The devil is knocking

The sun sank low in the sky as though waving a flag of surrender in the aftermath of the day’s chaotic defeat. A heavy weight sat squarely on Kayla’s chest as she awaited her fate. In the distance she heard intermittent screams and gunshots followed by the barking of angry men. Straining to hear footsteps that may be coming for her Kayla sat still, slow controlled breaths barely escaping her lips.

A slight pulsing vibration tingled Kayla’s leg beneath her jean pocket. “No!” Kayla reached for her phone to stop the noise. Breathing fast, she held the phone to her ear.

“Kay cat…” the voice that filtered through her phone was barely a whisper and slightly muffled as though spoken through a cupped hand.

“Dad! Where are you? Are you alright?”

Static filled the line.

“Dad!”

“Kay cat, I love you... Don’t worry about me I’ll be fine, you just get better okay? I need you to promise me that you won’t worry, I will be home soon as I can”

“I need you Dad! Please!”

“Do you remember the night we watched the moon shining over the ocean? It seemed so close and you thought you could row your little paddle boat out to the edge to touch it?”

“Yeah…”

“I’m close like that, even though you can’t touch me… I’m very close”

“But Dad, there are soldiers here! They’re shooting people and I’m scared Daddy…”

Silence filled the other end of the line.

“Daddy?”

“I’m coming Kay cat… don’t you worry, I’ll find a way…” his voice was thick.

A loud noise like gun fire sounded in the background and men began yelling but Kayla couldn’t understand the dialect. The phone crashed against the ground.

“Dad!”

Silence and then muffled yelling and a loud whipping sound.

“Dad! Please!”

The line went dead.

“No! Please!”

“Eagle one to unit leader six-four-four come in… eagle one this is unit leader six-four-four copy over…. carrier is on its way, nightfall we take them in, copy?”

Her breath caught. The soldiers, had they heard her on the phone?

“... Copy eagle one their all accounted for, age six and up are tagged and ready.”

The hairs on the back of Kayla’s neck stood up as she listened to the CB crackle off. She waited for the door to open, age six and up included her, what did that mean? He must be on his way to tag her too, but then what? The footsteps approached and stopped at the door. Kayla felt her heart throbbing in her throat, and she closed her eyes not wanting to see what she knew would happen next.

“Gerald! You not finished checking those rooms yet? Carrier’s here, we need sign off from all units and they wanted it yesterday!”

“Cool your heels! I’ve got it alright?”

“Then you should get down there, their asking for you.”

“I’m coming I said! Now go do something useful will you?”

The footsteps marched quickly towards the stairwell exit and then silence fell over the entire floor. Kayla slowly opened her eyes and let out a long slow breath. She waited. No one was coming. Could it be true, could she have gone completely unnoticed by the soldiers? She lay in her bed unsure what to do now, if she stayed here handcuffed to the bed she would die of starvation. Escape seemed a slim chance, but a chance just the same. Kayla began struggling with the handcuff trying desperately to pull her hand back through with big ugly red marks that now encircled her wrists being her only reward. Frantically she searched the room for something to break the hinge. The nightstand held only leftover food from her last meal before the raid and a pitcher of water standing beside a small vase of flowers her father brought in during his visit. The utensils issued by the hospital were plastic, absolutely no use to her in breaking handcuffs off. At the foot of her bed a small table held her medical records and beside it a small metal pen laid carefully next to it. It was a long shot, but it was the only thing she had handy so she reached for the pen. It was too far away. She stretched until her wrist screamed in pain and the tips of her fingers felt the edge of the pen. Slightly wiggling her fingers the pen moved a bit closer until she could get a grip on it and pull it into her hand. Finally! The pen fell into her hand and Kayla positioned it carefully into the keyhole of the handcuffs to pick the lock. Sweat beaded on Kayla’s brow as she worked feverishly to open the lock.

“Hey!”

Kayla didn’t even look up but continued to frantically pick at the lock. The clanging of the handcuffs on the bed rail was making too much noise. One of the soldiers must still have been on the floor and came running at the sound of the noises.

“Hey! What are you doing!? You’re supposed to be on that flight! Claude hold the plane, we have one more!” The young soldier ran down the hall screaming into his radio for the officer in charge.

Knowing her time had run out Kayla began to smash her wrists against the rails of the bed in a desperate attempt to break the hinges which only served to intensify the pain and small bones of her wrists were now visible through the large gashes in her skin.

“… You said there was one more… which room?” The two men ran towards her room in a hurry.

“No, No, No… don’t do that to yourself” a concerned man rushed into the room to stop the now panicked Kayla from breaking her own wrists. “Come on, now. Its ok, we’re just going to take you to a safe place, you’re going to like it there trust me. My name is Claude, what is yours?”

In spite of her fear, Kayla felt comforted by the man’s gentle voice and she did in fact seem to trust him. “Kayla.” She responded tentatively. With really no choice in the matter anyway, Kayla went with the man named Claude and boarded a plane now filled with sick and frightened children. Kayla was brought to an empty seat near the front of the plane and strapped in tightly. As she looked around the cabin she noticed that all of the children on the plane were marked with a numbered metal bracelet clamped to their wrist. That must be the tagging she had heard the soldier refer to. She glanced down at her torn wrist, the men had not tagged her, she assumed because of the gashes now allowing skin to dangle from the gaping wounds. Her suspicions were immediately confirmed when one of the young soldiers came over and placed a white strap with a large red cross on her arm, the universal symbol for first aid. Once that task was complete and a final re-check of all the hospital rooms yielded the nod of approval to confirm they were empty, the large crowded plane geared up for take-off.

As she watched the buildings get smaller and smaller until they looked like miniature figurines and toy cars in the streets Kayla thought about her dad. For the first time in hours she had the time to think, agonizing time to think. She missed him so badly, now Kayla was all alone in this strange new world and she just wanted to curl up and die; she imagined that feeling would not go away anytime soon.

_____________________________________________

The miles it took to walk back to his housing unit seem to be twice as long as it should have been. Claude couldn’t wait to get home and tell Ana what Roche had just told him. She will be absolutely thrilled he thought, finally what we have been talking about, dreaming about, it’s finally going to happen for us. He hopped up the steps two by two and burst through the door.

“Ana! I’m home and I have great news!!” He announced.

The house was silent, strange where could she be he wondered. “Ana?” He searched the rooms in the house one by one and began to get worried, then upset. Where would she go at this hour, this wasn’t like her at all. He smelled the roast beef dinner still in the oven and the kitchen table was already set with dishes. Everything was ready, but Ana was nowhere to be found. The anger and terror began to boil in his veins as the infinite possibilities ran through his mind. Storming through the house he rifled through her things to find clues. Clothes and shoes were tossed aside as he carelessly rummaged through the closet. Rows of picture frames containing pictures of MAGOG family went crashing off the bookshelf, no pictures of biological family but that was no surprise since it was against MAGOG laws to have ties with anyone outside of the organization anyway. At the back of her night table drawer he found an old shoebox and dumped its contents in a heap on her bed. Picking through the mound of junk he found 3 buttons from various campgrounds, a crumpled piece of construction paper with small bits of Styrofoam and macaroni glued on it, a set of car keys, a bottle of cologne and the letters.

“Claude… what are you doing in my room” he froze as he heard Ana’s nervous voice behind him.

“Um… I was looking for um… you’re favorite sweater to warm by the fire; I know how you get cold in the evenings. Where were you? I got home and you weren’t here.” He said quickly shifting from guilt to anger over her absence.

“I told you I had a surprise for you… I went to the market baker and got your favorite… Pirog .” Ana revealed the freshly baked bread pie filled with sweet goodness.

Claude instantly felt three inches tall. He put down the letter he held in his hand and decided not to push the subject any further for now. He moved closer to her and wrapped her in a warm hug which produced smiles and laughter that seemed to quickly light up the room. Leaving the mess behind the two of them decided to head back to the kitchen and enjoy a lovely meal prepared by Ana. The memory of the shoebox still niggled at Claude; he would have to question her about some other time but for now he dropped the subject, he was in high spirits again and wanted to share his good news.

As they sat down to eat, Claude looked across the table at his beautiful Ana, her hair framed her face as it fell down past her shoulders in a dark silky cascade and her eyes sparkled with a bright green.

“Ana, I met with Roche today” He began.

“You did? What did he say?” she asked.

“He called a meeting with me after you left the booth and he was very serious. He told me that it’s time. He wants to set up an ambush. He wants me to be in charge of the whole operation.” He paused, unsure how she would receive that news.

“Really? Good for you! That’s pretty important... isn’t it going to be dangerous though?” She asked tentatively.

“It’s dangerous, but with my training I should be ok. I think it will be worse for the men, many of them haven’t had any military training so I’ll need to teach them as best I can before we go.” He assured her. “Roche is also giving me a reward for my efforts, a big one.”

“What reward?” Ana inquired curiously and a bit excited as she anticipated the answer.

“He is going to make me a Governor in the New World” a smile broke across his face as he told her.

“Really… a Governor!? That is so great, congratulations Claudifer!” She jumped up and skirted around the table to wrap him in a big hug.

“Thanks. You know what that means …. you’ll have to learn how to act like royalty” he teased her and she laughed prancing around the room as though waving at her loyal subjects.

As they sat back down at the table, Ana grew serious again. Her mind seemed to be turning and the sparkle in her eyes dimmed.

“Claude, where is the ambush going to be?” She was trying to act indifferent, but Claude could tell this was important to her for some reason.

“It’s somewhere in Canada, Ottawa I guess”

Ana looked up from her meal “Ottawa?” Her mind seemed to be racing and her eyes got wide with fear.

“What’s wrong” Her face had gone pale as a ghost.

“uh… nothing. Can I come with you? …” She looked down to compose herself. “….I won’t be in your way, I promise I just really want to see Ottawa, it could be like a getaway trip for me.”

“Absolutely not” Claude replied sternly. “Ana, do you realize how dangerous this mission is? This is a military operation, not a family vacation!”

“I told you I wouldn’t be in your way… Please Claudifer, do it for me?”

For the first time, her sweet expression did not sway Claude’s decision. He couldn’t break down, he knew better than anyone just what could go wrong out there and he didn’t want her caught in the crossfire of a full scale war. “You will stay here where it’s safe, and that’s final”

Ana resigned quietly, head bowed in defeat, and continued to eat her meal in silence.