Hunted: Day 1

“Aww, damn, what the hell hit me?” JD Dunne sat up, rubbing the back of his head. He found a small lump there, “Aww hell, Buck ain’t gonna like this.” The young ATF agent opened his eyes. Well, he thought he opened his eyes, but everything around him was pitch black.

Suddenly JD heard something to his right. “Who’s there?”

“JD?”

“Chris?” JD slowly made his way towards Chris Larabee, his team leader and idol. Encountering a body, JD nudged it. “Chris? Is this your leg?”

“No, Mr. Dunne, that is my leg.” The Southern accent was groggy but strong.

“Hey Ez. You’re here too huh?”

“Obviously,” Ezra answered dryly. “Where’s Chris?”

“Over here, next to what feels like Nathan.” A pause and a nudge, “Hey Nate, this you?”

“Oh, hell, what hit me?”

“Probably the same that hit the rest of us,” JD quipped.

“Okay, that’s three of y’all. VIN! BUCK! JOSIAH!” His voice echoed through the confined space.

“Damn, cowboy, you don’t gotta be so loud.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Gee, Chris, don’t you care about me?”

“Buck, your head’s so hard, I figure why bother.”

“That hurts, Chris. It really does.”

“Well, I care! You okay?”

“Yeah, kid, I’m fine.”

“Josiah?”

“Yes, brother Nathan, I’m here.”

“So, that makes all of us,” Chris said, peering into the darkness.

“Good morning, gentlemen!” The sickeningly cheerful voice boomed out of the darkness.

“Who the hell are you and why the hell did you kidnap my men!”

“Ah, Mr. Larabee! The infamous leader of the ‘Magnificent Seven’, the best ATF team ever created. It is indeed an honor.”

“Thank you.” Chris’s sarcasm cut through the darkness. “Now answer the question.”

“Right to business, I see. Very well. You may call me the Game
Warden. . .Warden if you like.”

“And what kind of game will you be presiding over?”

“Ah, Mr. Standish, very good question. You could say my speciality is of the bipedal variety.”

“Shit.” Ezra’s curse was loud and clear through the Warden’s laughter.

“Ezra?” Ezra barely heard Buck’s question through the sickeningly high-pitched, civil laughter.

“He hunts people.” The disgust was evident in the undercover agent’s cultured voice.

“Very good, Mr. Standish. Now as for the why you? Well, that should be self-evident! For connoisseurs such as my associates and myself, only the best will do. And as I said previously, you are the best!”

“You know, sometimes being the best is sure a pain in the ass,” Buck muttered through the Warden’s speech. Buck could almost feel Chris’s death glare, while Vin snickered.

“You will be given a 15 minute head start, which begins the second you are released from your confinement. You will find survival gear located north, 1 klick, from here. The rest is easy. . . you run, we hunt. If we find you, we kill you.”

“And if you don’t find us?” Chris demanded.

“Well, if you can reach the town, you win the game!”

“And if we win?”

“Well, then Mr. Wilmington, you all live. Now, good luck! Toodles!”

“Sick bastard.” Nathan’s voice broke the silence.

“What if we don’t run? What if we refuse to play his game?” JD asked the room at large.

“Then he’d just kill us here,” Vin quietly answered his young friend’s question.

“Vin’s right. Let’s get going.” Chris’s order spurred his men into action.

They each started tapping on the walls, searching for a panel, switch, or whatever else that might get them out of their jail. It was Josiah who found the way out. Jumping out of the darkness, the ATF agents realized that they had been held captive inside the cargo compartment of an 18-wheeler. Once out, the seven men surveyed their surroundings and each other.

Vin smirked as he took in Chris’s pj’s as well as his own, “You know, I’m starting to feel like one of the Bobbsey Twins.”

Chris looked at Vin in confusion until his young friend pointed to the dark cotton boxers that they were both wearing. The blonde man smiled, “Copycat.”

JD grinned as he pointed at Josiah. “Nice shirt.”

The large man smiled down at the logo on the navy blue t-shirt he was wearing over his sweat pants. It said, ‘God put me here. What’s your excuse?’

Ezra, garbed in silk maroon pajama bottoms, dryly remarked, “I am not properly dressed for this particular outing.”

“Like the rest of us are!” Buck exclaimed, but at Ezra’s raised eyebrow, took stock of what he and JD were wearing. JD was in a T-shirt and jams, while Buck had on a white muscle shirt and sweat pants. “Never mind, we are. . .kinda.”

“I’m with Ez,” Nathan said. The ex-medic was wearing honest-to-God real pajamas.

“Where are we?” At JD’s question, all seven men began scrutinizing their surroundings. It was a wooded area and from the confused looks on his men’s faces, Chris didn’t think they were in Montana anymore.

“Our head start is leaving us.” Vin’s quiet voice next to his ear jolted Chris from his thoughts.

“Which way?” Chris asked his second-in-command.

Vin looked around him and then started off in a direction. The others followed without hesitation. The sharpshooter kept his pace easy but fast and his friends followed with ease. Except for JD, who wore socks, none of them had any footgear.

It had taken the ATF team all of six minutes to jog the 1 klick to their promised gear.

“Damn, how we gonna get those?” Buck’s voice sounded annoyed. In the clearing they found their gear all right, but it was hanging from of the highest branches of the pine trees. If that wasn’t bad enough, the lower branches of the trees had been cut off, probably courtesy of the Game Warden.

“JD and Vin can get it. You two climb like monkeys.” Nathan came up with the solution easily.

“And Mr. Sanchez and Mr Wilmington can provide a step stool of sorts,” Ezra added.

At Chris’s nod, his men got into position. Within minutes, all the packs were on the ground, as were JD and Vin. Searching through the packs, they found some food, weapons, and survival gear. But most importantly they found each pack held their own clothes.

“All black, hmm, wonder who this belongs to?” Vin’s amused voice earned him a glare, which just caused him to smile wider. Grabbing the pack, Chris wondered how Vin could make jokes when they were being hunted. Soon they were dressed in hiking gear and checking the rest of their supplies.

“Why do ya think they gave us guns?” JD asked as he examined the pistol that he had pulled from the backpack. To the ATF team’s surprise, the Warden had supplied them with weaponry and ammunition.

“It’s not much of a challenge to hunt helpless prey,” Josiah explained with disgust.

Vin raised an eyebrow, looking up from the sniper’s rifle in his hands. “Or as much fun.”

“So what now?” Nathan asked.

“They said we had to get to town,” JD answered.

“And how would we know where the hell that is?” Buck asked with irritation in his voice.

“I believe I have the answer to that, gentlemen.” Ezra walked over and handed his team leader a piece of paper. “I found it in my pack,” the southerner added to answer Chris’s raised eyebrow.

It was a set of instructions: 30 klicks, north by Northwest.

“Well, we know where to go,” Chris said.

“The question is should we go?” Vin easily finished Chris’s sentence.

Before anyone could answer, shots rang out.

RAT TA TAT
RAT TA TAT

BANG
BANG

“Go!” At Chris’s command, Vin took off, followed by his partners. Chris lagged behind, making sure that his men were covered.

Vin ran knowing that running wasn’t going to be enough. They needed to find a place they could hide and make plans. In the distance, Vin spotted a rock formation. Vin veered to the left and the others followed, all with weapons at the ready.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Chris? Vin? Anyone?” Assistant Director Orrin Travis’s voice floated through the empty cabin. The man known as “Judge” to his men swept the room with a practiced eye. He took in everything--the empty beds, the partially opened suitcases, and the debris left over from the remains of an obviously interrupted meal. Two days ago Team Seven failed to return from their camping trip in Montana’s range of the Rocky Mountains and the old man was worried.

“And you say that the cabin is paid in full for another month?”

“Yes, sir.” Paxton, the owner of the Rocky Mountain Retreat, nodded his head.

“Who paid for it?” Travis circled the room, looking for evidence of foul play.

“I don’t know sir. I just found an envelope with enough cash and instructions to reserve the cabin for another month and that the gentlemen wouldn’t be back for awhile. Hiking in the Rockies, the note said.” Paxton was nervous. An ex-federal Judge, now an ATF director, suspected that his men had been kidnapped from his resort. If word of this got out…

“Mr. Paxton, alert the local authorities. Tell them to search this entire area. I want my men found.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Did we lose ‘em?” JD panted as he pulled to a stop. He knew he could run, but this was just too much.

“Haven’t heard any more shots,” Nathan said as he slowly pulled air into his lungs. Jackson had been a marathoner a one time, so the mad dash into the woods hadn’t phased the ex-medic at all.

“Doesn’t mean anything,” Vin said as he shucked his pack and then started climbing up the rock formation where he and the others had taken cover.

“What now?” Buck leaned against the rock that Vin was climbing, trying not to pass out from the lack of air. He marveled at how both Chris and Vin weren’t even breathing hard. The ladies’ man shook his head, ‘What do you expect from an ex-Navy SEAL and an ex-Army Ranger?’

“The town, the one in the directions?” Ezra was not in the best of moods. Not only had he been kidnapped and forced to awaken before the sun, psychopaths were now hunting him and his friends. As the undercover agent took stock of his surroundings, he couldn’t help but comment, “Have any of you gentlemen noticed that we are the only law enforcement team who are constantly put into predicaments that are highly unlikely? For example, the time we were flying home from Los Angeles and a small epidemic….”

“Ezra.” Standish couldn’t help but grin at the look that Larabee threw in his direction. The look was a combination of exasperation, chastisement, and rueful understanding. Exasperation and chastisement at Ezra’s untimely discourse on their predicament but understanding completely. They were regularly thrown into situations that just didn’t seem possible.

Chris watched as Vin descended the rocky incline. Seeing his friend’s ‘all clear’ sign, he spoke. “We have two options. Go to this town and hope to God that there’s law there. . .”

“Or we can stop running and get these bastards.” Vin didn’t want to run. It wasn’t in his nature to run from a fight, especially now that he had six friends he trusted with his back.

“I think our best chances are with the town.” Josiah’s deep voice echoed in the early morning stillness. “We don’t know where we are and we don’t have that much food or ammo to begin with.” They had agreed to conserve their food and ammo, hunting and gathering their morning and midday meals. But it was difficult to forage for food and keep watch for the hunters at the same time.

“Josiah’s right. I think we should head to town.” Nathan spoke up from his perch below a pine tree.

Chris looked at each of his men. The look in Buck’s eyes told him what he wanted and JD was just too tired to even meet his team leader’s eyes. And Ezra was laying on the ground with an arm over his eyes, breathing slowly. Like JD, the Southerner was too tired to care. Finally, crystal green eyes met with blue ones. At Vin’s reluctant nod, Chris stood. “All right, the town it is.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“But, sir. . .”

“I don’t care how much personnel it takes! I want my men found!”

“Yes, sir.” Travis watched as the sheriff walked off to speak to his people, hopefully to relay Travis’s instructions. The ringing of his cell phone startled the Judge. “Travis.”

“Orrin?” The sound of his wife’s voice brought a smile to his lips. “Evie.”

By just the way her husband said her name, Evelyn Travis knew that something was wrong. “Orrin, is everything all right? Are Chris and the boys. . .”

“They’re missing, Evie.”

“Missing?” Quickly, Travis filled his wife in on the few available details.

“Then how is the search going? Have they found anything yet?”

“Sheriff Dummy. . .Dudley. . .whatever the hell his name is, thinks that the Seven are playing hookey…trying to avoid coming back to work.”

“He’s never met Chris, has he?” His wife’s voice had a hint of laughter in it and Travis couldn’t help but respond to it. Chuckling, Travis said, “No. No, he hasn’t.” But Travis soon sobered again. “I don’t know where to start, Evie. There’s nothing to work with. . .no evidence. . .no witnesses…nothing!”

“It’ll be all right, dear. You know those boys, they’ll probably show up in a few days…towing an entire drug cartel behind them and with enough evidence to convict the whole lot!”

Travis smiled. Evie always knew how to soothe his fears. “I hope so, Evie, I hope so.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Shh. Listen.” The others watched as Vin cocked his head to one side. They had been walking for hours and still no town in sight.

“It’s a chopper!” Buck exclaimed. He and JD quickly climbed onto the rock, jumping up and down, waving their arms and trying to get the pilot’s attention.

Vin’s eyes widened. “No! Guys, stop!”

But it was too late; shots rang out as the air filled with the Warden’s distinctive laughter. Chris, Josiah, and Nathan laid down cover fire for Buck and JD as they descended from the rock face and quickly scrambled after the already running Vin and Ezra.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

From their elevated position, Team Seven watched as two choppers landed and deposited their passengers. It was then that the ATF agents saw their pursuers for the first time. Ten hunters in various types of fatigues and hunting apparel filled the clearing.

“That’s not too bad, only 10, we can take ‘em.” Nathan’s whispered words proved to be too hastily spoken. In seconds the choppers had taken off and were replaced by several trucks. Trucks filled with men, guns, and dogs.

“Ah, shit,” Chris whispered as he watched the men easily control the hunting dogs.

The Texan whispered just as softly, “We gotta head for water.” He and Chris exchanged identical looks before Vin took off, closely followed by his teammates.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Damn!” Buck kicked the dust at his feet, shaking his head. “It’s nothin’ but a goddamn ghost town! We ain’t gonna find anything or anyone to help us!”

The ATF agents stared at the buildings surrounding them. Standing in what looked like the town’s main street, they could see a barber shop, a bar, a general store and what looked like a newspaper office and a hotel--all deserted. And by the looks of it, not recently. Chris, Nathan, and Josiah all sighed. It had been their decision to head for the town and they had led their friends right into a dead end.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Team Seven all turned to look at their youngest member. JD was staring at the ground near one of the buildings.

“JD?” The dark haired young man turned towards the source of the Southern accent with a smile and pointed. “Take a closer look, Ez. Tell me what you see.”

With a slightly puzzled frown, Ezra did as JD bid. Standish’s surprised exclamation brought the others.

“What is it?” Nathan stared at the ground but didn’t realize what he was staring at.

JD grinned. “Aww, c’mon, Nate! Chris’s had you pose as a telephone repairman so many times you should know what that is!”

“Telephone cables! Hot damn, kid! You did it!” Buck thumped his roommate on the back with a huge grin while JD flushed with pleasure under his “big brother’s” praise.

Chris smiled for the first time in many hours. “JD, you and Ezra find the phones. Call for help. The rest of us will scout out the town.”

Ezra and JD both nodded and began their search. The other five men each took a direction and began exploring the ghost town.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Whatcha got, Kid?” Buck leaned over JD’s shoulder, examining the tangled mass of wires and circuits. The five men had found nothing of use in the abandoned town and so had joined their friends inside the newspaper office.

“Well, couldn’t find a phone,” JD said as he hooked a red wire to a green one. “So me and Ez jerry-rigged this telegraph-like thingy.”

“Telegraph-like thingy.” Chris’s voice was a mixture of amusement and exasperation. Sometimes he had a hard time understanding JD’s generation X usage of words.

“You see, Mr. Larabee, we could not locate any audio devices that would allow us to contact the outside world. But we did find enough leftover electronic material to quote ‘MacGuyver’ a device which will enable us to transmit a SOS signal,” Ezra explained as they watched JD continue hooking up wires and connecting them to circuit boards.

“This stuff’s older than dirt…but Ez knew just what to do with it.” JD’s teammates jumped when sparks flew at his latest connection.

Ezra smiled at Josiah’s questioning eyebrow, but it was Vin who answered. “So your interest in the Old West finally came in handy, huh?”

“Most assuredly.”

“Okay, here goes!” JD began tapping out the SOS message.

“Wait. Okay, somebody hears our SOS, but how are they gonna know where we are?” Nathan’s words caused the others to frown. All but Chris.

“Forest rangers and the law in remote parts usually have ways of tracing SOS signals like this. . .if the signal is left going long enough.” Chris smiled at JD, indicating for the young agent to continue transmitting.

Josiah shifted his weight, trying to get a better look at JD and Ezra’s handiwork. “How long --”

RAT TA TAT
RAT TA TAT

The automatic gunfire had the seven agents ducking and going for their guns.

“Shit! How they find us so fast?” Buck’s annoyance rang loud and clear. He ducked his dark head as the glass above his head shattered under the assault.

“Josiah, Buck, cover our backs. Follow me.” Chris’s orders were delivered in a hushed tone. Even through the explosion of gunfire, he didn’t want to take any chances. Staying low, Larabee lead his men out the back. Reaching the back door, he realized that they were about 50 yards away from the safety of the treeline.

“We running for it, cowboy?”

Chris nodded and scouted out the surrounding area one last time.

The seven men were halfway to safety before the first bullets nipped at their heels. Firing and running, the seven men finally reached the treeline but continued tearing through the forest.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The ringing of his cell phone nearly went unheard as the drone of the chopper wailed in Travis’s ear.

“Travis.”

“Judge? Any word yet?”

Travis could hear the worry in Mary’s voice and tried to allay them. “We got something, but we’re not sure if it’s them. I’m heading out to check it now.”

“Be careful, and Orrin. . .”

“I’ll let you know the minute I know anything.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Are they still following us?” Nathan surveyed the woods behind them. He didn’t know how long they had been running, hearing the barking of the dogs echoing through the trees.

“Nah, I think we lost ‘em. Or maybe. . .”

“They’re waiting ‘til daylight.” Josiah finished Vin’s statement without missing a beat. Vin nodded at the profiler’s observation.

“Then can we camp here for the night?” JD was exhausted. He had never been this tired before and that was damn near impossible, as Buck would say. JD knew he had enough energy for a whirlwind, but this forced run was really tiring him out.

Chris surveyed his men, proud of each and every one of them. He, Vin, Nathan, and Josiah were the only ones who had ever been required to run this kind of distance and time. Back in the military, this would have been a normal day for them. But Buck, JD, and Ezra had never been in the military and were holding their own under the circumstances. And Ezra hadn’t complained at all!

“All right, Buck, JD, fire detail. Vin, Josiah, KP duty. Nathan, you set up camp. Ezra and I will take perimeter watch.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“How about these?” Buck turned to see JD holding several sticks and logs of varying sizes. Running his large hand over the dry, dense wood, Buck nodded, “Perfect.”

“What are you doing?” JD stood on his toes as he watched his roommate dig into a broken pine branch. Buck’s knife was coated with a black tar-like substance and he had a flat piece of wood piled high with the stuff.

“This here’s pine pitch, kid. Stuff burns faster and hotter than Josiah’s 5 alarm chilli.”

JD’s doubtful look had Buck grinning and reminiscing. “When me and Chris were kids, we use to make home-made firecrackers with this and some dried corn. You should’ve seen the girls’ faces. Scared the bejeezus out them!”

Buck’s grin was infectious and JD found himself smiling and filing the information for future prank reference.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Ah, the triumphant fishermen have returned.” Ezra surveyed the long string of fish Vin and Josiah were holding up for display.

Tanner grinned as he handed the bundle of fish to Standish. “We caught ‘em, you clean ‘em.”

Ezra sighed and shook his head. Looking at the assortment of salmon and rainbow trout, he had to ask. “And what, pray tell, did you use as bait?”

“Freshwater snails.” Josiah answered with a smile.

Ezra’s face was a mask of complete confusion. “Where did you find snails?”

“Under a sunken log. They like the calm water there,” Vin explained as if it was a commonly know fact.

“So do snakes.” The three men jumped as their leader’s voice materialized from behind them.

Vin smiled at his friend. “You worry too much, cowboy.”

“With you six, hell yeah I worry!”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Damn, that was good!” Buck sat back, patting his now full stomach.

JD nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, what was in that soup by the way, Nathan?”

“Hmmm. Oh, cattail roots, coupla different lichens. . .”

“Lichen?” Ezra was horrified. “You fed us lichen?”

“Ezra, you’re the one that eats truffles,” Josiah pointed out.

“Truffles are a completely different matter!”

“Aren’t those things fungus or something?” Vin asked with a grin.

“Mushrooms, to be precise.” Ezra glared at his friend from across the fire. Turning back to Nathan, he exclaimed again. “You fed us lichen?”

“Ezra, get over it.” Chris’s voice broke through the darkness. Their leader was sitting in the shadows, watching over his men and watching out for a possible attack.

“So what now, cowboy?”

Larabee looked at his men and then surveyed their surroundings. “Get some sleep, we’ll figure things out tomorrow. I’ll take first watch.”