Carl gave her a quick salute with his middlefinger as he stepped to my side. “Now or never,” I thought.
I took a deep breath and lifted us off theground. I gathered myself for a moment, planning out what I wantedto do and then flung us out and up. Once I got us a few yards awayfrom the cliff face, I began climbing in a spiral pattern as fastas I could. It was a little disorienting, but I kept at it until Ifigured that I was about a thousand feet up.
It took a few more turns before I couldorient myself properly in the near darkness, but I finally noticedthat it was a bit brighter in one direction and figured that waseast. Once I had that determined, I angled our upward spiral towardthe north and tried to add more speed. After keeping to thatheading for about fifteen minutes, I thought that we would be safeenough, so I cut sharply to the east.
As we sped along, I kept climbing as best asI could. It was tough to tell, but I estimated that we were betterthan a half mile up by now. I would have to dive down into thetrees when we got closer to town but for now, the altitude wasreassuring. The wind whipping by us was freezing. A pair of gogglessure would have been handy. Carl probably wished that he broughthis toque.
Once the sun broke over the horizon it becameeasier to pinpoint our position, but it was a bitch flying straighttoward it. I was fairly proud to see that my blind reckoning wasonly off by a few degrees. I made a slight course correction andleveled out. “How are you holding up?” I shouted to Carl.
“I’m glad that I skipped breakfast. Thatbloody corkscrew thing you did was almost enough to make medecorate the landscape. Then again, it might have been worth it tohave puked on one of those bastards.”
I had to chuckle at the thought of vomitlanding on one of them out of nowhere. Carl was one of a kind.
I kept to our course until I was past thetown. I thought it would be safest to approach from the far side onthe odd chance that Sara was right about there being an enemypresence around.
We went down below the tree tops for the lasthalf mile, and on foot for the last hundred yards. Pausing at thetree line I asked, “Ready to head in?”
“Why don’t you wait here and let me check itout first. I’m pretty sure that Sara’s a little too paranoid, butbetter safe than sorry.” He slipped the pack off his back and hungit up on a short tree branch.
Nodding agreement, I sat down with my back toa tree and rested. Our mad flight here had taken a lot out of me,and I almost dozed off a time or two waiting for him to come back.When he finally did, he came back bearing manna from heaven. It wasonly fast food coffee, but right now, I would be willing to swearthat it was the best thing I had ever tasted.
“There didn’t seem to be anything out of theordinary that I could see,” he reported.
“I didn’t think there would be, but Sara’sparanoia is contagious and it was worth checking.”
“Where shall we go first?”
“Straight to the police station I think. Thesheriff may have been duped by Sid about ‘maneuvers in the hills’but if we report that Linda’s house was shot up, he’ll have toinvestigate. From there, he can call in whatever force isneeded.”
“Yeah, let him bring in the state troopers,SWAT teams, everything. We can sit back, relax, and let them roundup the lunatics.”
“You can sit here and relax. I’ll be headingback to the cave. Linda needs help still.”
“Sorry, I almost forgot.”
“It’s ok. Enough chatter though. Let’s gocall up the cavalry and save the day, eh.”
I grabbed the backpack and slung it over myshoulder. The police station was only a block away, so it wouldn’tbe long before this nightmare was over. As we walked down MainStreet I kept an eye open for anyone looking like they were in themilitary. Being so early in the morning, I didn’t see any foottraffic and only a few cars.
“One quick detour first,” Carl said, pointingat a donut shop. “It could take a while at the cop shop, and I wantto hit the restroom first.”
“Fine, I’ll grab us a couple more coffeesthen.”
Carl made a beeline for the washrooms and Iheaded up to the counter. We were the only people in the place, soI got our coffees fast, but to my chagrin, found that I didn’t haveany money. Embarrassed, I told the cashier that I forgot my wallet,but my friend would cover it when he got out of the washroom.
He came out, tucking his shirt back in at thesame time as the bell rang at the door announcing another customerentering.
“FREEZE,” I heard from behind me. “Keep yourhands away from that gun and get down on the floor! Do it now!”
I turned, startled, and saw a cop aiming hisgun at Carl. Carl had the pistol from Sara tucked into hiswaistband and the officer saw it. He must have thought that Carlwas going to rob the place!
“They’re both together,” The cashiersquawked.
With Carl on the ground, he pointed his gunat me. “You too then, you’re both under arrest.”
As I dropped down to the ground, I thoughtthat there was no way the cops would believe us now.
We were screwed.
Chapter 23
Linda: An Astral Journey
My world had become darkness and pain. I wastrapped inside this world, yet was able to look out around me. Itwas like a bad dream.
I could see myself lying on the ground, Sarawiping blood from my forehead. I tried sinking my awareness backinto my body but the pain expelled me within moments. Is this whatdeath is like? It was surreal.
I could see that my body was alive. That wasgood news, but I needed to figure out what was happening to me. Thelast thing I could remember was fire and pain.
