As the pieces fell into place, the general figured out a way he could use these developments to his advantage. He called the Flagstaff base, as it had the nearest long-distance radio, and asked to speak to the base commander. “Colonel Dominguez,” he said. “I need a favor.” He couldn’t call it in himself with their lower-range radios. “Call Commander Vasquez in Denver. Tell him the general needs ‘the package’ in Page, Arizona. I need it right now.”
An hour later the Flagstaff base commander radioed back. “The package” was on its way from Puerto Rico. It would be there before noon tomorrow. Perfect!
SEVENTY-NINE: “Answers”
The Kevlar in Danny’s uniform had slowed the bullet, but not stopped it. It was embedded below his left shoulder blade. Danny had managed to take out all but three of the closest men to Eddie, Lazzo, and the other guy before Lazzo had shot him. Danny knew he was in a tough position because yelling at Eddie would give him away to the others, and they’d know for sure he was American, but not yelling and just firing left the possibility he too could be taken as an enemy. Eddie seemed to recognize Danny was helping them, but Lazzo must have seen him as a threat. He was fortunate Lazzo hit him where he did. It hurt like crazy, but the bullet had missed his shoulder blade, head, and every other potentially fatal target. Nonetheless, the bullet spun him onto his back and sent his night vision goggles flying.
As he tried to get up, a strong arm pulled him up and dragged him to the river, throwing him into a boat like a doll. It was pretty easy to figure out that was Eddie. Another man jumped into the boat beside him while Eddie and the third man pushed the boat off. Eddie rolled into the boat as the man in the water took several shots in the back and never got in. Lazzo fired back at the other boats, striking a couple of them. They’d be useless in the water, but several had escaped damage. Soldiers would be in those rafts and pursuing them shortly. Danny was trying to sit up, but the heavy weight of Eddie’s knee held him flat. “Stay down,” Eddie hissed.
They were well down the San Juan River before they saw lights in the water behind them. They’d disappear and reappear periodically as the river goose-necked its course. Finally, Eddie took his knee off Danny and waved Lazzo over to help him. “Sorry,” Lazzo said, pulling out a small medical kit. Danny nodded the apology off. Lazzo put a small flashlight in his teeth and pulled the fabric away from the wound. “Gonna hurt,” he said. Danny winced and nodded again. The bullet wasn’t in deep, and Lazzo’s first poke hit it. “That’s good.” Lazzo grinned.
“Yeah. Good,” Danny replied, shaking his head. Flippin’ wonderful!
Lazzo grabbed the scissors, poked them into the bullet hole, and pulled the bullet straight out. Blood pulsed out as he rinsed the wound off and covered it with gauze. “Hold,” he said to Danny, and Danny held the gauze. Danny had better first aid supplies in his pack, but that was somewhere down the river ahead of them.
“Why again?” Eddie finally asked Danny. “Why come back to help us?”
“Better question,” Danny replied. “Why’d you help us? You could have let us die easily and never been involved in any of this.”
Eddie nodded but looked away and didn’t say anything. Lazzo answered for him. “We were fooled.”
“No, I was a fool,” Eddie cut in. “I is a fool?” he asked, checking for the correct phrase.
“Either way,” Danny replied.
But Lazzo repeated, “We were fooled. Our government. They told us our family was dead. That Americans kill them so we attack America then. We figured out. They lied.”
“They killed your families?” Danny asked, searching Eddie’s face. “Or we killed—”
Eddie looked at him coldly. Lazzo whispered, “Yes. Someone killed our families. But after America was attacked.”
“So they told you your families were dead so you would fight? So you’d want to kill us?” Danny asked, already knowing the answer.
No response from Eddie. Another confirmation from Lazzo.
“So why chase us all the way across the country? What did our family do to you?” Danny whispered.
“You killed Eddie’s good friend, Markus, in Dakota. And more of our men,” Lazzo replied. “Eddie’s very loyal. We take that all personally.”
“He was a good friend,” Eddie spoke finally, looking at Danny, referring to Markus.
“Sorry,” Danny replied, shaking his head. “I lost my best friend too.”
“Me?” Eddie asked, his face relaxing a bit.
“No. You didn’t do it.” Danny shook his head. “Mountain lions.”
“Essex Park?” Lazzo asked. This time Danny just nodded. Essex, Estes…
“Girl with the bow?” Eddie asked, mimicking firing a bow.
“My sister,” Danny replied.
“Same sister?” Eddie inquired, referencing the girl he’d pulled out of the river.
“Yes. Same sister,” Danny confirmed.
Eddie chuckled. “So you have little girl too?” Another nod from Danny. “You were the four white suits at the hotel?”
“Uhhh…” Danny struggled to figure out what he was asking. “What?”
“On video,” Lazzo offered. “In room under floor. White Russian suits.”
Son of a gun. They didn’t even think about being taped. “Oh,” Danny muttered. “Yeah, that was us.”
“You’re a good soldier,” Lazzo told him. “How you survive the cold?”
“Cave,” Danny answered. “Big cave.”
“You kill vice president?” Eddie fixed his eyes on Danny’s.
The guy was direct. It wasn’t something Danny was supposed to answer, but the circumstances merited a reply. “Kind of,” Danny admitted.
“You visited him in tent?” Eddie followed up, clearly checking Danny’s honesty.
Danny nodded again. Impressive. “Who was the other guy?” Danny asked Lazzo, pointing back in the direction they’d come from.
“A good man,” Lazzo replied. “But we be dead without you.” He put his hand on Danny’s good shoulder.
“Again,” Eddie whispered.
The conversation answered many things for Danny. For one, he now knew for sure they were aware of his role in their survival in Cheyenne. Clearly, these men had found out they’d been lied to by whatever government was running this country now, and when they’d found out the truth they’d rushed to help Danny and his family escape. Scorn had been a powerful force in that decision as it put Eddie and Lazzo directly in harm’s way, but they didn’t seem to regret it or resent Danny for it. It also told him why they’d chased us in the first place. Initially, it had just been payback for Eddie’s friend, but then they’d been outsmarted one too many times, and Eddie had taken it personally.
“Can you tell me what this is?” Danny asked. “What’s going on here?”
“Soon,” Eddie replied. “Must move now.”
Danny accepted that reply for now. He pulled his flashlight out and began flashing it ahead. As Eddie and Lazzo paddled through the river towards Lake Powell, Danny continued to flash his light forward whenever they couldn’t see the lights behind them.
Up ahead, we saw a light flashing behind us. It seemed to be relaying some sort of message but we couldn’t decipher it. Nonetheless, we figured it was Danny, so we flashed back. We rowed backwards against the water to slow down and wait for them, and they caught us about ten minutes later. We were shocked to see who was in the boat with Danny.
EIGHTY: (Ryan) “Decoy”
We decided to dump Eddie’s raft in the rocks at the next set of rapids. Hopefully that would slow the search party behind us. They’d been gaining on us the past few hours, and it would be light soon. Jenna focused on Danny’s shoulder right away. She had him patched up in no time. Our two rafts were loaded with people and supplies, which did slow us down, but also seemed to allow us to travel the rougher sections better.
Eddie and Hayley had spent a great deal of time in conversation since we’d merged. Eddie seemed quite impressed with her,
and Hayley obviously had a unique place in her heart for him as well. For the most part the rest of us just watched and listened. We didn’t know what to think of Eddie and Lazzo being with us now. Besides, we had enough other things on our minds. The water was getting rougher, and the sky was starting to lighten. We had to be coming up on the Colorado River soon.
Just before dawn, the San Juan River converged with the much bigger, much rougher Colorado River. A few years ago this river had almost completely dried up. A few heavy rain seasons had reversed that drought and then some. We were adjusting to the roughness when the helicopters made their first pass overhead. I’m not quite sure how they missed us—maybe it was the sun coming up behind us—or perhaps they saw the boats behind us and were distracted. Whatever the cause, we certainly didn’t miss them.
We had hoped to make it to Lake Powell and its many coves and channels, but the helicopters were going to make that impossible. They’d be flying back overhead any minute now. We paddled the boats into the nearest channel, wedged between two enormous canyon walls, and found a small inlet where we figured we could hide out for the day. It had an even smaller beach and several awkward trees that appeared to have been planted sideways and upside down into the canyon wall. It was cover enough, at least. We pulled up under the trees, flipped and covered the rafts with sand, and then walked up into a narrow crevice adjacent the small beach.
We hid ourselves in the cool shade of the overhanging rocks and spent the day listening to Eddie and Lazzo, mostly Lazzo, fill us in on the enemy’s plan and everything else they knew about the current state of America. It was easy to tell they were somewhat confused themselves. They knew there were seven countries involved in the attack against the United States, including Mexico, which surprised us all—that’s where the general was from who was hunting us right now. The seven leaders of those countries were now orchestrating the new government they called Qi Jia. Qi Jia knew surviving Americans were trying to get to Hawaii and Eddie confirmed it was indeed the only safe haven left in America—as the Secret Service agents had shared. Eddie did add that there may still be Americans alive in NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain bunker, but Qi Jian forces were still trying to break in. Who knows how long it would be before either they got in, or the survivors inside died. There really wasn’t much of this country left. It turned out everything we’d heard and feared was true, and in some cases even worse than we could have imagined.
We heard the helicopters and drones pass by dozens of times throughout the day. We even saw a pair of choppers travel over our canyon twice, but eventually they moved on, and after 3 p.m. we didn’t hear them again. The crevice we were wedged in had served its purpose well, but we were ready to move on. We knew there was one last major set of rapids before the waters would smooth out heading into Lake Powell. Blake’s rafting experience had kept us safe and dry thus far. We were confident he could guide us through this last rough patch as well. It was the danger beyond the water we were more leery of.
As darkness fell, we moved back to our boats. This was going to be tricky given the enemy troops could be anywhere. Our one advantage was Eddie’s tracker. He had hidden tracking chips into the backpacks of three of the general’s remaining men, and we had seen two of the dots pass on the river early that morning. Eddie told us it had a reliable twenty-mile radius. If we were within twenty miles of their packs, we’d know. The only problem was, if they had a base camp near here and left their packs there, we wouldn’t necessarily have a location on the troops themselves. Somehow we were going to have to pass through the middle of Lake Powell tonight without using lights or a THIRST system, aided only by the handheld tracker. Danny and Blake had covered the reflectors on our boats with black tape, and we gathered brush and roped it to the rafts, trying to appear as much like floating bushes as possible. We had to be quiet and essentially crawl along the shoreline of the canyon walls.
Lake Powell on the border of Arizona and Utah is the second largest man-made reservoir in the world, behind only Lake Mead. It is also home to the famous Rainbow Bridge rock formation. At the base of Lake Powell, where the Colorado River heads off into the Grand Canyon, there is a dam near the town of Page. We figured that would be the likely base point for the military, as we wouldn’t be able to pass there without coming out of the water. With the only road in the area passing through Page as well, our options were definitely in our enemy’s favor.
We never made it to Page though. As the Colorado River took us past a place called Labyrinth Bay, we entered a narrow canal. Our map showed the river ahead either snaked to the left or opened into a bay to our right. We had intended to enter the bay, as it was much wider and more defensible, until Tara pointed out there was a small river branch breaking southeast after the bend to the left. If we took that small river branch south, we could avoid the town of Page altogether. It would mean a lot of walking to find a road after we reached the end of the small river, but it could be our only escape.
We never made it there either. Coming up on the bend we saw a line of boats spread across the otherwise dark channel. Motorized boats. They were decked out with torches and spotlights and there was absolutely no way around or through them. We had given up our cover at this point, and there was no way to backtrack. The river was forcing us rapidly towards the blockade. We paddled as quickly and quietly as we could to the southern shore into a small cove no bigger than a three-car garage. We knew we could climb up the ravine from here and try to walk into Page to find other transportation. The town was less than ten miles away. But we also knew if we left the boats, we couldn’t come back to them. As we were trying to determine what to do, we heard the unmistakable whir of an approaching helicopter. We pulled the rafts up on the shore, concealed them, and hugged the canyon walls around us.
The helicopter never flew over though. Instead, it landed on a plateau above us somewhere. Eddie and Danny were crouching next to each other, and I saw Eddie tapping his screen. Danny crawled over to me. He explained there was a dot on Eddie’s screen, and it was less than a half-mile from us. It hadn’t been there before, so whoever it was must have landed in the helicopter. There were sixteen of us. We’d never be able to climb the ravine now and walk to Page, not with the helicopter there. We were going to have to wait and hope it moved on soon.
And then we lost that option too. The boats started moving towards us. Eddie snapped his fingers and waved Danny over. Danny went back to him. A minute later he was back. “Dad,” Danny said. “Eddie, Lazzo, and I are going to climb the ravine and see what we can see. When those boats get close enough to where you know they won’t miss us, bring everyone up the ravine. That should be six to eight minutes.”
I checked my watch quickly. 10:08.
“Let everyone know they’re going to have to run,” he continued. “Leave everything behind except the backpacks.” Danny looked at Blake then. “You’re going to have to cover the back end. Send Sam up first. Isaac needs to carry Abbey. Dad can carry Emily. Blake, you do not let anyone get shot.” Blake nodded, and Danny was off.
Danny, Eddie, and Lazzo scrambled up the steep ravine. As they reached the top, they dropped to the ground and peered through their rifle scopes. The helicopter sat about three hundred yards ahead of them. There was a tent set up about a hundred yards beyond it, and there were anywhere from ten to twenty men moving around, but Eddie didn’t see any of the officers. Instead, he was focused on a dog and the man holding his leash. General Roja was here.
EIGHTY-ONE: “Dog Gone”
The general had posted lookouts along the Colorado River leading to Page. Somehow the Americans had managed to get past almost two dozen of them undetected, but one of his men above the canyon walls near Labyrinth Bay had spotted two rafts pass beneath him. He had called it in, and the general had flown over immediately. He had the backpack of his officer in the back of the helicopter and was counting on it being detected when he landed. But he thought the Americans would be smarter than this. He thought they’d try to cross t
o the other side and hide on the island across from them. No matter. He was happy to take them however he got them. And if Eddie was indeed with them, he couldn’t wait to see the look on his face. Yes, he wanted to be right here when they caught them. This was the end of their run.
From the top of the bluff he watched as the heavily armed lighted boats closed in on where the rafts had last been spotted. He didn’t know what to expect. But he definitely wasn’t expecting the Americans to come to him.
--------------------
As Danny, Eddie, and Lazzo came out of the ravine and up onto the plateau they garnered the attention of the general’s dog. He started barking as Danny and Lazzo started firing. The man holding the radio was the first one Danny took down. The guy who reached for it was next. Lazzo took out three men by the general. The general released his dog, and Eddie shot the dog before it had taken five steps. As the general pulled out his own gun, Eddie shot him in the arm. Danny took out three more soldiers running at them with guns blazing. The helicopter propellers started spinning, but Danny reached the helicopter door, threw it open, and put a gun to the pilot’s head. The pilot shut the chopper down and Danny led him, alive, to the general. The helicopter, now in their possession, gave them a great escape option, but only with a living pilot. Another man suddenly bolted from behind the tent, and Lazzo put him down immediately.
Eddie, meanwhile, had gone directly up to the general and put a gun to his head. As the rest of us scrambled out of the ravine, Danny directed us to the helicopter. He ordered Blake and Sam to stand guard while he gathered Eddie and Lazzo. Danny ran towards Eddie and the general. “Eddie, wait. Don’t,” Danny yelled.
2020: Emergency Exit Page 36
