by Steven Bird
“Shhhhh, calm down,” he replied. “The children are fine. Several of our officers shuttled them across town to our medical clinic to have them checked out. They were pretty traumatized by what happened to your group earlier this evening. We are all saddened by your loss and are here to help. You see, you and your companions were ambushed by a group of bandits who owe an enormous debt to the drug cartels. After the collapse and the loss of value in paper currency, the cartels had to shift to operating with physical assets instead of cash. Fuel, weapons, and dare I say it, women and children, are their currency now. The bandits ambushed your group to take you and everything you had to pay their debts. We showed up just in the nick of time and ran them off.”
“That's not how I remember it,” she said defiantly, her head pounding as she struggled to maintain her focus.
“Well, you've been through a lot, and you took a pretty hard hit to the head during the crash. You're not remembering things clearly. You need your rest to get your head on straight.”
“Crash? What crash? We were attacked! You and your men attacked us! You killed my friends!”
“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but as I explained, we arrived on scene to find you and your group pinned down by bandits. Outside of our well-protected borders here in Fort Sumner, things like that seem to be happening more and more. They know people are trying to reach us for the safety our town provides, and they prey on that. We found you in an overturned minivan. The children were still in the vehicle with you. We struggled, but managed to get them pulled to safety through one of the windows. You must have hit your head during the rollover.”
“What? But… That’s not what happened. We were attacked.”
“Yes, you were. That’s what caused the crash. The driver of the van must have been shot, and the vehicle swerved and began to roll.”
“No… That’s not what happened. That’s not…” Breaking down into tears, Leina was scared and confused. “Where are my clothes? Why am I naked?” she shouted as she held her sheet tightly around her body.
“I apologize for that, ma’am. Our staff EMT had to give you an examination to make sure you didn't suffer any injuries that weren't obvious to us. Don't worry, there were witnesses in the room. Your clothes are being laundered and will be returned to you soon—fresh and clean.”
Interrupting before she could respond, another man entered the room, saying, “Chief, we’ve got reports of gunshots just outside of town.”
“On my way,” he replied. Chief Perrone turned back to Leina and said, “I've got to go. Duty calls. We'll continue this conversation after you're all rested up.” Looking back at the other man in the room, he said, “Officer Reyes, get this young lady some adequate bedding. Make sure she gets some nice fluffy pillows, and for God’s sake, get her some food and something to drink. Oh, and something for her pain.”
“Yes, Chief,” Reyes replied as he quickly turned and left the room.
“Well, miss… Uh, what's your name again?” Chief Perrone asked.
Pausing for a moment, her head spinning and the room becoming a blur, she reluctantly replied, “Leina. Well, my name is actually Leinaʹala. It's Hawaiian, but I go by Leina to make it easy.”
“It’s nice to properly meet you, Leinaʹala,” he said with a warm smile. “We'll talk more in the morning when you’re well rested, and your thoughts are clear. And don't worry, we'll get the children back to you as soon as the Doc signs off on them.”
“Thank you,” she replied as he quickly exited the room, pulling the door shut behind him.
Laying her head down on the blanket, her memories swirling around in her clouded mind, she fought the confusion that pervaded her thoughts. Am I remembering things correctly? she thought, questioning the validity of her own recollections. Her head throbbing in pain, she closed her eyes and longed for the luxury of sleep while she pictured the wonderful moment when Kayla, Gavin, and Patricia would be returned to her.
~~~~
Awakened by a knock, Leina looked up to see the door being slowly opened, once again casting light into the room. “Who's there?” she asked as her sleepy eyes attempted to focus on the figure standing in the doorway, shadowed by the bright lights.
“It's just me, ma’am. Officer Reyes. The chief had asked me to get you some proper bedding and something to eat.”
“Where are the children? Are they back?”
“They're staying at the clinic for the night where they can be kept safe. We had a murder just outside of town earlier. An elderly man, a lifelong resident of the area, was gunned down just a half-mile from our front gates. With the shooter still on the loose, Chief Perrone felt the safest course of action would be to wait until tomorrow to bring them back in the daylight. There are a lot of bad people out there. We do a good job of keeping them out of town, but they slip in from time to time. Considering that, the Chief doesn’t want to take any unnecessary risks with the children.”
Disappointed by his answer, Leina simply nodded in reply.
“This will make you more comfortable,” he said as he reached outside the door, retrieving a folding cot from the hallway. Unfolding it and locking the legs into place, he said, “This will keep you off that cold, hard floor. I've got a few extra blankets and pillows for you as well.”
Interrupted by another knock on the door, an elderly woman of Hispanic decent entered the room with a tray of food atop Leina’s neatly folded and freshly laundered clothes. “Ah, Rosa is here with your dinner, if you're hungry, that is.” Turning to Rosa, he politely said, “Thank you, ma’am. You can place the tray over there on the table.”
“You're welcome, señor,” she answered with a bow before quickly exiting the room.
Turning back to Leina, Officer Reyes said with a smile, “She's not much for conversation, but she's a true sweetheart. We’d be lost without her.”
Still in a state of confusion, Leina started to speak, but found herself at a loss for words. “I… I… I don’t…”
“It’s okay. Like the Chief said, you’ve had a rough day,” Reyes said as he shook two pills out of a medicine bottle retrieved from his pocket. “This will help with your pain.”
“What… what is it?” she asked, sheepishly holding out her hand.
“We call it Vitamin M,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s Motrin, or Ibuprofen actually. Our doc gives it out like candy, no matter what our complaint is, so we just consider it our daily vitamin.”
Seeing that she wasn’t amused, he placed the pills into her hand and said, “Well, I’ll let you get back to sleep. Sorry to wake you. If you need anything, just yell, and one of us will come running.”
Looking around the room, noticing there were no windows on any of the walls, she asked, “What time is it?”
With a smile, he replied, “It’s late. You should get some sleep. Someone will be by to check on you in the morning.”
As he left the room, pulling the door shut behind him, Leina heard what sounded like a dead-bolt lock being engaged. Quickly reaching for her clothes while she was alone, Leina pulled her gray, long-sleeved T-shirt over her head, wrestled on her well-worn and faded blue jeans with a rip in the knee, and slid back underneath the covers before anyone returned.
She rolled over onto the cot, pulled the blankets around her tightly, and said to herself, “What the hell is going on here? I feel like I’m losing it. I can’t even trust my own memories anymore,” as she felt herself drifting once again into the darkness of unconsciousness.
Chapter Eight
After an hour of walking the horse by the reins through the darkness of the night with only the moon to guide his way, Jessie’s thoughts raced through his mind, his memories of the past colliding with thoughts of his present and his potential future. Snapping himself out of his downward mental spiral, Jessie looked at the old horse and said, “So, what’s your name, anyway?”
After an awkward moment of silence, Jessie added, “Not much for words, I see. Well, if you’re not gonna tell me, I’ll
just name you myself. Hmmm,” he thought as he rubbed his chin and scrunched his forehead. “Eli. You look like an Eli. That’s it. You’re Eli now, old boy,” patting him on the neck and tugging on his reins to get him moving again.
Feeling resistance from the tired, old horse, Jessie looked around and said, “Yeah, I’m tired, too. Let’s find a place to bed down until sunrise. Heck, I don’t even know for sure where I am. Once the sun is up, we’ll get a good look at things, and I’ll bounce what we see off the map, and we’ll go from there. It looks like the terrain is getting a little more varied the further west we go. We’ll find a safe spot soon.”
~~~~
Feeling warmth on his face, Jessie felt a droplet of thick, warm liquid drip onto his chin. Opening his eyes, he was startled to see a large Rottweiler standing over him, its breath wreaking of rancid meat, drool hanging from its chin. Staring deeply into his eyes, the dog released a low, ominous growl.
Slowly moving his right hand toward his Colt revolver on his side, the dog, triggered by Jessie’s movement, latched onto Jessie’s arm with a bone-crushing bite while shaking its head back and forth violently.
Feeling the bones in his arm crack under the crushing force of the dog’s vise-like grip, Jessie reached for his knife with his left hand and began stabbing the dog repeatedly, while screaming, “Get off me! Get off me! Get off me, you filthy beast!”
Striking the dog over and over again with the knife, the animal acted as if it wasn’t fazed at all by Jessie’s counterattack. Hearing sounds of struggle to his left, Jessie glanced over to see several other dogs dragging Eli to the ground. Leaping onto him like a pack of hungry lions, the dogs began to tear into the flesh of the old horse.
Releasing its mighty grip on Jessie’s now severely lacerated and possibly broken arm, the dog looked into Jessie’s eyes with a calculated stare. Hearing a whistle in the distance, the dog’s head snapped to its left, in the direction of the sound, and immediately ran off with the rest of the pack in tow.
His arm in severe pain, Jessie’s heart pounded as he looked around for any remaining threats, only to see Eli take his last gasp of air as he bled out, laying still and lifeless on the dry, dusty ground.
Hearing the low roar of a piston-driven, low-flying aircraft, Jessie was startled awake. Immediately grabbing his right arm, realizing it was okay, and it had all been yet another hellish nightmare, Jessie looked to see that Eli was unharmed as well, although he, too, was startled by the plane and was pulling nervously at his reins. Luckily, Jessie had secured Eli’s reins to a large rock in the outcrop they had used for cover for the night, and the horse remained secure.
“Damn it!” Jessie exclaimed, his heart pounding in his chest. Grabbing his rifle, Jessie looked through the scope, zooming in on the aircraft. “That’s a Beechcraft Baron,” he murmured as he attempted to get as much information about his surroundings as he could in the pre-dawn light.
“That thing just took off,” he said aloud in Eli’s direction. “What the...?” Laying his rifle to the side while he pulled a well-worn, folded paper map out of his cargo pocket, Jessie scanned the map for the Red Lake and Fort Sumner area, trying to get his bearings on where exactly he might be. Tracing the map with his finger, Jessie said, “Fort Sumner Municipal Airport. We’ve got to be right here,” tapping his finger on the map.
Shoving the map back into his pocket, Jessie retrieved his rifle once again and began tracking the aircraft as it headed south, over the horizon, and out of sight. Where the heck are they going? he wondered.
With the airplane fully out of sight, Jessie retrieved his map and began to study his potential situation. If this is the airport, then the town is directly south of us over that slight rise in the terrain. Maybe I can go get a look-see.
Putting the map back into his pocket, Jessie turned to Eli and said, “Eli, old boy, I’m gonna need you to stay put for a bit. I need to work my way to that hilltop to see if I have my bearings straight. I need to keep a low profile, so I’ll just leave you here for now, but don’t worry, I’ll be back.”
Gathering his pack and rifle, Jessie turned and looked at Eli and thought, “Ah hell, I can’t leave him here without breakfast.” Placing his pack and rifle back on the ground, Jessie walked around the immediate vicinity, pulling any sort of forage from its roots that he thought Eli might like. With a small armload of grasses and legumes, Jessie placed them in front of the horse, who immediately began pushing it around with his nose, sifting through the pile for the most desirable choices.
“Picky ol’ boy, ain’t you?” he said, patting him on the back. “You’d think a horse as skinny as you would just be happy to have a meal.”
Jessie then removed a water bottle from his pack and poured its contents into his own campfire cooking pan for Eli to drink. “There you go, buddy. Now, hang tight. I’ll be back.”
Once again donning his pack and shouldering his rifle, Jessie worked his way cautiously toward the rising terrain in the distance, due south of his position. As he neared the highest point of the terrain, devoid of any trees or adequate vegetation that could be used as cover while he observed what lay down below, Jessie slipped off his pack and placed it to the side. Slinging his rifle over his back, he then crawled on all fours to the summit, and slowly peeked over the edge. There she is, he thought as he observed the town below. Fort Sumner.
Lying on his stomach, Jessie pulled his rifle around, shouldering it to use the scope to aid him in getting a better look off in the distance below. Cupping his hand over the scope’s objective lens in an attempt to avoid any unwanted glints of light, Jessie scanned slowly and methodically, looking for signs of movement.
Panning from left to right, Jessie saw a man and a small child walking down one of the side streets, carrying a few small bags. Hmm, he thought. Is this town still alive? Did it not get hit?
Just then, an SUV painted in a makeshift desert/plains-style camo paint job entered his field of view from the left. The SUV had the telltale signs of being a current or former law enforcement vehicle of some sort, with a push-style brush guard on the front, an A-pillar-mounted spotlight and a light bar on top. Any pre-existing agency markings had long since been painted over, though. Who the hell is that? he thought.
Watching the vehicle that was now just one street over from the adult and child, Jessie noticed the adult pull the child by the arm, ducking behind a fence and a decorative hedgerow. What the…?
The SUV slowly worked its way down the street, passing by the people hidden behind the fence without incident. Now, just why did those people not want to interact with you, boys? he thought as the vehicle slowly worked its way through town as if on a patrol.
Once the vehicle was well past the hidden adult and child, the two emerged onto the street once again, where they hurried to a home just several houses down. At a glance, this looks like suburbia, but things seem a bit tense.
Off to his right, Jessie could see another SUV kicking up a trail of dust off in the distance, traveling from the north to the south, approaching the northern edge of town. Turning his attention to this second vehicle, Jessie thought, he looks like he’s traveling from roughly where the airport is located. Hmmm… Was he associated with that departing aircraft? I guess I’ll have to take a closer look.
Chapter Nine
“Rise and shine,” Leina heard a man’s voice say as she opened her eyes and felt the room begin to spin.
“What…huh?” she murmured as she tried to focus.
“It’s okay,” the man said. “It’s me, Chief Peronne. Did my men take good care of you last night?”
“I don’t…I don’t really remember. I…I don’t remember much of anything. It’s all a blur. The kids! Where are the kids?” she said as the fog in her mind began to clear.
Taking a seat next to her on the cot, he placed his hand on hers and said, “They’re safe and sound, but we still haven’t found the assailant that killed one of our townspeople. We’ve had reports from residents that he�
�s inside our town’s perimeter. With that in mind, we feel it prudent to keep the kids on lockdown at the clinic. We have several of our officers on scene there twenty-four hours a day, so they will be safe.”
“Can’t your men there just bring them here?” she asked, feeling panic begin to set in. “I need to see my children. They need me. You can’t keep them away from me like this.”
“Ma’am. Like I said, we’re making every effort to ensure the safety and the well-being of the children. Hopefully, we’ll come to a resolution soon in our attempts to capture the perpetrator. That has to be our first priority, though. If we take our officers away from the clinic to escort the children, and then something happens at the clinic, well, you can see where that just wouldn’t be in the town’s best interests. The feeling of security is a fragile thing these days. To be honest, making sure nothing happens to anyone inside our borders isn’t just about the safety and well-being of the individuals involved; it’s about the psyche of everyone else. Our people feel safe here. They’ve all been through hell, though. Before we got a grip on things, that is. That feeling of security would be lost if anything happened inside of our safe zone. So, I don’t mean to sound rude, but it’s not just about the safety of you and your children. It’s about the peace of mind of our citizens as well. We can’t let anything at all happen that would compromise the security that our residents feel.”
Piecing his words together in her mind, she asked, “Town? You have a functioning town?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Chief Perrone replied. “We have a clinic. We have a community garden. We have a school for the children. We have—ˮ
“You have a school?” she interrupted.
“Why, yes. Well, it’s more of a one-room school, like in the old days. A few of the teachers from the elementary school, from before the attacks, have remained in town and do a pretty good job keeping our kids up to speed in their studies. We will need to expand things in the long run, but for now, it works just fine.”
