“Get the duct tape from the backpack,” Atticus instructed. “Please, Thais, just get the tape from the bag. I need you to trust me. Can you trust me?”
Still unsure about everything, but trusting my instincts, if not Atticus, I nodded rapidly. I couldn’t let myself believe that after everything we had gone through together already, that he would hurt me. I knew that what he was doing to Rachel he only did because he had to—the why would have to wait.
I rushed over to the backpack and did exactly as he said. The barn filled with curses and threats as Atticus and I wrapped the tape around Rachel. Atticus sank in front of her into a crouch, and she glared up at him, wrapped in a sticky gray cocoon, unable to move her legs or arms.
“I’ll ask you one more time,” Atticus threatened, his jaw tight. “Who’s coming for us?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she answered defiantly.
Atticus rounded his chin; his jaw tightened and relaxed. I thought he was going stand up and walk away from her, but then I saw his massive fist, a quick flash in my vision, smack against the side of Rachel’s head, knocking her out cold. Her eyes rolled back before the lids fell over them; her cocooned body fell in the dirt.
“WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!” I roared.
Atticus stood and whirled around at me, and the movement made me jump out of my skin. I sank back and away from him; both of my arms came up instinctively to cover my face.
ATTICUS
I frowned—she was terrified of me.
“Thais, please just listen to me”—I stepped closer cautiously; I didn’t want to scare her any more than I already had—“I don’t have time to explain everything to you right now, but I need you to do exactly as I say because someone’s coming for us and I don’t know how many there are, or how close they are, but someone is on their way here right now and I need you to trust me.” Every word dripped of desperation.
Thais’ wet eyes darted to and from me and Rachel who lay unconscious in the dirt, her dark hair laid out all around her head in a wild fashion; the side of her face swelled and changed colors.
“Why did you hit her?”
“I hit her so I wouldn’t have to kill her.”
There was no lighter way to say it, and I wanted only to tell her the truth.
Her eyebrows tightened; she took two more steps back.
“I couldn’t tell you what I’m about to tell you if she heard it,” I explained. “Please, Thais…I would never hurt you. You have to believe that—I would never hurt you.”
I held my breath, hoping she would believe me, until slowly she nodded and relief washed over me. I placed my hands on her arms and peered into her eyes.
“You’re going to leave on the horse”—I reached into my pants pocket to retrieve my compass dangling from a silver chain, and I placed into her hand—“with the backpacks, and this compass, and you’re going to travel through the woods heading west”—(already Thais was shaking her head no)—“but stay out of sight of the house. And I want you to go only as far as the outskirts of the woods, but don’t for any reason leave the cover of trees. Wait for me there.”
“I’m not going without you,” she refused, trying to give the compass back but I pulled my hand away, forcing her to keep it. “Atticus, I can’t go out there alone. What if someone finds me? I can’t—”
I put my gun into her other hand.
“If anyone comes for you,” I said, “you shoot them dead and don’t think about it—shoot them dead, Thais. But stay in the woods. I won’t be long. I’ll come for you.”
“Atticus, no…”
“You have to,” I said with intensity. “I have to make sure we aren’t followed. If we leave right now, and I don’t take care of what I need to here, we probably won’t get much farther.”
“Then why can’t I stay with you? I can hide here in the barn, or in the house.”
I grew impatient; time was a luxury we did not have.
“They’ll search the barn,” I said. “They’re coming from the highway—that much I know—and the first place they’ll look is in this barn. And they’ll search the house. And they’ll search everywhere around the house.”
“But what about you?”
I dropped my chin and swallowed what saliva was left in my mouth; my throat was incredibly dry.
“I’m staying back to kill as many of them as I can,” I said. “To give you a chance in case I can’t kill them all.”
Thais’ breath caught, and her eyes welled up with tears.
“Thais”—I held her head in my hand, pressed against my chest—“I need you to do this for me. I can’t fight them off if you’re here and I have to worry about them going after you.” I pulled her from my chest, held tightly onto her arms. “If I’m right, there’s a lot more to this family than this Little House on the Prairie bullshit.” I shook her gently, peering deeply into her eyes, trying not to lose her. “I’ll come for you soon. Wait for me.”
Thais’ body trembled underneath the weight of my hands.
“Atticus…what if you don’t? What if you don’t come for me?”
“I will.” My fingers tightened around her arms, the tips of them easily touching, my hands were so large and her arms so small.
THAIS
“But…what if you…can’t?” I could hardly get the word out; I didn’t want to believe it, or think about it—the can’t.
Atticus crouched in front of me, balanced on the toes of his boots. Our eyes met with such intensity that nothing could have pulled them away.
“If I don’t…if I can’t find you then I want you to keep moving toward Shreveport. Use my compass; pay attention to highway signs—odd numbers run north-south, even numbers run east-west.” He touched my hand again where the compass remained crushed beneath the arch of my fingers. “Travel only at night under the cover of darkness, hide and rest in the daylight hours, trust no one you meet, and”—he shook me again—“don’t be afraid to kill anyone who means to hurt you. Promise me, Thais, that you’ll defend yourself by any means necessary. Promise me.”
A flash of my mother’s face went through my mind. Run as fast as you can to get away, and if you don’t get away, you fight them, and if you have to, you kill them. A pain dug deeply into my heart, causing my body to shudder; I choked once on my tears, and then swallowed them down. It’s happening all over again. It’s happening all over again…