Hunted (8 page)

He left and I watched through the tinted glass as he walked across the parking lot and into the sporting goods store. I stared out the window as the minutes ticked by. My eyes began to droop as I waited for him to come out.
 

“Uh oh,” Brynn said a moment later, a sense of urgency in her voice.

My eyes snapped open and I saw Billy running towards us, motioning with one arm to go, go, go. I slid open the van’s side door and Billy leapt through. The door slammed shut, Jack pressed the gas, and we lurched forward.

I looked at Billy, who was laying on the floor, breathing hard from his sprint.

“What happened?” Dani asked, no hint of concern in her voice.

“Someone recognized me.”

Her eyebrows rose a millimeter. “Are you certain?”

He nodded.
 

“Tell me exactly what happened.”

He got up from the floor and sat in the space between me and Brynn. I glanced at Brynn and noticed her closely watching Billy’s every move. Without thinking, I put my hand on Billy’s back as a gesture of support. Billy smiled at me. Brynn glared at me. I ignored her and focused on Billy.

“When I got inside the store,” he said. “I just began looking around. You know, checking out the equipment, looking at the shoes. I even asked to try on a pair.” He glanced at me and smiled. “I could use some new shoes.”

I looked at his feet and noticed that his shoes were pretty beat up. For some reason I hadn’t noticed that before.

“Go on,” Dani said.

“So the clerk was getting my size and I was just about to take off my shoes when this kid—couldn’t have been more than nine years old—he said, ‘Hey, aren’t you that guy on TV?’ I told him to beat it, but he wouldn’t leave, so I got up, but then the clerk came back with the shoes. The kid pointed at me and told the clerk I looked like the guy the Enforcers were looking for. I tried to laugh it off, and the clerk didn’t seem to believe him, but the kid wouldn’t shut up and kept getting louder and louder—I guess cause no one would listen to him.”
 

Billy became more agitated as he spoke. “I noticed more people watching us and then some old guy said ‘Yeah, you’re right kid.’ That’s when I told the clerk I’d come back another time and then I heard a woman yell for someone to call the Enforcers. I walked toward the door and some man stood in my way.” Billy paused and looked at me. “Can you believe he wasn’t going to let me leave?” Billy looked back at Dani. “So I punched him.”

I heard Brynn gasp and I wondered what she would think if she could have seen me stabbing Hansen. Maybe she’d think twice before glaring at me, but I doubted it.

“People yelled at me to stop,” Billy said. “But of course I ignored them, and booked it out here.”

“I didn’t see anyone follow you out before we left,” Jack said. “So I think we’re in the clear.”

“I think Billy’s disguise might need a little work,” Tracy added from the back seat.

I looked at Brynn to see how she was taking this news, but she seemed happy. I guess because that meant she’d get some time alone with Billy.

“I’m already getting ideas,” she said.

“Or maybe,” Billy added, “We can leave my hair alone and I’ll just stay out of sight for a while. You know, until the search cools off.”

“Hmmm,” Dani said. “Let Brynn give your look one more try, then we’ll see what we want to do next.”

When we got back to the house, we gathered in the living room—or what they called the meeting room—to further discuss our next moves. Honestly, all I wanted was to stay out of sight for the next six weeks, then head to Fox Run and the tunnel that would take me home. As much as I hated the way things were done in this world, I wasn’t willing to risk my chance to get back home to help these people.
 

This was
their
world. Not mine.
They
would have to figure out how to fix it. Without me. But until the six week mark arrived, I would need to play along—or, I was certain, they would be more than happy to kick me out of their little safe house. It seemed pretty clear that if I couldn’t contribute, I wasn’t worth a whole lot to them.

“That was an interesting exercise,” Dani said. “Somewhat successful.” She turned to me. “Morgan, how many people saw you in that store?”

“Four. The worker, and a woman and her two teen-age daughters.”

“Okay.” She looked at Billy. “And how many saw you?”

“I guess about ten. But the kid who recognized me was the second person to see me close up.”

“So either he got lucky, or the disguise just didn’t work.”
 

Billy shrugged, not seeming too concerned. But then he always seemed cool under pressure.

Tracy stood. “Kelly, Brynn, and Nathan, you’re on dinner duty tonight.”

I watched as the four of them left the room.

“That’s something else we need to talk to you about,” Dani said. “Your assigned duties.”

Now this place was starting to remind me of Camp Willowmoss.

“Everyone needs to pitch in to keep things running around here,” Jack said. “What kinds of things can you do?”

“I can fix stuff,” Billy said.

I didn’t know he was good at that, but somehow I wasn’t surprised.
 

“That kind of skill is always welcome,” Jack said.

I was going to mention my cleaning skills, but decided I’d rather work in the kitchen. “I can help in the kitchen.”

“Great,” Dani said, smiling. “We all take turns cooking the meals and cleaning up. We post a schedule in the kitchen. I’ll add you to the rotation.”

At least I wouldn’t be cleaning the bathroom.

“Oh,” Dani said. “We also take turns cleaning the bathrooms.”

I held back a groan. At least it was just a normal bathroom. Not sixteen toilets, showers, and sinks.

“You’re also responsible for keeping your own space clean in the bedroom,” Dani added.

I nodded.

“One last thing,” she said, smiling. “You need to put in time each day on your studies.”

Wow, I thought. This really
is
just like Camp Willowmoss. But I knew it really wasn’t.
 

After dinner—grilled pork chops, steamed vegetables, and brown rice—Dani had Brynn work some more on Billy’s look. After a while the two of them came out of the bathroom. This time Brynn had put longer extensions in his hair, then pulled his hair into a ponytail with long strips hanging in his face. I didn’t like the look as much as before, but it was a little harder to recognize him.

Soon after, Dani, Tracy, and Brynn left to go to their homes. That left Jack, Nathan, Mitch, Kelly, and of course Billy and me. Jack went into his room where he had an office set up, and the rest of us went into the family room to watch TV.

“They seem like pretty nice people,” Billy said to me as we sat on the floor, our backs against the couch.

“I guess.” I liked them well enough, but I still would have preferred to be with my family.

“What’s up with Brynn?” Billy said this with a grin that said he knew
exactly
what was up with her.

“What do you mean?” No way would I help them with their budding romance.

He smirked. “Never mind.”

I turned away from him and looked at the TV, not really paying attention to what was on. Mitch had the remote and evidently he didn’t like what was on because he kept changing the channel. I didn’t really care what we watched, I was just glad we had a safe place to spend the night.

“Wait,” Billy said. “Go back one.”

I wondered what he’d seen and waited for Mitch to go to the previous channel. When I saw what had caught Billy’s eye, all my attention became riveted to the television.

Chapter Eight

It was my house. The camera panned from one side of our property to the other and I saw a dozen Enforcers surrounding my house. “What is going on?” I murmured. Billy put his hand on my shoulder, but I hardly noticed.

“There have been a number of tips that have come in,” the reporter said. “And each one is taken seriously. Evidently there have been reports that the fugitives, Morgan Campbell and Billy Foster, have been seen in this neighborhood, perhaps at this very house. As some of our viewers may know by now, this is the Campbell residence. Mr. Campbell has been in a Federally Assisted Thinning center for several weeks now.” The reporter frowned as he shared this bit of news. “And now his daughter, Morgan Campbell, is a wanted fugitive. She, along with Billy Foster, assaulted an Enforcer during their brazen escape from Camp Willowmoss just days ago.”

“Hear that, Morgan?” Billy grinned. “We’re ‘brazen’.”

“Shut up.” I didn’t like what they were saying about my family. Even more, I didn’t like the way the Enforcers were approaching the front door. They lined up in two groups, one group on each side of the door. Why were they there? Did they really think Billy and I were inside?
 

I imagined what it would be like if we really were inside and the Enforcers were waiting to storm the house. Would we be able to run out the back? More Enforcers were certainly waiting there. I hoped they hadn’t hurt Goldie, who would be upset that strangers were threatening her family.

What would they do to us if they caught us, anyway? Would they just take us back to Camp Willowmoss? Or maybe to a F.A.T. center with tighter security? How would I get out in time to get back to the tunnel if that happened? I’d be stuck in this world forever for sure.

I watched as one Enforcer pounded on the front door. The room was silent as we all watched to see what would happen next. Was anyone even home? It was early evening, so chances were that Mom, Amy, and the boys were all there.

No one answered the door and I pictured them huddled together in a closet, too scared to move or make a sound. And it was all because of me. If I hadn’t shown up in their world and broken a rule and been a few pounds over my allowed weight, I wouldn’t have been taken to Camp Willowmoss in the first place. And then if Billy and I hadn’t escaped and if I hadn’t stabbed Hansen, the Enforcers wouldn’t be after us. If anything happened to my family, it would totally and completely be my fault.

My imagination ran wild as I visualized all kinds of outcomes to what was unfolding in front of me live, on television.

The Enforcers must have gotten tired of waiting, because one of them who held a battering ram stepped forward and slammed the battering ram into the front door. It took two swings, but the door broke off its hinges and fell inward.

The Enforcers surged through the breach and disappeared from view. My heart pounded and tears filled my eyes as I imagined what was happening outside of the lens of the camera. After what seemed like hours, but could only have been five minutes, an Enforcer came out the front door holding tightly to my thirteen-year-old sister’s arm, and led her down the stairs. Her hands were bound behind her back. The camera zoomed in and I could clearly make out the tears streaming down her face.

“What are they doing with Amy?” I said to no one in particular.

“Is that your sister?” Nathan asked.

“Yes.” I never took my gaze from the TV.

Just then another Enforcer walked up to the first one and spoke to him, then gripped Amy’s arm. The first Enforcer let go and turned away. I was so busy watching my sister’s face, that it took a moment before I realized who now had custody of Amy. When his grinning face filled the screen, my breath caught in my throat and my stomach clenched.

It was Hansen. The same Enforcer whose groin I’d kneed the night I’d been hauled to the F.A.T. center. The same Enforcer who I’d stabbed only a few days before. The same Enforcer who had said to me
I. Will. Kill. You.
That same Enforcer now had my sister. My younger, innocent sister. She hadn’t done anything to him. She wasn’t even overweight. What did they want with her?

As if he’d heard my question, the reporter spoke. “I’m being told that Mrs. Campbell has agreed to let her daughter, the one you now see in custody, finish Morgan Campbell’s time at Camp Willowmoss.”

“What?” I shouted as I leapt from the floor. “No way.” I knew Mom would never agree to such a thing. There had to be some other reason she had let them take Amy. Or maybe she hadn’t let them take her. Maybe they’d taken her by force. Was Mom even okay?

“We’re not being told the details of the agreement,” the reporter went on. “But apparently Amy Campbell will be treated as if she
is
Morgan Campbell, for the purposes of completing Morgan Campbell’s time. However, there will be a separate sentence to be carried out by Amy Campbell for the crime of assaulting an Enforcement officer, which will be announced at a later time.”

“They can’t do that.” I looked at the others in the room, but none of them knew anymore than I did. “That’s so not fair. She hasn’t done anything wrong. How can they do this?”

“As for Billy Foster,” the reporter said, and we all turned back to the television. “His family has not been found and a deal has not yet been worked out.”

“What do they mean, your family hasn’t been found?” I demanded, angry and upset. “Where are they? Why aren’t your younger brothers—if you even have any—being dragged away?”
 

“Calm down, Morgan,” Billy said, as unruffled as ever.
 

I narrowed my eyes and spoke softly. “Don’t you dare tell me to calm down.” With my next two sentences, the volume of my voice rose as I spoke. “How dare you tell me to calm down. My sister is being taken away by
Hansen
.” I was beyond all reason by this point. “You remember him, don’t you, Billy? He’s the one you tasered and the one I stabbed.” I heard the others gasp and murmur in shock, but I ignored them. “He’s the one who wants to kill me.” I glared at Billy. “Still think I should be calm, do you?”

He looked away from me and shook his head. Then he met my gaze. “Don’t you see, Morgan? It’s all for show. Next thing you know, they’re going to say that if you turn yourself in, they’ll release your sister.” He smiled in what I guess was supposed to be a show of reassurance, but it didn’t quite make the cut. “They won’t hurt her.”

“And how do you know all of that?”

That seemed to stump him and I realized that he knew nothing of the sort. I’d really hoped he would have a good answer—maybe he’d seen this kind of thing before, or he knew someone this had happened to—but no, he was just trying to make me feel better.