Chapter 1: The Messenger
18 months since Edith’s visit to Karen’s home.
Karen had been awake for an hour. The dogs were still groggy, barely stirring beside her. She wanted to start her morning. Something felt off, and she could not put her finger on it.
The day before, she had kept looking behind her into the trees, feeling watched. She had sent the dogs out on recon then. They had found rabbits and squirrels and nothing else.
Athena was up first — the most obedient. The other two followed. Karen went downstairs, took her shotgun and rifle, and walked the property like every morning. The dogs spread out and looked for a scent. Freya took off into the trees going south. Karen clicked her tongue in a cadence and the other two flanked Freya as backup. Freya was barking. She had something.
Karen moved fast down the slope to Freya. Athena and Isis wrestled the man to the ground. Karen called them off. As she walked up, she didn’t recognize him. He didn’t look like someone she’d trust either.
“Hands up. Now. Or the dogs eat first.” Karen said, flat.
“I’m not here to hurt you!” the man said.
“Wrong place to be.” Karen did not grin.
“I— I just have a message. From Edith. Edith Sloane. She said you’d know her. And know what to do with me.” His eyes darted to the dogs.
“Calm down. Sit there a second.” Karen called off the dogs and had them return to her. “First, what is your name?”
“Jo— John. John Salisbury. I’m just a messenger from Texas. Edith’s people had me at relays out of Amarillo. I walked the last leg. I’m unarmed.”
“What’s the message, John Salisbury from Texas?”
“Edith related she— she found Sheriff Alta. She’s heading to San Fran. Said they’re meeting with an organized group that can get the country stabilized again.” John said, fast.
Karen laughed once. “John, you came all this way to tell me something I don’t care about. Sorry. You risked your ass for nothing.”
John smiled. “Edith said you’d say that. She also told me to say there’s a war coming, and you need to be on the right side of it. There are Bureau agents still hunting you. They think you’re north and east, but they’ll come to New Reading and find you.”
That upset Karen. Her hand tightened on the shotgun. She did not shoot him. She told John from Texas to get up. John got up.
“Tell Edith I thank her for the information. Tell her I wish her luck on the road to San Fran with the ghost of Sheriff Alta.”
John nodded. Tipped his hat. Started to run. Karen shouted after him, “Don’t come back. The dogs will eat you next time.”
In the distance, Karen heard, “Yes Ma’am!”
Karen waited until the dogs were quiet. She walked the tree line once, then once more. Something still did not feel right. She shook it off and went back to the house.
Chapter 2: Intuition’s right. Most times.
Karen was eating lunch two months later. She had been bothered by John Salisbury from Texas’s comment — the Bureau coming for her. Why now? Why not six months ago? What changed? Nothing seemed to make sense. She kept thinking about it and was tempted to contact Cage and see what he thought. But that risk would include Jericho, and then the whole world would go into chaos. Like the last time, with Max being brought to her peaceful home two years ago.
Karen went back to work in the backyard cutting wood. Shotgun close. Dogs on alert.
Three days later…
Karen woke to the dogs barking and scratching the front door. Karen pulled her clothes on, grabbed her boots and the shotgun. She looked out the window. About five men. Grayish-black uniforms. Clearly Bureau, but—
“Shit, Ghosts.”
Karen walked to the door and made the dogs heel. When they were quiet, she shouted, “What do you want?”
One of the Ghosts answered. “Please open the door. We have a warrant for your arrest.”
Karen replied, “You blow up my house and property, and you’re here to arrest me? What did I do to warrant your arrest?”
The Ghost responded. “New chain of command, Ms. Hodges. We’re closing legacy files. I’ll only ask one more time. Open the door. You’re under arrest for harboring a fugitive and killing over thirty Bureau agents.”
Karen breathed out and said, “Oh, well that sounds like a you problem. You attack my home, I attack with a bigger boom.” She snorted. “Give me a minute to put the dogs away.”
She walked to the first stair step and lifted it. The entire staircase came up with it. She’d built the hinge herself, one winter back. She gave the dogs a command. She went down. She closed the staircase behind her.
She ran down the corridor and out the back tunnel. It was not like her old house. The span was short — twenty yards, maybe — but it was enough to clear the house and come up in the trees behind it. The pines back here ran thick to the ridge. The Ghosts hadn’t put eyes on the rear yet. They would, when reinforcements landed.
As she came to the exit, she heard the Ghosts taking the door down and calling for reinforcements.
Karen ran as fast as she could. She just needed to get to the bottom of the hill — there was an underground safe house she’d built, with supplies. She would use them to get out of town at night, if the Ghosts hadn’t tracked her this far.
Karen started cursing. “I can’t win.”
Night time…
Karen peeked out. No one waiting. She took the dogs out and gave them the command to be quiet. They walked the train tracks out of town. The dogs walked with her. The mountain wasn’t hers anymore.
Karen and the dogs spent the next two days taking to the forest and the hills, avoiding people as much as possible. She reckoned it would take the better part of two months to get to San Fran. She would find supplies for her and the dogs as she went west. She had enough hunting gear to find food. The weather should hold.
Chapter 3: Northern Arizona
One month later.
John Salisbury caught up to Alta and Edith in Northern Arizona.
“She rejected the offer,” he said. “Like Edith figured. So I went a different route. I let the local Bureau in New Reading know she was a fugitive. Watched them go to her house. She got out, like you said she would. Last I saw her, she was heading south, off the main routes, away from people.”
Alta smiled. “Mighty bold of you to let the Bureau know about her. You know when she finds out, she’ll kill you.” He paused. “Nonetheless, you did a good job. We’ll talk to her when she gets here.”
Edith said, quietly, mostly to herself, “Oh man. We just opened a can of worms with this play.”
Alta looked at her. “Karen will hear me out. Probably. Eventually. I have scouts out, so we’ll know when she’s coming, well ahead.”
“I hope you’re right,” Edith said. “She is not someone I want to mess with.”
Alta stared at her, perhaps regretting his life choices. He snapped out of it. “No matter. We have a larger mission to be concerned with.”
“Your word and ass, not mine.” Edith laid down and prepared to take a nap.
Alta stared at the sky, then at Edith. He looked pale. He was regretting forcing Karen into this.