Ever Hayes - Emergency Exit

We could see more aircraft circling the city, guns blazing and rockets firing, and we watched as two more helicopters went down. They had to be Americans! “Guys,” Danny said to Wes, Cameron, Dad and I, who had climbed out of the vehicles to watch with him. “We may be safe. I think those are our Blackhawks.” It was either that, or the Blackhawks were firing on Americans. Either way, Danny couldn’t just sit ten miles away and do nothing. The first attack he was willing to dismiss. With a second one within a few hours of the other, he had to find out what was going on. But he couldn’t leave the rest of us defenseless.

We all had gathered around to hear his plan. “Okay.” He took a deep breath, not sure even he liked his idea. “I have to find out what’s going on. But I can’t take the chance of bringing all of you into the city with me. I’m going to take Blake and Nathan with me.” He pointed at the two men from Medora. “We’ll try to figure out what’s going on. Cameron, you are going to take everyone else to that Horseface Reservoir outside Fort Collins where you and I went fishing two summers ago. Remember that abandoned mine on the north side where we got out of that freak hail storm?”

Cameron nodded. “I think you mean Horsetooth Reservoir. But yeah, I remember.”

“Okay.” Danny disregarded the correction. “Get everyone there. Stay out of the towns and go the back way around.”

No one responded vocally, but Dad was shaking his head and Cameron was looking down, digging the toe of his boot in the dirt. None of us liked the idea of splitting up.

“Look, guys.” Danny continued, sensing our collective discomfort with the idea. “It’s only forty miles to the reservoir. If we have to hightail it out, we will, and we’ll get there quickly… well before dawn. We’ll be fine. I—”

“Don’t promise.” I cut him off. I hate it when they say “I promise” in movies . “Just do it.” I looked at my watch. It was close to midnight now.

“I think you need another gun with you, Danny,” Wes said, volunteering.

“I’ll stay,” I spoke up.

“Ryan,” Tara objected.

I looked at her, surprised. She said my name .

“The hell you will,” Cameron agreed with her.

“No, Dad,” Danny said, glancing at Tara as well. “You’re going to the reservoir. Wes, you’ll stay with us then.”

Hayley elbowed me. “He said they need another gun, Dad. Not a mother hen.”

“Ha ha,” I said, but I understood her point. This wasn’t a PlayStation game. I didn’t belong in that mix. Then again, I wouldn’t have done any better in the PlayStation game.

Blake, Nathan, Wes, and Danny climbed into a truck and headed towards the fighting in Cheyenne. The rest of us filled up with gas again and continued south towards Horsetooth Reservoir. I didn’t like leaving Danny behind, but what if he was right? What if the war was turning here, and America was fighting back? What if it was almost over? It was the second time tonight we’d seen helicopters firing on what we assumed were soldiers chasing us. We had to know what was going on, and no one would get a better answer than Danny. As wrong as letting him go felt, I agreed it had to be done. And then it started pouring.

Danny parked the truck at the famous Cheyenne Depot Museum, and the four of them set off on foot in the direction of the gunfire, presumably at nearby F. E. Warren Air Force Base. Each of them carried a handgun and rifle, and they hadn’t gone far before the gunfire seemed to switch direction. Climbing to the roof of a parking garage to get a better view, Danny discovered an enormous crater where the Air Force base had been. He also confirmed that the gun and rocket fire sounds had indeed been ricocheted by the winds. The battle was raging behind them, at the far end of the depot.

The depot was huge, with nearly two dozen sets of railroad tracks and long rows of abandoned buildings. Not long ago, it had been a booming business district, and then the local economy tanked and most of the buildings were converted into freight and storage warehouses. These buildings would provide some cover for their approach, but a few smaller fights were being waged on the streets outside the depot, and moving nearer from here would put them directly in the middle. The rain only complicated everything more.

They moved down and over to the main depot building and entered through an open door. They each put their night vision goggles on and inched closer to the flashing lights outside. A crashed helicopter burned in the parking lot to their right, while another was engulfed in flames in the middle of the tracks. They could see a few men running back and forth behind rail cars. Gunfire was raining down on the men from windows and balcony doors of the upper floors of the buildings across the way. It appeared as if the people in the buildings were greatly outnumbered. Based on what Danny had seen from the roof of the parking garage, it seemed the men in those buildings were being fired on from all sides. They were the ones who were trapped.

By the yelling and uniforms of the people on the tracks, Danny knew they were not Americans. So either the men trapped in the building were Americans, or Danny’s gamble had sacrificed an incredible advantage and there hadn’t been any Americans here at all.

Gradually the fighting lessened. Danny and the other three watched the men on the ground slowly but surely pick off the men in the buildings opposite them. Then all the gunfire stopped. There was some yelling, and a man was dragged out into the middle of the railroad tracks. Three men pointed guns at his head. Danny recognized the man from the cameras back in Wes’s cabin. It was the captain’s brother, Lazzo. What was happening? Why were the Qi Jia men holding Lazzo captive? A man with a megaphone shouted out through the rain, “Captain. It’s over. We have your brother and we kill him if you no come out now.” He waited a few seconds before continuing. “Send all you men out now. You come out and we no kill him.” Were they talking to Eddie? There was no reply. Whoever they were yelling at had to be weighing his options .

One of the men bashed Eddie’s brother in the back of the head with his gun, and Lazzo dropped to the muddy ground. The other men yanked him back up to his feet.

“You want you brother die?” one of them yelled out.

“How I know you no kill him?” the captain’s voice boomed back. Yep, Eddie was here.

“Show you self,” the man with the megaphone replied.

At that second, Danny noticed a red dot on the back of Lazzo’s head. Only for a moment, then it was gone. He glanced at the three with him, but Blake and Nathan didn’t have lasers on their guns, and Wes had his off. It had to have come from upstairs. They weren’t going to let him live no matter what Eddie did. What the hell was going on? None of these people were Americans . Based on the uniforms they were all seemingly from the same military force. But for some reason they wanted Lazzo and Eddie dead. Had Eddie betrayed his own military somehow?

Danny didn’t have time to think about it anymore. His initial instinct was to pull Wes, Nathan and Blake away from it all, and head for the reservoir. No one would even know they’d been there. If Eddie and Lazzo died here, so would their pursuit. But his moral compass was spinning, and he didn’t feel like it was right to let Lazzo die like this either. Especially if Eddie had somehow had a change of heart. Crap. Why do you care? Danny shook his head. Damn it .

He quickly whispered instructions to Nathan, Blake, and Wes. They were to each take out one of the three men with guns to Lazzo’s head when the man with the megaphone fell. Danny was going to handle him.