Dennis Yates - Red Mountain

“I think I was one of those kids. Didn’t we put lizards on their backs and rub their stomachs until they fell asleep, then see how many we could line up side by side before they woke up and ran away?”

“You and the other boys were fast at it too. I could never get more than two at a time to stay down.”

“I seem to remember when your dad came and found you. He was really mad.”

“Yep, sounds like my pop.”

“So do you still believe I’m going to try and kill you? We are great cousins after all…”

“I think we’re good,” Robert said. He dropped the rock from his hand and it struck the ground with a thud. It might have been a bad idea, but his gut told him he could trust the man. A moment afterward Steven let go of the weapon he’d been carrying. The loud impact caused Robert to flinch.

“Jesus Westlake, what the hell was that?”

“Part of a rail, I guess. I was lucky to stumble on it.”

They stood silent in the darkness, each listening to how the other breathed. The sharing was so basic, and yet it spoke volumes.

“They’re going to want a body,” Robert said after some time had passed. And he was right too. Any minute Walker’s boys might grow impatient and decide to come and see what was going on.

“I know.” Steven said. “I’ve been thinking about it.”

“Then what are we going to do?”

CHAPTER 25

Peggy wiped away the blood the best she could. She plunged the towel back into the sink again and rinsed it out. Connor took the towel from her hand and dabbed her scalp and ears.

“Gee mom, this stuff is really sticky.”

“That’s because there’s a lot of syrup in it.”

Connor stopped and looked at her. “Like the kind we put on pancakes?”

“Not this kind. This is called Karo syrup. It’s the main ingredient in fake blood.”

“Oh.”

“Are you almost finished?” she asked.

“I think so. But I don’t know what you’re going to do about your hair. I can still see spots you missed after you rinsed in the sink.”

“It’s okay, honey. It’s not like we’re going out for dinner tonight.”

Connor set the towel down and frowned. “Why did that bad man want us to pretend we were dead?”

“I’m not sure Connor. But I think he wanted to take those pictures of us so he could scare Daddy.”

“Why does he want to scare Daddy?”

“I wish I knew, baby.”

Connor wiped some fresh tears from his eyes.

“Do you think Dad is going to think they’re real? Do you think he’s going to be sad?

Peggy sat quiet for a while. She could only imagine what kinds of emotions her husband must be going through. They were putting him through absolute hell.

She’d never felt so degraded in her entire life. Having Marsh make them pose for the kind of pictures he wanted revealed what a diseased mind the man had. It was beyond anything she could have imagined. But she told herself to hold it in and not to cry. She couldn’t let Connor see she was being turned inside out, even as Walker laughed maniacally behind the camera.

“Daddy won’t believe them,” she said while combing back Connor’s hair with her hand. “Because he knows we’re still alive.”

“How?”

“He can still feel us still next to his heart. Just like we know he’s out there looking for us.”

Peggy had figured out what they’d done to the occupants of the trailer the night before. As she and Connor were led to the tent for the photo shoot, she’d noticed the hoses and gas tanks outside of the trailers.

They’d tried to kill them in their sleep. But it didn’t quite work. Someone had woken up and smelled the gas and tried to get out.

From listening to Marsh and the others talk, it sounded like the same thing was going to happen again tonight, and she had to get prepared. She’d come up with some ideas of how to escape. Impossible perhaps, but the best she could do under the circumstances.

The four guards had left in the van several hours ago. If they were gone as long as they were the night before, then just maybe there was a sliver of hope.

Peggy bent over with the screwdriver and continued to pry away the paneling from the trailer door while Connor kept watch through a slit in the window.

CHAPTER 26

As soon as Robert walked out of the tunnel, four men stepped onto the tracks and surrounded him, some with weapons drawn. He assumed the two he didn’t recognize had been with Steven. In the moonlight he could tell the group had been listening to Steven’s dying cries coming from back under the hill. Aside from the one who wore a ski mask, he saw in their faces a kind of grim amusement, like the men he’d seen watching a dogfight in a Tijuana warehouse.

“I bet them you wouldn’t make it,” Green Man said. “Now I wish I hadn’t.”

“Shitty luck I guess,” Robert said.

“What did you use to kill him?” asked one of the men he didn’t know.

Robert shrugged. “I got him in the face with a rock, then after that I broke his neck across the track… So when do I get to see my family?”

“Slow down, big boy,” said Ski Mask. “We’re going to need to make sure Westlake is not alive. About how far in did you leave him?”

“He’s less than halfway in from this side. You can’t miss him.”

“Let’s go then,” Green Man said. “We need to wrap this thing up and get the hell out of here.” Followed by one of the men who’d been with Steven earlier, Green Man took off down the tracks. Before they entered the mouth of the cave they turned on flashlights. Moths darted in front of them, scattering pinhead shadows on the tunnel walls.

“Can I have some water?” Robert asked.

Ski Mask ordered Robert to sit on the ground. The man next to him tried to hand Robert a bottle of water but Ski Mask knocked it from his hand. The bottle few over the tracks and rolled under a wall of blackberry vines.

“What are you doing Gomez?” Ski Mask yelled.

“He only wanted some water.”

“He doesn’t get shit unless I say so.”

“Well you don’t have to be a prick about it.”

A train wailed in the distance, too far away for them to be able to hear it pass over the tracks. Its eerie voice softened to a whisper as the train moved behind a faraway hill. As soon as the train wound around a bend in the track, the horn returned more throaty and louder than before.

“Do you suppose it’s headed our way?” Gomez asked.

Ski Mask grimaced through his mouth hole. “How should I know? I’m not the one who checked this place out.” He jabbed a finger toward the tunnel. “It was those two who’ve been here before.”

They watched the silhouettes of the men moving deeper inside. Their flashlight beams continued to grow smaller, until they appeared to merge into a single clot of white light. The train howled once again, and this time it was much closer. It was possible the two in the cave may not have heard it.

“I think we better warn them,” Gomez said.

“Don’t worry. They’ll be turning back soon.”

While they focused on the ball of light inside the cave, neither man noticed the dark figure moving down the side of the hill. Robert held his breath, hoping Steven would be able to pick up his pace once he reached the bottom and make his way across the ridge of tall grass before the men in the cave got suspicious.

I should have been the one to go over, he thought. Although his leg had swollen considerably since he’d fallen on the tracks, he wasn’t totally convinced Steven was in better shape. But Steven had insisted on going, and wouldn’t hear otherwise.

Robert rolled onto his side and clutched his stomach. The two men stared down at him.