“What happened?” General Roja demanded.
“Not sure what you mean,” Eddie responded.
The general didn’t speak but glared at him. It became apparent to him this wasn’t a staring contest he’d win, so he walked back behind his desk. “That be all,” he said. “Get out.”
Eddie paused, then turned, and as the door opened the general added, “I know it was you. You step out of line once. You’re dead.”
Eddie stopped, but he didn’t look back. He looked at the guard to his right, who couldn’t hold his glare. And then Eddie walked out the door.
SIXTY-EIGHT: (Ryan) “Trail Ridge Road”
When it became evident the snow was not coming back, we knew we needed to move. We spent two nights packing the trucks, little by little, careful to make sure no one was aware of our presence. By Friday night, May 21, we were ready to go. We were hoping for some helpful awful weather, but we didn’t get it until the twenty-fifth,which brought a warm front across the range with plenty of rain, thunder, and lightning. The combination of the high temperatures and rain created several potential problems. This was avalanche and washout weather further up in the mountains, particularly on our road, which was well known for both. But if we stayed any longer, the snow would be gone and troops would be coming down Old Fall River Road, perhaps even by tomorrow. It was a bittersweet feeling, blocking the entrances to the cave and walking away for the last time. We genuinely didn’t want to leave, but knew tonight was our best chance. It was now or never, all in or fold, make it or… Yeah, I’ll stick with “make it.” No one else was going to be out in this weather anyway.
We were wrong. At least I was. There was a lake eight miles up Old Fall River Road from our cave. After uncovering the trucks and moving them down to the road, we followed the Ford with the plow on the front slowly up the road for three hours. Coming around a corner by the lake, we saw a light and pulled to a quick stop. Upon further inspection, we spotted three jeeps parked in the road and a small cabin with the light we’d seen in the windows. The cabin was adjacent to one of the area’s formerly popular trailheads. None of us had seen the cabin before, and it looked like it had been built for this particular winter. The jeeps were clearly just blocking the road. There was no one in them. But there was also no way past them, and no way to move them without drawing the attention of however many men were in the cabin.
We backed the trucks slowly around the corner and out of sight about five hundred yards from the cabin. We were a little worried the sound of our engines coming up the hill might be heard, but the heavy rain appeared to have prevented that. It made sense now why Danny always preferred hunting in this crap. Everyone lost their advantage, and in this particular case, it may have actually given us one.
Danny was our only trained fighter now. The problem was, he didn’t want to be one anymore. He, Dad, and I had sat down several times since Cameron’s death and discussed Danny’s thoughts on war. Danny was tired of death, and tired of having to kill. He’d never wanted to kill anyone, under any circumstance, but he was decidedly even more against it now. It made him feel horrible inside, and watching Cameron go down like he did, even though it was from mountain lions…well, Danny wanted to be done with all the killing. That said, he knew what he had to do. My dad was great with him, particularly in getting him to see none of us would make it if Danny let his guard down. It was a lot to put on a young man, a heavy load to bear in every psychological sense, but we all needed Danny to shoulder it.
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.