Taken

Chapter Thirty Six--JEREMIAH

Haven shook her head again, and my heart felt as if a nail was being drove through it.  I hated this for her.

          “Guns and ammo, piles of it.  Food.  Batteries.  Everything.” Barnes started pacing the room, keeping his eyes on her the whole while.  “I’ll  bet you knew that.”

          “I knew she had a storage building, but that was ages ago and she had moved in with me once my parents died in a blizzard.  Is it back at her place?”

          “I’ll ask the questions here,” he snapped, and her head fell. 

          “Could you please let me go?” she whimpered.  “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

          “Promise?”  No, I screamed in my head, no Haven don’t! It’s a trap!

          “Yes.” Denny was extremely pale as we neared the house.  We peered into the kitchen window, thankful it was slightly cracked so we could hear the conversation.  General Barnes was speaking to Haven, but she couldn’t answer his questions.

          “Where’s your grandmother’s key ring?”

          Denny glanced over at me with a confused look, but I suddenly knew what he was talking about.  After I had grabbed Louise when I was leaving that house, I had grabbed a key ring, full of keys, using each one until I finally had the door locked.

          Now, I reached into the small zipper compartment on my pack, slowly withdrawing the key ring.  Denny’s eyes got really wide as she realized I had them. 

          “Do you know what they go to?” asked Barnes, and both our gazes flicked back to the scene unfolding.  “Do you?”

          Haven shook her head miserably, tears sliding down her cheeks and staining her shirt.  “I don’t,” she replied, her voice garbled.  “Let me go, please, I don’t know anything.”

          “On that key ring is a key that unlocks your grandmother’s storage shed.  You know what’s in there?”

          He untied the ropes and she hopped out of the chair.  “One last question.”  That signature grin spread across his face and I knew it wasn’t going to be good.  He leaned over to look her straight in the eye.  “Where are your little friends hiding?”

          “No, I can’t tell you that.”

          Denny drew back in horror as Barnes reached for the pistol in his gun belt.  He loaded it, cocked it, then pointed it at Haven’s forehead.  Haven burst into fresh tears, squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head again.        

          “I’m going to give you three seconds,” General seethed.  “To tell me where your friends are, and where the keys are.  One… Two…”

          Crack!  

          It wasn’t Haven that fell though.  It was General Barnes.  I was sick to my stomach, not from the suspense, but because the gun that had shot General Barnes was mine.      

          I crumpled to the ground, not being able to see the soldiers flooding in and seeing the General.  I couldn’t think, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t stand, I couldn’t look at Denny.  I had shot the gun.  I had killed someone.  He may have been an animal at heart, but he was a human being.  I killed a human being. 

          I was in shock.  The gun fell from my hand onto the dewy grass.

          I killed a human being.       

          When I finally found the willpower again, I stood and braced myself against the house.  I still couldn’t look at Denny, still couldn’t look through the window.  I pushed my face against the outside wall of the house. 

          Finally I felt a hand on my shoulder.  “It’s okay Jeremiah,” came Denny’s soft whisper.    

          No it’s not, I wanted to scream at her.  I didn’t though, all I could manage was, “Huh?”

          “You saved her life.”   She gently pulled me away from the house and led me to the kitchen.  We stepped in as if everything was okay, and she said, “Look.”

          A woman soldier was kneeling beside Haven, wiping away all the tears on her face with a towel.  Denny came next to her, placing a hand on the woman’s shoulder.  “Thank you,” she said tenderly, then suddenly burst into tears when she saw who it was.

          What the… I thought, but then came around and saw it was her mother.  “Oh my sweet Denny,” she drawled, hugging her long lost daughter tightly.  “I thought I had lost you for good.  That man was a sick man, I don’t know how he managed all of this.”

          “He’s manipulative, that’s why,” I said, and when her mother saw me she stood up straight and came over to me. 

          She pulled me into her arms like my own mother used to and whispered to me, “Thank you so much for protecting my daughter.  I’ll be forever in debt to you.  You have grown into quite the young man, and if I might add, you’ll be a great son-in-law to someone someday.”  She winked, and I knew exactly what she was thinking.  She wanted me to be her son-in-law. 

          The soldiers had  picked up Barnes and were heading to the woods, carrying a couple shovels they had found in the shed. 

          “Where are Sarah and Ladd?” I asked finally.

          “We were ordered to, you know,” Denny’s mom started.  I knew what she was implying even though she didn’t want to say it.  “And instead we let them lead us to a hideout they knew of.   We said we’d go get them as soon as we could.”

          “Yes!” we all shouted.  Although everything was all happy around the house, I couldn’t forget that I had killed someone.  I wouldn’t in a million years have thought that I would do that and it was such an impulse that I can hardly remember it.  I had to keep telling myself it was the right thing to do even though I didn’t know if it was or not.  I had no clue when I would come to terms with it, but in this moment, Denny had her mom back and I decided to let it go for the day.  Everyone else seemed happy, and I didn’t want to pull them down with my mood.

          I followed them into the woods, closing my eyes and praying to God that he would forgive me.  I needed some sort of release, and eventually I got it.  I knew it would take a long time to finally lose the guilt, but for the rest of the day I decided I would try and keep it out of my thoughts.  In the meantime, I had Denny to attend to.