2020: Emergency Exit

by Hayes, Ever N

  “Are you watching this, Blake?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” he replied. “But I don’t exactly know what I’m watching.”

  He was right. This was crazy. They clearly hadn’t been after Danny and Cameron, unless somehow the boys had made it to the camp in half an hour, found the girl, taken her in the jeep and raced off. But there was a better chance of the entire invading army surrendering to Blake and me than there was of that in this weather. Whatever was going on probably didn’t even involve Danny and Cameron, but they were stuck out there now, and I could only imagine what they were thinking.

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  The first gunshot froze them in their tracks. “Get down!” Danny whispered to Cameron, and they both dropped flat into the thick snow as another shot rang out. The first two shots were followed by a storm of others from throughout the camp, a half-mile or so ahead. This wasn’t good. A set of headlights was rapidly approaching. They were out in the open ditch by the road with no cover. Also not good. They couldn’t have known we were coming. What is going on?

  The approaching lights made the boys worry about their exposure to thermal imaging. If detected, their only hope was to pass as deer, elk, or some other animal. They didn’t move an inch. The first vehicle raced by. It didn’t seem like it was looking for them. It was a military jeep swerving all over the place, barely managing to stay on the road. Then Danny and Cameron saw two more sets of headlights coming not far behind the jeep that had just passed—two more military jeeps. The second two were far more in control as they drove by. It was almost like the person in the first jeep didn’t know how to drive. Danny glanced at Cameron with a questioning look. Cameron just shrugged.

  Danny waved Cameron to follow him as he climbed up onto the road and began jogging back towards the cave in the compacted tire tracks. They were moving fast and had run for several minutes when Danny glanced behind him to make sure Cameron was still there. That’s when he saw another set of lights coming, cutting through the falling snow. “Cam, run!” he urged. Danny took off, Cameron right behind him, and they raced all the way to the Alluvial Fan’s first stream and leapt off the road into it. “Down!” Danny barked as Cameron hit the water. The headlights behind them had slowed to a crawl and were inching towards them from a hundred yards away. A spotlight scanned the area, even settling directly on them for a few seconds.

  The vehicle passed and stopped no more than ten yards ahead on a small wooden bridge. The driver turned the engine off, and they heard the doors open. Danny and Cameron couldn’t risk moving or they’d surely be seen. From where the two of them lay shivering in the icy water they saw four soldiers come into view. They were shining their lights into the river up ahead and spreading out, covering the area all around them. One of the men was approaching Danny and Cameron, and the boys sank down into the freezing water, eyes never leaving the troops. The man above them was shining his light just a few feet behind them. He was turning his light back towards the tire tracks in the road—and likely about to discover their footprints—when suddenly there was a roar and a thrashing commotion ahead of them in the water.

  The man above them spun his light towards the noise and took several steps back towards the jeep. One of the men by the jeep was shouting at him, and he shouted something back. He shone his light down at the water below one more time and then walked briskly back towards the other three soldiers.

  They were talking and pointing as a herd of elk snorted and plowed their way through the thin ice, trying to get away from the intruding lights. Something had disturbed them. The animals ran noisily up the hill. The men initially followed the elk with their guns, but then they started talking, one of them laughed, and they all climbed back into the jeep. The engine roared to life, and they moved the jeep forward.

  Cameron knew they had to have seen him running down the road or at least diving into the stream. Thank God for the near-blizzard conditions and the elk. No matter what the soldiers thought they’d seen, the elk’s presence must have satisfied their investigation. The jeep drove all the way to the corner of Old Fall River Road and then turned onto the highway towards Estes Park. Danny and Cameron rose from the water and trudged upstream, ascending as quickly as possible back to the cave.

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  Blake and I had watched as Danny and Cameron raced frantically down the road below us and launched themselves off the road into the stream. The fourth jeep closed quickly on them, then slowed and pulled to a stop above their location. We counted four soldiers get out with flashlights and thought for sure that was going to be a problem. One of the soldiers seemed to be no more than a few feet from where the boys were hiding. He had his gun out and was looking around below him. Then Blake tapped me and said, “There’s elk sleeping down there by the river.”

  “Seriously?” I asked, scanning for them. Sure enough. About twenty yards from the boys.

  “Ryan, do I do something?”

  “Like?” I was unsure what he was asking.

  He didn’t answer. He tightened the silencer on the front of the rifle, made sure there was a bullet in the chamber, and cocked it. He squeezed off a shot that whispered off the ledge and hit one of the elk in the rear end. The elk roared and started thrashing about in the water. His sudden lurch and ensuing cry caused the others to start snorting and stampeding up the hill. I watched the startled soldiers through my scope as they gathered on the bridge and aimed their guns and lights at the elk. Then they started talking to each other, one of them laughed, and they climbed back into the jeep. They started it up and drove off, following the others towards Estes Park. Man, that was close.

  “Good work.” I clapped Blake on the shoulder. I would have never thought of that. I was certain Danny and Cameron could hear my heart beating from below us.

  We watched them climb through the stream and up around the falls before disappearing around the corner. Blake and I slid back into the cave and had the lights off and front panel removed, waiting for them when they arrived. They changed out of their soaking clothes, and we covered them with blankets. They were freezing but otherwise fine.

  “What in the world happened?” Dad asked, coming out into the main room with us. Tara and Hayley were right behind him.

  “No clue,” Danny replied through chattering teeth. “We were going to ask you the same thing. Were any of you watching?”

  Blake and I nodded. “Something happened at the camp,” Blake said. “You guys couldn’t have been gone a half hour when it all went crazy down there.”

  Cameron nodded. “Tell me about it.”

  “Any idea?” I asked. I could tell Tara and Hayley wanted to know about the little girl, but none of us had seen anything to help with that.

  Danny shook his head. “Didn’t see the girl. We didn’t even make it halfway there. Sorry,” he added apologetically. Tara nodded. “I thought for sure we were dead,” Danny continued.

  “Thank God for those elk,” Cameron agreed. “Did you guys know they were there?” He looked at me, and I looked at Blake.

  “That was pretty lucky,” Blake replied, looking back at me, refusing to acknowledge how he’d helped them and clearly not wanting me to either. Classy move. I could tell Tara was disappointed. But I could also tell she was glad they’d made it back.

  She gave Danny a hug. “Thanks, Danny.” Then she hugged Cameron.

  “Don’t say anything to the girl,” Danny urged Tara and Hayley, thumbing towards where she was sleeping. “We don’t know anything more about Abbey than we did before.”

  “Got it,” Tara responded.

  “We’ll see what we can find out later today,” he added. “There’s nothing else we can do right now.”

  Tara asked me to sleep beside her that night, for the first time. I had figured that’d be the last thing she’d want. But as I lay down next to her, she pulled my arm around her chest and backed her warm body into mine. She just wanted to be held. I certainly wasn’t going to object.

  FOR
TY-NINE: “Vail, Colorado”

  We didn’t see a single sign of the jeeps all day. About midmorning a helicopter flew down to Estes Park from the summit of Trail Ridge Road, and we saw it fly back that evening. We received about two feet of snow throughout the day, and the roads were completely shut. Since nothing was going on outside, we let Danny and Cameron sleep as long as they could. Blake and I even stole a few extra hours.

  Tara came in to check on me around 5 p.m. and she whispered in my ear, “You doing all right?” Her long hair tickled my neck.

  I smiled and nodded. “Just thinking.”

  “About?” she asked.

  “A certain kiss,” I offered.

  “You mean…this one?” She leaned in and kissed me softly on the lips.

  Yeah, that one. “I’m not sure,” I whispered back, and she elbowed me.

  “Ha ha.” She shook her head. “Even half asleep you’re hysterical.”

  “Come on. How could I possibly forget that? It was amazing. You’re amazing!”

  “Thank you,” she replied in her soft almost shy voice.

  “Of course.” I smiled.

  “For last night too,” she added. “Thanks for holding me.”

  Are you kidding? Thank you! “Uhh—”

  She interrupted my acknowledgement. “Hey, we know what the girl’s name is.”

  “Really?” I sat up.

  “It’s Vail,” Tara said before I could ask.

  Of course it was. “Vail from—”

  “Michigan,” she answered before I could say “Colorado.” “She’s actually shared quite a bit today. She’s scared and obviously traumatized but seems to remember everything—good and bad.”

  “Okay,” was pretty much all I could come up with.

  “She and her sister were with their parents when the chemical bomb went off downtown,” Tara began.

  “There was one here too?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Yes. Her dad was a state trooper in Michigan. They were on their way to Vail and had stopped in Estes Park to see her grandparents, who had a home up behind the chapel at Saint Malo, near Twin Sisters. Kate said you’d know where that is.” I did. “Anyway, somehow her dad found out about the chemical bombs from his radio and sealed off their cabin as best he could. Her mom had been in Estes Park shopping with her grandmother when the bomb, or bombs, went off. They both died. But Vail, Abbey, her dad and grandfather survived and were fortunate there was no second wave of bombs here. They were fine until the soldiers came through and burnt the church below her grandparents’ cabin. Her dad moved them way up into the forest, but the soldiers followed the road up to the cabin and burnt it down too. So there was nowhere for them to go back to.”

  “How in the world did they make it this long?” I asked. “Have you told all this to Danny?”

  “He knows,” she replied. “I filled everyone else in while you and Blake slept. We’re not sure how they made it. Apparently they found another cabin somewhere up there, a hunting shack or something, and they hid out, getting by with whatever they could. One day last week her dad left to go hunting, and while he was gone a few soldiers found their shack. They killed her grandfather and took the two girls downtown to where they were holding a bunch of young girls.” Tara paused and took a deep breath. “She started to get pretty emotional again, and I didn’t want to push her, but she said there were several girls with her, and they were taken to each of the camps on a nightly rotation of sorts. If they didn’t ‘perform’ they were killed. The other night was the first time they took Abbey and Vail to the same place. When one of the drunk men started getting a little too touchy with Abbey, Vail objected. They started beating Vail, and one of the men took Abbey away. Vail started screaming, and they started beating her worse. Vail fought back and saw a soldier strangle one of the other girls in the tent with her. She panicked and ran out, trying to find her sister. But then she saw other men coming towards her, and she ran away. She feels terrible for leaving Abbey behind. I couldn’t get much out of her beyond that. She thinks Abbey is dead, and by leaving her she basically sealed her fate.”

  “Man alive,” was all I could say. It keeps getting worse.

  “Ryan, we haven’t told her anything about last night,” Tara whispered. “What could we possibly say?”

  “Exactly,” I agreed. “Has anything happened today at all?”

  “Not as far as we can tell,” she replied as I stood and walked with her out into the main room. “It’s been a snowy mess out there all day. We haven’t seen a single vehicle. No movement from anywhere other than the one helicopter making its loop.”

  “They haven’t even plowed the road?” I asked.

  “Nope,” Danny chimed in. “Nothing.”

  That changed about an hour later. It was starting to get dark when we saw the unmistakable lights of the snowplow coming down the hill from Estes Park, followed by four other sets of lights. Danny and Cameron went up to the ledge with their rifles while the rest of us watched on the monitor by the front entrance. The snowplow went by, then three jeeps, followed by a truck with a giant cage in the back. But the cage didn’t contain an animal. It contained a man, standing up, arms chained to the top of the cage, wearing nothing but shorts. None of us in the room had sensed Vail walking up behind us—we were all too focused on the action on the screen—but we all heard her whisper, “Daddy?”

  FIFTY: “Not Adding Up”

  “What?” several of us asked in chorus, all turning to face her.

  She was biting her lip and looking around nervously. “I’m pretty sure that’s my dad,” she said quietly.

  Danny and Cameron had joined us in the main room again. “Your what?” Danny asked.

  “Her dad,” Jenna said as Vail cowered.

  “Why in the world would they want your dad?” Danny asked. Good question. They weren’t taking any prisoners that we knew of.

  When she didn’t reply, Dad answered for her, “Cause he’s the vice president.”

  Vail’s lack of response confirmed his statement. Holy… “What?” I said, voicing the rhetorical question for everyone.

  “I thought she looked familiar,” Dad nodded towards Vail.

  “So your name isn’t—” Kate started.

  “Vail?” she replied quietly then shook her head.

  “It’s Reagan, isn’t it?” Kate continued. “Reagan Moore.”

  She nodded, obviously surprised that Kate knew who she was.

  “And you’re what, twenty-two?” Dad asked.

  “Twenty-four,” she replied.

  “Time out!” Danny cut in, holding his hands up to form a T. “It’s great someone knows who you are around here, but why lie to us? And how much of the rest of—” Danny started to ask.

  “A lot of it,” she replied, still not looking at anyone. “Okay, some of it. But it was the story I was supposed to give.”

  “So were you…” Tara began with an edge to her voice.

  “Raped?” Reagan glared at Tara, clearly not appreciating the insinuation.

  “Emily,” Hayley took her hand. “Let’s go in the other room.” Tara gave her a grateful look.

  “Tara, come on,” Jenna reasoned. “You know she was. Tara, you saw the same things I did,” Jenna jumped in as soon as Emily was out of earshot. “Come on, guys!” She scolded all of us.

  By Tara’s expression I knew Jenna was right. There wasn’t a doubt about the rape.

  “Repeatedly,” Reagan confirmed. “Over and over by as many as twenty to thirty men. Every single one of them trying to get me to tell them where my dad was.”

  “And you knew?” Danny asked, still clearly upset.

  Another nod.

  “Shit.” Cameron responded, shaking his head. Wow!

  “So the other night…” Danny looked at Tara and Jenna and then at Reagan. “Can you tell us now what happened?”

  She sighed. “Everything else I said about my parents and grandparents is true. The rest of them are all dead. Happened just
as I said. Some government men, pretty sure they were Americans, came and took Dad somewhere while we were at the safe house with Grandpa. The safe house was attacked while they were gone, and Grandpa was killed, but not before hiding Abbey and me in the underground bunker. We stayed in the bunker overnight and had no idea they were still watching the place. We came out Tuesday morning, but Dad still hadn’t come back. They must have been waiting for him, too. When we stepped out of the building, a couple of vans drove up and they grabbed us before we could get back in the bunker. Wednesday night several of the officers assigned to track down Dad came in and ‘interrogated’ me.” Her “finger quotes” needed no further explanation.

  “Wait,” Danny stopped her. “The troops are here for your dad?”

  She nodded. “Why else would they be here? They bombed the area. They sent a crew through and killed almost everyone else. There was no way in from the east, and once winter hit there’d be no way out to the west. They don’t need anyone here to guard fallen snow. And it wasn’t exactly a secret we were here,” she explained.

  “Whenever the President leaves the country, they move the vice president to a secure location. Every high government official knows that, so you can bet every terrorist organization in the world probably knew that too. When they tried to get the President out of the country, his plane was shot down.” That answered that question. “Immediately they tried to get Dad to the Colorado safe house. The thing is, the safe location for this region is at NORAD in Colorado Springs. When the water washed out the roads south of us, we couldn’t even get to Denver. The helicopter they sent up for Dad was shot down. We tried to go down Highway 7, but it was destroyed too. We didn’t know they’d taken over Denver, but Dad got word somehow through whatever ‘underground’ was left. Then we knew we couldn’t leave. So we headed for Grandpa’s bunker. We were trapped there. And then they flew the troops in to cover the other ways out. We had nowhere to go. All I can figure is somehow they knew Dad was still up here, and they kept sending search parties to try to find him.”