THE SW CASINO
By Minimizer
Chapter 125
The next morning I woke up with a stiff neck and back. Sometime during the night, I'd rolled over and into a position where I was twisted up against the dirt wall of the burrow. Also, I found myself covered with bruises, obviously from the beating I'd taken during the fight with the badger the night before. It took half an hour to work the kinks out of my sore body.
While I worked that off, I chewed on one of the raspberries that had been piled up in the middle of the room. I also found several strips of bark that had been curved and twisted into makeshift buckets. These were full of water, so I sipped at that for a while, glad to have a chance to quench the morning's thirst. I guessed that Rebecca had probably had these things made so we wouldn't have to all go to the river whenever we wanted a drink. Not a bad idea, I thought.
Still, there was one thing I had to do that couldn't be done in here, so I went up top and made my way out to the river anyway. Once outside, I suddenly felt the familiar fear overwhelm me again. I hadn't realized just how much safer it had felt inside that burrow until I came out into the open. At least it was daylight now, the sun just barely visible through the trees that towered over us, so I'd have a better chance of spotting any predator before it reached me.
As I headed down to the water, I actually saw one of the rabbits for the first time. Over near a bend in the river there was a small hillock covered with grasses, and a dark brown, long-eared bunny was sitting there munching away. It was facing me, but I couldn't tell from this distance whether it was aware of me or not. I imagined for a moment that it was one of Vicky's Watership Down rabbits, trying to figure out how a human being had become so small, and deciding whether or not it should try to talk to us. The thought made me smile, silly as it was.
At the river I relieved myself, making sure my body's waste was washed away completely by the current. I didn't need Rebecca to tell me this would be something a searching dog would pick up on easily. I stepped upstream a bit, got in, and washed myself off as best I could, then put my clothes back on and headed back to the burrow that had become our temporary home.
Amber saw me come in. "I gotta tell you," she said, "this place is amazing. Last night on the riverbank I was worried about how we'd make it through the night. You know we heard the dog again, right?"
"No," I replied. "I'm afraid I went right to sleep. For some reason, I was kinda tired."
She chuckled. "Yeah, I figured. Well, most everyone was asleep anyway, but I wanted to hear how Bigwig got out of Efrafa. It was weird. Just as Vicky was talking about them setting the dog on their enemies, we heard a bark. I think we all shivered a bit at the coincidence."
"Did it come close?" I asked.
"Yeah, too close," she replied. "We could actually hear Victor and Gary go past, arguing about something. I think they were on the other side of the river, though. They never came back, anyway."
"Good," I said. "That means they'll probably give up now."
"I think you're right," she replied. "That's why I think we should send someone back up to the house, to see if they've really left."
I nodded, for in the back of my mind I'd been thinking about the same basic idea. It wouldn't do to take everyone, of course, but now that we had some shelter here, I figured we'd be all right staying for a few days--however long it took for Victor and the others to finally clear out. "I'll go," I volunteered. "Lori will probably come, too, and I'd really like to have Rebecca as a guide."
"I was thinking the same thing," she told me. "Take Vicky, too, and Karen Mullins, just in case you run into anything you have to fight."
Karen, who I didn't know all that well, had helped us last night with the badger, and I remembered thinking she was a pretty good fighter. Her basic training in the Army had been a worthy investment, as far as I was concerned. Still, I missed Veronica now. She would've been perfect on our front lines. She would've liked this a lot, I thought sadly.
"All right," I said. "I take it you're all going to stay here for the day, then?"
"Yeah," she replied. "Remember, the FBI hadn't been planning to make their move until tonight, anyway. Assuming they can figure out where this place is, tomorrow is the soonest we could expect rescue."
I was about to say something in reply, but I stopped myself. This was Amber I was talking to. The owners would surely have tipped off their contacts at the casino by now, and all the evidence of this place would've been wiped out. That would mean, naturally, that Beth had probably been killed--and I didn't want Amber thinking about that! Fortunately, Lori chose that moment to show up, distracting us both from the awkward silence that had descended.
"Morning, Kate," Lori said as she walked in. I noticed with some surprise that her outfit was coated with something dark red--berry juice, my nose told me. "I assume Amber's told you what we're doing this fine morning?"
"Yeah," I replied, "everything except why you seem to have gone swimming among the raspberries."
"That's Rebecca's idea," she said with a laugh. "If we smell like this, the hunters won't come after us, and neither will the dog."
"Yeah, but what if we run into something that actually eats berries?" I suggested. "We'll be in real trouble then, won't we?"
"Better that than a predator," said Lori.
"Oh, all right," I agreed, picking up one of the fruits in front of me, one that had already been partially eaten. Rolling my eyes at how foolish this seemed, I rubbed some of the sticky innards back and forth across my catsuit. "All right, you happy now?" I asked with a chuckle.
"Sure," Lori answered with a shrug. "Anyway, come on, we're all waiting for you up top. You sure like your sleep, don't you?"
"Sorry," I said. "If I don't have an alarm, I'll sleep twelve hours if you let me. Anyway, see you later, Amber."
We waved goodbye, and I don't think either of us had any idea that when we next met, things would be a lot different. In any case, I headed up the tunnel with Lori, and once outside, we headed out away from the river. Vicky, Rebecca and Karen were all sitting down in the dirt, and Rebecca had drawn a crude map on the ground. As I approached, she reached out a kicked away a gigantic ant before it could scramble across her drawing and ruin it. The insect simply scuttled off into the undergrowth, unconcerned about that had just happened.
"There you are, Kate," Rebecca said. "I assume Amber filled you in, right? Well, I've been up this tree here and this is what we're looking at. We'll have a nice hike to this ridge, then we come in on the low end of the house here. If we go around to the left, we'll be at the front door, and beyond that is the parking lot. When we get here, we should be able to tell from the cars if anyone's there."
"What about the fence?" I asked. "If it's turned off, won't that mean they've abandoned the place?"
"I thought of that," said Vicky, "but it might be a trap. You want to be halfway up when they turn it back on?"
"Well, the cars could be a trick, too," I said. "There's only so much paranoia we can stand. Besides, all we really want right now is to scout around, so there's no reason to take any risks."
"True," Rebecca replied. "Okay, then, I don't see any reason to hang around any longer. Everyone's had food and used the restroom, right?"
They all nodded, and with that we started walking. The journey was much easier this time than it had been last night, since we could see more easily, and the oppressive fear that had hung over us during our rush to the river seemed to be much less noticeable now. We still glanced around constantly, and up at the sky, to make sure nothing was hunting us, and of course we jumped at every loud noise, but for the most part things weren't too bad. Not comparatively, anyway.
Partway up one of the many rocky slopes we had to ascend, we came upon a lizard blocking our path. It was maybe twice as long as I was tall and had a shiny, bluish-tinged belly. It seemed to be sunning itself and didn't react as we approached. We made a wide detour around it, not wanting to risk provoking it, but kept our pins at the ready should it decide to attack. It never moved, fortunately.
Still, its presence there suggested it was reasonably safe to be out in the open, because it didn't seem to be afraid of predators. We kept wary eyes out, though, just in case it might be wrong.
Without the other, slower-moving women to worry about, the five of us made steady progress. After about an hour or so, we spotted the top of the fence ahead, and fifteen minutes later we were close enough to hear that it was still buzzing with electricity. We stopped to drink some water Rebecca had carried with her in the quiver slung across her back, grateful that she'd thought to bring it along, because all that walking was thirsty work. Then we pressed on.
We didn't want to get too close to the fence, so we took a wide berth around it and emerged into a clearing. From here, we could easily see the front entrance to the mansion, guarded by the massive gate to the fence. There would be no easy way back in from here, I thought. Rebecca told us the parking lot would be visible if we climbed the next rise, so we headed that way, staying in the line of trees so no one inside the building could spot us in the open.
When we topped the hill, we saw at once that the lot was empty. Nearby, a ribbon of asphalt led away, climbing up a short slope to end at a guard post, which seemed deserted. The gate there was standing wide open.
"Looks like they've left," Lori said hopefully. "You think they'll be back?"
"Who knows?" asked Vicky. "Rebecca, you've been here longer than any of us. Have you ever seen the parking lot empty?"
"Nope," she said, "but then, I haven't stared out the windows all that much. Mostly, I spent my time reading and keeping myself exercised."
"Well, I did," put in Karen. "I spent a lot of time watching, hoping for some kind of opening so I could make a break for it. There never was. A few cars were always here, no matter what. I think this time they've really gone."
"Well," I said, "what do you all want to do? We could go up and see what's in that guard post. Maybe they have a way to call for help up there."
"Not a bad idea," said Rebecca, "or at least we can find out if maybe the road goes someplace where we might flag down a car or something."
"Yeah, there's a thought," laughed Vicky. "Us, try to get a driver's attention? Right!"
Still laughing, she followed along after us as we proceeded up the line of trees towards the little road. We all seemed a little more relaxed now that the place appeared abandoned. I guessed at that point that Gary and Victor had given up on finding us and just figured we'd be killed in the wilderness. Ha! Little did he know!
We were almost halfway to the road when suddenly we heard a crunching sound further up the hill. We all quickly ducked into the bushes, wondering what could possibly be making a noise like that, and then we saw a sight that really raised our spirits. Several vehicles were driving down the road past the guardhouse, and they bore government plates! Could this be who I thought it was?
The three black cars pulled into the lot and came to a stop. Several men got out, brandishing weapons, and my heart leapt as I saw they were wearing caps and flak jackets marked with those three glorious yellow letters: F, B, and I.
It was the cavalry! We were rescued!