She remained quiet, staring blankly at the covers.
Lying back on the pillow, he said, “I only want to talk. Caleb listens, but he doesn’t understand. I know you do.”
She stared at the bunk above her. “I guess I’m okay as long as you understand me allowing you to lay here is not an invitation of any sort.”
He felt an ache in his gut. It upset him that she had repeatedly reminded him of that. He couldn’t imagine what she’d gone through to cause her to be so skeptical. Suspicious of other people yes, but him, no. Then again, he was in her bed. What was he thinking? He sat up slightly and looked her in the eye. “I know this isn’t an invitation and I hope you know that my concern is genuine. I care about you. That’s all.”
She broke their gaze. She didn’t want to get emotional. “I do believe that. It’s just; I don’t know. I’ve trusted other people I thought I knew…it doesn’t matter. I care about you too, and I want you to have a family again and find another woman who’ll love and adore you. But for me, I don’t know why, but I can’t.”
“Don’t you think it would help to have someone else to go through it with?”
She delayed her response long enough to see if that door was ready to be opened but it was no use.
“I don’t know…” she suddenly realized how ridiculous she was reacting towards him, so she tried to fix it. “I realize I'm standoffish. I don’t mean to be. I guess I have more issues than I thought but I need you to know I’m here whenever you need to talk. Whatever you need, I’m here. And yes sometimes you’re a little too close for my comfort level, but the crazy thing is I always realize how much I needed you to be once you’re there.” Before she said it, she hadn’t realized it herself. Until he was here, pushing her boundaries and challenging her mindsets, she had no idea how much she needed him. She turned her back to him and covered her face. He was getting too close to her truth. “As far as the future is concerned, I don’t know what to think or do anymore.”
He curled up to her and nestled his face in her hair, placing his hand on her side.
“I know. I don’t know what to do either. Sometimes I think I can move on and five minutes later I’m mad at myself for even considering it.”
She grabbed his hand, pulled it closer and held it tight. “I know me too. We’ll get through this. We have to.”
“Look, I don’t know what you went through before we found you but I need you to know I’ll never let anyone hurt you again. They’ll have to kill me first. I need you to know that.”
It was silent then she heard him mumbling. She listened intently and realized he was praying. When he finished, she asked, “How can you still pray to a God who let this happen to us?”
“What, you don’t believe in God anymore?”
“I’m too mad at him to not believe in him.” She covered her face. She couldn’t believe she finally admitted that to someone. “I’m sorry. Before this happened, I was at church every time the doors opened, but after everything I’ve seen, I don’t know how to reconcile that with my faith. I don’t.”
He kissed her head, relieved that she was open. “It’s okay to be mad. That’s a natural reaction to things we can’t agree with or don’t understand. My dad used to say we like to blame God for all the bad things but no one gives him credit for the good stuff. I can be mad at him because I no longer have Beth and Troy but I also have to be grateful to him for giving them to me in the first place. And without faith, I have no hopes of ever seeing them again. Sometimes things happen. The world has a natural course, people make their own decisions, and there are laws of nature, but God is still God. We have to trust that.”
She couldn’t hold it back, but she couldn’t let him know it. She cried as silently and calmly as she could; letting go of all the hopes she once had and realizing her fears may very well come to pass.
They fell asleep side by side once again, but this time he woke up before anyone else saw them. He wasn’t sure why he asked her what he had last night or why she was reading a book about moving on. It didn’t seem like the time to even be concerned with such things. He filed it away as human nature and didn’t dwell on it. He was just glad to have a friend who understood what he was going through.
Chapter Thirteen
It was already eight in the morning. Maia warned them that if they were going to make it a third of the way to Amitola before the dogs began their daily hunt, then they’d have to leave within the next hour. They couldn’t go before then due to the fog, and their next shelter was a few hours hike from Charlie’s.
The group had grown cozy and comfortable around each other in such a short time. Reliance on each other for basic survival will do that. Charlie had even had a “man to men” talk with Tye and Caleb and told Maia he believed they were good people with good intentions. He also advised her that though she should learn to trust, she should never completely let her guard down. She adored him even more for caring so much, but he didn’t tell her anything she didn’t already know.
Charlie made himself busy packing snacks and water for their journey while the crew freshened up and got dressed. Tye and Junior had to make a spectacle of attempting to put on their stiff, air-dried jeans; jumping up and down, laying on the floor trying to pull them up, and banging them on the bed to loosen the fabric. These people were goofballs, and Maia loved every bit of it.
Maia gave Charlie a big hug before heading out. Tye and Caleb thanked him for his hospitality and reassured him that they would take care of Maia and her crew. As they walked away, Caleb couldn’t help but wonder why Charlie lived there, in that tiny place, instead of in Amitola. He mentioned it to Maia who immediately remarked that she didn’t believe he would ever leave. In fact, she was sure he’d die there.
“I’m sure you can see how secluded that place is on all sides. It’d be nearly impossible to just happen upon it. He led us there. It was his daughter and son-in-law’s home. They were in New Orleans when it all started. He still hopes one day she’ll show up.”
No one said a word in response, but they all understood.
The crew hiked through the woods for nearly an hour before Maia started to feel the familiar burn on her feet. They’d dried out and had time to heal a bit over the last three days, but it felt like they were rubbing against her shoes again. She’d bandaged them and used liberal amounts of ointment. She hoped that was enough to keep them protected.
As they approached the main highway, she warned that they would have to scout it before crossing since there was a group of men that sometimes blocked that particular section of road. They weren’t the kind who would kidnap the females, but they charged a toll for passing. The trolls accepted weapons, supplies, and food but today, Maia and her crew had none to spare.
Caleb and Tye left Maia with the kids huddled under a group of trees while they split up to check the roads. Tye spotted the roadblock just a few yards away. It appeared to be ten to twelve men armed with rifles and other automatic weapons. Trees, cars and other debris blocked the road.
Still, in the woods, he moved to where he could see past the roadblock, careful not to get near the swamp, so he could see what was behind it. There were probably another dozen or so men and several shopping carts full of bags, clothing, food, and supplies. By the truck, seven men surrendered themselves at gunpoint, and there was a woman who appeared to be offering herself as payment for passage.
“Great,” Tye muttered.
He met back up with Caleb to let him know what he’d found. He pulled the map out in an attempt to find another route but the newly formed Louisiana swamps occupied both sides of the highway, and the bottleneck started right here. The only way to get to their destination was past the trolls.
Visibility was still low due to all of the moisture in the air. They concluded it would be best to cross a quarter mile from the bandits since the fog was dense and dark there. It would provide them with the cloak they needed to cross the highway without being seen. Then they’d have to make their
way past the roadblock through the woods.
They backtracked down the road until they were a safe distance away. Tye took one last look to be sure no one was in sight. He felt it was safe, so they crossed the highway. The next challenge would be to pass them. Though they were in the woods and the men were on the road, the new swamp only afforded them about half a football field of woodland between them and the bandits, and that was at its widest point. This was the only way. If they made too much noise or if there was a clearing and one of them looked at the right time, they could be spotted.
Tye gave Junior his backpack and went ahead of them. He scouted the path along the edge of the swamp to make sure it was safe. Caleb and Maia made sure the kids tiptoed which was a challenge in the wet muck the storm left behind. Things seemed to be going well then Caleb suddenly stopped, turned to shush everyone, then motioned for them to hide behind an old fuel tank that was nearby.
Maia bent down to peek underneath the tank. She gasped. Caleb put his hand over her mouth to prevent her from making any more noise. She kept looking. Two men held a gun on Tye. They could barely make out what he was saying, but it sounded like he told them he was alone and that he’d already been robbed. From the looks of it, neither of the men believed him. Especially, the short stubby guy who kept getting in his face and taunting him.
The long-haired guy in skinny jeans pointed a gun at his head. Tye put his hands up, and they searched him. They took his binoculars, a pocketknife, his jacket, and then they pulled something out of his hand. Tye resisted, so the short, stocky guy punched him in the face then he held the item up to show Skinny Jeans. With both of them distracted, Tye pushed the gun to the right of his head and pulled it out of his hands.
He gave Skinny Jeans a knee to the groin and then hit Stocky with the butt of the gun. While Stocky was still trying to figure out what happened, Tye swiped his legs and stomped on one of them. The man writhed around on the ground holding his calf. Skinny Jeans was still bowled over, but he put his hands up in surrender. Tye kicked his legs from under him.
With both of them on the ground, he checked to be sure the gun had rounds then he told them if they so much as made a sound he’d shoot them both. He looked around to be sure no one else was in sight. He motioned for Maia and Caleb to come with the kids. When they got to where he was, he had Caleb hold his gun on them while he got his stuff back. He dug through the stocky man’s pockets but came up empty. “Where is it?” Tye asked him.
“You made me drop it,” Stocky replied. Tye looked around on the ground but found nothing. He grabbed something out of his backpack and took the map from Caleb.
Pointing to something on the map he said, “Meet me there. Run. Don’t stop. I’ll hold these guys off and give you a head start.”
He gave the map back to them. Maia had to drag Sadie away. She didn’t want to leave her dad. She grabbed her hand and pulled her along. They ran through the woods and past a field until they could hardly breathe. According to the map, they were about half a mile from where they’d left Tye.
“What are we gonna do? We can’t just leave him,” she said looking desperately at Caleb who was still trying to catch his breath.
“I’m gonna have to go back for him. Do you know this area? Is there anywhere safe to hide?”
“That’s a sugar mill right over there. We’ve had to hide there before. It should be safe,” she said as they began sprinting that way.
When they approached the sugar mill, Caleb made them hide behind some cane trucks while he checked it out. Once he was certain no one was there, he waved for them to follow him. He led them to an obscure area at the back of the sugar mill. The four of them climbed the ladder to the loft area of the storage building, and then Caleb instructed them to pull the ladder up so no one else could follow them.
“Maia, I’m going meet Tye. I need you to…”
“No! He said for all of us to go,” Sadie yelled.
“It’s not that far from here. I’ll be back. But look, just in case something happens… Elex, kids, look at me. If I’m not back in an hour, you need to leave with Maia and go to Amitola with her. You’ll be safe there. She’s in charge. Do you understand me?”
When he walked away, he could hear Maia and Junior trying to comfort the younger kids. He didn’t want to leave, but he had to find his friend.
The little Baptist Church Tye pointed to on the map was about a seven to ten-minute walk from the sugar mill. Caleb walked there using the same route they’d taken earlier but noticed there was a shorter route he and Tye could take on their way back.
When he got to the church, he didn’t walk straight to it. He decided to circle it at a distance to see if he could see anyone. He walked down the right side, several yards from the building itself. He circled back and up the left side, again keeping his distance. When he got to the front of the lot, he wrote something on the door at the front of the church. When he turned around, he saw a figure jump down from a tree across the road. Realizing it was Tye, he walked towards him.
“Where are they?”
“They’re about ten minutes from here stashed up in a sugar mill. I made sure they were safe. I didn’t want to take the chance of you being followed.”
“I’m good. I made sure they wouldn’t follow me.” Tye replied.
“How’d you pull that off?” Caleb asked, both of them turning to walk towards the sugar mill.
“I had one of those fat little water bottles, and I flipped ‘em onto their stomachs and made them look the other way. I’m almost sure I broke the big guy's leg, so I knew he wasn’t going anywhere. I put the water bottle underneath the other guy and made sure he felt it under him. I told him it was a live grenade so if he got up or yelled to his podnahs and they come running and picked him up then he’d blow ‘em all up. Needless to say, he didn’t make a peep when I left.”
“What you’re sayin’ is, you pulled a Charlie?”
Tye poked out his chest. “Yes, sir I did. Good ol’ Charlie. It was a good idea. You gotta give it to the old man.”
They both had a good laugh about it.
The quickest route to the sugar mill was through a small subdivision, or what used to be a subdivision. It was a one street cul-de-sac that was overgrown, and a few of the houses had been burned down. The crew went around it earlier to avoid being seen, but now they needed to save as much time as they could. They were walking straight through.
They were barely two houses in when men with guns stepped out of the front doors. They slowed their pace and finally stopped, calmly looking around. One of the men, a big, bald, burly looking guy, yelled out to them. “Keep moving, fellas. We don't want any trouble. Just protecting our own.”
They started walking again, quickly picking up the pace.
“Don’t ever come back through here. Y’ere me, son?” Another equally intimidating man yelled out.
“Yes, sir. We don’t want any trouble either. We’ll be on our way,” Caleb yelled back.
Door after door, men stood guard with their weapons. A young boy peeked through the window. The man scolded him, and he moved away. They saw no women at all. It was surreal. Tye wondered if this was what it would be like for them in Amitola. Was this the new way of life? They were continually shocked by how much the world had changed in the last five months, but there was no time to contemplate it now. They had to get back to the kids and Maia.
Maia, Junior, Sadie, and Elex squeezed tightly into the loft of the storage barn. She had taken her shoes off to dry her feet and re-bandage them. They were surprisingly in great shape, but she didn’t want to let them get as bad as they were a couple of days ago. After she managed to get the kids to calm down, she relaxed. Looking at her watch, she saw that it had only been fifteen minutes. She was about to give the kids a snack when she heard voices coming from inside the barn.
“Shhh.”
She motioned for the kids to sit back away from the opening. She slowly pulled her pistols out. She handed the baby Glock to Ju
nior and mouthed the words, “Just aim it in the general direction if you see someone. Don’t put your finger on the trigger and don’t shoot unless you mean to kill someone.”
At this point, she wished she’d asked Tye if he knew how to handle a weapon. There was no manual safety on these Glocks so she was hoping he wouldn’t get spooked and start shooting, but she needed him to be armed, just in case.
She kept listening, and the voices were getting closer. She heard at least one male and one female. The woman was talking about getting away from the dogs. “But that can’t be,” she thought. Seconds later she saw someone else walk through the door. He looked around and walked back out. When he returned, he had another ladder, and before she knew what was happening, he leaned it against the opening to climb into the loft from the inside. She pushed the kids to lie down, and she dropped onto her belly facing the inside of the barn. She slid herself to the edge and pointed the gun at the man who was working his way up.
He was a young, dark-skinned man in his late twenties or early thirties. He climbed the ladder halfway before he looked up and saw her. He put his hand up and immediately apologized.
“We’re sorry. We didn’t know you were here. We’ll find somewhere else. Okay? We’ll get another place.”
The young woman who was with them looked scared. The other young man, a blue-eyed, redhead about the same age, tried to comfort her. “We’ll find somewhere else, baby. Come on.” He wrapped his arm around her and began to lead her out. She was sweating, and her face was pale. She was holding her stomach like she had to throw up.
“Wait. Wait,” Maya cleared her throat. “The dogs are out? They don’t come out until after six usually.”
“That’s what we thought, but they’re already out today.” The redhead continued, “I think we lost them about a mile back, but she needs to rest.”
Maia thought about it for a second. This wasn’t good. The dogs had this girl’s scent. They could follow her right into the barn. She couldn’t send them away. The scent was already here, and if the dogs came and they were gone, the only females they’d find would be her and Sadie. But, if they stayed, since she and Sadie masked their scent with the charcoal powder there was a chance they would go unnoticed, and they’d only find the girl.
Amitola: The Making of a Tribe Page 12
