The Forgiven The Fallen The Forsaken (29 page)

If we could
just escape
, thought Sonya.  The problem was that the women were locked
into the master bedroom and bathroom when they weren't under direct watch of
the men, and the windows were now covered with bolted 2x4's.  There was no
chance of removing the barriers without tools. 

They endured,
but had no illusions about making it out of the situation alive if they
couldn't escape.  The problem was that escaping the house wouldn't be enough.
The Island was just too small.  They had to get back to the mainland.  Sonya
knew their opportunity would come, if they could just survive long enough.

FLAGSTAFF,
ARIZONA

AUGUST 21
^st

Helen and Julie
bought the house that they had once used as a lookout for the village.  The
state and county offices were slowly starting to be filled so it was possible
to arrange for property transfers.  The funny thing was that the owner of the
house actually had survived and was among the forgiven in
Phoenix.
They
flew down to meet him.  When they offered him double the cash value of the
land, he was thrilled to accept. 

After they
bought the house they told him of how they used the house as a lookout point
and how it served to let them give enough warning to save everyone on the day
of the tank incident.  He looked thoughtful and said, “It saved the president’s
life.  How about that!”

Jake had been
voted in as the mayor of Flagstaff and was doing a superb job, according to all
of the residents they talked to.  He helped them with the paperwork on the
house even though it was outside of city limits.  “I’m kind of doubling up and
taking care of the county as well,” he said, sheepishly. 

Helen said, “Be
careful or they’ll make you governor.”

He didn’t look
like he thought it was funny.

After
discussing it with Rob, they decided to buy the final property that Simmons had
mentioned in Washington state.   After Frank and Rita, Rob had no interest in
the property, nor did the rest of his team.  Julio said something about greed
getting you killed and having enough already.  Matt, Luke, Jamie, and Ricky
were bored enough to be interested, though they had more than enough money. 
Dave agreed to come along to handle the explosives and, "So you youngsters
don't go and get yourselves dead."

WASHINGTON
STATE

AUGUST 23
^rd

   They first reviewed
satellite pictures to make sure there was an airstrip.  Helen flew the group up
in the Navajo Chieftain to check out the property.

They followed
Rob’s example and flew over the site with infrared gear about an hour before
daylight and saw no evidence of any presence there.  After circling around the
area till daylight, they landed on the airstrip. 

Exploring the
site, they quickly came to the conclusion that the guards had helped themselves
to the warehouses and had mostly cleaned them out before leaving.  The hangars
weren’t big enough for missiles, so they weren’t worried about that part of
it. 

Helen looked
around and said, “By now the guards are three states away and they aren’t ever
coming back.” 

Julie kissed
her and said, “Let’s buy it!”  Having a good idea of the pattern, it took them
less than half an hour to find the vault’s location. 

They left it
buried and flew into the regional airport.  An hour later they met with a
representative from the county who had been assigned to them by the governor. 
In only a short period of time it was determined that the registered owner
never existed therefore could not be located.  By the end of the day, they had
the deed to the property. 

The group was
ecstatic.  Julie and Helen bought two tractor trailers and a tractor
bulldozer/backhoe.  People were so happy to get the cash that they sold them
for a song.  Matt said, “That will change soon.”

The difficult
part was finding a rough terrain bull dozer, but they finally did after a full
day of looking.  Helen said, “Thank God!”  Julie just laughed.

AUGUST 24th

The next
morning, the trucks left well before dark and Helen and Julie flew over the
site again with infrared just before daylight.  The only life they saw was a
large deer.

They called in
the all clear and soon the trucks were driving up to the runway.  It took less
than an hour to unearth the door and another twenty minutes to carefully set
the charges.  Dave blew the door off hoping to find gold.  Instead, they found
a 40 foot deep vault filled with palates of cash. 

All of them
just stared at the cash.  It was insane.  A week before it would have been
useless.  Now it was more than they could imagine.  They counted twenty
palates, all filled with $100 bills.

"There
must be a couple of billion dollars there," said Helen.  That's completely
insane." 

They loaded the
cash into the front half of the trailers and covered it with tarps.  Behind
that they loaded the forklift into the rear of the first trailer.

Jamie quickly
covered the vault back up with dirt then loaded drove the tractor backhoe up
into the back of the second trailer.   Matt placed a sign over the site of the
vault that said "Kilroy was here," and drew the famous picture of the
eyes and nose poking over a line.  Julie rolled her eyes, but Helen thought it
was funny.

Jamie and Luke
took one semi and Matt and Ricky jumped into the other.  Helen and Julie got
into the plane, carefully stepping around the bags of money they had thrown in
there.  After less than four hours on property, they were now on their way
again, heading back to flagstaff. 

The plane would
skip ahead to the next location where they knew they could get fuel, and get
airborne again after refueling and a quick break.  They kept this up until just
before dark, which put them well out of Washington. 

Julie and Helen
spent the night at a small airport after refueling.  The rest of the group
decided to push on through the night, with one driver sleeping and the other
driving.  About 4AM they decided to stop for a few hours of solid sleep.

AUGUST 25th, ON THE WAY BACK TO FLAGSTAFF

Julie and Helen
woke up with the daylight and were airborne not much later.  It took a couple
of hours to catch up to the trucks.  Julie was surprised at how far they had
gotten but she could tell that something was wrong.  She called on the sat
phone. 

Luke answered. 
“We sure are glad to see you!  We lost the transmission on the lead truck.  We
need to combine the load into one truck but we need a pair of eyes on
lookout.” 

Julie thought
for a moment and scanned the road ahead.  “Can the damaged truck run at all?”

Luke said,
“Yes, but it’s ugly.”

“Good.  If you
can make it one half mile ahead, there’s a large open space.  Park there and
sit tight.  We'll find another truck for you.

“Thanks, sis! 
That’s perfect!”

“We have to go
in for fuel, but we’ll be back soon.”

“Be safe.”

They flew on to
the next airport and paid far too much for the aviation fuel.  The clerk there
apologized, saying, “We don’t get a lot of it up this way, unfortunately.” 

Julie tipped
him and asked, “Do you know where I can get a working semi around here?”

He snorted and
said, “You don’t ask for much, do you?”

She said, “I’m
serious.  I’d like to buy one for cash.”  She could see the wheels turning in
his head turning. 

He got on a CB
radio and said, “Hey Ron.  It’s Skeeter.  You out there?”

After a moment
a voice came through. “Yeah. Skeeter.  Go ahead.”

Helen asked,
“Skeeter?”

He shrugged. 
“Pops always called me that for some reason.  Just stuck, I guess.”

“Hey Ron, can
you come out to the airport with Big Red?  I got some folks interested in
buying it.”

“Not for sale,
bro.” 

“Come on out
anyway.  Beer’s on my guests.”  He raised his eyebrows at them and Helen gave
him a thumbs up.”

“Now why didn’t
you say so?!  I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“That’ll be twenty
dollars for the beer.”

She handed him
a hundred and said, “Then you two should get good and shit faced tonight.  That
should get you warmed up.”

Ron was
everything they would expect from a friend of Skeeter.  He walked in and said,
“Hello, pretty things.”

Helen shook his
hand and said, “We’d like buy your truck.”

“Ain’t for
sale.” Skeeter handed him a beer. “Besides, money’s no good now anywho.”

Skeeter jumped
in and said, “That’s not exactly true, Ron.  Radio says they’re using cash
again and President Jim is backing it so it’s real.”

Julie asked him,
“What do you know about Uncle Jim?”

“Uncle?”
Skeeter asked. 

“That’s what
they call him in Arizona,” said Helen.

“Oh, well he’s
a good guy and one tough son of a bitch.  The guy took out a tank that was
coming for him just by digging a ditch.  They had to trick him into being
president.  How bad-ass is that?”

Julie dialed
her phone while he talked.  When Jim picked up she said, “Hi Uncle Jim!  Oh,
we’re half way back to Flagstaff and one of the trucks died so I’m trying to
buy another one.  Relax, we’re safe. She’s here. I will.  Anyway, could you
talk to my friends here, Skeeter and Ron?”

She handed the
phone over to Skeeter, who took it and said, “Hello?”  He listened for a moment
and said, “Oh my God.  It is you!  I was just tellin’ Julie about that tank
thing. 
What?!  She was there?! 
Of course we’ll help them out!  I was
just tellin’ Ron that money is good again.  Okay!” 

Skeeter handed
the phone to Ron.  “Uh, hi Uncle Jim?  Yes sir.  It’s just that I love that
truck.  Oh.  Okay.  Thank you President Uncle Jim!  Okay, sir, here she is.”

Julie took the
phone and said, “So?  Ha!  Me too!  Okay, we’ll make that happen.  Give Aunt
Susan a hug for me!  Oh, here she is.”

Julie handed
the phone to Helen.  She picked up the phone, “Hi Uncle President!  No we
haven’t discussed it.  Of course you’re right.  Come on!   I know you’re the
big cheese and all, but I don’t think now is the time to be discussing it. 
It’s just too soon.  Alright, I’ll take care of it.  I promise.  But this is
going to cost you; I don’t care if you are POTUS.  Yes, we’ll be there for
Thanksgiving already!  Love you too, Uncle Jim!”

“Holy crap!  I
didn’t think he’d ever let me off the phone,” said Helen.  “And by the way,
we’re going to the Rio for Thanksgiving, Julie.” 

Skeeter said,
“Hey, that really is your
real
uncle, isn’t it!”  Julie nodded.  “Far
out!”

Helen said, “Okay,
guys.  Here’s the deal.  We buy the truck from you and the rest of our group
picks it up on the way through here.  Then you fly with us back to Flagstaff and
we give you back the truck for free, ‘cause that’s what Uncle Jim said to do
and we already have extra trucks there.  Does that sound good?   And if
anything happens to yours we’ll get you one just as good or better.”

Ron looked at
her and said, “Wow! Yes!  We could drive it for you.”

“More people
than seats.” 

Her phone
rang.  “Excuse me, folks.” 

She saw it was
Luke and answered it.  “What’s up?” 

“We're leaving
Dave to guard the broken truck and the rest of us are heading your way."

I’ve bought a
rig here for you, too, but I have no idea how reliable it will be.  Hopefully
it will get us home.”

Luke said,
“That sounds good.  Is the airport off the main road?”

“Left side just
after you pass through town.” 

“See you soon.”

About a half
hour later, the rig pulled up in front of the airport office.  Helen had gone
out to the plane to stow the bags of money in storage and to get out the
payment for Ron.  She decided she liked the two so she pulled out $200,000 for
Ron and a $50,000 finder’s fee for Skeeter.

She walked back
in and paid them.  Both of them looked like they were ready to fall over.  She
said, “Uncle Jim likes you and this really is a tight spot that we’re in, so he
said to pay extra.  I would ask that you don’t tell anyone how much we paid
you.  That much cash in your pocket can get you killed if you tell the wrong
person about it.  Understand?”  They both nodded.  

Julie said,
“We’re going to be flying lookout for the trucks so you guys will get bored. 
You need anything?”  They shook their heads no.  Okay, we’re two days into
Flagstaff, so grab whatever munchies you need.  Remember, there’s no bathroom
on the plane, so beer can be a bad thing.  We’ll have plenty in Flagstaff.”

The whole group
was waiting for them outside.  Ron handed over the keys and pulled his things
out of the truck while everyone cycled through the bathrooms. 

"We're
going back for Dave and the other trailer," Matt said and he and Ricky
jumped in the truck.  "See you in about an hour."

Skeeter looked
at Jamie and Luke and said, “Wait.  You’re Luke and Jamie.  I can’t believe
it.”

Luke laughed,
and said, “And right now I gotta’ piss like a race horse, so give me a minute.”

Julie asked,
“How did you recognize them?”

“Oh, we have
satellite dish and computers now.   Those
forgiven
folks dropped them
off when they did our vaccinations.”

“I’m glad to
hear that!”

Once Matt, Ricky,
and Dave returned with the other trailer hooked up to Ron’s rig, they fueled up
both trucks at several times a reasonable cost before leaving town.  Luke
shrugged it off.  Things would stabilize soon. 

He was just
glad to be on the road again after this morning’s breakdown.  He couldn’t wait
to be back in Flagstaff.