by A. R. Shaw
Clarisse sprinted toward the lockup building. Soldiers were scattering, and residents looked confused and afraid. Once she got to the prison doors the guards stood in front of her, blocking entry. “Henry sent me here to stay inside, said there was a threat in the main building.”
“We’re not supposed to let anyone through.”
She tried again. “Look, that’s what Harding told me to do, he was worried I might get attacked.”
The soldiers looked at one another and then one of them motioned her through. “Just stay inside, in case something happens.”
She looked back at him, and one soldier shook his head and mumbled something to the other. She’d played on their sense of confusion, and so far it had worked.
Once inside she locked the main door behind her and saw Sam watching out the window.
“What the hell is going on?”
“I have to give the prisoners the special vaccine now, right now. Block the door.”
“You shouldn’t go back there alone.”
“We don’t have much choice. They’re going to stop us at any minute. Buy as much time as you can.”
She ran for the lockup cells in the back and saw that the prisoners were awake and confused by the loud alarms.
“Good morning,” she said out of breath and tried a bright smile though her hands were shaking. “Everything’s fine, it’s just a drill,” she said though she doubted they understood her words, she hoped her body language conveyed nonchalant ease.
“I’ve got a flu shot for you guys. It’s mandatory for everyone on base. If you’ll just come to the side here, I’ll give it to you and then Sam will bring you your breakfast.”
The young boy walked over sleepily. He shook his head no to Clarisse in protest of the shot.
She shook her head. “No shot, no food.”
The kid looked to the others and the older man nodded his head for the young man to comply.
Clarisse hesitated a second before she plunged the needle into his arm muscle. Though her stomach clenched for what she just condemned this life to, she continued. Next, the woman merely sat staring daggers at Clarisse. The man said something in Arabic, encouraging her to comply. The woman reluctantly got up and sauntered toward the bars. She moved her arm toward Clarisse, who immediately injected the virus into her arm, but just as she removed the needle, the woman reached through with her other arm and grabbed Clarisse around the neck, pulling her to the grate. Reaching through with her other arm, she wrapped her forearm around Clarisse’s throat to choke her. She braced her feet up on the bars in order to exert the most force in her effort to strangle Clarisse.
Clarisse struggled and tried to fight her off but, admittedly, her assailant had an excellent hold on her. Clarisse’s vision started to fade and she knew it was only a matter of time before she’d black out completely.
Suddenly a man’s hand pulled on the woman jihadist. Clarisse thought Sam must have heard the commotion and come from the front room. Freed, Clarisse fell to her knees on the concrete ground, heaved large breaths. She looked around, but Sam wasn’t there.
Instead, the woman was screaming something incomprehensible and kicking at the bars. The other prisoner that she’d yet to give the virus to held the female terrorist by her arms as she flung her limbs toward Clarisse in another attempt to grab her.
The man smiled at her, though he continued to hold the attacker until Clarisse was clear of her reach through the bars.
“Thank you,” she tried to say through her sore throat. “Please, please . . . don’t kill her.” The other woman continued to spit and hurl vile deciphered threats against her. He shook his head in amusement and then flung the woman to the floor of her cell.
There was a great commotion outside, and Sam yelled, “Clarisse, hurry up! They’re coming!”
The man behind the bars waved to her to approach. He seemed to somehow know. She retrieved the last syringe from where it landed on the floor, looking confused at the man. He smiled at her.
“You know?” she said.
“You must hurry,” was all he said as he lifted his sleeve.
She pushed in the needle that would take his life and the lives of many others in time. She pressed the plunger on the syringe, releasing the poison into him.
Soon guards were in the lockup, yelling and pointing guns at Clarisse. She dropped everything and held her hands in the air.
“What’s going on?” she yelled and feigned confusion.
One of the guards restrained her and held her hands behind her back. She let them confine her without a struggle, and then she was led out to the main room, where she saw Sam also constrained. She nodded at his questioning look, and then he diverted his gaze. One of the guards confiscated the used syringes from the floor of the prison and looked at the prisoners.
Lieutenant Harding approached, and the guard held the syringes at his eye level.
“Clarisse, What have you done?” Harding whispered to her, staring deeply into her eyes.
She didn’t answer.
Chapter 46 Fleeing Hope
Dalton burst through the front door. “Graham, load them up. Load everything and everyone up—now. We have five minutes. Leave the rest.”
Graham was sitting with Tehya in his arms, feeding her, as Bang rested to the side of the living room chair. “Why? What the hell happened?”
“They found out. Reuben squealed; he couldn’t just keep our plans to himself. Instead, he’s jeopardized everything and put Clarisse in danger. They probably already have her locked up. I just hope she was able to give the virus to the prisoners.”
“No!” Graham said. “McCann and the kids went fishing about an hour ago with the horses. They all took off this morning. I thought it was a good thing for them to do.”
“Can we radio them?”
“Yeah.”
Dalton thought for a minute. “That’s good, actually. Quick, tell them to make it to the main road, but to hide out there until we come. Tell them not to come back here. Hurry, man, we have little time.”
Graham nodded and took the baby with him and Bang into the back. He radioed Macy with the plan, then he packed up each and every room as fast as he could while Bang watched Tehya.
Meanwhile, Dalton had to get Clarisse and Sam back as well as free the prisoners, and he had no idea how in the world he was going to manage that. It all depended on Harding and to what extent he was willing to go. At the moment Dalton was more concerned about Clarisse and if Harding would try to use her as a bargaining chip.
Rick ran into his own home and gave Olivia the news to pack up the children and the household as fast as she could.
Soon they were throwing things into the trucks they’d brought—minus the one the Reuben had taken with him the night before. Bang remembered the chickens and hurried to round them up into boxes. Dalton packed up the food supply as Graham ran yet more stuff from Lucy and Macy’s room out to the truck. In no time they were as loaded down as they had been when they came in to Hope, and that was only due to their preparedness measures and the fact that they had few belongings.
Dalton was left with the items that Clarisse kept in her lab, including the vaccines and the virus she’d developed herself. He had to get to the lab, but he thought that might be where they were holding her. He would go there next after Graham and Olivia drove most of their supplies out of town and toward the kids waiting with the horses.
Dalton, loaded for bear, pounded twice on Graham’s truck as Tehya cried in the backseat and Bang tried to comfort her. The guards were waiting at the closed gate. Dalton told Graham to try to reason with the guards, but to bust through the gate if he had to. They doubted the guards would fire on them.
He and Rick watched the exit, and though there was shouting, the guards opened the gate and let them leave without incident. Once they were safely on the other side, Dalton and Rick made their way to the lockup.
Dalton had no idea what Harding was going to do so he simply left Rick to cover
him and walked first up to lockup building, where men guarded the entrance.
“Hey, fellas. Can you let me in? I need to see how Sam is doing.”
“It’s on lockdown, and our orders are to detain you on sight,” a guard responded.
Dalton had been pretty sure this would happen, but he was surprised when a few seconds passed and the two guards had made no move to handcuff him.
“So . . . are you going to detain me?”
The soldiers diverted their eyes from Dalton, and one said, “We haven’t seen you, sir.”
One of them stepped aside and Dalton quickly hurried past them and into the lockup building. As soon as he walked in, the first thing he saw was that—at the end of the long corridor past the cells—the back door stood wide open and a truck was parked in front of it. At that moment Sam rushed in the back door.
“What the hell’s going on?” Dalton asked.
“They’re helping us. Hurry! I’ve got the boy inside the truck already. The female’s a bitch, though; I’m going to have to hogtie her.”
That’s when Dalton noticed the bloody marks on Sam’s hand.
Sam glanced down at his arm. “It’s nothing, the boy wanted to fight,” he said dismissively.
Dalton wasn’t sure what Sam might have done to the boy in the fight to get him into the truck so he asked, “Is he okay?”
“Yeah, he’ll live—for a while anyway.” He let that statement float away, with all its implications.
“It’s the bitch that I’m concerned with. She tried to choke Clarisse in there, but the guy in the next cell intervened. I couldn’t get back here fast enough.”
Dalton was horrified. “Is Clarisse okay?”
“I don’t know. I think so. It looked like she was scratched up pretty bad, but she’s alive. They took her to the lab. Sorry, man. There’s was nothing I could do.”
Dalton nodded to the quiet man behind the bars and he wasn’t surprised to see he nodded back. “Yeah, Rick said he was remorseful. I’m just thankful. He looked directly at the man. “Thank you.”
The woman chanted, rocking back and forth, and the man sat solemnly atop his cot.
“Well, we can’t shoot her. What are we going to do?” Dalton said.
Sam held several PlastiCuffs in his hand and said, “It’s like wrestling a bear. Freight train through it, man.”
“Oh great. Well, you know I’ve been there. She can’t be that bad.”
They opened the cell and it took both he and Dalton to hold her down as she tried to claw at them. She managed to bite Dalton’s forearm as Sam whipped a cuff round her wrists. He was tempted to strike her across the face, but didn’t.
Out of breath by the time they were through subduing her, they tossed her into the back of the truck along with the boy and then rushed back inside to get the last man. They heard shouting around the front of the building and knew their time was running out.
Once back inside, the man held his hands out for them to restrain him. Totally compliant, the prisoner even tried to rush them into fleeing when they heard more voices. Once in the truck, Dalton told Sam, “Look, take off. Get them out of here. Run through any barrier you have to.”
“Addy?”
“She’s already out there with Graham and the others. Just go. You’ve got the radio.”
“Where are you and Rick going?”
“To Clarisse. They still have her.”
Sam nodded and then floored it, heading for the main entrance. Dalton watched him as he took off; the guards didn’t even try to stop him at that rate of speed. In fact, they opened the gate when they saw him coming. Not one shot was fired. Something screwy is going on with some of these guards. They sure are making this easy.
“Go Sam,” Dalton whispered before he ran off to meet up with Rick, who was keeping an eye on the lab where they thought Clarisse was being questioned by Harding.
Chapter 47 Found Out
Clarisse sat across from Harding, who held the letter between his fingers and looked around her lab for the evidence that might prove her guilt or innocence. He hoped she wasn’t capable of the crime the letter suggested.
“What can you tell me about this, Clarisse?” His words sounded scolding. She stared blankly at him or beyond him, showing no emotion on her face.
“What did you inject into them? You have to tell me. Please Clarisse, don’t play this game. I need to know.”
“This”—he shook the piece of paper—“this piece of paper says you gave them a virus that will result in the genocide of their people. Clarisse! You can’t do this!” His arm swept the lab equipment from the surface of the work table in an instant, creating a cascade of glass that landed on the floor.
Clarisse flinched and stepped backward and into the soldier guarding her in order to avoid the flying glass. The soldier braced her, one hand on her shoulder; the other hand rested on his holster.
“The prisoners are secure?” he yelled to the soldier.
“Yes sir.”
Harding strode closer, to face her. “How long?”
She stared past him.
“How long until they die? How long until they’re carriers? And how long have you been planning this behind my back?”
He swung his arm around to strike her, and she braced herself, but before his hand could reach her the soldier intervened and blocked Harding with his own arm. Then Clarisse was shoved behind him and Harding was faced with his own soldier holding him at gunpoint.
“What in the hell are you doing, soldier?” Harding lunged for him.
“Don’t, sir. I’m warning you.” The soldier then turned to Clarisse. “You’d better run, doctor. They’re waiting for you out front.”
She was stunned.
With her hands still cuffed behind her back, Clarisse ran to the door, turning and smiling at Harding before she fled. I did what I had to do, her smile told him.
Chapter 48 The Escape
Rick had retrieved their Jeep as Dalton waited and watched the doorway for any action. He could see faint shadows through the windows, but nothing more. Their plan was to storm the room, retrieve Clarisse, and then get the hell out of there. As soon as Rick had returned with their vehicle, Dalton spotted Clarisse at the door. With her hands still tied behind her back she ran to him. Guards watched the scene unfold, but no one intervened. Dalton quickly cut away her binds and asked, “What about the rest of your supplies?”
“Did you load up our room with the laptop and chest under the bed?”
“Yes.”
“Then we have everything we need. That was my duplicate stash. The rest I can replace. I always make backups. Plus, he just destroyed the vaccine and the virus when he threw a temper tantrum back there. Why are the guards helping us?”
“I don’t know,” Dalton said. Rick just drove them through the main gate, the guards waving good-bye. “Maybe they’ve had enough of living the perfect life. Maybe they want to live in reality for a time.”
“What about the prisoners?” she asked.
“Sam’s got them,” Dalton said and then showed Clarisse his bite marks.
“She bit you? That bitch!”
Rick piped up, “Yeah, well, can we blame her? We had it coming, I guess. We made her a weapon.”
“She doesn’t know that,” Clarisse said as she attended to Dalton’s wounds.
“I still can’t believe Reuben did this. I mean, I knew he had a hard time with some of the things we did—but this?” Dalton complained.
“Where’d they go anyway?” Clarisse asked.
Dalton shook his head. “I don’t know. North, possibly? Maybe he needs to be on his own to live with his own conscience.”
“Yeah, well. He’s subjecting his family to it too.” Dalton said.
“We can only help those who realize the reality of this world. Back there? That’s not life. That’s crazyville. You can’t pretend your way out of this. You have to meet it head on or die trying,” Rick said as he sped down the rough road out of Hop
e.
“How much longer before we meet up with the others at the rendezvous? And where are they?” Clarisse asked.
“About twenty minutes more. Barring any problems,” Rick said. “No one’s following us, right?”
Dalton looked again. “Nope, not a soul.”
“We have to get the prisoners planted in the next three days. How are we going to do that?” Clarisse reminded them.
Dalton rubbed his head. “I’m not sure yet, but we’ll make it happen.”
The three of them fell into silence then. So much had happened in the last several minutes that they hadn’t had a chance to process it yet.
Dalton, though he didn’t say it, held Clarisse a little tighter. He’d heard the yelling in the lab and worried that Harding might try to harm Clarisse in his rage. She leaned into him and closed her eyes. To rest was a gift in this life, no matter how short the time. Finally, they were away from the falsely named village of Hope and were now making their way back to their own country. And they had a cure for the pestilence that infected it.
Chapter 49 Fishing
Once Macy received the radio call from Graham, everything proceeded at a rapid-fire pace. She told Mark and McCann immediately, and they packed up their gear as fast as possible. Lucy gathered Addy and the younger boys and together they mounted up their supplies and made their way back to the vehicles.
Per their plan, McCann drove the horse trailer and Mark drove the truck and they headed back to the northern tip of Ross Lake, where they would cross back into the United States. It didn’t take long. They drove the trucks off the main road and down into the forest to conceal their position.
The younger children were scared, but Marcy and Lucy did a good job of allaying their fears. “No, your Dad isn’t dead,” Macy heard her sister relay to Kade as she passed them by on her way to haul water to the horses. Macy was worried—they all were—and she hoped that what her sister had just said wasn’t a lie.
