by Payne, T. L.
“If you could spare someone to help guard the prisoners, it would be a huge help. If not, I understand.”
Maddie looked at Rank and then Lugnut. When she turned to Zach, she gave him a stare that said, “don’t you dare volunteer.”
“I think we should talk to Jacob and the judge. He might have some influence with getting people to help,” Rank said.
“I’m not sure Jacob will even stay on as sheriff after losing his new deputies,” Maddie said.
Her heart ached for him. He’d looked so defeated. She was worried about him and wished someone would have gone with him back to Houston. They had their own issues, though, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Jacob.
Stop it, Maddie. You don’t have time for feelings, especially for a guy.
“Todd, when are you moving your family. I may tag along and go have a talk with the folks on post.” Lugnut said. “Do you know who they’re leaving in charge?”
Todd turned to face him.
“No. But he is going to regret it. That new mayor over at St. Robert had been pressuring them to open up the post for all of Pulaski County residents once the military moves out of the area. The mayor is concerned about their safety without the military to protect them.”
“Are they gonna do that?"
“When they see the military pulling out, I’m not sure they will be able to hold them back any longer. I don’t like that mayor. I don’t trust him. He and that city attorney have been running shady deals over there in St. Robert and Waynesville for years. I don’t see them doing this to help anyone but themselves. There will be trouble from those two,” Todd said as he opened the door.
“Great. Just what we need. Dangerous criminals and shady politicians,” Ryan said.
Chapter 21
Khambalia Seekers Mission
Wright County, Missouri
Event + 17 days
Although it still hurt like hell from the wreck, Beth was relieved that her ankle was not broken. The mission didn’t have crutches, but Maria had found a cane in the back seat of a car on the property. Apparently, scrounging for extra supplies was forbidden because it cost Maria an extra shift in the laundry facility.
After Beth and Maria’s conversation with Dawn the day before, Mother Lyra had agreed to allow Beth out of her room. Dawn was assigned to train her in her new job of handing out supplies at the mission store.
Beth sat on a stool behind a desk with her foot propped in a chair. Dawn sat next to her and wrote names, and lists of items each received, in a notebook. Although it appeared that the mission was well stocked with food and supplies, they were apparently heavily rationed as the people who came in only left with a few items.
When lunchtime came around, Dawn locked up the store, and they headed to a pavilion in the middle of the property where they fell into line to receive their lunch. The beans and rice with mixed vegetables weren’t very exciting, but it was warm and filling.
“Beth,” Maria called from across the pavilion.
Beth threw up a hand and waved Maria over. Beth half expected there to be a group prayer over the food or something, but no one prayed. As each person received their tray, they sat down at picnic tables and ate with their heads down without saying a word to the people around them.
Dawn carried Beth’s tray to a table on the right side of the pavilion and returned to the line to get one for herself. Maria sat next to Beth. As Beth looked around, she saw miserable and exhausted looking people. She spotted a mother and child sitting alone off to her right. The little girl looked up, and Beth smiled at her. The child immediately put her head down. Even the children were trained to be miserable.
As Dawn approached Beth and Maria’s table, a man appeared and whispered something in Dawn’s ear. Beth noticed that the man had grabbed hold of her arm. She held her head down. Beth nudged Maria, and she turned to see what Beth was looking at.
“That must be the religious police or something.”
“Sure does look like a scolding, at the least,” Maria said, her mouth full of rice and beans.
Beth set her plastic fork down on her plate and looked around the pavilion to see if anyone else was concerned about the negative attention Dawn was receiving. She doubted anyone noticed as they all kept their heads down.
“These people look absolutely miserable. The leaders must rule with an iron fist. I imagine there are a lot of bruises covered up under those dresses and long sleeves," Beth said. “We need time to come up with a plan to get out of here, but they don’t leave us alone together long enough to come up with one.”
“I’m working on it. I don’t see any weapons, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have any. I just need to know a little more about their security. Every time I get close to the perimeter, someone catches me. I’ve been looking for hidden cameras or something,” Maria said, looking to the ceiling of the pavilion for any surveillance equipment.
“Head down. Show your reverence,” a man said appearing behind Beth and Maria.
They both bowed their heads without saying a word. Beth didn’t want to get into any debate with the man. She didn’t care about their reasoning. She would play along until she and Maria could make their move.
When Dawn returned to the table, Beth could tell that she had been crying. She too kept her head low. Beth didn’t risk being spotted talking to her and getting them all in more trouble, so she waited to ask what the man had said.
After a few minutes, most of the people had finished their lunch and had gone back to their duties. Beth and Maria ate slowly, hoping to have time after everyone left to ask Dawn about the security situation.
Beth kept her head down and pulled her spoon to her mouth as she spoke.
“Dawn. Are you okay?” Beth whispered.
“Don’t call me that. My name is Aurelia. You’ll get me in trouble.”
Beth snuck a glance over her shoulder before responding.
“I’m sorry. What did that man want with you?”
Dawn’s voice cracked.
“I’m in trouble again. I smiled too much today when we were supposed to be working. I wasn’t taking my duties seriously enough. I have to do penance tonight.”
Beth turned her head slightly to see Maria’s reaction. Maria stayed in character and kept her head down, remaining expressionless.
“What penance?”
Beth saw tears drip onto the table.
“Dawn. What do you have to do?” Beth asked, her voice a little too loud.
Dawn raised her head and looked around.
“I can’t tell you. I don’t want to tell you. It is…”
“They make you sleep with them, don’t they,” Maria blurted out.
Dawn’s hands shot up to cover her face. Beth saw her shoulders shudder. She wanted to go around to her side of the table and comfort her but knew that would only serve to get them all in trouble.
“Dawn, tell me about security here. Do they have guns?” Maria asked.
Dawn nodded without removing her hands from her face.
“How many of them are there?”
“I’m not sure. I have to go. I have to get to work before I get into more trouble,” Dawn said, standing.
She grabbed her bowl and hurried to place it in the busing tray at the end of the food line.
“Maria, we have to get her out of here with us, and we need to go today,” Beth said as she stood and arranged her bowl and cup on her tray.
“And go where? How are we going to leave? On foot?” Maria asked.
“What other option is there?” Beth asked as the two of them headed to return their dishes.
“We better go. We don’t want to have to do penance tonight. Even though it has been a while since I have done any.”
“You are bad,” Beth chuckled.
“What? I am a hot-blooded female. I like sex. Is there something wrong with that?”
Beth held her hands in the air.
“Not for me to judge, but don’t let those god squad
dudes hearing you talk like that or you may just get more than you bargained for.”
As Beth slowly walked back to the mission’s store, she passed a group of children hanging clothes on ropes strung between buildings. A little blonde-haired girl looked up, and Beth instinctively smiled. The corners of the girl’s mouth began to curl up, and she turned to look around. Beth moved closer to the girl.
“Hi. I’m Beth. I just got here. You haven’t happened to have seen my little dog, have you?”
A broad smile crossed her face.
“The little one-eyed dog?” the young girl asked.
“That’s him. Do you know where he is?”
Beth moved in closer. She stood behind a large white towel, hoping it would conceal her from the guards.
“He is with the other animals at the barn,” she said, looking around again.
“Where is the barn?”
“It is all the way in the back corner by the pond,” the little girl said, pointing with her index finger.
“Okay, thank you,” Beth said, turning to leave.
An older girl walked over and grabbed the little girl by the arm and dragged her away.
I hope I didn’t get her in trouble.
Beth’s ankle was throbbing by the time she made it back to the store. Dawn didn’t look up as Beth walked through the door. As she walked down the aisle toward Dawn, she realized why. In a chair behind the counter sat Mother Lyra with a tall, skinny man standing next to her. Mother Lyra was staring straight at Beth as she walked. Beth wanted to look down and pretend to be referent over the woman, but she just couldn’t. She wanted to size up the situation and try to have a plan if things went south.
Beth curled her lips into a fake smile. She was getting really good at it.
“Mother Lyra. It is good to see you. I wanted to thank…”
The man flew around the counter and slapped Beth across the face, causing her to stumble backward. She stepped back hard on her sore ankle and cursed. The man moved forward and punched her in the stomach. Beth doubled over and fell to the floor. She was still trying to catch her breath when he grabbed her by her hair and dragged her over to Mother Lyra. He forced her to a kneeling position before the woman and shoved her head hard into the floor, holding it there. Beth’s swollen eye was pressed against the cold tile floor.
Beth could hear Dawn sniffling. She feared for her. Any sign of emotion was likely to elicit punishment from the man. Beth tried to straighten up, but the man pushed harder. His hand was entangled in her hair. It wasn’t until she stopped struggling that Mother Lyra spoke.
“We’re all expected to maintain a level of reverence. The days are short, and the evil one has come to steal, kill and destroy. We must be ready when the time comes to leave this place,” the woman rose and stood over Beth. Dawn continued to sniffle. Beth expected her to be thrown to the floor with Beth at any moment.
“It is important,” she continued. “that we all be found worthy. You must do better. In order to help you succeed here, I am reassigning you to the kitchen. You will eat, sleep, and work there. You will learn to be humble and upright in all your ways. Holy Mother is watching. The time is drawing near, and we cannot afford to have anyone stepping out of line at the critical time. Do you understand? Your behavior could put all of us in jeopardy.”
“I do understand. I apologize. I will do better,” Beth said.
“All right, then. Samuel is going to escort you to the kitchen, and you will report to Agnes. She will teach you not only the way the kitchen is run, but she will help you complete your mission of becoming worthy.”
Beth felt the man’s hand grip her by the forearm and she was yanked to her feet. This time, she kept her head down and mouth shut. She fought the urge to look at Dawn. She had a feeling she would never see her again. She felt terrible that she wouldn’t be able to prevent what the man had in store for Dawn that night. She feared that the same thing could be planned for her or Maria.
Although the food was better for the kitchen staff, to which Beth had been assigned, the long grueling day standing on her feet was torture. Her injured ankle was the size of a grapefruit and would not fit inside her shoe. When she’d arrived at the back door to the kitchen the previous afternoon, a large older woman had greeted her by grabbing her by the arm and dragging her across the threshold. This was not going to be an easy assignment, Beth had thought.
She was taken to a small concrete block room at the back of the facility, stripped, and handed a plain blue denim dress and a white apron that matched all the other women she had seen. Beth’s long blonde hair was pulled and twisted into a bun on top of her head and pinned into place with at least a dozen bobby pins. Beth’s head throbbed from the rough treatment she had received from the man and then having her hair yanked around made it ten times worse.
She had been shoved in front of a sink full of dirty pots and pans, where she had worked until past dark, scrubbing and re-scrubbing them until they passed Agnes’ inspection. As Beth scrubbed dishes, the big woman chastised her for making noise. Beth did her best to make sure the pots and pans were spotless so she wouldn’t have to rewash them again and again.
She wondered where Maria was and hoped that Dawn would survive her night of penance. She had to fight hard to not fall into despair with her circumstances. She was as determined as ever to escape the nightmare and get home to her children. She’d just need to keep her eye out for the right opportunity and hope that Maria was doing the same.
Beth could hear a flurry of activity inside the kitchen as the evening meal was being prepared. She wondered where Agnes was and was glad she didn’t have to cook without making a sound. She assumed big mama must be working in the serving line since she didn’t hear her yelling at the kitchen staff. Women dressed in the same denim dress Beth wore shuttled in and out of the dish room delivering dirty pots and pans for Beth to scrub. None of them spoke or made eye contact with her.
Lifting her wrinkled hands from the dishwater, she inspected them. They were sore already from being submerged in the cold soapy water. Trying to get the dishes clean was difficult and time-consuming. The stack of pans grew taller and taller to the point the staff resorted to placing them on the floor at Beth’s feet.
“Sorry,” one of the cooks whispered as she placed a stack of trays at Beth’s feet.
The petite young girl was the only one to speak to her.
She must be new.
By the time Beth finished washing all the dishes, the kitchen staff had been long gone. Beth stood on one foot and leaned against the sink. Her ankle ached. Her back hurt. Her head was throbbing. She was nearly delirious in pain.
After the last pan was washed, dried and placed on the rack, Agnes returned to inspect the dishes. Beth could immediately tell that the woman was distracted. She merely glanced at them before waving Beth back toward the sleeping quarters where Agnes followed to give Beth a long white linen bed gown. Beth’s bunk only had a thin mattress and a threadbare sheet. There was no pillow or blanket provided.
Agnes pulled the door closed as she left. Beth heard a key being inserted into a lock. After witnessing the interaction between the man and Dawn earlier, Beth wondered if they were being locked in or if someone else was being locked out. Maybe Mother Lyra didn’t have as much control over the guards as she would like to have.
The sound of keys jingling woke Beth. The door creaked open and a flashlight beam shined in. All the women immediately sat up. Agnes and a man stepped through the doorway and walked to the middle of the room. Agnes held a clipboard in her hands.
She called off a list of names and one-by-one, each of the women rose and slipped long white robes over their heads, then formed a line in front of Agnes with their heads bowed. When the woman called Beth’s name, Beth tensed.
Had she been given a robe? Where were they taking her? Was her fate to be the same as Dawn’s?
Beth threw back the sheet and placed her good foot on the floor. As she placed her injured foot do
wn, pain shot through her ankle, causing her to double over. The man walked over, grabbed Beth by the arm, and yanked her to her feet. As she stood in line with her head down, she feared she would never see her children again. Despair gave way to rage. Beth balled her hands into fists and clenched her jaw. She would not let these people rob her children of their only living parent.
She would not go down without a fight.
Chapter 22
Langston Cabin
Evening Shade, Missouri
Event + 17 days
Still on edge from their raid on the convicts that morning, Maddie was on high alert. Three quacks alerted Maddie to the rider. Finding a boy on a dapple-grey horse, leading a second horse without a rider in her rifle scope, she replied with two quacks. Maddie looked for a scar above the grey horse’s right front knee.
It was Iggy, the horse Ron had given Sheriff Stoddard.
“Hey in the stand,” the boy called out as he approached.
He stopped in the middle of the road—his hands in the air.
“What do you want?” Zach yelled.
“The new sheriff sent me to fetch Austin Henson. They’ve started the Jewells’ trial.”
“What?” Zach asked as he jumped down from his lookout post.
Maddie climbed down from her location and sprinted across the field.
“They started the trial already?” she asked, trying to catch her breath.
She was surprised she was so winded after such a short time without training. Although this was the longest she’d ever gone without putting in a proper run, she didn’t feel she should be that out of shape already.
“The judge moved the date up. The mob outside was growing uglier and Jacob, I mean the sheriff, didn’t know how much longer he could hold them off without more deputies since not many people have volunteered.”
“Do they have a jury, at least?” Zach asked as he labored to drag open the hidden gate, which was becoming an issue since they had been using it almost daily.
