“I’d worry,” Trent continued to taunt and laugh. “But damn, I’m ten feet from you. You couldn’t hit the side of a barn if you—”
He was immediately silenced when I finally landed a shot. This one was spot on and dead center of his forehead.
I raced to Hannah, and helped her up. “Let me get you out of here and we’ll take care of you. Where’s Edward?”
“He’s not here.”
A sickening feeling hit me about my son, but I had to get out of there. It was the perfect opportunity. The whole camp was focused on the Vee attack. “Let’s go.” I grabbed her hand and we ran to the cart.
“What about our stuff?”
I helped her in the cart. “We don’t need it.” I hurried and untied the horse.
“Calvin, we do. We need food. We need our stuff…”
“Go. Go to the underpass, take it slow. Go, I’ll catch up.” I placed the Glock on her lap, handed Hannah the reins, gave Mary a swift pat to her rear and the horse trotted off.
In a low run, I made it to the pile where our stuff had been thrown. There was no way I would grab it all, but I moved fast, really fast. I just needed enough to get us through for two days. Her Barbie backpack and another backpack were open but not emptied. I zipped up her Barbie pack, then shoved what I could into the other backpack. I threw that in and a few other things into the wagon, and as I grabbed for more items, I felt the hand on my back and smelled the scent of Vee.
Quickly, I lifted that Barbie pack and while coming to a stand, swung out full speed, nailing the Vee and sending him off his balance.
I tossed the Barbie pack on my shoulder, lifted the jug of water, tossed that in the wagon, grabbed the handle, and moved toward the road.
That wagon was a lot lighter than it had ever been and I pulled it with ease, hoping to not lose anything out of it. When I hit the end of the dirt road, I was cautious to look and make sure there were no Vee. There weren’t.
I took one more look back.
Some Vee were victorious in getting their victims, but for the most part, the Trent Camp was fighting and wouldn’t be wiped out.
They’d be looking for us and we couldn’t waste any time.
There was no way we could stop. By first light, they’d be after us.
I caught up to Hannah and the cart after a mile. I called out when I was close enough and she stopped.
I tossed everything in the back of the cart, then walked to the horse and spoke in his ear. “I’m sorry to put this strain on you. You’ll rest shortly, okay?” I ran my hand down his mane and climbed to the bench driver’s seat. I stared at Hannah with a sympathetic look, snapped the reins and we moved down the road. It was a short distance to the underpass where we’d stopped previously for the night.
My heart was filled with fear over what I would find. It pounded louder in my ears every few feet. I was certain that I would see Leah on the ground and was surprised when I only saw Diana.
She stood in the middle of the road right before the underpass.
“She one of them?” Hannah asked.
“Yeah, it appears so.” I moved closer.
“Stop.”
I pulled the reins to bring us to a stop.
Hannah stood and extended the gun.
“Let me,” I said.
“No offense, Calvin, but we can’t have you wasting all our ammo hoping for a lucky shot.”
“You think you can hit her in the dark like…”
She fired the weapon and Diana fell back.
“Okay then.”
Hannah handed me the gun, then stopped me from moving. She laid her hand on mine. “Calvin, what do you think we’ll find with Edward?”
“I don’t know. We’ll find out in a minute.”
The horse began to walk and in the few moments, every horrible scenario imaginable ran through my mind. Diana had gotten him or even Leah. Worse, whoever knocked me out just curb stomped Edward. Each thought made my heart hurt.
Then that ended with a simple whimper. It cut through the night loudly and I gasped out in relief.
Hannah nearly shrieked with joy.
I brought the cart to a stop, jumped out and ran. Sure enough, the basket was still nestled up on top of the grade against the overpass, right where I put him.
They never touched him.
The basket hadn’t been moved.
I lifted him out and hugged him close to my chest with such an enormous amount of gratitude. I was fortunate and blessed. “You are one tough kid,” I said to him. “One really special tough boy.”
It seemed every stop was another lesson, and I was learning from them. Once I finished holding Edward, I brought him to the cart and handed him to Hannah. I knew we had to move, but I had to take care of Hannah first.
Using the jug of water, I took a shirt and brought it to Hannah. I climbed up on the bench and made her face me.
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.” I wiped her bloody mouth and nose. Her cheek was swollen and brush burned. “I’m sorry this happened to you. I am so sorry.”
She clutched my hand and for the first time, I watched a tear roll down her check. She released a single sob and her forehead fell to my hand and I brought her into my chest, holding her.
“Calvin.” She peeped out.
“Yeah.”
“You told Mama Mavis you ain’t no hero. Never say that again. You’re the bravest man I know. You’re a hero to me, okay?”
“Okay.” I kissed the top of her head.
“Promise you won’t leave me, Calvin. Promise me you’ll stay with me.”
“I promise I won’t leave you.”
We had our moment, now it was time to move on. We had to. Hannah held Edward, and with one arm holding her to me, I used the other to control the cart and we left the underpass slowly, but we left it alive and all together.
24
SEPTEMBER 9
It started to rain just before the sun came up and it was a blessing more than a curse. There were no signs of the Trent camp people following us. I couldn’t count on that always being that way. I just needed to get us to Sixteen before they got us.
There was a chance they wouldn’t come. Maybe they suffered so much of their own losses, we were an afterthought. I certainly hoped so.
I suspected they’d expect us to take the interstate. Instead, with only a tiny lighter size flashlight, I was able to see that Aden Road, would take us to another back road and eventually to Old Highway 60. Only four miles extra out of the way. I felt it was a safe route for us.
That journey on those roads took hours, Mary wasn’t moving very fast and I didn’t want to push her. The tree-lined road gave us little protection from the rain and fallen leaves made the road slick. The wheels of the cart kept sliding every once in a while.
By the time we made it to an interchange town called Counts Crossroads, we had enough of a head start to stop. It was on my original itinerary and I was bit leery of stopping, but we had to. Just a couple hours, just enough to rest, and then we’d push forward. I had no plans to stop for the night, not anymore. Even if the sun went down, we’d forge ahead. It was ten in the morning, we’d be there soon enough.
We were so close. Twenty-one miles. I knew from experience it wasn’t good to push a horse more than fifteen miles on concrete, but knowing that Jason had made the trip in five days, told me he pushed it to the limits.
It was the most cautious I had ever felt on the journey, looking out, peering around. There were no Vee that I could see and there were no people. There was a vast amount of abandoned cars, doors left open, some off to the side of the road. From Counts Crossroads to Sanctuary Sixteen it was possibly a one day walk for someone with stamina. Hell, people in the military walked that much a lot.