Hopping up and down across the rope bridge, I nearly lost my balance before reaching the far side where the zip-line lay. Glancing down, I could see the creatures reaching up toward us, craving for one tiny slip up.
As I pulled the harness through my legs, I cautiously leaned up to get a view around the fortress and through the dense forest leaves in the direction of the other line. I was just barely able to make out that the men, our mirror image on the other side, were doing the exact same thing at the other zip-line.
We waited in silence, ducking down to see if they had noticed us. There were no noticeable movements to indicate they knew we were here. Minutes ticked by like seconds as one-by-one, each of the ten men ascended the rope ladder to the top of the platform preparing to slide across.
Staying low, I once again shifted to where I could see them better and squinted as I watched one of the men dump over the wooden box that the harnesses were sitting in. They seemed to realize a few were missing.
As Jarvis pinched his finger between his harness and the zip-line to muffle the metal on metal click, I found myself once again glancing back through the trees toward the men. A few distant words were just barely audible before one of the Stripes looked up toward the fort. Raising his gun, he lifted the sight to his face to get a better look, and began meticulously pivoting from one foot to the other as his weapon peeked into each window of the structure.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Kyle shaking his head back and forth.
“Where the hell is Aidan?” he whispered.
Looking around, I realized he was nowhere in sight.
“I lost track of him at the window.” My voice was no louder than his was as I pulled my own harness tight.
“Damn it! That was nearly ten minutes ago. I’ll go back after him,” Kyle said.
Just as he started to pull his harness off and step toward the rope bridge, Aidan pushed the door open a mere crack, exposing no more than a shadow of his face. Nodding, he stepped out onto the bridge and ran to our platform.
“What were you doing?” Kyle barked.
“Keeping an eye out.”
Kyle shot him a scowl and tossed him a harness. I could tell he didn’t trust the answer.
“The zip-line’s too loud. They’re gonna hear us,” Aidan said with a look of panic swelling across his face.
They wouldn’t have a clear shot at us, having to get around the fortress before they could see our zip-line. However, we knew it would just take one Stripe to get across… and if they didn’t know where we were yet, they sure as shit were about to.
Before sliding into his harness, Aidan glanced to his wrist at a digital watch, and then looked up to the sky. Meanwhile, Jarvis was simply standing, hooked up to the zip, waiting.
“What are you waiting for?” Kyle questioned.
“If we zip at the same time that the Stripes do, there’s a good chance they won’t hear us.”
Nodding our heads, we stood by, keenly focused on the starting note of that singing metal… until finally it rang out into the forest.
Taking a noticeable gulp, Jarvis lifted his legs as Kyle gave him a nudge, shooting him down and causing that same orchestra of metal-on-metal. Peering up, I could see that the Stripes didn’t seem to hear him. Both zips were nearly the same length, so they both ended at roughly the same time. I watched from afar as Jarvis quickly unhooked and grabbed the tree, trying to move around to conceal himself behind the bark.
Just before stepping up to the line, I noticed Aidan glancing at his watch again. Kyle did too.
“What are you timing?” Kyle spoke through his teeth.
Taking a deep breath, Aidan looked at us with pain-filled eyes.
“You need to know what’s about to happen.” He paused and let the breath out of his lungs. “I just used the radio to signal to Gordon that I’m here. Using the downed plane crash site as a marker, and a quick triangulation of the signal from the radio, they are going to find us, and there is a heavily armed chopper en route to this location right now. It should be here in less than five minutes.”
Kyle’s face looked like it was going to burst. “I knew it, you little shit!”
Holding his ground, Aiden lifted both hands up and replied, “Before you go ape on me, you need to know two things. One, Gordon doesn’t realize you’re here. For all he knows, you died back in the fire. They think I was taken captive by the Stripes and escaped. Two, I’m not going to tell him you’re here.”
Taking a step back, Kyle’s face turned to a lighter shade of red. Neither of us said a word. The only thing audible over the moans from the monsters below was the distant sound of the zip-line as another Stripe started down toward the base.
Looking back toward the Stripes for only a moment, Aidan met our gaze and spoke with what I can only describe as unremitting pain. “I don’t know who’s right and who’s wrong in this world, but I’ve been with Gordon and the people there for seven months. I have friends, and there are many great survivors there. We’ll see how this battle shakes out. Until then, I wish you luck as you try to get back to your chopper. You’re gonna need it.”
It was the most mature thing I’d ever heard a seventeen-year-old say.
“Now go! Gordon wants these guys almost as bad as he wants Avalon. This place is about to go all fire and brimstone if you know what I’m saying. In the meantime, I’m staying behind to signal them from the tower up there. For all our sakes, I hope we never see each other again.”
Before we could respond, he turned and darted back to the fortress. Standing there, watching his new Nike Pegasus shoes bounce up and down across the rope bridge, the realization that there was a warship on its way hit me.
“There’s no time, Kyle. We can’t wait for the parallel zip-lines. We’ve gotta get the hell out of these trees now!” I said, almost a bit too loud.
Throwing caution to the wind is a liberating thing if you’ve been sneaking around… especially when your life is literally on the line.
Chapter 26
Vindictive bastards seemed to be holding a grudge.
Snapping onto the zip, I lifted my legs and took off down the narrow line. It would only be a minute or two before they realized where we were, and I hoped like hell I’d be across to the other side before they did. Manic screaming from across the bridge shattered the silence as one of the Stripes pointed toward me.
Once again, Lady Luck seemed to give me a giant Karate Kid style Flamingo Kick to the ball sack.
Tree limbs and branches exploded to my left as bullets passed through their frail bark. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw one of the Stripes had made it around the building and was shooting a rifle in my direction. All I saw was muzzle flash as I tried to curl up my body to make it as small as possible.
The weapon shook up and down with each shot. I wasn’t close enough to see his face well, but in between each bullet, I could hear his screams of fury. We’d invaded their lair, and they had no interest in “talking” this out.
The Stripe was so singularly focused on leveling his sight on my moving body that he didn’t see Kyle coming up from beside him. With one fell swoop, Kyle knocked into him, sending him over the edge as a barrage of wooden splinters erupted from the railing. The Stripe’s scream went shrill just before he hit the ground.
Still alive, he tried to crawl away from the horde, but it was on him in a matter of seconds. All that waiting. Someone had finally slipped up. Dinner time.
Gordon’s chopper came into hearing range just as I landed with my feet on the platform that Jarvis was standing on. Watching Kyle snap in behind us and lift his legs, I looked through the woods to see a few of the Stripes rushing down the ladder back to the trucks. Each of them cocked their heads and their guns, up to the sky in disbelief.