by DJ Cooper
John said, “How do you know that?”
Amy with tears in her eyes said, “He’s been hit with something hard like a rock at least five times. There are five or more distinct impact points on his skull, and look at his side. He was kicked or beaten besides the blows to the head.”
John asked, “Is he going to be ok?”
Amy shook her head saying, “I don’t know, he is barely alive. I would say, chances are not good, even in a hospital, and we don’t have much more than a Band-Aid to work with.”
John sent Mark to get Morgan and bring her to her husband’s side. Thinking she may need moral support he grabbed Renee to be there for her at this time. John and Danny each set up watch posts around the encampment feeling like a threat was still nearby.
When Mark approached with Morgan, Amy was shocked to see a lack of emotion from Morgan.
She looked at him like she was surprised he was alive and said, “What happened to him?”
Amy said, “We don’t know, we found him in the bushes like this.”
Morgan shrugged, saying, “Well, who tried to kill him?”
Amy was shocked as she replied, “No one said anyone tried to kill him.”
Morgan laughed nervously saying, “I was joking, he’s not very graceful if you know my meaning. Did he fall down?”
Amy looked at her coolly saying, “I don’t think he is going to live Morgan.”
Morgan never once reached out for her husband, nor did she shed a tear. She simply shrugged, turned and walked away. Amy asked Laurie to keep him comfortable and let her know if anything changed while she went and talked to John.
Amy told John about how Morgan acted and said, “Someone did try to kill him, and I think it was her.”
John scolded her saying, “I think you are over reacting, some people handle grief differently.”
Amy said, “Mark my words, this is not the last bit of treachery, we will see from her.”
John thought about it a moment and remembered Matty crying in the bushes. Horrified, he ran to Rita, who was putting him down for a nap in the tent. He asked her to come out of the tent a moment.
John said, “Did he say anything yet?”
Rita said, “No, he hasn’t said a single word, he just cries.”
John said, “I think he knows what happened to Kevin, don’t you leave him for one second. If you need to walk away get me or Amy to watch him. No one else do you understand?”
Rita became fearful saying, “Do you think he is in danger?”
John said, “I don’t know, but don’t say anything to anyone about it. If anyone asks, say he has a temp, ok?”
Rita agreed and said, “Thank you John, for everything.”
John nodded to her as he turned and went to find Mark and Dickie. Something happened to Kevin and Matty knew what. He was scared, not just scared, but terrified which to John meant the threat still existed somewhere.
He set the watches to be all day as well as all night, he didn’t know where Roger and Ray went either and was feeling like everything was falling apart right before his eyes.
Melinda and Jenny made dinner and for being just peanut butter and jelly it sure hit the spot. There were sandwiches made with the biscuits left over from the previous night along with some mixed fruit they cut up after finding some blackberries along the path.
There was also other snacking type foods like crackers and that cheese spread stuff that squirted from a can. They also had out some teriyaki beef jerky, chips and cupcakes.
When everyone saw what was for dinner they all looked astonished that a smorgasbord of snacks could be called a meal.
Jenny with a look of indignation said, “Well, smells are smells, no matter if it is firewood or baked beans cooking would have given us away.”
John smiling, said, “Good thinking ladies and this looks wonderful. I for one love PBJs.”
Chapter 14
“Trouble Doubles”
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decided not to surrender, that is strength.”
-Arnold Schwarzenegger
Through the evening the watches were quiet, uneventful even eerie. The majority seemed to sleep well, except John, he couldn’t sleep at all. The events of the day were plaguing him, Kevin had died mere hours after his discovery and still Morgan seemed to have no feelings about it. Except maybe relief was all John could think as what she showed.
This made John replay the day in his head over and over again. Who could have done this to him? And for that matter, why? Kevin was a quiet man, one might not even know he was around were it not for Morgan’s incessant nagging of him.
Morgan almost seemed gleeful at the evening meal, John felt sure she had something to do with it, but also felt it was wrong of him to think that about a woman who just lost her husband.
Matty cried out in his sleep many times that night. He had indeed seen who had killed Kevin. The attack was brutal and bloody, there was blood all over the rocks surrounding the area, he was found and John felt sure it was more than one person because of the scuffling of the leaves in the area. Finally drifting off to sleep the morning’s fears would materialize all too soon.
John woke long after the sun rose and even until he could smell bacon and a wood fire. He thought he was dreaming until he fully awakened and realized someone had started a fire and was cooking bacon.
He emerged from the tent to see Roger and Ray sitting around the fire with the others waiting for the Bacon and eggs to be done.
He called out, “The fire, someone is going to see it.”
Roger looked over his shoulder at him, saying, “Not likely there sleepy head, we’ve managed to park ourselves at nearly the end of some poe dunk little access road to the cell tower.
John rubbed his eyes and scratched his head, yawning as he said, “Well, it’s about time you two got round to showing up.”
Ray laughed and said, “We have a good idea of where we are and after breakfast we will pull out the map and go over some of what we found.”
John couldn’t help but smile at the breakfast he was looking at, eggs, bacon, biscuits, beans and hash browned potatoes. He thought he’d died and gone to heaven.
Looking at it all he shook his head and glanced up saying, “Now if only there were coff….”
Cutting him off as she shoved a steaming hot cup of coffee under his nose, Amy laughed. She knew he loved his coffee and just how to make it for him. Sometimes he thought she was practically perfect. Thinking to himself, ‘especially when she brings me coffee.’ He sat smiling at his feast, forgetting for just that moment the events of yesterday.
After breakfast John and Dickie went to show Roger and Ray the spot they had found Kevin while Mark was finding an appropriate spot to bury him.
John said to them, “Something stinks here, you would think if it was an invader or something they would have continued until they got what they wanted. Do you think he happened upon someone and they ran off?”
Roger was busy looking at the prints and the scuffle, commenting, “See these marks here? He was clearly bigger than whoever hit him and they must have tried to quiet him or something by the dragging over here.” He said pointing to an area John never noticed yesterday.
Ray said, “Over here, I think this may have been used as a weapon.” Pointing to a large rock with blood stains on it.
Roger frowned, saying, “I’m sorry John but there are no tracks leading away from this scene that are not for you. Looking at the struggle and the drag marks along with the prints over where he was we are looking for a much smaller foot. Maybe a woman?”
John looked angry, saying, “I don’t want to believe it, but Morgan could care less that her husband was injured yesterday as a matter of fact Amy said she looked surprised when she told her he was alive.”
Ray said, “Cold brother, real cold… Do you really think she could have?”
“Maybe not alone, but
her and that Cindy girl have been real chummy.” Shaking his head, John continued, “I don’t know, it just seems weird she didn’t care he was dead.”
Dickie came up with a theory saying, “I think we all know if she didn’t do it, but I'm pretty sure she is somehow involved.”
Nodding in agreement John said, “You guys didn’t see her yesterday, I’d bet money on it.”
“Well.” Ray said, “Can we prove it?”
They all stood shaking their heads, John becoming angry said, “How can we prove it, other than the tracks and a good guess we got nothing.”
Ray said, “We’ll just watch her, she will give herself away if she is guilty. There had to be a reason she did it, all we have to do is find out what that is.”
After looking over the scene they walked back to camp to figure out the best course to take. Roger pointed out that they were not really that far off course.
Ray said, “I think it is actually a better direction than we had originally planned.”
They pulled out the map and Roger showed John and Dickie where they estimated their location to be. Pointing to a small lake they indicated where they were.
Roger saying, “We are here. This is Quaker Lake, it is just over the Pennsylvania line. We actually made some good progress last night.”
Dickie asked, “Where is Fallen Timber, from here?’
Ray said, “What? Is that a place?”
Dickie replied, “Yes, it is, that is where Mandy and Aaron need to go. We might be able to get them close to her parent’s house. It is where they were headed and we should try to help them if we can. As Long as we don't put ourselves in unnecessary danger.”
The rest agreed they should and said they would try and determine a route that could at least get them close. After figuring out where it actually was they found it was not only likely, but could be even beneficial to them to pass in that direction.
John glanced toward camp and noticed Morgan and Cindy in an argument with Rita. He motioned to the others to him as he sprinted toward them. It was quickly apparent that he was too late. He was shocked at the violence when Cindy came at her from behind and hit her in the head with a large rock. After she fell Morgan was kicking her repeatedly, finally pushing her into the river.
John ran right past them to the river frantically looking for Rita could see no sign, but the bloodied rock in Cindy’s hand.
Lashing out he screamed, “First Kevin and now Rita? What is wrong with you two?”
Morgan just glared at him as Cindy spoke, “She was accusing us of something to do with Matty. I thought she was going to do something to her so I hit her.”
There was no denial of what happened to Kevin from either of them, only protests about Rita’s accusations. John frantically searched for Rita in the water, it was a fast moving river and though they ran down the bank of it, she had already drifted downstream. Dickie arrived and joined the search for her, but she was nowhere to be found.
Roger and Ray grabbed hold of the girl’s arms and brought them to the rock where Kevin was assaulted. Not wanting to have a spectacle in front of everyone they secured them there and joined in the search for Rita.
John walked more than a mile downstream and saw no sign of her. Everyone feared the worst and took care to make sure Matty didn’t hear anything about it quite yet. This was going to be hard on him and John wanted to make sure he and Amy both could be there for him. He knew he had family alongside them, but Matty was withdrawn and sullen since Kevin died, and would only talk to Amy.
Later in the evening they all talked about what to do with Cindy and Morgan. The guys were sure they were the ones that killed Kevin and that Rita was no accident either.
Amy argued, “We can’t do anything, we are not the law.”
Dickie heatedly responded, “There ain’t no law, Sweetheart.”
Amy was furious yelling, “Don’t call me Sweetheart.”
Dickie conceded, saying, “I know, I know this is not a reason for us to argue. I do have to say that they are not riding with me and Jules and I’m pretty sure you don’t want them in your car with Matty either.”
Amy nodded, saying, “This is true, but there is no law saying we can’t just leave them here.”
John chimed in, “That’s true. We don’t have to take them with us.”
Mark nodded and said, “I can agree with that.”
Roger stepped up and said, “Then it is settled, we leave them here.”
Renee thought they should be left some food, but that was vetoed by the majority of the group. It was decided that they could have their backpacks and that was it.
Ray said, “In my opinion, it’s better than they deserve. John saw them hit Rita on the head and the brutal beating they gave her before tossing her in the river.”
They kept a guard on them during the night and everyone went to sleep. They would be moving out in the morning headed southeast towards Fallen Timber and closer to their friends in Kentucky.
Chapter 15
“Grief and Guilt”
“Negative emotions like loneliness, envy, and guilt have an important role to play in a happy life; they’re big, flashing signs that something needs to change.”
-Gretchen Rubin
The sun rose slowly in the eastern sky, seemingly taking forever to give its light. By Dawn they had the camp completely dismantled and packed up. Breakfast was cooking and they would be ready to go within the hour. No one knew what might be ahead, but Roger and Ray had scouted a route and thought they could make good time this day.
Cindy and Morgan were handed their backpacks and told to leave. The one thing that really bothered John letting them go was that Morgan knew where they were going. She and Matt were friends, although for the life of him; John couldn’t figure out why.
She was not an attractive woman and would be considered as coming from what was once called ‘the wrong side of the tracks.’ With stringy shoulder length brown hair, it always had a look like it needed washing. She was a brash and vulgar woman that most in the area considered trashy.
She constantly cheated on Kevin which made John wonder even more why Matt would have anything to do with her. John never liked her and was frankly glad to be rid of her; although he did feel bad for Rita. A few eye opening moments had shown him, maybe she was not entirely to blame in the mess between herself and Matt.
He thought of Dez and how much he thought Matt had jumped above his station in life. She was older than Matt but quite well off, owning her home and the one hundred fifty acres. She was quite beautiful and John asked him more than once how he managed to gain her favor. He would simply shrug and with a sly look say, “I guess when you got it, you got it.”
Preparing to leave, they loaded the vehicles and prepared to pull out of the pine grove, but before they could Matty began to scream and call out for his mother. John and Amy told him what happened that night, but the feeling of leaving her there was overwhelming him.
They paused so that he could go to the river and look for her one last time. Roger assured him they would be following the river for a ways and would make regular stops to look for her when they could. The river flowed into Quaker Lake and they planned to stop and look in the areas where the river slowed and opened into it.
Most of the day they drove and stopped, looking for some sign of her, but they found nothing, not a shoe, a footprint, nothing that would even indicate if she were alive or dead. Finally, they had to move on, Matty cried the whole day.
Matty cursed Morgan saying, “I will do to her what she did to Kevin and for hurting my mom.”
Shocked Amy asked, “Matty, did you see what happened to Kevin?”
Matty nodded his head and said, “Yes, I told my mom what happened and Morgan killed her too.”
Becoming more and more angry, he said, “She told me she would kill anyone I told. It is all my fault, what happened to my mom. I shouldn’t have told her, they did it just like she said her and my dad are going to do to….�
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He stopped talking and looked out the window and asked, “Do you think it is my fault my mom is gone?”
Amy hugged him saying, “Oh no Matty it isn’t your fault at all. Why would you think that?”
Crying, he looked at her, “Because I told.”
She said, “No, it’s not because of that.”
Amy wasn’t sure what he almost said earlier that his dad and Morgan were going to do, but she didn’t want to press him. He would tell her in his own time, but she didn’t want him telling anyone else what he told her for his own safety. She didn’t trust everyone, especially not Kimmie and Renee. They both were spending a lot of time talking with Morgan and Cindy and she was worried they might know something.
The trip to Fallen Timber that should have taken an afternoon, seemed like it was going to take a whole lot longer, after the time they spent searching the river and the lake. It was getting dark already and they had only gone forty-five miles in total.
Staying on the lake a final night seemed like the best idea. They had water and could do some fishing, there was really no one around it felt safe and could offer one more night of rest for their injured friends.
Again, they found a pine grove to set up in, the pine needles many said helped make the sleeping nicer. Laurie started the fire and prepared to make some supper.
Announcing, “It will be biscuits, with corn chowder… and of course… Spam.”
John groaned loudly saying, “Spam again, can’t we have something else already.”
Laurie laughed and said, “Sure, we can have Spam and beans.”
Everyone laughed as John grabbed his fishing pole and stomped off to the lake saying, “I think we need to make this a fish chowder instead.”
Roger and Dickie grabbed some poles and followed him while Mark helped Ray set up tents and try to get the perimeter secured.
While he was setting up one of the tents he said to Ray, “I don’t know how Matt could have anything to do with that Morgan and worse yet Renee and Kimmie complained the whole time about how we left them.”
