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By Max Masen
John shudders, fearing what the stranger is implying. He leans back slowly, careful not to tip off Julie or Tim as to what is happening between him and the stranger. John swivels his head to look the stranger in the eye and shrinks his eyes close together.
“I don’t.” John stands firm and sets a plate he was holding down onto the table in front of him slowly. “Why don’t you tell me, friend?” He speaks quietly enough that the others in the room can’t hear them.
“Why don’t the two of us step into the other room?” the stranger says. He starts to scratch his beard while waiting anxiously for a response from John. He leans in closer and tries to subtly assert his dominance in the situation.
“Why can’t we discuss it here in plain view of my friends?” John asks slyly. He turns fully to face the stranger. The man towers over John by roughly half of a foot.
“Step into the other room, John. That way we can talk in private and make ourselves more comfortable. Doesn’t that sound better?”
“No. It doesn’t,” John says shortly. He peers around the room. Sinister thoughts swirl through his head. He could kill the man and his friends in a moment and then it would be over. Then they wouldn’t have to fear any kind of recourse. They could spend the night in that cabin and not have to watch their backs. But human decency has put him on a different path. He was no longer a soldier. Thoughts of killing slipped from his mind. He decided it would be best to go with the stranger and hear him out.
The man sees the look on John’s face change and he takes it as a sign that John is willing to comply and the two of them step out into the living room, away from both of their two companions.
The man looks back into the kitchen and sees that nobody is watching them, the others fully caught up in conversations of their own. He looks John in the eyes and John glares back. He feels his breathing increase.
What’s happened to me? I used to be a soldier.
“Good, now we can talk in peace. I just wanted to ask you some questions, John.” The man lifts an eyebrow and gauges John’s reaction. John keeps his face unfrozen but listens patiently. “Anyway, I’m sure you’ve more than heard about the Hyenas in the area. Obviously, I’m not talking about the animal. The revolutionaries are the ones I’m referring to.” John nods softly, his eyes still locked on the man’s face. “What are your thoughts?”
“Revolutionaries? People are taking action against the government? I say good if that’s the case,” John replies, hiding his affiliation but not his allegiance. “And you?” John tilts his head and narrows his gaze. This is it. What he responds determines what I do. John braces his body and tightens his muscles. He prepares himself to lunge.
The man bounces his head and looks around the room. He suddenly brings his head to the floor and lets out a long sigh. “I’m glad you say that. Because we feel the same way. The three of us, we’re Hyenas. We’re on a mission to get to D.C. Our plane went down about a mile out that way.” The man points to the south. “That’s why we were so relieved to have found this place.”
“Your… plane?” John asks skeptically, keeping his eyebrow cocked. “What kind of plane would that be?”
“Commercial airliner used for a drop off. We thought it would throw the government off of our trail.”
“What kind of drop off?” John starts feeling like he is piecing the story together but plays stupid.
“Us.” The man points to himself and laughs. “We were supposed to jump from the plane, which we did. But the plane wasn’t supposed to go down.”
“That sounds like a run of bad luck.” John steps up his acting abilities and feigns sympathy as best as he can.
They’re pretending to be us. But then who are they? And who do they think we are?
“But I’ve been rude. I haven’t gotten a chance to introduce myself yet. My name is Deckland.” He reaches his hand out and John grabs it with his and shakes. “I just wanted to you know what was going on. Regardless what your thoughts are on the Hyenas, I just thought it would be fair for you to know. I didn’t want to alarm everyone all at once so that’s why I pulled you aside.”
“Of course. That makes sense.” John collapses his mouth and nods in agreement. “Now that you’ve told me your story, maybe it would be nice of me to tell you ours.”
Deckland smiles and cocks his head. “Well, that would be nice. I guess that would put us in the same boat as to knowing about each other.”
“That it would.” John’s hand starts to tremble and sweat. It hovers over his thigh. Deckland starts to notice but doesn’t pay it much attention. “We’re from out west. We just wanted to go for a hiking trip but we got kind of lost as you may have noticed. We thought this cabin would be nice to hole up in for the night.” John talks slowly and softly, lulling Deckland into a sense of security. “We’re experienced hikers so we didn’t think we would have any problems, not to the point where we would be struggling to stay alive-” John stops talking abruptly and removes a concealed revolver from its holster and tosses the barrel up toward Deckland’s face. “Or wonder who we could trust. But now I know the answer to that.” John pulls the trigger, dropping Deckland’s body hard to the floor.
John can barely make out gasps from the kitchen, the ringing from the gun firing filling his head to the point where no thought can enter it. John falls to his knees but he’s barely aware of it. His body goes cold and he realizes he feels nothing.
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