Omen Operation

by Taylor Brooke

  Brooklyn nodded. “Yeah, thank you for everything.”

  “You’re very welcome,” Cambria said, offering a quick wink.

  “How are you feeling, man?” Julian walked over to Porter and gave his wrapped shoulder a once over.

  Porter sighed. “Better now.”

  “Good, we were worried.”

  “I’m fine, really. I’d like to get to our medications though. There’s a serum that might…speed up my healing a bit.”

  The distant crunch of the forest floor under several pairs of shuffling feet stole Brooklyn’s attention. She stopped chewing on a piece of ripe pineapple and listened closely. They weren’t far, walking from the direction of the river toward the camp site. She didn’t know if it was Nicoli or if it was someone else. Something else.

  Gabriel kicked her foot. “You hear that too?”

  Brooklyn’s nostrils flared. “Yeah.”

  Plum’s voice rang out from the other side of the door. “Them boys are back! Y’all might wanna come outside and introduce yourselves.”

  Brooklyn breathed a sigh of relief, looking from Gabriel to Julian and back again. The weariness of meeting new people wasn’t as prominent as she thought it might be. Maybe it was because they felt a little bit safe, maybe because they felt powerful enough to not care about safety. Either way, it didn’t matter; these people that they were about to meet had been in the city.

  Maybe, just maybe, they’d seen Dawson and the others.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Three men followed Nicoli into the camp. All but one seemed young, the youngest in his teens, but the man in the far back was old enough to be Brooklyn’s father.

  Brooklyn prepared herself for an introduction, repeating what she’d say several times in her head. Nicoli walked right past them. His sheepskin coat brushed over her boots as he walked by, and his gaze flicked past them. The only words spoken were between Cambria and the short, slender one with a lengthy beard and bright red hair. He handed her a box filled to the brim with fresh food and muttered something under his breath that Brooklyn didn’t catch.

  All four of them disappeared through the trees in the direction of the cabin.

  Cambria looked taken aback. That alone was unsettling.

  “What’s going on?” Julian asked.

  Plum’s mouth twitched. “Don’t know, but whatever it is they found out there in that concrete jungle isn’t good.”

  “Should we be worried at all?” Porter said.

  “No.” Cambria was quick to answer. “Just let me get this haul into the shed, and then we can go down to the river for a bath. They’ll meet us there.”

  Gabriel licked her lips. “I don’t like this.”

  “I don’t either, but it’s none of our concern, so we should probably just go with it,” Julian said.

  Brooklyn agreed with Julian. If anything, they would leave by mid-day, which was only a couple hours away, and get on the road toward the city. She knew that if it came to a sudden departure she could count on Cambria for directions to Seattle. The hope that perhaps one of those men had seen their lost friends loomed over her.

  “C’mon, let’s head down to the water and get clean!” Plum said enthusiastically. She held a small basket with a couple towels, some oil, and a canister full of dry soap.

  Porter walked close to Brooklyn, his shoulder brushing against hers every other step. Julian was just as close on her other side. Gabriel was busy jumping off large protruding tree roots and darting along the edges of boulders like they were gymnastic beams.

  “These people have been really good to us, but I think it’s time to go,” Julian whispered.

  “Porter needs more time to heal,” Brooklyn said under her breath. “We need at least one more night.”

  “I’m fine,” Porter hissed.

  “You’re not fine. Besides, I need to find out if they saw Dawson, Amber, or Rayce. Or any of our other friends that we abandoned, all right? Just keep it together. It’s one more day.”

  “One more day with a group of violent eco-terrorists who live in the forest, Brooklyn!” Julian said.

  She snorted. “No more violent than us.”

  They came upon the sleek river and helped Plum lay out the towels in a patch of sun that beamed down from between the tree branches.

  Brooklyn decided to stay on shore with Porter while the rest of them waded into the water.

  Julian was hesitant, laughing nervously when Cambria took off all her clothes and walked naked into the lake, followed by Plum. He made a strangled noise. “So like, they are completely naked, and I am guessing they expect me to be completely naked, and then when those guys get back they will also be…”

  “Completely naked, yeah,” Gabriel said. She kicked her boots off, letting the heavy jacket she wore fall from her shoulders. “I figured you’d be a little excited to be naked in a body of water with Nicoli anyways.”

  “That is—” Julian pointed a finger at her while she reached around and unclasped her bra “—completely inappropriate! Besides, I don’t think I’m available. So. No.”

  Gabriel scoffed. “Oh, yeah? Who has your panties in a wad then? Because I was sure you were gonna jump all over tofu king.”

  Porter gave a breathy laugh, averting his eyes when Gabriel finally kicked off her underwear and stood confidently in front of them. Her hands were on her hips, head held high, toes curling into the dark soil.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Julian said.

  “It really does, though. Who is it?” Gabriel prodded his chest with her finger.

  Julian stared up at the sky.

  “It’s Rayce, isn’t it?” Brooklyn asked.

  “N-no! No, absolutely not. I mean, he’s not even into all this.” Julian’s voice cracked while he gestured down the expanse of his body.

  “It’s Rayce,” Porter confirmed.

  “Excuse me, but how would you know anyways?” Julian’s hands were on his hips, and his jaw was set tight.

  Porter shrugged, still staring at the ground. “You guys slept in the tent with me, remember?”

  Gabriel cackled and reached down to fish through her jacket. Julian didn’t have anything to say—he just rubbed his hand over his mouth, bashful and embarrassed.

  Brooklyn wanted to laugh, to ask Julian all about his short-lived courting with Rayce, but all she could imagine was talking about it, making it real, acknowledging it, and then never having the opportunity to see it in real time.

  Because they might not find their friends.

  Her throat tightened. She shifted so that she could lie down on her back in the sun, shielding her sour expression with her arm.

  “Well, anyways,” Julian sang, taking off his shirt. “Let’s just not bother with my non-existent love life and take a hippie bath.”

  “Hippie bath?” Porter laughed.

  Plum splashed the water toward them from far out in the river. “C’mon, y’all smell bad. Get in!”

  Gabriel had the pink-handled razor clutched in her hand that she’d apparently borrowed from the cabin and made her way into the water.

  Brooklyn and Porter could hear Julian yelp as he tried to tiptoe into the water, whining about how cold it was.

  “Whatcha got there, Miss Gabriel?” Plum asked as she waded over toward her.

  Gabriel had one of her legs stretched out and was shaving carefully around her knee. “I found it in the cabin. It’s okay that I use it right?”

  “Course it is. We have the communications cabin set up mostly for us girls anyhow.”

  “Why’s that?” Gabriel asked, eyeing Plum carefully as she scrubbed herself with some kind of strange powder soap from a jar.

  “Well, we’re the only ones who bleed on a schedule ‘round here. Whenever we need time to ourselves or the freshness of a shower and a bed, we can go off into the cabin an’ have some peace.”

  “That’s pretty cool,” Gabriel said. “I’ve never really had any need for all that. I had some issues when I was younger, and
they took my uterus out when I was fourteen.”

  Plum frowned. “I sure am sorry to hear that.”

  “It’s not a big deal. It happens.”

  “You’re so damn pretty, though…woulda been nice to pass that on to a little one, wouldn’t it?”

  Gabriel laughed and shook her head. “My mom used to say that to me all the time, but I don’t want kids.”

  “Really?” Plum gasped.

  “Really. There’s too many of us on this planet anyways.”

  “Well, I can’t argue with that.” Plum waded closer. She reached out but stopped inches from the slope of Gabriel’s neck. “Oh, may I wash your back for you, sweetie?”

  Gabriel was apprehensive, eyes searching Plum for any ulterior motive, but Plum was kind and genuine. She waited patiently while Gabriel considered it.

  “I…I guess so,” Gabriel mumbled.

  “I ain’t gonna bite ya, just wanna help.”

  Gabriel gave another slow nod. “Go ahead.”

  Plum rambled on about how beautiful the weather was and how she wasn’t expecting September to go by as fast as it was. Her hands rubbed up over Gabriel’s shoulders, scrubbing off the sweat, dirt, and blood. Gabriel smiled contently. When Plum finally went quiet, she turned and glanced over her shoulder. “You keep calling that cabin the communications cabin. Do you guys have meetings there or something? Why do you call it that?”

  “There are some computers and such in the cellar that we use from time to time. I’m guessin’ that’s what them boys are up to right now.”

  “I see.” Gabriel’s gaze drifted around the river.

  “Speak of the devil, there they are,” Plum said and waved.

  The four men walked out of the woods, bumping into each other casually and talking amongst themselves. They set their towels down on the ground next to Brooklyn and Porter.

  “Sorry about earlier. We had to transfer some files over,” Nicoli said.

  Brooklyn sat up. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, everything’s okay. We were just going over some information that they gathered in Seattle.”

  “Did they…?” Brooklyn paused and shifted her gaze to the three men stripping off their clothes. “Did they happen to see a group of people in a bus just outside the city?”

  “There’s a lot of buses out there.” One of them spoke up. It was the same guy that had spoken to Cambria. His bushy red beard shined in the sunlight, and his hair was tied back into a small bun. He sighed, tossing his shirt aside. “Can’t really say we saw anything out of the ordinary.”

  “They have to be here somewhere…they wouldn’t have gone on without us, would they?” Brooklyn asked, looking beside her where Porter sat.

  Porter cleaned his glasses with the bottom of his shirt and took a deep breath. “I don’t know, but we’ll find them.”

  The red-haired man paused before he stepped out of his jeans and extended his hand. “I’m Freddie.”

  Brooklyn shook his hand. “Brooklyn.”

  “It’s nice to meet you. You are?”

  “Porter.”

  He walked away after that and followed Nicoli into the water.

  Porter tried to roll his shoulder but winced and gritted his teeth. He sat back and rested his arms over the top of his knees, watching Brooklyn pick grass out of the ground at her feet.

  “We’ll find them,” Porter said.

  His tenderness was appreciated, but Brooklyn wasn’t in the mood for coddling.

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I do know that. We’re gonna find them, or they’re gonna find us—there’s no other options.”

  “We have to get to Seattle. That’s exactly where Dawson would have taken them, and he probably thought that’s where we would have gone too,” Brooklyn said.

  “Who are you two after?” A thick, raspy voice came from just behind them.

  It was the older man that Brooklyn had seen with Nicoli before they came down to the river. His eyes were creased with fine lines, and he had a large red birthmark that spanned the left side of his face. It was raised like a scar, the edges dark and spotted. Large calloused hands rubbed together, and a towel was draped over his shoulders.

  “Our friends,” Brooklyn said. “We lost them yesterday.”

  “How’d you lose them?” he asked. He was still wet from the river. The jeans he’d put back on were damp against his freshly washed skin. He plopped down in front of them and reached over to grab a water bottle from Plum’s basket.

  “We had to run,” Brooklyn said. She chose not to go into much detail. “But we had a plan on getting to Seattle together, so Porter thinks that’s where they probably are.”

  “Had to run, huh?” The stranger laughed, taking a long drink off the water bottle. “I have a feeling you don’t want to tell me what you’re running from, and to be honest, I don’t really care. I do care that you’ve brought your problems here, though. We have a job to do, and if whatever it is you’re running from catches up to you, you best know you’re on your own.”

  Brooklyn narrowed her eyes, head tilting to the side. She wanted to breach the small distance between them and smash his face into the damp soil they were sitting on.

  Porter’s hand moved to sit gently on the top of Brooklyn’s knee.

  “We don’t have any intention on staying longer than we need to. You don’t have to worry about that.” Porter’s voice was cold and defensive.

  “I’m not worried, kid.”

  He was gone after that, carrying his shirt and towel back to camp.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The day crawled by at a snail’s pace.

  They returned from the river after everyone was done bathing. The food collected from the market in Seattle was cleaned and put away in the shed while Plum offered to help them wash their clothes. Cambria gave each of them some of what she had extra to wear while their jackets, pants, shirts, and socks hung to dry on the clothes line.

  Brooklyn was given an ankle length sun dress decorated in swirling colors and patterns. She tugged at it uncomfortably and constantly pushed her legs together, trying to remember how to sit appropriately in a dress. It’d been far too long since she’d worn one.

  Brooklyn changed Porter’s bandages in the afternoon, right before the fire was started. Julian helped Cambria cook up a pan full of sizzling vegetables and drank cup after cup of hot tea.

  As peaceful as it was, Brooklyn couldn’t help but notice how secretive Nicoli and the other men were. They kept to themselves, disappearing to the cabin often throughout the day. It was unusual to say the least and left the camp under a cloud of palpable unrest.

  “Hey, Cambria.” Brooklyn touched the woman’s arm.

  Cambria turned from her place at the table in the shed. “Yeah?”

  “I know that something is going on, and I understand that you guys don’t want to share everything with us, but I have a feeling we might be able to help.”

  A defeated sigh drifted out of Cambria’s mouth. She set the large green pepper down beside the knife she’d been using to cut it. “I don’t even know all the details, but what they’re working on is going to affect a lot of people, save a lot of lives. Nic hasn’t even told me everything about it yet.”

  “Okay, but are we safe here? One of those guys said some nasty shit…”

  “Let me guess, the old guy, right? Chester?”

  “I don’t know his name, but yeah, the older guy with the red mark on his face.”

  “Chester,” Cambria rolled her eyes. “He’s been with us for a short time, maybe four or five months. He means well, but he can come off harsh at times. Don’t worry about him.”

  Brooklyn didn’t need to know the ins and outs of their relationships, but she did need to know that her friends would remain safe.

  “Will Nicoli talk to me if I ask him about all this?” Brooklyn asked in a hushed whisper.

  Cambria pursed her lips and went back to cutting the veggies on the table. “You c
an try, but don’t expect much.”

  Brooklyn walked out of the shed and took off toward the cabin. Gabriel was shouting after her, but she didn’t turn around. If taking them off guard with curiosity was what it took to get a straight answer, then that’s exactly what she would give them. She knew that they didn’t owe her anything, especially answers, but if she didn’t go out on a limb now, something bad could happen later, and then it would be too late.

  Too late for what? She wasn’t sure. Too late to warn them, too late to be aware of everything going on, too late to get away before their own hell infiltrated these people’s lives.

  She didn’t bother knocking on the door, just opened it and walked in. Her boots were loud against the floor, and she could see down into the open cellar.

  The audible slide, click, hitch of a shotgun being prepped alerted her to speak. “It’s me—it’s Brooklyn!”

  Nicoli popped his head out of the darkness of the cellar and stared at her. “What’re you doing in here?”

  His dreads were all bundled into a bun on the top of his head, and he wore thin reading glasses. Brooklyn couldn’t help but chuckle softly. “I’m curious. I wanna know what it is you guys are obsessing over.”

  “Don’t laugh at me,” Nicoli warned, amused.

  “You look adorable,” Brooklyn said and laughed harder.

  Nicoli’s eyes slanted, and he bypassed her comment. “Now, we’re still developing some things down here, and I don’t exactly think you and your crew will be sticking around to help us out with it. Why are you so concerned?”

  He wasn’t being aggressive, but he did watch her carefully and moved his arms to sit over the top of the cellar door.

  “We’re probably leaving in the morning, but maybe we can help until we take off. If you don’t want to tell me, I understand but…what we’re running from, it’s big. It’s bigger than us. You guys might be dealing with the same thing.”

  “Brooklyn, I can guarantee you that what we’re on to right now has nothing to do with you.”

  “Please,” Brooklyn sighed. “You don’t have to tell me everything, but give me something.”

  Nicoli shook his head, looking down into the cellar where the other men waited. He gave a few glances back and forth until finally stepping down, waving his hand for her to follow.