“Keela!” he shouted as he got within 100 meters and broke into a full-out run.
There wasn’t anybody in sight. The platform was empty.
“Keela!” he yelled, rushing up and looking over the restraining wall and down the hill to the lake.
Feet pounded behind as Mountie and JJ joined him.
“Are they here?” Mountie asked.
Jasper pushed past him to look up the side of the mountain, shouting out again, “Keela!” his voice now touched with despair.
“Mr. van Ruiker?” a tentative voice called out.
“What? Who’s there?”
“It’s me, Tyler. Tyler Portois.”
Handel Portois’ 12-year-old son tentatively crept out from behind a thick bush of some sort, saw Jasper, then ran to him, grabbing onto his legs and squeezing tight.
“Tyler, listen to me. Tyler!” he said, pushing the now sobbing boy far enough away to see his face. “Tyler, is my wife here? My grandkids?”
“I’ve been so scared! Me and Mark, we’ve been trying to take care of them, but we couldn’t!”
“Tyler! My wife?”
“Yes, sir. She’s back there,” the boy said, wiping his nose with his forearm and pointing up a tiny path.
Jasper almost dropped the boy, pushing past him to bolt up the path, jumping over a set of logs that had been set into the hillside to serve as steps. He hit the switchback, climbed a few more steps to see the low roof of an open-air shelter. Figures were lying on the floor, most stirring to sit up as Jasper rushed in.
“Keela!”
“Jasper?” a familiar voice called out in bewilderment, a voice dear to his heart.
“Keela!” he shouted, stepping past bodies, ignoring the rise of voices as others became aware of him.
Keela was sitting up, her hair a bird’s nest, her eyes puffy. Jasper had never seen such a beautiful sight in his entire life. He bowled into her, knocking her on her back as he hugged her for all he was worth. He wanted to devour her, to never let her go.
Until two small bodies jumped on him, shouting “Opa!”
Laughing, then crying, he leaned back and pulled Amee and Pieter into his grasp. “Where’s Wevers?” he shouted before his oldest grandchild rushed forward, joining the family hug.
“How did you get here? I mean, I thought . . .” Keela said, breaking down completely as sobs wracked her body. “I thought you were dead!” she wailed.
“I’m not, I’m here now,” he said, patting her back.
“Christiaan?” she asked.
Jasper couldn’t say the words. He just shook his head.
Hovering over them, Radiant gave a gasp and fainted. Wevers rushed to his mother’s side.
“What about my man, Jasper?” Hette Portois asked, wringing her hands.
“I’m sorry, Hette. He didn’t make it.”
She stood up straight, her chin quivering as she said, “I thought as much” as her eight-year-old buried her face in her hips and cried.
“What about Schuyler?” Sandy asked.
“I never saw his body. I think a few of us got away after the fight, but I can’t be sure.”
“So, he could still be alive?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“And Ito? He said he was going to be with you,” Tjares asked, her face blank.
“No, honey, Ito’s dead. I’m so sorry.”
She listened for a moment, nodded, and turned away. Jasper looked out over the anxious faces, suddenly feeling guilty for being alive. How had he made it when the rest had died?
JJ and Mountie had arrived, but were hanging back. JJ took a look around, then stepped back and climbed on a large rock, facing back down towards the highway, while Jasper saw Mountie was silently counting heads, and for the first time since arriving, he looked around.
“Where are the rest?” he asked. “Where’s Carrie?”
“This is it. Twenty-two of us. We lost two of the children in the river,” she said, quietly, nodding at Reisa Plantoning, who was lying almost comatose in the back of the shelter, oblivious to his arrival. “Reisa’s little ones. For the rest, we don’t know. We split up into six groups, and only the two you see made it this far.”
“Uh, Mountie, they’re coming,” JJ said, jumping off the rock.
“Jasper, we need to get everyone going, now.”
“Keela, can you get everyone up?” he asked.
“Why? What’s happening?” she asked, her voice rising.
“Keela, I need you now. The mercs are on their way up from the road. We need to get you, all of you, up the trail and out of range.”
“But . . .” she started before Jasper could see a sense of resolve wash over her. “Of course. Tjares, Gigi, get everyone up now.” Then louder so everyone could hear, “We’re going on another hike. Won’t that be fun?”
A couple of the youngest started crying.
“I don’t want another hike,” four-year-old Willy ter Horst said.
The older kids seemed to understand, and Willy’s eight-year-old brother, Haspin, stepped up to her and took her hand, saying, “Sure you do! It’ll be fun, and we can play the song game!”
Jasper let go of Keela’s hand for the first time since he hugged her and made his way past people getting up and packing what little they had in backpacks and shopping bags. He jumped up on the same rock and looked south. Even without his loupe, he could see a line of vehicles coming out of the dense fir trees near the highway.
“Are they going to attack?” he asked Mountie.
“I doubt it. Not with area weapons, at least. But I could be wrong. We don’t know how the war is going.”
“What about up there?” Jasper asked, pointing to where the trail climbed the mountain. “Do we know if that’s still in Federation hands?”
“No, we don’t,” Mountie admitted. Anything I know is more than five days old. We had the squadron at Philips Landing, about 60 klicks from Oration Pass. The Marine battalion was centered at Gronigen, with a Nieuwe Utrecht militia division spread across the main avenue of approach to the industrial center.”
“That’s who we heard two nights ago, right? The fighting?”
“Probably Tenners probing the militia.”
“Hell of a probe, Mountie. But what if they broke through? Are we taking the women and children right into their positions up there?” Jasper asked.
“We could be. But I doubt it. What I can tell you is I see a few tanks and wave blasters down there heading our way. I’d rather not be trapped here as they make their way up.”
“Jasper, we’re ready,” Keela said, coming up to them.
“Keela, this is Mountie, Lieutenant Klocek. Mountie, this is my wife, Keela.”
“Pleased to meet you, Lieutenant,” Keela said, hold out her hand.
“I’ve heard so much about you.”
Despite the situation, Jasper had to note that societal niceties were ingrained and had to be observed.
“And that’s Lance Corporal Portillo, ‘JJ.’”
“Ma’am, if you could start getting everyone moving? And Jasper, why don’t you take the point and leave JJ back here with me,” Mountie said.
“Aye-yah,” Jasper said. “I can do that.”
“Come on, people, up the road. Take the little ones by the hands,” Keela said, taking over.
It took too long as the line of vehicles below them grew, but finally, everyone was moving. Two adults supported Reisa, who was barely able to stumble along. At the front, with little Amee’s hand in his, he tried to hurry the group along. He kept pushing the pace, but then slowing down to let the rest catch up. With eight adult women, three almost-teens, ten children, and one baby, this was still an amorphous group without a single focus.
“Move faster, please,” he pleaded and was rewarded with a few quick steps before they fell back to their original maddeningly slow pace. He was amazed that Keela had made it this far from Donkerbroek.
“Half-way here!” JJ shouted from the ve
ry rear, a good 40 meters behind Jasper. “I count ten vehicles, including two Pecker-3’s.”
The “Pecker-3” was the PCR-3, a midsize tank known for its efficiency and maneuverability. It couldn’t stand up one-on-one with a Marine Lumsden, but they didn’t have any of the big Marine tanks up there with them.
The research platform was thankfully close to where the trail started climbing. Still, it took almost 20 minutes for Jasper to reach that spot. With vehicles, the mercs should have been at the lake already, but Jasper couldn’t see them. It looked like the mercs thought there was a way through, and were waiting for the group to show them the way. Jasper didn’t want to play into their hands, but he wasn’t sure what options they had.
The trail started rising steeply, and the group slowed down. More of the little ones were complaining. Jasper picked up Amee and put her on his hip, then took Pieter’s hand in his and almost dragged him up. They reached the first switchback, then doubled back the opposite way. Below him, just 15 meters now, Mountie and Jasper were just entering the first step. Mountie was holding one of the children while JJ walked backwards, weapon at the ready.
As he reached the next switchback, he looked to where the trail reached above the lake, and he sucked in a deep breath. Three vehicles—the two tanks and another that Jasper didn’t recognize—were spread out side-by-side on the crest. At least a dozen mercs seemed to be gathered around them. Jasper guessed them to be almost two klicks away as the crow flies, and he felt extremely vulnerable climbing up the cliff.
A flicker of something interfered with his sightline to the mercs, and he realized the drones were still buzzing around, recording their every move. Looking up, he tried to spot where the trail breached the summit and into the pass and they could get out of the line-of-sight of those tanks. Just to his right and well above him, a small plume of water reached out of the cliff, turning into a mist. A rainbow shined in the plume, almost mocking him with its normalcy.
“Hurry up, children,” Keela was saying just below him.
She had a huge smile plastered on her face, but she couldn’t fool him. She was puffing, pushing her body far more than she should have. He wanted to tell her to rest, but he was more afraid of what might happen if she did.
I’m not doing so well myself, he admitted. I’m too old to be doing this.
No one was doing well, except for a few of the kids. Tyler Portois, Mark Caesar, and Greta Tanner were running up and down the trail, shouting encouragement. Their young legs didn’t seem fazed.
And it hit him.
“Tyler, can you come up here for a moment?” he said to the young man, who was just below him on the last switchback.
He scrambled directly up the slope, ignoring the easier road.
“Yes, sir?” he asked breathing evenly.
“Who’s a better runner, you, Mark, or Greta?”
“I am!” he said, slapping his chest.
“OK, who’s next?”
“That would be Greta. She’s pretty fast.”
“OK, I want you to go get Greta and her mom, then bring them up here to me.”
Tyler nodded then rushed back down to gather them up.
“Tjares, can you keep them moving?” he asked as she reached him.
She nodded and kept walking. Jasper took out one of his last pieces of plastisheet and scribbled down a note. A few moments later, Mark, Greta, and Marijke Tanner reached him, Marijke breathing heavily. Greta’s mother was in her early 30’s, and Jasper realized he was faring better than she was.
“What do you want, Jasper.”
“I’ve got a job for someone young. It might be scary, but it’s really important. Do you think you can run ahead and get up on the plains alone? Can you do that?”
Both kids immediately said yes, but Marijke’s eyes widened with fear, and she started to protest. Jasper moved his head to face the mercs in the distance, tightening his eyes, then looking back at Greta’s mother. She turned her head, saw the mercs as well, and with a resigned slump, turned back and gave Jasper the slightest of nods.
“OK, this is what I want you to do. Run as fast as you can. Up there, the road will level out, but it will still be very far to the plateau. There’s also a little village up there. I don’t remember the name, but it’s there. If you stay on the road, you’ll see it. I want you to run all the way there. If you see the mercenaries there, hide and wait for us to come. If you see Marines—can you recognize Marines?”
“Yes, sir. Like that guy there,” Greta said, pointing at JJ.
“Good! If you see them, I want you to give them this note. And if there’s no one there, I want you to try and call 911 and read them what I wrote here,” he said, handing Greta the note, then reaching into his pocket and pulling out Amee’s Li’l Bunny.
“Opa, that’s mine!” Amee said, reaching for it.
“I know, sweetheart, but we need to borrow it for a little longer, OK?”
“But it’s mine!”
“We’ll give it back, Amee,” Tyler said.
“Promise?”
“Cross our hearts.”
That seemed to mollify Amee, so Jasper asked, “Can you read this for me first, what I want you to say?”
“Sure. Uh, ‘To the senior Federation military commander. Lieutenant Caster Klocek, Federation Navy, Lance Corporal Javier Portillo, Federation Marines, and Private Jasper van Ruiker, Nieuwe Utrecht Militia, are accompanying 22 women and children from Donkerbroek on the trail from Spirit Lake. A large number of Tenner tanks and vehicles are in pursuit. They will be able to make it through the pass and into the high plains. Request you send forces to rescue the civilians and stop the mercenaries from invading.’
“How was that?” Tyler asked, looking up from the plastisheet.
“Very good. So, you understand what you have to do?”
“Yes, sir,” they both said in unison.
Keela reached them and looked at Jasper, her eyes brimming with questions.
“OK, then. Do you have water?”
Greta held up two bulbs, Tyler, one.
“Then you two take off. Be careful.”
“Wait!” Marijke said.
She reeled Greta into an enveloping hug, then released her, saying, “Run fast!”
“Thank you,” Jasper said as the two youngsters broke out into a run.
“Safer up there than with us,” she muttered as she started climbing again.
Jasper stood there for a moment, wondering if he’d just made a big mistake. If the tiny settlement up there still stood, it might have power, and if it had power, Amee’s Li’l Bunny could communicate. And if they called 911, the circuit AI’s would get them to someone who could tell the military.
But they were both 12, and this was a war. He could have just sent them to their deaths, and the thought made him start to shake as that fact hit him, and hit him hard.
“What was that?” Keela asked.
“I just sent them ahead to try and call for help, but I hope I just didn’t kill them.”
“Some of us have already died, and they could be safer up there. You did what you had to do, so forget it and keep these people moving, old man.”
“Aye-yah, old women. I’ll do that.”
By now, the group was spread out over three switchbacks, not counting the two kids who were already up two more and not slowing down. Jasper started to shout, browbeat, beg, and encourage everyone to keep going. He felt like a fly on the wall, waiting for the swatter to come crush him flat. But he couldn’t stop.
JJ had slung his weapon, and now he was carrying Reisa by himself, huffing and puffing but making good time. All the capable adults were either carrying or leading other children.
A cool mist hit Jasper at the next turn, and he looked up. The wind had changed direction, and the plume of water had come back to them. It was only a few more levels up, and it was only then that he noticed that the water was being discharged from a small pipe that jutted out a meter or so from the side of the mountai
n.
He let the coolness wash over his face, then looked back towards the mercs. Back down on by the lake, something was going on. Figures were running down to the shore itself. He pulled his loupe and looked down. Three more figures were sprawled on the ground, near the two dead merc scouts.
“Look at our friends,” he told JJ, who had almost caught up to him and was just one level down.
Carrying Reisa, JJ had to turn slowly, but when he did, he let out a laugh and said, “Look at those dumb moth—” he started, before looking at the children beside him, “those dumb guys. They sent a collection team to pick up the casualties, and they sucked in the poison, too.”
“Maybe they’ll be too busy to pay us much attention until we’ve reached the top,” Jasper said, but not believing it.
One of the tank’s gun had steadily elevated as the group climbed, an ominous sign.
Jasper’s legs were aching, and he wanted to stop, but all of them had to be hurting, and even the smallest child was gamely pushing on. It was just a little farther.
“Come on! Almost there,” he shouted out, almost as much for himself as to encourage the others.
And suddenly, as he mentally prepared himself for the next switchback, it wasn’t there. The trail disappeared into the gorge. Mountain walls still reached up 400, 500 more meters, but the trail had reached the next phase. As Jasper crested the lip, he could see a narrow canyon, the bed slowly rising until it looked like it opened up wider and finally out into the Van de Horst Plateau. A small stream trickled back and forth across the trail. At his feet, the stream flowed into a small culvert, then a pipe took it around the side of the opening and along the mountainside for 15 meters where it discharged the water out into the open air.
Jasper told Amee to stand by the side, then retreated to the open part of the trail, overlooking the lake and lowlands below.
“Come on! You’re almost at the top!”
There was a flash of light below, and Jasper looked up just as an explosion rocked him, and 50 meters to his right, rocks and dust reached out from the mountainside. A chorus of screams drowned out the sounds of rocks slamming as they bounced down the slope.
Behind Enemy Lines: A United Federation Marine Corps Novel Page 19
