Chapter 13
The moment bullets struck the old army truck, Agent Parker tried to reverse, but in his haste, he smashed into a nearby garbage truck, and the back bumper was hooked on the massive city truck.
“Go!” John shouted at Parker.
But each time Parker floored the gas pedal, they remained exactly where they were. The tires were burning out, drifting up smoke, and John knew they were sitting ducks.
“All right, that’s enough,” John said.
Parker took his foot off the gas, keeping low as they were slowly surrounded.
“We’re sitting ducks out here,” Parker said.
“We need to unhitch the truck,” John said.
“Are you nuts? Let’s just leave,” Parker said. “All they want is the truck.”
“The truck is our only way to catch up to my wife in time to stop her before that lunatic does anything else,” John said, and then he glanced at the rear of the truck. “I think I can get to the bumper from here.”
The gunfire sounded like metal rain crashing against the exterior of the truck. John saw Blake and Jake hunched below the windows of the truck. John wasn’t sure if Jake was even conscious, but Blake was shivering with fear.
Once John was confident the truck’s armor was going to hold up, he started to scan streets where people were shooting from.
Even though it sounded like everybody had a gun outside, upon closer inspection, he saw it was only a handful of people actually armed with firearms. The rest stood by, waiting for their time to strike.
“Do you still have your gun on you?” John asked.
Parker nodded.
“Keep those guys back and give me some cover fire,” John said. “Can you do that?”
“Yeah,” Parker said. “But how am I supposed to shoot back? The windows on this truck don’t exactly roll down.”
John pointed upward to the ceiling, where a hatch provided an exit point to the roof. “You’ll have a bird’s eye view.”
“I’ll also be a sitting duck,” Parker answered.
“You’ll have the high ground,” John said. “Are you with me or not?”
With the crowd outside growing bolder, Parker didn’t have a choice.
“All right, let’s get this over with,” Parker said.
With the plan in place, both men moved into position. John passed his son and Jake, making sure both stayed down.
“Dad, what’s going on?” Blake asked.
“We’re getting out of here,” John said. “Just make sure you and Jake keep your head down.”
Blake nodded, and then John finally reached the back of the truck. He glanced through the rear window and looked down to where the truck was smashed up against the garbage truck. He could see where the two pieces of metal were mangled together, but he believed he could pry it off with a crowbar.
“Hey, you ready yet?” Parker asked, already positioned by the top latch.
John searched the back for any tools and found an old tire iron that would have to do. “Yeah. On three! One. Two. Three!”
Parker poked his head up and out of the top hole, opening fire on the surrounding crowd, and for a moment, the noise of the gunfire striking the truck ended.
John opened the back door and squeezed down onto the pavement. There was no one close, so he jammed one side of the tire iron at the intersection where the two pieces of metal had smashed together, and he pressed down with all of his might.
At first, it didn’t budge, but the more John worked it, the metal started to give way. But John didn’t get a chance to work on it for long.
“Hey!” a man shouted. “There’s one in the back!”
John reached for his pistol, firing in the man’s direction to send him running. He hoped Parker was a good shot because they were far outnumbered.
John checked the clip in his pistol, making sure he still had some rounds if it came to that, but then focused on the tire iron and pressed down with all of his might until the metal finally budged from the army truck’s bumper.
John hurried back inside, slamming the door shut. “We’re good! Get to the wheel!”
Parker popped his head back down and closed the latch, and they were once again bombarded with gunfire.
As John neared the front, the glass in the front windshield started to crack. John quickly opened the hatch, but as he did, he caught Parker’s attention.
“What the hell are you doing?” Parker asked when John unlocked the hatch. “You’re really going out there?”
“I need to buy us some time,” John answered. “And unless you have a better idea, this is the one I’m going with.”
Parker grunted something under his breath, but he continued to steer the old army truck around, and just before John was about to escape through the top hatch, something tugged on his leg. He glanced down and saw Blake staring up at him.
“Don’t leave,” Blake said. “I don’t want to be alone.”
“You’re not alone, son,” John replied. “And I’m not leaving. I’m just trying to push these people back.”
Even with the heightened chaos around them, John did his best to sound calm so he wouldn’t worry his son further. Eventually, Blake released his father.
“Just stay low,” John said, and then he took a breath to ready himself before he pushed the hatch open and poked his head through the top.
John had never been someone who enjoyed fighting, and he didn’t have much experience with it as a farmer, but he always had the ability to calm himself when a situation was at its most chaotic.
While everybody else was fueled by fear and adrenaline, John was sharpened by the purpose of his task.
He was terrified of dying, but he didn’t allow his fear to inhibit his ability to perform.
That was what had always set him apart from others, and that was what would keep him and his family alive now.
John lined up the first shot at the shooter nearest the truck and fired three rounds.
The first one missed, but the second and third shots sent the man running for cover.
Buying himself some time, John turned to the next closest shooter, this time winging the man and causing him to leave his weapon behind.
After the first three shooters that John had engaged with were taken down, the others quickly turned tail and ran away, buying Agent Parker the precious time he needed to have enough room to swing the truck around all the cluttered mess on the road.
“Okay, we’re good,” Agent Parker shouted. “Get back in here before you catch a bullet.”
John quickly descended into the truck and closed and sealed the latch. He quickly checked on his son and made sure Blake and Jake were unharmed.
“Who taught you to shoot like that?” Jake asked.
John rolled his eyes. “You’re not that good of a teacher.”
“I must be to take a farmer like you and turn him into Rambo,” Jake answered, smiling.
“John!” Agent Parker said, shouting from the front of the truck as they left the chaos behind them.
“Hang in there,” John said, placing a comforting hand on his friend before he rejoined Parker at the front of the truck. “How are we doing?”
“The truck is a lot stiffer to handle now,” Parker answered. “I think they might have done some damage.”
“We need to find another way out of the city,” John said.
The main city roads were the quickest path to the highway, but it wasn’t the only one.
A few more explosions rocked the city, shaking the army truck as they continued down the road.
John didn’t know how much longer the infrastructure would last with so much destruction around them.
He figured it was only a matter of time before the entire city imploded.
“We can take the bridge,” John said.
“That’s on the north side of the city,” Parker said. “We need to go south.”
John gestured to the path ahead and all the people and buildings.
“Going south will take us through the heart of downtown, where the congestion and crowds will be the worst. If we go north, then we at least have a lesser path of resistance. Considering what we’ve seen so far, I’d say that’s the best path forward. ”
Parker conceded the point, but he still didn’t look happy as he turned around. John glanced back at his son and Jake. The pair were huddled close to one another, barely hanging on to each other.
John’s idea of heading north and away from the epicenter of the city did make their path out of the city easier, but John hoped they hadn’t wasted too much time.
When they finally neared the bridge, Parker was forced to slow as they approached another barricade, but this one was made by the army reserves.
Parker slowed, and both he and John squinted ahead to see what was going on.
“I don’t see any soldiers in the area,” Parker said. “It looks like whoever was stationed here was called away.”
John nodded and couldn’t help but wonder why the army would put up a blockade across an escape route.
“Do you think it’s another trap?” Parker asked.
“Only one way to find out,” John answered, and he opened the truck and walked out, gun in hand.
John held up his hand for Parker to stay in the vehicle, and John moved quickly to the front of the barricade.
The massive blocks had been spread out across all four lanes of traffic on the old suspension bridge. He checked the abandoned vehicles and saw no signs of blood or fighting.
But just before John was about to turn around and rejoin Parker in the truck to give them the all-clear, he heard a heavy metallic banging noise coming from the river.
John glanced down on the right side of the bridge to the river below, and he saw a barge had collided with one of the bridge’s support pilings.
Even from the height where John stood, it was easy to see that the pillar was bent and clearly damaged.
As John examined the damage below, he understood why the army had set up the barricade.
It was to keep people from crossing because they feared the bridge would collapse.
And judging by how the river continued to smash the barge into the bridge’s pilings, John knew its collapse was imminent.
John hurried back to the truck and opened the passenger door. “We have a small problem.”
John explained the situation to Parker about the barge and how the bridge’s integrity was compromised.
“We need to turn around,” Parker said. “There’s a reason the Army Corps of Engineers didn’t want people to cross that bridge.”
“You saw what we just escaped from,” John said. “And I can promise you the situation in the heart of downtown is only going to be worse than it was before we left. It also takes even more time to backtrack. Getting across that bridge is still our best option.”
Parker glanced ahead to the bridge, and he nervously squeezed the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. “I don’t like it.”
“Me either,” John said. “We get over fast, and we should be good.”
Parker still hesitated, but then he glanced back at Jake and Blake and then looked at John. “You’re sure you want to do this?”
“Yes,” John answered.
“All right,” Parker said, and then he shifted into drive. “Hang on.”
The old truck lurched forward, and Parker slowly approached the barricade. He used the truck’s size to push the barricades aside. Once on the bridge, he sped up, but he was mindful of the abandoned vehicles that clogged the road.
John glanced out of the windows, staring down into the waters below. It might have just been his imagination, but it felt like the bridge itself was starting to groan and sway as they moved across it.
“I don’t like this,” Parker said.
“Just keep going,” John said. “That’s the only thing that matters right now.”
Both men were frightened. The only difference between the two of them was that John didn’t allow his fear to cripple him. It was useless to hide it, so he embraced it and used it as motivation to accomplish his goal, and right now, that was simply to get across this bridge before it collapsed.
When they reached the halfway point, the bridge physically shifted, and the army truck rocked side to side, almost tipping over.
Parker froze behind the wheel, taking his foot off the gas, but John grabbed the wheel and Parker’s attention.
“We have to keep moving,” John said, shouting above the bridge’s groaning and moaning. “Go, now!”
Parker floored the gas pedal and jolted forward.
The bridge continued to rock and buckle, tossing the massive army truck around like a rag doll.
The closer they moved to the end of the bridge, the more certain John was they weren’t going to make it, and when the bridge finally snapped in half, the middle part collapsing into the river, they were literally running out of road behind them.
“Gun it now! Now! Now!” John shouted, punching the dash as if it would allow the vehicle to move faster.
The road was falling behind them, chasing them on their way off the bridge as Parker crashed into cars along the road, shoving them out of the way with reckless force, and just when John glanced behind him and couldn’t even see the road on the bridge anymore, they reached the other side.
Parker pulled over to the side of the road after their escape, and they all glanced behind them, watching as the bridge crashed into the river.
“Jesus,” Parker said, and then he finally relaxed, resting his head on the back of the dash.
“We made it,” John said, giving his frightened son a reassuring smile. “We’re okay.”
But now they’d made it out of the city. The journey was just beginning. They still needed to catch up with Maggie and find her before the bank robber killed her.