. “Gilead. You and Micah need to cut out the secrecy. It’s obvious you two planned for Wolfe to be arrested because you didn’t choose to ride in his Jeep for the pure joy of staying together. You were way too eager to accept his plan that he go inside the CTDC. I know for some reason he’s being held there against his will. And you’re responsible.”
Gilead swallowed the mass in his mouth. “And now he’s out of your life. I’m not sorry.”
A warmth crept up my neck and then climbed higher. My bruised cheeks and lips throbbed.
He leaned closer. “Now that you’re done being distracted with Heathen, we can focus on finding Mom, Grandpa, and Trinity’s parents. And Micah’s dad.” He ripped off more meat and chewed.
Trinity quit tracing the elk’s missing body with her finger. “But...aren’t they being held in the terrorist center? Like W
olfe is?”
With a clenched jaw, I shook my head. “Wolfe followed through with what he said he’d do. He found out our family isn’t there. He shouted, ‘Not here!’ when he heard the guards run out to arrest me.”
“Arrest you? Is that why you were running?” Micah frowned. “They can’t arrest you just for being a Christian, can they? Anyway, you don’t look like one wearing that.”
I fingered Rebecca’s ruined shirt, my cheeks aching with another wave of heat.
How dare Micah ask me for answers when he’d been an ally in tricking the rest of us into coming to this place...and in getting my friend arrested. Although I didn’t understand the guards’ eagerness to arrest me either. They’d recognized me as Dove Pickett, but why were they so fired up to catch me? I’d done nothing wrong lately...or had I? Had I broken any laws?
Before me, Micah’s dark head morphed into Lobo’s older one. Lobo, nearby in Sisters, searched for me. Fuming over my breach of contract. Calling the local CTDC to find out if I was there?
Even if Lobo had asked them to arrest me, that didn’t match up with the guard’s words as I sprinted for the woods.
She came back, like the caller said she would. She’s here to break out the other radicals...
I removed a clip from my ripped pantleg and pointed it at Gilead. “Someone called the CDTC and told them I was coming. Someone reported I would attempt to break into the center and release the prisoners. No doubt this same someone told the center a lie about Wolfe—the reason he’s stuck.”
“I’d never hurt you, Dove. Think. Would I ask those Heathen cops to lock up my own sister?”
“You confessed you’re responsible for Wolfe being taken.”
“That’s different.” He stood. “Finish eating. We’re leaving for the Council.”
Micah continued to fidget with his bottlecap. He squinted at the sign overhead.
I leaned forward. “Micah? What did you guys do?”
He started. “I...my family...” He withered under Gilead’s menacing scowl.
“Trinity?” I murmured.
She clasped Micah’s narrow shoulders. “Tell us. Dove and I need to know. We’re worried about our family too. This…” She gestured at the mutilated elk head and beyond. “This whole mess is awful. Ugly. Make it better. Us knowing the truth makes it better.”
“Enough!” Gilead plucked bags of jerky from the beams as if harvesting fruit and shoved one at Micah. He threw the rest into his own pack. “We all want to know about our families, and we’ll find answers at the Council. Let’s head to Mount Jefferson and speak to the leaders about what they know. And we can join in the training camps.” He moved toward the boarded-up exit.
I lurched to block him. “How do you know there are training camps there, Gilead? I never told you that. The radio never said anything about training camps.”
“I...I...”
I glared at my tongued-tied brother then at Micah, who still fidgeted.
“You two met someone on your hike to Ochoco, didn’t you? A Christian who told you about the training camps at Mount Jefferson. Did that same person make the call to the CTDC to set up Wolfe? And me?”
“No!” Micah’s fists trembled at his sides. “No, he wouldn’t have tried to hurt you.”
“Shut up, Micah.” Fierce gray irises bore into mine. “You’re coming to the Council with us.”
I crossed my arms. “I’m staying.”
“Mom and Grandpa aren’t in that building down there.”
“I’m staying.”
“Trinity?”
“I’m staying with her. But...Dove, what does God want us to do?”
Did she really expect me to focus on the small voice when my ears thudded with my own angry pulse? I sighed and pushed my attention beyond the scraping sound of a knife blade against the splintered windowframe. Away from my desire to hurl my handful of clips at Gilead.
I reached out and clutched at the easiest truths first. The simple ones that were always close. God is good. God is in control.
More truths flowed. God’s message became clearer. I nodded. “He wants us...not to hate. To forgive and...love.”
I opened my eyes at Gilead’s snort of disgust. “What?”
“Love? Right. Enough stalling, sis. We’re going to the Council. All four of us.”
My breathing hitched. “You only want to go to the Council so you can play target practice with the other boys. So how do you propose you get me there? You can’t carry me the whole way to Mount Jefferson. Unclog your ears. I’m staying here to help Wolfe.”
He cracked his knuckles. “Last chance to come with.”
“Staying.”
“If you don’t stay with me, I can’t keep you safe.”
“What about Wolfe’s safety?”
“Fine. When you get tired of waiting for the impossible to happen, head to Micah’s home. Wait for us there. And if anything bad happens to you in the meantime, it’s not my fault. You’re choosing this.”
With a shove, he dropped over the window opening. His obedient shadow, Micah, followed.
I leaned out into the warm night air, holding my side. Their jogging figures melted into the trees’ shadows.
Trinity jammed herself next to me. “They’re...he’s...gone?”
My fingers clenched the rotting wood of the sill. “Yeah.”
“Fine. Go then, Micah. Go!” She jerked handfuls of the dried flowers from her pack and hurled the fragile stems after our neighbor, who’d left without a backward glance.
I slunk to the far side of the room where it was darkest. Gilead had taken our light source. I placed the jar of pennies from my bag under the elk head, payment for the jerky we’d taken. I wasn’t a thief. Only a Christian avoiding arrest and a sister to the most selfish brother in the world.
11
Morning dawned, ending one of the worst nights I’d ever survived. I shifted aside my light blanket and turned my cheek against the rough boulder at the top of the pine slope overlooking the CTDC. With heavy lids, I watched three guards exit their vehicles in the parking lot and wander to the shaded glass entrance. Beyond those doors, Wolfe lay on a plastic mattress with rips.
“If we had uniforms, we could walk in and—” Trinity snapped her fingers.
She’d smudged a picture on the surface of the boulder we hid behind. The black, familiar eye with its spider lashes was a huge contrast to her own red-rimmed, blonde-lashed orbs.
I pretended not to notice. “It’s not that easy.”
“Fine. Since you’re the expert, how do we break him out?”
“No clue.”
“At least the guys had a plan.”
“Then you should have…” I bit my lip against retorting that she should have gone with Micah and Gilead. That I didn’t need her.
Her icy hand clenched mine. A throbbing motor ripped the morning quiet, and a two-wheeled vehicle roared onto the pavement next to our Jeep. In the sudden quiet, both riders dismounted.
Trinity groaned softly. “Don’t even breathe, Dove. It’s—”
Forgive.
With a rush of goosebumps, I stood and waved my arms at Diamond.
Jezebel stopped spinning in a circle next to her and pointed. “It’s Dove! Over there by the trees—hi, Dove!”
I allowed my cousin to haul me back down behind the boulder. Seconds later, Jezebel catapulted off the top and landed on my legs.
“Oof!”
Diamond’s tight face leered down at me from the boulder. “I told you this is where we’d find the Christian terrorists, Jezzy. At the Christian Terrorist Detention Center. Makes sense. Where’s the rest of them? Like that big, ugly bro of yours?”
“Gone.” Trinity sighed. “Far away by now.”
Lines of disappointment gathered between Diamond’s brows. She flicked the knife she held shut.
My arms fell from Jezebel. Sky alive! Did Diamond not hate my brother? No. No way. She spewed violence every time he showed up in Wolfe’s backyard. Th
reatened us with a different weapon each time. But, at the same time, wasn’t that when she showed up—when Gilead tagged along?
I shook my head.
If she liked him—which couldn’t be true—then that was the reason she was here now. Why else would she let Jezebel talk her into tracking me down? She didn’t care if I left Sisters forever, but maybe she cared if Gilead disappeared?
Jezebel poked me. “And Woof? Where is he, Dove?”
I motioned at the CTDC.
“You mean...?”
I nodded. “Yep. Arrested as a Christian terrorist.”
Diamond yanked me to my feet, dumping the kid off my lap. “You mean Wolfe is in there—behind bars—for being what you actually are?”
I jerked away and dropped behind the boulder before anyone inside spotted me. “I. Am. Not. A terrorist. I’ve done nothing illegal.”
Her purple eyes narrowed. “So, what are you doing hiding out here?”
“Trying to decide how to break him out.”
Diamond nodded. “That’s illegal.”
“And this is dumb.” Jezebel jumped off the rock and skittered down the slope. She lifted her arms in a shrugging gesture. What else can I do? “I’ll go in and tell those dummies he’s no Christian.”
Diamond carried the squirming kid back up the slope and dumped her at my feet.
“Hold the brat. I’m going to fix this.”
~*~
My splayed fingers stretched to cover the sun-seared, red patches on my forearms. The burns would sting worse later, but right now they were nothing compared with my neck. I reached up and rubbed the muscles, stretched and worn from craning around the side of the garbage bin.
“There! There she is! Diamond’s come out of the center. Oh. But she’s alone. Where’s Woof?” Still whispering too loud, Jezebel crawled forward over the littered pavement. “Dove, she can’t see us over here. She’ll think we ditched her. I’d better shout.”
I grabbed her ankle to anchor her. “No. That’s the point. At least stay behind the Jeep another moment until...just until.”
“You don’t trust her?”
“She’s tried to stab, shoot, drown, and crush me this summer.”
“Oh, that.” She dismissed the attempts on my life with a shrug. “But she’s no tattle-taler. She wouldn’t have told the guards on you.”
