After and Again (8 page)

  Sidestepping while keeping an eye on the camp through the horses, Zack reached the rear of the cage-wagon, there was enough light from the camp that he could see a little. He looked inside.

“Oh my god Z—,” Emily Hodgkins began, from just inside the cage door before stifling herself with her hand.

  “Shhhh Emily, Jeezus. Everybody be quiet, I am going to get you out of here,” Zack said, scanning the dim wagon for his mother. Emily was fervently nodding her head still holding her hand over her mouth. Zack began to work on the rusty padlock while whispering “Can everyone walk? Mom, are you in there?”

  “Your moms here Zack,” Emily said, choking back sobs, “But she’s not right.”

  “What do you mean not right?” Zack hissed.

  “I will explain, Zack, please, just get us out,” she answered. Zack removed the lock and set it on the ground.

  “Now listen,” he whispered, “I’m going to open this up and you’re going to climb out one at a time and hold each others hands, then I’m going to lead you up onto the mountain. You have to be
quiet
! Lets go.”

  He opened the gate and Emily Hodgkins climbed out and put her hand up for the next woman. “Wait,” she said quietly, bring Liz up first.”

  A moment later his mother was at the opening; Zack came forward and he and Emily helped her out of the wagon. “Mom?” Zack said, beginning to cry. Liz McQueen just stood there as if staring at something over Zack’s shoulder. “Mama what—”

“Zack, we have to go, they’ll be coming soon!” Emily said, pushing him gently away and taking his mothers hand. The rest of the women were trundling out of the wagon joining hands. Emily took Zack’s and said “Get us out of here, Zack.”

  He led the chain of women (and girls he noticed) back down the line of tethered horses and dropped down the short embankment just before he reached the last horse. It was dark and impossible for the escapees to see where they were putting their feet, and though the women were trying to be quiet the sound of snapping twigs and crunching leaves would have given them away had the camp not been so loud.

  Zack circled back and headed up the mountain in the direction that he had left Grace. He was a little unsure of himself in the darkness and hoped that he would find her without fumbling around too much. He didn’t want to, but was prepared to leave the mare if necessary.

  There were a million questions that he wanted to ask; he wanted to hug his mom and find out what was wrong with her, he wanted to find out if Santiago and Michael were at the camp. He held his tongue, and to the women’s credit they kept silent as well, and outside of the occasional stumble that abruptly yanked everyone else to a halt, they were moving along fairly smoothly. Zack was a bit surprised at how easy it had been to free the women, but in retrospect he realized that the gang only had them locked up so that they couldn’t escape. Rescue had probably never entered the murderer’s minds.

  Grace whinnied and Zack followed the sound taking silent pride in the fact that he navigated the woods in the dark and came out almost spot on. There was a small clearing where the mare was tied and Zack told the women to rest a moment. “Oh, Zack!” Emily said, dropping his mother’s hand and hugging him fiercely. “We thought we’d never see anyone again. Who else is with you?”

  “There is no one else,” Zack said, gently breaking the embrace and turning to his mother. The rest of the women had sat down and Liz McQueen just stood there, it was too dark to make out her features clearly. “Mom what’s wrong?” he asked putting his hand on her cheek.

  “Zack, they did stuff to her,” Emily said from behind him. “To all of them, except me, Lacy, and Eileen, we were for….later.”

  “What stuff?” he asked, through clenched teeth, knowing the answer already. Just then a scream came through the forest; “YOU WHORES! GET YOUR ASSES BACK HERE NOW!”

  Some of the women started crying, and they all stood up ready to run. Zack turned to Emily, “Take my mom and get everyone to join hands again. We’re an hour ahead, it’s dark and they’re drunk. The top of the mountain can’t be more than a half-hour away and then we’ll be going downhill and they will still be going uphill. I don’t think they’re going to chase us that far tonight though, they’ll wait until morning and come after us on horseback. C’mon, get them going, I have to grab Grace.”

  Zack untied Grace and patted her neck. The mare nuzzled him with her head obviously glad to see him. He lifted his pack off of the saddle horn and quickly opened it and pulled out the tube-light. After shouldering his pack he cranked the handle on the back of the light illuminating the clearing. There were a couple of “OH’s” from the women, fascinated despite their fear. Zack told Emily to take the mare’s tail and he started walking the horse and its chain of women up the mountain.

  A short time later the shouted curses from their pursuers subsided, then stopped completely. Zack, who had been stealing glances down the mountain never even saw light from a lantern. He knew however that their head start was only going to be a few hours; six or seven at best, and the gang would begin the pursuit in earnest. How far and how much time they were willing to use to recapture the women was the question. He looked back at his mother, trailing along placidly behind Emily and pushed down his anger. He continued leading the mare up the mountain.

  The trees began thinning and Zack could see stars in front of him as well as above and knew they were nearly at the peak. The summit was bare rock, windy and cold; Zack had planned to let everyone rest while he asked some questions so that he could gauge how much pursuit to expect. Instead he decided to push on down the other side at least far enough to get out of the wind. He guessed that it was around one a.m. but admitted to himself that it could be as late as two.

  Another thirty minutes and they came to a small clearing where the terrain wasn’t too steep. The going downhill was damp and slippery with fallen leaves. Zack was constantly scanning the ground for a deer trail that they could use to make better time but had so far come up empty. They halted at the clearing and Zack had Emily passed around the canteen telling her to only allow a swallow each. He didn’t know how long it would be before they found more water and thought to conserve what little there was. Sitting on the damp ground and putting his arm around his mother he shined the tube-light on the group of women to see who was there.

  In addition to his mother, Emily, Lacy Sturgess and Loren Sturgess, there was Holly Sanderson, who was Jenny’s mom, Sandra Whitehall, who was in nearly the same state as Zack’s mother, Rebecca Mccarron and Eileen Deveroux who were both only eight or nine if his memory served him, and two women; one older and one younger that were not from Payne’s Station.

  “They killed my mother,” Sandra Whitehall said, looking at Zack with disbelief. “She was sick, and they murdered her,” she began crying again, softly; it was the loneliest sound that Zack had ever heard. 

  “Oh honey,” Loren Sturgess said, putting her arm around the younger woman, “your ma is well out of it now.”

  “Who are you?” Zack asked looking at the two unfamiliar women.

  “I’m Kendra Goodman and this is my daughter Cassie, we’re from Huntsville, both of our husbands were taken, probably killed, and the town was burned just like yours,” the woman said, matter-of-factly.

“I am sorry ma’am.” Zack said, wishing he had more. He knew of Huntsville although he had never been there. It was even smaller than Payne’s Station, and maybe a hundred miles south.

  The group all started asking Zack at once about their families. He really wanted to get some information about the gang and get moving, but he thought that they had a right to know what he knew so he answered them in turn. “Emily, I haven’t seen either one of your folks, or yours, Eileen. Mrs. Sanderson I’m really sorry but Jenny is dead. She was alive when I found her, but had been trapped in the basement of the trade when the fire was set.” Holly Sanderson and Emily Hodgkins both burst into tears.

  “My Jenny,” Mrs Sanderson said, sobbing, “And Burt?” she asked hopefully.

  “I didn’t see Mr. Sanderson, ma’am,” he answered. “I did see your mom and brothers Rebecca, they’re okay but I don’t know about your dad.” I haven’t seen your dad either, Sandra, I’m sorry.”

  “What about my dad?” Lacy Sturgess asked, holding hands with her mother. She was Emily’s age and hung around with her and Jenny Sanderson sometimes.

  “I haven’t seen him either, but I left the very next day,” he said, addressing the whole group now, “Tal Miller, Rebecca’s mom and brothers, Jonus, Mrs. Lanhope and Miz. Renfew were all hiding in the hills. Maybe others were too, I just don’t know.”

  “Now I really need to ask some questions,” Zack said, hunkering down in front of the group. “Were they trying to take you somewhere or were they just keeping you for… slaves or something?” he finished lamely.

  Emily said, “they were taking us to someplace called The Crack, where their leader is. Someone had said that it was two hundred miles.  I think it’s a cave or something.

  “Why were they taking you there?” he asked.

  “I don’t know Zack, I just know that Trask, the big man wouldn’t let anyone put their hands on me, Lacy, Eileen or Rebecca. He said that we were for The Man in Charge, that is how they all referred to whoever is their boss or their leader at that Crack place,” Emily answered.

  “Is that why my mom is the way she is?” he asked looking at his catatonic mother. “Because they put their hands on her?”  Emily just nodded, not meeting Zack’s eyes.

  “Do they all have guns? Or does just the giant have one?”

  Emily answered, “Just the big man… the giant, as far as I know. The rest carry bows, and machetes and clubs.” Zack nodded, encouraged.

  “Have you seen Santiago or Michael?” he asked. At that Sandra Whitehall started with a fresh round of sobs; Emily Hodgkins was silent and would not meet Zack’s gaze.

  “Emily?” he said, looking pointedly at the girl. Loren Sturgess spoke up, “Michaels dead, Zack, those men took Sandra here and told the three boys to have at her. Well that skunk Frank Olsen went to do it with no hesitation, so Michael grabbed him by the arm and tried to stop him, that’s when that Trask put his damn pistol right up to Michael’s head and shot him without a single word. Then he turned the pistol on Santiago, and Santiago.… he….did it, then that mangy little rodent Olsen did it and I saw him
smiling.
. I wouldn’t think too much about those two Zack. Michael went to his death a man and a hero the way I see it, the other two are right where they belong, with their own kind.”

  Zack thought about Frank Olsen; he was the blacksmith’s son and not very well liked by the other boys his age. There was always something….strange about him, he was always sorta smirking like there was a running joke that only he was privy to. As far as Michael and Santiago went he was not surprised at all that Michael went to his death trying to save someone else. He was however, appalled that Santiago would do what he did, no matter how afraid he was for his own life. He glanced over at Sandra Whitehall; she was older than him by a couple of years and he didn’t know her very well, but he felt the deepest pity for her at that moment.

  Zack surveyed the group in the shadows of the small clearing. He was hoping to get a sense of how much of a chase they should expect. He decided to assume the worst. “Listen everybody,” he said, “We need to get moving again and we’re going to have to stick to the mountains and hope that they will lose the taste for chasing us. I am going to take us on the roughest route possible as soon as the sun comes up. Until then, hopefully we can find a deer trail that we can use to get down this mountain faster and put more distance between them and us before dawn.”

  “I’m proud of you, Zack McQueen,” Holly Sanderson said, and I am sure your mom will be too as soon as we get her someplace safe and she can heal up. “However this turns out, thank you from the bottom of my heart.” There was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the group and Eileen Deveroux jumped up and gave Zack a hug. He held the younger girl tightly for a moment and then released her, smiling, feeling a sense of pride through the fear, the fatigue, and the worry over his mother. Zack was going to save this girl.

  “Let’s go,” he said, standing and gently taking his mother’s hand and pulling her up. Emily stood up and took his other hand and looked up into his face.

  “Thank you, Zack.” she said, kissing him lightly on the cheek and then turning quickly toward the other women.

  “Let’s put Liz, Eileen, Rebecca and Sandra in the middle okay?”

  “Good idea child,” Kendra Goodman said. “We can help keep them on their feet if they stumble.”

Zack, holding his hand to his cheek where Emily kissed him, walked over to get Grace. He cranked up the tube-light, looked at the women and said, “Alright, grab on.” the group resumed their trek downward.

  About an hour later Zack found what he was looking for; a well traveled deer trail that switched back down the mountain. Turning onto the trail he heard audible sighs of relief from the women. He kept scanning the sky for any sign of dawn though his instinct told him that it was still a couple of hours away.

  The first light of day made Zack’s stomach feel like it was tied in a knot. They were coming. How long until they catch up? he asked himself, it was a question that he couldn’t answer. When most of the darkness had receded and he could see without the aid of the tube-light he stopped to let everyone rest, and, he thought, to let them share out whatever food he had left in the saddlebags. For a moment he almost regretted giving the pork to the wolf.