Rocky Mountain Mayhem (32 page)

“I can’t move. My ankle. I might have torn
something,” Wendy told Nelson.

“Assailant is wearing full camo. I can see
Hayes and Cervantes. Both are down,” Nelson reported to the team.
“I have Wendy with me. The other three ran west, off-trail through
the woods.”

Nelson peeked out from the boulder and
another shot rang out, striking the rock. He returned fire,
crouching and running to the tree closest to the rock. “Assailant
has multiple weapons,” he said as he cut behind another tree. He
fired, missed and skidded behind a log. He popped out from the tree
and squeezed the trigger three times, then scurried back behind it.
“Can’t get a clear shot!”

Craig sprayed the boulder and tree with
bullets. Rubble rained down on Wendy. She covered her face and
screamed.

Nelson gave up his cover and ran in her
direction while shots rang out. He lunged for the boulder, grunted
and fell onto Wendy.

She panicked and tried to roll him over. His
head wasn’t bloody, nor was his chest. “Are you okay? Where are you
hit?”

Nelson ignored her and shouted information to
the team. “I’m hit. Assailant running after the girls. Get
here!”

He sat up, dragging his left leg and using
the boulder for support. Blood gushed from his thigh. Wendy threw
off her fleece jacket, hesitated for a moment as Nelson groaned in
pain, then gave it to him. He pressed it down, cringing a
little.

“Do we need to make a tourniquet?” Wendy
asked.

“No, I don’t think it hit anything major.”
Sweat covered his pale face.

Wendy didn’t quite believe him. She spotted
Lucy’s backpack on the trail and tried to stand. It wasn’t easy,
but she used the boulder as leverage and hobbled to her feet.
Managing to hop to the backpack and back to Nelson, she fumbled
with the zipper but got it open. The contents spilled to the ground
and she picked up the first-aid kit.

Footsteps pounded down the trail in their
direction. Wendy tried to scoot to see who it was, but Nelson held
her in place.

He shakily lifted his gun. “Keep your
cover.”

Finck ran down the trail and checked on
Cervantes and Hayes, both of whom were still down. “They should be
okay.” He started to run to Nelson, but Nelson waved him away.

Nelson pointed in the direction Craig had
run. “Take that asshole down.”

“Yes, sir.” Finck took off.

VIVIAN, Lucy and Kate ran as fast as the
terrain allowed, breaking branches and jumping over fallen
trees.

“Should we try to hide?” Kate said.

“Keep going,” Lucy yelled and ducked under a
limb. “Keep going!”

Vivian ran faster, looking for a clearer
route. Her legs burned and she could hardly breathe but she knew if
she stopped it could be over.

The trees around them thinned out and the
ground sloped. Then the earth ended.

Vivian skidded to a stop just before the
edge, holding her arms out to either side. Lucy stopped, too, but
Kate’s momentum careened her forward and she almost went over.

“Whoa!” Vivian said, reaching for her.

Kate caught her balance and they stood there,
frozen for a beat, looking straight down. The cliff dropped 50 feet
to a swiftly running stream.

Vivian got a little dizzy and took several
steps back. “That was almost bad.” She looked around. They didn’t
have many options. “We need to keep running or find somewhere to
hide.”

“There is no more running.” A malicious voice
came from the woods.

Oh my god. There’s nowhere to go
.

Craig took slow, deliberate steps, staring at
Vivian as he advanced. His bright green eyes flared against the
paint on his face. Gun in hand.

“We’re meant to be together.”

Kate and Lucy were on either side of her,
holding onto her arms.

“Craig, this isn’t how it’s supposed to
be.”

“We will be together.” He tapped the gun to
his chest. “Even if we die together.”

Lucy tightened her grip.

“Let’s talk, Craig. I know you love me. No
one needs to get hurt.”

“You shouldn’t have listened to your boy toy,
Brandon. None of this would have happened.” Tap…tap tap.

Vivian took a step back, toward the
cliff.

“You should have come with me at the hotel.”
Craig pointed the gun at Vivian. “It would have been much
easier.”

She held her hands up in defense. “I wasn’t
ready, but I am now. It’s not too late for us to be together,
Craig. We have this,” she yanked the pendant off her neck and held
it up, “and we don’t need anything else. Let’s just go.”

A twig snapped behind him and he turned.

Finck took a defensive stance. “Drop the
weapon! Drop it!”

Craig made no move to do so. Instead, he let
out a deep-throated laugh. “I’m not giving up on my girl now. She
needs me.”

Finck took two steps forward. “It’s over.
You’re surrounded. Now drop the weapon.”

Craig, still laughing, said, “Make me.”

Finck fired two shots in front of Craig’s
boots.

Craig quit laughing. “Okay, okay.” He held
his arms out to his side, then dropped the gun.

“Kick it away,” Finck yelled.

Craig kicked it back, toward the ledge.

Finck approached, gun pointing at Craig’s
chest. “Hands on your head. Get on your knees. Slowly.”

Craig dropped to one knee, then the
other.

As Finck moved in, Craig’s hand slid down his
neck, into the back of his shirt. A blur of black appeared above
his head.

“Gun!” Vivian yelled, but it was too
late.

***

Wendy crept up behind a tree. Her ankle
throbbed, but the adrenaline kept her moving. Nelson had passed
out. Hayes and Cervantes were still out, and Shick had been the
last to leave the cabin and wasn’t there yet. She knew Vivian, Lucy
and Kate needed her.

Then she’d heard gunshots and screams. It was
up to her.

The girls were huddled together, inches from
the edge. Craig was laughing like a maniac, waving his gun in the
air.

“You see, Vivian? You see?” More
laughing.

Wendy looked down at the only weapon she had
and flicked the tab off. She closed her eyes for a second, opened
them, and moved toward Craig.

***

Finck was down, bleeding from his shoulder
and holding his knee. Craig kicked Finck’s gun away, then searched
him. He removed a gun strapped above Finck’s ankle, then turned his
attention back to Vivian.

She was paralyzed with fear. She, Kate and
Lucy remained at the cliff’s edge.

“I told you, we’re meant to be together.
Everything is going my way. I can’t be beaten. I’m smarter than
these yahoos.”

Behind him, movement in the trees. A flash of
blue.

“You know now, right?” Craig aimed the gun at
Vivian. “You know we’re supposed to be together forever.”

She glanced behind him and couldn’t believe
what she saw.

“Craig, this isn’t you. Look at yourself. I
know this isn’t who you are.” Vivian spoke as calmly as she could,
hands clasped in front of her. “I know you love me, and I… I love
you so much, too. We’ll start over. Forget about everything that’s
happened.”

It was the time Wendy needed. She jumped from
behind Craig, aimed and mashed down the trigger. Bear spray hit the
side of Craig’s face.

“Get out of here, now!” Finck yelled.

Lucy dragged Vivian by the arm away from the
scene, Kate on their heels.

Craig, yelling obscenities, waved his gun in
Wendy’s direction. She moved behind him but kept the bear spray
trained on his head. When he spun around, she got him full in the
face. He screamed, clutching at his eyes, and dropped his gun.

“Run! Go! Go!” Finck said.

Kate had other intentions.
“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-yaaaaaaah!” She karate kicked Craig right in
the nuts. “Take that, you monster!”

He doubled over, then fell to the ground.
Tears, snot and slobber streaked his camo-painted face. He howled
in pain.

That was enough for Wendy, who kicked his gun
over the cliff, then turned and hobbled away. Kate wrapped an arm
around Wendy for support, and they hurried after Lucy and
Vivian.

Craig’s unintelligible screams carried
through the forest, and it wasn’t long before Shick crashed through
the trees. Passing them, he yelled, “Keep going. Help is by the
trail.”

Vivian wanted to watch Craig go down.
Literally, over the cliff would have been perfect, but arrested
would suffice.

Shick, gun in hand, descended on Craig. He
grabbed his legs and dragged him away from the cliff. Shick
attempted to flip Craig on his stomach and pull his right hand
behind him, but Craig maneuvered onto his side, clawing at him like
a wild animal. Shick shielded himself as best he could, then
punched Craig in the face with a hard right.

Lights out.

Shick flipped Craig over and handcuffed him.
He stood up and kicked Craig in the ribs.

Vivian and the girls hustled back to the
trail as quickly as Wendy’s hurt ankle would allow.

“Is everyone okay, well, except for you,
Wendy? I know you aren’t okay,” Vivian asked as she helped Wendy
hop over a log.

“My sinuses burn,” Kate said. “I got a whiff
of bear spray. That is what that was, right?”

Wendy smiled despite the pain. “Yep. Bought
it in Aspen after seeing those trash cans. Gotta be prepared.”

The hiker couple with the German Shepherd ran
past them. The guy pulled medical supplies out of his backpack,
handing it to the girl as they ran.

“Keep heading straight that way,” Lucy said.
“They’re at the cliff.”

They continued on.

“You’ve had that spray the whole time?” Kate
asked Wendy.

“In my jacket pocket.”

Vivian held a branch back for the girls to
pass. “Where’s your jacket?” she said to Wendy.

“I gave it to Wade. He got shot in the
leg.”

“We heard,” Kate said, pointing to her ear
bud. “Is he going to be okay?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t think it hit his
femoral artery, but he was bleeding pretty good. He passed out
right before I came to help y’all.”

“Oh god, that sounds serious.”

They made it back to the trail and found
Hayes glassy-eyed but sitting up. Cervantes was leaning against a
tree, hair frizzed out to epic proportions. A couple of Vail PD
hikers attended a pale-faced Nelson.

He looked at Wendy and shook his head. “Don’t
ever do that again.”

She smiled. “He’s going to be okay.”

“We need some help over here,” Lucy said,
helping Wendy hobble over to Nelson. “She busted her ankle.”

One of the officers attending Nelson came
over and sat Wendy down, then took off her shoe and unwrapped the
bandage job that Vivian had done. Her ankle was bruised and
swollen. “We’ll get you some real help when the medics get
here.”

Vivian sat down next to Wendy and pulled her
knees up to her chest. The scene at the cliff caught up to her and
she began to cry.

Kate sat down next to her and put an arm
around her shoulders. “It’s okay, it’s all over now.”

“I know, but I can’t believe this. Wendy’s
hurt, Agent Nelson and Agent Finck are both shot, you almost fell
off the cliff.”

Kate sat there for a few seconds, then said,
“Wendy has crap for ankles. It was probably ready to blow anyway.
Agent Nelson won’t be dancing any time soon, but he’ll be okay.
Finck, well, he’ll need a new knee but hopefully his shoulder
wasn’t too terribly injured. As for me plunging over the cliff,
nah, I wasn’t going over. I was just trying to make things
exciting.”

Vivian laughed through the tears. “Make
things exciting, huh? You’re right. We do need to add some
excitement to our vacations.”

Lucy walked over in time to hear Vivian’s
last remark. “If this isn’t exciting enough for you, I can’t wait
to see what the next one brings.”

THE girls waited on the trail until help
arrived, including EMTs and fire/rescue personnel.

An EMT attended to Wendy’s ankle. She turned
it this way and that, flexed her foot up and down. She didn’t think
anything was broken, but a ligament was most likely torn. “You need
to go to the ER and have them do an MRI to determine the extent of
damage.”

Wendy sighed. “All they’re going to do is
wrap it good, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then wrap it good for me here. I’m not
spending my last night of vacation sitting in an emergency
room.”

The paramedic started to protest but Wendy
cut her off. “I’d rather my doctor do surgery on me if needed, and
I’ll see him as soon as I get home, okay?”

Placated, the EMT re-wrapped her ankle and
told Wendy to ice it and stay off it as much as possible.

Shick, face scratched and rubbing one eye,
hauled a handcuffed and red-eyed Craig through the forest and down
the trail. Two other officers were on hand for the hike of shame.
Craig stumbled over a rock and fell face down in the dirt. Shick
helped him stumble a little more as he jerked him up.

Hayes and Cervantes were finally able to
stand and walk around, uneasy at first, then mostly recovered.
Cervantes ran her hands through her hair, but there wasn’t much
that could be done for the frizz-ball.

Lucy offered her a ponytail holder. “Bumble
and Bumble De-Frizz is the only thing that will help what you’ve
got goin’ on.”

Cervantes grinned, said thanks and put her
hair up. It looked like a giant pom-pom sticking out of the back of
her head.

Nelson was transported to the cliff, where he
and Finck waited for airlift to arrive. It wasn’t long before the
whoosh of the chopper rotors could be heard. Vivian stood up and
watched as a basket was lowered and then raised a few minutes later
with Finck. The process was repeated for Nelson. Agents securely on
board, the helicopter flew off into the twilight.