Chapter 15 #2
I’m aware that her timing might not be accurate.
She’s not the one who has been driving, and I don’t think she even has a watch.
The sun is low in the sky now, and dusk isn’t far away.
I hope we find the commune before dark or this shit is going to get a whole lot harder.
As soon as we find it, we’ll need to figure out a place to pitch up for the night.
“I want to talk with Felix,” I announce.
Mal nods and turns back onto the main highway.
Meeting back up with the RV, Mal pulls in behind them, and I get out. I jog up to the cab at the front, and Felix slides the window down.
“We think this is the place, which means the commune isn’t far from here. Daisy says about an hour away. I’m going to have her direct us to the outskirts of their land. Once we’re that close, we can find a place to pitch up, and two or three of us can go and recon the commune and the land.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
I head back to the car, and Mal follows Daisy’s directions.
The roads grow narrow, until they become little more than unpaved tracks. The woods around us are closing in. I’m starting to worry about how the RV will fare. I imagine the tree branches are already scraping on the roof.
I check with Daisy. “Is it much farther?”
She twists in her seat, her expression pale. “I’m sorry. I think we took a wrong turn.”
“Fuck.” I smack my fist against the side of the door.
Her eyes fill with tears. “It all looks the same.”
Ophelia jumps in, always quick to defend her. “Cut her some slack. I wouldn’t know the way either.”
I contact Felix, telling him we’re going to need to turn around. It’s easier for us to do in the truck than the RV, but they find a spot, and after a million point-turns, we retrace our route.
I’m worried it’s going to be pitch black before we find it.
We try a different route, but that also leads to a dead end.
Daisy’s confidence is fading, and, as much as I hate to admit it, I want her to regain it.
We’re relying on her too much for this to go wrong.
If we can’t find the commune, this whole thing is over before it gets started.
If Daisy is right about the Prophet’s plans, a whole heap of people are about to be manipulated into taking their own lives, and we won’t be able to do anything about it.
I signal to pull over, and Felix does the same. I twist in my seat to face the seventeen-year-old girl sitting behind me.
“Daisy, I need you to stop and take a couple of slow breaths and focus on what we’re doing.”
Her hands are trembling. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want you to be sorry. I just want you to find this place before it gets completely dark.”
“I know.” She closes her eyes and blows out a breath before opening them again. “I’m sure it’s down this road, and then we should meet a junction where we need to turn east.”
She’s been certain before, and led us literally down the wrong path, but we have no choice but to trust her.
To my surprise, we hit the junction she’d described.
“This is it,” she says, leaning forward in her seat, animated again. “The commune isn’t too much farther now.”
Ophelia also leans in. “I recognize it, too. We’re definitely on the right track. We should probably get off this road soon, though, because if we meet a vehicle coming the other way, we’re going to get noticed.”
“If we head into the woods, will we be able to access the commune from a different direction?” I ask the question of Daisy.
I don’t want us to get lost again, but we can’t just drive straight into the place.
She bites her cheek. Is she thinking of a lie, or simply stressed out as usual? It’s an annoying habit she has, but it’s also a tell. I just don’t know her well enough to understand what it means.
“Yes, there should be a smaller track coming up which will lead us into the woods, and from there we can reach the town on foot.”
I turn to Mal. “Let’s do it.”
Sure enough, we reach the track and follow it deeper into the woods.
It starts to narrow, and I worry once more about the size of the RV.
The trees offer us enough cover so we won’t be spotted from the road.
If we go much farther and discover it’s open fields up ahead, we’re going to stick out too easily.
We reach a small clearing to one side of the track where the RV will fit.
“I think this looks like a good place to pitch up.”
“Works for me,” Mal says, putting his foot on the brake.
“Rome?” I ask, but when I look behind me, he’s snoozing, his head on Ophelia’s shoulder.
I don’t wake him.
Instead, I call Felix, who is crawling along behind us. “This looks like a good place to set up, and then some of us can go and investigate the compound.”
Felix’s voice comes down the cell. “Yes, I agree. We can even drive the RV into the forest just a little ahead.”
He has the same thoughts as me, clearly.
I turn to Daisy once more. “Do you know who owns the forest?”
She shakes her head.
“It’s definitely not the commune’s land?”
“No.” It’s Ophelia that answers. “They hate these woods.”
“It’s true,” Daisy says.
“Why do they hate them?”
“They say they have bad spiritual energy,” Daisy replies.
“Right.” Fuck me. Okay, well, that at least gives us a great place to hide out.
Once the RV is situated and level, we get set up. Some of Felix’s men begin to unload tents for those of us who need them, and I talk with Mal and Rome, who has woken up.
“So, what’s the plan?” I punch my fist into my palm. “I’d like to go straight to the commune, find that fucking prophet, and put an end to him.”
Malachi purses his lips. “We can’t do that. We have no idea where he’s going to be, for one.”
“But we’ll know in the hour or so before sunrise,” Roman says. “He’ll be at the church, with the rest of the commune.”
Mal agrees. “If everyone is at the church then, no one is going to see us sneaking into town. If we try going now, or anytime soon, someone is bound to spot strangers and tell the Prophet. In the hour before sunrise, he’s going to have his hands full with preparations for the ascension.”
I press my lips into a line. “But it does mean he’ll be surrounded by his people. They’re going to massively outnumber us.”
“Maybe, but we’re armed and trained. These are just simple townspeople.”
“Don’t underestimate the Prophet,” Ophelia says nervously.
I look around. “I think we keep most of our team here. We can just have two of them drive to scope out the commune, and one of us goes, too. I think the more people staying with the girls, the better.”
“Women,” Ophelia corrects haughtily, making me smile.
“Yes, sorry, women.”
“I’ll go,” Mal says. “I’m itching to actually do something.”
“It makes sense,” I answer. “I’ll stay with Rome and the women. Felix?” I turn to him. “Can we borrow two men to check out the compound with Mal?”
“Derrick and Smith, go with Mal.” Felix points to two men.
“Okay.” Mal claps his hands. “Do we take the truck?”
“No need.” Felix drops a shit eating grin on us and whips off the green tarpaulin covering the back of the RV.
Holy shit. “They’re handy,” I say with a grin of my own.
There are three motorbikes strapped to the back of the RV. They’re dirtbikes, but they look like they’re fast, too.
“Nice.” I walk up to them. “What’s their top speed?”
“Ninety or so,” Felix says. “We could have gone with faster road versions, but the whole point of carrying these is exactly for situations like this. Using these, you don’t have to approach via the road, which I’m sure has sentry points all over, but you can go through the woods and over fields and approach the boundary that way. ”
“What should we look for?” I turn to Ophelia and Daisy.
“There’s a fenceline,” Daisy says, “with fields and barns, and beyond that a few streets and houses. The church is in the center of the commune and is the tallest building by far.”
“Cameras?” I ask.
“Not that I know of,” Ophelia replies. “They don’t like much modern technology, but whether they have them in secret, I wouldn’t know.
You have to understand that they’re an isolated community.
The commune doesn’t even have a name. There are no major roads leading to the area, as you’ve seen, so they’re not too worried about people finding them. ”
I glance over to Felix. “That’s got to be a good thing, right?”
A muscle twitches beneath Felix’s eye. “Unless they already know we’re coming.”
I can’t help my gaze flicking to Daisy. She’s the only way the Prophet would have a heads up about our arrival.
I’m tempted to ask her directly, but it’s not like she’s going to tell the truth, and it’ll only cause friction between us and Ophelia when Ophelia tries to defend her, which she will inevitably do.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to get a better idea when we scout the place.” I refocus my attention on Daisy. “So, what’s the best route to take?” I’m aware I’m trusting her not to direct us wrong.
She twists her hands nervously in front of her body.
“If you go through the woods, you’ll come up the side of the land where we grow crops, and with the sun almost being set, there isn’t likely to be anyone out that way.
If anyone does see you on dirtbikes, they’ll probably assume you’re kids who have gone too far in the wrong direction. ”
“Take two bikes, two men on one, one on the other, and you’ll look even less suspicious,” Felix says. “You’ll look like kids riding around the woods, as Daisy says.” He looks right at her and winks. “Good thinking, kid.”
She beams, and I wonder if we just need to be more accepting and friendly toward her.
“Do you have spare helmets?” Mal asks.
Felix nods, and as he goes to kit them out, I turn my attention to Ophelia. I want to hold her. Inhale her scent and feel the soft touch of her lips against mine, but I can’t do any of those things.
Instead, I satiate myself by looking at her and drinking in her beauty.
It’s not lost on me that the first night I met her, we ended up chasing her through the woods, and now here we are, in the woods once more, but hopefully this time, we are going to be helping her, not traumatizing her.
I can’t wait until we have dealt with the Prophet and our Pet is finally free.