Seeking Safety (3 page)

Driving south I try to stay on less traveled
roads. I'm not sure where we're going, I don't even have a plan. I
didn't have enough time to make a plan. I didn't make the decision
to leave until Darren turned on Eric. Then I knew I had no other
option.

I also know I have to get as far away as
possible before the sun comes up and the men at the compound
realize we are gone. My ribs are aching where Darren punched and
kicked me making it hard to breathe but I can't think about that
now. I have to get Eric safely away.

It broke my heart listening to Eric scream in
fear and pain but I couldn't make Darren stop hitting him. I begged
Darren but he just kept hitting Eric and hitting him with the belt
across his back. Then he had choked me until I almost lost
consciousness. In fact, I pretended to lose consciousness to get
him to stop choking me. When Darren finally passed out on the bed I
knew we had to leave. I have to get Eric to some place where he
will be safe. I can no longer protect him any other way.

Just before dawn I pull into a truck stop and
buy gas for the car. I have bruises on my face and neck that I try
to cover with a scarf and the hood on my coat. While inside I pick
up a map and grab two sodas. When Eric and I drive a few miles
further down the road I pull over into a roadside park and study
the map. I want to try to decide on a route. Eric is lying quietly
in the back seat and I hope he is sleeping.

After I pick my route I start out again, this
time I head east. I am very tired but I can't stop yet. I need to
put more miles between us and the compound. Around noon the next
day I am so tired I can't go any further without some rest. I see a
small private lake on the map several miles away and I go that
direction in hopes of finding somewhere I can rest for a little
while. I pull deep into the woods far enough from the road the car
can't be seen then I stop the car and sleep.

When I wake up it is getting dark so I start
driving south again. Even though I slept for several hours I still
don't feel well. I am still groggy from lack of sleep and my ribs
are aching. I am finding it harder and harder to breathe and I am
so cold my teeth are chattering. The heater in the car doesn't seem
to be working. Bless Eric's heart, he is being so quiet. I know he
is hurting and scared to death. I need to try to get him to talk to
me, to help me stay alert.

******

Eric's back is hurting so bad. He doesn't
want to say anything to his Mom because she is trying really hard
to get them away from the compound and his Dad to somewhere they
will be safe but he is going to have to tell her. He can't stand
the pain any longer.

"Mom, my back hurts real bad where Dad hit
me. Can you do anything to make it stop? I can't stand it anymore,"
he says with tears streaming down his face.

I am surprised at how congested Eric sounds,
but then I remember that Darren broke his nose when he hit him.
Damn Darren Calloway!
"Oh Eric I'm
so sorry. Why didn't you say something sooner? I will stop and get
you some ibuprofen as soon as we get to the next town. I
promise."

I pull into the all night convenience store.
I run in and purchase antibiotic cream, sodas, and ibuprofen. As we
head out of town I hand Eric the ibuprofen and a soda and tell him
to take two tablets. Then I ask him to make them both a peanut
butter sandwich. I hope the task and eating will help to take his
mind off of his pain at least long enough for me to find someplace
we can stop.

When I find an area I feel we will be safe I
pull over and apply the antibiotic cream to the lacerations on his
back made by the belt. When I look at Eric in the light from an
overhead streetlamp, tears spring to my eyes and my heart breaks.
Both of his eyes are black and his nose is very swollen. His back
looks like ground hamburger meat.
Damn Darren
Calloway!

With tears streaming down my face I cry, "Oh
Eric, I am so sorry your Dad hit you. Please forgive me, but I
couldn't stop him."
I hate Darren Calloway.
Eric didn't deserve this! Why did he have to hit Eric? He's just a
little boy.

******

Darren Calloway carefully rolls over in the
bed slowly coming awake. His head feels like someone is pounding on
it with a sledge hammer and his mouth feels like it's full of
cotton. "Melanie, bring me some water!" he bellows.

No one answers. Opening his bleary eyes he
looks around the freezing cold cabin. The bright sunlight coming in
through the window hurts his eyes and he looks quickly away. Slowly
sitting up on the side of the bed, careful not to move too quickly,
he looks around the cabin but doesn't see any sign of Melanie or
Eric. Cursing he gets out of bed and carefully makes his way over
to the water bucket. Filling a cup he quickly downs the water then
adds wood to the wood burning stove. The fire has nearly burned all
the way out. Damn woman! Where is she anyway? Why did she let the
fire burn down so low? He rakes his fingers through his hair in
angry frustration.

Pulling on his boots and then donning his
heavy coat, he steps outside the cabin to relieve himself. The
cabin doesn't have indoor plumbing. In fact none of the living
quarters in the compound have indoor facilities. The only toilets
are in the communal shower house and that is on the far side of the
compound by the office. He checks the position of the sun and
guesses it must be nearly noon. Melanie is probably down at the
cook shack helping the other women prepare lunch. Well he's hungry
so he'll go down to the cook shack and get some grub. Then he'll
teach Melanie a lesson about leaving the fire to burn down that
way. You'd think she'd know better after all these years.

When he walks into the communal cooking shack
he grabs a plate and begins devouring the food. The small room is
crowded with people. He looks around the room but doesn't see
Melanie anywhere so he asks the closest woman, "Where's
Melanie?"

"I haven't seen her today," the woman replies
nervously. Darren Calloway has a volatile temper and she doesn't
want to do or say anything that might incur his wrath. "Come to
think of it, I haven't seen her or Eric today. They didn't come in
for breakfast either."

He slams his plate down on the nearest table
drawing everyone's attention and making the woman cower behind the
nearest group of people. Then he quickly walks back outside. He is
looking everywhere for Melanie or Eric when he is approached by the
man that is second in command at the compound, Steve Simpson, who
says, "Darren, one of the cars is missing. Did you give permission
to someone to take it?" Darren Calloway is the leader of this
particular militia group and rules with an iron fist.

"No, I did not. Have you seen Melanie or Eric
today?" he asks, a dark suspicion taking root in his mind.

"No, I haven't. You don't think she took the
car do you?" asks Steve skeptically, voicing the suspicion.

"It could be. I can't find her or Eric. Come
on, let's go check the computer. I want to see where that car is."
replies Darren cursing under his breath.

He sits down in front of the computer in the
compound office where he keys in the GPS identification code for
the missing car and when the map appears they see it traveling
south several hundred miles from the compound. "Damn! I'm going to
kill that woman! I'll be back, take care of everything here!" He
hurries back to his cabin to get some warm clothes and supplies for
his trip.

Darren Calloway is livid. He has been
castigating himself for hours for not suspecting Melanie was
planning something. Hell, he doesn't have anyone to blame but
himself. He drank way too much last night and his pounding head is
proof of that. He doesn't even remember what he did. If he had been
even halfway sober, she never would have been able to sneak out of
the cabin without his knowledge.

Judging from the skin missing from his
knuckles, he must have knocked Melanie around some. He had also
seen blood on one of the towels by the wash basin. He was just so
furious with those five wimps that packed up and left the group
last week. He had gotten word yesterday that they had established
their own compound near Sandpoint and he's afraid more of the guys
will leave and join them. This is entirely that jerk James Bixby's
fault. He never should have let a blathering know-it-all like him
stay as long as he did talking to everyone that would listen about
how all of the militia groups should join together and form one
united group. Damn! His whole dream is starting to crumble around
him.

******

I continue to follow the same routine,
driving at night and trying to sleep during the day and now Eric
and I have finally reached Wyoming. I am completely exhausted from
lack of sleep and still feel lousy. I know I am running fever and
my ribs are killing me making it very hard to breathe.

We have had to back track several times the
last few days when the roads I chose were impassable which slowed
down our progress. I only hope it will confuse Darren. I know he is
searching for us. I also know he will kill me if he catches us.

We are only a short distance from Cody,
Wyoming but I don't want to get too close to that town. Too many of
the group's members live in the area and someone might recognize me
or Eric and notify Darren. While studying the map I see what
appears to be an old logging road going around the mountains
several miles from Cody and I decide to try it. I wind through the
country roads until I find the logging road and turn onto it.

Traveling down the logging road proves to be
treacherous. It doesn't take me long to realize taking this road
was a major mistake. The snow is deep because the road hasn't been
plowed and I don't see any place to turn around. The road is only
wide enough for one vehicle with a deep ditch and a sturdy fence on
one side and tall trees crowding us on the other. The road is not
paved and is so full of deep ruts that I am finding it impossible
to see or to avoid them. Every time I hit one of those deep ruts
the pain in my ribs nearly causes me to pass out. I have no choice
but to keep moving forward.

My head is pounding too and I am sure I have
a high fever. I swallow two of the ibuprofen tablets with what is
left from my soda. I can't stop yet. I know deep in my soul that
Darren is close. I can feel him breathing down my neck.

Slowly, I keep inching forward. All at once
the car hits a deep hole in the road and slides sideways into a
snow bank and stalls. I try and try but can't get it to budge. The
wheels just keep spinning and spinning. After trying everything I
can think of, I am forced to admit defeat and turn off the motor
and the lights. I close my eyes as the tears slide silently down my
cheeks. I can't go any further. I have failed. Darren is going to
find us and when he does he will kill me.
Dear
God, I don't want to die! Please help us!

I pull Eric close to my side hugging him
tightly, tears sliding down my face, "I am so sorry Eric. I tried
but we can't go any further. No matter what happens, please never
forget that I love you."

******

Eric is so scared. He knows his Dad is close
too. He also knows that his Dad will hurt his Mom really bad this
time, maybe even kill her and he can't do anything to stop him.
Tears slide out of his eyes, what can he do to help his Mom?
Please God, help us! Please don't let my Dad
kill my Mom!

******

A slow grin sides across Darren Calloway's
face. It won't be long now. He is going to kill that bitch when he
gets to her. How dare she leave him and take his son! He has fed
her, kept her safe for ten years, the ungrateful whore!

She is so stupid she doesn't even realize
they have GPS tracking devices on all of their cars. While life at
the compound is primitive in a lot of ways, he has made sure they
have a state of the art computer network run off the only
generator. It's how they spread their message after all. Of course,
Melanie wouldn't know anything about that. She has never been
allowed in the compound office.

He would have caught Melanie days ago if she
hadn't gotten such a big head start. He will give her credit for
that. He hadn't even realized she was gone until nearly noon the
next day.

No matter, he almost has her now and when he
gets her he is going to make her pay. He has decided to rape her
right in front of Eric. Then after he gets his fill of her, he is
going to strangle the life right out of the bitch. He is going to
make that boy watch it all. It is time he toughened up.

Barry leans back in his favorite chair in
front of a crackling fire in the massive stone fireplace, sipping
hot coffee and thinking back over his life. He is thirty-two years
old and has accomplished far more than he ever thought possible
when he was growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in that
little Georgia town.

His father ran off and left him and his
mother when he was only nine years old. His poor Mom had worked
three jobs just to keep food on the table and clothes on his back.
He studied hard and was a reasonably successful athlete in high
school, but not good enough to get him the scholarship to college
like he wanted.

With few other options, he joined the Marine
Corp shortly after graduation. He flourished in the Marine Corp
cementing friendships that will last a lifetime. During his time in
the service he sent every spare penny he had back home to Georgia
so his Mom wouldn't have to struggle to survive.

When he and the other guys in his unit
decided to leave the Marines after eight years, he was stationed in
San Diego California. One of his buddies, Stump, dared him to try
out for a movie they were casting on the beach. He really enjoyed
the drama club back in high school, so he tried out. Much to
everyone's surprise Barry got the starring role and his movie
career had been launched. Now, six years later with six movies to
his credit, his blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and Marine sculpted
body are the hottest commodity at the box office in the entire
world.