Absolution River (15 page)

XXVII

“We better call someone and let them know about what happened today.”

“You’re right Anders, looks like Jack is out of the woods. Let me call my office first, see what we need to do.”

Marie walked over to the phone on the nightstand that stood between the two twin beds. She dialed the number by heart.

“Give me the SCI. Yes, yes, I have enough to shut down that operation. Yes, Archibald Grimes. He’s dead sir. It’s a long story. What do you want me to do? Will do, yes sir, thank you. Just glad its over; okay I’ll fill you in when you get here. Okay, yep, bye.”

“Who was that?” said Jack.

“That was my boss, the supervisory criminal investigator for my department.”

“What’d he have to say?”

“Said he would take care of everything. Wants me to stay put to give him a debrief.”

“It’s been fun guys, but I need to find a way home. My wife is probably having an aneurism.”

“Take the truck man, I can’t thank you enough for saving my ass back there.”

“You won’t need it?”

“Marie has people coming, I’ll just stick with her.” As he turned to her he smiled. She returned the gesture.

“Just glad to see you’re okay, not just with this, but with everything, you know?”

Jack nodded, each understanding what they meant. Anders walked over and wrote down his number on a pad next to the nightstand lamp. “Anytime,” as he handed the sheet to Jack.

Jack smiled and nodded.

“Nice to meet you Marie, stay safe out there. You’re quite the crime fighter now.”

Marie laughed, “Yeah, never thought I would get into something like this in this job. Just counting trees and measuring survey stakes mostly, but guess I really expanded the job title. And thanks.”

Anders waved behind his head as he walked out the motel room door. Walking down the stairs to the truck, he smiled and pulled the keys out of his pants pocket. The driver side door creaked when he opened it and he glanced at all of the bullet holes covering the truck. Shaking his head, he heard a strange noise, almost like something buzzing, and he collapsed on the ground. His leg was bleeding profusely and he could see he had just been shot. Scrambling onto his stomach he began to low crawl as fast as he could to get behind the hotel building. His elbows were scraped and bloody from grinding them on the gravel parking lot. The pain in his leg felt like a hot poker straight out of a campfire was thrust straight through. Bringing that leg up to propel himself forward made him tear up in pain and his face strained with every movement. He heard the buzzing and then an impact every few seconds.
Silencer. Damn.
He continued to move as fast as he could and he made it behind the motel building’s northwest corner just as a round struck the siding. Grabbing the vertical gutter he got himself onto his one good leg and began to hop to the rear entrance. Locked. He jiggled the knob with frustration and noticed a window. With his already shredded elbow he cracked the glass. Carefully putting his hand through the window trying to avoid the jagged glass he was able to unlock the door. When he opened it the fire alarm sounded. He ran up the stairs and down the hallway, leaving a blood trail and hopping frantically on his one good leg.

“Let me in! Hurry!”

Jack opened the door holding his injured side. With a look of shock, “What happened?”

“Someone, someone out there shot me. A professional, my leg.” They both looked down and Marie ripped off a pillowcase and tied it real tight around the wound. The knot cinched down hard over the entry point, Anders pounded the wall in pain. Jack scrambled to put on some of the new clothes he got from Anders and he dropped the robe right there. Pants, then shirt, then a bullet struck the TV. They all hit the ground. The sky was dark with thunderclouds and what was remaining of the sun no longer had the strength to punch through the clouds. Darkness had enveloped the room almost instantaneously. Lighting struck the lake just outside the cabin and rain began to come down in sheets.

“Stay low! He can only get in here through the front door. We just need to stay down!” yelled Jack.

“What if he comes in through the front door? I’m out of bullets.”

“I’ve got two left.”

“Damn.”

“I’m calling the cops,” cried Marie as she lay on her stomach with her hands over her head. She began to crawl between the twin beds and put her hand up to grab the receiver. She began to dial 9-1-, the phone exploded, throwing pieces all over the room. “Shit!”

“Where the hell is this guy!?” exclaimed Anders.

“He must have a good position somewhere along the shore. He can probably see right in here.”

“We have to get out, now!”

“Stay where you are, dammit!” Jack yelled. The stitches holding his stomach together began to stretch and break. Small amounts of blood were leaking onto the dirty motel floor adding to the multitude of stains from bodily fluids already present, as was common in motels like this. Jack was on the floor near the wall opposite the twin beds and he began to move over to the large window facing the lake. His crawl was so low his head was pushing along the floor and he propelled himself with only his arms outstretched and a rocking motion with his feet.

“What are you doing, Jack?” Marie asked.

“Just need to see where he is. He has us cornered and we need to figure a way to get out of here. He’s just toying with us. He could finish us at any time.”

The window was similar to those in lake homes where it took up most of the wall. The bottom edge of the window was only a few feet from the floor and it went straight to the ceiling. The three of them were encased in a box, a perfect shooting gallery. Jack peeked his right eye over the edge for only a moment and a bullet came into the window, striking the bed closest to the window. Puffs of cotton and bedding punched into the air. The bullet went straight through the first bed, went over Marie’s head, through the next bed and into the shower in the bathroom. There was no hiding from this madman.

“He’s about a hundred meters down the shore behind some rocks. He can see right in here.”

“Shit,” replied Anders quietly.

“The rain is picking up and it’s getting dark, unless he has some kind of night vision, we’ll have a chance to make a run for it.”

“You still have the keys, Anders?” asked Marie.

He scanned his pockets and looked around the floor. “No.”

“What do you mean no, where are they?”

“Still inside the door of the truck.”

“Alright, even better, we have to try,” said Jack.

Once they all made it to the hallway, Jack and Marie helped Anders to his feet. There was a window at the end of the hallway facing the lakeshore. A bullet ripped into the old flowery wallpaper aligning the walls of the hallway. They all crouched below the rim of the window but the bullets began to come through the walls, striking the floor around them. The shooter was firing blindly knowing he was bound to hit something.

“Go!” yelled Jack. They stayed crouched and moved to the stairway. The few residents of the hotel were running down the hallway in both directions unsure of where to run, unaware that it was not a fire that was the danger, but a man with a high-powered sniper rifle. The sniper fire struck an old man as he was making his way down the stairs behind Marie. Blood splattered the walls and he laid there unmoving. Others tripped over him frantically trying to escape the motel unsure of what was happening.

Jack and Marie had Anders’ arms around their necks and they saw the truck in the distance. It was around the northwest corner of the building. They were outside, guarded by an exterior wall designed to protect motel patrons from the weather, not bullets. There was fifty feet of open ground between them and safety. That is, if the truck would even start and the shooter didn’t get to them first. The wind was harsh and the darkness was thick. Visibility was almost at zero.

“This is our chance.”

“What if he has that night vision you were saying?” said Marie.

“Only one way to find out.”

Marie looked at him fearfully.

“We’re gonna make it.” Jack put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring look. She nodded.

“Together?” she asked.

“Together.”

“Let’s get this over with,” said Anders. Jack and Marie practically picked up Anders as he moved his one good leg with them. They covered ground quickly and were twenty feet from the truck. Marie screamed in pain and she dropped Anders. The added weight was too much for Jack and they all tumbled right in front of their only means of escape. Marie rolled around on the ground grasping her shoulder. She took her hand away and Jack could see it covered in blood.

“Move! Get behind the truck! Now!”

They all scrambled, broken and battered, bleeding all over the rain soaked mud. Once they were in place behind the truck, Jack look at Marie. “How bad is it?”

“I think it just grazed me.” She tore the shirt and looked at the wound. The rain cleared the blood away and revealed the extent of the damage. “Yeah, just a deep cut, not too bad.” She was being brave and holding back the real pain. She wanted to be strong for Jack and Anders, be strong for them to make it through this nightmare.

Jack rolled over a few feet and look up at the lock on the door. The keys hung there swinging in the wind.

“Told ya,” said Anders.

Jack hopped up just long enough to get leverage to pull the keys out of the lock and landed back into the mud hard. Crawling himself up into the driver’s side and staying as low as possible, he put the key in the ignition and closed his eyes for a moment, hoping, praying that it would start. There was nothing. It didn’t even turn over. Whatever luck they had in the past was now long gone, as gone as their hope in that moment.

“Well, guess this is it.” Marie said as a round struck the passenger side door. The ping of the bullet on the metal reverberated through the cab of the truck and they all shuddered at the noise. Every few moments there was another shot and they sat in the mud and rain, flinching at the sounds of a madman tapping on the door. Knocking to enter, relentless in the pursuit. Each ping a reminder of the impending doom. Their inability to act or move, stuck in this moment in time waiting for their judgment. Whatever they had done in their lives inevitably led to this moment. Where there was no exit, only an acceptance of their fate.

“Not like this,” said Jack. “I didn’t come this far to have it end like this.”

“The boat!” yelled Anders. “Yeah, the boat, there is a dock on the backside of the motel.”

“Why don’t we just make a run for it, he is right by the lakeshore, he’ll just pick us off one by one.” Marie said exhausted, numb from the adrenaline.

“We can’t run, Anders is busted up and we’d have to carry him, not to mention I’m stabbed and you’re shot,” Jack said as a matter of fact.

“We can make it to the boat, the rain is so heavy. We’ll go along the east side of the motel and make a run for the water,” said Anders with enthusiasm.

“What, then swim to the boat?” Marie replied.

“Exactly, we stay real low in the water, under if we have to. It’s our only option.”

“Where to then? The lake isn’t that big.”

“There are a bunch of cabins across the lake, at least we can make a last stand there. If he can even find us in this weather.”

“The boat, we’re taking the boat,” replied Jack solemnly. “It’s our only option of getting out of this mess alive.”

Lightning struck close and was followed by a crash of thunder. The sound was deafening. The darkness absolute. The waves along the lake were crashing into the beach creating small storm swells throwing water over the rocks. The power from the neon motel sign went dark and the town all at once lost power. The cabins across the lake went dark. Jack, Marie, and Anders looked at each other, holding on to the few moments they had before they were thrust into the nightmare’s conclusion. Each understood that this was their last chance. A chance to be free of this madman, a chance to once again see the light and experience the life they had always dreamed. With eyes opened to new possibilities, with a knowledge that it could all end in any moment. Their newfound respect for the lives they had and the lives they wanted. Energized in this realization, the three sat up and picked up Anders, unafraid of the man behind the gun. Accepting the fate they were destined to live out.

“We’re going to do this, we are going to survive!” Jack yelled over the wind and rain. Thunder struck in that moment. The water came down as from a bucket over their heads. Marie and Anders saw the conviction in his eyes, accepted that this man had been through hell and back. He made it to the other side. Abandonment, combat, prison, and each time a man trying to do the right thing. Beaten down and broken time and time again. Jack was relentless in his pursuit because he was alive with the prospect of a life unlived. Unfinished. His thirst for the living was never more unquenched than in this moment. Faced with death and the uncertainty of their fate, his confidence in knowing who he was for the first time shined upon their faces. Marie and Anders stood and looked into his face and saw that they too could survive. Thrive against the coming darkness. Their odds were impossible. The outlook bleak, but the coming light was within their grasp if they would only reach out and grab it. They did. Stretching their hands out to Jack, he lifted them up with strength only a man with a purity of purpose could accomplish. His strength was theirs and they began to move. The sound of their heavy breathing was the only sound they could hear as the intensity of their drive was honed for one resolution, survival. Their feet moved quickly along the water soaked parking lot, making pattering sounds with every step. The air out of their lungs produced steam as the temperature dropped with the coming storm. There were no shots fired and they had no way of knowing where the shooter was. Jack had his revolver in his left hand while holding up Anders and Marie with his right. Two shots left, better than none. They collapsed on the ground along the east wall of the motel. Jack could see dark silhouettes of two boats floating in the lake along the small floating dock. They were five hundred feet from the dock with only open beach between them and their last hope.