by J C Fuller
“Stop that!” He put a heavy boot down on her back, pinning her to the ground.
“Maybe they’re still at the waterfall?” Philip’s voice projected as he grew closer. “You see anything?” He apparently wasn’t alone. He had help.
Gabe hunkered down as Philip came into view and Lane’s thoughts crystalized. In these dense woods, if Gabe made a run for it now, he most likely wouldn’t get far. He also knew the ranger was armed and dangerous and no longer on his own. It was now or never. She had to do something.
Gabe took aim, grounding in his heel, feeling the sheriff move under foot.
Chapter 41
Lane let out a gasp, the boot heel digging into her spine, her face mashed into the ground. She couldn’t see Philip coming, but she could hear him. She could also sense Gabe’s desperation, convinced he was going to do something rash if she didn’t act.
Pinned to the ground with her left arm still bent behind her and the other laying limp by her side, Lane started to feel around with her lose arm. Gabe, his full attention now on the forward trail, wasn’t paying her any attention as she frantically groped the dark foliage.
Fingers splayed, her palms brushed against crushed pine cones and broken twigs. Anguished, she dug her fingers into the soft dirt and pulled herself to the right, stretching for a thick broken limb.
Feeling her move, Gabe dug in his heel, applying pressure. Lane grimaced, her chest crushed against the ground, her breath cut short. She continued to stretch, her fingers weakly brushing against the broken limb. It was no use. She couldn’t reach it.
Craning her neck as much as she could, her watery eyes scanned the ground, desperate for anything. She couldn’t see much and her chest was on fire, but she stretched again, this time above her head. Her fingers suddenly fumbled against a rock and she gripped it, pulling it into her palm and down to her side.
“Lane?” The sound of Philip’s voice caused her stomach to drop. “I think I see them!” Philip pushed back branches, his pace speeding up. “Everybody, okay up there?” he called again.
“No! Lane is hurt!” Gabe yelled, squinting with one eye, trying to line up his target. “I can’t help her! I’m still handcuffed! She’s hurt bad!”
“We’re coming!” Philip plowed through the tree limbs and fallen logs as if they were wind. “Tell her help is on the way!”
Gabe changed his stance and Lane felt the pressure lessen. She was finally able to take a deep breath.
“You… were… wrong…,” she croaked, through gulps of air. “It was Janie…the whole time. She…played you…the fool.”
Gabe lurched back as if physically punched, his eyes glued to Lane.
“What did you say?” he sneered, his face full of anger and disbelief. The gun still pointing down trail.
“She…used you….to make Brent jealous. They switched the night before… Janie was Danie ALL DAY…It was NEVER Danie.”
“You’re a liar,” Gabe hissed, stepping completely back, straddling her. “It had to be Danie. She held my hand!”
Steeling herself, Lane heaved onto her knees and quickly rolled to her side, bumping up against Gabe’s leg. Catching him by surprise, she swiftly brought the rock up in a back-handed motion, slamming it as hard as she could into his left knee.
A loud crack sounded as rock hit bone, shattering his knee cap.
Crashing down into the thicket, Gabe fell on top of her, sending a loud howl up into the air. The gun going off as he collapsed in pain, numerous shots flying wayward down trail.
Taking advantage of Gabe’s stunned reaction, Lane reached up. Her fingernails digging against the side of his face, leaving red rows of scratches. She snatched at the tank top headband, yanking it down, encircling his neck. She then twisted it around her hand as hard as she could, doing her best to cut off his air supply.
Gabe panicked, the gun still in his right hand. He reached up with his left, grabbing at Lane’s fingers, scrambling to loosen her grip on the fabric. Failing to do so, he pointed the gun at her, his face red, eyes bulging. Waiting for this moment, Lane abruptly let go of the bandana and watched as he sprung back.
Using her training, Lane immediately jerked her head to the side, out of the gun’s line of sight. She then slammed the side of her hand against Gabe’s wrist, breaking his hold and ripping the gun out of his hand.
Rolling out from underneath him, she kicked his injured knee as hard as she could. He let out a scream of pain, clutching at his leg. Lane staggered to her feet, the handcuff still dangling from her wrist and pointed the gun at his head.
“Move,” she panted, planting her foot on his chest. “I dare you.”
“Sherriff?” Deputy Pickens came bursting upon them, his eyes wide, finding Lane standing over Gabe. Her foot planted firmly on his chest and her gun pointed at his head. “Everything, okay?”
“I need your cuffs, Deputy.” She ignored his question and then looked behind him, “Where’s Ranger Russell?”
Caleb grabbed at his own duty belt, pulling out his handcuffs, taking a wide berth around Gabe as he rushed to make his way over.
“He’s been shot,” Caleb reported, nodding for Lane to go, “He insisted I come looking for you.”
“Careful, I shattered his knee cap.” Lane nodded towards Gabe, before holstering her gun and taking off at a dead run.
Thrashing her way through the woods, she spotted the trail she’d followed in. Turns out, she hadn’t been as far off course as she’d imagined. Doing her best to keep up her pace, she followed the path, her eyes searching for Philip. She still wasn’t feeling quite herself, but the adrenaline rush had cleared a good portion of her head. Panic was doing the rest.
“PHIL!” Lane’s chest about collapsed, spotting his prone body lying on the ground, his leg propped up on a fallen tree limb. She skidded to a stop, quickly giving him a once over.
A stray bullet had pierced his inner thigh, blood still rapidly pouring out. Philip had managed to get his belt off and around his thigh, but had passed out before being able to cinch it.
“Oh, please. Not an artery,” Lane prayed, clambering over Phil’s unconscious body and roughly sticking her finger in the wound itself to apply pressure.
With her cuffed hand, she grabbed the belt strap and brought it up to her mouth. She then bit down on the belt with her teeth. Placing her hand back onto his thigh, she held the belt in place. Then, pulling her head back, she yanked as hard as she could to cinch it up. Getting the belt to tighten, she took her finger out of the wound, and gave the belt another hard cinch, jerking Philip’s leg up with it.
She then ran like hell, heading back to the ranger’s forest truck, branches and limbs slashing and clawing at her face. Thrashing through the woods, the dangling cuff caught on a broken branch and about pulled her off her feet. Desperately, she untangled herself and got back up, clutching the loose cuff in her hand, stumbling over the trail as fast as she could.
Finally spotting the forest truck, she sprinted over, jerking open the door and plucking the two-way radio off its cradle.
“KODY! Can you hear me?” Lane yelled, into the two-way.
“Sheriff Lane, that you? Over,” Kody asked, surprised.
“Yes, Kody. Listen very carefully. Philip’s been hurt…shot. I need you to get help to us right away!” Lane impatiently waited for Kody to respond, and then added, “Over damnit, Over!”
“Sheriff, Ethan is already on his way. ETA fifteen minutes.” The two-way radio squawked and Lane cut in.
“No good, Kody, I’ve got two injured. The ambulance isn’t going to make it through this jeep road. We need a chopper!” Lane was already straining to hear sirens. Maybe if she could get Philip to them…but she was scared to jostle him around.
“But the Coast Guard hasn’t reached the mainland yet with Lucas!”
“I don’t care! Tell them to come back! Have them send out another chopper! Call Search and Rescue! Get their team over here. Just get me a chopper now, Kody! Over and out!”<
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Dropping the handset, the coiled cord bounced against the dash, swishing back and forth. Lane brushed it aside, grabbing the small medical kit and snatching the blanket Philip kept behind the driver’s seat. She hesitated, wondering if she should try the Coast Guard herself, but dismissed it. She had to help Philip now and trust that Kody would do all that he could.
Jetting back into the woods, Lane started talking to God. Begging for Philip’s life to be spared and promising anything he required of her. Philip just needed to stay alive.
Chapter 42
Ethan Richardson gave out a low moan as the jostled ambulance rumbled to a stop. Leaning against the steering wheel, he peered out from the bug-smeared windshield, eying the jeep road ahead warily.
Directly in front of him was a giant dip in the road. He could see where large, knobby jeep tires had gouged a rut in the old trail and where the road ascended before dipping down into a larger groove. The old jeep road itself, lined with evergreens on each side, made it impossible for him to circumvent the man-made crater.
Easing the ambulance forward slowly and then thinking twice about it, Ethan stopped with a hard jerk before picking up the CB radio.
“Kody, I can’t go any further. If I try, I’m going to end up high centering the ambulance. This rut is way too high in the middle and there’s no way to drive around. They’re going to have to get Phil to me. Over.”
“Ethan, the chopper is still twenty minutes out. You’ve got to figure something out. Over.” Kody’s voice was tense and forceful.
Ethan took a deep breath, Kody was right. Twisting in his seat, Ethan looked into the back of the ambulance, taking a mental inventory. He nodded to himself and swung back around, speaking into the radio.
“Kody, I’m going to grab my kit and head out on foot. I don’t know how long—”
A horn sounded and Ethan quickly looked at the side mirror. In the reflection, he could see Jerry Holmes’s truck coming up behind him, bouncing up and down the jeep trail, a cloud of dust in its wake.
“Hold tight, Kody. I think the calvary just arrived. Over.” Ethan quickly hung up the handset as Jerry’s truck skidded to a stop behind him.
Clambering out of the ambulance, Ethan ran to the driver’s side, motioning for Jerry to roll down his window.
“Get that meat-wagon out of our way!” Dr. Hadley snapped, sitting next to Jerry, his face as white as his hair, glasses askew on the bridge of his nose. Despite having a white-knuckle grip on the handle attached to the glove box, the old doctor had been tumbled and tossed along the jeep trail.
Jerry, leaning out his window and blocking Dr. Hadley’s view, motioned towards the ambulance.
“Ethan! I need you to back up. There’s a turn off about a half mile back.” Jerry rolled his window up, not waiting for Ethan’s response and reversed his truck down the road.
Hastily giving a thumbs up, Ethan ran back to the ambulance and snatched up the handset.
“Kody, catching a ride up with Jerry and Doctor Hadley. Keep pressure on the chopper. Over and out!” Ethan hung up the radio and started carefully guiding the boxed vehicle backwards down the jeep road.
Seeing a spot where he could pull over to the side, giving Jerry’s rig enough room to push through, Ethan made a hard-left, narrowly missing the pine trees. He then quickly hopped out, bowing his head to miss the overhanging limbs and ran to the back of the ambulance.
Pulling up beside him, Jerry rolled down his window again, signaling he was going forward up the road.
“Hold on! I’m coming with you!” Ethan yelled, reaching the back of the ambulance, the double doors coated thick with road dust, pulling them open. “Come on, Jerry! Need your help!”
Jerry hopped out and grabbed the end of a portable backboard stretcher which was being pushed through the ambulance doors. Pulling it the rest of the way out, he placed it in the back of his pickup truck. He then took Ethan’s large ambulance medical kit and placed it next to Doctor Hadley’s black bag.
“Need anything else?” Jerry snatched the blankets folded on the gurney, tucking them under his arm.
“Do we know anything more about what kind of injuries we’re dealing with, besides a gunshot wound?” Ethan asked Jerry, his eyes falling on the tank of oxygen.
Jerry hurriedly shook his head no. “Kody called Hadley, said there were two injured people by the waterfall. I think we should try to bring whatever we can.”
Ethan hopped out of the ambulance, unhooking the oxygen tank, cradling it in his arms as he quickly walked over to Jerry’s truck. Jerry ran ahead of him, opening the backseat door, helping Ethan crawl in, the air tank still cradled in his arms.
“Ethan.” Doctor Hadley turned in his seat to face the young EMT fireman.
“Doc.” Ethan moved the tank to the seat next to him, belting it in and then himself.
Jerry hopped in, slamming his door roughly, putting the truck into drive.
“Hold on, it’s gonna get a little bumpy,” Jerry warned, rolling up his window. Doctor Hadley, facing forward again, braced himself against the door.
“How much farther up do you think?” Ethan asked, being jostled side to side with Jerry doing his best to maneuver the large rut.
“Little over a mile. You almost made it to ‘em.” Jerry shot him a quick smile in the rear-view mirror.
“How’d you two end up here?” Ethan returned the grin.
“I noticed Calvin had taken the ferry with the fire department’s pickup. Figured you were heading up here with the ambulance.”
“Yeah, originally thought I was only coming out for support. In this type of location, usually people are airlifted out. But with more than one person injured...” Ethan grabbed the tossed blankets off of Jerry’s middle console, tucking them around the oxygen, doing his best to cushion the tank so it didn’t bang up against the inside of Jerry’s truck or come dislodge in all the swaying back and forth.
“Same thought as we had,” Doctor Hadley said, giving Ethan a quick fleeting glance before looking up front again.
“Any word on the first person they pulled out?” Ethan, swaying and bobbing with the truck, took hold of the headrest in front of him, watching the road through the large windshield.
“Coast Guard got’em. Taking them to Swedish H. They’ve got a capsized boat out on the sound, so their other helicopter is working that scene. Plus, a pile up on I-5 has the hospital helicopter running back and forth. We’re on our own until one of those free up or search and rescue can get here.”
“This must be it,” Doctor Hadley said, spying the forest ranger’s truck and the sheriff’s patrol truck parked behind it. “Stop here, Jerry.” Doctor Hadley unclipped his seat belt, giving Jerry a hard look before pulling on the door handle. “And bring your shotgun.”
Chapter 43
Running back to Philip, Lane skidded to a stop, dust and grit landing on his legs as she quickly unfurled the blanket, hastily throwing it over his mid-section. He looked far worse than when she had left him. His face startlingly pale and lips slightly tinged blue. Dropping to her knees, she took a deep breath before willing herself to take Philip’s wrist, her trembling fingers resting against his skin. With her head bowed, she let out a sob of relief. There was a pulse.
As weak as it was, there wasn’t much time, he needed help…if only help was on the way. She scooted closer and laid her hand across his forehead. It felt cold and clammy despite the beaded sweat on his skin.
“Phil? Help is on the way. Can you hear me, Ranger? You with me?” Her voice sounded steady and reassuring to her own ears, her hands shaking, reaching for his. “You better be! Because I’ll drag you out of here by your hair if I have too. You hear me?” She nervously chuckled, hoping he’d open his eyes with a smart mouth comeback. Philip laid still and unresponsive. “Don’t worry, Phil. I’ll get you out of here.”
Leaning back on her heels, Lane quickly scanned the ground around him. She was looking for anything she might be able to make a stretcher
out of with the blanket. Maybe between her and Caleb? Caleb!
“I’ll be right back, okay?” She didn’t know if he could hear her, but she said it more for herself than she did for Philip. She gave his hand a quick squeeze before standing up and carefully stepping over him, heading back for her deputy.
Knowing the way much better, she swiftly headed into the thicker woods clasping the handcuff in her hand to prevent it from snagging on anything.
“Deputy Pickens?” Lane called out, stepping over a large fallen log and bending low to avoid bumping her head on the tree which was criss crossed over it. “Deputy? Are you alri—”
Caleb suddenly stepped into view with Gabe’s arm draped over his shoulder, the latter holding his weight off his bad leg as best as he could.
“Right here, Sheriff.” Caleb waved, “We were making our way to you.”
Lane noticed the arm dangling by Gabe’s side had been handcuffed to his jeans. Caleb’s way of making sure Gabe didn’t use his free arm for any mischief.
“Here.” Lane stepped around them, looping her arm through Gabe’s and helping pull him through the fallen logs.
“How’s Ranger Russell?” Caleb asked, trying to heft Gabe alongside him.
“Not good, but still with us.” Lane gritted her teeth, scraping her back against the log while trying to keep Gabe’s shoulders level with Caleb. “Kody is trying to get us a chopper, but looks like we’re going to have to drag him out on our own.”
“I can help him if you let me out of these cuf—”
“Shut up!” Lane and Caleb said at the same time, hefting Gabe over the last log.
“I’m not letting you anywhere near him.” Lane’s cold blue eyes burned, “Here. Put him down.”
Caleb and Lane together eased him to the ground, his bad leg extended in front of him. Caleb rapidly handcuffed Gabe’s hands behind his back and followed Lane over to Philip.
“Do you think it’s such a good idea to move to him?” Caleb wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and looked down trail. It was fairly open compared to what they’d just walked through, but they would still be jostling him around quite a bit.