Chapter 7-1
2002 Words
7
Their shrouded vehicle shot across the grass at the entrance of Kadyn's neighborhood, invisible tires shredding through the greenery and shattering a sprinkler. Austin turned back, saw two trenches splitting the lawn front of the subdivision sign. Mud and grass clippings littered the roadway.
"Watch it!" he yelled.
"No time." Sharkey pressed down on the gas and Austin gripped the door handle. "Where?"
"Second left," he said. "Then about a mile down the road." He thought of his friend who was home for Fall Break and probably relaxing with her parents.
"You don't think anything has happened to her?" he asked.
"We'll find out soon enough."
The car eased into the left-hand lane, going around a winding curve. The tires screeched. Sharkey eased off the gas and let the momentum carry them through the turn. He accelerated through a stop sign without slowing and slammed on the brakes to prepare to turn onto the second street.
"Hang on."
Austin clutched his seat and door handle, preparing for the worst. Sharkey yanked the wheel left, the car fish-tailing into the corner.
"Number?"
"It's 318 on the right."
Sharkey nodded. "When I slow, I want you to hop out and run the rest of the way. Her house is probably under surveillance, so I wouldn't use the front door. I'll give you ten minutes to get her out.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“Knock on her window, Romeo.”
“Her room’s on the second floor.”
“You’ll figure it out.”
“What about her parents?”
“Just get her out.” He slowed the car. “You got your sidearm?"
“They took it at Base Prime.”
Sharkey yanked a pistol with a silencer attached from inside his jacket and handed it to Austin. "All right, get ready."
The gun felt heavy in his hands. “This a real gun?”
“You think I handed you a toy?”
“No, I mean a gun that fires bullets? What about the laser pistol I trained on?”
“Same principle, just louder with some smoke. It’s prohibited. Off-world tech. You ever shot a man?”
He swallowed. “No, sir.”
“Whoever these guys are, they are hardened mercs, hired guns. They will kill you. You have to kill them first. Take the extra clips, too.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sharkey eased off the gas, allowing the car to coast toward the house. “Stay ready.”
Austin controlled his breathing as he watched the familiar houses pass. A hundred times before, he’d visited this neighborhood. He remembered children playing in the yards, jumping through sprinklers and shooting each other with water pistols. The houses appeared different in the darkness, looming on each side of the street. Nothing moved.
His fingers rested on the pistol in his jacket. He felt perspiration icing down his back. He hadn't seen Kadyn since before college. What would she say? He glanced at Sharkey, wanted to ask him what would happen next, but decided it had to wait. Would they take her to a secure location? Where would that be?
"Ready?" Sharkey asked.
He wanted to say he wasn't. He wished he were somewhere else. His mother moaned in the backseat, still suffering the effects of the gas. Whoever had done this to Mom, now targeted Kadyn.
Concentrate.
"Go!" Sharkey barked.
Austin cracked open the door and hesitated.
"Go! Now!"
He jumped out and tumbled into a flower bed in front of Kadyn’s neighbor’s house. He raised his head from the black dirt, saw the car's tire tracks splitting the damp streets, but couldn't see the vehicle. The sound of the engine faded, then disappeared. A soft breeze touched the leaves. Searching nearby houses for any sign of disturbance, he found nothing. His heart thudded as he slowly moved to a crouching position.
Ignoring a stray thought of a sniper zeroing in on his face, Austin sprinted across the lawn. He slowed at the side of Kadyn's house and leaned against the brick, felt the coolness on his back. He held his breath and listened. The neighbor's sprinkler system hissed to life, watering the yard and the flowers he had just destroyed.
With his hand on the gun resting in his jacket pocket, Austin stepped toward the backyard as if a mine would explode beneath his feet. He eased to the edge of the house, bypassed the idle air conditioning units, and risked a glance into the backyard.
A sole light illuminated the porch, sending far-reaching shadows like dark fingers stretching across the grass. He squinted, surveying the trees behind Kadyn's house.
Turning back to the house, he craned his neck for a view of her bedroom window. Dark, of course.
He bent down, searching for a pebble to toss. Instead, he found a heavy pinecone. He hesitated. A pinecone thrown hard enough could break through a window, and that wasn't exactly the result he was shooting for in this situation. A pine tree’s bark a dozen feet away looked promising. Perhaps that could work.
He eased over and stripped off a piece of loose bark. Looking up at Kadyn's window, he tossed it. It hit brick and shattered without much sound. After trying unsuccessfully three more times, he looked back to the pinecone. If he didn't do something soon, Sharkey would assume the worst and come after him. He gripped it and looked at the window.
Please don't break, he thought.
Stepping back, he hurled the pinecone and hurried back to cover. The pinecone bounced below the window and rolled up the side of the house, skipping across the glass. Man, that was loud.
He pressed himself against the brick, focusing on the window. The bedroom light came on and a shadow loomed. Kadyn must be awake; the pinecone had done its job. Another noise would attract her to the window. Austin bent down, grabbed another piece of bark, and threw it at the glass. The lock slid back on the window and the pane slid up.
A bearded face poked against the screen.
Mr. Joyce.
Austin fell into the grass, not really knowing why. He pressed into the damp ground at the base of the house in hopes Kadyn's father wouldn't see him.
"Hello?" Mr. Joyce’s deep voice called.
Austin flinched. Had the man seen him? Did he throw the pinecone at the wrong window?
"Listen, my daughter is asleep," Mr. Joyce said with a sigh. "If you don't leave, I'll have to call the cops."
The window closed and the light went off. Austin exhaled and leaned against the house. What now?
He looked back at the window and sighed. So Kadyn was home, but her father was guarding her every move. Nothing new there. He remembered prom when Kadyn had been chased by Jason Pruitt, the dorky defensive lineman on the football team. Austin had thought about asking Kadyn to go as friends, but that was right about the time Jason had been lurking beside Kadyn’s locker after every class. He followed her around, asking her to prom after school every day. Kadyn finally relented, and Austin went to prom with his cousin Holly.
But he’d heard the story about gathering for photos before they left. Kadyn said Mr. Joyce hovered around her like a helicopter parent, watching Jason’s hands as they posed for the photos. That same Mr. Joyce had just threatened to call the cops. Austin knew Sharkey was waiting in the car. What could he do?
As he looked around for inspiration, he heard the window open again. Great, he thought. Mr. Joyce was coming out with his hunting rifle.
“Jeremy?” Kadyn whispered. “Is that you?”
He stepped back from the house. “Kadyn!”
“I told you not to come here!”
“It’s me, Austin!”
She paused. “Austin? Are you serious?”
“I need to talk to you,” he said. The pistol in his jacket felt heavier. “Can you?”
It was too dark for Austin to see her face, but her head leaned out of the cracked-open window. If there were agents watching the house, they definitely saw that. He needed to get her out of here.
“Dad’s going to kill me! I’ll be right down,” she said with a sigh. “This had better be good.”
He looked around the backyard as he waited. He hadn’t written Kadyn in weeks. Now, he’d woken her up in the middle of the night. He had no idea what he would say to her. The forest seemed to have eyes.
A minute passed.
Austin gripped the pistol, his fingers resting lightly on the side. The gun felt bulkier than his laser pistol. The grass rustled from the other side of the house. Somebody was coming. He knelt down, sliding the gun out of his pocket.
“Hey!”
He spun around. “What the—I’m sorry,” he said, holding his hands up. “Quiet.”
Kadyn, dressed in pink pajamas and tennis shoes, ran the last few steps and threw her arms around him. Her hair band fell out, releasing her brown hair from the pony tail. She smelled of honey and flowers.
“Oh, my God,” she breathed in his ear. “I’ve missed you! What are you doing here?”
“Be quiet,” he said, pulling her into the bushes. He placed a finger over her lips and listened. The insects still hummed.
“Aren’t we past the days of rolling houses?” she asked.
He pulled her down to the ground and put his free hand on her shoulder. “You need to listen to me. I don’t have time to explain this, but I’ve got to take you away from here right now, okay?”
Her face grew rigid in the moonlight. “What are you talking about?”
“I can’t explain it right now.” He gripped her hand. “We have to leave.”
“Leave for where?” Her face, once filled with excitement, faded to terror. “You’re scaring me.”
He lifted his head over the bushes. “You need to trust me. Okay?”
Now that he’d made contact, Sharkey would be waiting at the street. If the enemy was not currently watching the house, they would be able to simply walk up to the shrouded vehicle and leave.
He froze. Kadyn wouldn’t know about the shrouded vehicle. He looked back at her. “Grab my hand and everything will be all right. I promise. No matter what else happens, just trust me and I’ll get you out of here.”
She reached out her hand before recoiling back. “Oh, my God! Is that a gun?”
He thrust the gun into his jacket. “We have to go!”
“Oh, Austin. You’re not going to rob a store or something, are you? I know you need money, but this isn’t the way.”
His face contorted. “What? No. You need to come now. It’ll be okay.”
She took his hand carefully as if he would tear it off. He squeezed it, but she didn’t return the gesture. With Kadyn falling in behind him, they made their way along the side of the house to the front yard. Two houses down, the wet pavement split as Sharkey’s shrouded car crept down the street. He paused at the corner of the house.
“We need to cut across the neighbor’s yard and head for the street. If anything happens, I need you to keep running. You got it?”
She nodded, her chin trembling. “Austin, are you a drug dealer?”
He closed his eyes, his pulse pounding in his ears. His throat constricted, his muscles tightening. “Right now, I wish I was. You ready?”
“Okay,” she said, squeezing his hand for the first time. “I trust you.”
He nodded, trying to fake a smile. When he turned back, he lowered his gaze. The light shifted in the street in front of the house, just beneath the neighbor’s tree. Although it was difficult to make out any details, it looked to be the shape of the Tizona sedan.
“Now!”
They broke for the neighbor’s yard, their feet slipping in the wet grass. Kadyn clutched his hand hard enough to make the skin numb. She gasped as they sprinted. If they could make it to the shrouded car, the terror of the night could end.
A faint light flashed from across the street. Sparks exploded from the largest tree in Kadyn’s front yard, showering speckles of burning embers into the grass. Austin ducked, his heart pounding in his ears. He didn’t see the bolt, but knew from the sparks a laser gun targeted them. That meant off-world technology, which meant the mercenary force had found them.
“What was that?” Kadyn yelled.
Another shot blasted into the tree, the lasers still invisible. Small fires sparkled into the bark. He thrust Kadyn to the ground, gently pressing his knee into her back as he searched the woods. Staying low to the ground, he gripped the pistol and scanned the dense forest across the street. He saw nothing. Suddenly, he had the creeping feeling that something targeted him.
An engine rumbled close. Tire tracks appeared on the nearby damp pavement.
“Come on,” he said, gripping Kadyn’s shoulder, “we have to crawl.”
- Writer
