Ever Hayes - Emergency Exit

“Can you tell me what this is?” Danny asked. “What’s going on here?”

“Soon,” Eddie replied. “Must move now.”

Danny accepted that reply for now. He pulled his flashlight out and began flashing it ahead. As Eddie and Lazzo paddled through the river towards Lake Powell, Danny continued to flash his light forward whenever they couldn’t see the lights behind them.

Up ahead, we saw a light flashing behind us. It seemed to be relaying some sort of message but we couldn’t decipher it. Nonetheless, we figured it was Danny, so we flashed back. We rowed backwards against the water to slow down and wait for them, and they caught us about ten minutes later. We were shocked to see who was in the boat with Danny.

We decided to dump Eddie’s raft in the rocks at the next set of rapids. Hopefully that would slow the search party behind us. They’d been gaining on us the past few hours, and it would be light soon. Jenna focused on Danny’s shoulder right away. She had him patched up in no time. Our two rafts were loaded with people and supplies, which did slow us down, but also seemed to allow us to travel the rougher sections better.

Eddie and Hayley had spent a great deal of time in conversation since we’d merged. Eddie seemed quite impressed with her, and Hayley obviously had a unique place in her heart for him as well. For the most part the rest of us just watched and listened. We didn’t know what to think of Eddie and Lazzo being with us now. Besides, we had enough other things on our minds. The water was getting rougher, and the sky was starting to lighten. We had to be coming up on the Colorado River soon.

Just before dawn, the San Juan River converged with the much bigger, much rougher Colorado River. A few years ago this river had almost completely dried up. A few heavy rain seasons had reversed that drought and then some. We were adjusting to the roughness when the helicopters made their first pass overhead. I’m not quite sure how they missed us—maybe it was the sun coming up behind us—or perhaps they saw the boats behind us and were distracted. Whatever the cause, we certainly didn’t miss them.

We had hoped to make it to Lake Powell and its many coves and channels, but the helicopters were going to make that impossible. They’d be flying back overhead any minute now. We paddled the boats into the nearest channel, wedged between two enormous canyon walls, and found a small inlet where we figured we could hide out for the day. It had an even smaller beach and several awkward trees that appeared to have been planted sideways and upside down into the canyon wall. It was cover enough, at least. We pulled up under the trees, flipped and covered the rafts with sand, and then walked up into a narrow crevice adjacent the small beach.

We hid ourselves in the cool shade of the overhanging rocks and spent the day listening to Eddie and Lazzo, mostly Lazzo, fill us in on the enemy’s plan and everything else they knew about the current state of America. It was easy to tell they were somewhat confused themselves. They knew there were seven countries involved in the attack against the United States, including Mexico, which surprised us all—that’s where the general was from who was hunting us right now. The seven leaders of those countries were now orchestrating the new government they called Qi Jia. Qi Jia knew surviving Americans were trying to get to Hawaii and Eddie confirmed it was indeed the only safe haven left in America—as the Secret Service agents had shared. Eddie did add that there may still be Americans alive in NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain bunker, but Qi Jian forces were still trying to break in. Who knows how long it would be before either they got in, or the survivors inside died. There really wasn’t much of this country left. It turned out everything we’d heard and feared was true, and in some cases even worse than we could have imagined.

We heard the helicopters and drones pass by dozens of times throughout the day. We even saw a pair of choppers travel over our canyon twice, but eventually they moved on, and after 3 p.m. we didn’t hear them again. The crevice we were wedged in had served its purpose well, but we were ready to move on. We knew there was one last major set of rapids before the waters would smooth out heading into Lake Powell. Blake’s rafting experience had kept us safe and dry thus far. We were confident he could guide us through this last rough patch as well. It was the danger beyond the water we were more leery of.

As darkness fell, we moved back to our boats. This was going to be tricky given the enemy troops could be anywhere. Our one advantage was Eddie’s tracker. He had hidden tracking chips into the backpacks of three of the general’s remaining men, and we had seen two of the dots pass on the river early that morning. Eddie told us it had a reliable twenty-mile radius. If we were within twenty miles of their packs, we’d know. The only problem was, if they had a base camp near here and left their packs there, we wouldn’t necessarily have a location on the troops themselves. Somehow we were going to have to pass through the middle of Lake Powell tonight without using lights or a THIRST system, aided only by the handheld tracker. Danny and Blake had covered the reflectors on our boats with black tape, and we gathered brush and roped it to the rafts, trying to appear as much like floating bushes as possible. We had to be quiet and essentially crawl along the shoreline of the canyon walls.

Lake Powell on the border of Arizona and Utah is the second largest man-made reservoir in the world, behind only Lake Mead. It is also home to the famous Rainbow Bridge rock formation. At the base of Lake Powell, where the Colorado River heads off into the Grand Canyon, there is a dam near the town of Page. We figured that would be the likely base point for the military, as we wouldn’t be able to pass there without coming out of the water. With the only road in the area passing through Page as well, our options were definitely in our enemy’s favor.

We never made it to Page though. As the Colorado River took us past a place called Labyrinth Bay, we entered a narrow canal. Our map showed the river ahead either snaked to the left or opened into a bay to our right. We had intended to enter the bay, as it was much wider and more defensible, until Tara pointed out there was a small river branch breaking southeast after the bend to the left. If we took that small river branch south, we could avoid the town of Page altogether. It would mean a lot of walking to find a road after we reached the end of the small river, but it could be our only escape.

We never made it there either. Coming up on the bend we saw a line of boats spread across the otherwise dark channel. Motorized boats. They were decked out with torches and spotlights and there was absolutely no way around or through them. We had given up our cover at this point, and there was no way to backtrack. The river was forcing us rapidly towards the blockade. We paddled as quickly and quietly as we could to the southern shore into a small cove no bigger than a three-car garage. We knew we could climb up the ravine from here and try to walk into Page to find other transportation. The town was less than ten miles away. But we also knew if we left the boats, we couldn’t come back to them. As we were trying to determine what to do, we heard the unmistakable whir of an approaching helicopter. We pulled the rafts up on the shore, concealed them, and hugged the canyon walls around us.

The helicopter never flew over though. Instead, it landed on a plateau above us somewhere. Eddie and Danny were crouching next to each other, and I saw Eddie tapping his screen. Danny crawled over to me. He explained there was a dot on Eddie’s screen, and it was less than a half-mile from us. It hadn’t been there before, so whoever it was must have landed in the helicopter. There were sixteen of us. We’d never be able to climb the ravine now and walk to Page, not with the helicopter there. We were going to have to wait and hope it moved on soon.