Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Dash’s first thought was about the fact that he wasn’t dead yet.  He had seen the barrel facing his head; heard the gun shot, and yet he wasn’t dead.  That was the last good thought that he would have in a long time.  The masked man turned and started giving orders to his men.  There was no confusion on the man’s part.  And then there was the screaming.  A long, drawn out wail so horrible that anyone who heard it would either be running away in fear or running towards looking to see what was wrong.  There was no words.  Just a long, pain-filled scream.  And it only took a fraction of a second for Dash to realize that the person screaming was his father.  Instinctively, he looked at his father, and then at what his father was staring at.  And that’s when Dash started screaming as well.

His mother lay on the ground, her head covered in head; there was a hole in her forehead.  The bullet had never been meant for Dash.

First came the denial.  She couldn’t be dead.  This was all a trick.  There was no way his mother was dead.  He crawled over to her.  He felt her pulse.  There was none.  And then he looked into her eyes.  They were already lifeless, staring blankly into the air.  There was nothing there.  That convinced him more than anything else: his mother was dead. 

Next came the rage.  He slowly rose to his feet, and took a step towards the man who had killed his mother.  His dad beat Dash to him.  With a violent thrust, his father charged the man.  “KARTH, DIE!” his father screamed.  His father was on Karth in a second.  Dash halted.  Even in his maddened state he recognized he could do no good right now.  He needed to wait.  And then, in a spit-second, he saw his father go limp.  Karth, for Dash figured that that must be the name of the man in the mask, calmly shoved the body off of him, and then, looking over at Dash, held up a needle.  “Don’t try it.”  Karth warned.  “You are nothing like your father, and I’d prefer to leave you alive.”  He smiled.  And then there was a loud bang, and the smile left his face, replaced by a look of shock and a bullet hole through his right eye.  Karth collapsed, several more shots were fired, and Dash stood through it all, the anger replaced by confusion.  For a second, there was silence, and then the clearing erupted into chaos.  Masked men seemed to be everywhere.  Several grabbed Karth and began taking him away; several more grabbed Dash’s father, and began to move him.  That sent dash into action.  He charged, as fast as his bad leg would let him, at the men, anger returning.  Dash had one goal: stop these men.  He barely made it five steps, however, before he was thrown to the ground by another man he didn’t see.  The man shoved one knee onto Dash’s chest, effectively pinning him.This one held a knife, and appeared to be prepared to use it on Dash.  It was strange, but Dash found himself focusing on the ensemble on the man’s vest.  It took him a moment, but he realized what it was: a phoenix, its body aflame, emerging from fire.  Dash thought it strangely ironic that a symbol for rebirth could be the symbol for people who murdered without a second thought. 

Suddenly, the pressure on Dash’s chest was removed. 

“Be glad for yourself,” the man said.  “We want you alive.  For now.”  The man sprinted away, and just like that, the clearing was empty except for Dash and, as he looked around, two bodies.  One was his mother.  The other, at the area of the clearing that Dash had entered, he didn’t recognize for a second, but as he got closer, he realized that the man was his uncle.   

The rage returned; Dash stood over his uncle, tempted, even in Dash’s weak state, to give his uncle the thrashing he deserved.  Then he saw the bullet holes.  The body was littered with them; Dash counted seven going through various body parts.  Most of them were fatal by themselves. 

Dash finally lost enough of the adrenaline in his body to realize what he was seeing: death, in all its nature.  He fell to his knees and emptied his guts by his uncle.  When he finished, he slowly, shakily, stood up.  His bad leg was holding up; thanks to the boot, he wasn’t very worried about it. 

Finally, his gaze returned again to his mother.  She lay near the center of the clearing, her body lying at an unnatural angle, due partially to the fact that Dash had picked her up earlier.  Dash approached her.  The anger was gone now.  Dash didn’t even understand how it had come in the first place.  In its place came an emotion he understood much more: sorrow. And so he wept.  He wept until there were no tears left to cry.  And yet, even before the tears had gone, a numbness began to set in.  His body had experienced too much, and his brain quietly began to shut down.  At last, the tears stopped.  Dash starred at his mother’s face, perfect except for the hole left by the bullet.  Somewhere in his mind he wondered where that bullet was.  It was a strange thought, but it was what came to mind.  It was a safe though; there was no emotion in it.  Until the thoughts led him back to his mother.  But there was still no emotion.  Dash paused.  He knew he should feel sorrow.  He had just lost his mother.  But there was nothing.  And maybe, Dash thought, it was because his mother was dead.  There was no life in her, so maybe it was Dash’s way of honoring her: if she couldn’t feel, neither would he.  And he resolved, right there, that he would hold onto this numbness for as long as he could.  Because, though he told himself that it was honoring his mother, he also knew what would come if he let emotion live.  Fear.  Pain.  Anger.  And they would not stop.  He knew now that he couldn’t possibly allow himself to feel those emotions.  He had felt them just moments ago, and they hurt.  So now, he decided, he would feel nothing.   

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I reached the end of the road.  I saw the parked car, and instantly identified it as the one the uncle had been driving.  I pulled out my cell, and only then realized that, this deep into the forests, there was no service.  They had phones that got around this problem, but I apparently hadn’t been issued one.  I sighed.  Yet another issue that was caused because of the joke that was MDI.  I looked around, and soon discovered that someone had left a trail so clear that even I could follow it.  (I have many strengths, but my weaknesses are many when I’m out of a city).  The grass and leaves had been trampled down, but not so hard as to be a deer trail.  This wasn’t as defined, but whoever had gone through here had been in a hurry.  I wasn’t a good tracker, so aside from the fact that someone(s) went through the area, I couldn’t tell much.  I followed the trail, as it was obvious, and after about ten minutes of hiking, I came upon blood stains.  They were small, but they were there, and they gave me new energy.  It was a good thing too, because I was becoming worried that I’d made a mistake.  But after I saw the blood I became even more convinced that whoever had taken Daniel had gone this way, and I followed quickly. 

After another ten minutes of walking, I came to a clearing.  I saw the three bodies immediately, and through myself back into the forest, grabbing for my gun.  I scanned the area carefully, though I knew that if there was anyone hostile around the clearing, I would have already been dead.  After about thirty seconds, I began to slowly walk around the parameter of the clearing, my entire body on full alert.  I made it completely around the clearing without seeing any signs that there were other humans aside from the bodies on the ground, and by this time, I could see that one of them was breathing.  I decided to risk it, dashing out into the clearing, aiming for the one body that still showed signs of life.  He was lying face-up on the ground, and I confirmed what I had already suspected: that he was the boy that had gone missing.  I did a quick examination, and, finding no visible injuries, I moved on to the other two.  It didn’t take me long to find that they were both dead.  I had already seen a fair amount of dead bodies, so it didn’t bother me as much as you might think.  It still bothered me though.  My dad once said that if I ever become comfortable around dead bodies, there is something seriously wrong with me.  I was now faced with a problem, however.  I was obviously standing on a murder scene.  I needed to get the right people here soon.  There was only one real problem.  I still had no signal.  My only option was to hike out and call once I had a signal.  Finding my way back wouldn’t be a problem, but I still had to deal with the teen who was still alive.  I was saved by the problem of how to wake him up when his eyes shot open.  I started a little, because of how suddenly he became awake.  He looked at me with a blank expression. 

“You ok?”  I asked.  He didn’t answer.  He just stared at me. 

“What happened here?” Still nothing.

“Who’s that?” I said, gesturing to the woman who lay just a few feet away, though I suspected the answer. 

He looked at her, and I saw a series of emotions flash across his face in an instant.  Pain.  Fear.  And something else.  Something that scared me.  It was only there for an instant, but I saw what had to be anger.  And an amazingly strong anger.  And then it was gone.  His face seemed to grow even blanker, if that was possible.  And that’s when I realized what was going on.  During my training, I had learned to recognize several varieties of shock.  This kid had just gone into a coma like state that sometimes occurred after a severely shocking experience.  While not an actual coma, the person in this state would force themselves to act like they were in a coma.  They would literally force themselves to shut down.  It was the first time I had ever seen someone in that state.  I was again in a tough situation.  If anything, I was in a worse situation that when he had been asleep.  Now he was awake, but not functioning.  And if he decided to wander off while I went for help, there was a high chance he would find some way of hurting himself.  It was then that I realized another problem.  The sun was starting to set.  While I was only a twenty minute walk away from my car, I had two dead bodies and one person in a dysfunctional state.  It was then that my phone rang.  I reached to answer it instinctively, only then realizing that only moments ago I hadn’t had a signal.  I looked at the caller ID.  It was my dad.  I shrugged, and answered the phone. 

“WHERE ARE YOU!” My dad’s voice exploded through the speaker. 
“About a twenty minutes’ walk from the end of a small path that breaks off from the highway.” I responded.  “And I have bodies.”  That got my dad’s attention.  I explained my situation to him, and he then proceeded to explain that about ten miles from where I was, a van came shooting through a roadblock, with guns firing from virtually every angle.  He wanted to make sure I was still ok.  He had tried calling several times before, and this was the first time that he had gotten through.  He knew about the poor coverage, so he had finally been able to pull some strings to get through to me. 

“What now?” I asked.  The boy in front of me had laid down and fallen back to sleep.  It was strange.  He still looked tense, like a single sound could wake him up.  I had walked a short distance away so I could have some privacy.  Even though I knew that he wouldn’t overhear anything that he shouldn’t, I still wanted privacy. 

“I have your GPS coordinates now.”  My dad said.  There will be people with you in about five minutes.”  

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The rest of the evening past in a blur.  After the rest of the feds showed up, I was pretty much out of the picture.  I gave my report, short as it was, and then settled down at a hotel for the night.  The next day, I learned what I had already suspected; namely that the kid was the same one who had gotten kidnapped, and the women was his mom.  The other dead guy was the kidnapper, which did surprise me.  I had thought that he was the dad.  But the police suspected that the uncle had been nothing more than a tool, and once he was finished with, his boss had disposed of him.  They were working on the teen, trying to get him to talk to them, but he wasn’t responding. 

All this I learned through my father, who then told me to prepare to come home.  I suspected that would happen.  I had done my part, and now that this had gotten big, I could get out of town.  A part of me was ready, but mostly, I wanted to stay in the action.  I thought that, when this became a kidnapping, I would get a chance to play a larger role, and in a way, I had.  But they wanted experts handling this case, not a seventeen year old rookie.  I got it.  Didn’t mean I had to like it.  But orders were orders, and I hadn’t expected this trip to last long anyway.  I boarded the plane later that afternoon, and was home late that night, anticipating going back to a normal, mundane life.  The problem with anticipating, however, is that when you’re wrong, you’re really wrong.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After about a half hour of driving, Dash could see that Jon was getting very nervous about something.  They suddenly turned off into a thin road that Dash hadn’t even seen before.  The car bounced along, giving Dash an uncomfortable ride for the next ten minutes. 

Finally, they stopped.  Dash looked around.  The road had ended in a wall of trees.  In fact, they were completely surrounded by trees.  Dash wasn’t used to this, as his family rarely went camping.  Dash suspected this was his fault.

As he reached for the handle, Jon stopped him: “Daniel, listen closely.  I know that you don’t like me.  You may even hate me.  But trust me, your family will be fine.  Remember,” he said with a smile, “Your dad is my brother.” 

Dash thought about mentioning the fact that this hadn’t stopped him from allowing the people he was working for to steal his father away from him, but he chose to hold his tongue. 

“One final word of advice,” his uncle finished.  “There have been some strange stuff going on in these words.  It’s rumored that several beasts that were thought to have been legend have been seen here.  While I have no doubt that the beasts themselves are the result of over-imaginative hikers, there are real creatures out here that would love to kill us both.  I’m the only one with a gun.  I suggest you stay close to me.”

Dash didn’t respond.  He had already decided not to do anything even if he had a chance to.  Right now, his uncle, however dangerous and mad, was probably the only person who could take him to his parents. 

They entered the forest.  Jon was forced to slow for Dash, as Dash’s leg made it difficult for him to move quickly over the forest terrain.  Their progress was further impeded by the fact that there seemed to be no clearly marked path.  Jon seemed to know where they were going, so Dash followed, wondering what was going on.

They had been walking for about ten minutes when Dash heard sounds behind them.  He opened his mouth to ask what it was, but Jon cut him off.  “Move. Quickly.”  Dash thought that he heard a slightly higher amount of fear in his uncle’s voice than before.  That alone spurred him to move faster.  Jon was now constantly looking behind him, and attempting to get Dash to move faster.  Suddenly, Dash’s brace got caught on a vine that had grown across the forest floor, sending him plummeting to the ground.  This one mistake saved his life.  As he fell, he felt the movement of something as it shot over his body.  When he glanced up from his fall and saw what it was that had leapt over him, he lost what little breath he had left. 

The beast was about the size of a lab, and appeared metallic.  Its body was smooth, as if it really was made of metal.  Its legs were bent slightly, and it had wide feet, and long claws.  But what really caught Dash’s attention was its face, if it could be called that. It had no neck, and it’s face was formed completely of needle like objects that started at the end of the mid-section, and curved to a point about two feet from its mid-section.  There were many of these, but they were all organized so as to come down and meet with only an inch or two separating the individual needles from the points next to it.  The only exception was the forhead, which appeared to be covered with the same material as the rest of the body, before dividing into the needles again as it dropped into the region above where it’s eyes would be.  There was a gap about the size of a fist formed by the space they didn’t fill, in the middle of the face, which had to be the creature’s mouth.  There was no eyes that Dash could see, nor were there any ears.  But by far, Dash’s main concern was the needles and claws.  It took him only a moment to realize that his fall had just saved his life. 

The creature focused on him, and Dash froze.  The creature paused, then turned toward what Dash assumed was Jon.  There was a loud bang, and black gunk exploded from one of the creatures’ legs.  It paused for a moment, and for that moment, the only sound Dash could hear was his own heartbeat.  Then, suddenly, the creature turned around and lept away from both of them.  It ran in a method that somehow, Dash felt, resembled a frog on steroids.  It’s back legs seemed powerful, as it moved in great leaps that sometimes ended in it hitting trees or large rocks, and quickly springing off of them.  It vanished quickly; the bullet wound—or at least that was what Dash assumed it had—seemed not to affect it.  

There was a pause as the air seemed to still.  Slowly, the normal activity and sounds of the forest seemed to resume. 

“What was that?” asked Dash, breathlessly. 

“That,” answered his uncle, “was probably what all the hikers have been talking about.  I didn’t realize how true they were.”  He looked at his watch, and Dash heard him swear under his breath.  “We need to move.”  He looked at Dash, and swore, loudly this time.  “Your forhead’s bleeding.”  Dash reached his hand up to his face, and, when he pulled his hand back, his hand did have blood on it.

  “I’m fine.” Dash said, as he got up.  Jon looked upset, but he decided that he couldn’t spend the time to patch Dash up, and they set out, both consciously hurrying their speed, though they still froze at the slightest sound.  Finally, they entered a clearing.  It was only slightly more than a treeless area; Dash couldn’t see the ground through all the brush and other forest objects that covered the forest floor.  There were five people there.  Three were men who wore ski masks that hid their faces.  They also wore black leather vests that had no markings on them except for a strange orange symbol on the top right area.  It was too small for Dash to see it clearly, however. They were spread out; one stood to the left of the clearing, another to the right, and the third in the middle with the remaining two people.  The other two were bound, gagged, and covered in blood, but Dash recognized them instantly: they were his parents.  He attempted to rush over to them, but Jon placed a firm hand on his shoulder, and Dash froze.  The pressure had provided just enough distraction from his parents to recognize that all three of the masked men had large guns, and all of the barrels were pointing at him. 

The man in the middle spoke: “I see you brought the package.  Good.  Place him with the others.”

Jon walked him to his parents.  Dash had realized by this time that, in addition to being bodily injured, his parents were unconscious.  He sat down next to them, only then realizing just how exhausted he was.  He had experienced his parents being stolen from him, had been kidnapped himself, experienced betrayal, had walked for a fair amount of time (about twenty-thirty minutes, he estimated), been attacked by some strange beast, and, just to finish off the experience, had found his parents in a horrible state.  He was ready to call it a day, but it seemed like this day wasn’t even close to its conclusion. 

Once Jon had led Dash to his parents, he spoke to the men.  “Ok, I did all you wanted.  Can I go now?” 
The man standing over Dash and his family answered again, with a slight chuckle in his voice, “No, not yet.  I like having you where I can see you.  It keeps you from trying anything…dangerous.”

Jon frowned, and for a second, there was another emotion on his face.  Was it fear?  Anger?  The man behind the mask couldn’t tell, and that disturbed him.  He made a mental note to ensure that Jon disappeared after this encounter.  You never could tell just how far a man would go before his training caught up with him.  But that was side business, and he needed to focus on the matter at hand. 

Dash’s parents were beginning to wake up.  Dash tried to fill them in, but it seemed like, in a matter of seconds, both of his parents were aware and knowledgeable of their surroundings and past events.  Both of his parents complained of massive headaches, but Dash was ecstatic to have them awake again.  In a strange way, now that they were awake, he was beginning to feel like they might make it out of this situation.  It was then that his father noticed the masked man standing over them. 

As soon as that occurred, it was like Dash’s father had left, and a beast had taken his place.  His father charged the man, moving amazingly fast for a man who had just taken a nasty beating.  The masked man moved quickly, dropping his gun and swinging a punch aimed at the head.  It struck air.  Dash’s father had ducked under the blow, grabbing the man’s arm with one hand, which left his other hand in the perfect position to swing a quick, firm punch that connected hard with the side of the masked man’s head.  The man collapsed, and Dash’s dad charged again.  For a moment, it looked hopeful.  Then, there was a loud thwack, and his father collapsed on the forest floor.   

Dash felt the breath go out of him.  He heard his mother scream, but it didn’t register.  It seemed like, after just getting one of his parents back, one of them was about to be stole away from him again.  The man who his father had knocked down slowly got up, shaking his head and chuckling.  Dash decided then and there that, if he ever heard that chuckle again, it would be the last time that man ever made a sound. 

“You really thought you could beat me.” The man said, gazing down at Dash’s father.  He then looked over at Dash and his mother and narrowed his eyes.  Dash hadn’t noticed before, but the man’s irises were jet black.  It scared Dash.  Those eyes weren’t natural.  “Don’t worry.  He’s not dead.  Yet.  It was merely a tranquilizer” The man said smoothly.  “You two, on the other hand…well, it seems that we may have to change our plans.” 

The man walked over and picked up his gun that he had dropped.  He raised it smoothly, and pointed it at Dash.  And then he pulled the trigger.        

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Once the beggar was gone, I took a moment to decide what to do.  A change in clothes seemed first in order.  I went into the gas station again, and used the restrooms to change into the new outfit.  It wasn’t much— jeans and a t-shirt —but it was nice to have a clean outfit.  I tossed my dirty clothes in the trash.  At this point, I didn’t want the extra weight, and my dad probably wouldn’t mind.  I smiled to myself.  With all that had gone on today, I was still thinking about whether my dad would mind.  Some habits would never go away. 

After a moments decision, I decided that I would take a chance, and follow this fellow’s lead.  Investigation the hotel room normally would have been a routine step, but I figured that by this time, all the evidence would have been fully documented and taken out of the building. 

In order to follow the tip, I needed a ride.  This was an easy problem to solve.  I had a driver’s license, and the government issued car that I was using was parked a few blocks away.  Luckily, I still had the keys, and in a few moments, I was sitting in the passenger seat of a 2011 black Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was a nice ride, but now I need to decide where I wanted to go with it.  This was a problem. 

Back in the initial training period of the MDI, there had been virtually no teachers who actually took us seriously.  In their eyes, we were a bunch of teen FBI copy-cats with no business doing half of the things they taught us to do.  And with some of us, they were right.  Those that my dad judged inadequate quickly vanished from the training program until there was only four of us left.  I was one of them.  Anyway, of the few teachers who did take us seriously, one was a old field agent for the FBI named Charles.  He was an overly-cheerful sort, but always prone to sudden moments where he was dead serious.  I was having a private conversation with him about a problem he had given us earlier that week when he had one of those moments.  The problem involved looking at a series of facts (or in this case, a single fact) and figuring out what observations these facts lead you to make.  The problem was that the only fact that he gave us seemed useless: it was a map of an imaginary city. It had all the standard labels: street names, major locations, ect., but it also included current investigation areas.  These were areas that the authorities were somehow checking out, either by moles, raids, or other modes.  The problem was that I didn’t know what I was looking for.  I knew that I needed to note observations and facts, but nothing really stood out.  I felt like I was staring at a key and not knowing what door it went into.  So I did what I still do today when I don’t know a solution to a problem: I ask for help.  Charles went over the map with me, showing me patterns in locations that were marked, and helping me figure out how those patterns might affect an investigation.  Once he finished, he leaned closer to me, and said in a hushed tone, “But you’d be wrong if you only looked at where people are.  If you look where other people aren’t, you are highly likely to find something others aren’t.”  He then proceeded to point out a small, circular area on the map where there had been no police activity for a fair amount of time.  “That,” he said, “is where any good criminal would hide, and where any good police officer would look after a crime had been committed.  Rarely observed, and yet with enough activity around it to make your average officer forget about it entirely.  And that is where you must look: where no one else is.” 

It was pretty confusing at the time, but now I understood what he was talking about.  There was probably plenty of officers looking.  What I needed to do was to find where they weren’t.  And for that, I needed my dad.  A quick phone call was all it took; within moments I was driving along the highway.  There was a lot of ground to cover, as my dad had informed me.  There was road blocks all over, but there was plenty of forest that the kidnappers could have escaped to.  I was looking for a good place to start, when my eyes were unexplainably drawn to what appeared to be a narrow road in the tree line on the right side of the road.  Acting on instinct, I swung into the narrow road.  The ride was bumpy; there obviously hadn’t been much traffic on it, but, judging from the way the weeds appeared trampled down, there had been at least one car through here earlier.  The more I thought about it, the more certain I became: if these guys wanted to pull off a kidnapping, what better way to escape than through the woods.  The Rockies are huge, and while it was risky, they may have decided that it would be safer than taking the highway.  I stopped the car, and called my dad.  He answered promptly. 

“Karson here.” 

“Dad, I may have found something.”  I briefly explained my theory.  There was silence from my dad.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked.

More silence.  Then my dad said, “Keep checking it out.  It’s probably nothing, but go ahead anyway. Karson out.” 

I smiled.  There wasn’t much reason for me to smile, but my gut was telling me that this was something, and I thought that was reason enough.  I restarted the car and started following the road.