The Escape: Chapter Eight: The Shot

Alaina handed JJ to me. The boy made a small sound of protest, but settled and pressed his face against my shoulder. We were closing in on the border gate, which was a relief and induced some anxiety. The trees and underbrush thickened around us. Alaina slapped insects on her arms, muttering about bites.

“We’re almost there,” I said.

“How far do you think they would follow us past the gate?”

Fair question. Border Patrol trained to continue pursuing until success. Yet, there had not been an actual escape attempt in living memory. No member of the militia ever attempted to track something more than a few miles beyond the gates. If we could make it that far out, we had a better chance.

“Not far. I think they’d lose their nerve if they felt they were getting too close to aliens. They would just report us killed.”

“Good.”

The earthy smell of foliage and humidity turned my stomach. The world came alive around us as we walked, with creatures scurrying and rustling at our feet.

We slowed to make sure the pace wouldn’t wake JJ. Despite his snores, the boy was a light sleeper. I’d woken him more than once just by peeking in on him as he slept. He would sit up and start a whole conversation.

Something larger than a squirrel moved toward us. I stopped Alaina, and we ducked behind some trees. The sound intensified. A young border patrolman came into view twenty yards ahead of us, walking parallel to the border. He held his rifle on his shoulder and moved without urgency. JJ stretched. I froze, worried he might wake and make a noise. I rubbed his back and thought a prayer.

It took the patrolman several moments to cross our line of sight. It felt like a lifetime. We waited for some time before we continued.

“Oh, Lord, what is that?”

I shifted JJ to see what Alaina noticed.

The Warning Wall.

Anticipation of this moment kept me up at night for months. I told Alaina all about it, but seeing it was a whole different experience. Women did not go into the woods, so never saw this horrifying omen.

A hundred years ago, so the story goes, a man tried to leave the colony. Nobody knows why, but most agreed he had been an unbeliever who wanted to help the aliens. Border Patrol tracked him just outside this gate and dragged him back. They nailed him to the wall by his palms. It took him days to die. According to the legend, animals helped the process along.

The skeleton hung where they pinned it, only partially obscured by the vines on the wall. The mouth gaped open in an eternal scream. Lower leg bones lay on the ground, and the feet vanished years before I was born. Young boys often dared each other to touch it, but once the poor kid did, the others would tell him he’d been infected with unbelief, and tease him until something else caught their attention and they moved on.

Three yards beyond the skeleton, the gate loomed. We just had to pass the bones.

“What are we doing, James?” Alaina asked. “They’re going to put us on this wall right next to this man.”

“We’re going to be fine. Everything is okay. We have to do this for JJ.” Our son’s safety was our driving force; everything we did got him one step further from following our path in life.

“Of course we do. But this is it. If we cross this gate, there is no return. Just an immediate death sentence.” Alaina stared at me for a moment, then at JJ. Her back straightened and she walked to the gate, right past the skeleton. I followed, readjusting my grip as gently as possible. Resolved, Alaina took the key from my pocket and unlocked our future. I covered JJ’s ears, but the sound of the old metal hinges caught his attention anyway. He perked up in time to see us pass under the big arch, where we found the forest looked almost identical.

“What are we doing?” he asked. There was a frantic tone to his voice.

Alaina took his hand. “We’re leaving, honey. We have to go.”

“Go where?” JJ’s voice took on an edge.

I set the boy on his feet and knelt in front of him, holding his shoulders. “JJ, we have to leave the colony. Forever.”

His wide eyes met mine. “Leave? Forever? But aliens will kill us!”

“No, buddy. That’s not true. We have to leave.”

“Why?”

Now standing outside the colony, I knew I had to tell him the truth. Or, mostly the truth. I did not think a child needed to know his grandfather threatened to kill his mother. “The church says your Mama hasn’t had enough babies. They said she needs to leave us, and I need to find you a new Mama. So, if we want Mama to stay with us, we all need to leave.”

“They want to take Mama?” JJ asked. Tears filled his eyes, and one or two slid down his face. “But she’s Mama. No one else.”

“I know. That’s why we have to go. They can’t take Mama from us if we leave. So we’re going to go, and stay with Mama, and everything is going to work out.”

“With aliens?”

This was going to be the biggest sticking point of the entire journey. Even I had reservations, and leaving was my idea. The usual nausea I got when I second-guessed my conviction bubbled, and I stamped down the urge to panic.

“I think aliens are not bad like we’ve learned. I think a lot of aliens are like us.”

“How can aliens be like us? God made us, and Satan made them. Right?”

“I don’t know, buddy. I’m not so sure. Now, we have to keep walking. We need to go as fast as possible. Can you walk for a little while?”

“Yes, sir.”

Alaina kissed JJ’s forehead. Our small group pressed on through the trees. A hundred yards in, the air lightened. It became drier and crisper, which I wouldn’t complain about. I didn’t notice at first, but walking eased as the underbrush thinned. When I thought about it, many things were different on this side of the gate. Back during my stint in the border patrol, I never paid attention to it. Now, it felt lighter somehow. It even smelled better, less like decomposition.

“How far?” asked JJ. He held Alaina’s hand and watched his step, as I had taught him.

“We’re not sure,” Alaina said. “It could take a while to get out of the woods. Think of it like camping.”

The sky brightened, but sunrise was a while off. We covered maybe two miles an hour, which was a little slower than I would like. My mind ran scenarios of what was happening back in the colony. Had they noticed our absence? Were they already looking?

Animals woke for the day. Squirrels skittered by, unusually close. JJ enjoyed watching them run and chitter when we went hunting, but now he stuck close to Alaina's side without mentioning them.

Alaina and I agreed to stop for a break, knowing we would have to pick up the pace after. JJ sat on a log and waited for his mother to hand him a snack: an apple and two boiled eggs. The boy stared at it for a moment with a sour expression, but he thanked his mother and ate them. Alaina gave me a few pieces of jerky and three boiled eggs, while she took an apple for herself.

JJ finished his eggs. “If we leave, how will I see my friends again?”

Alaina rested a hand on his back. “Honey, we have to leave forever. We will never see anyone from the colony again.”

JJ jumped to his feet. “Ever?”

“Ever, sweetie. The church’s decision means we had to choose between staying together as a family or seeing our friends again. Daddy and I decided to stay together.”

“So I won’t see Beau again?” JJ wiped tears off his face.

“No, JJ. We’ll never see him again. It’s okay to be sad. But this is going to be better for us. Safer.” Alaina hugged him. “Daddy and I are going to make sure everything is okay, and we can stay together forever.”

“But I’ll never see friends again and the aliens and we’re going to die!”

I scooped him and set him on my lap. “Listen, JJ. I will never let anything bad happen to you. This is the best thing for us. I promise. You’re going to make new friends. But Beau will always be your friend, just like he will always be my brother. We can pray for him and keep him in our thoughts. Okay?”

JJ nodded. I hugged him, and he pressed against me. “I’m scared.”

Following my gut, I said, “Me too, buddy. But we’re going to be okay.”

“You’re scared too?” he asked. I had never let him in on my fears before. For all he knew, I was fearless. Truthfully, I spent much of the last several years existing at a deep level of terror.

“Yes. It’s normal to be scared. But we’re going to be okay. Now, we have to get going again. Do you need to do any business?”

JJ thought for a second, then nodded. He walked over to the tree across the clearing. I double-checked my bag and took a moment to breathe.

Something moved off to my left. I looked at the trees in time to see green eyes staring at me over a rifle. Before I could move, searing pain ripped across my shoulder. JJ screamed. After a split second of indecision, Alaina shoved him to the ground and covered him. I tried to recover and grabbed my rifle while tracking the retreating shooter.

Struggling to use my left arm, I ran toward the last spot I saw him, but he’d vanished. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of following him in the wrong direction. Instead, I’d rather get Alaina and JJ as far away as possible.

I approached them and helped Alaina up. “We need to move.”

“Your arm.”

“I’ll do something with it when we’re safer.”

She hoisted JJ and her bag. I struggled to carry my stuff while keeping control of my rifle. Warm blood coated my chest. I did my best to keep up a strong pace, but each step sent a jolt of pain through my body. Only knowing the patrolmen would probably continue pursuing drove me forward. The moment replayed in my mind on a loop.

I would have sworn Hunter pulled the trigger.

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