The Waters’ Homestead
Outside Ellisville, VA
“Get them out right now, Jason!”
Despite the intense commotion in the next room over, Mark was doing his level best to follow his mother’s instructions and keep an eye out the window for any intruders. By the time the flashbangs went off, though, Mark was on the move, making his way toward the kitchen and, from there, into the living room beyond. The flashbangs went off just before he crossed the threshold from the dining room into the kitchen, though, and thus he was the only person inside the house to be spared from the worst of the blinding light. In the several second timespan between when he heard Tina’s frantic shout and when the men stormed into the house, he was the only one in the group who saw everything that transpired.
Jason’s grip on Jacob and Josie was precarious, and between his injury and the intensity of the flashbangs, he only managed to grasp at them before the sound and light blinded him and he fell back, groping at the wall for purchase. He stumbled backwards down the stairs into the basement, narrowly avoiding falling by turning himself around at the last second, and came to rest on his rear end at the very bottom of the staircase.
Meanwhile, as Jason was trying to keep from breaking every bone in his body, Tina was still trying to open the basement door all the way. Jason’s motion combined with his flailing grasp knocked her off-balance, though, and she tripped forward down the stairs, but she managed to stop herself just a few steps down.
Even as the ringing in Mark’s ears—which was still far less than the rest of the group suffered—was still echoing strongly, he could hear the faint shouts of the men outside the porch as they started a brief countdown to fully breach the door and enter the home. Time seemed to slow for Mark as he ran forward, charging toward his brother and sister only to find himself being pulled to the side just as he was about to reach them. A strong, bony hand and arm grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket and tugged him hard into the basement stairwell before pulling the basement door shut.
“Let me go!” Mark squirmed in Tina’s grasp, trying to get back to his brother and sister and mother, but Tina’s grip on him only tightened as she pulled him down the stairs, wrapping her other hand around his mouth to quiet him down.
“You hear that? They’re in the house! They’re not shooting, though, which means they’re going to take prisoners.” Tina whirled Mark around and he gulped nervously as he saw her wild-eyed expression. The ferocious, tenacious, unchained and unrestrained Tina Carson was on full display. The thin coating of sanity she had kept up ever since being rescued was gone and in its place was a woman who was smart, determined and would not let anything stand in her way. “If they’re being taken prisoner, then we have to escape so that we can mount a rescue.”
“But Jac—”
“Mark, if you want to save them, you have to trust me.” She turned to Jason, who was standing up and staring at her. “If they wanted them dead, they’d have killed them by now. I’m telling you, our best—no, our only—chance is to not let them find us. We have to move, now!” Tina’s hissed words didn’t make sense to Mark, but he was too numb to think much of them. The ferocity and intenseness displayed by Tina moved him to follow her instructions, and he and Jason fell in line behind her as she ran past the hydroponics and toward the double doors leading down into the tunnel.
Upstairs, the clomping bootsteps began to spread out across the house as the men spread out, searching for anyone else. Tina pulled open one of the thick doors down into the tunnel with a grunt, then grabbed a flashlight sitting nearby on the floor. “Quick,” she said, pointing at a handful of guns and cases of ammunition sitting nearby on a table, “grab as much as you can! We’re going to need whatever we can take!” Jason and Mark filled their arms and just a few seconds later they dropped down the stairs into the tunnel and Tina pulled the door shut behind them. With handles on both the inside and outside of the double doors, Tina grabbed a nearby piece of lumber and jammed it through the handles, effectively locking the doors and ensuring no one could follow them. She then turn
ed and jogged down the tunnel with Jason and Mark in hot pursuit.
With nothing but a few random weapons, the clothes on their backs, a flashlight and a couple crates of miscellaneous ammunition to their names, Mark had no idea how they could possibly mount a rescue operation for Sarah and his family. His mother, brother and sister had been seized and having who-knew-what done to them. Despite all of the years of subtle training and preparation and the recent lessons learned since the event, Mark was lost without a clue of what to do. How could a wizened woman, an injured man and a young boy hope to do anything against a group like the one that had repeatedly attacked them and won?
Mark closed his eyes, shook his head and continued walking forward. Somehow, they would find a way.
Somehow.