I wanted to know the same thing too, but Grandma looked really pissed and agitated by Jay’s words. I decided that that particular discussion could be tabled for now. If they wanted to discuss that, they would. I didn’t really know my mom, but part of what Jay had said got to me. Why was my mom suddenly back in Arkansas, and how the hell had Spider captured her? I knew how Emily had got there; the traitorous bitch had walked in on her own. But what was my mother, who had been absent for my entire life, doing in Arkansas as one of Spider’s captives? Something wasn’t right. It wasn’t even close to making sense. Not yet.
14
Linda, Michael and Jay took a small team back to the homestead. They took with them the radio and critical components needed to hook it back up to the batteries and solar bank that we’d disassembled and hidden. We needed to get communications back up and we needed to hear what was going on. Spider’s KGR had my mother? Was this another prop, the same way that Emily’s picture of her being a captive seemed to be a prop?
My emotions were up and down. Jessica, Mary and I were walking slowly around our new camp. It was pretty well hidden, considering there were small cook fires here and there. They didn’t throw off a lot of light, because Linda had shown everybody how to dig a Dakota fire hole, so the hot fires barely threw off any smoke. What we couldn’t hide was the smell of cooking, which carried far.
“What do you want to do for fun?” Mary asked in a quiet voice.
“I don’t know. I was thinking maybe we could all work on some hide and seek?” Jessica answered.
“That doesn’t seem like fun,” Mary said sullenly.
“It’s good practice,” I told her.
“How is it good practice?” she asked suddenly, sounding more interested.
“Teaches you how to hide. That way you can become almost invisible when you’re hunting or trying to sneak up on an animal.”
“Or to sneak up on the bad guys,” Jessica said, kneeling down to tickle her.
Mary stepped backwards. “Was my daddy a bad guy? Is that why Uncle Wes had to…”
Jessica made a choking sound, her hand flying to her mouth, and she turned.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s ok,” I told Jess, but I saw her face crumple as she realized what door she’d opened.
“I’ll be right back,” Jessica said walking away.
“Raider, go with her,” I said pointing to her.
Raider made a chuffing sound, then padded away. Jessica’s dogs had gone with Linda, the only other person other than me who they would listen to. She was going to use them to ensure there were no surprises left behind and nobody lingering in the area who had bad intentions. We were 99.99% sure that wasn’t the case, but the dogs would know a lot better than the humans.
“I’m sorry my question made her sad,” Mary said to me after a moment, putting her small hand into mine.
“What do you know about what happened to your dad?” I asked her, emotion rising up inside of me, threatening to make my own feelings of guilt swamp what I’d thought I had gotten over.
“Just what Momma told me. Daddy was trying to shoot up Mister Les, and you guys got him and my uncles in a … wildfire?”
“Crossfire,” I said, almost choking the word out.
“So was my daddy a bad guy?” Mary asked me after a long pause.
“I don’t know,” I told her honestly. “I’ve lived most of my life skirting the law.” We’d started walking to the edge of the camp, closer to the Crater of Diamonds. I found a tree that had blown down in last year’s storms, and sat down on it. I patted the edge, and Mary joined me on the log.
“See, there’s man’s laws, and there’s God’s laws. Sometimes the laws of man make no sense, but a lot of them really do. God’s laws always make sense sweetie. Was your daddy breaking one and not the other? Probably. But I’ve done the same thing in my life. I’ve been square with God’s laws and at odds with man’s laws.”
She was silent, and I hoped I could think of an easier way to explain things to her. It’d been an issue I’d personally wrestled with my entire life; the life of an outlaw of sorts, nothing like Spider or his crew, but I’d definitely skirted if not outright broken man’s laws time after time after time.
“Is that kind of like sin?” she asked finally.
“What do you know about sin?” I asked her softly.
“Not much. We weren’t big into religion. We didn’t go to church.”
“Me neither,” I admitted. “Let’s fix that soon.”
“Want to go for a walk?” she asked me, taking my hand again.
“Where do you want to go?” I asked her.
“I want to find my mommy.”
“We can’t go where she is,” I told her, again feeling crushed.
We’d talked over the fact that her mom had betrayed us all and gone willingly to Spider’s camp. For some reason, she’d warned us of the coming snatch and grab, probably to keep Mary out of danger, but she’d betrayed us all the same. We’d even avoided mentioning her by name when we were talking about who was Spider’s captive, but now I’d just let it out of the bag. Or had I?
“She’s with the bad men, isn’t she?” she asked in a small voice as we started walking away from camp, picking our way slowly.
“Yes, that’s where she headed after your grandfather’s house,” I said softly.
This was not a conversation I should be having with a little girl. I knew that, but her questions were flooring me, and I almost couldn’t stop myself from telling her things now.
“Daddy used to hang out with some guys Momma said was mean. I don’t know why she’d want to go with people like that. I’m glad I’ve got you and Miss Jessica.”
“Thank you… Wait, what do you mean your dad used to hang out with some mean folks?” I asked her.
“When he got home from the war. The place he used to work, his buddies there were all bad guys, my Momma said.”
“How did your Mom know they were bad guys?”
“My other Grandpa owned the place he worked,” Mary explained.
“Well, your mom’s dad would know those kind of things.”
Our footsteps were silent, and that was when I noticed the entire woods had gone silent.
That wasn’t unusual near to where we were camping, lots of humans create a ruckus and creatures avoid the area where humans camp out. We were beyond that now, and the birds and squirrels, the thrashing in the brush from small animals making their way away from us… all of those sounds, had finally gone quiet. I couldn’t even hear voices from the camp anymore.
“What’s wrong, Mister Wes?” Mary asked quietly.
“You remember when we were talking about hide and seek?” I asked her urgently.
“Yeah, but I don’t really want to play,” she said.
“Shhhhh,” I whispered. “We’re going to have to.” I knelt down, then went on all fours, pulling her with me.
“What’s going on?” Mary whispered after she laid prone in the leaf litter with me for a moment.
“The woods went silent,” I whispered back, “and I have a bad feeling about—”
Gunfire shattered the silence behind us. Both of us put our heads down. Somewhere a woman shrieked until a rattle of gunfire silenced the high pitched voice.
“What’s going on?” Mary asked, crying.
“I think we’re being attacked again.”
How many times has this happened? I lost count. I almost felt like I was in some bad western where the only plot line was the bad guys kept coming in waves. Mary and I kept our heads down, but crawled slowly towards camp. I should have sat still, but there was a high spot near the blown down tree we could hide behind, and I might get an idea of what was going on. For all I knew, our people had opened fire on somebody who was sneaking up on them. It wouldn’t do the both of us any good to run if there was nothing to run from. One hundred feet, that was all we had to crawl.
This was stupid, this wa
s stupid. I was really feeling dumb.
The gunfire tapered off. Most of it had been on full auto. We had quite a few of those, but most of the men and women who carried them had been killed in the last attack, or snatched. I had my pistol on me, but not my M4. I’d left that in the shelter half I shared with Jessica. I cursed myself for my stupidity.
“There you are,” a voice I’d only heard over the radio said from behind us.
I turned slowly, seeing him for the first time, up close.
“Grandpa K?” Mary asked curiously.
Larry Killion, AKA Spider, leader of the KGR held a familiar pistol, pointed at my head. Emily’s BFR. I’d recognize it anywhere.
“I waited long enough, and I warned you,” he cooed in my direction, then turned to Mary. “I’m so very glad to see you safe and happy, dear.”
Grandpa K? Emily was his—
My thoughts were cut off as a black bag was pulled over my head. Mary started shrieking. Strong arms encircled my neck. I tried for my gun, but I could already feel myself losing consciousness. They’d snuck up on me somehow. Without a sound. They were good. They were—
15
I came to what felt like hours later. There was a sore spot on my neck, and I rubbed at it slowly.
“Don’t move too fast,” a deep, gravelly voice said.
I looked up. I was in a small room, laying on a cot. There was something familiar about it, and the large form sitting on two folding chairs, his back to the door. I sat up slowly, letting my feet touch the ground.
“Duke?” I asked, moving slowly.
“One and the same,” he said, standing.
“But… I thought you were dead?” My head was fuzzy, and it wasn’t from being knocked out.
I remembered the sore spot on my neck. Drugged?
“To quote Mark Twain… ‘The reports of my death were greatly exaggerated’.”
“But… where are we?” I asked him.
“Don’t you know?” he asked. “You stayed here for a time. This was your cot.”
I looked around the darkened room, seeing the light coming in from under a shut door. No… it couldn’t be? Could it? “I’m back in the Carpenters’ bunker?”
“Yup, you and me both.” He sat on the edge of the cot, and got back up immediately when it almost flipped.
“You’ve been here this entire time?” I asked him.
“Yup. Henry’s boys thought they had me down and out, but I was a playing ‘possum. How’d they get you?”
Memories came flooding back. The walk in the woods. Mary—
“Where’s Mary?” I asked him suddenly.
“She’s with her momma and her other grandpa,” Duke said.
“Grandpa? Wait, you mean, Killion is Mary’s…”
“Yup. Or step grandpa, or something like that. How you feeling?”
“Like I’m the slowest player in a guessing game,” I admitted. “Wait… we were attacked. Right before somebody choked me out. Where’s my grandma, Jessica?”
“I don’t know exactly. I’m not privy to all the info here. All I know is that we were going to do a snatch and grab. Things got chaotic when somebody started firing on our team.”
His team? We? Snatch and grab?
“You’re… with them?” I asked, my voice rising in anger.
“Can’t beat them, join them,” he said simply. “Besides, even salt looks like sugar.”
I was working myself up into a tirade, but that knocked the wind out of my sails.
“Monty?” I asked.
“Not everybody here wants to be here, some work the inside to help those outside,” he said softly, almost in a whisper.
A double agent?
“How?” I asked him.
“They needed somebody with my background. They needed the Marshall kid to get Lance to come around again when he was thinking of going rogue. They needed to get Emily back to her step-dad when it became apparent she was losing control of herself and couldn’t be trusted to finish her mission. Like I said, I ain’t privy to all that’s going on. What I am good at is snatching people quietly without hurting them.”
My head spun, and I felt my neck where somebody unbelievably strong and quiet had choked me into immediate unconsciousness.
“Where is everyone?” I asked him.
“Here, upstairs in the main part of the bunker, all around us in this little holler. When Spider’s scouts started firing on the National Guard, for some dumbass reason, they got hosed down and chased. It wasn’t long before they figured out where the main camp was. We fell back here, to where it’s a lot easier to defend. Lots of vehicles and folks are headed this way. Going to be a busy and bustling place soon. Best we can tell we got everyone but Linda and your girl Jessica. Your grandma is fine, by the way… and the rest who weren’t captured…” the words trailed off into a pregnant silence.
Grandma was safe, but Jessica and Linda for sure got away. That meant Raider was safe as well. I knew I should have been concerned for everyone, but knowing the three of them were alive and unharmed made me feel a ton of relief.
“Why are you telling me all of this?” I asked him.
“Because, even salt looks like sugar,” he said again.
Not everything was at it seemed.
“Henry?” I asked simply.
“Not a fan of yours or mine, but Spider overrode him on my account. Probably will on yours too, but I hear they’re fixing to do some sort of hearing or tribunal or something. A reason to string you up. He’s on Spider’s last nerve, but he needs him for now.”
“Why?” I asked.
“No clue, but he didn’t do himself any favors when he kept from him that he had you and Emily locked up here. It seems that Spider, Killion, wanted you for more than just revenge. Any idea why?”
“I was kind of hoping you’d know,” I admitted.
I had to have been drugged once they’d choked me out, otherwise I would have come to too quickly for them to have gotten me back here to the bunker. My head didn’t feel as fuzzy as it had a few moments ago, but I was all kinds of confused and bursting with questions.
“I got to get out of here,” I told him.
“One way or another, you will. It might just be that it happens feet first. Like I told you, I’m playing the game. I don’t like it, but it’s the only game in town.” His voice was louder this time, almost angry sounding.
I looked at him in confusion, then heard footsteps moving away from the door. He moved to it, and pounded on it without looking.
“Sit,” Duke said quietly, pointing at the cot.
I sat as the door opened. One of the men who’d been there the night I’d shot both Jessica and Dave was waiting on the other side. He was dressed in digital camouflage, with a black KGR vest over it. A radio was attached to the vest, and he had an earwig in one ear, his head cocked, looking in, and an M4 at the low and ready. The light was blinding me, making me squint.
“Any useful intel from him?” he asked Duke.
“I already told you folk, you already know everything you need to know,” Duke said, his voice slow and gravelly once again.
“What about the chemical weapons stocks?” he asked, pointing in my direction with his carbine.
“What chemical weapons stock?” I asked him.
“Boss says you ain’t going nowhere until he knows where you’ve stashed the goods,” the man said.
“You got anything like that, Hoss?” Duke asked me as he stepped into the hallway next to the man.
I decided to go with the truth. “Talked about it, but never mixed or stored any. I was thinking about using some of the tanks that local crop dusters had—”
“Don’t lie to me,” the man shouted, rushing into the room.
He stopped when the barrel was touching me right between the eyes. “You used it on us here! My son died from it!” The last came out a shriek.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said softly, then leaned back to take the pressure off my face. He l
et me, “Good thing he wasn’t one of the folks who ran outside like a chicken with their heads cut off, because I gunned those cowards down, shooting them in the back. Once you betray your oath—”
I saw him pull the gun back, and realized he was about to shove it back forward into my face, with considerable force. I could see a vein pulsing in his forehead and a drop of sweat had worked itself from his temple halfway down his cheek. This was one of those moments when time seemed to stand still for me. I started pulling my head to the left, even as I shot my left leg out. My movement surprised him, and I saw his eyes widen in slow motion as the barrel missed my ear by a hair’s breadth. That was when my foot connected to the side of his knee, the one he was putting forward pressure on for balance.
There was a sickening, tearing sound. The man started to drop, screaming. Duke rushed in, grabbing the lower receiver of the gun, blocking the man’s fingers from pulling the trigger.
“It’ll ricochet, you dumbass,” he said, jerking savagely.
The gun went flying away, and without the man holding onto it, he rolled on the floor, one hand holding his useless knee, screaming in a way I didn’t think a man could. I hadn’t meant for that to happen but…
“Get out of here,” Duke said, grabbing him by his good leg with one hand, dragging him backwards, his heels kicking the M4 out the doorway.
“I’ll kill you, I’ll kill your entire family. You’re dead Flagg, you hear me?”
Incoherent screeching followed that as the door was slammed from the outside. I’d been holding my breath I realized, and I let it out in one huge breath and rushed the door. I slipped on something on the ground in the three steps between the cot and the handle and went down on my ass hard. I heard the lock click and groaned. I listened as the screaming grew fainter. They weren’t taking him in the direction of the mail room, but to the left, which led to the living room area, or upstairs.
Still Surviving (Book 5): Dark Secrets: Page 10
