Liberty or Tyranny (20 page)

She stopped five feet from the edge of the taller grass and pulled the binoculars out of her jacket. Propping herself up a little higher on her elbows, she steadied the binoculars as she looked through them. The lettering on the sign was too small for her to read. She strained and tried to focus on the message but couldn’t see it well enough to read what it said.

Damn it.
She slowly inched closer. When she ran out of tall grass and still couldn’t read the words, she realized she would have to expose herself to anyone waiting along the tree line with a rifle if she was actually going to read the message.
Looks like I failed this mission.

Just as she was about to turn back and give up, movement along the tree line behind and to the left of the house caught her attention. She trained the binoculars on that area and saw nothing at first. Then someone moved into a beam of sunlight that had slanted into the tree-shaded sniper’s hide and illuminated the person’s face. She focused on it for a second and recognized Caroline.
What?
The features were familiar, but the face was somehow different, harried, rigid with tension. Even at that distance, their eyes seemed to connect for a second through the glass of the binoculars. That was when she saw death staring back at her. She shivered and lowered the binoculars and her head. Instinctively, she knew that if Caroline saw her hiding out there at that moment she would kill her before she had a chance to see who she was. Nate had told her Caroline had been through seven kinds of hell, but seemed to be better as time passed. The short glimpse Deni had just seen of her was more than enough to tell her Caroline was in a killing mood.

Deni backed deeper into the tall grass, lying flat and moving as slow as she possibly could. Her life depended on Caroline not seeing her out there, and she knew it. Following the same route she had taken before, she pulled herself along on her belly until she was within hearing distance of Nate. “You won’t believe it.”

“Keep coming until you’re back in the tree line again,” Nate said, seemingly ignoring her words.

It took her several minutes to get far enough back in the tree line that she felt safe enough to stop sliding along her belly. “Caroline’s out there hiding behind and to the left of the house.”

“What?” Nate closed the distance between them by crawling on his hands and knees.

Exhausted from her long crawl, Deni caught her breath and mopped her forehead with a jacket sleeve. “Only saw her for a second. But I can tell you she’s dangerous at the moment. Even from that distance and through the binoculars, looking into her eyes sent chills down my spine.”

Nate frowned. “Oh shit. Something’s happened to her. You’re right. She could be dangerous.” He looked toward the house. “Was she alone?”

“Only saw her for a second and no one else.” Deni took a long swallow from a canteen. “Scared me more than if I’d seen a Special Forces sniper out there.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen that look before. Though it’s men she hates. And for good reason.”

Deni put her canteen away. “What’re we going to do?”

Nate raised an eyebrow. “It would be wrong to just leave her out here. It’s obvious something’s happened. She needs our help. The problem is helping her without getting shot.”

“Well,” Deni said, “I’m sure she can recognize our voices. Should be safe enough for us to get close and yell her name and identify ourselves. We can do all that while behind cover.”

“Okay.” Nate glanced toward the house. “I would feel better if you stayed here and I did it alone. But like I said, she hates men, and hearing your voice might make the difference.”

She looked up at the sky for a second. “Nice of you to give me permission to come along.”

Nate had a strange look on his face for a second. “This isn’t about me being a chauvinist pig. We’re discussing the best way to stay alive. Someday when we’re not fighting for survival, I promise I won’t boss you around at all. You can do whatever you want while I work the farm. I won’t care if you sleep all day, never cook a meal, or wash a dish, or help in the field. You can go back to college, get a job – if that’s possible again someday – whatever. I don’t care. Just be alive and healthy and happy and live to be one hundred. In the meantime, I won’t be apologizing for doing everything possible to keep you alive until the day comes we can put our rifles away except for target practice and hunting.”

She laughed. “Wow. I wasn’t expecting a speech.”

“At least you didn’t call it a rant.” Nate wanted to change the subject. “Since she didn’t take a shot at you, I’m guessing you’re pretty sure she never saw you.”

“Oh, I’m certain she never saw me. If she had I would be dead. I’m telling you, she looks like she wants to kill somebody.”

“Well,” Nate said, “let’s go. We’ll make our way around to the back of the house. Slow and easy like.”

“We’ll just pretend we don’t want to get shot,” Deni added.

~~~

Forty-five minutes later, Nate and Deni hid behind thick pine trees ten yards apart, still searching for Caroline.

Nate signaled for Deni to yell out Caroline’s name.

Deni yelled out, “Caroline! It’s Deni.”

Nate scanned the woods for any sign of danger.

No answer.

Deni yelled out Caroline’s name and identified herself again.

Finally, Caroline’s voice came back to them and echoed in the forest. “Are you alone?”

“Nate is with me,” Deni answered.

“Have you seen any soldiers?”

“Not lately. We’ve been hiding from them,” Deni answered. “We came to check out the farm and were worried it was a trap. While we were looking for any sign of soldiers hiding in the woods, we saw you.” When no answer came back, Deni asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m unharmed. Soldiers killed a lot of people, but Samantha and I escaped.”

Nate had not seen her, but her voice had allowed him to locate her approximate position. “Is it okay for us to come on in? You’re an old friend, and we don’t want to just leave you here alone. We have food and other supplies with us.”

Samantha spoke for the first time. “Deni, I think Caroline is sick. She’s afraid of everything.”

“She has no reason to be afraid of us.” Deni changed her voice to a softer tone. “Have you eaten lately, Samantha? We have plenty of food.”

“She won’t let me go to you.”

Nate broke in. “Caroline. If I step out from behind this tree, are you going to shoot me? You know Deni and I are friends and we mean you no harm.”

Caroline’s response was incongruous. “Last thing I saw, they were torturing the old horse woman, MacKay.”

“Who?” Nate asked. “Soldiers?”

“They killed Ramiro.” Caroline stepped out of the shadows and emerged into a small clearing, holding Samantha’s hand at her side. “They also killed more than a dozen others from the horse farm.”

Nate lowered his rifle and stepped from behind the tree. “You’ll be safer with us.”

“Not if you two keep yelling and talking so loud,” Caroline said. “If there are any soldiers in this part of the county, they know we’re here now.”

Nate smiled. “First things first. We didn’t want to get shot by you.” The fact Caroline had her right hand occupied by holding Samantha’s relieved his worries to some degree. He stepped closer. “You two look like you’ve been through it.”

“Yeah,” Deni said.

Samantha rushed to Deni. Deni dropped to her knees and held the little girl. “Are you hurt?” Deni asked.

Pent-up emotion poured out onto Samantha’s face. “No. Caroline took care of me. She protected me from those mean men. They were hurting people wherever we went. We saw dead people in the woods. One of them cut Mrs. MacKay with a knife.”

Deni held her again. “Oh God. Did we cause all of this?”

Nate glanced at Deni for a second and then kept his eyes on Caroline. “Somebody’s been here. They left a sign on the front door of the house.”

“Yeah,” Caroline said, with a strange look on her face. “Soldiers. They came and looked around a little a few days ago. Then they put that sign on the door and left. But I don’t believe them.”

Nate raised an eyebrow. “Don’t believe what?”

“What the sign says.”

Nate asked, “What did the sign say?”

Caroline didn’t answer.

Deni stood. “I never got a chance to read it. Never got that close.”

“I did,” Caroline said. “It says the soldiers are no longer looking for Nate Williams; Deni Williams; Brian Williams; Atticus Hayes, and Tyrone Hayes. It also says you can stop hiding and come back to your farm now. It’s signed by Colonel Donovan.”

Deni and Nate both stared at Caroline in amazement.

Caroline looked at them like they were crazy. “You don’t believe that bullshit, do you?”

Nate checked the position of the sun in the sky. “Right now we need to get back to the others. They’ll be worried if we don’t make it back by dark.”

Deni wasn’t ready to let the subject go. “What about the idea we’re not being hunted anymore?”

Nate looked at her and Caroline. He inhaled deeply, a question mark on his face. “Who knows? Maybe Donovan called the assholes in Washington off some way. Right now we have to get back to the others.”

Brian peered into the darkening woods and gripped his rifle tighter. He thought he had heard something a moment before, but thought it might have been a squirrel late to its nest and in a hurry to get to its bed before it got dark. Tyrone and Atticus were in camp 30 yards behind him, conversing quietly about what to do if the others didn’t show up before dark.

Worry heightened his senses, and he heard Samantha’s cough from 35 yards deep into the darkness, though he didn’t know at the time it was Samantha.

Something scraped against a palmetto frond to his left. He turned his whole body in that direction; ready to raise his rifle and fire.

Nate’s voice came from out of nowhere. “It’s your father. Don’t shoot.” Nate’s indistinct form emerged from the darkness only five yards away. “We have Caroline and a little girl with us.”

“Caroline?” Brian hesitated only for a second out of surprise. “Come on in. Any trouble?”

Deni suddenly appeared beside Nate. “No trouble. But things may have changed for the better.”

Brian turned. “Well, come on to the camp. We’ll prepare something for you to eat.” He led them to where Atticus and Tyrone were waiting. They had heard them talking.

“There must be a story behind all of this.” Brian couldn’t see faces in the dark. “Who is the little girl?”

“Samantha,” Caroline answered, while Samantha clung to her, holding her hand. “I’m happy to see you’re still alive and kicking,” she added.

“Same here,” Brian said. “You and little Samantha both. Uh. We lost Kendell, though.”

Caroline froze in the dark for a second. “Damn it! He was a good young man. He fought like hell when the terrorists attacked the horse farm, and later he backed me all the way when I killed that weasel child killer.”

“He was my best friend,” Brian almost whispered. “He saved my life. I’ll never forget him.”

~~~

It was too dark to see, so Nate chanced a small fire to provide light and to warm their freeze-dried food.

Brian watched his father work. “You always said no fires while we’re being hunted.”

Nate looked up from cooking. “It’s a small risk. We’ll put it out as soon as we’re through eating.”

After the four new arrivals had eaten, Brian dug around in his pack and came up with some cocoa powder. He heated water on the fire to make a cup of cocoa for Samantha. “You probably haven’t had anything sweet for a while.” He handed her the cup.

Samantha silently took it and sipped the contents. Never far from Caroline, she sat next to her and seemed to be more at ease as she got used to the strangers.

Atticus and Tyrone had been standing guard while Brian helped the others prepare a meal and eat. After 30 minutes, Tyrone came back to camp, leaving Atticus on security duty. “Earlier, Deni said things have changed for the better. What’s that about?”

Nate answered, “There’s a sign on the front door of the house signed by Colonel Donovan. It says we’re not being hunted anymore and we can go home now.”

“You believe that?” Tyrone asked.

“Not completely. Not yet,” Nate answered. “If it’s true, it means those at Mrs. MacKay’s horse farm can also go back home. We’ll head that away tomorrow morning and take a careful look sometime in the next day or two.”

Caroline spoke up. “I can tell you that not all of them will be going home. Some of them are dead, killed by the Army or CIA. I don’t know. They were not wearing regular military uniforms. But they acted and talked like soldiers.”

“Spooks,” Nate commented.

“Like the bastard we let go,” Brian added. “I wonder how many people we killed by being too weak to do what we knew was the best thing.”

Nate moved closer to Brian. He spoke in a low voice, “We’re all feeling the same thing. And we’re all just as confused. What’s the right thing to do? Sometimes the answer doesn’t come so easily. I do know that human beings caught between a rock and a hard place naturally become hard themselves. The better side of us resists that and clings to our humanity. Some people resist it more than others. Some people are cold and cruel only when they have to be. A conscience can be a terrible thing at times. But it’s what separates us from animals.”

“But that’s what we’re becoming,” Brian insisted. “This is worse than war. We’re not just following orders and relying on others to decide who dies and who is let go and what’s the best thing to do for the greater good. It’s all on us.”

“Yes it is,” Nate said. “And we’re going to make mistakes. You almost died because I made an enemy of Slim when I broke his jaw. I should’ve either left him alone or killed him. He nearly killed you because of my actions.”

“Well, it can’t be undone now.” Brian sat down. “Don’t worry about me. I’m just pissed that people were hurt and killed.”

Nate stomped the small fire out. “Someday we’ll look back on this time in our lives and thank God we managed to struggle through it all so we could enjoy the better years. The wild card now is what Washington has in store for America. There’s no way to know if we face freedom or tyranny.”

Tyrone cleared his throat. “It’s not looking good. We damn sure don’t want to risk coming out of hiding just because someone left a sign on a door.”

“Yeah,” Nate agreed, “we need to talk to people we can trust. We’ll start for MacKay’s place as soon as daylight comes.”

“So you’re thinking we can’t trust Col. Donovan anymore?” Deni asked.

Nate thought for a moment. “I don’t know.”

~~~

Just past 2 AM, a thunderstorm came rolling in. No one had predicted rain, and they had not bothered to put up a tarp. One was quickly stretched over a rope between two trees, and everyone but Deni, who was on guard duty, was soon back asleep.

Nate pulled security the last two hours before false dawn. When the dark woods faded to slightly lighter gray, he walked over and woke Brian and Deni up. The others heard them preparing a quick breakfast of cold reconstituted freeze-dried beef stroganoff. They woke up and joined them. Everyone was in a hurry to get moving, except Samantha, who was still sleepy.

It took them all of 15 minutes to eat and pack up. They pushed through the weeping woods as quietly as possible, but no one wasted time lingering. They needed answers to questions that hung over their heads like a guillotine. Impatience urged them on.

A buck and two does burst out of a palmetto patch and gave everyone a fright. Caroline looked down at Samantha. “Just deer. I see their white tails bouncing as they run.”

The little girl stood on her toes and tried to see over the weeds but was too late.

A dim sun appeared through fog and cloud, burning away some of the moisture in the heavy air. They moved on. Noon came and went. They agreed not to waste time. They would eat when they made camp that night. Samantha ate during a ten-minute rest, but the adults just drank water.

Mid afternoon found them working their way through a tangled mess of thorny blackberry brush and windfalls from a past hurricane. Caroline had difficulty lifting her artificial leg over the logs and fell twice. Once they were through the wait-a-minute thorns and windfalls, she had no trouble keeping up.

Samantha grew more tired as the day wore on. Nate noticed it and insisted they stop every 30 minutes to let her rest. “We’re not going to make it to the farm today, no matter how fast we travel.”

“I was going to say something,” Caroline said, “but…”

“Never worry about speaking up,” Nate assured her. “The only reason we’re in a hurry is because we have questions we want answers to. There’s no tactical reason why we can’t slow down. The slower we travel, the less likely we are to walk into an ambush, anyway.”

~~~

That night, Nate and Deni stood first watch. Deni edged over his way so they could have a quiet conversation. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others, especially Brian, but from what Caroline was saying it’s possible that Mrs. MacKay is dead. Hell, they could all be dead.”

Keeping his voice down, Nate said, “It does seem like things have really gotten out of control. It could be the beginning of a whole new nightmare. If it is, we could be spending the rest of our lives hiding in these woods and living like animals. The last thing I want to do is drag you and Brian into a civil war. The chances of any of us surviving that are so small and the chances of us making any difference are so tiny, it just doesn’t make sense to be a part of it. I’m more worried for our future at this moment than I ever was in the middle of a gunfight. Battles end. The nightmare we’re facing now has no ending.”

Deni slung her rifle out of the way across her back and held him. “It’s obvious some people have decided to take advantage of the chaos and seize control of this country. The people’s welfare is the last thing on their mind. I do not believe this is just spooks and soldiers getting out of hand. They have orders. Orders straight from the top.”

Nate put his left arm around her and pulled her to him. “This is too big for us to stop. Either the military will follow Washington’s orders and become an instrument of oppression, or they will execute a military coup. Both of those scenarios scare the hell out of me. If there is a coup, power will be handed back to civilian government and constitutional law restored only if the officer corps of every branch is populated with living saints. I wouldn’t bet my life on that. George Washington was given several chances to become King of America and turned it down every time. There are not many men born in one hundred generations who would turn down a chance to yield absolute power.”

“Now you’re really scaring me.” Deni held him tighter. “Besides, there are many men and women who don’t want absolute power. There are many who don’t want any power at all. They don’t want the responsibility.”

“You won’t find many people like that in the officer corps. Not only did they ask for their jobs, they had to work very hard to earn their positions, positions of responsibility. No, people who don’t want responsibility don’t become military officers.”

Deni looked toward the others sleeping under a tarp, though she could not see them in the dark. “But military officers do tend to be men and women of a higher moral fiber than the average person. They may not be saints, but I would trust the worst of them more than the best politician.”

Nate chuckled under his breath to keep the noise down. “Yeah, but some of them become politicians.”

~~~

Mid-afternoon the next day, Nate and Deni approached Mrs. MacKay’s horse farm with extreme caution. They left the others several miles back where they would be safe.

“We might be close enough I can see something with binoculars if I climb that big oak over there,” Nate said.

Deni slipped out of her pack and laid her rifle across it. “You’re too big to be climbing trees. Give me the binoculars.”

“I won’t have any trouble climbing this one. There are plenty of handy limbs.” Nate shed his pack and rifle and then his load-bearing harness, with its pouches that held 20-round magazines for his rifle. “Keep an eye out for trouble while I’m up there.”

A few minutes later, Nate was able to peer over the tops of distant trees well enough he could see part of the horse farm. Scanning with his binoculars, he could make out people, looking like little ants, working in the fields. Everything appeared normal and peaceful. He still wasn’t satisfied, but that’s all he could see from his position.

Nate climbed down and put on his load bearing harness and then slipped his pack on.

Deni regarded him from ten yards away. “Well, what did you see?”

Nate grabbed his rifle and checked the safety on it again. “Looks normal from here. People are working in the fields. The house is still there and the horse stalls. I couldn’t see the other buildings. We’ll have to move closer to get a better look.”

Deni raised an eyebrow. “That’s encouraging.” She smiled. “Nice of you to finally let me in on it.”

He acted as if he hadn’t heard a thing she said. “Let’s get moving. Real easy and slow.”

She looked up at the sky for a second and had a strange smile on her face. “When you’re worried, you become really hard to get through to.”

He had already taken several steps. After stopping and looking over his shoulder, he grunted, “Huh?”

She tilted her head and regarded him for a few seconds. “I said you shouldn’t talk so much. We’re trying to be tactical and stealthy here.”

Nate looked at her like she was crazy for a second, shook his head, and started walking again.

~~~

Children played on the front porch and under the wide oaks in the front yard. From his hiding position 300 yards away, Nate scanned the scene through his binoculars. “I can’t believe it, but everything looks normal.” He handed Deni the binoculars. “Take a look.”

“I can hear children laughing and playing.” Deni took the binoculars and saw exactly what Nate had just described. She swung her attention back to the front porch and froze for two seconds as she peered through the binoculars. “Mrs. MacKay just walked out of the house onto the porch. She’s alive.”

“Injured?” Nate asked.

“I can’t see any wound dressings. She seems a little stiff when she moves, but it could be mostly her advanced age and the ordeal she’s been through.” Deni handed Nate the binoculars.