The Defiant: An Unbeaten Path (4 page)

“Is that possible?” Bryn joked. “We’re sitting here on a road just begging to be shot, robbed and raped and not necessarily in that order.”

“Why does she always have to be crude,” Marjorie blurted out.

“Crude? What’s crude is your ass-backwards thinking. Is it more humane to risk our lives for strangers we don’t know?”

“Yes, it is humane. I don’t want to live in a world where the people I know lose their humanity.”

“Humanity, humane, all these noble words, but I don’t see you out there risking your life to save what could be a fake person. It’s one thing to save someone we know or know if it’s real. This entire thing could be a trap and your vote could have put them all in the sights of predators and cutthroats,” Bryn snapped.

“Really, I am just astonished at your language and disgusting behavior!” Marjorie blared.

Bryn raised her left hand and folded her fingers into a fist. With her right hand she acted like she was reeling in line on a fishing rod. Each turn of her right hand brought the index finger of her left higher and higher. When her finger was raised, she blew Marjorie a kiss.

“You’re repulsive!” Marjorie moaned, then walked into the trailer and slammed the door.

Frank looked at Bryn but didn’t say a word. His expressionless face gave no clue as to what he thought about Bryn and Marjorie’s clash.

Becky, however, couldn’t let their bickering go without adding her thoughts. “Bryn, please leave her alone.”

“I know she’s your mother, but I’m not sorry. This bleeding-heart bullshit might kill us.”

“You can disagree, but you don’t have to be so…”

Bryn raised her eyebrows and cocked her head.

“Becky, if you think you’re going to convince my sister to change her mind or tactics, forget it. She’s been hardheaded since she was born,” Sophie chimed in.

“I love you too,” Bryn responded to Sophie.

“People, stop the bickering. It doesn’t help!” Colin chided.

“Colin’s right. We need to keep our minds free of these little battles and focused,” Katherine said. She walked over to Becky and offered her hand.

Becky took it.

Katherine caressed it and said, “We’ll wait. Our husbands are fine. They’re tough men and smart; they’ll be back soon.” Katherine and Becky had met many years ago at a charity event and since then had been friends. If it hadn’t been for their friendship, Proctor and Nicholas wouldn’t have met. Their personalities clashed sometimes, but deep down they shared common values and outlooks on life.

Becky remained sitting and looked up at Katherine’s golden hair, which she now wore pulled back into a ponytail. Becky had joked recently that the ponytail and makeup-less faces of women was the new
look
for the coming years.

Abigail walked up to Becky and Katherine. She couldn’t hide the fear and worry, it was written all over her face. Her youthful and smooth skin was creased with anxious concern and she found herself doubting her decision.

Rob had attempted to console her, but it hadn’t worked. Since their departure, Rob had begun to feel like he wasn’t needed, and this was yet another time where he tried to be of value and she turned away from him. He began to wonder if their relationship or what they had before was gone with the world before.

“Come here, baby,” Becky said, motioning for Abigail to take a seat next to her.

“Mom, I think we messed up,” Abigail said, referring to the vote to go help Luke.

“Let’s not start second-guessing. Like Katherine said, they’re strong and smart men,” Becky said, trying to make Abigail feel better, but she wondered if it was herself she was trying to convince.

“I’m just scared for Daddy, and hearing the gunshot made me worry more. I heard what Bryn said, and maybe she’s right. Here we are trying to do what we think is right, but that was for a different time.”

“That’s nonsense,” Katherine interjected.

“But what if it is? What I mean is our morals came from a time when there weren’t the types of risks we have today. Maybe we need to adjust?”

“I’m with Marjorie. We can’t leave our humanity behind,” Katherine said.

“But is it humane to get our family killed trying to save someone we don’t know? How do we really know if there is someone that needs to be saved?” Abigail asked.

Katherine paused; she was about to counter Abigail when she decided to just let what she said sink in.

“Life was easy before, we could sit in the luxury or safety of our lives and make easy claims of belief in humanity, but we never had to actually do anything, we never had to risk anything. Now we do and the cost might be too much.”

Katherine opened her mouth to speak but again cut herself off. She thought for a moment then said, “You make some valid points.”

Becky heard what she was saying, and it wasn’t any different than what Bryn had said or what Nicholas had said, but the way Abigail was saying it made it sink in.

Bryn listened to the women talking and wanted to tell them that it was too late for second-guessing. She walked over to Colin and said, “What’s the plan if we don’t hear from them?”

“If they don’t come back in ten hours, we pop smoke and head north.”

“Pop smoke?”

“Leave, we leave.”

“We’re not leaving anyone; we go find them. That’s what we do.”

Colin looked at her and asked, “What has gotten into you? You’ve become quite the bitter and angry hard-ass. Where’s that tough but still composed girl I use to know?”

“I’m still that girl.”

“I’m not so sure, you’re getting into arguments with old ladies, you’re cursing and now yelling at people in our group.”

“I just can’t sit around and listen to stupid. I listened to it before the shit hit the fan, but now stupid and antiquated ideas can get us killed.”

“I can’t disagree with you on that, but how about toning down some of your rhetoric. We do have to live with these people. And if I remember, didn’t Nicholas save you and your sister?”

“Yeah, but that was different.”

“How?”

“It was different; he was there witnessing it. We don’t know for sure if there is a girl; that’s a huge difference.”

“But he still risked his life to save you.”

She wanted to counter what he said, but let it process in her mind. She respected his opinion and had him to thank for so much. In her life she had many rocky relationships with men and had all but given up on believing that men could be trusted, but found three men recently that had shattered that belief. First, there was Matt, the one guy she never expected to show strength and courage. Then Colin presented himself and gave her instruction and the tools needed to survive, and finally there was Nicholas, who saved her just when she needed it. She owed all her life to those men and swore she’d repay that debt later.

“I hate to admit it, but you might be right. I’m just stressed. I don’t like the traveling; I just want to get where we’re going. I just feel like every turn or small shit town will spell disaster for us; then this happens with that kid. It’s not like I’m heartless, I just don’t feel it. I think that kid’s lying and we just democratically voted to send off two of our own to go get killed.”

“Don’t underestimate Nic. he’s a tough son of a bitch and Proctor seems able. However, that’s not to say their invincible.”

“So what do you make of that gunshot?”

“Could be them, could be coincidence. It’s a violent world out there.”

“So you’re giving them ten more hours then we leave?” Bryn asked.

“Not my choice, that was Nic’s orders and I promised to do what he instructed.”

“I don’t think I can leave them, I just don’t think I can do that,” Bryn said, looking off into the thick forest beyond.

Colin looked at his watch and said, “If they’re not back in nine hours and forty-eight minutes, we’re pushing north to the ranch. Once everyone is safe, we can discuss sending a team back, but let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Yeah, let’s hope. You hungry?”

“A bite of food sounds good right now.”

“I’ll be right back,” Bryn said and strutted off.

Colin again looked at his watch. It was agony watching the seconds bleed into minutes. The single gunshot told him that something bad happened to them. He obviously didn’t know for sure, he just felt it in his gut.

A ray of light found a break in the heavy cloud cover and shined down at his feet. He looked up and watched the clouds move quickly to cover up the small hole. Under his breath he muttered, “You better come back, Nic, you better come back.”

Four miles southwest of Wellsville, Utah

A deep and painful throbbing emanated from Nicholas’ head and spanned from the back to the front. He was drifting in and out of consciousness. Strange voices and laughter filled his ears, making for nightmares while he was out, until a loud crash jolted him fully awake. He opened his stinging eyes to find he was on the ground and tied up. He looked around to see where Proctor might be, but he couldn’t find him. Not far off he saw a small campfire, and around it was the men who had attacked them. Nicholas’ struggling had caught the attention of one of his captors. He walked away from the campfire and stood over him. “Look who’s awake.” The man bent down and grabbed him forcibly by the arm, pulled him up and placed him on his butt.

Nicholas was impressed with the man’s strength.

“Hey, guys, that dude is awake,” the man informed his friends.

More of the men left the fire to reacquaint themselves with Nicholas.

Nicholas would be lying to himself if he didn’t admit he was afraid of what was going to happen to him. He prayed that torture wasn’t their modus operandi.

“You suppose he’s ready to help us?” one of the men asked.

“He better be if he knows what’s good for him,” the leader of the group said as he pushed his way past his men and stopped just in front of Nicholas.

“Are you willing to cooperate with us?” the man asked Nicholas.

Throughout his life, Nicholas found it just about impossible to focus when he had a major headache, and this was one of those times.

One of the men kicked him and asked, “You awake?”

Nicholas grunted.

“Ha, Cam really hit him hard; the motherfucker can only mumble shit.” The man laughed.

Nicholas heard and understood the man clearly and it irritated him. “Fuck you,” he whispered under his breath.

“Huh? What did you say?” the man asked, bending over to listen.

Nicholas raised his head to meet the man’s eyes and repeated, “Fuck you!”

“Fuck me? Um, I don’t think that’s going to happen, but you, on the other hand, you’re pretty much fucked unless you help us.”

Nicholas remained defiant and angry. He snorted and spit out a large wad of phlegm. “You’re a dead man.”

“This guy is a jokester.” The man laughed then kicked Nicholas in the side.

Nicholas cringed from the pain and fell onto his side.

The man again kicked him.

“Leave him be. We need him as healthy as possible,” the man known as Cam hollered. He approached his men and pushed them away. “Go back to the fire and settle down. You two stay here.”

His men did as he instructed, with the one man walking away laughing.

Cam reached down and picked Nicholas up. “You all right?”

All Nicholas could do was nod. He thought about being resistant, but with his arms bound, he’d accomplish nothing but further abuse. He now thought it best to see what they wanted and to find out if he could get out of his predicament.

“Good, are you able to understand me and talk?” Cam asked.

Again Nicholas nodded.

“You’re probably wondering why we’ve kidnapped you. Well, it’s very simple. We need vehicles and you have them.”

Nicholas’ head throbbed terribly and was so painful he was having a difficult time focusing. When he opened his eyes, the simple light of day hurt.

“So you see, we need you to go and convince your friends to give up. We don’t want to fight for them; we want you to hand them over. We don’t want bloodshed; we just want your vehicles. You see, it’s very simple, just give them to us. I know that getting into a skirmish we run the chance of damaging the vehicles, so it’s a better idea if we can get them fully operational.”

Mustering his strength, Nicholas replied, “I can’t do that.”

“I had a feeling you’d say that,” Cam said and stood. He walked behind Nicholas and grabbed Proctor, who was also restrained and gagged.

Proctor struggled, but Cam forcibly brought him in front of Nicholas. With a kick to the back of the knee, Proctor fell down.

Both Proctor and Nicholas looked at each other.

Nicholas could see fear in Proctor’s eyes. He wondered if he had that same look.

“I know you’re the leader, so it only makes sense that I torture your friend here until you accept my terms,” Cam said as he pulled out a long sheath knife and placed it on Proctor’s cheek.

The cold steel of the blade made Proctor quiver.

“You have one last chance to say you’re going to help, or I begin to carve your friend up,” Cam said, his tone now turning sinister.

Proctor mumbled from behind the gag, and his eyes told Nicholas that he didn’t want to get hurt. However, giving in to these men’s wishes could lead to his group dying. Vehicles were critical and he couldn’t trust these men. How did he know they’d honor any deal? He didn’t, and by the look of the daylight, he estimated they’d been gone for several hours now. Nicholas had only one option, stall for time and, while he did that, find a way to escape.

“I’m going to count to three,” Cam said as he caressed Proctor’s cheek with the blade. “One, two…”

Proctor’s eyes began to widen with each count. His chest heaved in anticipation of the cold steel cutting through his warm face.

“Don’t,” Nicholas said.

“What was that?” Cam asked.

“Don’t hurt him. I’ll help you.”

Proctor exhaled deeply, relieved that he wouldn’t have to suffer from the torture Cam had in store for him.

“Good choice. You see, I really don’t want hurt anyone. I just want your vehicles so my men and I can head west,” Cam said. He began to pull away from Proctor but allowed the blade to nip his cheek.