Part 5
"I think it's ready!" BA slammed down the hood of the pickup truck.
"Twenty minutes, Big Guy! That's gotta be a record!"
"We gotta get it started yet! That battery will be flat, we're gonna have to push it."
Whilst BA and Murdock had worked on the truck; Face had helped Hannibal with his bright idea of setting a couple of traps with what they could find in the barn, just in case the barn got paid a little visit by Felton and his men. Hannibal hoped it might slow them down further. Once they had finished setting their traps Face and Hannibal turned their attention to assisting BA.
Murdock had instinctively grabbed an empty gas can and a bit of hose and gone in a desperate search for some gasoline. He'd decided to take a gamble and head along the gravel path to confirm that it did lead to the main road. The gravel road was longer than he anticipated. His plan was to flag the first car that came along that road if it killed him, praying it wouldn't be one of Felton's goons. He'd been lucky and as he reached the top of the gravel road, puffing and panting, a car was coming along. He flagged it down, practically standing in its way so it had to stop. The elderly man and woman in the car, a little surprised to say the least, had been pleased to help.
"You're lucky son, not many cars travel along this road, this time of day." The old man said as he handed Murdock a full gas can, which he had in his trunk. He believed Murdock's 'run out of gas in the middle of nowhere' speech, and accepted the twenty-dollar bill Murdock insisted he take. Murdock had sprinted back to the barn, through the woods as it was a shorter distance and hadn't been gone more than fifteen minutes.
Now, the four men struggled to push the heavy vehicle out of the barn. Face, BA and Hannibal pushed from the hood of the pickup truck. It took a while to initially rock it off its spot. BA growled has he squeezed every last ounce of energy inside of him to get the truck to move. Murdock stood by the driver's side, with the door open, with one hand on the steering wheel and pushing with the rest of his body on the doorframe. As the truck began to move, he tried to steer the truck to the right direction they'd need to go, onto the gravel road. All four of them pushed the heavy pickup truck with all their might. Sweat starting to bead on their foreheads and making unconscious groans as they exhaled their breath, they pushed the truck with a matter of urgency; this was the only way they were going to get Amy to a hospital quickly. It had to work.
They eventually got the truck into position on the gravel road. The all tried to catch their breath again and regain their strength.
Murdock had the key already in the ignition of the pickup and remained by the driver's side. Face, BA and Hannibal went round to the back of the truck, ready to push for a final time hoping to get the vehicle started. It was a gravel road; this wasn't going to be as easy as a nice smooth paved road surface. Again the four men used all their strength to get the pickup truck to roll. Once confident it had enough speed, Murdock jumped into the drivers seat and simultaneously put his foot on the clutch, turned the ignition and placed the vehicle in gear and then slowly released the clutch pedal. The pickup truck juddered and started to cough and splutter and with a big cloud of black smoke firing out of the exhaust it started. Murdock gave it more gas to keep in running. The engine had a clicking, hissing noise that a straight six made, that noise was like music to BA's ears.
"Well done BA!" Hannibal patted him on the back. The three men watched the pickup drive up the gravel road in front of them, each wiping the sweat off their brows.
"Ah, it was nothing." BA responded modestly. He'd worked his socks off to get that pickup going, Amy being at the forefront of his mind. Luckily, the engine had just needed a bit of a clean up and lubrication. He'd stripped the plugs and points and given everything he physically could a good dusting down and applied lubrication so that the engine would turn and not seize.
Murdock reversed the pick up truck back to the barn, still keeping the engine ticking over. Face gently picked up Amy and laid her in the bed of the pickup truck and he sat with her, holding her up, her head in his arms. Murdock jumped out of the drivers seat, allowing BA to take the wheel. Murdock and Hannibal closed the barn doors behind them.
Murdock then jumped in the back with Face and took one of Amy's hands. Face worried a little as he watched Murdock glance at her, muttering to himself. He was definitely acting with a rage bubbling beneath his surface. Face knew that this was not a good kind of crazy for Murdock to be experiencing. BA and Hannibal sat in the front of the truck, BA at the wheel. They drove up the gravel drive and came to the main road as they thought they would.
"Which way Hannibal?"
"Take a left BA!"
"But isn't the hospital probably to the right? And aren't we going back the way we were coming in?"
"Yeah, and if I remember rightly we passed a large town on the way through, which had a hospital too."
"But isn't that further away?"
"Yes it is, but at least its not where our friends think we'll be heading. We just gotta move it, BA."
BA pulled out onto the main road, turning left, black smoke puffing from the exhaust as the pickup gradually cleared its engine.
"I'll push this thing as fast it can go, Hannibal. But we gotta remember it's old, sixty's gonna probably be it's limit, the thing hasn't even got 5000 miles on the clock," BA replied as he looked down to the odometer, "It'll probably need running in. Hey, won't we come across my van?"
"Yeah but we won't be able to use it, they shot the tyres out, Remember? But we can make a stop!" Hannibal grinned.
"Yeah, I remember, those suckers are gonna pay for that!"
---
As they approached BA's van, which was on the side of the road where they'd left it, Hannibal had decided that Face should drive the pickup, as he and Murdock hid with Amy in the back bed. BA hid in the passenger seat of the cab.
Face drove along side BA's van and jumped out of the pickup, leaving it still running. He unlocked the back door to the van and was about to get the weapons out of the back until he heard a voice.
"Hold it right there!" One of Felton's goons ordered. He'd been relieving himself behind a tree and had come running out of the woods zipping up his fly, so luckily for the team, hadn't had a chance to look at the pickup in more detail and now had his rifle in Face's back. "Hands in the air and turn around real slow."
Face did as he was told and smiled at the creep, he recognised that it was the man Felton had called Simmons. Simmons waved the rifle inches away from Face's face. In the mean time, Hannibal had got up from the back of the pickup and had a large stick he'd found, in preparation of this moment and stuck it in the man's back. He was taking a gamble, but what the heck he thought.
"Move slimeball and my friend will be wearing your guts! Drop your weapon!"
Luckily for the team, without truly thinking it through, Simmons released the gun with one hand and held it up in the air, no longer putting Face in danger.
Face knew he didn't have much time, before Simmons would realise Hannibal wasn't holding a gun and took the opportunity of the element of surprise, grabbed the rifle off of the man and swiftly hit him in the face with the butt of it, knocking him out cold. He smiled as he watched Simmons drop to the floor.
"Nice, Face, Nice!" Hannibal grinned. "Murdock, give me a hand to tie this jerk up!" Face threw Hannibal some rope that was handy in the back of the van. Murdock quickly jumped from the back of the pick up to assist Hannibal.
Hannibal and Murdock secured Simmons in the trunk of the blue Sedan, with his hands tied behind his back. Murdock then searched under their black van, he had watched carefully where Felton had thrown that syringe and he prayed it was still under there.
Face removed their automatic rifles from the lockup in back of the van and placed them in the back of the pickup.
"Face, grab the gas can!" BA shouted, looking down at the fuel gauge as he was back now sitting in the driver's seat of the pickup, "I think we're gonna need it!"
Face jumped into the van and quickly rummaged in amongst their bags, grabbing anything else he thought they might need including the radios. He also found what he was looking for, a bottle of water. 'Amy may need this' he thought. On the way out of the back of the van, he grabbed the gas can as requested by BA.
"Lock it up, Face!"
"OK BA, OK!" With his hands full, Face threw it all in the back of the pickup and then locked up BA's van. It wasn't worth the argument.
"Hannibal, I got this, the hospital might need it to find an antidote." Murdock waved the syringe that Felton had injected Amy with.
"Good thinking, Murdock." Hannibal patted Murdock on the back and then turned to Face. "Lieutenant, how much time do we have?"
"It's been just over an hour and a half now, Colonel, since she was injected. We really need to get a move on." Face said as he looked at the timer on his watch.
Murdock placed the syringe safely in his jacket, making sure not to prick himself with the needle. Face jumped back into the back of the pickup, handing a rifle to Hannibal as he did so, so that Hannibal would have something with him as a precaution. Hannibal went back to sitting with BA in the cab. Face and Murdock took up their positions in comforting Amy in the back of the pickup as BA hastily pulled away. Amy still remained motionless and feverish with her eyes firmly closed, her condition seemingly worsening every time they looked at her.
"Face, she's going to be alright isn't she?" There was still a worried concerned look in Murdock's face.
But he didn't know but tried not to show his concern to Murdock and put a hand on his shoulder in reassurance.
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