by Lucian Bane
I turned with Tara in the water at what he dangled in his hand. “What is that?” Tara whispered.
“Looks like…some kind of animal.”
“An animal?” Tara discreetly wiped her eyes. “Do I look like I’ve been crying?” she whispered to me.
“More like sobbing.”
“Oh great.” She turned her head and quickly splashed water on her face.
I caught her jaw and made her be still so I could kiss her. “So what, we all cry, love. There’s nothing fucking wrong with that.”
Tara put her forehead on my shoulder and sighed. “I’m tired. And hungry. And scared.”
“I know love. Looks like we can do something about that second one right now. We’ll work on the other two after?”
“Eww what do you think is for supper? The way that man finds things to eat is…”“Fucking awesome,” I said, walking toward them with Tara in my embrace still. “You guys mind giving us some privacy while we dress?”
They both turned around and already I longed for Tara’s intimate touch, anticipating the agony of not being skin to skin with her. And the way she clung to me said the feeling was mutual. All those things she’d just said hit me so fucking hard, I would never doubt her feelings for me again. Ever.
We both dressed, me helping Tara first and shielding her from any possibility of peripheral visions be they accident or not. I had no desire to share even the sight of her with animals much less other humans.
“Done,” I announced. “What you got there? My stomach prays food.”
Preacher turned with Becca and held up a dead rabbit. “God has answered your prayer, my man.” His deep chuckle rumbled around us as he handed what looked like a giant hare to Becca who took firm hold of it and approached me with a hand out.
“Knife?” she finally said when I looked clueless enough.
“Oh, right.” I slid it from the sheath on my right and presented her the handle which she snatched with the ease of a seasoned killer. How’d he manage that, anyway? “How’d you kill it?”
Preacher looked up after dumping an armful of dry sticks on the ground about ten feet from the water edge and grinned. “She used the hatchet. Threw it from about twenty feet.” He burst out laughing, no doubt at the drop of our jaws.
“She’s a true hunter, my brother.”
“Wow!” Tara gasped. “You need to show me how to do that.”
Becca looked up from where she skinned the animal like a pro, flashing Tara her perfect teeth, glowing white despite we’d not seen a toothbrush in four days. Amazing. “Come,” she called Tara. “I will show you how to skin a rabbit.”
“Ohhhh, umm.”
“Come on, don’t be afraid, it is very dead.”
“Yes, I see that.” Tara took jerky steps towards Becca. She clearly did not want to be seen as a wuss, but judging by the quirk in her upper lip, it had nothing to do with fear but everything to do with yuck.
“There’s plenty of water to clean up with, love,” I said, grinning.
“Shit, looks like rain,” Preacher muttered. “Bane, as soon as she’s done with that knife we need to get that flag before dark. And if he’s done something stupid, which I’m pretty sure he has, we need to deal with it now.”
I agreed.
“What do you mean, something stupid?” Potential panic threatened in Tara’s calm question next to Becca on the ground. Becca too had paused in her dissection waiting for that answer, concern on her perfect brow.
“What could he do stupid? It’s under the water. I mean that’s the stupid part. Right?”
“Yeah, that’s the stupid part, Preacher said. “Look away, but I’m keeping my underwear on, they need washing.” Tara looked down when Preacher dropped his pants and stood in the black tight briefs.
Becca lowered her head. “Go on Lucian. You wash your underwear as well.”
I quickly got out of my pants and joined Preacher at the water’s edge. “What’s the plan?” I mumbled. “And what are you expecting down there?”
“Not sure, just some bullshit.”
“We go down and inspect it then we come back up, make a plan, then execute it?”
Preacher rubbed his hands together. “Sounds good.”
“We done with that knife yet ladies?” I called.
“Coming right up,” Tara said. “I’m not looking.” She held the knife toward me, keeping her head turned. “You’ll need to wash that.”
I took the knife from her, and gave her hand a brief squeeze. “We’ll be back with the flag in five minutes.”
“Okay good.” She kept her back turned and her tone aloof. Which meant she was terrified enough to feel the need to practice sanity maneuvers. I wanted to console her more but Preacher was wading into the water already.
I followed him out, cleaning the blade as I went. We headed to the center of the lagoon and made the preliminary dive. Once we located the bright yellow flag at the bottom, we searched for any traps around the flag. The land at the very bottom was the size of maybe a living room then began to gradually slope upward. If it wasn’t for the dangers possibly lurking down there, I would’ve liked to explore the emerald green paradise. Everything was covered in the most brilliant colored green velvety moss I’d ever seen. We swam like sharks around our target, looking for anything odd. Seemed that the flag was merely tied to the rock somehow.
Preacher pointed to the surface and we swam back up. I gave him the knife when he asked for it, we got our wind and we swam back down. Preacher yanked the flag taut and began sawing. When it didn’t cut, he touched the rope and shook his head and began to swim up.
We surfaced with a gasp.
“Did you get it are you okay?” Tara yelled.
I looked over at Tara and Becca who stood studiously watching on the bank. I shook my head.
“It’s a fucking cable man,” Preacher said, keeping his voice down.
I jerked to him. “A what?”
“Yeah, there’s the stupid. Let’s go try to work the thing off that rock and if we can’t, we’ll try to pull both of them up.”
“Okay got it.” I looked to the ladies. “We had to scope it out first, make sure it’s safe, we’re going down now to get it.” I pointed at the water and nodded.
They both remained with hands visoring their eyes. “We can help!” Becca called out followed by Tara’s eager agreement.
“We’re fine,” I said. “But if we need you, we’ll let you know.” I looked at Preacher hoping I hadn’t boo-booed. But he nodded in agreement.
The ladies went to pacing in silence and Preacher and I got our breath again and went back under. Down at the flag, we both yanked on the cable and tried to dislodge the giant rock it was tied to. Fucking boulder. It wasn’t budging no kind of way, fuck.
We came up for air and Preacher said, “Need something to dislodge the rock it’s tied to so we can see how the fuck the cable is attached.”
Well shit. I looked around. “We’ll need serious leverage. A long thick branch?”
Preacher nodded and we swam to shore telling the ladies what we needed. We all brainstormed the logistics. The branch couldn’t be too big or it’d be hard to hold under water. And it needed to be freshly cut and not dead. We searched the woods and found what we hoped was the perfect size, cut it and headed back out.
“We should help,” Tara yelled.
“It seems safe enough,” I whispered. “And they could help so we don’t wear ourselves out too bad.”
He nodded. “T-shirt and underwear, ladies. Hurry.”
The anger in his voice said he didn’t like me seeing his Becca. It was hard to imagine he didn’t know how completely blind I was to anybody but Tara. It was damn near mean how little I cared about the body attached to the person he called wife.
We all four went down and finally worked the sharpened edge of the stick between the rocks. We finally got the thing moved and all shot up for air.
“Did you see that?” Becca said, when we surfaced.
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“Yes, I saw it,” Preacher said, gasping.
Tara then, “Saw what?” “The cable is attached to the rock!” Becca said.
“Tied?” I asked
“No,” Preacher said, “there’s an iron eyebolt embedded in the rock that the cable runs through.”
Becca nodded. “Then we will have to bring the entire thing up.”
“We can only try,” I said. “We need to pull it along the floor to the edge of the incline and then see how far it is from land maybe.”
We all agreed and went back down, grabbed hold of the metal cable and began pulling the boulder toward the incline. It wasn’t so bad swimming with it in a horizontal direction. The trick would be getting it up.
We surfaced and treaded water silently while we got our wind. Preacher said, “We’ll try to swim it up the incline first. See if that’s even possible. If not, we’ll have to rig up something to tie to it and get it from land.”
We all nodded and went back down only to discover it was three times as hard going up with that weight, due to the incline being too sharp near the bottom. We surfaced and went down ten times and managed only a few feet. At that rate, we’d have it done in four hours and be fucking exhausted.
I fought for enough air to speak. “Let’s go to land and think a little.”
There were no arguments with that idea.
We made it to shore and plopped to the ground exhausted. Wow. Fucking ridiculous.
“We need to search the forest for the right kind of vine,” Preacher said between huffs.
“Vine for what?” Becca wheezed.
“We need to put that thing in a basket, baby.”
“Ahhhh,” Becca sat up and smacked his stomach. “That is brilliant. I can weave a basket in thirty minutes.”
“Yes,” Preacher nodded, “with handles that we can attach vine rope to.”
We wasted no time searching the forest. Becca found something she thought was suitable growing along the trees. Only problem was, we could be allergic to it. Preacher and Becca were apparently immune as they yanked with a ruthless force, stripping the vines away from the tree. It was decided, to be safe, that Tara and I wouldn’t touch it. At the speed they went from tree to tree, yanking off yards in seconds, it’d take them fifteen minutes maybe. But how long to weave a basket, surely she couldn’t do that in thirty minutes.
Once she had the strands she lined them up and wove a sack sized basket in not thirty minutes but maybe fifteen, flat. Preacher helped her and Tara and I stood by, astonished at their speed.
The last thing was tying enough vine to form two strong ropes for the handles of the basket. Then it was time to go into the water.
Preacher paused to give directions. “We get the boulder into the basket and come back. Tara and Lucian, you will move the boulder into the basket, while Becca and I hold it. Then we come back to land.”
We nodded and fifteen minutes and two tries saw the task done and us back on land, once again exhausted.
“Okay, now we pray the vines hold up.”
Tara and I did as instructed and wrapped the vines with a strip cut from my shirt where we’d touch them. She and I tugged one side, Preacher and Becca tugged the other.
“Oh my God, it’s working!” Tara whispered.
Fucking unbelievable.
“This vine is very strong,” Becca said between grunts.
I could hardly believe my eyes when the boulder peeked out of the water. Relief flooded me and I realized how detrimental the situation was for us. We could have very easily not been able to get that fucking flag. Very easily. Five more minutes and we had that boulder on fucking land.
“Now what?” Tara said, plopping back to the ground. “How are we going to get the flag off?”
“Make a fire Bane. I’m starving. I’ll burn that fucking cable off.”
Hell yes. We could hack at it with the hatchet, weaken it while it was hot, and the metal would bend and eventually break.
Finding enough dry wood was the challenge and by the time we did, it was already dark. Once we got the fire going, we burned the basket and everything else we could find until we had a huge fire.
“We want a lot of coals for heating that cable,” Preacher muttered, staring at the mini-inferno.
Hunger had me weak and the amount of energy we’d exerted made it worse. I sat next to Tara and she collapsed into my body. “We’ll eat as soon as the fire dies down, ok?”
“I’m so hungry,” she whispered, “I want to eat that rabbit so bad and I can’t believe that. I mean I am really hungry.”
“Yes, me too. We all are.” I stroked her back repeatedly. “Only two more days and we’re done. Are you ready for a hot shower? At my apartment?”
“I was thinking a hot shower at Gramma’s.” She looked up at me. “It’s plenty big enough for two.”
I smiled at her, kissing her forehead. “I would love that. If you are in need of a hired hand for your farm, I’m looking for work in that area.”
She smiled. “I can use a hand around there. But random kinky sex acts will be required,” she whispered.
I shot my brows up and laughed quietly. “Ma’am, I don’t know what kind of man you think I am, but I’m an honorable one. I don’t do that kind of stuff for pay.”
“For free?”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “I do it for you.”
Tears filled her eyes, alarming me and I pulled her closer. “Sorry, didn’t mean to upset you.”
She only shook her head and hugged the wind out of me, making me laugh.
We finally got food on a spit and watching it cook was like watching grass grow. “So, where are you guys going after Dom Wars exactly,” I asked Preacher.
“Back to Africa with money.”
I nodded. “You still confident we’re going to win?”
“Yep.”
“Because of that dream you had,” I said.
“Yep.”
“You seem so….sure.”
“I am.”
“He is,” Becca agreed, casually.
I didn’t get that. I wanted to get it though. “So you have a dream from God and you just…believe it. How do you know it wasn’t…just a dream, I mean I’m not trying to knock it, just curious.” About the insanity of it, actually.
“I know the difference between dreams and a dream. I learned to distinguish.”
When I didn’t get more specifics, I prompted, “Is it…difficult?”
“No. You know the dreams that come with a knowing saturation? You feel it while you dream it. It’s like God taps me on the shoulder in the dream and wakes me up while I’m dreaming it and says pay attention, I’m telling you something. The dream can be the strangest shit, but he tells me not in words but in knowing. I see a white rabbit and he makes me know what it means in the dream. Doesn’t make sense to anybody else but he sees that it makes sense to me.”
“Wow.” Kind of…a little too kinky for me. Had I had any dreams like that before? Couldn’t say for sure. “Do you both have them?”
“Becca has visions sometimes. But she doesn’t know what they mean, she tells them to me and God shows me what they mean. I think He does that to make us dependent on each other.” He angled a grin at her and winked.
“Yes, a ball and chain of gifts,” she chuckled warmly then leaned her head on his shoulder.
“Yeah, you’re stuck with me,” Preacher said, staring at the fire.
I remembered he’d said he had a dream about me. “What was…what did you dream about me?” The second the question left my mouth, I wanted to take it back. Did I want to know? Likely not, no.
“Just that a man was coming into my life that I was supposed to train.”
“Train.”
Preacher looked at me. “In His ways. For your ministry.”
“My ministry?” Fear slammed me at the idea of being made to do something I didn’t want to, or couldn’t. “What kind of ministry?”
He shrugged. “He didn’t
show me that.”
Ugh, fucking great. “Why wouldn’t He?”
“Not my business, I guess. I teach you what I know, He shows you what to do with it. Bane, you don’t need me to mediate nothing with Him. He’ll establish direct connections with you the same way He has with me.”
Unexplainable excitement flooded my veins right alongside the terror of that idea. “Direct connections.”
“You repeat a lot of shit man. Direct connection, communication.”
“Like what?”
“Like whatever He chooses.”
“Dreams and visions?”
“I have no idea, maybe more, that’s up to Him and you.”
“Me?”
“How far you’re willing to go.”
I stared at Preacher feeling like we’d just entered an unexpected vortex in reality that led us to an eerie holy ground. The air seemed to sizzle and my body tingled as Preacher locked gazes with me.
“Yeah, you feeling that Bane? He’s here. Ready when you are.”
I swallowed, my palms suddenly sweating. Ready for what? What did He want with me, want to do with me? Why me, what had I done? Was this penance for my sins? How was I supposed to do anybody any good if I had no idea what goodness actually was, how was I not as lost as the next person?
Be still.
The words whispered through me and I gasped as Preacher chuckled. “Creator of the Universe has been expecting you my brother.”
That was the oddest thing ever and most impossible to believe. But if that was true, He’d definitely have to show me. Not Preacher.
Chapter Twelve
Preacher woke us all early before departure time. We’d gotten the flag melted off after supper and hit the sack considerably early. Here I was worried we wouldn’t hear the alarm and no doubt the hand of God probably shook him awake. But all things considered, the man was definitely perfect to be used by God. Strong. Fearless. Confident. Crazy.
We set out on day four the second the alarm sounded permission. No breaking any rules. Couldn’t have any reasons for them to deny us the money. Preacher’s vehement motto we had better obey.
The journey to the fourth flag was oddly easy. Level ground. Nearly open. Weather beautiful. We spotted the flag long before we got to it. In a valley on a pole, looking for all the world like one fucking bad omen. Come and get me, look how easy it is.
