| Justin is lying in his father�s bed. He is restless and is finding it impossible to get any real sleep. Looking over at his travel alarm clock, he sees it 4:47A. M. �Justin, you need your beauty sleep,� he tells himself. He takes his stiff leg from the covers and pulls his knee toward his chin. In the moonlight, Justin can make out the photograph of his mother in the distance. �Things would have been a lot different if you had lived.� He sighs. Pulling himself out of the bed, he heads towards the bathroom. *** Zach and Michael under the mask of pre dawn darkness are dismantling their observation post and head to a truck. *** Ted is the driving a van which is about mile up the road from the Taylor�s farm house. The van has its� headlights off comes to a halt. Ben and two other men in night assault gear with weapons and gas masks exit the van. They start heading to the back of the Taylor�s house. *** Justin is now wrapped in a bath towel and preparing a hypodermic syringe. He looks at his scars in a mirror. The bullet wound through his right shoulder gave him a small entry scar, but a larger exit scar and there are several other scars where hunks of flesh were torn from him in the explosion. Then lastly he looks down at his knee riddled with surgery scars. Taking the syringe and drives the needle into her scared knee to one side of the kneecap, and then he prepares another shot and jabs it into the back of the knee. *** Michael stands in the back of the old pickup truck while Zach is behind the wheel. The truck�s lights are off, but the engine is running. Looking through binoculars with night vision, Michael watches the house. He sees Justin exits from the front door of the Taylor�s house. Justin is wearing sweat pants and sweat shirt. He heads down the front steps, across the lawn and down to driveway. Micheal talks into a two radio to Ben. �Jesus, I don�t fucking know! Who goes jogging at fucking dawn!� Zach retorts on his radio, �Justin Taylor. It�s one of his knows traits, or didn�t your new lead man research that.� �Do we proceed, over?� asks Ben. �Hell, yes. I�ll snatch the bird. See if Ted can roll in behind him and cut him off,� Zach speaks over the radio. *** A pickup comes into Justin view. Justin notices that it has it�s headlight off in the distance but continues towards it for a few more feet before stopping to catch his breath. His first senses then carefully and discretely looks behind him to see a van without its headlights driving up behind him. Justin quickly looks for a escape route. He leaps down into the deep ditch along the side of the road and crawls up its side quickly sliding through the barbwire fence into plowed field. �Shit! I hope you have your running shoes on, Mickey,� Zach remarks. �Fuck!� Michael jumps out of the back of pickup and runs towards Justin. With his gun drawn, Micheal jumps into the ditch. Justin turns his head to see Michael getting hung up in the barbwire. �Fucking shit! You�d better stop,� Michael hollers at Justin. Justin stops for a second to look around to find best direction to head in. He looks at Micheal again, and then runs across the field as fast as he can. Michael untangled and head after him again. Michael has some speed and quickly begins to close the gap between them. Justin sees Micheal closing in on him as he reaches the edge of the field. He uses a fence post to vault himself over a barbwire fence. He lands on his bad knee but takes the pain as he heads into a pasture that is fragmented with erosion gullies. Michael vaults over the fence using the same fence post. Not being able to jump over the gullies, Justin runs down into it and has to grab at weeds to pull himself back up on other side. Justin sees that the pickup truck, with Zach, has found a way into the field and is racing towards him. He takes off running again full tilt through the dew laden grass. The erosion gullies hamper Zach�s progress and he bounces through the field. Michael gasping for air leaps over the gullies that Justin had to crawl out of and races after him. Justin races up a tall hill. He is pulling ahead of Michael. He can see the across the expanse of the farm land to his father�s land. �Oh, Christ, Em!� He looks back at Michael and the pickup truck, and spies a grove of trees. Taking him farther away from the house, he heads for them. Michael stops and sucks in air as he reaches the top of the hill. �Little fucker! You�re suppose to be a cripple. Crippled my ass.� Michael looks to see where Zach is before continuing to chase Justin. Still bouncing and zig zaging across the field, Zach hits a rock formation to hard. The left front on the pickup goes flat, but Zach keeps tracking after Justin. Justin feels that his heart is about to burst, but he keeps on running as he pulls away from man chasing him. *** Ben and his crew walk into the living room of Talyor�s house. Ben signals for them to put on their gas masks. Each man has a spray can of knock out gas. They head for the stairs. The men silently enter Emmett�s bedroom and spray over the sleeping Emmett and Daphne. Daphne is aroused and tries to awake up, but Ben quickly spray into her face. She is instantly knocked out. *** A young man dressed similar to Justin opens the door of Justin's airplane at Custer�s airport. Sitting behind the controls of the plane, he begins to taxis it down the runway and takes flight with it. *** Hiding behind a large walnut tree holding a large club of dead tree branch, Justin waits for Micheal. Michael approaches stumbling through the bushes and over tree roots. As he reaches the tree where Justin is hiding his instincts tell him just a second too late that he is in danger. Justin swings his club with every muscle in his body. The club smashes into Roman�s face knocking him out cold. Shock by his own actions, Justin takes a second to gaze at his damage. Taking Michael revolver, Justin begins to search the man�s pockets for extra clips. He finds them as well as his wallet and heads back to the house. Justin, barely jogging now, climbs through another barbwire fence into another pasture. There are three horses in the field. Two are Emmetts mares and the other one is a buck skin stallion, Jesus James. �Hello, there, Jesse James, big fella. How about letting me ride you. That�s a nice big fella.� The stallion sniffs at him as though he is checking him out then runs away leaving the two mares nervously grazing. �Come on there girls... how about it?� The older mare takes a few steps towards Justin. An idea across Justin�s mind. He holds out Michael's wallets as though it were a tasty tidbit. The old mare walks slowly towards her, and Justin is able to grab hold of her mane. �I�m sorry girl. I owe you one.� Justin swings herself up onto the mare�s baeback and wastes no time heading the horse back to the Taylor�s barn at full gallop. *** A man exit the front door of Taylor house carrying Justin�s belongs. Ben fellows the man talking into his radio. In seconds, Ted arrives with the van and swings it around so that he can back up the front steps. Ben opens the doors of the van for the man to toss in Justin�s things while the other man makes one last swept through the house. Justin rides the mare right the open corral behind the barn and leaps off the horse. Ben secures one of the double doors to back of the van. Ted has his drivers side window rolled all the way down and is turned to look toward his passengers. The last man finally exits the house carrying Justin�s lap top computer. He stops on the porch to remove his mask. Justin takes a hiding spot at the side of the barn. He closes in on the man on the porch. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Justin steadies his nerves. He aims at the driver of the van. Justin fires two shots at Ted but only grazes him. The man on the porch begins to shoot at Justin, and Justin fires two shots at him hitting him once in the stomach and once in the upper left thigh. Ben tries to figure out who can be firing at them as he takes cover. �Shit!� He races up the porch to grab his wounded man. Ted backs the van up closer to the porch. �Whose shooting?� Justin fires more shots at the van�s tires which have no effect on them. As Ben tries to help his wounded man down the steps, Justin shoots at him hitting him in the arm. Ted shoots in Justin�s direction to give cover for Ben and wounded man. Justin ducks as bullets splinter the side of the barn. With the help of the man in the van, Ben manages to get his wounded man and himself into the van, and Ted speeds away before Ben can even get the Van�s other door close. Justin runs over to Emmett�s truck and finds the keys in the ignition, but the battery is dead. �Fuck!� A small stream of blood trickles down Ted�s face. �Damn! Where did he come from!� Ben ignoring the hole in his own arm tries to help his wounded man who looks as though he could be bleeding to death. �He got away from Zach and Michael.� �Nobody gets away form Zach!� �Brian did.� *** Troy sits behind the dispatcher�s desk. �Carl, sorry to wake you, but I�ve had several calls now about shots being fired over at Craig Taylor�s farm.� Troy pauses. �Yes, I know it seems strange. I think I should send somebody over there, but I didn�t know if you�d want me to be spending Vic. He�s on patrol... probably out around the lake.� Troy pauses again. �Alright, I�ll wake up Ethan too... anything else I should be doing... Alright then, over and out.� *** Breathing heavily, Zach finally finds Michael where he has been lying since Justin knocked him out. �There you are, you pathetic sack of shit.� He picks up Michael�s body as though it were a rag doll and slings him over his shoulder before heading back to his disabled pickup. Loading Michael into the back of the truck, Zach speeds out of the pasture and onto another gravel road. Michael regained consciousness and is being jostled about. Ahead of him, Zach can see a trail of gravel dust coming straight towards him at a quick pace. Zach steers his pickup truck off the road and smack into the ditch. He gets out of his truck and leaves the door open. Zach grabs Michael out of the truck bed. �Damn, what the fuck!� �You�re a decoy lay still.� Michael tries to fight him off. �Fuck you!� �I think I�ve had just about enough of you.� Zach�s fist smashes into Michael�s already damaged face and throws Michael�s limp body onto the gravel road. Then he hides himself as the car approaches them. Vic is racing his patrol car comes across a wrecked pickup and a body lying in the road. Vic has to slam on his brakes and steer hard to avoid hitting the body. �Oh, man! Oh, man!� As soon as the car comes to sliding stop, he rushes over Michael�s body. Out of nowhere, Zach appears and kicks the deputy in the side of the head. Then he grabs him and hits him in the back of the head. Dragging the deputy over to the side of the road, he toss him into the ditch. �You made a mistake, Michael,� Zach explains as head to get in the patrol car. �Ben would have never told the likes of you about the disc.� He backs up the car and positions the car to get a run at Michael�s body. Flooring the gas pedal, he runs over Michael and stops the car. He backs up over Michael and runs over him again slowly. Then he gets out and picks up Michael�s bloody body and stuffs it into the back seat of the patrol car before driving away. �Come out and play boys. It�s time to choose sides.� *** Justin is driving a huge John Deer tractor down the road as fast as the tractor can go. In the distance, he can see a trail of gravel dust racing towards him. Justin pulls out his gun and is ready to fire. Ethan in his classic Trans Am comes flying over a hill towards Justin. With his body visible shaken, Justin aims it at driver of the vehicle. Bringing his car to jolting halt directly in front of the oncoming tractor blocking Justin�s path. He is not certain what has happened, but he sense he is in a lot of danger. He rolls down his car window. �Justin, please. Justin it�s Ethan! Put down the gun, Justin, I�ve come to help. Whatever has happened, you�ve got to know that I�ll do whatever I can to help. Please, Justin, put down the gun.� Ethan opens his car door. He was in such a hurry that he didn�t button his shirt. �I�m going to get out of my car. Please put the gun down, Justin.� Justin keeps his revolver aimed directly at Ethan. �I�ll guarantee you that where ever you�re going in such a hurry You�ll get there a hell of a lot quicker if I drive you in my Ams.� Ethan pats the hood of his car. �So... how about not shooting me.� �Ethan, are you really alone?� �Yes, what�s wrong?� Tears begin to stream down Justin�s face as he turns off the tractor and starts to get down. �Ethan, Ethan...� Justin rushes over to Ethan and tries to talk, to explain, but he is unable to do anything but reach out to Ethan. With his warm face pressed against his bare chest, Ethan is almost swept away by his own emotions. The two steal a moment in time that separates them from the here and now. |