“What happens if you don’t come back?”
Lauren was pleading with me.
“I will come back—that’s the whole point. I’ll just be gone for one or two days.”
Sitting on a fallen tree stump, she gripped Luke tightly in her arms. “Promise me that you won’t talk to anyone.”
“I promise. I’ll make straight for the Capitol building, and if anyone stops me, I’ll just show them this, right?” I held up her driver’s license. She was a Seymour, the niece of Congressman Seymour, and her identification should be enough to bring the cavalry to help us. Her family must be beside themselves.
She still wasn’t convinced.
“We can’t just stay here and do nothing,” I said. “Those bastards will be back after they get a chance to lick their wounds, and then what?”
“I don’t know. We hide?”
“We can’t hide here forever, Lauren.”
Using some tarps, we’d constructed a makeshift camp up in the woods, far from the cabin. From there, we had a good view of the driveway and down the road. It was only a temporary solution. We needed to take action, so I’d decided to walk into Washington. It was a desperate move, but then so were the alternatives.
Chuck had argued with me, telling me it was too risky. He thought we should wait, but that scared me more. We’d go through what little food we had in a few days, and then what? He wasn’t going to be on his feet any time soon, so would I be fishing and trapping for us? And maybe he wouldn’t get back on his feet at all. He needed serious medical attention, and so did Ellarose—she was wasting away.
Time had become our enemy, and I was tired of not knowing what was going on.
“One day, that’s all. I will walk there in one day, and I won’t take any chances, won’t speak to anyone.”
Lauren gripped Luke tighter. “You make sure you come back to us. You just make sure.”