“Get out of the car with your hands above your head, now!” he yelled at my friends.
I dropped close to the ground and crawled the remaining twenty feet, coming up to the trunk of the car. His hands shook as he kept the gun trained on Stefan. I managed a quick glance inside the car and noticed he’d placed the car in park. An image of a diagram popped in my mind. I’d read an automotive manual during my training, and on one of the pages it had stated that nearly all cars when placed in park lock the rear wheels, not the front. If I could lift the rear and push hard enough, everyone could escape.
“Out now!” the officer yelled.
I caught Stefan’s eye and made signals with my hands telling him to stay in the car. He nodded, and I put my hands under the car. I squatted with my butt near the ground and took a deep breath. My muscles tensed in anticipation.
“This is Officer Stadham requesting backup at the Somatotech facility,” he yelled into his radio.
I forced my upper body up with a ripping contraction of my legs. The skin on my hands felt as if it would slough off with the weight, but the rear end lifted. I rammed forward and to the side with my chest, rolling the car forward and out of the way.
“What the… !” the officer yelled and jumped out of the way. His gun trained on me, but I ducked my head.
I gave it one last push and rolled out of the way, just as Stefan punched the gas and stormed through the gate.
“Halt! Or I’ll shoot!” he yelled as they careened from the outer gate and onto the main road. He didn’t shoot. Instead, he turned to find me. I stayed behind the far end of the car, near the passenger-side wheel. I glanced back at the facility, expecting to see a horde of clones charging at me but the field was eerily empty aside from the billowing smoke.
“Get up slowly with your hands above your head.”
I looked under the car at his feet. They shuffled to the right in small nervous steps. I grabbed a handful of gravel in my left hand and another in my right. I tossed one handful toward the end of the car. He flinched and ducked down behind the trunk.
“C’mon man, stand up slowly, let’s end this,” he yelled out.
“Sorry, sir. I can’t do that.” I tossed up the gravel at the perfect angle, using the wind, to land on his head.
“What the?” he called out.
I used the distraction to leap onto the car and then onto the top of the fence. I flipped down and sprinted to the next fence.
“Stay where you are!” he screamed but I cleared the next fence and sprinted in the opposite direction of Stefan and my friends. The officer jumped in his cruiser and peeled out after me. I counted back the time from when Stefan had escaped the facility. Only forty-five seconds had passed; I needed to distract this officer for a little longer to ensure they’d get away.
I stopped abruptly on the road to give him time to catch up. One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand… When he’d closed the gap within a few feet, I sprinted again, weaving like a mad man from one side of the road to the other. I couldn’t help but grin as I added some yelps and cries to the mix. He stayed behind me, with his lights flashing and siren blaring.
We continued this charade for another mile or so, and then I stopped, put my hands on the back of my head and kneeled down. The officer jumped out of his car, kicked me in the back with his boot, and forced me face down on the asphalt.
The standard-issue metal handcuffs dug into my wrists, cutting off the circulation to my fingers. The nervous cop had clicked them as tight as they would go when he apprehended me. I let him do it. Why not? Little did this small-town cop know that it would take a heck of a lot more than simple handcuffs to restrain me. I waited patiently for the right time to break and escape.
“Stay against the car!” he yelled, as I glanced around looking for the car carrying Aedan and Jamie. I had taken this officer for the chase of his life through the few streets outside Castle Rock. They should have had plenty of time to get away. His heart thumped briskly, and his voice wavered. Sweat slipped down his forehead to his cheeks and dripped off his chin onto my hands. I was sure this little town hadn’t ever seen action like what went down today. Explosions, teenage assassins, clones, and jealous rage! ‘Twas quite a day! I hoped I had given Aedan and Jamie enough time to escape the chaos; we shouldn’t have been there anyway. There was no knowing when Jamie would have another episode. Then they’d be in real trouble.
The cop reached a shaking hand down to his radio while pressing on my back with his other hand. “This is Officer Stadham requesting backup at Happy Canyon and Santa Fe in Castle Rock. I have one subject in custody and at least two on the run. I pursued them from the Somatotech facility.”
His hand lightened up ever so slightly on my back as he spoke. Seizing the opportunity, I pulled out hard on the handcuffs. The links broke easily, releasing my arms though the cuffs ripped deep gashes into my wrists. Before he could react, I spun around, swiped the gun from his holster and threw it a few hundred feet away, my arms moving rapidly like a mousetrap snapping on an unsuspecting victim. Droplets of blood from my wrists sprayed into the air and onto his face. He stood there shocked with hands up and eyes wide. I slapped the radio out of his hand with a swift swipe he never saw coming. It crashed onto the frozen ground, plastic pieces splaying out onto the road. He took one cow-hearted step back and almost tripped on his own feet, so I stepped forward with him, keeping him close, intimidated. I could have knocked him out cold with a simple jab, literally pulled his arms off his body, or kicked him high into the air above his car, but I had changed. Pastor Anderson had changed me. Violence wasn’t always the answer.
Snapping back to reality, he reached out his empty hands to apprehend me. I shuffled away easily with two quick hops, toying with him. I gave him a wry smirk and a look of confusion washed over his face. My smile grew larger, almost reaching a maniacal level. His eyes widened and, realizing he would need backup, he lunged for his car radio. I turned and sprinted off into the darkness of the night.
“This is Officer Stadham again. I… um… the, uh, the subject escaped. He’s headed northwest on Santa Fe. I’m in pursuit.”
His boots echoed on the pavement behind me for a few seconds until he realized it was no use. My strides covered triple the distance of his. He sprinted back to his car and turned the ignition as I reached the next intersection and ducked into a wheat field across the train tracks that ran along Santa Fe Avenue. I made it across the soft ground of the field and then waded through the East Plum Creek to make it to open fields. The hacienda was at least fifteen miles away through the farms and foothills outside Sedalia. I hoped Jamie and Aedan made it back; they should’ve arrived there by then.
The light from the celestial bodies shone brightly in the clear sky, highlighting the foothills of the Colorado Front Range before me. Only the sounds of my steady breathing and feet striking the ground emanated into the stillness. My heart maintained an even slow beat in my chest while I took deep slow breaths of the clean foothill air. We escaped! Somatotech, Medital, or both had us in their clutches, and we escaped. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought.
39 Blighted
A loud buzz from the sky above ripped me out of my revelry. That cop was no match for me, but he had hopefully provided enough of a diversion. I had run from Castle Rock toward the compound for just under ten minutes and would be there in under a minute. I focused on the where the sound came from. My eyes focused on two small planes streaking across the sky. Drones. I wondered why they flew so low. Also, they normally stayed closer to the bases in near Colorado Springs and Denver on their test flights. Whole throngs of drone followers had mapped out their normal courses between the two bases. Aedan and I had once gone to watch them take off among the fanatics.
The drones flew straight for the foothills and straight for the compound. My heart nearly stopped as they sent the first missile in the direction of the compound. The other let two fly as well. The foothills lit up in a blaze of orange and red, the brightness
forcing my eyes closed for a second. A deep boom echoed back as they made contact. I still couldn’t see the compound as I had a large hill to climb. I stumbled up, pushing with my hands and knees on the tangle of dried grass and bushes. My hands began to shake, and tears streamed down my face as I neared the top. This had to be Somatotech’s doing, retaliation for our little raid on their compound. But how did they know where the hacienda was? Only my crew and Roxanne’s crew knew its location. Did we miss a tracker somewhere? My mind abandoned trying to figure it out. Instead, it fixated on all the mattered. Are they all dead? That question swirled through my brain like a tornado as the pain of the moment grew in my heart.
I crested the hill, and my darkest fears were confirmed. Fire and destruction replaced my home, my sanctuary. Dad, the Doña, and the men were likely all dead. Wiped away with a flip of a digital switch. Please, Lord, let Jamie and Aedan be OK, I thought. Smoke billowed up into the dark sky from the crater where the missiles had hit. I sprinted up to where the front gate used to stand and yelled out for anyone.
No one responded. I stood there with my heart racing and my fists clenched, staring at the blazing fire and billowing smoke. The heat felt as if sharp barbs shot out of the flames, searing the image of destruction into my eyes. The sound of rotors came to my attention before I could see the spotlights shooting down from the approaching helicopters. I wiped the tears from my eyes and saw that they approached from the north and were about five miles away. I had only a minute or two before they’d spot me.
How did they know about the compound? Could they have put a tracker on Jamie or Aedan somehow while we were there? The trackers. Roxanne’s team said they got them all, but maybe they missed one. Maybe Medital did this? That didn’t explain why someone from the military attacked the compound, though. Only Somatotech had ties with the army.
I ran up to where the hacienda used to stand. My legs lost strength, and I fell to my knees at the sight. Pieces of Stefan’s car were strewn about the ripped up roundabout. Jamie, Aedan, Stefan and Mr. Collins, gone. I heaved and heaved again.
“Ughhh, help,” someone groaned from the wreckage near the back of the hacienda. My heart picked up and seemed to grasp onto the sound. Someone is alive! I sprinted to where the sound came from and searched among the debris. I saw an arm sticking out from a piece of the roof near the back of where the hacienda used to be. I carefully lifted the roofing to reveal a badly injured Talon. My stomach sank to see him in that state. He wasn’t going to make it, and frankly I was surprised he was even conscious.
“Talon!” I yelled.
“Coyle,” he said, and his eyes slowly rolled up to me; blood caked around his mouth. He turned his head, and I could see a gaping hole in his head directly behind his ear.
“What happened?”
“I’m sorry, so sorry, Coyle.” He coughed, spraying a mist of blood into the air.
“Sorry for what? What’d you do?” I stared into his barely open eyes.
“I couldn’t stop them, they were following orders.”
“Roxanne betrayed us, not you. That’s why they didn’t want you along, right? They knew you’d help us?” I needed to believe he was innocent. I needed to believe he’d have saved us if he could.
He nodded and closed his eyes.
“But, who did this?”
He groaned once, and his life slipped away. I placed my hand on his head and wished he could come back just as I had, but I knew that wasn’t the case. Talon, my unlikely friend, would be missed. Another tear slipped down my face. Add that to the hundreds already shed for my lost friends and family.
I looked for something to cover his body but only found pieces of aluminum roofing, which hardly seemed respectful. Instead, I quickly cleared the area around him and under him and laid his body straight, crossed his arms, and saluted him. He deserved more, but I had to search for the others.
I listened for breathing but the sound of the remaining structures burning muffled the sounds. I scrambled from debris pile to debris pile, throwing over bricks, piping, and all that remained of my home. I found no one. Either they escaped before being blown up or they’d been blown to… I couldn’t finish the thought. I couldn’t imagine life without Jamie and Aedan. Life would have no purpose.
The helicopters rocketed up towards the compound, now only a mile or so away.
“Jamie! Aedan! Dad!” I screamed one last time. No response. Despite the crackles of fire all around me, the world seemed silent. I was alone.
The helicopters reached the edge of the compound, so I jumped up and threw myself behind a half-blown away tree with a trunk that had managed to survive the blast. Searchlights scanned around the blast site. I peered out just as the light focused on Talon’s body. The copter approached and then hovered thirty yards way. Shots rang out, and I nearly screamed. Talon’s dead body absorbed the barrage of bullets. Hate replaced despair and power surged through me. I found a softball-sized piece of cinderblock near the tree and aimed for the pilot of the helicopter hovering over Talon. I cocked my arm back to hurl it at his skull, but I couldn’t release. “Don’t be the aggressor,” the pastor’s words came back to me. But, they killed my friends, they decimated Talon’s body, and they want to kill me! I thought in rebuttal of the pastor’s words. “Don’t be the aggressor, Coyle. It may bring temporary satisfaction but in time deep regret will consume you.” I don’t even know him; he’s probably a clone, why would I feel regret? I thought. “You know it’s true, Coyle. You’ve felt it before. You feel it now. Don’t succumb.” I imagined the pastor’s words. Words that cut to my grieving soul. The chunk of cinder block slipped from my hand. Instead of channeling my rage into vengeance, I now focused on escaping.
The helicopters swept up the property, pausing a few seconds here and there. When both were near the far west side of the property, I bolted out in the opposite direction. I pushed my legs to snap back and forth at a blistering pace. My feet hardly touched the ground as I made crested the hill outside the compound.
Where to go? I thought. Who could help me? Between breaths, I called out to the phone in my ear to call Angelfire. It rang and rang with no answer. Angelfire had never missed a call before. Have they gotten to him as well?
I had made if over a few more hills before I heard the helicopters had changed direction and started towards me. I was sure they hadn’t seen me, but somehow they’d clued into my location. I pushed my legs to move quicker, but the helicopters closed in on me.
My heart thumped hard in my chest, and my muscles began to burn with pain. I pushed through, knowing my only hope was to hide in the city. The lights of Littleton approached in the distance, just passed the Chatfield Reservoir.
I came up on a large field bordered by a tall chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. I dove over the 10-foot fence and landed in a pile of warm goo. The smell instantly told me I’d nearly immersed myself in fresh manure. I sank into the smelly mess that appeared contained within a concrete box about ten feet square. My feet just barely touched the ground before my head ducked under. My stomach churned over with the vile smell consuming me, but I managed to keep it down. I grabbed the side of the container and began to pull myself out, but the sight of multiple containers scattered throughout the field made me pause. Steam escaped six of them including the one I had unfortunately dropped in.
The helicopter approached from the west now and by the sounds of it was about a quarter mile away. If they were using heat sensors, this field would light up with large squares. That stinky heat could obscure my own, and hopefully they’d pass unbeknownst to them that their poop-covered enemy lay below.
I took a deep breath and dunked myself deep into the excrement as the helicopter reached the far edge of the field. The sludge slipped into my ear canals and up my nose, so I blew out, but the vile crap flowed right back in. I kept my mouth and eyes clamped shut. Muffled sounds of the helicopter above kept me from losing my lunch. I focused on the sounds; they were sweeping back and forth, likely chec
king each manure container. My lungs burned with the lack of oxygen, but I resisted the urge to gasp.
After a couple minutes, the helicopters moved on. I shot up out of the vile pit and crawled out into the field. I wiped the crap from my eyes and began running again. I found a small grove of large cottonwood trees and hid in a hollow of the largest one.
I had to get to a more populous area to blend in with the crowds, as much as I could being covered in manure. My heat register, as I sprinted across the remaining fields, would stick out like a bright red target on the cold blue ground. I needed to cool my core and find better cover. In the distance, I could hear the flow of water. The Plum Creek I had crossed when I escaped from the training facility. I remembered the temperature when I sloshed through it, around fifty degrees.
I crawled out from my makeshift cover and sprinted for the creek to the sound of approaching helicopters. I still had about twenty yards to go when the lights began searching the area where I’d been. I pushed off hard against the ground and dove into the chilly water. The stream cleared some of the caked cow poop from my body as I submerged deep below. I swam underwater with the current carrying me downstream to Littleton. My body started dropping in temperature, but I feared it might be too late; their tracking probably went far beyond thermal imaging anyway.
The current aided my strokes, but I knew I could make double or triple the ground if I ran. Then I would lose the little cover I had with the water and large arching cottonwoods on the banks. My body had cooled down to around fifteen degrees, not nearly as cold as I needed to escape their sensor. Cooling down that much would easily take ten to fifteen minutes if I stayed still, twenty because I swam. Aside from the helicopter in the distance, the silence surrounding me collapsed in. With the silence came thoughts, and with thoughts came the terror, the terror of losing the only people who had brought purpose to life. I loved them. My heart ached as my mind finally aligned. Jamie was my soul mate whether I was a damned clone or not. My stomach contracted as I began to cry. I stopped swimming and let the current push me along as I added to the liquid current. “Ahhh!” I screamed and smacked my hands against the water, splashing it high into the air. I didn’t care if they heard me; it was over anyway. Life had lost its purpose.
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