He didn’t move. Ashley frantically felt for a pulse, realizing for the first time that the skin on her palms had been scalded from crawling atop the boiling water.
He was alive. She could feel his pulse despite missing much of the skin on her fingers.
“Come on, Jack. Wake up! Wake up! Please wake up!” Ashley sobbed.
Realizing they would be dead in less than a minute from smoke inhalation if they didn’t get out of the room, Ashley forced herself to her feet and grabbed Jack by his left arm. She grunted as she began dragging him.
“I’m not going to let you die!” she cried out as she strained to pull the dead weight. “Come on! Move!”
She felt her back strain as she pulled her partner slowly across the floor. They weren’t going to make it. She couldn’t pull him fast enough to outrace the flames and smoke.
Just when she was about to lose hope she felt a tug from behind. A figure reached from out of the smoke and grabbed Jack’s other arm.
“This way! Hurry!” the man urged as she felt Jack’s body begin to slide across the floor. It was Earl!
“The door is over here!” Earl coughed. “Pull! Pull! We’re going to make it!”
Ashley doubled her efforts, heartened by Earl’s sudden appearance. He had run into the burning building to save them.
Pulling Jack’s unconscious form blindly through the smoke, Ashley followed Earl’s lead, hoping he knew where he was going. For all she knew, he might be leading them to their deaths.
“The back door is over here,” Earl choked out.
Another rumble shook the room behind them as they tugged Jack through the opening.
Ashley cried out as the heat of the flash burned her back and threw her to the ground. Earl raced to the door, pushing it shut. He winced as he looked at his hands, burned from the heat of the metal door.
“Just in time,” he said, shaking his stinging hands. “Another second and we would have been …”
“Dead,” Ashley finished as she picked herself up off the floor of the stairwell they had entered.
“Quick,” Earl said, nodding toward the top of the stairs. “This whole place could go up any second. We got to get out.”
Ashley began to tug at Jack’s arm. “Give me a hand.”
Earl grabbed Jack’s other arm. “Put him on my back. Fireman’s carry. It’ll be faster.”
“Can you carry him by yourself?” Ashley asked as she helped lift Jack’s still-unconscious frame onto his shoulders.
“We don’t have a choice,” Earl grunted under Jack’s dead weight. “Now go!”
Ashley led the way up the steps, followed by Earl who laboriously carried Jack, taking each step slowly as not to lose his balance. Ashley stopped as she approached the top of the stairs and looked back. Earl had only made it up four steps of the twenty-step flight. She ran back down the steps.
“Go on!” Earl urged. “I’ll make it.”
Ashley ignored his gesture, scampering back down the steps. She got behind Earl and began pushing him up the stairs.
“We’ll make it … together,” Ashley growled as she gave Earl a hard push from behind.
Seconds later they slammed through the door, a pillar of smoke pouring out behind them as they ran for the first available cover before collapsing to the ground in exhaustion. Jack went flying as Earl hit the dirt, a slight moan passing the injured agent’s lips as he landed with a thud. They laid there for a moment, gasping for fresh air. Ashley covered her mouth as she tried to silently catch a breath, hoping not to give away their location to anyone who was in the area. The sound of voices could be heard over their coughs as they expelled the soot from their lungs.
“It’s the secret exit,” Earl explained, finally catching his breath. “They used it in case there was a raid. It’s a back way to get out. Only the disciples know about it.”
Ashley ignored the explanation. She was more worried about the sound of excited voices approaching. She eased up, peering around the trailer they had taken cover behind. That’s when she realized it – she couldn’t see!
“My glasses,” Ashley lamented as she strained her eyes to discern the movement. “I lost my glasses.”
In all the excitement inside the building, she hadn’t realized that her glasses were knocked off sometime during her time in the water tank. Now, as she tried to focus in the darkness, it was apparent.
“It’s the fire brigade,” Earl explained as he joined Ashley at her observation post, still coughing up the smoke in his lungs. “We have drills about every week, just in case something happens.”
Ashley relaxed for a moment, sitting down with her back to the large trailer tire, the truck positioned be-tween them and the approaching fire crew.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Ashley wheezed as she narrowed her eyes, looking around for a vehicle in the light of flames. Despite her spotty vision, she caught Earl’s gaze as he looked at her oddly. “What?”
“Um, your eye brows,” Earl said with a bit of surprise.
“What about them?” Ashley asked as she continued looking for transport.
“You don’t have any,” Earl shot back, prompting Ashley to feel her forehead, finding nothing but bare skin where her eyebrows used to be.
“Am I missing anything else?” Ashley anxiously asked as she felt the rest of her body.
“Maybe a little hair,” Earl said, looking at her in the firelight, before forcing a smile. “Don’t worry. It’ll grow back.”
Their exchange was interrupted by a groan from Jack, who remained on the ground. His eyes were still closed as the groan turned into incoherent babbling, loud enough that Ashley feared he would give away their hiding place.
“We’ve got to get him out of here … now,” Ashley said even as she heard the shouts of familiar voices near the main entrance of the furniture factory. It was the voices of the sheriff and Elijah. They had survived!
“Spread out and look around,” boomed the sheriff’s voice. “If they survived then they’ve got to be out here, somewhere.”
“This is bad,” Earl bit his lip, looking around for options. “We’ve got to get out of here, NOW!”
The pair jumped as a motor fired near them. It was the trailer they had taken cover behind.
“There’s our way out,” Ashley said, nodding toward the cab of the truck. “Bring Jack.”
Ashley wasted no time scampering toward the cab, knowing it was only a matter of time until Elijah and his men found them in their present cover.
“Federal officer. I’m going to need your truck,” Ash-ley said as she swung open the door of the truck and came eye to eye with the surprised trucker.
“Officer Reynolds!” the stunned man exclaimed.
“YOU!” Ashley shot back with equal surprise, seeing the man she had pulled over just a couple of nights earlier.
“What are you doing here?” Gary replied with wide eyes. “Did you see the explosion?”
“Yes, Gary. I saw the explosion,” Ashley said, roll-ing her eyes. “We need your help.”
“We?” Gary asked, looking around.
“Yes. We,” Ashley repeated as Earl walked up with a now semi-conscience Jack draped over his shoulder. “We need to get out of here.”
“What happened?” Gary asked as he saw Jack.
“I’ll tell you on the way,” Ashley replied as Gary climbed out of his seat to help pull Jack into the cab.
“The way to where?” Gary asked as he grunted un-der Jack’s weight, he and Earl lugging the addled law-man into the sleeper portion of the cab behind the driver’s seat.
“The airport,” Ashley answered.
“There’s an airplane waiting for us?” Earl asked with a hopeful voice as they placed Jack on the sleeper.
“Yeah. Something like that,” Ashley said, settling into the passenger seat. “Come on, Gary. We need to go.”
Gary slid behind the wheel after helping settle Jack. “I was leaving anyhow. I was just sitting here waiting for a lo
ad when – boom - everything blew up.”
“Just drive!” Ashley said sternly as she saw several men approach. “And don’t stop for anyone or any-thing.”
“Yes ma’am,” Gary responded as he ground the gears.
“Stop right there!” yelled a man running toward the truck as it lurched forward.
“Go!” Ashley yelled, seeing the man racing toward her side of the truck, waving a gun.
Gary stomped on the gas as the armed man jumped onto the stepping board, holding up his gun menacingly.
Ashley made out the man’s face on the other side of the glass, illuminated by the firelight. She had seen him before. He was one of Elijah’s disciples.
“I said stop this truck … now!” the man warned, banging on the window with the butt of his gun.
Ashley lowered the passenger side window.
“What are you doing?” Earl bellowed, wondering why she would open the window for the gunman.
Her reason became apparent as she caught the intruder on the chin with a sharp right cross, the impact sending him flying off the running board.
“Stomp it, Gary!” she yelled as she shook her hand from the pain of landing the punch on the man’s hard jawbone.
The man put out the alarm as he picked himself off the ground, rubbing his jaw from the well-placed blow. “It’s them! In the truck! It’s them!”
“Stop that truck!” the sheriff ordered, sending sever-al men running toward the semi from the direction of the growing inferno.
“Go! Go! Go!” Ashley urged as Gary accelerated, grinding the gears as he shifted up.
“I’m going!” Gary responded as he stomped the clutch.
The semi picked up speed as several men ran along-side the truck.
“Go faster!” Ashley yelled as one of the men tried to mount the running board on her side, his attempt repelled as she opened the door into his face, sending him rolling.
“What about that?” Gary exclaimed, pointing in front of them where a man was standing in their path, a gun leveled at them, bathed in their headlights.
“Duck!” Ashley screamed as she reached over and pulled Gary’s head down just as a volley of lead ripped through the windshield.
The belch of automatic gunfire was accompanied by the shattering of glass, showering them as they ducked below the dashboard. The gunman dove out of the way after the volley, narrowly avoiding being run down by the semi.
“Keep going!” Ashley said, reaching over to push Gary’s foot on the accelerator. “Is everybody okay?”
“It’s according to what your definition of okay is,” Earl called up from the back, wiping off the glass that had sprayed onto the sleeper.
Ashley looked into the side-view mirror. They were being pursued. Headlights had fallen in behind them as they sped from the main part of Paradise.
“Turn off your lights,” Ashley ordered as she continued looking in the mirror.
“Turn off my lights?” Gary questioned. “If I turn off my lights, how am I going to see where I’m going?”
“Just do it!” Ashley raised her voice. “If they see us coming at the front gate, they’ll open up on us.”
Gary slapped off his headlights. “You got a point there!”
“Just make sure you floor it when you top the hill near the gate,” Ashley said. “With any luck they won’t have time to bear down on us.”
“Um, Ashley,” Earl spoke up. “We’ve got another problem!”
“What?” Ashley said, taking her eye off the mirror where she was watching two blurry headlights quickly gain on them, one of those with flashing blue lights. The sheriff was in hot pursuit.
“There’s someone on the roof!” Earl announced, his revelation coming as she heard a slam on the top of the cab.
“The brakes!” Ashley exclaimed as a hail of gunfire pierced into the cabin from above, narrowly missing her as it ripped through the floorboard.
Gary locked up the brakes of the eighteen-wheeler. The sudden deceleration sent their unwelcomed visitor flying into the night as Gary fought to prevent the truck from jackknifing. Moments later they were rocked with a thud from behind. One of the pursuing vehicles had slammed headlong into the rear of the trailer, not anticipating the sudden stop. Ashley and Gary looked at one another for a moment as they sat stationary with only the rumble of the engine.
“Go!” she screamed, prompting Gary to again slam the gas just as another crash rung out. The sheriff had hit the back of the other vehicle which had been disabled in the middle of the road. The truck jumped for-ward as a hail of gunfire erupted from behind them, the side-view mirror on Earl’s side of the truck exploding as a round ripped through it.
“I can’t see where I’m going!” Gary yelled.
“Just go that way,” Ashley offered, pointing into the darkness in front of them. “I can’t see where we’re going already.”
The truck was rocked as it bounced off-road before Gary muscled it back onto the street. Jack moaned in the back as another bump sent the passengers’ heads bouncing off the ceiling of the cab.
“We’re almost there,” Ashley encouraged as she was able, through strained eyes, to make out the horizon above the crest of the hill. “Keep it to the floor.”
The semi hit the crest of the hill at eighty, the change in grade at the top of the hill sending the heavy machine airborne.
“Hold on!” Gary yelled as the truck came slamming down only a hundred yards from the illuminated guard shack.
Her plan had worked. Despite being warned of the approaching truck, the well-armed guards were not ready for the semi to charge at them from out of the darkness and from off the road.
“The shack!” Ashley yelled, pointing to the building that lay right in front of them.
“We’re going in!” Gary screamed as she gripped his steering wheel.
The guards didn’t get off a shot, diving to safety moments before the small building exploded into pieces as the eighteen wheeler slammed through it. Still travel-ing a break-neck speed, the truck barreled through the front gate, sending it spiraling.
“We’re out,” Earl called forward. “We did it.”
“We haven’t done anything yet,” Ashley warned. “They’re still after us and we don’t know what’s in town, waiting on us.”
“There’s an airplane, right? At the airport?” Earl asked, holding on tight as Gary made the hard right turn onto the highway, the trailer nearly turning over.
“Yes. There’s an airplane,” Ashley responded as she looked back to see if headlights were following.
“Are they waiting on us, ready to take off?” Earl asked hopefully.
“Not exactly,” Ashley replied as she made out pulsing blue lights on the other side of the rise back at Paradise Ranch. The sheriff was back in pursuit.
“What do you mean, not exactly?” Earl asked with a bit of panic in his tone.
“Well, there is a plane at the airport,” Ashley said, looking over her seat at Jack. “The pilot, well, the pilot is in here.”
“No!” Earl cried out, looking at the semi-conscious Jack, spread out on the sleeper. “He can’t fly. He can’t even walk.”
“I wasn’t talking about him,” Ashley replied.
“You? You fly?” Earl asked, raising himself up against her seat.
“Kinda,” Ashley shrugged.
“What’s kinda mean?” Earl asked. “When it comes to flying, you either do or you don’t fly. There’s no kinda in flying.”
“We are kinda out of choices, Earl,” Ashley shot back as she looked to see the blue lights in the distance, still in pursuit. “You can either roust Jack or, well, I’m it. Regardless, you need to be finding a set of keys on him. We aren’t going anywhere without the keys.”
Earl immediately began rifling through Jack’s clothes, feeling for the keys. Jack lethargically fought him off in his dazed state.
“I need the keys, Jack,” Earl protested, trying to hold back Jack’s flailing arms while patting him do
wn.
“They’re hanging on the hook,” Jack slurred with his eyes still closed.
“He’s delirious,” Ashley assessed, pointing for Earl to keep checking. “Jack. We need the keys to the plane.”
“Bingo!” Earl called out as he dangled a set of keys by his index finger. “Found them.”
“Give me my keys,” Jack protested like a belligerent drunk.
“See if you can bring him around,” Ashley directed as she snatched the keys from Earl and began looking for the key on the ring.
“I know this may be an odd time to ask this,” Gary began with his eyes on the road in front of them as the truck’s speedometer pegged one hundred, the head-lights now on. “But I’ve been wondering … it’s silly really …”
“Just ask,” Ashley snapped as she hunted through the keys, looking for one that was different from the others. That one, she imagined, would be the key to open the aircraft.
“Well, okay. And, yes, I know this is silly,” Gary stammered.
“Ask!” Ashley demanded.
“Okay, well you know that night you pulled me over?” Gary started shyly.
“Yes. It was just the night before last,” Ashley huffed. “I remember.”
“Well, and this is silly, but when I went to make my delivery there was a, um, there was a dinette set missing from my load,” Gary muttered, his question momentarily causing Ashley to pause on her key hunt. “I know it was on there when I left the Ranch. I watched it all get loaded. I’m very good at knowing my load, right down to the last stick of furniture.”
“What are you trying to ask?” Ashley said, glancing at Gary before returning to the keys.
“Well, would you, um, know what happened to the dinette set?” Gary forced out, giving Ashley a nervous glance.
“Are you trying to ask me if I pulled you over to steal a dinette set from your truck?” Ashley asked.
“Well, I wasn’t …” Gary stammered.
“That I had an accomplice break into the back of your truck and steal an entire kitchen set in the middle of the night and in the middle of the DESERT, no less - all while we were talking?” Ashley quizzed. “Is that what you’re asking?”
“Um, I suppose not,” Gary sheepishly replied. “Never mind. I told you it was a silly question.”
Paradise Ranch (Jack and Ashley detective series Book 2) Page 18