Lauren’s stance began to bolster, and her tears evaporated. “We’re human, Lee. We all die eventually,” she said solemnly, resolve increasing in her tone. “When our time comes, it’s over for us. Those left behind alive, whenever someone they love leaves this earth, they…acclimate and get stronger, somehow. And each person, in his or her own way, moves on.”
“I guess.”
“Sooner or later, everyone will move on from this.” She paused extensively. “Everyone except me.”
“Huh?” Lee queried. “What do you mean by that?”
Lauren hesitated. “I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I told John goodbye the other day,” she began. “The thought of them…coming here and doing what they did, murdering people we love in cold blood as if their lives meant nothing. It’s insufferable. Unforgivable. And I can’t move on…not without making it right.”
“Without making what right?”
“I can’t let it happen, Lee. I’m not wired that way,” Lauren continued, her tone gaining zeal. “At least, not anymore. It’s hard to explain, but something inside me has…mutated. And I can’t turn the other cheek to this…I can’t take this lying down…and I won’t. I’ve been priming myself for a fight with them for a long time, but after this, I’m of a mind to go there, just as I am now, with a blade in one hand and a black flag raised in the other and fuck them up. This has to end. And I’m going to end it.”
“What are you talking about? Haven’t we dug enough graves in recent days? We can’t bring anyone back, Lauren! No matter what we do or how hard we try, it’s over. What’s done is done.”
“No, it isn’t. They haven’t been held accountable.” Lauren’s body went stiff. “‘For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh, will of the flesh reap corruption’.”
Lee only stared at her.
“That’s from the Bible. Galatians, if I remember right. My grandmother used to read me verses before bed when I stayed over. That one is about cause and effect. The basic nature of God’s justice.” A pause. “She’s there, you know, with my granddad, in that fucking camp; assuming they’re still alive.”
“Lauren, come on. That’s enough. You’re starting to sound crazy.”
“Maybe I am. But whoever’s responsible for this…they can’t be allowed to live, Lee. We have the right to seek vengeance, but an eye for an eye is outmoded and far too good for them. Every life stolen from us is worth a thousand of theirs…so we must take all of them. Exterminate them, wipe them out. Like roaches.” Lauren stared hard at the freshly disturbed earth making up John’s grave, with elevated brows. “We can’t permit them to go on breathing, eating, drinking, smiling, laughing…fucking, enjoying all the beauties and wonders of life. That can’t happen, and I won’t let it happen. I won’t agree to it.”
“Really? And how won’t you?” Lee quipped. “What the hell are you going to do about it? I’ll tell you what you’re going to do—nothing. That’s right, nothing. You may be tough and know how to shoot, but those people shoot back, and you’re not bulletproof. And you’re not superhuman, either. You can’t take on the whole world by yourself.” Lee scoffed. “Get real. The people who did this…you know as well as I do, they have an army. There are hundreds of them with machine guns, armor, tanks, and probably more of those things they used to attack us. You’re kidding yourself if you think anything you try is going to matter to them. You’re just one person, Lauren. One person, same as me, same as everyone else. You can’t fight a war all by yourself.”
Lauren took a step back and sent Lee a searing gaze before stomping the naked soles of her feet away and back to the forest. “Watch me.”
Chapter 31
The cabin
Trout Run Valley
Monday, March 14th. Early morning
Pressure in his bladder awakening him from a halfway decent dream, Ken forced himself out of bed and stumbled blindly to his bedroom door, hands held in front of him, feeling for obstacles. In the hallway, he rubbed his eyes and opened them wide enough to detect a faint flickering glow emitting from the cabin’s open floor plan ahead of him. A hand to the wall for stability, he explored farther and found Jade seated at the Russells’ dining room table, her appealing features accented by a trio of burning pillar candles atop a clear glass votive.
The current mission at hand exacting his attention and thus taking priority, Ken paid her little mind and let himself out to urinate off the front porch in the privacy of the valley’s early morning pitch blackness.
Chilled and slightly more awake now, Ken’s gaze landed on Jade upon reentry, noticing she was fully equipped and kitted-up in her tactical loadout. Her M4 carbine lay on the table perpendicular to her, and a coffee mug rested in her right hand. She tapped her middle and index fingers rhythmically on it, but no steam lofted from the top. Her cheek rested on her left fist, and her stare was transfixed on that which lay beyond the window.
At first Ken didn’t think anything of it, but the closer he got to her, he could tell something was off. Jade had never been one to divulge much about herself. Anything Ken had ever needed to know, she’d told him or allowed him to see. She’d been this way since he’d known her and had yet to deviate from that mark. If it wasn’t need-to-know, Jade hadn’t let it out in the open. But something had been getting to her since the other day, since the attacks that had
