by Kate Morris
“I was so scared. Are you all right?”
“Fine, sis,” he says with a low level of patience. “I’m just fine. No holes, see?”
He stands back so that she can look at him.
“That’s not funny, you jerk!” she hisses. Then she takes his hand in hers and asks, “What the heck happened, Simon?”
“We’re about to go over it,” he tells her.
“I’m glad Sam’s here, too,” she says, looking over at her little friend hugging John around his waist.
“Yes, she was shaken up. I don’t think she’s even been to bed yet. Dave said it might be a good time to take a break from the farm for a few hours and get her out of there…”
She interrupts and asks, “Was she hurt?”
“No, no. She’s just upset. She didn’t want to leave, though, but Dave ordered it. She’s been through a lot the last few weeks.”
“I heard. Cory told us about her friend,” Paige says, referring to Sam’s friend who committed suicide. “That’s so horrible.”
“Dave said the change of scenery might be good for her for a few days. She wasn’t too happy about it, but his word is the final one.”
“What about you? Did you get any rest yet?”
“Not a wink,” he says with a grin. “We were on edge afterward, nobody slept. I stayed up in the top of the barn on sniper watch with Dave’s sniper. Some of the others went looking for the people who attacked us.”
“What about the wounded?”
He frowns, “Yes, that was difficult. I helped Sam’s uncle and their nurse and Sam with them. We lost a woman, and one of Dave’s men is still in critical condition. It doesn’t look too good, though. Her uncle’s keeping a close eye on him.”
“That’s terrible.”
“It could’ve been a lot worse. Dave’s place is definitely a compound, though. It’s hard to penetrate it. They gave it a good effort, but they didn’t get in. If they ever come back, they might breach. If they come with the numbers they say they have.”
“I’m just glad you and Sam are safe.”
“Yes, she’s fine. I left her with her uncle when it happened, forced her to stay put. She’ll probably stay here a few days and want to go back, though.”
Her brother scoffs at this. He certainly doesn’t seem to think Sam should return to the compound. Neither does Paige. Samantha belongs on the McClane farm. Heck, she’s more of a McClane than Paige. She’s lived here longer and has a deeper connection with the family.
“Unless, of course, Dave says no. He runs the place, and nobody naysays him. His word is final.”
“Yeah, I guess it is because she’s here and not there. I’m glad, though. I miss her a lot. Did everything… work out with you two?”
“Yes, fine,” he answers noncommittally. Then her brother pulls his bag from the back of the truck.
“Brought home my dirty laundry for you to wash,” he teases with a wink.
Paige scowls at him as Dave’s men, including Henry, join the McClane clan gathering near the picnic table in the side yard.
“We’ve set up a roadblock on either end of our road now,” Dave tells them after explaining the attack.
“Good idea,” Kelly says.
“Also got an LPOP going full-time.”
Reagan asks, “What’s that mean?”
Dave looks directly at her and says, “Listening Post, Observation Post. It’s essential to keep an eye out for them to return.”
Henry adds, “They got away too quickly last night, and we weren’t able to find them. That won’t happen again.”
John punches his fist to Henry’s and nods. There is an intensity in John’s eyes that frightens her. He is out for blood in this. Paige would rather they avoid them instead.
“Did you get the impression that they knew who you were? That they had intel on us?” Kelly asks.
“No, I think it was random. They were just looking for stuff to steal, people to rob. It was definitely them. Same modus operandi,” Dave answers.
Cory says, “This sounds like a job for high explosives.”
“Absolutely,” Dave says. “As soon as we locate their hovel, we’ll use the application of all the little tricks we know.”
He grins, and the men laugh. Paige does not. She is too stressed out about the idea of her brother and Cory going into this battle. It’s enough he was in it last night.
By the time the meeting wraps, Paige is more worried than she was last night. One woman from his compound was killed and a few of his soldiers badly injured. Dave’s men are as trained as the McClane men. If it could happen to them, the family is in danger, as well. This is bad, really, really bad. These people are figuring out where the farms are in the area, the compounds like Dave’s. They could find them next. They’d tracked Cory and left a threatening message. Her brother was in a battle last night. All the old fears she used to have while on the road come back in a swoosh of panic through her system. Her palms sweat, her heart races, and she feels lightheaded.
They agree to keep a tighter security schedule. This is the one thing that both camps agree on. Dave says that he’ll start night runs to look for the highwaymen. John and Derek agree to do the same. Little does Dave know, Cory’s apparently already been doing this.
“We’ll set an ambush, like we talked about before, Derek,” Dave says.
John nods, “As soon as we know if their claim of having six hundred men proves true or false. I want intel first.”
“Agreed,” Dave says with a firm nod. “Then we go on the offensive. Take them out.”
“If they have that many men,” Herb speculates, “how could we ever defeat them? We’d be grossly outnumbered.”
“Not necessarily,” Kelly insists.
Reagan says, “I don’t understand. How the hell would we not be outnumbered?”
“Let’s just get the information on their numbers first. We verify that, then we go after them.”
Reagan doesn’t question him further but lets it go. Paige is also curious why the men don’t consider being so heavily outnumbered is a disadvantageous situation.
Dave and his men leave a short time later. She’s sure they are in a hurry to get back to their farm. They have many people to keep safe and their compound to defend. Those men could come back tonight if they choose. She watches Henry hug Sam at the side of their truck, and there is something in the way that he touches her cheek that seems intimate to Paige. Her brother glares openly and hops down from the floor of the porch where he’d been sitting with her waiting for them to leave. Paige quickly follows and grabs his arm. She shakes her head.
“What are you doing?” she demands.
“Did you see that? The way he just touched her? Asshole,” he hisses under his breath.
“You don’t like him? I thought you wanted her to find someone and be happy.”
Something Henry says causes Sam to laugh. It’s a good thing. Her little friend does seem depressed. Simon’s jaw flexes.
“Don’t go over there and start something, Simon. You look like you want to.”
“I want to do more than that,” her brother confides through gritted teeth.
“You can’t, Simon,” she tells him. “You have to let Sam decide for herself. She’s an adult. We can’t tell her she isn’t allowed to be with Henry. Besides, he seems nice.”
“Nice,” he says with a snort.
Dave’s men mount up and leave. At least Sam stays, which gives her some relief. Herb insists that her brother and Samantha both go and get some rest. Simon heads for the cabin. More accurately, he stomps away to the cabin in a huff of rage. Sam doesn’t seem to notice and goes upstairs to her shared bedroom with Paige. The rest of the family proceeds to have a planning meeting about the highwaymen. Cory is ready to leave and find them by himself, but his brother manages to get him calmed down. Reagan is barely able to manage her own feelings, as well. John does less to calm his wife. He looks fit to be tied, too. Everyone is on edge, thirsty for revenge o
f their fallen friends and the many innocent people they’ve found murdered on the road. Paige is the only one who is ready and willing to flee to another area, somewhere maybe a few hundred miles away and start over there. This is the only way she knows to survive because it’s what worked for her and her friends.
“Six hundred,” John says with a heavy sigh. “That’s a lot more than we’d figured.”
“Too many,” Reagan is quick to say.
Paige couldn’t agree more. These people are well organized and have the numbers to wipe them all out.
“Dave’s right,” Derek says. “We need to find them first, find their permanent camp or house or farm or town, whatever they’ve got. We can’t just go by some idiot they questioned. The guy could’ve been lying his ass off just to intimidate us.”
“I agree,” Kelly puts in. “We need more intel. We can’t assume the numbers are right. We have to find them, scout it out first. Let’s not plan an ambush just yet, not if they’ve got those kinds of numbers.”
“We’ve fought worse odds,” John says quietly.
Paige believes him to be ready to take off after them just like Cory. Those two barely keep their tempers in check most of the time anyway. John may be a loving father and devoted husband, but he’s also a trained soldier and killer. Paige has seen his darker side. The ferocity with which he fights is only matched by the intensity of his feelings for protecting his family and the love he has for his wife.
“True,” his brother agrees. “But this might bear further looking into.”
“I still don’t understand how we’d ever sack six hundred people, John,” Reagan persists.
Her husband looks at Derek and then back at her without answering.
“What?” she asks.
“There are ways. Depending on what their compound looks like and how many of them there really are, we could do it.”
Kelly adds, “Don’t forget, Little Doc, there are people in town, Paul and K-Dog, allies of ours who will want to be involved, too. It’s not just us few men with Dave’s.”
“True,” she says but frowns heavily.
Paige isn’t so sure if fifty of them, if that’s a better number, could defeat six hundred.
“Simon told me that the two men they held for questioning were wearing Kevlar and night-vision and had good weapons,” Derek says. “I think that’s something we need also to consider.”
“They’re more organized than most we’ve come up against, too,” Cory adds.
“Right,” John says. “They’re organized, outfitted for the job, and have mobility. It won’t be easy.”
“What are our other options, other than fighting them?” Sue asks.
“We allow them to continue to kill people, and when they accidentally discover the farm, kill us, too,” John snarls.
He is losing his patience with them. Paige can see it in him that he wants this fight badly. He wants to eliminate the threat from their community.
Sue nods and refrains from commenting further.
Derek pats her hand on the picnic table and says, “We don’t go in blind. We never do. Let’s see if we can’t set up an intel mission tonight. John, maybe you and Cory could go. I’ll take watch duty with Kelly and Luke.”
“I can help, too,” Huntley says, standing near Cory.
“Good,” Derek says, surprising Paige that he would do so. Huntley’s only fourteen and a half. Having him on watch duty is a big responsibility.
“I could go tonight, too,” Paige offers, wanting to help.
“Maybe tomorrow night if we don’t find them,” John allows.
The men go back to planning their mission for the night while Paige follows Reagan and her sisters to the garden where they weed and hoe it. The discussion while they work focuses on the highwaymen and concentrates on their concerns about their men battling it out with them. Hannah is even with them wearing dark sunglasses and a wide brim hat to shield her delicate eyes. She is worried about her husband and brothers-in-law. Reagan is concerned that John and Cory will engage these highwaymen tonight if they find them. Paige also has concerns about this. She’s glad Simon was asleep during the meeting or else he might’ve wanted to tag along. Sue is unusually quiet, which leads Paige to assume she is too distressed to discuss the matter with them. She knows the feeling well. Just thinking about her brother being in harm’s way last night when he was so far away makes her feel a panic attack coming on.
An hour later when they finish up, Paige is ready to start packing her bags and fetching her brother to leave with her. It’s the first time since coming to the farm that her desire to run is this strong.
Chapter Eleven
Sam
Everything went along nicely that day. She rode with Huntley before dinner, helped the girls prepare the meal, played with the little ones, and successfully avoided seeing Simon until dinner was served. All in all, it was a good day on the farm. However, the next day went a lot worse. Actually, it could best be described in Sam’s opinion as all hell breaking loose.
The men did not locate the highwaymen’s lair last night, so they will go again tonight. Sam would like to tag along with them. She’s also curious about these people who would attack the compound on Henry’s farm and people on the road. She doesn’t at all understand why they are doing it. There is enough pain and anguish in the world without adding more to it. So many questions surround these people. Where are their families? Is it just men living on their compound, wherever it is? Why are they attacking people?
“Grandpa’s going to Fort Knox next week,” Huntley says from the back of his paint mare.
They are riding through the woods about six miles from the farm. Cory is guiding them, and they are scouting for anything they can find that would give them a clue where the highwaymen are traveling and if they are close to their farm. The woods are dense and sometimes difficult to maneuver in, which Cory says could be a good place for people to hide. It scares her that they could be living this close to them and that they never knew it.
“Really?” Sam asks, surprised. “Why?”
G answers for him, which causes Huntley to roll his eyes. “He’s going to see my dad. He wants to check on his health and his camp and see if they know anything about the attacks.”
“Oh,” Sam says. This will worry her. Grandpa shouldn’t leave the farm on such a long trip. It’s dangerous. The highwaymen are still out there, and he could be harmed or put in danger.
“I know, right?” G says, reading Sam’s reaction so expertly. “Totally not worth the trip.”
Gretchen is riding alongside her brother, who is quiet, probably thinking about the same thing Sam is questioning. She and Lucas have both become proficient riders and seem to enjoy it.
Cory calls to them from a hundred yards away in an open field. Sam takes the opportunity to bump her favorite mare into a gentle canter. The rest naturally follow suit since horses do not like to be left behind when traveling together. They trail after Cory into the woods again.
Her big brother hops down from his stallion and squats. Cory points to the ground in front of him. “Look here, Hunt. Tracks. This might be what we’ve been looking for.”
Sam also dismounts to get a better look and hooks her reins to the low branch of a maple tree. Huntley is touching the ground in front of him.
“See here?” Cory instructs, pointing with a stick. “They’re not that fresh, but you can see them anyway. I’d say four-wheelers, maybe three or four. There’s also human footprints, many different sets.”
“And broken twigs on some of the trees,” Lucas says as he touches one near them. “Yeah, not fresh. Probably a few months old if I were to guess.”
“How do you know that?” his sister asks.
“Look, G, the branch is no longer green inside, but brown and dead looking.”
“Hm,” Gretchen says in response.
Huntley tells Cory, “No small prints. No children or women.”
Cory nods, “Good. I was hopi
ng you’d notice that, too.”
Sam asks, “Think it’s them?”
“Could be. Let’s follow it,” Cory says.
They all mount up again, and this time Sam rides next to Cory.
“Where does this go?” she asks of their new path.
“Not sure,” he says. “I think it will eventually run into Pleasant View, but it looks like they took a turn west up ahead.”
Sam spots the area he means where it opens back up into a short patch of what was probably a hay field at one time. They ride through the field and end up going slightly north into another section of forest. There are clouds on the horizon which look like they may become displeased with the world and dispense rain later today, but she hopes it holds off until they get back home.
“Keep your heads up,” he warns. “Watch for signs of danger.”
Sam nods firmly, sits deeper into her saddle, and tightens her reins. The mare responds immediately by slowing her pace and stepping gingerly around a fallen tree branch. Horses intuit a human’s anxiety and react in accordance with their rider.
They follow the broken branches, footprints and smashed down flora for probably two miles until it comes to a road, or what’s left of a road.
“Wait here with G and watch our backs, Sam,” he orders and motions for Luke and Huntley to follow him.
Sam knows he is being cautious of them all going out into the open. She watches as they ride down the road that is merely the suggestion of blacktop now, nature having taken root and sprung many offspring. Her mare prances twice beneath her, but Sam is able to bring her under thumb easily enough. She pats her neck for her good behavior.
“This is freaking crazy,” G whispers to her with wide, hazel eyes.
“Why?”
“What the hell are we gonna do if we run into them?”
Sam doesn’t answer but looks away. She knows what they’ll do. If they are spotted, it will end in a fight. If they aren’t seen, then they will return to the farm unharmed. That is precisely how scouting missions go. They never know what the outcome will be, but they are all heavily armed.
