There was a militia guard back near the controller cab, but he was presently hanging about a foot off the ground. A large hulking shadow had him by the throat. The guard was torn between kicking at the shadow and trying to breathe. His fight against the thing seemed to be winding down. Once he had stopped fighting, the hulking figure pitched the guard against the side of the crane. The hollow sound brought me back to the land of the thinking. I shoved Veronica back and we scrambled around the side of the crane.
Heavy footsteps started toward the front of the crane. I nudged Veronica to keep moving toward the back where I had seen Alison. Lighting flashed again as we slipped around the first outrigger under the slewing platform. Between the outrigger and the overhanging engine, it provided decent cover.
“One sec.” I made her wait while I moved around the next outrigger to the end of the crane. Alison was looking up at the control cab when I stepped around the large mechanical leg. She was starting to climb up when I grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She was ready to fight me until I placed my hand over her mouth and pinned her to the ground under me. From here, we could see under the outrigger to the opposite side of the crane. I indicated for her to look through the gap.
The hulking figure looked like it was bleeding shadows into the air around it, even against the rain. It stalked its way toward the front of the crane. There was no way we could get in the control cab to deal with the guard shack without being noticed by the thing. The fear in Alison’s eyes said she was seeing the same thing as me. I released her and pulled back further into the shadows.
“It can’t…” Alison whispered. There was a spark of recognition that ran through her eyes for barely an instant. She knew more than she was telling. Could Heather have been right about her?
“Who is that?”
“I…I don’t know.” I could hear the lie in her voice. Thunder rumbled in the distance again.
“Who?”
“It’s the same one that attacked us last week in the old jail.” She licked her lips nervously. I narrowed my gaze at her. How much was she keeping from me and more importantly, why? “We have to keep our distance.”
“Because…” The thought clicked. “Because being too close can drive you off the deep end like Brian or Jo.” Alison gave a stuttering nod. “The cult?”
“The Group.” She corrected as she peeked around the outrigger again.
“The Group?” I moved next to her to see our stalker. “We’re going to have a talk about this.” The shifting figure was checking something on the ground near the front of the crane.
“Only if we can get through that gate.”
“Hey,” Veronica called our attention to her crawling over the other outrigger. Alison and I shushed her simultaneously.
“No, you don’t…” She fussed with something, and produced the radio. “Here, listen.” She held the radio out between us.
“…I repeat. We have multiple vehicles approaching on the main road.” The radio sputtered something else and an older voice came on. “This is what we’ve prepared for, everyone get to your posts…”
“We need to get the gate open now.” Alison stated with a bit more volume. The police were on the way, and no doubt some ATF or FBI were in tow. Something told me that our shadow figure wouldn’t care much about it though. It could still kill us long before anyone came to our rescue. I stared at the crane, thinking about how it worked and all of the mechanics involved.
“We can cut the hydraulics.”
“Brilliant idea. Got a knife? Otherwise it might take me a little while to chew through the hoses.” Alison gave me attitude. I produced the pocket knife we had liberated from one of the goons. “Some days…” She grabbed the knife and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. I blinked at her. Together, the three of us leaned around the crane to see the stalker. It was headed back in our direction. We needed a distraction.
I moved to the opposite outrigger and pulled the wrench from my belt. I waited on the thunder to stop rumbling overhead. Once it was only the sound of the rain, I threw the wrench at the barrels. There was a reason I never tried out for baseball in high school.
The wrench didn’t even come close to hitting the barrels. It dropped so quickly that it glanced off the forward outrigger and tumbled to the ground. I saw Alison give a thumbs-up. I wasn’t sure if she was sarcastic or serious until I rejoined them. The stalker just disappeared around the front of the crane. We only had a moment.
“Hurry.” I followed Alison around to the access panel on the engine. She set about dislodging the panel while I cautiously moved to the control cab. Safety features are built into almost every machine. Even if we cut the lines there would be a manual brake of some kind that would prevent the boom arm from collapsing.
I managed to pull open the door on the cab and climb in undetected. There were dozens of levers and toggles scattered about the cab. I had no clue what I was doing, but the big red handle marked brake tempted me. Alison appeared outside the cab with her hand covered in a black oil of some form. I said a little prayer and pulled the handle with a bit of effort. The entire crane shuddered with a loud whine of metal. I jumped from the cab and landed on the girls. The boom arm came down with a loud shout from someone a moment before it shattered the night with a horrific crash.
“The gate is down…the gate is down,” the radio squawked. Alison was already getting to her feet when I stood up, pulling Veronica with me. There was no point in trying to be subtle any longer. I could hear men shouting.
“Run!” I shouted, and drew my confiscated revolver. Alison was already a few strides ahead of us.
“What about…?” Veronica saw something behind me that made her fall silent with wide eyes. I looked back and saw the huge shadow figure looking on us with blue glowing eyes. I aimed down the sights at it.
“Just run.” I heard Veronica reluctantly start away. I pulled the trigger and was greeted with a click. It took a step toward us with wisps of shadow leaking all around it. I pulled the trigger again, and was greeted with another click, and another. I let a curse slip as I backed away and tried again unsuccessfully. Something heavy shook the ground out in the woods and the figure stopped to look in the direction of the noise. I took my own advice, and took off at a dead run following the girls. Once we were past the stacked timber we could see the remains of the main gate crushed under the boom arm. It was treacherous footing as we tried to run across twisted metal and chain-link fence, but we crossed onto a gravel road without slowing. Behind us, men were shouting. It sounded like everything with an engine was racing up behind us.
I risked a glance over my shoulder, and saw the large figure standing in the middle of the gate, silhouetted by the lights of approaching pickup trucks. Shadows leaked from it into the lights, as its eyes burned an unnatural blue. I focused all of my efforts on keeping pace right behind the girls.
Somehow we managed to clear the lights of the compound, and actually make it into the dark of the forest. The road was compact enough that it felt like were actually going to make it. Unfortunately, when our shadows were suddenly cast onto the road in front of us I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. Alison slowed to look back.
“Don’t look back, just run!” I commanded.
I could hear the engines of the pickup trucks even over the thunder. They were closing fast. We could risk entering the woods, but I really didn’t want to risk whatever was still out there. The sudden crack of gunshots behind us made me question that decision. Since the narrow road didn’t give much opportunity to dodge, we would need to hope that they weren’t very good at hitting a moving target from the back of a moving vehicle. The sporadic gunfire stopped as I heard the engine of the lead truck roar. Apparently, shooting us wasn’t the plan any more. I could hear their laughter as the truck gained ground on us. We could probably avoid being hit by it, but that would only leave us open to being shot or grabbed by those riding in back. I let out a curse and fought against slowing my pace. Even marathon runners can hit a point at which the body can’t do what the mind is telling it. We were slowing.
Another truck entered the road ahead of us. Our only option now was to abandon the road and try to lose them in the forest. I let out a snarl of frustration. We could never catch a break. Another truck came in behind that one and then another.
“Just how many of them are there?” Alison cried out.
As the trucks converged on us, I spotted two of the vehicles ahead were actually SUVs with men standing on the running boards. There were at least a dozen men clinging to the outside of the vehicles, for rapid deployment.
“Keep going!” I forced the girls to speed up. The pickup truck behind us seemed to be slowing. As another vehicle entered the road ahead of us, my speculation was rewarded. Another large vehicle with pulsing red and blue lights was following the unmarked vehicles in the lead. We were only about a dozen meters from the lead vehicle when it swerved to cross the right side of the road at an angle. The second truck mirrored the actions of the first on the left. We were just crossing the front bumper when the men on the SUVs jumped off and moved to take up defensive positions.
“This is the FBI. Throw down your weapons!” someone shouted through a loudspeaker. We made it to the far side of the first SUV when the first gunshot split the night.
Exhausted, I sat down with my back to the car and closed my eyes. I couldn’t help but wonder how I managed to get roped into these things. Not only was this weekend a complete disaster, it left a complete mess that was going haunt me for who knows how long.
“Still thinking about trusting her?” Veronica asked.
I opened my eyes to the bright, sunlit summer day. Tree branches were bobbing in the wind. The gentle breeze still carried the scent of the ocean. I brought my gaze to my right. Veronica was sitting next to me wearing jeans and a simple blue tank with her bright gold hair drawn back into a ponytail. Her gaze drifted from me to our left. Jess was arguing with Nick about something. She switched to her manipulative tone and mannerisms.
“She doesn’t make it easy, does she?”
“Never does,” She agreed, and rested her back against Jessica’s little blue Italian car. We were never going to leave at this rate. Everyone else was already packed and piling into cars. Jess was playing on Nick, trying to persuade him of something. I lowered my gaze to the small hole in my jeans on my left knee.
“Thank you!” Jess called after Nick as he headed over to his ride. She was smiling as she strutted over to us. Her white capris and pink top were practically glowing in the bright sunlight.
“Careful she doesn’t play you like that.”
“Jess?” someone called out. I rolled my eyes.
“Next time, I’m driving.” I let out a sigh.
“Brian! What are you doing out here?” Jess met someone with a big hug and started chatting again.
“Next time, I’m stealing her keys.” Veronica flashed me smile. I couldn’t help but laugh. Leaving Jess stranded somewhere would be poetic at this point. I slouched and turned my attention back to our attention deficient friend. She could be on the far side of the moon and run into someone that she knew. She was chatting with some dark -haired guy that looked like a college frat boy.
“Well, my friends are going to hogtie me if I don’t get going.” Jess started to back away from him. “We’ll catch up later.” She turned and walked in our direction.
“Stay out of trouble,” the guy called out.
“You too,” Jess laughed. Behind her, I saw the guy walk toward a group of friends sitting at a picnic table. They were laughing when Jess waved at them. When I saw their faces, a question hit me. A bird lifted its voice into song on the wind.
The song shifted, and became a woman making demands through a loudspeaker somewhere. The rapid fire exchange of gunshots seemed to be winding down with the agents making demands of the militia. Veronica was sitting to my right, with Alison just beyond her. The SWAT-looking man in a vest tagged with FBI, just past Alison, gave me some comfort.
I put my arm around Veronica as someone stepped up in front of me. I lifted my eyes to see Jessica in white capris and her pink top.
“Now you’re beginning to see.” Jess tilted her head at me. She was right, there was so much more I wasn’t seeing because I didn’t remember. The group around the picnic table were all of the people I had accused of being in the cult. But sitting between Heather and Jo was someone I had never considered; Alex, my brother and a girl sitting with him.