Rick nodded to Fred as he lit the flare. It ignited as Fred pushed the door open. Rick tossed the flare into the middle of the living room and stepped inside. He swung his shotgun around the room as he quickly cleared it. He wasn’t expecting the kid to come out shooting, but he didn’t want to take any more chances than were necessary.
He had contemplated sending Fred in first, but he had a feeling that would be an easy way for the whole thing to fall apart quickly. Rick turned and nodded to Fred, who stepped inside and picked the flare up. They didn’t want to use any more than necessary, so Rick had convinced Fred to carry it around after their initial breach.
Upstairs in the master bedroom, Nick woke from a sound sleep. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he heard something. He held his breath as he listened. Nick heard footsteps… coming from downstairs. He swung his feet off the bed and slipped them into his shoes. He felt around the nightstand in the dark, trying to find his Glock. He started to panic when he couldn’t find it. He shoved his hand under the pillow, but it wasn’t there either.
Nick’s mind raced as he thought back to his arrival at the house. It had been just getting dark when he reached the house just southeast of Longmont and he was exhausted. It had taken him the entire day to cover a relatively short distance and the only thing he could think about was sleep. He climbed the stairs to quickly check the house out and lay down to rest for a few seconds.
Shit.
Nick remembered where his Glock was. He had been sloppy and left his backpack on the counter downstairs. Everything that would keep him alive was down there. He knew if he didn’t get his pack he would probably be dead… assuming he could even get out of the house before the person downstairs found him.
He made his way to the window, doing his best to not make a sound. The wooden window frame protested as he pulled it open. He froze and listened. Nick heard footsteps growing louder as the other person in the house made their way upstairs. He pushed the window open the rest of the way, not caring what kind of noise it made, and threw his right leg out the window. He ducked and got his head out before pulling his left leg out. Nick grabbed onto the bottom of the window frame and lowered himself down.
The sound of feet got louder and he let go. Nick closed his eyes and braced for the impact. His feet slammed into the ground and his knees buckled as they took the brunt of the impact. He rolled onto his back and opened his eyes and saw a bright red light approaching the window he had just jumped from.
Nick didn’t wait to see what it was. He rolled back toward the house and stood up. His knees were sore and he cringed as he forced himself to stay standing. Nick pressed his body against the house and sidestepped his way back toward the front. He needed to get inside and get his pack.
“I don’t see anyone,” Fred said.
Nick froze at the voice coming out the window. He thought there was just one person. He waited to see if they were talking to someone else or just crazy.
“Keep looking. No one would leave their pack.”
Nick cringed as the second voice came out the front of the house. He was ten feet from the front door and his pack might as well have been a thousand miles away—there was no way he could charge into the house without knowing if they were armed.
He shook his head. Nick was disappointed in himself. He knew better than to leave his pack behind, Mike would have chastised him endlessly, but he knew walking away with his life was more important. It would be a lesson he wouldn’t soon forget.
Nick started to slowly walk away from the house. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the light fading from the bedroom. He froze as he stepped on a dry stick and it snapped under his foot. He slowly turned his head and looked back at the house.
The light made its way toward the front of the house and Nick took off running. He just hoped they wouldn’t be able to see him in the dark.
Fred ran onto the porch with the flare still in his hand.
“That way,” Rick said.
Fred ran off the porch and threw the flare into the air. Rick caught a glimpse of movement and fired two shells. He lowered the shotgun in disgust. He didn’t think he had hit the fleeing man… and if he had there was a chance he had done nothing but maim him.
“Did you get him?” Fred said.
“Why are you standing there? Run after him!”
Rick shook his head as he watched Fred pick up the flare and start running. Rick sat down on the top step of the porch and put the shotgun across his knees as he watched the light of the flare dwindle as Fred ran.
Nick looked over his shoulder, still amazed that whoever shot at him had completely missed. He was getting lucky and he didn’t know how much longer it would last. He looked over his shoulder again and he could swear the light, which he now realized was a road flare, was still relatively close to him. Shit, they’re chasing me.
His legs were already tired from making his way from Lyons to Longmont and Nick didn’t know how much longer he could keep it up. He stepped to the side of a large tree as it came into view. There was just enough moonlight that he was able to see as he ran… he just hoped he was staying far enough ahead of the guys chasing him.
Nick didn’t see the root system of the second tree as his right foot came down on it at a wonky angle. He collapsed as his ankle gave out. Nick grabbed his ankle as he writhed on the ground in pain. He forced his eyes open as he looked for his pursuer. The light was coming closer and he had to move… it didn’t matter how much pain he was in.
He crawled behind a large cottonwood and propped his back against it. Nick knew there was no way he would be able to outrun them and he just had to hide and hope for the best. The light from the flare grew brighter and Nick held his breath. He glanced from left to right and back left again as he tried to figure out which side of the tree the man would end up.
The light approached on his left and he scooted himself to the right, trying to hide behind the tree. Nick did his best to stay enveloped in the shadows as the man got closer and closer.
“Crap… Anthony is gonna be pissed.”
Nick opened his eyes as the light from the flare faded away. He finally looked around the side of the tree and saw it moving back they way they had come. He tilted his head back and rested it against the bark of the tree as his heart slowed. It had been another close call and Nick had come out of it in bad shape.
He stood up using the tree for balance and tried to put some weight on his ankle. Pain shot up his leg and Nick bit down on his lip. He was pretty sure it wasn’t broken, but it was definitely sprained. He knew it was going to slow him down. Nick wasn’t sure what to do… it was another situation where he knew Mike would know what to do. The only thing that came to Nick was that he needed to rest until his ankle got better, which meant he needed to find another house.
“All right, Nick… you can do this.”
He put more weight on his ankle and tried to walk. The pain was intense, each step hurt… but he knew he had to keep going. Nick prayed there was another house nearby because he wasn’t sure how far he could make it. He thought about staying put for the rest of the night and he thought it was too risky. If the men that chased him waited in the area until the morning he wouldn’t have a chance in the world of escaping.
He stopped more than he would have liked and it was closer to the morning than the middle of the night when he finally spotted what looked like a house not far from a clump of trees. He sat down on a rock to rest his ankle and to watch the house. Nick had to be cautious—if there was anyone in the house he wouldn’t be able to do anything.
Nick waited, sitting on the rock, for near thirty minutes before he finally stood up. Sitting for that long had made his ankle stiff. He walked in a circle around the rock for a few minutes to loosen it up.
A light appeared in Nick’s field of vision and he froze. He slowly turned his head and squinted as he realized it was headlights. He had no idea what the person was doing… it was a stupid way to get noticed and they didn’t seem to care.
The car turned and started to head in his direction. Nick moved back behind the rock and hid. That was close. I’ll just wait until they go inside and then I’ll sneak off. There didn’t seem to be anything else around, so he figured the owner of the car had to be heading to the house he had almost gone into.
The car stopped a hundred feet short of the house and the lights turned off, followed by the engine. As his eyes adjusted Nick could see the outline of what was actually a truck. The doors opened and closed with almost no sound.
“Are you sure this time?”
Nick felt his heart skip a beat as he recognized the voice. It was the one of the men that had just been in the house… not the one who chased him, but the other one.
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“I still don’t know how you could confuse two houses.”
“Whatever. This is the place.”
Nick heard the sound of a shotgun being pumped.
“It better be… or I’m going to make sure Anthony knows you fucked up.”
“This is it… get off my back.”
Nick ducked behind the rock as the two men walked toward the house. They stopped talking and slowly approached. He wondered what they were doing, but they were clearly trying to find this particular house… he just had no idea why. A nighttime supply grab using a truck wasn’t something he would ever try.
He watched as the men walked up onto the porch and one of them lit another flare. They tried the front door, but it seemed to be locked. The one with the flare dropped it on the ground, took a few steps back and threw his body against the door. The door flew open and he stumbled inside. The man with the shotgun bent down and picked up the flare before heading inside.
The light from the flare bounced off of the walls of the living room. It gave Nick the chills as he watched. He hoped there wasn’t anyone inside.
Nick closed his eyes and flinched as the man with the shotgun fired his gun inside. Two rounds followed from another gun, followed by the shotgun. Everything was quiet for a brief moment… and then there was screaming. It was the piercing scream of a woman inside the house. Nick cringed. He knew in that moment exactly what the men had been looking for. He wished there was something he could do to help her, but he knew it wasn’t even a possibility.
The screaming was cut off sharply and Nick wondered what had happened. There hadn’t been a gunshot, so he knew she was alive and he feared the worst for the woman. The light of the flare grew brighter again as the men walked toward the front of the house. The man with the flare was also holding the shotgun as he walked out of the house. The other man walked out just behind him with a woman slung over his shoulder.
Seeing the limp body of the woman was too much for Nick. The thought of what those sick men would do to her made him want to throw up. He turned away and closed his eyes as they walked back to their truck. He couldn’t believe that they had literally only come to that house to get her… and had been willing to commit murder in order to achieve their sick goal.
It was one thing for Nick to see his friend dead… but seeing the woman carried off brought his opinion of people to an all time low. If this is what society has become, I’m not sure I even want to be a part of it.
Nick waited behind the rock until the tail lights of the truck had long since faded into what little there was left of the night and he stood up. He walked to the house, taking it slow on his injured ankle and climbed the stairs. He went inside, took a deep breath and found his way to the couch. There was nothing he could do for the dead man he shared the house with, but he would do something about it in the light of day.
He sprawled out on the couch, put a pillow under his ankle and tried to sleep. The pain in his leg made it almost unbearable, but Nick eventually did drift off into sleep not long before the sun started to come up.