Denise and John

Chapter Twenty Seven

Stepping off the bus, Denise quickly made her way home. She was sure John would already be home with Michael planning their next course of action. She didn't know if Michael asked her mom about a camping trip, but she was sure that's where it was heading. Her stomach knotted. To think about being left in a desolate location with someone who had no problem taking another human life was less than appealing.
Turning onto her cul de sac she could see her house from the corner. Making her way closer she noticed Michael's dark green jeep with the back open.
"Ugh…" she thought. "He did ask, and he got permission."
Just as she arrived Michael headed out the front door carrying two sleeping bags, she could see from the colors one of them was hers, and the other was Johns.
"Hey." He smiled, passing by her he went directly to the back of his car. "How was school?"
"Normal day." She said, continuing. "So I guess you got my mom's permission."
"Yea. There was a little persuasion but she finally caved."
"I don't know if this is such a good idea."
After arranging the items he stopped in front of her. "Why not? I mean, you don't want him to find where you live right? This actually may be the only option."
"Well who's to say he doesn't already know where we live?"
Walking past her he stopped at the door. "Well I am pretty sure he doesn't know where you live. Think about it. It's only about forty minutes from Portland to Salem. Look at the time. He should've already been here waiting for you. Don't you think?"
As she walked up to him he grabbed her back pack. "Besides Johnny has some interesting information that's really going to make you want to get the fuck out of dodge."
Opening the door she asked. "What's that?"
Seeing her mom on the couch, Michael lowered his voice as he walked toward her room. "Ask him."
Looking up from her magazine her mom smiled. "Hey kiddo how was school?"
"Just another day." She smiled back and headed into John's room.
John was filling his back pack with clothes and trinkets as Denise entered. "Hey Niece." He said still focusing on the task at hand.
"So Michael said you have some information." Sitting on his bed, she asked. "So what's up brother?"
Zipping his bag he continued. "Well I was at school and I decided since it was lunch time I would see where the psycho son of a bitch was at." Taking the pack he threw it by the door before sitting next to Denise on the bed. "So I went into the bathroom, I thought sure why the fuck not, I mean no one was in there. Anyway so he is in Portland. I saw a sign saying keep Portland weird. Oh and he's not alone."
Standing up he proceeded to pick up his bag and open the door before Denise could respond.
Halting him she asked. "What do you mean he's not alone?"
"Just that. He was talking to some guy and because some kids made their way into the bathroom I couldn't hear what the fuck he was saying, but I can guarantee you that it's not good."
John left his room and Denise followed confusingly. She didn't understand did he know someone out here? How? Has he been here before? Making her way to her room Denise stopped in her tracks. Her face went pale as she remembered the cop. He can force people. Oh shit that means he has a whole city at his disposal. Quickly heading into her room she opened the door to find that Michael had already cleared out her school belongings. Smiling he handed the empty pack to her.
"Suit up." He said before closing the door.
She scorned him as he left the room, she knew he was right. Hearing that information made her want to be as far away from her residence as possible. Denise and John were older and were better equipped to handle a violent situation. If he found where they lived, and had a bunch of henchmen coming after her younger siblings, the thought made her shudder.
Quickly opening her drawers she threw some pants, leggings, and shirts into her pack, followed by socks. Zipping it up quickly she wanted to make sure they were on the open road as soon as possible. If he could see through John's eyes, it wouldn't take long for him to find a street or something Johnny looks at, and hence narrow down his search. He could be using the gift looking through John's eyes now.
"Careful Niece" she thought…"now you're getting paranoid."
Making her way to the back of the open Jeep, she threw her pack inside and headed back inside the house. John made his way past her carrying the tent they normally used on their family outings. Michael quickly rushed past her and stopped him. Watching she picked up on their conversation.
"No John. Let's not use tents or draw attention to ourselves. Think about it, in a tent we won't be as aware of our surroundings, we couldn't see someone creeping up on us. We have to be completely attentive of our area."
"Well that's going to look weird to mom." He answered.
"No if she asks I will just say we are doing a survival." Taking the tent from John, he took the opportunity to give it to Denise. "Put this back where it belongs ok."
John headed past Denise and she followed.
"Make sure you guys have everything you need."
Heading back in his room, Denise stopped him. "What about the ice chest did you guys prepare that?"
"Actually Beastman and mom handled that before I even got home."
"John I was just in the back of the car, it wasn't there."
"Oh shit." John said making his way into the kitchen.
"Dweeb." She stated, taking the tent back to the garage where it would reside for future use.
Calling from the kitchen, John said. "Hey Denise help me with this. It's heavy as fuck."
Before she could make her way to the kitchen, Michael quickly passed her. "I got this. Just say your good byes and buckle up."
Denise complied making her way into Brianna's room. The kids were not there. Her heart began to race before she realized they haven't got home from school yet. Thinking about it, she headed to her mom's room. Coming out of her door Denise intercepted her. "Where's Graham?" she asked.
"Oh he's sleeping I just got him to sleep so be quiet. You guys heading out, or you going to wait to see your brother and sister. They should be home in a half an hour."
"No we should probably go. I wouldn't want Baby J to get jealous considering he loves camping more than any of us." She smiled falsely.
"Good idea." Her mom exclaimed. She continued into the living room.
In honesty, Denise didn't want Johnny to lay eyes on her siblings, because, if he did there would be a possibility the perp would see them as well, and if things didn't go as planned, and something did go wrong they would only be lining up more targets for him to go after. The only difference is they would have no idea he was even a threat. That thought made her shudder. Quickly heading back to the car, Denise fastened her belt and waited, paying close attention to the time.
                          ***
After helping Michael load the cooler they headed out. Keeping his earbuds in, John looked only at his hands knowing his mind could be intruded at any moment. He made sure to keep his music blaring so he could hear no part of Michael and Denise's conversation. Once they hit the freeway John looked up towards the signs feeling it was safe and hoping the perp would see what he was looking at and follow. He almost missed his sister smacking her hands in front of him to get his attention.
Turning the music down, he took an ear bud out of his ear, and said. "What?"
"Well I was just telling Michael my idea…."
John quickly silenced her. "Denise I don't want to know. If he can see what I can see you have to realize he can hear what I can hear…." Turning the music up, he finished. "So if you don't mind." He replaced the ear bud and continued looking out the window.
                           ***
Michael could see John's anxiety as they made their way down the freeway. It must've been hard for him knowing the killer could peer behind his eyes, and John would have no clue he was inside his mind. For the most part he was handling it like a champ, so Michael didn't intend to calm his anxiety with light idol conversation as his sister had done. Instead he paid attention to Denise's idea.
"So when we get there." She continued with her own excitement growing. "We could marker an area around our camp site and make like booby traps. Not one's that could kill someone but something that could at least alert us that he's there or someone's there."
"That's a good idea we will see about how big of a location we could set up." Michael said. Continuing he watched the signs. He still had twenty two miles to his exit before hitting the off-ramp that would take him to Main Street and straight into Sweet Home. Once there, they could stop by a local market and pick up some small food items like chips, soda and more lunch meat. There was no reason for them not to have at least something of a goodtime while they were up there. "We also have to see about possibly expanding your ability."
"What do you mean?" Denise asked.
"Well." Michael said, keeping his attention on the road. "There are a ton of things that you can do with ice. We need to see about exercising all avenues to get the most use of your gift. We want to make sure that if this guy does come, you have a ton of different areas you can take hold of." She watched him perplexingly, as he continued to explain. "We need to make sure you and John both feel confident in the use of your talent, in case one thing doesn't work out you have other things you can pursue so you are never backed in a corner…. So to speak."
"No, I get that but what do you mean if he shows up?" Denise sat back leaning her elbow against the arm rest. "He has to show up, our whole plan is based on him being there."
"Yes I understand that, but remember John said he was employing more help so it's a possibility he may only send people after you not he himself." Noticing her hesitation he continued. "Or he may want to see exactly what you guys are capable of before coming out of the shadows himself. So whatever he sits back and observes, we want to make sure that's not the only thing you can do. Make sense?"
He could see the look of defeat wash over her. "Don't get discouraged. In a situation like this that's the last thing you can do."
"Well you got me thinking we don't know what he looks like, so how will we even know when he actually is the one who approaches us?"
"That's where we have the secret weapon." He smiled.
"What secret weapon?" She asked.
"Denise you have to remember who is able to intercept his moves." He looked toward the back seat where John had inadvertently fell asleep. "John will know if it's him approaching. John will know where he's at, at all times."
"Good point." Denise agreed. "But the woods all look the same, so John tells us he's next to a tree, well shit there's a lot of trees can you please identify which tree?" She chuckled.
"Yes true. But while you were explaining your idea to me, I already had other ideas on my mind."
"Oh do tell." She said as she leaned in closer.
"Well I brought four cans of spray paint. Once we have our area set we are going to mark the trees."
"Like vandalizing. Is that such a good idea?"
"Yea no one is going to know it's us, and he won't expect drawings on trees to have anything to do with us."
"Drawings, like what are we going to draw exactly?"
"I don't know yet stars, moons. Letters… pretty much anything to make it seem like it was vandalism and it was already there." Watching the signs they had twelve more miles to their first exit. "Whatever we do we can't make the same design on every tree having the different markers will make it easier for us to track his exact location once he does approach."
"Good idea." Denise stated. "And with night fall we will have the booby traps to go off and alert us when to be ready."
"Precisely."
                          ***
Unexpectedly falling into the unknown realm, John looked around. Again he was at the camp grounds of Green Peter, this time the area had changed but only briefly. With the cherry blossoms falling from the trees above, the layout was entirely different, still he knew that this was more of a product from Brianna's own mind. Stepping over twigs and debris Johnny made his way to the edge of a river bank that was about fifteen yards across. Some areas you could see the bottom of the rocks but other areas was dark enough to give John the idea that it was much deeper. In the distance, John could make out the sounds of a water fall.
"This is the area you should come to." A voice spoke form behind him.
He didn't have to turn around to know it was his sister. "Why this area?" he asked.
"Really John?!" she said, before continuing with her idea. Pointing to an area on the left she said. "Over there, in that small wooded spot, there's enough of an area before the ridge that you can hide Beast man's jeep. And over there…." She pointed five feet away from her current area to a ten foot cleared space. The area was open enough for a camp site with the additional coverage of some ferns for slight cover. "You can make a base camp."
Taking John by the hand she led him to a small path covered with ferns and bushes. The only way to see the path was upon approach. "This here will give you easy access to the river." Continuing she pointed to a small area of boulders all perfectly formed in a straight line around the river bank. "If anything you and Denise could use that area as an escape route. See the giant boulder?" she asked.
John nodded noticing the spot was in front of the darker side of the water. So in the event they had to jump in the water they could do so without breaking their legs. Getting the idea, John stated. "Holy shit B, that's some straight ninja shit."
She chuckled and finished. "It makes for a good escape route. Also Denise can make good use of the waterfall. And if you notice…." She pointed in both directions around the clear spot meant for their campsite. "The trees are much too thick and a lot of the roots come up, so there is really only two safe areas for anyone to enter around your camp. It gives you more of an advantage." She smiled. "Got it John?"
"Yea, I got it." He said, carefully examining the area so upon approach he would find it instantly.
Noticing what he was trying to do Brianna said. "Just look for the small patch of trash, watch for the ridge, and listen for the waterfall. OK?"
"Alright then." He smiled.
As though it were a last thought she said. "Oh yeah, and John keep in mind. Team work."
"Team work?"
"Yes. When you mix ice with heat, you get steam ok?"
"Umm… ok." John said confusingly.
"Also dry ice. Dry ice and water makes steam too. Tell Denise that."
"Alrighty." John chuckled.
Walking around him she considered her sentence before stopping and making eye contact. "Keep in mind that when you're feeling sick, you're not really sick. Because you see, doesn't mean he does."
Confused he said. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"  
"Don't worry brother you will figure it out." She smiled. Pushing him she finished. "Now wake up."
Quickly jumping in the back seat, Denise turned around startled. "Really John you have to quit doing that shit. You are seriously going to give me a heart attack."
"Damn son." John exclaimed. "That was straight ninja."
He could see Michael watching him from the rear view mirror, he smiled and readied himself to explain the plan that his younger more brutal sister had devised.