Desperate Times (38 page)

Slowly, his eyes adjusted to what little
light there was and he began to make out the dark shapes of the
trees. They walked single file, with Burt bringing up the rear.
Jimmy had no idea of where he was going. He only knew that they had
to keep walking. They had to find the others, even if it took all
night. He trudged on, wondering who had tied the towel to the tree
and how many of them had made it out of the camp. Was Julie with
them? Was she well enough to walk out of there? What about Dr.
Benson? Would they have let him simply walk away? They had wounded
people among them. Jimmy didn’t think they would have let him go.
What about the others? His mind wrestled with these questions with
every footstep he took in the soft pine needles. He held his gun at
the ready with his finger poised at the trigger.

“Where the hell are they?” whispered Jon. “We
should’ve found them by now.”

“They’re in here,” said Burt,
“somewhere.”

They continued to walk; five minutes passed,
then ten. Still, there was no sign of any of the others. Jimmy
began to worry. What if they’d been hunted down after they’d tied
the towel to the tree? Maybe the Guard had shown up? He was playing
out this scenario in his mind when he caught a whiff of wood
smoke.

“Hey, do you smell that?” he asked, turning
to Jon.

“I do,” he replied.

“Keep moving,” said Burt. “They can’t be far
now.”

The pines ended here and they entered an area
of the forest that was filled with old birch and scrub brush. Jimmy
slung his rifle over his shoulder and they began to crash through
thorny bushes, the branches clung to them like tentacles. Ahead,
Jimmy could make out the glow of a small fire. He began to move
faster, oblivious to the thorns that were tearing at his clothes.
Jon and Burt followed through the brush with their arms bleeding
and raw. Jimmy could make out shapes sitting next to the fire. He
began to jog.

“Son of a bitch,” muttered Burt.

“Shit!” cried Jon.

The brush was at its thickest at the edge of
the woods and they were suddenly out in the open.

“Look,” said Jon. “There’s the truck.”

Jimmy turned his head and could see the front
end of the Mack. It was parked less than a hundred feet from where
they stood. He looked back to the shapes around the fire where
somebody was running to meet them. It was Alex.

“Son of a
bitch,”
Burt said again,
rubbing his bleeding forearms.

“What took you guys so long?” asked Alex.
“I’ve been here for over half an hour.”

“I guess we should’ve taken the road,” said
Jimmy.

“You think?” asked Jon.

Jimmy shook his head and ran toward the
campfire. He could now make out Ken’s face. Patty sat next to him.
They both stood up and Patty waved to him, as if she hadn’t seen
him in years. Cindy and Rita were sitting there and they also rose
to their feet. Jimmy could see Stan and Mary Peterson; Carl was
sitting next to them. He was now running as fast as his legs would
carry him. He continued to scan the faces. There was Joe and Amanda
Hill standing together, some twenty feet away from the little
campfire. Jimmy began to slow down to a jog and then he
stopped.

Where were Paula and Julie? Dr. Benson was
also absent from the group. What had happened to them?

Patty ran to meet him and she hugged him,
tightly. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”

Jimmy felt a stabbing pain in his heart. He’d
felt it before; it was his old friend: Grief.

Twenty
-
Nine

President Roosevelt blamed unscrupulous money
lenders and a generation of self-seekers for the economic problems
of his day. What have we learned since that time?

“They’re alive,” Patty whispered into his
ear. “Hang onto that. They’re all still alive.”

Jimmy felt as if his feet were frozen to the
ground. He stood there and clung to Patty like a lost child. “How
come they didn’t come with you?” he finally managed to ask.

“I don’t really know,” answered Patty. “They
came in with guns. I didn’t know any of them. They let us grab a
few of our things and marched us all down to the gate. That
bitch
was down there waiting for us. Oh dear God, please
excuse my language.”

“She is a bitch,” said Jimmy, angrily. “No
need to apologize. Go on.”

“She said that we were a poison to their
group and that the Rapture would pass them by if they allowed us to
stay. She called us murderers and I thought Ken was going to have a
heart attack. I thought I might have one myself. That’s our home,
Jimmy. They threw us out of our own
home.
Ted tried to get
out with Paula and Julie, but they stopped them on the porch. They
wouldn’t let them leave. We begged them to let the girls go; we
really did. The Petersons are really taking this hard. We don’t
know what to do. Where can we go? We’ve got to get inside there and
save them; we need to get in there and take back what’s ours! I’ll
be damned if I’m going to let that crazy woman live in my house.
I’ll fight, by God. I swear I will.”

Jimmy stepped away and wiped tears from his
eyes. Burt and Jon were standing behind him and they hung their
heads.

“Why keep the girls?” asked Jon.

“I have my suspicions,” said Burt, coldly.
“We’ll get them out of there. I don’t care how many of them there
are. They’re not taking over your home, not if I have anything to
say about it.”

Jimmy walked up to the fire with his mind
racing. Cindy ran to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
“Jimmy,” she said. “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know. I can tell you this much,
we’re not letting them get away with this.”

“She’s got them all brainwashed. Dad’s like a
zombie. He follows her everywhere. I’m scared; it’s like Jonestown
over there.”

“Don’t say that,” whispered Jimmy into her
ear. “Okay? We’ll come up with something. You’ll see. Now, I’ve got
to talk to Paula’s parents. Give me a minute.”

“Go to them. They’re pretty messed up. I’ll
be by the fire.”

Jimmy looked over at the Petersons. They sat
huddled together, Mary weeping softly into Stanley’s shoulder. Carl
was behind them and was trying to console her. Stanley was staring
vacantly into the burning embers of the fire. Jimmy took a deep
breath and walked over to them and squatted down.

“You should’ve been there,” hissed Carl,
red-faced in the firelight.

“You’re right,” said Jimmy. “I should’ve
been.”

“What can we do?” asked Stanley. Jimmy
thought his expression was as blank as a clean sheet of paper.
“We’ve lost her again. I can’t believe it.”

Jimmy tried not to read too deeply into his
comment.

Mary Peterson began to wail. She clung to her
husband and shook her head.

“There, there,” cooed Stanley. “We will get
her out of there. You’ll see, dear. We’ll find a way to rescue her.
Jimmy is going to help us.”

“Give me a break,” said Carl, baring his
teeth. “He’s the reason that she’s still inside there. We can’t
count on him for anything!”

The next thing Jimmy knew, he had Carl flat
on his back with his left hand firmly around the butler’s neck. His
right fist was about to come down and smash Carl in the face. Jon
quickly tackled Jimmy, bare seconds before he would’ve broken
Carl’s nose.

Jimmy didn’t want to fight Jon; he didn’t
want to fight anyone of his own group. They had a battle in front
of them. He went slack and allowed Jon pin to him to the
ground.

Burt walked over. “Enough of that,” he said.
“We’re in deep shit here. We can’t be fighting among ourselves. I
want the two of you to shake hands right now. Do you understand
me?”

“Do it, Jimmy,” growled Ken.

Jimmy felt like he was eight years old again.
Jon let him up and Jimmy walked over to where Carl lay on the
ground. He slowly got to his feet and brushed himself off.

“I’m sorry,” said Jimmy, holding out his
hand.

“I’m sorry, too,” said Carl, taking Jimmy’s
hand and giving it a limp shake. “I love Paula like my own sister.
You know that, don’t you?”

Jimmy nodded. If he hadn’t known it before,
he did now. “We’re going to beat those people. We’ll come up with a
plan. Trust me, okay?”

Carl nodded and sat back down next to the
Petersons. Jon walked over and sat down next to Carl. Jimmy turned
and walked toward the truck, stopping to light a cigarette. Burt
and Ken followed him. They walked to the back of the Mack and stood
in a small circle. Burt lit up one of the Camels that Jimmy had
given him earlier.

“Give me one of those,” said Ken.

Jimmy shook one out of his pack. “Are you
sure?” he asked. “Patty is going to kill you if she finds out.”

“Not today, she won’t,” said Ken, taking
Jimmy’s lighter. He lit the cigarette, coughed, and then took
another puff. “Ah… that tastes good. Now, if we only had a bottle
of brandy.”

“That’d sure be nice,” admitted Burt. “But
we’d better keep our heads clear. Does anyone have any ideas?
They’re right; we’ve got to do something fast.”

“There’s just so many of them,” said Ken.
“I’ve been wracking my brain and I don’t see any way we can get Ted
and the girls out of there, much less get back inside and take
control from that woman. She’s lost her mind. The last thing she
said to us was not to come back or they’d send us straight to
hell.”

“They’re going to get hungry,” said Jimmy.
“There’s only enough food to feed that crew for a week or two.
Maybe we should just wait them out?”

“No,” said Burt. “We’ve got to get in there.
I can see why they hung onto the Doc. Why they kept the girls is
what worries me. We can’t risk waiting a week or even a day. We’ve
got to do something, now.”

“I agree,” said Patty, who had quietly
slipped in behind them.

Ken dropped his cigarette and tried to mash
it out with his boot. It was too late. Patty had seen him. Her
expression said it all.

“Sorry Patty. I just felt like I needed
something,” Ken said, sheepishly.

“We’ll talk about that later, dear. Right
now, we’re going to come up with a plan. Let’s get back to the fire
and talk about what we’re going to do.”

They returned to the fire. Ken tossed a few
more pieces of birch on it and the bark crackled and blazed. They
took their places, sitting cross-legged in a circle. They all
looked at each other; each seemed to be waiting for one of the
others to come up with something. Their plight seemed hopeless.
Jimmy stared hard at Jon. He was the Green Beret. He should know
what to do.

“All right,” said Jon after a few long
minutes. “We’re going to need a diversion.”

Unloading and reloading the truck took nearly
the better part of an hour. Burt cursed himself for loading the
bikers’ weapons in the front of the truck. They worked quickly and
quietly, taking what they needed and reloading everything else.
They ate a simple meal of beef jerky and chips, washing it down
with bottles of generic soda. The meal revived them; they gathered
their weapons and stood at the fire, looking like big kids about to
play war.

“Okay,” said Jon. You all know what you have
to do. Spread out and find cover down by the lake and open fire
when Burt gives the signal. You’re going to have to keep it up for
at least ten minutes. When you’re out of ammo, follow the shoreline
and get out of there. We’ll meet back here. Remember to shoot high.
We don’t want to hit anyone, not unless we have to. Keep your heads
down. Jimmy and I will go over the back wall, with any luck we’ll
be out of there in a few minutes. Does everyone understand that?
Stay low and shoot high.”

“One thirty, guys,” said Burt. “Keep an eye
on the time.”

“Why?” asked Jon. “That’s your job. We’ll be
ready, trust me.”

Jimmy checked his watch. It was nearly one
o’clock. His waistband was tight after having stuffed two cold
handguns into his jeans. He held his M-16 in his hands and watched
the others follow Burt into the darkness.

“Are you ready?” asked Jon.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” answered Jimmy.

“Okay, follow me. There’s got to be an easier
way to get into those woods. I’ll find it.”

“I’ll follow you,” said Jimmy. “And thanks a
lot, man. I think we’ve got a good shot at making this work.”

“Thank me later. This isn’t going to be
easy,” he said, walking back toward the dark shadows of the
forest.

At the edge of the woods, Jon walked parallel
to the tangled bushes, Jimmy followed. Just as they reached the end
of the field, Jon found what they were looking for. A four-foot
path had been cut into the woods and the ground there was rutted
from ATV traffic. Jimmy wished that he’d known about that path
earlier. He followed Jon into the woods, sticking to the trail.
They moved quickly and quietly through the blackness; to Jimmy, the
hike seemed to last an eternity.