Buck slammed both hands on the hood of the truck just as it came to a stop in front of him, the dust and dirt rising into the headlights, casting him in an eerie glow. He suddenly disappeared, and she sat up in the seat, looking for him. She nearly screamed when he pulled open the passenger door and jumped in.
“Let’s go! They’re coming!”
Skeeter turned and looked over her shoulder for just a moment and saw dozens of very fast-moving figures bouncing from car to car or running full out down the dirt road. More than one had stopped at the car with the alarm going and was beating on the windows, trying to get in. She stomped her foot on the accelerator and the powerful V-8 engine pulled them both back in the seat as the truck roared out onto the dirt road.
“Easy, hot rod!” Buck yelled. “Don’t wreck us before we get out of here.” He laughed as she pitched the truck from one side to the other. He was amazed at how much wider the road seemed from a pickup truck rather than from the seat of the giant motorcoach.
“This isn’t so easy you know,” she screamed from the driver’s seat. “I’ve only driven once in my life, and it was just to back my mom’s Honda down the driveway!”
Buck shot her a smile. “How far was that?” He watched her as she bounced the truck off the rear fender of a very expensive looking Mercedes.
“About fifteen feet,” she admitted. “Maybe twenty.” She overcorrected again and slid the rear end into the side of a minivan.
Buck laughed as he slid across the seat and into the door. “You’re not doing too bad,” he yelled over the roar of the engine. “But you might want to slow down a bit.”
Skeeter slammed on the brakes and Buck slid into the dashboard while Skeeter bounced off the steering wheel, sounding the horn when she did so. When she bounced back, she rubbed at her head. “Oh, my…that hurt!”
Buck picked himself up from the floorboard and slid over next to her. “Trade me,” he offered. “I’ve had a little more practice.” Skeeter slid out from the wheel and the truck rolled slightly forward while Buck slipped in behind the wheel. He glanced in the rearview mirror, then goosed the gas pedal again. “They’re coming.” He did his best to put distance between them.
“What if we can’t lose them before we get to the ranger place?” Skeeter tried not to turn around and look behind them. “I mean, what if they follow us all the way there?”
“Then we lock it up tight and try to wait them out,” Buck said as he stared at the road. He kept increasing his speed until he didn’t think he could control the truck if he pushed it any further, then backed off a little. “We’re not too far. As long as we can make it inside and lock the doors.”
Skeeter finally turned and stared out the back window, looking for crazy people. She suddenly turned to Buck, her eyes wide. “What if the doors are locked when we get there?”
Buck shook his head rapidly. “One problem at a time.”
Hatcher was livid. He had been unceremoniously dragged from his own office by uniformed men, then chained to the stairs of the Sheriff’s Department Mobile Unit, then, after more choppers showed up, people in white space suits dragged him to a makeshift tent, stripped him down, sprayed him with something that smelled like bug killer mixed with glass cleaner, checked him in places that nobody but his momma had ever seen, and gave him a shot without his permission.
“Immunity booster, my ass,” he muttered through gritted teeth.
They tossed him what looked like an orange prison jumpsuit and he told them to kiss his ass. He marched, bare-assed naked across the grounds and back to the locker room where his spare uniform was. He was a ‘by-God Park Service Ranger,’ and he would wear the uniform. As he sat in the locker room getting dressed, a female officer entered and tried to question him. She was a major or something. He was too mad to remember, but he did get an ounce of joy by throwing her out on her cute little derrière.
After he laced up his old boots, Hatcher searched for a duty belt and came up empty. The bastards had stripped him of his weapon and duty belt and he didn’t have a spare. He went down each line of lockers and came up empty there, too. He would have thought that surely Fisher would have an extra…that’s it! Fisher’s gun they had found in the woods! Hatch turned and started to go to the ATVs, then realized, Mitch had taken his ATV at the watchtower. He didn’t have it any longer. He stopped in his tracks and cursed himself. Hatcher was just about to punch the wall when he remembered, no…he had put Fisher’s gun into the back of the ATV he was riding when he and Shelly went out. When he and Olson left,
