Freedom Earned Read online

  Prenie blinked and threw up her hands. “You can’t make it, you’ll—”

  “More are coming, have no doubt about that.” I situated him on the front of the canoe, over the rubber part, then guided it back to the water, pushing with effort. My advantage was that I didn’t care about getting wet. Once it was in the water, I took the double-sided oar, climbed in, and pushed off. “Move it!”

  She stared at me with horror, but nodded, following.

  “Alex,” she muttered, pulling up close to me. “Is he… going to make it?”

  “Not if we stay here, that’s for sure.” The implied rest of my answer was that out there, I had no idea. “Are there doctors around, anything like a hospital?”

  “Shit, shit, shit.”

  “Prenie! Please—”

  “I don’t know! We’re at a bungalow on Ko Wua Talap. It’s not so far, but… far enough.” She grunted, rowing with all her might and catching up to me. “My guess… three to four miles from here.”

  From there, she started to pull ahead since I was not only rowing for two, but a little unbalanced with Alex’s limp form on the front.

  “Tell me what else was there,” I demanded.

  “A bunch of bungalows and tents, basically. Um, a restaurant—only one on the whole island, that I know of. Some huts where the locals live, spread out.”

  “Our best bet is to get there and hope to God someone knows something about medical. I can try to—”

  More shots sounded, pelting the water behind us.

  “Shit!” Prenie shouted. “Damn, hell—”

  Another shot cut her off and created a spray of red from Alex’s leg. The fact that he didn’t react told me something I didn’t want to know. We kept rowing, picking up speed and turning in the water to go for the protection of the hill. If the shooter followed, he would have to lean over the edge to get a shot, and at that point, we would be gone.

  My arms ached from rowing, but I leaned into it, giving it my all. Prenie had apparently been at this a while because she knew what she was doing. Her canoe moved deftly, revealing her control of the water.

  Soon, we were clear, no shots coming after us and the contours of the island giving us the advantage. I thought maybe we could go on and escape, but there were two problems: the body, and the fact that Prenie was making for the cliff of the island, where I spotted a ledge and what looked like a small cavern leading from it.

  “We can go on,” I called, pulling up next to her.

  She could barely look at Alex, her eyes red and puffy. “Not me.”

  At first, I thought she meant purely emotionally, but then noticed the holes in the front of her canoe—it was taking on water.

  “There,” I called out, but she was already rowing for it. She was out first, pulling herself and a bag free, then helping me. Together, we pulled Alex up, although he was clearly dead. No doubt about it, but I checked for a pulse anyway and held the back of my hand up to his nose to feel for breathing, to be sure.

  “Give me a moment,” Prenie said, pushing the remaining canoe out. I started to protest, but she motioned to a hole in the back of that one, too. “If anything, it’ll be spotted and serve as a distraction. With one of us in it the thing wouldn’t last long, not leaking like that.”

  I couldn’t believe the shots had been so close. Turning and running my hands through my hair, I paused to feel the shaved sides feeling overgrown—by Marine standards, anyway. We would get out of this, I told myself, but already felt my identity floating off like that canoe. If we made it out of here, which was a big if, I couldn’t see how I would ever be the same person I had been. Maybe that was a good thing. What had I been up to with my life, anyway? The same old routine, simply doing my duty and getting by. If I was honest, the breakup had been mostly my fault, because of my lack of giving a shit.

  All that would change after this, but not only with relationships. With everything.

  Prenie was kneeling at Alex’s side, her eyes shut. Birds chirped in the distance and the water lapped at the rocks.

  “The shooter…” I started, hating that I had to interrupt the moment. “He won’t give us long.”

  She cursed, nodded, and then slipped Alex into the water. “I won’t let those bastards have his body. Not a chance.”

  I didn’t say anything about how he would likely float, or at least come back up at some point, somewhere. We couldn’t linger any longer than we already had.

  When she stood, her brow was furrowed, eyes focused in determination. One quick glance my way, then she strode to the right and the way out of there, then ascended. Angled palms and hanging tree limbs worked as leverage to help us climb. Soon, we were moving along a relatively flat bit of land. It was overgrown but could have long ago been a farm of sorts.

  My breaths were heavy in the humidity-thickened air. Amped up on adrenaline as I was, my body shouted for action while my brain pleaded for rest. Coffee would have been a godsend, and I started fantasizing about a cortado this coffee shop by the base on Okinawa had done so well. It was the perfect place as far as my sweet-loving friends were concerned, since they had the best butterscotch latte in the world and some amazing Swedish pastries. A slick hillside nearly sent me tumbling, but as I slipped, my hand shot out and found Prenie’s reaching for me.

  “Almost fell there myself,” she said, braced against a tree.

  “Thanks,” I replied, and accepted her help.

  Once past that step the ground was rockier, so I let her hand go. Not sure how to deal with the fact that I had caused the death of her friend, we walked in silence for a bit, but that felt wrong, too.

  “Did you want to…” I started, not sure how to finish that.

  She glanced back with an arched eyebrow but no words.

  “I mean, sometimes people pause and say a few words. Since we can’t really pause, maybe while we walk?”

  The scowl lessened and she nodded, slowing so that I could walk beside her. We were in a patch of jungle at that point, but with the trees far enough apart that we could walk side-by-side. Oddly, she still didn’t say anything for a little. Then finally, she muttered, “Not yet.” Her voice was choked up, but I didn’t look to see if she had tears in her eyes, instead opting to let her have the moment in peace.

  A drop of water hit the back of my hand, then another landed on my cheek. Rain started to fall in a light pitter-patter, picking up as we went so that it was soon cascading down leaves and not giving us any breaks.

  Prenie saw the building first. It nestled along the hill and seemingly continued down the other side, with another of those overgrown fields near it. Maybe a farm, once… the house built on thick sticks like stilts and a thatched roof, missing in places. Looking at it brought memories of the scent of mildew. We made our way toward it with caution, scouring the surrounding jungle for the enemy. No sign of them, though, and we were both relieved to find cover from the rain on its porch.

  For a long moment we stood there, drenched and looking out over the rainfall, streams already forming and turning the ground to mush. The old field would be flooded soon. Humidity hung heavy like a thick blanket. Even the rain was warm on that hot day, and it brought with it a smell like mint lemonade, oddly enough. Or maybe that was merely a craving of mine.

  “You got Alex killed,” Prenie muttered, not looking up at me.

  I drew a deep breath, not wanting to have to deal with this but knowing it merited discussion. “Listen, your boyfriend—”

  “Not my boyfriend,” she cut me off, “and don’t you start a sentence with ‘listen’ right now, got it? After this B.S., you don’t get to tell me to listen.”

  “I’m… sorry. But getting your friend hurt was the last thing I wanted.”

  “Killed. To be clear—not hurt, but killed.” Her eyes bored into me. After a moment, she sat on the rickety step with her pistol in hand, eyeing the surrounding jungle and overgrown field below. “I fucking wish they would come at me right now.”

  I nodded.
There wasn’t a whole lot I could say in response to that. While I wanted to be as far away from our pursuers as possible, the desire to blow their heads off one by one certainly wasn’t foreign to me. My mind raced with images of my hatchet tearing into the man I had taken down back there, the others too. Some men joined the Marines because they wanted to kill, others to die in a moment of glory. I was of the variety that had simply joined out of a sense of duty, to serve and help make this world a safer place. A desire to actually be in combat, especially to have to hurt or kill anyone, had been the furthest thing from my mind. At that moment, though, I could almost taste the craving for blood. Alex hadn’t been a friend, yet, but he was innocent. He didn’t deserve to die like that.

  They had killed him to get to me. By staying with me, she was putting herself in danger, too. With a grunt, I stood to go.

  “Stop,” she said.

  “I can’t do this to you.”

  “Sit your ass down.” She pointed to the step, as if there was any confusion.

  “What?”

  “You heard me.” Still pointing, she snapped her fingers. “I know what you’re thinking. You stay with me, you put me in danger. Well, guess what? At this point, they’ll kill me whether I’m with you or on my own. So, unless you’re planning on leaving that rifle, you’re staying.” When she eyed me this time, there was no anger. Only sorrow. “Stay.”

  I nodded and sat, rifle resting on my leg but aimed out toward the jungle. “Of course.”

  We sat for a moment, watching the rain. It was peaceful, almost, if you could ignore the tension and the threat of what was coming for us.

  “Alex…” She started, but couldn’t go on.

  “Wh—”

  She held up a hand. “No, let me. Just need to get through this. Alex was like a brother to me. Dated my sister until she was hit by a drunk driver a little over a year ago.” Prenie leaned back, eyes slowly scouring our surroundings, then following the flight of a bird overhead. “That’s what brought us here. To remember Ambrosia. Coming to Thailand was always a dream of hers.”

  “A valid dream.”

  Prenie let out a low, “Hmmm.” Then, eyes closing, she lowered her head. “We started up North, going to Chiang Mai and then working our way down to Bangkok. Exploring rivers and waterfalls with the elephants, getting massages on the beaches, I could see how it would be a paradise… for some. Maybe for me, if it wasn’t for the cloud hovering over my heart. And Alex? He took it all in and made the most of it for her, never once eyeing me in a weird way. He truly loved her.”

  “I’m…” With no idea what to say to that, I simply nodded instead of finishing my sentence. When she was silent, I said, “And you? Was it… helping?”

  “As much as anything can help, I guess. You, know, the odd part of it was that he and I almost got together before the two of them did. Some party at my friend’s house—he went to get me a drink and she intercepted. I was mad for like a day, but they were so cute together and I loved my sister so much…” She paused, lost in the moment, then shook her head. “But if you’re wondering, no, he and I didn’t look at each other in that way. Not since they got together, and not once on this trip.”

  “Like best friends, huh?”

  She nodded. “Pretty much. It was hard, though, thinking that could have been me. Never did date anyone since, either. So…yeah, kinda messed up. I shouldn’t even be thinking about it.”

  I waved off the comment. “I’m glad your sister was able to experience that. Love is…a mystery to me.”

  “Your girlfriend didn’t want to come along on the trip?” She eyed me and winked, showing that she was trying to be playful despite the situation surrounding our conversation.

  “My ex certainly did not,” I replied, then held up my hand. “And no ring on this finger.”

  She chuckled, and silence followed again for a moment.

  “It’s been a fun trip, but I was ready to move on. Almost did, actually, but this was our last stop before preparing to head off to Korea.”

  “Why Korea?”

  “That was all me. I’d always wanted to go, so that was the deal I made with Alex. The two of us would come here for him and my sister… then we would go to Korea to have fun and do our best to push aside the pain. But it wasn’t all pain, here…”

  “Thailand is a beautiful country.”

  “Not sure she’d have wanted to come, if she knew the truth of this place.”

  I glanced down at my rifle and grunted. “No, all places have their dark spots. What, America has never had problems with lawlessness? We worship our outlaws from history, practically. How many Bonnie and Clyde movies were there before Highway Men came out?”

  She eyed me, then laughed. “You’re talking about white people problems, there. You want to see criminals put on a pedestal? Hip-hop culture has its fair share.”

  “Yeah?” I admittedly didn’t know much about it. “We happened to end up on the bad side of it here—yes, somehow thanks to me, although I don’t really know why.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “But you do.”

  “No. I… have a guess.” Since she was waiting, I continued. “My previous work was in intel. In the desert, one of my jobs involved going door-to-door, seeking out insurgents. Basically—and you can’t repeat any of this—we would interview them, have dinner with them, and then have to make the call. It sucked, and led to more than one arrest…and several deaths.”

  “Damn. No thanks to that job.”

  I nodded, remembering having shared a meal with a man right before one of my corporals came out of the back room with grenades and an AK-47. It didn’t give him away in itself, but he had lunged immediately, drawing a knife. Gave himself up, really. There had been others with less to go on. Gut feelings, sometimes. All of it sucked.

  “What about you?” I asked. “What do you do, back home?”

  She licked her lips, then smiled wide. “Not telling.”

  “Excuse me? After all I just shared?”

  “Nope. See, if I tell, that gives you the answer. But if I say that you have to wait until we’re out of here, both of us alive, then that means the universe has to keep us both alive. Your curiosity will be too big a force to allow anything to the contrary.”

  I laughed, nodding. “That sounds like solid science. Let’s go with it.”

  She pointed at me. “Wait and see.”

  As I was about to suggest that we head out, the drizzle of rain morphed into yet another torrential downpour, sending us retreating for cover.

  21

  Prenie laughed as the rain came at us in sheets at near ninety degrees sideways. We were up and moving along the walkway under the cover of the thatched roof, but it wasn’t enough. She started to enter the house, but I grabbed her arm, shouting to be heard over the pounding rain.

  “They’ll look for us in there!”

  “Good.” She pulled her arm free and continued. “We can set a trap.”

  I blinked, not liking the idea of playing Home Alone one bit. Maybe she was onto something, though. Running in rain like this was likely to end with one or both of us slipping and falling, and with the way ahead already uneven and without clear paths, it wasn’t like the going would be easy. We could have used that hatchet to cut our way through, but it was long gone. Our best options now were to wait it out, see if we could set up a good ambush point, and then go from there. If we were lucky, our pursuers would retreat back to their yacht, or slip and fall from a cliff on the way.

  Following her in, I saw how terribly rundown this place was. Grass grew from the dirt floor and vines hung from the warped and falling boards in the walls. Pink fungus grew along one wall. A section of the roof was completely gone in one corner, meaning the rain was not only getting in there, but forming a puddle that would soon spread.

  The place was stunning, in its way. Like a scene from some post-apocalyptic video game, one where the zombies would come charging in at any second. Only, in our case, the zombies were guys wit
h guns.

  To my relief, there was a separate room. But, Prenie didn’t stop there. As she entered, she knelt and started pulling on the floorboards.

  “What’re you doing?” I asked.

  “First, thinking I should go use that bathroom while you do this.” She nodded to an area with a half-door, apparently a small bathroom I hadn’t noticed. “Second, this place was against a hill, and I think the stilts were on this side. Either there’s a lower level, or at least a section against the hill where we can hide out.”

  “For real?” I gave her an impressed nod, then took over. “Do your business. The sound of the rain will block it out.”

  “As if I care?” She scoffed, chuckling at me as she left me to it.

  By the time she returned, I had three boards out of the way. Enough to easily fit down underneath. She grunted and shook her head.

  “I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re not used to hanging out with women who are large and in charge.” She grinned at me, then removed two more floorboards so that she could fit. “There.”

  “Sorry,” I said, not sure how to address the fact that I was an idiot.

  She shrugged the whole thing off. “I’ll go first. You cover us, then follow and replace the boards.”

  We looked down and saw that the hillside was indeed there. More stilts held up parts of the building, but boards covered the sides and gave us three-quarters of what was almost a room in itself.

  I followed a moment later, replacing the boards as I went, and pulled the last one on top of me. Because of the way the house was built against the hill, and with the rain hitting from the opposite side, this place was not only completely dry, it looked like it was built as a storage area. Inside were a couple of empty burlap sacks, some gardening or farming equipment, and what looked like bags of seed.

  “Nothing edible,” I mumbled.

  “Hungry?” She reached into her fanny pack and pulled out an energy bar. “I have three left, so make that one count.”