Snow Vacancy
"Let's take two cars, we'll catch right up," Amy grumbled to herself as she rubbed her hands together and tried to get them warm, "Sure, Hannibal, sure."
Wintertime in New York, her least favorite season to be anywhere outside of Los Angeles; but she had come as a favor to the A-Team to help them out on their latest mission. They'd managed to get out to the East Coast before the snow hit, and the frigid weather had just started as the Team was wrapping things up with the goon squad of protection racket hired muscle they'd spent three days planning against for a final showdown of busting heads together.
Unfortunately somebody put the word out that the A-Team was in town and Lynch and the MPs somehow showed up in record time for getting cross country; Hannibal was always in the philosophy of 'either we all go or nobody goes, nobody gets left behind', but Amy found out he was also surprisingly of the 'go down with the ship' kind of guy. He'd told B.A. and Face and Murdock to get out of the city and out of New York. None of them were in a rush to get back to Los Angeles since Lynch would obviously go there next once he was convinced that the A-Team had gotten away providing he couldn't keep a tail on them. Hannibal had told them to head south to one of the Carolinas or Georgia or someplace where it'd be at least 20-30 degrees warmer and no snow, and they'd catch up and make contact soon. There was still the matter of turning their new friends over to the proper authorities and Hannibal wasn't going to leave that to someone else, and he wouldn't risk his men's freedom for the opportunity either; he could get away if they caught him, and he knew it, but it'd be easier for just him to escape if need be than the whole lot of them. Amy would be dismissed and released if she was found with him, she was no threat to the military.
It had been a fine tap dance around the MPs, but Hannibal had pulled it off, the bad guys were dropped off at the corner outside the police station, a moderate fee was collected by their clients, then he and Amy decided to get out of dodge as well. And all had been going well, until the snowstorm picked up. Hannibal considered himself a man who could handle anything, and likewise could drive anything, in any kind of weather. Ordinarily that might've been true, but they were not wont to taking cases in snowy climates, what more in icy climates, and before either of them was really aware of what had happened, they skidded and slid and went off the road, and just avoided colliding with a streetlight on the way.
"We're never going to make it to South Carolina like this," Hannibal said.
"We're not even going to make it to New Jersey at this rate," Amy told him.
Hannibal managed to get the car back on the road but their luck didn't fair much better from there. Through the snow that was coming down like some maniacal kid was dumping it out of a box straight on them, Hannibal managed to get them to a payphone, and that's exactly where they were now; him in the phone booth talking to Face or B.A. or somebody, while Amy sat in the car and tried to get warm, though the heater was being of next to no use whatsoever.
After a few minutes, Amy saw Hannibal trudging through the snow back her way. Though she was already in the passenger side, she moved over as the door opened and he got back in.
"Well?" she asked.
Hannibal pulled the door shut and told her, "Face says they got their own problems where they are, apparently they've got a tornado to deal with, and they think it's going to carry on all night."
"A tornado in December?" Amy asked.
The cold was apparently even eating through Hannibal's trademark gloves and he tried rubbing his own hands together as he said, "You know as well as I do they can occur at any time of the year, provided the weather conditions are right."
"I thought tornado season ended in November," Amy said.
"Br-r-r-r-r," Hannibal's teeth chattered, "In Kansas maybe, other places, no." He looked at the devastated young reporter and told her, "He said they'd get back our way first thing in the morning if possible."
"And what do we do in the meantime?" Amy asked, and gestured to the snow continuing to pour outside the windshield, "This weather's getting worse."
"Your lack of imagination disturbs me," Hannibal told her, "We'll just get a motel room for the night."
"Well hurry," Amy said as she leaned back in her seat and wrapped her arms tightly against herself, "I don't think we'll be able to last in much more of this."
"Alright," Hannibal threw the car into gear and tried again.
"Hannibal," Amy said threateningly over chattering teeth as her whole body shivered with cold, "If you ever ask me to help you on a mission again before the spring thaw, it had better be in a tropical climate."
In spite of all the preparation Hannibal had had in training his body against the elements, to ignore extreme heat or cold, his whole body was tensing up on him in response to the cold as well and he told Amy, "I'm inclined to agree with you. Fortunately we don't get too many cases in cold climates during the cold season."
Outside the car, they could hear a massive wind pick up, and it seemed to be howling, like in the 30's old dark house movies. Amy pulled her coat tighter against herself as if protecting herself against the vicious winds and said, "I just want to get back home to L.A. and lay in the burning sun for about six hours."
A small sound of content escaped from Hannibal's throat as he considered that mental image and said, "Sounds good to me too."
Amy reached for the radio knobs and said, "I wonder if there's a weather advisory for tonight or if this is just status quo for this time of the year?"
"Kid," Hannibal said in passing, "I don't think this is status quo for Alaska at this time of year."
Going from station to station, they picked up a lot of static, and a few rock music stations, then they managed to get somebody who was actually talking, but it wasn't the weather report.
"Tri-state area, in their effort to apprehend the fugitives."
"They can't be talking about you guys!" Amy said as she looked over towards Hannibal.
Hannibal shushed her and reached for the volume knob so they could hear what the reporter was saying.
"The daring daylight escape of the two convicted murderers left two guards of the maximum security prison in critical condition."
"Nope," Hannibal answered smugly, "They're not talking about us."
"Shh!" Amy told him.
"…Convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Hess is described as follows: Caucasian, 27 years old, 6 feet tall, 180 pounds, hair: black, eye color: brown, identifiable by a scar on right cheek. Description for Ramsey is as follows: Caucasian, 25 years old, 5 foot 10 inches, 160 pounds, hair color: brown, eye color: blue, no known identifying marks."
Amy looked at Hannibal, saying nothing but her eyes suggesting plenty, wondering if it was possible they could encounter those people out here tonight? Hannibal didn't say anything either, but he suddenly felt like they'd gone through a time warp and had wound up back in some bad 70s horror movie.
"…Were sentenced in the brutal murders of a family of five in 1979, police are advising the public to…"
Hannibal reached over and shut the radio off, "Yeah yeah, same old, same old."
"What'd you turn it off for?" Amy asked.
"They're not going to tell us anything we don't already know," Hannibal told her, "If we see them we're not calling the cops."
"We're not?" Amy asked in disbelief.
"Well…not right away anyway," Hannibal replied.
"Hannibal, didn't you hear them?" Amy asked, "They killed a whole family."
"I know," Hannibal told her, "Which is why if we see them, we won't ask questions first, we won't ask questions period."
Amy shivered both due to the cold and the sudden streak of fear that was ripping through her. She reached over and turned the radio on again.
"Hess and Ramsey are to be considered armed and extremely dangerous, police are advising citizens not to confront the fugitives if seen, call your local police department immediately."
"G-g-good luck with that," Hannibal said as the cold particularly ripped through him in that moment, "In this weather? They'll never make it."
Amy could see the roads were getting even worse and she asked Hannibal, "Won't they get somebody to plow the streets?"
"Eventually," Hannibal said, "But who's going to want to go out this late at night to do it? All the smart people are already home where it's warm and most likely in bed."
Amy choked out a particularly loud b-r-r-r-r-r as the cold got to her too and she replied, "Which would explain us right now stuck out here tonight, right?"
"Be quiet," Hannibal told her.
She was, for about a minute, aside from the sounds she made as her whole body shivered, then she spoke up, "Hannibal?"
"What?"
"Do you think we could run into those guys that broke out of the prison?" she asked.
"I doubt it," Hannibal told her, "In this weather, with any luck, they'll probably fall in a snow bank somewhere and die of frostbite. And if that don't get 'em, maybe we'll get lucky and the Abominable Snowman will."
"V-v-very f-funny, Hannibal," Amy groaned. She crouched down to see out the windshield past the snow and said, "It just looks like we're stuck inside a giant snow globe."
"That sounds like the perfect plot for a TV show," Hannibal commented, "Find out your whole life is some kid's daydream looking inside a snow globe."
"That sounds like the Twilight Zone," Amy said.
"That's a dollhouse."
"If the snow doesn't let up, I think we're going to disappear into it completely," Amy said, starting to sound a little claustrophobic.
Hannibal kept his eyes peeled for the first sign of a place to stay the night. Finally, after what felt like forever, he saw a bright neon sign up ahead. It took a minute to see past the glare shining through the snow, "Ah, here we are."
Amy tried seeing past the snow and the blinding glare, and she saw the same sign he did.
MOTEL – VACANCY
Getting in somewhere out of the snow and being able to warm up for the night should've been seen as a godsend, but for some reason, Amy just got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"I don't know about this," she quietly said to herself.