Chapter 12
So we waited. It's all we could do at that point. I can't speak for the rest of the group but sitting in that little house hiding from the rest of the world for like over a week was driving me crazy. I tried not to think of the war but it's like when someone says 'cat' and then tells you not to think of a cat- it's like totally impossible.
It's weird, the only thing that kept me sane was the routine, not that it was much of one; every morning around six, just as the sun was starting to come up I would take over sentry duty from Trent and stay there for a couple of hours until Daria would take over, then when everyone had had a turn we'd start again. I hadn't told the others but there were a couple of times that I had found Trent asleep on the job. The first time I just let him sleep, it was the day after the raid and he had been awake for almost two days. The second time I got mad. Like really mad. I remember using curse words that I thought I'd never use and some I'm pretty sure I just made up especially for him. He was so stunned that he nodded and left promising that it would never happen again. I wanted to believe him.
It had been two days since Sam said he'd be back and we were starting to get nervous. Over the past couple of days traffic in the area had begun to get busy; jets and helicopters were flying overhead and the trucks on the ground were getting more regular. I guess the people in charge were starting to get their shit sorted and we were afraid it was only a matter of time before we were found. We decided to pack our things in the Tank and leave.
It was just before dawn on the day we were going home and I was on my way to take over from Trent so he could get the last of the things together when I heard a rustling in the trees and moments later a twig snap.
Quinn's breath caught in her throat as she hit the ground, trying desperately to hide in the sparse undergrowth of the front garden of their hideout. She prayed that the noise had been made by something as harmless as the wind, or a feral cat or even a bear just as long as it wasn't a soldier who would have her staring down the wrong end of a gun. She cursed Trent there was no doubt in her mind that he had fallen asleep.
'Great,' she thought, 'I'm going to die because that bastard couldn't keep his damned eyes open for longer than five seconds.'
Moments passed and she heard more rustling. She turned her head toward the noise and saw a large dark shadow emerge from the tree line and creep across the yard a few feet in front of her. It was then that she thanked Trent's stubbornness in assuring that one gun remain with the sentry and the other be ferried back and forward with the approaching and retiring guard. Quinn clutched the shotgun with clammy hands. She had never actually used a rifle before but the boys had shown everyone how to fire and load them. With a ragged breath she held it up and made sure the butt of the rifle was firmly pressed into the hollow of her shoulder so if or when she fired it the recoil action wouldn't cause the gun to fly back and shatter the bones in her shoulder.
Quinn released the safety and lined the figure up. She meant to say 'Stop or I'll shoot' in a firm voice, however it came out as one long word and a few octaves higher than she wished to be. She was thankful however that the figure froze and two silhouetted hands were raised above the figures head.
"Who are you?" she asked, her voice had at least returned to its normal pitch.
"It's me," the figure hissed.
Quinn's brow furrowed, "Me who?"
"Sam." He replied.
Quinn breathed a sigh of relief and cautiously came out of hiding; her gun however remained aimed at her target. "Where have you been? You said you'd be back two days ago."
"I… got caught up," he replied uneasily.
"We're leaving you know," she said.
"I figured, listen I bought some supplies that will help you. Can you help me get them to your hideout?" he asked as he pointed to the ground.
Two large duffle bags were at his feet, Quinn groaned they looked heavy. "Can't you wait? I'm on my way to get Trent- he's supposed to be on look out." She said, her last words spoken in a bitter tone.
"I thought you were on sentry duty," Sam asked surprised. "You might want to think about giving Trent a different duty."
"Tell me about it, this will be the third time he's fallen asleep on the job."
Sam let out a low whistle and after a moment's pause he turned to Quinn, "So can you give me a hand? I have to be quick," he looked at Quinn, in the silver light of the dying moon Quinn could see the alarm on his face. "Please?"
Quinn huffed, "Fine, my nails are already chipped lets aim for broken as well." She said as she picked up one of the bags.
Sam began to laugh until the glare on Quinn's face made him realize she wanted joking. He shook his head and looked at her, "Honey, if you think that cracked and broken nails are your biggest problem at the moment, you're in for a huge surprise."
Once they had gotten the packs back to the house Quinn went to wake Trent up they decided to take the risk of having no sentry on duty while Sam showed them what he had brought. Once they had arrived back at the house, after an ear-bashing from Jane, Sam began to show them what he had brought them.
He picked up the bag that Quinn had been carrying and unzipped it. He explained that he had managed to smuggle another two guns, ammunition, a few grenades, a set of walkie-talkies and a satellite phone to contact him if they got into too much trouble. He also gave them all a new watch and a military issue 'Zippo' lighter. After Sam had replaced the items in the first bag he turned to the group with a grin.
"And what's in this bag," he said as he opened it, "should make your trip a little more exciting." He flashed another grin as he held up one off-white block of what appeared to be modeling clay.
Jane's brow furrowed, "That's not clay is it?" she asked.
Sam laughed. "No. This isn't clay; this is a plastic explosive. C4."
The reaction from the rest of the group was mixed, Trent and Jesse exchanged looks of awe while Jane, Daria and Quinn looked less than impressed.
"I don't know about carrying bombs around in our packs. It doesn't sound too safe, what if we fall or drop it?" Quinn said.
"Well you see the thing is that-" Sam began as he held up the white block and waved it.
Suddenly he lost his grip and the block of C4 began to drop to the ground. He tried to catch it once, twice, three times but it slipped each and every time.
Sam suddenly leapt back, "Jesus Christ! Look out!" he yelled.
The group split up and ran in different directions. Daria and Quinn ran out the front door and Jane, Trent and Jess out the back. After moments of nothing Daria frowned as she heard the last sound she expected to hear. Laughter.
Slowly the Morgendorffer girls returned to the house. They entered the living room the same time as the Lane siblings and Jesse returned. They all shot Sam looks of anger and mild embarrassment. None of the looks seemed to worry Sam. He didn't apologize he just wiped the tears from his eyes and picked the plastic explosive. Then, he proceeded to scare the group again by bashing the block with his fist. "Does that answer your question?" he asked with a smirk.
Quinn crossed her arms and took a seat, "You could have just told me you know. I would have believed you." she pouted.
Sam shrugged, "Nothing like seeing it with your own eyes. It gets hot quickly is all."
"So what does make it go off?" Daria asked.
Sam put the explosive down and pulled a roll of fuse wire out of the bag and a box of plain detonator caps and held them up.
For the next hour Sam gave us an intensive course in guerilla fighting. It wasn't just abot the technical stuff about how to use plastic explosives and grenades and stuff. It was more general, like tactics and camouflage, and overall cunning. He went on and on about something called the Pimlott Principles. Apparently the only problem with the Pimlott Principles was that the guy who invented them had been killed by a hand grenade he was playing around with in his own home, in 1997.
I wish Sam hadn't told us that.
Anyway, he said that Pimlott Principles are that like, first you achieve surprise, then you build momentum or whatever to keep the enemy off-balance, and you always go for objectives that can be achieved.
Listening to him talk made me nervous. We weren't guerrilla terrorists or whatever, we were a bunch of kids barely out of high school. I was still a senior for crying out loud! How the hell did he expect us to pull this off and live? Maybe he didn't think we'd live through it, maybe he expected us to die.
Sam looked at the group, "Of course you can choose not to do any of this, but I'm hoping you will. We need to attack the enemy and hit them where it hurts,"
"But how will we know who the enemy is?" Daria asked. "It's a civil war. It's Americans versus Americans."
"It's hard to distinguish enemies from allies when you come across roaming patrols, but the enemy is starting to establish itself across the eastern coast, which makes your job easy since any established group between here and Lawndale will be enemy. I have heard talk that Canada has provided refuge for fleeing American civilians and there are rumors that they have provided some military aid. So Canadians are friends, in most cases,"
"This is just getting bigger and bigger. It's not going to be like a little fight, this is going to go on for a while, isn't it?" Quinn said in a small voice.
Sam nodded and looked around the group, "Which is why you need to find a side to fight on because if you don't, you will end up captured or dead." He paused then stood. "I have to flee the area. I went through a lot of trouble to get those supplies and I'm kind of a big target at the moment. You should hide the bags really well until you set off later tonight. Hopefully I can get across the border without too much trouble and meet up with an allied unit. I plan on staying around the area though. Remember that sat phone is dialed in to reach mine but the range isn't huge so only use it when you're in trouble, if I'm around I'll get the call." Sam nodded and left the house and seemed to take all the noise in the world with him.
The silence in the living room was overwhelming. The group sat stunned as they tried to digest everything they had just been given and told.
"So, what do we do?" Jane asked.
"We should do it." Trent said. "It's what Max and Nick would have wanted. We'll leave tonight and head for Lawndale; it should take us maybe two days since we have to travel only at night. We can't risk being caught now. I don't think they'll believe we're an innocent group trying to get home when they see that we're armed to the teeth."
The rest of the group nodded mutely and they once again had to wait until they could make their move. They were going home.