Into The Darkness (17 page)

The
town was not that large and it was easy to find the red brick building with a
police headquarters sign on the front. Directly in front of the police station
was the truck Richard had been driving. Dylan motioned for the scouts to wait
across the street at a city park. He told them not to go near the police
station until they left with Richard.

Dylan
buried his hands deep into his pockets and followed Kevin through the glass
front doors. The entry way had a reception desk that was empty. In the
reception area were two uniformed lawmen, a sheriff’s deputy and a city
policeman, sharing jokes between themselves and laughing. The officers
immediately got quiet at the arrival of the two men.

“We
found some scouts stranded by the lake. They need some help getting home,” said
Dylan quietly.

“Send
them in,” said the deputy. The nametag on the front of his shirt was Murphy.

Dylan
and Kevin noticed the deputy’s name and realized that this must be the ranger’s
brother. The police officer sat down in a chair and pretended to ignore the
conversation. He picked up an old magazine and flipped through the pages. He
was squinting at the pages, struggling with the thin light getting through the
open windows.

“I
told them to wait outside,” said Dylan. “I need to clear something up first.
There has been a terrible misunderstanding. We heard that you are going to hang
the man that had that truck out front. All he did was drive those sick kids to
get help.”

The
police officer stopped looking at the magazine. He peered over its top and
continued to listen, as he remained seated.

“How
would you know that? Are you with the guy we have locked up?” asked the deputy,
now visibly angry.

“You
could say that. We know he didn’t do anything wrong,” said Dylan, in a more
assertive tone.

The
deputy drew his pistol and aimed it back and forth at Dylan and Kevin. “Get
your hands up. That’s a bullshit story. I found my brother’s pistol on your
friend. A hanging is too good for him. Maybe a hanging is too good for all of
you!”

Dylan
and Kevin did not move.

“I
said get your hands up now!”

Kevin’s
hands went immediately up. Dylan had buried his hands deep into his front
pockets, but he began to remove them, slowly. As his right hand cleared his
pocket, he turned his hand to show an object, tightly gripped in his right
hand, to the deputy. His other hand displayed the pin from the hand grenade,
which he had already pulled.

“Drop
it now!” commanded the deputy.

“I
don’t think you want me to do that,” said Dylan, as he dangled the grenade pin
in front of him for the deputy to see. “If you shoot me, I’ll let go of the
grenade. Is that really what you want?”

“Everybody
calm down,” said the police officer, getting up slowly from the chair. “Let’s
just take it easy and work something out. Murphy, you need to put the pistol
down before this situation gets worse.” He tossed the magazine to the floor.
“I’m going to release their friend, and they’re going to leave.”

“We’ll
take the keys to that truck out front, too,” demanded Dylan.

“I’m
going to get your friend now, okay?” said the police officer, holding his hands
up.

“Follow
him, Kevin. We don’t want any funny stuff.”

Within a few minutes, Richard was in the lobby with
Kevin. Richard was wearing an orange jumpsuit and carrying a bundle of the
clothes he had been wearing when he was arrested. Kevin used a set of handcuffs
to restrain the deputy and the police officer, cuffing them to each other.
Kevin and Richard ran to the truck, piled in, and waited for Dylan. Seeing that
Richard had started the truck and was ready to go, Dylan dashed to the street,
jumping into the bed of the truck, and Richard hit the gas. Dylan went flat on
his back and carefully replaced the pin back into the grenade. Kevin gave
Richard directions to the road leading back to the river where they had hid the
rafts. The three men jumped into the rafts and headed downstream.

As
the endless days turned into weeks again, the men noticed the surrounding
terrain gradually change. They saw more farmland with abandoned crops, and the
arid grassland faded away as trees became a common sight along the riverbank. Although
the men were able and motivated to avoid direct contact with people over these
weeks, they did see people with increasing frequency. Some were walking in the
fields and others were on horseback. The closest they came to contact,
recently, was with a man chopping a tree near the river. They had drifted too
close and the man with the axe had his back turned, oblivious to the rafts floating
downstream.

On
a cloudy morning, the men came upon a bridge crossing the river. It had been
weeks since they had seen a bridge. This was a steel-framed bridge supported by
large concrete pillars. It was a wide bridge, and because of the billowing dark
clouds behind them, they decided to stop beneath it to rest and determine
whether a storm was actually on its way. The men pulled their rafts out of the
water and tethered them to the riverbank in case of heavy wind from the
possible storm. Dylan climbed up the embankment, staying under the bridge,
looking for an area that would remain dry if it began to rain. He sat down in
the dirt and the other two men joined him.

“Anybody
want to guess where we’re at?” Dylan asked.

“It’s
hard to say without a map,” Kevin replied. “I know we’ve covered a lot of
distance and the river has turned south now. My guess is we’re deep into the
Dakotas.”

“It
won’t be much longer before we go through some bigger cities,” said Richard.
“We’ve been able to avoid people for a while, but I’m afraid when we get closer
to a city, that’s not going to work anymore.”

Dylan
reflected in silence on what Richard had just said. He knew that Richard was
correct. They would not be able to avoid people much longer. The larger cities
were getting closer and it would not be long before they had to pass through
them. He looked up at Richard, nodded, and then spoke to Kevin. “He’s right. We
can try to keep our distance, but when we get to Omaha, we’ll start to get into
the thick of this mess. You said you live in the downtown area. My guess is
that by now chaos has reached your town. We’ll need to go in fast and get right
back out. I plan on carrying the rifle in plain sight to deter the criminal
element.” Dylan stood up and brushed dirt off his pants with his hands. “Kevin,
how do you think your wife is doing?”

“She’s
a smart person, a science teacher, so I’m sure she figured out what happened
faster than others. She’s thrifty, too. When we went grocery shopping and she
saw a good deal on something we could stock the pantry with, she loaded up.”
Kevin’s voice trailed into a depressed tone. “There was plenty of food in the
house when I left.”

“Kevin,
is there something wrong?” asked Dylan.

Richard
stood up. “Just leave him alone. We’re all in a shitty situation. This sucks
for all of us,” said Richard, as he started to climb to the top of the bridge.

Kevin’s
silence answered his question. There was something wrong. Kevin glanced up and
watched Richard walk away. He then turned to Dylan and said, “She’s pregnant.
My wife is pregnant.”

“I
can’t believe you didn’t tell me this before,” said Dylan, shocked at his
confession.

“There’s
nothing you could do about it, and I didn’t want to talk about it. It bothers
me to be this far away when I know she needs help,” replied Kevin, showing
frustration.

“Do
you want to tell Richard now?” asked Dylan.

“Where
is Richard?” Kevin replied.

Dylan
stood up and looked around. “He must’ve gone up the embankment to see where
we’re at.”

“Go
check on Richard while I get some firewood. If it rains, we’ll need it dry,”
said Kevin, as he stood up and stretched his tired body.

Dylan
looked at the dark clouds covering the sky. He still could not tell if it was
going to rain, but he did know he should find Richard. Dylan walked up the
embankment to look toward the road across the bridge. Before he reached the
top, he heard Richard’s voice. It sounded like he was trying to talk to
someone. When Dylan reached the top of the bridge, he saw Richard walking
toward the road from a fencerow that was near the bridge and parallel with the
road. On the road was a young boy riding a bicycle and holding a fishing pole.
Richard was waving his hands at the boy, walking towards him, and telling him
to stop. Richard startled the boy, and he quickly turned his bicycle around and
peddled away.

“Richard,
stop!” said Dylan, as he jogged toward Richard.

Richard
turned and walked back toward a damaged section of the fence and waited for
Dylan.

Dylan
jogged up to where Richard was leaning on the damaged fencerow. “You scared the
crap out of that kid, Richard,” said Dylan, short of breath and exasperated.

“I
didn’t mean to. I just wanted to get an idea of where we are.”

“Let’s
just stick to our plan and avoid people. We don’t need any more trouble, okay?”

Richard
agreed. Both men looked beyond the fence, noticing that there were cattle in
the pasture. They could see a house in the distance.

“Cattle
ranch,” said Dylan. “I bet that kid came from that house.”

“Look
over there, Dylan. What is that?” asked Richard, pointing toward a large bush
on the other side of the fence.

“Something
is dead over there,” said Dylan. His eyes were squinting at a carcass that was barely
hidden behind a bush. He looked at the damaged section of fence next to them
and realized that the barbed wire had been cut. He easily jumped the remaining
bottom wire in the damaged section of fence and walked toward the bush to have
a closer look. Richard followed him. The two men discovered the remains of a
cow that had been neatly butchered in the field, and another cow that did not
have much more than the entrails removed. Both were freshly killed; there was
no stench of rotting flesh.

Richard
gave the carcass a quick kick and said, “Looks like the rancher gets to eat
steak every night.”

Dylan
stared at the butchered cattle with a puzzled expression. He looked back at the
damaged fence and then over to the farmhouse in the distance. “There’s
something wrong with this picture, Richard.”

“What
do you mean?”

“Someone
poached the cattle. That’s why the fence is damaged. Someone cut the wires on
purpose. The damaged fence made it easy to get the butchered meat to the road.
They must’ve got spooked and left the other dead cow to waste right here,”
Dylan said, as he looked around nervously. “We need to get out of here and take
our chances with the storm. I’m going to tell Kevin what just happened.”

“Go
ahead. There’s nobody around.” Richard withdrew his knife, testing the
sharpness on his fingernail. “I’m going to cut a few steaks for us before I go
anywhere. I’m starving.”

Dylan
shook his head. “Bad idea. I’m getting out of here.” Dylan stepped through the
damaged section of fence and jogged back toward the embankment under the
bridge. At the top of the embankment, Dylan looked down toward the river and
saw Kevin stacking firewood. Dylan took a few steps down the slope and then
cupped his hands to his mouth to amplify his voice and yelled down to Kevin.
“Hey, we have to go. We’re next to a cattle ranch and it looks like someone has
been poaching the cattle. I think we should move downstream.”

Kevin
dropped the bundle of wood he was carrying, pointed to the sky, and yelled back
up the hill to Dylan. “It looks like bad weather is on the way. We have some
cover with this bridge. Where’s Richard?”

“There
is a freshly killed cow up there. He thinks he’s going to cut some steaks off
it. I told him that was a bad idea. We should go now. A kid on a bicycle saw us
up there, so we aren’t a secret anymore.”

Kevin
looked down at the pile of wood and then back up at the dark clouds to
contemplate the situation.

Dylan
quietly waited for Kevin to respond as he considered their options. Suddenly, a
noise broke the silence. It sounded like a rifle shot. Dylan quickly, yet
cautiously, went back to the top of the embankment to check on Richard. Dylan
looked across the unfamiliar horizon, but did not see Richard standing
anywhere. Kevin had just gotten to Dylan’s position at the top of the
embankment. The two men stood behind a protruding section of concrete from the
bridge’s foundation.

“I
can’t see Richard,” said Dylan. Dylan pointed in the direction of the butchered
cattle. “He was over there when I walked away.”

Kevin
strained his eyes in the direction of the cattle. “Maybe he’s hiding. I
would’ve got low if I heard a rifle. There’s a large bush over there. Maybe
he’s past that and we just can’t see him.” Kevin took a deep breath, cupped his
hands to his mouth, and was just about ready to yell Richard’s name.

“Hold
it. Don’t make any noise. I don’t want to give away our position. Let me low-
crawl over there and look around. That bush will cover me from the ranch house
at this distance, if that’s where the shot came from.”

Dylan
crawled along the swale between the road and the fencerow. He occasionally
stopped and looked back at the bridge to see Kevin peering from behind its concrete
foundation. As he got closer to the damaged section of fence, the carcasses,
and the large bush, he became more cautious. He stayed lower to the ground and
moved even slower. Near the bush, he stopped and felt the small of his back,
where he had tucked his pistol, and took a deep breath. He inched up next to
the bush and concealed himself from the ranch house. Apprehensively, he changed
to a kneeling position and was about to peer around the bush when he heard a
faint sound of a horse galloping across the pasture. He reached for the pistol
and chambered a round as the sound from the horse’s hooves became louder. Dylan
tried to separate some of the branches to peer through the bush, to no avail.
If he wanted to see what was approaching, he would have to peek around the bush
and risk being seen. Dylan held the pistol in his right hand and lay prone on
the ground. He slowly moved to the edge of the bush and saw a mounted horse
approaching. He leaned his body further and saw that the rider was holding a rifle.
Suddenly, he realized that Richard was lying on the ground, opposite of Dylan’s
position and just a few feet away. Richard was in plain sight of the
approaching rifleman.

“Richard,
you have to move,” Dylan whispered desperately from behind the bush. “That man
has a rifle. Move Richard, get up, you have to move, Richard,”

There
was no response from Richard. Dylan slid back behind the bush and listened to
the horse’s gallop turn into a slow trot. The horse stopped on the opposite
side of the bush, Dylan could hear the horse breathing, and the sound of the
saddle leather as the rider adjusted his position. He now feared the worst for
Richard. Dylan thought he was most likely shot and the rancher was riding out
to inspect the target. Dylan got a lump in his throat when he heard the horse
slowly moving around the bush. The rancher spurred the horse and it turned
around suddenly. Dylan startled the man, so the man immediately tried to bring
the rifle to his shoulder. Dylan jumped up into a firing stance and was raising
the pistol toward the rancher’s chest as the rancher’s rifle levelled at Dylan
in the same instant. In the rancher’s haste to shoulder his weapon, he accidentally
spurred the horse just before he pulled the trigger. The startled horse reared,
and the rifle discharged harmlessly into the sky. The bullet from Dylan’s
pistol knocked the rancher backward and out of the saddle. The frightened horse
galloped away with the rancher’s foot caught in a stirrup. Dylan stared at the
horse’s retreat and the sight of the rancher’s body reacting with each bump in
the ground as the horse galloped away. Dylan took a step toward Richard’s body,
knelt down, and felt for a pulse. There was no pulse. Richard was dead.

Dylan
looked up and saw Kevin running toward him with the rifle. As Kevin got closer,
he slowed his pace, but his breathing was labored. Kevin tried to speak as he
gasped for air. “I saw what happened. I didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry,
Dylan.” As he got closer to Dylan, he could see that Richard’s dead body was
concealed on the other side of the bush. He stared in disbelief with wide eyes.

Dylan
moved closer to Kevin and said, “There was nothing you could have done, and now
there is nothing we can do for Richard. We need to go.”

Kevin
agreed and slowly walked backward and away from Richard’s body as he stared at
the carnage.