by G. O. Grason
The perps body was slumped over onto the table. As his limp body rested, Halloway noticed a small piece of paper sticking out of the man’s jacket. Christine swiftly removed it and read it aloud.
Come get us, Christine read. If you have the guts.
Chapter 8
Baggins agreed that sending only Thompson and Christine would be the best approach to get Harry back safely. Too many men, too many guns, meant more chance of mistakes. When mistakes happen, innocent lives get lost. The force, whether they like to recognize it or not, means just that - force. In situations where criminals have the upper hand, when they have exactly what they want, forcing them into anything is only going to make them angry. Everyone knows what happens when someone with a loaded .50 caliber sniper rifle does when they’re angry.
If they sent every officer on the force up there with squad cars, SWAT, and helicopters, the snipers were sure to either take flight or fight. Baggins did demand to have them on stand by a few miles out though. The fortunate thing about the Wild Center was that the location was at the end of a dead end road. There was only one road that lead up to the centre and one road out. The endless forest surrounded everyone and everything else. If the snipers tried to escape, they would have to either hike it out through the forest on foot or go by air, either way, Baggins and the rest of the team would be waiting.
Halloway and Thompson drove in silence. Halloway had already cleaned her gun twice and sharpened her knife under the watchful eye of Thompson. He was always worrying about something. The morning sun was bright and seemed to highlight everything the two of them saw: the faded brown colour of the trees branches, their soft lime green leaves, the blue explosiveness of the sky above them, the white clouds stretching across it. Perhaps this boast of clarity the two of them were feeling was generated from the certain danger they were hurtling towards? Maybe they knew that perspectives only truly change right before something terrible happens. Quickly, they tried to sweep that thought out of their minds. They couldn’t think that way. It would get in the way of saving little Harry and getting him back home.
“Could you ever imagine cops not wearing guns?” Thompson asked. He went to turn on the radio then decided against it.
“Cops not having guns in a world like ours is like a pastry chef not knowing what frosting is or a zebra without stripes,” Christine sighed.
She was tired of being vilified for using the tools she needed to fight. That was her job in the end - to be a fighter. She was exhausted by having to burden the character and morals of her profession, her calling, her role in society, especially when they were the only things that separated her from the cops that lived, and the cops that died. If Christine didn’t embrace those aspects of the work as well as the world, how could she stand against criminals like the snipers? She couldn’t. Good never wins against evil when trying to take the high moral ground. The means should be based in a place of good, but sometimes, Christine knew she had to straddle that line. Without embracing the aspects of evil in humanity and using them for good, she would never be able fight against the ones that let those qualities take over their lives. No one was truly good or evil. Everyone was simply trying to survive. What they did during and, if they were lucky, after that, was where the ethical argument lay.
“True,” Thompson said. “The thought of not having one makes me feel naked.”
Thompson felt his face flush but acted like it wasn’t happening.
“You get naked a lot Thompson?” Halloway laughed. “So much that you know what it feels like?”
“Just in the shower,” stammered Thompson. “And that second where you change from your pyjamas to your trousers and your…I’ll stop.”
“Geez!” Halloway erupted in a big belly laugh. “If you were a perp on the other side of the glass and I could only hear you, I’d swear you were a 90 year old man. Who the hell says trousers?”
Thompson half-laughed at himself, and whispered. “What the Hell are you thinking Thompson?”
“What was that?”
“Nothing,” Thompson said quickly. “Here’s our exit. Radio Baggins for me will you.”
“Baggins, we’re taking the exit now. We’ll be on comms for as long as you need. I’m going to mute the radio to keep us quiet though. If you need us, ping my cell. I have it on vibrate.
The radio was silent for a moment, then a rush of static. “Careful you two. You’re the best we got. If you don’t get these bastards, no one will.”
Chapter 9
They positioned their car pointing toward the single exit in the empty parking lot. From there, a trail lead to the main building of the centre. No one was there: no hikers, no bird watchers, nobody. All they could see were thick trees that seemed to go on forever. Actually they did, for miles and miles, eventually fanning out around a few lakes in the distance. It was getting hotter by the minute. Sweat began to pool at their lower backs. After discovering there was no way into the main hall except by force, they did what any logical person would do: they looked at the map.
“Do you think it’s strange that we haven’t come into contact with them yet?” asked Thompson.
“Just because we’re here, doesn’t mean that they are. We’re going off a little clue in Harry’s notebook and something those two crazies told us after jumping off a bridge into a boat. I don’t know what to believe. I only know this is the only thing we got and, the feeling in my gut.”
“What feeling is that?” asked Thompson.
“That this is the place.” Halloway placed her finger on a section called “The Wild Walk”.
“Sounds promising,” Thompson said mockingly.
“You got a better idea?”
“How about…” Thompson said hovering over the map. “Forest Music?”
“You would pick some hippy dippy spot like that,” Halloway joked.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Thompson to an already fleeting Halloway. “Christine! What’s that supposed to mean!”
After walking a cutback trail, Thompson and Halloway were lifted three stories above the ground. They were suddenly able to see things that they never would have from the ground. Everything around them was visible with remarkable clarity. They walked among the trees at a height that matched the High Line, a point on the same level as the mountains in the distance. With both of their guns drawn, they tried to keep their eyes on the trees. If the snipers were hiding anywhere, it would be among the dark green leaves and the spaces where the sunlight did not penetrate. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Thompson. “I’ve climbed a tree before, I’ve looked out a window at trees, hell I have even slept under a tree, but they’ve never looked as ominous as they do right now” murmured Christine. “Keep sharp. They’re here. I can feel them.” They walked back to back along the wooden catwalk. It creaked underneath their weight. They could hear every gust of wind through the leaves of the tree, every screech from an eagle above, and every crack of a branch. After a three count, they switched positions and Thompson took point while Christine took the rear. Their breaths were measured and calm. They were ready for anything. A roaring static overwhelmed the air, then a weak, trembling voice. “Help me daddy. Help me mommy. Help me Uncle Brian. I just want to go home.”It was little Harry. Thompson was about to scream for him, but Christine held him back.“Keep yourself together,” Christine told him. “They want you to scream. Once they hear you, they’ll know where we are.”“How the hell do you know that?” hissed Thompson. Christine nodded at the hidden sensors in the tree. Next to them were tiny speakers. They were fixed in random branches every 10 or 20 feet.
“They’re listening for us,” Christine murmured. “Then they can track our every movement. Push on. Push forward.”
They stepped into a circular platform. In the middle of it was a mock spider web made of twine and rope. The static overwhelmed the air again. Thompson gripped his pistol. He kept it ready and close.
“You think you’re going to do something
with that out here in all this space?”
They both recognized the voice. It was the first sniper. Their tone was deeper and harsher, one impossible to reach. “A single bullet could never reach us, wherever you may shoot.”
Christine let out a round all around her, screaming at the top of her lungs. There was no way Harry was anywhere near them. The snipers wouldn’t put their prize that close, not yet.
Thompson grabbed her and brought her gun down. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m letting them know we aren’t afraid,” Halloway snapped.
The second sniper began to speak. “You think fear is something we possess?”
Christine heard the screech of an eagle in the sky echo in the microphone of the 2nd sniper. She turned around and saw it in the sky, right above the top of a giant Oak. She looked down and saw them, in all black, tucked tight into the shadows of a walkway.
“Fear exists only in you…” the 2nd sniper managed to say when suddenly the sound of a round being fired filled the air from Halloway’s weapon.
“Ahhhhh!” the 2nd sniper screamed.
“Lena!” the 1st sniper shouted.
The forest filled with their howling wails as they plummeted to the forest floor below. Thompson and Halloway quickly ducked behind a wooden railing as gunfire erupted. The look on Christine’s face was fear. Thompson had never seen that look before. What did it mean?
“I don’t know what came over me,” Christine said. “I hope I..”
“What’s done is done,” Thompson stated. “Let’s make our move.”
They peeled off from one another and flanked where the gunshots were coming from. Thompson would fire a round of shots as Christine got closer. Shoot, duck, reload, repeat. Finally, Christine was on the other end of the walkway. She looked below. Broken, splayed on the ground, was the 2nd sniper. Their cold dead eyes stared up at Christine.
“You think this is over?” a cold, static voice boomed. “You killed my sister, but you’ll never kill me. Not down here.”
“What’s does he mean!” shouted Thompson to Christine.
“I saw on the map there is some kind of cave system you can walk through!”
Christine stood and fired at where the voice was coming from. There was a large explosion which set off a series of smaller ones. Thompson and Christine watched as all the tiny speakers erupted, but not until one last voice eeked out.
“Save me, Uncle Brian” little Harry begged.
Sparks overwhelmed the sky as the explosion began to set fire to the dead underbrush in the forest below, surrounding them instantly. Christine and Thompson sprinted down the walkway now ablaze with fire. Smoke filled their lungs as their faces were covered with burning ash. Flames licked at their heels as they sprinted for the ramp that would take them to ground level. Thompson’s foot suddenly punched through some of the wood. He screamed for Christine, but she couldn’t hear him over the rolling flames.
“Christine!” Thompson screamed. “Help me!”
As she ran up to the ramp that would take them below, Christine saw that it was completely burned. She touched it with the tip of her boot. It immediately buckled and fell below. They were trapped. She turned around and could barely see through the smoke where they had come from. Then, she noticed Thompson was gone. In that moment, she felt completely lost. Who was she without her partner? How could she go on? What could she do without him?
Nothing, Halloway thought. I am nothing.
“Christine!” Thompson had fallen through the walkway. He was hanging from his chest about to fall. “Help me!”
Christine dashed through flames and choking smoke. She thought of all the work they had done together, all the pain they had gone through, and all the laughs. There was no way she was losing Thompson.
“I got you!” Christine shouted as she dove for his hand.
They locked fingers as Christine hooked her toe to the rail. She felt her shaking wrist already start to buckle. Thompson struggled to pull himself up. Suddenly from behind them, a tree crashed down onto the walkway, splitting it in two. There was no going back and no going forward. They were stuck in the middle.
“Pull!” Thompson shouted as he kicked and squirmed onto the deck.
He flopped out onto the wood and tried to catch his breath. The air was full of ash and smoke. They hacked and pressed into one another, trying to keep away from the flames. They were trapped, but they were together. Under Thompson’s thin leather jacket, Christine and Thompson were able to speak together for only a few seconds.
“I wouldn’t want to go out with anybody else,” Thompson admitted. “You’ve been so much more than a partner to me.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Christine.
“I…”
The walkway underneath their feet shook, cracked, and lurched forward. It was going to crumble. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when.
“Let’s talk about this later,” Christine said. “We need to get out of here before we’re crushed by this bridge!”
“How?” Thompson pleaded. “There’s nowhere to go but down.”
“We’re going to have to jump.”
“Jump?!” Thompson shrieked, but Christine was already in motion.
She ripped the jacket off the two of them. Immediately, the smoke enveloped every inch of their bodies. Their eyes, throats, and skin started to burn. They had to get out of their quick or the smoke inhalation would kill them before the fall. Thompson staggered behind Christine, struggling to even see six inches in front of him. Flames were cracking and exploding everywhere around them. Their demise was right on their heels.
Christine readied herself at the edge. Across from her, a solid ten yards, was a tree yet to be engulfed by flames. It was the nearest one that wasn’t on fire.
“This is what we have to do!” Christine shouted over the carnage. “If we stay here, we’re going to die. At least this way we will have tried!”
“How are we going to tell anybody we tried when we’re dead!” Thompson shouted.
“We’ll know,” said Christine. “We’ll know.”
“You’ve never led me astray before,” Thompson murmured underneath his breath.
“Ready?” asked Christine.
“No!” screamed Thompson.
Together, they sprinted toward the end of the walkway. Over fire and death, they hurtled themselves into the arms of the giant tree. Their bodies smashed against its trunk. Debris and bark flew everywhere. Thompson nearly bounced off but luckily hooked his arm around a sturdy branch. Christine was tangled in a series of branches, but alive. They made it.
“Are we alive?” Thompson asked hugging the tree for dear life.
“Barely…” Christine winced. “I think I broke a rib.”
“We definitely broke something,” Thompson said. “But we can’t worry about that now. Harry is in those caves. I’m sure of it.”
The tree lurched, nearly hurtling them to the ground below. They needed to move fast or their tiny victory would be over. The two of them scrambled down the giant tree. As they climbed, small nicks and cuts attacked their skin. They fought through the pain. A tree on fire next to them toppled to the ground with a large BOOM. Finally, Thompson made it to the floor below but Christine had no other branch to go to. She had to jump.
“I’m here!” Thompson yelled. “Jump into my arms!”
“You’re going to catch me?” Christine shrieked. “I’ll crush you!”
“You want to die?” Thompson shouted back. “Think about little Harry!”
Christine remembered the little boys face. She thought about how scared he was, how scared he must be. They couldn’t fail him now.
Christine leapt and crashed into Thompson’s arms. They tumbled onto the ground, their sweat, pain, and exhaustion mixing into one. They lay there on top of each other, encircled by chaos, feeling the others breathing. Neither of them had felt the touch of another in so long. For a second, they felt totally at peace. They didn�
��t want to leave each other’s embrace.
“Tree!” Thompson shouted.
The tree they jumped from began to tip forward. Thompson grabbed Christine’s arm and pulled her onto her feet. They dove left, barely avoiding being crushed by the gigantic log.
“They’re not making saving this kid easy on us, huh?” Christine said panting.
“No…” Thompson grunted getting himself up. He held out a hand to pick up Christine. “They are not.”
“Like they like to say, the hard is what makes it great.”
Thompson scoffed. “Whoever said that hasn’t been shot, almost burned alive, or crushed by a huge tree before.”
They shared a much-needed laugh as they ran for the cave entrance to save little Harry.
Chapter 10
They traversed through a section of the forest that was yet to burn. The sky was black with smoke. They could barely see the light of the sun through it. Thompson was nearly hacking out a lung when he had to stop at a tree and catch his breath. Christine checked her pistol. The magazine only had three shots in it. Whatever happened down there, she needed to make them count.
“You going to make it?” Christine asked Thompson.
“I feel like I have black lung and my skin is melting off.” Thompson pushed himself away from the tree and exhaled. “But we have to keep going.”
“For Harry’s sake.”
They came to the mouth of the cave entrance. No sound came from inside. Save for tiny lights lined along the walls, there was only darkness. Thompson pointed his flashlight forward. Merely one step and they heard the 1st snipers crackling voice.
“You killed my sister Lena,” they snarled. “You killed the only person in this world that understood me. Who am I now without her? What am I?”
“A bigger monster than you already were!” shouted Christine.
“I want to know what your name is before we kill you!” Thompson screamed.