Ever Hayes - Redemption

Eddie, Blake, and I hurriedly helped him bury the bodies of the other soldiers. Flynn and Ava were on lookout, watching and listening for any approaching danger. Satisfied the bodies wouldn’t be found, we grabbed all our gear and nearly ran down into the valley. Danny wouldn’t tell us what had happened with the last sniper—or even why we were in such an obvious hurry now—except to say we didn’t have to worry about him. I figured Danny knew they were on to us and didn’t want to say it. They are coming .

We moved steadily downhill for almost an hour before coming to a sudden stop. “Damn,” I heard Blake say.

I was right behind him. “What?”

He pointed ahead of us at a large rock and clay wall in the middle of the river.

“You’re hilarious,” I whispered.

“It’s a non-sexual double entendre,” he replied. “A dam with a damn big hole in it. Someone blew it up.”

He appeared to be right. We moved up the north side of the river to the clay wall and looked down the steep waterfall that now split the two sides of the dam—likely the result of a Qi Jia drone strike some time ago. It was a long way down to the river valley below—couldn’t even see the actual base of the falls. “I’ve been here a few times before and never seen more than a controlled stream below this dam. That…”—He pointed at the wide river below. —“looks more like the Mississippi.”

Flynn, Eddie and Ava had already joined us and Danny was approaching now. “Have you guys gone up there yet?” He pointed at the rock platform above us.

“No, we were just checking out the damage —looking down the falls,” Blake replied, a slight grin on his face.

“Would you stop it already?” I elbowed him.

“How far down is that?” Flynn asked.

Blake shrugged. “Four hundred, five hundred feet… who knows? A lot higher than Niagara Falls if that gives you a better idea.”

“So you’d die if you fell down it?”

Blake smiled at her and nodded. “Twice.”

“Was that Redlands we saw down there?” I pointed southwest of our location.

“Yep.” Blake nodded. “Should we check it out, Danny?” Blake, suddenly serious again, pointed at the ledge above us.

Blake and Danny crawled up to the rock ledge and looked down into the valley. They came back to us a few minutes later. I didn’t like the look on either of their faces. “What?” I asked.

“Go look for yourself,” Blake nodded toward the ledge. Eddie, Flynn, and I scooted up the slope and peered over the dam’s edge at a mass of soldiers gathered around a bridge below us. The bridge was about three-quarters of a mile west of our perch, with vehicles on both sides and constantly crossing over it—all loaded with soldiers. Some trucks were heading up into the mountains—another hint they didn’t yet know for certain where we were. I noticed they were only going up the north side though. Whoever had blown out the middle of this dam was stupid. There was no road up the south side of the dam anymore. However, there were two helicopters in a large parking lot below the dam’s control tower—three-quarters of the way up the south side. No doubt troops there were watching over the valley. We were in a funnel, and the end was a dead one.

This roadblock was not at all unexpected—it did cover four of the roads into Redlands and Riverside beyond it. But there didn’t seem to be any way we could descend from the dam without being seen. And even if we could… there didn’t appear to be any way around the soldiers.

Eddie, Flynn, and I slid back down to Ava, Danny and Blake. “What do we do?” I asked Danny.

“Nothing we can do. We have to wait for dark.”

“But—”

“I know, Hayley—we might not have time for that. If they get Keena to launch the missiles and shut down the Shield before then, we’ll be too late. It won’t even matter then. But honestly, they could fire the missiles whenever—any minute now even. They’re not waiting for our permission.” He seemed defeated.

What happened to the angry Danny from an hour ago? “We can’t give up.” I looked to Blake and Eddie for support. “And we can’t just sit here for another six hours.”

“What do you want me to do?” Danny snapped. “What do you propose we do?”

“Easy, Dan.” Blake gently placed his hand on my brother’s arm. “She just wants to know if there are any alternatives.” Danny relaxed a little and Blake continued. “Can you think of anything? What would you do if it were dark now?”

Danny took a while before answering. “I don’t know.” He leaned his head back against the rock wall and closed his eyes. “We could steal a helicopter if we had a pilot. No offense, Blake, but you’re just learning how to fly a plane.”

“None taken.”

“With a hundred or so guys down there,” Danny continued, “we can’t just go down the face of this dam in broad daylight and walk—or swim—past them. It’s just so exposed—almost no cover…” He paused. “If it were dark it’d be no problem—we’d just climb down around it.”

“So let’s do that.”

“Now?” He opened one eye, watched me nod, then closed it again. “Come on Hayley. Didn’t you see the helicopters? They’re watching from above too.”

“I know…but why not?”

“I just explained it. It’s ridiculous. You don’t think there are guys on that bridge assigned to just watch this canyon?”

“But what if we didn’t stand out?”

Danny still hadn’t opened his eyes. “But we would.”

“You can be staring at a mountain goat in the Rockies and not see it.” I probably could have explained myself better but I could see Blake nodding.

“Do I even have to say it?” Danny asked. “We are not—”

“Actually, Danny, she has a point.” Blake agreed with me.

Danny opened his eyes and sat up. “Dress up like mountain goats?”

“No.” Blake shook his head. “But we put three of us in our ghost suits and cover them with dirt, leaves, branches, etc.…”

“Three suits?” I asked.

“I’ve got Axel’s too.” Blake patted his backpack.

I turned to look at Danny. He was actually nodding now. “Okay, maybe. So…we try to sneak down the sides of the dam. Then what?”

“We blow that bridge,” Eddie cut in. “You still have the C-4 in your pack right?”

I looked at Eddie in surprise. He’d remained incredibly quiet for the man I knew him to be. I expected Danny to shut that idea down, but he didn’t. Instead he turned to Blake, who nodded.

“Yes, we still have the explosives.” Danny looked at Eddie. “We’d still have to swim from the base of the falls to the bridge though—right under their noses.”

“Okay.” Eddie nodded. “But if you could do it, then maybe we get all the soldiers on one side of the river somehow and blow the bridge,” Eddie continued. “It cuts off their speed—levels the field.”

Danny was nodding now. “But how would we—”

Eddie pulled something out of his backpack. A radio. “With this,” he replied. “I took two off the dead snipers.”

Danny was hearing him out but clearly remained unconvinced. “We’d need an officer to get them to move all those troops, and we’d need to know where to send them.” Danny was shaking his head now. “We wouldn’t know where to start.”

“What if I went down there alone? If I didn’t speak English maybe they’d know I wasn’t American. Maybe I could tell them you’d tried to kill me and direct them to where you supposedly are.”

“No way, Eddie,” Blake objected immediately. “They’d see through it and kill you.”

“I agree with Blake. I can’t let you do that.”