The Dark Days: Dark Beginnings - Episode 4 Read online

  It’s Dorian!

  My side hurts from running so hard, so long. I need to stop and rest, but I know he’ll kill me.

  “No, Dorian, let me have her!” I look back and Aden has nearly caught up to me. Half of his face hangs down in a mess of flesh and he boasts a wicked laugh.

  I can’t stop running. The trees are a blur.

  “I’m going to hang her up and cut her down piece by piece,” Aden says.

  Tears burn my eyes.

  “We’ll both tear her up,” Dorian says.

  I can feel his breath on my neck. Suddenly, the scene has changed, and I am tied up to a tree. A fire burns too close to me and my toes and feet feel like they are melting.

  Aden leans in and his blood drips on my leg. “Are you ready to die, Claudia Sheeplord?” He raises his knife to my throat.

  I jolt out of my sleep and must have screamed because Ben and Elsie are already in the room and Kane is sitting up in the bed next to me.

  “Claudia, shhhh, it’s okay. Baby, you were dreaming.” Kane wipes the sweat from my brow with a terry cloth hand towel.

  The tears stream down my cheeks. “It was so real. They were there. They were going to kill-”

  “It was just a dream. It’s not real.” Ben approaches the bed. “I’ll never let anything happen to you, Claudia Sheeplord. I promise.”

  “I did that to him and now he’s never going to let me forget it,” I cry.

  Elsie steps up to the end of the bed. “You listen here.” She shakes her finger at me. “It was either that man or this one, Claudia. Wouldn’t you do it again?”

  I stare at Kane and take the towel from him to wipe my tears.

  “Yes.”

  “Then stop blaming yourself. They don’t care about hurting people. Don’t you care for one second about hurting them.”

  And that was that.

  ***

  Thursday, I spend with the girls, again doing the laundry for the town. Ben takes most of the guys with him to finish up the path and work on the traps so we will be ready for the rescue. I don’t see any of them the entire day. I’m so exhausted when I get done with the laundry, I don’t even stop to eat at the community kitchen. I wake up in my clothes the next morning to Kane softly snoring. He must have taken my shoes off for me because they are sitting neatly by the door.

  Friday is ‘up in the air day’ where we do whatever needs doing. On this particular Friday, Ruthie asks us to help her skin the game the hunters brought back Thursday evening. They must have had the luck of Artemis and Orion because they caught enough food to last us for several weeks.

  Janie and I have never cleaned the skin from a rabbit before but Ruthie teaches us quickly. The first one I try, I swear I see Aden’s mangled face from my dream, but I have to keep skinning. I have to get over this.

  By the end of the day, I finish three rabbits, two squirrels and some fish brought in by the other crew.

  Chapter 8

  It’s Saturday and it’s a free day and the day before our rescue mission. I have coffee on the front porch with Kane and Janie and then take off to look for Ben. He was up so early, I didn’t even hear him leave.

  I find him in Tiny’s machine shop. He has one of the carts raised up on blocks and is on the ground underneath. I can hear clanging metal. He’s tinkering.

  “What are you doing?” I ask.

  He pokes his head out from underneath the cart. “Good morning.”

  “Good morning.”

  “You really want to know…what I’m doing? It’s kind of technical,” he says, crawling out from under the cart. He pushes his glasses up where they are supposed to be. They slid down the bridge of his nose from sweat.

  “Of course.”

  “Okay. Well, first I changed the gear ratios which should increase top speed, then I made a new air filter out of some old stuff in that pile over there that will allow more air to pass through, and then I created a limited-slip differential with the gear arrangement.” He smiles.

  I know what a deer staring into headlights must feel like. “Can you speak English? And how do you know how to do all that?”

  “There’s still a lot you don’t know about me, Claudia. But, Tiny showed me a few things, too.”

  “That’s really cool, Ben that you have learned how to do all of these things.”

  Excitement lights up his eyes. “Want to go see the trap lines? They’re all done.”

  For some reason, I feel the need to look behind us. “Is it safe? You know for us to be there?”

  “We’ve been working on them for a week and they haven’t seen us yet. Come on.” He lowers the cart down off of the blocks. “We’ll take this a little ways, but we’ll have to walk most of the way.” Ben is already in the cart ready to go.

  I laugh and climb in on the seat next to him. “Okay, but don’t spill my coffee.”

  He tilts his head and looks at me as if I am ridiculous.

  I take a few sips so it won’t spill and smile. “Okay, I’m ready now.”

  Ben puts his foot on the gas pedal and we buck slightly before we take off. The cart is so much faster than it was before.

  “Yahoo! It worked!” he says. For once, he sounds remotely like a kid with his excitement.

  “Don’t kill us Ben. We still have to save our friends.”

  ***

  We park the cart a good distance away near the Georgetown loop and hike toward the trap point. We head northeast and within a few minutes, Ben becomes almost giddy.

  His laugh is contagious. “What is so funny?” I whisper.

  He points to our right and I can see a road winding through in the distance.

  Ben points up to the top of the trees.

  I don’t see anything. “What?” I whisper again. I’m terrified someone is watching us.

  “Look closer. Up there.” He points.

  Then I see it. There some sort of contraption up in the trees. It’s secured by netting and ropes and it’s packed full of rocks and small boulders.

  “What are you going to do with that?”

  “I will lay the first trap here. Once the good guys have cleared, I’ll put it in motion. The rocks will fall out and block Guanella Pass here. If they try to follow us in trucks, they won’t get through.”

  “But that’s dangerous. What if you get caught?”

  “They won’t catch me. They don’t care about me, I’m the little guy.”

  I know he’s probably right, but I’m still scared for him. I look at him now and he’s so different than that freckle-faced kid I met on the plane.

  “Come on, this way,” he says, leading me up a steep hill.

  I know we are getting close so I tip toe because I have no idea where the traps are or what they are for that matter.

  Ben notices and puts me at ease. “You’re okay. We still have another fifty yards or so. I’ll tell you where they are.”

  We creep along the eastern edge of Georgetown, hidden in the trees. My heart takes an extra beat every time I hear a branch snap or any other noise.

  “We’re almost there.”

  We approach 9th Street and Ben puts his arm out in front of my chest to stop me. He looks around and back behind us.

  “This is where we’ll come back into Georgetown from the woods after we have rescued Sam, Molly and Jimbo. We will grab the carts near Skyline up ahead and anyone that makes it past that trap will likely be chasing us on foot, so hopefully we will have lost them already, but…just in case.”

  He grabs my hand and pulls me cautiously toward a path cut out of the trees. Ben snickers and squats down. Carefully, he lifts up a few leaves and I see what looks to be rope.

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s human nature they will cut through the easiest place, so we’ll give it to them. See that small tree next to you?” He points to a single tree remaining in the path.

  “They won’t notice it but that’s our marker. We’ll drive around the east side of that tree and avoid the loop mine.
But it’s narrow, so they will likely go to the other side. One step in the loop mine and they will be hanging by their ankles.”

  “Nice.” I give him a big smile. “How does it work?”

  “See over there?” He points but I can’t see what it is. “Look closely.”

  Now I see the fishing line stretched about waist high across the clearing. There are at least three lines that I can see now, but in the dark, they will be invisible.

  “When the bad guys run through here, they’ll break the fishing lines holding those tires up.” He points to the trees across the clearing from us.

  I must be blind. I hadn’t seen those either.

  “When the line snaps, the tires will fall and anyone inside the loop mine will be yanked up into those trees.”

  “Wow, Ben, I’m impressed. Did you come up with this trap?”

  “Thank you, Claudia. My idea but Tiny and Skipper helped me build it and Kane got all of the tires for us.”

  As we move closer to Skyline Drive, Ben leads us farther into the trees, so we won’t be seen.

  “I won’t be able to show you these because we don’t want to get that close, but I can show you the boundaries and explain them.”

  “Okay, shoot.”

  “When we come down from Skyline Drive, the road opens up into a circle. We will actually jut east just before the circle and our carts will be waiting for us there. We have to push farther east before we return south to avoid the traps.”

  “What kind of traps are they? More loop mines?”

  “No, these will likely cost them a limb.”

  “Whoa. So how do these work?”

  “Did you ever study the old Vietnam War? They used punji sticks.”

  “No, I’m afraid I missed that one. What are punji sticks? Do we have those here?”

  Ben laughs. “No, we had to build them. They’re actually not too hard to make and their bite can be lethal.”

  “What are they?”

  “Well, the best way to explain is that they are small trenches cut into the ground that have sticks or spikes pointing upward. We used all sorts of sharp objects. When someone steps over one, they will fall into the trench and they won’t be able to get out without a lot of help. Someone will have to disassemble the trap before the person can get out.”

  “Where are the trenches?”

  “The trap line stretches across just south of that circle at Skyline and runs about thirty yards wide.”

  “Ahh, so that’s why we have to go farther east before we can head south to get back.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Are you nervous about tonight?” I ask. He is always so calm and collected.

  “Yes.”

  Chapter 9

  “So, everyone knows their position?” Kane says. The sun is about to drop behind the ridge. What a beautiful sky but its streaks are violent and vivid, setting an eerie ambiance.

  My anxiety has my stomach in knots as we run through the details of the breakout one more time. Part of me is excited and happy because I know we’re going to get our friends back. The other part of me is scared to death.

  Ben lightly grabs my hand to get my attention. “I’ve got something for you.”

  Everyone else has broken into their own side conversations, so it appears we are done. “A surprise for me?” I love Ben’s surprises. He’s a good listener and I end up with coffee, chocolate or other wonderful things!

  He leads me into the bedroom he’s been sharing with Elsie. He drops down to his knees and reaches for something under the bed.

  “Ben, what is it?”

  I hear metal scraping and clanging as he pulls his treasure for me out from under the bed.

  He holds it up. “Isn’t it great!” There must be fifty tin can lids strung together in a large rectangle.

  “What is it?” I can’t help but laugh.

  “Armor.”

  “Armor? But-”

  He holds the metal gear above my head. “Stick your head through here.” He points to an open area in the center of the rectangle. It falls over my front and back perfectly. “Armor!” I say with a smile.

  “I want you to be safe, Claudia.”

  “Thank you, Ben. Do you have one, too?”

  Ben’s eyes answer before he does. “I didn’t have time to-”

  I strip the armor off and hand it back to him. “No way. Not happening. You wear it. You are the one coming in last to set the traps, if anyone needs it, you do.”

  He pushes the armor back to me. “I disagree, Claudia. I’m sure they know to be on the lookout for a girl of your description. You killed Dorian’s brother.”

  “I don’t care, Ben. I want you to wear that. I would never forgive-”

  Ben stops me before I can speak any dreadful what ifs. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Are you going to wear the armor then?” I raise my eyebrow demanding the right answer.

  “You’re not being-”

  “Ben, respect your elders,” I say, playing but not really.

  He is reluctant when he takes the armor from me and he scowls at me for a good moment.

  “Thank you.”

  ***

  The moon is full, a cherry on top of the dramatic sunset we had earlier. It will provide enough light for our journey through the woods to the district.

  Wreeeeeeek!!! The screen door warns me as I exit our cottage. Janie is waiting for me outside.

  Are those tears?

  “Be careful. I kind of like ya.” Janie comes at me her arms open and gives me a big squeeze.

  “We’ll be safe. In and out.”

  “No crazy ‘I’m taking over the district’ stuff yet, okay?” She stares hard into my eyes. She doesn’t trust what she knows I am capable of, especially if I see Dorian.

  “Promise. That’s next Sunday,” I tease.

  “Not funny, Claudia. Not funny.”

  I see three shadows approaching in the distance. A couple more steps and I see that it’s Tiny, Ruthie and Masaru.

  “Ready to go?” Tiny shakes Ben’s hand first and then walks over to Kane for a quick greeting.

  Masaru comes up to me and takes my hands in his. “Claudia, I have spoken to the Earth about you. You will triumph.”

  A good kind of chill flows through my body. Whatever he did just made our chances of success that much greater. That I know for sure. “Thank you, Masaru.” I squeeze his hands.

  He stares at me and then his teeth pop through his lips when a grin spreads across his face. “Okay, Masaru needs a hug, too.”

  We embrace each other tight. He steps back from me.

  “I have something for you.”

  First Ben. Now Masaru? Am I being sacrificed?

  He pulls out a dagger.

  Ruthie and Elsie have become sisters. They embrace each other and Ruthie places a purple rabbit’s foot in Elsie’s hand. She used blackberries to dye it. We made one for everyone who is going on the mission.

  I made two, one for Ben and one for Kane. “Ben,” I call him over.

  Ben’s rabbit’s foot is red for the passion he always carries in his heart. “This is for you. Will you keep it with you tonight?” I put it in his hand and press his fingers around it.

  “Thank you, Claudia. I will. Don’t worry about me. Between the armor and the lucky foot, I’m protected.”

  I pull him in and hug him tight. “In and out.”

  He pulls back and looks confidently in my eyes. “We’re going to get your friends out of there.”

  Kane walks up with Brody and Jay.

  I move in close to Kane and put my arms around his back.

  He kisses the top of my head and holds me in his arms.

  I kiss him softly and then hold up his black rabbit’s foot. “This one is for you. I hope it brings you stealth.”

  Jay, Brody and Skipper walk up with Norton in tow.

  “You boys ready?” Tiny asks. He’s become our father figure.

  “Nah.” Skipper shakes his head. �
��Crepp’s gone and taken a turn for the worse. I’m going to stay here and look after him.”

  “I’ll stay with you.” Janie rubs the top of his shoulder. I still can’t figure the two of them out.

  ***

  We stop at the first horseshoe curve of Guanella Pass so that Ben and Tiny can inspect the trap. I do a quick survey of our surroundings as they disappear into the trees.

  Woot! Woot! The owl’s call echoes through the otherwise quiet night. It scares me to death and pain shoots through my chest.

  Pug laughs and the juice from his chew dribbles down his chin.

  Ben exits from out of the trees. “It’s secure.” He looks to me.

  I’m quiet.

  He looks to Pug, who has hidden his smile.

  Ben is smart. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothin’, Boss.” Pug winks at me.

  We continue on to 9th Street without a hitch. Jay and Pug stay there to watch guard. This is where we will hopefully be able to cut back into the southern edge of Georgetown so we can take advantage of the speed Ben built into the carts.

  When we get to the southern edge of Skyline Drive, we park the carts and Tiny stays there to keep watch.

  The rest of us slip through the trees and cross over toward the back of the hostage house. We spread apart as we sneak in to reduce our chances of being caught. I come on the right side of the house. I’m disappointed that our eagles are not out on the deck. It’s going to be risky going inside the house.

  Kane is behind me, still in the trees. He motions to me, asking if I see anyone. I shake my head and frown.

  We watch as a gunman steps outside and resumes his post outside the door. I let Kane know.

  I glance over and Ben is watching through a pair of binoculars. He holds up one finger. He looks through them again and holds up two fingers. Two guards inside.

  Everyone is in position. It’s time for Elsie to kick things off. She pops out of the trees, grabbing the guard’s attention on purpose. He steps out in her direction.

  Then, in a puff of fluorescent green smoke, Elsie disappears.

  “Who’s there? Show yourself,” the guard demands.