Absolution River (10 page)

Jack nodded, “Just give me a minute, will you?”

“Of course,” Marie said quietly. She lingered for a moment looking upon Jack with such sadness and regret that she could do nothing for him, then she left for the cabin.

“Eli, thank you for your kindness and friendship. I thought my life was over before you pulled me out of the depths. Goodbye, old man.” As he said this, a tear came down his cheek. The sensation was unusual, as he had not cried since he was a boy; on his knees before his mother as she lay dying. His hand came to his cheek to wipe it away and as he did this he looked to his hand and gazed upon the tear. Conflicting thoughts of revenge and hatred filled him, but his sadness also signified his renewal. A return to the things of this world and the possibilities that this connection that Eli revealed, feeling. He was beginning to feel once again. Not only the sadness and isolation but also the joy that life had. He found it in the river with Eli and he wanted to see where else it could be found. There was a whole world to explore and feel and experience.

Just going to contact the authorities and let them handle this. I can’t go back to prison, and it isn’t what Eli would want. Lost in his thoughts he almost didn’t hear the sound of several vehicles pulling up to the front of the cabin.

“Oh no,” said Marie.

Jack ducked behind some trees next to the grave and waited for a chance to run to the cabin. Maybe they were just lost and using the area to turn around. This was wrong, as their vehicle turned off their headlights and the engines were cut. Several men got out of vehicles and began to scan the area. Jack quickly ducked, thinking he made eye contact with one of the men. Just his imagination.

“Hel-lo!” said Arch in a loud and eerie tone. Knowing from the radio contact with Sol, there were two other individuals here on the site. One of them could be the investigator. No way she’s going to have a chance to report back. Who knows what she knew, Arch thought.

“Little girl! I know you are in there,” Arch said looking at the cabin. He motioned for the men to start moving around to the back of the structure to prevent her escape.

“Now,” Arch said as a matter a fact. “I do believe that you have been asking too many of your questions. And I think that maybe for you it was a mistake. Now get the fuck out here!” Arch said with such explosive hatred that even his men were taken aback. The screen door opened and Marie stood there at the cabin’s entrance holding a bag full of water and food.

“Now, where do you think you’re going sweetheart?”

“Uh, I, we were going to head to town,” said Marie with such fear and hesitation Jack wanted to burst out of the trees and strangle every one of them; a task that he could very well have accomplished.

“I don’t think that will be necessary.” He cocked his head in her direction and two of the thugs grabbed her and tore the bag from her hands.

“Hey boss! There’s blood all over the inside of the cabin here.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Wait, how did you know?” Marie said while struggling with the two men holding her. “How, how did you know that, it just happened.”

Arch held his hand to his mouth with surprise, “Oops, I do believe that I said too much,” as he grinned. Pulling the pack of cigarettes out of his pocket he lit one and motioned the men to bring her to the vehicle. “Burn the cabin.”

“You got it sir!” said one of the workers who wasn’t older than twenty with great enthusiasm.

In that moment, Jack sprung from the bushes not fifty feet from where they were holding Marie.

“Who the fuck is that?” yelled Arch. “Turn the headlights on, I want a gun on that guy.”

“Stop, just stop, let her go!”

The headlights turned on and they saw a man with great intensity and determination.

“Now, I don’t believe we have been acquainted, the name is Archibald Grimes, nice to meet you.”

Arch began to walk over with a cigarette in one hand and his other outstretched to meet Jack’s. With his hand out Arch stood there with a big smile puffing away at his cigarette. Jack looking like he was about to pounce at any moment, Arch put his hand back to his side and wiped it on his pants.

“This is what’s going to happen here. I’m going to take the little missy and burn the cabin to the ground until it is nothing but ash. My men are all armed and you have moccasins. It was a pleasure to meet you.” Arch turned, “I said put her in the damn truck!”

“Jack! Don’t do anything, they’ll kill you!”

Jack felt so utterly helpless, the anger rising out of his stomach and burning red hot. His fists gripping so hard his knuckles were the purest white.

Arch whispered into the ear of one of his men and walked to the vehicle. “Let’s go!” The majority of the men mounted into the vehicles, but four remained. They began to approach Jack as the vehicles left. Jack could see the fear and desperation in Marie’s face through the glimmer of the headlights. The men began to approach him, but with the light of the headlights gone, they could only see Jack through the moonlight.

“Do it!” said one of the thugs.

All of the men began to fire in Jack’s direction as fast as they could. A collection of AK-47s, pistols, and shotguns exploded in flashes of white lightning and a sound that reverberated through the whole valley. Jack dove for the ground, feeling splinters of tree and rock strike his face and sides. He low-crawled expertly, covering a great deal of ground. He went down a small creek bed and was submerged in a foot of water and mud covered him from head to toe. Blood was starting to come down his brow from the shrapnel caused by the gunfire. His eyes were burning with mud, sweat, and blood.

“Did we get ‘em?” yelled one of the obscenely overweight thugs.

His shotgun was empty and Jack could hear him reloading. The other three were also reloading their weapons and getting ready for the next assault. Jack got to his feet and sat on his haunches, listening to their feet move closer and closer to the edge of the creek. The moonlight was his greatest enemy revealing his position the second they came over the small ridge.

“Move over there!” yelled the stocky thug who was the leader.

He gave the commands while holding his finger to an earpiece. The AK-47 glistened in the moonlight and the smoke from the ejection chamber still steamed from the cool night air. Jack had moments to decide which direction to run. Down the stream to a lower elevation would be his fastest option. Getting to a standing position and transitioning into a dead sprint in one motion propelled him several hundred feet down the creek bed before Arch’s henchmen even realized what happened. Shots rang out and buzzed past his head, striking trees all around him. Two of the men began in a full sprint on the top ridge, running along the creek and firing wildly in Jack’s direction. The leader walked patiently, as a man experienced hunting other men, to a high point and pulled out his night vision scope. The fat man with the shotgun was breathing so heavily a coronary was an immediate possibility. He lumbered along the creek in a half-run half-shuffle, attempting to catch up. Jack came upon the river, and knowing its depth was no more than a couple of raging feet, jumped in immediately. Bullets struck the water around him as he was submerged for only a few seconds. The flow of the water propelled him fifty feet down river, he found a sand bar where he could gain his footing and begin his run again. The two thugs followed him into the water and in moments were hot on his trail. Jack had maybe a hundred feet on them and came upon a thick forest with brush all around. He found the spot where Marie had come out, surprising them, and sat there. His breathing was heavy and loud. Jack closed his eyes and focused on his heart rate, slower, slower. Forcing his body to conform to his will.

“Where’d he go?” one of the thugs said. They were both soaked and breathing heavily. Each clumsily wielded a pistol, scanning the area for Jack.

Jack sat there hidden behind the bushes, unsure of what to do. There was conflict within him. He remembered the wolf and the duality of its nature, one side protection and the other destruction. There was such a fine line between the two. His old self would have sought vengeance in order to destroy, but as his new self was being revealed, he only wanted to protect. Protect Marie, save her from the madman, find a new life and live it to its fullest. His father chose the other path, the path of destruction. Wherever his father was, things only got worse. His father couldn’t understand the duality within himself. Failing to understand that led to his own destruction. His job was to protect, but he only ran, as a coward. Eli helped him understand that each man must make a choice, and every man is equipped to do so. Just as his own father had said, don’t do what I did, you can do it right. Joy could not be found within the destruction of life, only in its protection. He may need to kill these men, but there was no choice. It was their decision to find him and kill him, and if he let that happen then Marie would die and there will be no justice for Eli. This must be done and there would be no running today.

“We don’t find him, Ed’s gonna rip us a new one.”

The other nodded and began heading north along the river and the other followed. Jack quietly came up behind the lagging man and put his hand over his mouth. There was not a sound. The man struggled with all of his strength and was surprised by Jack’s animal ferocity. Jack’s arms cinched around the man’s neck like a boa constrictor cutting off the circulation of its prey, and soon there was a snap as the life faded out of the man’s eyes. Jack grabbed his revolver, six shots, and placed it in his pants along the small of his back.

“Wait, what? Devin, where’d you go man, stop fucking around. We gotta find this guy.”

There was no sound and the thug began to backtrack. Soon he discovered his friend in a ditch near the river. His head was in a strange and contorted position and the eyes gaping wide toward his friend, reflecting the moonlight in an eerie expression.

“Shit.”

He immediately began scanning the area frantically, unsure of where to look. There was not a great deal of tactical training in the logging industry and in that moment he wondered what he had got himself into. The couple hundred dollars at the end of the month under the “don’t ask questions clause” of his pay stub was not looking as good right now as it had. Fear was overtaking him and there was a deep sensation to drop the pistol and run. Out of the darkness a stone struck him directly in the temple. Dropping the gun and grabbing his head he rolled around in agony, feeling the darkness close in around his eyes. A figure emerged, standing over him and unrecognizable. Then darkness. Jack released his hold on the man. He picked him up over his shoulder and took him a hundred meters deeper into the woods. Jack set him up against the tree and grabbed some vine that grew over the tree to use as rope. The man would awake and be able to free himself eventually, but taking his life when he was defenseless would not satisfy the code of honor.

As Jack began to walk away from the unconscious man, he heard over the radio on the man’s belt loop, “Hey? Devin? Mark? Come in.”

A long pause and Jack sat crouched listening to see what information he could pull from another transmission.

“Stop fucking around guys, did you get him?” Another moment passed, nothing. “Shit!”

Jack grabbed the radio and walked back to the river where he dropped the two men and grabbed his pistol.

Ed came off of his high point and ran up to the fat man. “You gonna make it, fatass?”

“Don’t worry ‘bout me boss,” he replied, breathing heavily.

“Don’t worry, I’m not,” and Ed continued to jog down the edge of the creek until he made it to the river. Pulling his night vision scope up to his eye, he scanned the area. Utter silence. Moving carefully along the river, he scanned the area for footprints and any signs of disturbance. He moved several hundred meters up river and found a good position that had cover and concealment overlooking the river valley. The climb to his new position was fraught with loose rocks and razor sharp edges overlooking vast empty spaces. Settling into his eagles’ nest, Ed was able to see the entire river valley.

Soon he found his fat friend lumbering along the woods with shotgun in tow. The weapon was over his shoulder like a little boy playing cowboys and Indians in the backyard. Fuckin’ newbies, he thought, I get stuck with fuckin’ newbies. Ed had a bit of a torrid past before he joined the logging company. Moving from odd job to odd job around the country, often as hired muscle. There was a time he was even a mid-level enforcer in a notorious New York crime family. He got into a scuffle, something to do with the boss’s daughter, or daughters, depending who you ask, and he found himself in Montana without a job. Little did he know that his skills would come in handy in the logging industry. He laughed to himself a bit and refocused the scope into the valley. Yep, still huffing and puffing, surprised his friend made it this far. Then there was a glimpse of a figure tracking the shotgun-wielding obesity statistic.

“What the?” said Ed as he positioned his body for a better look. The figure was gone as fast as he had acquired it. Wishing he had a better weapon for the long-range shot, he radioed to his man, “You got a tail.”

“Huh?” the fat-man replied, breathing even heavier now. He took a seat on a tree that lay flat along the forest floor; the shotgun beside him leaning on the same tree. He put the radio to his mouth, “Say that again, man.”

“I
said, you-have-a-tail.
He was forty feet behind you ten seconds ago, lost him, over.”

The guy on the tree glanced over his shoulder lazily, “Don’t see no one. If I do I got my shotgun here,” as he glanced down to the Mossberg 590 sitting next to him like a little friend. He placed the radio on the tree to his left and glanced back to where the shotgun used to be. “What the?” Then he felt the barrel in the small of his back.

“Don’t move friend, this will cut you in half, do you understand?”

The man nodded his head frantically, unsure of what to do. He moved his hand to his front where he had a concealed Walther PPK, 9mm, and reached for it quicker than anything he had done in his life. Attempting to turn, the light of the moon glared off the blue metal of the pistol and Jack pulled the trigger. The flash was muzzled by the enormous mass of the man, but the sound could be heard for miles. Shit, Jack thought, I told you what it would do. He was saddened at what he was forced to do, but the man made a choice. There is always a choice, and his was all over the place.