I grabbed Danny’s arm as he stepped away from me. “Where’s Eddie?”
He turned and looked at me. “Saying goodbye to Cera.”
Oh no! The shock had to be evident across my face. “What?”
“Sniper shot,” he answered, shaking his head. “She was standing right beside Ava.”
I took a better look at Ava now and could see the bloodstains on her shirt and her heavily matted hair. Her hands were shaking, and her lips were trembling. I understood the sudden change in behavior now. That’s Cera’s blood all over her!
“Did I—was it—”
“No.” Danny shook his head. “She was shot from behind—other side of the peak. They were coming up that way too. Cera and Eddie had just caught up to us. There were two more guys with that sniper. They never even saw you.” Then Danny nodded at Blake. “It was he and Axel who saved you. I only took out the last two guys.”
I turned toward Blake and could see he was looking down too. No. “Axel?”
“He didn’t make it.” Flynn stepped up beside me and took my hand.
“That one might—” Danny cut himself short, turned away, and led Ava down the hill toward the stream.
“That one might, what?” Those three words cut through me like a cold knife. “Danny.” Was he going to say that one might have been my fault? That had certainly been the insinuation.
“Hayley.”
I heard someone say my name, but I was staring after Danny. He was going to say that.
“Hayley.” Blake grabbed me and shook me. “Hayley, forget about it.”
“But—”
“No, I mean it. I need you to hear this—this is God’s honest truth—if you hadn’t come down the hill like you did, they’d have come all the way up the hill and killed all of you. You drew their fire and allowed me to not only follow the gunfire here to you but to get in position behind them to pick them off. They gave up their advantage for a quick kill, and they didn’t get it. They didn’t get you.”
“But Axel—”
“I know, Hayley.” Blake was right in my face now. “It’s terrible. Axel, Cera, Keena, her brother…” Blake pointed at Flynn. “We’ve lost a lot of people in this … but this is all because of Lazzo. None of this is on you.”
Blake was suddenly silent, and that was what finally made me look at him. He was looking behind me. I turned and watched Eddie slowly approach us, sadness painted across his face. “He’s right.” Eddie looked at me, nodding his head. “This isn’t on anyone but Lazzo.”
Eddie walked past us, and we followed him down the hill to the stream, where Danny was helping Ava clean the blood off. He and Danny exchanged a quick hug, and Danny said, “I’m sorry.”
I watched Eddie nod, and I sat down on a rock by the stream. No matter what Blake had said, I knew I’d been careless. Danny wouldn’t even look at me now. He was probably mad at me for how I’d treated Ava and definitely for Axel’s death. Blake was going to talk to Danny for me, but I didn’t know how much difference that would make. I’d been stupid. Part of the blame for this was always going to be mine.
Flynn sat down beside me with a cup of water. “Drink,” she said. “You need it.”
“What have I done?” I whispered to her.
“Hayley, you have to listen to Blake,” she reasoned. “He’s right. If you hadn’t drawn them out, you’d probably all be dead. You’re extremely lucky you’re not!”
I knew that, but I wasn’t entirely grateful for that fact right now. It took me that long to ask her about her fall from the plane. I apologized to Flynn for not asking sooner.
She smiled. “Don’t worry about it. It hasn’t exactly been uneventful on your end either.”
“So what—what happened with your chute?”
“Obviously it didn’t open all the way. Somehow it got stuck. I thought for sure I was gone. Then suddenly Blake is beside me, and I’m wrapped around him, and he’s pulling his own chute. We were so low to the ground when his opened, probably only two hundred feet up or so, and we hit the trees so frickin’ hard. We crashed through the trees and hit the ground. Blake shielded me from almost everything. He has to be a lot more hurt than he’s letting on.” She stopped and looked over at him as he splashed water on his face. “It was really … incredible.”
I took the cap off the canteen Flynn had handed me and leaned over to fill it. Suddenly a large trout swam by. Whoa! I tapped Flynn, and she turned to watch it wiggle away. “I could so eat that right now.”
I laughed. “I’ve got some string here somewhere … but I’d need a hook.”
There was a lengthy pause as I drank from the canteen. I glanced up and saw Flynn nervously looking around. A slight smile twisted the corner of her lips. “Did you say you need a hooker?” She nodded toward Ava—mocking her earlier pillows comment. “Cause you can have mine.”
I almost snorted water out my nose. Inappropriate timing or not, I couldn’t help it. By the look on her face I knew Flynn didn’t know if it was okay to say that now—even to me. I smiled and raised an open palm up to her. “High five.”
She extended her own hand and clapped it against mine.
“That was perfect, Flynn.”
Blake came over to us then. “What was that all about?”
“Nothing.” I couldn’t look at Flynn. “What’s the plan, Blake?”
“I don’t know. Dan, what’re you thinking?”
Danny walked over to us. Eddie came with him. “Ava told me the Anaheim safe house is at Disneyland, about a hundred miles from here. I think we’ve got to try to get there. It’s a bomb shelter like all the others…we just have to figure out exactly where it is.”
“She doesn’t know?” I asked. “And it’s not in the book?”
Danny shook his head. “The book just says Anaheim. But she remembers her dad talking about it in the bunker—unfortunately no specifics other than the obvious.”
“Which is?”
“It’s underground.”
Of course.
“More importantly—now anyway,” he continued. “Those soldiers were on their radios. It’s going to be a zoo here soon. They’ll be coming up every road, filling the skies…”
“So what do we do?” Eddie asked.
“There’s only one other way down.” Blake looked at Danny, and my brother nodded—he already knew that. “We have to follow this stream over the cliff and down the valley. There won’t be anywhere to hide. A hundred naked people standing on the roof of the Astrodome wouldn’t be more exposed than we’ll be.” He let that analogy sink in. “On the other hand, the river is cold, and staying next to it could be our best defense against their THIRST thermal detectors.”
“So we don’t have a choice?”
“No, Eddie.” Danny shook his head. “Not if we have any hope of getting back to Hawaii before they shut down the Shield and blow the islands away.”
“Can’t you message them? You have that tablet, don’t—”
He didn’t let me finish. “I don’t have it anymore.”
“But, how did you—”
“Hayley, you have to just accept it, okay? I don’t have it. Doesn’t matter how, why, or anything. It’s the way it is.”
“Danny, what—” I stopped talking as he turned away from me and walked back toward Ava.
Blake grabbed my arm, keeping me from following him. “Let him go. He has a lot on his mind. Even though it feels personal, just let him get through this. He’s as pissed off as I’ve ever seen him right now. That’s probably to our advantage. Let him be.”
I nodded. I understood, even if I didn’t like it. “But he lost the tablet?”
Eddie suddenly spoke up. “I buried it with Cera. Danny asked me to turn it on and leave it with her.”
“Remember how he told us the GPS wasn’t working on it?” Blake asked me and I nodded. “Well, he’s not so sure about that now.”
That would explain how the soldiers found us so quickly. I suddenly felt terrible. I should
have just trusted Danny.
“Did he message Hawaii then?”
“No.” Blake zipped up his pack. “It was smashed, but if the GPS was working on it, he didn’t want anyone following us anymore.” He slung the pack over his shoulder. “We should get going.”
According to Blake, we were a couple miles south of Keller Peak in the San Bernardino Mountains, not far from Breakneck Creek—which descended from Big Bear Lake into the town of Redlands.
“There’s usually not a lot of water between Big Bear Lake and Redlands,” Blake said. He showed us on the map where Bear Creek ran all the way down the mountain from just beyond our location to the city of Redlands. “But this is the greenest I’ve ever seen this place in summer,” he continued. “There was such a terrible drought last time I was here. Has to be a strong El Nino year.”
The El Nino reference meant little or nothing to the rest of us. It looked and felt like we were still in Colorado. Guess I really take green for granted. Blake told us the government had built a dam at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains, a few miles northeast of Riverside. That’s where all the streams and roads intersected coming out of the mountains—and where he expected the most troops to be waiting. That’s where we were heading.
I wasn’t sure how we’d get to Disneyland from Redlands, or if we even could, but I knew I had to take this one step at a time—all six of us did. Danny repacked his first-aid kit and stood, helping Ava to her feet. “Ready?” he asked me.
“Yes.” I nodded and helped Flynn up. “Danny, I’m sorry for—”
“Forget about it.”
I nodded and remembered Blake’s advice. Just let him go.
Blake took point—leading the way carefully down the rocky stream. Danny’s last words before we followed Blake were ominous ones. “Remember, guys…they’re still looking for us.”
FIFTY-EIGHT – Six Feet Under
Shortly After 10:00 p.m.
---------- (Wednesday. August 10, 2022.) ----------
The mud and rubble covering the ground floor of the pink house was deep. It was heavy. It was not moving. The four members of the Pack struggled to clear out an area they could dig in. They were trying to break through the concrete to reach the cell below, but they were having little luck. Deacon and Royce kept sweeping mud and water away, while Trigger and Twix pounded at the floor with rocks as hammers and steel rods as chisels. They chipped away an inch or so every five minutes. It wasn’t enough.
Trigger dropped the large rock he was holding. “Guys, we’ve got less than a half-hour until they’re out of oxygen in there. We’re going to have to blow this damn thing.”
“That’s a stupid idea,” Royce disagreed. “We’ll kill them all.”
“Or make them all permanently deaf,” Deacon added.
“What choice do we have?” Trigger asked. “We’re not going to get through another foot, two, or three and probably rebar with just these stupid rocks. That’s not happening.”
“Say we blow it,” Twix chimed in as he continued to pound at the floor. “How do you see this going, Trigger?”
“Best-case scenario? We find a corner of the floor as far away from where they are as possible and blow it open. We dig out that area to get the water to flow out and create some breathing room in there. That buys us time.”
“What if it caves the whole roof in?” Royce was unconvinced. “That’s what might happen.”
“It could happen,” Trigger admitted. “I’m no explosives expert.”
“But maybe just part of it caves in,” Twix offered. “Maybe it gets us in there.”
Trigger held up the TNT he’d brought along. “We’ve only got one shot, y’all. It doesn’t work—or it works too well and—”
“I don’t like it.” Deacon shook his head, but anticipating the response of the others, he held up his hand. “But … I don’t see a better option.”
They set about finding a corner of the house as far from the cell as they could get and began furiously digging. They needed to get deep enough and chip into the floor enough to plant the explosive so it would at least rip that corner out. With only minutes to spare, they had dug about five inches down into the floor and set up the explosives. There was a chance the girls or Sam could already be out of air.
Trigger decided he needed to swim down the tunnel and into the basement. He needed to be underwater when it exploded to be able to help immediately from underneath if he could. It was another element of the plan the others hated, but it could actually be the lifesaver for everyone trapped down there.
“When I dive under, wait forty seconds, then light that fuse. It should only be a ten- to fifteen-second fuse. I need to try to reach them to get them to plug their ears. You guys need to clear out, then get to this corner as quick as you can to make sure that water drains out.”
Everyone confirmed they were on the same page. They traded quick hugs and fist bumps and then Trigger was in the water. When he disappeared, Twix started his watch. At forty seconds, he tried to light the fuse, but it was wet—it wouldn’t light.
Twix didn’t panic, but he knew he was losing valuable time, and Trigger was down there holding his breath. His watch passed the minute mark.
Underwater, Trigger had reached the cell bars. He grabbed Reagan and pulled her right up next to his face. He couldn’t see her clearly through the murky water, but he hoped she could see him. He gestured for her to plug her ears and get to the far corner of the cell. She swam away—pulling Sam and the girls with her. Trigger grabbed on to the cell bars, bracing himself for the explosion he was expecting any second.
It didn’t come when it should have though, and with each passing second he feared it might not come at all. He was going to have to make a choice to swim away from the bars—toward the dynamite—to get back out the tunnel, or hold on until he ran out of air. If he swam toward the tunnel and it exploded, he was likely dead. If he held on and the explosion never came, he’d die down here with the others. He decided he was staying. It was up to Twix to detonate the explosives.
Twix ran for his pack and ripped it open, pulling out a flare. He fired it up and sprinted back to the explosive device, tipping the flare down toward the wick. It lit immediately, but halfway down the wick. Twix stood to run away, but he only made it three steps before the dynamite exploded. It launched him through the air and ripped a huge hole in the corner of the building. Water exploded out of that corner like the spout of a whale, and Deacon and Royce ran to dig it out more. They hadn’t seen Twix after the explosion but couldn’t afford to look for him yet. They cleared a three-by-three foot hole and the water level dropped enough to create a foot of air space in the basement, but Trigger hadn’t emerged yet.
Deacon yelled at Royce, “I’m going in. Find Twix.”
Deacon dropped into the water and swam toward the cell. Once there, he felt his way along the bars until he found Trigger’s limp body. Somehow Trigger’s head was safely above water. It only took a second to discover how. Sam was holding him up.
After the explosion, Sam had swum from the back wall to the bars, hoping to find a way through. Finding none, he’d nonetheless found Trigger unconscious and lifted him up to the air space above the water. “Get him out of here,” Sam yelled, clearly unable to hear himself—his ears likely ringing from the explosion. Deacon gave him a thumbs-up and pulled Trigger toward the opening. He made it to the corner and called out for Royce.
Royce had found Twix, also unconscious and bleeding profusely from the head. Royce tore a sleeve off his shirt and wrapped Twix’s head with that, checking him for any other wounds. He heard Deacon yelling for him and checked once more to make sure Twix was breathing before hurrying back to the corner. He helped lift Trigger out of the water as Trigger coughed and came to. He lay on his side in the mud, spitting up water as Royce held him up.
“Did it work?” Trigger finally gasped.
“I think so.” Royce looked down at Deacon. “This rain isn’t helping, but it’s still
coming out faster than it’s going in.”
“Twix?” Trigger asked.
“Over there.” Royce pointed. “He got knocked out, but he should be fine too. All good down there?”
“No clue.” Trigger shook his head and slowly sat up.
Deacon swam back over to the bars. “Everyone okay?”
“What?” Sam yelled back.
It was a little lighter in the room now, thanks to the hole in the corner, but still not enough to where Sam could make out the words Deacon was mouthing to him. Finally Deacon heard a female voice. “We’re okay.” Reagan pulled herself up beside them. “I’ve got both girls with me. Neither of them can hear anything either though. That explosion really rattled our heads. I was the only one still plugging my ears when it went off, and my ears are still ringing.”
“You’re lucky.” Deacon smiled at her.
“Speaking of luck, how did this happen?” Reagan splashed the water with her hand. “What’s all this water? What happened to the soldiers?”
“Tsunami. It wiped everything out, flooded the whole place. Your captors never had a chance or warning with all the defense systems down.”
“Holy crap…”
“We’re not out of this yet, Reagan. But as long as you guys can hold yourselves above water, we’ll eventually pop the lid off this thing.”
“We’re good.” Reagan reached out and took Deacon’s hand. “I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Deacon laughed. “We’re almost there.”
Two hours later, they had dug their way through the original hole in the roof—directly over the cell—creating a gap big enough to lift the four of them out. The girls were lifted out first, and they shrieked and clapped like they’d won Survivor. Reagan was lifted out next, and she wrapped her arms tightly around each member of the Pack, planting a huge kiss on each of them, followed by the most sincere and emotional “thank you.” Sam was pulled up last, and finally they could ask him how he’d survived—though it took them multiple tries before he could read their lips correctly.
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