by AJ Rose
Don’t go storming in on Charlotte and Russ if they’re getting busy, he reminded himself. When Ash had nearly drawn his gun on Russ after his return from getting clothes, he’d realized his paranoia needed reining in. Still, flashlight in one hand, his other creeping to the gun beneath his pillow, he wanted to be ready if he wasn’t being—
His sister screamed.
He bolted down the hall, crashing into the wall, picture frames splintering on the floor in his wake like his personal demolition soundtrack. Bursting through her door, he trained the light and his gun at the bed, where Charlotte fought a strange man like an unleashed hellcat. Russ lay beside them, unmoving.
“Hey, fucker,” he snarled. The intruder had managed to tear Charlotte’s t-shirt at the neck, and it hung from her bare shoulder, tatters lying against one exposed breast. The man’s intentions were obvious. Ash didn’t stop to ask questions.
He pulled the trigger, the boom of the gun reverberating through the tiny house. If everyone nearby wasn’t awake now, they weren’t going to be, and that looked to include Russ.
The would-be rapist’s head snapped back, brain matter and blood splattering the wall and lamp and Charlotte’s face. She didn’t stop fighting, however, kicking and flailing and screeching like a banshee until the heavy body hit the floor with a dull thud. Ash went to her, grabbing at her shoulders to ground her. She fought him, too, and he had to yell in her face to break through the hysteria.
“Charlotte!”
She gaped at him, too much of the whites of her eyes showing in the glow of the flashlight, her features etched in sinister shadows. When recognition set in, her face screwed up, and she leaned over the side of the bed and threw up on the body.
“Ash!” Elliot called, and the rest of the house’s sounds reached him. Riley sobbed in the living room, his cries for his mother muffled as though someone held him tight, shielding him from whatever was happening.
“She’s okay, Riley!” he called back. “A little freaked out, but she’s not hurt, okay, buddy?”
“Uncle Ash?” A fresh wail came from the living room.
“I’m okay, too. Just stay in there for a bit, all right? I don’t want you to see.”
“Okay,” Riley answered, clearly calming down, his voice meek.
“Guys, get ready to go,” he hollered. “Shoes on, and get whatever you want to take in the van with you. Elliot, I put your iPod on the end table. Brian, get that last bundle of water bottles from the kitchen but stay put. We all leave the house together.”
“Gotcha,” Brian answered, sounding calmer than the others. Hold them together for me, Brian, Ash mentally requested, turning his attention to Charlotte, who was shivering and not bothering to cover herself.
“Char, clothes. You need to change.” He pulled her shirt over her head and used it to mop her face of blood, gray matter, and vomit. She seemed to slowly come to, standing to follow his instructions despite moving robotically. He helped her get dressed, trying to hand her a pair of socks. She stood by the dresser, staring at the wall until he grabbed her again. “You need to go wash your face, hon,” he said gently. “But put your slippers on. There’s glass in the hall.” He led her to the door. “I’ll check Russ and get him up and going if I can, okay?” She wouldn’t let him go when he tried to guide her into the hall, clinging to his t-shirt like a barnacle. “Shh, shh,” he soothed when she whimpered at him, prying her hands off. “Brian? Can you come get Char and help her clean up? I need to look after Russ. Watch the glass.”
The crunch of feet on the floor was steady, and Brian had aimed another flashlight from the living room toward the mouth of the hall, so there was light for Elliot and Riley as well as enough for him to see.
“Come on, sweetheart.” Charlotte went willingly enough, though she hesitated when she saw Brian’s face in the unnerving light. “It’s Brian,” he reminded her. “Remember?” She grunted an affirmative and let herself be steered, so Ash turned back to her boyfriend.
Who groaned.
“Russ.” Ash hurried to his side of the bed, nearly tripping over Riley’s bat on the floor. He kicked it aside. “Dude, can you walk?”
Russ’s eyes rolled around in their sockets, but when he opened them, he seemed aware enough, if in pain.
“What happened?” When he sat up, he winced, but at least he didn’t puke. Surprising, considering the ripe smell from the dead man’s muscles letting go in his final seconds.
“Intruder.” Ash passed Russ the clothes he’d left on a chair beside the window. “Can you dress yourself? We have to leave. Now.”
Ash’s urgency must have finally reached through Russ’s pain haze, because his eyes snapped to Ash’s face, and he swallowed.
“Yeah. Gimme a minute, but yeah. Everyone okay?”
Ash moved around the bed to crouch beside the body. The first thing that stood out was the standard issue prison jumpsuit the man had tried to cover with a jacket he’d gotten from one of the guards. He’d been a hulk of a man, with a nose broken more than once, and a set of teeth rotten enough Ash marveled he still had any.
“Everyone but this guy. Charlotte’s a bit freaked. Do you know how he got in?”
“No,” Russ grunted, moving slowly but steadily to pull track pants over his boxers. “Last I knew, we were talking about what an asshole you are and then went to sleep. Guess you’re okay after all.”
“Nah. I am an asshole,” he agreed, not taking his usual offense to Russ’s opinion. “Especially if it means protecting my family. Make sure you have something on your feet when you come out. Glass on the floor.”
He slipped from the room and sidestepped the majority of the hallway mess to poke his head into the bathroom, where Brian had Charlotte bent over the side of the tub to rinse shampoo suds from her hair. It was dark in there, so he left them the light and darted carefully across the hall to Riley’s room to make sure Mr. Inmate hadn’t had friends. The window was open, the curtains blowing in a gentle breeze. The crunch of glass under his stocking feet gave Ash pause, and he stopped before he cut himself. The pieces were big, like the man had cracked the window in two gently and removed the broken halves after ripping the screen off, then let them fall to the carpet before hoisting himself in.
He supposed the thump that had awakened him had been the door to Charlotte’s room closing behind the guy, and the smack was when Russ had been rendered unconscious. Thank god his sister had a set of lungs on her.
Ash stutter-stepped back to the living room for his shoes, having in his restlessness slept in his jeans. Elliot and Riley were huddled on the couch, and both of them looked at him with wide, fearful eyes, Riley’s wet with tears. Ash crouched in front of him.
“That camping trip? We’re leaving now, okay, kid?”
Riley nodded without taking his head off Elliot’s chest.
“She okay?” Elliot asked with a tremor in his voice.
“Yeah. Just a scare. We’re all okay, but Russ is gonna have a whopper of a headache.” He looked at Riley. “So let’s take it a little easy on both of them in the car, okay? Maybe try to get some shut-eye for a few more hours?” Again, the boy nodded. “Got your shoes on? Dressed and ready to go?”
“I am,” Elliot answered. “Riley wants to take his pajamas with him. His clothes are packed anyway, right?”
“Yeah, that works,” Ash said, ruffling the boy’s hair.
Brian emerged with Charlotte, and Ash guided them to the couch, where Riley crawled into his mother’s lap and she held him, rocking and kissing his temple and clinging like she’d never let him go again. Brian kept an arm around her, moving with them.
Russ crunched through the glass in the hall with a steadying hand on the wall, so Ash went to him and grabbed his arm to sling over his shoulder.
“I can walk,” Russ grumbled.
“You can walk faster with help,” Ash said. He supported Russ’s weight to the van, where he parked him in the middle row, not wanting to make the man climb over the seats in
his condition. “I’ll be back with the rest of them, and we can go, okay? Here. Take this.” He shoved the gun into Russ’s hand, ignoring the man’s protests. “There’s another one in the house, and two rifles in the closet. I’m good, and I don’t want you out here alone without protection.”
Russ shut up, and Ash hurried back in. The others had gathered in the kitchen. Charlotte was shaking, but she no longer looked dazed, and Riley glommed onto her side, his arms tight around her waist. Ash went to her and framed her face with his palms.
“I’m sorry,” he said. She tried to shake her head, but he held her still. “I should have tied you up and put you in the damn van yesterday. But let’s go now, okay?” This time, he let her move, and she shuffled to the door in acquiescence. “Her and Riles together in the back, okay, Brian?”
“You got it,” Brian said. “Gas?” He was already moving after them.
“Van’s full. Audi’s almost empty from the drive up. We have enough for now.”
Ash returned to the living room for the remaining weapons. Elliot followed him.
“What are you doing? Get in the van.”
“I’m not leaving you alone,” Elliot said fiercely.
“I’m fine,” Ash assured him, rooting in the closet for the two rifles, having already stuffed the second handgun in his pants.
“What happened in there? For real?”
Ash stopped for a moment, and in the dim from Elliot’s flashlight, met his lab partner’s gaze. “Inmate. Knocked Russ out and attacked Charlotte.”
“And?” Elliot pressed.
“He paid for it,” Ash grunted, wanting to get a move on. Elliot didn’t get out of his way, though, pouncing on him with a fierce embrace.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, why?” With his hands full, he couldn’t return the hug or peel the guy off him.
“Because you just killed someone?”
“I’ll save the hysterics for later. Thanks for being concerned, but we gotta go. Now.”
Elliot pulled back and studied him for a second, gulped, and took one of the rifles. “You’re driving.”
Ash grinned to cover a chill that ripped up his spine at the sight of his innocent friend holding a gun. “No shit.” The joke fell flat.
They loaded up with Brian in the other middle seat beside Russ, mother and son in back, cuddling, and Elliot in the front with Ash. The rifles on the floor between the two middle seats were an unpleasant reminder they weren’t leaving for a vacation, despite the packs stacked in the van’s cargo area.
As they backed out of the driveway, Ash said a mental goodbye to the house he’d grown up in. Within those walls, he’d learned the meaning of family and had done everything in his power to protect them. Everything. Including leaving the place behind.
* * *
* * *
It was clear to Elliot fairly quickly the interstates were not a good idea. Driving out of Auburn on the state roads, they could see portions of the them. Lots of stranded motorists.
“What do you think is wrong with them?” he asked, gesturing to the fourth set of blinking hazard lights.
Ash shrugged. “Disabled somehow. Out of gas or flat tires. Who knows? Hopefully there won’t be as much of that on the smaller highways.”
“Where are we going?”
“Right now, I just want to get out of town. Head west. We’ll stop at sunrise and pull out the GPS. I programmed in Uncle Marvin’s directions.”
Elliot was quiet for a bit, glancing at the clock on the dash. It was just before 4:00 a.m., and a quick peek at their passengers showed it hadn’t taken long for them to go back to sleep. All but Charlotte, anyway, who had Riley tucked under her arm and her cheek resting on top of his head. She blinked at Elliot calmly, and they shared a look, people who understood how close a call it had been a mere hour before. He held up a water bottle to her in question, but she waved it off. At least she was responsive.
“Aren’t we supposed to keep someone with a head injury awake?” he asked, facing front again. “How bad was Russ?”
“He came to pretty quickly and seemed with it enough to get out of the house. If he was that bad, I’d have had to carry him out. We’ll watch him, but I think he’s all right.”
Elliot settled deeper into his seat, chewing on his lip. “I think when we get a chance, I need to call my dad. He won’t be happy I didn’t get in touch with his army contact.”
Ash drummed his fingers on the wheel. “It’s not like it’s smart for you to have been a sitting duck at Charlotte’s house after last night.”
“No,” Elliot agreed quickly, stifling a yawn. He was still fatigued from his seizure, but a full day of lying around sleeping had helped, even though his stress level wasn’t ideal. “I’ll just tell him that. He’s not here. He can’t see what’s going on.”
Ash seemed content to let the conversation die, so Elliot left him to concentrate on the road. Taking a few deep breaths, he held up his iPod questioningly, and Ash pointed to an auxiliary cable plugged in next to the stereo on the dash. Before Elliot could follow the cable to the end and plug in, Ash took the plug from the dash and blew on it, then reinserted it.
“Wait,” Elliot said, pulling the plug out again. “This looks modified.” He ran his finger over the jack and felt the ragged edge of the stereo surface around the drilled hole. “How did you do this?”
Ash shrugged. “Five dollar stereo jack from Radio Shack and the plug for the CD changer. I cut the audio wires on the changer and spliced them to the harness for the jack, added a ground, and drilled the hole in the dash plate. A little solder, and voila, auxiliary jack added. Charlotte wanted to listen to her music, not the radio, and CDs are a pain in the ass.”
Impressed, Elliot plugged in and the soothing strains of piano filled the van, low enough not to disturb the sleepers.
“In the glove box, there’s a car charger for your iPod. I picked it up before we left, since music helps you so much.”
Elliot dug through the glove box to find the charger, touched by Ash’s concern. It warmed him to the point where he didn’t trust himself to speak. Thankfully, the darkness was still deep outside, so with his battery charging, he concentrated on the black line of the horizon.
“Thank you. That was kind of you,” he said when he knew his voice wouldn’t crack.
“Well, you don’t get to scare me with a seizure again, so it was really pretty selfish on my part,” Ash replied with a chuckle.
Elliot’s smile ghosted at him in his faint reflection on the window. He didn’t know what to say to that. Instead, he let himself get lost in the music, and the intense night coupled with the crash after an adrenaline rush soon had him drifting off.
He awoke a few hours later when the van speed slowed and the rhythm of the road changed. Music still played through the speakers, and Elliot blinked to rid himself of the cobwebs of sleep, looking around. It was overcast daylight, and they were nearing a large brown sign which pronounced they were entering Allegheny National Forest.
Pennsylvania, then, Elliot noted.
“Have we left already?” Russ asked. Elliot studied him for a bit, wondering how much the man remembered.
“Yeah, about—” he checked his watch, “—five hours ago, give or take,” Elliot answered.
“God, I have a headache. Anyone got any Advil or something?” Russ rubbed his temple and winced, pulling his fingers away as if to look for blood, though there was none.
“You’ve already had some. We gave you a dose half an hour ago,” Ash said through gritted teeth.
Elliot glanced at Ash sharply, surprised he was so impatient with Russ. Ash’s eyes had dark circles under them, and he gripped the wheel tighter than necessary. Elliot assumed he was exhausted and holding on long enough to get them somewhere they could switch drivers. Russ’s request for medication, however, reminded Elliot he needed to take his pills, too. Cracking into a bottle of water, he swallowed his medicine and murmured to Ash they could share the
bottle.
“If you need to let someone else drive, you should.”
Ash shook his head. “I think we need to get somewhere to hunker down for the rest of the day.”
“Wait, are you serious?”
Ash nodded.
“Shouldn’t we be trying to get west as fast as possible? I mean, it won’t be ideal, but we’ve only got a few days’ worth of food.” Elliot kept his voice low in case Ash didn’t want the others to hear.
Ash’s answer chilled his bones. “Russ has been repeating himself.”
He knew from experience repetition after a knock to the head was bad news.
“We left Auburn already?” Russ piped up, looking out the windows. “Where are we?”
“We’re looking for a place we can set up camp for the day, okay, buddy?” Ash said, having somehow found another reserve of patience.
“Anybody got any Advil? I have a splitting headache.”
“You just had some,” Brian said gently. “It should kick in shortly and ease some of the pain.”
“Oh good,” Russ said, leaning back and closing his eyes. “Seriously hurts. Like I went a couple rounds with Mike Tyson.”
Brian made sympathetic noises, but didn’t clarify.
Ash made it to one of the state park’s official entrances, but there was no one manning the entry station. A handwritten sign taped to the window read:
Allegheny National Forest and all Allegheny campgrounds and hiking trails are closed until further notice, by order of the Pennsylvania National Guard. This area not thru, and trespassing is prohibited by federal law. Violators will be prosecuted.
Brian whistled. “If no one’s here, how are they going to prosecute violators?”
“Let’s find out, shall we?” Ash swung the van around the arm of the gate blocking the entrance and left the little hut behind, trespassing without a second’s hesitation. They wended through the park for a good while, and Ash ignored the entrances to several campgrounds.
