Trudy was parked behind the desk. Her hair bun had devolved into a wiry grey mess. She sat next to a vacant chair and Levi, whose salt-and-pepper hair had been wrapped with a bandage. The people looked up at Harper as she walked down the aisle, up the stairs, and to the desk’s only empty seat. Hesitant, she sat down in the center chair. A shiver crawled up her spine, knowing that the man who once claimed this seat had been decapitated less than a day ago.
The room went quiet. All tired eyes turned to her. James watched her from the front row, next to Eli’s normal spot. The orphaned children glared at her with puffy eyes. The people had retained their normal seats, leaving a dozen and a half gaps scattered throughout the seating arrangement.
“We took a hit,” Harper said to the crowd. “We lost friends, loved ones, and the man whose vision and devotion turned Brighton from a Podunk town to a well-oiled machine.” Harper’s eyes watered. “But when the enemy was at our doorstep, we prevailed. Together.” She looked out at the crowd, who were wiping away tears. “I can’t lie to you and say I have a master plan. I don’t. But I am sure of one thing: Brandy isn’t dead.”
“Harper,” Sawyer interrupted from the back row. “The battle’s over.”
Harper turned to the crowd. “It’s not. Not until Brandy is in the ground. I watched what he did to Church while grinning. He isn’t some desperate survivor. This guy is a predator. He will come back and finish what he started.”
“So let’s say he does. What are we going to do about it?” Sawyer said while he tapped a kitchen knife to the bloodstained broomstick.
Harper adjusted her posture and spoke directly. “We bring the fight to him.”
Sawyer scoffed. “Brilliant, Harper. Let’s chase down the man who nearly killed us. It’s not like we are all tired and injured and Brighton is nothing but a steaming pile of ash.”
James stood up and swiveled back to Sawyer. “You could’ve left any time you wanted.”
“I should’ve,” Sawyer replied. “But instead, I followed your wife and psycho neighbor into a fight my daughter and I didn’t ask for.”
“None of us did,” James shouted. “If there was another solution, we would’ve taken it.”
“This family has seen enough hurt,” Trudy said. “Settle down, both of you.”
Sawyer rose to his feet. “I’m happy to help out, but if you think for one instant I’m going to put my daughter’s life in danger to chase some two-bit killer, you’ve got another thing coming. Come on, Karla.”
Karla pulled away from him. “But what about Eli? That psychopath took him.”
Sawyer paused. His nonchalant exterior started to break.
“That he did,” Trudy said sympathetically. “But one boy ain’t enough to go to war for. I’m sorry, Harper, but those are the facts. In our current condition, it’ll take weeks, maybe more, to fix that wall. We feel your pain, but we all bled yesterday. As harsh as it may sound, your boy’s life is not the priority of this community. It’s reconstruction and a funeral service.”
Harper frowned and looked up from her hands intertwined on her lap. “I get it. I do. But as long as Brandy breathes, this community is in danger.”
“Brandy’s gone,” a local farmer spouted. “Him and his host. ‘Sides, he’s just one man. We’ll kill him if he ever comes back.”
“Yeah. That’s right,” a gardener agreed, followed by more and more supporters.
Harper listened to them plead for passivity until she was sick, knowing that Eli and her enemy were getting farther by the second. Her head pounded from lack of sleep and frustration. She felt selfish, but she knew everything she said about Brandy was true. The man wouldn’t back down; he was too prideful for that. He’d be back and use Eli against her. She couldn’t handle that. Not after all she and her son had gone through.
The Mayor’s chair scraped against the wood floor, and Harper stood fiercely.
The masses quieted.
“I’m going to find Brandy,” Harper declared, feeling anger and fear from saying the words. “Anyone sick of playing the victim, join me and let’s put an end to this.”
She looked over the silent mass of people, the very same people she fought beside to protect Brighton, but no one stood apart from James.
Levi looked at Harper from his seat. “In Briersville, you and your, uh, son saved my life. I’m forever grateful. When I was lying in Dr. Hanson’s hospital bed last night, I saw how you rallied our people and saved this town--”
“Now, Levi,” Trudy injected. “You know this town needs your woodworking skills more than ever.”
“I know, Trudy,” Levi replied. “But I owe her my life. Harper, is it possible to take this easy? We can scout and build simultaneously. That’s the ideal solution, in my opinion.”
“I can’t,” Harper said honestly. “Call me stubborn or stupid but as long as he has Eli, I have to go.”
Harper turned to the remnants of Brighton. “Anyone else?”
Dustin stood up slowly from the second row, holding his cap over his chest. “I’m in. Sorry, momma. Eli’s my friend. He’s the closest thing I have to a little brother. I ain’t leaving him.”
Trudy frowned. “Don’t make me the bad guy, Dustin.”
“I ain’t, but I ain’t sitting around either.”
“You’re a man,” Trudy said after a few seconds. “Go on then. Keep Harper safe and don’t be wasting time.”
“We’ll be back,” Dustin slid on his cap. “Eli, too.”
Harper waited a few moments for any more volunteers, but she only got averted eyes.
“Thank you all,” she finally said. “When we return, I expect this place to be tidied up nice and neat. Don’t want to tarnish Brighton’s reputation.”
A light chuckle echoed through the grand hall.
Trudy smiled sadly at Harper. Her blue eyes did not hide her disapproval. “You’ll be in our prayers. Good luck out there, girl.”
“Thank you, but there’s something I need to do before I go.”
Dr. Hanson nodded and rose from his seat.
Smoke rolled from the rubble of Brighton’s outlying farmhouse. Acres of green fields, rolling hills, and trees cast for miles around the four-foot mounds of branches and corpses they supported. The entirety of Brighton gathered around their fallen loved ones. As confused and distraught as they were, even the children paid their respects.
Apart from the paleness and stitches, the beings on the slab looked like their living counterpart, only sleeping deeply. Dr. Hanson had shut their eyes and closed their mouths. A few family members gave permission to strip their dead’s clothes for later use. The bodies, divided among unlit pyres, were covered with old blankets. If not for the rush, they would’ve buried them properly. However, disease spread too fast and man hours were needed for repair.
Out of view, tarps covered the dead of Brandy’s army. Harper wouldn’t wait for their final departure. Giving her respects to Church and her lost friends put Brandy hours ahead of her. Nonetheless, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself without some closure. She owed Church that much.
Brighton’s Mayor rested on the center pile of kindling. Unlike most of the bodies, Jonathan Church had been properly sutured and dressed. A thick wire sewed his head to his neck in a baseball weave. His natty grey beard covered most of it.
Still dressed in their dirty clothes, everyone listened to Pastor Bruce’s Word about the frailty of life and what comes after.
Farris’s wife cried the whole time while Martha Doyle lifelessly glared at her husband’s body. The diner girl, Kimmy, stood next to her, sniffling into a handkerchief. Dr. Hanson and Levi didn’t say a word. Around the circle of people, no one looked away from the bodies. They all knew that their home had changed forever. Festivals would be for remembrance now. Houses and beds would be dismantled and used to fortify and rebuild. Soon, Harper knew, no one would talk about the fight. It would be a black page in Brighton’s history.
“Would anyone like to say a few words
before we depart with our loved ones?” the pastor asked. His shaky demeanor laid testament to his lack of funeral experience.
Trudy stepped forward and pulled her hand out of her paint-stained overalls. “Though he’d never admit it, Jonathan was a good man and a great leader. When most of us were ready to give up, he revived our spirits. At first, his plans sounded ridiculous but when we heard his passion and conviction, every one of us rallied behind him. If he could speak now, I believe he’d tell us to keep unified, protect our own, and fight hard until the bitter end. Thank you, Jonathan Church.” Trudy kissed his forehead and lingered for a moment. “May you finally be at peace.”
After squeezing the Mayor’s hand, Trudy stepped back into the crowd.
Harper took James’s arm off her shoulder.
“I didn’t always agree with Church, but he helped my family in unimaginable ways. He did the things no one else would.” She looked over the man’s body. His hands were crossed over his broad chest. Pale skin drooped his round cheeks and beneath his eyes. Even in death, he wore a stern face. “I’m going to get the man who did this,” Harper vowed. “Find rest in that, Church. You’ve earned it.”
After the rest of those willing to speak gave their final remarks, torches were handed out to the crowd. James lit his up and touched the tip of Harper’s. Pastor Bruce said a final prayer that ended with, “...watch over Harper, James, and Dustin on their journey, amen.”
“Amen,” Harper said with the rest of the survivors and jammed the flaming stick into the pile. It took a moment for the fire to spread, but then all six pyres were alive with fire. Heat waves splashed against their skin as crackling flames overtook the lifeless bodies. Harper refused to wipe away her tears.
Wearing a backpack, Dustin joined her after the service. James, Harper, and Dustin said their final goodbyes and loaded into the Humvee. Harper held her breath. She imagined Brandy and her son and pressed down on the accelerator. The vehicle skidded out of Brighton and into the wilderness.
Chapter Three
Trail
Harper yanked the corroded battery out of the Humvee. She slid it into the potato sack and placed it inside the foot-deep hole James had dug. Using her fingers, she raked dirt, leaves, and twigs over the battery until nature had concealed it. To create a marker, she placed a distinctly shaped stone on top. The lack of battery should be enough to prevent anyone from stealing her bullet-riddled Humvee. Nonetheless, they could strip the hulking vehicle for parts.
Harper rose to her feet and rubbed her palms together. A small cloud of dirt formed between her hands as she swept away the loose earth not embedded in her skin and fingernails. The hunting rifle rattled every time she moved an arm, but the weight and strap kept it on her shoulder. She had four shots and that was it. To compensate, Church’s machete dangled from her belt in its buttoned-up leather sheath. Dustin wielded a pump shotgun--also lacking significant munitions--and a sturdy hatchet. James shouldered a smooth bolt-action rifle and a row of survival knives tucked in his belt. Unsurprisingly, their attire consisted of dirty tees, worn jeans, and laced boots.
“We’re going to need gas soon,” James stated as he finished relieving himself.
Harper put her hands on her hips and looked out to the surrounding trees. “Not in these woods.”
The Virginian flora stretched for miles. Brandy could’ve killed Eli, dropped his corpse in a ditch, and Harper would be none the wiser. The corrosive nastiness of her morning veggies lodged deep within her throat as she thought of her baby boy and whatever cruel fate Brandy had in store for him. She would’ve continued driving the Humvee if the trees weren’t so dense.
“We should pick up where the trail ended last night.” Dustin spit out a glob of sunflower seeds. A few hairs sprouted from his normally shaven jaw and cheeks while droopy dark circles lined his once-jolly eyes.
“Keep spitting seeds and they’ll be tracking us,” James said as he started into the woods.
Harper adjusted the rifle strap, smelling sap and the greenery around her. “Lead on.”
The woods in the day seemed like a whole different world. The oddly formed bushes and jutting boulders marked the path Dustin guided them down. The trees didn’t seem as high or foreboding as last night, but they still went on forever. They followed the search party’s footprints to the first bloody fern. The red marks had been washed away by the morning dew but they kept on the trail, using their old tracks as a guide.
Without relying on torchlight, the three of them moved much quicker than the previous night. Brushing by thorn bushes and ducking beneath low hanging branches, they reached where the trail went cold: an opening enclosed by trees.
“Square one,” James mumbled.
Harper scanned the outlying area, looking for any disruption on the dirt, bushes, or scraggly tree limbs. Lowering to a knee, she examined a broken twig. “Not quite.”
“Good eye,” Dustin complimented. “Now, the real work begins.”
They looked beyond the trees and to the massive Smoky Mountains in the distance.
James stepped forward. “Do you really think…”
Harper rubbed her fingers up her short, unwashed hair as she studied the row of foggy zephyrs that formed Piedmont’s western spine.
Hours waned and mosquitoes clawed at their arms and necks. Their pursuit led them over grass knolls, through trampled shrubs, and across sprawling game trails. They avoided rolling their ankles in gopher holes and spotted a family of deer at the end of the thickest trail, thus forcing them to backtrack and try another trail of crunched grass. Dustin had the most experience with his background in hunting, and, a bit past noon, they’d found a set of tracks. Two people with adult male-sized shoes had staggered through a bushel of scaly-plated Virginian Pines.
With a beating heart, Harper took the lead and deftly slid the rifle into her blistered palms. She forced herself to remain patient as she walked parallel to the man-made tracks. Dustin and James followed her, stepping quietly. Dead branches snapped beneath their boots. An indistinguishable voice sounded nearby.
Harper dropped to a lower stance. Her vision and breathing found their focus. Her finger hugged the trigger. Her mind quieted to a whisper as it readied for the kill. Like a nocturnal predator, she stalked the noise.
“... get on them feet,” a man said with the cadence of a thick country accent. “You know what happens if you don’t.”
Through the untamed branches and limbs, Harper saw a man’s broad back hunched over the base of a tree. Harper pushed through the web of leafy wood that left pink scratches on her forearms and right cheek. Two boot-wearing feet stretched out beside the hunched man as it became clearer that he was hunching over another person. Eli?
Harper kept the rifle sight centered on the man’s spine and slipped out of the woods. “Turn around. Slowly.”
The hunched man froze up. His shoulders stiffened and his hand went to the kitchen knife on his belt.
“Don’t even think about it,” Harper threatened.
The man twisted back like a stiff cog. Crimson splatter tarnished his jean jacket and crusted like cracked red clay on his hairy, bear-like hands. A Band-Aid covered the bridge of his hooked nose. His shifty silver eyes skipped from the black rifle barrel to Harper. Yellow teeth were revealed through the slight parting of his chapped lips. He wasn’t Brandy, and the pale dead man resting against the tree wasn’t Eli.
“You,” the hook-nosed man said spitefully. He stood fully, looming over Harper by six inches.
“You were at Brighton?” Harper asked as James and Dustin fanned out, keeping an eye out for any unwanted arrivals.
The man stared at her, not saying a word.
Harper kept the rifle aimed center mass. “Where’s Brandy?”
The large man’s crazed eye twitched. His hand neared the knife.
Harper kept the shot ready. “Answer the question.”
The man stood in silence. His eyes twitched again as he shifted his attention between Harpe
r, Dustin, and James.
“This guy,” James stated. “He was part of Brandy’s posse. I saw him flee when you…you know.”
Harper nodded, keeping her eyes on the man. Something about him made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. “What Brandy did, what he made you be a part of, I get you probably didn’t have a choice. So I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and let you walk, but only if you tell me where Brandy is and where he is going.”
The man sized her up. He cocked a smile, exposing his yellow and rotten teeth. “The more you yap, the more your stupidity shines. You ain’t got the darnedest clue about what he’d do if I’d talked. Not the darnedest clue.”
“I’m offering you a way out,” Harper said, her patience slipping.
The man shook his head. His eyes went as wide as silver dollars. “There’s only one way out.”
With a motion, he jerked the knife out from his belt. Harper put a bullet into his knee. The shot echoed. The man collapsed, screaming through his clenched jaw.
“Tell me where Brandy is and I might patch that up for you,” Harper said coldly.
The man clenched the knife like a winning lottery ticket as a pool of red bloomed beneath his kneeling leg. Tears streamed down his gaunt face from his terror-filled eyes. “You don’t know him like I do! You don’t know the things he’s done!”
With a trembling hand, the man lifted the knife.
“Drop it!” Harper commanded, aiming the sight on the man’s forehead.
He let out a cry as the knife’s blade slashed across his own wrist. Dustin swatted him with the shotgun but by the time the weapon was in the dirt, so was the man’s blood. Harper swiftly lowered the rifle and ripped a ribbon off the bottom of her tattered shirt. James tensed up. The man sank to the ground. Darting over, Harper pulled his arm up and wrapped the cloth around it.
“It’s too deep!” Harper exclaimed. “I can’t stanch the bleeding!”
Lying on his back, the man shook his head rapidly and mumbled, “You don’t know him,” repeatedly until he was dead next to his partner.
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