by Trudi Jaye
Then they were there. He saw the light up ahead as Alberta opened the door to the lower room in the barn. Fee’s mother toppled out and then Fee followed. Henry sucked in a noisy breath as he reached the exit, feeling like he was breathing fresh air again for the first time in years.
“That was a nightmare,” he gasped out, lying on the floor for a moment. He opened his eyes to see Fee looking down at him, a hand out to help him up.
“We’re not finished yet,” she said.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Fee crouched at the corner of the barn, looking back at the old wooden house. Their escape had certainly caused a panic among the men who were previously hidden from view. There were currently three men running around the house, guns raised, looking for them.
“They can’t have gone far,” yelled one man.
“Just make sure we get them back,” yelled another. “I don’t care how.”
She crept to the back entrance of the barn where the others waited. “We have to make a run for it to the corn,” said Fee. “And fast.” She glanced at Alberta.
“I’ll be fine, love. These old legs will get me where we need to go.”
“All right, we just have to do it.” Fee shivered. How were they going to get them to the corn without being seen?
“You three go. I’ll provide a distraction,” said Henry, nodding to the gasoline can in the corner.
Fee looked at Henry for a moment. If the barn were on fire at the front, perhaps the men wouldn’t notice them making a run for it at the back. It was a good plan. Any yet. “You do it quickly, and then run after us, okay?”
Henry nodded. “Of course. I’m not crazy.” He grinned. “Much.” He raced back into the barn, and started creating a pile of flammable objects.
Fee watched him for a moment, and then gathered the other two women close to her by the door. “When it’s time, we all run as fast as we can across the lawn to the corn. The car is maybe a minute of running through the corn, but we have to be fast. They’ll know something is up as soon as the blaze hits the barn. They might not even care enough to stop the fire.” She glanced back at Henry to see if he was listening to her. “So we just run and don’t look back.”
“I’m going to light her up now,” said Henry. “Get ready to go.”
Fee took a deep breath. The sound of a fire crackling over old dry wood soon became all she could hear. Smoke started to block their vision. It was time. “Okay, one. Two. Three. Go!” They shot out of the barn, Fee holding onto Alberta’s arm, dragging her along.
The older woman ran awkwardly, favoring one hip, but they eventually reached the corn. Not daring to stop, they ran a few yards further in. Fee stopped and stood puffing, her hands on her knees. She’d been spending too much time inside these last few years.
Then she remembered Henry, and stood back up, creeping back to the edge of the corn, trying to see what was happening.
“Shouldn’t we keep running, dear?” said Alberta. “I don’t know how far it is, but I’d like to get to the car before those men find us.”
Fee rubbed one hand over her eyes. Henry should have just come with them, and they could have all been out by now. But Alberta was right. Henry could run much faster than either of the older women, so it made sense to get them to the car first. “Okay, let’s go.” She could always come back and make sure he was okay if he didn’t appear quickly.
She led them across the cornfield, following the line of smashed corn that showed their way through. Soon they were at the car.
“How are we all going to get in there?” asked her mother. She was looking at Max’s huge body in the back seat. “I think you’re going to have to leave that thing behind.”
“We’ll just have to squash up,” said Fee, glancing at her mother. They wouldn’t have had a problem if it weren’t for her. “You two stay here. I’m going to check on Henry.” She raced off before either of them could say anything.
Running through the corn, Fee could hear shouts, and the sound of something exploding. Her heartbeat sped up. Something must have been in the barn that was more explosive than the gasoline. She ran harder.
Reaching the edge of the cornfield, she paused. The three men were running around the outside of the barn. One was trying to put the fire out with the hose from the house. The other two were searching for them.
All of a sudden, Henry erupted from a position near the house, running away from where Fee and the others had gone. One of the men saw him and shouted, raising his gun to shoot.
Fee held her breath, but the shot went wide.
Henry kept zigging and zagging toward the side of the house.
Another shot rang out, and this time, Henry fell to the ground.
Fee gasped. She glanced between the men and Henry. They were running over to Henry, who was lying still on the grass.
Without thinking, Fee yelled. “Hey, scum bags! What about me?” She waited until they’d seen her and took off at a run behind the back of the barn, away from the worst of the flames.
Heart pounding in her chest, Fee tried to think. What the hell had she been thinking? How was she going to get out of this mess? In front of her, the back door of the barn loomed. Smoke was pouring out and the heat of the flames felt like it was already burning her skin, but she didn’t have a choice. Fee opened the door just as the first of the men came running around the corner.
“She’s in the barn,” she could hear him yelling behind her.
Inside it was dark and smoky. Her first reaction was to cough, which made her inhale even more smoke. She wouldn’t survive for long in here. She needed to incapacitate them, and quickly. The only thing Fee could think of was the old gun that Geraldine used to keep in the barn. She raced over to the cabinet, her heart plummeting when she saw the lock. The shouts of the men at the door spurred her into action again.
She grabbed an old steel fence post, and whacked it at the cabinet. Years of disuse had made the wood rotten, and it broke apart like it was cardboard.
She reached into the cabinet, pulling out Geraldine’s old double-barreled shotgun. With fumbling fingers, she loaded the shells, and turned around to face her pursuers.
She held it steady in her arms, remembering the feel of the old gun from years before. She’d learned to shoot on it, and she still remembered.
The first of the men smashed through the door and came running in. Fee didn’t even think about it; she pulled the trigger on the gun, aiming for his shoulder. He went straight down. She raced over to him, and grabbed his handgun. She held the smaller weapon in her hand and aimed it up at the next man to come through. He came in shooting, but he was aiming too high, and she hit him in the leg from her unexpectedly low angle. He went straight down. She kept the gun trained on the door, and the third man didn’t materialize. On a hunch, she turned toward the main door and pulled the trigger again, this time hitting the third man square in the chest, just as he let off a shot. His shot went wide. When she’d turned instinctively, Fee had saved herself from a bullet through the back.
She tried to get her breathing to return to normal, but couldn’t. One of the men groaned, and in fright, she whacked him in the head with the barrel of the gun. The second man rolled over away from her, and she forced herself to knock him out with the butt of the gun as well. They had kept Alberta locked up, and they were shooting to kill, she reminded herself as the bile came charging up her throat and into her mouth. She threw up on the ground next to her.
A support timber groaned and then dropped heavily from the ceiling two yards away, landing in a crash of sparks and flames. Fee jumped and realized she needed to get out if she didn’t want to die in there. She looked at the men; she couldn’t leave them inside.
Dragging the first man by one leg, she managed to pull him outside by some kind of adrenaline surge, and then the second man. The third man was already dead. She tried not to think about it, and raced out the door past the unconscious men. Across the lawn, she saw Henry, trying to get to his feet
. Sprinting, she grabbed him just as it seemed he might fall, and put one of his arms over her shoulder.
“Where did you get hit?” she asked.
He was clutching his side and Fee saw before he answered.
“My side. It hurts like a bitch,” he gasped out.
“We need to get out of here. Can you walk?”
“I’ll do what we have to do,” said Henry.
“Hold your hand down on the wound until we can get you something from the car. We have to staunch the blood.”
They staggered into the corn, Henry leaning heavily on Fee for support. A couple of times, Fee was sure he’d actually passed out, but it was only a second or two before he’d start walking again. Fee’s heart was pumping wildly and her muscles were pushed to their limit as she carried Henry through the field. Dots were starting to appear in her vision, and she slipped a few times on the uneven ground. Just as it seemed like they were going to be lost in the corn forever, they emerged to find the car was just a few yards away. Fee breathed a massive sigh of relief.
The two women were standing next to the car, waiting for them. When she saw them both, Alberta rushed over to help Fee. Between them, they carried Henry to the car, managing to get him onto the bench seat.
“You’ll need to staunch the blood on the wound, while I drive,” said Fee, grabbing a sweater from the floor on the passenger side and handing it to Alberta as she climbed in after Henry. Fee raced around to the driver’s seat, and pulled it forward for her mother to get in the back.
“I don’t want to get in the back seat with that thing,” said her mother pointing at Max.
“Get in or don’t get in. I don’t care. He’s staying, and we’re leaving now.”
Her mother stared at Fee for a second, then climbed in the back seat, trying to avoid touching Max.
Fee slammed the front seat down again, and climbed in behind the wheel.
Henry opened his eyes enough to look at her. “Take care of my baby,” he said with the ghost of a smile.
“Of course. I drove her yesterday, didn’t I?” Fee complained with a forced smile, trying to keep the tears at bay. She didn’t know if she’d be able to get Henry to someone who could help in time.
“Where’s the nearest hospital?” she asked Alberta.
“No hospital for miles, you know that, Wild Feather. The closest person who could help is the doctor at Jasper.” Her mother’s voice came from the back seat, and Fee wanted to ignore her, but didn’t dare. Henry’s life was at stake.
“Okay then, Jasper it is.”
She drove in silence the whole way, the only noise Henry’s occasional moans of pain. He went in and out of consciousness, and the blood seemed to spread, despite the efforts that Alberta was making to staunch the flow.
Screaming into the doctor’s office parking lot, Fee jumped out of the car, impatiently pulling Alberta out of the way. She practically dragged Henry out of the car, and finding strength she didn’t know she had, half carried him up the path and into the house.
When she saw the pair of them dripping blood over the wooden floor, the receptionist stood up immediately. “I’ll get the doctor,” she said. “Is it a bullet wound?”
Fee nodded.
The doctor came rushing out. He was the same man who’d been servicing the area for years, and Fee recognized him from the few times he’d been allowed to help people on her father’s farm. He didn’t seem to recognize her, his gaze going straight to Henry, his patient.
“Come, we need to stop the bleeding, figure out what’s been hit,” he said. He stood on Henry’s other side and put his arm around his back and between them. They managed to get Henry into the examination room and lifted him onto the table. Lying down it seemed worse, his face pale and his breathing shallow.
“How long has it been since he was shot?” asked the doctor.
“Maybe half an hour,” said Fee.
The doctor worked quickly, cutting off Henry’s shirt, and examining the wound. He glanced up and saw Fee at one point, and seemed startled that she was still there. “Can you hand me that cloth?” he said.
Fee silently handed it to him, watching as he dug around near the wound, trying to determine the damage, and then patch it up as best he could.
“He needs surgery to remove the bullet, but it doesn’t seem to have hit anything vital,” he said eventually. “I’m going to call the helicopter to get him to the hospital in Little Rock.” He strode out of the room.
Fee nodded, her eyes wide. This was all her fault. Henry had come to Tampa for a nice quiet break from his usual life, and she’d ended up getting him shot in the middle of Arkansas.
The ring of a phone jerked her out of her maudlin thoughts, and she looked around for the source. It was coming from Henry’s pocket, and without thinking, she pulled it out and answered it.
“Hello?”
“Who’s this? I wanted Henry.” Frankie’s now familiar voice filled her ears.
“It’s Fee,” she said, her hands shaking.
“Can I speak to Henry?”
“He’s...he’s been shot. The doctor is calling an emergency helicopter.” Fee said the last word on a sob.
There was silence for a moment. “Don’t worry, Fee. I’ll get this sorted. I’ll get the helicopter there pronto, and I’ll talk to Rilla. She’ll get Henry better again. Don’t worry about it. We’re going to get him better.” Frankie’s voice was strangely soothing, and Fee found herself calming down under the continuing affirmations that he was going to look after it.
“Can you tell me what happened?” asked Frankie eventually.
“We were trying to rescue my friend Alberta from the Witch Hunters. We were almost out, but they saw us, and shot Henry.”
“You went after the Witch Hunters by yourself?” said Frankie.
Fee winced, knowing it was her fault. “We weren’t going after them. We were just going to sneak in and sneak out. But...”
Frankie sighed. “Typical Henry. Thinks it’s all going to be fine, and that he’ll find a way through it.”
“It wasn’t his fault. He only agreed to go along because I insisted on going,” said Fee.
“Look, Fee, I’m going to get someone to come down and meet you at the hospital in Little Rock. You stay there, and look after him. Keep his phone next to you and let me know how he’s doing.”
“Okay. I will.”
“It’s going to be fine,” repeated Frankie.
Fee didn’t know how he could promise something like that. It all seemed to be pretty damn messed up from her perspective.
But it was comforting to have him say it all the same.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Heading outside, Fee was faced with a terrible decision. Alberta and her mother were sitting in the car waiting for her. The doc had said the ambulance to take Henry to the helicopter would be there any moment. They would have to drive to Little Rock to meet him. He’d said they’d take one passenger with Henry; that was it.
Fee looked between Alberta and her mother, whose hands were no longer tied, she noticed.
“I’m going in the helicopter to Little Rock with Henry. I need you to drive the car and meet us there.”
Her mother shook her head. “I’m no use. I can’t drive a car.”
Alberta nodded. “I can drive it, no problem. Been driving all my life. How hard can it be?”
Beside her mother, Max came to life. “I believe it will be within your powers, Alberta,” he said. “And I will be here to help you.”
Her mother screamed, and pulled away from Max.
“Calm down,” said Fee. “His name is Max. He’s a robot.”
“What...What?”
“What did you think he was? You were sitting next to him this whole time.”
“I...I thought he was a strange machine contraption. Not something that could talk.” She was still scrunched up against the far side of the car from Max.
Fee sighed. She didn’t have time for this right now. “Ma
x will help you, Alberta. He has a comprehensive navigation system, so he’ll be able to direct you if you get lost. I’ve got to go.”
Fee headed back into the clinic, hoping she wasn’t making a terrible mistake.
***
When Henry came to, he was flying. Literally flying, the thrumming of a helicopter making it impossible to hear anything around him. He saw Fee next to him, and something inside him eased.
She’d come back for him, distracted the men, and carried him through the cornfield. She was still with him. A faint tingle of electricity was running through his hand and up his arm. Henry smiled. She was holding his hand. He couldn’t mistake that feeling. Luckily, it was faint, or he might have passed out again.
The ache in his side was dulled down to a manageable level. He’d not been able to think clearly earlier with the pain of the wound. He’d never been shot before, and immediately made a resolution never to be shot again after this. It hurt like hell.
The helicopter began its descent, and Henry closed his eyes. He wondered where they were going. Hopefully, to a hospital, because he was fairly certain that even with the healing from the Carnival, he was going to need a bit of medical intervention.
***
Fee climbed out of the helicopter and followed Henry’s gurney through the doors. She just kept following them quietly, until a nurse eventually noticed her.
“You can’t be in here, ma’am. You’ll need to go to the waiting room. I’ll show you where it is.”
She bustled Fee away from the operating rooms and into a large waiting room filled with people. Fee sat down to wait on a hard plastic chair.
She had no idea how much time had passed when Henry’s phone rang again. Pulling it out of her jacket pocket, Fee answered it.
