“On Hortense Place.”
“Perfect that’s within walking distance from here.”
“What? You're kidding aren’t you?”
“No it is just around the corner actually.”
Fifteen minutes later they are all changed and heading down the street toward Clearance’s house. It takes them less than five minutes to cross the three streets between and turn down the side street. As they pass in front of his house Wren recognizes his lime green, lowrider truck sitting on the street by the description in Hacker’s computer.
“He still lives here, that's his truck.”
They continue down the street and loop back to Margret’s from the back side coming up through the residents parking area.
“Wren, do you have all of your archeological tools yet?”
“What do you mean Mom?”
“You know your paint brushes, trowels, picks, scrapers and such.”
“No, not yet.”
“Well why don’t we all just hop in the car and we can pick up what you need, after all we do not have anything else to do.”
They spend the rest of the day picking up the tools that Wren and Norman will need during their stay on the mountain. Wren’s digging tools and Norman’s building and farming tools. Wren and Margaret are both surprised with Norman’s picking up of a set of battery powered tools and a twelve volt charger.
“I may have been raised Amish and I may have no fear of work however, I see no point in working oneself to death for no good reason. Work smarter not harder, I don’t know who said it but they knew what they were talking about.”
Again they spend their evening loading the shipping container as tightly as possible. It is getting dark when they head back to Margret’s and it is preparing to storm. The clouds are blocking the stars, the nearly new moon making things even darker as the lightning streaks through the air from cloud to cloud. They pull up to the building and Wren goes in, coming back out with her duffel bag she gets back in the back seat of the Buick. By the time they arrive at Pete’s house the wind has picked up and is blowing boxes and trash along at an accelerated rate. The lightning is leaping from sky to ground with blinding flashes and ear splitting thunder. The rain is just starting to come down as the Predator slips out of the car under the cover of darkness. She doesn’t worry too much about being seen though as the power flickers and goes out. The lightning flashes arc and dance across the curves of her body reflected by the wet rubber as she walks across the lot to the fire escape. Again at the fire escape she catches the bottom rung of the ladder with a leap and soon is climbing to the top. After checking the window behind her again she settles into a position out of a stream of water pouring through a broken gutter over her head. The apartment across from her is dark and just starting to come to life with the flickering glow of candle light. She makes a mental note that space providing she should throw a few candles into the mountain gear just in case. She watches as a lighter strikes again and again and the room slowly gets brighter. She pulls out her binoculars and watches closer. Every so often she can make out Pete’s appearance but never long enough to get a shot. After a while he settles down into a chair with a book and she can just make out the title. She waits until he seems engrossed in his reading before drawing out her pistol carefully. She turns on the laser sight so it hits the wall behind him first. Slowly she lowers her aim until the dot rests on the top of his head as he reads. He doesn’t notice the glowing dot in the very center of his cranium as the shot breaks its silence as it rips through the glass and at almost the same time shatters his skull. Wren closes her eyes not wanting to see the impact knowing it will be very, very messy. She opens her eyes and sees him fall forward off the sofa as a naked woman that she instantly recognizes as Pete’s mom comes running and screaming into the room.
Wren quickly heads down the fire escape and to the ground. She crosses the parking lot as fast as she can. The rain is coming down in sheets as she reaches the back of the lot and climbs over the six feet of chain link fence and crosses the railroad tracks into Resurrection cemetery. She looks around lost trying to figure out where to go next as she hears a train coming along the tracks. She makes a quick decision and lies low near the tracks as it starts to pass. She recognizes it as a freight going slow in the rain and heading South. As the engine passes she stands up and starts running along side of it and catches the rail for the ladder to the top of the very last car. After climbing the ladder she lies out flat on top of the box car holding on to the catwalk. She rides on top until she realizes she’s passing through Arnold at this point she knows she has to get off soon or she will end up who knows where. Eventually the train slows down and stops just after a switch so it is sitting parallel to an empty track. She climbs down the side and slips off the track bed, skirting along the side back toward Arnold and calls Norman as she walks.
“Head toward the South of Arnold I think Richardson road.”
“How did you get there? Never mind we’re on our way.”
Wren puts away the phone and continues along; the next train passes as she crouches balled up to the side out of sight. It’s nearly one when she reaches Richardson road and starts heading toward highway sixty one. When there is no traffic to be seen she crosses and staying in the shadows slips unnoticed into the entrance of an industrial park.
“Norman I’m at Grandview park drive and highway sixty-one, make a left on Richardson then a left on Sixty-one first street on the right.”
Ten minutes later the Buick enters the street and Wren hops into the back seat. They are there so short a time that even if someone did see them turn in they would just think they had turned around. Once in the back with Norman Wren starts changing back into herself.
“So just exactly how did you make it all the way out here?”
“Caught a passing freight train.”
The next day Wren wakes very late, the light is streaming in through the windows of the bedroom and Norman is nowhere to be seen. She gets up and staggers into the bathroom. She feels almost drunk as she looks at her disheveled reflection in the mirror. She starts brushing her hair into tameness as she prepares to shower. Soon the cool water starts to work its desired effect upon her as she starts to come to herself. After her shower she stands in front of the mirror and begins setting a pair of plaited braids into her hair, as she does her braiding she feels different but the more she tries to place why the more elusive the feeling seems to be. Returning to the bedroom she pulls out her buckskin dress from her aunt and slips on a pair of moccasins. Leaving the room and entering the living room Norman is nowhere to be seen. She heads straight to the kitchen drawn by the smell of fresh coffee and there she finds Norman and her Mom looking through a very lengthy list covering several sheets of paper.
“So what are you two up too?”
“Well we started off in a discussion about your sleeping habits and taking guesses as to when you would wake up. Then one thing led to another and we started going over the gear list. I figured an extra set of eyes might be beneficial.”
“So Wren are you going to go to church dressed as you are or do you not intend to go?”
“I really didn’t think about what day it is and just slipped into something comfortable. I guess I should go change, we can still make noon mass can’t we Norman?”
“I don’t see a problem, it's only a little after ten and it’s within walking distance. Why don’t you grab a bite before you change.”
Wren pulls out a bowl and some cornflakes and sits down to breakfast. She starts looking over the list that now lies in front of them mentally checking off the pieces that they have. She picks up the pen from the table and starts physically checking off items and circling others with a few getting stars.
“Wren would you mind explaining what you are doing?”
“Check marks mean we have it, circle means we need it, stars mean I really don’t want to leave without it.”
“So you really don’t want to leave without MRE’s. What are MRE’s?”
“Meal ready to eat. They are used in the army a lot, they don’t require refrigeration, have an extremely long shelf life and pack a lot of calories in a small package. You see, I don't want to be left without anything to eat in the middle of winter if something goes wrong with our supply shipments. There’s a place called Uncle Sam’s that sells them around here so all we have to do is go over there and pick them up.”
She goes back to looking over the lists and making her marks as she goes. With the corn flakes finished Wren finishes looking over the list and sits back laying all the sheets out in front of her and continues to stare at them for sometime. Eventually she gets up and heads out of the kitchen setting her bowl in the sink as she goes. Norman gets up and follows her into their room.
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