Outcasts by Stephen Templin

Author:Stephen Templin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books

25

The sun rose, and the Outcasts took turns lying in watch, two on and two off. If they could wait for the darkness to give them cover, they could look for a marina with a boat they could acquire to get out of Lebanon.

Late in the afternoon, they heard the voices of children playing, possibly a hundred yards away, between the Outcasts and the ocean. An uneasy feeling turned Alex’s stomach—maybe the children would discover them. He woke up Pancho and John.

The voices came to within about fifty yards and stopped, but the footsteps of one or two children came closer.

The Outcasts had hid themselves on the side of the house farthest from the entrance, under the leafy branches they’d collected.

Two whispering boys came inside the Outcasts’ stone house. The boys walked closer. Then they tugged at the branches concealing Alex. He tried to hold his in place. As the boys wrestled with the branches, the smaller boy spotted them and jumped back, startling his friend. The Outcasts threw aside their branches, lunged forward, and grabbed the two boys. They screamed.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Alex said.

The boys trembled.

Alex turned to Cat. “Tell them we’re not going to hurt them.”

She spoke to them in Arabic.

“We can’t kill them,” Alex said.

Cat started to translate but stopped.

John picked at his shirt sleeve as if there were lint on it, but there was none.

“What is it, John?” Alex asked.

“If we let them go, they’ll tell their parents, and they’ll call the local authorities to apprehend us,” John said.

Pancho nodded. “Maybe we could tie them up until their parents send out a search party and find them.”

“I think we should get out of here right now and take the kids with us,” Alex said. “When we get far enough away, we’ll let them go so they have a chance to get home just after dark. By then we should have a big enough lead away from them.”

“We’ll have to lead them in a false direction until we let them go so they won’t be able to tell people the real direction we’re heading,” John said.

The voices of playing children became louder. They were coming nearer.

“Can’t we just leave them here and tell them to count to two thousand?” Cat said. “And make them promise not to tell their parents about us?”

John nodded. “That’ll save us the time of creating a false direction.”

Pancho also nodded.

The sound of children came closer.

“That’s assuming we can trust them,” Alex whispered.

“I don’t trust them,” John said, “but I think it’s our best option to buy some time without hurting the boys.”

Pancho and Cat agreed.

“Okay,” Alex said. “Let’s do it.”

Cat told the boys and they started counting.

The Outcasts stepped out of their stone house and peeked around. The other children had gone off in the opposite direction. The Outcasts hurried to their white truck and loaded into it. When Alex turned the ignition, it didn’t start.

Although the two boys remained quiet in the stone house, the other children called out to each other, nearing the Outcasts again.

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