The Road to Round Mountain: The Betrayal by (28 page)

hear faint crackling sounds coming from in the building.  Come on steroid boy. The door came flying open, I heard  a loud crack, I’m sure he splintered the door on the way  out. Smoke was starting to pour out of the door. He looked  around, trying to adjust his eyes. Too late mine were already  adjusted. I saw a gun in his right hand, and just as he saw that  I was standing there he was raising his gun. I thrust my arms  towards him and an even thicker concentration of lightning  shot out of my fingers and covered him like a fishing net.  The Screams were horrific. He was running but tripped over  a couple of pallets. The smell was just as awful as the sight of  him engulfed in flames. He had pretty much stopped moving by the time I got to the door. Smoke was being joined  by growing flames; I needed to hurry. I ran into the building  and heard coughing of f to my right. It was next to impossible  to see, and my lungs were burning from the smoke. I pulled  my shirt up to my mouth and finally bumped into the table  were Jennifer was trapped.

I had to work quickly, she tried to say something but  started coughing uncontrollably. I bent down to where her  ankles were cuffed to the floor. I couldn’t really see what I  was doing, so I felt for the steel ring. Focusing as quickly as  I could, I moved my hand in a twisting manner like removing the bottle cap from a beer and heard a snap. I reached

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over and grabbed ahold of her jacket and started pulling. The  smoke had just about filled the building as the searing heat  was getting dangerously close. I was beside her holding on to  her jacket, trying to find the door but found a wall instead.

I felt a small draft coming from my left. It had to be the  door. I felt along the walls until I found the door jamb and  pulled us into somewhat fresher air. Jennifer collapsed as we  finally made it outside. An explosion erupted from the other  side of the building. I scooped Jennifer up and carried her  back towards the Sheriff’s car. I didn’t hear anything coming  from her, there was no coughing, nothing, she just laid limp  in my arms as I hurried back. “Come on Jennifer don’t do  this”, I cried out in anguish.

A second explosion erupted with flames shooting up  twenty five maybe thirty feet. The only problem was, it was  the hut next door. I finally made my way back to where the  Sheriff was only to find out that my choice of tense was correct. He was here, and I didn’t see him anywhere. I hurried  across the street to where the patrol car was and it was gone.  Jennifer was not moving. I laid her down in the parking lot.  I took off my jacket and rolled it up and placed it under her  head. I desperately wanted to start mouth to mouth because  I couldn’t see any movement like you would when someone  is breathing.

I should check her pulse. No dumbshit, you don’t have  gloves on, you’ll nuke her. That’s when I looked down at her  wrist. My hand had been holding her hand since I laid her  down and I wasn’t wearing the gloves. Finally a slap of reality  told me I better get started with her or risk a chance of losing  her. I cupped my hand under her neck, placed my lips to hers

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and started blowing in air, and press right below the breast  bone to push the air out. I had seen my Mother perform this  on our neighbor some years back. I’m hoping to have the  same results as she had.

I kept going for what seemed an eternity, but was prob-ably only a couple of minutes. I stopped to wipe the sweat off of my forehead when I heard her cough. Jennifer coughed and blew out some residual smoke as I held her. She opened up her eyes, they must have been irritated with smoke as she kept blinking them. “Billy”, her eyes finally clear enough to see. “How did you”….. She started coughing again. “Don’t talk, we need to get back to Sheriff’s car”. Just then a third and much louder explosion sent ten foot chunks of roof fly-ing around us. Gordon had come around from the front of third hut. I heard him call my name, but most of it was drowned out by the sound of squealing tires, as the Canary  Yellow GTO and the two large black sedans hauled ass from the side road of the first hut. The last sedan rear driver side

tire was on fire while it tossed gravel as it slung itself back

onto Marine Drive.

Gordon motioned for us to follow him. “Do you think you can walk”, I asked her. Jennifer looked up at him and smiled, “I think I can manage for my hero”. “We need to scoot, the fire trucks were getting closer”. Jennifer grabbed my arm and as I turned to face her she planted a kiss on my lips. I smiled as we followed Gordon, “How did you know that you wouldn’t get electrified from kissing me”. She smile and grabbed my hand as Gordon was frantically waving at

us to come on.

I tried to holler at Gordon but the combination of the

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fire, smoke and sirens, I couldn’t get his attention. He was  leading us away from where the Sheriff parked at the strip  mall. I took a glance over my shoulder and noticed that the  Sheriff’s patrol car was gone. Where the hell did he go and  why did he leave us? We followed along the front of the rest  of the huts. There was a small hill just past the last hut. The  three of us just made it down the hill as the fire trucks came  blaring past us.

We went about another half of a mile before Gordon

lead us to a Chevron station that had closed up for the evening. I was getting tired. Out of the three of us, I was the  only one struggling to catch my breath. We went around to  the back of the Chevron so no one from Marine Drive could

see us. We leaned up against the side of the building. Gordon  was keeping an eye out on Marine drive. I looked at Jennifer  but she was already looking at me. “How did you know I  was there, and who were those two people that took me”? I  took her in my arms and held her close. We stood there for a  moment, I can’t explain the feeling of how it felt, just being  able to hold her. Whatever the feeling was, I never wanted  it to end.

We were staring into each other’s eyes and without a word she pulled me in for a kiss that was like no other kiss.  I really didn’t have anything to compare to since Jennifer was my first actual kiss. All I can say is, ‘Wow’. I know the kiss didn’t last that long although I was hopeful, when I heard a car pull into the Chevron’s parking lot. Whoever was in the car must be in a hurry, because when they hit the brakes they squealed to a stop. Gordon looked back at us and was calling for us to follow, but I didn’t hear a word he

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was saying. I looked at Jennifer and she was saying something to me, but I couldn’t hear her either. I was feeling a  little woozy, you know light headed in a dizzy kind of way.  Jennifer’s face became blurry. I tried to look over at Gordon  but couldn’t see him. I felt exhausted; I felt like I need to lie  down, I felt…..Darkness.

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44

I Felt somethIng
 
warm and moist on my forehead.  I opened my eyes and found myself in familiar surround-ings. I was in the Sheriff’s office on the couch that was on the far wall away from his desk. Jennifer was standing over me gently holding her hand over the wash cloth that was on my head. I started to get up but Jennifer put a hand on my chest in protest. “You need to rest Sweetie”. Sweetie, how about that, I’ve graduated from graffiti king to sweetie; I’ll take it. The room seemed to be spinning although no one else seemed to notice. “How did I get here”? Jennifer pointed to the other side of the room where I saw Gordon and an

older woman standing next to the Sheriff. Without looking  up from his desk the Sherif f said, “My wife Connie, Gordon  and Jennifer put you into Connie’s car. They can explain it to  you, I’ve got some calls to make”. He got up from his desk  went out of the office and closed the door.

“Well, Mrs. Sheriff, I mean Mrs. Pasco thanks for helping  to get me in the car, I don’t know what happened”. “Think  nothing of it son; I’ll be back in a minute, I think we all could  use a cold drink”. Gordon came over and sat on the edge of  the couch. “That was an awesome light show you put on  dude”. He looked over at Jennifer, “If you could have seen  it, lightning shot out of his hands and toasted that guy with  the rifle”. Jennifer looked back at me to which I replied, “I  saw what he did to you inside the hut”. “How could you have

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possibly known that Billy, I mean it was just him and me in  there”? I put a finger up to my mouth the way the Sheriff  does to indicate to please be quiet. I heard Mrs. Pasco coming towards the office door. I stared at the door for a second,  “She has two Dr. Peppers, one Pepsi, and a diet coke”.

Mrs. Pasco opened the office door and in her hands were  two Dr. Peppers, a Pepsi, and a Diet Coke. Jennifer’s mouth  hung open; that seems to happen a lot around me. She  turned back to me and said, “I’ll be damned, my boyfriends  an alien”. Gordon laughed at the alien part, I didn’t mind.  What got my attention was the boyfriend part. That gave  me such a feeling that I can’t really describe. I was beginning  to wonder if I would ever here those words. I’m so lucky that  it was from Jennifer. Hell she had me when she first peaked  her head in my room at the Hospital. Suddenly I felt good  enough to sit up, so I did, kind of.

Finally making my way upright on the couch with assistance from Jennifer, I started feeling my body in a way that I  haven’t for a while. My head was pounding, the small of my  back was tight and my left foot was throbbing. The price you  have to pay for trying to run on an empty tank is mortality.  Truth be told, I was thrilled not to be a fully charge battery  anymore. The bumps and bruises was just a reminder that I  was human. Part of me might have forgotten that fact with

recent events.

Nothing can quench the thirst like a Doctor, Pepper that is. I was rubbing at my head, as Jennifer pulled something out of her purse. “Here, looks like you have a bit of a head-ache”, as she dropped a couple of aspirin in my hand. I might be the alien, but I believe Jennifer may be psychic. It’s kind of

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eerie how she knows these things, but in a comforting manner. The sheriff’s wife looked concerned as she stared out the

window of the office. “Was it just me or did the Sheriff seem  mad”, I asked?

“Mad would be an understatement Billy. I don’t know if  you realize, but your actions have put a lot of pressure on the  Sheriff. It’s making it harder for him to defend you, when  more stuff like this happens”. She turned to face me, “Walt  thinks a lot of you Billy, so much so, that he was thinking of  having you stay with us, you know, after what happened and  all. But now he’s at a point where some of the higher ups in  this town are putting pressure on him”. Now I was confused  and concerned, “What pressure are you talking about, I mean  he seemed so nice to everyone”?

“That’s how he is Billy. He’s one that is slow to anger,  but he’s almost at that point. The folks on the City Council,  know that he’s been keeping close tabs on you, and to be  quite frank, they want you out of town before anything else  catches fire or blows up. I’ve never seen him this pissed in  many a year, but believe me when I say that he’s not mad  at you”.

I felt Jennifer’s hand slip into mine a while back, and I  don’t know if that was because she wanted to, or if she was  trying to comfort me. I was good with either reason, but I  had no clue that I was this much of a disruption in his daily  duties. I guess my own personal pity party clouded my judgment in matters as of late. I only wish that I would be able to  make it up to him.

The Sheriff came barging into his office, “Okay folks,  just a reminder, that I’m the Sheriff, and there is to be no

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more taking off without me knowing. If we’re to get through  this, we have to work as a team, and guess what, nobody is to  do anything without my say so. The Northern part of town  is on fire, I’ve got some mob thugs running rampant somewhere in town, the City council idiots want me lynched or  else, and to top it off”, As he turn towards the window, “She’s  still out there”.

The Sheriff laid down some ground rules for everyone.  In simplest terms, not one of us is going anywhere includ-ing the Sheriff’s wife. He called in his Deputies from patrol to handle guard duty out front. It would be just them for a while as Astoria Police was busy with traffic from the fires.  Detective Hargrove had told the Sheriff as soon as he could spare any bodies that he would send them over to help. There were only four active police in Astoria, so it wasn’t like the  Calvary was going to save the day. We would take what we could get.

The Sheriff told us if there was ever an opportune time try something that it would be now, if not sooner. I could see in his eye’s that he was worried, but still appeared to be ready to rumble if it came to that. Gordon was nervously buzzing about, hinting about going out for a smoke; I seconded the motion. Judge Sheriff overruled our desire and made us stay in. upon reflection I guess we would have made a couple of easy targets out there.

“If anyone needs to smoke, go to the showers and flip the switch for the exhaust. It will suck all the smoke out, trust me”, He said with a smirk. “I thought you said you quit”,  His wife protested. The Sheriff pulled open his bottom desk drawer and pulled out an ash tray, along with a lighter and a

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pack of Camels. He stood up grabbed his collection of smoking necessities and said, “I’m headed to the showers if anybody wants one; I know sure as hell that I do”.

Being the obedient minions that we are Gordon and I  quickly followed. I heard an extra set of footsteps following  close behind. It was Jennifer, “I didn’t know you smoked”?  “For a couple of years now; how about you”? “Me I’m a seasoned veteran of I believe, three days now”. She smiled and  took my hand as we entered the shower area. I can’t believe  I just said that. I hope no one gets cute and decides to take a  picture of the four of us in the shower. Not sure how I would  explain that one.