Ever Hayes - Emergency Exit

He understood. He had recommitted himself to the final goal. He’d trained Blake, Sam and Isaac in various military tactics in the cave, but this was the real thing, and Danny still wasn’t convinced Isaac could take the shot if he had to. Times like this might not have been when he actually missed Cameron the most, but it was certainly when he missed their “Digger and Dice” connection the most.

Hayley was willing to help too, but Danny wouldn’t hear of having her involved. It was clear he wanted to keep her the furthest thing from harm’s way. Asking Isaac to hang back with us, Danny huddled with Blake and Sam and told them what he was thinking. There was a pathway cutting through a small valley between the two hills they were hidden behind. It would come out at the trailhead by the cabin. Danny wanted the two of them to go that way while he approached up the road, so if there were anyone watching on a tracking system, the movements would appear less threatening. When they reached the end of the trailhead, they were to wait for Danny to approach the cabin and try to get a count of how many men they were facing. Then Danny would either take care of the men on his own or lead them outside where Blake and Sam could pick them off.

A roll of thunder shook our truck, followed by a brilliant flash of lightning, startling us all. The storm was right on top of us. Danny insisted Blake and Sam not leave whatever cover they found by the trailhead. He would bring the soldiers right to them if he had to.

Blake and Sam found their spots well before Danny reached the cabin. Blake took a position from a slightly higher perch, about twenty feet above the road and to the west of the cabin. Sam took a lower position above ground level to the east of the cabin. They watched Danny approach through the night vision scopes on their rifles. He crept up to the side of the cabin and peered into a corner of the window. He looked in their general direction and held up five fingers. He indicated that four of them were sleeping. The other was flipping through a magazine. There didn’t appear to be any radar or computer screen in the cabin. They weren’t expecting anyone. Danny could see a set of keys on the desk by the door.

Danny scratched the window once with his finger. The man with the magazine didn’t move. Danny waited a minute and did it again. Still no movement. The rain was going to make getting the man’s attention a little more difficult. Finally, Danny tapped on the window. The man glanced up from his magazine and turned his head towards the window but remained where he was. Come on . Danny looked at the four sleeping men. They still hadn’t moved. He tapped the window one more time. This finally got the man out of his chair.

He stood up, walked to the window, and tried to see outside. A flash of lightning helped, but not enough. Danny couldn’t afford to look in the window now, with the man standing right there, but he heard the door open a minute later, and he readied himself. He could hear footsteps approaching his position. He knelt down and prepared to make his move when there was another bolt of lightning, and the man saw him.

Danny lunged and grabbed him, pulling him quickly to the ground and slitting his throat. He heard the man behind him before he saw him and didn’t have time to turn around. A split second before the butt of the gun glanced off the side of his head, there was a hollow-sounding impact, and the man fell backwards as he swung his gun down. Danny hit the ground, his head pounding, but a quick look to his side showed the other man down too. Chalk another one up for Blake .

Danny tried to clear his head enough to stand but couldn’t, so he crawled over to check the pockets of each of the men for keys. Neither man had them. Seriously . He rubbed his head and pulled himself across the front deck of the cabin. The front door was slightly open, and he dragged himself up next to it. The other three men were still inside and still asleep. Danny shut off the light in the cabin, waited a minute, and then with each roll of thunder he crawled around the floor to inspect the pockets of the three sleeping men. Conveniently, the smallest of the three men had a set of keys in his pocket. Danny easily suffocated him during a lengthy thunder roll, keeping him still enough to not disturb the others. Danny then picked the man up and grabbed the set of keys on the table. He slipped out the front door and closed it tightly behind him.

He waved Sam and Blake over. They helped him carry the three dead soldiers back to our trucks. We stripped them of their uniforms, and loaded their bodies into the back of one of our trucks. Danny ordered us to grab all we could carry and follow him to the enemy jeeps. We did, loading our gear into the back of the two jeeps he indicated.

As Blake and Sam watched the front door of the cabin for the other two men, Danny and Dad went back to the trucks. Danny found a cliff about a hundred yards behind them with thick bushes and trees and they pushed the trucks off the side of the road into the deep ravines. They watched as the trucks fell and slid to a stop a few hundred yards down the hill. No explosions. Thank God . They’d be visible to whoever passed in daylight, but it might appear as if an avalanche had deposited them there. If anyone went down to inspect them they’d find the three dead soldiers, and that could prove to be a problem, but hopefully we’d be long gone by then.

When Danny and Dad returned, Dad filled me in on what they’d done. Isaac suggested that he and Sam be the drivers from here, as their skin was the darkest. I could tell his offer surprised Danny, but seemed to work for him. They dressed in two of the soldier uniforms and got in the driver’s seats of the two jeeps. Sam would lead with Danny covered in the passenger seat behind him. Isaac would follow with Blake in his cab also lying low, covered, behind him. Mom, Dad, Reagan, Jenna and Abbey crawled into the tarp-covered back of Isaac’s jeep and buried themselves under the blankets and sleeping bags. Hayley, Tara, Emily, Kate and I got into the back of the other, under similar cover. The sleeping bags, rafts, tents, blankets, and supplies would not only have to provide the cover we need, but hopefully sufficient warmth. We’d be traveling in open air, other than the jeep’s tarp, so it would be freezing in the back.

By now everyone had caught onto the meat of Danny’s plan. We had left two men alive in the cabin and concealed the other three. The hope was, when the others woke up, they’d simply think the three missing soldiers had gone up to the alpine base during the storm. If we were lucky, that would satisfy them until at least morning. We’d ditched—literally—our trucks and loaded up the jeeps. We were going to quietly pull away from this cabin and drive up to the visitor center, which would be crawling with troops even at this hour. We were hoping Isaac and Sam would look the part enough, and no one would think twice about our movement. We were going to try to drive not just past them, but right through them… and hope they didn’t notice.

It was crazier than it sounds.

The Old Fall River Road dead-ends at the top of the mountain in the Alpine Visitor Center parking lot. There’s no way around it. You have no choice but to drive past the two main buildings and directly through the parking lot to get to Trail Ridge Road on the other side. There was no question we felt better about the prospects of doing that in these jeeps than we had in the trucks. Even in the pouring rain, had anyone seen the trucks, it would have drawn all the wrong kinds of attention.