Fire in the Woods

by Jennifer M. Eaton

  The camera zipped back under the door and disappeared. David slammed open the glass sliders, and his grip tightened around my waist as he jumped over the railing. The sensation of my stomach falling out from under me seemed to last for minutes. My ponytail flapped in the breeze before my body jolted to a painful stop when David’s feet hit the asphalt.

  My lungs emptied. I gasped for air, grabbing my throat.

  “Halt!” A voice shouted.

  “Stop right there!” Flashlight beams blinded me. My vision blurred. Someone wrenched me out of David’s arms as streetlights and flashlights whirled through the darkness.

  “David!”

  My heart raced as I heard a man’s voice cry out. The flashlight nearest me hurled through the air. It wasn’t until it hit the base of a streetlight that I realized it was still in a soldier’s hand, nearly twenty feet away. The man crumbled to the asphalt.

  “Jess!” Dad’s voice boomed over the confusion as a horrid cracking sound resonated through the sound of a scuffle. Another MP fell to his knees.

  My gaze shot to the balcony. A blurry vision of Dad hung over the edge, reaching toward me. The whites of his eyes came into focus; huge and imploring. I took a step back and stumbled into the man holding my wrist.

  “Don’t move!”

  A rifle poked out of the darkness, pointed at David. I didn’t even think. I lunged forward, throwing myself between David and the gun. I held up my shaking hands, my gaze centering over the shotgun—into Bobby Baker’s eyes.

  “Get out of the way, Jess.”

  I shook my head. Above, Dad pounded the balcony’s rail and darted back into the room. David’s fingers slipped into the back of my jeans. I felt his hold tighten over my belt-loops.

  “Jess. Move.” Bobby grinded his teeth, his face twisted in a sneer.

  “No way. You don’t understand.”

  David’s other hand slipped to my waist, and a bolt of assurance wafted through me. I leaned against him and kicked as hard as I could, shoving the gun upward. The weapon shot into the sky.

  Bobby cursed under his breath.

  Shouts began anew as David spun me around, at the same time punching another soldier, sending the man flying off his feet. I didn’t see him hit the ground.

  David grunted, and his grip on me slackened. I slammed against the pavement. My head throbbed, the world becoming a blur again. Soldiers barked orders. A mound of men piled on the spot I last saw David.

  “I got you, Jess. You’re safe. It’s okay.” Bobby’s voice didn’t comfort me.

  He yanked me to my feet. My ears rang. Steadying myself, I struck his chest. “You have to let us go. You don’t understand!”

  “Jess!” Dad’s voice echoed through the mayhem. “Baker, what happened?”

  “Dad?”

  Bobby straightened. “I think we’ve lost her, Sir. It looks like that thing has her under its control.”

  I twisted in Bobby’s grip. “No one has me under anything. Dad, you need to let me go!”

  Dad’s face came into focus. He stared into my eyes as if maybe he thought I wasn’t really in there. He gripped both my wrists, gentle, but firm. He grimaced. “She needs to be detoxed and debriefed.”

  “Detoxed? What the heck does that mean? I’m fine.”

  Dad’s brow furrowed as his lips tightened to a straight line. He released me as Bobby pulled my arms behind my back. Bobby began to back me away from him.

  “Dad?” I stumbled a few steps. “Dad!”

  He turned from me, and approached the mountain of soldiers trying to hold David down. Bobby pushed me into the back of a police car and closed me in. I scrambled for the door handles and rattled the grating that separated me from the vacant driver’s seat. Nothing budged.

  So this was it. Caught. Some friend I turned out to be. I promised to help David, and instead my psychotic father tracked me right to him. Dammit!

  I slammed myself against the back seat. Bad idea. My head started to pound again, the pressure mounting and slamming like a bludgeon against a locked door.

  The windows blurred. The car’s interior spun twice before my world faded to black.

  15

  I held my head as the car jiggled around a corner. The haze coating my vision slowly faded as the fog eased from my brain.

  Damn, it wasn’t a dream.

  I grabbed the grate in front of me. Two men in Army fatigues sat in the front seat. Our headlights illuminated a huge, metal box-on-wheels traveling down a road lined with trees on both sides. The megalith in front of us must have been some sort of armored car—probably the only thing they could find that would hold David. At least three, maybe four jeeps travelled behind us, and probably two helicopters from the sound of the blades cutting through the evening sky.

  “Where are you taking me?” Their silence pissed me off more than being taken against my will. “Where’s David?” I slammed the grate with my fist. “Where’s my Dad?”

  The soldier in the passenger seat flipped through papers on a clipboard. “There’s no need to hurt yourself, Miss.” He didn’t even bother to look up. “You might as well just…”

  The armored car swerved left and then right. My heart jumped into my throat as the sound of screeching brakes broke the cadence of the helicopters above. The sound of metal crunching replaced the failed brakes, followed by blinding light and a deafening boom.

  Our car swerved as flames flashed across our windshield. The cacophony of changing images swirled in front of me as my head hit the roof of the car, then crashed to the ground again before slamming back toward the roof.

  A loud hum overtook my world. Splayed across the floor of the car, or rather flat across the ceiling, I spun like a calliope, only faster and without the horses. The seatbelts hung from the seats above me like oxygen masks on an airplane.

  But we weren’t flying, right? Were we upside down?

  We continued to spin, one second seeing dark forest, the next seeing flames and confusion. Everything I ate in the last year threatened a reappearance.

  And the heat. So much heat.

  And screaming. And yelling. Lots of yelling.

  The scene blurred to nothing.

  Mom? What’s going on? Where am I?

  A green pasture appeared around me. One solitary tree stood in the distance. As I walked toward it, thousands of birds took flight from its branches. I reached for my camera.

  Click.

  Beautiful. The perfect photograph for my portfolio. I raised the lens for another shot, and a gong vibrated through the waving grass. I glanced over my shoulder, but there was nothing but meadow for miles. Another bang resonated through me, as if I were in a small, enclosed space.

  “Jess!” David’s desperate voice boomed from above.

  Had he left already? Was he on his ship?

  I turned and ran, looking into the sky. Another metallic clang reverberated, and a hole ripped through the clouds. Fire and heat howled through the aperture.

  “Jess!”

  My daze slipped away as the opening widened and a gray, fleece-covered arm shot toward me. I cried out as my body slid through the hole and into chaos incarnate. Flames sprouted from cars and jeeps. A helicopter lay on its side along the far tree line, the windshield smashed.

  Behind me, the car Bobby had shoved me in lay on its roof, the rear door splayed open like a can of cat food. Two dark figures hung upside down in the front seat.

  Hashtag: nine-one-one.

  Someone grabbed my face. “Jess, are you okay?”

  “David?” His blurry outline loomed before me. Was I still dreaming?

  “Hold it.” Dad’s voice froze me.

  Night became day. A helicopter’s blades added to the roar of the fire as it aimed its searchlight on us.

  David gripped me from behind as we faced a man holding a gun.

  My vision slowly focused, bringing the man into view: my father.

  “Let her go,�
� Dad said. “You don’t need her.”

  David snorted behind me.

  Oh my God, he was using me as a shield. Maybe Dad was right about him.

  A curse sounded from the overturned car. Someone kicked against the glass. Apparently my escort had just come to. Yippy freaking ha.

  The world fuzzed around me. My head pounded as it rolled to the side.

  “Wake up, sleep head,” Mom said, opening the blinds in my bedroom. “How about we save the world today, one shopping mall at a time?”

  A jerk brought me back to chaos. I was standing alone facing the car. Both Army dudes kicked at the doors, trying to get out. The helicopter above spiraled out of control, the searchlight scanning the scene like a game-show spotlight until it disappeared from view.

  Dad stood inches from David, backing away with his hands in the air. The gun lay on the ground a twisted, broken shape.

  I stumbled forward to David’s side. “That’s my father.”

  David didn’t break the stare between them . “I know. That’s why he’s still standing.”

  “Please,” Dad said. “Just go. Leave her, and go.”

  I grabbed David’s arm. “I promised I’d help him. He just wants to get home.”

  Dad shook his head. “That’s not what he wants, Jess. This is a lot bigger than him.”

  David grasped my shoulder as he backed up. He pointed at Dad with his other hand. “Don’t follow.”

  “You know I’m not going to promise that. That’s my daughter you’ve got there, and I’m not giving her up. Not now, not ever.”

  I stumbled. Nausea returned. “Dizzy,” I whispered.

  David lifted me into his arms. As he carried me past the car, the windshield crashed to the pavement.

  “Halt,” one of the men called, crawling out.

  Dad started running after us, but David had already picked up speed.

  The light and heat from the flames faded to the darkness of the forest. The breeze whipped my cheek and blew hair in my face. I buried my eyes in David’s neck as he ran. How much help was I to him when I could barely stand? He should have left me.

  I shuddered. He’d placed me between himself and the gun. He’d done exactly what Dad said he would—a soldier, wounded behind enemy lines. Was that all I was now, a shield? Would he continue to use me to get past my father?

  His grip tightened on me as he leapt over something. Protective. Caring. He held my head close as he whisked us between patches of dense overgrowth.

  A sense of calm eased through the pain throbbing above my brow—a sense of security. David would never hurt me, and he would never use me. He took me because he cared, because I had helped him.

  Or was it so I couldn’t tell them what I knew? I shifted my weight, feeling my cell phone still in my pocket.

  The coordinates. I had the coordinates on my cell phone of where we were going.

  Maybe I was a risk to him if I got caught.

  Flickers of moonlight continued to flash across my face. By the time we slowed, my head threatened to break in two.

  David set me down and leaned on his knees as he caught his breath. My arms, neck, and back seared in agony as I stretched my aching muscles. Crickets and frogs chirped, echoing nature’s song through the woods, but nothing more. No sirens, no helicopters, no soldiers shouting orders. How far had we come?

  “Are you okay?” David asked.

  “Yes.” Whoa. That was a bold-faced lie. I held my throbbing temple. “How about you?”

  “I’m fine.” He rubbed his arms.

  I moved closer. “Are you sure? Because what you did back there, that was crazy. I mean, I’m not completely sure of what even happened. Did you actually knock two helicopters out of the sky?”

  He shrugged. “Inferior technology. Nothing to be proud of.”

  No thoughts of the people who may have gotten hurt in those misley pieces of inferior technology?

  Come to think of it, there had been an entire caravan along with those helicopters. There were not too many people left standing by the time we left. Had he actually killed anyone?

  David rubbed his arms. His lips formed a straight line.

  “You’re cold, aren’t you?”

  He rubbed his hands together. “I was okay while we were running, but not anymore. How long until your sun comes up?”

  “Sunrise?” I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Three text messages. I flipped to the next screen. The low-battery icon flashed incessantly. 4:15. “It will probably be about two hours.” I shut off the phone and plopped it into my pocket. “I guess running for two more hours is out of the question?”

  David laughed. “I wish I could.” He chewed his bottom lip, his eyes scanning the dirt at our feet. “Jess, I need to sleep, but I can’t take this temperature.”

  Shoot. I gawked, probably looking like a blithering idiot, which wasn’t far from the truth at that point. But this was why he wanted me with him—to help. I certainly couldn’t start a campfire. I could barely do it as a girl scout, not to mention it would turn into a giant beacon that said here we are!

  I closed my eyes, and firmed my resolve with a deep breath. “Okay. Body heat.”

  “What?”

  “I’m going to keep you warm. Lay down.” He settled on the ground, curling into a ball. I laid beside him, and wrapped my legs over his, covering his body as much as I could with my own.

  His breathing settled to a normal cadence.

  I wished I could calm so easily. It would probably be days if not weeks before I’d be able to sleep again, trying to sort out reality from fantasy. There had been so much destruction. How could one person, even one alien, take on the Army? “David, what happened back there?”

  “Not now, Jess.”

  “Yes, now. It looked like World War Three out there.”

  He trembled under my touch. “They put me into a vehicle with no windows. I didn’t know where you were, or where I was going. I broke out.”

  And then some. Incredible Hulk-style. “Did you hurt anybody?”

  His back tensed against me. “Jess, I’m tired.”

  “Did you hurt anyone?” The adamancy in my voice startled even me.

  The moonlight caught his eyes as he turned toward me. “I had no idea where you were, or what they’d done to you. I wasn’t going to let them hurt you for helping me. Yes, I saw some people bleeding. A lot of them weren’t moving. I didn’t stop to check.”

  Holy cow.

  “Don’t look at me like that. What did you expect me to do?”

  Good question. I had no idea, but not killing people would have been on top of my list. I mean, Batman never left a body count behind him. Then again, he only had the Gotham Police to worry about, not the entire US military. Not that David was Batman or anything, but there should have been a way.

  I shivered. Welcome to the real world, Jess.

  “Thank you,” I whispered, “for not hurting my dad.”

  He turned completely toward me, leaning up on an elbow. His other hand cupped my cheek. “It wasn’t my intention to hurt anyone. I don’t belong here. If they’d just let me go…” He rubbed his palms across his face.

  “Dad said this is bigger than you. Do you know what he meant by that?”

  David’s eyes widened with a big old yes, but he shrugged. I was beginning to hate that shrug. “I have no idea. I’m just trying to get home.” His eyes narrowed, searching deep into mine. “You believe me, don’t you?”

  Of course I did. But then again, I didn’t have a choice. Or did I?

  “My father thinks I’m under some kind of mind control.”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think that I can’t say no to you. I think that I trust you, even though I know you just lied to me. I think I should run back to my dad, but I have this overwhelming need to stay here and keep you warm.” I slapped my hand against my forehead. “Oh my God. I am under your control.”

&
nbsp; He took my hand and kissed it. “No you’re not. I promise you, the only thing I did was give you a suggestion to trust me. Everything else you’re doing on your own.”

  Could I trust him? More importantly, should I trust him?

  Two questions you should have asked before you became a fugitive, Jess.

  I pulled him closer and cuddled against him. All I had to offer at the moment was temperature control. “Let’s try to get some rest.”

  He tightened his grip on me, as if he feared losing me while he slept.

  16

  A dull ache bled through my brain, feeding the pulsing soreness that strained my entire body. I stretched; squinting as the sunlight gently poked me from between the trees.

  Trees. Dirt.

  Outside.

  I bolted upright and brushed away a twig that stuck to my cheek. Last night’s Terminator fest flashed through my mind, but how much of it was real, and how much delusion? I rubbed the tender top of my head. The car accident, at least, was real. Which meant David destroying the convoy was probably real, too.

  And Dad.

  My face fell into my hands. What had I gotten myself in to?

  David crouched beside me. “Jess, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

  I pushed him away. “Of course I’m hurt. Yesterday I jumped out a hotel room window, got in a car accident, and ran away from the United States Army.” I hopped to my feet. “No, I am not okay.”

  He was back beside me within a blink and pulled me into his arms. I let him. He was the cause of all this, but part of me didn’t care.

  “We could have died yesterday. You know that, don’t you?”

  “But we didn’t. We’re okay.”

  Tears pooled in my lashes. “Are we?”

  A shiver ran across him. “Now that it’s getting warmer, yes, we are.”

  At least for now we were okay. But where was the Army?

  Looking for us, of course. It wasn’t like they were going to let David go just because they were afraid he might bust up some more government property.