by James Hunt
“If you don’t help him, I will throw you out into the cold,” Rodney said.
“And then he’ll die!” the old man fired back. “The wound’s infected. And the only way to treat him now is with antibiotics and removing the infected tissue. You might have the supplies to perform the task, but that bullet is close to the arteries that run into his heart. You try and pull it out yourself, and he could bleed to death.”
Mark gave a slow turn of his head toward Rodney. The stare that passed between them told Mark that the old man was right. With gritted teeth, he let the old man go.
Four red finger marks lingered on the old man’s skin, and he gently rubbed them as he stepped from the room and rejoined his group.
“Where’s the town?” Mark asked.
The doctor, whose name was Harold, sat at the kitchen table, where he removed the bullet from the boy just moments before. The older woman he brought was his wife, Marie, and the younger girl was his daughter, Lisa. The mother with the wounded son, Chris, was Gwen.
“Who are they?” Rodney asked.
“We don’t know.” Harold clasped his hands tightly between his knees and rocked back and forth in the chair.
“They were armed?” Kate asked.
The doctor nodded, and then his wife touched his shoulder.
“They shot anyone that tried to fight back,” she said, tears glistening in her eyes.
“I watched them kill my brother from our living room window,” Harold said. “After I saw that, I took my family and ran out the back.” He gestured back to the room where they put Chris and Gwen. “I found them on the way, and we all ran. They followed, but they gave up quickly. The snow was thick. There were a lot of trees—”
“Did you see your niece?” Rodney asked. “Did you see that she was alive?”
“I-I don’t know,” Harold answered.
“I’m not going over there to bring back a dead body.” Rodney pushed himself from the wall of the living room. “And I’m not letting any of my people die, so you can—”
“We’re wasting time!” Kate stepped between Rodney and the doctor, looking at Rodney. “Can you help Luke? Can you get the bullet out without killing him?”
Rodney ground his teeth, the muscles along his jaw twitching. He shook his head.
Kate walked toward him, her eyes pleading. “Then I need his help.” She stopped just short of reaching for his hand. “Luke will die if we don’t go.” She turned to the doctor. “But if she is dead, our deal still stands. You will operate on Luke.”
“If I see the body,” the doctor said. “Yes.”
Kate turned back to Rodney, those eyes still pleading. If there was one thing Rodney couldn’t stand, it was blackmail. But the choices were shit either way. If the bullet had just gone into Luke’s arm, the shoulder—hell the stomach—he could have risked fishing it out himself. But he knew the old doctor was right, and he hated it.
Kate leaned closer, her voice a whisper. “The same people that attacked their town could be the same ones that hit the hospital. We need to find out what we’re dealing with.”
Without a word, Rodney disappeared into his room. A desk sat in the far corner, and he opened the top drawer. He removed a rolled-up piece of paper and then returned to the kitchen and slapped the paper on the table.
“Open it,” Rodney said, looking at the old man.
Harold hesitated but then reached for the paper and slowly unrolled the parchment. As he did, he unveiled a map of upstate New York.
“Show me where the town is,” Rodney said.
Kate sidled up next to him, gently holding his arm. “Thank you.”
Rodney nodded and then looked at Mark while the old doctor examined the map. “Do you know how to shoot?”
“It’s been a while,” Mark answered.
“I’ll give you some pointers.”
4
The town was easier to find than Kate thought, but it was closer to the cabin than she would have liked. And from the expression on Rodney’s face, he thought so too, and she wondered if that was the motivation for him to come. Despite the noble quest to help her son, Kate knew Rodney was pragmatic. He wouldn’t have gotten them this far if he weren’t. But in the end, it didn’t matter. They were here, and they needed to find the girl.
The doctor didn’t have a picture, but luckily his niece had very striking purple dye in her hair. So long as Dennis’s men hadn’t scalped her, finding her wouldn’t be a problem.
“We’ll stay toward the town’s north side,” Rodney said, pointing through the trees and toward a ridge. “With the town in a valley, we’ll have the high ground.”
Kate peeked around Mark at Lisa, the doctor’s daughter, who had come with them. Rodney wanted someone who had some knowledge of the town, and Kate wanted an insurance policy for her son. She didn’t think the doctor would go back on his word, but he’d be less tempted so long as Kate kept the girl close.
“There were a lot of them.” Lisa spoke warily, staring at the town as if a monster slept below. “More than we have.”
“That’s why we’re going to scout it first,” Rodney said. “Keep your eyes peeled.”
The foursome crawled along the top of the ridge, Rodney using the binoculars every twenty yards to check for the inmates below. They worked their way down the ridgeline until they reached the end, and their view was blocked by forest.
Rodney waved them close, and they formed a small, broken circle. “All right, unless all of the inmates have moved inside the buildings, it doesn’t look like they have the same numbers anymore. I saw two guards at the town’s entrance and two stationed outside a single building.” He turned to Lisa. “I’m assuming that’s the inn?”
“Yeah,” Lisa answered, glancing back into the town. “That’s where we saw them putting everyone.”
Rodney removed his binoculars and handed them to Kate, and just when he was about to descend the ridge, she snatched his arm.
“What are you doing?” Kate asked, her voice a harsh whisper.
“We need to confirm the people are still inside,” Rodney answered. “It’ll be easier for me to go down alone.”
“What if someone sees you? What if you get hurt? What if you—”
“I’ll be fine.” Rodney removed her hand from his arm. “Keep an eye on me with the binoculars. If things go bad, head back to the cabin.”
“If we can’t get the girl back, then Luke dies,” Mark said. “No cowboy stuff. Just go down there, peek through the windows, and then come right back.”
Rodney nodded and then slipped down the mountain, gliding through the snow on his backside until it leveled out to where he could walk.
The binoculars made Kate feel as if she’d been thrust into the valley, and she tightened her grip as Rodney crept toward the window on the back side of a building.
For a moment, Kate considered the possibility of failure. Her thoughts crossed the line of morality, into the dark company of the very inmates they were fighting. She peeled her eyes away from the binoculars and found Lisa. If they failed, and the doctor still wouldn’t help her, then she would force him to—by any means necessary.
“Kate.” Mark touched her shoulder, pointing toward Rodney on his return.
Rodney kept low on the climb up, crawling on all fours, and Mark offered his hand to help him over the ridge. “I didn’t see her inside.” He turned toward the town, still catching his breath. “But I could hear them talking. One of the guards has taken a few of the women to the building next door. She might be there.”
“How many guards?” Mark asked.
“I saw four inside plus the two I saw stationed at the town’s road entrance,” Rodney answered. “And two more in the building next door.”
“Shit,” Mark said breathlessly. He shifted toward Kate. “It won’t take anything but a scream to break our cover.”
Kate nodded. It was riskier than she would have preferred, but they were out of choices. She turned toward Lisa, who trembled u
nder Kate’s hand. “How good of a shot are you?”
“I-I don’t know,” Lisa said, staring at the rifle in her hands as if it were a foreign object. “I had a boyfriend that took me hunting a few times. He showed me a few things.”
Without asking, Kate took the weapon away from her and checked their position through the scope. Both buildings had back doors, but from their vantage point, even with the trees, it was a clear shot. She handed the weapon back to Lisa. “If you hear screams or gunshots, we’re coming out of those doors. You shoot anything that’s not us, understand?”
Lisa nodded and tried to position herself comfortably as Kate turned to Mark.
“Stay with her.” Kate’s eyes told the rest of her thoughts, and just before she descended the ridge, Mark pulled her close and kissed her. She tensed but then fell into him.
Mark slowly pulled back, tugging her lips slightly with him before they parted. He opened his eyes first. “Come back.”
Rodney took the lead, Kate struggling to keep her balance on the steep descent. At the bottom, they ducked below the windows on the cabin’s back side, creeping their way toward the door. Muffled laughter echoed through the log walls, followed by intermittent screams.
Kate held back the impulse to burst inside and open fire. This needed to be done quietly and quickly.
Rodney laid his rifle in the snow and removed a hunting blade from his belt. He carefully pressed his ear to the door, his free hand reaching for the knob.
Kate positioned herself near the window, and she raised her eyes to the windowsill. The room appeared in fragments. A chair, a desk, a fur rug, and then a bed. A man was on it, naked from the waist down. A girl lay beneath him, her hands bound and tied. Kate’s knuckles whitened against the rifle.
Rodney opened the door, exposing them to more laughter and the grunts from the bedroom. The doorway opened into a hallway with the bedroom on the right, its door closed.
Kate eyed the door as Rodney crept down the hallway toward the voices up front. Kate started to follow, but then gestured for her to stay put.
As Rodney crept farther down the hall, the grunts in the bedroom grew louder. And before Kate knew it, her fingers were already on the brass knob, turning it slowly. She couldn’t leave that woman to her fate. Not when she could do something about it.
The door cracked open, and another helpless whimper drifted past. The inmate’s back was turned to Kate as she stepped inside. The man’s thrusts were quick and violent. The woman beneath him kept her face turned away, her eyes shut. Her lower lip was smeared with blood.
Kate glanced down the hall, finding Rodney nearing the other guard. She needed to be quick. She raised the butt of her rifle, and three quick steps brought her toward the bed.
The boards groaned from Kate’s movement, and the big man turned around. “What the hell, I’m not even done ye—”
The rifle struck the brute’s forehead, eliciting a crack that drew blood and collapsed the piece of scum on top of the woman. Quickly, Kate knocked the man off the bed, and he hit the floor with a heavy thump.
Kate set the rifle down and then reached for the woman’s restraints. When Kate’s fingers grazed the woman’s wrist, she bucked wildly in fear.
“It’s all right, shh,” Kate said, keeping her voice down as she quickly untied the ropes. “I’m here to help. We’re going to—”
A woman’s scream wailed like a siren from the front of the cabin, but it was overpowered by two gunshots, followed by hurried footsteps. Kate reached for the rifle, aiming it at the door, poised to fire.
Rodney appeared, a girl with a mop of purple in her hair draped under his arm. “We need to move!”
Kate turned back to the woman she’d freed, finding her standing and naked from the waist down, quickly trying to dress. Rodney shifted anxiously as Kate tried to help the woman with her shoes. Men shouted next door.
“Hurry!” Rodney said.
The woman finished, and Kate grabbed her arm, yanking her out of the room. Rodney was out the door first, the purple-haired girl limping next to him. Kate followed, pulling the second woman behind her. She landed in the snow, Rodney already making his ascent up the ridge, when the back door to the inn opened.
Kate raised her rifle, ready to fire, when bullets bombarded the back side of the house, forcing the door closed. She glanced up toward the ridge, Mark and Lisa invisible save for the sound of their gunshots.
The foursome churned up the ridge, their retreat frantic amid the gunfire blasting both in front of them and behind. Kate’s muscles burned on the ascent as she pulled the woman, who could barely keep herself upright.
Mark, Lisa, and the security of the ridgeline came into view, and just before they crested the top, the woman yanked her hand from Kate’s grip.
“Stop!” the woman screamed, waving her arms at Mark and Lisa, who lifted their gaze from their scopes. She hyperventilated, gasping deep breaths of air and pointing back toward the cabin. “My son!” She turned her face away then clawed her nails through her knotted and tangled hair.
“Kate, c’mon!” Rodney said, now with the doctor’s niece draped over his shoulder.
Hands were suddenly on Kate, and she turned to find the woman, her eyes wild with fear, her lower lip swollen and crusted with blood. Bruises lined her neck and cheek. “My son. They’ll kill him. They told me they would.” She sank her nails deeper into the sleeve of Kate’s jacket until she felt the pinpoint pressure beneath each finger. “Help me.”
Below, inmates flooded out of the cabin and onto the town’s main street. They circled around a different building, and Kate looked at Rodney and Mark.
“Please!” the woman cried.
Kate stomped toward Lisa, snatching the rifle from her hands, and thrust it into the woman’s chest. “You know how to use one?”
The woman stared at it a second too long, but just when Kate was about to lower the weapon and forgo the rescue, she snatched it from her hands. She spun the rifle around, staring down the sight, handling the weapon deftly. She opened the chamber then ejected the magazine, examining the bullets.
Kate turned toward Mark. “Help Rodney get Lisa and the niece to the cabin.”
“Kate, this is—”
She kissed him hard, longer than she should have, and this time when she peeled her face away, his eyes were still closed. “Have the doctor start working on Luke. I won’t be far behind. I promise.”
Rodney handed the purple-haired girl over to Mark before he could protest, and then Kate, Rodney, and the woman descended the ridge, back into the storm.
Kate fought the urge to look back up the ridge. If she gave in to it, she knew she’d leave. This was a risk that took her away from her family, but she understood a mother’s drive to save her child. That was what cemented her decision to stay. Rodney had helped her, and now she could help another.
“Stay on me!” Rodney said as the snow leveled out at the ridge’s bottom.
Kate kept the butt of her rifle locked into the crook of her arm, and her vision narrowed to the pinpoint accuracy of the weapon’s sight. She placed her gloved finger over the trigger, careful not to squeeze as she brought up the rear of their pack as they entered an alleyway toward Main Street.
Rodney held up a fist, and their movement ended at the alley’s exit. Kate covered their rear, and angry shouts and footsteps circled.
“All right,” Rodney said, still peering through the scope. “We’re four buildings down from the inn. That’s where your son is?”
“Yeah,” the woman answered.
“I’m gonna head for that building across the street. There’s a good sniper window on the second floor.” Rodney turned to the woman. “I’ll make sure no one sneaks up behind you.”
The woman nodded.
“Kate, are you good to go with her?” Rodney asked.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t move until I’m in position.” Rodney sprinted across the street, his feet crunching quickly over the snow, an
d Kate took his place at the alley’s exit.
The woman adjusted her aim, providing Rodney cover. Kate joined the cause, but just before Rodney entered the building, a bullet splintered the wood over the woman’s head.
Instinct pushed both women from the alley, Kate turning and firing blindly at the pair of thugs at the alley’s opposite end. They sprinted for the inn on Main Street, Kate stealing glances down the alleys they passed as the men followed on the building’s back side.
Breathless, Kate and the woman crouched on either side of the inn’s front door. Angry shouts rattled inside, followed by the quivering whimpers of those that were trapped.
“Shut up!” a man ordered, hushing the growing dissent of the hostages. “I’ll put a bullet in every single one of you. Now shut—”
In one swift motion, the woman stood, kicked open the door, and stepped into the room, firing before Kate had a chance to stand. A scream erupted in time with the gunshot, and Kate followed, rifle up, but her sights only bore down on a huddled group of women and children.
“Danny!” The woman lowered her rifle and rushed to a small boy wedged between two older women. He lifted his head at his name and then flung his arms around his mother’s neck, and both burst into tears.
For a moment, everything was still, and Kate watched the reunion of the family. But the relief ended with the shattering of glass and the thunder of gunshots behind her.
Kate hit the floor, ducking along with everyone else, the world fading to black with a soundtrack of gunshots, groans, and screams. She waited for the surge of men or hands on her to whisk her away to a dark room to be raped, but as she lingered on the floor, the commotion ended.
Kate lifted her head, turning her neck sharply to see that the windows behind her were devoid of the hulking figures she expected, and saw only shards of broken glass.
Kate scrambled forward on hands and knees. “We need to move! Everyone, get out!” She leaned into the group, her haste triggering action as she spun around, rifle up, waiting for anyone else to come through. But none came.
