“Yeah, right! If I had a match I would burn it right now!” Timothy replied laughing.
Jason and Daniel continued to load the rest of the equipment onto the raft. When they were done they waited by the shore for the others to arrive. They figured it would take all four of them to get Cody safely on the raft. About fifteen minutes had gone by. Martin, Dominic, and Cody had to be arriving soon. Then all of a sudden, they heard Dominic’s voice shouting for help!
Chapter 22
Walter Retaliates
(Friday Dawn)
Walter Gaither was up early. He had spent the night in his quarters at Camp Chinquapin and now was in the recruitment office, which he ran with two assistants, Alfredo and Darius. There was a lot to do today. There was a new recruit for the camp in Fresno who would need to be taken into custody. He had met with the parents yesterday, and it seemed almost certain that they would sign the paperwork. He wanted to get the new kid picked up and delivered to the camp before the start of the weekend. He and Alfredo were planning to drive down there first thing in the morning to take care of that.
Then there was the problems of the two screw-up kids they were holding in the camp prison. The prison was a secret operation that the recruitment office ran, because they were a separate unit from the counselors who managed the kids once they were brought to the camp. Only the recruitment team and the camp director knew about the prison, because it used extreme methods to deal with the kids sent there.
Walter couldn’t believe how much abuse and torture that their current inmates, Cody Johnson and Timothy Wilkinson, were willing to take. Usually it would only take three or four days at the most to break a teenager completely down. Everything they had been doing was a tried and true method, yet somehow these kids still were able to resist. His boss, Roland Thomason, had insisted on placing these two kids in the “anger management program.” That was his code phrase that meant “torture these kids into submission.” Thomason did not want to admit any kind of failure in his program. Walter thought Thomason really did want to make those two kids pay for their willfulness and insolence. He was happy to follow the orders because those two kids had been so disruptive to the program since they were brought to Camp Chinquapin. Their parents and guardians had unwittingly cooperated with this plan, by signing over Phase II permission to the camp authorities. It gave them the right to physically discipline, restrain, or use whatever force they wanted to control their sons or daughters admitted to the camp.
It was getting to the point of no return, however, with Cody and Timothy. Their bodies were covered with welts and sores from the daily beatings and whippings. There were rope and handcuff burn marks on their ankles and wrists from the stakeouts and long periods of time that they were kept restrained and Timothy was developing sores around his mouth because he had to be constantly kept gagged. That stupid kid! He almost exposed their whole operation that afternoon when he was left outside by himself and shouted ‘help’ out loud. Darius, his other assistant, really blew it that day by leaving him outside handcuffed to a light pole but not gagged. Luckily only a couple of people inside the camp asked about the cry for help after it happened, and they were told it was a bird or wild animal cry that they had heard, not a human voice. Still, that breach of security was not good, and Darius was reprimanded for his negligence.
It was clear that Cody and Timothy were getting physically weaker by the day, but still they hadn’t cracked mentally. If a breakthrough didn’t happen by the end of the weekend, Walter feared that these two kids would have to have some sort of fatal accident. Something like a horrible car accident where their bodies would be completely burned. It would probably take a month or two for their wounds to heal even if they did crack. If word ever got out about what they were doing to get control over these two kids it would mean real trouble. On the other hand, if they did finally break down, give up their resistance to the camp’s authority, and could then be trained into accepting the camp system, they would be real trophies to be shown to the other camp members and eventually to their parents. Keeping them imprisoned was taking a lot of staff time. It would be nice to have something to show for all of the time spent working those kids over.
Walter really hoped that Johnson and Wilkinson could be broken rather than disposed of. A dead or missing kid was very hard to explain and deal with, and most likely the camp would have to pay out a cash settlement. That had happened once before. The ironic thing there was that the so-called grieving parents seemed more interested in the settlement amount than in what had actually happened to their rebellious son.
Walter was now waiting to hear back from Alfredo. Darius had gone out to the compound first, around four in the morning, and had reported in as usual. Alfredo had followed him there about twenty minutes later. He was just going to pick up a few things needed for the trip and return to their camp office. He should have been back twenty minutes ago. Walter got on the intercom system that was setup between the recruitment office and the compound. It rang over eight times but there was no answer. That in itself was unusual with two guards there. The only probable explanations were that both guards were down in the underground cave which meant that something was going on with Cody, or that no one was in the building, or something unusual was going on.
Walter decided to take no chances and began the walk over there. He locked the office door, then unlocked the door in the back office that went down a flight of stairs to a tunnel. The tunnel took him past all of the regular camp buildings and to a secret path that led to the prison compound. The pathway was hidden in underbrush and was kept intact by chain link fencing on both sides and on top. No one could get in or out of it without huge metal cutters. It only took about ten minutes to get there, but the compound was completely hidden from the camp unless you knew about this secret entrance. Or you could hike through a mile of thick forest and underbrush if you knew where you were going. Even if you were able to get that far, through the tunnel and down the secret path, there was one more major obstacle. A second building was at the end of the path and the fencing was attached to the building. Inmates being brought in or out of the compound were always blindfolded so that they had no idea where they were.
Walter arrived at the second building and unlocked the door. So far nothing seemed wrong. They used this building as a backup in case of an emergency or escape attempt. There was a hidden stash of weapons, flashlights, restraints, and other useful gear. He quickly went through the building and out the door. He was now about twenty feet away from the prison compound’s main door. He looked around the small courtyard area between the two buildings and the surrounding forest. The far side of the prison compound was hidden in rock. Dawn was just starting to break, and in the emerging light Walter looked around but could see nothing unusual.
He went to the compound’s main door and unlocked it. It was dark inside. He turned on the light switch and called out “Alfredo! Darius! Where are you?” He then looked around the compound and what he saw was like a punch in the gut. Darius and Alfredo were bound and gagged with duct tape and locked in two of the prison cells! Worse yet, the cell that was supposed to have Timothy in it was empty! Walter called at Darius and Alfredo again, but they were out cold. Walter had a sinking feeling in his stomach about the other prisoner, Cody, but it was possible that Cody was still down there in the cave. Walter ran to the door, down the ramp, and opened the doorway into the cave. Cody was gone too!
Fear began to set in with Walter. Clearly this was the work of professionals. How else could someone breach their security and take out two guards so efficiently. Not only that, but it had to have been done in the last hour or so, because Darius had phoned in an “all’s okay” report. Clearly they were lying in wait and knew something about the camp security systems to get in here without anyone knowing. And who could this be? Neither of those kids was that well connected to his knowledge. Cody’s half brother guardian couldn’t wait to sign the papers to send him here and Timothy’s mother and stepfat
her seemed more than willing to sign the paperwork for him. To his knowledge, none of those people had ever even visited the camp!
Somebody had to have a powerful friend somewhere, but who? Walter then realized he still might have a chance to stop the escape. Unless they were planning to bull their way through the front door of camp security with all of its locked gates and guards, they would have to make their escape from this side of the camp where everything was mostly wilderness. They would be taking along two weakened kids, which should slow them down. They also would have to breach both camp security fences. Clearly the escape team had a good head start. There was no way that Walter could catch up to them that way. But they still would have to pass through those two fences somewhere.
Walter now knew what he had to do. He had to move fast so there was no time to revive the other guards. He hurried upstairs, unlocked the cell doors, and cut the tape binding Alfredo’s hands. Eventually he would wake up and free himself and Darius. He ran out of the compound and into the second building. He took out a rifle and an ammunition clip. He then ran back through the pathway and tunnel to the recruitment office. In the back area there was a gate through the barbed wire fence, and also a small all terrain motorcycle that guards would use to periodically check the fences. Sometimes they would even bring crews of kids through there to weed out the causeway between the two fences.
Walter revved up the motorcycle and drove to the gate. Quickly he unlocked it and headed toward the back of the camp. The motorcycle made it easy to maneuver back and forth as he looked for breaches in the fencing. His best bet now was to shoot whoever he could find. Everyone would have to be killed, and then the camp could come up with a plausible story about what supposedly happened. All Walter knew was if those kids were able to get to the authorities, things could become very messy at Camp Chinquapin.
With his rifle and ammunitions rounds strapped over his shoulder, Walter began driving down the causeway. No time for subtlety now, Walter had to make up a lot of lost time. The dawn was just coming up and that would help him see any breach in the fences.
* * * * *
Martin, Dominic, and Cody had just arrived at the breach in the barbed wire fence. The final stage of the rescue was to get Cody through the very narrow opening, and then through the slightly larger opening in the outside fence. Once they had him outside the camp fence, all four of them could hoist Cody into the raft, and then they would travel downstream to the rendezvous point with the med-evac helicopter. Martin had just begun to pull back the chain link fence where it was cut, when they heard the sound of an engine.
“What is that?” Dominic asked.
“It sounds like someone is coming toward us,” Martin replied. “That means we have been discovered or someone is performing a check of the camp security. Either way we are in trouble, because they will see the main fence breach for sure, even if they miss this one.”
“What should we do?” Dominic inquired. “We are almost out of here. But this is the most difficult part in terms of moving Cody.”
“I am going to run into the direction of that sound and head whoever it is off,” Martin told Dominic. “I will fight them and prevent them from getting here for as long as I can. If there are a lot of them it could be tricky. Because of that, I want you to call the boys over and have them help you move Cody. Then as soon as you get him out of here and onto the raft, take off. Don’t wait for me. I’ll be fine, and I will meet you at the rendezvous point as soon as I can.”
“How are you going to stop them? Do you have any weapons?” Dominic asked.
“I have my crossbow and these two hands. I think you know what they are capable of! Now get going while we still have some time!” With that, Martin crawled through the fence opening and took off down the causeway toward the sound of the motorcycle.
With someone coming, there was no reason to be quiet anymore. Dominic quickly crawled through the chain link fence and ran across to the other fence opening. “Jason! Daniel!” he shouted. “Come here as fast as you can!” Although the boys were wearing their waders, they still quickly hustled over. “Someone is coming! We don’t know who, and Martin is heading them off. But I need your help with Cody. We have to get him onto the raft now, and head down the stream. Come with me!
Dominic, Jason, and Daniel went through the fence and ran to the other side. Daniel held open the fence, while Jason and Dominic crawled through and got the ends of Cody’s stretcher. They were able to pull him through. Daniel grabbed onto one of the rails that Jason was holding and the three of them hustled as fast as they could across the causeway. As they were carrying Cody, they could hear the sound of the motorcycle engine getting closer.
“Hurry, Jason and Daniel!” Dominic said in a low, sharp voice. “We are almost there!”
At the fence opening, Daniel took the other pole from Jason, who ducked down and went through. He then took the ends from Daniel, and began pulling Cody through. The stretcher was literally inches from the ground. Jason pulled as hard as he could to move it away from the opening so Daniel and Dominic could get through.
“All right! We’re though! Good job, boys! Now we have to get him onto the raft. That may be a lot more difficult.”
Cody then spoke up, “You guys have carried me all this way, through really tough terrain. But now we are at water, where I feel at home. I’ve leaped up through ten foot waves, and mounted surfboards in treacherous waves and undertows. You just get that raft going, and I will get on it no problem!”
“I sure hope you are right about that,” Dominic said. “We have to get out of here now!”
“If it’s the last thing I ever do, I will get on that raft!” Cody said with determination.
“All right, let’s go!” Dominic went and untied the rope holding the raft to a tree while Daniel, and Jason waded to the raft and then helped each other in. Dominic held onto the rope, while Jason and Daniel paddled as close to shore as they could. When they got near Cody, they couldn’t believe what they saw. Cody waded in the water, put his hands on the edge, did a flying leap up, tucked his legs in, and plopped himself right down in the middle of the raft.
“Welcome aboard!” Jason said with a laugh. “I guess you weren’t kidding.”
Dominic then got on board and said, “Let’s get out of here!”
“What about Martin?” Daniel asked. “We can’t just leave him!”
“Don’t worry about Martin. This is what he wanted us to do. I’ve seen him get in and out of more scrapes and battles than you could imagine. I’m sure he can take out the first guy with no problem. But if there are more pursuers, it could get complicated, and he can only hold them off for so long before he would have to bail out of there.”
“But how will he get out of there and to our rendezvous point?” Daniel continued.
“You are talking about a Navy SEAL, Daniel. He lives for moments like this. Now don’t worry about him. We still have to get Cody and Timothy to the rendezvous place. We are not out of danger just yet. Now get paddling!”
The raft began moving downstream at a rapid pace, with Jason and Daniel paddling, and Dominic guiding them.
* * * * *
Back in the causeway, Martin had been running toward the sound of the motorcycle. After he had gone about a quarter mile, the fence began to curve toward his left. Figuring that this was the best vantage point he would probably get, he took out a grappling hook, tossed it expertly up over the top of the fence, and climbed up there. He knew he didn’t have much time to get off a shot, but with the curve, most likely the motorcyclist would not be looking up. In about a minute, the sound was getting louder as the motorcycle approached. Martin took out his crossbow, loaded it, and began setting his sights. Finally the motorcycle appeared. There was a single rider with a rifle over his shoulder. Since the man was armed and would clearly be a danger to the others, Martin decided to take him out and off the motorcycle. At the same time, the man probably had useful information, so Martin aimed for the right side
of his body and fired.
The arrow hit perfectly, knocking the man off of the motorcycle, which circled around for about thirty seconds before it shut down. Martin stared down at the man. He was clearly dazed from the fall and hadn’t made any move for his rifle to defend himself. Martin kept an eye on him while he listened for anyone else coming down the causeway. Things were very silent and serene again in the early dawn. After several minutes, it seemed clear that the man had come alone. The man was not moving and hadn’t reacted yet to his injuries. But he still had that rifle, so Martin decided to approach cautiously.
Martin moved along the top of the fence until he was out of the man’s sight to climb down. This way he could come up from behind the man and disarm him before the man could even see him.
Martin placed another arrow in the crossbow and came up silently behind the man who was still acting dazed. When he got to the man, he literally placed the loaded bow on the side of the man’s face and said, “Freeze! If you make one move it will be your last! Nod your head yes if you understand me!”
Walter nodded his head yes.
Martin then grabbed the rifle from Walter’s shoulder holster. He quickly opened it and emptied the chamber of bullets.
“Now hand me the ammunition belt.”
“It’s too painful to move!” Walter replied.
“I think that your option of not handing it over immediately will be ever more painful! What should I shoot out, your knee or your other arm?”
Slowly Walter removed the ammo belt and handed it over. Martin took it and tossed it over by where the rifle was.
“What’s your name?” Martin demanded. When the man didn’t reply, Martin continued. “I can find out the easy way or the painful way. What’s it going to be?”
When The Chips Are Down Page 18