As planned, they made a detour through the kitchen and got out through the back way, and just barely made it to the van in time to get away before they were chased by several cars with red lights flashing on top. Hannibal had gotten in the passenger side and Face, Murdock and Jean were all crammed into the back and had a perfect view of the motorcade behind them.
"Now what do we do?" Jean asked, not ready to accept what seemed painfully obvious, that they were about to get caught.
"Hang on!" Face told her as he saw they were starting to swerve off the road.
"B.A. will you watch what you're doing!" Murdock leaned over and yelled at him.
"It's not me," B.A. replied, "It's the road."
Whatever it was, the van skidded from one side to another like they were in a flood during a hurricane
"Then get us off the road," Hannibal told him.
He did, they went off the paved asphalt and onto dirt and rock and took off in a different direction entirely, but that only gave them more problems; the van jumped every so often as the tires hit large rocks embedded in the crooked ground and in the back they could hear things moving around that they were sure weren't supposed to. The fact that for the moment they had lost Lynch was of minor consolation because they were heading down a very bumpy and uneven hill, and about 50 feet before hitting the bottom, the van hit something large and hit it so hard and so fast that the van was knocked into the air as it descended downhill and made a crash landing just short of colliding with several trees. When the van made one final leap and came to a sudden stop, Hannibal knocked his head against the dashboard and Murdock was thrown up against the window, but he came away from that with only a headache. Hannibal likewise had his hand on his forehead and was trying to figure out at what volume he should speak so his head didn't start throbbing.
"Face, Murdock, you guys okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine, Colonel," Murdock said, and pushing away from the window he turned and the next thing Hannibal heard was, "Oh my God!"
"What is it?" Hannibal asked as he and B.A. turned around, and got the answer when they saw the van's back doors had been thrown wide open and Face and Jean weren't anywhere to be found.
Face lay on the ground moaning and his head was swimming, but it slowly occurred to him that he was alright aside from the shock of being thrown out of the van at 50 miles an hour on a downward slope. He'd made a rough landing on the ground and just rolled downhill a ways before coming to a sudden stop, he didn't know why he had stopped but he was grateful he had. He was in a crooked position with one arm beside him and the other clear up over his head; he tried raising his left arm up to make sure it wasn't broken and panicked for a second when he couldn't lift it. Then he realized he'd only caught the sleeve of his jacket on a piece of barbed wire that apparently had been on a fence that was now knocked down. With a little pull he got his sleeve loose and could move his arm fine, but he tried to remember who had fallen out of the van with him, then he remembered.
"Jean?" he called out, and when there was no answer he tried again, "Jean!"
"Shut up, I hear you!" he heard her voice coming from a distance.
"Where are you?" he asked as he got to his feet.
"Over here!" was her only response. Face followed the sound of her voice because it was too dark to actually see anything other than what was right in front of him. There weren't any stars out and if the moon was making an appearance tonight it was blocked behind a screen of dark clouds, so Face had to make his way along in almost complete darkness. As he got closer to Jean, he knelt down and was almost to the point of crawling along the ground looking for her. Finally in the dark he was able to see a figure laid out on the ground, and he went over to her and was able to see her face, by being right up against it as he practically straddled her body to make sure he had a positive ID.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
"Boy that's a stupid question," she replied.
Face started to respond but she cut him off saying, "If they saw us go off the road, they're going to be checking this area for us and they'll be here soon, get out of here!"
"I'm not leaving you!" he told her, shocked that she could even think of such a thing.
"Peck, don't be an idiot," she told him, "There's no pride in being a dead hero. Forget about me, just save yourself."
"I'm not going," he told her.
"Forget about me, hide yourself," she repeated.
A sound from above threw them both into a panic; Face pressed his hand against her mouth at the same time she threw hers against his, and they were both quiet when they heard a car pass by on the road above. Their hearts sped up when they saw lights coming down the hill, but both were grateful to see that the lights couldn't reach as far down as they were, and they heard somebody step on the accelerator and tear out of there. Face let out a sigh of relief as he took his hand off Jean's mouth and said, "That was close."
"You should've left me incase they came down here," Jean told him.
Face shook his head and said, "I wouldn't leave you here."
The look in her eyes might as well have been a punch to his stomach as she told him, "Now you understand why I've always worked alone."
He didn't know how to respond to that.
Off in the distance Face could see another light, this one was coming from below them, and he could hear Hannibal's voice calling out in the distance, "Face! Jean! Where are you?"
"We're up here, Hannibal!" Face called, hoping that the right colonel heard him.
"Okay!" he heard Hannibal reply, "We'll be right up there, just hang on."
"Where does he think we're going?" Jean asked.
It was then that Face noticed Jean was making no move to get up, and it didn't seem like her to just lay around waiting for someone to help.
"Can you move?" he asked her.
"My arm's stuck on something," she said.
They saw Hannibal's flashlight moving toward them and they heard he and Murdock approaching.
"Are you guys alright?" Murdock asked as he ran over to them.
"I've been better, Murdock," Jean answered.
Hannibal came up close to them and shone his light down on them and they found the answer why Jean was stuck; when she hit the ground, she stopped rolling when her arm got caught on another piece of barbed wire, but unlike Face she hadn't had her jacket on to soften the blow, so instead of being able to pull it loose like he had, her arm had gotten wrapped around the wire or vice versa.
"You never can do anything the easy way, can you, kid?" Hannibal asked, obviously trying to lighten the mood as he tried to figure out what to do. The wire was so tangled around her arm there was no simple matter of getting it off of her or pulling her out of it. A few pieces had gotten half shoved into her flesh and the wounds were already bleeding.
"Face, get over here and hold the light steady," Hannibal told him as he dug around in his coat pocket and found what he was looking for.
"What're you going to do?" Face asked as he took the flashlight, and he got the answer when he saw that Hannibal was holding a small set of wire cutters.
Hannibal passed Face and knelt down beside Jean and told her, "I need you to hold still, we're going to have to cut the wire off first and then get it out. I know it's going to be painful but—"
"Just do what you have to," Jean told him, looking like she really didn't care anymore.
"Murdock," Hannibal nodded his head toward them, "I may need you to help hold her still."
Piece by piece Hannibal cut off the wire from around her arm, that was the easy part but then came the task of getting the barbs out of her flesh; she never screamed though she got out a few grunts and groans and kicked the air under her feet until her legs looked like a couple of propellers. As soon as the wire came out the blood started flowing freely, and Hannibal considered it lucky that she only came out of it with three holes in her arm. The rest of the spikes that had been coiled around her arm had barely scratched the surface. When he was done he had Face hold the light closer for a better look, and he told Jean, "You had a narrow escape, these could've been a lot deeper and more numerous than they are." He looked to the others and said, "Let's get her to the van, we'll get her patched up in there."
Jean kicked at them when they tried to lift her off the ground, yelling at them, "Don't touch me, leave me alone!" And when they finally backed off she added firmly, "I'll walk, just help me up."
Murdock raised her good arm over his shoulders and helped her get to her feet and they walked over to where B.A. was inspecting the van for damages.
"Well B.A., what's the verdict?" Hannibal asked.
"A few dents but we'll be able to get out of here," he answered as he shut off his light.
"Good, see if you can find a motel where we can stop for the night," Hannibal said as they piled into the van.
Face took off his jacket and placed it down so Jean's blood wouldn't stain the upholstery, and he got in the front with B.A. and Hannibal and Murdock got in the back with her. Murdock kept a light on Jean while Hannibal dug around the first aid kit; first he poured peroxide on the cuts to clean them out and they foamed on contact and stood up in piles, and when that was done he took out a roll of gauze and bandaged up her arm.
"That'll do for now until we're in a better position to examine it," he told Jean as he tied off the gauze.
"I'll say one thing," Jean remarked, "Traveling with you guys sure ain't ever boring."
"How about you, Face?" Murdock asked, "Are you alright?"
Face nodded, "Yeah Murdock, I'm fine."
He didn't bother telling them he could already feel bruises forming on his legs from when he had hit the ground. Compared to being impaled on the razor wire, he thought that was a very minor complaint and not even worth mentioning.
Jean started to nod off halfway through the ride but Hannibal decided it would be best to keep her awake until he could fully see the extent of the damage; so anytime she closed her eyes he reached around and poked her or tapped her cheek. The problem was after a while she tried to grab his hand and used her injured arm since it was the one closest to him. So instead he relied on Murdock to keep her awake; he moved over next to her and talked to her for the remainder of the drive until they came to a rundown shack resembling the Bates motel. Hannibal went and got them two rooms and was lucky to get the last ones available.
Once inside, Hannibal had Jean get on the bed and he unwrapped the now bloody gauze and saw that most of the bleeding had stopped already; he cleaned the cuts out a second time and wrapped her up like Kharis the mummy again. Looking her over he saw that otherwise she had only suffered a few scrapes from the fall and hitting the rocky ground and decided it was safe for her to lie down and go to sleep. When he finished bandaging her arm again, he gave it a slight squeeze and said, "Alright kid, there you go. We'll check it again in the morning but in a few days it should be back to normal."
"Thanks, Smith," Jean said as she looked at the new bandage, as if making sure he had done it right.
"Face and Murdock are going to stay with you tonight, and B.A. and I are going to be in the room next door," he pointed.
"That seems to be a running theme around here," Jean noted.
Hannibal stood up and turned around to talk to the others but he saw it was only Murdock, "Where's Face?"
"I don't know," he answered, "He left right after we got our rooms."
"He can't have gone far," Hannibal said, "I'm sure he'll be back soon." He turned back to Jean and added, "I think you'll be alright for the time being so I'll leave you alone and we'll see you in the morning."
"Okay, Hannibal," Murdock walked with him towards the door.
"Oh Murdock," Hannibal stopped, "Can I speak to you outside for a minute?" He turned back to Jean and flashed his trademark smile that said something was going on, "We'll be right back, excuse us."
Murdock followed behind Hannibal, not sure what was going on but he had a feeling he was going to get his ears pinned back for something involving what had happened tonight. Outside the motel cabin, the two men stood under a streetlamp and Murdock waited to know why he had been called out here, and the answer wasn't what he was expecting.
"You done good tonight, Captain," Hannibal told him.
"Huh?"
Hannibal smiled at him, not his cynical smile, a genuine one that showed he was proud and said, "I don't know how you found out today was her birthday, but she's never going to forget what you did for her."
Murdock found himself at a loss for words, he looked down at the ground and said, "It wasn't anything, Colonel."
"It was to her," Hannibal replied.
"Hey guys," they heard Face as he came walking up to the motel, and they both noticed but didn't question that he was carrying a brown paper bag with him, "What's going on?"
"Nothing, Lieutenant," Hannibal said, "I'll see you guys in the morning." And he disappeared over to his own room for the night.
"Where you been, Faceman?" Murdock asked as they went back to their room.
"I had to stop off somewhere," Face told him, "And pick something up."
They went inside and found Jean still on the bed, her head propped up against the pillows and the headboard, one leg flat on the bed and the other folded across it, and her good arm folded behind her head.
"How're you feeling?" Face asked.
"How do I look?" Jean asked teasingly.
"Not good," Face answered.
"Well I feel better than that," she said, "So where'd you disappear off to?"
Face reached into the bag and pulled out a bottle of champagne and some suitable glasses for it.
"Alright, what're we drinking to?" Jean asked, "Escaping from Lynch again?"
"Nope," Face replied as he opened the bottle and poured the three glasses full, "This is for your birthday."
"Works for me," Jean said as he handed her the glass.
"Well," Face said when they each had a drink, "This is your big day, do you have a speech prepared?"
"Sure," Jean said, and leaned forward so she could hold her glass to theirs, "I've lived enough days to make it through another year, now I have a new number on my age, maybe I'll get lucky and live to see enough days pass to see the next one too."
They clinked their glasses and drank, and Murdock immediately spit half of his out, "Ooh Face, the turpentine variety, I thought you were above that."
"Mmm," Face opened his mouth and let his fall back into the glass, "They must've changed something since the last time I drank this brand, I remember it used to be good."
Jean swallowed hers and said, "It's not too bad," and she held her glass out to him and added, "Pour it on!"
"I know you're just saying that to be nice," Face told her, "But you asked for it." He poured her a second drink and she downed it faster than the first, and he and Murdock tried theirs again, and it was still awful but they drank it anyway to be good sports since she was game enough to swallow it.
When the bottle was empty they decided to turn in for the night; Murdock helped Jean get settled under the covers and repositioned the pillows behind her head, despite her insistence that she could do it herself.
"Hey Murdock," she said when he started to move away from her.
He leaned back over towards her and said, "What is it?"
Jean leaned forward and wrapped her good arm around his back and said, "I don't know how you found out today was my birthday, but I had a great time today. Thanks." And she leaned further against him and kissed him on the cheek.
"What about me?" Face asked, "Don't I get a kiss too?"
"Sure, Face," Murdock turned around and reached for him.
"Not you!" Face laughed as he moved past Murdock.
"Yeah sure," Jean said with a straight face and a tired voice, "Might as well get that over with."
Face went over to her and was careful not to touch her since he didn't want to hurt her, but she did the same thing with him she had with Murdock; she put her good arm around him and kissed him on the cheek. He felt certain that she must've been loopy in between the pain, the loss of blood and the alcohol because he was sure at any other time she would've been just as inclined to kick his teeth out as to kiss him, or maybe more.
Murdock wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep when the moaning woke him up. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was Jean making the noises but when he did he sprang out of his bed and over to hers to find out what was the matter, and it didn't take long to find out. Jean had fallen asleep on her bad arm and had done it at such a crooked position that now she couldn't move her neck either. Also, whatever she had done while she was asleep, all circulation was gone from both arms clear up to the shoulders and she couldn't move either one to get the blood flowing again. So he helped her, first he managed to move her head to the other side and straighten out her neck without causing too much pain, then he grabbed one arm, and then the other and moved them a little and then rubbed up and down the flesh to get the circulation going again; after a few minutes she was able to move her fingers and curl them up into fists, after which she was slowly able to move her arms by herself as well.
"Thanks, Murdock," she said as she lay back against the pillows, "That was creepy."
"That ever happen before?" he asked her.
"A couple of times years ago," she answered, "Usually I have about an inch worth of movement in one arm so I can move it and grab the other one, but this time…"
"Let me guess," Murdock pointed to her right arm that was tied up with gauze, "This one."
She nodded, "I guess being punctured open like a tire really didn't do me any favors tonight."
Of course Murdock didn't have to tell her what she already knew, she was lucky that it was only her arm, a few more inches and she could've had that razor wire wrapped around her neck or her chest, then they would've had a problem.
"Murdock," Jean slowly started to sit up in the bed and asked him, "Would you have any objections to staying here for a few minutes?"
"Not at all," he said as he sat down beside her.
He was surprised when Jean leaned over towards him and hugged him again, tighter this time than she had before.
"Thanks, Murdock," she said into his ear.
"For what?" he asked.
"For what you did tonight," she answered, "I think this was the best birthday I ever had."
Murdock kept to himself the comment of just how miserable her life must've been then if that was the case. What had started as a few minutes quickly turned into the rest of the night when after a while, Jean fell asleep beside Murdock with her head on his shoulder. Murdock leaned over and kissed her and said quietly, "Happy birthday, kid."
Hannibal busted into the room and got everybody up at 5 o' clock and suggested it would be in their best interest to hit the road again before the sun came up and people could report seeing their van in the area. It didn't take them long to get their stuff together and clear out, but now the question on everyone's mind and Face took it upon himself to actually ask it, "What do we do now?"
Hannibal tapped the screen on the dashboard and said, "We've still got Grant on our radar, he's probably going to move according to schedule, if we keep on in the direction we're going, we should beat him to his intended destination by a couple of days."
"What about the checkpoints?" Face asked again.
"Oh we'll taper off before point A and lay in wait for Grant to take care of that himself," Hannibal said, "But I don't see any harm in staying a step ahead of him."
"So where do we go in the meantime?" Jean asked.
Hannibal took out the makeshift map that he had drawn in the hotel room the other day and said, "I'd like to think we've already gotten about 10 miles of a head start on Lynch, and if we put another 30 on that today, we can stop off somewhere and take it easy for a while."
"Sounds good to me," Face said.
Jean heard something rattling in the back under the van and added, "But something else don't sound so good."
Late that morning they found a secluded place to park where B.A. could work on the van and make sure that there wasn't any worse damage done than he had initially thought and also to make sure that nobody had made them a little blip on a radar screen. Face volunteered that while B.A. worked on the van, he and Murdock would go for breakfast since they weren't too far away from civilization. Jean had volunteered to go with them and after a little debating on the subject, Hannibal finally agreed and let her go; he figured if something would happen and any of them would be ambushed, Face and Murdock could easily disappear in a crowd and blend in and he'd rather the girl have the same chances with them, instead of being fish in a barrel in the middle of nowhere with he and B.A.
Face, Murdock and Jean had found a paved road leading into a town half a mile away from where they had stashed the van; and ten minutes after entering the town they found and went into a donut shop, and could've been in and out in a couple of minutes except Murdock couldn't decide what he wanted so they wound up leaving with four cups of coffee and a couple dozen twists, rings, jelly donuts, a dozen cake donuts picked solely for all their different sprinkles, and a bag of powdered donut holes. And once they left the shop, he opened the box and started touching them one at a time to decide what to eat first.
"Keep it up Murdock and you'll eat the whole box before we ever get back," Face told him.
Face handed Murdock the coffee and took the box of donuts, gave it to Jean to carry and then took the coffee back so Murdock couldn't drink all of it before they returned either.
"Times like this I wish I was back in LA," Face commented.
"What's in LA?" Jean asked him.
"My car for one thing," he answered, "If I had my 'Vette with me now, we could just drive out and back while we wait for B.A. to fix the van."
"Well can't you turn on your magic charm and scam another car in the meantime?" Jean asked.
"In this outfit?" Face pulled on the lapel of his jean jacket.
Jean looked past him to Murdock and she stopped and yelled incoherently as she pointed. Face turned to see what she was looking at and he saw that Murdock had stopped in his tracks; his arms were held out to the sides like a bird spreading its wings and he looked up to the sky with wide eyes and an open mouth, and he scratched the sole of one shoe across the ground like a chicken scratching the dirt.
"What's the matter with him?" Jean asked, "Is he having a seizure?"
Murdock tilted his head further back to look up at the sky and he called out, "Momma!"
Now Face was starting to get worried, and Jean was already past that point, asking Face, "What did he do, swallow cyanide or something?"
"Murdock," Face went over to him, "What is it?"
Murdock didn't look at Face, he kept his eyes skyward and said, "Can't you hear her, Facey? Can't you hear her calling me?"
Face looked back to Jean and she looked as panicked as he was starting to feel. This was a new one on him and he didn't have any idea what the hell it was supposed to mean.
"Murdock, what're you talking about?" he asked.
"Oh can't you hear her? I can hear her calling me, she's saying loud and clear 'Murdock!' She's saying it's time to come on home to the sky."
"Who is?" Face asked.
Jean looked to the sky and realized something, "You hear that?"
Now it was Face's turn to try and hear what was going on, at first he didn't hear anything but after a minute he could hear a low, constant, repetitive sound, gradually becoming louder and as it did he recognized it for the unforgettable thwump-thwump-thwump it was.
"It's a chopper!" Jean said.
"Mmm-hmm," Murdock nodded as he started to grin, "It's a big bird."
Jean looked at him and asked, "Not a military caliber is it?"
"Could be," Murdock replied, "Yes…I'd almost swear, it's a Huey."
Face and Jean looked at each other and both had different ideas on what this could mean but both knew if either of them were right it wouldn't be good.
"Think it's Lynch?" Jean asked.
"Ohhh, I don't think so," Murdock shook his head, "All the same I can hear her calling to me, to relieve her of her current pilot. She needs a new crew, Facey!"
"I don't see any helicopter," Face told him.
"Oh but I can hear her, Face, she is close by and she needs me!" Murdock said.
They each grabbed him by one side and started back towards the van, with him resisting the whole way. Most of the fight was gone from him by the time they got back, but Hannibal still wanted to know what was going on.
"He heard a helicopter on the way back and thought it was calling him," Face answered, making it sound as if it was completely normal.
"She, Face," Murdock corrected him, "She! For someone who can charm all the women you need to learn how to address them properly."
Hannibal ignored their debate and looked to the captain and asked him matter-of-factly, "How 'bout it, Murdock?"
"Oh Colonel I can hear her calling, she needs me to come and liberate her," he insisted.
"Hannibal," B.A. growled, "I warned you about encouraging him."
"Did you see the copter?" Hannibal asked.
"No."
"Too bad," Hannibal said, doing a good job of sounding sorry for Murdock, "If we come across it, you may get your chance."
"What?" Face asked.
"Well come on, guys," Hannibal told them, "Lynch is on our trail and he's not going to give up the chase, he may be able to catch some of us but if we have a helicopter at our disposal, there's no way he can catch all of us, isn't that right, B.A.?"
"So long as some other crazy fool goes on the chopper," B.A. remarked.
"An aerial view of where the MPs are going couldn't hurt either," Hannibal added.
"Now don't tell me we have to go chasing a helicopter," Face said.
"Oh…I'm sure that wherever it is, it'll make its presence known again soon," Hannibal replied.
Murdock wasn't waiting for the helicopter to take off again, he became a bloodhound for the bird and took off through the woods searching for it, with Face and Jean following behind him, exactly like chasing a dog that escaped leash and all.
"I tell you it's close by, I can hear her calling to me!" Murdock said as he raised a hand to his ear, "Come on!"
"No wonder B.A.'s always threatening to knock him into next Wednesday," Jean commented to Face as they hopped over tree stumps and logs following after the pilot.
"Yeah but then that would really throw our week off," Face replied with a huff as he jumped over a rabbit hole.
Murdock stopped dead in his tracks about 20 feet ahead of them and sniffed and turned and started running off to the side and they followed after him, but were never quite able to catch up with him. When Murdock stopped the second time, they were able to catch up with him, but they hadn't noticed he had stopped running and they crashed into him and all three of them fell down; and they realized when they fell down they didn't hit a dirt ground, but a paved road.
"Well," Jean said as they got untangled from one another, "We seem to be back on the road to civilization."
"Or lack thereof," Murdock said as he stood up and looked around and noted there was no traffic, or people, or anything alive in their vicinity.
"So which way do we go?" Jean asked.
Face looked at the road behind them, and ahead of them, and he had no idea where either direction would lead, but he had a bad feeling about the whole thing. He looked at Murdock and opened his mouth to say something but Murdock put his hand just over Face's mouth and said, "Shhhh," without even looking at him. "You hear that?"
They did, that unmistakable thwump-thwump-thwump of the chopper's rotor.
"It sounds like it's already landing," Jean said.
"No," Murdock shook his head, "Landed."
"He can tell that?" Jean asked Face.
"Murdock knows about helicopters like you probably know about Oz," Face told her.
"Alright Murdock, where is it?" Jean asked.
Murdock sounded like a machine starting up and he whirled around on one foot and pointed at random until he came to a stop and pointed to the road ahead of them. "Over there, come on."
They ran down the street to see if they could find the helicopter before it took off, or if it was landed like Murdock said, if they could get some idea of who had been flying it. It was well known that Murdock had his own methods for getting things, especially helicopters, from people when a situation called for it; granted he usually pulled them off with less charm and finesse than Face was usually able to do, but it worked nonetheless.
They followed Murdock, who followed the sound of the chopper to a spot down by the river; where on the way to it they got off the road again and wound up climbing down through weeds that were about as tall as they were. Pulling the weeds aside, they were able to peer through and they saw a large helicopter on the other side of the river and they were able to see the people getting out of it.
Face's heart jumped up to his throat, "MPs." He would recognize those outfits anywhere.
"You see Lynch anywhere?" Jean asked as she squinted to see out that far.
Face shook his head, "They don't look like the same ones from last night." Then another idea occurred to him and he asked Jean, "When they said another shipment to move out, how do they transport them?"
"In the…" Jean pointed and realized what he was getting at, "In the choppers. Uh…" she reached over and jabbed Face with her elbow, "Do you see what I see?"
"All I see is a helicopter and six goons in green with guns," Face told her, "What am I supposed to be looking at?"
"Do you know what the number on the copter is?" Jean asked him.
Face started to yell at her demanding to know what that had to do with anything, when it hit him just what her point was; there were no numbers on the chopper because it was entirely black.
"This is the stuff movies are made of."
"Unfortunately we can't get across the river to find out what the hell's going on without drawing plenty of attention to ourselves," Jean reminded him, "So now what do we do?"
Face pulled out his walkie talkie and said into it, "Hannibal, we've got problems."
There was static over the walkie talkie, followed by Hannibal's voice asking, "What is it, Lieutenant?"
"Murdock was right about the chopper," Face told him, "But I don't think grabbing it would be in our best interest, it's got a crew of MPs onboard and if this is a standard military chopper nobody's going to know because it's all black, no number, no nothing."
He gave Hannibal the best directions he could toward their current location and Hannibal advised them to stay out of sight, he and B.A. would be down there soon so they could figure out what was going on; but in the meantime he recommended they keep an eye on the MPs and see if they could find out what was going on.
"That's easy for him to say," Jean said, "What're we going to do, swim over?"
As far as the eye could see the river seemed to stretch on forever. "There has to be a bridge somewhere to get across," Face told her, "Let's head down and see what we can find."
Jean tapped Murdock on the shoulder and said, "He's really on it, ain't he?"
"Honey, you ain't seen nothing yet," Murdock assured her, and they followed after Face.
They made their way along through the four foot tall grass and the jagged, rocky ground beneath them and alternated between seeing the path ahead of them and over to the other side of the river to see if anything was going on; so far so good, no sight of anybody or anything. None of them said anything but they quickly found out this was a very good place to get lost; while Face managed to maintain the lead, Murdock and Jean kept losing one another until finally when they about collided again, Murdock grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her along beside him so he could keep an eye on her.
When the weeds finally reached an end, they walked out scratched and half eaten alive by bugs but saw they weren't any closer to finding an inconspicuous way over than when they first arrived. Murdock noticed that somewhere along the way down, the wooded area had given way to a large rocky dirt ridge that also seemed to expand on for miles, and he started climbing up it, why, the others had no idea, but they followed after him. It wasn't an easy climb up and several times Face slipped or scratched his hand on something, but they finally made it to a level area where they could stand straight and get a higher view of things. From there they could look out over the river and see across it there was a string of buildings that looked eerily similar to airplane hangars.
"What is it?" Jean asked, "A military base?"
"I don't know," Face replied, "But I don't like the looks of it."
From their new position they could see people across the river, albeit now they appeared considerably smaller, like a bunch of camouflage ants. They moved around the buildings, and, looking back a ways, they saw the spot where the helicopter had landed and saw several other men moving around it, working on it.
"I hope Hannibal and B.A. get here soon," Face commented, "I don't know what's going on but I don't like the looks of it at all."
"Face, we've just got to get over there," Murdock told him, "I've got to get to her, I can hear her calling me."
"Don't start that again, Murdock," Face said, "Not now."
"Hey, look!" Jean pointed across the way.
He did look, and he saw what she saw, coming around from behind the hangars were several jeeps and military armored cars; they came to a stop in front of the hangars and they saw the MPs loading crates into the jeeps.
"If that were the traffickers," Face said to Jean, "What would be in those crates?"
"Ammo maybe, the smaller grade weapons," she said, "It doesn't really look like it could be much compared to what I've seen them ship out."
"Well then what is it they've got?" Face wanted to know.
"I don't know but we better get out of here," Jean suggested, "If they take off in that chopper again they're going to have a bird's eye view and wouldn't have any problem spotting three trespassers this side of the river."
"Back into the weeds," Murdock said as he pulled his cap down.
They hit the rocky ground again and continued on in the same direction; before too long they saw a road again and followed it back onto a paved street, and once again found there wasn't anybody around.
"What do you think's going on around here?" Jean asked.
Face honestly had no idea, but looking ahead he could see there was a town a few hundred yards away; he didn't see any people but he saw buildings and decided they might have better luck there. Unfortunately upon arrival they saw that the place had been reduced to a ghost town; no people, no cars, not a single sign of life to be found anywhere. The businesses were all crammed against one another and all looked like they had been run out of business only a few weeks or months ago; a diner, a motel, a barber shop, a bar, everything was shut down, dark and boarded up.
"Well, anybody else interested in giving up?" Jean said as they sat down on the curb.
Face was just about to answer her when he heard something.
"Somebody's coming, it might be a good idea to get out of sight until we find out who it is," Face said as he went over to the diner and tried its front door. By some luck it was unlocked and they ran in and locked it behind them.
From the front window they were able to see that a couple of the jeeps they had seen across the river were pulling up outside a couple of buildings over, and the MPs were hauling out the crates.
"Well that has to prove there's a bridge around here somewhere," Face dryly commented.
"Can you see what they're taking out?" Jean asked.
Murdock pressed his face against the window and squinted his eyes and said, "Looks like tear gas grenades."
"How did they know we were here?" Jean asked.
"Uh guys," Face said, "If there's a back way out of here we better find it now, that's not tear gas." He turned to them and said, "They're gonna firebomb us!"
They got away from the window without a minute to spare; behind them they heard glass breaking and the WHOOSH of the fire as the front of the diner instantaneously went up in a blaze. As they took off for the back they could hear more Molotov cocktails hitting the place, and all around them the walls were going up in flames. Face was the first one to reach the back door and upon throwing it open he saw the van had just pulled up; he didn't have any idea how Hannibal and B.A. knew where they were but he was thankful they did.
Murdock had been just a few feet behind Face and was about to leap out the doorway himself when he heard a crash behind him followed by Jean screaming. He turned around and ran back when he saw Jean had run into one of the tables in the room behind him and fell down clutching her side.
Face had seen Murdock just at the exit and then he turned around and ran back into the diner. Face didn't understand what was going on and he started to go in after Murdock when he was knocked back by an explosion that blew out all the windows in the diner as the whole building was engulfed in red and orange flames and black smoke poured out. Face lunged towards the blazing inferno but he was grabbed back at the last second by B.A., who pulled him away saying, "Whoa man, you can't go in there now!" B.A. knew there wasn't any point in adding the obvious, that there wasn't anything he could do to help Murdock now.
Face couldn't accept it though; he saw the burning building that had just erupted like a volcano and knew that soon the whole thing would fall apart and collapse, and knew that his best friend was trapped in there with no way out. As the flames shot out from the roof and climbed several feet into the sky, Face lost the will to struggle against B.A.'s grip on him but he screamed out at the top of his lungs until his throat was raw, "MURDOCK!"
Hannibal stood alongside his two men and saw the same sight; saw the flames, saw the black smoke as thick as tar, saw the blackened debris of the building breaking away and falling apart bit by bit; his eyes stung from the smoke but he couldn't even blink as he took in the nightmare before him.
"Dear God in Heaven," he just barely managed to get out.