by Dale Leavitt
The Roar of The Dauntless
The Beginning
By Dale Leavitt
2017
Copyright 2017 by Dale Leavitt.
All rights reserved.
Introduction
After a family tragedy caused by an impulse crime, Jason decides he will no longer tolerate thieves, deceit, or hate.
Consumed with making a name for himself, Detective Mark Chambers could become troublesome for Jason.
After learning that his signature was left at the crime scene, the media becomes an ally of Jason’s regarding the senseless murder of a beloved teenager. Men and women all over the world become Dauntless.
Chapter 1. The Smith’s
In the very near future;
Jason finds himself running from Detective Mark Timbers and staying ahead of the determined detective has been quite challenging. With Mark calling for back up, it seems Jason’s time of being a free man, may come to an end. Darting in and out of alleyways and buildings, Jason just can’t seem to shake the detective. Finally, in the knick of time, he has his eye’s set on a possible way out.
There is a slow moving train coming, and it looks like Jason can make it across the road before the train passes. With tons of buildings on the other side of the road, if he can make it, he will surely lose the approaching detective and police cars just now arriving. With the train's horn blowing and Jason diving over the tracks. He makes it to the other side, rolling once to soften the blow of hitting the pavement and hopping up all in one motion.
The detective is now pissed off and out of breath. He radio’s in the whereabouts of the last known location of possibly The Jackass Killer and decides to take a seat on the curb in hopes of catching his breath while he waits for the train to pass.
On the other side, Jason finds a good place to hide a couple of blocks over, inside of a building. Once in the building, he can hear the sirens of police cars all over the place searching for him. Jason hides in a back room and tries to catch his breath. After he recuperates a bit, Jason reflects on the events that put him in this situation and cannot help but laugh out loud. As soon as that emotion has subsided, Jason has a flashback of when his family was still with him.
They were at the park and Jason had just squirted his daughter Maggie with a water gun. All three of his kids wound up chasing him around the park until he could no longer run. All three drenched him until their water pistols were out.
Present Time
Having three pre-teens can be challenging for the best of parents. Jason and Julia have found a happy median in being able to balance the challenges of parenthood and the fact that they are still very much in love with one another, even after 15 years of marriage. The kind of bond, they have, indeed shows their contentedness towards each other.
Ralph, the first born, is 11 years old and enjoys playing sports. This time of year is soccer season, but he also enjoys playing baseball and basketball.
Maggie, the middle child, is nine years old and she enjoys talking, A LOT. You will not see her without her phone as she is either texting or talking with her friends.
Christina is the baby in the family at seven years old. When she is not being tortured by her older brother and sister, she enjoys following her mother around the house helping in any way she can.
Jason is the proud father and husband to Julia. He works for a local home improvement store and when he has free time he loves to go golfing and fishing with his small close group of friends.
Julia, the beautiful wife of Jason, is the backbone of the family. She takes care of all the kids, works part-time during the week at a local pet store and volunteers once a week at the local humane society.
A typical day in the Smith family usually consists of Jason working eight hours with Julia working a few hours after she gets all of the kids off to public school. In the evenings the family always enjoys an early dinner followed by either family functions, a night in, or a night out doing fun things like bowling.
During the weekends you can rarely find the family at home. On this upcoming Saturday, the family will go their separate ways as Jason is going fishing with his friends and Julia has a full day of plans with the kids on Saturday. Sunday the family will spend the morning at the beach and cookout with friends at home in the afternoon. Being football season, the family will be watching their favorite football team be on TV, which is the Dallas Cowboys.
As the weekend arrives, Jason gets up early to make a pancake and sausage breakfast for everyone. As all the zombies start to emerge and Julia finally makes it to the table, Jason gives a kiss to all three kids on the forehead and then his wife on the lips followed by a hug. Jason says he will see them all later today and is off to a day of fishing off the coast of Florida.
Chapter 2. Julia’s Accident
Julia will be the kid's chauffeur for the day with a full day planned. With Maggie and Christina needing new shoes and clothes from the mall. Ralph enjoys video games inside the mall while his sister's shop. After that, all will go to the local soccer field where Ralph will be playing at 1:00 pm. Maggie and Christina love going to the games because of all the cute guys that will be there.
The girls were able to find the shoes and clothes needed for school at the Mall, Ralph’s team wins their soccer game. Now, mom must stop at the grocery store to get some items required for dinner that night. The group speeds through the store taking a quick couple minutes to say hi to a friend of Ralph’s family. When loading up the car, a slow moving black SUV is approaching. The kids are already in the car, and all but one bag of groceries is still in the shopping cart. Having her hands and mind full, Julia does not see the slow approaching SUV or the fact that her purse is also still sitting in the wagon.
As she grabs that last bag of groceries and breathes a big sigh of relief, the black SUV stops, and a young teenager jumps out. He grabs her purse and quickly jumps back in the still moving vehicle. Once Julia realizes what is going on, she lunges toward the teen, but, cannot grab or stop him. The SUV quickly exits the shopping center and proceeds to get on the highway. All Julia could do is contact the local police and wait for their arrival.
While waiting for the police, Julia grabbed her cellphone from her back pocket and called her husband Jason to make him aware of the situation. Being a quick thinker and fast talker he comforted her by saying everything will be alright. He also told her to call the bank's, and he would call the credit card companies to report the cards stolen. She obliged although still shaking from the adrenaline caused by the incident. After speaking with the bank, the police finally arrive.
The officer quickly got a description of the vehicle and what contents were stolen and reported the bolo (be on the lookout). Once all information needed was documented the officer allowed the family to go on their way. Thankfully, when Julia let the kids in the car earlier, she put the keys in the ignition to turn the air conditioner on, to cool off the vehicle. Once in the car, she consoled her kids, telling them everything will be alright, as a way to calm herself down.
Ironically, the same highway she saw the teenagers use to escape was the same route she needed to take to get home. Julia enters the six-lane highway, three lanes going North and three lanes going south. About a mile in, she caught a glimpse of the same vehicle heading in the opposite direction. Seeing this car heading back, set a bomb off in her mind. Apparently not thinking the situation through, and with a “for official use only” highway U-turn coming up, she darted across the other two lanes with no time to spare, being able to turn around using the u-turn.
Unable to comprehend the consequences of her actions she makes the u-turn going a little fast causing her to
weave into the lane with oncoming traffic. The first car see’s her and was able to get out of the way. Unfortunately, the car behind that car did not see her and sideswiped her. It was not a devastating blow. It did cause her car to lose control though. She overcompensated when trying to straighten out the car, and the vehicle then started to go towards the grassy median.
Being sideways and hitting the grassy median at approximately 55 mph caused the unthinkable to happen. The car begins to roll violently into the grassy median. Although Ralph was wearing a seatbelt, he was ejected from the vehicle and killed on impact when he landed on the metal guardrail separating both sides of traffic. All three girls did not survive due to a broken neck occurring from the extreme pressure of hitting the roof of the car when the vehicle was tumbling.
If you could only imagine the scene, the boy lies lifeless on the guardrail and the young girls inside of the car motionless with blood coming out of their mouth and noses. The mother was also bleeding from the mouth, but, also had cuts and abrasions on her face, due to the window glass bombarding her, while the car was tumbling. While everyone behind them stopped, only one brave man checked on the vehicle occupants. He confirmed they were all dead by checking their vital signs.
Most onlookers could not stand to watch or help because of the boy. Once police arrived they immediately checked on each person involved and then wanted to contact any family members but, were unable to find any identification quickly as her purse was stolen. They were able to find an insurance card in the glove box which revealed the names, Jason and Julia Smith. They did find her phone just outside of the vehicle, still working. Seeing that her last call was to Jason, they called the number.
Jason’s cell phone had been on all day, and the phone's battery life was nearing its end. He received the call from a detective of the local police and once they confirmed he was the owner of the vehicle. The detective then said there was an accident and that his family was being transported to the local area hospital. The detective did inform Jason this was a serious accident and to come immediately.
After what seemed like a forever boat trip back to the ramp. Jason hysterically jumped in his vehicle to rush over to the hospital. Thoughts are going through his mind not knowing the condition of everyone. Were they hurt? Did someone die? Once Jason arrived at the hospital he was immediately met by the hospital chaplain, and this is where he learned the fate of his family. His other friends that were fishing with him did not arrive until after the news was initially given.
Chapter 3. Grieving
After learning that his entire family perished in the auto accident, Jason immediately broke down. The shock of the tragedy was so intense that words could not even escape his mouth.
Jason’s friends were told by the attending nurse before they saw him. When they finally found Jason, no words could be spoken or could help in the matter.
Frank, who is Jason’s best friend, gave him a consoling hug and did not let go. Even though they were all just on the water, having the time of their life catching Mahi Mahi, the others felt helpless. They decided to leave Jason and Frank alone, the guys gave him a hug and said they were there for him when he is ready.
After an hour of just sitting in the waiting room, staring at the ceiling, Jason was able to speak finally. His first words to Frank were “How did this happen? Why did she try to make a u-turn on her way home? I don’t understand. Did she forget something at the store?” Unbeknownst to him, he will never know the answer to that question.
After some time, Frank talked Jason into leaving and coming over to his house, so he would not be alone. Not being able to stay at Frank's very long. Jason decided he needed to go home so he could be alone. There are too many thoughts going through his head and someone being around was just distracting him from his memories.
Once home, Jason gazed around the house trying to reminisce every picture. Watching videos of the kids enjoying the life he gave them added little satisfaction. Visiting the kid's bedrooms one last time, took him through the night.
As days go by, he is starting to be able to cope with the realization that he will never see his kids grow up and never be able to kiss his wife again. The tears have stopped, but the anger has arisen. Not only is he blaming the low life person that had stolen the purse from a mother of three without a care in the world for his family's well-being, but, for crime in general and the people that commit it. Revenge is what he wants; swift justice will mend the heart he says to himself.
Having to bury his wife and three kids the next day, Jason turns to drinking alcohol to get him through the night. Julia’s mother handled all of the arrangements and the contacting of all family members. Finally getting a decent amount of sleep due to the alcohol, Jason was able to concentrate on his last day with his family before they went underground.
An extensive service with hundreds of friends and relatives arrived to show their respect. There was not a dry eye at the service. Even the media noted the funeral and the circumstances leading up to their tragic death on the nightly news. The next day, Jason contacted the place of his employment and let them know he would not be in for some time while he mourns their death.
Back at home, the only thing Jason could watch was the news channels. He became obsessed watching from morning till night. Not answering calls, not eating properly, and drinking copious amounts of alcohol fueling his newfound anger for people that commit crimes. He became overly depressed watching and hearing about all of the bad things that happen to people all over the world on the news that it made him want to do something about it. Not quite sure what or how, but, he knew he was tired of sitting back and allowing bad things to happen to decent people.
The very next day, on his way to get some groceries. Jason notices a speeding car coming up on his tail, weaving in and out of traffic. The roads are a bit congested, so he positions himself to let the vehicle pass. Jason notices the car in front of him has a mother and children in it. He immediately tenses up, in fear something might happen.
The car passes Jason without incident, weaves around the car on the right and has one more car to get past. Unfortunately, for her, she did not notice him coming, as she was preoccupied with the kids. She has the lane blocked so he cannot pass. The predicament enrages the teen driver, and he sharply cuts over into her path, in hopes she will either slow down or move in front of the vehicle beside her.
She finally noticed him trying to cut her off, and she does slow down so he can pass. The action lit a fire in Jason; his forehead starts to sweat in anger, his hands start to shake uncontrollably due to adrenaline which appears to be very high right now; he must release the pressure. He begins to follow the young teen driver. Thinking to himself he really should call the police and report the driver, but, rage has taken over.
The teen driver does not notice Jason following and goes about his aggressive driving until he arrives at his destination, which turned out to be a pizza restaurant. Seeing that proves the last straw and Jason decides to confront the young teen driver. The teen went into the pizza store, paid for his pizza and started to exit the building. Jason met him at his car door towering over him as he was about 75 pounds heavier and approximately 4 inches taller.
He ripped the pizza box out of his hands and threw it on the car. Jason then grabbed the young man by his shirt collar, lifting him to his eye level. He said “listen here you punk, my wife, and three kids were just killed in an auto accident. After watching your reckless driving, with families on the road, just to get a pizza makes me want to demolish you.”
The kid starts swinging at Jason, missing with every punch. Jason puts him back on the ground, grabs him by the hair, while the boy is still throwing punches and not even reaching him.
Jason cocks his fist, thinks better of it and says; “please just slow down on the roads and be respectful of others.”
Jason lets go of his grip, turns away walking back to his car and starts to break down with uncontrollable emotion. The kid grabs his pizza
and gets in the car. After a brief moment on his knees, Jason gets control of his emotions, postures up and gets back to what he was doing.
Was this the frustration release needed to move on from his wife's death? Time will only tell.
Chapter 4. Confronting Carl
After taking three weeks off from his career at the local home improvement store, to grieve solitarily. Jason feels he is finally ready to go back to work. Working will not be an easy task as working in retail can be somewhat debilitating. After the initial hello’s and all the hugs from co-workers, Jason straps on the vest he dearly admires and heads out to the sales floor. Jason works as a flooring salesman helping customers with their remodels.
Getting back to doing what he does best, which is helping people solve their home improvement problems and needs. Seems to free Jason’s mind from the torture it has been meandering in. Seeing his friends again, being able to joke around and tease, also brings back that certain confidence all men need.
Unfortunately, for Jason, the rigors of dealing with the general public has a tendency to test one’s patience and all around mental balance. On this day, Jason’s patience will once again be tried and put to the test.