The cabin had only one room. An iron bed stood against the far wall, with a table and two chairs near the center. A cold wood stove stood against the back wall, with an old kettle resting on top. Open shelves occupied the back wall. A curtain covered a shallow alcove. Dust covered the floor and furniture. No one had used the cabin recently.
“Charming,” Gladice said.
She stayed near the door with Louis’s pistol pointed toward the floor. Angelique checked whether the curtains covered both windows. Jennifer stood beside the table with the valise held against her chest.
“There’s an outhouse,” Louis said. “Back left. If anyone needs it.”
Jennifer turned toward him. “Outside?”
“Yes.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded. Louis lowered himself onto one of the chairs. His knee had begun to throb.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” Gladice said without looking at him.
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Good.” She opened one of the shelves and found three cans with faded labels. She put them down at the counter. The labels read beans, tomatoes, and Spam.
Angelique crouched near the stove. “There’s a generator,” she said.
Louis looked over. A small generator stood under the table with its hose coiled beside it. Angelique unscrewed the fuel cap and rocked the tank.
“Fuel,” she said. “Not much, but enough for a few hours. If we need it.”
Gladice glanced over. “We’re not using it.”
“No. But it is good to know we have it.”
Jennifer looked from one to the other. “Why not? It would give us light.”
“Light is visible,” Louis said. “We are trying not to be.”
Jennifer lowered her eyes. “Okay.”
Angelique pulled a folded piece of heavy material from beside the generator. Dust came off it when she lifted it.
“Canvas,” she said.
Gladice helped her spread it across the floor. It was an oil-stained weather tarp patched in two places.
Louis looked toward the door. “The car,” he said.
Gladice was already nodding. “Yes.”
Jennifer looked toward the door. “You mean now?”
“Yes,” said Angelique. “Now.”
They went back outside. Gladice handed the pistol to Louis and walked toward the car. Angelique and Jennifer carried the tarp after her. Louis stopped in the doorway and leaned on his cane, holding the pistol low at his side while he watched them.
“Check the trunk first,” Louis said, pressing the trunk button on the key fob.
The trunk unlocked and lifted a few inches. Gladice pulled it open.
“Well well well. Look what we found.”
“What?” Angelique asked.
Louis moved beside Gladice and looked inside. A fishing rod lay across the trunk. Beneath it were a scoped hunting rifle, a box of rifle ammunition, a backpack, and a camouflage hunting cap. Gladice took out the cap, put it on, and grinned. “Someone was prepared.”
Angelique took the rifle from her. “How many rounds?”
“Box is full.” Gladice held the box toward her. “Twenty .308 rounds.”
“Good.” Angelique checked the bolt, worked it once, and nodded.
“Those are Mr. Wells’s!” Jennifer looked at Gladice.
“I’d say finders keepers.” Gladice winked. “They’re ours now, Jenny.”
“That’s stealing,” she protested.
“We’ve already stolen a car.” Gladice rolled her eyes. “We’re gonna keep them.”
Jennifer looked away. Louis kept his eyes on the trees beyond the car. “Load the gun. Put the rest in the bag.”
Gladice took the rifle, loaded it, and put the remaining ammunition in the backpack. She slung the pack over one shoulder and left the fishing rod in the trunk.
“Okay,” she said. “Now let’s cover this thing.”
She got inside, started the car again and backed it a few yards toward the trees. The ruined right front tire dragged over the dirt, and that side of the car stayed low. Gladice turned the wheel carefully and stopped with the Cadillac under the pines, close to a wall of brush. Angelique and Jennifer pulled the tarp over the roof. It caught on the antenna and slipped toward one side. They pulled it free and spread it again. Gladice came around from the driver’s side and helped them pull the tarp down over the windows and both ends of the car.
From the doorway, Louis could no longer see the government plates or the shine of the windows. The tarp and the low branches made the Cadillac harder to recognize from the track.
Angelique tucked one edge beneath the left rear tire. Gladice held the back corner down with a split log from the woodpile.
“It’ll do,” Gladice said.
“For tonight,” Louis answered.
“Yes.” She turned her head toward him. “For tonight.”
They went back inside. Louis shut the door and dropped the latch again. Gladice put the backpack on the table, then rested the rifle against the wall beside it.
“There,” she said. “Now we can panic.”
Angelique gave a short laugh. Louis smiled. Jennifer looked from one of them to the other, and some of the tension left her face.
“Do you know how to use that?” she asked Gladice.
“Yes.” Gladice began sorting through the backpack. “I was in the army.” She looked up and smiled. “That is what we do.”
Jennifer blinked. “But you are a woman.”
Gladice stopped what she was doing. “So I am. Does that surprise you?”
Jennifer nodded quickly.
“What did you think we did, back in the Collective? Knit? Arrange flowers?”
“I don’t know.” Jennifer spoke more quietly. “I never thought about it.”
Gladice shook her head and went back to the backpack. “Well. Now you have.”
They gathered around the table. Jennifer set her valise on the floor beside the bed. She stood over it briefly, then crouched and opened it. She took out a Bible and put it back at once. Angelique found two old blankets in the curtained alcove and shook the dust from them near the door. She spread one across the bed and folded the other over the back of the second chair.
Louis lowered himself onto the nearer chair. His knee had stiffened, and the pain had grown worse since they stopped moving. He rubbed it once. Gladice took a painkiller bottle from the backpack and tossed it to him.
“Take one,” she said.
He caught it one-handed. “Thanks. I didn’t want to whine.”
“I know.” She smiled. “So I decided to be kind.”
He opened the bottle and took one pill dry. The taste was bitter and chalky. He swallowed with effort and set the bottle on the table.
“We will need water,” he said. “Eventually.”
“There’s a creek out back,” Gladice answered. “I saw it when I moved the car. It might not be drinkable. We’ll have to boil it.”
“If we use the stove,” Angelique said, “we will have to open the flue. Smoke is visible.”
“How about now? We have the cover of night,” Louis said.
“Until dawn,” Angelique said.
Gladice nodded. “We can risk it.” She crossed to the window. “I’ll keep an eye on the windows.”
Jennifer turned from the bed. “I should help.”
“No.” Gladice did not look at her. “You sit down. You have had a long night.”
Jennifer hesitated, then sat on the edge of the bed. She set her hands in her lap and watched Gladice move to the stove and begin working the flue lever with patient force.
“I’ll fetch some water,” Angelique said. “If you want to heat it.” She took an empty bucket from beside the door and went out into the night without waiting for an answer.
Louis said nothing. The painkiller had not begun to work. He kept his bad leg straight beneath the table.
Gladice opened the stove door and felt the inside with her hand. “Cold. It will take time to catch.”
Louis said, “We have time.”
She nodded. “Yes.” She straightened and looked across the room. “I can get the fire started. You two should rest.”
Jennifer looked down at her hands and then said, very quietly, “I don’t think I can sleep.”
“Good,” Gladice said. “Then you can make yourself useful.”
Jennifer looked up at once.
“There’s a stack of kindling by the stove,” Gladice went on. “Dry pieces only. Not the damp ones. If this thing smokes too much, we kill it.”
Jennifer rose from the bed and went to the wood box. She crouched and began picking through the split sticks. At first she examined them one by one. Then she started setting the dry pieces in a pile beside the stove. Louis watched her. Her coat was still buttoned wrong over her nightdress, and its hem brushed her calves when she moved. Nothing in the way she handled the kindling suggested that she had done it before.
Gladice crumpled the registration papers and placed them in the stove with a handful of small dry splinters. She crossed two sticks over them and added two more on top. Then she took a lighter from her jacket and held the flame against the edge of the paper until it caught. The kindling began to burn with a quiet crackle.
Jennifer watched Gladice start the fire.
“You really were a soldier,” she said.
Gladice did not look up. “Yes.”
“With men?”
Gladice glanced at her, then went back to the fire. “Yes, Jenny. With men.”
Jennifer paused. Then she said, “Were you afraid?”
Louis looked at her. Gladice’s hand stopped over the kindling. Then she placed another stick on the fire.
“In the beginning,” she said. “Not anymore.”
Jennifer smiled briefly. She set the remaining kindling within Gladice’s reach and stepped back.
The front door opened, and Angelique came in carrying the bucket with both hands. Water had sloshed over the rim and darkened the front of her skirt. She shut the door with her foot and carried the bucket across the room.
“Clean enough to drink,” she said. “If we need to.”
Louis put one hand on the table and pushed himself up. Pain went through his knee, though the pill had begun to help. He took the bucket before she could set it down.
“You should have let one of us go,” Louis said.
“One of you was starting a fire,” she said, glancing toward Gladice, “and the other was pretending not to be injured.”
He set the bucket beside the stove. “I’m not pretending.”
Angelique smiled. “You sit again or I will make you.”
He sat. The fire began to burn steadily. The stove made the air inside hotter. Gladice placed the kettle on top, and its base struck the iron with a dull sound. Angelique crossed to the door, checked the latch again, and returned to the table.
Louis had to keep his injured leg stretched out in front of him. He saw Jennifer glance at it before looking away.
“So, Jennifer.” He looked at her. “Why were you in the yard? Were you already planning to leave?”
Jennifer hesitated for a moment before answering. “I heard gunshots.” She paused. “I didn’t know what was going on. I couldn’t just stay there.” She glanced toward him and looked down again. “Not after what I have done.”
“What have you done?” Gladice sat by the stove.
She looked at her. “I stole the master key from Mr. Wells, and...”
“And she gave it to me,” Louis finished for her. “We only got out because of her.”
“You have some balls, Jenny.” Gladice laughed. “We owe you this one.”
She flushed. “I just couldn’t...” She shook her head. “I shouldn’t have left my family like this.”
“Your family does not deserve to have a daughter like you.” Angelique looked at her.
“I don’t want to talk about that.” She shook her head again. “But it’s wrong to kidnap people.”
“We heard you, Jennifer.” Angelique drew the second chair nearer and sat with one elbow on the table. “Since we are clear for now, we should talk about the morning.”
“Right,” Gladice said. She twisted around, reached for the rifle, and held it across her lap. “Our choices are to keep to the back roads until we hit the Collective border, or to find a working phone and make some calls.”
“Who would you call?” Jennifer asked.
“Louis’s father,” Angelique said. “If we can get a line through.”
“He might be able to send a rescue team,” Gladice said. “If we know where we are.”
Louis looked at the map on the table. “Do we?” he asked.
Angelique shook her head. “Not exactly. Somewhere south of Greenville, east of the highway.”
“Good enough to start.” Gladice rested her head against the wall. “The border is probably just one hour’s drive from here. But the car is too fucked up.” She looked at Angelique. “Any thoughts?”
Angelique looked at the map. “We can go there on foot. Harder to spot. But it will take us longer.”
“And more painful,” Louis added.
“Yes,” Angelique said. “That too.”
The water began to boil. Gladice poured it into three chipped mugs and left them to cool for a few minutes. Then she handed one to Angelique, put one on the table for Louis, and kept the third for herself. Louis handed his to Jennifer, who took it with both hands.
Gladice lifted her cup and took a drink. “We should move before dawn. When it is still dark. Head south and find the border.”
Jennifer said, “What about the car?”
“We leave it. If someone finds it, maybe they’ll think we’re still nearby.” Gladice shrugged. “It will buy time.”
Angelique nodded. “Yes. That is a good plan.”
Jennifer sipped her water. “Will they come after us? The police?”
“I doubt the police will be the problem,” Louis said. “But whoever took the manor will notice we were gone. They may try to find out where we went.”
“And if they find us?” Jennifer asked.
“Then we shoot them,” Gladice said.
Jennifer turned toward her. Gladice took another drink.
“It will not come to that,” Angelique said. “We are four people in a large country. They cannot watch every road.”
Jennifer held the mug in both hands. After a pause, she nodded, set it on the floor, and stood.
“I should sleep.”
“Yes,” said Angelique. “We should all take some rest.”
“Someone will need to take watch,” Gladice said.
“I will take the first,” Louis said.
Jennifer looked at him. “You are injured.”
“I don’t need my leg to watch the windows.”
She hesitated, then nodded. She looked toward the bed and said, “Goodnight.”
“Go to the bed, Angi,” Louis said. “You too, Gladie.”
Angelique rose and lay down on the side nearest the wall. Gladice handed Louis the rifle, sighed, and got up. “Fine. Wake me if there’s trouble.”
“I will.”
Gladice walked over to Jennifer, who was still standing beside the bed.
“We can share it,” Gladice said. “Unless you want the floor.”
Jennifer looked at the bed, then shook her head. “No. We can share.”
Gladice smiled. “Alright. Come on.”
Jennifer took off her coat and hung it over the back of the chair. Then she sat on the edge of the bed and removed her shoes. Gladice took off her coat and boots and lay down in her clothes. Jennifer lay beside her, keeping close to the edge of the mattress with her hands folded over her stomach. Angelique made room on her other side and pulled the blanket over all three of them.
Louis dragged the chair between the windows and sat where he could also see the door. Through the glass, he could make out part of the tarp covering the car beneath the pines. He rested the rifle across his knees. The painkiller had reduced the pain in his knee enough for him to remain seated without shifting constantly. The cabin gradually became quiet behind him. Louis kept watching the darkness outside the window.
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