CHAPTER TWENTY
Song: All Along The Watchtower by Jimmy Hendrix
"Let's head back to the lake. You can have a bit more practice with the rifle, if you want," he said, trying to steady his voice as he spoke to Star.
"Ok," she said, holding up the sweets for him to take. As he stood there looking down at the offered items, he couldn't bring himself to take them.
"You keep them safe," he said, to which Star just nodded her head once before wrapping the towel back up and placing it into her pocket. She then began to walk back down the trail in the direction that she had fled from. He began to walk behind her, keeping the distance between them at least a couple of feet, while his mind raced.
What had he just done?
Seeing her fingers there with the white sugary substance on them, there was something inside of him telling him what it wanted him to do. And for some reason, this time he listened to the voice, at first not comprehending what the gesture would mean.
As he had moved his tongue, the realization had finally dawned on his cloudy mind. The feel of her fingers, the feel of her body touching his, her skin under his fingers. The intimacy of close contact was not something that he had been trained for. Infiltration into crowds so that he could blend in, that he understood. One on one contact. This was new to him. Right?
Somewhere in the back of his mind, there was a nagging feeling that it had felt so right to perform the action he had wanted to do to Star. When the look on her face changed as he had done so, he could not tell what she was thinking. It did not seem to frighten her, but how could it not? Star's breathing then began to speed up again, similar to how it had the other morning before she bolted. He was sure then that he had indeed spooked her, but instead, she had offered him the sweets and made a joke to ease the situation.
Thinking back on his training, he began to wonder if he needed to go back to his original assessment of needing to stay away from her as much as possible.
Maybe what he needed to was to go ahead and finish the mission.
As soon as he thought that, he found his hand sliding one of his best, sharpest knives quietly from the sheath. Star was walking steadily only a few paces in front of him. She was not even looking behind her to see if he was following, or what he was doing.
Grasping the hilt of the knife so hard that his right hand was beginning to hurt, he thought about how he could so easily eliminate her. A slice over her throat and she would bleed out in a matter of minutes. Reach around her chest with an upward motion to avoid the ribs to puncture her heart. A precise strike through the ear to the brain.
Any of these actions and he would not have to worry anymore about how she was interfering with his mission…no, with him. He could think of the motions to strike, but as he pictured her lying on the ground injured with any of these wounds, it left him with a foul feeling in his chest. It was not her fault that his training had not taught him how to deal with handling a female presence for so long.
He had already told Star earlier that she had a few more days, and that she could leave her information for the authorities. If he struck her down now, that would mean that he had lied to her. That thought also brought on another round of foul feeling. He would not do that to her. This was not the time...not yet.
When Star was about to reach the turn in the trail back towards the lake, he carefully slipped the knife back where it needed to stay. He did not want her to possibly see, with the corner of her eye, that he had taken the knife out. She would know what it meant, and for some reason, putting the knife away made his tightened chest feel much better.
"It's getting a bit darker," Star said, when they finally made it back to the lake. They had remained silent during the entire walk.
"The weather is changing. We have some time, though," he said to her as she began to clean up the remains of the lunch bags from the blanket. He really felt like he needed to do something, so figuring that shooting was the next best thing, he headed over to his own bag and pulled out a couple of pistols. He also pulled out a box of ammo for his rifle, lying it down next to the gun. "I am going to head over there," he said, pointing in a direction to the side of where they were stationed, "to practice with these. There is plenty of ammo if you want to use it. I will not be far. Do not approach where I am! Do not leave this area! If you do…"
He could not bring himself to say the actual words, but from the nod and look that he received from Star told him that she understood the implications. Picking up the two bags of weapons to take with him, it would leave Star with only the sniper rifle to use.
Giving Star the ability of getting access to the rifle was not something that he was worried about as a real concern. She may be able to take a shot at a steady target, but he would be moving, and she would never be able to make that shot, not like he could. But now, he began to wonder if she knew that he had just considered killing her, if she would try and defend herself. Any other human would, so therefore, so would she, he wagered.
Stalking out through the woods, he headed far enough away so that if Star were to call out for him that he would be able to hear her. Not that he expected her to. And right now, he really need to hit something.
Star watched as Scary began his trek through the underbrush, leaving her alone and feeling quite vulnerable. This was a different kind of alone than when he went out for his morning surveillance of the house. Being inside the house was at least a bit comforting. But being out here, listening to the sounds of the woods, her mind began to wander to all of the horror movies that she used to like watching, as well as the books she would read. It may be a bit chilly, but at least there was no fog today.
No fog meant that nobody could creep up on her. The dry leaves on the ground would make lots of noise if someone, or something, walked on them. Nobody had come to investigate the sounds of their gunfire from earlier. There were no satanic-possessed children wandering around, or town's people who wanted to burn a sacrifice alive. Even the birds were a bit scarce, probably due to flying south.
"Stop it," Star said aloud to herself. "Less Stephen King, more Rocky Horror Picture Show." With that, she began to hum the only part of the 'Time Warp Dance' song that she could remember, over and over.
Eyeing the general direction that Scary had gone, she tried to find him through the bushes, but he seemed to have walked a bit further than she had hoped he would. Slowing spinning in a circle while she stood on the blanket humming, Star checked her surroundings to make sure she was still alone. Unfortunately, yes she was.
How could this be upsetting to her? Years had gone by where there were plenty of times that she had wished for something just like this, but now that it was really happening, it frightened her. Why? It's not like Kozlov was going to get up and come for her. That thought sent a shiver down her spine. Scary was only a short distance away, more than she suddenly wanted him to be, but he was not going to leave her here.
That was when she heard the first shot. Turning her head in the direction it seemed to come from, Star focused her attention on the dark woods. Taking a step forward, her foot hit something, making her look down. The binoculars. Picking them up, Star held them to her face, adjusting them until they were in focus. Panning left to right very slowly, she finally saw movement.
Spotting Scary, who had once again placed the mask over his face, who was adjusting the gun in his hand in some way, she maintained contact with his form as he seemed to finish whatever he was doing. He was far enough away so that she was able to get a wide view of his surroundings.
Suddenly, Scary took off in a run, heading with determination at a target. He did a rolling maneuver over the ground to come up right at the base of a pine tree, about the diameter of her arm, before punching with his left arm at his chest height, making contact with the tree. Star could not believe that as his fist hit, it continued to move through the tree.
With her mouth dropped open in shock, she watched as the tree began to topple over after being split into two, as if he had just snapped a pencil. It was a couple of seconds later before the sound of the event finally cleared the distance between them to reach her ears. She had never heard a sound like it before.
While she had been watching the tree fall, Scary had continued on with his assault on the forest. Turning the binoculars to find him again, Star watched as he pulled a weapon from off of his upper back and began to fire as he ran through a close grouping of trees, avoiding them as insignificant obstacles. The shots that she witnessed eventually met her ears as he continued on. After emptying three guns, digging two knives up to their hilt into helpless trees, and a very impressive leap over a boulder, Scary seemed to have worked some of the energy he had out of his system.
When he began to pull the knives out of the trees using his left hand, Star knew that she had seen enough. She had never doubted his skills, but after seeing what he was capable of, compared to what he had done at the house to Kozlov and his men, taking them out seemed almost like child's play.
Dropping the binoculars down onto the blanket, Star sat down behind the rifle and released the empty magazine. She let her mind wander over the sight that she had just seen as she began to reload so that she could take a couple of more shots. Not paying attention, she did not notice the snake that was making its way across the blanket towards her body heat until it was only a few feet away.
From the corner of her eye, the slithering movement registered in her brain. Looking over, she saw the approaching creature. Inhaling heavily, Star then bit down on her tongue hard to stop herself from screaming out. Moving from a cross-legged sitting position to standing only took her terrified body a second. From there, she took a step back from where the snake was now getting closer to her. Tears began to fill her eyes as she fixed her eyes on it.
Another step back then Star was finally able to brake eye contact long enough to look around at the trees she was now surrounded by. To her right was some kind of tree that had lower branches that looked sturdy enough to support her, and even if they weren't, it did not matter right now.
Jumping up so that she could reach the lowest branch, Star swung her leg up and over the branch, pulling her body up onto a sitting position. She had not done anything like this since she had been on the playground years ago, she thought. Who knew that playing on the monkey bars would be useful?
Glancing down at the ground, she watched as the snake, about three feet long, black with a stripe, made its way to the rifle and began to touch its head to the item, its tongue quickly swiping at it. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she hated that seeing a single snake could do this to her.
"Eww," Star groaned as a disgusted shake moved over her entire body as the snake then began to slink over the handle. There was no way she was touching that gun again, ever! The snake then proceeded to slither over the top of the weapon, balancing itself as it moved down the barrel, which was when she made the decision to never leave the house again. She didn't care what Scary threatened to do to her, there was no way she was setting foot in these woods again!
Star watched as the snake made its way over the weapon, down to the ground, before turning back and sliding itself underneath the warm blanket. When she did not see it emerge from another corner, she knew that the tree was going to be her new home for quite a while.
Over the next half hour while listening to gunfire and trees cracking, she made herself comfortable by leaning back on the trunk and throwing her left leg over another close limb to help steady her body from falling. Overall, she decided, if it wasn't for the cold wind that swept through the area every once in a while, her new home would not be that bad. She knew that if she were to call out for Scary that he would come, but she also could tell that after the incident earlier, he needed to work some stuff out. And the poor trees were taking the blunt force trauma.
Listening to the leaves rustling together in the wind, Star found the sound soothing enough that she eventually closed her eyes. She was not sure how long had passed before she was startled from her reverie.
"Star!" Scary yelled out, his tone leaving no doubt that it was demanding an answer.
It was the suddenness of the sound that shook her from her half slumber, making her cry out as she tried to hold herself steady, grabbing the limb to prevent herself from falling face first to the ground. The panicked sound that left her gave away her position to him. As she looked down, Scary turned his head to look up at her. He then began to move towards her, coming into close contact with the blanket as he spoke, "What are you doing up there?"
"Stop! There is a snake under the blanket!" she exclaimed, pointing at the object as if he didn't know where it was located. He did stop but only once he got close enough so that he could pick up the corner of the blanket, pulling it away from the ground so that it covered where the rifle and ammo sat on it.
"Don't get near it!" Star's voice was shaky, and she gripping the tree so tight her hands hurt.
Sure enough, the snake had curled into a small coil in the dead center of the blanket's area, trying to stay warm. But now that his new resting spot had been disturbed, it began to move away from the exposed cold chill it was now receiving to find a new spot.
He took a moment to stare at the creature that was petrifying Star before turning his sights back at her, hovering in the tree with fear dripping off her voice like he had never heard from her. This was not a small fear like some people had, this was a type of pure terror.
"It's just a harmless rat snake," he informed her, calmly picking up a broken limb from the ground and using it to shoo the creature away from their area, further into the woods where he had just come from.
"A snake is a snake, don't care if it's poisonous or not!" Star firmly stated, not moving from the tree. If anything, she was now gripping it tighter since the creature had been exposed.
"Venomous, not poisonous," he stated at her wrong comment.
"What?" Star asked bewildered at his words, slightly moving her head to the side so that she could watch and make sure that the snake was moving further away.
"Snakes are venomous because they inject toxins with their fangs. Poisonous items must be digested," he said, walking behind the snake continuing to move it further away from Star.
"Wellll, excuuuuse me, Professor Scary," Star said drawing out the first two words in a strange, very patronizing tone before slumping back down into the same comfortable position she had been in before he had shown back up.
After forcing the snake a good distance away, he made his way back, watching Star sitting in the tree with her arms folded over her chest like she was angry. He had only stated the truth, so why was she mad? Then it came to him what was probably going on.
"Tell me," he demanded, coming to a stop on the ground next to her.
He found it funny that she was not really that high up. Reaching up he could easily touch her leg, but with the surrounding trees, she had been hidden behind the foliage from where he had been standing when he had come back. That was why he had suspected that Star had made a run for it when he had returned. He knew that it was not going to be a pleasant story, so he took a seat on the ground, leaning back on Star's tree. Glancing up, he could easily watch her.
"Everyone has at least one fear, or so I've heard, but when Kozlov discovered my fear of snakes, he found the worst way to use it against me," her words stopped, hesitating from the memory. He heard her take a couple of breaths before she could continue.
"He took me to a warehouse where he conducted a lot of business. It had large, wooden crates that were used to ship stuff everywhere. Kozlov had his guys find one that was about my size and cut a couple of holes on the top panel. He then had put me inside, lying down, before nailing the box shut. At that time, I didn't know what was going on. I thought it was just another one of his 'things' he liked to do. But after a few minutes, I saw the first snake coming through a hole. I can still remember the sound of his laughter from my screams and crying. And begging. Begging with him to let me out...which only made him put more snakes inside the box. When he eventually let me out, hours had passed. I had screamed so much that I lost my voice for the next few days and my fingers were bloody and covered in splinters from trying to scratch my way out."
He knew that his own face had paled while listening to Star talk about what had happened to her. Every time she told him something about Kozlov's cruelty, it made the previous story seem tame. That was what had happened to her fingertips, to remove any viable prints to confirm her identity. She had done it to herself, clawing uselessly at the box. How was this girl still able to be joking and teasing him all the time? He knew grown men that would have lost it long before this.
He also knew that, as of now, this field trip, as Star had called the outings, was over. Standing up he began to breakdown their spot, rolling the blanket and tarp up, putting them into the bags. Loading all loose ammo, magazines and shell casings, as well as Star's metal bar, he made sure there was nothing left on the ground to indicate they had been there.
Picking up the rifle, he reattached the carry strap that had been removed earlier so they could fire it, then leaning it up against Star's tree. Looking over the area one last time and satisfied with its cleanliness of evidence, he stepped over to stand right next to where Star was watching him.
"Come on down," he demanded so that she knew he was serious, and that it was not just a suggestion. Star began to move, but as she was about to drop to the ground, she held hanging to the branch and searched the terrain. She was making sure no other snakes were around. When her feet finally touched the earth, he picked up the rifle. "Lift your left arm."
Star did so and he then looped the weapon around her so that it then rested across her back. Then he turned around so his back was to her, crouched down a bit and gave another command, "Get on."
Star did not hesitate if she thought it was a strange thing for him to do. Her fear of snakes overrode anything else that could possibly bother her right now. Her thin legs quickly wrapped around his waist to hold her in place while her arms went over his shoulders, but she held on towards his chest, not around his neck. When he was sure that she was settled, he pickup up the bags and began to walk them back to the house.
Author's note: The "Well, excuse me," is as spoken by Steve Martin. If you are not familiar, look it up and then consider using that tone on Scary.