Frank heard the shriek and turned around. Ellen dangled inches above the ground. A soldier clenched her up by her hair, holding her as a shield. Frank fired a single shot into the foot of the soldier. His grip released and Ellen dropped to the ground. As she slid in a roll past him, Frank reached down, snatched her to her feet, and fired forward again. This time the shot was deadly into the forehead of the soldier. The soldier teetered and his body fell in a timber manner straight toward Frank and Ellen. Frank stepped forward, grabbed the falling body, and used the fall and the hillside to his advantage. With a grunt, Frank hoisted the body over his head and down to the soldiers who closed in. The dead body crashed into them and they fell like pins.
A window of opportunity opened and Frank took it. Getting in front of Ellen and to the top of the hill, he reached his hand down, and abruptly pulled Ellen up.
On the highway smoke bellowed and the pickup could been seen down in the distance, smashed against a tree, burning.
“Our truck’s fucked.” Frank scanned the situation and the three military trucks stopped on the road. Holding Ellen’s hand, he headed to the one that had an open door. “Let go.” He quickly helped Ellen inside.
Ellen slid over making room for Frank.
Frank knowing the type of truck well, found no keys. He reached down to hot wire it when he heard the pumping of shotgun chambers. At the same time, he and Ellen looked over their shoulders only to see a now open curtain and a line of shotgun barrels.
“Shit.” Frank yanked Ellen with him from the truck.
Ellen screamed and as her feet hit the ground, her ankle twisted, and her leg buckled. Just as Frank began to help her, he saw them coming. From all directions, many soldiers, too many to count, moved in to them with their weapons pointed. Pulling Ellen away from the truck, Frank shoved her behind him, and fired out. He hit as many as he could but it wasn’t enough to stop them. Faster they came charging at him. As they neared him, using the rifle as a bat, Frank swung out. Blasting a soldier in the face, he spun quickly taking out another, but the more Frank hit, the more they came after him, one, two, then three or four at a time. It was more than Frank could keep up with.
But he tried.
Fighting off one, Frank felt the crash of a rifle hitting into the side of his face, blood shot from his cheek, and a soldier jumped on his back. Frank flipped him over and he felt a weapon smashing into his spine then another to the back of his knees. As his knees weakened, a blow nailed Frank to the temple, and then another to the back of his head. Frank’s head flung to the right and his eyes rolled. He felt them pummeling him, bodies, weapons, blows, and Frank’s body wobbled. His eyes rolled back and in a drastic sway, Frank dropped. His knees hit the ground slamming hard and then Frank’s towering body followed, falling forward--face first--to the concrete. The hits upon him stopped. Voices surrounded him, calling out, male voices deep, slow, and distorted. In his fading consciousness, Frank received his most painful blow, the sound of Ellen’s cry out ‘no’, a cry he could do nothing about.
^^^^
In the air Robbie looked from the windshield to Dean who peered with intensity out the window. His face stone serious and there wasn’t a blink of his eyes. “Dean, are you O.K.? Anything?”
Dean shook his head, but kept on looking.
Robbie lowered his headset. “Prodigy this is Eagle one, do you copy?”
“Roger that Eagle one, I copy.” Johnny spoke.
“Are you seeing anything at all?”
“That’s a negative nothing.”
“We see smoke up ahead, what’s your make on that?” Robbie asked.
“It’s too far west. Want me to turn around and check it out?”
“Negative, we’re heading that direction. We’ll keep you posted. We have the Bionic man keeping watch. This is Eagle one over.” Just as Robbie disconnected the call, he saw Dean spring forward, his hands went flush against the window, and his eyes took on a horrified look. “Dean, what is it?”
“Hurry up, Robbie. Tell Johnny to meet us. We have to get to that smoke.”
“What do you see?”
“Signs that we may just be too late.” Dean closed his eyes tightly gathering his composure then he kept looking out again.
^^^^
Beginnings, Montana
With his hands folded and his chin running over them, Joe watched the radio in his office, listening to the transmission of Robbie and Johnny. The door to his office flung open and a frazzled Henry ran in. He had been out checking the tracking devices.
“Joe, I just got back. Tell me . . .” Henry walked further into the office. “Tell me it isn’t true.”
“I’m sorry, Henry,” Joe said sadly.
“Any word.”
Joe shook his head.
“Frank called for help? Joe, how bad does it have to be for that to happen?”
“Frank is sick, Henry. We’re hoping that’s the reason he called. Maybe it isn’t as bad as we think.”
“Can I sit and wait with you?” Henry reached for a chair.
Joe said nothing; the simple nod he gave was his answer. He didn’t want to talk, because he didn’t want to take a chance on missing a single word said.
^^^^
Ft. Peck Lake
The smoke was black but thinning out. It had hit the smoldering phase of a fire. The helicopters landed on the highway and together Robbie, Dean, and Johnny followed the trail of blood and bodies that led them into the woods. They found nothing in their search, only bodies of society soldiers, no Frank or Ellen.
Dean emerged up the hill and onto the road ahead of Robbie and Johnny. He was solemn and looked slowly around, walking small steps in the scene before him.
Robbie watched Dean walking and saw him stop cold and stare intensely to the ground. “Dean,” Robbie called out then he and Johnny ran to him. “Did you find something?”
Dean held up his hand then brought himself to a squat nearer to the ground.
“What is it?” Robbie asked.
Dean looked up at Robbie. “You saw the tire tracks. How many trucks do you suppose were here?”
“Two possibly three,” Robbie answered. “Why?”
“That’s a lot of men. We also saw a lot of bodies. Frank was here. He fought hard so where are Frank and Ellen?” Dean spoke his thoughts out loud returning his views to the ground. “I’ll tell you where. They took them. They wanted them because Frank’s good. But he’s not good enough to take out all those men.” Dean’s hand motioned to the ground. “Look at this. See this blood.” He pointed to a small circle of blood and droplets that smeared out from it. “There’s saliva mixed in this blood.”
Robbie crouched down. “Not that I can see the saliva, but I see where you’re going with it. Saliva, blood, that’s consistent of someone passing out face first.”
“Exactly and if they wanted to take Frank, how were they gonna get him? They took him down and they took him down right here. This is where he fell.”
Johnny breathed slowly out. “Someone took down my dad? Oh my God. No one takes down my Dad.”
“Oh yeah they took him down,” Dean said, “but he took them down right along with him.” Dean indicated the bodies scattered around. “He fought. There were just too many of them.”
“All right, wait.” Robbie held up his hand. “Saliva, blood? One of those men could have fallen and gotten back up. How do we know that Frank and Ellen didn’t just do damage and are running?”
“Because this is where Frank fell, I told you that.” Dean kept looking at the ground.
“How can you be sure Dean? How?” Robbie questioned.
“Because,” Dean spoke with a calm seriousness, “what is it that you and Frank call me? The Bionic Man? Bionic eyes. Henry enhanced microscopic vision. Well if I’ve seen Slagel DNA once, I’ve seen it a million times and this blood here . . . is Frank’s.”
The reality pummeled Robbie right there and then. His breath escaped him. Frank and Ellen were gone, taken by T
he Society. “O.K.” Robbie stood up. “We can start a search, us three but I think we should radio home, tell them what happened, and get an organized search party going right away. Sun up till sun down. Get a direction, get a plan because we know they took them. We just have to find where.”
^^^^
Bowman, North Dakota
The Captain stood with Sgt. Ryder and another man in his office. They stood around the Captain’s desk, a map spread out. The Captain’s huge hand smoothed the air over the map. “This region north here is where . . .”
There was a single hard knock and the door opened. Corporal Lewis stepped in at attention. “Captain, sir.” He looked panicked.
The Captain noticed the look on the young corporal’s face. “At ease. What is it?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, sir, but we just heard over the radio that The Society has two of the Beginnings people, a man and a woman.”
The captain spun in surprise. “They what? How?”
“From what we heard, Eagle One said they were beyond their walls. Eagle One is headed home now to put together a search party.”
“Where was this?” The Captain asked.
“About a hundred miles north of Beginnings sir.”
The Captain’s eyes widened. “That’s much too far north for us to offer assistance in the search.” He paused to think. “Damn it.” The captain’s hand slammed on the desk. “What the hell were they doing that far from their walls? And with a woman?”
Sgt. Ryder grabbed the Captain’s hand that now lay on a map. He slid it down. “Sir, we may be too far too offer assistance in the search, yes. But look at where they were and look . . . at where The Society has their new camp.”
The Captain stood upright. “Corporal, that will be all. Keep manning the radio, let us know anything, absolutely anything.”
“Yes sir.” Corporal Lewis backed up and left the office.
“All right.” The Captain took a deep breath. “Here it is. We know these camps exist and we know they have to be dealt with. We’re foregoing the plan, gentleman, to wait a few days. Right now, I want two teams put together. I want them large and strong. We will lead them. I’ll take one; Sgt. Ryder will lead the other. We’re headed north and south. If The Society has these people, which I think they do, they have them at one of these two camps. Unless we hear Beginnings has found their people, we go ahead with a new plan,” The Captain spoke with passion. “As of now we hit them simultaneously. We hit them hard and we hit them . . . at dawn.”
^^^^
Beginnings, Montana
Joe’s office was so jammed packed with men he couldn’t move to his desk. All were there to sign up for the search. Two of their own were gone. No one asked them to be there but the spirit of the community called out and many answered.
Joe stood before them all, bringing them to silence with the raising of his hands. “I know every single one of you are here to help. My God, do I appreciate this. This coming together is what Beginnings is built on. I wish I could use every single one of you. The father in me wants all of you to go out and find my children but the leader in me knows better,” Joe spoke with sadness. “Sending too many out would leave us defenseless and vulnerable to The Society hands. Frank would have a fit if we let that happened. He worked too hard to build an elite force here. So right now, Robbie is putting together teams. He’s working on where they will go. We’ll have six teams, four men each. As soon as he picks them, he’ll let you know. We hope to be back in the air in one hour.” Joe gave them a closed mouth look. “Thank you.” Slumping, he walked behind his desk and sat down.
His head was down, staring at his hands. He didn’t need to lift his eyes to hear the shuffling of footsteps as they left the room but he didn’t hear someone come in. Henry.
“Joe,” Henry called out softly.
Joe looked up. Henry carried a rifle and a knapsack. “Henry, what are you doing?”
“I’m here to get your permission to take a motorcycle.”
“What for?”
“Robbie refuses to put me on a search team. I have to go. If I don’t go with Robbie, I go alone.”
“I can’t . . . I can’t with a clear conscious give you a bike and send you out there on your own, Henry.”
“And I can’t with a clear conscious, sit back and let others look. You either give me a bike or I walk.” Henry sat before Joe. “Whatever the choice, I go.”
“Henry, listen to me. I would like to go too but I can’t and you can’t. I am the leader and you are second in line. You have an obligation here.”
“I have an obligation to Frank and Ellen to search until I can search no more. If I have to look for the rest of my life, then so be it. My best friend is out there. I cannot sit here and do nothing. I cannot.” Henry spoke soft but heavy words.
Joe leaned back in his chair and stared at Henry. “All right, take your stuff back.”
“But Joe . . .”
“Take your things back,” Joe paused, “because I’m sure Robbie will have a list for you to bring. I’ll speak to him. You’ll go.”
Henry smiled in relief. “Thanks Joe.”
“I want them back, Henry.”
“I do too,” Henry said. “I promise I will do everything I can to help bring them back.”
“I know you will.” Joe leaned forward again folding his hands on the desk. “I know you will.”
^^^^
Society Camp - Williston, North Dakota
The only window in the small room was boarded up. A small kerosene lantern was the only light. Had Ellen not looked at Frank’s watch, she wouldn’t had known whether it was day or night. She really didn’t care. She just wanted Frank to wake up.
His eye needed stitched, yet all they let Ellen have was a basin of water. She used that not only to clean him off but to try to break his fever as well.
Frank coughed and his eyes opened slightly. His right eye was somewhat swollen and already turning black and blue. As soon as his moment of focus was over, Frank sprang up from a lying to sitting position, grunted then swung his legs over the bed. “Fuck.” He stood up.
“Frank.” Ellen tried to get him to sit back down as she watched him sway some.
“We have to get out of here.” Immediately Frank began to check out the room.
“Frank, you’re sick and you’re hurt.”
“And I got us in a bad situation.”
“You got us in a bad situation? How do you figure?” Ellen followed him around.
“My God, El, they got us.” Frank’s hand felt for the door. He pulled the handle and then felt the creases. “Are you wearing a belt?”
“Yes. Why.”
“Give it to me.”
“My pants will fall down.”
“Hold them up. Give me your belt.” Frank held out his hand, his eyes focused on the hinges of the door. He felt the belt hit his hand and checked out the buckle. “This should work.”
“What should work? Frank, are you all right?”
“I will be once I get us out of here,” Frank grunted as he used the buckle to pop the hinge from the door.
Ellen let out a slight shriek of excitement. “You’re getting us out.”
Frank merely turned his head to her as he crouched down to the other hinge. After he popped that out he handed Ellen back her belt. “I don’t know how far we’ll get. Any idea how many there are out there.”
“A whole bunch.”
“Explain a lot.”
“More than we have people in Beginnings.”
“Shit.”
“It looks . . .” Ellen paused to think. “It looks like they settled here.”
Frank peered under the small crease at the bottom of the door. “I see one guard out there. Stay behind me.”
“Trust me, I have no intentions on leading the way.”
Frank stood up, looked back at Ellen and kissed her. “Ready?”
“Are you sure you’re O.K.?” Ellen’s hand reached up to his face. “Lo
ok what they did to you.”
“I will worry about me when I get us out of here. Get ready.” His large fingers gripped as tightly as he could to the side of the door where the hinges used to be. He counted to three, mouthing the numbers to Ellen, and then with a strong growl, he pulled on the door, causing a crack when it broke at the lock. Stunned, the guard spun around. Frank smiled “Hey.” Then he greeted the guard with a single punch. The guard swayed, fell to the floor, and Frank grabbed his weapon.
Checking out the hall first, Frank took Ellen’s hand and led her down the corridor.
“El, do you remember any of this?”
Ellen looked around. “Frank, I was worried about you. I didn’t think . . .”
“Shit.” Frank stopped cold, the door opened, and two guards stood there. They raised their weapons at him. Frank knew he couldn’t shoot because he would alert everyone of their escape. So doing the only thing he could, he spun the rifle, slammed the butt into the face of the one guard, sending him flying to the right. As Frank spun the rifle again, he used the force of the spin to nail the other guard to the floor.
“Frank,” Ellen said his name calmly.
Frank reached down for the soldiers’ weapons.
“Frank,” Ellen said his name again.
At first Frank wondered, why Ellen would call his name in the middle of all that was happening then he heard the click of a chamber. He turned to see a soldier smiling arrogantly at him as he held a gun directly to Ellen’s temple. Behind them were two more soldiers.
“We don’t need her. One of you will do for information.” The soldier was tall and blonde but not as tall as Frank. He wore lieutenant bars on his lapel. He pressed the gun tighter to Ellen’s forehead. “Put down the weapons or I shoot her. Your choice.”
The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series Page 356