The Road to Round Mountain: The Betrayal by

by C. G. Roberts

  The Sheriff was trying to sit up and his face was a mess. His right eye was pretty much closed and swollen with blood that dripped all over his face. The left side of his jaw looked twice the size of the right side. He could hardly speak. I handed his 32 back to him and he managed to slide it back into his ankle holster but I noticed that his service revolver

  was missing from his belt holster. “We got to get you out of

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  here”, I told the Sheriff. He tried to mumble something but I couldn’t make it out and I didn’t want him to have to repeat it as I was pretty sure his jaw was broken.

  “Gordon, get in here”. Gordon came trotting back towards the office trying not to slip on the numerous puddles of blood. “Yeah, what do you need me to do”, as he had a firm grip on the gunman’s weapon. “You have to drive the Sheriff back to the Jail, he needs medical help and the deputies can call that in”. “Me drive, Billy, I’ve never driven before; I don’t even have a license”. I put my hand on his shoulder and said, “By the power given to me by the state of Oregon, you now have the authorization to operate his car. Haul ass dude, he can’t even talk”. Gordon shrugged his shoulders accepting the terms of my decree and helped the Sheriff up and made their way to the patrol car. Gordon looked back at me as the Sheriff fished his keys out of his pocket and handed them to Gordon. “What are you planning on”? “Don’t know yet, just make sure that everybody is safe and I’ll be along in a bit”.

  Gordon was going to hand me the dead mans’ weapon but I declined as I was sure that I would end up shooting two toes off my right foot. I’ve never shot a gun before and now was not the time to try and figure it out. They made it in the car and Gordon finally got it started. He found out that the gas pedal didn’t need to go all the way to the floorboard as he spun gravel everywhere before finally getting it under control and headed back to the jail. I’m not sure who I was more scared for, the Sheriff or Gordon.

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  I turned bAck towards the Rec. Hall and the mess

  hall. I was mulling over what the setup was supposed to accomplish. I knew they wanted me, but I didn’t understand the rest of it. The more I thought about it the more my head hurt. The image of all those bloody bodies in the Rec. hall was eternally engrained in my head; a visual that I was never going to be able to forget.

  I heard a noise coming from the mess hall, it sounded like a bunch of pots and pans clattering on the floor. I slowly walked over to the mess hall, but decided to go between the Rec. hall and the mess hall to stay away from the windows. At least one person was inside, but I couldn’t dismiss the idea that there might be more. Christ, how many people did they bring and what did that gunman mean when he said Boling wasn’t invited to the party. Did they kill her as well?

  I leaned against the wall of the Rec. hall and started concentrating. Everything was fuzzy at first but then I could start making out some of the familiar surroundings inside. I could make out the tables and the counter where they would fill our trays and that’s when I saw two bodies face first on the floor in the kitchen, littered with an assortment of pans and utensils as well.

  I was startled by the sight of the guy that Gordon un-loaded the Sheriff’s gun on, standing over the two motionless bodies. I know what I saw, so how the hell did he rise from

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  the dead and walk over to the next building and shoot two more people. My headache was now in full bloom. My confusion was compounded when I ran over by the front door of the Rec. Hall and saw the gunman still in the prone position.

  Running between the Rec. hall and the mess hall I stopped when I got to the back of the mess hall and turned on my concentration again. Unbelievable, the twin gunman had stopped at one of the prep tables in the kitchen and was helping himself to some muffins. For some people, cold blooded murder makes one ravenous. I backed up about fifteen feet away from the building. There was no window at the back door so I needn’t worry about being seen; at least not by him.

  Assuming time was short at hand, I decided for a surprise attack. The gunman had a couple of muffins in his hand as he opened up one of fridge doors and pulled out a Pepsi. Okay, maybe I do have a little time, but not much. Just as I saw how I wanted to surprise the gunman, it hit me. They knew that we would show up here, figuring that it was a trap. That wasn’t hard to figure out. No witnesses, no crime. With us being here, others would be at the Jail to…..oh crap I need to hurry.

  With the gunman still in my vision, I threw my arms out away from me aimed at the back wall, hoping that those heavy cinder blocks would do the job. The back wall imploded and the back part of the roof collapsed on top of it. I heard screaming coming from the rubble, but it abruptly stopped. Maybe I got lucky. Some sparks flew from the power lines but quickly died off. The smell of natural gas invaded my nostrils, along with the dust from crumbled cinder blocks.

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  I started to head back to the jail when I heard a cough. I swung around just in time to see the twin gunman stand-ing in the middle of broken boards and scattered chunks of cinder block. He was smiling at me while he had his gun aimed straight at me. I knew something that he didn’t, and I took off running hoping to get far enough away, when he fired the gun and the spark ignited the natural gas causing a huge explosion.

  I managed to get maybe thirty feet between me and the mess hall, but I could feel the intense heat rushing past me as the noise from the explosion subsided. Looking back all I could see was the mess hall fully engulfed in flames. I was sure that I didn’t have to worry about the twin gunman mak-ing another appearance so I got up and started hauling ass for the jail. The combination of being scared to death and the growing anger inside me was not going to be useful to anyone. As I ran I tried to calm myself down, but the thought of my friends, especially Jenny, being gunned down was too much to tackle. I might end up going postal. I’m not sure of the meaning, but my Dad used that phrase constantly if I didn’t clean my room like he asked. I’m guessing that going postal was not pleasant for those on the receiving end.

  No matter how fast you run, you feel like you’re never going to get to your destination. I wasn’t much in the way of religion, but believe me when I say that I was praying that I would get to the jail in time before anyone got hurt. Trying not to think about how much my foot was hurting; I was startled by another explosion. I slowed down and turned and saw chunks from the roof of the mess hall scattered through the sky and the flames from the fire had grown to enormous

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  proportions. The faint sound of sirens got me running again.

  My legs felt like they were cramping up on me, I thought that I was running at a pretty good clip only to see that I was maybe half way to the jail. How many thugs did they planted at the jail? Was Boling part of it or did the twin thugs take her out as well. My headache was starting to blur my vision but all I could think of was getting back to the jail before anyone got hurt. All I could do at this point was to hope that no one got hurt yet and most importantly, keep running.

  Finally I was able to see the jail, maybe three blocks away. I saw the Sheriff’s patrol car not exactly parked as he would have but since Gordon was driving I’m sure it was close enough. I needed to slow down, catch my breath and think about what I might find inside the jail. This was one time that the macabre did not enter my thinking. I was just across the field now and started putting my focus on the south end of the building, where most everyone should be. All I wanted to see, was people moving around. I’ve had enough of walking into a bloodbath.

  I approached the end of the jail’s parking lot, close enough now so that I should be able to see a little bit better. There, now I can see live bodies mulling around inside. They don’t seem to be moving around much and they’re all grouped together like they were�
��….oh crap, in jail. About ten feet away from the building I could account for everyone that was here before Gordon and I left.

  There’s two jail cells, not much need for more according to the Sheriff, and I can see everyone jammed together in one cell. The Sheriff was laying down on the small single bed with his wife Anne trying to tend to his wounds. Gordon

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  and Jenny were standing next to the bed looking down at the Sheriff. Deputy Dave and Mallory were in there with them. Dave was looking at Mallory’s head as it appears that he was hit from behind.

  I scanned the rest of the building quickly and saw an older man holding a weapon of some sort and standing next to him was, I swear to God, the third Gunman that was identical to the first two. My Mother was right, Bad news always comes in three’s. Now what to do, I didn’t see anyone else wandering about, so I guess it’s just those two. I can’t do what I just did to the mess hall, and I can’t go in gun’s a blazing since I don’t have a gun and don’t want one. I might be able to hold off one of them but I doubt that I could do anything before the other one started firing his weapon. Time to be rational, I have to remember that ev-eryone inside needs to make it safely outside. Nothing left to do but go inside and see what I can do to make sure that no one gets hurt; here goes.

  I felt like I was moving in slow motion when I came through the door. Mr. Triplett gunman was poised to take my head off with his weapon pointed at my face. I was scared shitless, but I wasn’t about to let them know it. I came through the swinging gate passed the check in counter and heard my name called out numerous times as I came into view of the cells. Jenny was standing at the front of the cell holding her hands out for me. I rushed over and took both of her hands into mine and she was starting to say something when, “Good afternoon Mr. Speer, I wouldn’t get too chum-my quite yet; it seems we have some business to discuss”.

  I turned and the man speaking was of average height and

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  weight, short gray hair with piercing brown eyes. They did not look like the eyes of a stable individual; sorry, another Criminal Minds reference. Other than his eyes he had no threatening look about him. His suit looked new, dark blue with a light blue shirt and no tie. Don’t want to get too formal on a killing spree I suppose.

  “The only business I will discuss is letting everyone out, unharmed and away from here”. The man cocked his head slightly to the right and replied, “Well said Mr. Speer, but in this current state of affairs, I’m afraid you have no say in the matter”. His snooty attitude was starting to piss me off; I needed to be cautious. “I’ll make this simple, due to unseen circumstances, our time has run short. You have been able to side step capture from some very capable people. That being said, you will accompany us or I’ll be forced to let Olaf kill one person every one minute until you either come with us, or everyone dies including yourself”.

  Olaf, who the hell names their kid Olaf; this was not going to end well. My options seemed nonexistence to say the least. I was clueless as to what I should do, but all things I came up with would most certainly cause damage to my Friends; that was definitely not an option.

  “I sense that you’re unsure of our intentions Mr. Speer. Olaf take one of them out and put them in the empty cell”. Olaf walked over to the occupied cell, unlocked the door and grabbed Jenny’s arm. Killing Jenny was not an option on the table either. As Olaf started to open the empty cell, Jenny started screaming, “No, No, let go of me you big….ouch, Billy, please help, Billy”………..

  I’m not sure what happened other than I just started

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  reacting. I swung my arm in as hard as I could and the cell door flattened Olaf like a pancake. I quickly spun around and tossed my arm to the side aiming at the older guy’s gun that he had in his right hand. His arm pulled away from his body as if he were a marionette and the gun flew out of his grip against the wall and slid over to the first cell, where an alert Gordon grabbed the gun with cat like reflexes and pointed it at him.

  Olaf started to return to a conscious state with some

  mumbling and starting to move a bit. That was all the distraction that the older guy needed as he hauled ass out the front door and to the white van in the parking lot. I started out after him. Damn he was quick for an older guy as he already had the van started and tires a squealing. I ran to the edge of the parking lot as he was getting ready to turn onto Marine drive.

  As he started to turn I thrust my arms out away from me aimed at the van. Two cars hit their brakes as the van blazed

  it’s way between them. The van was thrown across the street with such force that he ended up taking out one of the gas pumps at the Chevron where his van landed. After the pump was ripped out, the van ran into the side of the Island building where you pay for your gas. The small building simply flew apart from the impact. The gas attendant was with another vehicle at the other side of the lot. He hauled ass away from the van as did the car receiving the gas, as the car sped off and took the gas hose with it. Smoke was pouring out of the vans engine and I could see the guy trying to open the van door, but it was too smashed in for him to open it. A split second later the Van was fully engulfed in flames from

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  all the gas that was gushing out. The attendant and the car were able to get out of harm’s way as what looked like the van exploded sending flames a good fifty feet high. One thing for sure, the older guy can’t run away from that one.

  I turned to head back to the jail when I heard multiple shots coming from inside. Oh crap, no, no-no……… As I busted through the door I could see the final member of the triplets on his back with numerous holes in his head and torso. I looked over at Gordon who had a fiendish smile on

  his face. He looked utterly satisfied. “Oh sure, take the easy way out, shoot him until he drops”. Gordon looked over and smile at me, “Yeah, I thought I already shot him earlier”.

  As I was asking if anyone could tell me where I could find the spare keys for the cell door, a second, then a third and even louder explosion rattled the jails windows. The Sheriff tried to pop up out of the smallish bed in the cell but his wife Anne, put a hand to his forehead and pushed him back. “Not until you’ve seen a Doctor Walt”. Multiple sirens were now blaring just a couple of blocks down the road. Deputy Dave pointed towards the cabinets under the front counter, “back up keys are in the top cabinet, there’s a bronze salmon hooked to the keychain”.

  He was correct, top cabinet with a bronze salmon staring at me. I was fumbling at the keys not sure which one would work, “Here give them to me”, Dave declared. It took him less than a second to unlock their cell and he rushed over to

  unlock the cell that Jenny was in. I could have sworn that I used that door to knock out Olaf, the force must have been enough to click the cell door shut.

  Jenny rushed to my arms and started to give me a kiss

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  when I heard a slight buzzing and she shook her head. “Billy I think you still have some leftover juice from the lightning, when I kissed you I got a small shock. Not bad though, I could get used to that”, she said smiling and holding on to me for dear life.

  Everyone was thrilled that they were out of the cell and everyone was safe; almost everyone. The Sheriff lumbered out of the cell aided by his wife, but shrugged her off and went over to the front door. He stood in silence as he stared

  at the mess down the block at the chevron station. He turned

  back at me pointed toward the chevron station and said, “You”, his jaw was so swollen what came out of his mouth sounded like ooh! I nodded, but said nothing as I could tell by his eyes that he was less than thrilled with the way that I handled the situation. He shook his head and went into his

  office. Deputy Dave was on the phone to get paramedics out to the jail to look at the Sheriff.

  Jenny was still shaking from the crap Olaf and the older man put her through. She lifted her head up from my shoulders and looked lovingly into my eyes. �
��Do you think it’s over”, she asked? “For now, I think so, but I doubt that it will ever be over until I figure more about what they’re doing at Round Mountain”. Gordon came up to me and stated, “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m going out for a smoke”, as he put the emphasis on the word out.

  Gordon led the way as Jenny and I were hand in hand a few feet behind. As we got away from the front door, Jenny notice he huge flames coming from the Chevron station, “Oh dear, that’s simply horrible, I hope no one got hurt”. “Only one did, the older guy who told Olaf to shoot you”, as

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  she squeezed my hand. I never wanted that feeling to end. “Crap”, Gordon sighed. He opened up his pack of smokes and showed me the empty pack. Jenny was oblivious to Gordon’s statement as she stared at the inferno down the

  block. The fire department had showed up and was trying to put a damper on things, but judging from the size of those flames, this would take a while.

  I let go of Jenny’s hand and went back inside to tell the Sheriff we were going to get smokes when the front counter phone rang. Deputy Mallory answered, listened intently then hung up. He ran to the Sheriff’s office as I followed close behind. “Sheriff, we just got a call from one of the deputies in Seaside that a woman was shot to death at the Seaside Inn, and her name was an Agent Boling with the FBI and there were directions and maps that had our little jail as the bulls eye, and wondered if you knew anything about why she had our jail in her sights”? The Sheriff looked up at Mallory and said, “Never heard of her, and don’t have a clue as to why she was watching us”. “I call them back and let them know”. Mallory left the office and I looked in at the Sheriff. With his swollen jaw it was hard to tell, but I’m pretty sure he was smiling.