Tent City (28 page)

“How did you do that? It was trashed.” Is there no end to his abilities?

“It wasn’t really that hard. It just took some time.”

Anger is gone and washed fresh with hope and excitement. This was the last thing I had to tie me to my dad.

“I don’t know what to say, Jack. I mean, I should be mad you messed with my stuff, but I can’t bring myself to be.”

“Then don’t be.” He smiles and fidgets with his jacket.

Bentley is shouting at Jack to load up and I finally feel a sense of real panic. I think up until now, I didn’t really think they were going. Or maybe I did, but I told myself it was just another raid.

“Jack, don’t go.” There I’ve done it. I’ve done what I said I wouldn’t.

“I was hoping you would say that,” he says, smiling.

“So you’ll stay? Maybe you can get Bentley to stay too. Maybe we can just figure something else out. We need more time. Time to figure out a better plan…”

“Stop,” he says. “I never said I was going to stay, I just said I wanted you to ask. Thank you. That actually means a lot to me, but I gotta go. Don’t worry, everything’s gonna work out as it should. Take care of that brother of yours.”

He bends over and barely brushes his lips across my cheeks.

“See ya soon.”

And like that, they’re gone. I put the letter in my pocket where it burns and itches to be read. I hold off. I want to have a quiet spot to myself. I’ve wondered for so long what was in the letter. Now I finally have the chance to find out.

I don’t deserve Jack… or Bentley for that matter. They are both so good. And if I admit it, I’m just selfish. All I have seemed to care about is me and Brody. They both are always giving so much of themselves to everyone else, not thinking about the consequences they have to bear. Their mother must have been some woman.

They have ridden off and Kit has holed herself up in Grant’s tent. I try to console her, but she seems to just want to be alone. So I leave her lying on the tent floor, clutching Grant’s sweatshirt close to her face. Her sobs are muffled and it echoes in my head as I exit the tent.

Next I say good-night to Jess and the kids. She asks if Brody can spend the night with Avery and I consent. Truthfully, I would like to be alone too.

I grab the lantern and head into my tent. I tidy it up, stalling for some reason.

Finally, when no pine needle is out of place, I sit and open the letter. It’s actually quite long and the full weight of how much work it probably was to restore hits me. Okay, Dad, time to see what you had to say.

I unfold it and take in the scent of bleach. Jack must have used it to clean the mold off. He has gotten it to a remarkable condition, considering I had accepted it as shreds of nothing.

Sure it doesn’t look perfect; it’s got some gobs of glue and scraps of tape, but it’s sitting there staring me in the face, begging to be read. I exhale, realizing I have been holding my breath. My heart is beating so hard I can feel it in my throat.

The first thing I notice is Dad’s handwriting. Jack has been careful to preserve the gentle curves of every letter that represent his penmanship. It makes me horribly homesick. But enough procrastinating.

Dear Dani,

I hope this letter finds you and your brother well. I also hope you don’t find it until you are well on your way. I’m afraid after what I tell you, you will turn around and come home and quite frankly, that’s the last place I want you to be. I struggle to say what I’m about to say, but as you are out on your own, it’s probably best you have gotten all the information I’ve kept from you for years. Understand that it’s not easy for me to say this. First of all, I want you to know that you and Brody mean absolutely everything to your mother and me, as well as did your brother Drake.

Dani, when your brother died, it was the hardest thing we ever had to go through and I don’t suppose we will ever get over it, or that it will ever stop hurting.

What’s worse though, is that we actually think he was killed. Although it appeared he died of the flu, we later learned he was probably murdered.

I know that seems hard to believe, but based on some information we got from your uncle, it appears as if Drake and the others who died that year were probably poisoned. We think he was the only one affected because of how much time he spent in town. You preferred to spend most of your hours on the farm, a fact that I will always be grateful for.

Drake must have been exposed to more of the food in town, as that is where most of the food that was poisoned was distributed. Remember how you thought it was strange that the year that everyone died, they were all people from town? You were so sharp even back then.

We’ve have racked our brains trying to figure out the why of it and the best we could come up with was that maybe whoever’s in charge didn’t want to be responsible for feeding so many people after the food shortages. Maybe that same someone wanted to look like a hero when he saved the day, taking care of those who were left.

There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t wish I could go back and protect him somehow, but the truth is that there’s no changing the past. The only thing I can do now is try and protect you and Brody.

Now there is one more thing I need to tell you and it’s extremely important that you follow my instructions. I didn’t tell you this earlier because I knew you wouldn’t leave.

It’s likely that The Council is going to figure out that you are on the run and they will probably arrest your mother and me. I tried to force your mother to go with you, but she refused, thinking that by being here, she could buy you some more time. God, how that woman loves you. Now that you are gone, you must never return home. Please do this for us. We have accepted our possible fate and the only thing we can’t live with is the idea of you and Brody being captured. The Council is not something to be taken lightly. Burke and his people are never to be trusted. Don’t underestimate them. Ever.  Please put your safety above all else.

Stay safe and stay smart.

Love Always,

Dad

P.S. Destroy this after you read it.

I’m stunned. I find myself thinking back to the insects drawn to the bug zapper. They must have been so excited to see the light. They were drawn to it by a promise of something good. They fly gleefully to the radiance knowing that this is where they are meant to be. Then before they know it, their world ends and it’s all over.
 

Time is standing still, waiting for me to process.  The cicadas outside have stopped singing. The moon has stopped shining. The wind has stopped blowing. I hear nothing. I see nothing. I feel nothing. How could they do this to me?

Three nights have passed since Jack and Bentley left. They’re dead. I’m sure of it. Why else would they not be here? I know Jack would come back for me. He would find a way. He always has.

If they’re not dead, they’ve been captured and they might as well be dead. Knowing what I know now, Burke really is a monster.

But Jack said their dad was kind of high up in The Council, so maybe he’ll go easy on them. But who is to say that their dad is even around anymore. We can’t be sure of anything.

I haven’t told Kit my plans, but I’m preparing to leave. I don’t know where to go, but the day after I read the letter, I knew I had to get to town to try and find out more information.

I have to call Uncle Randy. It’s dangerous, but maybe I can figure out a safe way to do it. I have to know if Mom and Dad are okay.

Beth died on the second night. Kit was with her when it happened. I couldn’t bring myself to stay with her. The air smelled of putrid stench; death, lingering where it wasn’t wanted, uninvited. I know when it happened though, because Kit ran out crying. She went deep into the woods and didn’t return until the sun rose the next morning.

We haven’t seen an infected animal in over 24 hours and I take it as a sign that maybe they’ve gone.

Brody has gone on unaffected. He wonders where Jack is, but he is more than happy to play with Avery. It’s the bright spot in camp for me. He’s flourishing.

His cheeks glow pink with life and I find myself resentful Mom’s not here to see him. She must be sick with longing for him.

The only one I’ve told of my trip to town is Jessica so she can look after Brody while I’m gone. I go to bed early, as to rise early. I’ve got everything packed on one of the wheelers and if I hadn’t been up so early, I might not have seen it coming.

Grant’s training also comes in. “Listen for everything,” I hear him whisper in memory. That’s when I hear the leaves rustling in a way that is more than just a wandering mule deer. I’ve got goose bumps on every inch of my body and the hair on the back of my neck is standing at attention, but my sense of fear is running thin.

My first thought is that the guys are back, but I don’t hear the wheelers, just creeping footsteps. I quickly search for Bentley’s night vision binoculars he left with me. It takes me what feels like minutes to get them focused, but is really probably more like seconds.

After a bit of frantic scanning, I catch my first glimpse of one of them. They are dressed in black and have mud on their faces. Just like the guys from the raid I was on.

Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic.

What am I going to do without Bentley or Grant here? This is their department. I can’t shout for everyone to wake, it would cause mayhem. Or can I? At least give them a fighting shot? But what if they are only here to spy? What if waking everyone up would only cause the fight?

I’m still struggling with what I should do when the men in black with muddied faces don’t give me a choice. They are rushing in, intent still unclear, but definitely hostile.

I can see most of them are armed. And I do the only thing I think I can. I start yelling at the top of my lungs for everyone to get up and get ready.

I run over to Callie’s cabin and wake her and start fumbling around under Bentley’s bed because I know this is where he keeps his weapons. Damn, why didn’t they train me with these? I hear screaming and fighting going on outside, so I shove the weapons back under the bed. I search for something else and I settle for a bat. It’s not really a bat, more like a small oar. It will have to do.

I want to run over to Jessica’s cabin and protect it with everything I got, but I don’t make it. I’m met with my first victim as soon as I exit the cabin. Callie is handling herself with grace and has opted for a hand gun. Hopefully, she knows how to use it.

I say victim because that’s kind of what happens. The first one goes down in one blow as I crack the oar across his skull. I didn’t know I had it in me, but when I think of someone coming near Brody, something takes over me and I just keep swinging.

I am ducking and weaving when they fire shots at me. I have a near miss as a bullet whizzes past my ear and I vow to search quicker, move faster.

From the looks of it, most of the Tent City residents are staying inside to avoid the mess, but not all of them. We are giving them a good fight.

I go on autopilot, using every move Grant ever taught me and take down one after another. It’s total pandemonium and I just keep going. It feels almost like I’m in a movie. Everything is in slow motion and hyper-speed at the same time. I’m taking it all in.

I block out the sounds that are unnecessary and zero in on the ones I need. I’m sure they all meant to wear black to keep themselves unseen, but all it does is make them easy targets for me. I see color and I move on. Black, and I’m coming for you.

From what I can tell in the haze, Jonah is armed with a rifle. Callie is armed with her pistol. I’ve got my oar and there at least a half dozen others who have come out to contribute. The guys in black who come in seem disoriented. Maybe we have an advantage of knowing camp.

But at the same time, I know we are suffering causalities, as I vaguely register there are bodies on the ground. But I don’t care, I just keep swinging. I have swung so many times and connected so many times that the oar is now broken into pieces and I’m forced with hand to hand combat. I try to ignore the oar as I notice it’s no longer tan, but red.