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.
SIXTY-NINE: “The Passenger”
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.
As we approached the end of Old Fall River Road, we could see a makeshift gate ahead. We had the lights on now because not doing so would have been about the biggest possible red flag. There was a jeep parked by the gate, and a soldier stepped out, walked up to the gate, and opened it. Yeah, we never would have made it with the trucks. He waved as Sam drove past, and Sam repeated the motion. Isaac did the same, waving as well, following us through the parking lot. Had we been soldiers coming up from the cabin, we’d definitely have stopped here for something. We couldn’t afford to do any different. Sam pulled into a parking spot within view of the main building, where a group of about ten soldiers was standing out on the porch. Isaac pulled in beside us. Danny told Sam to get out of the jeep, walk around to Isaac’s jeep, and talk to him for a couple of minutes. The hope was if anyone saw us, which we figured they had, they would see someone get out in full uniform and ignore us after that. Sam was supposed to tell Isaac to go ahead and head down Trail Ridge Road until they reached the Continental Divide. They were to stop there, and we’d catch up to them and take the lead again.
Sam followed Danny’s instructions to the letter. Danny could see one of the soldiers step away from the others on the porch and watch Sam carefully for a minute before slowly going back to the group. But as Danny watched him through binoculars, the soldier kept glancing their way. Then the soldier suddenly spun and went inside. He came back out twenty seconds later, gun in hand, and started walking quickly towards them. Danny frantically tapped the window and rolled his finger to tell Sam to get going. Sam walked away from Isaac, and Isaac backed out. Sam hopped behind the wheel and put their jeep in reverse. The man started running towards them then. “Danny…” Sam whispered.
“I see him,” Danny replied. “We can’t just pull out. You’re going to have to talk to him.”
“You’ve got to be…” Sam muttered, backing the jeep up so it was facing directly out of the parking lot. The man ran up and tapped on his window. Danny had his Springfield out, ready to fire if necessary, though he was completely buried under a backpack and blankets. Sam rolled the window down. It was still pouring, so the soldier had his head down to shield himself from the rain. “Hey. Where are you going?” he asked in decent English.
“Valley,” Sam replied, pointing.
“Why? Why now?” he asked. “Where’s Ortiz?” He glanced into the back of the jeep.
“Cabin.” Sam said pointing again, this time in the direction they’d come from, hoping that answer would satisfy.
It seemed to. The guy nodded and looked back at the other soldiers on the porch. “Ah,” he said. Then suddenly, “Hey. I go with you.” It didn’t sound like a request.
Sam just nodded. He had no idea what he was supposed to say. He was trying to speak as little as possible. “Not good space,” was all he could manage.
“No problem,” the soldier replied. “Let’s go.” He walked around the jeep.
“Uh, Danny…” Sam whispered.
“Let him get in. Stick to the plan,” Danny said as the door opened, pulling himself down even closer to the floor.
Sam threw his backpack from the front seat into the middle of the back seat, blocking Danny a little bit more. He tossed his jacket on top of the backpack too. The man hopped into the front seat with Sam. This was going to be interesting.
SEVENTY: “Elevator Music”
If you’ve ever been in a crowded elevator when someone farts, you know how uncomfortable it can get. Everyone’s looking around at everyone else, not really caring who the culprit was, but wanting to make sure no one thinks it’s them. Bottom line: everyone just wants to get out of that elevator, as soon as humanly possible. For some reason, that’s the comparison that came to mind for this situation. For the life of him, Sam couldn’t understand why Danny didn’t just kill the soldier and dump him. For that matter, none of us knew what Danny was thinking.
Danny could tell Sam was nervous, but he was hoping Sam wouldn’t panic—that he would just trust him. We’d made it out of the parking lot, but it was still a long ride down the mountain. Danny was asking for a lot of faith.