Take a Hike

Mitch Lacady hated his job. He figured he had the worst job in the world. He was stuck driving a busload of prisoners from the Wichita Correctional Facility to another maximum security prison further upstate. He was paranoid enough as it was, he didn’t need to have a bunch of hardened criminals watching him from behind the fence erected inside the bus to keep the driver from potential harm at the hands of the murderers and other violent criminals. He was sweating bulletts already and his nervous stomach was acting up. He’d been feeling nauseous all morning. He didn’t talk to the guards if he could help it. He didn’t want to take the chance of one of them turning their attention away froe pre prisoners at the wrong moment and having a riot on their hands.


The nausea turned into an ache in Mitch’s gut. He ignored it and told himself to calm down and drive. The sooner they got to the new prison, the sooner he’d be ready to leave. He ignored the pain in his gut and the tightness in his chest. He was, after all, only forty years old. He wasble,ble, however, to ignore the shooting pain that suddenly moved up his arm. It caused him to jerk the wheel to the left and into the path of a pick-up truck. He frantically tried to regain control over the bus and over-corrected with his good arm. Hearing the startled shouts of his passengers, he saw the embankment coming up too quickly for him to react. He tried to slam on the brakes, but only succeeded in locking them. His vision started to fade as the bus tilted sideways and rolled over the soft shoulder of the road.


Chloe had driven for an hour and a half before she came to one of the roads leading to the parking lots for visitors to Little Cat State Park. It wasn’t very big, she knew, but she could get lost here as easily as in the Sahara. She parked her VW Bug and removed the bright yellow, nylon pack from the passenger seat. She checked her watch, she still had some time to get on the trail before Lex came looking for her. Her stomach fluttered as she thought about their parting conversation. It gave her an odd little thrill to be hunted by a handsom billionaire. It wasn’t every day that a girl had the opportunity to lead a man on such a grand pursuit. She grinned as she slung the pack onto her shoulders and began walking up the nearest trail. Kansas wasn’t made up of many large mountains, but the park offered some dense forests and a few rolling hills to contend with.


There were only two other cars in the parking lot. It wasn’t close enough to summer to have a lot of tourists. And Memorial Day was still over a month away. Not to mention the fact that Chloe was hiking out at almost nine in the morning. There was still a little bit of mist from the April rain that had fallen during the night. She wished that she’d brought her cd player, however she brought only the necessary electrical equipment in order to preserve the study. That strange Dr. Tyle had doubted that it would interfere, but had wanted to err on the side of caution. She whistled to herself and thought about Little Red Riding Hood.


Ms. Red was warned about the wolf before leaving her mother’s house. She must have known she was going to be hunted, just as Chloe was. And no girl with an ounce of brains waould have been fooled by a wolf wearing pajamas. She probably found herself much as Chloe was now, walking into the woods with a bag full of goodies, just waiting for the wolf to show up.


“Tramp.” She said out loud. The girl knew what she was getting into. Chloe mentally scolded herself for her flirtations with Lex. It was asking for trouble. He was way out of her league. She had the distinct feeling that he’d merely been humoring her and putting up with her silly demands for interviews before now now. Here she was, alone in the woods, just waiting to be hunted down like some mary janes- wearing, basket-carrying, riding hooded, mega-ho. She chuckled to herself over her rant and quickened her pace. Glanging at her watch, she turned on the tracker. She still had some time before Lex was allowed to come after her, but she didn’t want to get distracted on the trail and forget to activate it.


The bus lay upside down in the ditch, one side of the vehicle was resting against a large tree. One of the guards had managed to crawl free through a window and radio for help before the head wound he’d gained caused him to lose consciousness. He thought he heard a noise off to his left. He tried to pull himself back from the darkness that engulfed him, knowing that the other two guards were stuck inside and that if he was hearing footsteps so close by, it meant trouble.


Lex looked over Dr Tyle’s shoulder, he glanced at his watch, one minute to go. As soon as the timer beeped on the expensive timepiece, Tyle hit a button activating the sattelite’s retreival system. It took only a few moments for the machine orbiting in space to pull up a signal from subject 001. A red blip appeared on the screen. They had a map on the screen that was programmed with coordinates from the satelite. It was of a radius of 200 miles around them. The doctor tapped a few keys and the computer zeroed in on the area where the blip had appeared. The man chuckled.


“She’s in the State Park, Mr. Luthor.” He said with a grin. Despite his earlier misgivings, he was fully committed to making this test successful. He handed his employer the hand held reciever that had a smaller screen with a compass-like readout that showed a red blip of its own. It was cruder but still effective if he was unable to remain in contact with the base of operations. It gave basic directions of north, south, east and west. It also gave apporximate distance to the intended target. She was currently about fifty-five miles north-west of the Luthor mansion. He slung his own pack onto his shoulders and headed out the door. He slid behind the driver’s seat of a large pick-up truck and pulled slowly out of his driveway, he would not be able to drive as fast while pulling the load he had hooked onto tthe bumper of the truck, but he’d get there in plenty of time.


Chloe had left her digital camera at home and opted, instead, for a small disposable. It was low-tech and wouldn’t interfere with the signal from the satelite. She wanted some photographic evidence of her trip. It might make a nice addition to her article. She was starting to enjoy herself now. The sun was climbing in the sky, and she started to feel warm. By ten, her windbreaker was stored in her pack and the outer-most sweatshirt was tied around her waist. She hadn’t been to this park before, she was not the outdoorsey type, but she was in good enough shape so that a little hike wasn't doing her any harm. She took out her canteen and settled against a rock to have a drink. She waited for a little while and checked her watch, wondering how close Lex was to her.


A squirrel nibbled an acorn nearby and watched Chloe with suspicion. The reported dug her camera and a granola bar out of the pack. She broke off a piece of the honey-grain flavored treat and tossed it toward her fuzzy, gray companion. The squirrel eyed the proffered food and tossed the acorn, catching the scent of sugar. He crept forward and snatched the morsel, ignoring the clicks of Chloe’s camera. She was unaware of the pair of eyes watching from a short distance away.


Lex was a few miles from the Turn-off to the park when he saw flashing lights. The road was blocked off and there were state police cruisers scattered around. He slowed the truck and saw the wheels of the large bus sticking up in the air. He saw a group of men in prison blues milling around being guarded by the police. He was flagged down by a sheriff carrying a shotgun. Lex identified himself to the man and asked what had happened.


“Bus accident.” He said, motionng Lex to the side of the road. “I’ll need to check your vehicle, there is a prisoner not accounted for.” He said, seriously. Lex’s blood chilled in his veins. He thought quickly.


“I’m here to get my girlfriend,” he said, “she’s in the park hiking alone.” He Sheriff turned to him sharply and motioned him out of the cab while another checked behind his seats and the trailer he was pulling. Once satisfied that he was harboring no fugitives, the Sheriff placed a hand on Lex’s shoulder.


“Can you contact her?” He asked.


“I’ll try to get her on her cell, but I don’t know if she’ll get reception.” Lex got back into his car and dialed her phone number from his own cell phone. Her voicemail picked up immediately. He guessed that she had either left it behind, or it was turned off. He cursed himself for not thinking of this scenario. He called Dr. Tyle and apprised him of the situation. He checked his hand-held tracker and noted that the blip was less than a mile away. He turned the truck carefully and drove in the opposite direction till he was out of sight of the police. Then he pulled off onto the shoulder. He cursed himself for not bringing his gun before then got out and ran around to the back of the trailer. He lowered the gate, and spoke softly to Merlin, his large chestnut stallion who was stomping impatiently.