He figured they had a five to six hour lead on him at best, and if they’d left before two or three in the morning, they’d have been well ahead of the drones heading west after dawn. They could make it all the way to Montana, but there was no map of Montana, so they probably weren’t going there. In all likelihood, they had gone as far west as they could, as fast as they could—he dragged his finger across the interstate on the map—and then began to head south—his finger indicated Rapid City. But they would hide during the day, or the drones would easily find them, and it seemed they were aware of that. It was his job now to determine the general area in which they were hiding—his finger tapped the portion of Theodore Roosevelt National Park south of Medora—and make sure he was watching for them when night fell. “Lions,” he mumbled, waving off the questioning look from his driver. “Dead lions.” Eddie smiled.
NINETEEN: (Ryan) “Like Minds”
Danny was pacing back and forth in the cave. I heard him tell Wes, “He’s still coming.” And I figured he meant the captain. When Wes didn’t disagree the idea became a bigger part of my own thoughts. Maybe Danny was giving him too much credit. Or maybe he wasn’t. Danny mentioned he felt like someone was aware of our every move, comparing it to the Wicked Witch of the West watching Dorothy through her magic ball. To Danny, our path seemed too predictable, our footsteps too visible, not unlike a blood trail to a predator. I was trying to be more optimistic, declaring my belief that we’d seen the last of the giant captain. But I knew he wasn’t going to like that we’d escaped last night. If this hadn’t already been personal, he was probably going to take that move personally. He could still be coming after us.
The four new people in our group wasted no time in making themselves useful. The two men, Nathan and Blake, helped pile and scatter sand at the front of our cave so it was nearly impossible to perceive an entrance there. Our tire tracks had been further hidden by windblown sand. This was as good a hiding spot as we could find right now, covered overhead by three stories of cold dirt and stone. No drone would pick up our heat signal through that. The girl, Emily, stayed close to her mother. She seemed scared. Thank you, Captain Obvious. Hayley kept checking on her, and I could tell they’d developed a friendly bond. The mother, well, I couldn’t take my eyes off Tara, and she didn’t seem to dislike the attention. I tried to make casual conversation, but my heart was pounding in my throat, and I likely came across as quite the fool.
“How did you get here?” I asked.
“Here, here? As in the cave? Or…?” she replied with a faint smile.
I’m such an idiot. Even I had no idea what I meant. She sounded as beautiful as she looked. That only flustered me more. “Uhh…” I faked being summoned and excused myself to go “help someone with something,” but my mind—and eyes—kept going back to her. Unfortunately, she intercepted many of my stolen glances at her, and the anatomical direction of some of those quick peeks was rather embarrassing.
I moved over by the cave entrance and gazed out a small hole into the bright afternoon sky. Why couldn’t Tara have been ugly? That would have been so much easier. In fact, we probably would have just left her in Medora then. But no, I had to go and insist we bring them. That beautiful long brown hair hanging in braids beside her tanned face…the cowgirl attire with the low-cut white tank, unbuttoned plaid shirt and skintight jeans. Those muscular arms and well-defined curves. Couldn’t she at least have left more to the imagination? Instead I was imagining her in even less, and experiencing sensations I hadn’t felt in years. My eyes could get me in trouble with her. I slumped down to the floor and leaned my head against the wall.
Hayley sat down next to me, leaning her head on my shoulder. “You look stressed.”
I laughed. Then I sighed. “Yeah.”
Tara was standing by Emily with her back turned to us. She bent over to hand her daughter something, and as I watched her do so I was aware of Hayley’s eyes watching mine. Talk about embarrassing. “She’s pretty, isn’t she?” Hayley whispered.
Stunning. “But married,” I said, tapping my own ring, still embarrassed I’d been so obvious.
“Maybe.” She traced a circle in the dirt with her finger. “Or maybe not. You do still wear yours.”
Touché. I looked down at my ring and regretted the depth of my sudden feelings for Tara. Sophie. Dang it. Sorry, Sophie.
“Mom wouldn’t care, Dad,” Hayley added.
How did she…? “You don’t know that,” I replied with a little too much edge.
“Hayley, will you play cards with me?” Emily asked, interrupting our conversation.
“You bet, Em.” Hayley stood up and walked away, but not before looking back at me and saying, “Yes, I do, Dad.”
Dang it. The girl could read me like a book. I lay back on the floor and closed my eyes. God and I hadn’t been that close in awhile, but I managed to piece together a little prayer in my mind. It was a jumbled collection of thoughts, and I fell asleep mid process, but I knew if God did exist (and if He was listening) He knew what I was thinking and what I was feeling. If Sophie was there with him, she knew how much I missed her and that I’d give anything to have her back. I had to stay away from Tara. Yeah, right. Good luck with that!
As I drifted off to sleep, I didn’t feel Tara cover me with a blanket, and I missed Hayley’s pursuant smile. The intended “quick nap” turned into a few hours, though when I awoke I felt as if I’d barely slept. Stress sure could take a lot out of you. I got up and made sure Danny slept a couple hours too. He was on high alert, and didn’t want to miss anything, but we were as safe as we were going to get for a while. He needed to take advantage of that fact and rest a little now.
We woke Danny and Cameron up around five o’clock, about an hour and a half from darkness. It was the girls’ turn to nap for a while. The rest of us needed to prepare for our next move.
Captain Eddie and his seventy-three men arrived in Medora around four in the afternoon. The drones had been here hours before and bombed the town repeatedly. Apparently, these people had been too far from the nearest airstrips and had managed to evade the original chemical bombs. A few farmers had avoided the drone bombings and other Qi Jia patrols found them heading north towards the Canadian border. Before execution, a couple of them had spoken of some people who had passed through and urged the town to flee for Canada or Hawaii.
The confessing prisoners had been killed before Eddie could interrogate them, but based on the descriptions they’d given, he had little doubt his “lions” had not only passed through here, but were probably the people they spoke of. Perfect. They had left shortly after 9 a.m. but likely hadn’t gone far, probably no more than an hour or so, and most likely south. Now that he knew there were only about a dozen of them, he knew he had more than enough men to handle the task.
Eddie divided his men into three squads, each covering one of the main roads south from Medora towards Rapid City. If they didn’t come down those roads, they’d have to travel one of the smaller roads between them, and there was no way they’d get by the THIRST systems doing that. The trap was set. It was time for the hunt to end. Captain Eddie, his brother Lazzo, and twenty other men set up camp on the middle route. And they waited.