Maudie turned her head and tears appeared in her eyes.“I just felt a sudden pain in my heart, cher.Something bad is coming our way.”
“Where be it coming from?”Leeza asked quietly.
Maudie looked over at her and whispered, “From the north.I can feel the cold darkness coming from the north.”
Leeza, Rhetta and Renee grabbed their weapons.
“We’ll check things out,” Renee said.
Colt and Tannin went with them.The five of them left out the back door.
King had dragged Maudie over to his lap and they sat while King tried to calm his woman.
Shay shook his head and reached for his phone.“I guess I have no choice but to call Trudy and see what she can find out.”
Boomer shook his head.“No, I think you should wait until whatever is coming here gets here.If you get a gut feeling then you need to listen to that feeling.Maybe just contain who all is involved.”He stared at Shay.“Sometimes that gut feeling of being in danger or something being wrong is exactly what’s going on around you.You’ve been in enough battles to know that.”
Shay nodded.“You’re right, I’ve gone head-to-head with the world’s worst men and women and that feeling is getting stronger.Something is coming and it's almost here.”
The room went silent and tension went high.
Out in the swamps...
Leeza, Rhetta and Renee made their way silently through the brush.They had come far from Maudie’s place as they traveled fast in the last two hours.Colt and Tannin branched out further but kept the girls in their peripherals.
They all moved silently through the brush.Everything was silent, then Tannin noticed it was all too quiet.He whistled a soft bird call and everyone stopped.
They all came in closer and when all five were together, Colt looked at his brother and whispered, “What’s going on brother?Why did you stop us?”
Tannin looked at his brother and then at his cousins.“Listen for a minute.”
They all looked around and listened.One by one, they all noticed what Tannin had noticed.
Leeza finally broke the silence, “There’s someone else in these trees.”
Everyone else nodded.
“What do we do?”Rhetta whispered.
Leeza looked over at her cousins.“We go high and we watch,” she whispered too.“Fan out and go high.”
Everyone split off in another direction then they began climbing the highest tree they could find.
For about twenty minutes nothing moved.It seemed like even the swamp held its breath.Then they all heard someone running below them.
A young woman carrying something came out of the trees while running then ducking for cover.
Tannin stared at the spot where the woman ducked under cover and paused, he hadn’t seen her face but there was something very familiar about her.He gazed around at the area again.
They all heard more running footsteps but no one came into view.Then the footsteps seemed to be fading.
Leeza motioned she would stay up high but the others should go down and see if the danger had passed.
He and Colt shimmied down the tree they were in.
Colt began searching the area whereas Tannin went directly to where the woman had gone to hide.As he got closer he heard someone sniffling.
He pushed his way through the outer brush and when he parted the larger plants that’s when he saw her.This couldn’t be right.She left this place five years ago.She had dreams of going to a school far from here.She wanted to get away from her father and this swamp and she was going to do it with or without him...Bethy.It was her.
