Winter's Legacy: Future Days (Winter's Saga Book 6) (11 page)

20 The Billboard

The billboard stood stark and naked against the dark night sky.  Margo asked for the umpteenth time, how long they’d been waiting.

“It’s only been twenty
-five minutes, Margo.  The boys are coming as fast as they can.”

“That’s what worries me,” she sighed, rubbing her eyes.  They ached from straining to see further in the darkness than her mere human eyes would allow, and her useless legs bothered her more now than
they had in months.  All she wanted to do was stand and fight to protect her family.

“I don’t see anyone yet,” Farrow whispered into the anxious van.  With their naturally exceptional night vision, Farrow and Sloan had the responsibility of searching the horizon for headlights.  “At least we weren’t followed,” she offered.

“It shouldn’t have taken them this long, Theo.  We had this timed.  We know they should be able to—”

“Wait!” Sloan and Farrow whispered at the same time.  They looked at each other, eyes wide.

“What?” Margo craned around in her chair so she could see the girls in the back seat.

“You heard it, too?”  Sloan wet her lips worriedly.

“Yeah,” Farrow nodded slowly.

“Heard what?” Theo asked.

“The C4.  It just went off.”

“How could you possibly hear that?  We
’re so far away.” Margo tried to keep the frantic tone from her voice.

The girls had identical apologetic expressions before they looked away from the distraught woman.

“Margo, the C4 was supposed to have gone off twenty minutes ago.” Theo said the words they were all thinking.

“What are you saying?” Margo snapped, tears welling in her eyes.

“I’m saying we’ll give them time, of course.  Our pilots, Jacobi and Trainer will wait for us,” he said, though his voice faltered.  “But you may have to prepare yourself for the worst.”  He looked away from her tortured face.  “We both need to prepare.”  His voice hitched at the thought of losing his only child.

“Prepare myself for what, exactly?”  Margo
leveled her gaze though her body began to quiver.  “You want me to prepare myself for the thought that the boys may have sacrificed themselves just now?  Prepare for the rage and guilt at the idea of our children detonating the C4 to take out as many of the enemy as possible, just so we would have a better chance of escape?  Are you kidding me?  Never!  Never!  I will not prepare myself for that!  I will wait here until I grow roots if I have to, but I promised our children I would meet them at this God forsaken billboard in the middle of the desert, and I will not leave until they are with me!”

The car waited in silence, Margo’s words bouncing like a pinball around those who sat in rigid stillness, reeling in their wake.

Time slipped by.

“How long do we wait before we go back?”  Farrow was the first to whisper past the still palpable anguish.

Little Danny, still buckled in his booster seat was looking around wide-eyed, scared but waiting, somehow knowing better than to speak just then.

“We’ll stay here until Margo’s ready to do something different,” Theo breathed, then reached for his phone to send a text message to the trusted pilots waiting for them in a trans-Atlantic-ready plane, some forty minutes away. 

Delayed.  Please wait. 

To Margo, Theo’s words were a tonic on the distraught mother’s soul.  She looked over at his exhausted face and knew she loved him more in that moment than she had ever loved him.

Theo’s phone vibrated in his hand.  The pilot, Captain Jacobi’s response read:  Sand storm en route.  We leave soon or must wait until it passes. 

Theo hesitated
to relay the news, but in the end felt obligated to let everybody know the situation.

Everybody took the news with wide-eyes and dry throats.  They knew it would be dangerous for them to have to wait the hours it could take for the storm to pass.  Williams would be just as trapped as they were, but he wouldn’t hesitate to send his metahumans out in the storm to keep hunting them down.

The digits on Farrow’s wristwatch stabbed forward one minute after the next and still there was no sign of the boys.  She willed headlights to beam down the road so badly that phantom lights and shadows played cruel tricks on her mind.

That’s exactly what she thought was happening when she saw the beginning of a white glow slipping over the dip in the road.

“I see something,” Farrow finally said, once the twin headlights became obvious as real and not wistful aberrations.

“I see it, too,” Sloan’s voice hitched from thoughts of Cole.

“Headlights?” Margo breathed.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Do they look like those of the sedan?” Theo asked.

“They could be, sir.  They’re fast approaching.”

Time seemed to hold its breath waiting for the lights to get closer.

“Is it them?” Margo couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Stand by.” Farrow breathed, straining her eyes to look inside the vehicle—willing herself to confirm the visual they were desperate for. 

She thought of Alik—of his blue, blue eyes crinkling at the corners when he smiled down at her
.  His love and devotion to his family as crisp as the blue in his eyes.  Farrow never doubted for one minute, he was just as desperate to find them as they were to have him back.  A mental picture of him with humor twinkling in his eyes forced her to bite back a whimper.  He would do anything to make her smile, and she loved him for it.  She’d lived more in the past year than she had her entire existence before Alik. 

“Well?” Margo asked, anxiously.

“It’s a sedan,” Farrow offered lamely.

“Color?” Theo asked.

“It’s too dark to tell,” Sloan responded, “Give us a few more seconds.”

Everyone obeyed, praying silent prayers.

“Negative.  It’s red.  The sedan is red.  It’s not them,” Farrow nearly sobbed when she realized it.  The others in the van gasped softly, but held their tongues. 

“I’m sorry,” she breathed, her eyes downcast and stinging with tears not just from the strain and exhaustion.  Heartbreak and numbness were starting to envelop Farrow.

“We’ll just give them more—”

“Wait!” Sloan exclaimed.  “We’ve been so busy following this first vehicle, we didn’t notice the one a mile behind it.  It’s silver or gray
—a sedan.”

Hope leaped into Farrow’s chest as she repositioned herself next to an opened window so she could have an even clearer view.

“Could it be?” Margo whisked away the annoying tears coursing down her cheeks.

“I think
—” Farrow began, but hesitated before diving in. “I think this could be them!”

“Keep watching,” Sloan encouraged.

“It looks like one of the larger boys driving: either Alik or Creed.”

“Who else do you see?”

“That’s either Cole or Evan in the front passenger seat.”

“Are there four of them in the car?” Theo asked, worried.

“Sir, I can only confirm two at this distance,” Farrow responded robotically, though inside she was leaping around the van like a little kid Christmas morning. 

Alik’s alive
!  He has to be alive!
Farrow’s heart pounded loud enough for her to hear ringing in her ears.

Maze whined plaintively before moving to look out the window into the night sky.  His night vision was excellent.  Maze scratched at the window with the nails on his huge paws. 

“Hold on Maze,” Margo cooed.  “It’s them—it’s got to be.”

“I think you’re right, Dr. Winter.” Farrow didn’t even try to contain the wide grin spilling across her pixie face.  “Five.  I count five people in the car, but those in the back seat are slumped over.”

21  The Heart Knows

“I hope the others are okay.”

“They have to be.”

“Right,” Evan breathed.  His sharp hazel eyes searched the horizon for the silhouette of the billboard they’d chosen months ago as their meeting place.

Evan kept craning his neck around to check those in the back seat. 

“How are they doing?”

“Cole keeps drifting in and out of it.  He’s out now.”

“What about Alik?”

“He’s in a world of hurt.  His face is all swollen and I don’t like the raspy sound he
has started making when he breathes.”

“And the girl?”

“I don’t know, man.  I think she’s barely hanging on.”

“The family can fix them up, though, right?”  Creed tried to keep his voice upbeat, but he’d seen the damage those chemicals had done to Alik’s face and he’d seen soldiers die
from fewer bullet wounds than Kylie suffered.  

“Of course we’ll get them fixed up.” Evan’s voice was an octave too high to be believable.

The boys exchanged worried glances.

“We should be nearing the billboard soon,” Creed offered to change the subject
—in case anyone in the back seat was listening.

“Soon,” Evan agreed.

“Where are we?” a groggy voice asked from the back seat.

“Hey Cole, good to see you awake,” Creed said glancing at the beaten kid through his rearview mirror.  “We’re nearly at the billboard.  Just a few more minutes and we should see
—”

“There it is!” Evan interrupted excitedly.

Creed followed Evan’s line of sight and found the silhouette of the billboard against the starry night sky.

“He’s right, Cole.  It’s there.”

“Yay,” he offered weakly before letting his head fall back against the headrest with a thud. 

“They’ve got to see us by now,” Evan said mostly to himself.

“They’re watching,” Creed nodded.  “Farrow and Sloan will be able to see us if we can see them.”

The car full of battle-w
eary metahumans plus one wildcard picked up speed, closing the distance between them and the family they could now see was anxiously waiting for them. 

When they pulled off the highway and stopped near the family van, it was sheer relief that gave them the strength to pour out of the sedan and embrace the family they had just risked their lives to save.

“Thank you God, for my children,” Margo kept murmuring as she reached up from her wheelchair with open arms, embracing each boy in turn and kissing them on the cheek as only a mom can.

“Where’s Alik?”
  Margo shifted in her seat to try to see into the sedan.

R
RROOAAARR

“What the hell?” Evan looked up into the night sky.  His light
-brown hair was tousled around.

“I thought we’d have more time before the sandstorm,” The
o yelled over the growing roar of a pounding wind.

22  Farrow’s Turn to Fight

“This is no sandstorm!” Farrow screamed over the noise.  “It’s a chopper! Get everybody out of here!”  The soldier in her recognized the wind pattern tangling her pixie locks. 

They followed us with aerial night vision.  Shit!

Theo scooped Margo straight from her chair and raced with her in his arms back to the van.  Evan and Creed bolted to the sedan.  Maze was barking ear-piercing warnings to the family as he herded Danny back to the van.  Sloan reached down, picked up the little boy and hurriedly tossed him into the van before grabbing several bottles of water from the package at Danny’s feet and rushing back to the sedan. 

Farrow had
darted to the van but only to load Margo’s wheelchair and grab her rifle.  She slammed the door closed on the wide-eyed expressions on the faces of the people who had become her family.  She shouldered her weapon and pointed it to the sky, ready for battle.  When the van didn’t move, she slapped the door with her hand.  “GO!” She shrieked and waved frantically to Theo to drive away. 

“What about you?”

“I’ve got this!  Get them to the airport.”

For a half second, the middle-aged doctor locked eyes with the trained assassin before nodding once.  With equal amounts of terror and respect for the girl he was leaving behind, Theo punched the van back onto the highway and floored it.  The tires spun uselessly on the road rapidly being covered with
the blowing sand before the four-wheel drive kicked in, gripping the road in desperation.  The sedan with the other half of the family was right on their tail.  Creed drove skillfully, controlling the car with a deft touch. 

Knowing the family
trusted her to take out the enemy steeled her resolve. 

Leave my family alone!
She mentally screamed as she tasted grit between her clenched teeth.  She closed her eyes against the blowing sand and used her other senses to tell her where to aim.  The roar and gushing wind was starting to move away from her as the chopper adjusted trajectory to follow the cars.  Farrow adjusted her blind aim. 

She could smell the fumes, hear the blades whipping the Egyptian night sky and feel the sand stinging her face
and eyelids. 

She took a slow breath in, aimed instinctively and squeezed the trigger.

Pop, pop, pop

She listened to the impact of the bullets
tear through metal and had time to smile with satisfaction before hearing the blades of the chopper angle dangerously close.   

Instinctively, she leaped away from the sound, skidded on her jean-clad knees curling into a ball
and covering her head with her arms. 

The blades
shredded the wooden billboard sending splintered projectiles barreling toward the metahuman.

A burst of fire tore through the air, lighting the night sky just in time to see the chopper careen nose-first toward the dunes just past Farrow.  The dying machine's tail blade motor was billowing smoke, blackening the stars from view as it aimed itself to exact revenge on its killer. 

Everybody watched helplessly through their car windows as Farrow disappeared in a thick explosion of sand. 

“Oh dear God, no!” Margo breathed her prayer, worn hands covering her mouth and nose
.

The family hadn’t driven far before the sedan turned back, skidding in a wide turn.  Theo followed seconds later.  No one was willing to leave anyone behind
—never again.

Everybody
grimaced in stunned horror at the space where Farrow had been moments before.

D
ust began to settle mournfully.

Sloan had donned gloves and crouched on the floorboard of the sedan's back seat.  Even with all the commotion going on outside, and the jostling they were experiencing inside the vehicle, her steady hands kept working to flush Alik's eyes.  She had been carefully but hurriedly drenching Alik’s face
, trying to remove as much as the burning oil as possible without spreading it.  She had only used one water bottle on him when he woke with a gasp.  His eyes so swollen he was nearly blinded. 

“Farrow!”
he screamed against the ominous silence.  His voice sounding like shreds of vocal cords strummed with sandpaper. 

Sloan watched in awe as he clam
bered to unfasten his seat belt and felt around in a painful fog for the door handle.

“Alik, I need to keep working on you
—”

“I need Farrow!”  His raspy voice cut through the menacing quiet that followed the chopper crash.  His swollen fingers grabbed the handle and yanked it open, spilling him onto the
sandy ground.

Margo watched her son with tears in her eyes through the windshield of her van.  He stumble
d on his weak legs desperately trying to stand, blinded and in pain. 

“Farrow!”
His voice cracked with anguish.  He reached blindly and began taking heart-wrenching steps in the dark, looking for the girl he somehow knew was out there and needed him. 

“
Margo, what do we do?” Theo whispered.

Margo
shook her head sadly.  “Maybe she—”

“There’s no way she survived that,”
Theo finished her thought.

Everybody watched in horrified sadness as Alik stumbled on wobbly legs, hands outstretched searching for the girl who captured his heart in her sparrow’s wings.

After a dozen yards, Alik sunk to his knees in the sand, shoulders hunched over and sobbed.

“How does he know she was out there?”  Evan asked no one in particular. 

“The heart knows.”  Sloan choked back a sympathetic moan as she watched.

“Give him some light, Evan,” Creed nodded toward
the scene.

Feeling the weight of his brother’s sadness, Evan stepped out of the car, reached for the lighter in his front pocket and instantly created a ball of glowing firelight,
illuminating a large radius in the sea of sand.

Time hung limp in a hangman’s noose and no one moved.

“Alik!” a small voice called.

Raising his head, Alik used his hearing
to track what could have just been an echo of her voice carried on a cruel breeze.

“Farrow?” he coughed through tears.

Running footsteps approached.

Alik struggled to get to his feet and once upright, swayed as though
standing on the bow of a small boat rocking in the sandy waves.

Every
body watching from the cars only saw Alik raise his hands to touch black night air until a pale, feminine face dusted in sand stepped out of the darkness and into the glow of Evan’s firelight.

“I dreamed
—” Alik’s swollen eyes began to spill fresh tears of relief.

“I’m here,” Farrow
managed softly, though she had breathed in the desert.  She reached out and laid her hands on Alik’s shoulders.

“Are you hurt?”  He desperately wanted to see for himself, or at least touch her face, but he knew better than to spread the painful oils to the girl he loved more than his own heartbeat.

“I’m okay, but we need to go, baby,” Farrow ignored common sense and took Alik by the oily hand to lead him back to the cars.

“I don’t want
to hurt you,” he tried to pull away.

“Not t
ouching you would hurt me more.”  Farrow continued to pull him along.

“You’re amazing, little sparrow.”

“We need to move, Ally—” she coughed, desperate for a clear airway, “—those guys in the chopper must have radioed our position back to Williams.  They’ll be coming for us.”

“I’ll follow you anywhere,” Alik gri
pped her hand. 

The two approached the van and Farrow helped Alik into the far back seat before climbing in herself. 

From his car seat, Danny’s eyes were wide with worry at the sight of his brother.  Having taken his responsibility as guardian of the defenseless child seriously, Maze leaned back against him to shield the boy’s view before a series of canine sneezes hit.  His sharp nose was feeling the sting of the pepper spray wafting in the air.  When he finally stopped sneezing it was only because he started licking his muzzle and whining sympathetically.  Danny wrapped a pudgy arm around him and craned his neck around so he could see his brother.   

Margo’s heart squeezed tightly in her chest for her oldest
son.  The soldier in her forced her shoulders square and her voice calm.  “Farrow, are you well enough to help Alik wash away the oils from his face?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Farrow said
through a raspy cough and started searching for supplies with shaking hands. 

Theo’s phone started chirping.  He glanced down at the screen.  “Margo, they’ve shut down the airport because of the approaching storm.”

Margo flinched reflexively.

“Jacobi recommends we take cover as they’re reporting damaging high winds and zero visibility.” 

“Mom!” Evan’s voice carried through the rolled down window of the sedan that had pulled up beside them. “We good to go?”

“Yes,” she nodded.  “Change of plans, though.  Sandstorm shut down the airport.  Just follow us
,” she yelled.  Trying to decide what to do, Margo looked back at her children who were trusting her to keep them safe.

“What do you want to do, Margo?”  Theo was looking at her expectantly.

Watching her son with Farrow made her heart swell with desperate hope for the future.  Then her eyes locked onto Danny.  He had been watching the worry and panic carve lines into his mother’s face.

“Danny?  Remember what you said to me about the salt water?”

“Yes!” His whole face broke into a wide smile.

“Do you think you could try to help Alik feel better?”

Danny started bouncing excitedly in his seat.  Concerned over the sudden change in his behavior, Maze whined and licked the boy’s face causing the curls on that side of his head to stick up adorably.

“I can help every
body feel better, Mommy.”

Margo smiled widely at her youngest son’s enthusiasm.  She turned back around and looked at Theo.

“Are we really doing this?”  Theo asked.

“Head south.  We’ll look for signs leading us to the turnoff for
the Fayed Oasis.”

“You want to take the children to ‘The Great Bitter Lake’ in the hopes that our four
-year-old will be able to cure their wounds in the salt water?  And all of this has to happen, oh I don’t know, before a sandstorm rolls in?  Not to mention the insane Dr. Williams on our heels trying to wipe us off the face of the earth?  Have you lost your mind?”

Margo frowned, “Well, when you say it like that, i
t does sound pretty far-fetched—but can we argue as we drive?” Margo motioned emphatically toward the road.

The van made a wide turn followed by the sedan.  Within moments, they were driving as fast as they could down the road.