“I got some of those noodles you like.”

“I’m not eating.”

“Listen, asshole, I’m not going to make you eat any meat. Just get in here. The rest of the guys wanna have a meeting before we go out hunting again.”

“I’ll be in, in a minute. I have something to do first. A bandage.”

“You got two minutes before I send Duke after you.”

“Keep that fucking dog away from me, Brick. I told you already, if he touches me, I’m done here.”

“You’re done here when Dave says you’re done here, fruitcake.”

And then he was gone.

Okay, so there’s Dave, Sean the fruitcake, Dave’s buddy Brick, and at least a few more guys so far. That’s … six at a minimum. I wanted to think that based on his comments, Sean could possibly be counted on to not fight us if the time came that the canners actually discovered us here, but there was no guarantee of that.

Winky looked down at me and shrugged. If she was thinking what I was thinking, she was wondering what the heck we were supposed to do now. I was in the middle of processing our options when the back door opened again and the sounds of a struggle reached my ears.

“Stop moving around, you little fuck!”

“Let me go, you canner beast!” came a desperate screech.

My heart froze in my chest as I recognized the voice.

Peter!

***

“Who the hell is that?” asked Sean.

“Keep fighting me and see what happens,” threatened Brick. Then I heard, “Ah!! Shit!!”

“Palm thrust, asshole!” yelled Peter, just before I heard a loud slap and the sound of pool chairs falling over.

“Right hook, dick! Now get the hell up and get into the meat locker.” Dogs were barking and then Brick was yelling at them. “Shut the hell up, Duke! Dracula! Shut up!”

I swallowed several times quickly in a row, trying to keep from barfing. They have Peter!

I wanted to drop down to the ground and go after that evil monster who was beating him up, but one severe look from Winky stopped me in my tracks. She signaled me to stay still and watch, and since my self-preservation instincts seemed to have abandoned me temporarily in favor of getting to Peter, I listened to her silent voice of reason. This was exactly the situation I had challenged Fohi about - the ability to walk away instead of saving someone for the greater good. I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to leave Peter behind.

“Get this piece of shit up, Sean. Lock him in with the rest of ‘em.”

“Where’d he come from? Did you go hunting already?”

“No. Found him and his little dog out front, messing with Duke.”

“What’d you do with the dog?”

“He ran off. Got this little turd, though. Doesn’t look like much. Maybe we’ll just let Duke and Dracula practice on him.”

“You’re fucking sick, you know that? Just go to breakfast. I’ll take care of this idiot.”

“You better. And hurry up. The meeting’s starting and Dave wants you there.”

The door shut and Sean said, “Asshole.” I heard more furniture moving and then, “Hey man, get up. I have to lock you inside.”

“With your other prisoners?” said Peter, sassily.

“What are you talking about? How do you know we have others here?”

Oh, shit, Peter, don’t tell him you know about them! Don’t give us away!

“I heard that guy talking inside. You have other people here. How many of you cannibals are there here, anyway? I saw seven inside. You make eight. Are there any more monsters I should know about?”

Winky beamed down at me, giving me a thumbs-up sign. I prayed both for Peter’s safety and an answer from this canner doctor.

“We’ve got nine, actually. Not that it matters. You’re not going anywhere. I’m not going anywhere. No one is. We’re all stuck here. Lucky for you, you’re skinny. They’ll probably just use you for sex and bone dump.”

“What?! Sex and bone, what?!”

“Never mind. Come on. You gotta go inside this pool house. If I don’t get in the house soon they’ll let the dogs bite me.”

“Is that what happened to your arm?”

“Yeah, and my leg. See?”

“Oooh, crap. That’s awful.”

“Yeah, well, that’s life out here in the badlands.”

I could hear them walking around the pool.

“You don’t have to stay here, you know,” said Peter. He was talking a little too loudly, so I knew it was for our benefit.

“Yes, I do. Trust me, I’ve tried to get away. Twice. They keep finding me and bringing me back.”

“How is that possible?”

“They have friends everywhere … all over this neighborhood. No one comes in or goes out without them finding out.”

My blood stopped flowing for a few seconds, my heart in total seizure. I looked up at Winky and she appeared as freaked out as I was. They’re going to find out we’re here! We can’t wait until tomorrow to do this thing! We have to let the others know!

I motioned for Winky to come over to where I was. As she moved down from her perch, taking a few seconds to shake the feeling back into her legs, I watched for Peter. I could barely make him out in flashes between the leaves.

“Well, I got all the way to your house before anyone saw me.”

“That’s what you think,” Sean said bitterly. “When they go out later today they’ll stop and talk to all their contacts and find out what and who was around this house while they slept. Then they’ll start tracking. They’re worse than the frigging dogs.”

The chains rattled and the pool house door opened. “In you go.”

“What is this place?” asked Peter, tentatively.

“They call it the meat locker.”

A few moments later, the door slid shut again and the chains rattled, locking my friend Peter inside and very possibly sealing his fate if I didn’t find a way to get in there and get him out before the canners or their dogs tore us to pieces.

***

We took advantage of the fact that the dogs were temporarily elsewhere. I prayed they weren’t making a meal out of Buster as we climbed down to the top of the wall, hiding behind the trunk of the tree.

“What do you want me to do?” asked Winky, breathlessly.

“I need you to go and let everyone know that we can’t wait. We have to go in today. That guy Sean said something about them going out hunting.”

“Yeah, but he also said they check with their contacts to see what’s been going on around here first.”

“So we can’t wait for them to do that,” I said. “We have to move in now, before they finish their breakfast.”

I looked across the yard at the spot where I knew the small door in the wall was. “Do you think they got that door opened?”

“Doesn’t matter. We can blow it open if we have to.”

“Yeah, but we need to do this quietly if we can. The more kids we can move out before those guys figure out what we’re doing, the better off we’ll all be.”

“Yeah, okay. You’re right. So what’s the plan?”

“You go down and tell everyone about the spies they have. Someone needs to go get the truck and move it close before they make contact. Hopefully our truck is still there and in one piece. Rob and Paci need to get ready to set off that bomb out front and blow the front door off or whatever. While they go in the front and pick off the canners, I’ll drop down here by the tree, inside the wall, and meet Trip, Kowi, and the others in the backyard. We’ll get all those kids out through that door over there in the wall. No way are they all going to be able to climb this frigging tree. I have no idea how Celia did that.”

“Girl’s got skills.”

“No shit. Okay, so are we good then?”

“Yeah. And Bryn?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. For doing this. For teaching us the krav maga. I have a feeling we’re going to be using it.”

“You’re welcome,” I said, reaching out to give her a quick hug. “Thanks for giving my family and me a home. If I don’t make it out of here, I just want you to tell everyone that. It meant a lot to me.”

“It’s our pleasure,” she said, before getting down on her stomach on the wall and then sliding over the outside of it to hang for a few seconds before dropping to the ground. She fell back onto her butt, but was up in a flash. I watched as she ran next to the wall, headed towards Jason who had stepped out to meet her. They disappeared after a few seconds of whispering and gesturing.

I wished more than anything I could tell Peter I was coming for him. I sent him telepathic messages, letting him know that he was never going to be a meal or dog’s chew toy as long as I had breath left in my body.

What seemed like ages later, I saw a movement over on the other side of the yard. I tiptoed over the top of the wall, balancing as if on a beam since I no longer had any branches to hang onto.

Trip was sneaking across the lawn, going towards the back of the pool house.

I ran back to the tree and climbed down, dropping to the ground on the inside of the wall when I was still about five feet up. I accidentally bit my tongue as I landed on my feet, the salty blood leaking into my mouth instantly. It had the weird side-effect of keeping my brain anchored in reality, to feel the hurt in such a weird place, so I considered it a blessing in disguise.

I stayed hidden behind the tree trunk that was effectively keeping me out of the view of anyone near the back door of the house. The kids in the pool house could probably see me easily, but I couldn’t see them. The sliding glass door was so black with sunscreening tint, there could have been two or a hundred kids in there and I’d never know.

Trip motioned for me to join him.

I peeked out from behind the tree towards the house, taking a few precious seconds to scan all the windows and the several doors of glass that lined the entire back end of the house. Luckily, the tinting there was not as dark and I could see inside to the interior of the house.

As soon as I was sure there was no one there, I ran.

I was next to Trip’s side in an instant, breathing heavily. My breathlessness wasn’t so much from the short run as the stress that was getting me up to level-ten panic very quickly. Battles and wars were for stronger people than me.

“Hey,” he whispered, “where’s Peter?”

“In this building,” I said, gesturing to the wall we were hiding behind. “This is the pool house. They call it the meat locker.”

“I heard. I’m gonna destroy this place and the assholes who live in it.”

“Be my guest. But let’s get the kids out first.”

“I wish we’d brought the whole damn suitcase.”

I knew exactly what he was talking about, and right now I didn’t really disagree. But I had to focus on the important stuff and not dreams of blowing them to smithereens.

“The canners are eating breakfast and having a meeting right now. We need to get in there before they leave, otherwise we lose the element of surprise. They have spies that are going to rat us out.”

“Fohi went to get the truck. He’s going to park it a couple blocks away and keep the engine running. All we gotta do is get there.”

“And what about the canners?”

“As soon as you and I get these kids out, we’re going in. You’re welcome to join us or not. It’s up to you.”

I looked in his eyes and didn’t see any condemnation there at all. I truly believed in that moment that he wouldn’t hold it against me if I ran away back to the swamp and left them to the killing of canners.

“What kind of girl do you take me for?” I asked, acting offended.