Winterville Finale: The Law vs. The New Goliath

Oasis Park
Hospital Drive entrance

Having gotten somewhat lost on his way to Oasis Park, Juan Cortez pulled his rented white 2021 Mazda CX-5 into the parking lot at the park's Hospital Drive entrance beside the other vehicles driven by Harrison, Asher, Harvey, the Chicago detectives, and the Winterville police officers. He was obviously a few steps behind everybody else who had arrived sooner, so he decided to just walk his way softly onto the trail and try to fall in with the rest of his colleagues.

He sighted Jay Halstead at the very back of the tactically stacked line of officers, putting a hand on his shoulder to let him know he was there. This courteous gesture was met by a brief head turn and confirmatory nod to Juan from the Chicago detective.

Not a single second later, Juan saw the reflective glint from something at a slightly higher position from where they all were.

"Troy!" he heard Lieutenant Abigail Asher yell, "Get down!"

Rifle fire soon erupted in rapid succession, at which point Sheriff Troy Harrison hit the ground face-up with an exceptionally thunderous thud, at which point Asher threw her own body over her boss and longtime friend to protect him from the successive onslaught of gunfire coming from above.

This apparent ambush was met with returned fire from both Juan and Detective Halstead. Juan fired 3 shots at the silhouetted rifleman with his silver Smith and Wesson .357 Model 60 revolver, while Halstead followed these up with at least 6 shots in the exact same direction from his Glock G19 handgun.

A sharp groan was heard up in a tree followed by the sight of a Yaran SR-A sniper rifle suddenly dropping from above and clacking to the ground right near where Harrison had fallen.

Asher got up as Harrison let out a deep exhale, immediately followed by a drawn out groan of pain. "Are you okay, Troy?" she asked with a very anxiously careworn tone.

Harrison sat up slightly, at which point he felt warmth going down his back as well as the frontal upper portion of his right shoulder. He briefly put a hand to his shoulder and took it away, shocked at the sight of blood on his hand. "Fuck me running!" he breathlessly exclaimed, "I'm hit, guys!"

The silhouetted sniper jumped from the tree and started running towards the farther back of the trail, which made its end at a small pond adjacent to the trail head. Halstead and Upton looked down to the wounded Harrison for a second before electing to take off after the suspect on foot. The Winterville officers, each with their own level of hesitancy, followed them.

Meanwhile, Bill Harvey, Hank Voight, and Juan Cortez knelt down beside Harrison and Asher, with Harvey examining his cousin's injured shoulder. "Holy shit, dude" he said, "I know it looks bad, but you're one lucky son of a bitch!"

Harrison managed a chuckle before groaning in pain once again. "What are you saying, man?" he asked with strain in his voice.

"The round went in and out," Harvey replied, "It must've passed straight through." He then shot a look to Asher. "Uh-oh," he said, "Are you hit, Abby?"

Asher then gave herself the once over, with Voight checking out her back to be thorough. "Nah," Asher said, "I'm good."

"There's nothing on her back either," Voight added, "The shot must've gone straight over Abby's shoulder and into Troy."

Harrison managed a pained smile in retort. "How's that for some fucking irony, y'all?" he said, "Twenty-two years in law enforcement and this is the first time I've been shot."

Juan Cortez then chimed in. "We should get you to a hospital sooner rather than later, Señor" he said to Harrison.

A reluctant Harrison shook his head. "No," he said, "I brought you guys here to find this sack of shit. If we're taking him down, we do it together." He then looked to Harvey. "Bill," he continued, "Are those first aid supplies still tucked under your vest?"

Harvey nodded, producing some square-shaped adhesive bandages from underneath his vest, going straight to work covering the sheriff's entry and exit wounds. "I agree with Juan, though" he said, "We should get you to the hospital."

Harrison grunted in pain as Harvey disinfected the bullet hole and the bandage was adhered to the exit wound on the back of his shoulder. "It doesn't feel like I'm bleeding very heavily," he said, "I'm not dizzy or fatigued, so I don't think my blood pressure is dropping too quickly."

"What's your point, Troy?" Voight asked.

"It's like I just said, Hank" Harrison replied, "If we're going to get this son of a bitch, we get him together. Whether he leaves this park in cuffs, on a gurney, or zipped into a body bag, he's going to feel all of our fucking wrath before he goes down. As soon as that happens, you guys can take me up the road to the ER."

Voight nodded before looking to Harvey. "Are you all set with patching him up?" he inquired.

"Yeah," Harvey replied, "These bandages should hold pretty well for now."

Harvey, Voight, and Asher all then took care in helping their friend and family member up to a standing position. Harrison looked to them and Juan before hurrying to find the others further down the trail, the others following behind at an equally expeditious pace.

They caught up with their colleagues on the shoreline that surrounded Oasis Lake, a circular-shaped freshwater lake that sat squarely in the center of the spacious state park. Harrison crouched down next to Jayden Porter, who had tactically covered himself behind a large boulder on the right side of the shoreline.

All of the other officers were tactically crouched beside the series of 6 boulders occupying the shore, so Harvey crouched beside Jeanette Franco. Meanwhile, Voight crouched beside Halstead, Asher crouched beside Upton, and, finally, Juan crouched beside Officer Diana Munroe.

"What's the situation, Jayden?" Harrison asked the police chief in a soft whisper.

"Halstead and Upton caught sight of him at the end of the trail," Porter whispered back, "We saw him sprint around the right side of the shore and duck into those trees over there." Porter very briefly stood up and pointed to a small cluster of very tall pine trees that stood directly across the lake from everyone's respective positions.

In a very unexpected move, everyone soon saw Bill Harvey stand up from his position with his hands raised in the air. He started carefully walking along the opposite side of the shore towards what they believed was Ryan Cardenas' position.

"Ryan Cardenas!" Harvey called out, "It's me! I know your real problems are with me and not these other officers!"

"You're damn right, you bastard!" Cardenas' weakened voice said from the direction of the pine trees, "You killed my brother! Iglesio was just a seventeen-year-old kid who was doing what he was told!"

"Maybe so, man" Harvey hollered back, "But Iglesio was going to kill me! I had no choice! Come on, Ryan, you were with the CIA, too! You know that's how we were trained!"

Nothing was heard for a few seconds before a strained cough was heard. "Hey!" Harvey yelled, "Are you hurt, Ryan?"

Cardenas coughed once again. "Yeah," he replied, "Four rounds from our old pal Señor Cortez and your buddy Detective Halstead hit me in my left arm and lower left shoulder."

"Alright!" Harvey yelled as he inched closer to the killer's location, "That's alright! Let me come closer and help you!"

There was an additional beat of silence before Cardenas was heard chuckling in an almost maniacal fashion. "That's okay," he hollered back roughly 12 seconds later, "I think I'll take this opportunity to help myself."

Harrison's heart dropped to his feet as he saw another shiny glint appear from within the pine trees. He and Porter sprung up, at which point Harrison hollered to his cousin. He now had his Sig-Sauer p-226 handgun aimed toward the trees. "BILL!" he yelled furiously, "GET THE FUCK DOWN!"

Harvey dropped face-first onto the muddy ground as a muzzle flash was seen from within the slightly obscured trio of trees. This was followed up by a three-round burst of bullets that erupted from the exact same spot. The rounds struck a rotted tree trunk that sat a few feet directly behind Harvey, and they would've certainly hit him had he still been standing.

Harrison and Porter immediately retaliated, opening fire into the trees. Harrison discharged 4 rounds from his Sig-Sauer, which Porter followed up with an additional 5 rounds from his Glock 9X19 G17L handgun.

The gunfire ceased almost immediately, at which point everyone else emerged from their respective positions behind the boulders. Harrison held up his free hand, indicating for everyone to stay put for the moment. "Bill?" he called out, breaking the eerie silence. "Are you okay, bud?"

Harvey stood up with a strained groan before looking to the others and nodding. "I'm good!" he called back.

Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief at that point. "Thank God," Harrison softly said before he and the others hustled over to where Harvey was. Getting the hint, Harvey withdrew his Beretta PX4 handgun from his shoulder holster.

The 9 officers made their way into the small clearing beside the pine trees, each of them with their guns at the ready, prepared for any additional battle should it be necessary.

Harvey was the first to catch a look at Ryan Cardenas. The killer laid face-up on the muddy soil beside the second of the 3 pine trees, moaning in pain. A compact Beretta .380 handgun sat on the ground, a few feet away from his still-outstretched left hand.

The temporarily reinstated FBI agent walked over to Cardenas' left side, sliding the .380 out of his grasp with his foot. "Ryan Cardenas," Harvey said as he looked his former CIA colleague square in his heavy eyes, "You're under arrest for the murders of Samuel Kneeland, Audrey Buccio, and Nathaniel Tucker, as well as the attempted murder of M.W. Hawk." He produced a set of handcuffs from the side pocket of his gun belt before leaning down and cuffing his hands.

Harrison then came over and took stock of Cardenas' condition. "It looks like three of my shots hit him," he said, "And two of Jayden's in addition to the wounds Juan and Jay gave him." He then looked to Jayden Porter. "He's going to need EMS," he said to him.

Porter nodded. "They're already on the way," he said.

Harrison walked out of the clearing and back towards the lake, with a concerned Lieutenant Asher closely following behind him. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

Harrison laughed at the irony. "Hell no, kid" he said, "I've been shot, remember?"

The sheriff then erupted in a sudden coughing fit and dropped to his knees, at which point Asher herself knelt down and carefully laid him back, placing his head on her knees.

"Troy!" she sternly said to him, "Troy! You hang on, okay, honey? You're going to be okay! Keep your eyes on me, okay?"

Asher then whipped her head around to alert the others. "Hey guys!" she yelled, "We have an Officer Down here! Troy needs help!"

2 ambulances from the Winterville Fire Department arrived just a few minutes later and two sets of paramedics rescued both Troy Harrison and Ryan Cardenas from inside the park. Being in slightly worse condition, Cardenas was the first to be loaded in and taken off to Rachel Hickory Medical Center.

The wounded Sheriff Harrison, meanwhile, was carried out on a backboard. His neck was protected by a bright orange cervical collar and head strap, and his mouth was covered by an oxygen mask.

Each officer took their turn to put a comforting hand on the side of the backboard. "Hey Troy?" Voight said, "You hang in there, little brother. You're going to make it through this."

"Yeah man," Harvey cut in as he squeezed Harrison's left hand, "We're all going to be right there with you. We're going to meet you at Hickory."

"I love you," Harrison said, his voice muffled through the mask.

Harvey leaned down and kissed the small patch of his cousin's forehead that wasn't covered by the top half of the orange head strap. "I love you too, buddy" he said, "Hang the fuck on for us, alright?"

Harrison was then transferred onto a gurney and loaded into the second ambulance. As the emergency vehicle rushed off with its siren wailing, everybody took the sad moment in. Asher finally broke down in tears and was immediately hugged tightly by Harvey, which in turn became a large group hug comprised of all 9 officers.

[Author's Note: I have one more "Epilogue" chapter to post for "Winterville". Just so everyone knows, this chapter may take a little bit longer to write, finish, and post. I'm getting a new laptop later this week, so it's probably going to take some time for me to get acclimated with it. Stay Tuned! Thanks so much for everyone's support and thanks also in advance for your patience!]