Jacqueline Druga - No Man's Land

PSALMS

It was perfect. A mere fifty feet of level area separated the highway from the road I needed to take to get to Trent’s. Funny how twelve hours earlier I was worried that the Vee would spot us, now I wanted them to.

I moved slowly. Occasionally darting close to them to catch my scent, then backing up enough for them to see and follow me. The slow pace allowed me to gain my focus, not get winded and figure out what I needed to do.

One thing that worried me was the guard on top of the truck. Would he be able to see the Vee heading his way, would he even look? I know they mentioned seeing people cross the overpass… was the road out of their range of sight?

In case it wasn’t, I stayed near the side of the road.

My plan was to get close enough to that truck without being spotted, then make my way quickly into their camp, while bringing the Vee near enough to catch the scent of everyone there.

I didn’t worry or feel guilty about the Vee attacking them. Surely, they’d be able to fight them off. I could and they had weapons.

I just wanted Hannah back and hopefully, they had Edward. I didn’t even want to process the idea that they murdered him in that basket back at the underpass.

Moving at a snail’s pace, I made it just to the edge of the truck, certain, he didn’t spot me. He did however, I assumed, spot the mob of Vee.

He whistled once and called out, “We have trouble.”

He wasn’t looking my way and I raced around the front of the truck to the single lane road into their camp.

Sure enough there was my horse, still attached to the cart. Our belongings, including the red wagon were sprawled out everywhere and Trent along with two others were picking through them.

“What do you see?” Trent, standing above my wagon, asked the man on the truck.

I pulled the Glock and raced his way.

“Hard to count, we have a lot of them headed this way.”

Trent was preoccupied exchanging words with the man on the truck so I took that as my opening.

The moment he moved to walk toward the truck, I aimed the gun.

“Where is she?!” I blasted, arm held out.

He seemed annoyed and waved a couple of his men to go to the truck.

“Well take a look at the second person ever to get out of the pit. Congrats for having bigger balls than I gave you credit. Now if you don’t mind…”

“I do mind. Where is she?”

“I don’t have time for this shit!” he yelled.

“Neither do I! Where is she?”

“Calvin!” Hannah raced down the hillside. Even at a distance I could see her bruised and bloody face. As soon as she got near, Trent reached out, and with a single swat sent her flying back.

“You son of a bitch!”

“What are you gonna do, shoot me?” he asked.

“Give me the girl and I’ll be on my way.”

“She’s better off here, you know it.”

“Oh, yeah she looks it. Come on Hannah.”

“She got out of control. She is still better off here!” Trent yelled. “Diana told me about your dead tag along. You think that’s better for her?”

“Mr. Trent!” someone hollered. “They’re in.”

A scream somewhere in camp rang out.

Hannah again tried to get to me and when Trent reached for her again, I fired.

The bullet didn’t hit him. It hit the ground. He did step back though.

“Let her go!” I shouted and fired and again. I missed.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? You’re a joke,” Trent said.

I fired again.

Trent laughed. “You gonna waste your bullets on me, at least try not to miss those things.”

Another shot. Another miss. My finger stayed on the trigger. I could hear the pandemonium and gunfire; the others were too preoccupied to worry about me.

“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.