Urban Waite - Far Cry - Absolution

“I know it,” Will said. “I don’t think the cabin they gave me would be any better. I think going back to town is out, too. There are too many eyes there watching.”

“Mary May needs medical attention. We need somewhere to go that she can wash and clean the tattoo John gave her.” Jerome looked to Will. “You need medical attention, too. Drew said you’re sick. He said we shouldn’t put stock in you, that you’re a dead man walking. He said you coughed up blood and nearly passed out right there in front of him. Is that true?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“That doesn’t sound fine to me,” Jerome said.

“I’m a healer. I just need time and I just need space. We need to get out of here and we need to do it now,” Will said.

“I don’t know what to do. Drew says that Eden’s Gate is always watching. And I don’t see any reason to think otherwise.”

“No, I don’t either.” Will looked out on the fields and the houses farther on. He didn’t doubt that even now someone was probably watching. He took a few steps then put a knee down in the grass and placed the shotgun there beside him. He scooped water from the stream and brought it to his face. He washed his cheeks and neck. He dipped his forearm in the water and felt the coolness of the liquid across the broken skin.

He was still thirsty but he knew he had water in his bag. He stood now and looked to Drew. Something about the whole thing was bothering him. Will thought about Lonny. He thought about the surety the man had right up until he went over the edge. Will picked the shotgun up and walked to where Drew sat. He put the barrel to the man’s chest. “You know something we don’t?” Will asked.

“They’re going to burn you, Will. They’re going to gut you and string you up with your own intestines and they’re going to burn you when they’re done.”

“You’re an asshole, Drew.”

Drew tried to spit on him but the spittle missed and fell harmlessly to the grass.

“Asshole,” Will said again, stating it like the fact it was. “You notice they didn’t seem to care that when they shot at me, they also shot at you? You should probably think about that.”

“John is going to find you,” Drew said. “He’s not going to be nice, either. You’re one of us, Will. You’ll always be one of us and there are punishments for those that go against us, for those that accepted The Father and then looked away.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Will said. “But right now we need to clear something up before we get into whatever cluster fuck you seem to think is coming.” He pushed the barrel harder into Drew’s chest and Drew went to the ground. Will now handed the shotgun over to Jerome and told the pastor to hold it on Drew while Will checked him.

Will ran his hands up one leg then down the other. He patted Drew down across both arms, his chest, his back, and every place Will could think to check. When he was done he stood and stared down at the man and shook his head. “I think he might just be plain crazy,” Will said, taking the shotgun back from Jerome.

“What did you think you’d find?”

“A transponder. John was using them in the mountains. He says his eldest brother Jacob uses them to track wolves. I found out the hard way that they also use them to track people.”

“But you didn’t find one?”

“No. I would have thought he’d have one the way he’s talking now.”

“Then we’re okay?” Jerome asked.

“I guess so. But it still doesn’t solve our current problem.”

“Where to go?”

“Yes,” Will said.

“You got nothing?”

“I got something,” Will said. “There’s a little food there, and medical supplies. But it’s not ideal. It’s someplace I’ve been avoiding for a long time now. But it might be the best we have.”

SHE WAS AWAKE WHEN THEY STOPPED BEFORE THE GATE. SHElooked out on the hillside. The driveway went on for another hundred yards or so and at the top of the hill she could see the low roof of the house and the dark windows that looked across the property and down over the land beyond.

“I remember this,” Mary May said.

Will leaned forward from the backseat. “Your dad brought you and Drew here once or twice when you were really young and your mom was working at the bar. We used to barbeque a little and you and Drew would roll down the hill here. But that was a long time ago—twenty years or more.”

She could see it held something still for him. She could see why he hadn’t wanted to come here, but he had. For Will there was more locked away in this place than just rooms. “We’ll be safe here?” she asked.

He looked again on the property. She saw his eyes swim a little in their sockets. The house atop the hill, with its view out across the county road below and the varied patchwork of farmland they could see farther on. “It’s a good place,” he said. “You all see how it backs up to the cliff there and makes it approachable from only one direction.” She watched him look around again, watched his eyes land on the gate and the chain there with the padlock. “It will be good,” he said again. “If they come, we’ll see them before they’re knocking on the doorway.”

Jerome looked around at Will then back out on the gate. “You have a key for that padlock?” he asked.

Will shook his head. “Any claim I ever had on this place has long been lost to me. But we won’t need it. I think you’ve taken us far enough,” Will said. “We can’t ask you for anymore. They don’t know you’re with us at this point and I was thinking it might be better for you if we kept it that way.”

“You’re asking me to leave you here?”

“I’m saying you should keep yourself safe.”

“No,” Jerome said. “That’s not how we’re playing this. In the next few days you’re going to need things: food, water, supplies. That sort of thing. I can do that. We’re going to hole up here and after everything dies down a bit I’m going to get the three of you out of here and we’re going to go for help.”

Mary May looked over at him. “What kind of help?”

“The sheriff would be a start.”

“No,” Mary May said. “I think he means well. I really do. I was there just a few days ago. I asked for his help. I told him what I would do. That I was going to go up to Eden’s Gate to get Drew. I didn’t talk to anyone else but him. You get it?”

“I think I see where this is going,” Will said.

She turned and looked to Will then to her brother. “John was waiting for me. It was like he knew. He even said he knew why I was going up there,” Mary May said. “I don’t think it was the sheriff but someone told John I was coming. I just couldn’t say who.”

She watched Drew shrug. He turned and looked out the window. She wanted to say something more but she could see it would do no good.

The engine was still running and now Jerome reversed the car then brought it down off the drive into a little stand of trees that sat to the side of the gate. “I’m coming with you,” he said, cutting the engine now and taking the keys from the ignition. “When this is done we’ll get out of the county and look for some federal help. I’ve seen enough already to know this place needs it.”

WITH HIS HUNTING KNIFE WILL CUT SLENDER BOUGHS FROMthe trees then laid them atop the Oldsmobile. Stepping back he turned and looked the car over. He spoke with Jerome, “It’s the best camouflage I can give.”

“You’d have to be right up on it to know there was a car here,” Jerome said. He looked around him now, looking to Mary May as if for a second opinion.

Mary May looked from the car to the gate. “Do you have bolt cutters in the house?”