Ever Hayes - Emergency Exit

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 side 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.

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.

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.

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.