by Ryan Casey
She looked at him. Reached for his arm.
“Don’t. Please. Don’t.”
But Logan didn’t look like he was hearing what this girl was saying.
He didn’t look like he was shaken by any of it.
But Jack still had his chance.
“Emma, come back here. Now.”
He saw someone appear in the corner of his eye, grab Emma’s hand.
He saw her blonde hair. Her bright blue eyes.
He saw her, and then he saw her looking right past him.
Right at the person beside him.
“Can… Candice?” Wayne said.
Jack’s stomach sank. He saw Candice’s eyes widen. He saw the recognition, and then he felt the weight of realisation—realisation that Wayne was telling the truth about Candice all along.
He saw Logan lower his rifle a little.
He saw him frown.
Like he wasn’t sure what was happening.
He saw it, and he sensed his opportunity.
Jack took a deep breath and he pulled the trigger.
“No!”
The rifle cracked.
But before he’d pulled the trigger—imminently before— he felt it fly up and into the trees.
He didn’t realise what had happened. Not at first.
Not until he saw Wayne holding on to Jack’s rifle.
Staring into the trees.
“No,” Wayne said. “Candice. Candice!”
Jack looked at Logan as he stood there, a man who should be dead.
He looked at Candice.
He looked at this girl called Emma.
And just as Wayne went to throw himself forward, Logan’s hunting rifle pointed at him now, he grabbed his son and dragged him to the ground as gunfire cracked towards them.
Wayne kicked out. He tried to break free. “Let me go! Let me get her! Let go of me!”
But Jack kept on holding him down.
Gritted his teeth.
The gunfire still cracking and whooshing past them.
When it stopped, when Jack was sure there was no noise around, he lifted his head.
Wayne punched himself free and jogged towards the trees.
“Candice!”
But it was too late.
They were gone.
All of them were gone.
Chapter Fifteen
When they got back to the farm, Jack couldn’t shake the feeling that everything had changed—forever.
It was late morning. The clouds had thickened even more since he’d woken. The entire living area of the farmhouse felt dark.
Everyone was up now. Bella and Hazel were sitting on the sofa. They’d been skinning animals to cook while Jack had been out. Villain and Mrs Fuzzles were by their feet.
And Jack and Wayne were standing in the middle of the room.
Wayne was inconsolable. Ever since he’d seen Candice, everything had changed. He was already starting to lose his grip a little when he thought he’d seen her yesterday. But this was different. They’d exchanged eye contact. They’d heard one another speak.
But they were on other sides of a battle that Jack knew he couldn’t prevent.
“Candice isn’t a bad person,” Wayne said, pacing around the room.
Jack sighed. “Wayne.”
“She’s—she’s a good person. She’s my girlfriend. I know she’s a good person.”
“Then why the hell’s she standing with Logan the Butcher?”
“Because… I don’t know.” His energy was waning. He seemed like he wanted to argue, but was struggling now. “But whatever reason she’s with him there has to be a point to it.”
“Maybe he’s captured her,” Hazel said.
Jack shook his head. “It didn’t look that way.”
“Things aren’t always as they look,” Wayne said.
“More and more, I’m starting to learn that in this world, they mostly are.”
Wayne stopped again. He looked at Jack like he was desperate.
“I spent days searching for her. Following her. Bella and me… we tried to find her together but we couldn’t. We just couldn’t. I got so close and then… and then I found this place. I gave up. I never gave up hope, but I gave up because I knew the chances I was just going to bump into her again were pretty much non-existent. But now I’ve seen her. Now we’ve got a chance. We can’t just give up that chance.”
“And you don’t think Logan’s going to be hearing the same things, too?”
Wayne frowned. “What?”
Jack took a few breaths. “Think about it. He hates us. He wants revenge. But more than anything, he wants this place. And then there’s Candice, who will be saying all kinds of things about you. About how you’re a good guy. About how the pair of you can make this work. You don’t think he’s going to use that to his advantage? You don’t think he’ll use Candice as bait to get us right where he needs us to be? Think about it, Wayne. Just think about it before you go running headfirst into things.”
“He’s right.”
Jack looked around. He wasn’t expecting any backup. He’d kind of grown used to being on his own in any arguments.
It was Bella.
Wayne frowned. “Bella?”
“I don’t always see eye to eye with Jack,” she said. “And I don’t approve of this whole lack of trust thing. But he’s right about this. We need to be careful. We don’t know what we’re dealing with here. If he’s really as dangerous as the news said he is… then we need to be very, very careful.”
Jack nodded, appreciative for Bella’s backup.
Jack looked to Hazel, then, as did Wayne.
“What do you think, Mum?”
Hazel took a deep breath. She went to say something, then stopped. Then, she opened her mouth again, looking right into Wayne’s eyes. “How much does Candice mean to you?”
Wayne frowned. “She’s… I love her.”
“And you’d put everything on the line for her?”
Wayne nodded. “Yes. Where are you going with this?”
Hazel shook her head. “I just think… I don’t know. But one thing’s for sure. We don’t know any facts here. All we know is that Candice is with a very dangerous man. A man who wants to kill us and take what we have. Which means… as difficult as it is, I can only see one outcome here. One way of going about this.”
Jack nodded. “Go on.”
Hazel cleared her throat. “We need to make sure we deal with Logan, however we can. But at the same time, we need to make sure Candice doesn’t get caught up in the crossfire. And that girl, too. The young kid? Emma, was it? She’s obviously in danger, too. So we need to play this carefully. We need to play this just right.”
Jack looked around the room and saw everyone nodding. He knew this was the route they were going down. He knew there was no more room for negotiation.
“How do you suggest we do it?” Jack asked.
Hazel tilted her head to one side. “We need to set a trap.”
“A trap?”
“There’s only one place that’ll be a good enough trap to lure them in.”
Jack knew what she was talking about right away. “No.”
“It’s the only option,” Hazel said.
“We can’t use the farm as bait.”
“Think about it,” Hazel said. “We lure them in. We wait for them to arrive. And then when the time’s right, we attack.”
Jack shook his head. “It’s too risky.”
“It’s all we’ve got.”
He opened his mouth, but he didn’t have any counter argument.
“What’s the alternative?” Hazel asked. “Logan attacks us in our sleep? More people die? Because the way I see it, we’re stuck in this mess. We don’t have a choice. There’s no clean way out. Not anymore. Not after…”
He knew what she was going to say. “Not after you shot and killed Jean.”
He knew she was right.
But they were in this, now. And they had to deal with i
t the best way they could.
And really, was there a better way?
Was there any other way at all?
Jack looked around the room. He looked at Mrs Fuzzles. At Villain. At Bella, and at Hazel, and then at Wayne.
He looked at them all and he took a deep breath.
“We use the farm as bait,” he muttered. “We set the trap. We wait for them to arrive. And then we attack.”
“But we save Candice,” Wayne said. “Nothing happens to her. Nothing. Understand?”
Jack tensed his fists. “Understood.”
He wished he believed in his own words.
Chapter Sixteen
Logan sat around the campfire and tried to stop his mind spinning.
It was late. They hadn’t had much to eat. In truth they hadn’t spent enough of today focused on their own survival. The water supplies were limited, too. And really, Logan knew it was their own fault. They’d spent too much time focusing on Jack and the farm.
But not only that. There were other problems that had emerged.
Problems that threatened to jeopardise their mission altogether.
“It was him,” Candice said. “I thought… I thought there was something familiar about the older guy. That’s when I realised it. He’s Wayne’s dad. And Wayne… Wayne was there.”
Logan looked across the fire at her. She was wide-eyed. The flames flickered in her eyes. She seemed possessed, a shadow of the woman he thought he knew.
He knew it wasn’t just the presence of her ex-boyfriend that had complicated matters. Jean’s death was taking its toll on their group. It had strained them. Caused conflict amongst them.
Things were complicated now. Things weren’t as straightforward anymore.
But now they’d come in possession of a hunting rifle left untouched in a farmer’s shed, Logan knew the odds were a little more even.
“We need to get some sleep,” Logan said. “We need to rest up. And then we need to press on.”
Candice frowned. “Press on?”
Logan kept his composure. “What happened earlier doesn’t change the plan.”
“It changes everything about the plan.”
“No,” Logan said. “We need that farm. Your ex-boyfriend being there doesn’t change a thing.”
“He’s not a bad guy.”
“He’s on their side,” Logan snapped. “The side who killed Jean. And his dad. You told me he abandoned him. You told me there was no bond between them. And now suddenly he’s with them?”
Candice shook her head. “There—there has to be a reason.”
“I think you need to face up to the truth,” Logan said. “How much do you really know this Wayne after all?”
“I know him enough,” Candice said. “Enough to know he’s a good guy at heart. The guy he was with. The one who shot Jean. His dad—at least I think it’s him. That’s not someone Wayne would stand by.”
“Is this relationship of yours going to become problematic?”
Candice frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?’
“It means what it sounds like. We have conflicting interests. This Wayne. He isn’t going to be a problem, is he?”
Candice took a few moments to really think. Then she looked right into Logan’s eyes. “I don’t want to see him hurt. I care about him. I love him. But… but him and I, we went our separate ways. I just… I just hope he’s okay.”
Logan nodded. “I’ll take that as ‘he isn’t going to be a problem.’”
Candice was silent at that point. There were no sounds but the calls of animals in the night, the crackling of the fire before them. Every moment felt dangerous, like Jack and his people were out there, watching, waiting.
“Maybe there can still be a way.”
It wasn’t Candice who spoke this time.
It was Emma.
Logan looked at her and sighed. “Emma, we’ve been through this.”
She held Logan’s gaze. “I know what they did to Jean. I know… I know it’s not right. But maybe—maybe they were just scared. We know there’s someone else out there. The body we saw. And the fire. Maybe they’ve had trouble with them. Maybe they thought we were them. Maybe that’s why they were so scared.”
Logan knew Emma had a point. But at the same time, he knew it wouldn’t change anything. Not where Jack was concerned.
He knew it because he knew they were the same.
They’d do anything to protect what they believed was theirs.
“Maybe so,” Logan said. “But that doesn’t change a thing.”
“It gives us a chance to talk to them. To… to try and reach out to them. Right?”
Logan felt so sorry for this girl. She was caught up in a world that was far beyond her years, far beyond her understanding.
She was so bright, so intelligent, but still so hopeful; still so naive.
And that would be her downfall.
“This… this isn’t easy. For any of us. Not least for you, Candice. Accepting your boyfriend—”
“Ex-boyfriend.”
“Ex-boyfriend, whatever. Accepting he’s a part of the other side isn’t easy to take. But you have to see with some perspective. Take all the emotion out of it, and think of how this will bolster Jack’s cause. He knows Wayne and you care about one another. He knows that might soften us. It might weaken us. But we can’t let that happen. It has to strengthen us. We can’t concede any ground.”
Candice stared at Logan with watery eyes and shook her head. “You’re suggesting we kill him? We kill Wayne?”
“I’m not suggesting anything. If we can keep bloodshed out of this, perfect. But that farm. It’s ours. I’m taking it. Whether he—”
“You weren’t bothered about it before,” Emma said.
Logan frowned. “What?”
“Before… before what happened to Jean. You weren’t bothered. You were happy to keep walking.”
“That’s not true. I said right away the farm looked perfect.”
“It’s about revenge, isn’t it? That’s all this is about.”
Logan didn’t say anything in turn. He didn’t want to speak the truth.
So he just inhaled deeply and half-smiled. “I’m going to make this work. We’re going to be okay. We’re not the ones in the wrong here. We’re just looking for a home.”
“But to them, they’re not in the wrong either,” Emma said. “They were just defending their home. They just see things differently to us. Right?”
Logan heard what Emma was saying. He wanted to work towards a more peaceful solution. He wanted things to work out right.
But equally, he knew what monsters this world made of people, and he knew the chances of a peaceful resolution were slim to none.
So they had to show the initiative.
They had to act fast.
“I don’t want peace,” Logan said. “Not with the people who killed Jean.”
Candice and Emma looked right at him.
“We’re going to attack that place. We’ll limit whatever bloodshed we can. Force them out of their home. But this is how it happens. And it happens tomorrow.”
Chapter Seventeen
Jack woke with the sunrise and prepared himself for the day to come.
It was a much nicer day today. Sunnier but cooler. He didn’t believe in the weather foreshadowing events. But he did find himself hoping it was a sign of things to come, which said a lot about where he was at, really.
He looked across his fields. Looked at the tractors. Looked at the trees in the distance. Then he looked to his side, over at the barns, where the animals went about their business, happy enough, oblivious to what was going to come.
He wished he didn’t have to leave it all.
He didn’t want to give up this place, even if fleeing it was just a part of the overall plan.
He just had an awful feeling things weren’t going to work out exactly as he hoped.
He heard something by his side. When he looked down, he saw Mrs Fuzz
les.
Mrs Fuzzles stared up at him like that bloody cat off Pet Sematary. Creepy little thing. He’d never liked cats. Always more of a dog person.
But it seemed like this weird cat meant something to Wayne, because it meant something to Candice.
Mrs Fuzzles stared up at him like she was just as doubtful about the next step as he was.
Then, Jack heard footsteps.
Hazel walked outside. She reached his side, stood there silently.
“You okay?” she asked.
Jack nodded. “Will be.”
“Sleep okay?”
“Not really.”
“Me neither.”
Jack sighed. “I’ll sleep better when this is done. When the problem is dealt with.”
Hazel scratched her head. “About that problem.”
Jack’s stomach turned. He knew where this was going. “We’ve talked about everything we need to talk about already, Hazel.”
“Candice. We need to be careful with her. Really, Jack. Really.”
Jack shook his head. “I wish there was a way for this to work out easy. But we’ve just got to do the best we can.”
“And it better be the best we can,” Hazel said. “Because… because in spite of everything. In spite of all that happened in the past. In spite of all that… I think you’re starting to grow on him. I think he’s finally starting to forgive. I think the wounds are beginning to heal, just a little. Don’t let that slip away all because you’re determined to keep this place closed off from the rest of the world. Don’t let those efforts go to waste. Because you won’t get a second chance. You just won’t.”
Jack felt bitterness building inside. Sadness, but also pride. “I don’t deserve my son’s forgiveness.”
“Maybe not,” Hazel said. “But you can’t decide that. That’s his decision to make.”
Jack stood there and stared out at the fields. He could see birds over the trees in the distance.
But there was something else in his mind, too.
The memory of that smoke.
And that shout.
“We still don’t know who caused the fire,” Jack said. “We don’t know where the shout came from.”
“So you’re starting to entertain the idea that all of this might not have been this Logan’s group after all?”
