I had communicated with Kat and told her everything that happened here, but she didn’t like the idea of us heading south which would just take us eventually into more and more unfriendly countries, before we could be picked up. We need to get close enough to a friendly country where they can launch a helicopter rescue of our team. I said that would mean a very long trek through this country, and she agreed with that. But she thought it would be safer to stay here than to head south, unless we could make it to the Caspian Sea and somehow get a boat to take us across to a country on the other side.

I didn’t like that idea too much since it would leave us out in the open for too long a time, unable to hide or defend ourselves adequately. I said that maybe we should think about this a bit more, we still had some time before we arrive at the border. I then asked the Colonel if there was a passenger train that went close to here. “Yes, coming up in the next town,” she said, “the next train would come through there at 1am. It will stop if there are passengers to pick up, but tickets would need to be purchased by midnight, which is when the office closes.”

Hmm, that would mean sitting around for about 3 hours before the train arrives, providing it’s on time, and sometimes it isn’t, apparently. Then I asked Kat where the closest international airport was located. She said there was one not too far away. I was afraid to ask what she meant by that, but I did anyway. It would be about a 20 hour drive, considering we would have to stay off the main highways. We do have another problem perhaps, and that would be finding a place to buy gas, or petrol, where they would accept our credit cards.

I asked the Colonel if she knew of another way to cross the border except at the regular crossing. Anya, our young friend, said that there is an old road, more of a trail now, but it is drivable. She and her parents went down that way last year to see if it would be possible to escape that way. If anything happened to the parents, then she and her brother could go that way to escape, but Anya’s brother disappeared without her. However, he did not know about this way out.

She then told us where to turn and off we went. We did stop briefly so that the Colonel and Anya could change clothes, they couldn’t wear military uniforms. But the Colonel had nothing with her, however, Kristina was the same size, so she shared clothes with her. All of us had our backpacks which meant we all had extra clothes along. Anya had her own backpack with clothes. We had to make a few turns along country roads and it was dark by the time we made it to this crossing, but we could see to follow it easily enough.

Once across we drove for a distance with no lights for about half an hour and then parked among some trees for the night. “Colonel, would it be possible to know your name?” I asked, “We can hardly keep calling you Colonel.” She chuckled. “Yes, that is true enough,” she said, “my name is Yana, I am 38 years old and a widow. My husband died in a car accident 10 years ago. His body was in remarkably good condition considering what the car looked like. I was able to see the identity number which we had on our car, but it was not the same.

I do not believe it was an accident, but I did not question it or I would likely end up the same way and I had two children to care for at the time. Both of them died when our house burned down shortly after you took Aurora to freedom. I rather think there was a connection. After that I was going to try and flee myself, but my friends needed help, so I wanted to try and help them if I could. I was unsuccessful, but I wanted to at least help their children to escape, but then they disappeared, until Anya came to me and I came to you.”

“I am sorry to hear all that Yana,” I said, “but I promise we will get you both out of here and back home with us.” “You should never make such big promises Steve,” she said, “what if you fail?” “Fail is not in our vocabulary,” said Macy. We then slept there for the night, which was quiet, though slightly uncomfortable in those vans. However, as it was dawning Jennifer whispered to me that she sensed danger. I immediately told everyone to wake up, Code Red. Everyone did indeed wake up quickly and we found ourselves surrounded by a group of 20 armed men.

“They are bandits,” said Yana, “there are many bands of them in the hill country where they hide out in the forests.” One of the men, likely the leader, yelled at us to get out of the vans, so we did. Hard to resist such a nice invitation. Misty and 5 other girls had already gone outside to stretch and were caught by these men. The men had a selection of rifles and handguns. “Okay G girls,” I said, “time to get hot.” The men began yelling and tossing their weapons onto the ground. Then Misty and the other captured girls turned on those men, as did all of our girls!

It was quite the fight to watch, just lacked popcorn. Then a few more men showed up to help their friends. “I think we need Courage now girls,” I called out. Suddenly this huge lion jumped over our van and went after the new men that came. Soon all the men lay motionless on the ground, some dead, most just knocked out. Yana looked around desperately, “Where is Anya?” “Don’t worry,” said Jennifer, “she is still in the van being guarded by my pet, Miss Kitty.” “One of those cute little cats is guarding Anya?” asked Yana, somewhat puzzled.

As we all got back into the vans Yana couldn’t believe what she saw, a full sized jaguar sitting next to Anya. “She is beautiful,” said Anya to Yana as they both looked at me smiling. As they looked at me the jaguar disappeared. “I don’t see a jaguar,” I said. They both looked, then back at me puzzled. “A huge lion and a jaguar that come and go?” she asked. “Courage always comes when we need courage,” I said, “don’t you agree Yana?”

“Very well said,” she agreed. “All will be made clear once danger is past,” I said, “but for now some secrecy is required.” “I understand that,” said Yana, “I will look forward to knowing how you do that, later.” I communicated our little fight with Kat and she didn’t like that. We were just starting on our journey and already we had problems, not good. Now, we need a way to get some food…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.