Page 26 of Creed (Rock Hard Mountain Men #3)

The first few rungs of the ladder had rusted away, so I had to pick Robyn up for him to reach the higher ones.

I kept him in front of me as we climbed, making sure he didn’t fall.

When we reached the roof, we found one of the first signs of modernization on the town.

The roof was metal, instead of the worn tile that I had expected, and a satellite dish stood proudly pointing toward the sky.

That was a good sign. A satellite dish meant the building was connected to the rest of the world. We had a good chance of finding a phone to use here.

After instructing Robyn to stay low, the two of us crawled on our stomachs to the edge of the roof.

Most of the buildings in the town weren’t more than a couple stories high, so we had a good view of everything.

The roads of the town had a circular design, like the spokes of a wheel radiating from a central point.

A few people walked along the street, ambling casually as though they were in no rush to get wherever they were going.

One person was talking on a cellphone, waving animatedly with their other arm.

I was half tempted to climb down from our hiding place and steal the phone from them.

No, that wouldn’t be a good idea. Not only would it draw a lot of attention to us, but most modern phones required a passcode anyway.

I could bypass the average phone’s security system, but it would require tools I didn’t currently have.

Unless I got lucky enough to grab the phone right out of their hands while they were still using it, stealing the cell phone wouldn’t do me much good.

A sharp poke against my arm caught my attention.

“Mister Creed,” Robyn said as he urgently jabbed at me. “Look.”

He pointed toward a car sitting on the side of the road near the center of town.

“I know that car.”

I squinted against the afternoon sunlight in the car’s direction. “Are you sure?” It was a silver, four-door sedan, no different than any other car and as forgettable as a car could be. Yet, Robyn nodded with absolute certainty.

“See that dent in the back fender? My sister and I accidentally did that when we were riding our bicycles and ran into it. My sister put a sticker of a kitten over the dent, because she thought it would work like a Band-Aid.”

Looking again, I noticed the sticker that he was talking about. From a distance, it was little more than a white dot on the car’s silver surface, but the dot was in the recognizable shape of a cat.

“So, that car belongs to someone from your community?”

Robyn nodded again.

I bit my lip to keep from cursing out loud.

The cult had already caught up to us. That was the problem when running from an enemy that had so many more people than you. They could afford to send out search parties in all directions rather than trying to follow you directly.

There was no point in leaving. We’d probably find cult members in every nearby town.

“Okay, let’s think,” I muttered to myself.

The town wasn’t very big. It would take almost no time for our pursuers to search every nook and cranny of the place. Whatever we were going to do, we had to do it soon.

A rumbling sound drew my attention away from the silver car of our pursuers.

A pair of delivery trucks pulled up behind the post office, slowly backing themselves up to the garage doors.

Robyn and I watched from the roof as cartful after cartful of packages, all different sizes of brown cardboard boxes, were hauled off the truck.

The post office seemed to be short staffed, so the process took a while, giving me plenty of time to think.

Since Whimborne was so remote, it had to get a lot of its supplies delivered. The post office was one of the few thriving parts of the town, and most importantly, the most modern. They had a satellite dish. They were connected.

Each package had its own label with a barcode specifically for keeping track of it.

Off to the side of the garage sat another pile of packages. This one was much smaller than the number of incoming packages and were labeled as “outgoing”.

An idea came to me.

“Okay, Robyn, here’s what we’re going to do,” I told the boy. “We wait for them to finish unloading those trucks, and then we’re going to climb down there. While I handle things here, I need you to run back to Kayden and your sister and tell them to meet us here immediately. Got it?”

With a very serious look on his face, Robyn silently nodded.

It took another few minutes, for both trucks to finish being unloaded. After that, the drivers and unloaders went back inside the main building, probably to handle whatever paperwork was required for the delivery.

Robyn and I took the opportunity to climb down from the roof. He took off running in the direction where we’d left Kayden and Mavis, while I headed for the stack of “outgoing” boxes.

Selecting one from the top of the pile, I headed for the payphone hanging on the wall.

Luckily, Robyn had included a bit of cash in the supplies that he’d brought along. Otherwise, without quarters for the phone, this whole plan would have fallen apart.

The phone picked up on the first ring.

“Hello?” Brody’s voice echoed through the line, distorted by static and white noise.

“Brody,” I said urgently. “Write this down.”

Anyone else would have demanded to know what was going on, but as soon as he heard my voice, Brody was all business. He didn’t say a single thing as I read out the number on the package that I held.

“That’s the tracking number for a package. Come find it.” Voices alerted me that the delivery drivers were already returning. “Hurry up.”

Then I slammed the phone back on its receiver.

I had about thirty seconds to find a hiding place before the drivers returned.

Not enough time to get back to the roof.

Instead, I tossed the package I was carrying back into the “outgoing” pile, then crammed myself into a metal storage locker.

Hopefully, none of the supplies inside the locker would be needed, because if anyone opened it, I had no place to run.

Through slats in the front of the storage locker, I watched as the drivers and loading staff carried the “outgoing” packages onto the trucks. The package whose number I’d given to Brody was on the top of the stack, so it was one of the first to be loaded onto a truck.

Specifically, the right truck.

Great, now I just needed to get Kayden, myself, and the kids onto the truck. Then we’d not only have an escape vehicle, but also a way for Brody and Magnus to track us. If everything went according to plan, they’d meet us at the truck’s next stop.

When the trucks were loaded up, the drivers climbed into the front seat. It was now or never.

Climbing out of the storage locker, I hoped Robyn had been successful.

I was careful to stay out of the line of sight of the drivers and I poked my head out of the garage, looking out at the line of trees not far away.

From under the cover of a large bush, I saw Kayden waving me down.

His movements were conspicuous. He was going to be spotted, and a man hiding in the forest with two children would seem suspicious no matter how you looked at it.

Unable to explain my plan, I hastily waved him over to me. Thankfully, he complied without hesitation and met me beside the garage with both kids.

“Creed? What are we doing?”

“Get in the truck.”

“What? But?—”

There wasn’t time to explain, and I cut him off by turning away and headed to the back of the truck we needed. It was locked, but the lock was old and easily gave way to the lock pick that I’d prepared earlier.

Just as the truck rumbled to life, I pulled up the rolling door just high enough for Kayden and the kids to squeeze under.

“Get in.”

Kayden hesitated a moment. He still didn’t know what I was doing, and from his perspective this probably seemed like insanity.

I implored him with my eyes to trust me.

Swallowing down his obvious nerves, Kayden brought the kids over to the truck.

“All right. You two. Get on.”

Together, we piled the kids into the truck. By then, the first of the two trucks pulled out of the garage. Our truck would soon follow, so there will wasn’t time for me to explain my plan to Kayden. I just shoved him toward the opening in the door and implored him to get on.

He had to lie on his stomach and slide himself under the door, similar to how he’d gotten past the fence surrounding the cult, but this time I made sure to leave enough room for him.

I was just about to follow, when the sound of shouting caught my attention.

The first truck had been stopped by a familiar silver car blocking its path. I didn’t recognize any of the people that climbed out of the car, but I understood well enough when they started demanding to search the truck.

They didn’t even know for certain that we were in this town, but these cult members were certainly thorough with their search.

It was too optimist to think that they might search the first truck and be satisfied. They were going to search the second one, too, and when they did, they would find us.

Coming to a quick decision, I grabbed one of the packages off the truck that was about the size of a book—after making sure that it wasn’t the same package whose number I’d given to Brody—and tucked it under my arm.

“Stay on this truck until it reaches its next destination, then get off. Try to make sure no one sees you.”

Kayden opened his mouth to demand what was going on, but I closed the door before he could say a word.

Hoisting the package that I held a little higher in my arm, I took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the truck.