The next four and a half months passed quickly. Everyone and their families left for the reservation until only Captain Stanley, Roy and Johnny were still left in LA. Then all that was left to do was to somehow persuade Dr's Early and Bracket and Nurse McCall to join them. All three men were staying at Johnny's apartment (everyone who had a house had sold it) and they had just come off of a two day shift.
Stanley and Roy had gotten used to Johnny's nightmares. He had them nearly every night and as time had gone on and they had gotten closer to the looming disaster they were preparing for, he had started having them several times a night. Tonight was no exception, except that this time when Johnny had woken them up around dawn he told them to start packing.
"It's time for us to go?" Roy asked as he got dressed.
Johnny nodded, "We have to be out of LA by dawn tomorrow."
"How are we going to get Brackett, Early and Dixie out to the reservation then?" Stanley asked as he folded up his bedding.
"They're all going to be at Dixie's place tonight. They're going there right after they get off shift at the hospital. We'll pick them up there." Johnny picked up his bedroll and slung it over his shoulders before heading for the front door.
"Do you ever notice that he never says exactly how it is we're going to persuade them to come with us?" Stanley asked. He had a very bad feeling about it.
"Yeah, but I think that's more because he's going to have to do something that he doesn't want to," Roy said quietly. He and Johnny had been having some long talks about the traditions of Johnny's nation and tribe after helping an abused woman and her unborn child escape from her husband by sending her to the reservation. He had a fairly good guess of what was going to happen tonight and felt that Stanley should be warned. "Cap, the tribe does still practice kidnapping, remember? Not often, and only under certain circumstances but I'm afraid we might have to force them to go along with us."
Stanley shook his head; that was something he didn't want to do. He liked both doctors and Dixie had always been kind to his men whenever one was in the hospital. But he had managed to get more out of Johnny about his visions as time had gone on. He knew now just how bad things were going to be. It wasn't that they were going to be leaving LA to a disaster and the aftermath that normally goes with one. If Johnny was right about the timing, and Stanley had never known him to be wrong about his visions, not once in all the years he had known the young man, then by the end of the next 48 hours there wouldn't be an LA any longer. From what Johnny had said, Stanley thought that LA might be taking a direct hit with a nuke.
Johnny had insisted that he really wasn't sure, but Stanley wasn't taking any chances. Now was the time to put into effect his back up plan. While Roy and Johnny loaded up the cargo van that was their getaway vehicle, Stanley made phone calls to everyone that he knew and told them everything from ordering them to go to another city in another state for an exchange program to he needed them to go and check up on someone they both knew out of the area and every excuse he could think of in between. He made sure that where he was sending them was far enough away that if LA did get a direct hit that they should survive.
Once he was done, he handed the phone to Roy and had him do the same thing. He wasn't surprised to find out that Roy had already had a list of excuses already made up. Then he joined Johnny in loading up the van and hitching up the small trailer they'd be towing. By the time Roy was finished, it was noon and the van was loaded. "Hey partner, do you need to make any calls?" Roy asked as they were making one last sweep of the apartment.
"Nope, everyone I know has already gotten the warning. If they don't believe me, telling them now won't make a bit of difference. Besides," he threw his partner a cheeky grin, "Most of our friends are mutual and you guys already did the hard work for me!" Roy laughed and followed him out the front door. He didn't bother to lock it. If anyone wanted to break in and steal something they were welcome to whatever they could find. They weren't coming back.
While Stanley drove them to the grocery store so that they could get supplies for their trip, Roy and Johnny were turning their bedding into a nest in the back. "Hey Cap, head for the Abe's Grocery. They'll have everything we need." He made sure that the floor was well padded as he muttered, "including a great big knife."
"No Roy, I'll do it," Johnny said as he gripped his partner and heart brother's shoulder. "You shouldn't have to carry that. I'm the one who picked them. It's my responsibility." Roy could see the sad look in Johnny's eyes as well as the determination. No matter what it took, he'd make sure that his family and friends were safe.
'Roy was right,' Johnny thought as he helped load up the van with water and food while Roy loaded the trailer with gas cans and camp stove fuel. 'Using a knife would be easier than a gun because no one would believe that he'd shoot someone one. They knew him too well to ever believe that he would ever deliberately harm someone. With a knife however, he could draw enough blood to make them think that he was serious without harming Dixie. He hated the thought of hurting her, but there was no way that even a knife to the throat would intimidate either of the doctors. But they were honorable enough men that they wouldn't do anything that would result in Dixie being hurt.
After they finished loading they went and had lunch. Both Stanley and Roy noticed that Johnny couldn't seem to eat but neither was surprised. As gentle a person as Johnny was, this had to be killing him but there was no other way that they could see to get Brackett or Early out of town. Neither one believed in visions or premonitions, and would want rock solid evidence before moving an inch, Brackett in particular. Heck, the man hadn't even wanted paramedics in the first place until Roy and Johnny had convinced him otherwise through their hard work and dedication.
While Stanley was getting Johnny into the van, Roy snuck back and picked up some food to go. Johnny would need to eat and this way they would be prepared for when he actually could. They were all silent as they made their way over to Dixie's apartment building. They had several hours to wait and there really wasn't much they wanted to do.
Time passed slowly. Stanley read while Roy played solitaire and Johnny did some sort of deep breathing thing. Stanley wasn't too sure just what it was but he did his best not to disturb him. Johnny had the hardest part in all of this. He had spent almost all of the last six years preparing for the next few days. He had experienced the prophetic dreams telling him what was coming for years, each one getting more and more intense as time when on. And now he was going to have to kidnap friends of his.
And he wasn't going to be able to do it the way he had Chet either. No, this wasn't going to be a prank. Johnny was going to have to actually threaten someone, probably Dixie. He only wished that there was something more that he and Roy could do. He glanced at his watch and Roy (who was sitting beside him in the front) said without looking at him, "They'll be here in about another half an hour give or take. I already told Dixie we'd be there in forty five minutes."
"You called Nurse McCall?" Stanley asked shocked.
"No, I talked to her at Rampart. I said that we needed to stop in and talk to her for a few minutes." He shrugged. "We needed to know when she would be home. It was pure luck that she was having a dinner party with Early and Bracket."
Stanley nodded. Forty five minutes and then they would commit a felony to save their friends lives. He prayed to God that Johnny was right.