Chapter 21
Nic winced at the reminder that they weren't exactly out of the woods yet.
"And, she didn't exactly miss." Keith added as an additional wet blanket to Nic's celebration.
"What do you mean she didn't exactly miss?" Nic asked not having moved from her comfortable spot on top of Keith.
"Well, I can't say for sure. Not until you get off of me, at least." Keith reminded her.
"She hit you? Where?" Nic said as it finally sunk in what he was trying to tell her. She scrambled off of him but stayed on her knees beside him.
"Well, either you tackled me onto something very sharp, or I have a bullet hole in my leg." Keith said as he sat up slowly.
"Ohmygod. Let me see!" Nic ran her eyes over his body and then her hands when she realized it was too dark to see much. The flashlight had flown out of Keith's hand when she'd tackled him. She ran them down his legs; first the left and then the right. On her way down the right leg, her hands came away wet just above the knee. When she looked more closely, she could see that it was definitely blood.
"Ouch! Could you be a little more gentle, please?" Keith asked as he jerked away from her probing hands.
"Sorry." Nic said automatically and then shot a look at Olivia over her shoulder. "There are you happy? You shot him."
"Well, considering I meant to kill him, the answer to your question would be no." Olivia calmly pointed out. Since she'd squeezed the trigger, all of her anger had left to be replaced by a sense of peace.
"Seriously? I thought you claimed to love him." Nic stood up to face the strangely still woman.
"I do love him. I just realized that he's no good for me. And, if I can't have him then no one can." Olivia reasoned.
"What? You can't be serious." Nic said in shock.
"Oh, but I am. However, since your extremely stupid actions, which will probably be viewed as brave actions by some less intelligent people, have currently spared his life, I see no reason not to let him live for a little longer. Maybe he can suffer for a while." Olivia sniffed her disapproval of his survival.
"Let's get back to the cabin. I hate the woods at night." Olivia said as if that was reason enough to go back. "Well, what are you waiting for? Help him up and get moving."
Nic did as instructed more so because in her state of calm, Olivia's aim with the gun seemed more sure than before and also to get Keith back to some light so that she could see how bad his gunshot wound really was. He was conscious and didn't appear to be in such severe pain that he couldn't function. However, once up, it was apparent that he couldn't put much weight on his leg without causing extreme discomfort.
"I have no idea what she has against my right leg, but it sure has taken a beating since she entered my life." Keith joked in Nic's ear.
"Shut up and save your breath for walking." Nic said too worried to appreciate his ability to joke in a time of crisis.
"Wow, you sound like you're mad at me." Keith said in surprise.
"I am." She agreed.
"What did I do?" Keith asked.
"Besides going and getting yourself shot? For one, you forgot to take the gun with you when we left the cabin. And two, here I am trying to push you out of the way, but somehow you still end up getting shot." Nic realized her anger made no sense, but she couldn't stop how she felt. She was actually mad at him for letting the bullet hit him.
"You can't be serious." Keith limped along beside her letting her take more of his weight than he really needed to as punishment for her reasoning. If Keith had had two working legs, he would have kicked himself for forgetting the gun. But, to be blamed for getting shot bordered on the ridiculous.
"Stop your whispering and walk." Olivia commanded from behind.
xoxo
Shirley opened the back door to pick up the milk delivered by the milkman a few short minutes ago. She'd heard the bottles rattle in the racking.
She was surprised to see the man still standing there. She was about to say hello to Sam, but didn't recognize the man standing there in Sam's uniform. The uniform still had Sam's name on it, but it was most definitely not Sam.
"Who are you?" Shirley asked suspiciously and pulled the door closer in case she needed to slam it quickly.
"My name is Chuck. I'm a reporter for the Sacramento Times. I'd like to speak to you about your missing son." The man smiled in what he hoped was a very encouraging manner.
"Get lost, buddy." Reuben grabbed the door from Shirley's nerveless fingers and stepped between the stunned blond and the scrawny reporter who was almost drowning in his borrowed duds.
"Now wait just a minute. Mrs. Partridge was just about to grant me an exclusive interview." Chuck tried to brazen his way through the still open door.
"The only thing you're about to get is a fist in the chops. Get lost." Reuben threatened and drew himself to his full height which allowed him to tower over the much smaller man.
"I'll press charges." Chuck stated with fake bravado.
"It would be your word against mine and I have witnesses who will attest to my innocence. They'll all say you're a big klutz and ran into the door on your way out." Reuben let the door swing slightly more open so that Chuck could see the whole family glaring their disgust at him. "Understand?"
When the man still hesitated, Reuben brought his right hand down from the door jam where it has been resting and made a fist. Chuck proceeded to clumsily back away from him and finally turned to run but ran headfirst into an FBI agent who had just come around the corner.
"Sorry about that Mr. Kincaid, we thought he was legit. He had the uniform on. We'll find out what happened to the real…" The agent checked the name on the shirt. "Sam."
"Thank you." Reuben said and closed the door on the squirming little reporter.
"That was really cool Mr. Kincaid." Chris said from his seat at the table.
"Were you really gonna clock him?" Tracy added in awe.
"Of course not. Right Reuben?" Laurie asked.
"It all depended on him." Reuben sniffed and sat back down at the breakfast table.
"I almost wish he'd have forced your hand Mr. Kincaid. I'd have liked to see him flat on his back." Danny said with feeling.
"Alright, that's enough. Eat your breakfast." Shirley instructed. However, she couldn't agree more with her three youngest. She too would have liked to have seen the little man shown some manners. Really, to have dressed up like their milkman just to talk to one of them. It was going too far.
xoxo
Olivia had just locked them back in the small room when they heard an engine approaching the cabin.
"If either of you makes a sound, I'll shoot you both." Olivia said as she walked over to the door of the cabin and exited. They didn't doubt her promise. Not after what she had just done.
"Who do you suppose it is?" Keith asked in a muted tone.
"Probably the elderly couple that was here when we got here. They had said they'd be back in a couple of days with more supplies." Nic told him while getting him to lie down on the cot. "Let me take a look at that leg."
Keith let her swing his legs up onto the cot and then watched her kneel beside to get a better look. The small room was shadowy at best so even though the sun had just come up, she couldn't see much. "I wish the light was better in here."
"Just let it be for now. It doesn't hurt too much and we don't have any supplies anyway." Keith reminded her. "Why don't you see if you can see anything?"
Nic obliged by moving over to the door and looking into the larger room.
"She must still be outside. I can't see anyone." Nic was still whispering not wanting Olivia to have reason to come back and shoot either one of them – again.
They sat in silence for a while longer. Eventually they heard some banging. The banging went on intermittently over the next fifteen minutes. What were they doing?
"What do you think they're doing?" Nic asked.
"It sounds like their hammering nails. I didn't notice any work that needed to be done on the cabin, but they are definitely hammering something." Keith said as he cocked his head to listen.
"She's back in the cabin. The old man is with her. I don't see the old woman. Maybe he came alone this time." Nic whispered her report.
"What are they doing?" Keith asked.
"It looks like he's putting a deadbolt on the front door." Nic said. "They aren't saying anything. Olivia just went upstairs."
They sat in silence again waiting for something more to happen.
"Thank you, Otto. I'll be out in a few minutes. Please wait for me by the truck." Olivia instructed and watched him close the door behind his retreating back.
She came over to the door that Nic was watching her through and unlocked it.
"You'll have the run of the cabin while I'm gone." Olivia announced. "Don't worry, you won't be going anywhere. I'm locking you in and I've boarded up the windows. I have to take care of some urgent business but will be back soon."
"What? Where are you going?" Nic asked.
Olivia just threw her a look that said 'none of your business' and walked over to the door. One of her bags was sitting beside it. She leaned over to pick it up while Nic walked out into the larger room to watch her leave.
"Take care of him for me. I have plans for him when I get back." Olivia said ominously, walked out and turned the deadbolt from the outside.
Nic rushed over to the door and pulled on it just to make sure it was truly locked. She walked around the rest of the cabin and found that all of the windows were not only boarded over, but the windows themselves had been nailed shut. She glanced over to see Keith standing on one leg leaning against the door jam.
"She didn't lie. We're locked in." Nic said in disgust.
"What about upstairs? It didn't sound like they boarded that window." Keith said.
"I didn't know there was a window up there. I'll go look." Nic ran up the stairs and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the bed.
The sheets were a mess, like someone had spent a wild night of lovemaking on the mattress. She felt tears spring to her eyes again when she realized that Keith may have had to go much further than either one of them had ever thought about when coming up with their plan to escape. Had he actually had to….well, she just couldn't make herself take that thought any further.
"Well?" Keith yelled from downstairs.
His intrusion into her thoughts caused her eyes to move from the bed to the window through which bright sunshine spilled onto the floor.
"It's not boarded up." She yelled back and moved over to the window. She opened the portal and looked down. There was a steep drop off behind the cabin leaving at least a twenty foot drop from the window. Making things even worse, right up against the cabin was a wood pile. That meant, that not only was the drop prohibitive, but the landing was precarious at best. If you could be sure that you'd land beyond the wood pile, it looked like a relatively soft landing. It was the getting there that might prove tricky.
She closed the window in case Olivia came back unexpectedly and walked back over to the steps. Her eyes found Keith watching the top of the stairs and she shook her head before starting back down.
"The drop is pretty far and the landing not very good." Nic reported.
"What's our other option?" Keith asked.
"Staying and waiting for Olivia to come back." Nic said in defeat.
"So, long drop and precarious landing it is." Keith said as he pushed himself away from the door.
"Keith, wait. If you hadn't just been shot, we might have been able to try it, but now? No way you can take the impact of that landing." Nic reminded him.
"Oh, come on. We can tie the sheets together and lower ourselves most of the way. Then the drop will only be a short one." Keith offered a good suggestion.
"That should work." Nic agreed. Why hadn't she thought of that? Oh, right, because she'd tried to block the thought of the bed out of her mind ever since she'd looked at it and pictured Keith with Olivia on it.
She moved quickly toward Keith as he started to hobble across the room toward the stairs. "We're not leaving until I've had a chance to look at your leg."
"We don't have time." Keith tried to push her hands away as she tried to steer him toward a chair.
"Keith, if we don't take the time, it may not pay to escape." Nic left the rest of her message unsaid, but Keith understood. He sighed and let her sit him in one of the chairs by the table. "I'll go see what we have for first aid supplies."
"Hurry up. I have no desire to be anywhere near here by the time Olivia comes back." Keith absently rubbed his thigh above the bullet hole. It had started to throb in the last few minutes. He definitely preferred the numbness that had almost immediately followed after he'd felt the first sting of entry. He had yet to really look at it himself. He was afraid of how it would look. If he got another infection – well, he wouldn't let himself think that far ahead. It was early yet. They'd find help before that happened. They had to.
"It's not much, but we can clean it and bandage it before we leave." Nic said as she walked back with a small first aid kit she'd found in the bathroom. She took the small scissors and cut the leg of Keith's jeans so that she could get a better look at it. She found a small hole in his thigh only slightly above his healing scar from the cut he'd suffered during the bus accident. Thankfully, the gun Olivia had gotten from the detective was a small caliber one. The bullets weren't very large. But, once inside, who knew how much damage could be done? Had the bullet gone clean through or was it still in there? She felt around the back of his thigh.
"Are you trying to cop a feel or what?" Keith joked. He was once again uncomfortable with the situation so turned to humor to help him get through.
"Very funny. I'm trying to see if the bullet went clean through or if it's still in there." Nic would have slapped his leg in retaliation, but that would have caused him unneeded pain. "I'm pretty sure it's still in there. I don't feel another hole."
"Is that good or bad?" Keith asked.
"Well, I'm not a doctor, but I think it might be both." Nic looked up to see Keith cock an eyebrow at her non answer. "It's one less point of entry for infection, but the bullet itself is a source of infection. See? Good and bad."
"Alright pseudo-Dr. Landry, just finish bandaging it so we can get moving." Keith didn't like the answer, but he couldn't change it.
"Alright, brace yourself. I'm going to pour this alcohol on it to help clean it." Nic warned him.
Keith grabbed her hand before she could bring the bottle closer. "Alcohol. That's really going to sting. Don't you have anything else to use?"
"Listen, don't be a baby. You were just shot and I didn't hear you crying. I think you can handle a little alcohol." Nic pointed out and tilted the bottle before he could protest again.
She heard the hiss of breath before his body jerked in response to the pain that registered moments later. After he could draw breath again, she heard several muttered swear words and then finally, his body relaxed a little as the pain ebbed.
She quickly used the gauze and bandages in the kit to cover it up, hopeful that no infection would get below the bandage. She used up all they had. They needed to get to a doctor as soon as possible.
"You alright?" She finally looked up from her task to see him sitting with his eyes closed and his jaw clenched.
"Just dandy." Keith said barely above a whisper.
"Alright, well, you sit here and gather your strength while I look for whatever food and water we can take with us." Nic said and headed off toward the small kitchenette. She knew there wasn't much there, at least not much that they could travel with. After all, she'd been the chief cook for the last couple of days. There were a couple of pieces of bread, some peanut butter and a can of stew. They wouldn't go hungry that day, but if they wandered for much longer, they were in trouble.
She bundled the food, a small pot and some matches into a big towel and tied it all together. She then headed upstairs to look for spare blankets. She found two in the closet, but refused to use the one on the bed. It would likely smell of Olivia and she could do without the reminder.
"Ready?" She asked after leaving the pack by the window and heading back down to get Keith.
"You have no idea." Keith answered and pushed himself to a standing position.
She walked over to him and put her shoulder under his arm to take some of his weight. They headed up the stairs at a slower rate than Nic liked. If he was this slow on stairs, how was he going to take that drop?
Once upstairs, Nic noticed that Keith's eyes avoided the bed at all costs. He let her strip the sheets and tie them together not once looking in that direction.
The next problem they encountered was that there was nothing heavy enough to anchor the sheets to that would hold their weight for any length of time. An argument ensued with Keith finally ending it with these comments.
"Nic, you don't have the upper body strength to hold the sheets long enough for me to get down." When she opened her mouth to argue he continued. "Besides, we need to get you down uninjured. That way at least one of us can go for help. If you get hurt too, we don't have a hope in hell."
"But Keith…." Nic started.
"You know I'm right." Keith said quietly.
If he had yelled at her, she'd have continued to argue. His calm voice of reason made her pause and really think about what he'd said. He was right and she knew it. He could hold the sheets while she lowered herself, she couldn't do the same for him. No matter how hard she worked at her upper body strength, it just wasn't enough to hold even his slender weight. Though thin, Keith was all muscle underneath; probably because of all the heavy equipment he moved for his family's performances. She just hoped his leg would stand up under the strain.
"Alright. I'll go first." She added in her head – 'and I'll be at the bottom to catch you when you fall.'
"When I get to the bottom of the sheets, I'll have to push away from the wall in order to clear the wood pile. Just brace yourself for that alright?" Nic said as she tossed the pack of supplies down ahead of her.
"Yes, sir." Keith threw her a mock salute.
"Well, you're sure cocky enough right now." Nic tested her knots on the sheets one more time and threw the trail of sheets down the side of the cabin. They would get her within 5 feet of the wood pile which meant she'd have to drop about 8 feet once she pushed away from the wall. She knew she could handle it, but could Keith with his bad leg?
Well, she guessed they'd find out sooner rather than later.
"Here goes. Ready?" Nic looked back at Keith as she threw her right leg out the window and sat on the ledge. He grabbed the end of the sheets and braced his good leg against the wall.
"Anytime you are." Keith assured her.
Nic pulled herself back in for a second, reached up for a quick kiss on Keith's surprised mouth and pulled back saying, "For luck." The next thing Keith saw was the top of her head as she started shimmying down the sheets.
Keith felt his leg protest the added strain, but it held up long enough for her to push away from the building and let go of the sheets. He watched her land and roll immediately. She popped up and grinned up at him.
"It's not too bad. Just take it easy and tie off the sheets really good before you start." Nic instructed as she waved him down.
Keith disappeared for a few minutes from her sight as he tied off the sheets to the leg of the bed. He barely spared it a glance as he hobbled back to the window. He knew that his landing was going to hurt, but he didn't want to favor the leg on his way down as he might end up hurting the one leg that was still good.
He climbed out of the window and began the painstaking process of lowering himself hand over hand down the side of the cabin. Things were going well and he was almost to the bottom of the sheets when he felt the slight jerk that meant that one of the knots of the sheet was giving way.
He heard Nic's yell of 'Keith, watch out' seconds before he pushed away from the wall and let go of the sheet. He was freefalling for mere seconds when all of a sudden, the ground was there to meet him.
He grunted in pain as he bad leg gave out immediately and he dropped into a roll that would help to cushion the impact.
Nic had to fight the urge to try to catch him knowing that it would only end up hurting them both. She watched him land and roll just like she had, but she hadn't been shot in the leg hours earlier.
When Keith finally stopped rolling, she rushed over to him and knelt beside him. "Are you alright?"
His eyes were closed but he looked fine. When he didn't immediately answer, she panicked. She started patting his face and yelling. "Keith, answer me, please!"