First Page Preview
Chapter 1 Escaping North
In the heat of a Southern summer, two young women bounced around the narrow backseat of a white Ford truck, driven by a young man known as Johnny Mac. Johnny was taciturn, and if he had any affect, it was hidden under a bushy brown beard and a ball cap. Nothing appeared to distinguish him from most of the other men of the new Covenant States, except for the fact that he was helping them. The sisters were running, working their way north from Jacksonville, Florida, to escape the Covenant States.
The older sister, Seila, said, “Johnny, I don’t know how we could ever thank you enough for doing this.”
Johnny grumbled over the creaking of the truck, “Just remember, if you’re caught, you don’t know me.”
The younger sister, nicknamed Jim by her family, said, “Oh don’t worry about Johnny, Seila. He’s a pussycat.”
“Jim? Aren’t cats the serial killers of the animal kingdom?” asked Seila.
They all laughed, even Johnny, but Seila’s laugh seemed a little strained to Jim.
Jim’s real name was Ruby, but their dad used to call her, “my little gem.” At three years old, little Seila parroted back, “Jim,” and the name stuck while they were growing up.
Although Jim was the younger sister, she had lived on the run for five years since escaping a Redeemer conversion camp. But this was all new to Seila, and Jim worried about her. Seila used to have what some might think of as a generous, friendly face, with an easy smile and dimples, but her smile had been gone for some time now.
The sisters grew quiet, chewing fingernails or twirling loose curls around anxious fingers while the truck creaked over uneven roads and backlots. Jim had helped Seila dye her hair blonde before they left Jacksonville, but Jim’s hair was still dark. She had it tied with a blue kerchief that she took off periodically to soak with her water bottle and wipe her face and neck. The truck had no air conditioning, and sweat rolled infrequently into her irritated eyes. Jim sat up straighter and peered down the road. She said, “This road makes me think of Flannery O’Connor’s story, A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
Seila said, “Okay, I’m not scared now.”
Johnny smiled and said, “Keep talking like that, girl, and I’m going to put you out of my truck.”
“As well you should. Sorry. It’s not creepy at all.”
The sun went down as Johnny drove them down a forest service road about 15 miles south of Wendell, Georgia. They watched the sides of the road intently, until they saw silhouettes of men spring into full color and step into the beam of Johnny’s headlights. The men leveled assault rifles at the truck as Johnny slowed to a stop and rolled down the window. The men told him to get out of the truck.
As Johnny climbed down, he asked, “Hey y’all, is that you, Derek?”
“Johnny Mac, good to see you man. What are you doing all the way up here? Didn’t you move to Jacksonville?”
“Come to see my Mama. She alright?”
“She’s alright. Who you got in the truck?”
They walked away from the truck, and it became harder for Jim and Seila to hear them. In the backseat, Jim and Seila could do nothing except wait in silence and listen. Jim put a hand on Seila’s shoulder briefly, then whispered for her to put her hands behind her back as if handcuffed. The conversation outside the truck was muffled and might as well have been a foreign language. Mosquitoes whined through the truck window and alighted on them, but they didn’t dare move or call more attention to themselves.
Then Johnny walked back to the truck and eased into the driver’s seat, turned, and nodded his head. They both remembered to breathe. He drove the truck forward slowly on the bumpy road.
Jim said, “You knew those guys?”
“Cousins.”
“Thank God.”
“God ain’t got nothing to do with it. Those old boys; they’re believers. They’d kill you dead if they knew who you were, and they’d probably break a few of my ribs. Blood only goes so far these days.” He took a deep breath and exhaled, “Fortunately for us, they’re on the trail of a mother and her teenage daughter right now. But it’s not so fortunate for the Mom and her kid. Someone’s put out a big bounty for them.”
Jim asked, “How many miles will we get between them and us?”
“About seven more miles before we get to your trail. They might still come after us if they get to thinking too much about the bounty you two might bring. I told them I found you on the road back there and was going to take you in after I saw Ma. If I go back the way I come, without you, I’m screwed.”
Jim asked, “What are you going to do?”
“I know another way. I don’t know. Hell, maybe I’ll come with you.”
Jim smiled wryly and said, “Yeah, it’s a free country.”
Johnny laughed in derision and then said, “No, I guess I can’t leave Mama.”
Jim looked back, craning her neck at the darkness behind them, and then faced front to the darkness ahead. It was a long, seven miles before Johnny pulled over on a dirt track, barely visible in the dark.