23,431, tomorrow I’ll cross the halfway point of nanowrimo. Here’s some of today’s pecking:
Almost everything around was wet from the rain, but he found some things that would smolder under a large cedar tree. He got a small flame to start and after he thought it would stay alive for a few minutes, got his other distraction ready. He taped two of the firecrackers to rocks, then walked back through the woods just before trail, lit one fuse and threw it at the trail.
“BANG!”
“What the hell?”, Denton yelled.
“That was right up the trail!”, shouted one of the troopers.
The man in camoflauge watched as the officers were trying to decide what to do. He turned away from them, cupped his hands and yelled, “HELP!” He made sure the the fire was going to smoke visibly, then he threw the second firecracker at the trail.
“BANG!”
“Let’s go!”, yelled the deputy.
The three men started running up the trail. It was about three quarters of a mile up to the crest of the hill where they had heard the noises and the cry for help. One trooper stopped halfway so that he was situated between the trailhead and the top of the hill, Denton and the other trooper kept running with their hands on their weapons. The two running police officers made quite a bit of noise running up the trail and yelling to try to find the man who cried out.
“Hello?”, shouted deputy Denton.
“State Police!”, yelled the trooper.
The man in camoflauge ran around the hill and through the woods back to the trailhead. It was going to be close if he was going to make it at all. He wanted to grab that ammo box and try to keep from being shot in the process.
The trooper who was waiting on the trail had called for backup. He didn’t know what was happening, but it didn’t sound like gun shots, at least from where he had been standing. He called the incident in, whatever it was and asked for a car to come up the logging road. There was another cruiser down in town and they would be here in a few minutes. Denton seemed to know the terrain and the area so the troopers let him lead the charge up the hill.
The man running for his ammo box was just coming up to the logging road but he cut quite a large circle around and was at least three hundred yards from the parked cars. He looked up with his binoculars to see if the trooper on the trail was looking up the hill or down the path. When he turned away to look up, the man dashed across the road where he knew he could run up the creek to the trailhead.
“Hello? Who’s up here?”, yelled Denton, looking around the trail from the crest of the hill.
“Is there any type of cabin or residence up here?”, asked the trooper.
“No, there isn’t anything for a couple miles that I know of. There could always be a homeless encampment or something up here, but I haven’t seen it”, Denton said, trying to peer through the brush. He saw some smoke rising from under an old cedar tree. “See that?”
“Yeah, that would be a good place to camp out, under that tree. I’ll go through here and approach from the left, you can take the right”, said the trooper, starting to bushwhack off the trail. He radioed down to the other trooper to let them know that they had seen a sign of life over the hill and they were investigating.
“10-4, I’ll keep an eye out over here”, the trooper replied. He kept looking back at the cars and the logging road, watching for the backup, and then turning back to see if he could see anyone on the hill. He saw the smoke drifting up through the brush and this started to attract more and more of his attention.
The man in camo ran up the creek, then stopped at the edge of the clearing where the cars were parked and the ammo box was waiting. He heard a siren in the distance, he knew it was at least one more officer coming to the scene, hopefully it was just one. He looked up at the trooper standing watch, the other two must have taken the bait since he couldn’t see them on the top of the hill. The trooper up the trail started creeping up the hill when he heard the siren, the smoke was just getting a little too interesting for him.
He decided to go for it. He ran along the edge of the clearing, his camoflauge still a great cover from a distance, then he dove behind the nearest car. The ammo box was on a blue tarp just beyond the car. He grabbed his binoculars and watched the trooper. He figured he had five seconds to grab the box and get back behind the car. The trooper looked right at him, not seeing anything wrong, then turned back up the hill. He stood up, ran and scooped up the box, then returned to the car. The siren was getting louder and the trooper was still moving farther away.
“Anything guys?”, the trooper waiting on the trail asked his partner on the radio, glancing down at the trailhead, oblivious to the theft.
“We found a fire, but nothing else. If someone is up here they might be hurt, but they’re not making any more noise”, replied the other trooper.
The man with the ammo box had already run back out of the clearing and back to the creek. The creek ran up to the right of the hill where the trail was, out of sight and earshot of all three men up there, and hopefully the water would keep any dogs from following him very far. The lock on the box was cut so the police had seen the gun and the cash, but it was still there. He didn’t know if they had any way to connect him to the box, but at least it was in his hands.
