Finding Home - A Post Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 2) (28 page)

He was right. Anyone else would definitely set off alarms of some kind. “Are you sure?” I asked carefully. “You don’t have to do this. No one will blame you if you don’t.”

“I’m doing it. This is the least I can do for what I put you all through. Cover me,” he said as he handed the gun back to me. I crossed my arms and shook my head. There was no way I could take the gun from him. What if he needed it? He couldn’t go into the HOME camp unarmed. “They’ll frisk me when they check for my mark. I can’t risk them taking the gun. You’ll need it more than HOME does,” he said.

“But they’ll give it back when you show them you are on their side,” I argued.

“And if they kill me, you’ll have one less gun for your escape,” he said pushing the gun closer. I reluctantly took it, and he slipped away through the trees.

“I sure hope this isn’t a mistake,” Dean said not bothering to hide his worry or his distrust of Penn. After several minutes, Penn strolled up to the side of the camp and walked into the big building right in the center.

“What the hell is he doing?” Owen said wiggling his leg nervously. “He should have just convinced Ryan to come over here somehow. Is this going wrong? Tell me this isn’t going wrong.”

Sienna looked at us with wide eyes, “Should we go? Maybe we should go?”

“Penn knows where the car is,” Dean said his voice softening as we watched Penn walk out of the main building alone. He started walking towards Ryan free and clear. No one bothered him. It was as if he was walking through the camp invisible.

Penn walked right up to them and started talking. I had no idea what he was saying but I wished more than anything that I could have heard it all. Ryan nodded to whatever he said and his buddy walked away back towards the base.

My breath got stuck in my throat as Penn led Ryan away from the main base and out over to our right. I figured he was leading him in a roundabout direction just in case anyone from HOME was watching.

And then, just like that, they were here. Penn was motioning for Ryan to go into the trees. I could hear him moving. I could see him through the branches. And I knew I had a big smile on my face, but he didn’t smile back at any of us. Ryan’s face remained stuck in that stupid expression everyone from HOME wore.

“What’s going on here?” Ryan said in the same serious voice I remembered. If it hadn’t been so confusing I would have run up to hug him, but he seemed scared and bewildered. Almost like he had been lured into an ambush. In one swift movement he pulled his gun and rotated who he had it pointed at. “I insist you inform me at once what is going on here Agent Six!” he ordered.

The way he was looking at us made it seem as if he had no idea who we were. Was it an act? Why would he need to pretend he didn’t know who we were when there was no one around to see? Penn tilted his head at him and then back at us. It looked as though he wasn’t sure he brought back the right person.

“It’s me,” I choked out narrowing my eyes at him, “you know who I am… right?” I took half a step towards him and he redirected the barrel of his gun at me. I stopped. Owen and Dean both inched towards me as if they were protecting me. I shook my head and turned to Owen, “He doesn’t know who I am?”

“I don’t know any of you, or what you are doing here,” he said with a straight face. This wasn’t an act. He genuinely didn’t know who we were. “You are trespassing,” he said, inching away from us, “you don’t belong here. None of you.”

I wanted to say something that might trigger a memory, or remind him about us. Ideas of what to say flooded faster than my mouth could work. “Remember what happened to Seth? Or back in your grandpa’s shelter? Remember the shelter?”

Ryan’s eyebrows pinched together for a split second as if something hurt him. “You,” he said looking at Penn, “I’m reporting you for treason! You brought them here! This isn’t part of your mission, Agent.”

Penn’s dulled expression changed rapidly to one of concern. I could tell he was worried about what was going to happen next, and how we’d get out of here. None of us had expected this. Ryan hadn’t remembered any of us, or what had happened before his life at HOME. What had they done to him?

In the distance someone called Ryan’s name. It was the guy who had been walking the perimeter with him. He started walking in our general direction and it was clear he was trying to locate Ryan.

“Oh-oh,” Owen said nervously, “we need to get out of here and fast.”

“What about Ryan? We can’t just leave him here!” I said only realizing how crazy it sounded after the words had already left my mouth. The Ryan we knew was gone. At least as of right now he was gone. Whatever HOME had done to him changed him. Whether that was permanent or not, I didn’t know. But as of this moment, I didn’t think he’d hesitate to pull the trigger if he felt he needed to.

“What’s going on over here Private?” his marching buddy called out.

“Go back to camp. I have it under control,” Ryan shouted back. His buddy turned on his heel and headed back towards camp, taking frequent looks back in our direction.

I watched his friend walk right into the big tent. And I knew we needed to get out of there as fast as we could. Things were about to go from bad to worse. I wished there would have been some way to take Ryan with us. If he could just spend more time with us maybe he’d start to remember.

A double blast of the air horn rang through the air. A voice blared out of a megaphone or a loudspeaker of some kind, “Hold your position!” It was far away but I could make out the demand easily enough. Boys and men started filing out of their tents and into some kind of formation.

“You have to go,” Ryan said fixing his gaze on Owen. “Get out of here, or they might kill you!” When we didn’t move he pointed his gun right in Owen’s face and yelled, “RUN!”

Why was he telling us to go? Anyone else from HOME wouldn’t have ever let us leave. They most certainly wouldn’t have given us a head start or whatever it was he was doing. In fact, we’d probably have been captured, or be dead by now if it had been anyone else.

“Do you remember us at all?” I said reaching out and grabbing his hand. He didn’t pull away. At least, he didn’t at first. His eyes locked on mine for a moment. He was different somehow, but I didn’t know what it was exactly. There may have been a few surviving parts of Ryan left in there but this wasn’t the Ryan I had known. This Ryan was empty. Something was missing.

“I’m sorry, I don’t,” he said as he let go of my hand gently. He turned to Penn and pointed, “You have to go, now. Head that way. Don’t stop for anything. Just keep running.”

Penn grabbed my hand and pulled me in the direction Ryan had pointed. I guess Penn trusted him not to lead us right into them, but then again I’m not sure we had a whole lot of other options. Or time to think about them for that matter. But it wouldn’t make sense for Ryan to tell us to escape right into a waiting group of HOME army men when they would close in on us quicker if he had forced us to stay here. He was letting us go and Penn knew it, but I didn’t think I would ever know why he chose to help us.

Dean, Owen and Sienna glanced at Ryan as if saying goodbye, and followed us. I saw that Ryan was already running back to camp yelling that we had escaped. He indicated the direction we had left in, and it was different from the one he had told us to go. He had helped us, and if HOME ever found out, they’d kill him like they had Slade.

“Why did he save us?” I asked Penn between my ragged breaths as we ran away from the HOME camp and the ensuing army. I couldn’t help but notice that we were running the opposite direction of our car. Were we going to have to leave it, and all of our supplies behind?

Penn kept moving and pulling me along, “I’m not sure what just happened to be honest.”

We had to keep moving, or they’d find us. Without a doubt, if there had been any before, Penn would most certainly be killed now if he was caught. They knew he had turned against them. There was no way around that any more. I thought it quite possible that they might even start to actively seek him out from this point forward. He was a traitor.

After what felt like miles of running we started to slow our pace to catch our breath. My thighs and calves were screaming. If I stopped moving them I didn’t know if I could ever get them to go again. Penn clenched his teeth and furrowed his brow before he swung a fist out as if he was punching the air. He was showing his emotions again, and I liked it. Every time he let himself experience something, he was breaking away more of that shell HOME had put around him.

“You OK?” I said as the others caught up. I was thirsty but there wasn’t anything I could do about it since our water supply was back at the car. Wherever that was. I was so twisted and turned around I knew I’d never be able to track it down again.

“No… I’m not OK,” he said hitting a tree with the palm of his hand. “Shit!” he said shaking his hand and looking at it. Blood oozed out of a small but seemingly deep cut on the side of his palm. “It’s over for me. Like for real. They’ll all know now. My days are numbered. All it will take is one person from HOME to see me… one spy and,” he said dragging a finger across his neck.

He kicked a branch, and it cracked from the force. Part of this was my fault. I should have done more to make him feel like he hadn’t owed me anything. He didn’t have to prove anything to me or anyone else for that matter. I could have stopped him.

“We’ll figure something out,” I said hoping the others would agree. I felt as though Penn had done enough so that the others would at least accept him, even if they didn’t fully trust him. They should at least see he wouldn’t be communicating with HOME any more. It was pretty clear by now that this wasn’t some big elaborate plan to get us. Whatever it was they were doing was far bigger than us.

“I’ll go out on my own,” Penn said looking at each one of us in turn. “I’m a liability. If I stay with you it’ll only put you in more danger than you’re already in. It’s for the best.”

“Don’t be silly, you’re coming with us,” Sienna said, and I nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, man, we aren’t any worse off with you. You’re amazing with a gun, we are better off with you on our side,” Owen said nudging him with his elbow. Penn glanced at Dean and he gave him a single nod. It was probably the best he would get from Dean. Trust was going to be difficult for him, for all of us, but at least Dean seemed to believe he wasn’t going to intentionally lead us into danger. And I believed that too.

We kept walking in the direction Ryan had pointed, further from HOME and further from our car packed with all of our supplies. I let out a huge sigh and my shoulders sunk down just thinking about everything we were leaving behind.

Before I could dwell on it too much, there was an unusual humming noise in the distance. It sounded like a motor of some kind, but it wasn’t a car and it wasn’t a helicopter… there wasn’t even any roads nearby that I could see.

“What is that?” I asked looking towards the horizon. The four-wheeler was bouncing along the wet terrain headed right for us.

Chapter twenty-five.

The four-wheeler was moving fast and recklessly down the open field heading straight towards us. I could see two men dressed in their red uniforms holding on as they zoomed towards us. They were clearly men from the HOME army.

Penn gestured for us to follow him. He ran towards a dense patch of trees ahead of us. It didn’t look like it covered a large area but it was the closest thing to any cover we had. The passenger pulled his gun and pointed it at us. I heard the pop of his gun just as we ducked into the patch of trees. There was a thud as the bullet landed in a tree near my head. It sounded as if it had only been inches away. If I could have stopped and looked over at the tree next to me, I was sure I’d see the bullet lodged inside.

“What do we do?” Sienna asked panicking. There was only two of them and five of us. We had the numbers, but both of them were trained to kill whereas only one of us was. Owen was adequate with a gun but certainly the trained army men were better. After all, the one on the passenger side had almost hit me, and the four-wheeler had been bobbing up and down all over the place. Had it been a lucky shot or one from a skilled hand?

I turned to see the one on the passenger side hop off the four-wheeler. The driver zoomed off circling the patch of trees, and I already knew he was going to try to cut us off on the other side. I saw them every so often between the thick tree trunks. I could only assume that they could see us too, as we made our way through the muck and ducked underneath random branches.

I sucked in air after I heard the army man’s gun being fired again. He had missed his target because of all the random trees between us. If it had been someone with Penn’s expertise, the intended target would be lying face down on the soggy ground.

“Just give up already,” the guy yelled sounding frustrated.

“Give me your gun,” Penn asked reaching out his hand. He widened his eyes when I didn’t act quickly enough, “I’ll shoot, you won’t.”

I handed him my gun, and he gestured for us to go off towards the right. “This way?” I asked in a hushed voice, but when I turned around he was gone. “Oh crap,” I said making sure not to look at Dean. I didn’t want to see his ‘I told you so’ face.