They walked for three hours before taking a brief break and then starting again. An hour later, they finally reached the road. Though deserted at the moment, it offered them hope of a way out.
Looking at the compass again, Lee nodding to his right. "Back that way for an hour or so is the parking area. I might be able to find someone there willing to give us a ride out of here."
But Amanda quickly shook her head and pulled Lee away from the boys. "Lee, that's going right back to a dangerous area." She whispered fiercely. "Didn't you say those men were breaking into cars too? We can't take these boys right back into a dangerous area. It's a dangerous area."
Lee mentally rolled his eyes. "Amanda, I know it's a 'dangerous area' but I didn't say 'we'. I said 'I' was going back up there. I want you and the boys to stay right here but just out of sight. Don't go out into the road and don't let anyone see you unless it's me. Okay?"
"No, it's not okay." Amanda glared at him. "Lee, you can't go back up there alone. What if those men are up there?"
"Amanda." Lee's voice took on a stern note, even if inside, a part of him was happy that she was worried about him. "Nothing is going to happen to me. I'm an agent; remember? This kind of stuff is second nature to me. I know what I'm doing."
"You didn't know your contact left you out here alone with a dead radio." Amanda pointed out rather smugly.
Lee dropped his head and gave her a disparaging look. "Look, just stay here with the boys and keep a look out, okay? With any luck, I'll be back before too long with a way out of here."
Amanda wanted to argue the point a little further, but Lee gave her no chance as he swiftly turned and began heading up the road towards the parking area.
"Mom?" Phillip moved up next to her watching the stranger heading away from them. "Where's he going?"
"Probably right towards trouble." Amanda answered as she shook her head.
Lee quickly fell into a rhythm and was soon comfortably jogging east towards the parking lot. Though he was concerned for Amanda and the boys, he knew she could take care of herself and them too. Lee seldom stopped to examine his feelings concerning Amanda because when he did, he got completely confused. So instead he relied on what he knew about her. And he knew he count on her to keep the boys safe while he looked for a way out for all of them.
That settled in his mind, Lee turned his thoughts to Rainey. Why the man and his cohorts are doing what they were, was not hard to figure. They had their own little fiefdom up here in the mountains and living quite comfortably on other people's money.
But where Rainey was, was another question. That he and his men were up here was not in question, but just exactly 'where' up here? That was what he was supposed to find out. But he couldn't do that and keep Amanda and those kids safe at the same time.
Or could he? Maybe if he could find a ride, he could send Amanda and the boys away and then stay up there himself to do the job he was sent to do. Lee nodded to himself. "Yeah, that's what I'll do."
But plans don't always work out the way you want them to. When Lee neared the parking lot, he instinctively dove into the woods, approaching the area under cover. He didn't expect trouble, but there was no need to take chances. As he got closer and closer though, he realized he was right to be cautious. There were 4 cars in the small parking area and 3 of those had their doors standing open. The 4th had three men currently going through it from back to front.
"Damn," Lee muttered. Apparently Rainey and his men were active today, at least three of them were. But reports were that Rainey had ten men with him, which meant there were 8 men still out roaming the woods. Lee studied the three men around the car for a moment. He was pretty sure he could take them but he had no way of knowing where the other men were and 1 against 11 was not his kind of odds unless he was one of the 11.
The thought of odds gave Lee another thought and he realized he needed to go back to Amanda and the boys. Taking another look at the men and then his surroundings, Lee carefully left the area under as heavy a cover as he could and began the long run back down to where he'd left Amanda and the boys.
After Lee had left them, Amanda looked at the boys around her and saw the questions on the faces. The main questions were asked by Phillip.
"Mom, who is that man? You kept calling him Lee. Do you know him? How'd he get out here? What's he doing out here?"
Amanda took a breath, realizing Phillip wasn't completely like his father. "Phillip, I'll tell you all everything I can in a minute. But first, I think we need to take some precautions."
"For what?" Jake Hawkins wanted to know.
"For… in case." Amanda answered as she studied the area they were in. It was a small clearing with a thin line of trees between it and the road. The woods, directly behind them, were thick but fairly easy to get through.
Though she was pretty certain, with the heavy leaf cover, they could hear anyone coming in from behind them before they got there, she knew it wouldn't make much difference if they didn't have a means of escape or protection from that person, or persons. Amanda scanned the trees and then the ground around them. She thought she just might be able to protect them all without having a gun or the need for one.
"Boys, I have an idea."
Though winded from the long run to the parking area and the run back, Lee was still on alert and cautious as he approached the area where he'd left Amanda and the boys. Deciding it best to approach from the wooded side, as opposed to the road side, Lee moved deeper into the surrounding forest and then slowly towards the clearing.
When he got there, he was surprised. Amanda and the boys were gone. Though he was no woodsman, Lee was fairly certain this was the place he'd left them. Confused, he took a couple of bold steps into the clearing when suddenly an explosion of movement and sound assaulted him from every side.
While one boy hit his shin a pretty good whack with a small piece of wood, three others literally jumped from an overhead tree branch to land on his back, driving him to his knees while Amanda and another one moved in for the kill with large clubs made of salvaged tree limbs. If Amanda hadn't of recognized Lee at the last moment, he would've been down for the count.
"Hold it!" Amanda yelled. "Boys stop!" Quickly, she dropped the branch she was holding and began to pull the boys off of a disheveled, irritated and bruised Lee Stetson. "Oh, Lee, I'm so sorry." She gasped as she bent down to help him up. "We… we didn't know it was you. We were just trying to protect ourselves and well, you know, we didn't have a gun or anything, not that we would use one if we had, but well, we… we had to do something. I mean, we couldn't stand here like sitting ducks and wait, although I guess if we were sitting ducks we'd be sitting but still…"
"Amanda, it's okay." Lee frowned at her as he knocked forest debris off of his clothes, inspected tear in his slacks and gingerly probed the small lump on the back of his head. He was irritated at being attacked but at the same time, curiously, proud of Amanda for thinking of such an attack. He was just glad she recognized him before they did anything else to him.
"How'd you all plan all this?" He asked curiously.
"It was easy!" Timmy Ramsey grinned at Lee. He'd been Lee's smallest and yet most furious attacker. "Mrs. King figured it out."
Lee glanced at Amanda and shook his head. "Well, it worked but it worked on the wrong person. If Rainey or his men are anywhere around here, they probably heard your little attack. So we need to move on."
"Did you get a ride then?" Amanda asked hopefully.
"No." Lee answered. He started to tell her what he saw but the boys standing them stopped him. There was no need to scare them. "Tell you everything later. Come on, we've got to get going."
Amanda wanted to ask what had happened and why but following Lee's gaze as he looked at the kids with them, she decided all questions could wait. "Alright, boys." She clapped her hands. "Let's get our packs and move out. Come on." She put as much exuberance into her voice as she could but when she glanced at Lee, he saw the worry and even fear she had.
"It'll be alright, Amanda." He whispered to her as she came near him. "It'll be alright."
With going east out of the question, Lee and Amanda herded the boys west, constantly staying in the trees as much as possible and stopping any time they heard something that didn't sound right.
They made slow progress and Lee was beginning to get frustrated. "Amanda." He pulled her to his side as they walked along behind the kids. "At this pace, we're never going to get out of here. I've got to find us some transportation."
"But how?" Amanda whispered back. "We've been walking for about an hour now and we've not heard or seen a car anywhere and…" She suddenly stopped talking and visibly paled as she gripped Lee's arm and nodded to their left.
Lee frowned at her and then followed the direction of her gaze, swallowing hard, when he realized what she was looking at. "Amanda, take the boys on. Don't let them look in that direction." He quietly directed her as he walked away from her.
Amanda grimaced and then hurried towards the boys, ushering them forward and as far from Lee as possible. Things had just taken a drastic turn for the worse.
TBC