by Paul Moxham
“Don’t leave me,” Molly cried out as Derek moved off.
“I won’t be long. Just stay here and keep watch.” Without another word, Derek walked deeper into the cave.
Molly watched as Derek disappeared from view. Then, turning around, she sat down on the nearest rock next to the cave and kept watch. There was still a small amount of light left, but not much.
She waited for five minutes, then Derek came back. “Did you have any luck?”
“No, it was too dark. Besides, I realized that it’d be pointless searching for the rope now since we can’t use it tonight.” Derek looked toward some pine trees. “I’m going to try to get some branches and stuff to lie down on. Want to help?”
~*~*~
“You do realize that staring at The View isn’t going to get her back?” Xavier asked, sitting down beside Logan.
Logan nodded as he turned away from the window and glanced around the small office. Overlooking the corner that they had been standing on earlier, it was the closest place that Baldy had been able to find. From one of the windows, they could see The View in the distance.
No other building was visible in the darkness, as The View was the only one powered by a generator. It shone like a beacon in the sky.
“At least we can use your pass,” Xavier said.
Logan nodded. He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the key pass. “Whatever happens, I’m getting into that building tonight. If the spy manages to distract the guard, then so be it, but if not, a well-placed shot should do away with the man.”
“I’m sure he’ll come through. I think …” Xavier paused as he saw a vehicle roll up beside the corner. “I wonder if that’s Muscles.”
Baldy, who had been talking to Peter, hurried over. He gazed down at the corner. “Yes, it’s them. Stay here while I tell them where we are.”
As he left the room, Peter walked over to them. “Are you still set on leaving the city after tonight?”
Logan nodded. “I’ve got to meet my brother in a few days. Besides, once Sanchez is dead, his regime should crumble pretty quickly. What about you?”
“I’m staying. It isn’t as though I’ve got anywhere else to go now that my wife is dead. Hell, I’ll probably still be fighting until the military comes, whenever that is.” Peter laughed without mirth. “It isn’t as though I’ve got anything better to do.”
~*~*~
Kenneth had been walking for some time when the beam of his flashlight fell on a cave. Hoping that it was the one that he had been searching for, he walked up to it and peered around with the aid of the flashlight.
He didn’t see anything at first, but then he saw the sleeping forms of Molly and Derek. They were lying beside each other just inside a cave.
As the light rested on Derek’s face, he moved. Sitting up, he caught sight of Kenneth. “You found us!”
On hearing her brother’s voice, Molly sat up. She grinned as she saw Kenneth. She leaped up and hugged him. “It’s so good to see you!”
Kenneth smiled back and comforted the teens. “Same here. Are you okay?”
Derek nodded. “We ran into a bear and a Seod, but we managed to slip away while they fought it out.”
Kenneth looked shocked. “Was the animal living in this cave?”
Molly nodded. “We don’t have a flashlight, so we don’t know if this is the cave that Doug mentioned or not.”
“I do, so let’s take a look.” Kenneth walked deeper into the cave, the others following close behind.
Chapter 16
“I don’t want to wait,” Logan stated.
“Trust me, it’s the best way,” Muscles said.
Logan went to the window and gazed out at The View. “How trustworthy is your spy?”
“I would trust him with my life,” Jet said, defending Alpha yet again.
Xavier frowned. “You seem to put a lot of faith in this person.”
For a moment, Jet blushed. Then he looked down and avoided the gaze of the others. “I’ve known him for a long time.”
Xavier sensed that there was something intimate Jet wasn’t sharing with them, so he turned to Baldy. “What do you think?”
“I say we go. Act now before Sanchez realizes they haven’t caught everyone,” Baldy said.
Logan stood up. “Baldy is right. If anyone wants to stay here, they can, but I’m going now. I’ll get some weapons from the Humvee and be on my way.”
~*~*~
Kenneth sat down. “There must be another cave farther up.”
“How do you think those cans got here?” Molly asked, looking at where they had stacked a number of cans.
Kenneth shrugged. “Maybe a camper stayed here for the night and left them here.” Inspecting the labels, he saw that the expiration date was next year. “I’ll put some in the backpack in case we get hungry. If …” He paused as Molly yawned. “Come on, let’s get back to bed. We want to be up nice and early tomorrow in case any Seods are still about.”
As the teens lay down on their branches, Kenneth headed to get some foliage for a makeshift bed of his own.
~*~*~
With night-vision goggles strapped to his eyes and an AR-15 buttstock against his cheek, Logan skirted along the side of the last abandoned building on his way to The View.
Behind him, Baldy, Xavier, and Jet followed. Muscles was far behind. He was standing guard at the corner, keeping an eye out for anyone—or anything—that might come down the street from that end.
As two men strutted through the lobby doors of The View and began chatting, Logan took cover behind a wrecked blue sedan that had smashed through a nearby store window.
As they gossiped, the moon slipped behind a cloud. Now only the light from The View lit up the area.
Logan knew that the time had come. He flicked a thumbs-up at the others, and they crept closer and closer to the tall building. As he reached another hiding spot, this time behind a garbage can, he knew that they could go no farther without being seen. It was time for Peter to work his magic.
He stared up into the office window they had left ten or so minutes ago. He slowly waved back and forth. Peter responded with a grim wave of his own.
Logan took a deep breath and clutched the rifle. He closed his eyes for a moment and thought about why he was doing this. Lucy meant the world to him, and although this operation was highly dangerous, he knew this was the time to act.
Logan stiffened as the two guards crumpled to the ground. The feint claps of the silenced rifle washed over him and focused his nerves. All the sterile planning and boisterous talk was over. There was no going back now. Peter sure knew what he was doing with that rifle. At least one of them did.
Logan scrambled to his feet and raced toward the front entrance of The View. The others followed without needing a command, which was great, because Logan didn't trust his shaking voice. Only their footsteps echoed throughout the silence as they darted across no-man’s-land.
Just as the group reached the lobby doors, they swung open, and a barrel peeped out.
Reflex took over Logan’s paralyzed brain. Without conscious thought, he snapped off three quick shots at the steel rod just an arm’s length away. Clutching his chest, the man in the door tumbled to the pavement, his shotgun clattering to the ground, which sure riled up the hornet's nest inside.
Bullets zinged past Logan’s scalp as he leaped into a nearby flower garden. The rest of his ad-hoc team did the same as they tried to work out where the shots were coming from. It didn’t take long to find the snipers up on the roof—not with all the lead they were pouring down.
“We need the grenades!” Logan bellowed.
Xavier took out three grenades from his pocket and rushed toward the revolving door. Pushing through it, he released the pins on all three and chucked them in different directions around the lobby before diving back out the revolving door.
As soon as the grenades exploded, the group stormed into the building. High and wild fire smashed the glass as
they went through the revolving doors.
The attackers bent low and ran to the reception desk in front of them. As rounds smacked into the marble, Xavier yanked more grenades from his backpack and flung them behind the desk.
Several thundering waves of overpressure shattered every window around, but the endless lead rain kept coming.
Logan peeked around the edge of the desk and looked toward the elevators. He saw three men positioned behind a makeshift blockade with a machine gun spitting out death. They weren’t firing wildly either, but stuck to disciplined little bursts of well-aimed fire. He edged back to his team and ground his teeth. “We’re pinned down on my side. What about yours?”
Baldy, who was at the far side of the desk, crawled over. “No dice. There’s another damn machine gun over here.”
Logan cursed to himself as the completeness of the trap sunk in. Fortunately, he couldn’t see anyone at the front entrance, but he knew it was only a matter of time before the enemy organized themselves. “Looks like Muscles wasn’t joking about the heavy metal.”
“What do we do now?” Xavier asked.
“We’ll have to retreat,” Jet said.
“But Lucy is—” Logan spluttered.
“If Lucy is still here tonight, she should be here tomorrow night, right?” Jet interrupted.
“I guess so.” Logan slammed the back of his head against the desk and hissed.
“Let’s head back the way we came and hope Peter gives us cover—” Jet paused as a grenade tumbled over the top of the desk and onto the ground next to them. “Son of a…!”
Jet grabbed the bomb and flung it over his head. It exploded in the air a split second later, perforating the desk, and his eardrums.
Xavier turned to Logan. “Jet’s right. We’re only committing suicide if we continue.”
“What about the stairs?” Logan gazed hopelessly at the hallway where he imagined the stairs would be.
“Too risky,” Jet muttered. “We’ll be cut down like animals as we run there.”
Logan ground his teeth until flakes chipped off. What other options were there? He suddenly noticed that the shooting had stopped. Wondering what was going on, he was just about to take a peek, when three grenades sailed over the desk.
“Damn!” As Logan reached for the first one, a puff of smoke exploded from it.
“We have to get out of here right now!” Xavier whispered.
As the smoke filled the lobby, even Logan had to agree. If they stayed any longer, the smoke would overcome them. He shot off several parting rounds in the direction of the machine gun and, following Xavier, rushed out the doors.
Rounds cracked by the group as the stutter-stutter of the machine guns never let up. The glass on the lobby door, already spider-webbed from explosions and bullets, shattered and the team leaped through it.
Thankfully the enemy weren’t professionals. Shells raked the pavement as the group retreated as fast as they could along the street. Pausing halfway, Xavier and Logan spun around and emptied their magazines in the direction of the lobby.
Two men fired back, but the rest hid behind bushes instead of chasing after them. Xavier dropped his weapon and cursed.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Logan asked, turning toward his friend.
“I got hit,” Xavier whispered, clutching his arm.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” After firing off one last round with his rifle, Logan grabbed Xavier’s good arm, and the two of them rushed back to where the others were huddled behind a vehicle.
With Peter and Muscles providing covering fire, they were able to get back without any other injuries.
Baldy, who’d seen his share of wounds, examined Xavier.
~*~*~
As the morning sun shone down on the cave floor, Kenneth stirred. Yawning, he stumbled to his feet and looked around. Sunrise was long gone. Startled, he looked at his watch. It was quite late. He shook the others awake. “Come on, get on your feet. We need to get moving.”
Molly yawned and sleepily opened her eyes. “What’s the time?”
“Just after nine,” Kenneth said as he stretched his back. The branches had offered some relief, but not as much as a soft bed. “How did you two sleep?”
“I drifted in and out,” Derek replied as he sat up. “My legs still feel a bit worn out.”
Molly smiled. “I slept like a log.” She stood up and put her hands on her back. “Agh, my back is killing me.”
“It seems like we all need a good rest.” Kenneth walked over to the backpack.
“What are you doing?” Derek asked.
“Just making sure everything is still here,” Kenneth replied. Satisfied, he turned to the teens. “Are you ready?” Before they could answer, he heard a throbbing noise. Not quite as loud as a helicopter, it was more like a small murmur. He frowned and took out the binoculars from the backpack. He quickly scanned the surrounding area but saw nothing.
“Can you see anything?” Molly asked, now fully awake.
Kenneth shook his head. “No.” Hurrying out of the cave, he climbed up onto the neighboring rocks in order to get a better view of the surrounding area. Once he had climbed ten or so feet, he peered through the binoculars. It was hard to gauge exactly where the sound was coming from, so he did a sweep of the whole area.
Hovering above some pine trees less than one hundred feet away was the Seod craft that he had nicknamed Striker. As it was close to the trees, he knew it had to be searching for something or someone.
“Shoot!” Kenneth scrambled down the rocks as he yelled to the teens, “We have a Striker coming our way, so grab your stuff and get rid of those branches. If the Seods find out that we’re here, they’ll blast us to smithereens.”
The group collected their things and threw all their bedding into the back of the cave. Kenneth even went as far as to wipe away their footprints that were outside the cave. Just as he finished, the throbbing noise became louder.
“Run to the trees!” Kenneth didn’t waste a moment. After grabbing the backpack, he followed the teens into the deeper part of the snow-covered forest. A few moments later, the Striker hovered over the entrance of the cave.
As they watched from behind the trees, a rope-like object was lowered. A moment later, a Seod shimmied down it.
“Come on,” Kenneth whispered.
The teens followed him deeper into the forest. It was a half-decent trek down the mountainside to South Lake Tahoe, so they walked quite a distance before they stopped for a rest.
“Do you think they found the branches inside the cave?” Molly asked.
Kenneth nodded. “They could hardly miss them.”
“But what will they make of them?” Derek said.
“I don’t know, but we can’t do anything about that now.” Kenneth reached into his backpack and pulled out a map. “Come over here, and I’ll discuss the plan.” As the teens came closer, he resumed speaking. “The closest major town is South Lake Tahoe. We’ll head there. There are a few tourist places in between us and there, but—”
“Wouldn’t that be one of the first places that the Seods look for us?” Molly interrupted, frowning as she twirled a strand of blonde hair around her finger.
Kenneth nodded. “If we were to walk along the road, then yes. That would be the obvious thing to do. So, I say we stick to the trees until we’re directly opposite South Lake Tahoe. Once we get to the outskirts, I’ll scan the area with the binoculars.”
“I thought we were going to go to Sparks today,” Molly said.
Kenneth nodded. “Well, we can still do that, but it is still early, so if we get to South Lake Tahoe by three or so, we can still get to Sparks tonight.”
Derek looked at his sister. “Are you up for more walking today?”
Molly nodded. “I’ll probably be slower, but if you can do it, I can.”
Kenneth smiled. “That’s the spirit.” He put the map back in the backpack and stood up. “Let’s start walking.”
With Kenneth leading the way, the group resumed the trek through the snowy undergrowth.
Chapter 17
“We need a new plan,” Logan stated as he stared at the blueprints for The View.
Peter gazed out of the office window and frowned. “Looks like trouble.”
Jet hurried over and looked through the window. He slowly nodded. “We’ll need to leave.”
Intrigued by what was going on, Logan strode over. Men, in groups of four, were going from building to building in the street. They had just started, but as more men, all armed to the teeth, emerged from The View, Logan realized that Sanchez wasn’t taking any chances.
“There’s no way we can kill all those men,” Peter stated. “Much as I’d like to, though.”
“We’ll have to head to the next street,” Logan said.
“Knowing Sanchez, he’ll be checking every building within a five-block radius. God knows he has the men to do it,” Jet said. “So going to another street isn’t going to do us any good.”
Logan shook his head. “I’m not going to give up now.”
“I’m not saying that we need to give up, but now is the time to retreat,” Jet said.
“Retreat? Where to?” Peter asked.
Before Jet could speak, the door opened and Muscles appeared. “We need to get moving, pronto.”
“Where to?” Peter asked.
“We can head to my cousin’s place,” Baldy announced. “It’s on the other side of town. We still have some men left over there, so it’ll be a good place to think things over.”
“You mean Greg’s place?” Muscles asked.
Baldy nodded. “Yes, unless you’ve got another safe house that I don’t know about.”
Muscles smiled. “There is one, actually, and it’s only a few blocks from Greg’s place, so it will work out nicely.”
Baldy frowned. “How come I didn’t know about this?”
“It was only a temporary one,” Muscles said, “but there’re still some weapons, food and—”
“We should go now, Dad,” Jet said, glancing out the window. “Sanchez’s men are getting closer.”
