Ever Hayes - Emergency Exit

“Sir,” Eddie replied, making his decision to go back on his word. “We have found the girl.”

There was a pause and then another abrupt reply. “It no matter. Vice president dead.”

What? WHAT?

“I don’t get it,” Blake said aloud beside Danny. The others were deeper under the ledge behind them. Danny didn’t respond. The helicopter had hovered directly over the ledge they were under for more than a minute. Then it disappeared back down the valley. They could still hear it, so they stayed hidden, and then fifteen minutes later it flew back over them, hovering again for another thirty seconds or so before continuing up the valley. “It absolutely had to have seen us,” Blake reasoned. “Either they have the world’s worst radar or—”

“They don’t need us anymore,” Danny said, and Blake stared at him.

“What?” he asked in surprise.

“I’m with you,” Danny replied. “I think they knew at least a few of us were here. I’m pretty sure they tracked us to the lions, and the helicopter followed the trail all the way up here. They knew we were people, and they knew we were here. I’m not sure who they thought we were, but I’m pretty sure they were coming for us.”

“So why leave?” Blake asked, taking it all in.

Danny looked back at Hayley, who was giving water to Cameron. Abbey was wrapped in a blanket but shivering like mad and staring back at Danny. “Think about it,” he redirected, turning back to look at Blake. “We saw the helicopter come in last night, right?” Blake nodded. “This morning it comes up the valley the way we came. It comes all the way up to us and doesn’t go any further. It goes back down the valley, comes back up and keeps going. There’s nowhere to land up ahead. They knew we were here, but for some reason they don’t need us anymore. For some reason, they don’t need the girl anymore.” Danny looked him in the eye. “Why do you think?”

Blake had an idea. The vice president had to have given up the information they were trying to get out of him…or he was dead.

Hayley came up to them. “Danny, Cam is awake. We need to try to keep him moving. He desperately needs to be taken care of.”

Danny nodded, moving instantly. “How’s Abbey?”

“She can keep going,” Hayley replied. “She’s a tough little girl,” she said a bit louder so Abbey could hear her. “She’s a little groggy from whatever drugs they had her on. It’s taken a long time for them to get out of her system.”

“Unbelievable,” Danny muttered.

Hayley went back to assist Cameron, and Danny turned to help her, but Blake grabbed his arm. “Do you think he’s dead?” Blake whispered.

Danny glanced at Abbey briefly before answering, but then turned calmly back to Blake. “I know he is.”

Eddie demanded the chopper pilot ask how the vice president had died, but there was no reply. Angrily, he hopped into the front of the chopper, and ripped the radio from the pilot’s hand. He repeated the question but again received no reply. “Get in Lazzo.” Eddie yelled at him.

Lazzo hopped in the back. Eddie commanded the pilot to get them to the alpine base immediately. They lifted off and headed towards the summit of Trail Ridge Road. That the VP’s death had occurred while Eddie was here on assignment burned him to no end. He was going to be viewed as partially responsible by the other six commanders. If not exclusively so, were the crazy Russian to throw him under the bus . He had to get up there and find out what the hell had happened.

As the helicopter climbed through Black Canyon, Eddie watched the radar screen. Sure enough, as they reached the overhang the pilot had mentioned earlier, they could see three small red dots on the screen below the rocks. Eddie had the pilot hover above them for about twenty seconds as he watched one of the dots move further under the rock. He wanted them to know they’d been seen, and he was confident that message had been delivered. Then he twirled his finger and pointed upward towards the Alpine Visitor Center. “Let’s go,” he ordered the pilot. And they moved on again.

The helicopter landed at the alpine base a few minutes later, and Eddie leapt out, storming towards the front door. Lazzo caught up to him and stepped in front of him. Ordinarily, Lazzo would have attempted to tackle him because he could sense the fire in his brother’s body language. But that would have been blatant insubordination, and he probably would have been shot. Instead, he stepped in front of him, weaving back and forth to slow his brother down. “Eddie,” he said several times before his brother finally stopped.

“What?” Eddie replied angrily.

“Look. I get it. You mad. Fine. You must calm down,” Lazzo reasoned.

Eddie tried to push past him again, but Lazzo insisted, his hands still up by Eddie’s chest.

“Brother, listen to me,” he pleaded.

“They’ll put this on me,” Eddie replied, pointing towards the men inside.

“Maybe,” Lazzo agreed. “But they won’t kill you. You were not there. You were not here.”

Eddie took a deep breath as the rest of the men came up behind him.

Lazzo gave him one last long look and whispered, “Please.”

Eddie nodded, and this time Lazzo didn’t try to stop him as he walked past.

Eddie entered through the front doors and asked for the Russian commander.

“He’s gone,” was the reply.

Of course he was . Eddie asked what happened, but no one there had been in the room when the vice president died. Eddie asked who had been there. It had been the Russian commander, the two torturers, and a guard with the keys to the vice president’s chains. Curious . “Why the guard? Just to take the dead body?” Eddie asked.

“No,” was the reply. “He went in before prisoner died. With pen and paper.”

Pen and paper? What? Why? Eddie asked if they’d taken away the vice president’s body. They had. He asked several more questions, but no one knew anything else.

Eddie couldn’t help but wonder if they’d managed to get what they’d wanted and killed the man, or if something else had happened altogether. He now had to get down to Denver and find out.

Cameron died before they could get him back to the cave. I’m certain it was a terrible and emotional scene—far more than I can capably summarize—and yet I was reluctant to press them for more details. From what I understand, Danny tried to carry his best friend on his back and go faster, but Cameron kept telling him it was no use. He couldn’t, and wouldn’t, make it. Danny refused to listen, but as they closed to within a mile of the cave Cameron put his head next to Danny’s and said, “I love you, man. Take care of my girl.” And then he stopped breathing.

Cameron’s body went limp and he began to fall. The sudden weight shift knocked Danny off balance, nearly pulling him down too. Danny managed to regain his balance and catch his best friend just above the ground. He knelt beside his best friend in the snow, pleading for him to wake up—to hang in there just a little longer—but it was no use. He tried, in vain, to bring him back with CPR. Finally Hayley had to pull him off. It took all her strength and a little of Blake’s. This was the first time she’d seen Danny cry since Sophie had died. He fought against Hayley and Blake to continue to try to save his best friend, but Hayley held him down, and finally he just sobbed.

This was going to go down as Danny’s worst day. Probably ever. No one knew him better than Cameron. No one, other than maybe Kate and Hayley, meant more to him than Cameron. The two of them had shared the highest and lowest moments of their lives together and had no secrets from each other. Danny even knew Cameron was going to propose to Jenna at Christmas. Millions of memories flashed through Danny’s head in a handful of seconds as he looked at his fallen friend. Danny yelled out in anger and despair, with a voice that no doubt echoed down the canyon and across the valley below them to the Endovalley camp. Hayley held him tightly, and Blake led Abbey away.