2020: Emergency Exit

by Hayes, Ever N

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  Danny had always wanted to live in the Pacific Northwest. Ideally in a small coastal town. He loved the ocean, and rain didn’t usually bother him, but it was definitely bothering him now. The temperature was still slightly above forty, but if cold air was moving through the mountains, all that rain could quickly turn to snow. If there was a lot of moisture in the air, as there seemed to be, that could amount to an awful lot of snow. If they drove up the valley, ran into snow, and got stuck…well, if anyone was following them, there’d be no way out. He’d been through this scenario a hundred times in his head already, but now, less than thirty miles from Estes Park, he was afraid the nightmare was playing out above us. As much as he wanted to stay here for a day and allow us to rest, he didn’t know if we could afford it. Everyone but Wes and I had gone to sleep. I watched Danny sit up and approach us. “What are you thinking?” he asked us. I was trying not to think about Tara, but as a result I couldn’t think of anything else. Since I couldn’t sleep, I was trying to keep Wes company and watch her truck at the same time.

  Wes sighed. “I don’t know, Danny. This rain isn’t good.” I nodded in agreement. Wes continued. “The temperature has dropped ten degrees in the last two hours. It’s almost 5 a.m. now. The sun will be up in a little more than an hour, if the snow doesn’t come first.” So he was thinking it too. It was obvious Danny was trying to defer to our judgment, questioning his own a little more now. “Something else on your mind, Danny?”

  He gazed out into the rain. “I get some people think I may not have done the right thing tonight, saving Eddie and those guys. I know it cost us Nathan, and I feel terrible about that. Bottom line, maybe I thought that would get them off our back. But we never got the chance for them to see us, to know it was us who saved him, his brother and those guys. So maybe my intentions were completely wasted.”

  I interrupted, understanding a little more now. “So you thought if they knew you saved their lives they might let us go.” Danny nodded but didn’t say anything.

  “I get that,” Wes said and patted Danny on the shoulder. “It was an impossible call. So let’s look at this both ways. If they’re still chasing us, what’s the right move? If they’re not, what’s the right move?”

  Danny scratched his ear. “I think it’s the same move either way. If we get trapped down here in the valley, we’re in the heart of enemy territory, and without any road crews we’ll be stuck here for the winter. Denver and Colorado Springs are the logical defense keys to the entire heart of this country. Any military with intelligence would know that. We all saw that wall they’re building. There’s no way Denver’s not loaded with troops right now, and they’d expand out from there. If they have control of NORAD, we’re all screwed. Denver, Colorado Springs—either could be their command center.” Where had I heard that before? Any doubt he and Cameron were on the same page?

  “We’re too close to all of that to stay here, and we can’t go back north into Wyoming. Eddie and his men were fighting against their own military troops, too, and there’s bound to be others out there looking for him now. You don’t wipe out an entire troop and not draw attention. Wyoming is way too hot right now.” Danny thoughtfully stroked the week-old stubble on his chin. “I think we have to assume two things. One, Eddie and his men, however many are left, are close to us. They have a pretty good idea where we’re going, and because of what they’ve done, they can’t exactly go into Denver, either. If anyone figured out who they were—or what they did—they’d probably all be executed.”

  “And the second thing?” Wes asked.

  “There is no American resistance. Given what we’ve heard and everything we’ve seen, it was foolish to think there might be.” He paused, letting the truth sink in for good. “We’re on our own.”

  “So what do we do?” I asked.

  “Get everyone up,” Wes said. “We’ve gotta get to Estes Park.”

  THIRTY-SIX: “Karma”

  In case Captain Eddie was close by, Danny, Kate, Jenna, and I headed out before the others, minutes before 5:30 a.m. We made our way south on College Avenue, down to Lake Loveland at the intersection of Highway 34. Not having seen any signs of life, we waited there. Wes was driving the jeep with the radar, and he watched as we made it all the way to 34 without attracting attention. He led the others out and to our location. The rain was coming down heavy again, and the radar screen was basically useless, but there were no small dots visible on it, so even though it was bright red we weren’t too worried. Maybe we were in the clear.

  We headed west and were coming up on the intersection of County Road 27, the back road to the reservoir, when we spotted three jeeps parked by the side of the road. As I raced by them, I heard Danny say one word, “Eddie.” He told me to move our truck over far enough on the road to let the two trucks behind us go by. I did as he asked, and Danny waved them up alongside us. He yelled out the window at them as they passed. “Go!” And they took off. Then Blake pulled up beside us in the last truck and Danny yelled at him, “You have to stay beside us, all the way up. You take the right lane; I’ve got the left.” Blake gave the thumbs up that he understood.

  Ahead of us the two sets of taillights from our other trucks were fading into the rain. Behind us I could see all three jeeps approaching, closing the gap quickly. Considering they’d have to hang out of the jeep windows in this crazy downpour, Eddie’s men would have a hard time shooting us from their vehicles. It wasn’t nearly as hard for us to hit them, having two snipers, covered, guns pointed out the back windows. Captain Eddie seemed to be aware of that fact, and the jeeps settled back and maintained a consistent quarter-mile distance behind us.

  The temperature was dropping as we climbed into the mountains, and the road was getting slick. The rain seemed to be getting heavier as well, and we started worrying about flash floods. Estes Park and this canyon road in particular had a history of terrible flash floods and washouts. The road had been rebuilt, but nothing was going to stand up to a wall of water. Travel was treacherous with even moderate weather on this road, given the sharp turns, falling rocks and limited visibility in some areas. It was starting to get light out, which was helping, but there was a heavy fog off the river limiting our visibility. We were going faster than we liked, but we didn’t feel we had much of a choice. As we rounded one particularly sharp turn, a giant boulder was lying in the middle of the road. I hit the brakes hard and swerved around it.

  As I straightened the jeep back out, one of the pursuing jeeps got a little too close. He came around the bend and slowed for the boulder as well, crossing into Danny’s line of fire. Danny took out a front tire and the jeep continued its turn straight into the ditch and into a wall of rocks. Given his incredible accuracy, I knew he’d done exactly what he’d intended. He wasn’t trying to kill them. He only wanted to stop them. Whoever was in that jeep was probably bruised but alive. I’m sure Danny was hoping that message was delivered to the captain as well.

  The other two jeeps backed off a little more, far enough to be out of range but still keep a line of sight. We raced past one of our favorite stops, the Dam Store, with its famous lookout tower. As we crossed the adjacent bridge, our hearts sank. The water was so high it was brushing the bottom of the bridge. There were several areas up ahead we knew to be more exposed and dangerous than this one. Only fifteen miles from Estes Park, Danny was pretty sure we weren’t going to make it.

  Sure enough, as we came up on the tiny town of Drake, where the two branches of the Big Thompson River converged into one, the entire road was under water. We could see one of our trucks on the other side of where the road had washed out. They were safe, but something was wrong. Mom and Dad were out of their truck and pointing our direction. “Uh, Danny,” I said.

  He glanced back as we pulled to a stop. “What?”

  “We’ve got a pretty big problem.” I was looking around for what Mom and Dad were pointing at, and then I saw it. Pinned between large rocks on the other si
de of the river, at the base of a thirty-foot tall canyon wall, was another truck. Since Mom and Dad had Tara and Emily with them, this meant the truck in the river belonged to Wes, Sam, Isaac, and Hayley. “Danny!” I shouted. “Hayley’s out there!”

  Danny took one glance and was out of the truck in a flash. “Cam, cover me!” he screamed. Cameron and Blake hopped out of the other truck with guns drawn and sought cover on the east side of the road. The jeeps behind us had stopped about a third of a mile back. However many men they had, Eddie didn’t seem comfortable enough to approach yet. He also didn’t seem to have figured out why we had stopped.

  Danny scrambled down below the road beside the river. The water was moving so fast there was no swimming across it. He was trying to see any signs of life in the truck, but waves were crashing against it. Danny looked frantically around for any way to get across. Down the river about two hundred yards there was a giant tree half in and half out of the water, and what he saw next took his breath away. “Hayley!” he screamed.

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  Hayley was on the tree in the water, clinging to it for dear life. She didn’t hear Danny. The river was so strong she wasn’t going to be able to hold on for much longer. She and Wes had been in the front seat when the twenty-foot wall of water descended from the canyon to their right and crushed them, spinning their truck through the air like a baton and dropping them on the far side of the canyon. The impact had smashed open the driver’s door and nearly snapped the truck in two. Hayley and Wes had been swept out the driver’s door. Hayley hit her head and didn’t see where Wes went. She didn’t know what had happened to Sam and Isaac either, but she hoped they’d managed to stay in the truck, as it appeared to still be somewhat above water and stuck up the river behind her. There was at least a chance they could still be alive.

  She, on the other hand, wasn’t going to be for long. If she let go, she was going over the thundering rapids below and would be dashed on the rocks or drowned by the current. As she tired, she closed her eyes and thought of the last conversations she’d had. Her dad was going to have a tough time with this one. Her brother knew she loved him. He’d want her to hold on. She could almost hear him screaming at her now. She had to try.

  Ten minutes later, unable to hold on any longer, completely drained of strength, she felt her hands give way. The river devoured her and rushed her downstream. She felt her head slam into a rock, and she blacked out. She didn’t feel strong arms grab her a few seconds later, lift her up, and carry her to the shore, a hundred yards south of the tree.

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  When Eddie saw the man running down the road towards them with no weapon, he didn’t know what to think. He raised his binoculars and noticed the man wasn’t even looking his direction. His eyes were on the river, focused on a fallen tree in the middle of the swirling waters. Then Captain Eddie saw what he was looking at. A girl hanging on to the tree.

  A noble man would do much to save a woman in distress, but disregarding his own welfare, directly in the line of enemy fire, for the sake of another…well, that was either a move for love or a move for family. And the way the man was screaming, this person in the water meant a great deal to him. Behind the running man Eddie saw another man coming their way with a gun in his hand, aimed directly at them. He hadn’t yet fired though. One of his men opened the back door on Eddie’s jeep, and the approaching man fired. His bullet hit the center of the door, and Eddie’s man dove back into the jeep. Eddie yelled out, “Hold fire! No shoot! Close doors.”

  He focused on the face of the man with the gun and saw him yelling “Danny!” over and over. The other man, the one named Danny, either couldn’t hear him or was ignoring him. As Danny reached the tree, the woman holding on to it lost her grip and slipped into the water. Eddie didn’t have time to think about what he did next. He threw the door open on his jeep and lunged out. A gunshot ricocheted off his door, but he ignored it. He ran down the embankment to the river and took three large steps into the water as the girl’s body went by him. He reached out and grabbed her leg. Her momentum almost knocked him off his feet, but he managed to get another arm on her and pull her out of the river. He picked her up and carried her to the shore as the man named Danny ran up to him. Danny raised his arms, and Eddie waved him in. There was a gunshot from Eddie’s jeep. Eddie and Danny both looked at where it had come from and its intended target.

  Danny saw Cameron point his gun at the jeep, and Danny yelled, “Cameron, no!”

  The captain screamed at his men, “No shoot!” He glared at Cameron, who held his ground, gun still locked on the jeep. Danny knelt beside Hayley. She was out cold. He began giving her mouth-to-mouth, and a few seconds later she began spitting up water. She didn’t open her eyes, but she was breathing. As Danny lifted her head, he turned to look at Eddie. Cameron had approached, but Lazzo had also stepped out of the jeep and had his gun on Cameron.

  “Why?” Danny asked Eddie.

  A crack of a smile appeared on his lips as he tapped the side of his head and replied, “Karma.”

  Then Danny understood. The captain had put the pieces together. He had figured out it was him in Cheyenne. Captain Eddie pointed north. “You. Go.” He turned to Cameron and repeated himself. “You. Go.” Cameron didn’t move. “Who is?” he asked Danny, nodding towards Hayley.

  “Sister,” Danny replied, his eyes never leaving the captain’s.

  Eddie nodded. “I see you again,” he said matter of factly. “You a dead man. Clear?”

  “Clear,” Danny lifted his sister off the ground. “Thank you,” he said to Eddie’s back.

  Captain Eddie heard him but didn’t reply. He climbed into his jeep and directed his men to turn around and head back down 34. They picked up his three other men on the way and set off towards Denver.

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  When they pulled out that morning, Captain Eddie wasn’t sure what he was going to do when, or if, he saw the Americans. He was nearly certain it was these Americans who had saved his brother’s life and his last night. He hadn’t yet met a Qi Jia soldier with that clear of an American accent. Then he had to ask himself why, when they knew he was chasing them? Why, when they knew he was trying as hard as he could to kill all of them? It was an irrational war move, in every way.

  But it was the move of a man who had joined the military to do good. To save people and not kill people. An ordinary soldier would have thought nothing of it, perhaps even thought it foolish or cowardly. Eddie, on the other hand, was pretty familiar with that honorable ambition.

  He decided to keep their radar off that morning and follow his gut instinct. It turned out to be right, and when he saw the Americans go past he followed them, still unsure whether he would kill them or let them go. When the man in the truck took out his lead jeep, but clearly spared his men’s lives by how he did it, Eddie was certain he was right, and he nearly stopped and turned around right there. But as they drove on and the roads became more treacherous, Eddie thought there might be a chance he’d get to see the man who took that shot at sixty miles per hour and did so with such precision. He thought maybe he’d get to hear that voice he’d heard last night. Then he would know whom he was up against. Maybe then, if the chance came for him to blatantly let them go, the Americans would understand they were even.

  Eddie was given that opportunity. As much as he wanted the blood of these Americans, and every American for that matter, he half wanted to shake this one’s hand and say thank you. But there was no shaking hands with enemies in war. Instead, he saved the life of the man’s sister. That was thanks enough.

  Now, he, his brother, and their nine men were going to leave these Americans alone. They were going back down the mountain towards Denver. He had been working on a story to tell command there, to hopefully be reassigned another company or join one. He had every intention of being on the other side of the mountain when these Americans came through, and every intention of killing them all when they did. But until the
n, if he was being honest, he was pulling for them. He wanted them to get through the mountains and away from everyone else who pursued them in the meantime. Eddie wasn’t going to give away their location. Not now. It was information he was going to use to keep him and his men alive and to hopefully prove his value to command. If he couldn’t do that, he knew he and his men would soon be dead.

  THIRTY-SEVEN: “Tragic Luck”

  We should have lost more people that morning. As Danny ran down the road towards Captain Eddie, I was screaming at him to stop. No way he could hear me. But Cameron was screaming at me to get back in the truck, and I could hear him fine. As the driver, I had to do what was asked of me, or I could put us all at risk. I knew that, but that was my son running towards the people trying to kill us. Never taking my eyes off Danny, I crawled back into the truck as slowly and grudgingly as humanly possible.