“It was in the blind.”
“Fuck!”
They ran another thirty yards and then the trees got less sparse. They both looked behind them, toward the helicopter, and then back in front of them and came to a dead stop. The chopper couldn’t stop that fast, so it flew past them, slowed down, and began to circle back around. But, what John and the hunter saw in front of them stopped them right in their tracks. There were several of them, and they didn’t move when the helicopter went right over them - which meant that they were used to sounds like that made by humans. There were probably five in front of the two of them, like they were ready for John to show up. They were coyotes and they looked hungry.
“Oh, come on,” John said quietly, fed up.
“Don’t move,” the hunter said. “We can take ‘em,” he told John as he brought up his rifle very slowly and aimed it at the alpha male in the front. John then did the same with his pistol.
The coyotes stepped forward, almost in unison, growled to intimidate their prey, and showed their razor sharp teeth. John and the hunter could hear the helicopter coming back around, but they were ready to take out the coyotes before they worried about that. John looked to their left and right and then behind them to make sure there were no more on their flank. Luckily there were not, which indicated to them that they probably stumbled upon their den and were mainly just protecting their young. But that didn’t mean they weren’t planning on eating them.
John and the hunter were about to open fire and kill the coyotes when the engine and rotors of the helicopter roared back above them and Harper let his G36 loose. Bullets struck the coyote closest to them in the side and back causing blood to spray from the animal and turn the snow red. The other coyotes jumped and looked up as more bullets hit the snow around them and then the animals themselves. The coyotes let out a cry when they were struck by the bullets and then fell to the ground, dead. John and the hunter stood there watching once they realized the bullets weren’t coming for them. Harper managed to kill three of the coyotes. The other two took off running, leaving their den behind.
John looked up at the chopper as it passed over them and then motioned to the hunter to move. Again, they ran through the trees, which became thick once more and this time more pine trees filled the area. That made it harder for them go through since they were so close together and the limbs were long and touching other limbs from other pine trees. The limbs and pine needles rubbed them as they twisted and turned, causing sap to get on their clothes, faces, and necks, along with the scratches. The chopper was back above them now, and the pine trees moved as if they were in a violent windstorm.
They got through the multitude of pine trees and an opening appeared. All the trees in that area had been cut down and only their stumps, the little bit that showed above the snow, were visible. The trees had been cut down years ago though because the stumps were rotted with not much left to them. Even with the snow, they could still see several of the stumps thanks to the snowdrifts around them. Some just had a little amount of snow on them because of the surrounding trees that acted as a shield. In addition, in the middle of that open space, there sat an old log cabin. John could tell that it had been there for years; some of the logs were rotted, the porch boards were stained and broken, and the roof had moss growing on it and several holes. Seeing the cabin, which was obviously made from wood, gave John an idea.
“Come on, let’s go. In the cabin!” John yelled and then grabbed the man by the arm and directed him to the cabin.
“What the hell for!? We’ll be trapped!”
“Just trust me!” John told him, and they ran through the tree graveyard, as the chopper slowly trailed behind them. The wind from the rotors still throwing snow in all directions.
John and the hunter stepped on wooden plank porch, which had a broken step they had to step over, and then tried to turn the doorknob. The knob wouldn’t budge. It was either rusted shut or locked, but it would be easy to open. John stepped back and gave the old wooden door a hard kick and it flew open, breaking the wooden board the doorknob was attached to. They ran inside and closed the door behind them.
Inside, they saw it was just one room with two windows in the front, which had broken glass, on either side of the front door, and, just as John had hoped, a back door. The windows had old curtains that had been partially eaten by bugs. There was a small wooden table with two chairs, a bed with dirty and stained linens, an early twentieth century cast iron wood burning stove, and a couch that appeared to be from the seventies under the front left window.
“Okay, break a leg off either the table or a chair. We’re gonna catch this place on fire. It might get hot enough that we can get out the back without the chopper seeing us. When it gets built up enough we’ll go out the back and just maybe the thermal camera and they won’t be able to see us with the flames and smoke. So, let’s go!” John told the hunter and he went to the table as John went to the windows.
John tore off the old curtain as the hunter flipped the table over and, with one hard stomp, broke the leg off. John then went to the wood burning stove and opened it to see if there were any unburned pieces of wood or paper inside. Luckily, there was a small piece of wood that had not burned, so he grabbed it and pulled it out. Next, he looked on and around the stove to see if there were any matches anywhere, but he didn’t see any. They would have to start a fire the old-fashioned way.
“No matches,” John told him as they heard the chopper circle overhead. “Alright, lets hurry.”
Emily circled the helicopter around the cabin and the downed trees. She checked the thermal camera, which was focused on the cabin, and saw John and the other man moving around inside the cabin. Next, she checked the fuel gauge and it indicated that they had used a quarter of their fuel since they left the airport. But with the reserve tank, they should be good for another few hours.
“Adam, you got me?” Emily spoke into her headset.
“Yeah, I’m here. What’s going on?” Adam asked.
“Your man and his new friend went into some old cabin. Not sure what they’re doing but they’re moving around in there.”
“Okay, that’s good. We can see you. Is that where they are? Where you are now?”
“Yeah, we’re right over top of them.”
“Alright, we’re about a hundred yards out. Be there in a few minutes,” Adam told her as he, Travers, and Lewis walked past the dead coyotes.
“Copy that, we’ll keep an eye on them.”
John and the hunter had balled the curtain up on the floor and put the piece of wood John found in the stove on top of it, but not before cracking it in half so the air could get to the underside of the wood. John then took his hunting knife, shaved off some of the table leg, and put the shavings on top and in the crack of the piece of wood on the curtain. John then took the table leg, as the hunter held the cracked piece of wood together but not too tight, and began rubbing the bottom of it against the cracked piece of wood.
The two pieces rubbed together, and John went as fast as he could. A couple of minutes into it, they heard the helicopter fade away until they could barely hear the engine and rotors. John stopped and glanced outside and saw that the snow was no longer flying around as well.
“What’re they doing?” The hunter asked.
“I don’t know, but-“
“Johnny boy!” A voice came from the front of the cabin. “We know you’re in there!”
“Shit, it’s Adam. They caught up,” John said.
“Who’s that?”
“The man trying to kill me, now us.”
“What the hell-“
“Come on, John! Just give it up! You’re trapped! Just you and your new friend come on out! Don’t make this any harder! I promise it’ll be quick!” Adam yelled out.
“We need to keep going,” John said and began to rub the wood together again.
“Get the fuck out of there right now, you motherfucker!” Lewis all of the sudden yelled out as loud
as he could. “You killed our friend! A cop! You have no chance! You’re gonna fuckin’ die today!”
John continued rubbing the wood together, trying desperately to see smoke and start a fire.
“Hey, new guy!” Adam yelled out. “I’ll make you a deal! You come out now and I’ll let you live. I just want John! You can go home to your wife or family or whatever as long as you never mention this to anyone! I’ll let you go! You can go home! What’d ya say!?”
The hunter looked at John, contemplating the offer, as John returned the look and said, “He’s lying. He wants no witnesses. He’ll put a bullet in you the second you open that door.”
Adam waited a few seconds for a reply but got nothing. He rolled his eyes and yelled out again, “Alright, fine! You’ll die along with him and no one will ever find your body!”
John went as fast as he could, rubbing the pieces of wood together, when finally, they saw smoke appear against the wood shavings. John stopped, bent down, and blew gently on the smoke. A small flame broke out. He picked up the curtain, wrapped it around the table legs, and then lit it on fire with the flame. John got up and began lighting the curtain, bed, and couch on fire.
“Alright, move in,” Adam told Travers and Lewis, who had their weapons at the ready. All three began to move toward the cabin from the pine trees where they were hiding. A few feet from the tree line, they saw the flames in the window and smoke beginning to pour out the windows.
“Stop,” Adam told them, and they came to a stop in the snow, all looking confused. “What the hell?”
“What the fuck are they doing?” Lewis asked.
“What are you doing, John!?” Adam yelled out, but got no response. Adam then pulled out his radio, “Emily, are you seeing this?”
“Of course I can see it,” Emily said, keeping the chopper back behind Adam and out of the smoke.
“Do you see them!?” Adam screamed into the radio.
“Negative, thermal is useless right now. Can’t see shit through the flames and hot smoke.”
“Circle around, make sure they can’t get out the back!”
“Roger!”
John looked out the front window, the side that didn’t have a curtain or couch and saw Adam, Travers, Lewis, the man he thought was dead, and the chopper. He could tell Adam was pissed and then saw him reach for his radio. John grabbed his and heard Adam and then heard Emily in the chopper say they could not see anything. He smiled and knew it was time to go.
“Let’s go now!” John told the hunter and they ran to the back door, kicked it open and then ran into another set of trees that rested behind the cabin. The hunter made sure he grabbed his rifle before they left.
In a way, John felt bad for destroying the cabin because it was probably someone’s home at one point or getaway cabin. Although it hadn’t been used in years, it was still a historic cabin and who knows who stayed there at one point. Nevertheless, it was going to allow John and his new friend a chance to escape and live a little longer, so it had to be done. John cleared his head for his love of history and went back into survival mode as they ran as fast as they could.
Emily flew the chopper closer to the cabin; she saw nothing but the red flames and the yellow and green smoke pouring into the air on the thermal camera. She had to stay back because of the smoke, but then circled around to the back of the cabin. It was now fully engulfed in flames with black smoke filling the white landscape. She looked out her window, saw that the back door was open with flames now pouring out of it, and then saw two sets of footprints leading into the trees.
“Fuck,” Emily said aloud and then spoke into her headset. “Yeah, Adam, they went out the back door.”
“I’m gonna take a fuckin’ guess and say that you didn’t check the back when they went in,” Adam spoke into his radio, furious.
“No, but we’ll find them, they didn’t go far. There’s tracks leading to the trees behind the cabin. Head that way and we’ll find them.”
“Uh-huh, find them now,” Adam said, then brought down the radio and directed his attention to Lewis and Travers. “Let’s go.”
Twenty-One
Saturday - 12:07 P.M.
Emily turned the helicopter to the trees, where the footprints went into them. The trees were too thick in this area to find them with the naked eye, so she relied on the thermal camera once again. It only took a few seconds for the camera to locate them nearly seventy-five yards ahead.
“Adam, I got them,” Emily talked into her headset. “I got another heat signature. They’re maybe seventy yards in front of us.”
“Good, stay on them. We’re on the move,” Adam told her.
“Roger.”
John Watkins and the hunter came to a stop, turned around, and saw the helicopter heading toward them through the trees. They came to a stop next to a big oak tree and John got an idea because he knew Emily was tracking them once again through the thermal camera.
“Shit,” John said. “Think they’ve found us again.”
“Well what the fuck are we gonna do? We can’t get away from a helicopter,” the hunter told him.
John thought for a quick second then said, “Your rifle have ammo in it?”
“Yeah.”
“Mind if I use it for a second?”
“Hell no.”
John smiled and the hunter handed him his .30-06 rifle, which was an older one with a wood stock and an old Leupold scope. John leaned against the oak tree, to give him more stability, and aimed the rifle through the tree and at the helicopter.
“You gonna shoot the pilot?” The hunter asked.
“No, the camera on the bottom. Gonna make it fair,” John told him. “Besides, that’s a woman flying, I can’t kill a woman.”
“Who gives a shit? She’s trying to kill us. She’s with them. She’s fuckin’ bad and dirty!”
“I know, but I can’t,” John said, looking through the scope. “If it comes to it and I have to kill her, then I will, but not now.”
“Jesus Christ,” the hunter said, frustrated.
John saw the chopper through the trees and limbs, but he didn’t have the clearest shot yet. He knew where his target was on the bottom of the helicopter. The camera was near the front and hung down some. If he could take it out, the only way they could search for them would be with their naked eyes, which could give them a better chance. He saw the camera through the scope and through the trees and limbs. The chopper was probably fifty yards from them now and John needed to take a shot. He followed the chopper with the rifle and had the camera in the crosshairs. Then a clear path through the limbs appeared, and John took the shot. He let out a smile when he saw he hit his target as the camera sparked, then hung down loose from its mount, and the chopper took a sharp turn to the left.
“Got it!” John yelled. “Let’s go!” He also yelled and then handed the hunter his rifle back.
“Fuck!” Emily yelled as she heard the bullet hit her chopper and jerked the stick to the left. She then looked down at the screen and realized that she lost the feed to her camera. “Oh, shit,” she said and then began adjusting a couple knobs and pressed some buttons on the panel next to screen, but the screen stayed black. She knew what the bullet was meant for and now had to tell Adam.
“Adam?” She said through the radio as Harper and Gayhart looked at her.
“Yeah?” He responded. “Was that you all shooting?”
“No, it was not. It was your buddy. He just took out our camera, thermal, everything. We gotta do it the old-fashioned way now.”
“Of course,” Adam said as he looked up and saw the chopper making a circle to get back on course. “Then look for them. We’re in the trees and on their tracks now. I think we’re pretty close to ‘em. Can you drop down Gayhart? I think we can use an extra hand down here on the ground. You copy?”
“Yeah, I copy,” Emily told him.
“Alright, you’re practically right in front us, probably twenty yards or so. So, just hover there and lower h
im down.”
Emily slowed the chopper down and spun it around so her window was facing toward the cabin that was still burning, and looked down to see if she could see Adam, Travers, and Lewis. The bare tree limbs in that area made it easy to see them.
“I see you,” she said. “I’m about to lower him.”
“Copy.”
“Okay, Gayhart,” Emily began as she turned and looked at him. “I know you heard that. Hook up to the wench and lower yourself down here. Adam is down there.”
“Sure did,” Gayhart said as he had already holstered his pistol and hooked himself to the wench. Harper got up and helped Gayhart out and then turned on the wench and held the wire steady in the wind. Gayhart had to dodge a few limbs on the way down, but he made it to the ground and into the snow, just as Adam, Travers, and Lewis reached him. He unhooked himself and signaled to Harper that he was free. Harper then reversed the wench and brought the line back up.
“Hey, man, thanks for helping with this. Didn’t mean for this shit to happen,” Adam told him.
“It’s no problem; I told you if you ever need me I would be there with what you did to help my daughter.”
Adam gave him a nod and then, “Alright, let’s go end this. They’re not far.” They all took off following the tracks as the chopper went ahead of them.
On the run once again, John and the hunter made their way through the trees as they heard the helicopter behind them. Limbs were hitting them in the torso and smacking them in the face. However, they could see through the trees and saw that a field was just ahead of them. They got closer and saw that there was another blind and four-wheeler sitting next to the tree line. Either it was the roar of the helicopter engine coming from behind them or their stomping through the snow and trees, but the backside of the blind unzipped and another hunter in orange and camo came out looking confused.
“Sir, get down!” John yelled as he waved him down. He and the hunter cleared the trees and slid next to the new hunter through the snow, and they ended up standing with their left side facing toward the trees.
The Hunter Page 14
