Sent Rising (Dove Strong)

by Erin Lorence

  “I like hornets. And it’s a free country. I can be here if I want to be. Go away—you messed everything up. Put me down!” Jezebel’s angry demands faded as the cops carried her to the front of the center.

  I raised to a crouch. From the corner of the lot, the Jeep’s engine revved. Interior lights gleamed. Diamond had ditched her bicycle and was exiting in the Jeep. Alone, since I’d messed up Wolfe’s escape.

  As the vehicle turned onto the road, the garbage bin in the corner exploded into flames. The brightness reflected off the four vehicles, and for a moment, Wolfe’s profile appeared inside the third one behind glass. His head was bent forward, resting against the seatback. Giving up.

  13

  Burn down the center? If I had agreed with Diamond’s plan, no Picketts would be wearing handcuffs now. So what if a few extra Heathen had gotten hurt in a fire? Satan’s side could spare a few casualties. I hugged the pink mouse purse I’d found in the bracken. It was heavy with the dropped EMP I’d shoved inside.

  “Trinity, wake up. Look, it’s Wolfe’s Jeep. His grandma drove it here. She’ll be trying to get Jezebel freed.”

  My cousin dragged herself over to peer off the roof at the pair exiting Wolfe’s ride in the early gray dawn. “The grandma’s not alone. Diamond again—wait, or is it? The hair’s wrong. And the eyes are more almond shaped.”

  “That’s Jessica. Diamond’s cousin.” I forced myself to keep crouching on the rough roof until Wolfe’s grandma entered the CTDC.

  I sprang up. “Jessica. Hey, I’m up here. Meet me at the back of the building. I’ll come down. Trinity? Some help?”

  My cousin grabbed my hands. While she lowered me, she didn’t remind me of last night’s failure or question my decision to talk with this new godless arrival. All she said was, “Get over more. You’re going to electrocute yourself—watch the generator.”

  I avoided the smooth plastic with fraying cables attached to the back wall and let go. My drop penetrated through my worn soles. I limped toward Jessica.

  Her arms were crossed tight. “Lobo’s been looking for you. You’re in trouble.”

  I stopped short. “I’m already in trouble.”

  “You’ll be in worse if certain people catch you here. And where are all the bees Diamond warned were around?”

  “They took off. Why are you here?”

  “I happened to be in earshot when Diamond broke the news to Mrs. P. about Wolfe and Jezebel—you know that they’re now considered terrorists by the government and can’t come home. I figured that might be something the missing survivalist Dove Pickett was involved in. So? Are their arrests your fault?

  “No. Yes. I don’t know. I messed up the plan last night, but—”

  “No kidding? And your God didn’t fix your mistake for you? Ha!”

  I blinked.

  When I was nine, I’d made friends with a skunk, the closest thing I’d ever had to a pet. Each day I’d waited for the fearless creature to wander on its route around the garden. Each day, when it reached me on my sitting stump, it’d eat grubs, straight from my hand. Then one afternoon, after four months of this routine, he’d toddled up to my stump, turned, and sprayed me in the face for no reason.

  I blinked again at Jessica, recalling the sting of the spray...but worse than the watering eyes and stubborn stench, I remembered the unfairness of that blast.

  Jessica had hinted she wanted to know about God. I’d looked forward to her visit for two months, had planned out what I wanted to tell her. And now...

  She raised the palm-sized electronic the same way she had the bulky camera a thousand times last spring in Texas. But her sneer was worse than I’d ever seen. “Don’t forget to remind me how much He adores you. Really, Dove, can’t you fight against your religious brainwashed upbringing a minute and think for yourself? Your god has checked out. He’s not even real. I can’t believe—”

  “Do you really want to know who I blame for the mess I’m in?” I would not stand silent and be unfairly skunked again. My chin lifted, and I pointed a shaking hand at the CTDC building.

  “Everything that’s awful in this nation is the fault of every so-called human who doesn’t have brains to accept the truth, who laughs about God. Do you like being a puppet? Because that’s what you are. You’re all puppets! Satan uses you godless all the time to do horrible stuff, and you’re too brainless to recognize it. I’m done trying to convince you...and everyone. You’re evil! And if you want to fight against God, go head. But you fight against me.”

  My glare flickered between the obtruding camera and Jessica’s paling cheeks. I opened my mouth to continue doling out blame, but Jezebel’s voice stopped me.

  Jessica lowered her electronic and stumbled back.

  “Dove! Dove! They lost Woof! Last night when they were driving to the other detention center, something happened to him. All the other prisoners and guards are missing, too. They found the cars on the highway headed south, but—”

  “Jezebel, hush up. There’s popcorn in the Jeep for breakfast. Go eat it.”

  “I don’t want popcorn, Grandma. I’m telling Dove how they lost Woof. And how even if they find him, you can’t do nothing to bring him home since he’s in trouble for—”

  “Jessica?”

  “Sure, Mrs. P. C’mon, you. Popcorn time.” As if eager to get away, she pried the clinging kid off my waist and herded her across the pavement.

  Jezebel glared around Jessica’s arm. “It’d better be the cheddar kind. Dove, I told Grandma not to worry ’cause you’ll find Woof.”

  My eyes fell under the older woman’s gaze. “I’m...I’m sorry that—”

  “What’re you sorry for? Did you convince my grandson to march into that center, demanding the whereabouts of Christians?”

  “N...no.”

  “Did you drag my granddaughter to this place against her will?”

  “No, but—”

  “Then save your sorrys. You’re a radical, which is a jagged enough pill for us normal folks to swallow. But personally, I’d say things have gotten good and interesting since you barged your way into my grandkids’ lives. You grow pretty decent salad fixings, too. Not a bad thing with food costs bleeding us all dry. But even so...”

  I held my breath and waited.

  “I’m taking my yard back. Foreclosing on your garden. But I’ll pay you for the strawberries and beans already sprouting.” She grabbed my wrist and pressed a wad of green paper into my palm. It was money. Paper money.

  Her etched mouth under her Jezebel-like eyes pulled into a smile. Still holding my wrist, she leaned closer. “I hear what Jezebel says about you. That girl won’t give it a rest about what ‘my friend Dove’ says. You don’t whine about being roughed up a bit. You don’t hurt people neither. It seems to me, if more fanatics were like you—not going around, pointing their hateful fingers at everybody—let’s just say I’d invite them into my yard anytime they liked.”

  Shame forced my gaze to my shoes. Minutes ago, I’d pointed at Jessica and the godless nation and shouted they were responsible for everything horrible. I’d called them evil puppets. And declared I’d fight against them.

  A horn honked. Wolfe’s grandma let me go. “Need to bum a ride?”

  “You’re going to get Wolfe?”

  “From where? You know where he’s at?”

  I shook my head. Zech probably did, but I didn’t.

  “Then not a lot of reason for me to waste gas money driving around searching. He’s alive, though. When one of my own stops being alive, I know. I feel it. Here.” She tapped her stomach. “But, all the same, if you see him, have him call me.”

  I nodded.

  “Good enough. Jezebel, touch that horn again and I’m locking you back into that detention center!”

  14

  Feet planted, arms crossed, my cousin and I stood at the edge of the highway that twisted through the dying pine forest. We could follow the road north toward Mount Jefferson and the Council. Or we could head sou
th in the same direction the CDTC cars had been headed when Wolfe disappeared.

  Trinity swiveled to face north where a black mountain peak poked against the blue sky. “You only want to go south to find Wolfe.”

  “And you just want to go north to rush after Micah.”

  Her cheeks flushed brighter. “We’re supposed to be hunting for our family. Gilead and Micah will have figured out by now where family is.”

  “Gilead’s head’s full of moss. And he cares more about revenge on Wolfe and training for an imaginary war than finding our moms.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “One of the prisoners I saw last night was Micah’s older brother, Zechariah. The guy is supposed to be on Mount Washington, keeping their village safe. Instead he shows up here. Here, Trinity! I’ll bet you my last piece of jerky he ran into Gil and Micah when they were hiking home to Ochoco. They complained to him about Wolfe tagging along, and Zech hatched up the plan to get rid of Wolfe and urged them to go train at the Council afterward.”

  “But if Micah’s brother was being transported to a detention center, that means he was captured.”

  “On purpose.”

  “Dove. No one gets captured on purpose.”

  “Except him. Zech was laughing at us last night, glad to be transported. And today, he and Wolfe and the other Christian guy went missing on the way to the other detention center. That’s what Jezebel said.”

  “I know. I heard that part from the roof.”

  “And remember Diamond told us Wolfe kept answering ‘I know’ to everything she said? Odd.”

  “Yeah. But Wolfe’s an odd guy. Plus, I wouldn’t answer Diamond either. She’s liable to knock your teeth out.”

  “No, Trinity. Wolfe was saying ‘I know’ because he knew something! Maybe something about our missing family. It was like a code.”

  “Why use code? Why didn’t he just tell Diamond what he knew?”

  “Because I bet Zech was in the next cell listening. And Wolfe understands that he’s a dangerous guy. They met before. He’s gotten us both arrested.”

  Trinity threw up her hands. “Dove, Wolfe is gone. Give up on him. Unless...does God want us hunting for him?”

  My shoulders sagged. I couldn’t lie. “You’re right. Going after Wolfe is my own idea.” I stood up straighter. “But He hasn’t told me to chase after Gilead and Micah either. Has He told you?”

  “You know I don’t hear Him like you do. But I’ve never been on a mountain before, and I’d like to. To stand with the world spread out beneath me. To be so close to the sun and stars.”

  “And so close to Micah,” I muttered.

  How could I make her understand the danger that awaited me at Mount Jefferson? That it was home to Melody and Stone who’d betrayed me, trying to poison me in the desert. Not to mention the Warrior, Reed Bender, who’d been responsible for murdering our grandma. I’d explained some of this to her, but she thought I exaggerated about Reed. That no human would sacrifice Gran’s life for strategy.

  “Trinity, you agree our first priority is to find Grandpa and our moms?”

  “What a lame thing to ask. Of course. And my dad. But to discover where they are...our only hope is to find that info from the Council.”

  I bit my lip. God? Why do you remain silent? New beads of sweat trickled down my temples.

  I opened my eyes, struck by an idea—my own...but still better than my cousin’s. “We go to Portland, to a place called Rahab’s Roof. Our people’s radio station broadcasts out of there, and they’ll know if there’s information about missing Christian families. They might communicate with other stations too.”

  “Go to Portland? The City of Roses?”

  “Uh, more like a city of cement. But if my friend Rebecca still lives there, she’ll help us.”

  “And us going there has nothing to do with finding Wolfe?”

  I glared at her.

  “Fine. Which way to the City of Roses?”

  “Portland.” I pointed north.

  She brightened. “And on the way, we can stop at Mount—”

  “No. No stops at the Council. And we can’t walk to the city since it’s too far. A car is coming now. Hide.”

  ~*~

  I tightened my grip on the swaying treetop. The old-fashioned vehicle with the boxy trailer attached snaked around a curve far below. “Another truck coming, Trinity! A good one this time—this is our ride. Let it fall. Now.”

  Ker-bam!

  A blue jay screamed, startled by the heavy limb Trinity, out of sight on the ground, released to fall across the road. I scrambled from my treetop lookout onto the forest floor and sprinted through the underbrush. I stopped once to smash my stomach against the ground when the engine I raced drew level to me on the road. It rolled past.

  “Hurry up, Dove!”

  Back on my feet, I hurdled a dying larch.

  “Faster.” Trinity’s hushed voice became clearer. I saw her. She was only ten yards away now.

  My cousin crouched behind a bush, her back to the driver of the truck who emerged from its interior, grumbling through the chug, chug of the engine. He disappeared around the nose of the vehicle. There were some dragging, scraping noises. The roadblock Trinity had created wasn’t light.

  “Were you napping, Dove?”

  I blew past her and leaped onto the back of the wood and metal trailer that hitched to the truck’s back. With a dull thud, Trinity clung to the trailer’s half-wall next to me.

  “In you go.” She grabbed the top of my pants and shoved me up at the rectangular opening. I swung into the trailer’s dim interior and froze. It was full of horse smell...and a horse. Something I hadn’t been able to see from the treetop because of the rusted roof.

  The animal’s mammoth hindquarters hadn’t twitched when I dropped inside. With slow and steady movements, I reached up to haul Trinity in. Still no hoof shot out and struck me.

  Slam. The driver must have cleared the debris and gotten back in the truck. Trees inched past. The truck and trailer picked up speed.

  Trinity dropped over and fell onto the aluminum floor inches from the hooved feet.

  “Sky alive!” She scrambled up and hugged the side wall perpendicular to me. “A cramped horse trailer with an actual live horse? This was your ‘good one?’”

  Two dark, liquid pools gazed at me then blinked. The horse parted its velvety lips and blew its breath out in a slow gush. Besides the rope, he wore a black cap on his head. I’d never been this close to a horse before, but this couldn’t be normal.

  The horse’s lower legs were cocooned in padding.

  “Holy Moses, Trinity, look at his socks. The godless do crazy things. But quit complaining. It’s not like we’re holed up with one of their dogs. Just ignore it.”

  15

  We pulled away from the endless rows of creeping vehicles. Soon they fell out of sight, and the road under the trailer’s wheels became a dirt path pocked with gravel patches and potholes.

  “Quit messing with that horse, Trinity. We need to jump out. The driver’s turned off the main road, but a sign said Portland is only two miles ahead, so we can walk.” I pulled my head back through the trailer opening that didn’t have bars. “Wh...what have you done?”

  The sad-eyed mare blinked. Dazzled by its own transformation. Its mane swooped in a diamond pattern across its glossy neck. The coarse tail hairs clung together in a giant braid and then separated into a hundred twisted wisps. Fancier than a horse in a fairy tale.

  I’d been focused on our route...too focused. “You even polished its hooves? Trinity. The driver...he’ll know someone was back here.”

  “I’m not undoing it.” She bit her lip. “Does it matter if he knows?”

  I turned back to the trailer opening. “Not really. C’mon and climb over. He’s slowed for the gravel. I’ll go first.”

  I hit the rocks, skidded forward on the unstable surface, and rolled. Scraaape. Trinity touched down on the road. Cupping my forearm that bu
rned like fire ant bites, I skittered off the gravel and down the bank into the ditch.

  Trinity swiped a blob of red off her chin and handed me my backpack I’d dropped midroll. Our shoes rustled through the dry weeds toward the dull roar of traffic. Mammoth buildings huddled in the distance.

  Portland.

  ~*~

  Shelters lined the pavement where we walked. Heat radiated like the inside walls of a stone oven. I scouted for cover. How could we stay out of sight in such an open, busy mess of people, vehicles, and dwellings?

  “This is the City of Roses?” She nudged a dusty grate in the concrete with her toe.

  “Trinity, get behind.” I shoved her to the back of a plastic sign dominating the sidewalk. A leathery-faced female in faded green was closing in. A predator sniffing out prey. Her zigzagging path was a direct line that ended at us.

  She shuffled to a halt, inches away, and aimed an unsteady finger at Trinity. “You...you...freak. Jesus freak. I’ll...I’ll—”

  “Get away from her.” I squared my shoulders and gripped my invisible armor. “You have no power over us. Go!”

  The woman recoiled as if stabbed. “The army! The army has arrived.” She stumbled down the sidewalk in her knee-high boots. “The army. Fight her army...”

  When she rounded the side of a nearby building, I touched Trinity’s homemade sleeve. “She’s one of the thousands of workers Satan has stationed in this city, and even his weakest will spot you as a Christian from a block away because of how you’re dressed. You need camouflage.”

  “Different clothes? Like what the godless wear?”

  “Like I’m wearing.”

  “How?”

  I fingered Rebecca’s cream shirt. The greasy repellant spots. Crusty bits of blood from my scratched elbow. Car grime. One ruined shirt was not enough to share. Where did the godless get their factory-made clothes? At factories?

  This was the stuff Wolfe knew. Not me. Wolfe, whistling, pedaling away on his bicycle to buy my family a radio...from where? Wolfe, currently missing, possibly with Zechariah Brae...here in Portland? Dead?

  No.