After the Fall Ch. 04

After he dried off, he sank into the closest chair in his seating area and stared blindly out the window. He had reached two conclusions, but he had not wrapped his mind around either of them. The first was that the reason he had been so angry at Mariah was that she had rejected him. The second was that she still wanted him. He needed to think about what it all meant, but he couldn't gather his thoughts properly.

He was still puzzling over it when Mariah knocked on the door to ask about their schedule for the day. She looked the same way she had looked for the last week: professionally pleasant. There was not a hint of the passion he witnessed such a short time ago. Seeing her detachment tore at his newly rooted optimism. He knew he wasn't ready to be around her yet. He needed time to sort things out, so he told her they would not start until after lunch.

Left to her own devices, Mariah decided to see if she could entice some bees to the hives. She couldn't take Henry with her because he had a bee problem. The buzzing drove him absolutely crazy. He would chase bees in a clover patch for hours, lunging and snapping every time he heard a buzz. Fortunately for Henry, he wasn't very good at catching them. It was easy to tell when he succeeded, though. He sat straight up and looked very surprised and very foolish. Getting stung did nothing to quench his fury the next time he heard a buzz.

The twins had been begging to babysit him, so she decided to take them up on their offer. It would be more fun for him than staying in the house. Amy and Daniel were as excited to see Henry as he was to see them. Since they were trying to fix the roof over the old pool, he would have a new area to explore. She let them know where she would be and told them she'd come by for Henry before lunch. When they drove off in one of the golf carts, Henry jumped out and ran back to her for a hug and kiss, but then he ran back to the cart and didn't look back.

With Henry off on his adventure, Mariah went to gather what she needed from the herb garden. One of the articles Michael downloaded said that bees were attracted to lemongrass oil. She was going to rub some of the oily leaves on the hives. The article said bees were especially attracted to blue and purple, so she also took some sprigs of lavender to leave on the hives. She hoped that the color would entice the bees close enough to smell the lemongrass oil. Since she didn't have access to a cart, she was only going to try the experiment on the hives that were closest to the house.

She started with the two hives closest to the vegetable garden. She stopped into the potting shed to visit with Seth before she went back to bait the hive near the compound's gate. It was nice to spend so much time walking after being cooped up in the house for the last week. The last hive was in a clover field near the wall of the compound, about five hundred feet west of the gate. She was almost there when she saw something fly over the wall and land in the grass.

She approached it carefully, but when she got close, she saw that it was just a rock. She thought some thoughtless person must be throwing rocks over the wall for fun, but then she saw a rolled-up paper tied to it with a string. She unrolled the paper and read it:

We've been waiting for you.

Now we have Henry.

He dug a hole under the wall.

Run west along the wall

until you see a rope ladder.

Climb the ladder.

Jump down on the other side.

Go now or Henry dies.

Mariah dropped the note and took off running before the nausea had a chance to set in. Her insides churned like an icy slurry, except for her lungs. Her lungs were burning. She wasn't sure that someone really had Henry. She didn't know how anyone knew where she would be. She didn't know if this was some sick test that Michael set up for her to fail.

None of that mattered. All that mattered was getting to the ladder. A siren wailed three times somewhere behind her. She saw the ladder come down over the wall and ran to it. She heard gunshots, but she couldn't tell what direction they were coming from. It didn't matter. She was up the ladder and over the wall so fast that she barely had time to adjust for her landing when she dropped to the other side.

Four of "mayor" Hawley's hooligans were waiting for her. She didn't resist when they grabbed her. Hawley's men ran towards town, dragging her along with them. She had burned through most of her stamina in her frantic dash to the ladder. It was all she could do not to stumble. They had run less than a quarter of a mile when a black jeep sped past and spun to face them. They pulled her off the road and started running into the field, but three more jeeps were speeding towards them. The men froze in indecision, and the vehicles formed a semicircle between them and the field. A fifth black jeep was bearing down on them at breakneck speed.

Ezra was already out of the first jeep. Jack, Andy and Yvonne jumped out of the others. Their guns were drawn and aimed. A few seconds later, the last jeep pulled up and Nate was out carrying a rifle fitted with a large scope. He was aiming past the group. Mariah expected at least one of Hawley's men to pull a gun of their own, but it appeared that the best they had was a knife. A smarter goon would have held the knife to her throat, but Jim Carruthers was not smart, even for a goon. He kept a grip on her arm while he brandished the knife at Ezra, who was about twenty feet away.

"Hands above your heads!" Ezra bellowed. "Mariah, walk towards me."

"I can't, Ezra. I'm sorry." If she went to Ezra, one of three things would happen the second she was far enough away from the men. The security team might shoot Hawley's men, the men might get away, or the security team might capture them. No matter what happened, Henry might be killed -- if they really had him -- when Hawley's men didn't come back with Mariah.

Ezra tried again. "Mariah, you have to trust me. We saw the note. They don't have Henry. Come towards me."

She wanted to. She really did. She was not convinced Hawley's men had Henry. She also wasn't convinced they didn't have him. Ezra would say whatever he had to say to get her away from Carruthers.

She shook her head. "I'm sorry."

Ezra moved closer. His pistol was trained on Carruthers' head.

"This is the last time I'm going to tell you. Get your hands up, now!"

For some reason, Carruthers raised one hand and continued to brandish the knife at Ezra with the other. He was exactly the kind of idiot who gets people killed.

"What's his name?" Ezra asked Mariah, gesturing towards Carruthers with the pistol.

"Jim Carruthers."

"Mr. Carruthers, I have your head in my sights. You're not even twenty feet away. I won't miss. Drop that knife."

Carruthers dropped the knife and yanked Mariah in front of him and held her in a chokehold.

"You're not thinking clearly, Mr. Carruthers. You still have a way to get out of this alive, but that's not it."

"If I let her go, you'll shoot me."

"Where's the dog, Mr. Carruthers?"

Carruthers was confused. He didn't understand why the guard wanted to know about the dog.

"Just tell me where the dog is. That's all you have to do, Mr. Carruthers."

Carruthers started babbling. "I don't know. We don't have the mutt. I swear, we never had him. If that's all you—"

Mariah elbowed him in his solar plexus, and his breath came out in a whoosh. She stomped his toes and his arm loosened around her neck. She ran to Ezra. He pushed her behind him and told her to get behind the wheels of his jeep. She got behind the jeep, but she had to know what was going on.

She peeked around the back of the vehicle and saw Ezra zip tying Carruthers' hands behind his back. He found a gun when he patted Carruthers down. Mariah caught Ezra's look of incredulity when he realized that Carruthers had a gun on him the whole time he was ineffectually brandishing a knife. Ezra left him face-down on the ground. The other three men were still standing with their hands up. Yvonne, Andy and Jack kept their pistols trained on them.

Mariah heard the crack of a rifle. She looked around to find Nate. He was laying on the ground with the barrel of his rifle resting on a bipod stand. The rifle barrel was angled towards a small stand of trees quite a distance away. He squeezed the trigger again, and she jumped when she heard the crack.

"Jack!" Ezra barked. Jack nodded and walked around to where Ezra had been standing. Ezra moved back to cover the jeep she was hiding behind, probably trying to shield her, she realized guiltily. One of Hawley's men drew a gun. She heard another gunshot, and the man fell to the ground. It was Bart Lundgreen. Jack had shot him in the shoulder. He started screaming when he saw his own blood.

Lundgreen made so much noise that nobody heard the engine of the approaching motorcycle. Yvonne noticed the plume of dust it kicked up and brought her gun up to follow its progress. After a second, she switched back to covering Hawley's men. The black motorcycle was one of theirs. As it skidded to a stop, the two of Hawley's men who were still standing panicked and ran. Mariah was relieved when the security team let them escape unharmed.

Her relief died when she saw the motorcycle's rider. It was Michael. His glare was murderous, and when he saw her peeking around the back of the jeep, he looked like she was the one he wanted to murder. She ducked back behind the vehicle. It was not going to help her at this point, but it was her instinctive reaction. She wished that she had stood her ground, but it was too late now. She heard him tell Ezra to bring Hawley's men to the compound and radio him when they got there.

A few seconds later, he appeared around the back of the jeep she was hiding behind. He was moving fast.

"They said they had Henry!" she tried to explain before he got too close.

"I don't care what they said. Get in the jeep!"

"Okay, but can you please radio the twins to see if they have Henry?"

"I said get in the jeep! NOW!" he roared.

She backed away from him, prepared to run if he lunged for her. "Not until you check."

Michael grabbed the radio at his waist and pressed the button to broadcast to everyone on the main channel. "Where is Henry? If anyone has eyes on Henry, report immediately."

Amy's voice came over the radio right away. "He's with me."

Mariah slumped to the ground. The crushing pressure left her chest. She started shaking so badly her teeth chattered. She hadn't realized how terrified she was until she knew Henry was safe. Everything caught up to her at once. Michael grabbed her under the arms, and she staggered to her feet. She didn't resist when he yanked her to the door of the jeep. She climbed up and got in on her own. She was eager to get back to the compound. She needed to see Henry.

Michael slammed the door closed and walked around to the driver's side, keeping an eye on her through the windshield. He started the vehicle as soon as he got in. On the way, he radioed Amy to put Henry in Mariah's room. He didn't say anything to Mariah. She tried to explain what happened.

"Michael, they threw a note over the wall. It said Henry dug out and they had him. It said—"

"I know what the note said!" He slammed his hand against the steering wheel.

The gate opened as soon as they drove up. Daniel ran out of the guard house to check on them, but Michael kept driving. He drove right up to the front door. She started to get out, but he told her to stay where she was. He came around to her side and helped her down. His grip remained tight on her upper arm as he marched her to the front door.

Paula met them in the foyer. She looked badly rattled.

"Everything's under control," Michael told her.

Paula started fussing over Mariah, but Michael stopped her. "She's fine, Paula. She's going to wait in her room while I get things sorted out. I'm locking my wing. I don't want anyone going in or out until I get back."

Paula looked worried, so Mariah smiled at her. "I'm going to lie down for a bit, but I promise I'll tell you all about it later."

Michael pulled Mariah along with him to the elevator. When the elevator door closed, she tried to yank her arm away. He merely tightened his grip.

"You shouldn't worry Paula like that."

"You'd better be worrying about yourself right now."

The elevator dinged, and she started to walk out, but he didn't let go of her. His grip on her arm remained tight as he walked her down the hall to her room. When they reached her door, he spun her around and backed her against the wall. She thought he was going to yell at her, or maybe even hit her.

He grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her mouth against his. He shoved his body into hers, trapping her against the wall. He kissed her roughly, with a desperate urgency that made her stomach flutter. It felt like he was trying to devour her. He pulled back and looked down at her. He noted with satisfaction that she looked dazed. He pulled her to the door.

"You had better not even fucking think of coming out of your room until I get back. Do you understand?"

"Where are you going? Are you going back outside?"

He grabbed her chin and made her look at him. "Do you understand?"

She nodded.

"Out loud!" he demanded.

"I understand."

"Good." With that, he pushed her into her room and closed the door behind her and hurried down to the garage.

<><><><><><><>

Michael had been alerted to the emergency after the warning siren sounded. He switched his radio to the security channel and demanded to know what was happening.

"It's Mariah," Yvonne said, amidst the other conversation on the channel.

"What happened?" Michael demanded, but everyone was too busy to answer him.

The security team was already responding to suspicious activity outside the compound before the alarm sounded. Yvonne had been monitoring a group of four men on the road outside the compound. Their presence was unusual enough that she alerted the rest of the security team. She recalled Andy and Nate from their perimeter patrols. Ezra was off duty in the gym. He ran up to join Yvonne in the security office.

Jack was on duty at the guard house. He was the one who noticed that Mariah was outside, not far from the wall. He was too far away to see the stone thrown over the fence, but he saw Mariah pick something up. He saw her read the note and take off running. He ran after her, relaying the information to Yvonne as he ran. That's when Yvonne activated the siren that sounded throughout the compound.

When Michael couldn't get an explanation over the radio, he raced down to the security office. He could hear Jack on the radio reading the note Mariah dropped. Fuck! He yelled into his radio. "She's going to go over the wall!" There was no question in his mind that she would. Henry couldn't have dug out. There were ten-foot treated steel rods in the ground beneath the walls, but Mariah didn't know that. She still should have had better sense.

Ezra was already in the security office with Yvonne when Michael came tearing in. On the main screen, Yvonne had an enlarged view of the feed from one of the hidden cameras built into the wall of the compound. Four men were milling around so close to the wall that the camera couldn't get them entirely in view. She turned up the audio from the microphone on that section of wall. One of the men had a radio. It beeped, and a voice on their radio said, "Throw the ladder now."

"Jack, there's going to be a ladder over the wall," Yvonne relayed.

"I see it," Jack reported between breaths. "No bad guys. She's running for the ladder. I'm not going to catch up in time." They heard him yelling her name.

"Jack, fire some warning shots." Ezra hoped it would get Mariah's attention and discourage anyone from coming over the top of the ladder. It was maddening not being able to see what was happening inside the walls. The sound of the shots over the radio was deafening.

"She's up the ladder."

"Cease fire," Ezra ordered. They couldn't risk spooking the men into firing while Mariah was exposed.

"She's over the top."

On screen, Mariah appeared in the frame with the men. Michael's stomach churned when one of the men grabbed her by the arm. He was so enraged that he had to keep blinking to get his eyes to focus.

Ezra started barking orders into the radio. "Nate, get up to the roof with a scoped rife. Shoot anyone who comes over the wall. Jack, get back here and head out in a jeep. Andy, you, too. Drive east of the gate until you see them. There are four of them and they have Mariah. Assume they're armed. The priority is containment."

Ezra turned to Michael. He continued speaking into the radio to keep everyone in the loop. "Michael, I need you to take over for Yvonne. Yvonne, get to a jeep as soon as he's in position. I'm driving out."

Ezra grabbed a second radio and ran for the stairs. On his way to the basement garage, he turned the second radio to the regular channel. "Daniel, this is Ezra. Get to the guardhouse as fast as you can. Arm yourself and man the gate. Switch to the security channel."

Ezra made it to the elevator as Yvonne's voice came over the radio. "They're running east on the road. Switching over to Michael at coms."

Ezra was the first to the garage. He grabbed a key and left the key safe open for everyone else. His tires squealed as he pealed out.

In the security office, Michael's heart was pounding. Everything had happened too fast for him to object to being left behind. Now he couldn't abandon his post. He could only watch helplessly as the men dragged Mariah away with them. He switched the main screen from camera to camera along the wall, keeping them in view. One after another, Yvonne, Jack, and Andy reported that they were en route. Ezra radioed that he had Mariah and the men in sight. They were nearly out of the range of the last camera when he saw Ezra cut them off.

"This is Ezra. I'm in position. Nate, get out here as fast as you can."

"Roger that. Watch out for hostile fire from the trees to the south of your position. I saw a glint from a lens."

On screen, Michael saw three more jeeps come to a stop in a line between the men with Mariah and the field. He could hear everything through the open channel on Ezra's radio. When Mariah wouldn't come to Ezra, he'd had enough. He didn't even have the presence of mind to radio his intentions. He just ran full-out. He was down the stairs in no time, only to have to wait for the elevator to get to the garage. When the elevator door finally opened, he snatched a motorcycle key, mounted the bike and rode out like a bat out of hell.

It was the longest quarter mile he had ever driven. When he skidded to a stop, he saw two men run off into the field. His instinct to run after them was immediately overridden by his need to get to Mariah. Relief hit him when he saw her looking out from behind one of the jeeps. The other two men were on the ground. He would gladly have spent the next hour beating them to a bloody pulp, but he was not going to do anything else until he had Mariah safe and secure at home.

Now that she was safely in her room, he wanted some answers.

<><><><><><><>

Michael was waiting when the security team returned. Yvonne stopped her vehicle in front of the elevator where Michael was standing. She rolled down the window to speak to him.

"I've got to get back to the security office. Do you want to use this vehicle, or should I park it?"

"I'll take it," he answered.

He caught up with the other vehicles easily. They were driving to another part of the basement complex, past the storage rooms. They came to a stop in a wide aisle between the armory and the practice range. Beside the armory, there were three small holding rooms. They emptied Carruthers' pockets, took his shoes and belt, and locked him in the first holding room.