The Road to Round Mountain II - The Alliance: By C.G Roberts

by C. G. Roberts

  pings, and he always charges it somewhere along the way. The fact that his

  phone hasn’t pinged since after midnight, concerns me which is why, for the

  second time, we’re going this way”. “You sure get to be a grumpy fart when

  you’ve been up all night”, The Captain added.

  Heading south on highway 97, the Sheriff and Captain Ackers were about ten miles south of Bend when they could see the familiar sights of the flashing red and blue lights of the State Patrol vehicles up ahead. The Sheriff was slowing down as something caught Bill’s attention from the pass enger side. “Fresh car tracks over here Walt; looks as though they were in a hurry”.

  That information made Walt take a closer look on the left side of the road.

  “There’s one over here too Bill, they sure did shoot up a ton of gravel when they

  left”.

  Bill nodded as they were within a couple of hundred yards from the three

  State police vehicles occupying the north bound lane. “Here’s another Walt; it’s

  been a while since I was out canvassing tracks but I would say those tracks are

  barely hours old”, Bill offered.

  Walt pulled his Patrol vehicle over to the south bound side of 97, far enough away to keep the State troopers off his back. Bill got out of the passenger side and joined Walt by the front of the vehicle. “So, my supreme leader, what’s the plan”, Bill inquired sarcastically? “Look at them Bill, barely old enough to shave, so I say we bullshit the hell out of them”, Walt repl ied in regards to the youthful appearance of the State troopers.

  Walt and Bill crossed the highway and met up with two of the troopers. “What have we got fella’s”, Walt offered with a hint of manners? The trooper closest to the Sheriff looked up from his notepad, and then kept looking up as the Sheriff was a good eight inches taller than the trooper. After a quick reflex swallow, the trooper replied, “Accident, but that doesn’t concern you two”, as the blonde hair trooper quickly checked out their county and city patches on their uniforms.

  “You would be wrong on both accounts son. First, this was no accident, and

  did you have anyone check out those tire tracks just a bit up the road ; we count at

  least three vehicles. Secondly, a good friend of mine may have been in that vehicle that flipped down the ravine”, as the Sheriff stood up straight to impose his will on the now somewhat scared trooper.

  “Kendal, we got us possible relatives of one of the victims in the Jeep. How’s

  that guy’s”, while he waited for a response from his boss. Walt and Bill gave a

  thumb up the trooper. “Send them down Randy, I already saw their uniforms; we can use all the help we can get”. The Sheriff and the Captain wasted no time descending to the remains of the Jeep.

  Winded, but other than that, no worse for wear, they met up with trooper

  Kendal Bates. No pleasantries needed as they started looking at the twisted Jeep. Walt looked a little farther down the hill and saw three more troopers check ing the grounds. “I don’t believe in delaying bad news guys. That being said, there

  were no survivors from the crash”, Trooper Kendal offered. That comment

  knocked the wind out of the Sheriff. “You okay Walt”, Bill asked in a concerned

  manner. He shook his head no. The Sheriff pulled out the picture from the

  Burger King in Lincoln City, showing Billy and his four new friends, right before the

  other guy with them got shot through his chest.

  Walt took a deep breath, “Where are the bodies”? Ken dal motioned for them

  to follow him. After passing the wrecked Jeep, Walt and Bill followed Trooper Kendal until they came upon the first victim. “This tall skinny one here was bent in a direction not intended for the human body. The other one to the left took a broken limb through his chest when he was tossed from the jeep”. The Trooper hesitated for a moment and turned to Walt and Bill, “The last one is the one I’ve got big problems with”.

  The Sheriff quickly replied, “Are you saying that there was only three victims”? “That’s right Sheriff but come look at this one if you don’t mind”, as he waspointing towards the final fatality. About twenty paces down the ravine they came across the third body. He had plenty of cuts and blood was everywhe re, but

  most of the blood was caused by the gunshot wound to his chest. Some accident, the Sheriff thought. After checking the photo, the Sheriff could identify the three bodies as those that were in the photo. Billy, and the other guy Vargas, were

  nowhere to be seen. “Do you mind if me and the Captain take a look down by the

  creek”, The Sheriff asked Kendal?

  “Help yourself, and if you see or find anything related, please don’t touch and let

  me know im mediately”, the Trooper replied.

  Walt and Bill lumbered their way down to the creek. The first thing Walt noticed was the large pool of dried blood by one of the trees supplying shade to a section of the creek. “Bill, come check this out”. “Hold on a minute, I got

  something here as well”, as Bill pointed to two more bloody patches in between

  two large pines just a few feet to the right of the Sheriff.

  Walt made his way over to Bill and came to the same conclusion before either one had spoken. “It looks like Billy was followed, and by the looks of things I would guess that Billy and that Vargas got the better of them. “One things puzzling me though” Bill finished Walt’s thought for him, “Yeah, like where’s the bodies and whatever weapons they had used, or was used on th em”. The Sheriff turned and quick stepped across the creek. “You see something Walt”? The Sheriff kept walking for a few minutes before coming back across the creek to Bill.

  Walt pointed across the creek, “There are fresh foot prints just past those

  rocks on the other side. I would say that Billy and Vargas are hoofing it. And I pray that they’re not seriously hurt”. “Amen brother”, Bill replied. With that being said they started their journey back up the ravine until they caught up to Trooper Kendal.

  “Find anything useful”, Kendal asked? “Yeah, plenty of blood, but no bodies or weapons”, as the Sheriff pulled out a business card and handed it to Kendal. Kendal returned the favor by offering the Sheriff one of his cards. “If you come

  across anymore bodies”, as he showed the picture he was carrying and pointed

  out Billy and Vargas, “you be sure to be in contact with me”. “Will do Sheriff, and if you find them, and they have information that we can use, you call me as well”.

  “You can count on it, and thanks for letting us nose around”. The trooper gave a quick wave as Walt and Bill crossed the highway and back into the Sheriff’s patrol

  car.

  “What now chief”, Bill inquired as the Sheriff looked deep in thought? “We

  find them, what else”. Bill shrugged his shoulders as if he already knew the

  answer.

  26

  The look of disbelief was apparent on the face of Mr. Baily, along with disappointment and starting to doubt his crew’s capabilities to be able to bring in Billy at all. This thought saddened him as he was so close to perfecting the ultimate indestructible fighting machine. Mr. Baily had learned from his mistakes from his first capture and is confident his plans will come to fruition; he of course

  needs Billy Speer to make this happen.

  Billy already has most of the components necessary residing within him. The lightning strike ignited the fire needed to complete his transformation. Most people don’t realize that they are being watched and monitored since birth. Certain DNA along with Telekinetic powers combined with Biological sequences that inhibit the feeling of pain are rare to come across, but more prevalent over the past fifteen years.

  Unfortunately for Mr. Baily, time is not on his side. The Lung cancer has left

  him a shell of his former self. His clothes hang on him to the point that
they look like they could fall off on their own at any minute. Since being diagnosed stage 4

  two weeks ago, he had begun the process of grooming a replacement, since odds

  were that he wasn’t going to be around to see his first success.

  His phone rang once again, “Yes”, he answered in a labored breath. “So tell me if you can Rollins, how the two of them were shot with the darts and they still killed more of my men”? A brief silence, “I know sir, I gave them strict instructions that they were to wait at least three minutes after shooting the darts, to make sure that they were unconscious. I had no idea that they were not capable of following such implicit instructions”. Rollins could hear Mr. Baily’s labored breathing.

  “I do realize that this was not a crew that you had trained; only a last minute gathering as I am getting desperate to get that boy down here you understand. I will put the blame on myself for that one. Do we have any clue to their location”?

  “With the terrain and other factors such as no food and water we figure that they can cover three to four miles an hour, but as far as exactly, no we don’t know, which brings up my next question, “would you prefer I send up a couple of helicopters for location and plan a point to where I can safely pick them up and bring them to you”?

  “I don’t see as I have much choice. They now have no tracking devices useful

  to us. Billy’s phone must not have survived the crash as we longer get pings for

  locations on him”. “Anything else sir”, Rollins asked cautiously? Rollins could hear Mr. Baily hold the phone away from his ear as he went into one of his increasingly longer coughing spells. Mr. Baily caught his breath and continued, “Just one thing, as soon as you have his location, contact me immediately, I will dispatch twenty to thirty men to your location. This will be your operation, and anything goes, and I do mean anything”. This urgency caught Rollins a little off guard, “Does this mean eliminating any local authorities getting in the way”, Rollins inquired? “I said, anything; now go and get me Billy Speer”, as the call ended abruptly.

  27

  Captain Ackers had taken over the driving for a while as The Sheriff was busy on the phone. “No Jenny, we don’t know where he is yet, but Bill and I are out looking for him and that Vargas friend of his”, as the Sheriff took the phone away from his ear so not to hear Jenny’s crying. He cupped the phone with his hands and whispered to Bill, “Can’t stand to hear a woman cry; been married all these years and still don’t know what to say”.

  “Are you sure, I mean are you positive that Billy survived the crash, I mean you

  said there was a lot of blood”, Jenny rambled while trying to absorb the information the Sheriff just offered. “Listen carefully, there was a lot of blood, but it wasn’t Billy’s. Bill and I saw some fresh tracks going away from the crash site and we’re sure that they’re on foot. The good news there is that if they’re walking, they’re not hurt too bad, so as soon as I find out anything, you’re first on my call list”. He could hear muffled sniffling on the other end, “Thank you Sheriff, if you’re sure you think that he’s okay”. “I do, and we’ll find him for you so try not

  to worry and I’ll be in touch”. “I’ll try and thanks again”, Jenny finished.

  Walt put his phone back in his shirt pocket and turned to Bill, “Let’s pull over

  here and have a quick look”. Bill offered no objection and pulled off to the side of

  the road. “You know, that we’ve only been back on the road for maybe ten minutes right”, Bill replied. “True, but we’re traveling a bit faster than they can, plus they might be keeping fairly close to the highway, just not close enough for folks to see”.

  The Captain gave a quick shrug of his shoulders and followed The Sheriff as

  they crossed the highway.

  The Sheriff decided to head northeast from highway 97 and the Captain trudged southeast. The density of trees had increased immensely in the few miles that they had driven heading south. This provided little help for them to find Billy and Vargas, as the sunshine would be casting false shadows throughout the trees.

  Walt found nothing of note on his search, except for a couple of syringes and a broken porcelain crack pipe. He continued but made sure to keep within ear shot

  of Bill. The Captain on the other hand had some high brush to deal with along

  with the ever spreading wealth of trees. He had just stepped through a waist high dead bush when he heard a rustling sound off to his right. Out of habit, he drew his service revolver. He was old school, while most officers preferred the nine millimeter, he stayed with the time tested .38 revolver. The .38 was what he was trained with many years ago, and it’s what he’s comfortable with.

  Bill had his revolver draped to his side as he tried to quietly find the source of

  the noise. He heard it again only this time louder and much closer, but still

  couldn’t make out the source of the noise. Bill took a couple more steps when he

  heard a fierce guttural growl just to his right. He turned just as a coyote had

  leaped in the air to attack. The Captain brought his weapon up just in time to fire

  off two shots. The coyote screamed in protest but quieted quickly as it landed on

  the ground. “Bill, Bill, you okay”, the Sheriff hollered. Bill felt a warm sensation that wasn’t there a minute ago. He looked down at his pants and sighed, “Oh hell, not again”. The Captain, in all the commotion had pissed his pants. He looked up and replied, “Yeah, I’m fine…..sort of”.

  The Sheriff caught up to where Bill was and noticed the spreading wet spot on his pants. Walt had known for years about Bill’s nervous bladder but disregarded it in favor of making sure his friend wasn’t hurt. The Sheriff had noticed Bill turn away from him as he got closer. Wa lt noticed the coyote lying on the ground and also noticing that Bill must have interrupted the coyote’s dinner as a half-eaten squirrel was laying just a few feet to his right.

  The Sheriff studied the coyote a little closer. The coyote had holes in its chest as Bill, although older now, was still a great shot. “Hey, you must have pissed off that coyote something fierce. He was just having a squirrel burger and fries”. Bill laughed and followed, “damn thing scared the piss out of me…….literally”, as he pointed to his wet pants. They enjoyed a quick laugh when the Sheriff held up his

  hand for silence.

  Walt listened intently for a moment, then pointed to his left, “There’s

  something else out there”.

  28

  Billy and Vargas didn’t get too far before they were getting hot and thirsty. Each of them had their backpacks on, plus what was left of their shirts, as the morning warmed up in a hurry. “This trip would be much more enjoyable in, oh I don’t know, maybe a car”, I added with a touch of sarcasm. “Not sure if you noticed, but there seems to be a lack of car dealers here in the middle of the high desert”, Vargas offered with his own sarcasm. I didn’t know how far we had gotten but I was getting hot, and very thirsty. “So how much money do you have stashed in the emergency pouch”?

  Vargas shot me a look that implied that it was none of my business. “I’ve got almost two thousand in mine, if we ever get to a town that has a car lot”, I offered. Vargas had a look of surprise but replied, “That’s a pretty good chunk you got there, but I’ve got enough to buy us each a car and then some”. The showoff; little did he know that I didn’t have a driver’s license yet and probably

  wouldn’t for some time. Vargas was getting a bit winded, so we stopped for a few

  minutes by a group of pine and ash trees, providing enough shade to cool us,

  even if only temporarily.

  I took my backpack off from my shoulders and unzipped the top as I sat down

  at the base of one of the trees. I pulled out a pack of smokes, the extra lighter

  that the Sheriff gave me, and then a pleasant surprise; I had bottled water stuffed down the side of my pack. I thou
ght that I was out before Vargas and the guys picked me up. I pulled it out and dangled it in front of Vargas.

  His eye’s widened with excitement as the anticipation of water was enough for him to jump back to his feet. I opened it, and drank, then drank some more. Holding the bottle up to my face I could see it was now half full; I handed it over to Vargas.

  I knew that I was thirsty, but Vargas managed to finish off the bottle in less than three seconds; I was impressed, still thirsty, but impressed. He was just about to toss the bottle when we heard not one, but two gunshots, followed by a

  high pitched screech. Vargas and I hit the dirt, trying ti figure out which direction

  the shots came from. Vargas pointed North as he was that was where the shots

  came from. We waited a moment, grabbed our backpacks and made a dash along

  a broken path to our right heading south.

  Vargas held out his hand for us to stop and listen. I heard a bit of a rustling sound when I heard, “Billy. Billy Speer, you in there? It’s me, Sheriff Pasco, Billy,

  answer me if you can”. “Who the fuck was that”, Vargas snidely commented?

  “That, would be our ride, let’s go”, as I made a dash back to where the voice came

  from.

  Vargas tried to keep up but I was too stoked to see my friend. The Sheriff saw me running and hollered, “Over here, to your left”. I turned and motioned for Vargas as to which direction and proceeded to jump into the huge arms of the Sheriff; a willing participant he was as he hugged me just as hard as I hugged him.

  I was elated that he was here, even though he was the one who had to take me to the city limits and literally kick me out of my home town of Astoria. This decree was set forth by the politicians and business owners of Astoria, not the Sheriff; he just had to abide by the rules. Funny thing when you blow up and set fire to almost a third of the town, some people thought it best that I go somewhere else.