by TW Brown
Now that the sun was gone, he could see into the shadows of the country club enough to know that there were still sentries out. He wasn’t sure if whoever was in charge in there had made the decree after two of their own came up missing, but it was ‘lights out’ inside the huge building.
Eventually he came to the tree-lined path that would lead up to the country club’s small bar, not surprisingly named ‘The Nineteenth Hole’. As expected, there were two sentries here as well. Here is where the plan’s success hinged. Kevin was able to get within ten yards of the doorway and remain unseen.
He squatted down and pulled the six bottles from his knapsack. It took him a while to unwrap them. Willa had insisted that they bundle them with cut up blankets to prevent breakage or noise. His hands didn’t want to do exactly as he directed because, despite even the best gloves, his hands had gotten cold and were slightly numb. Next he pulled out the collapsible wind screen. After he dug a small pit in the snow and lined up the bottles, he wedged the screen into place.
The idea was to keep his location a secret for as long as possible. Of course, if the sentries were paying serious attention, then this entire elaborate set up was all for naught. Willa said that it was typical for the folks on the night watch to be lulled into a bit of a stupor by the lack of activity.
Kevin thumbed the wheel of the lighter. The rasp of flint and steel sounded like an explosion in his ears. He looked up and instantly remembered Willa’s other word of caution.
“Don’t look into the flame when you light it,” she warned. “You are gonna lose your night vision any way, but every extra second that you can be aware of your surroundings is to your benefit.”
He also remembered his response. “I know!”
At least he didn’t hear anybody yelling or sounding any sort of alarm. Once Kevin lit the first two Molotov’s he snatched them up. He cocked his arm and launched the first one. It sailed high and slammed into the wall just a few feet away from the entry.
In the flash of near blinding light, Kevin saw both of the sentries duck and dive away from the flames. Human instinct is a wonderful thing. No matter how well trained most people believe themselves to be, the instinct of self-preservation kicks in on its own before training and discipline has a chance.
Kevin didn’t wait to admire his work for more than a second before he hurled his second fire bomb. There was a crash of glass and an orange glow began to illuminate what had once been a huge dining and reception room. As he knelt down to grab the next two, he heard a muffled cry. When he looked up, a third shadow had joined the sentries—that would be Willa.
Selecting another large window to the right, Kevin hurled one and then another of his Molotovs, and then quickly scooped up the last two. This would be the trickiest part, and also the part where he might unknowingly injure his friends. He targeted the second-floor balcony windows of the spire-topped circular portion. The first one crashed into the railing and Kevin adjusted his second throw accordingly.
The flaming missile smashed through the window and an additional crash was heard seconds later. Just as he’d tossed that last one—the entire operation had taken less than twenty seconds up to this point, but felt like an eternity—the guards from the front of the building came running around the corner. That was his cue; Kevin turned and ran back into the woods that bordered the long fairway.
He had gotten a decent distance when he heard the yelps. That would be the trip line he had strung between several of the trees catching at least one of his pursuers. A few seconds later, he heard a yelp of pain. That would be Willa nailing one of his pursuers in the back with her crossbow. She had made it clear that she would try and take a couple of shots if the sentries went after him and didn’t bother to look back her way.
They still had no idea how many people they were dealing with, and any chance to pare down the numbers had to be taken. Kevin ducked just before he reached the edge of the tree line. This was the most dangerous part for him. He would have to run all the way across the open ground of the dog leg. He hoped that he’d built enough of a lead.
As he reached the halfway point, he heard a strangled cry as another of his pursuers apparently ‘discovered’ the line he had rigged at about throat level. He dove into the waist-high, snow-covered shrubs when the first arrows flew past. The solid ‘thok’ of one of the projectiles burying itself into the trunk of a nearby tree made Kevin scramble to his hands and knees and keep moving.
He knew that there was no way he would be able to give his pursuers the slip. His only hope was that Willa had everything handled on her end. A few moments of running in the snow was worse than an hour of just plain running, and his lungs were on fire. He came out into the open once more and took stock of his position. As he passed a ball washer, he cut left and saw the long, gentle downhill slope just ahead.
His mind went back to one of his favorite James Bond movies, For Your Eyes Only. There was a really great chase on skis where Roger Moore’s hair barely moves. What he was about to do would not be nearly as cool, but he was willing to put it up on the fun-meter with the water slide scene from The Goonies.
He spied his target and veered just slightly. Grabbing the Snow Disc, he took two more steps and flung himself forward, landing belly first on the round, metallic disc and taking off down the hill. He kept his feet up just enough so as not to drag in the snow and slow him down. A glance over his shoulder allowed him to see three dark forms reach the crest of the hill. He was almost in the clear. Kevin looked forward just in time to notice that we was starting to veer towards the small frozen pond to his left. Leaning slightly, he corrected his course.
As the slope leveled out, he coasted to a stop. He did not see the trio of pursuers any longer. That could be good or bad. However, there was a pronounced glow back towards the country club. The fire had caught, and if he could make his judgment based solely on the brightness, he would guess that it was well past out of control. He just hoped that all of his people made it out. In the back of his mind, he still struggled with taking such a drastic measure, but Willa said that it was either this, or else leave them to their fate. When Kevin had asked about going back to her people for help, her explanation had been simple.
“Every single day you give them allows the possibility of something happening to Valarie. Didn’t you say that you heard she might be in danger? Besides, the more pieces you add to our puzzle, the more complicated you make it. Haven’t you ever seen the movie Red Dawn? A couple of motivated rebels can accomplish a lot.”
“Didn’t they all die in the end?” Kevin had asked.
“Lea Thompson and that other boy live,” Willa shrugged.
Kevin couldn’t argue with logic like that. He kept pushing on until he reached the wall. He tossed his knapsack over and hauled himself up. He lost his footing when he landed and submerged under the snow. He surfaced and found himself face-to-face with a zombie. It was close enough for him to smell the rot coming from its putrid innards and he gagged.
C’mon,” Kevin sighed. “You guys are hardly around for days…and you just happen to be here?” He drew his knife and drove it into the eye.
Getting to his feet, it was a bit more of the tougher going until he reached the highway. At least there he had the numerous tracks made from those who had taken his home. He glanced again over his shoulder and was surprised to see flames shooting skyward. He heard a popcorn sound and it took a moment before he realized that it was probably ammunition cooking off. The fact that there wasn’t much noise meant that they either got the majority of it out of the building, or they simply didn’t have all that much to begin with. He hoped it was the latter.
“Kevin!” a voice whispered from the darkness ahead.
He veered towards that voice and found Willa leaning against the side of a house. He was only slightly relieved to see her as out of breath as he was at the moment.
“We need to get moving,” she said between gasps for air.
“And how will we know if
my friends are okay?” Kevin asked as he followed Willa into the garage to put on the skis.
“We won’t,” Willa said. “At least not right away.”
“So what do we do next?”
“We wait.” Willa fastened her bindings and made her way out to the driveway. “But right now, we need to get out of here.”
They had selected a distant farmhouse that sat far enough back from everything but high enough up on a slight ridge to allow them to keep an eye out. They couldn’t actually see the highway from the house, but it was a simple matter of crossing the yard and weaving through some trees. They would keep watch in shifts.
***
Two days had passed. Kevin had taken the first watch after promising that he wouldn’t ‘run off on some fool mission’ if he saw something. The fire had burned most of the night. By dawn, it was a wisp of gray smoke curling skyward. The winds had died down to nothing, so the column had risen high and then seemed to flatten like it had been squashed flat with a giant hammer.
Now, as he stood leaning against the sturdy trunk of one of many in a grove of some generic looking deciduous trees. He was beginning to doubt Willa really had a plan. Every single time that he approached her, she simply said that it was not the time. He’d begun to wonder about the peculiar convenience of meeting her when he did. And then there was the deal about her unit of women.
He struggled with the seed of doubt in his mind that had given way to a weed infested garden. He’d read the books…seen the movies. This was starting to pan out like some elaborate scheme. The only problem was that he couldn’t rationalize why anybody would go to the trouble for him and his friends.
With sunset an hour away, he decided that it was time to start taking things into his own hands. Willa would come out to relieve him soon. When she did, he would give her a dose of her own medicine. An hour into her watch, he would make his move. He would slip out and make his way back to the country club.
A hand on his shoulder made him jump.
“You want to get us killed?” Willa whispered.
“Huh?”
She grabbed his shoulders and turned him about forty-five degrees to the left. At the entrance to the housing development that they had escaped through, a group of the soldiers were gathering around one of the now-useless streetlight poles. They had placed a ladder beside it and one of their group was climbing.
Kevin watched as the person tossed a rope over the extended arm that had the light mounted at its end. The group at the bottom stood in a cluster waiting for the climber to come down. Kevin didn’t realize that he had started moving forward until Willa grabbed him and yanked him back.
“Stay put,” she hissed.
“What are they doing?” Kevin felt his throat tighten. He knew what he was seeing, but he was trying his hardest to make himself believe that he was wrong.
“Shut up!” Willa hissed. “They are trying to draw you…us…out into the open.”
Even from this distance he recognized the coat. A sick feeling filled his stomach. He’d met some despicable people since this whole thing had begun. He’d met people who had done things that he did not imagine possible. However, this…this was simply more than he could stand.
He yanked away from Willa and his eyes widened when his fears were confirmed. He recognized that coat. Valarie never went anywhere without it on. He couldn’t see her face from this distance. Actually, he couldn’t see much of anything because the so-called soldiers were all gathered around. One of them draped the noose over the hooded figure and then three of them hauled on the rope, hoisting the helpless figure in the air. It swayed back and forth and Kevin could tell that the arms and legs had been bound.
The group yelled and cheered and made all kinds of noise. The legs were barely three feet off the ground. They were hoping for zombies. Kevin could have told them they were wasting their time. Valarie was immune to the bite, but since she’d already been bitten—numerous times at that—she would turn soon after death.
A surge of emotion filled him and Kevin decided that he no longer cared if he lived or died. Shoving Willa back, Kevin drew his sword. His mind did not bother him with the futility of going after several men with bows while carrying nothing more than a knife.
“Kevin, no!” Willa pleaded.
“Go to hell,” he snarled. He took two more steps and never actually felt the blow to the back of his head. All he knew was that somebody had turned up the brightness on his vision in a hurry; and just as quickly…everything went dark.
***
Kevin felt sick. He wanted to open his eyes, but he had already tried it once and the room had flipped on its side causing him to blow chunks. He felt somebody wipe at him with a warm, wet cloth and decided to just stay still for the time being.
While he waited for the woogy feeling to pass, he flexed his hands and was surprised to discover that they were not bound. The next problem was trying to figure out why he would have expected them to be. He began to search his memory, but it was a bit hazy.
He could see images start to form in his mind’s eye, but then they would vanish like the sun behind a cloud. One picture kept trying to force its way in…a face. He knew that face. He knew the name. Sara? Valarie? Why couldn’t he decide on which was correct? It wasn’t like they were similar.
As he sat with his back against a wall, Kevin continued to focus. He kept seeing scenes from some of his favorite movies pop in with a clarity that almost disturbed him. And he started realizing that he hadn’t seen any of these scenes in any movie.
“Oh, God,” he moaned. It was real! And just like that, the past few months came pouring back. In the middle of the memory pile-up was his sister…and Valarie.
Kevin’s eyes opened and the room swam. He felt the cold sweat break out on his face as he struggled to keep from heaving again. The face a few feet from him took a few seconds to match up with a name floating around in the soup of his memory.
“What did you do, Willa?” Kevin said through clenched teeth.
“I couldn’t let you go,” Willa said in a choked whisper. “You wouldn’t have made it anyway. It was too far away and done before you—”
“You don’t…have that right!” The first words came out at almost a yell. He squeezed his eyes shut tight as if that would also help force the bile rising in his throat back down to his stomach where it belonged.
“Look beside you,” Willa said with a nod of her head.
Kevin looked and actually tried to push himself away from what sat next to him on the floor. The first thing he recognized was the coat. It was definitely Valarie’s. However, that was it. Other than that, it was only a bunch of clothing. He looked at Willa with a question etched on his face.
“Snow,” she said. “They stuffed a bunch of her clothes with snow, put her jacket on it, and then strung it up.”
“So she isn’t…” Kevin’s throat burned and tears spilled from his eyes.
“Dead?” Willa asked. “I have no idea, but I can’t imagine they would have gone through all of this trouble if she was.”
“So then what the hell was all that about?”
“It was about what you almost gave them,” Willa said matter-of-factly. “They were trying to draw you out for some reason.”
“Why?”
“I have no idea,” Willa said with a shrug.
Kevin leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes again. He tried to make sense of what could possibly be the motivation behind such an act.
“Go change,” Willa said.
Kevin went to stand and the room tilted. He slid back down against the wall. “I’ll wait.”
He eventually reached the point where he could keep his eyes open without feeling sick. By the time he was able to stand, the room had become noticeably darker. At some point, Willa had gone back outside to keep watch. As he sat there, things came back. At first it was just in bits and pieces, but eventually he was able to recall everything…or at least he thought so.
&nbs
p; Making his way into one of the bedrooms, he saw a bunch of their stuff laid out like it had been gone through. He couldn’t worry about that now, he needed to focus. First he peeled out of his sick-fouled clothes and wiped himself off as best he could. He didn’t put too much effort into it because he really didn’t care.
Once he was dressed, he grabbed a few things and stuffed them into his knapsack. A quick peek out of the room confirmed that it was still empty. Good, he thought, I don’t need much of a head start, but every bit helps. He walked on tip toe until he realized how silly it was with her outside and him in.
He opened the back door and had an immediate appreciation for how warm the fire in the bathtub was keeping the house. It was cold enough to hurt his teeth when he breathed. Kevin had never really been one to wear scarves before, but they had become a valued part of his wardrobe lately.
He made his way across the back yard as carefully as possible. The surface of the snow was a hard crust that broke instead of just being smooshed underfoot. A few times, he’d had to actually tap hard with the heel of his foot to break through. By the time he reached the trees, he was starting to question his wisdom. His head still throbbed a bit, and he probably should have eaten something before taking off.
He kept his mind occupied with the importance of taking one more step…then one more step…and so on. A good bit of time passed when he found himself at the edge of the trees and looking down a pretty steep slope. The moon lit up a frozen stream below and was so bright that even the crystalized moisture from his breath sparkled like tiny diamonds. He couldn’t feel his nose, and his eyelashes felt like they stuck just a bit when he blinked.
When he reached the bottom of the hill, he had to look around a bit and get his bearings. It took him just a few seconds to figure out where he was, and he quickly set off for the golf course. As he moved along the highway, he crossed over and stayed in the shadows. On the off chance that Willa had not come inside from her watch to discover his absence, he did not want to reveal himself to her.
