Hunter’s stomach felt queasy at the thought of selling children to an unknown fate. “We have to stop them here. If they leave, we’ll never find them.”
She walked down the slope toward the back of the barn, and Paco and Ike followed. They stopped under the shade of the large pecans near the corner of the barn, stepping over a number of branches that had fallen. Hunter heard the barn door slide open and moved her head to the side to watch.
The pilot left the barn and climbed the steps to the plane, and in a moment, Kit, a big man, and two other women herded the children out the door. They walked two by two, as close to each other as they could, and even from this distance, Hunter saw their fear.
She recognized Anita, who walked beside the girl she remembered from the photo, Kelly. Kelly looked around, not straight ahead like the others. Hunter thought, she’s looking for a way to escape.
Hunter looked closer at their guards and saw they all carried shoulder weapons, Ruger Mini-14 rifles, with the long magazines. Fast to maneuver for a shot because of their short length, and the semiautomatic rifle could be fired almost as fast as a full auto M-4. All she and Ike carried were pistols. Plus, the children would be in the way in a shootout.
Paco searched for a way to escape, but there seemed to be no chance.
Hunter looked at the Jeep Cherokee, at the way it was parked, but she didn’t have the key. She glanced at Ike and said, “We have to do something quick, or they’re gone.”
“But what? We’re no match for four rifles.”
The pilot stood in the plane’s doorway, motioning for the others to bring the children as the big man trotted to the Jeep, keys in hand.
There’s no more time, Hunter thought. She glanced at Ike, caught his eye with a get ready look, and sprinted for the Jeep and the man with the keys.
Ike started to yell for her to stop, but caught himself. His focus was on Hunter and he didn’t see Paco pick up a broken branch the size of a baseball bat and swing it.
The branch smashed against Ike’s temple, breaking the wood with an audible crack. Ike fell forward and crawled several feet before collapsing on the ground, unconscious.
Paco ran towards Kit, waving his arms, “Don’t shoot me! Don’t shoot me!”
Hunter stopped running and stared at Ike’s prostrate form. She glanced at the kids and saw Kit and the others looking at her, and at Paco as he ran towards them. The big man with the keys yelled at Hunter, “Hey!”
Hunter saw him reach for the pistol on his belt, and she ducked behind the Jeep but didn’t stop moving and circled the vehicle’s front to pop up and shoot as the man jerked down, dodging her shot and running toward his companions. Hunter saw Kit and the others with the children turn their weapons toward her, and Hunter again slid to the opposite side of the Jeep. She ducked beside the driver’s door and spotted the keys on the ground.
Kit and Nadine shoved the girls toward the plane as Paco joined them.
The Pilot started the engines and the propellers whirled into blurs as the powerful twin engines roared to life.
Kelly shouted to the other children to stop, and they did. The rush to the plane halted, and Kit and Nadine yelled, “Get moving!”
That few seconds was all Hunter needed. She started the Jeep and shot toward the DC-3 with the pedal all the way to the floor.
Kit and Nadine opened up on the Jeep with their Mini-14s, and Hunter heard and felt the splang-splang of rounds hitting the vehicle’s body and fenders.
A round blew out the passenger window when it hit the window frame and the glass, shooting fragments through the interior.
Hunter felt a wasp-like sting on her cheek as one piece of glass struck her.
The children stopped again as the firing started, and Kelly said, “Get away from the plane!” She dodged Nadine as the woman reached for her arm, and the other children milled around in panic as shots rang out.
Kit watched open-mouthed as Hunter drove toward the plane, swerving at the last minute to swing the rear of the Jeep into the spinning propeller with a sound like a series of cannon shots.
Bits of Jeep and propeller flew outward like jagged missiles, scattering the children back toward the barn.
Hunter gritted her teeth and held tight to the vibrating steering wheel as the machinegun-like deafening hits of the propeller blades on the Jeep seemed louder than close-hitting lightning.
The Jeep’s entire rear body above the tires shredded under the impact, and when it cleared, Hunter still had momentum. She spotted the pilot already on the ground and running to Kit and the others as she turned the Jeep in another sliding curve to send the mangled rear hard into one of the wheels, knocking it askew so that the plane lurched like a man with a broken leg.
The Jeep wobbled out from under the plane and collapsed ten yards behind the tail, the vehicle resembling a relic from a tornado. The engine shuddered and stopped as grey whisps of smoke emanated from under the hood. Hunter looked for the children and saw a large van leaving from under the pole barn.
The big man drove and slid to a stop by Kit, who, with Nadine, the pilot, and Paco shoved the children inside. He spun the tires as he left, throwing dirt and gravel behind him as he accelerated down the road and away from Hunter, who was on foot and holding her pistol ready to shoot, but she didn’t because of the children inside the van.
Hunter teared up, she was so mad, and felt like a failure for not rescuing the children.