On the now bare back porch, Suzanne watched a pair of paint rollers run up and down the tongue and groove floor, covering the patchy old yellowed surface with a fresh coat of light gray. She was careful to keep dipping the rollers in the paint to be sure the entire floor was covered. On the ground, Bill sat painting the frame of the porch swing as Diane washed the cushions with a bucket of water and a rag. They worked to the sound of the new generator humming along to make their electricity.
"OK, that should do it," Bill said as he stood up. Sanded and painted, the metal frame of the swing looked almost new.
"I'm almost done, Dad," Suzanne said as she backed off the porch to roll the floor where she'd been standing."
Diane looked up from her scrubbing. "How do we go back inside, jump over it?" she asked.
Bill shrugged. "You could," he mussed, "Or we could just walk around to the front. It will be dry in a few hours."
"Hey dad, this spot won't come out," Diane said, holding a cushion up with an invisible arm to show him the large dark spot.
"We'll just put that on the bottom. I'm sure your mother will get new ones when we have the chance."
A bird's cry sounded from high above. They all looked to see a large eagle fly overhead.
"Daddy, look!" Suzanne yelled as she pointed at the bird.
"Wow, he's BIG," Diane said as she watched the eagle fly by. Turning to her father, Diane said, "It's really cool seeing all these animals! Can we go take a walk in the woods? I bet we'll see a lot more."
"Yeah, can we?" Suzanne asked.
"Let's wait until your mom gets home. She might want to go too," Bill told them.
"OK!" Suzanne said. She hoped down off the steps and ran the rollers on the steps.
Bill noted she flung a bit of paint around, but as long as the paint job was waterproof, he didn't mind. "You girls are a big help to me, thank you," he told them.
"We like helping. Besides, we're helping to make our house look pretty," Suzanne said, all smiles.
In no way could Bill think of this house as pretty, but he returned her smile. Hearing a car, he looked down the road to see Sarah coming home. "There's your mom, girls. Let's go meet her. Close the paint cans, hon," he said as he pointed out the can on the porch railing.
Bill walked to the front of the house. The girls ran past him to meet their mother at the driver's door. As she got out, they told her all about how they did the back porch, and the walk they were going to take to look for animals.
Sarah wore a grimace of a smile as she listened and pulled the laundry out of the back. She handed off a fast food bag to each girl, telling them, "Lunch first." The girls took their prizes with glee and ran for the house.
Bill noted Sarah did not seem herself. Her face and the stiff way she carried herself told him something was up. He raised an eyebrow. She responded by glancing at the house. Right, something was up and it wasn't for the girls to hear.
"Hey mom, you forgot Dad," Diane called as she held her bag open.
"Don't worry about it, dear, eat up. You girls have been working hard," Sarah assured them.
"Go ahead, you two earned it," Bill told them with a wink.
Passing by his girls sitting on the steps as they dug into their bags, Bill followed Sarah into the house. In the middle of the living room floor, she dropped the laundry basket and turned to him. Her face was hard as she said, "Standing Order seven has been implemented."
"What? ... why?" Bill asked in shock. Realizing he may have spoken too loudly, he turned back to see the girls were still outside on the steps. "There's no one around here for miles!" he hissed, "There is no imminent danger."
"That is the order," Sarah said firmly as her eyes reddened with tears. "After they eat lunch, just take them out in the field and finish it. The animals should take care of their bodies."
Despite his years of training, Bill said, "No! I'm not going to take those girls out and kill them!" His heart began to pump in fear as his adrenalin spiked.
"It will be easy," Sarah said firmly despite her quivering lip. "I've already drugged their food. They'll be asleep in no time. If you can't do it, then I will."
"You're willing to kill our girls for no other reason than someone told you to?" Bill asked in a low hiss.
"Don't make this harder than it has to be!" Sarah snapped. "You WILL follow orders, soldier!"
"I will not follow orders when they make no sense!" he shot back.
Sarah brought a knee up and reached under her skirt. Bill knew what she was reaching for. She moved fast, and so did he. He grabbed her gun hand, forcing it over her head. He then felt her shift. He moved enough so the knee she tried to plant in his groin, landed on his hip. He forced her arm down in an arc to keep the gun pointed away from them.
Pain exploded in his foot, then she punched him hard. Bill stumbled back and tripped on the edge of a throw rug to land on his butt. Before he could get up, Sarah had the gun trained on his face. Her face bore a hard look.
"NOO!" cried Suzanne. The gun flew to the side, along with Sarah's hand. Sarah stared at her wrist pumping blood on him. Bill grabbed her arm just above her wrist stump and firmly pulled her to the floor. Sitting atop her, he pinned Sarah face down and held her in place.
"I'm sorry mommy!" Suzanne yelled, then burst out in tears.
Bill grabbed Sarah's other arm and forced it behind her back as he held her bleeding arm tightly right above the stump that sported bloody trails of flesh and white bone. He didn't dare let her move. He turned to Suzanne, who was holding her face, crying.
"What's going on?" Diane asked as she stood in the doorway, gapping at them.
"Mommy, I'm sorry!" Suzanne blubbered as she cried.
Firmly in his drill Sargent's voice, Bill said, "Diane! I need to stop this bleeding. Over there, hand me that shirt. Suzanne! Stop crying, I need your help here!"
Suzanne continued to whimper, but her and Diane got materials so he could put a tourniquet on the stump of Sarah's right arm. He then tied Sarah's legs, and bound her left arm behind her back. He put a rope around her neck to tie her good arm in place. Once she was secured, he got up and retrieved the gun.
"Bill, you will be killed!" Sarah screamed. "Your only chance is to shoot them. DO IT NOW!"
"Girls, outside, get in the car." Bill said firmly.
Diane and Suzanne ran out. He waited until he heard the car doors slam, then asked, "What did you put the poison in?"
"Bill, you have to kill them. You're a dead man if you don't," Sarah hissed. "Please, don't throw everything away! Have you forgotten this is a mission?"
"No, but I can't kill our daughters for no good reason," Bill replied heavily.
"They are not ours! They are mutants, Bill! They are lab experiments gone wrong. Stop this shit and fucking KILL THEM!"
Bill pondered for a moment, then dragged Sarah over to the stairs. He tied her injured arm firmly to the rail post, then ran the rope ends up along the rail to tie them off far out of her reach. Walking out onto the porch, he looked at the meals she'd gotten. Most of the fries were gone, only some of the soda had been drank. The burgers were untouched. He picked up the food and took it in to set it on a step beside his fuming Sarah.
"Here's the deal," he said as he untied her good arm. "I'm going to leave you some food and drink. Once we get far away, I'll call the cops ..."
"Bill! Don't do this!" Sarah pleaded. "You must kill them."
Bill frowned and shook his head. "No, I don't think so," he said heavily. "I do love you, that's why you're not dead. Those girls have never done anything wrong. They're not drug lords, terrorists, or national enemies. They're good, innocent kids. Isn't that who we're suppose to be protecting?"
Shaking her head, Sarah held her face with her now-free hand. "Bill, I care about them too! But they are not worth dying for."
"Just relax, someone will be by. Tomorrow at the latest," he said, then turned and left.
Bill got some supplies together. Food, their sleeping bags and camping gear, and his suitcase of weapons. Sarah kept on yelling for him to free her and kill those girls. He noted the windows in the car were down. The girls sat in the front seat, their stunned gazes staring at him as he approached. Bill loaded the car while Sarah continued to plead with him to kill 'those girls'.
They had to disappear. Bill put his cell phone – which could be tracked- behind a tire, then got in and started the car. He backed out and drove farther up the dirt road. He knew there was a paved road a few miles farther up. That road went through a state forest for nearly twenty miles before they'd see any civilization. It was a small head start, but it was something. When he found a phone booth, he'd call in a 'robbery'. It would be obvious he'd betrayed Sarah, so she was as safe as he could make her.
After a silent ride the first fifteen miles, Suzanne asked in a tiny voice, "Daddy, did a bad wizard get to mommy? Was that why she was like that?"
Bill licked his dry lips. He wasn't about to tell them the truth, but he had to tell them something they could believe. Frowning, he said, "Sweetie, I don't know. You may be right. All I can tell you is we can't go back there."
"We're not going back for mom?" Diane asked in a whine.
"I am going to call someone to make sure she gets medical attention. That's the most we can do," Bill explained.
"I didn't mean to knock her hand off, I just didn't want her to shoot you," Suzanne said softly.
"I know that, hon. I'm sure mommy understands."
"Those bad wizards are chasing us, aren't they?"
Bill looked over to see his girls were weeping. "Yeah they are, Hon, but don't worry. Daddy will figure something out," he assured them.
.
Bill stopped at a gas station to fill up. He bought a road map and made a call to the local police using the station's phone. Instead of a robbery, he told them he'd tried to call his old mother as he'd been doing every day for years, and there had been no answer for the last two days. Piling on his worry, he gave them the directions and begged for someone just to go see if she was all right. Sympathetic to the plight of shut-in old folks, the officer promised someone would do a 'drive by' and check on the old woman.
The car filled up and girls eating untainted lunches, Bill thought hard about what to do next. Sarah had usually reported in every two days- using laundry as a cover – but he was sure that someone would be expecting a report today that the job had been done. That meant he had to ditch this car quickly.
Passing a house that had an older sedan for sale, Bill pulled in the driveway. The woman selling the vehicle was half toasted. He offered her his vehicle in trade until he could get the money, promising he'd be by in the 'next couple days' to finish up the deal. Thrilled that she was cheating him out of a much newer and better looking car, she gladly accepted. Bill transferred their belongings and the girls, then gave her the keys to the SUV, and drove off in the old blue sedan, trailing smoke.
That night, Bill used another false ID to get them a motel room. He kept the girls out of sight as he paid for the room. The car he parked with the rear end up against a fence. PA didn't have front license plates, so there was less chance of a drive-by ID of the car.
Dinner was a pizza. Being strict on the girl's diets and what they were allowed for entertainment, the girls were happy to lie on the bed, eating pizza while they watched real television. Bill slipped out and check the backpack he'd put in the trunk of the car. He had two pistols, a tazer and a concussion grenade. If they were caught, it wouldn't be enough. He was sure there'd be snipers as well as a direct assault team. He had no illusions of anyone giving up and letting him or his girls go. Too many asses were on the line. They would be hunted mercilessly. For now, he still had some tricks to get by, and his emergency cache... if this car lasted long enough to get them there.
.
"Top of the news tonight, thirteen days left before the deadline to war," a pretty brunette behind a news desk announced.
Showing a picture of the White House to one side, the announcer said, "The President is insisting all law enforcement agencies and the military are doing everything possible to search for the missing children, but the Yukaita sect in Japan is not backing down from their deadline. Those children were taken from their home in Kamakura Japan, seven years ago. Two women were killed during the abduction. Recently, this normally peaceful religious order claims the missing children are in the United States, being held by the Army. They are giving no quarter to their demands that those children be returned. Their leader, who goes by the title, 'Lady Lucy', is quoted as saying "You can give them back, or we will come take them." While this does not seem a serious threat on the surface from a sect numbering only a few thousand members, many nations around the world are standing by Lady Lucy, also demanding the children be released to their families. Promises of embargoes and siezing of US assets around the world have been levied by China, Taiwan, Japan, India, Russia and the Arab league until those children are returned to their families. Many civil rights groups are also in an uproar, demanding immediate action from the White House as well as an explination to why the US Army has kidnapped foriegn children."
The picture beside the woman changed to show a living room couch with a family sitting and standing around it.
"The children in question are named Chizu Ishiguro, and Kyoko Kikumura. In this picture, they are the babies being held by their mothers. They can be identified by their unusual hair color and the protrusions on their heads. If you have seen either of these children, who would be seven years old now, please contact the nearest law enforcement agency, or the FBI immediately..."
The man watching turned the television off, darkening the room even more. He sat in the dark, unmoving until the phone lighted up with a pulsing blue light. He picked up his phone. "Yes."
"Sir, the female agent was found injured and tied to a staircase. She claims she was knocked out, and has no idea what happened. No one else was in the safe house. We must assume that standing order seven was not carried out."
"Then find out what happened!" he growled. "If those kids are found, it's all our asses. Do whatever needs to be done, but find them and get rid of them."
"Yes sir, I'll keep you informed. What about the female agent? She is in the hospital. She's talked to the police, but so far has not given up anything classified."
"Erase her."