by Blake Pierce
“Same here,” she said.
But she knew she was right.
She sped north, sickened at how familiar the roads had become to her—having seen them on her way to the crash scene where Bethany and Felicia had died, taking Bob Barton into the police station, and their first visit to the Community. She hung a hard right, blasting by the BP station and getting the rental car up to eighty before having to slow it down for the next turn.
“I’d like to arrive there alive, if it’s all the same to you,” Ellington joked.
Mackenzie barely even gave him a smirk. Her eyes were glued to the road and every muscle in her body was tensing up for what was to come.
Up ahead, on the right, she saw the break along the trees where the gravel road that led to the Community started. She wondered how much time she’d managed to shave off by speeding here. She wondered how many minutes ahead of them Cole might have been. Fifteen? Surely no more than twenty.
She slowed and pulled onto the gravel. When she sped forward, she kicked up some gravel and the back end of the car started to slide to the left. At the same time, she heard her phone ringing. She dug it out and tossed it to Ellington so he could answer it.
“It’s Burke.”
“Speaker,” she said. She knew she tended to get bossy when she was in the zone, but Ellington had told her long ago that it was one of the things he admired about her. He even joked that it was a huge benefit to him in the bedroom.
“This is Ellington,” he answered.
“You guys almost there?”
“Maybe thirty seconds from the gate. You good on your end?”
“No. Things are getting bad over there. He’s speaking in a way that gives us more and more evidence that something is going down, but nothing worthy of an arrest.”
“Anything on the killings?”
“No. But Ruth is crying hysterically and I hear a lot of voices.”
Mackenzie saw the place in the road where the gravel slowly faded out, leaving only the dirt track. She crested the slight rise along the road as Burke went on.
“Shit. Guys…this is bad. Ruth is screaming and there are…there are tons of other voices. They can’t…right there! Right there! He just said he allowed the others to die. I barely heard it because of Ruth’s screams. I’m sending backup for you.”
“Thanks,” Mackenzie said.
But honestly, she barely heard him. Ahead, she saw the fence and the gate. She saw a small moving shape in the little hut that had been unoccupied on the first visit.
Mackenzie stared the gate down as the car bumped along the dirt road. After clearing a bump, she pressed the gas down even further. The car lurched and Ellington looked over to her with a bit of concern in his eyes.
“What are you doing?” But he asked in a way that indicated he knew full well what she was doing.
“Right now, I’m really hoping the man at the security shack gets out of my way.”
As the car rocketed toward the gate, she was relieved to see that the man did move. When the car was within twenty feet of the Community’s front gate and showed no signs of slowing, the man dove out of a door in the back.
“Buckled in?” Mackenzie asked.
“No…”
“Then hold on to something.”
Ellington braced himself against the dashboard with his hands as the car barreled forward. He closed his eyes slightly while Mackenzie bore down on the steering wheel braced for impact.
The gate gave way a little easier than she had been expecting. The dirt road had only allowed her to reach a speed of fifty before the car slammed into the gate. The section of fence that served as the gate buckled inward, tearing down a chunk of fence to the right as well. The posts that were bolted into the side of the little security shack pulled free, taking chunks of wood and plaster with it. Nearly half of the right side of the shack was torn free by the front of the car.
The sound inside the car was, Mackenzie was ashamed to say, rather delightful. The rattling of the chain-link fence and the shattering of wood and plaster from the hut was like music. She could literally feel her adrenaline spike as the gate tore free.
She hit the brakes and she looked through the windshield. Miraculously, the glass had suffered no damage. Through it, she could see a large crowd of people gathered off to the right, partially hidden by one of the smaller rows of small homes several yards away from the gate.
“You okay?” she asked Ellington.
“A little scared of you, but good to go.”
Mackenzie opened the driver’s side door carefully, looking for the man who had been stationed at the shack. She figured if he was serving as security there was a good chance he had some sort of firearm on him. But he was nowhere to be found.
She opened her door a bit wider as Ellington got out on the passenger’s side. As she placed a foot on the ground, a gunshot rang out. She felt the shot land right in the middle of the door. She glanced to the right and saw the security guard tucked away behind a small mound of fill dirt along the back of what remained of the guard shack.
She drew her weapon to fire but Ellington beat her to it. He fired a well-placed shot that took the man just above the knee. He keeled over and when he did, Mackenzie and Ellington both raced over to him. As they did, Mackenzie looked back to the crowd of people down below. All of them were facing their way. There looked to be hundreds of them.
And some of them were coming their way. The man in front was holding a fragmented two-by-four.
Mackenzie kicked the guard’s firearm away while Ellington searched him for more weapons. Taking out his handcuffs and applying them to the guard with expert ease, he looked back down to the crowd as well.
“You think they’ll expect us to pay for the shack?” he asked.
Mackenzie saw that more of them were moving forward now. Beyond the two-by-four, she saw a hammer in the hand of another man.
“I think they’ll expect us to pay for something,” she said.
She brought her gun up just as Ellington fell in beside her. He did the same, both guns now aimed at the crowd, Mackenzie did her best to look beyond the approaching figures. She saw a broken circle of people behind them. There was a girl on the ground who looked to be crying. Her shoes and pants were in a heap off to the side. Her shirt had been torn, but still covered her.
When the girl looked slightly to the left, Mackenzie could see enough of her face to identify her.
It was Ruth. The Community must have been in the middle of some sort of sacrifice or punishment.
Mackenzie felt it was madness to do so, but she took two steps toward the approaching crowd. She didn’t even bother trying to count. She guessed there were maybe fifty or sixty people moving toward them. At least two or three hundred were packed in behind them, all looking to see what would happen.
“We are federal agents,” Mackenzie shouted. “Step any closer—especially those of you with weapons in your hands—and we will have no choice but to open fire.”
A few of the approaching people hesitated for a moment, but the bulk of them continued to advance. Mackenzie took a few more steps forward, closing the distance between herself and the closest person in the crowd to about twelve feet. At her advancement, a few more stopped moving ahead but the majority of them were not swayed.
“When do we start shooting?” Ellington asked.
“I don’t kn—”
“Everyone, stop!”
The voice came from further back, a loud and hoarse male voice. The crowd apparently knew the voice well because everyone in the approaching mob obeyed right away. The crowd started to part a bit in the back, allowing the speaker to come forward. Before the man reached the front of the crowd Mackenzie caught sight of the top of the man’s head and knew that it was Marshall Cole.
“Everyone just stop right now! This is getting out of hand!”
Every person Cole passed by regarded him with a look of reverence. Some people looked as if they were actually afraid to look a
t him. And of course, the group that had been advancing on Mackenzie and Ellington were all men.
Cole saw the agents and actually smiled at them. It was a wide smile that did not fit the situation at all. His gate had been crashed and his security guard had been shot and handcuffed. Yet here Cole was, smiling.
“Tell me,” he said with the smile on his face. “Did your hatred and misunderstanding for people you simply don’t understand truly consume you so much that you felt this was in order?”
He gestured to the crashed gate and the car behind them. The car’s hood was dented, both headlights were busted, and little wisps of gray steam came from under the hood.
“No, your crimes and abuse are what bought us back.”
“Ah, I assume you think you have more evidence?”
“We do, as a matter of fact.”
“I’d love to hear what it is. I think we’d all love to hear what it is.”
She wanted to tell him very badly. But they apparently had not found Ruth’s wire yet. Perhaps it had been hidden under her shirt. If it had been done to protocol, it was likely taped to her back.
As Cole mocked them, Mackenzie noticed that a few members of the group immediately behind him slowly started to break away to the right and left. She knew the maneuver right away; they were trying to very slowly and very subtly encircle them.
“Don’t even think about it,” she said. “No one move!”
“Or what, Agent White?” Cole said. “You seem to be a smart yet inherently stubborn woman. Think about your situation. You’re alone, on private land. There are two of you and nearly nine hundred of us. How many bullets do those guns carry when put together? Twenty-four? Thirty? Once you’ve expelled those, what do you think will happen to you?”
“Maybe the same thing you’re doing to Ruth down there?”
“Oh, probably much worse. Ruth is simply being shown what happens to those that disobey. She’ll be a good girl when it’s all over.”
Cole took a step forward, as did the other men all around and behind him. Mackenzie stood her ground, though she did step closer to Ellington. She had no delusions of leaving as a hero, guns blazing and making arrests left and right. She’d done what she’d set out to do; she’d stopped them from doing whatever they had planned to do to Ruth—for now at least.
For a fleeting moment, she saw a face in the back of the gathered crowd. Not a man, but a woman. And it brought her closer to the reason she had come speeding over here in the first place.
“Lilith,” Mackenzie said. She didn’t shout it, but her voice had a booming quality to it.
Cole smiled again. “Ah, so you know my wife? The Elder Wife, as it were.” He looked back through the crowd and made a beckoning motion. Slowly, Lilith made her way through the crowd as they parted the same way they’d done for Cole.
When Lilith reached the front of the crowd, she made no attempt to play the part she had performed so well for Amy. She lovingly wrapped her hands around Cole’s arms and regarded the scene with concern and victory in her eyes.
And in that moment, Mackenzie knew the Community would not let them leave.
“Why’d you do it?” Mackenzie asked.
“Smart young lady,” Lilith said. “Not unlike so many of the women here in the Community. I think Marshall just now told you why I did it. Young ladies that step out of line or speak ill of our life and our ways must be punished.”
“Killed?”
“In extreme cases, yes.”
“So it was you?”
Lilith frowned and nodded her head slowly. “I had to do it. As the Elder Wife, it was my responsibility to see to it that the women that were not compliant were dealt with. Of course, I was not the only one. I led it all, yes. But many of us have killed as of late. It is our duty to keep the Community in a state of agreement.”
That, at least, explained why Bob Barton had showed up at the BP station. He had indeed intended to kill the latest escapee with his crowbar, under Lilith’s directions.
“Murder,” Ellington said. “That seems like something your husband would be better suited for.”
“Or was he too busy raping young women and arranging sham marriages?” Mackenzie asked.
“Back to the insults, I see,” Cole said. “In the end, it always comes down to that.” He sighed, as if he were very bored. “Would you like to come watch? Yes, I think you should see what we must do to Ruth. She’s back home, which is the most important thing, of course. But you’re just in time to see her punishment. It’s something I think you, Agent White, could learn from.”
Cole gestured for a few of the nearby men to take Mackenzie and Ellington. The one closest to them went for Ellington first. He was not violent at all; he simple walked to Ellington as if ready to escort him down an aisle.
When the man got too close, Ellington decked him with a quick right hand. The man dropped like a sack of rocks. The man who then came for Mackenzie caught a similar fate as she brought her knee up into the fork of his legs. He dropped down next to the other man. Behind them, at least ten more were angling forward.
“I will open fire!”
“I don’t doubt it,” Cole said. “Do that, though, and we will kill Ruth. And her blood will be on your hands. It will be your fault.”
The rage inside of her was like poison. The mere idea of giving in to him made her sick. But she knew backup was on the way. And if she gave him this little bit of satisfaction, it would buy them some time. She just hoped Burke and his men got here before anything too bad could happen to Ruth.
“Fine,” she said. Ellington, apparently on the same mental wavelength, gave a grunt and a nod as he holstered his sidearm.
“I think not,” Cole said. “Drop the guns on the ground and put your hands on your head.”
Feeling that it could be potentially dangerous, Mackenzie did as he asked. Ellington did the same and they both placed their hands on their heads.
Nearly right away, the man with the two-by-four came charging forward. He struck Ellington in the stomach with it, causing the board to crack even further. Ellington gasped and went to one knee. He then looked up to Cole with more anger than Mackenzie had ever seen in his eyes. It was unnerving; she was pretty sure Ellington would happily strangle Cole with his bare hands if given the chance.
“Enough of that,” Cole said. He looked to the two men beside him and smiled. “Grab them and bring them down.”
When the man on the right pushed Mackenzie forward, he went out of his way to make sure his right hand grabbed her breast. She had to clasp her hands on top of her head to make sure she didn’t attack the asshole.
They led Mackenzie and Ellington down to where the larger crowd was gathered. The crowd parted to let them through, as if they were cherished guests.
When Mackenzie saw Ruth on the ground, she nearly screamed and turned to fight until the death. She just didn’t care anymore.
No, she thought. Don’t be stupid. Backup is coming. Just hang in there a few more minutes…
She could do that. She had to do that.
But then she saw the twelve men holding the bats and iron rods and all of that changed.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Ruth saw them and moaned something to them. Mackenzie could see where Ruth had recently been struck in the face. Her bottom lip was busted open and there was a perfect imprint of an open hand on her right cheek. Her pants and underwear had been removed. Mackenzie wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but she thought she saw a bite mark on the young woman’s right buttock.
“Please,” Ruth said. “Help…”
All around them, the crowd that had been advancing toward Mackenzie and Ellington just moments ago fell into the circle. The number of people was dizzying. The size of the circle was large enough to fit a modest house in, but it only contained Ruth. She was kneeling on the grass, her hands and ankles tied.
The twelve men with the belts and little iron whips stepped forward into the clearing with Ruth. Mackenzie eyed t
he little rods; they looked almost like the antennas from old-school radios. These twelve made another circle around her, an inner circle of sorts. When this was formed, Lilith entered the circle. She reached Ruth, bowed to Cole, and then he also entered the circle.
Mackenzie hated to do it, but she looked away from Ruth. She had to find some way to stop this. She looked everywhere but saw no solution. She angled her head back, trying to find out who had their weapons. She then spotted the man that she’d kneed in the crotch and saw that he had both of them. In her mind, she placed an imaginary target on him.
They had kept Mackenzie and Ellington together. She assumed the plan was for them to suffer whatever fate was about to be doled out to Ruth.
She looked back to the circle and saw the ritual was still being played out. Cole looked to a man at the outer rim of the circle and gave him a nod. “Take your places,” Cole said.
At this command, the men with whips and belts took a few steps away from one another. At their feet, Ruth screamed. Behind her, a line started to form, breaking away from the circle. They were all men, aged anywhere between eighteen and sixty or so. The one in front led the line up next to the men with weapons. It was not clear what was going on, but Mackenzie made an assumption that disgusted her: a woman, stripped of her pants and underwear, tied up with a line of men behind her.
“E, I can’t…I can’t let it happen…”
Cole stood by Ruth. He reached down and caressed the side of her face. She screamed in response. Cole then hooked his fingers in the collar of her shirt and pulled it roughly over her head. The point, Mackenzie assumed, was to degrade her by showing more skin.
They had not expected to see the little black pack taped to her back, though.
“What is this?” Cole asked, genuinely confused and surprised. He looked to Ruth and then to Mackenzie and Ellington.
When he locked eyes with Mackenzie, she gave him a grin. “That,” she said, “is our new evidence, you son of a bitch.”
Cole reached down and tore the pack off. The tape came away violently, causing Ruth to scream. Cole threw the AV pack on the ground and then pointed at Mackenzie and Ellington.
