Sneaking out of camp was one thing. Jason could think of a million reasons for that, most of them believable. Even more so since he had a girl hanging off his arm. If seen, it would seem as though they simply were a young couple intent on being alone, just as long as no one looked closely at Charlie. He had added a cap to her disguise, tucking her hair up inside it, hoping it would fool anyone looking at them.
"All right. I'm going to take you as far as I can. Hopefully your uncle will be coming soon."
"He said he'd raise hell if I wasn't back soon." Charlie answered, wearily.
"I have no doubt, so let's get you out of here before we have another battle on our hands." Jason guided her along. "I wish I had a lamp or something for you."
"I'll be fine. Found my way here, didn't I?"
"You did. Okay, this is a med kit." he slung a knapsack on her good shoulder. "Either your uncle or your mom probably can stitch up your shoulder."
"Goody. That'll be fun." she muttered, clearly thrilled at that.
"We're about twenty yards from camp. I'm going to have to leave you here. Dawn will be soon and I can't be found missing."
"You could come with me, join us again."
"I can't, Charlie. I wish I could but I can't." he gripped her hand tightly, afraid to leave her alone.
"Okay." she sounded uncertain.
"I don't like leaving you like this."
"I'll be fine."
"Yeah." Jason scoffed. "I might just kill him for this."
"Like hell. He's your dad."
"So?"
"You can't kill your dad."
"Wanna bet?" he was very angry about what had happened.
Neville pushed Charlie into a small room. "If you cooperate, everything will be fine. If you don't, well, I warned you." He stripped her of all her weapons, including the knife in her boot. "Miles' contribution, I assume? Or maybe you're learning."
Charlie said nothing.
"Oh, come on. You have to have something to say. Why are you here? Miles in the woods, watching his precious prodigy? That's the only way he'd let you do this. Don't worry, I have my men searching the woods, he'll soon join you for a nice reunion." Neville examined her boot knife. "This is a very lovely knife. Capable of serious damage, if you get close enough. Of course, you have to have a steady trained hand to get close enough." He pretended to jab her.
Out of reflex, she grabbed his wrist and twisted. The knife clattered to the floor.
He raised his eyebrows. "Well, well. The country girl has learned her lessons well." He retrieved the knife and tucked it into his belt. "Why are you here? Where is Miles? Where is your mother?"
Charlie stared stonily ahead.
"I told you this could be easy or this could be hard." he warned. This wasn't going to be as simple as he'd thought. He'd expected her to break at the first threat, after all, she wasn't a trained soldier, just a backwoods girl playing at soldier. Miles had taught his niece well, Neville had to grudgingly give him.
"You going to be okay?" Jason asked.
"Yeah."
He hesitated. "You sure?"
"I'm sure." she looked at him, glad for the darkness as she could feel the blush climbing her face. "Hey, um, thanks."
"Anytime, Charlie, anytime." he gave her a sad smile he knew she couldn't see and turned back to his father's camp.
Charlie sighed and pressed forward. She wanted to be as far away from Neville when dawn came.
"You hear that?" Miles stopped so suddenly, Rachel fell into him.
"Hear what?" she mumbled, pressed into his back.
"Shh. Listen." he hushed her. "Come over here." he pulled her behind a tree. Listening carefully, he waited a few long minutes, then made his move, reaching out for the person he'd heard.
"Who are you?" he shouted, holding the person tightly.
The person struggled and a cap fell to the ground. A tangle of blonde hair came tumbling down.
"Miles, stop!" Rachel cried. "It's Charlie!"
He spun the person around. She was fighting him like crazy. "Charlie?"
"Let me go!"
"Charlie, it's me. It's Miles and your mom, it's okay."
She stopped fighting. "Mom?"
"I'm right here." Rachel came over to her, "You okay?
"I think so." Charlie crumbled to the ground.
"Damn." Miles caught her before she hit the ground. "I'm going to kill Neville."
"Not right now. We need to get her out of here." Rachel picked up the knapsack that had fallen. "Can you carry her?"
Gingerly, he picked her up, noticing in the poor light the blood stains covering one side of the militia jacket she was wearing. "I'm going to kill him." he repeated, leaving the cap behind.
"I'll be in line to do so, but can you get my daughter to safety first?" Rachel said as they slowly began their way back the way they'd come. "Aaron will be waiting for us in about a mile."
"No, we'll need to get farther then that. Dawn's already breaking."
They walked for an hour, meeting up with Aaron along the way. His eyes had widened when he saw Charlie, unconscious in Miles' arms but a quick look from Miles had shut him up immediately and he'd fallen in step with them, walking in mostly silence.
"Okay." Miles grunted after a while. The sun was climbing the sky and heating up the day with intensity. "This is good enough, I think."
Rachel quickly laid a blanket down from her pack. "Lay her on this, it's better then the ground."
He put Charlie down on the blanket. She never stirred and that worried him. "What's in the knapsack she had?"
Aaron opened it. "A med kit, it looks like."
"Good. Hand it over." Miles reached for it.
"Also looks like some papers," Aaron rummaged through the bag. "These are military papers!"
"She did it." Miles murmured, scanning the papers. "She actually did it."