To Steal a March (Surviving the Fall 11)

For a long moment Ostap lay still, his eyes closed, his breaths coming in slow, shuddering waves. When he opened his eyes, a cruel smile played across his lips and he whispered to Rick as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

“If you spent more time worrying about what’s really important, you might ask yourself a very simple question.”

“Which is?” Rick’s voice shook with rage and grief, and he grabbed Ostap by the collar.

The smile turned into a grin as Ostap, too, took one final breath.

“Don’t you want to know where your precious Dr. Evans is at?”

Chapter 13

Ellisville, VA

Mark had been a heavy sleeper for many years, much to the annoyance of both his parents. His ability to fall asleep within minutes in virtually any position or situation was convenient for him, but it often took multiple tries to wake him in the morning, a fact that irked his mother nearly each and every day. Ever since the event, though, Mark’s sleeping habits had changed. No longer was he able to fall asleep wherever and whenever he wanted and the slightest noise woke him, often causing his heart to start pounding as his mind jumped to assigning the sound to some terrible calamity.

After being on his feet for so long, though, the damp ground at the deepest part of the ditch seemed like a feather mattress and he had barely put up any sort of a fight or argument when Tina told him and Jason to get some rest. He was asleep within seconds of putting his head down and he quickly fell into a dreamless slumber. The hood of his jacket was pulled up and over his head and eyes to help block out the fading sun, and Jason laid down a few feet away in a similar position. Tina, meanwhile, stayed leaning up against the slope of the ditch, alternating her gaze between the magnified optic on Jason’s rifle and off of it to take in a wider view of the movement across the road.

Hours ticked in painful slowness, the mental note-taking and constant watching of the center doing nothing to alleviate the sheer boredom of the task. Occasionally, when a cluster of the men would gather together, Tina felt the urge to shoulder the rifle and try to take several of them out at once, but common sense quickly overtook her and she resumed her watch.

It wasn’t until the late afternoon that the bleak situation took a sharp turn toward the unexpected. A car with a pair inside of it pulled up in front of the center and the driver and passenger went inside, carrying a few bags between them. Later, as a group of men gathered out in front of the community center, near the vehicles parked there, they began to move a large covered trailer into position behind one of the trucks. After connecting it to the truck they began working on the back door of the trailer—which was apparently broken and wouldn’t shut correctly—though they didn’t make much progress. As they worked, the volume of their shouts and cursing at the trailer and at each other increased, and Tina began to hear bits and pieces of their conversation. After listening for a few minutes, she finally caught a phrase that made her eyes grow wide. She turned and slid down the slope of the ditch to Jason and Mark, putting her hands on their chests and shaking them.

“Wake up!” She whispered to both of them, one after the other, then threw herself against the slope again and looked at the center. Sounds of hammering and more cursing came from the back of the trailer, and she soon saw one of the men toss a tool through the air before throwing up his hands in frustration. Mark and Jason joined her a moment later, and they both looked at her with bleary eyes.

“What’s going on over there?” Jason spoke softly, just barely loud enough for her to hear.

“They’re going back to the house.” Tina didn’t take her eyes off of the men as she spoke.

“They—wait, what?” Mark and Jason both blinked rapidly, trying to figure out if they had really heard what they thought they heard. Tina nodded again and put a finger to her lips as she leaned in close.

“They sent out another truck early this morning, after they got back with Dianne and the rest. It’s going on a supply run for food and fuel but they don’t expect it back for another couple days. For the last half hour, though, they’ve been shouting at each other, trying to get the box trailer repaired. The rear door’s broken and the hitch is giving them quite a time but they’re going to leave soon. They want to get back to the house and get supplies from the barns; anything that didn’t burn up in the fire they started. They figure all that plus the supply run from this morning will get them all set up.”

“Which means they’ll be ransacking the house since we put that fire out… and then they’ll figure out that we’re still alive. We have to get on that trailer.” Jason rubbed a dirty thumb and forefinger against the bridge of his nose as though the action could somehow drive away the headache that was already gathering there.

“On… the trailer?” It was Tina’s turn to stare slack-jawed in Jason’s direction. “How do you figure w

e’ll do that? Magic?!” Her voice was dangerously close to breaching the level of a whisper and Jason had to motion for her to quiet down.

“No. We make some kind of a distraction as they’re pulling out. Get them to look away from the back for a minute. Then we climb on board, ride it to the house and surprise them when they open it up.”

“How is that going to help us?” Mark’s eyes were wide, partially from fear and partially from the excitement and anticipation of finally doing something.

“Good question.” Tina stared at Jason expectantly.

“If we get aboard and ambush them at the house, we’ll gain a vehicle and weapons. Plus we’ll be able to reduce their numbers and get the element of surprise. If we’re fast, they won’t be able to report back to red shirt and we can mount a rescue operation.”

Before Tina could respond, Jason slid back down the slope of the ditch and began rummaging through his bag. At the same time, she saw the door to the front of the community center open and a man flanked by a few others came out, bellowing at the group trying to get the trailer hooked up. His voice was clear and carried far, making it easy to understand what he was saying even from across the road.

“Rip out the solar panels and tear open the barns! Take anything that the fire didn’t consume. I want you back before sunrise, understand? We have to…” the voice grew quieter as he stepped inside the trailer, but Tina, Jason and Mark had heard enough.

“Here.” Jason slithered back up the slope, cradling a small cardboard box in his hands. He opened the flaps to reveal a pair of shotgun shells connected to wires, a simple switch and a pair of springs, all of which was mounted to a small block of wood. “When I was making the traps before, I made this as a prototype. It’s got a ten second timer on it. You set the timer, throw it and the shells go off ten seconds later. It’s not likely to do much harm to anyone but it’ll make one heck of a noise.”

Tina took the small box and looked at it. “We toss this as they’re pulling out, get them distracted by it, then make a run for the trailer?” She shook her head. “What’ll we do when they find it? They’re going to know someone’s around.”

“So?” Jason grinned, his mood bolstered by the formation of their plan. “By the time they figure out what’s going on, we’ll be nice and hidden beneath their noses. They’ll search the area, find nothing, assume that the scraps of this thing were contained within the supplies they brought back from the house and that it must have fallen off. They’re bound to remember the traps, so they’ll put two and two together and then keep going. They have no reason to search inside the trailer which is where we’ll be.”

“This is insane.” Tina rubbed her eyes and took a long, slow breath. “But,” she sighed, “what choice do we have?”

“Wait till they leave then storm the center?” Mark replied. “What if they immediately start searching around after they hear the device go off? They’ll find us before we get anywhere near the trailer.”