Chapter 9
"You..." The man said quietly as he lowered his weapon.
Daria glanced at Jane and Quinn then turned to the man, "Who... Who are you?" she whispered.
"Walker?" another man's voice called from the front door. "You find anything?"
The man turned and quickly shut the staircase door, "No, it's clear." He said and the girl's heard his footsteps walk away.
"What the hell is-" Quinn started in a hushed whisper.
"Shhh!" Daria hissed and elbowed her sister.
The girls sat in silence and listened, the man identified as 'Walker' was speaking to the man that had called out. Quinn leaned forward and peered through the tiny crack in the door. She could see the two men standing on the front porch facing each other; she could just make out their conversation.
"There's no one here, just bags by the look of it. I think—" Walker's voice was cut off by the sounds of shouted male voices and a volley of gun fire.
"They're down the road. They must have jumped the fences!" The other man's voice shouted and he began to run toward the car.
"I'll stay here... In case they double back." Walker called.
"Be back at base in an hour." The other man responded before the SUV's engine roared to life.
Jane turned to Daria, "Trent!" She said fearfully.
"They'll be okay." Daria whispered back.
"What if," Jane started but was cut off by the door creaking open once again. She felt Quinn grab her arm, her fingernails dug into the flesh of Jane's shoulder.
"It's okay, I won't hurt you." Walker said quietly as he put his gun on the hardwood floor and raised his hands in surrender as he crouched down.
"How do we know that?" Jane said, "Do you expect us to trust you?"
"I hope so." He said quietly.
"How do you know us? You said 'you' when you found us." Quinn asked.
"I," he started.
"Wait, it's you; from the motel. You're the soldier we captured. What are you doing here, why didn't you capture us and return the favor?" Daria shook her head in disbelief.
"I am returning the favor, but I'm not going to capture you. If you hadn't have caught me and tied me up to that tree, I would have been blown to bits in that explosion. I owe you my life; you saved me. Now I'm returning the favor. That night you blew up the motel my unit was way out of its assigned region; a few of the guys were going crazy in the chaos and were getting too friendly with the women we came across and they had no qualms about getting rid of anyone that opposed them." He smiled. "My name is Sam Walker. I live about a mile away from here,"
"Wait a minute, the name on the driver's license in the wallet you were carrying was Daniel something." Daria said.
Sam nodded, "It's fake, well not fake; it's just not mine," he sighed, took off his cap and ran a hand through his dirty blond hair. "I'm kind of like a double agent. I was given orders to infiltrate one of the enemy armies to collect intell on their plans and if they were planning any future bombings. Before the attacks I was an undercover cop," he explained, "As far as those soldiers that were just here know, I'm one of them."
"All of those men are soldiers?" Quinn asked.
"Not all of them. I use the term loosely, some are National Guard, some are jaded police and army men and some of them are just guys that want in on the madness."
"Your base, is that where they keep the people you have captured from around here?" Daria asked hesitantly.
Sam pursed his lips and nodded, "Some of them, mostly the civilians we were able to catch from the city. Why?"
"Our," Quinn started.
"Quinn!" Daria reprimanded and shook her head.
Sam smiled, "It's okay. I told you you can trust me." He said sincerely.
"Our parents were supposed to be in Atlanta at the time of the bombs…" Quinn said.
Sam nodded, "And you want me to see if they're being detained?" Quinn nodded. "Any other family members?" he asked and looked at Jane and Daria.
"No, we're not from around here," Jane responded. "But those guys the rest of your unit are chasing…"
"Your friends I take it? They're brave; taking the heat off the house like that."
"Just… Just make sure none of them are hurt, if you get them." Jane said, her voice cracked with emotion at the end of her sentence.
"I can try, but I can't let them suspect me of anything," he responded and turned to Quinn. "What are you folk's names?"
"Mor… Morgendorffer, Jake and Helen." She said.
"I'll see what I can do." He stood, "It will take me a couple of days before I can get back here. Say a week? I'll meet you here about three in the afternoon." He said as he shut the door. "Stay in there for at least an hour in case anyone else comes back."
They heard Sam's heavy boots clomp across the living room to the front door then the sound of the door shutting behind him.
"Do you trust him?" Jane asked.
"I have to," Daria said. "He saved our lives; he could have shot all three of us dead or taken us with him."
We stayed in the cupboard under the staircase until daybreak. There were no more raids on the house, which was great, but we hadn't heard anything from the boys. It was almost four o'clock in the afternoon before we heard from them. Trent was the first to enter the house, he looked horrible. His face sported a bloodied bruise in his hairline and as he slowly opened the door his lanky form limped into the house. Jesse was at his heels and he didn't look much better.
They told us that after Trent had locked us in, under the stairs, they had hidden in the back yard. When they realized the men were inside the house, Trent had jumped the fence into the neighbor's house and ran down the street to draw the attention away from us. The rest of the band had followed him and the soldiers hadn't wasted anytime in following them. Once they got to the intersection at the end of the street, they decided to split up and Max and Nick had gone in one direction while Trent and Jesse had gone the other way.
A couple of the men had caught up with Trent and Jesse and they had gotten into a fist fight, but they had thankfully gotten away. They had spent the remainder of their time searching for the remaining members of the Spiral, but had had no luck. Nick and Max were missing.
After listening to the boy's story, we told ours. I still remember the look of disbelief on Trent's face as Daria spoke. When she was done we all sat silent, none of us completely trusted Sam, if that was his real name, but we had no choice. We had to stay at the house until we knew what happened to Nick and Max, if they were captured or were just waiting until it was night before returning to the house. The one thing we did agree on was that when Sam returned, we'd be prepared, in case of an ambush. All that was left at that point was to wait, and hope to God we'd get good news.
