We have been walking for hours, and our forested area is disappearing on us rather quickly and the trees are quite sparse. Fortunately there are still many bushes around that are tall enough to hide us as we walk. Kitty had run ahead of us for a while and when she returned, she did not have good news. We will soon be out in the open, only a few trees here and there on the landscape and it looked like it might be farming country coming up.

At least, she saw a farm not far ahead of us and it had a large barn on it not far from the farmhouse. She also spotted a well which would mean fresh, cold water, something we could really use. The ghosts are not affected by the lack of water and food, but the rest of the team certainly is, with water in short supply right now. “Perhaps we could spend the night in the barn,” suggested Jennifer. “We would have to expose ourselves to the occupants of the house,” I reminded her, “and that could be dangerous.”

“Well, we could put them to sleep for the night,” she said, “and then we could leave early in the morning before they wake up.” “We also need some food,” said Yana, “your soldiers can’t fight if they have no food to sustain them.” Yana was right, we do need food, tonight if possible, or these girls won’t be able to walk far, let alone fight if it becomes necessary. “Well, we will have to trust these people Steve,” said Jennifer, “we can pay for the food we take, at least this time. After this we might have to steal it.”

“Yes, I guess you’re right Jennifer,” I said, “if they look too nervous, then we will put them to sleep, take the food and leave money for them.” “I’m sorry Steve,” said Yana, “it seems I have terribly miscalculated with my plans. It seemed so simple, you would fly in, pick up Anya and fly back out again the same day. There were no explosives on the plane, the pilot just said that so you wouldn’t try to stop him from bringing you to me. I don’t know how the plane could have been destroyed.”

“I think it was Papa Levi,” I said, “he knew we were coming, possibly through one of those pilots contacting him. One of them might have known Levi and knew he would pay well for this kind of information. That would explain why he was here with so many men, so it was not your fault. Don’t worry, we will figure out how to do this.” As we continued walking, Jennifer, Sky and I were by ourselves. “Just how will we figure this out?” asked Jennifer.

“No idea,” I said, “but we are not going to that city. Everyone likely knows that’s where we are heading, so we will change course and head back north to another city which also has an airport, though smaller. I already communicated with Kat to check it out and see if the airport will work and she said it would. There is also a railway connection, but how to get on the train without being noticed will be difficult. And, according to Kat, there is no more forest ahead for us, just clumps of trees here and there.

That means we will change to walking at night. Tonight we stay in that barn, tomorrow we walk only half the day, then sleep, then walk at night from then on.” “Hmm, might work,” said Sky, “but why not just sleep half the night, then walk half the night?” “Mainly because everyone is tired and hungry,” I said, “so we need a good rest tonight.” Jennifer, Astrid and I went to the farmhouse and were greeted by an older couple who invited us in. Astrid was the interpreter for our conversation with these people and I told them right off that we are the people the authorities are looking for.

We need food, which we will pay for, and would like to sleep in their barn tonight. I also explained that we do not have a Captain with us or military secrets, but we had come to help someone escape. The older couple looked at each other and shrugged. He then told us they don’t care about what is going on, they will help us as much as they can. They gave us a lot of food, which we paid for and they allowed us to fill our water bottles and gave us some extra containers to fill with water.

They also gave us a copy of the train schedule they had which listed passenger and freight trains. That could be very helpful for us. There were no animals in the barn, but lots of hay, which made it nice for sleeping. However, early in the morning, Jennifer woke me up and said she sensed danger, and it was close. We quickly and quietly woke everyone and we then got ready for a fight. Sky went out to look around and returned with the bad news.

We were surrounded by soldiers, there was an army truck with two large machine guns aimed at the barn doors and there were 3 other army trucks that appeared to be empty. One of those trucks would make nice transportation for us. I asked Sky to take care of those machine guns and off she went. She put her hands around the barrels of the guns, heating them, then bending them straight down.

The soldiers watched in fear as it looked like this was happening by itself. Sky returned, smiling. Suddenly we heard the officer in charge yelling at his men to fire at the barn. I yelled for everyone to lie flat as bullets came breaking their way through those old, thin boards of the barn. “Get them G-girls!” I yelled, and our ghosts ran outside, quickly disarming the soldiers by making their guns too hot to hold.

Then the rest of us ran outside to fight! We were outnumbered 3 to 1, which made things a fair fight. I really didn’t want to kill any of these soldiers, except as a last resort. Finally the fight was over and all soldiers were unconscious. But, two of our girls, and Yana, had been shot…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.