by Karine Green
Jesus, she really had planned this out. Not just to torture me to death, but to really stage it to look like a ghost was involved! The lunatic! "Why did you go there before you were ready?"
"To hide, and eat. He came home early to romance his trophy whore! He punched my face. Screamed at me to leave, said he was calling the police. I couldn't blow my cover to kill you, so I had to use the whip on him, since it was all I had. I had to go back and get the whipping post and tie him to it. The dick was still alive. It took forty-five minutes for him to finally die."
Kathy closed her eyes, poor Milton was a mistake! He was nothing but in the way, but that still didn't explain his YouTube video. Dark Lady must have somehow known, and tried to warn him. Tears ran down her face.
She texted Carrie, "Turn yourself in."
"After I kill you and destroy that brat you're gestating, Good-bye. I am destroying this phone."
There were no more texts.
"Hey, are you okay," Jason asked, coming in with her lunch. He set it down on his desk, and held her close, cradling her head. It made them both feel safe and loved.
Kathy quickly wiped her face. "Thank you. I was hungry. I had a terrible bout with morning sickness this morning," she said. She handed him her phone "Carrie texted me."
"Really." He read over the texts while she ate. "God, poor Milton was killed because he was hoping for a nooner with his wife."
She finished her gumbo and rounded the desk to kiss him.
He smiled, "Gumbo." He kissed her neck and held her close by the waist.
"I love you. I can't wait until I can introduce you to my parents. They are really going to like you," she said, kissing his neck. Too bad the gumbo didn't come with a mint. It was not a good kissing food, unless the other person was eating it to.
There was a crash of breaking glass, and a few seconds later popping sounds, along with more breaking glass. She could feel Jason pulling her down behind his heavy oak desk. She realized in horror that he wasn't pulling her to safety, he was falling down. He just happened to be taking her with him. He pulled her under him, and covered her with his body. He said nothing, he just groaned, a terrible painful groan. He put his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming.
"Don't speak." His voice was barely a whisper, and strained. "Let her think she got you, lay still. Don't risk the baby. Do you understand...Do not risk the baby."
She nodded, and did as she was told. She closed her eyes as another hail of bullets came crashing into anything and everything around them. The lunatic, thankfully, couldn't shoot.
"You don't get to keep it!" Carrie's deranged voice screeched, and then she released another round of bullets. "Same for you bitches out here! You like my new truck!"
Kathy could hear the magazine run dry, and then heard the final click indicating that Carrie was out of ammo. She reached for Jason's gun on his belt. He hadn't moved, and was terrifyingly still.
"Don't move," Jason whispered. This time he sounded stern. "You don't know if she has another weapon. I'll do it. My life insurance is already switched to you. Please, just take care of the baby."
Tears ran down her face. She could feel his bullet resistant vest against her. Why hadn't she considered that? Had Carrie missed him? "Are you alright?" she whispered.
He nodded as he un-holstered his weapon. "That's going to leave a bruise. I am just glad this ugly brick of a desk was in the way. I'll never complain about it again." His voice was full of strain.
He got up and crouched by the edge of his desk, peeking around the edge. He stood up. "She's gone."
He helped Kathy up. They looked around. "You're going to need some new blinds for your office." She was in shock. Carrie had rammed the reporters and the building with the stolen SUV.
"Alan!" Jason ran out to the Sergeant's Desk. He took out his radio. "Officer down! I need an ambulance now! At headquarters! Make that two! We have a prisoner down. Notify the Sheriff's office and the State Police, we need back up, now! Carrie Bell just shot up the police station and the media outside with an assault rifle. There are civilians down outside. I don't know how many."
"Alan!" Kathy said, running over to him, but it was obvious he was dead. He had not been wearing his vest, but it would not have mattered. She could hear the reporters outside yelling and screaming, several of them had been shot. "Alan! No!" And then she turned and saw the back of Jason. "Jason! No!" He must be running on adrenaline. He doesn't yet realize how badly he is injured.
****
Jason turned to Kathy, "Just stay down!" he ran out into the street. He picked up the mic of his handheld radio, "She stole my car!" He looked around, several people from the media were still screaming, others were still filming. "Suspect is armed with an assault rifle, and driving unit one! Repeat, she is in a marked patrol car! Pull the GPS on it. Put out an emergency broadcast alert to not stop if pulled over by any of our officers until that car is recovered. The shotgun is loaded in the locked rack." The reporters swarmed him. They would no doubt long beat the dispatcher in getting that alert out.
He heard their news feeds interrupted with the Emergency Broadcast. He was impressed, the T.V. media didn't waste time in making that official!
A woman's voice came back over the air, "Yes, but you kindly left the key on the ring. Thanks for the reload, Chief." The air went dead.
"Dispatch, GPS on my unit, now." It was getting harder to talk.
"Jason!" Kathy screamed at him, but he ignored her. She couldn't get through the reporters who seemed to be holding her back. Several were sticking microphones in her face.
"Got it," the county dispatcher's voice came over the air. There was an alert tone, "All units, unit one is headed north toward I-55 at a high rate of speed. There is an armed homicide suspect driving. Female, short blond hair; she has fired on officers, and was last seen armed with an assault rifle."
"She has shot two! And possibly killed one! We have civilians down at the scene too. She ran over some of them with Tully's SUV. Where are my ambulances?" He was getting lightheaded.
"Medic 3 we're en-route," the paramedic's voice came over the air.
Several units from the Sheriff's office and the next town were also responding, as well as two nearby state troopers. Baton Rouge also had a chopper en route, but it would be about ten minutes before they arrived.
Jason could hear the sirens coming, everything sounded so far away. Damnit! She is hearing all these units respond. "All units, switch to Sheriff Two, Sheriff Two! Dispatch monitor both channels."
"10-4."
The air went almost dead as the dispatcher moved everything to the Sheriff's private vice raid channel that was for keeping raid teams silent as they approached scenes; meaning there was no chatter on the main air.
Jason was about to change his channel when Carrie's voice came over the air, "I am going to pull over the car driving in front of me, and take his car. It's more non-descript than yours is, and doesn't have a GPS."
"Carrie, please let them go. Don't hurt them. Dispatch, patch through the new camera feed from my dashboard camera. Can you see what type of car she is pulling over?" Jason said, keeping his voice calm and steady. He could hear Kathy screaming behind him. What was she still yelling about? He also noticed the reporters weren't in his face. They were surrounding him, but keeping their distance. Something was wrong.
The dispatcher came back, "No, Chief, I tied that already. The camera went black when she took the car. She must have pulled the...Unit 6 is approaching her!" The dispatcher's signal died.
Jason changed his channel over. Unit 6 was Mike.
He heard Mike's voice came over the air, "I am almost on her." The siren and engine revving in the background.
Jesus why did I get Mike, a father of soon-to-be four into law enforcement! Jason was doing his best to stop his reeling as the ambulance arrived. Mike had been on the force longer, but it was Jason who talked into applying in the first place. "In town like widle, we have a prisoner down. She is
gussin so be careful a'fore you follow her," What the hell did he just say?
One of the medics nodded for his partner to go check on Alan and Kathy. "Chief, why don't you sit down."
"Kathy..."
The medic cut Jason off. "Chief, Kathy needs you to do as I say, especially if you are going to be around for your little one. Please sit down right here," the medic said, easing Jason down, and then opening his bag, pulling out a trauma dressing used for bleeding.
Jason stared at it. Did he need that?
The painkilling effects of the adrenaline was running out. The stinging pain in Jason's back was beginning to take over. He laid down. He looked to the side and saw the blood on the pavement; not Alan's, not the poor reporter's, his! Oh crap! He thought as his eyes rolled back into his head. Bullet resistant, not bullet proof. All ballistic vests carried that warning, meaning, it wouldn't stop all caliber bullets, and Carrie had used a high powered assault rifle.
"Is he dying?" A reporter asked the medic. Her camera man filming over her shoulder.
"Back off, right now!" The medic ordered, and then he gently shook Jason's shoulder, "Chief! Jason! Stay with us. You have got to see that baby you have been waiting on all these years, be born." He picked up his radio, "Is the Trauma Center's Chopper available? If so, we need that chopper out here right now."
"Trauma-Flight en-route, ETA ten minutes."
The medic stood up, "Clear the street for Trauma-Flight!" He ran over to the ambulance and pulled out an oxygen treatment bag and another bleeding control kit.
"Move it, People now! Back up, stay West" He heard Sheriff Rainier say. "Dispatch, I need at least three more units here. We have a crowd control issue. All local law enforcement at headquarters is down at the scene."
It was the last thing Jason heard before losing consciousness.
****
"Jason!" Kathy screamed and started to run over to him, but was stopped by the other medic.
"The Sheriff said you're pregnant. Come with me, we need to get you in the back of the ambulance so I can check you out without the media filming it."
It sounded so logical, but wild elephants couldn't drag her away from Jason right now. "Jason!" She pulled forward on the medic's hand, waited to feel him resisting her, and then snapped back, knocking him to the ground.
"Mrs. Rose!" The medic jumped to his feet. "Kathy! Please. Mitchell will take the best care of Jason. They are old football buddies, he won't let anything happen."
She walked toward Jason.
He ran up behind Kathy and picked her up, carrying her to the ambulance. "Get in, they are watching, and filming."
It seemed like five hundred cameras were pointed at her. Kathy sat down on the stretcher while the medic closed the door, and took her vital signs in private.
"With Alan and Jason down only the Sheriff is here. What if Lauren escapes?"
"I think all of the deputies from every surrounding Parrish are en-route. And, Ms. Grayson took a bullet to the head, and several to her torso. She isn't running anywhere of her own accord."
"Alan?" She already knew the answer. She had never, in all her experience, seen anyone with that fixed stare on their face who lived.
The medic shook his head. "Try to concentrate on relaxing, if you can. This will help keep the baby safe." He went back to checking her vital signs. "Come on, breathe, all the way in, all the way out."
She did as she was told. Jason had just risked everything for her ability to keep the baby safe. She wasn't going to disappoint him. A few minutes later, she heard the chopper land, but concentrated on trying to calm down. She would do as she was told. She would keep the baby safe.
There was a knock on the door a few minutes later. It was one of the Trauma-Flight medics. "Can we borrow Mrs. Rose? And I think the other ambulance crew wants to borrow your stretcher. We have five civilians down, one is dead, the other four will be going with the ground units. Chief Rose and one of the camera crew who is down is coming with us."
"Here is her initial vital signs." He handed the pilot the report.
She got out and followed the pilot/medic to the helicopter. She looked over at Jason. He looked so pale, and unresponsive. There wasn't even a flutter in his eyelids.
"Jason," she whimpered.
"Here you go," the pilot opened the front seat door and motioned for her to sit. The trauma surgeon and nurse were still treating Jason. The camera man was already loaded. He didn't look good. He had been run over when Carrie crashed through the reporters and into the building.
The pilot strapped Kathy in, and then helped the doctor and nurse get Jason loaded.
Kathy knew it wasn't a long flight to New Orleans, but it seemed to take forever. They were met on the hospital roof by a trauma team of about fifteen people, two of which seemed to be assigned to handling Kathy. It was getting annoying, but she couldn't blame them after she knocked down the medic at the scene.
"If I can't go in, then why did they bring me!" She knew why, but refused to believe it applied to her. She was there as the next of kin, meaning she was the only one who could call-off the efforts to save Jason's life, or pull the plug as they said behind the scenes. It didn't seem so flippant now that it was her new husband and father of her child who was the one plugged in.
"We feared for the baby's life," one of the doctors said, running alongside the stretcher. "I'll assess him, and find you with some options."
She covered her mouth and nodded.
"Can I get you something to eat, it might be a while before we know anything," The burley male nurse asked.
Kathy nodded. The other medic must have reported that she knocked him down to get to Jason, so the hospital assigned the Son of Sasquatch to guard her. He walked her to a little room for the waiting families off the main trauma center. He ordered her a lunch tray, and then waited outside the door. She inhaled the food like a starved person, even though she had just ate an hour ago. She sat there alone in the little waiting room feeling small, and helpless.
Three hours later, Jason's parents came rushing in. "How is he!" His mother shrieked.
She shrugged, and then burst into tears. "It's all my fault. She came here to kill me, not him. I should be the one in there. He pulled me under him, used his body and that desk he hates to stop me from being hit. It should have been me. Stupid bitch shot everyone, except the person she came for!"
"Oh no!" Janet said, stepping over and holding Kathy. "No, don't think that. He loves you, and everyone can see you love him back. He wanted the baby and you safe. He would be crushed if anything happened to either of you."
"It's his stupid rescuers' mentality!" Mike said, from behind her. "He always ends up surrounded by..."
Kathy let go of Janet, and stood there looking like Mike had just pointed a gun at her. She finished his thought for him. "Surrounded by bottomless pits of need! Psycho-stalker bitches! Women who bring him down, who ruin his whole life!" She had no idea why she was suddenly screaming at Mike.
"Michael Henry Rose, you hush! Right now!" Janet said, spinning around and pointing in his face.
He looked stunned, "I didn't mean Kathy. I meant Lauren, planning this whole..."
Kathy walked out of the room. Mike was behind her. "Kathy! I didn't mea..." She bolted for the elevators and hit the 'close door' button when he was about five steps from the doors. She pressed the first floor. The doors opened, and she walked outside to the patient drop off area. She was about to steal a car, go home, get her rifle, and hunt Carrie Bell down like the animal she was. Suddenly there were two strong arms around her dragging her back inside the hospital.
"Kathy, I didn't mean you. He loves you, more than anyone I have ever seen him with." It was Mike pulling her into a small private consult room near the entrance. He shut the door and pulled the blinds.
"What could you possibly want?" she asked in a deadpan tone. "I need to go home, get my rifle, and hold up in the attic. Eventually that bitch will show up there, because that is where I am. W
hen she does. BANG! Lights-out! Or shall I say, I'll ring her bell! No, I won't...She won't have a bell left to ring when I am done with her! Personally, I can't wait to see how the new face lift by Remington looks on her."
"Kathy," he said, trying to remain calm.
"I can hunt too. If I can see her in my crosshairs, she is done. I am going to walk over to her body, look at the inside of her bulldog skull, and piss in it; and then I'll turn around and show her what I really can't keep and drop it in the center of her skull!"
"Kathy! He has been my family a lot longer than he has been yours. I need you to return upstairs with me, so some decisions can be made. Decisions that only his legal next of kin can make. In case you missed the whole wedding thing, his legal next of kin aren't my parents anymore. It's his wife."
"Shut up." She pointed in his face. "She will come to my house eventually, and I am going to blow that fat face of hers off the front of her skull!" She pulled out her phone and dialed Phil. "Phil! I need you to come and get me so you can talk to Dark..."
Mike took the phone. "Phil, I am sorry to bother you...Oh, you heard. I guess everyone has by now. I am sorry. I have to go. Kathy isn't handling this well." He put the phone in his pocket. "I need you to return with me, now! Some decisions have to be made. Do you understand?"
"What decisions?" She stared at him blankly.
"The doctors will want to know about the extent of life support you think he would want."
"Life support?"
"Yes, Kathy, snap out of it!" He yelled, shaking her. "You can hide in the Bell-Tower and wait to snipe Carrie later. Hell, I'll drive you myself! Right now, your husband needs you. Mom and Dad need you. I need you. Your family, the one that wants you! Needs you! Stop acting crazy and come back with me...Right Now!"