The Fight
Wednesday was an incredibly long day. I barely had my head in my work and I wondered if everyone else felt the butterflies that had taken root in my stomach in theirs. I wondered how the others were taking the information to their contacts in each group. I wondered if now that it was go time, were the people that talked about wanting to leave actually going to do it, or were they a member of the “complain about it but don't do anything about it” club. I felt eyes on me all the time and I wondered if there was something in my eyes that was giving away all my secrets. I never did develop a decent poker face and I was terrified that the words were all over my face and the secrets were screaming out in neon with every smile. At the end of the day, I was immensely relieved that this was my last shift at the center, grateful that my schedule had me off on go-day anyway. As I walked out, I hoped that I taught the girls well. I thought about the potential traumas that would be coming into the center after the escape went through, and I worried over the idea that I hadn't shared enough for them to patch up the wounded. I hoped I had. The medical center was bound to be a busy place tomorrow.
When I got back to our quarters I let out a sigh of relief, no one had come to me at work to make an example out of me. All the nervous energy that had been building up had me bouncing around picking up stuff from our area. I regarded what we were going to leave behind. I thought about how safe it had been even with living with a knife at our throats. We were giving up a known set of dangers for an unknown set.
When the guys got back from their shift, we set to preparing the cars for a bug out, taking care to have it seem that we were doing general maintenance. Trent took Drew with him to make it look like a father/son bonding moment, showing him how to read a dipstick. Tyreese followed Trent's lead by grabbing Liam. They made sure that the bus, the mini-van, and the SUV were ready to go. They topped off the tanks and checked the oil and coolant levels. I had been worried that there had been some sort of sabotage on our vehicles but found no evidence of any foul play. We double checked that the bed box and all of our supplies were just the way we left them. We pulled out more of the guns and stashed them strategically in the bus.
Over dinner we discussed the plan for the next day. I smiled before I started the speech I had put together in my head over and over.
"We are going to take advantage of the minimum work day they have on Thursdays. The guys are going to bring home some of the weapons they have been building, but most of the resources that were built are going to arm the others. We are going to have to rely heavily on the stuff we brought in.
"Now the main part of this plan is that we are going to take Todd and Will hostage after we set off our signal. Matt is going to come with me as my back up, while DaWayne and Tyreese are the muscles behind the hostage situation. As it turns out, Brother Michael is a bit of a racist, not in the hate way, but the scared way, which I find funny as hell. Here he is, a man who communes with God, but doesn't have a brain in his head when it comes to people.
"Trent is going to stay back to look for the signal to roll out, which is going to be a bottle rocket that Will is going to give us right before we leave here. When that goes off, everyone needs to be in the vehicles to roll out to the gates. I want everyone to stay as low as possible so they aren't a target. I want the kids to be under the seats in the bus as much as possible so they are as protected as they can get. I want the teens to be armed but still low. Lucas will be taking over the SUV to get it going and Tanya will be the driver for the mini-van.
"I think this will be relatively safe. The risks are there, but overall the residents here are unarmed. The real risk is going to come from the guards who are loyal to the place, and they most certainly are armed. The guards directly on gate duty are sympathetic to our cause. I don't know if they are going to leave as well, but they are going to step aside and let us out. The only way we are getting out that gate is if we have someone unlock it, and there are only three people in the compound that have that power. This is why we have Will and Todd ready to play hostage, we are hoping that it will be enough to sway Michael to open the gates himself, but I am not counting on it. Will says he rigged up a plan that in the worst case he will blow a hole in the gate for us to get out, but we all agreed that this is not what we want to do as a primary exit strategy. There may be gunfire, I hope not, but it might happen. Be alert to everything." I took inventory of the looks on everyone's faces after my little speech. It was the best plan we had to go with and I read that in the eyes of everyone else. I was really counting on the power of the many to sway the events that were about to happen.
That night when we all bunked down for bed I tossed and turned instead of getting any sleep. Trent did the same. After a while the sheer exhaustion of the day caught up with me and I fell into a fitful sleep ripe with dreams about the apartment complex and what could happen tomorrow. The worst dream was one of God floating down to squish us all for wanting out.
We went about our morning as though nothing was different, knowing that we were still being monitored. The guys went off to work. I was so happy that the shops closed up at noon on Thursdays, probably why Will chose it, so they would be home soon. I didn't want to be alone today.
When they got back we had only hours to go before the showdown. I was tense and worried about what we were going to face.
As the clock approached 3:00 PM, Trent pulled the string of firecrackers out of the bag and stared at them. "Well, 'the time has come, the walrus said.' It's time to get this show on the road. Cali, I want you to know that I love you very much. I hate that you are the one to have to do this. I wish I had taught you how to drive the bus so I could go to negotiate instead of you. I'm scared of sending you out in the line of fire."
"I know, hon. I don't like this either. It's the best thing we can do though." I replied. I wrapped my arms around him and held him close for a moment. "I love you."
Trent whispered back, "I love you too." Neither one of us wanted to entertain the thought that there wasn't a guarantee that this was going to be our last chance to see each other. "Alright. It's go time." Trent fished the lighter from his pocket and went outside to the side of the building that wasn't in the line of sight of the security guys. I knew he lit the fuse when there was a rapid fire of cracks and booms that erupted close by. Within moments we heard the sound of feet running to us and the door swung open to allow the runners to come in. Todd and Will breezed in. Will grinned. "Easy as pie so far. Let's go."
They tossed their weapons to DaWayne and Tyreese and grinned. Todd added the off-handed comment, "There's no other time I would ever give up my gun like this. Good thing I have a spare." He lifted his shirt to show the hand gun tucked in his waist band. We all laughed which helped to burn off that bubbling over anxiety. Will handed Tyreese the bottle rockets and a lighter which he dropped into a pocket in his pants.
DaWayne and Tyreese got into position next to their captives. Matt and I took point. We marched the group over to the house that Brother Michael was in, only a few blocks away from what became our home.
Brother Michael lived in a moderate sized home at the end of a cul-de-sac that was mostly vacant. Bart and Roy were the other two residents. This street was a couple blocks from the main gate, which was visible from the end of the street, and was probably chosen for that reason. The house was set back on the property with a wide green lawn standing between the street and the front door. With such a stretch of space, sneaking up on them was going to be a trick. It had been a pretty house. It was off white with a deep chocolate brown colored trim. Rose bushes were arranged in rows under the windows. They needed to be trimmed but even so, red blooms started to open showing a splash of color. The lawn took advantage of the warm weather and had grown in, almost erasing the winter destroyed brown patches. It needed to be mowed at some point, which I imagined was on the to-do list since Bart's already was. We walked quietly over the grass to the front door.
I knocked loudly and clearly on the door. It was a satisfying sound, a solid thud against the solid oak. We could see someone through the frosted decorative glass that sat on either side of the door. Bart was the one who opened the door, and his eyes registered surprise when he saw us on the other side. His look of astonishment turned to irritation when he finished taking in the scene before him and learned that the people outside had his men at gunpoint. His irritation turned into anger when he realized the guns that were pointed at the security guys were the same kind of guns that were issued to the security team.
"Really? Not only did your dumb asses get captured, but your guns got taken away from you as well?"
"Bart, move it. We're here to see Brother Michael, not you." I said with a snark. He looked at me like I had lost my mind for talking to him like that. We pushed through the door and past him to the living room. We heard voices coming from the den, so we strode past the living room to where the sounds were coming from.
The people in the room were arranged in a circle with Brother Michael, sitting with his legs crossed Indian style in a green chair at the farthest seat from the door. His eyes sparkled with life and his face was animated as he lectured the group. "God is with us in everything. He was working through the demons to make the world simple again. We all lived such a life of decadence that we were lost. We had all become the rich man that the Bible warned us about, we were trying to shove a camel through the eye of the needle. We aren't anymore. We have returned..."
Brother Michael stopped short when he looked up to the door where we stood. He looked at Matt and then to me. He smiled warmly and asked, "So are you finally ready to hear what God wanted you to know?" I looked at him with irritation. Matt and I stepped through the doorway and revealed the people standing behind us. Will and Todd tried to look sheepish as they stood with the guns pointed at them.
"What do we have here?" Brother Michael asked, a tone of anxiety colored his question. He was not expecting to see guns and hostages in his house. Tyreese and DaWayne were hamming up their role as hostage taking thugs.
"Well, you're the all-seeing prophet. You tell us." Matt said flippantly.
"Brother Michael," I began, "we intend to leave today. We are asking that you unlock the gate. I ask this nicely and calmly, because I don't want to see anyone hurt. I really don't." I made sure my tone read that we would do whatever it took if it came down to it though.
From the corner of my eye I saw someone stand up from where they were seated. It was Jody. "Cali? What are you doing here? Why are you doing this?"
I knew that she was at the house with him but I still felt a sinking feeling when I saw her. It was easier when the whole out of sight thing was going on. Seeing her there reminded me about her choices. I felt my heart fall when she crossed the room to stand with Brother Michael instead of us.
"We are done, Jody. We are tired of having our choices made for us by this guy." I nodded in the direction of Brother Michael. "We want the choice to leave. So do a group of others." With that I figured this was as good a time as any to set off our signal. I motioned to Tyreese to pull out the bag with the bottle rockets inside and he handed them to Matt. He took the bag like it was a baton in a relay race and went out the front door to light the bottle rocket to signal the others. I heard the scream of the rockets from outside followed by the sound of footsteps in a light jog, and Matt came back to where the stand-off was happening.
"Well, I can't do that. God sent you here to me to add your knowledge to the group and to be part of the whole. I prayed for a trained medical person to come and you showed up. God gave you to me. I don't discard gifts from God."
"Maybe God did send me. I taught your medical staff here how to do stuff so they can carry out consistent good care. Isn't it possible that that was all God wanted? You are not going to hold us here like caged animals anymore."
A walkie-talkie squawked to life in a burst of static. When the static cleared a voice came over the radio. "Alpha One, alpha one. Do you copy? Residents on the move to the gate."
Bart fumbled a walkie out of his pants pocket. "This your people acting out?" He asked Matt.
Matt smiled and said, "Nope. Not acting out. Getting out."
"Hold them." Bart hissed into the radio, anger dripping off each syllable.
"I'm not going to open it," Brother Michael said to us, "you are staying. The sooner you get used to that the better you will feel. Maybe if you were to come to Bible study or pray on it you'd be more accepting of everything."
Matt strode across the room, pulled a gun out from behind his back where it was held in place by the waist band of his jeans, and put the gun to Brother Michael's head, which shocked and scared all the other people in the room. Matt leaned close to Brother Michael's face and whispered, "Remember in the Bible when the Pharaoh kept refusing to let Moses and his people go? There was a whole world of hurt that rained down on them. Come see the amount of people that want out of your Egypt, Mr. Pharaoh man." Matt put his hand on Brother Michael's back and pushed him forward and out the door. With this new development of Brother Michael being under the gun the dynamics of the room changed. Bart was getting more and more irritated and Michael seemed to unravel. His face began to have several twitches and he seemed to be hearing voices that he didn't like. When he was pushed to the end of the street and saw the gate and the line of people in their cars to leave, Michael began to start yelling. He was standing in the yard of the house on the end of the street that had a dirt lot where the front yard had been. He had an excellent view of the gate and the line of cars at the end with our bus planted right in the middle.