Chapter 18
The short end of each potato cellar ended in a wooden side, the aged planks painted pale blue and fitted with a double barn door.
The cellar doors the man had gone through were directly in front of the car with the headlights shining, and the sides and top of the cellar were covered with several feet of earth, making it impossible for Austin to get close without being detected.
But he needed to find a way, because a woman was screaming from inside the cellar.
He was perched behind the man’s car, gun drawn, weighing his options.
Every muscle in his body wanted to burst forth and propel him forward into that space, knowing someone was experiencing a terrible situation.
But the tactical reality was he had no idea of knowing what awaited him on the other side.
“Austin.”
He turned to find Cassidy walking toward him through the snow. Her voice was raspy and she sounded like she’d been crying. He stood. “Be quiet. There’s someone in there.”
The woman screamed again, a plaintive sound like an injured animal.
“Julianne!” Cassidy whispered. “We have to help her. It’s Thomas. I think he’s raping her. Lucas was in the truck—”
“What?”
“He stowed away in the back when we first came out here. Julianne is alive. He couldn’t kill her like David asked him to, but Thomas found out and he’s been hurting her. We have to help her.” She moved toward the building but Austin hauled her back.
“Where is Lucas now?”
“Dead. He shot himself in the truck.”
Her eyes were wide like saucers, her reaction oddly mechanical. She was in shock.
“If we go in there, we’ll have to kill him,” he said.
“Let me do it.” She reached for his gun.
“Wait, Cassidy.”
“I’m tired of waiting. Don’t you hear her screaming? He’s hurting her, Austin. We have to do something.”
He nodded. “Agreed, but we have to make sure he doesn’t have the upper hand.
He could use her as a shield if we’re not careful.
” He pulled a knife from a pocket in his pants, handing it to her.
“I have a smoke grenade, but it will blind us just as effectively as it will him. Not going to use that unless I have to.”
“Let me help.”
He assessed her coolly. “Combat is different than anything you’ve experienced. Take the knife and go to the car. Keep yourself out of harm’s way.”
“But what if you need me?”
“Go, Cassidy.” A light in the distance behind her caught his eye. Another set of headlights. “Fuck.” He gestured to the approaching vehicle. “If Lucas is dead and Thomas is in the cellar…”
“That’s David.”
“Don’t go to the car. Hide in the next potato cellar. We have to do this, now.”
She nodded and jogged away. Austin pulled his night vision goggles back into place and approached the double doors, the peaceful snowfall contrasting with the violence he heard within.
He slid one of the doors open, light flooding the space from the headlights outside. There was a naked woman on an angled conveyer belt, a man on top of her, turning to stare at Austin.
“Get off her,” he said.
“Get out of here, Lucas, you simpleton. I’m just having some fun.”
Austin fired a shot into the cellar, deliberately missing them. Thomas hopped up, holding up his hands until his pants fell completely down, showing his limp erection. He grabbed the pants with one hand, the other still raised.
“Lucas is dead,” said Austin. “He killed himself because of his part in what you’re doing here.”
“You’re the man who brought Sister Cassidy back to The Community.”
“I’m the man who’s taking Julianne back home. Step away from her.”
“I’m unarmed. Don’t shoot.” Thomas moved over and Julianne came down from the conveyor belt, stumbling when her feet hit the ground. Austin moved instinctually to catch her, his gun shifting as he did.
Pain sliced through Austin’s hand and thigh and he dropped his weapon, dots on his goggles that could only be blood. He looked down to see a throwing star sticking out of his quadriceps—three blades out, two blades in. It had gone through part of his hand on its way to his leg.
He’d underestimated Thomas, assuming the half-naked man was unarmed and allowing his attention to be distracted by the limping Julianne. He must have grabbed the star from a pocket when he pulled up his pants.
Austin bent down and reached for his weapon, the motion of his thigh muscle further deepening the wound, and he lost his balance. Thomas moved to run by him out the cellar doors.
A warrior’s cry sounded behind him as Cassidy took Thomas down with a karate kick and a fierce jab to his eyes. He fell to the ground just as Austin yanked the throwing star from his leg and picked up his weapon. He turned back to Thomas, not believing what he saw.
Blood spurted from Thomas’s throat, the knife Austin had given her clenched tightly in her hand. He had already been incapacitated, but Cassidy decided Thomas needed to die. Her eyes met Julianne’s across the room. “He’ll never hurt you again.”
Julianne cried quietly. “Thank you.”
Austin looked outside. The car he’d seen from a great distance was now just moments away. “Come,” he barked. “We’ll take Thomas’s car and leave The Community.”
Cassidy moved to his side. “He’s too close.”
“I can get away from him. Get in the car.”
“We’ll never make it. I’m staying here.”
“What?”
“David won’t hurt me. You come back for me when you can. I’ll keep him from chasing you out of the compound.”
She still had that eerie demeanor, made worse now by the blood on her hands and shirt.
“You’re in shock. You don’t know what you’re saying. Get in the damn car, Cassidy.”
Julianne walked between them and got in the vehicle.
Cassidy backed away from Austin, her top now glowing in David’s approaching headlights. “I love you,” she said.
He took two steps toward her, pain shooting up his leg from the motion. “I’m not leaving you here.”
“Look at her,” she whispered. “She needs your help. You can drive fast with your night vision. You can get away. It’s me he wants, baby.” She moved to touch her face, but stopped herself. “I can make this okay.” She backed father away from him, the lights now even more intense.
“No!”
“Goodbye, Austin.” She turned toward the car, waving her arms.
Time stood still. She was out of his reach, refusing the shelter of his protection. He could grab her. Pick her up. Throw her in the car.
And David would follow.
He turned abruptly and got in the car, lowering his goggles and speeding off before David arrived. He stared at his rearview mirror, watching as her silhouette was absorbed into the light like a moth burning up in a flame.