Stealing Second (The Amendments Book One 1) (5 page)

Chapter 4

I had no idea where I was, so I took a series of turns until I found a secondary highway that told me I was heading east. I continued to glance over my shoulder, but I never saw headlights or any other signs of life. I slowed down to thirty miles per hour and dug my cell phone from out of my front pocket. I flipped open the lid and saw that it was nearly midnight. I couldn’t believe it was already that late. I followed the highway, passing small farms and a few darkened businesses. A few of the farms had lights on, but most were dark. I began to feel a chill as the adrenaline faded. My arms were pretty chewed up and I knew I should disinfect them, but since the scratches weren’t very deep, I pushed ahead. The farms became fewer and farther between.

As I rode on, I began to think of Madison
. I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her. She had been a bad person, but she was a beautiful bad person and somehow that seemed to lessen her crime. I tried not to think about how I had left her bleeding on the floor of Clay’s garage. That wasn’t like me, and I was suddenly overcome with a sense of loss. Earlier that afternoon, I had been sitting on my favorite barstool drinking my favorite beer. That seemed so long ago. I was now riding a stolen ATV, carrying two loaded handguns, a stolen knapsack, with a pack of God only knew what strapped to my back.

I decided it was time to find out what I was carrying.

I rode on, but there seemed to be no place that would provide a safe haven. I had yet to spot another vehicle on the road and wondered about that. I should have seen someone by now. Had the government implemented martial law? That sounded logical. The longer I thought about it, the more sense it made. There really was no other explanation for the roads being totally deserted. I wondered what happened to people who disobeyed martial law. Would I be shot on sight? The longer I rode, the less I wanted to be out on the highway. I had easily put ten miles between Madison and me. I knew that I was out of Mike’s reach, at least for the time being.

A large brown road
sign loomed ahead, and I was thrilled to read that it announced the entrance to a county park. I never caught the name; at that point it really didn’t matter. I turned into the driveway, but there was a steel gate across the road that was locked with a heavy chain and a large chrome padlock. I cursed and circled around, but I found a bike path that led around the gate and followed it inside. Slowly, I drove into the park and passed what looked like a visitors’ center. The building was dark. There was a sign up ahead where road forked, and I followed the arrow pointing to the campground. I didn’t see a single car or a truck. Not surprisingly, the campground was empty, but it was large and thickly wooded. I rode to the farthest campsite and pulled in, driving the ATV out about two hundred feet into the woods. I shut off the engine and listened. The only sound was the pounding of my heart.

I turned the key and the headlights came on. Without getting off the seat, I unclasped the buckle around my waist and
shrugged off the pack. Carefully, I tipped it back onto the luggage rack. If there was a bomb inside, I didn’t want to set it off. I stretched and rubbed my shoulders where the straps had been digging in. It felt wonderful to be free of the pack. I stepped off the ATV and picked up Madison’s knapsack and stepped around to the front of the machine and unzipped the top of the knapsack. I reached inside and grabbed something round and firm. I pulled it out and held it to the light. I gasped as I recognized what it was. I held a thick roll of cash; the knapsack seemed to be full of them. I dropped to my knees and dumped out the contents onto the pine needles. I counted twenty-nine rolls. My heart leapt.

Quickly I began stuffing the rolls back into the knapsack. No wonder Madison was in such a hurry to get away from the camp. I refilled the knapsack and zippered it closed.
I rose to my feet and grabbed the frame pack. By this time my muscles were aching and it felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. I grunted as I carried it in front of the machine. I set it down on the ground and quickly unbuckled the flap. There were many pockets that were filled with something, but I ignored them. I wanted to know what was held in the main compartment. I unzipped the opening and stared inside, but that didn’t tell me anything. I reached inside and felt something soft the size of a shoebox and tried pulling it out with one hand. Whatever it was, I couldn’t lift it like that. So I dug in with both hands and hefted out the first of the heavy, soft bundles.

Whatever it was, someone had taken great care to wrap in a bath towel and secure it with
yellow strapping tape. I think I knew what it was, but I was afraid to admit it to myself. Twice more, I reached back inside and removed identical, impossibly heavy objects. I set them next to the first one and I began to dig around in the side pockets of the pack. I soon found a large survival knife in a sheath. I removed it from the sheath and admired the shiny blade for a moment, but not for long. I quickly began to hack away at the yellow tape on one of the bundles.

The knife easily sliced through the tape
, and I continued cutting until all three bundles were unbound. I tossed the knife aside and picked up the nearest bundle. My mouth was dry and I could hear my heart pounding. Gingerly, I unrolled the heavy brick from the towel and when it thumped to the ground, I seriously thought I would have a heart attack. My suspicions had been confirmed, the brick was solid gold. With trembling hands, I unrolled the other two bundles. I had three bars of gold and a sack of cash—and I didn’t have a clue what I should do with them. Against my better judgment, I let out a satisfying whoop of pure joy.

“Do you want some honey?” aske
d a small voice from behind me.

I scrambled to my feet and was reaching for my gun when I caught sight of the owner of that voice. I immediately dropped my arms to my side and began looking over her shoulder. The v
oice had come from an adolescent girl dressed in a flannel shirt and dark blue jeans. She wore her sandy-colored hair in a pageboy haircut, and her face lacked any sort of expression. I caught my breath. “You scared me,” I said. “I thought I was alone out here.”

“Do you want some honey?” she repeated, her face
as blank as a clean sheet of paper.

“Right,” I said. “Are you out here… alone?”

“Mom’s coming back to get me.”

“Oh, I see,” I said. “How long have you been out here?”

“I found some honey. Would you like some?”

“No, thank you. Tell me about your mom. Do you know where she went?”

“My mom says I shouldn’t talk to strangers.”

I smiled and shook my head. “Are you hungry?” I asked.

“My name is Violet. My Mom’s name is Cathy.”

“Hi
Violet,” I said. “My name is Gary I think there’s some food in this bag. I’m going to take a look.” I returned my attention to the pack. I found full canteen and a clear plastic baggie full of energy bars. I spun the cap off of the canteen and took a small sip, thankful to find it was only water. I can’t say what I expected to find, but after what had happened, I wasn’t going to trust anything connected to Madison.

I
opened up the baggie and gave her one of the bars and then handed her the canteen. She ripped open the package and began stuffing the energy bar into her mouth. I thought she was either mentally handicapped or in shock. I couldn’t tell which, but something about the kid was definitely off. She chased the energy bar down with a slug of water out of the canteen. “Thank you,” she said. “Want some honey?”

“Thank you,
Violet,” I said. “That would be very nice.”

The girl turned to go and then stopped. “Okay,” she said. “Wait right here, okay?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said.

She looked at me for a long moment, as if she were trying to decide if she could trust me. And then she walked off into the darkness. Of course, I didn’t want any honey. I just wanted a minute to myself. I had found a
collapsible spade shovel in the backpack, the type you find in a military surplus store. I snatched it out of the pack and jogged away from the ATV into a woodsy area between the camping sites until I had just enough light to see. I dropped to my knees and dug a small hole at the base of a moss-covered tree stump. When I was satisfied that it was deep enough, I jogged back and picked up one of the gold bars. I rewrapped it and deposited it into the hole. I did the same with the other two bars. I put two bundles of cash into the backpack and then dropped the knapsack into the hole and quickly filled it. I stepped down the earth and spread out the leftover dirt. I scooped up handfuls of pine needles and sprinkled them over the freshly turned dirt. Satisfied, I returned to the ATV and stowed the shovel.

I felt better knowing that my treasure was hidden away, but I began t
o feel guilty about sending Violet off into the dark. I also began to feel tired. I unstrapped the little sleeping bag from the pack and spread it out in the light. I would offer it to Violet; I felt it was the least I could do. I was just finishing when I felt the cold steel at the back of my head.

“Don’t you move a goddamn inch,” a woman’s voice hissed. “Where is she?”

Instinctively, I raised my hands. “Violet?” I asked.

“Where is she?” she shrieked. I could feel the barrel trembling at the base of my skull.

“She walked off a few minutes ago to go get some honey,” I said. “I swear to God, lady. She should be here any minute.”

There was a moment of silence as the woman thought about this. She then dug the barrel into the back of my neck. “You had better not be lying to me. Stay right where you are. If you
so much as twitch, I’ll blow your goddamn brains out.”

I was on my knees and stiffened at the tone in her voice. I had no doubt she would shoot me if I tried to move. I sat that way for a long minute.

“She went to get some honey, huh?” the woman asked. “Why don’t I believe you? What have you done with her?”

“Lady, I didn’t do anything with her. I gave her an energy bar and some water. She’s a nice kid.”

“She’s a great kid, but I told her not to talk to anyone. Goddamn it, I told her… I never should have left her out here by herself. Oh shit…”

“Just settle down,” I said. “She’ll be back any second now,” I added, wondering if that were true. She shou
ld’ve been back by now. Had Violet gotten turned around? Was she now stumbling around in the dark? If she was, I thought, I was a dead man. I desperately tried to remember the mother’s name. Violet had mentioned it, but my mind seemed empty of everything but fear.

“You’re lying to me,” the woman whispered. “Where is she?”

“She went to go get some honey. I swear to God, lady, just calm down.”

“Calm down? That little girl is all I have left in this world! Don’t you sit there and tell me to calm down!”

The woman was sobbing now, and my arms were starting to shake. I concentrated and tried not to move, still trying to remember her name. “Cathy,” I said, when it finally came to me. “You’ve got to believe me. Violet walked off to get some honey. I swear, that’s what she told me. I thought she’d be back by now.”

“How do you know my name?”

“Violet gave it to me.”

“You’re lying!”

“Mom?” asked Violet, softly. “What are you doing?”

I felt the gun barrel slide down my neck as the woman gasped. “
Violet,” she cried. “Where the heck have you been, baby? I’ve been worried sick about you.”

“I went to go get some honey for my friend. Was I bad? I’m sorry.”

As Cathy began to cry, I risked dropping my arms. Slowly, I spun around to see her wrap her arms around Violet and bury her face in the girl’s neck. “No baby,” she moaned. “You weren’t bad. I was just worried about you. I never should have left you out here alone,” she then turned to me. “I’m so sorry,” she moaned. “She’s all I have left.”

I held my hands up and nodded my head.
Violet held a piece of honeycomb in her hand and still wore the blank expression on her face. Finally, Cathy let her go and Violet walked over to me and held out the chunk of honeycomb. “It’s really good,” she said. “Just like candy, only better.”

I took the sticky chunk of honeycomb from her and smiled. “Thank you,” I said. I then took a small bite out of it and chewed.
Violet was right, the honey tasted wonderful. I hadn’t realized I was so hungry. I stared at the two of them as I ate. Cathy was like me, I decided, slightly overweight and average looking. She had short black hair and a plain face that was almost pretty. She wore a blue t-shirt over blue jeans and white tennis shoes. I took another bite of the honeycomb and offered the rest of it to her.

She shook her head. “No, thank you,” she said. She set her handgun, a semiautomatic, down on the seat of the ATV. She then reached over and turned the key
, and we were plunged into blackness. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It isn’t safe to have lights on, not out here. Our eyes will adjust to the moonlight.”

I finished the honeycomb and licked my fingers and then rubbed them on my jeans. Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the light
, and I could make out the forms of my new friends. “My name is Gary,” I said. “Do you mind if I ask you how you ended up out here?”