Page 95 of Bitter Falls

There are other women coming toward us. I count five, plus a wispy blonde girl of about ten, and the babies and little kids. The other women are milling around, shouting. Some are kneeling and praying. Those are the ones Harmony can’t trust, I realize. The ones who won’t fight. Or who believe too much to try.

Harmony smashes a plank on the floor with the heel of her shoe, and beneath it is a white sack. She pulls it out and dumps the contents on the floor. Kitchen knives. She must have taken them gradually, I guess. There aren’t enough for everyone.

Vee’s turning her switchblade restlessly over and over in her hand. There’s a tense brilliance in her eyes that makes me worry she’s going to do something stupid. But I’m holding a table. Maybe I should use the knife instead.

The door slams open before I decide, missing Sister Harmony, and as a man charges in with a gun she buries a kitchen knife in his forearm. The gun goes off, but it fires into the floorboards. I back up. I know I should be doing something, but I don’t know what; I just know that everything seems to slow down, that I feel hot and clumsy, and people are in my way.

And then everything focuses and there’s an opening. I swing my table and connect with the side of his head; he staggers. I drop the table and shove him, and he stumbles, off balance. Vee trips him, and I watch him crash to the floor. He looked angry when he came in the door, but now it’s turned to shock. And as he realizes what’s really happening, he’s scared. He’s down on his stomach, squirming to get up.

I should get something to tie him up,I think, and I look around, but before I can find anything Sister Harmony’s dropped down on his back as he tries to rise, and with one quick thrust, she puts her kitchen knife in the back of his neck. I see it happen, and I don’t really understand it for a second, not until he goes still. It’s fast and clean, and I only realize that he’s dead a few slow seconds later. I don’t know how I feel. I only know that she’s crying, and she says—not to us, to him—“This time you’re the one who’s culled.”

Sister Harmony scoops up the gun before Vee can make a try for it, and the older woman raises it, covering the open doorway. “Vera, Connor, take the sisters and children to the RV, and find a way out of here.”

“Aren’t you coming?” I ask her. I know I should be afraid of her. Horrified, too; she just killed someone. But she’s like Mom, a warrior, protecting those she loves. I grab a little kid who’s crying by the hand, then pick him up. He’s heavier than I expected. Warmer.

Sister Harmony shakes her head. That heavy golden braid hisses like a snake against the fabric of her shirt. “I’ll bring the rest. As many as I can,” she says. “Just go. Don’t wait. Once they realize we’re loose, they’ll come for us.”

I stop and look at her. She’s never held a gun before, I can tell; her hands are shaking worse than mine. “You were supposed to kill all of them, weren’t you?”

She drags in a heavy breath and nods. “Day of reckoning,” she says. “I was supposed to burn the Garden and let no one live.Go, boy. And don’t stop!”

Vee yells at the other women and children to link hands, and she goes to the back of the line. I’m up in the front, with a dark-haired woman almost Harmony’s age. I remember someone saying her name: Sister Rose. She says, “We’ll need to run. I know where to go. I’ll lead.” She’s holding a knife, and she looks scared to the bone, but determined too. She holds out her hand, and I take it. Most of the kids are being carried. The little boy I’m holding has his arms around my neck, and all of a sudden I realize how dangerous this is, how he could be hurt if I fall or if somebody comes at us, and I’m not scared for myself anymore. I have to make sure he’s okay.

We run.

Toward the gate there are men clustered and guns booming, but they’re focused on whoever’s outside the gates. FBI.Mom.Mom could be out there.

I need to get Sam, but first I need to get this little boy who’s got his arms around me to safety. That’s most important. So we run, pulling each other along, and when Sister Rose stumbles I help her up, and we keep running. A man runs toward us to try to stop us, but when Sister Rose screams and raises the knife she’s holding, he stumbles back in surprise. He’s got a gun, though. One of those assault rifles. And as he backs up, he raises it, and I feel a pulse of ice cold go through me. I can’t do anything. Not with the kid in my arms.

Sister Rose lets go of my hand and launches herself at him, screaming. He stumbles again, and then she’s on him. When she gets up, she’s got the gun and there’s blood on her shirt. She takes off running again, and I follow, yanking the line along with me. I can’t look back. I’m scared that Vee’s in trouble at the rear, or that more men are coming after us. All I can do is keep chasing Sister Rose.

There’s Father Tom’s cabin on the far side of the church, all lit up. The barn beyond it is on fire.

And the RV is sitting right next to Tom’s cabin.

When we get there, I turn and look back, and they’re all still there. Vee’s at the end of the line, and she’s carrying a baby in one arm. She pushes up next to me. Sister Rose is pulling on the RV’s door, but it isn’t opening.

Locked.

There’s so much gunfire now. It sounds like the men are fighting a war. I don’t know where Caleb is, or Father Tom, but as long as they aren’t here, it doesn’t matter.

Dad.I need to find Dad. But first I have to get everybody in this RV.

“There’s a skylight up top!” I yell, and hand the little boy I’m holding to Rose. I scramble up the ladder at the back, kick at the skylight until the lock gives, and drop down inside to open the door for the rest of them. “I don’t have the keys!” I yell to Vee as she gets aboard at the end of the line and slams the door shut. The kids are screaming and crying, and the women crowd in around the bucket chairs.

“I don’t need ’em!” she shouts back, and shoves her way through the crowd of ladies to get to the driver’s seat. She drops into it, leans over, and starts yanking wires out. I guess she knows what she’s doing, because about thirty seconds later she’s got the engine going, and she flashes me a brilliant grin as she slips into the driver’s seat. “How you like me now?”

“I like you a lot,” I say. “I need to get Dad!”

“Boy, you ain’t going anywhere,” she yells, but I’m already moving back to the locked cabinet where Caleb kept the Tasers. I pry it open and take one of the Tasers that’s sitting in a charging cradle. I put it in my jacket pocket, and then I find what I need in the corner of the cabinet: bolt cutters.

When I turn around, Sister Rose is in my way. “Move!” I tell her. “I need to get Sam!”

She shakes her head and blocks my path to the door. I want to scream at her. Hit her. “You can’t go,” she says.

“Let me out! Vee!” I take the Taser out of my pocket. “I need to let him out of that cell!”

Vee’s got the RV in gear now. “Don’t be stupid, Connor. You get yourself killed for him, how do you think he’d feel? Besides, your momma’s comin’ for him.” She grins. “Wouldn’t want to get in the way ofthat. You! Can you drive?” She points at Sister Rose. “I need to make sure he doesn’t jump out and do something stupid.”

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