I did not like it when Storm said he sensed trouble, we are going in a totally different direction, how could they be following us now? Perhaps we are leaving a trail too easy for others to follow, but that does not make sense. We are doing everything that Catalina has taught us so we do not leave an easy to follow trail behind us.

“Kat, take the batteries out of the cats collars,” I said, “even though they are turned off, perhaps they still have a way to track us through them.” She took the batteries out but she was not sure that just having batteries in their collars would help them track us over such a long distance. I had to agree with her, but how else did they do it?

She then tossed the batteries away just as I had told her to do. “We have no way to contact home once we are out of here,” Kat said. “Yes, that is true,” I agreed, “but we will think of something. Aari and his team will not be too far away and we can phone them.” “My phone battery is dead,” said Catalina. “Same with mine,” said Kat.

They set them on the ground and with the push of a button their phones were destroyed. Mine still had some power, but I set it to self destruct and it did so. Kat then buried the phones so hopefully they would not be found. They would not be able to retrieve anything from them anyway. Now we have no way to contact anyone, but that is okay, we will find a way to do it.

Our rest period was over and off we went again. “You never did finish that story,” said Catalina. “Oh yes, I nearly forgot,” I admitted. “You did forget,” said Kat, “though perhaps deliberate forgetfulness.” “Yes, well, I will continue not that we are walking again,” I said. The cats chimed in “more story, more story!” Sigh. So I continued where I had left off.

If nothing else it helps to make the time go faster and soon it was 6am and we stopped for another break. We had actually gone an hour longer than normal, stories do help. Catalina finished turning the cats flares into mini missiles with the explosives she had left over. She has more yet, but we will need some to blast our way through their electric fence.

Meowr.=Me hear something, but not chop chop, it different motor. We hid under some thick spruce trees and soon a small plane came flying past not much above the trees. “Flying that low, they are looking for us,” I said, “we will wait a few minutes and then leave. Muffin was sleeping and I was getting very concerned about her, she needs Li Jing and quickly.

The plane did not return, so off we went as fast as we could. “What does your military mind say Catalina?” I asked. “Each time they come with more soldiers,” she said, “and I think we are fairly close to the border, so they will send a much larger group of soldiers to try and stop us from getting across the border. I also think there will be soldiers at the border at each of the 3 routes we had planned.

That way we will be surrounded without much hope to fight.” “I agree with you totally Catalina,” I said, “we are not going to have much time to get across the border. First we deal with the soldiers, then blast the fence and out we go before the others catch up to us.” “Oh, by the way,” said Catalina, “I enjoyed your story. Now Kat, how do you manage to stop guns from working and just point at someone and they die? I am just curious.”

“Well, a ghost needs to have some secrets,” she said smiling. “That is not a nice answer,” said Catalina, also smiling. “Okay, let me continue the story just a bit,” she said. While she was talking, Storm interrupted by letting us know that the plane was coming back. We sat under a large pine tree this time, but the plane circled back for another look and we just sat motionless.

But after the second pass the plane flew off again. And we went on our way. But before we had gone far bullets began whizzing past us and we fell to the ground. We soon realized we were surrounded and we began shooting. It was mid afternoon and hot once again.

Then a large truck came driving along the fence and out jumped more soldiers shooting their way as they came down the hill toward us. Catalina threw some explosives at the truck which was a very long throw and she hit it causing a huge explosion! However, we were outnumbered by at least 10 to 1. Then I heard someone yelling and a lot more gunfire…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.