by Payne, T. L.
“Head down,” the guard growled in her ear as he shoved her toward the circle.
Before Beth lowered her head, she saw Maria and then Dawn standing next to one another. Beth’s shoulder bumped into a young girl as the guard pushed Beth into the circle. The girl wobbled, righted herself then stepped on Beth’s injured foot.
Beth let her eyes follow the circle of feet. She counted fifteen pairs. There were fifteen women and young girls around the circle. She wondered if the number was significant to the group. Mother Lyra stepped between Dawn and Maria and took a position next to the glowing sphere.
“Time is short, my beloveds. Soon, we will all join the holy mother in Khambalia. But first, we all must become worthy. You have been brought here tonight to serve penance. You are here to be purified by fire and by…”
“No!” someone screamed.
Beth fought the urge to raise her head. With her head still lowered, Beth glanced to the side and could make out the shiny object in Mother Lyra’s right hand.
Beth raised her head just as Dawn slammed into the woman knocking her to the floor and falling on top of her. As a guard rushed past Maria, Maria held out her fist and clotheslined the man. The three other guards hurried toward Mother Lyra unaware of their comrade’s plight.
While Beth hurried across the circle of women toward the incapacitated man, Maria reached down and grabbed the weapon from his holster. She did not hesitate. Maria shot the first guard twice, and he fell to the floor. As the guard closest to Beth turned in Maria’s direction, Beth ran toward him, slammed into his back, and sending him flying to the floor. His gun slid across the concrete floor.
A young girl, Beth guessed her to be no more than thirteen, bent down and retrieved the weapon. She held it out in front of her, aimed at the two remaining guards. The one closest to the young girl stopped in his tracks and threw his hands in the air, just as Maria fired twice more, sending him to join his companions on the floor. The surviving guard began backing away and pleading for his life. He called the girls name, and she reacted by lowering the weapon. While the man attempted to take advantage of the girl’s reluctance to fire, Beth lunged forward, grabbed the gun from the girl’s hand, and leveled it at the guy.
Dawn was rising to her feet as the man was stepping backward past her. In her hand, Dawn held Mother Lyra’s knife, wet with blood. Dawn’s face twisted with the look of pure hatred and rage as she brought the blade up and buried it into the guard’s abdomen. He slumped over her shoulder before crumpling to the floor. He writhed in agony and begging for help.
“Beth, get his gun,” Maria yelled.
Beth bent down and picked up the gun that lay beside the guy.
“Help me, please!” the man pleaded.
“Let the Khambalians come save you, you crazy piece of shit,” Beth said as she straightened.
Maria was struggling to unhook a large ring of keys from one of the guard’s belt loops. Beth looked around and all the women, except Dawn and the young girl, had vanished. Beth rushed over to help Maria with the key chain. She took the pistol from Maria and held it on the man as Maria used both hands to open the clasp.
“Yes!” Maria said, holding a ring of keys in the air.
“Dawn, where do they keep their vehicles?” Beth asked.
Dawn stood still with a blank stare on her face.
“Dawn, we don’t have much time. Where do they keep the running vehicles? They must have at least one. I’m sure they didn’t carry us here on their backs,” Beth said, not taking her eyes off the unconscious and bleeding guard at her feet.
“It’s near the south gate,” the teenage girls said, her voice a timid squeak.
“Can you show me?” Beth asked.
She had no idea which direction to go. They didn’t have time to wander around the compound looking for the south gate, either.
“I can if you’ll take me with you,” she said, more confident this time.
“Don’t you have family here?” Maria asked as she approached Dawn and removed the bloody knife from her grasp.
“My mom and dad died.”
“I’m sorry,” Beth said, looking to Maria.
Maria shrugged and wiped the knife on her robe.
“Let’s go then,” Beth said, as she pulled the robe over her head.
Beth, Maria, and the girl headed toward the door. As Beth reached for the doorknob, she turned and looked back at Dawn.
“Maria, we should take her. She saved us. We can’t just leave her here like that.”
Maria rolled her eyes, turned, and ran over to Dawn. Grabbing her by the hand, Maria pulled her across the room to the door. Beth slowly opened the door and peeked outside before the four of them ran through the compound toward the gate. Beth skipped more than ran. She could not let the pain stop her from escaping.
The young girl was right. Parked at the gate was an Army Hummer. Maria threw open the driver’s door and hopped in. The four got into the hummer as Maria cranked the engine over.
“Wait!” Beth yelled. “I forgot Jack.”
“What the fuck?” Maria cursed.
“I need to get Jack,” Beth said.
“He is in the barn right there,” the young girl pointed over her shoulder as she pushed open the passenger door and flew out.
“Wait! Where the hell are you going?” Maria called after her.
“To get Jack.”
“Damn it. We need to get the fuck out of here before the rest of the guards get here.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I just…” Beth stammered.
The girl returned with Beth’s one-eyed Jack cradled in her arms, hopped back in the vehicle, and slammed her door.
“Got him,” she said, a broad smile crossing her face.
Beth was just about to comment about the gate when Maria stomped the gas pedal and plowed right through it, causing it to fly over the top of the vehicle and slam down on the pavement behind them.
The four women were slung around inside the vehicle as Maria took a right turn too fast. Beth feared they would crash and be right back where they started, but Maria straightened out the vehicle, and they raced down the road.
No one spoke as they sped away, down the dark and curvy highway, away from the insanity they had just escaped.
Chapter 24
Langston Cabin
Texas County, Missouri
Event + 18 days
As light streamed in the window next to her bunk, Maddie pulled the covers up over her head. She was determined to remain there, despite Ryan’s pleas to join them as they took Ron’s body home for burial. Maddie rolled over and turned her back to him without answering.
“Maddie, you knew Ron best. You should help us choose where he’d like to be laid to rest. Come on. Please come and help us say goodbye to him.”
“I can’t.”
She tried not to burst into tears again but failed.
“You have to. We have to be able to mourn and then move on,” Ryan said, kneeling beside her bed.
He placed a hand on her back.
“I know it’s hard to lose people…”
“It’s my fault. I got him killed. If I hadn’t…”
“No, it isn’t. He chose to run after Austin. There was no way you could have known what would happen.”
“I knew it was dangerous to try to save Mrs. Ousley and Anna, but I ran off anyway,” Maddie cried.
“You did it because you are a caring person. Ron ran after Austin for the same reason. It just happened, Maddie, and it’s no one’s fault but the bastards who shot him.”
Maddie rolled over onto her back and stared up at the slats of the bunk above her. The glow-in-the-dark stars she had placed there as a child still shined down on her. To the right of the largest star was a red heart with Rank’s name written in the middle. She reached up and traced the outline with her index finger. She’d been eleven with she drew it. Times were simpler, then, she thought.
Ryan took her hand and gently pulled her to her feet. He bent over, pi
cked up her boots, and handed them to her.
As she took them from him, she threw her arms around him and squeezed him tight. She sobbed into his neck as he stroked her long blonde hair. His fingers caught in the tangled mass at the nape of her neck.
“Ouch,” she gasped.
“You really should do something with the rat’s nest you have in there,” Ryan chuckled.
“You should do something with that face,” Maddie teased, rubbing his shaven chin.
Ryan gave her a gentle shove and turned toward the door.
“We’ll be in the barn. Don’t take too long.”
Harmony entered the room as Maddie sat on the bed and pulled on her boots.
“I need to get my pack,” she said, bending over to retrieve her backpack from the floor at the foot of the bunk.
Maddie said nothing.
She could tell Harmony had been crying too. Her face was flushed and her eyes puffy. Maddie wondered if Harmony had ever lost anyone she cared about. Anyone other than her parents, who had never come home after the lights went out. Their fate was unknown, so that would be a different kind of grief.
Harmony had really liked Austin.
Maddie’s feelings of grief and guilt began to increase again.
After tying her boots and slinging her own pack over her shoulder, Maddie turned to Harmony.
“I’m sorry about Austin. I know you two were becoming friends.”
Harmony broke down and lunged herself into Maddie’s arms. She held Harmony and allowed her to cry on her shoulder. She wished her mom was there. She was much better at being comforting. It was what made her a great nurse.
Maddie patted Harmony’s back as she trembled in her arms.
Brushing strands of brown hair from Harmony’s face, Maddie said, “Let’s go say goodbye to Ron. We can make a memorial to Austin if you’d like. Maybe we can stack some stones and get Zack to carve Austin’s name on a plague.”
“I’d like that,” Harmony said.
Maddie took her by the hand and the two girls joined the others in the barn.
Maddie selected a spot under a willow tree by the pond. She had spent a lot of time sitting in that spot fishing with Ron. While Rank and Lugnut dug the grave, Maddie, Zach, and Harmony gathered stones from around the property. Zach pushed the wheelbarrow as Harmony selected rocks. When they had filled it to the top, Harmony and Zach stacked them next to the hole Rank and Lugnut were digging.
Maddie went off to feed the animals as Harmony and Zach searched for a good board to make grave markers. As Maddie pitched hay into the goats’ pen, she looked around the barnyard.
He’d want us to have his animals and take care of Mugsbie.
She knew he would want them to have all his stuff, but they didn’t have any place for the animals at the cabin. They barely had proper pens for the baby goats and chicks Ron had just given them. There was no way they could stand guard over two properties, and she was not willing to give up the cabin. They’d have to figure something out.
After scooping chicken scratch from the old freezer-turned-feed-bin, she scattered the feed on the ground for the hens. A mean rooster ran over and chased the hens away. She recalled Ryan’s rooster, Foghorn, and his predawn crowing.
“I guess I’ll have to get used to your wake-up calls,” she told him as she threw more scratch from the hens.
“We are ready, Maddie,” Rank said, walking up behind her.
Maddie swallowed hard. She wasn’t ready. They’d gone through so much already. It had only been eighteen days and there’d been so much violence. So much death. She wondered if it would get better or worse as time went on. Would the evil people soon outnumber the good ones? Would she ever feel safe again? Was there ever going to come a day when she did not have to carry her rifle with her twenty-four hours a day?
Maddie rubbed the back of her neck where the strap of the sling had chaffed a raw spot. She dumped the rest of the feed on the ground as the geese came running around the side of the barn. Returning to the grain bin, Maddie scooped a bucket full, dumped it in a pile, and hurried away. One of the geese chased Rank off down the path to the pond.
The grave was already filled in, and the marker placed when Maddie arrived. The American flag that once hung high on a pole in front of Ron’s house now lay folded on top of the stacked stones at the head of the grave. At the foot of the grave, lying in the loose dirt, was Mugsbie, Ron’s Australian shepherd. The dog she’d given him when Jason wouldn’t allow her to have another dog. Maddie knelt and scratched behind his ear. He barely acknowledged her. She’d never witnessed a dog grieve before. She buried her face in his fur.
“I’m sorry, boy. I am so sorry,” Maddie cried.
Mugsbie raised his head and licked her face—his way of saying he didn’t blame her, but
she didn’t feel exonerated.
Ryan stood at the head of the grave. He was the first to speak. Ryan told about the first day he’d met Ron nearly seven years before. He told funny stories of their early survival training days when Ron was trying to teach the group which mushrooms were edible and how to harvest and eat cattails.
Maddie recalled those days in vivid detail. One, in particular, stood out to her. It was spring and they were hunting for morel mushrooms. Ron kept calling them hickory chickens. So, when she told her parents she’d found an enormous hickory chicken, they thought she found a wild bird.
Maddie was the last to speak. She shared some of her favorite times spent with Ron.
“I am blessed to have known Ron. I know that I am better prepared for whatever is to come because of all the things he taught me. I wish we’d had more time. There was so much more he had to share. I will miss his big heart and kind nature—and his big black mustache. Thank you so much, Ron, for being my friend.” Maddie said, her voice cracking.
Rank handed Maddie a bouquet of black-eyed Susans that Harmony had picked from along the road. Maddie stared at them for a moment before taking them from him. As she kneeled, she read the words carved on his grave marker.
Ronald Hillman, U.S. Army, Retired
Beloved Friend
Gone too soon.
Chapter 25
Wright County, Missouri
Event + 18 days
“Anyone have any idea where the hell we are?” Maria asked as she slowed for an approaching stop sign.
No one spoke, at first.
Beth didn’t recognize anything. She had no idea how far the cult had taken them from where she’d wrecked the Bronco. At the moment, she couldn’t even recall where that was. She was totally lost.
“We are in Wright County. That road up there is Highway 5,” the girl said.
Beth turned in her seat and looked to Dawn who sat emotionless, staring down at her feet.
“Dawn, are you okay?” Beth asked.
“We are south of Mansfield. Highway 5 will take you into town,” Dawn said, her tone flat. She didn’t make eye contact.
“We don’t want to go into any towns. Do you know any way around the city?” Maria asked, stopping at the stop sign on Highway 5.
Dawn shook her head.
“It doesn’t take you into the town. It comes out on Highway 60,” the girl said.
“Yes, Highway 60 is what we want to take. I can get us home from there,” Beth said, excited that she finally knew where she was.
Sixty more miles and they would reach the cabin. One more hour and she could hold her children. As Maria pulled the vehicle onto Highway 5 heading north toward Mansfield, Beth’s stomach knotted. The thought struck her that they could reach the cabin and her kids not be there.
For the next fifteen minutes, Beth’s mind played the what-if game. What if they ran into trouble like she’d experienced? What if they were still on foot and walking from Illinois? What if they were being held in some DHS detention center? A hundred other grim scenarios crossed her mind. Her thoughts raced through endless possibilities.
“Where are we headed?” the girl asked, leaning
forward in her seat.
Beth turned in her seat and looked at the girl. The sun was just coming over the horizon, and she could only make out the girl’s silhouette. Beth wasn’t sure if she should tell the girl about the cabin or her kids. She hadn’t planned on bringing extra people on the trip.
Beth turned back around and looked over to Maria.
“What’s your name?” Maria asked her.
“Krista. Krista McKenzie.”
“Where do you live, Krista?” Maria asked.
“At the mission.”
“Do you have family around here? You seem to know the area.”
“No. I don’t have any family. I was living with my grandma over on Highway A, near Laura Ingalls Wilder’s house, but my grandma died at the mission last week. They wouldn’t let me give her any heart medicine.”
“Oh. I’m sorry for your loss,” Maria said.
Maria looked at Beth. Beth shrugged her shoulders.
“So you don’t have anywhere to go?” Beth asked.
“No. I guess I’m on my own now. Maybe you could drop me off at my grandma’s house.”
“We cannot leave her to fend for herself,” Beth whispered.
“It’s your call. It’s your cabin,” Maria said
Beth thought for a moment.
“Would you like to come with us? I have a cabin about an hour north of here.”
“I would love that,” Krista said, her voice raised with excitement.
Beth looked back at Dawn, who appeared to be sitting there emotionless.
“Dawn? What about you? Do you have somewhere nearby we can drop you?”
Dawn’s silhouette shook her head without looking up.
“You can come with us, too, if you want. Okay?”
Dawn nodded slightly.
After turning onto east Highway 60, they drove into the early morning sun for ten miles, weaving in and out of abandon vehicles, before reaching their turn onto State Highway Y and heading north. Near Hartville, Maria made a right turn onto Highway 38.
When they reached the four-way junction with Highway 95, Beth could not recall which way to go to reach the cabin in Evening Shade.
