by ID Johnson
“Good! There’s a farmer east of town dusting his crops. It’s your only chance, my friend. Take this road straight out of town, and you’ll see it. He’ll have to refuel in a few minutes, and when he does, you take it and get out of here. Head back towards Mexico,” Alex instructed. Even as he finished his sentence, he was climbing out of the vehicle. “Take this,” he insisted. “There’s a gun in the glove compartment. Your keys in your truck?”
As Sam slid over into the driver’s seat, he nodded. He grabbed Alex’s arm through the open window. “Alex, thanks man,” he said quietly.
“I failed you once. I couldn’t let it happen again,” he replied, memories of Sam’s slaughtered family still etched in his mind.
Sam nodded, and before Alex could even get around the front of the vehicle, he threw it into reverse and took off towards the exit of the parking lot. He could see parachutes dotting the sky in his rearview mirror, and he knew he was running out of time.
***
There was no time for Aaron to question how Cadence had forgotten to bend her knees when she landed, nor was there time for him to try to comfort her in her pain. Right now, he could only see this as a huge problem that needed fixing immediately; they couldn’t get Sam without Cadence.
“Jamie,” he began, but before he could give a direction, the Healer replied back that he was “on it,” and he could see him running at full speed back towards where Cadence had landed, which was about a half-mile from where he was currently located. He could cover that ground in just a few minutes and put her back into commission pretty quickly. Of course, that would put Jamie out of service himself, but the trade off seemed worth it so long as no one else got injured.
He turned his attention to the rest of the team. “Hannah, Aurora, make entry into the school and start damage control. Christian, Meagan, the members of the DFW team will be at your location in approximately two minutes. As soon as they arrive, get on Sam’s tail immediately. Pam, Truitt, and Cassie are joining us via IAC right now, and they’ll be helping out as well. I see Sam pulling out of the parking lot right now, headed east in a black GMC Acadia, and I’ll stay with him from up here. Questions?” There were none, and the team began to follow directions immediately. Aaron looked up just in time to see an AgCat flying in slightly below him from his left. In order to avoid it, he pulled up, realizing as he did so that he already knew exactly where Sam was headed.
“You okay?” Jamie asked as he ran up the road just in front of where Cadence was sitting in the cow pasture. He leaped the fence easily and knelt down beside her.
“You should be careful jumping over fences,” Cadence muttered as Jamie pulled his gloves off. “You could really tear up your knee doing that.”
Jamie snickered at her attempt at humor. “Don’t you know you’re supposed to bend your knees when you land?” he asked still surveying the damage.
“No!” she shot back, though clearly not angry at him. “I’ve never been dropped out of an airplane before.”
“Well, now you know for next time,” he replied smiling at her reassuringly. “Can you pull your pant leg up? I don’t want to touch you until I know exactly what we are dealing with.”
“Not easily,” Cadence admitted as she struggled with the leather. She knew Jamie wanted to be careful because as soon as he touched her, she would start healing. Sometimes that wasn’t a good thing if there was a foreign object lodged where it shouldn’t be or something wasn’t set correctly.
As soon as she had her pants up above her knee, she could see how swollen her knee was. It looked twice as big as normal, and she could see a bruise beginning to form on the inside of her leg near the bottom of her kneecap. “Wow, when you break a knee, you break a knee!” Jamie exclaimed. “I think I can fix it well enough for now that you can get in on the hunt. I’ll need to go in as an actual surgeon later, though, and make sure that everything is fixed correctly.”
“Is it my ACL?” Cadence asked as he continued to peer at her knee without touching it.
“Yes,” he confirmed, looking into her eyes with a very serious expression on his face. “Probably your meniscus as well, and maybe a few bone bruises.”
“Awesome,” Cadence muttered, not even sure what a meniscus was. “Will I be able to run on it?”
“Should be,” he replied, finally beginning to work on the area. “Just give me a minute to put it back together.”
Cadence let out a deep sigh and stopped talking so that he could concentrate. She could see Hannah and Aurora entering the school through her IAC. She also saw that there were local police cars pulling up as well, and she couldn’t help but wish Elliott was there to spread his wonderful lies. Hannah and Aurora had both been practicing and were getting much better at it, but no one was as good at convincing crowds that they had not seen what they had, in fact, just seen as Dr. Elliott Sanderson.
Christian and Meagan were currently chasing Sam down what appeared to be a windy back road, and two members of the DFW team were searching the area near the school for Alex. However, a few minutes into their pursuit, the Highway Patrol had pulled them over, and they were currently attempting to explain how they were not involved with the incident at the school. Cadence hoped one of them was gifted with the same bullshit talent Elliott had been blessed with.
She also learned through the IAC that a short woman with shoulder-length brown hair was just about at their location with two motorcycles. She thought Aaron had referred to her as Pam earlier, and she was glad to see she wouldn’t have to run to the school to get a vehicle. Despite Jamie’s efforts, she was still leery of running on her knee since it had buckled under the weight of her standing on it only moments ago.
Just as Pam pulled the SUV to a stop on the road in front of them, Jamie sat back on the ground next to her, a look of exhaustion on his face. “There,” he sighed. “That should do it.”
Cadence hated seeing him so drained and clearly out of the hunt now because of her inability to follow directions. “Thank you,” she said as she rubbed her knee. It didn’t hurt anymore, the swelling was down, and she was pretty sure it would hold. It felt like she had never injured it.
“No problem,” Jamie replied, swatting his hand in her general direction. “I’m not completely depleted,” he assured her. “I should be okay in a few minutes.”
One eyebrow raised, Cadence looked at him skeptically, but she said nothing, only nodded. After another moment of bending and straightening her knee, she decided to give it a try and began to clamber to her feet.
“Hold it there, darlin’,” Pam said as she jumped over the fence. “Let me help you.”
Before Cadence could respond, the stranger had her hands on her arms, steadying her. She was thankful for the help because, though her knee didn’t hurt, it did feel funny, and it took her a second to get her balance. Once she was on her feet, Pam let go of her, and she practiced taking a few steps. Her knee seemed good as new. “Thanks,” she said to Pam, nodding.
“Sure thing, sweetie,” Pam replied. “It’s awful nice to meet you in person!”
“You, too,” Cadence replied, though she realized it was a bit out of place; she’d never heard of Pam before while the other woman had certainly heard of her.
“I got your bikes out,” Pam began, gesturing back toward the truck. “Aaron wants me to head over towards Caddo Mills Airport, so I reckon I’ll do that. Jamie, you wanna ride in the truck with me?”
Jamie had his arms on his knees, his head buried between them. Without looking up, he said, “No thank you. I’ll just rest for a few minutes and then get on the bike.”
“Jamie…” Cadence began, thinking there was no way he was going to recover in time to get in the chase, but he didn’t let her finish.
“Cadence--go!” he insisted. “Sam--remember?”
Her eyes widened as the importance of this hunt came back to her. Without another word, she ran off, leaping the fence, headed toward one of the two F4CCs parked on the side of the road near a bla
ck Expedition. She jumped on the bike and started it in one fluid motion, leaving Jamie and their new friend, Pam, behind in a cloud of dust.
Hannah and Aurora entered the school building as if they were on important business, not as if they were rushing to a crime scene. FBI badges in hand, they pushed their way through the locked exterior doors and into the front office. That door had been locked, too, and the receptionist, who was under her desk peeked out momentarily to see who had made their way into their stronghold, ducking back under the desk as if she assumed she’d be shot.
“Excuse me,” Hannah said in as calm a voice as she could muster, “I’m Detective Hannah Roberts of the FBI, and this is my partner, Aurora Bowling. You’re perfectly safe to come out from under the desk now, miss.”
Almost immediately, Patty pulled herself out from under the desk and stood, a questioning expression on her face. “What’s going on?” she asked, hesitantly.
“I understand that one of your teachers reported an incident in the hallway and that your principal ordered a lockdown. Is that correct?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Patty confirmed. “We weren’t sure what was happening, but she said one of our custodians hurt a child and broke the glass door.”
“Right,” Hannah nodded. Just then, several other office workers stepped around the corner. “While we can see why you would think that was dangerous, it is actually nothing to worry about. That man actually didn’t work here. He was an actor from a television show that was filming in the area, remember?”
As Patty began to nod her head, one of the women from the back of the office stepped forward. “Oh, that’s right!” she exclaimed. “Remember me telling you about that?” she asked.
Hannah assumed this was the principal. “Yes, and the student was part of the show as well. Your staff and students are perfectly safe. In fact, it was a lot of fun for the kids to get to be part of a television show.”
“They did really enjoy that,” another woman chimed in, smiling. “This has been so much fun!”
Before Hannah could continue, several police officers entered the building using the door Hannah had forced open. Their guns were drawn, and they entered the office in a defensive formation. Aurora immediately turned and showed them her badge. “Good morning,” she began. “I’m Detective Aurora Bowling of the FBI….”
Sam could see the AgCat in the distance, but he was having trouble figuring out exactly where it was and where it might land. He didn’t know of any grass strips in the area, so he assumed the refueling would have to happen at Caddo Mills Airport, a place he was only vaguely familiar with. Still, he kept on eye on the AgCat as he made his way towards the small operation out in the middle of nowhere. He also kept his eye on the Cessna flying high above him, clearly watching his every move. He didn’t hear any vehicles on the ground behind him, but he was pretty sure that could change at any moment.
Jamie sat by the side of the road for what seemed like an eternity, even though it was just a few minutes. It hadn’t taken all of his energy to fix Cadence’s knee, or else he would have passed out, but he was wiped, and he knew it would take at least thirty minutes to completely recuperate. The thought of doing so in the SUV with some Hunter he had just met didn’t seem too appealing--especially since she would have had to carry him over to the vehicle--so he decided to sit in the grass and watch the cows, hoping the tranquility might make him convalesce a bit more quickly.
“Jamie, we have a problem, and we’re going to need your help. How are you?” Aaron was asking over the IAC, completely ruining the ambiance of the peaceful cows gnawing on the sweet green grass a few dozen yards away.
With a deep breath and a moment of reflection, Jamie replied, “I’m getting there. I guess it depends on what’s happening.”
There were a few moments of silence, which Jamie assumed meant that Aaron was gathering more information. “Cassie and Truitt just saw Sam’s old truck speeding down a road heading in your direction. They can’t get away from the Highway Patrol just yet. We’re pretty sure it’s Alex. I’d hate to see him get away.”
Even as Aaron was speaking, Jamie could feel a slight tremor in the ground, indicating a vehicle was approaching. Alex had intentionally helped Sam escape. He couldn’t get away; he was an accomplice now. Taking another self inventory, and a very deep breath, Jamie replied, “I’ll do what I can.”
“That’s all I can ask,” Aaron replied.
Alex Sanchez sped off from the scene, taking one back road and then another in an attempt to both blend in and lose the LIGHTS team that may or may not have been observing him. He hated to turn his back on the team the way that he did, but he and Sam went way back, and when Sam’s niece and her family had been slaughtered by Giovani and his minions earlier in the year, Alex felt badly that he hadn’t made it to the scene in time to help. While he hadn’t had any direct contact with Sam since he had moved to North Texas, he knew he was in the area, and he had spent a great deal of time observing the local LIGHTS team. When he’d seen them moving out that morning, he’d decided to trail them, assuming there was only one reason why they’d be moving to a sleepy little town an hour or so away from Dallas in the middle of the day. Of course, he had been right. Now, he was hopeful that Sam could get away from the team and lay low for a few years in Mexico or South America, not causing any problems but not having to pay the piper for the Sierraville Incident either.
Alex was fairly certain he had gotten away by now, and his mind was on other things. As he passed by a cow pasture, barreling down the gravel road at about eighty miles per hour, he was shocked to see a figure step out into the middle of the road, gun drawn. He attempted to avoid him, but a shot through the tire sent the old truck spinning. He turned the wheel sharply back towards the road, which caused the Ford to tip, and the next thing he knew, he was hanging precariously from his seatbelt, the top of the truck within fingertips reach, shards of glass from the shattered windshield all over his clothes.
He’d hit his head, and while he wasn’t really injured, it took him a moment to grasp what had happened. “Damn it,” he muttered, realizing pretty quickly he had underestimated LIGHTS, and they had sent someone after him. He scrambled to unhook the seatbelt, wondering why he wasn’t being pulled out of the truck by his collar, and slid out the passenger side window, furthest away from the road.
His question was answered quite quickly, as he popped up behind the side of the truck, using it as a shield. “Well, if it isn’t Dr. Jamie Joplin,” he smiled, relieved that it was just a Guardian and not a Hunter. Another Hunter could have put him away, but everyone knew a Guardian couldn’t kill a Hunter. Despite this knowledge, Jamie had a Glock drawn on him, and Alex couldn’t help but notice that the Guardian’s hand was trembling. He seemed to be sweating, and he looked like he might fall over at any moment.
“Alex,” Jamie said absently wiping sweat from his upper lip on the back of his free hand, “you need to turn yourself in. My teammates will be here in just a minute, and they won’t hesitate to shoot you.”
Pulling his own Glock from the back of his waistband, Alex stepped around the truck, knowing there was only one person present who needed to worry about being shot. “Is that a fact?” he asked. He spied the FC44 parked under a tree across the road and knew that it would make his escape a lot more efficient than the beat up Ford ever would have. “Listen, Jamie, you don’t want to fight me,” he began, stepping towards the front of the truck. “You know you can’t win. Hell, even if you weren’t half dead, you can’t kill me.”
Jamie’s brow furrowed. “That’s not true,” he began. “I can kill you, and I will if you don’t stand down, right now.”
The Guardian’s hand was trembling worse now; he looked like he might need to lie down right there in the middle of the road. “What are you talking about?” Alex asked, reaching the hood. “You’re a Guardian. I’m a Hunter. You can’t kill me.”
“Jamie, Aurora is on the way. She’ll be there in a couple of minutes. Stall him
if you can.” Aaron was explaining.
“I have titanium bullets, right?” Jamie clarified. “I can kill him, can’t I?”
There was hesitation on the other end, and Jamie’s hand began to shake even worse. “You should be able to,” Aaron finally replied.
“Should or can?” Jamie clarified. Alex was slowly moving towards the bike now, saying something about not wanting to hurt anyone but needing to be on his way. Aaron didn’t answer directly again, so Jamie demanded, “Aaron! Should or can?”
“Can. Can!” Aaron replied, and though Jamie knew the Guardian Leader had killed Camilla with a titanium bullet, that all of Christian’s tests had shown that Guardians could kill Hunters with said titanium bullets, he really didn’t want to find out.
“Alex, stop!” Jamie demanded as the Hunter stood directly across from him now in the middle of the road. “I’m not going to warn you again. I can--and will--shoot you. And if I’m going to shoot you, it’s not going to be a flesh wound. I will kill you.”
Alex smiled, “Jamie, this is all a grand bluff, and I appreciate the effort. I don’t want to hurt you. I have a lot of respect for you.” Over Jamie’s shoulder, Alex could see a vehicle approaching. At this point, he had to assume it was back up. “I won’t be taking any chances either. If I fire, you will die.” He glanced at the bike now and saw that he was only ten paces away.
Looking at the bike and back at Alex, Jamie knew he needed to do something now if he was going to do anything at all. If they fired at the same time, Alex could potentially hit him first, and he wouldn’t get a chance to prove he was right. “Alex….”
“Jamie….”
The gun came up then, and time was up. Jamie aimed and dropped backwards at the same time, hoping his movement wouldn’t throw him off target. He felt the bullet whizz over his head, and saw Alex drop to the ground, firing off a second shot. This one grazed Jamie’s right arm, and he fired again as he fell to his left. This time, Alex did not return fire, and even from this vantage point, it was clear to Jamie why not. While his first shot would have been deadly, lodging in Alex’s chest, the second bullet left a trail of blood dripping down the middle of the Hunter’s face right between his eyes.