all god's orphans
Chapter 56

At the sound of the siren, everyone instinctively gathered at the stage, including Grey who couldn’t make his way to the edges without drawing the attention of everyone at this point. Brian could see the general next to the stage berating two soldiers while his personal men stood nearby. When he was finished with them, they were placed in handcuffs and led away to one of the trailers that presumably locked from the outside. The general stomped up the steps and took the stage carrying lightning in his fists and thunder in his jaw.

“Turn off that damn siren!” He barked and had to wait for a few seconds before a panicked young man simply pulled the plug for the loudspeakers. The general’s voice still carried, but it didn’t need to go far. The entire place was in rapt attention wanting to know what was going on. Everyone except for Grey who had a sinking feeling he knew exactly what was happening. “I’ve just found out that two of our very own soldiers allowed an unknown man into my personal cabin. This man was a spy and stole several sensitive documents from me. We are going to seal off this camp and search every bit of it until we find him. If anyone knows who he is, speak up now, and as God as my witness, you will be treated fairly.” He stopped speaking as the crowd examined itself. No one seemed to be stepping forward. “Very well.” Said the general. “We’ll do it the hard way.”

MacDunn yanked Brian off to the side and as Brian was calculating the risks of just running into the forest, MacDunn surprised him.

“All right.” He began taking off the handcuffs. “New information means that you are the only person I can automatically eliminate as a suspect and vice versa because I’ve had my eye on you since you got back. Now listen, I want you to start over by the trailer side of camp and sweep to the middle. Make sure no one is left in a tent or anywhere else. I want everyone in front of the stage and then we begin our search. Do this right,” MacDunn continued as he handed Brian’s rifle back to him, “And I’ll re-think putting you up on charges.” Brian nodded and tried his best to seem like a company man before pulling on his balaclava and slipping away to find Carla.

Grey stood at the periphery of the crowd and wondered how he was going to escape now. If they searched his backpack, they would shoot him on the spot. Oddly, that was not the thought that scared him most. Rather, it was the idea that he had let Millie and Kite down. He wanted them to be safe. He wanted to protect them, and he was failing. As casually as he could manage with his nervous system screaming for him to ‘RUN’, Grey ambled towards the side of the camp where he hoped Millie and Kite were no longer waiting for him. He wanted them to be anywhere else.

Soldiers moved like locusts through the tents and unceremoniously dumped out every possible container that could hide something, no matter how small. Nearby, the women could only watch and complain about who was going to clean up this mess. It looked like the Tasmanian Devil had ransacked the place looking drugs. Grey slipped between two tents where some pallets of supplies had been stashed. Quickly, he took off the backpack and stashed it between two of them before turning back and almost running Carla over.

“Oh!” He said too loudly for his own comfort. “Sorry, Carla. I didn’t see you there.” She looked up at him, confused. Why was one of these black masked people speaking to her?

“Do I know you?” She wondered aloud. Grey pulled up his balaclava.

“It’s me.” He said without thinking and then realized he probably should be keeping a lower profile. Without another word, he pulled the mask back down and stepped around her. How odd, she thought to herself. Grey had to argue with his legs regarding the best way of reaching the forest. They continually begged to simply run as fast as they could, but he knew better. Stooping every once in a while to pick up a sack or some article of clothing, he would pretend to examine it and then toss it aside before taking another step. Nobody was paying any attention to him, and why would they? Everyone looked the same in camouflage and balaclavas.

After a few minutes of fake searching, he had made his way to the fence line and slipped out. Inside the camp, he could hide among the others, but in the forest, he felt naked. There was nowhere for him to hide if he was caught and he doubted any explanation would placate these guys. He had been so focused on getting outside of the fence that he failed to notice two soldiers off to his left getting closer to him.

“Kite?” He whisper shouted as loud as he dared. “Are you here?” There was no response, and for a moment, his heart leapt into his throat. Then, a soft rustling in the undergrowth gave way to Kite stepping out of hiding. Just before she could speak, she spotted the approaching patrol and melted back into the forest. Grey turned to follow her gaze and noticed that Carla had also followed him out.

“Carla?” He exclaimed. “What are you doing out here? Get back.” She seemed to neither notice nor care that she was in danger.

“You left your bag.” She said, holding up the backpack he had only just stashed. Before he could process this, the two soldiers on patrol closed in on them.

“What are you doing out here?” Asked the smaller one as the larger one simply stared at them. Grey couldn’t think of a good reason. “I asked you a question.” The smaller man said. Grey could see another soldier approaching them from the camp. Without a word, the small one snatched the backpack out of Carla’s grasp and opened it. His eyes widened as he regarded Grey. “You caught the spy?” He asked in amazement.

“I…” Grey stammered. “No. I…” He couldn’t think of an excuse that could exonerate both him and Carla. “She’s not a spy.” He said, stepping between the two men and Carla. “She just found that bag and was turning it in.” The shorter man’s eyes narrowed.

“Bullshit.” He finally determined, raising his weapon. “We caught the spies.” He said and then shouted louder. “WE CAUGHT THE SPIES!” Grey turned to see the other lone soldier getting closer.

“She’s not a spy.” Grey said as the third one arrived.

“How do you know?” Asked the short guy, shifting his aim back and forth from Grey to Carla.

“Because she’s not a fucking spy.” Said the third soldier as he caught up to them. The short one trained his weapon on the third, while the bigger guy had still not said a word. Looking into his eyes, it would be impossible to tell if he even understood what was happening, so empty was his gaze.

“Who are you?” Asked the shorter one and Brian pulled off his mask. “MacDunn said he was going to put you in the brig.” The short one pulled off his balaclava. Brian had never thought of Buck as intelligent, and now he saw how dangerous his stupidity could be. There wasn’t a flicker of independent thought in his eyes. Brian realized he had to tread carefully.

“Buck,” He began. “This isn’t what you think. Just put the gun down and I’ll explain.” Buck considered this for the briefest of moments.

“Bullshit.” He finally decided. “You’re the spy.”

“I’ve been here longer than you!” Brian reminded him, but that made no difference.

“Bullshit.” Buck repeated before yelling. “Hey!” Suddenly, there was a quick, metallic sound like the rings of a shower curtain being yanked back and then the muffled click of a blade hitting bone. Buck made a sound like someone had just knocked the wind out him. A short, “ugh”, escaped his lungs and then he collapsed to the ground, sliding from the knife that had been shoved into his back by the larger man. Brian didn’t know what was happening, and his confusion only compounded when the large man removed his mask.

“Holt?” Brian asked, but Holt could not raise his eyes from the forest floor.

“You were right.” Holt’s voice was small and sad. “It was about gold. We killed those guys for nothing but gold.” He didn’t seem like the same person. “We don’t even need gold anymore.” Brian stepped forward and offered his hand.

“I’m getting out of here.” He said. “Come with me.” Holt shook his head slowly.

“No.” He said simply and turned to walk away, heading deeper into the forest. After a few steps, he turned to face Brian and raised his hand. It was a gesture that was part salute, part goodbye, and part entreaty for absolution. Brian stared in disbelief for a second.

Seeing Holt now was like an optical illusion suddenly becoming obvious. He now could see the two faces instead of the lamp and he wondered how he had never seen anything else besides. It was a strange thing to watch happen in a person’s eyes. Brian raised his hand in return. Holt walked away slowly, letting his weapon fall to the ground with a tiny clatter. Grey thought that such a mighty and destructive thing should make a grander noise when you dropped it, but it sounded more like a plastic children’s toy than an unstoppable death machine. Grey pulled off his balaclava as Millie and Kite emerged from the forest.

“Who are you people?” Brian asked. “Spies?”

“Just people.” Kite replied plainly.

“Take us with you.” Grey said. When Brian didn’t respond, he added. “Please.” Brian took a look at Millie, Grey, and Kite.

“No.” He shook his head. “I’m travelling light.” He turned to head back down into the camp.

“Where are you going to go?” Grey asked, but Brian ignored him. “We can take you somewhere safe.” Brian kept going. “Why do you think we broke into the camp? The general had something we needed.” Brian stopped and let himself slide back down. He stood directly in front of Grey so he could see his eyes.

“What are you talking about?” He demanded.

“Take us with you and I’ll tell you all about it.” Brian smiled and headed back down the small hill.

“Nice try.” He told them. Grey had to tell the truth.

“We have a letter that will grant us access to a government bunker.” Brian had reached the top and looked back down at them from the ridge. “The general found it in my house and they charged me with murder. Who knows what he wanted it for, but we can use it to get to safety.” Brian considered his options. None of them were very good.

“All right.” He finally said. “You can come with me, but getting out of here is going to be tricky so you have to do exactly as I say. Also, we have to find someone first

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