Absolution River (13 page)

“Shit shit!” yelled Anders as they were sprinting. “Where are we going!?”

“Just run!” screamed Jack as he returned fire over his shoulder, shooting wildly in the hope to stop the guards’ onslaught of lead.

“Cliff. Cliff!”

“I see it, just jump!”

“
JUMP
?” The drop was over twenty feet into the muddy ground below. They landed hard and tried to roll away their momentum. Lying there breathing heavy, “Gotta move!”

“Here, in here!” said Anders, pointing to a cave inside the cliff face.

“We’ll be trapped,” Jack said.

“Just do it!”

They both ran inside the dark cavern. Fifty feet in they could hear the faint voices of the guards on the top of the cliff.

“They just jump?”

“Shit, I think they did.”

“Hot damn that was easy.”

“Get down there, see where they are.”

“No way they made it.”

“You heard me!” yelled one of the many guards swarming the top of the cliff.

“They’re gonna come down here and we’re trapped.”

“You got a light, flashlight or something?” said Jack.

Anders shuffled through his pockets and pulled out an old zippo. The insignia on it was their old army unit. “You still have that thing?”

“Hey, call me sentimental.” As Anders flicked the zippo, the light flooded the dark cavern, revealing a much more complex cave structure than they had imagined.

“We have to keep moving in,” Jack said, out of breath.

“And if it dead ends?”

“Then we make our last stand here. It’s a good position, lots of cover and they can only come one way, but we have to get to Marie. She doesn’t have much time.”

“You think this cave meets up somewhere?”

“No way of knowing, we just gotta try it. It’s all we have right now.”

The small flame from the zippo barely shed enough light and they used their hands to feel their way through the cave. There was a foot of water on the bottom and the ceiling of the cave was dripping. Some of the drops would extinguish the flame and leave them in utter darkness. The echo of their voices reverberated through the wet rock.

“Damn, this goes for awhile.”

“Do you smell that?” Jack said, holding his shirt to his nose.

“Yeah, like chemicals or something. It’s starting to burn my eyes.”

“Careful with that flame, Anders.” Jack looked at him with concern, and Anders looked to the water. Through the light of the flame they could see the pearlescent colors in the water much like the look of gasoline.

“Could be flammable.”

“Ah, yeah, that would not be good.”

The cave was tall enough for them to crouch and walk without having to get on their hands and knees. After a few hundred feet they came to two different cave paths, one left and one right.

“So, which one?” said Anders, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Don’t know how much more fuel I got in this thing.”

The two sat silent contemplating the right move. “You hear that? Sounds like voices.” said Jack.

“You mean the guards outside, I don’t think they followed us.”

“No, up ahead, be real quiet.” Jack and Anders put their heads down and closed their eyes. They opened their mouths and became very still, a technique they perfect in the jungle in order to hear the enemy coming. “I do, it’s on the right path.”

“You sure?” said Jack.

“Positive.”

“Let’s do it, maybe it connects somewhere.”

Moving slowly and now only by touch, not wanting to give away their position, they heard the voices get louder and more distinct.

“Hey Sammy! We are stopping operations until we get this guy or what?”

“Yeah, dump what you have, and the boss said everyone has to get to their post!”

Jack and Anders could hear the sloshing of liquid being poured into the water of the cavern and the mystery of the chemical smell was solved.

“What the hell are they doing?” whispered Anders.

“You see that? Up ahead, there is some light coming from the top of the cave, looks like hatch or something,” Jack said as quietly as he could.

“They must have dug a hole through here to hide whatever they are doing,” replied Anders.

Jack squinted and could see a couple hundred feet down the cavern. The light from the hatch illuminated the area just below it and he could see a grate platform and a ladder leading to the cave floor. He could just barely make out a man in a black uniform with a machine pistol strapped around his shoulder dumping liquid out of a large blue drum.

“We have to get to that hatch.”

“We have no idea where it leads, could go straight into a room full of guards playing poker.”

“Exactly, the last thing they’ll expect,” replied Jack.

“In case you can’t see, I’m shaking my head in disapproval.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

Anders began to move forward and after a few feet the light from the hatch was gone. When they reached the grate, the hatch began to open and a guard stood above it, talking to someone above ground while he held the hatch. Jack and Anders ran under the grate and knelt down into the pool of chemicals. A guard looked down and saw the other guard had left the barrel sitting there. He came down the ladder and was only a few feet above Jack and Anders.

“We need these drums you asshole!” the guard yelled to the topside. “Son of a bitch, I swear.” He mumbled to himself as he grabbed the drum and popped it over his head through the hatch and onto the ground above them. He climbed the ladder and slammed the hatch shut, filling the cavern with pure darkness once again.

“That was close.”

Jack nodded and began to move to climb over the grate. In a pull-up motion he got himself onto the platform and held his hand out for Anders.

“If that hatch opens, we’re screwed.”

“Yep.”

“What’s the plan?”

“Give them a minute to move away from the hatch and get to their posts like the guard said. Maybe it comes up into a store room or something,” said Jack quietly.

After ten excruciating minutes Jack went to the ladder and climbed to the top just underneath the hatch. Taking in deep breaths and getting himself ready for whatever might be on the other side, he held his breath. He pushed the hatch up a couple of inches and peered in to see what they had got themselves into. It was only darkness with no sound.

“Think we might be in luck, think it’s a store room of some type.” Jack opened it further and found that it was filled with the drums the guard had been dumping. The room had a ten-foot ceiling and was very damp and dark. There was sunlight coming through small slits of window near the ceiling and the drums went back several hundred feet, opening up into some kind of storage facility. Jack and Anders got up into the room and slowly lowered the heavy metal hatch. They began to search around, getting an idea of where they were and Anders moved back to the hatch and placed an iron bar across the handles.

“Good idea,” Jack whispered and Anders nodded in return.

“What do you think this place is?”

“Looks like they are manufacturing a drug of some type, maybe meth.”

“So this logger ain’t a logger after all. Just using it as a cover for a much more lucrative venture.”

“Looks like it,” replied Jack.

In the storeroom there were rows upon rows of used and unused drums filled with chemicals.

“Where do you think we are?” whispered Anders.

“No clue, can you get up on one of those shelves and look out the window?”

“Yeah, give me a lift.”

Jack made his hands into a step and Anders jumped up onto one of the shelves near the window.

“What do you see?”

“Looks like an even bigger building right in front of us, a lot of guards in the front. I can see them through the building, there has to be a dozen of them.”

“They must be holding her there.”

“It is a possibility.”

Anders jumped down and used Jack’s shoulders as a support to break his fall.

“Not sure how we’re gonna get through all those guys.”

Jack looked around the storage warehouse. “Looks like we have one big distraction right here.”

“No, what? Wait, I think I like this idea.”

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” said Jack with a grin. Anders nodded with a crazy look in his eyes.

XXIV

Marie had urinated herself. She couldn’t hold it any longer, and the disgust and filth she felt only brought her lower into despair. How did this ever happen? Where are you, Jack? Her mind filled with the nightmarish possibilities the day may bring to her. Her exhaustion was near absolute and she barely had the energy to stay conscious. Mustering whatever energy she had she picked up her head and looked around the room. Now that the sun had come up she could see more of what was around her. Along the same wall as the door was a window. It was tiny but she could fit through. Her mouth was still gagged and the ropes were tight around her wrists. She began to squirm around to see how much movement she was capable of. Not sure if there was a guard standing outside the door, she remained as quiet as she possibly could. Pain shot through her right arm as she could feel the warm blood drip down her hands. The injury woke her senses up and she became alert for the first time since her incarceration. She moved her hands tied behind her back to the point where she cut herself again, and found a large splinter on the back leg of the chair. She began to move her arms up and down in a sawing motion, unsure if what she was doing was making any progress.

A guard bust in through the front door, “Hey! What the fuck you think you’re doing?”

Marie hesitated for a moment, “My arms were falling asleep, just needed to move them around.”

“Don’t give a shit, don’t move!”

Marie nodded in a show of submission and the guard laughed as he slammed the door shut. After a near heart attack, Marie continued to saw away at the ropes. A strange sensation came across her as her arms were finally freed. She moved them around and grabbed her sore wrists and saw how much damage there was. Bruises and painful blisters were forming, and the gash on her arm from the chair was bleeding profusely. She moved to free her right leg, then her left, and tried to remain as quiet as possible. She moved to the bench, found a dirty rag, and wrapped it around her arm to stop the bleeding. Along the table was the assortment of medieval tools Grimes was going to use to torture her. “That bastard,” she whispered. On the table was a mace. A two-foot wooden handle with two more feet of chain, and a ball the size of a baseball on the end, covered in one-inch spikes. Looking at it, she was in shock at why he would need such a thing, but such a thing would prove to be very handy in this moment. Limping herself to the wall where the door was she leaned her back against it and collected herself, breathing in and out methodically to gain control of her heart rate. Once she was calmed, as calm as she was going to get after being tortured, held against her will, and facing imminent death, she knocked on the door, mace in hand.

The guard came in confused, “What the-” As he entered, Marie waited until she could get a good view of him. Once he came into view past the open door she swung as hard as she could. The spiked ball of the mace landed directly into his face. The image was too difficult for her to look at and she closed her eyes halfway through the swing. As it struck the guard she let go of the handle, and the man lay down face first on the cement floor. On the side of his head was the ball of the mace with the one-inch spikes completely buried into his temple. Marie looked with horror and put her hands over her mouth to stop the scream. She knelt down and began to panic. The tears began to flow and her body convulsed with a rejection of what she had to do. Her stomach began to turn and she threw up in the corner of the shed. Breathe in and breathe out, breathe in and breathe out. She began to regain control of herself, knowing that at any moment the guards would be coming to check on her. She ran to the door and peered out, left then right. Nothing. About two hundred feet in front of her were two massive buildings. Then, in a flash, the building on the left burst into a massive explosion of flames and debris. The heat spread across her face, and it was so intense she had to duck back in behind the door. When the initial blast had subsided, she looked out the door again, looking for a chance to make a break for it. In the distance, through the smoke, she could see Jack.

XXV

Jack and Anders began dumping all of the containers. Overturning the shelves causing the liquids to dump out of the barrels and splash against the walls. Thousands of gallons poured all over the warehouse and the odor was beginning to be impossible to stomach. Guards were banging on the outer door that Jack had secured with chain.

“They’ll be in here any moment!”

“Just keep dumping! We need a big distraction!”

A few minutes later every drum had been emptied and the two jumped over toppled shelves to reach the window. Struggling, they finally made it through and collapsed on the grass below. They stood immediately, and Anders flicked the zippo, and the flame stood there silent before the chaos that was about to ensue.

“Do it.”

Anders flung the zippo through the window and they bolted as far and as fast as they could, each sprinting and looking at each other, wondering why the blast hadn’t happened yet, but in that moment it had. The explosion launched them down a hill several feet and they rolled to the bottom. The flames were so hot Anders’ shirt caught fire, and he began to roll around to distinguish the flames. Jack patted him down and covered him, as the intensity of the heat was growing, and they began to scream like they were shut up into an oven put on blast. Soon the heat subsided and they sat there exhausted and in a daze. Hands were all over Jack pawing at his chest and face and he swatted it away attempting to fight whatever was before him. Opening his eyes, he realized it was Marie. He grasped her face by the cheeks and looked at her with a great big smile.

Anders lay there and opened his eyes with a groan, still smoking from the flames. Not moving anything but his arm he said, “So, you’re Marie huh?” Anders put his hand out for a shake and Marie smiled with tears in her eyes and shook it.

“Nice to meet you.” Marie said in between her crying and laughter.

All three of them looked like they had been through the Apocalypse. Black faces and soot stained clothes. Scrapes and cuts all over, but each happier than ever, as they had found what they were looking for. Each for a different reason, each looking deeper within themselves finding that this moment meant more than simply not dying, but a chance to live once again. Renewed by the intense fires of the explosion.

The moment of relief faded quickly as they all heard the guards scrambling. Gunfire erupted and the dirt around them began to explode in tiny mushroom clouds as the bullets impacted the ground.

They bolted, running fast to anywhere that had cover. Below the hill down from the meth lab structures were a number of buildings. They found themselves sitting behind another shed partially hidden from view as walls and hillside surrounded them.

“What now!” Anders yelled over the secondary explosions and the sound of the truck engines racing to distinguish the fire.

“We have to get out of here, that’s what’s now,” Marie said frantically.

“Anders, take Marie and get the hell out of here.”

“No way, we’re going together!” Marie cried emphatically.

“Hey!” Jack said firmly. “You don’t need to be here, I have to finish this.”

“Why? We’ll call the authorities, get the cops here, they’ll take care of it. Why does it have to be you?”

“She’s right Jack, we can all get out of here.”

Jack looked down, shaking his head. Confused on how to move forward with his new self, there was a need to save and a need to kill. No longer bound by hatred, but by hope. A hope found only in mercy.
Take the right path. You can do it differently.

“You’re right. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“How do you propose we do that? Those guards will be here any second. They’re distracted now but once that fire is contained they are going to come looking, and they are not happy.”

In the distance Jack could see a truck in the open area near the office. There were several pieces of heavy equipment blocking the only road into the compound. Several small buildings that held various pieces of equipment and tools scattered the open area in front of the main office.

“See that truck?”

“You mean the one way past all the guards with no road to use once we get to it? Not to mention that Grimes character is probably just sitting there waiting for us, you mean
that
truck?”

“Yes, that exact one.”

“What about the truck that I found you next to, I think it still has the keys with it.”

“Good idea, but we still have to get past the office. The truck is on the other side of the ridge.”

“We can skirt along the tree line, using the buildings as cover.”

“I’ll find you JACK!” Grimes exited the office with a massive machine gun and white powder around his nose. “I’m gonna kill you JACK!”

Grimes began to fire blindly across the entire compound. The white flashes of the muzzle lit up Arch’s face in a look of sheer madness. His eyes wide and pupils entirely dilated. The guards began to take cover as their boss indiscriminately fired in every direction, not caring who or what he hit. The rage behind that trigger now entirely out in the open and no amount of drugs could suppress it now.

“He’s lost it.” Marie said. “I thought he was crazy before, now I just think he has totally lost it. It’s almost not even human.”

The shooting stopped and Arch grabbed another drum of ammunition from behind the truck in front of the office.

“This is our chance, go go go!” Jack said with extreme urgency.

The three ran across the open ground to another outbuilding and dove just as Arch had reloaded and began to fire again. The rounds striking the thin metal walls of the building and penetrating all the way through. The small holes from the bullets landing just feet from where they were crouching.

“This is not a good spot,” said Marie.

“I see you!” Arch yelled in the distance.

“Damn, move!”

A hail of gunfire exploded and the rounds impacted all around them, turning the sheet metal building into Swiss cheese. The three leapt down a ditch below the building just as the bullets struck the ground where they were standing.

“We can’t run! He has us!”

Jack looked behind him and saw the cliff just over the river gorge. Only one way out of here, and that was straight through Grimes.

“We have to take him out,” Jack said gravely.

“What! Take him out, how? He has a machine gun, Jack.” Marie said.

“Anders, remember Na Drang?”

“No, no way, not again!”

“No choice, you in?”

Anders nodded reluctantly seeing no other choice.

“You’re doing what now?” Marie asked.

“Stay here, we’re going to finish this. We need to take him out before the guards realize what’s happening.”

During a lull in the firing, Anders burst to his feet and ran across the open ground in front of Arch. Arch turned his attention to him and began to fire in his direction blindly. The bullets came within feet of Anders just before he dodged behind a crane’s tracks. Jack flanked Arch and came around running full charge and tackled Arch to the ground. The impact was brutal. Arch was a large man and Jack hit the ground hard. Jack got to his hands and knees and was shaking his head back and forth to shake off the pain of the landing. The machine gun was right next to Arch who was moaning and rolling over on to his side. Jack stumbled to his feet and grabbed the weapon. He pulled the charging handle and there was a nearly fresh drum of two hundred rounds.

“Don’t move, asshole,” said Jack as he aimed the weapon right at Arch.

“Fuck you,” Arch moaned still trying to regain full consciousness.

“Jack!” Marie yelled from the ditch. “They’re coming!”

A dozen guards were coming down the hill from the drug lab all firing their weapons at Jack. He ducked behind the truck that was now being riddled by bullets. The tires deflated and the windows blew out. Hundreds of impacts struck the vehicle and zinged over the top of the truck. Some were ricocheting from under the truck sending rock shrapnel right into Jack’s shins. The pain was excruciating. Jack flipped the weapon to fire, and mounted it on the bed of the truck. Standing there as a bullet whizzed by his head he began to shoot. His precision was legendary, striking guards immediately, forcing them to stop firing and take cover. He continued the rate of fire and yelled to Anders and Marie.

“Come on!”

Anders and Marie ran from their positions once the guards had ceased firing and they all ran behind the truck where Jack was.

“Get to the other side of the office! Do it now!”

The two didn’t hesitate and moved as fast as they could as the reports of the guards’ weapons began to start again. They were getting bolder, as they knew their opportunity to get them was quickly approaching. Jack opened fire as his friends were running to cover, striking two more guards. Their bodies fell limp and rolled down the hill. Jack was down to only fifty or so rounds, best guess. He needed an exit strategy.

A knife struck his side and the pain shot up and down his body as it nearly made him collapse. The blade began to turn inside of him as he screamed to the top of his lungs in utter agony. Out the corner of his eyes he could see Arch right behind him. Only inches away, the hot breath of the filthy man making the hair on his neck stand up as he felt blood pour down his leg. An image of the wolf flashed before his eyes. It ran across the forest. It was unstoppable and wild. No thing could touch this beast. In this moment he realized what the wolf was. It was his father, calling to him from some wild place. Showing him that although he was not there for him in life, he was there for him in death. It was an immortal force that would be with him always, urging him to go on. Never quit, and defy at all costs the darkness within.
You gotta fight.
Jack knew within himself that it wasn’t his father. It was the ideal, the only ideal that he was given by him.
Don’t ever give up, not like me.
In that moment, as the pain spread through his body and he could feel his strength leaving him, he forgave his father. Forgave him for all of the pain that he caused him. For all of the tragedy that ensued from the pain he caused. My father gave up, but I don’t have to, and I will not give in to the darkness.

The guards were moving in and he could hear their breathing and the reloading of their weapons. The darkness was beginning to move in around his eyes.

“I told you I was going to kill you,” Arch whispered in his ear.

Jack gathered his remaining strength and turned his body. The turning pushed the blade further into his side and it penetrated through the other side. Jack’s elbow made contact with Arch’s nose and it broke, immediately spraying blood all over Arch’s white sweat-stained shirt. In the same motion he moved with the machine gun and pulled the trigger. With Jack’s uninjured side he singlehandedly fired the machine gun into Arch’s stomach, chest, and face. There were at least thirty rounds left and nearly every one hit their target.

Arch’s face had a look of shock as he stood there for a few moments thanks to the enormous amounts of methamphetamines in his system. The pain did not register nor did the loss of blood to his heart. In those seconds Arch stared into Jack’s face. Horror and disbelief that he would actually die that day became a realization for the madman.

“I thought there was more,” Arch said while gurgling on his own blood. As he said this, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell flat backwards like a stiff board. Jack stared at him for a moment, perplexed by the statement of a man he never understood and never would. A life left unfulfilled because the goodness in him was choked by hatred and depravity. Of course he thought there was more, because there was more. So much more. Jack began to hear the gunfire from the guards and he hobbled himself behind the office. Anders came around the edge of the building with the Mossburg and began pumping round after round into the oncoming guards. Three landed dead in their tracks.

“Oh my God, are you okay Jack?” Marie said, catching Jack as he collapsed in her arms. She held her hand down to his wound and looked at her hand covered in blood. Anders looked over with wide eyes as he saw the extent of the damage.

“We gotta go, like right now.”

“I agree,” said Jack in the faintest of voices while still managing to form a grin.

“You are unbelievable,” Marie said as she helped him to his feet.

“There are only a couple left, but they are coming fast. We gotta go! I’ll cover you while you get him out of here. The truck is just down that ridge. Honk when you get there. Go!”

“Thanks Anders!”

“No time for that, go!”

Marie struggled to carry Jack up and over the ridge as the shotgun blasts continued followed by a long pause then the sound of a small pistol.

“We have to hurry,” Jack said softly. “He’s almost out.”

“I’m trying, I’m trying.”

Jack and Marie stumbled to the truck. She laid Jack on the hood while she ran over to the driver side. She pulled Fred out of the seat and jumped back as he fell onto the ground. She kicked out the legs of the former driver and she honked the horn several times. Running around the front of the truck, she grabbed Jack and put him into the passenger side.

“I have to stop the bleeding.”

“I know.”

Marie ripped a piece of her shirt off and held it to his wound.

“This is going to hurt, a lot.”

“Do it,” Jack said with his eyes clenched in pain.

Marie stuck the wad of shirt deep into both sides of the wound. Using her fingers to plug the holes, Jack cringed in agony.

“Okay, it’s done. It was your only chance, the bleeding, it was so bad.”

“I know, I know, thank you,” Jack said as he passed out.

Marie closed the passenger door on Jack and got into the truck. The engine turned over again and again but it wouldn’t start.

“Come on, come on! Dammit!”

Anders came bursting through the woods as he had when he saved Jack, but this time he was running frantically in her direction. Fifty yards out and she hadn’t got the truck started yet.

The engine continued to turn again and again.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” yelled Anders as he approached the truck as fast as he could. She could hear the bullets whizzing by the truck as the guards finally crested the ridge.