Chapter 5

I was put between Thom in the lead, and Sam in the back. We were walking very quickly, almost running. I guessed we maintained this pace for a solid hour, we'd slow down for a bit then speed back up. The sun was peeking over the mountains when Thom said it was safe to stop. We were on the top of a bluff. I looked down over the edge, all I could see was pine forest. Thom darted off into the trees, I just stood there, using the gun hooked to me as a floating arm rest. Thom reappeared a minute later with another case. He opened it and produced a few coils of rope. I watched him fasten a couple to his harness, then he tied one end off, and tossed it over the edge after scouting a bit.

"Here's what is going to happen, there's a small cave about 100ft down, it's about 1/3 the way down, we're going to spend a few there and then get back on move."

I looked over the edge again, it was a long long way down. I gulped. Thom handed me a little piece of aluminum that looked like an 8, and a couple D rings he called carabiners. He gave me the crash course in rappelling. I was freaking out. He strapped himself to the rope and disappeared over the edge.

The only sound I heard was the creak of the tree that the rope was tied to. I looked at Samantha, she smiled a reassuring smile at me. My heart was racing. "I can't do it" I gasped, moving towards the rope, it had just gotten really slack, no more weight on it.

"You'll be fine" Samantha said, she checked to make sure I was strapped in properly. "Just remember, hold this behind your butt and walk down the rocks. It's easy."

I backed towards the edge. The heels of the boots lost the sensation of hard ground. My face was pale white, I could see myself in Sam's big blue eyes.

"Just sit down" She said, "Feel the rope hold you and it'll be a lot easier."

I sat down, the rope went fully taught and I swayed side to side.

"Now just let the rope out slowly, and Thom will catch you."

"How will I know how far I have to go?" I asked frantically.

"It's about 40 strides as you'll be going." She said

I gulped hard and started feeding rope.

"One more thing, don't feed it too fast or you'll burn the glove and your hand, these aren't leather gloves, just take it slow and easy." She said, she sat on the edge and watched me disappear into the shadowy depths.

I counted off eight strides, I discovered I could only move the lower half of my legs. Then I realized she had long legs, so it would probably be fifty or sixty strides for me. I sighed and focused on feeding the rope nice and slow. I was thankful it was still dark, I thought if I looked down, I'd panic and probably fall to my death some 300 feet down. Inch by inch, I descended the distance. It took an agonizingly long time, eventually, I heard Thom say "Swing left about four feet' that's right, just jump to the left"

I complied, and then I didn't feel anything. Then a hand grabbed my ankle.

"Let the rope out and I'll pull you in." He said. I did as instructed, once I was safely in, I embraced him tightly, I was so happy to be alive.

"Told you it was easy" He joked. The line started flapping and a few minutes later, Samantha swung in. She had another line tied loosely, she jerked this one really hard and the rope untied from above and fell down past the hole. She quickly pulled the line in. I looked around, all I could see was darkness.

"So what now?" I asked

"Well, there's some provisions here, but not much, just some bottled water and some power bars, once you're calmed down and we have a little more light, we're going to drop the rest of the way down and get moving."

"Where are we going?" I asked

Thom shrugged. "To secure transportation first, can't run the risk of them knowing who we are, if they don't know already." He fished around in his pocket and handed me an envelope. I opened it, the picture of my dad and his friends was there. I beamed a smile. He handed me a Ziploc baggie for it all, and I made sure the picture was nice and sealed, then I stuck it in my breast pocket.

I felt my way to the back of the hole, it was about eight feet deep, and it had a musty scent. I sat down and pulled my knees up to my chest and started sobbing softly. I didn't want to make a commotion. I could hear them talking by the mouth of the hole, Sam was coiling the rope, Thom was uncoiling another section. I watched them intently, wondering how we were going to get down. Thom moved to the wall and pulled something out. He jammed it into a crack and tugged sharply down. He repeated the process on the other side, he had to come back near where I was sitting to access the right crevice. He strung a rope between these and tested it, then he sat down and Sam sat with him. I could hear her crying, I was pretty sure he was crying to. I felt so bad. I was completely useless.

"We can separate if you want" I said "I feel like I'm only going to slow you down"

"No Courtney" Samantha said flatly, "You won't last long, you will stay with us."

I nodded in the dark, I felt like I was going to get them killed, they were calm and collected. I was a complete mess. I sobbed softly while I watched them hold each other.

"Should we go fight?" I asked eventually

"No, we're out numbered fifty to one" Thom said, his voice was broken. Knowing they were emotional made me more emotional. I felt the frog in my throat grow bigger again. I coughed to keep myself from screaming out in anger.

I saw Samantha get up. She walked back to me and reached up. I heard the sound of metal catches being undone and a small bag was released from the wall. She opened the zipper and handed me a bottle of water and a couple wrapped bars.

"Sorry, these are probably a year old" She said sorrowfully, apologetically like she wanted to do better but couldn't.

I took them graciously. I opened one and took a bite, it tasted like a chocolate brownie. The small rectangular mass didn't feel like a brownie though. I pocketed the other one though. I downed the water and went to sit with the couple. Samantha looked broken, her face was soft and her body slouched against Thom's. I sat next to Samantha and rested my head on her right arm, her angle prevented me from resting my head on her shoulder. The three of us sat like that for what seemed like ever. Thom whispered "Time to go" eventually.

Thom stood up and checked his ropes again. He tosses a big coil out the opening and then he gave Samantha a long kiss. He attached himself to the rope and disappeared into the trees below. Samantha and I looked down after him. I felt horribly sick again, looking down to the tree tops wasn't doing my nerves much good.

"Your turn" Samantha said. She squeezed my hand and hooked me to the rope. I took a long deep breath and sat against the opening, my butt hung over the three hundred foot drop. She smiled at me, and I stepped out. The first jaunt to the little hole was terrifying, but this was a whole new level. I looked up the rock face, Samantha's face eventually disappeared as I went over a small bump. I looked down, I was a few feet above the tree tops. I kept going, slow but sure and I descended into the trees.

I worked my way all the way down, my stomach was clenched the whole way down. Once my feet hit the ground, I panted heavily.

"You good?" Thom asked, he was kneeling and scanning around.

"I think so"

"Okay, first give the rope a good shake, then take ten steps to the right and kneel, then listen and watch for movement." Thom said quietly

I nodded in the shadow and moved over after giving the rope a good shake. I glanced around, everything was cast in early morning shadows. I couldn't see much but my eyes adjusted eventually. Samantha joined us a minute later.

Her equipment made a "zzzzzzzzzzz" sound and then I heard a muted thud as her boots hit and she fell back on her butt. I assumed this was to cushion the landing.

"Under a normal circumstance I'd want to do that again, and again" She said quietly while she unclipped herself. They just left the rope dangling there. Thom tapped my shoulder and I followed him. Samantha took up ranks behind me. We were moving through the trees along the slope.

"Why don't we go down into the valley?" I whispered

"Too exposed" Thom replied over his shoulder.

The sun came fully up as we walked, it illuminated the still barren landscape in an even light. I looked around like Thom and Samantha were doing, but to my unpracticed eyes, everything looked the same. After a couple hours of walking, Thom pointed to his left, a small trail ran across our route and we took the trail. I was told it was a game trail, Elk most likely. I didn't really say anything, the gravity of the situation was starting to weigh heavily on me again. My chest tightened, but I kept hiking along, occasionally tripping on an exposed rut, rock, or getting my foot caught in one of the many small crevices that dotted the rough trail.

"You're doing fine" I heard the voice over my shoulder. "Just don't think right now, all we need to do now is get distance between them and us, that's all. We'll figure out what to do later, right now just focus on walking."

I brushed a rogue bunch of hair from my face and took a deep breath. It was hard for me, the altitude wasn't something I was used to. We were climbing again. We'd come down a long ways, but now we were definitely climbing another mountain. The grade had steepened considerably. I felt very uneasy with my footing.

As the sun passed over head, we summited a small mountain. Thom told me to take a break on a small outcrop that was about ten feet down the mountain on the side facing away from where we'd come from. He made it very clear that sitting atop the mountain would get me shot by any sniper that was in the area. I agreed that wouldn't be a good thing, so I more or less fell against the biggest rock and slithered down, completely exhausted.

I watched Samantha and Thom consult a map, I wondered what other tricks they had up their sleeves, I guessed Thom had gone through some sort of mountain training, he was pointing several things out as we went along. Things like poop, he just glanced at it and could tell what critter it came from. He pointed to various plants and told me its nutritional content. I was told that if worst came to worst, we'd spend a week going in a zig-zag pattern laying distractions to throw any pursuers off our scent. I didn't think that sounded fun.

"Hey hun" Samantha said, she knelt beside me. I must have dozed off because one minute she was several feet away and the next she was right beside me.

"Hi" I sighed

"You doing alright?" She asked, her stern voice resonated every bone in me.

"I'll be fine." I said

"Okay, if the pace is too much, just say something. We've walked these woods for the better part of two years, we're much more acclimated than you are."

I just nodded, too tired to do much else.

"We gotta get going, we need to get to lower altitudes before it gets too dark, no cover from the elements up here." She said, her voice changed a bit to more of a comradely tone, as if she was trying to will a fighting spirit into me.

"Okay" I said softly. She grabbed my harness and hoisted me up. I spent a second stretching out. The sun was at a different angle. I had slept for a little bit. "How long did I sleep for?"

She shrugged, "An hour? It's okay though, we had to do some planning'" I of course interpreted this as "thank you for staying out of the way." I smiled faintly.

Thom hopped up, he had too much energy. I couldn't remember ever walking and climbing this much in one day. I just wanted to sleep. We started down a rocky game trail, it was much more tricky than I thought it would be. My feet kept sliding on loose gravel and I'd end up on my butt, feeling quite frustrated. I pushed myself up each time and kept going. Neither Thom nor Samantha seemed to have any trouble with the terrain. I sighed again, I was slowing them down. I knew it.

Gradually the vegetation picked up. Pine trees made up all I could see all around me. Thom was using the sun as a guide, he'd glance up ever so often and then adjust his course. I wondered how that worked.

"There's a highway down here somewhere" He said "Maybe three miles"

I just stumbled along. The little gun on my chest bounced along, and the handgun clipped to my chest under it clattered against the magazine. I had cached the MP5 ammunition in a zippered pocket.

We caught sight of the highway an hour later. We saw a clearing ahead, and then that opened into a field which stretched down to a two lane road. A red roofed building was between us and the road.

"Okay" Thom whispered, "We're going to see if anyone is in that house"

I looked at him like he was crazy. "We're gonna get shot!"

"I don't think so" Thom said "Most people out here let you explain yourself before they shoot you." He smiled. "Back home though..."

"Where do you want me?" I asked

"Bring up the rear, Sam and I will do the talking." He said, and with that, he took Samantha's hand and they started walking across the clear cut. I followed behind them. My stomach lurched, I was deathly afraid of getting shot. My eyes darted left and right, and I'd turn around occasionally.

We got within 100 steps of the house when we heard a motor racing. I froze paralyzed in fear as a truck came hurtling over the rocky ground. It skidded to a stop about 10 paces from us and three guys hopped out of the back. They all had big scary guns, and they were pointed right at Thom and Samantha.

"YOU COME OUT WHERE WE CAN SEE YOU" one of them shouted. Thom turned around slowly and nodded at me. I took half steps around beside Samantha, the muzzle of the guns looked huge. I saw the trigger fingers, pressed tight to the triggers. I felt water streaming down my face. I sniffled loudly and wiped my nose with my shirt. Samantha looked down at me, I could feel her cold blue eyes on my head.

Another man got out of the truck, he'd been sitting there watching this ordeal play out. He came around and placed himself between the middle guy with a rifle and us. He looked over at me, weeping quietly and then at Thom and Sam.

"Your daughter, I presume?"

Samantha nodded

"She looks terrified, so I doubt you're thieves, whaddya want?" he asked

"Shelter for tonight" Thom said

"Can ya fix tractors?" The man asked

"In exchange for a place to sleep and maybe a meal, I'll try to fix anything for you." Thom said, his voice sounded eager. I resisted the urge to look up, I could still feel the gun pointed at my head and the last thing I wanted was to freak out more.

"Put'cha guns down boys." The man said finally, I heard snicks as the safeties were reengaged. I took a deep breath. I heard foot steps and the old guy came right over to me. He placed his hand on my shoulder and I flinched, his hand didn't move. "It's alright" he said. "We're not gonna hurtcha'" He moved down to Thom and stuck his hand out. "Name's Melvin, welcome to my farm."

Thom pulled his glove off and grasped the man's hand. "I'm Thomas, this is my wife Samantha, and the little one there is Courtney, thank you for your hospitality."

"Fix my tractor and you've got yourself a roof." Melvin said with what I could only see as a determined grin.

Thom shook firmly, we climbed in the truck with the three boys. They eyed us curiously. I wondered how many people just walked out of the woods dressed as soldiers. I guessed not many. I looked at their faces, they looked at me in turn. I could see anxiety in all their faces, stress ... eagerness to talk, and elation. It was an odd combination.

"Hi" I said, breaking the silence. They just smiled at me and hopped over the side of the truck when it stopped. We were shown to a barn. It reminded me a little of the barn I'd slept in. I walked around and noticed the flag pole. High atop the pole, a crisp star spangled banner lapped in the wind, right below it, a red flag with an emblem lapped.

"Hey Thom, what's that other flag for?" I asked

He looked over, "Marines."

"Cool" I said, committing it to memory. It seemed like I'd known that at one time, but had forgotten.

We were shown to a fleet of farm equipment. A large toolbox sat next to a tractor.

"She won't start, dem boys been tinkerin but they made it worse."

Thom snorted. "Well, it's no C130, but let's have a look."

"You military?" Melvin asked

"Used to be Air Force, washed out in the 90s." Thom replied

"Well ****, I was in the Marines myself, nothing too fancy, fond memories of the bus drivers." He winked. Thom smiled and looked things over.

"Engine's flooded for starters" Thom said. He pulled the top half of the harness off and hung the guns and his jacket within easy reach. Then he used a ratchet to open the cylinders, and then he used a suction hose to pull out excess fuel. "The fuel was hydrolocking the motor" he said, "Why were they working on it?"

"Wanted to make it go faster I guess, I said it worked fine, but boys will be boys, ya know?"

Thom sighed, a pained expression crossed his face. He nodded. I climbed up on another piece of equipment and watched.

"So this is your daughter?" Melvin asked, glancing up at me.

Samantha smiled, "Adopted" she said.

Melvin nodded. "I was gonna say hair colors wrong for two brown haired folk." I just smiled as sweetly as I could. Thom was busily wrenching away, Samantha was watching and helping as needed. Melvin was watching them, and I was watching everything.

"MELVIN!!" A voice hollered out.

"Aw ****" Melvin sighed. "Yep dear!?" he hollered back.

"Ya'll chicken is gonna burn!" She yelled.

Melvin sighed as old men do. "I'll be back" He said, he glanced around and walked out of the shed. I heard a rustle and noticed one of the boys standing behind some equipment. He was holding his gun and watching us. I caught his eye and smiled. He looked away.

"I'll be back" I told Samantha, she just nodded. I walked over to where the boy was standing. He looked to be a year or two older than me.

"Hi, I'm Courtney" I said, holding out my gloved hand.

"Darrel" he replied. "You have pretty eyes."

I blushed a little. "Thank you ... do you live here?"

"My dad's farm." He replied. "Old man is a whip cracker, you know what I mean?"

"You have no idea." I said, smiling.

"Do you shoot as good as you look?" He asked.

I shrugged. I didn't think the clothes were that flattering, and I really wasn't used to being hit on. "Not really" I said finally.

"Would your parents be okay with us shooting out back?" He asked, I could see in his face he was eager to get me to where he could talk to me without others hearing.

"I'll go ask" I said. I wandered back over to Samantha and Thom. "That guy, Darrel, I think he wants to talk to me for some reason, can you watch over us ' I kinda don't feel safe and I get the feeling you know how to stay out of sight" I said to Samantha. She smiled at me and hugged me.

"You might be okay at this after all, I'll stay back, just don't use your gun ... we haven't got a lot of bullets." She said, Thom nodded.

I walked back over and he led me out to the other side of the property. There were several "T"s made of thick lumber, little plates of steel hung from them.

"Can I use one of your guns?" I asked when we got there. "I don't have a lot of ammunition for mine and we're gonna be doing a lot of traveling still."

He shrugged and eagerly handed his AR15 over. I pulled the charging handle back a little and saw the brass in the chamber. I let it lock back forwards and I flipped the safety off. I shouldered the gun and lined the sights up on a piece of steel. Slowly, I squeezed off a shot.

TING! The small plate danced wildly on the small steel rope that held it. I heard foot steps, and the other two boys came down, carrying a variety of guns and a couple boxes. I guessed this was how they entertained themselves.

"Cant'cha shoot faster?" One of them asked

"Aww Aaron, let the girl have her fun'"

I smiled back at them and sighed. I took aim again and fired a couple quick shots. The first one hit the plate, and the second missed. Then I took aim at another plate, and repeated. This time both shots missed. I got frustrated and tried for a third plate. Both shots hit. I lowered the gun and turned the safety on. I handed it back to Darrel.

"Not bad" They said in turn.

"Now watch how a man shoots." Aaron said, he raised his own rifle and let out a long exaggerated breath. He let off a string of shots, several plates were dancing wildly. He let out another string of shots and the plates were dancing even more energetically. He nodded to Darrel, who stepped up and reloaded his rifle. He took aim and started shooting. These boys could really shoot. They never missed. I was in awe.

The quiet one was named Mike, unlike his brothers, he used a Glock pistol on the targets. He quickly went down the line, tapping each one with what he said was a 115gr love tap. I just watched in awe. I knew I wasn't anywhere near as good as these guys. Not even on my best day. His gun slide locked back empty and he stepped back. Samantha came over to use.

"Honey, daddy needs you." She said, she smiled at the three guys.

"Okay" I said

"You're not gonna shoot with us anymore?" They asked

"She cannot, sorry guys."

They sounded heart broken. Samantha made a grabby motion for the Glock 17, her body filled the uniform and her eyes penetrated poor Mike. He handed the gun over butt first. She loaded a round and aimed. She fired a series of shots off at the targets. They were dancing so wildly that for a solid second you couldn't make out that they were discs. The boys stood in shock, I stood in shock. She handed the gun back to Mike, who looked at his gun wondering how it was possible this mother outshot him. Samantha smiled at the three and put her arm around my shoulders.

"It's time to fire the tractor up." She said, "Plus ' no offense, but I think you should stay with us."

I felt a little disappointed but at the same time, I was happy to feel like someone cared about my well being. I smiled up at her. "Thank you" I whispered.

"Courtney, I don't say this to many people, but I do love you. I think Melissa would have been proud to see you as her older sister as she grew up."

I blushed and didn't know what to say. My heart raced at finally belonging with a family. Then it yearned for my own family once more.

"Will you help me find my parents?" I asked

"Of course" She said. "I wouldn't dream of letting you take such a journey alone."

I wrapped my arms around her side and hugged her as we walked. She pulled me in tight to her, I felt squished, she was really strong.

"Thank you" I said again.

"Go help Thom, you have small hands." She said, her professional voice came back. I sighed, no more feeling wanted, now I was back to being the helper.

"Fine" I said. I tried to smile but it came off as a grimace.

Ten minutes later, a plume of black smoke poured into the barn. The old tractor coughed to life and then we rolled it out under its own power. It sat bellowing smoke for what seemed like an eternity, then it stopped belching and just breathed. The engine sounded smooth. Melvin came out to his porch and gave a thumbs up. We had a home for the night.

New Hope

After we got the tractor running, we were ushered into the house and made to sit and eat. I pulled the upper half of the harness off and set the guns by my chair. I hung the green and khaki shirt on the back of the chair and munched idly in the base layer. After having worn the long sleeve shirt for the whole day, it felt weird to not have sleeves on. I stretched and then took my place. I looked around, the three boys were eying me. I untied my hair and let it rest naturally. I smiled and looked around.

Dinner was served, it was chicken, and it wasn't burnt as Melvin's wife feared. It was baked and it was very good. I ate my fill, we also had stuffing, and pineapples from a can. I ate my fill of pineapple too. I was ravenously hungry. I felt the eyes of the others on me as I devoured whatever people would put on my plate. Thom kept giving me these smiles and Samantha tried to match my pace. I didn't know how many calories I had torched running, but I was replacing them all tenfold.

After the plates were cleared, I leaned back in my chair and gazed absently at the wall. I was suddenly tired, my body, nourished now, was telling me it needed to process. I covered my mouth and yawned. Samantha looked at me like I was still crazy. I just smiled a sleepy smile over at her.

"So'" one of the boys started up. "Do you play cards?"

"I do" I said

"Would you like to play like ... poker or something?"

I shrugged. "Sure" I replied.

Melvin was in the kitchen talking about something with his wife, but when the word "poker" was mentioned, he came walking back in. I sighed, it was going to be a family affair.

"Wages?" I asked

They looked at eachother' I could see their eyes darting between my tight shirt and my face. I wondered what they were thinking. "How about bullets?" Thom offered, before something more lewd could be suggested.

"Thom, we don't have a lot of bullets" Samantha cautioned.

Thom shrugged. "What else have we got?"

The boys looked at eachother. "9mm?"

I shrugged also, "it's all I have, so that's what it'll have to be."

A couple of them got up. Melvin pulled out a deck of playing cards and sat down. "So, seven of us eh?"

I shrugged. I could feel Mike's eyes watching every movement of the fabric of my shirt. I blushed a little, he had a boyish smirk. Samantha had done the same as me and we were both probably quite distracting. I hoped it would give us the upper hand.

Thom saw there, his ACU shirt unbuttoned, revealing a muscular frame himself. I was seriously jealous of how fit both of my adopted parents were. I wanted to be an asset and not the liability I presently was. But I also knew it was not going to happen, that kind of training took years, and I needed to be focusing on staying alive, not looking good. My mental reverie was broken when two cards appeared under my hand.

"You're the big blind, Courtney." One of the boys said.

"What are the stakes?"

"1/2" they replied evenly.

I pulled a magazine out and pushed a couple bullets out. I set them in the middle of the table. The game started.

The time passed quickly. As we played, we talked about where we'd come from. Melvin's family was astonished to hear the day we had had. They informed us that the 6th District were herding people up through Montana to northern Idaho, where they had a slave camp. That they had chosen that valley was just bad luck. We omitted a few details, like the whole home invasion, but grossly exagurrated the 'escape'.

"So what's your story, Courtney?" one of the boys asked. "You're too old to be their daughter."

I flushed a little. I looked at Thom and Sam, they just shrugged. I sighed and pushed a small pile of bullets to the center of the table. "I' ... I''. was in the factory."

Time stopped, Melvin's face, and the face of the three boys, two of whom were still in the game looked up at me with an inquisitive expression.

"The one in Washington?"

I nodded

"How did you get out of there?" one of the boys asked.

"Well' ummm'." I said cautiously, I felt my eyes watering up remembering the pain and then blacking out. I took a deep breath. "They no longer needed me."

"What do you mean they no longer needed you? They NEVER let anyone go."

I looked down at my two kings. "I had a medical issue and they didn't think I was worth a bullet, so they threw me out in the wild to die."

Someone let out a whistle, and then everyone showed their cards. I flipped the winning hand though, and pulled in a healthy pile of ammunition.

"What kind of medical condition? You look healthy."

I sighed again. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Did you get pregnant?"

I stayed silent, the next hand was dealt. I felt a hand grip my knee, I looked over, Thom had a sympathetic expression. I felt the tears running down my cheeks. "No" I said finally. "It was something worse."

"Like what?" my interrogator pressed.

"Like it's none of your business" Samantha replied for me. "Courtney, go get some air."

I looked at my cards, a 3h and a Jh, I sniffled and stayed seated. "I'll be okay" I said. I shoved six bullets into the middle of the table and propped my head up with my arm. My hair flopped down, I looked a little disheveled. I watched the cards turn over, there were two hearts. I sniffled again as I waited. Both boys were playing and they pushed 10 bullets a piece into the middle of the table. I knew I was in trouble, playing poker for bread taught me hard lessons about probability. I had almost a 25% chance of winning if no one had a better set of hearts than me. I looked down at my pile of ammunition. I hadn't gotten anymore out, and already had almost double my original magazine sitting before me.