I stepped through the door and carefully closed it behind me, so that it would appear intact from anyone outside. The last thing I needed was a curious patrol demonstrating initiative and trapping me in the building.
As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could only discern vague shapes and hear the sounds of the storm against the building. The shapes were slowly coming into focus. I was in a storage room of some sort. I was surrounded by shelves filled with hard-hats, tools and other miscellaneous bits of logging equipment. Everything was covered in a layer of dust so thick that I had to struggle not to cough.
Thunder rumbled with enough force to rattle the stuff on the shelves. I thought I heard something on the other side of the wall. I followed the shelves along the wall until I found a gap of open wall. The muffled noises were louder. I contorted myself to press my ear to the wall. I heard two voices in a rather aggressive conversation. As I started to move away from the wall my right hand brushed something cold. I fumbled around the shape for a moment until my hand found a comfortable grip. It was a door. Wherever I was being led, my instincts told me my next step was on the other side of the door. I heard a loud shout from inside. If I tried to open the door and those militant nuts were on the other side, it would mean an end to me and the madness of tonight.
I waited for a peal of thunder before trying the knob. The door opened with minimal effort, and the whine of the hinges was covered by the storm. I only opened the door enough to look into the room. Through the gap I could see one goon with his back to me. It was another room lined with shelves, but lit by a single exposed bulb dangling from a wire over his head.
“I’ll ask you again. Why were you in the woods?” He stepped aside. Alison was bound to a chair directly under the light.
“I wanted to see all of nature’s beauty.” Alison’s remark earned her a swift backhand from the goon.
“Why were you in the woods?”
“We were filming a story.” Her response earned another backhand.
“Liar.” He struck her again. I was not going to let her die like that poor girl out in the garage. The pistol would be too loud, but the heavy wrench would serve well.
“Bite me!” She shouted back at him. The goon hit her so hard that she fell over backwards. She let out a cry of pain as her chair hit the floor.
“The General was right about you.” The man stood over her. “You are a strong one.” He sounded amused.
“Untie me and I’ll show you just how strong I am!”
“There was a time I might have considered it.” He shook his head. “But if you won’t tell the truth.” He walked around her to stop by her head. “Then it is clear that you are too corrupt to be saved.”
“Can I get a new song?” she sarcastically asked. “This record sucks.” I judged the weight of the wrench in my hand.
“As the General said…” He lifted his foot over her head. “There’s always the other one.” Another rumble of thunder covered the sound of me opening the door and my approach. As his foot came down, I brought up the wrench in fast arc toward his head. The heavy metal connected with a sickening crunch. Diminishing sounds of thunder echoed in the distance as the guy crumpled into a heap on the floor with a heavy thud.
The world fell into silence as I stared at the body on the floor. His face looked like he was barely eighteen. I didn’t need to check him to know that he wasn’t going to get up. They were no better than the cult.
A crack of thunder snapped me out of it. I turned back to Alison and used the end of the wrench to cut the duct tape binding her feet to the chair legs. She didn’t respond until I stepped around the chair. Alison stared at me in disbelief. I cut the tape around her wrists and took her hands to help her up.
“You’re alive?” She reached out to gently touch my cheek.
“For the most part.” I focused on how her touch felt. It was dulled, like my skin was numb. Jess had felt more solid. Alison slipped her hand behind my neck, and pulled me into hug. She held tight but the numbness didn’t let up. It just didn’t feel real. When she finally released me, there were tears in her eyes.
“Is Sarah…?”
“No.” I let out a heavy breath. “What do you know?” I moved back to the door I had come through, and checked the room before closing it. Alison knelt over her captor, checking his pockets for anything of use.
“It’s a group of anti-government militia-types. They were using the Bigfoot-demon legend to keep people away from their compound.” She paused as she rolled the guy over. “They grabbed us after the sniper took you out.”
“The sniper?”
“They grabbed her too. Ah-ha.” Alison pulled a radio free from inside the man’s jacket. She checked it over and clipped it on her belt. “I’m not sure what they’re doing with the people they grab, though.”
“From what I’ve seen, they’re forcing them to join their little cause, and killing the ones who don’t.”
“Figures.” She rubbed the side of her face where her interrogator had hit her. “We need to find where they’re holding Veronica.” I stared at her. Since when was she concerned with Veronica? She saw my expression. “What?” She rolled her eyes. “Give me some credit.”
“Right.” I crossed the room to the next door. “What do you remember?”
“Blindfolded.” My frown was met with a grumble. Investigators are trained to dig through paperwork, monitor subjects and focus on situational awareness. The chances of abduction are slim. Still, if you find yourself abducted you learn to make the best of a bad situation. If you’re blindfolded you focus on other things you can readily monitor. Things like time, noises and smells can help you interpret your environment.
Alison stepped in front of the door to put it to her back. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. I watched her try to retrace her path in her mind. She tapped out something on her leg.
“There’s a holding area on the other side of a large space.” She opened her eyes to watch me. “About thirty paces straight from the door to the open space. Three minutes to cross and a hollow metal room with a heavy metal door.”
“Let’s hope that they haven’t moved her yet.” I carefully opened the door to find an unlit office section with windows that looked out at the mill. I crouched low to move across the space.
I made it to the other end without incident. The door was missing but the low wall afforded some cover. I could see several guards stationed throughout the mill, and a few others moving between positions. Alison crouched next to me.
“It’s over there.” She pointed to our right. A flash of lightning illuminated the interior of the mill. Large bay doors were open at the end of the building near the primary saw deck that ran down the center of the building from end to end. The offices lined the sides of the mill in this section.
“We should try to go through the machinery. It will give us the best cover.” There were enough shadows and objects to hide us.
“How are we planning on getting out of here?”
“One thing at a time.” I saw an opening, and took it. I moved along the wall through the shadows, and stopped behind a stack of pallets. At the next opportunity, I sprinted across the open floor to the saw deck. I swung under the scaffolding and out of sight. Alison landed next to me in the shadows.
“It should be over there.” Alison ducked as someone ran past. It was hard to see anything in the shadows from here. The deck was tall enough for us to walk under if it weren’t for all of the cross beams and braces. I crawled under the first brace before daring to crouch.
After a couple minutes of maneuvering our way through the obstacle course, we ended up on the far side of the saw deck and within sight of the offices. I saw a pair of lights in the lower office section. They had to be guarding something. I tapped Alison on the shoulder and pointed at the lights. At the next chance, we extracted ourselves from the saw deck and ran for the office door. We managed to make it to a stack of barrels near the doorway without incident.
I could just make out the silhouettes of two figures with flashlights at the end of the office section. We would need some way of approaching them and taking them down quietly. Alison tapped me on the shoulder.
“Look.” She indicated out by the bay doors. At this angle we could see a metal shipping container. There were another pair of guards situated in front of it. We wouldn’t stand a chance out in the open. “That’s where they had us.” Something didn’t feel right.
“We’ll take them.” I focused on the two in the offices with flashlights. There was enough cover to reach them without being noticed. My instincts had kept me alive tonight. There was no reason to doubt them now.
“But that’s not…”
“Trust me.” I pulled the wrench free from my belt. Alison let out a shaky breath, but she picked up a metal pipe of some form.
Together we slipped in through the open office door and split up to follow separate walls toward the mystery guards. Somehow we managed to reach the men without alerting them. Alison crouched across from me behind an abandoned desk. I turned my attention to the guards. They were a far cry from professional. Both were leaning against the wall with a look of boredom. We could take them out easily, but not when they could see us coming. There was nothing but open floor between us and the guards. I held up a finger as I thought about how to draw out the men. If we made a noise, they would come to investigate, but they would be armed with weapons at the ready. If we moved something, we would receive the same response. We needed something to draw them forward, but not alert them. I signaled for Alison to take out the radio and turn it all the way up. She placed the radio on the desk. Pipe in-hand, she disappeared back into the shadows.
The minutes passed like hours before the radio finally sputtered out a call between patrols. The guards showed a bit of motivation, casually walking over to the desk. Their curiosity was met with wrench and pipe to the backs of their heads. Both men went down without a sound. Alison immediately frisked her target. I ignored them to move to the door secured with a padlock.
“This night just doesn’t want to cut us any slack,” Alison complained. “At least there’s this.” She held out a set of keys to me. It took a couple of tries before I found the right key. The lock popped, and I cautiously opened the door.
The room was just another storage room, lined with shelves and lit by two dangling lights. Several bodies were lying on the floor, bound with heads covered. They looked like more missing hikers. It only took me a moment to recognize the petite form in dark jeans and leather jacket that I was looking for. I moved to the body in the corner and started tearing at the bindings. Alison yanked the bag off of the figure’s head. Veronica looked at us with wild eyes.
“Hello, Sunshine,” Alison said, with a touch of attitude. I finished cutting her bindings so she could sit up.
“How?” Veronica saw me and her face paled.
“When I make a promise.” I took her hands to help her up. “I won’t let a little thing like…”
“Like being shot in the head?” Alison eyed me. I cleared my throat to silence her, and refocused on Veronica.
“Are you alright?” She gave a shaky nod. “Good.” I started back through the door when Alison stopped me.
“What about the rest of them?” I looked back at the people on the floor. I didn’t know if we could get ourselves out, let alone five others.
“We can’t.” I headed out the door. We were far from safe, but it was the best we had managed so far tonight. I leaned around the corner to look through the windows. None of the guards had noticed our actions. The best way out of the mill was through the bay doors. The majority of guards were stationed around the perimeter, but the doors at this end only had a single patrol. Alison stepped up next to me.
“Looks like an exit to me.” She crossed to the guards, picking up the radio she had left on the desk.
“Anything?” I asked over my shoulder to her.
“They must not have trusted these two very much.” Alison grabbed the first guard by his feet. “These guys only had a radio between them.” She dragged the man behind the desk. “Not even a pocket knife.”
“At least they’re amateurs.”
“They’re still killers.” Veronica appeared next to me. “Are they…?” She watched Alison drag the second guard out of sight.
“They’re not an issue,” I stated, coldly.
“Good.” Her response even made Alison stop. She looked like she was in shock, but at least she was functioning.
“We need to get moving.” I had started for the office door when a pair of pick-up trucks drove into the bay. At least a dozen men climbed out of the beds in between us and the mill doors.
“Looks like they’re mobilizing for something.” Alison crouched in front of the windows to get a better view. She wasn’t wrong. Their missing outpost may have had something to do with it.
“Can we take them?” Veronica’s question had Alison and myself staring at her in disbelief. I glanced at Alison.
“Let’s not go toward the army of militant rednecks.”
“There’s got to be another way.” I started back for the storage room.
“We’re just going to leave?” Veronica sounded angry. Once I was clear of the windows, I stood up to get a better perspective.
“Harsh language can only get us so far, Sunshine.” Alison leaned around the corner of the door frame to look at the militia again. She retreated back to my side. “So how did you find me in the first place?”
“I came in through a storage room full of old logging equipment.”
“So there’s got to be one on this side right?” Alison was right, there had to be something similar on this side of the mill. I spotted an odd angle hidden in the shadows behind a stack of boxes.
“This way.” I walked around the boxes and discovered a staircase. The girls were only a step behind as I climbed the narrow wooden stairs. I hesitated at the top long enough to draw the wrench from my belt. I cleared the top step and entered a hallway lit by hanging florescent lights. It was the most exposed we could possibly be at the moment. Bright lights and nowhere to hide.
“Uh, is there another option?” Alison quipped, with her pipe at the ready. I didn’t like it, but there wasn’t much choice. I cautiously moved down the hallway. The wall on our right gave way to a long series of windows and a darkened office beyond.
“Do you even know where you’re going?” Veronica asked.
“Not really,” I admitted. She groaned at me. We crouched next to the office wall to catch our breath for a moment. I gestured to Alison to go first so I could take a moment to check on Veronica. She didn’t have the welts that Alison did, but she looked more than a little frazzled.
“Hey.” I touched her arm to get her to focus. “Are you alright?” She stared at me as Alison stopped half-way down the corridor for a moment.
“Fine.” Her voice sounded more distant than it should’ve been.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“And you’re freezing.” She put her hand on mine.
“Come on.” I led her down the hall to Alison before continuing. Just past the office we came to split in the hallway. Another set of stairs descended to the main floor while the hallway went straight.
“Down?” Alison asked.
A pair of men in camouflage appeared at the bottom of the stairs. I saw the alarmed expression on the girls’ faces. I slipped across the stairs and took off at a dead run for the end of the hall. We rounded the corner into another intersection that we crossed without slowing. Something caught my attention, and I followed my gut. I almost knocked down the girls when I doubled back to the intersection.
“What is it?” Alison started back toward me.
There weren’t any lights on in this section but all the same, I saw all I needed to see. A girl with wavy red hair, white blouse, and denim shorts was leaning against the wall near a doorway. I felt the warmth return with the serene calm. I knew there was more to this than simply following a path. I took a reassuring breath. Jess crossed her arms, but didn’t lift her gaze to meet mine.