Bug Out! Atlantic Book 6, page 5
He looked at her, then down, nodding. “Sorry. This usually doesn’t happen to me.”
“How long?”
“Why does that matter?” Slash asked.
“It doesn’t, but I want to know.”
He shrugged. “By the end of our first week together.”
“Then tell me,” Laleh said.
“I don’t think I…”
“Slash. Focus.”
He was silent for a moment, looking down again.
“I’m over here,” she said.
He looked at her, seeing something different in her eyes. “Laleh, I’m in love with you.”
She smiled at him, her eyes misting. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“You aren’t leaving me now, right?”
She kissed him lightly. “Why would I do that? I’m in love with you too.”
“You are?”
“I didn’t really realize it until now,” she said, “but it was right there in front of me the whole time. I haven’t had a serious relationship in a long time.”
“How come?” Slash asked.
“I got hurt badly in the last one. Avoided them because of that.”
“Were you married?”
Laleh shook her head. “No, but he was my fiancé. I don’t want to talk about him, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind a bit,” Slash said. “So we can keep up like it’s been going, until the war is over?”
She laughed. “Oh, this is just during the war?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean, exactly?”
Slash looked her in the eyes. “If we survive, I’ll be wanting to settle down with you.”
She started to cry, leaning against him
“You okay?” he asked.
“Better than okay,” she said, looking at him through her tears. “Let’s go to bed, sweetie.”
***
Jay Green was wearing a tattered hoodie as he walked to the resource room next to Professor Alonzo’s office, entering and taking a seat. Casey saw him and came over.
“He’s back?” she whispered.
Jay nodded, pulling the hood down. “Either that or they’re gonna tell us he bought it.”
“You don’t go along with this stuff, do you?” she whispered.
“Shut up,” Jay whispered back. “These people are dangerous.”
“Oh, I know that,” she whispered back. “I wish my parents were out of state. I’d just quit and go home. They said they’d kill them if I left.”
“They’re getting a lot more aggressive,” Jay said.
The door on the other side of the room opened, Professor Alonzo coming in with two UN Peacekeepers, both carrying assault rifles.
“You’re all there is so far?” Alonzo asked, pushing his long gray hair back from the sides of his thin face.
“I think Tyler and Richie are coming,” Jay said. “They were in line at the cafeteria window when I walked by there.”
“I hope so, for the sake of their grades,” Alonzo said as he sat down.
They heard laughter in the hallway, and footsteps approaching, three young men and a young woman coming into the room.
“Hey, Joe, glad to see you back,” said the girl, her beautiful face framed by a black bob haircut.
“Hello, Brit. Call me Professor Alonzo, please. Remember your place. James, Tyler, and Richie, I hope you’ll be a little more serious, now that things have progressed.”
“I smell pot,” one of the UN Peacekeepers said in a French accent.
“Settle down, Jules,” Alonzo said. “I won’t have our operatives restrained. Cannabis is a recruitment tool.”
“That’s for sure,” Tyler said, his fleshy face partially hidden by horn-rimmed glasses. “We’re serious. There are fascists to attack. They’re on the run, and we’re ready to take advantage. You saw what happened today. Retribution, and none too soon.”
“Why are we bothering with this?” asked Jules.
“Perhaps you and your associate should leave the room,” Alonzo said. “No need for you to be here.”
“I need to report back on recruiting,” Jules said. “Give me that report and we’ll leave.”
“It’s going awesome,” Tyler said. “We’re up to forty-eight, most from last weekend. Some of them have weapons training. We’ll have to work more with most of them, but they’ve already been to our range a couple times.”
“Forty-eight,” Jules said. “I’ll hold you to that, Professor Alonzo, so if it’s less than that in reality, we expect you to make up the difference quickly, even if some of your department’s staff has to be involved.”
“They’re already involved,” Alonzo said.
“Good day,” Jules said, leaving the room with the other Peacekeeper.
“Those two looked like storm troopers,” Richie said. “We can’t tell the recruits they’ll have to deal with them. Might as well be the cops, or the army.”
“The UN is not like the police,” Alonzo said. “Watch what you say. They’re the structure we’ll need to start the new world order. As things settle down into the Greek society, their muscle will be needed less and less. Casey and Jay, you’re being very quiet.”
“You’re forcing me to be here,” Jay said. “Casey too. We’ll do what we’re asked, but we don’t have to like it.”
“You still don’t share in our vision?” Alonzo asked, “after all you’ve seen?”
“They share in the weed,” Richie said. “I’d like to share in Casey a little.”
Brit elbowed him hard. “Quit sounding like the damn patriarchy. We aren’t your playthings.”
“I’ve got to study for other classes,” Jay said. “What is this meeting about?”
“Recruitment and enforcement after the check points are installed.”
“Check points?” Jay asked.
Alonzo chuckled. “The reactionaries think their attack on the base by South Station stopped our effort to put up and defend the check points in Boston. That was one base out of sixteen, and it wasn’t even one of the larger ones. We’ll be placing checkpoints tonight in most areas of the city and suburbs.”
{ 4 }
Check Points
J ohn Clancy uploaded his next series chapter to the website, then left his desk, going into the kitchen, where Linda was working on dinner.
“Hey Sweetie.”
Linda turned towards him. “Done for the day?”
“Yep, also got most of my work boxed up for the move.”
“It’s not for a few days, right?” Linda asked.
“Things don’t feel right. I’d rather be ready to go at a moment’s notice. At least we don’t have much to pack.”
“Okay, that makes sense, I guess. I’ll do a little of that after dinner.”
“You look a lot happier.”
“Pat,” Linda said. “I’m worried about her, but glad that she’s gone from traitor status to patriot status.”
“I never thought she was a traitor.”
Linda nodded. “Oh, I know honey. I didn’t really, but she was so upset for a while that I didn’t trust her. How’s Craig taking this?”
“Talked to him again a couple hours ago. He’s in a pretty good place, considering. Good to have contact with him again.”
“It is,” Linda said. “I was going through the messages in that thread she started. Wow. She’s a beloved character now.”
“Yeah, just hope she survives.”
“You’re getting a lot of response on your serial,” Linda said. “Read some of that today. You should be proud. Craig too.”
There was a knock on the door.
“Wonder who that is?” John asked. “Salvatore isn’t here.”
“Want the gun?”
“Get it out, just in case,” John said, going towards the door. He looked out the peep hole, seeing two men. “Who is it?”
“I’m Kurt and this is Stacey,” said one of them. “We work for Salvatore. We need to move up our evacuation, I’m afraid.”
John opened the door, letting them in. “What’s going on?”
“The enemy is starting their check-point set up tonight in this area,” Kurt said. “Best to be out of here before they have those in place. How much packing do you need to do?”
“Not much,” he said. “Honey, we need to go.”
“I heard,” she said. “We flying or driving?”
“Flying,” Stacey said. “Sorry about your meal. We’ll have something to eat on the plane.”
“No worry,” Linda said. “We just have to pack clothes, mainly. John already packed his office earlier.”
“Good,” Kurt said. “We’ll be back in an hour. Does that work?”
“Sure, no problem,” John said. The two men left, closing the door behind them.
“Well so much for that,” Linda said, tossing the salads she was making. “I’ll get busy. We aren’t going to be shooting our way out, I hope.”
“Doesn’t sound like it.”
***
“Almost there,” Janey said. “There’s the church property, see it? First Christian Church of Loch Broom. Gerald is expecting us. He’ll send some people to the shore once I tell him where we’re landing.”
“Can we trust him?” Ken asked.
“He’s a minister, Ken. Go get mom, we need her to get it together.”
Ken nodded, leaving the salon, going into the back, Janey slowing the boat down.
“Don’t beach it,” Carol said, walking out with Ken, dragging a duffel bag. “Ken said he got the inflatable blown up. We should anchor this and take the inflatable in.”
“It’s still holding air?” Janey asked. “How long since you’ve checked?”
“I’ll go check again now, but it was fine a couple hours ago. It won’t take that long to get to shore, you know.”
“Check it, and then drop anchor,” Carol said. “Use the big one, the one your father hated. We want it to get stuck.”
Janey looked at her. “You think we’ll come back to it? I wouldn’t count on that.”
“You trust the folks at this church,” Carol said. “Not sure that I do. I’d rather have the option of coming back out here, if you don’t mind.”
Ken smiled. “You know, that’s actually a good idea.”
“Yeah, your mom isn’t so stupid, huh?” Carol said, smiling.
“Mom, that’s not what I meant,” Ken said.
“Oh, I know, son,” she said, pulling him close to her. “Sorry I’ve been such a mess. I felt so guilty about what happened at Green’s Point. Our friends helped us and got killed for it. And nobody can raise your father. This is just horrible all the way around.”
“It’s okay, mom,” Janey said. “Ken, get out there on that anchor. We’re drifting kinda fast.”
Ken nodded, rushing out onto the deck, Janey and Carol watching through the windows as he gave the inflatable boat a quick check. He gave them a thumb-up sign, then went to the anchor locker, pulling out the large anchor, getting the rope out on the deck, and tossing the anchor overboard, holding onto the rope as it fell, walking closer to the large cleat at the front of the hull.
“Do you have any packing to do, Janey?”
“My clothes are already in the duffel bag,” she said, looking out the window. “See that brush, along the bank to the left? We should be able to stash the inflatable in there. Nobody comes around here this time of year.”
Carol got next to her, looking out the window. “Perfect. I was meaning to talk to you about something.”
“What?” Janey asked, grabbing onto the pilot’s station as the anchor grabbed hold, the boat swinging around to face into the current.
Carol smiled, holding on. “That didn’t take long to dig in.”
“Go ahead,” Janey said.
“I want you to contact the authorities as soon as possible, and tell your story. I also want you to make clear that the Halifax UN Base is being used to stage attacks on American civilians. That might make things a little harder for Mateo’s thugs.”
“I’ve been giving that some thought,” Janey said. “Some of the government officials are in on this stuff, you know. They might hold us for the UN.”
Carol smiled. “I’ve got some ideas on who we can talk to if that happens, but remember one thing. We’ll do much better allied with the Americans than we will with the UN. Their behavior here as been atrocious, and if we don’t get satisfaction from the Canadian Government, we’ll go to the press.”
“If we don’t get satisfaction, we’ll all be in jail or dead, more than likely,” Janey said.
“We aren’t all going in to talk to them,” Carol said. “Time to put on your big boy pants. You’re going in alone. Ken and I will be the insurance policy. If they nab you, we’ll go to the press right away.”
Janey thought about it a moment. “Okay, I agree with that. It’s the best way.”
“I knew you’d see that,” Carol said. “Here comes Ken. Don’t tell him yet. He might balk.”
“I know.” Janey shut off the boat’s engine, then rushed into her room, grabbing her duffel bag.
Ken came back in. “Lots of structure under us, the anchor got stuck right away. We’ll have a hard time if we have to take off in this thing.”
“We’ll cut the rope,” Carol said. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s get going. You packed?”
“Pretty much, give me five minutes.”
It wasn’t difficult to put the inflatable over the side, its orange sides clashing with the blue-green of the water. They got in with their duffel bags, Janey and Ken rowing. The water calmed as they were going.
“The wind is gone,” Ken said. “Maybe this is a good sign.”
“Look at it that way,” Carol said. “Don’t be discouraged. We need a positive outlook. We’re going to make it.”
They neared the beach, the boat flexing a little in the waves, rushing onto wet sand with a surge. Ken hopped out, helping his mom and sister with their duffel bags, then grabbing the rope in front and dragging the boat into the dense brush, tying it to a stout branch. “That ought to hold it, even when the tide comes in.”
“It’ll be fine,” Carol said.
Janey got out her phone, calling Gerald. It rang twice and picked up.
“You’re on shore?” Gerald asked.
“We are, right where I told you we’d be.”
“Did the boat beach without problems?”
“We anchored it offshore and came in on the inflatable,” Janey said.
“Oh, good idea. I’ll be right there, in the church bus.”
Janey ended the call. “He’s bringing the bus for us.”
“We’d better get closer to the road,” Carol said. “See those trees? Let’s go by them and stay out of sight as best we can.”
“Yeah, makes me nervous being here,” Janey said. “Hope the UN doesn’t have people in this area.”
“Did Chaz know about your friends here?” Ken asked.
“Nope, never told him,” Janey said.
“You didn’t?” Carol asked. “That’s good, but I’m surprised. You sure?”
Janey smiled. “There was a time when I was interested in both Chaz and Gerald. I didn’t tell either about each other.”
Ken burst out laughing. “Geez, sis. A reverend?”
“He wasn’t a reverend then,” she said.
“Yeah, but he’s older than you.”
“Relax, Ken, he’s only ten years older than her. That isn’t out of line. Your father is almost that much older than I am.”
“For the record, I liked Gerald better, but didn’t want to be a minister’s wife.”
“Wife? These were just summer romances, weren’t they?” Carol asked.
Janey sighed. “Yes, but I didn’t think so at the time.”
“Maybe I should’ve kept a closer eye on you.”
They heard the rumble of a diesel, and the squeaking of wheels, as the white bus rolled up the road, parking, Gerald getting out, running towards them with a big smile on his face. He embraced Janey, his vivid red hair clashing with her black.
“I’m so glad you made it,” he said. “Let’s get out of here before anybody notices. We have strong opinions on the current situation from both sides, and your picture has been on the news.”
“No, really?” Janey asked, terror in her eyes. “What did they say I did?”
“They said you killed the head of the Halifax UN facility and his girlfriend.”
Janey froze. “I didn’t do that. Mateo killed both of them. He admitted it to me on the last phone call.”
Gerald turned to her, seeing her start to cry, and touched her chin, raising it so she was looking at him. “I don’t believe that about you, Janey. Many of us have been hearing about the invasion, and the actions of the UN. I want them out of Canada. Most people in the parish do as well. They saw the video from New York City and Boston. You know they just executed more people in Boston, right?”
“No, we haven’t heard that,” Carol said.
“I’ll tell you about it on the way,” Gerald said. “Good to see you again, Carol. You too, Ken.”
They loaded into the bus, Gerald driving back to the church compound.
***
Mick watched from the roof, as the UN Peacekeepers checked cars in the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Chauncy Street, and Everett Street. Harvard’s Wasserstein Hall was across the street from his vantage point.
“Just got word that a bunch of students are coming down to show support for those UN thugs,” Brent said, walking towards the edge of the roof, an FN machine gun in his hand. He got down next to Mick, pushing his long brown hair back in the breeze.
Mick lowered his binoculars, turning towards Brent, laughing at his hair flying around. “You and that long hair. Should’ve tied it up. How you gonna shoot with that?”
“I got a tie,” he said, taking it out of his shirt pocket and putting his hair into a ponytail. “It was wet when I left the house.”
“Uh huh,” Mick said, smiling, his dark eyebrows rising under short blonde hair. He turned back towards the intersection and looked through the binoculars again. “Here they come. What’s with these morons, anyway? They’re getting the best legal education available anywhere in the world, but they think it’s okay to back an invasion and control of the population by a foreign agency. It’s clearly treason.”
