Chapter 13
The drive home was long and the conversation was kept to a minimum. Even if we wanted to, there wasn't much we could talk about. There was an unspoken agreement that we wouldn't say anything about our families or friends or what we would find once we arrived home. The only 'safe' topic was what we were going to do with the explosives. Trent and Jesse seemed to have most of the ideas seeing as they were the only two who actually wanted to use it. Daria, Jane and I kept mostly to ourselves and let the boys dream up ways to blast the 'enemy' to kingdom come. We didn't think we'd have a chance to use it... We were wrong.
We had been driving only at night and had mostly kept to the back roads to avoid being seen, the risks of us getting caught now were far greater than they had been a week ago. As we got closer to home, the traffic on the roads got heavier. The longer this war lasted, the more organized the enemy got. During the day we saw more troop carriers taking soldiers across the state and if we were caught now, armed to the teeth with an assortment of weapons and a basic knowledge of how to actually use them, we would have been shot dead on the spot seeing as how we were now practically soldiers ourselves. It was dangerously close to dawn on our second night of driving when Trent pulled the Tank off the road and into the bushes. We were only a few hours from Lawndale but with the light of the sun came the dangers of daytime. So we hid the van, set up camp and tried to get some sleep.
I wish I could have slept that morning. I wish I hadn't gone for a walk. I wish I hadn't found that gas station. But most of all, I wish I hadn't told the others about it.
"That's perfect," Trent said after a moment's silence.
Quinn looked at him, mouth agape, "That's not what... I mean... I didn't tell you about it so we could blow it up!" she cried. "It was so we could find another place to hide for the day, away from the enemy."
"Quinn, think about it, it's an ideal target," Jesse said with an enthusiastic grin plastered across his face. "The whole way home we've been trying to come up with ways to cause damage to the other side,"
"We?" Daria scoffed, "I don't remember saying that we should risk life and limb by blowing shit up!" she said defensively as she drew her arms across her chest and set a level gaze upon the two guys.
"But Sam gave us the C4 for a reason. Why would he have done that if we weren't going to use it?" Trent asked.
"Because he is fucking retarded," Daria shot back, "What idiot in their right mind would give a pile of plastic explosives and weapons to a couple of slacker musicians and their teenage entourage?"
"Someone that needs help fighting the enemy," Jesse replied sagely.
"We have to do this Daria, we… I need to do this. After what they did to…" Trent's voice trailed off as he looked mournfully at the ground. They all knew who Trent was referring to.
Jane turned to Daria and Quinn, "It can't hurt to check it out, you know see if blowing it up is even an option?" she said weakly, a tight smile ghosted her lips.
Daria's brow furrowed as she thought. After a few moments she turned to Quinn, "Which way was it?"
Me and my big fat stupid mouth… I wish I could go back and tell myself not to mention the roadhouse to the rest of the group. Unfortunately I can't and that is why we found ourselves crouched in the bushes staring out at a huge truck stop that was planted on the main highway. We spent most of the day there, watching a stream of trucks going in and out and trying to find ways to attack. Daria had realized that as it got later and the sun began to lose its heat, the troop carriers began to stop longer. The soldiers seemed to be less alert, less jumpy and they spent more time inside the diner.
As night fell we decided to stay, I should have known right then that there was no backing out. I knew the boys had something planned and I now had no choice but to agree with it. I had the feeling that both Daria and Jane were starting to agree with the boys, I could tell by the way their eyes lit up when Trent and Jesse would come up with different ways to attack. I couldn't take it, listening to them signing our lives away. I chose to take first look out duty and left them to their plotting.
Daria turned and watched Quinn leave with a slightly worried expression adorning her face.
"She'll calm down and eventually see that this needs to be done," Trent said in a soothing tone.
"Does it really?" Daria said absently, her eyes still set on Quinn's retreating form. "This is really risky. There are so many things that could go wrong,"
"Daria you're smart enough to realize that everything we do from now on will be risky whether we blow stuff up or not. At least this way we're making a difference," Jane said as she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.
Daria sighed and turned back to the group, "So how are we going to do this?"
Trent turned to the group, a malevolent smile on his face, "Well, I was thinking that we do something like the hotel attack, but bigger,"
Jane's brow furrowed, "We're not going to do much damage by cramming a few blocks of C4 into the tucks gas tanks,"
"Not the trucks gas tanks," Daria said as she looked at Trent, "The station's underground tanks,"
Trent nodded, "If we put a couple of blocks down there and light the fuse, we'd wipe the whole place out as well as anyone that was inside."
"We need to do something about the power though," Daria said and was met with looks of confusion. She sighed, "The whole place is lit up like a Christmas tree at night, there's no way we can do this if we don't turn the power off,"
"Oh… right…" Trent responded.
Daria looked around the group; it was obvious she would have to be the brains behind the operation, "Look, I think we should split up into three groups. One of us will have to tamper with the transformer and knock out the power. We'll have to work quickly, as soon as the power is off we drop the bombs into the fuel tanks. By the looks of it there are two major underground tanks, one looked like it was being filled up today and I'm guessing the other would be as well. Two of us take the one around the back of the station; it will be easier to get to because its hidden and not many trucks or soldiers have gone near it. The other one will be harder; it's around the front and within viewing distance of the diner, hopefully the blackout will take care of that problem." Daria shook her head, she couldn't believe what she was planning it was something that would have happened in her Melody stories, not her real life. She looked at the group, "Any questions?"
The group shook their heads mutely and Daria continued, "Right," she said with a little hesitation, "Who does what job?"
Jesse was the first to speak, "I know a thing or two about transformers, my Dad is an electrician."
Daria nodded, she had wanted to do that herself, not that she knew much about electronics or power supplies; it was the easiest and safest job. "Okay, that just leaves—"
"I'll do the front tank," Trent stated.
"Me too," Jane piped up.
Trent shook his head, "No I don't want you to—"
"Trent, there's no one else, besides I'm a faster runner than Daria and Quinn," She reasoned, Trent gave Jane stern look then sighed; there was no arguing with her logic.
"Well then it's planned. We should do it tomorrow night after it gets dark. We can make the fuses and iron out all the details during the day." Daria said. She felt like she was signing her life away. But she knew Jane was right, no matter what they did now, they were all putting their lives at risk.
You never forget the first time you take another human life.
Sure I knew that if our plan worked we'd be taking the lives of a whole lot of soldiers, if not our own, but this was different. This was me, one loaded rifle and an enemy soldier. I watched in horror as he emerged from the shadows, ninja-like in his movements as he slowly crept toward his target; Daria. She was crouched down, lowering the explosive into the underground reserve fuel tanks. Daria had chosen to place and light the bomb; her job however had proved to be harder than we first thought. The cap on the fuel tank had been hard to get off and we wasted much needed timeprying it open. The plan was to lower the bomb into the ground and replace the cap, leaving enough of the fuse dangling out for us to get as far away as possible before it exploded. My job was to make sure no one stopped her. I had hoped that no one would stop her and that I wouldn't have to protect her from anything.
It's not like the movies where everything moves in slow motion and you swear enough time passes for the other person to do a hula dance before the bullet hits them. No, it happens almost immediately. There's no time to think, no time to change your mind the moment my finger squeezed that damned trigger I had sealed the soldier's fate.
Quinn lowered the gun shakily and stared at the fallen soldier who was choking on bloodied breaths. A scream sounded out into the night, although Quinn was unsure if it was hers, the soldier's or Daria's. Quinn wanted to take a moment to let the reality of the situation sink in, but it was a moment they didn't have. Enough time had already passed since Jesse cut the power for some of the soldiers to wander outside, the gunshot would have alerted them to their whereabouts and the area would be crawling with them in seconds.
Without a second thought Quinn screamed to Daria, "Light the damned fuse and run!" Daria stared wide eyed at Quinn, "Dammit Daria, NOW!" she ordered and was thankful that Daria pulled herself from her reverie and lit the fuse.
The two Morgendorffer girls had gotten a few hundred feet or so before the blackened sky was ablaze with white hot light and they heard an ear rupturing, thunderous boom as an enormous shockwave rippled through the earth's crust. Quinn winced in pain as she felt the gravel scrap the exposed skin of her body as she was thrown to the ground.
With a labored grunt Quinn pulled herself up and began running again, but was knocked down once more by another explosion. She struggled up on all fours and chanced a look at the chaos behind them. The dying remnants of a brilliant orange fireball lapped at the night sky sending out a halo of light around it. The roadhouse below was indistinguishable in the sea of fire that engulfed it. Quinn grimaced as the strong fumy aroma of the blast hit her. The overall affect was intoxicating; no matter how hard she tried she couldn't tear her eyes away from the beautiful bedlam they had created.
Quinn felt a rough tug on her shoulder and turned to see Daria who motioned for her to run. She saw her sister's mouth move, but the only sound Quinn could hear was a high pitched ring. It didn't matter though she knew where they were headed, along with their plans of destruction they had arranged a meet-up point, close to where they had originally set up camp the day prior.
"What if I screwed up? What if by shooting that soldier I got Trent, Jane and Jesse killed?" Quinn sobbed, "If only I hadn't—"
"If you hadn't of shot that man, I'd be dead. Besides, we had an agreement that if we heard gunfire before the agreed time, we'd light the fuse there and then and get the hell out of there," Daria looked up and watched Quinn pace the small clearing in front of the Tank, "Besides, there were two explosions." Daria said.
"Yeah but what if it was just like a truck explosion from our bomb or like one of those after-thingies?"
"Aftershock?" Daria had thought the same thing, the second blast hadn't been as big as the first but she figured it was because the other tanks weren't as full as the one Daria and Quinn had been assigned. "I'm sure they're okay, it's only been half an hour. Knowing Jane she's probably trying to capture the hellish scene in her art book," Daria chuckled nervously.
Quinn stopped pacing and raised an eyebrow at Daria, "Yeah she does love her destruction…" she said quietly.
"Look, we should—" Daria was cut off by a twig snapping followed by a crunch of gravel.
The two girls spun around and aimed their rifles at the source of the noise. Moments later Jane emerged from the trees, wide eyed and breathless.
"Jane!" Daria and Quinn both cried in relief.
"Where are the boys?" Daria asked as she lowered her weapon.
"Jesse… He was hurt...badly," she puffed as she made her way to the Tank and retrieved a bottle of water. She drank a few hungry mouthfuls and wiped the back of her hand across her ash smeared face before continuing. "They're about a mile or two down the road," she explained, "We have to pick them up, Jesse can't walk and Trent injured as well, he can't carry Jess anymore." She said as she got in the driver's side and started the engine, Daria quickly jumped into the passenger seat.
Quinn stood still and looked at them with fear in her eyes, "It's going to be light soon, we can't drive in the daytime."
"It doesn't matter, after what we just did, we can't stay here," Daria said. "Now get in the damned car."
Quinn did as she was told and they silently drove to rescue the boys.