Dark Crossing

by Thomas A. Watson

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Lilly exclaimed, panting hard. “Lance, those guys are killers and you were taunting him!”

  Finally in the seat correctly, Lance looked out at Dino running beside them. “What? You thought I was going to blow his ego up and fawn all over him?” Lance asked with brash arrogance.

  Shaking her head as she weaved through the trees, “Well, no, but I didn’t expect you to goad him on,” Lilly snapped over her shoulder.

  “Man, that was great,” Ian laughed, looking out his side. “One of the few times I’m glad I lost ‘rock, paper, scissors’.”

  “Lilly, stop, and Ian, call Dino over to get in. Lilly is really moving,” Lance said.

  When Dino was in the backseat, Lilly took off again. Ian glanced over at Lilly but since she had on her mask, he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Unlike their masks, hers was just plain black, but looked like a plain, frozen face. “I can’t wait to see how the Nazis enjoy our gifts,” Ian said, looking out.

  “We could’ve waited before talking to the Devil Lords,” Lilly snapped, jerking the steering wheel around a large tree.

  “That’s why the message had to be delivered today,” Lance corrected. “The little dicks will start on the Nazis now while they are reeling from the deeds, and we had to even the playing field before the Nazis regrouped.”

  Biting the inside of her cheek, Lilly held her comments. Ian and Lance were both impressed with Lilly’s driving. Not one time while driving back five miles did she ask where to turn before they entered back into the patrol area. “Slow,” Ian said, grabbing his bow.

  Lilly stomped the brake, skidding to a halt. “He said slow, not slam on the brakes,” Lance snapped as Ian climbed out, putting an arrow in his bow. Pulling the bow back, Ian aimed at a stinker below them trying to come up the slope.

  Still biting her cheek, Lilly watched the stinker drop when the arrow hit. While Ian walked up to retrieve his arrow, Lilly crept along behind him in the buggy. When Ian was back in, Lilly stomped the accelerator, throwing them back again.

  “You need to chill, chick,” Ian warned, looking over at her while he held on to the frame.

  Not looking over, Lilly gripped the steering wheel tight as she sped along the ridge. When she reached the chute of the diversion fence, Lilly made both boys grip the frame hard when she barely slowed, weaving between the twisting barbed wire walls.

  When she was through, Lilly stomped the pedal streaking toward the cabin. Letting the inside of her cheek go, Lilly grabbed her PTT. “Away team returning,” she growled over the radio.

  “At the gate,” Carrie’s small voice answered.

  Coming over the rise, the buggy went airborne and Lilly slammed on the brakes when they landed, skidding to a halt. “Damn it, you almost threw Dino out!” Lance shouted, slapping the back of Lilly’s helmet rather hard.

  Glancing back, she saw Lance crawling over the divider between the seats to check on Dino. “Sorry, Dino,” Lilly said, feeling bad about that.

  Turning to the gate, Lilly gave a startle to see the ladybugs opening the gates. When Allie opened the outer gate, Carrie covered as she pulled through. When she stopped inside, Lance climbed out. “Dino,” he said, and Dino jumped out while he closed the inside gate.

  When Lance climbed back in, the ladybugs were in the backseat waiting. Driving more reasonably, Lilly pulled around back and turned off the buggy. Climbing out, she found Lance standing beside the buggy and staring at her. “What the fuck is your problem?” Lance snapped.

  Ripping her helmet and facemask off, “You! Acting like you’re ten feet tall and bulletproof!” Lilly yelled.

  Seeing Lance cross his arms over his chest, Ian bent down to grab Carrie and Allie’s hands and pulled them to the cabin. “I knew what I was doing,” Lance growled behind his mask.

  “Lance, this isn’t a game,” Lilly cried out. “Those people will kill us!”

  “What? You want us to leave them alone?” Lance teased, rocking his head side to side.

  “You are playing jokes on them,” Lilly said, stomping her foot.

  Uncrossing his arms, “Lilly, what scares you more? Someone coming in and killing, or someone coming in just harassing you? In your mind, you know they can kill at any time. You see someone screaming with their mouth burning, and you start to doubt everything around you,” Lance said calmly. “You know you are being played with, and at any time the players can hurt you, but they want to torment you. Your only hope is the players continue to enjoy giving you misery because they can kill you at any time but choose not to.”

  With her bottom lip quivering, Lilly launched at Lance, wrapping her arms around him. Throwing his arms out so he wouldn’t fall down, Lance looked down at Lilly hugging him. “I can’t take you getting hurt,” Lilly admitted softly in a quivering voice.

  Putting his arms around Lilly, Lance hugged her back. “Then don’t doubt us,” Lance said. “Just watch, you’ll understand.”

  Looking up, Lilly gave a shudder at the grey skull looking back at her. “Please take that mask off,” she pleaded.

  Stepping back, Lance took his helmet off, then unbuckled the mask and pulled it off. Lilly looked at the black face paint surrounding Lance’s eyes. “You look like Alice Cooper,” she chuckled.

  “Cool,” Lance grinned, and Lilly did a double take. “I know who Alice Cooper is! Mom listens to him all the time.”

  “Wow,” Lilly said, holding out her hand. Lance took it and they headed for the cabin. “I don’t want to see you hurt, or anyone here for that matter.”

  Pulling out his key, “Then trust us,” Lance said, opening the back door. “It’s actually easier now because our parents won’t get mad at what we do,” Lance admitted, and for some reason that troubled Lilly. “Having to worry about hurting, maiming, or killing someone used to limit what we could do, but not now.”

  Walking in, Lilly looked at Lance, not buying that. “So, you think your mom and dad wouldn’t get pissed with you and Ian sneaking into enemy camps?” Lilly asked.

  “Oh, Mom might worry, but we can’t get in trouble with the cops now and Momma said if I ever got arrested, I was in deep shit,” Lance answered, coming to a stop and looking at the table. Jennifer was at the table, staring at Ian in shock. “What did you do to her?” Lance asked.

  “Nothing,” Ian answered, snapping his fingers in front of Jennifer’s face and she didn’t blink. “Carrie said she just came up here and sat down after we called in.”

  Walking over to the table, “Jennifer, what’s wrong with you?” Lance asked, and Jennifer slowly turned to Lance, keeping the shocked expression.

  “What the hell did y’all do to them?” Jennifer mumbled.

  Sitting down beside her, “To who?” Ian asked.

  “The Nazis,” Allie said, walking in the kitchen. “We watched their security feed. At breakfast, seven fell down screaming.”

  “Oh,” Lance laughed. “Just showing them we care.”

  Blinking slowly, Jennifer shook her head. “Lance, they were screaming. Screaming like someone was killing them. I haven’t even heard people getting eaten by stinkers scream like that.”

  Leaning over, Ian kissed her cheek. “If we hadn’t shown them some love and that we really care, the Nazis might have gotten jealous from the love we showed the little dicks,” Ian stated proudly as he got up.

  “Sorry, but I’m taking a nap,” Lance stated, and kissed Lilly on the cheek.

  “Me, too,” Ian said, pushing his chair back under the table.

  As the boys ran upstairs, Lilly took off her gear and sat down across from Jennifer. “It was that bad?” Lilly asked in a low voice.

  “Lilly,” Jennifer gasped. “The only time I’ve heard someone screaming like that, they were getting eaten by stinkers. But one woman was screaming worse than that.”

  Carrying two glasses of juice, Allie laughed. “They were crying like little bitches,” she giggled, walking past them back to the living room.

  “Show m
e,” Lilly said, getting up.

  Three hours later, Lance and Ian were walking downstairs and found Lilly and Jennifer staring at the projection screen in awe. Coming around, the boys saw the projector was off. Looking over at the ladybugs at their desks watching a lesson on algebra, “What’s wrong with them?” Lance asked.

  Lifting the remote, Carrie paused the lesson. “They watched the Nazis screaming like little bitches,” Carrie answered with a huge smile.

  Turning to Ian, “I’m going to download what has happened,” Lance said, then waved at the two in a catatonic state. “See if you can fix them.”

  As Lance ran down to the bunker, Ian sat down beside Jennifer. “Hey, it was just a deed. Why are you so shocked?” he asked. “You helped,” he reminded her.

  “I would rather die than have what happened to them happen to us,” Jennifer said, staring at the screen.

  “No shit,” Lilly mumbled as Carrie and Allie came over, jumping on the couch. “Now I understand; the torment of a deed is worse than death.”

  “It wasn’t that bad,” Allie said, bouncing on her knees.

  Lilly and Jennifer turned to Allie with the catatonic state turning to fear as they watched Allie bouncing on her knees. “I’ll be right back,” Ian said, leaning over and kissing Jennifer on the cheek.

  When Ian came back carrying a wooden box, he found Jennifer and Lilly staring at Allie with more than a little fear on their faces. Setting the box down, Ian grabbed their chins and turned them forward. “You wanted to know,” Ian said, letting their chins go.

  Reaching in the wooden box, Ian pulled out a quart mason jar. It held a thick, reddish liquid with the viscosity of motor oil. The first thought that popped into Jennifer’s mind was, ‘That’s Satan’s piss’.

  “Remember when mine and Lance’s mom started their greenhouses?” Ian asked, looking at Jennifer and she nodded. “Well, Lance and I planted some Carolina Reaper peppers. At the time, it was regarded as the hottest pepper in the world, rating over three million units on the Scoville heat unit scale,” Ian said grinning and Jennifer leaned back on the couch. “No pepper spray used by cops goes over a million units.”

  “Well, Lance and I grew some and then pressed out the liquid. Then boiled off the water and mixed the paste leftover with the juice from another batch we’d pressed out,” Ian explained, holding up the jar. “Don’t ever let this touch your skin because it burns like holy hell fire.”

  Sucking in a breath, Lilly turned to look at the ladybugs beside her. Holding each other’s hands, Carrie and Allie had innocent smiles, looking at her. “Um, did the ladybugs know about the peppers?” Lilly asked timidly, not taking her eyes off them.

  “Yeah,” Ian groaned. “They saw us grinding up several bushels into a powder,” Ian huffed, throwing up his hands. “Lance let them help us. We had to get them respirators and rubber gloves. I really wanted to spend my allowance on the new Halo game, but nnnooooo, we had to spend it on supplies for them.”

  “It was fun,” Carrie said with a mischievous grin.

  Shaken out of her state, Jennifer sat up and turned to the ladybugs. “You didn’t?!” Jennifer gasped, and both ladybugs had small impish smiles. “Beth had to go to the hospital!”

  Dropping the smile, “Skank,” Carrie snarled.

  “She’d better be glad she stayed away,” Allie added with a serious nod.

  With her mouth hanging open, Jennifer turned to Ian who just held up his hands. “Don’t look at me, we didn’t do it,” he said.

  “Ian, they really hurt Beth!” Jennifer said.

  “You beat her up last summer!” Carrie shouted. “You told Daddy that whore was wearing that bikini just to jump Ian’s bones!”

  With her face turning red, Jennifer stared at Carrie. “You were listening?” Jennifer mumbled in shock.

  “Yeah, and you made Daddy mad because he had to pick you up at the police station,” Carrie said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I wanted to know why you were stomping Beth’s face at the mall.”

  “Whoa,” Ian said, turning to Jennifer with a crooked grin. “You’re an angel and bad girl.”

  Clearing her throat, “Um, what’s that?” Jennifer asked, pointing at the box. Settling back on the couch, she wanted to change the subject.

  Setting down Satan’s urine, Ian picked up another mason jar that held powder. “Don’t open this unless you are wearing a respirator and…,” he stopped and looked over at Jennifer. “Just don’t open it,” he finally said, shaking the jar. The powder was the consistency of talcum powder.

  Holding up the jar, “Trust me, Lance and I found out when this shit gets in your lungs, it burns like gasoline on fire,” Ian said with a shiver. “You don’t care about your eyes and skin burning. This is dried ground reaper.”

  “Put it back in the box, please,” Jennifer whispered with wide eyes, looking at the jar and praying Ian wouldn’t drop it. Ian put it back in the box and noticed Lilly was still staring at the ladybugs with fear. The ladybugs were just staring back with innocent grins.

  Pulling another jar out, Jennifer saw Ian shake it and she almost took off running. The jar was filled with a thicker powder, but Jennifer saw when Ian shook it, the powder was larger like ground pepper and was moist. “This is ground reaper, but we put just a tad of vegetable oil in it, so it would coat whatever we put it on,” Ian said.

  “Have you used any of them before?” Jennifer asked hesitantly.

  Shaking his head, “No,” Ian grunted, putting the jar back in the box. “After Beth,” he snapped, looking at the ladybugs and they turned to him, dropping their smiles and scowling. “We moved what we made out here, so the parents wouldn’t find it.”

  “Your parents thought you did it?” Jennifer asked.

  “No,” Ian chuckled.

  “Oh, yeah,” Allie said, standing up on the couch. “When Dad asked you, you just laughed and said why would you or Lance want to hurt Beth? She had hooters!”

  Ian’s face paled and he avoided turning to Jennifer. “You and Carrie just crawled up in Dad’s lap acting innocent because he knew both of you helped us in the greenhouse. When Mom came in and started asking questions, you two curled up to Dad and he yelled at Mom to leave you alone!” Ian shouted.

  Staring at Ian with narrowed eyes, Jennifer turned to the ladybugs. “Allie, Carrie, thank you so much for putting the beat down on that skank,” Jennifer replied with a satisfied shiver, giving them a smile and turned back to Ian.

  “Hey, I’m a boy and she flaunted it!” Ian cried out, throwing up his hands. “Besides, Beth was after Lance.”

  “Beth fell from the top of the whore tree and banged every guy on the way down,” Jennifer snapped.

  Lilly jerked her head over to Jennifer, grinning. “Meow,” Lilly hissed. “Let’s find the bitch.”

  “Oh, I’m sure Beth was one of the first stinkers,” Jennifer replied, glaring at Ian. “Nobody wants to be with somebody who’s been with everybody.”

  “Hey, she wasn’t with me!” Ian shouted.

  Thinking for a second, “You’re right, I’m sorry,” Jennifer said, then smiled. “Can I ask why?”

  “Um,” Ian said, blushing and looking off.

  “Shut your damn mouth!” Lance shouted, coming up the basement stairs. “Jesus, I wasn’t gone that long!”

  “Lance, shut your mouth!” Jennifer snapped as she jumped up.

  Giving Jennifer a look of indifference, Lance walked over to the projector and plugged in a thumb drive. “They tripped every trap we had under cameras, and at least one in the barracks’ bathroom,” Lance said, grabbing the remote.

  “Push play and we go outside,” Jennifer warned, walking over and standing in front of Lance.

  Tossing the remote on the couch, “Fine, let’s go,” Lance said, bobbing his head.

  “Why didn’t you and Ian take Beth up on her offer?” Jennifer said tensely. “Because she damn sure would’ve screwed both of you at the same time.”

  “Please,�
� Lance chuckled. “Beth never really offered, not like Ginger,” Lance replied, then cringed.

  Crossing her arms with a fake smile, “Oh, please, do tell,” Jennifer snarled.

  Giving a sigh, Lance turned to look at Ian wanting him to intervene. “Dude, you dug this hole, so you fill it back up and don’t look at me,” Ian told him flatly.

  “Jennifer, nothing ever happened with Beth and that’s all you need to know,” Lance said, turning back to Jennifer. “Take it out on Ian, and I will make your life a living hell.”

  Stumbling back as she gasped, Jennifer glanced at Ian expecting help. “Like I told Lance, you dug this hole and Lance is following the man rules. I would drop it,” Ian advised her.

  Looking from Ian to Lance, Jennifer nodded. “Fine, I’ll drop it,” Jennifer said. She knew Lance wouldn’t really hurt her but he would damn sure make her miserable.

  Picking up the remote, Lance saw Lilly staring at him. “It’s dropped,” Lance said.

  “For now,” Lilly agreed, pulling Lance down beside her. Before Lance could raise the remote, Allie and Carrie jumped in their laps. They hugged both and Lilly smiled at them uneasily as Lance raised the remote.

  “Cafeteria. I skipped till you see the first deed,” Lance said, pressing play.

  The screen showed the large cafeteria at the Nazi compound, complete with sound. There were hundreds sitting at tables and the overlaid voices sounded loud. Then off to the side, a man fell down screaming.

  Everyone in the cafeteria became silent while the man rolled on the floor, wiping his tongue with his hands and screaming. Then, another man screamed, and he pushed through the crowd to a water fountain, holding his mouth open and running water into his mouth.

  Several moved to the man on the floor when a woman started screaming and dropped her coffee cup. She clutched her throat and fell down as several ran to her. A man with silver hair stood up. “Shut up!” he shouted, but the man on the floor continued to scream.

  Walking across the room, the silver-haired man went to the man screaming and then the woman. “Call the medics!” he shouted, and Lance paused the playback.

  “That’s the Commandant,” Lance wooed sarcastically, then pushed play.