Day 182 - Scavenger- Chapter 3 - (1609 words)

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SCAVENGER

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 3

Back on the stairs

Aaron rifled quickly through the man's pockets and took what he could before heading up the stairs and away from the body. His first instinct had been to go down, but it was time to challenge that thought and do the unexpected. So far everything her had done played right into their hands so he made a quick choice, to head down the stairs to try and exit the building, then he doubled back, mentally and physically to head up and away from the expected route.

The man had no wallet or identification, none of those ubiquitous military dog tags that you saw mercenaries worshipping like sainted medallions in the movies. He did have a knife, one of those multi purpose tools that unfolded into many things, on it was a name inscribed “Jack.”. There was the radio that the message had alerted him to and there was a gun. He pocketed the knife and radio he stuck on his belt, the gun was in the holster still. Aaron pulled the dead body off the stair railing and dragged up on the landing above the floor he was on.

He thought about leaving him there, stripped of his tools and weapon but that would just alert them to his presence and the fact that he had one of their radios. So he pulled him up two flights of stairs, but the time he reached the flight he had come out of he was sweating, and when he reached the floor above his back was screaming at him to stop. There was a reason people referred to a 'dead weight' like this, it was very heavy and increasingly awkward to move him. His centre of gravity was off with the additional weight of a man larger and more sold than he was, despite his fitness it was hard and back breaking work.

When he got to the floor above he lay 'Jack' down and gently opened the door, the gun at the ready in case there was anyone else on the other side. It was a mostly futile gesture and only for show. Aaron didn't know how to fire a gun, didn't know about safeties or chambered rounds or any of the things he thought he should know, and could he fire a live round at a person anyway? He doubted it, but it was kill or be killed so to not have the gun ready at least was tantamount to suicide anyway. So he prised open the door and nosed through, not seeing anyone on the other side.

He came back to the stairway just as the door opened below and a couple of men banged through it with guns at the ready. He saw them by peering around a darkened corner of a wall, as he and the body were not in direct line of sight. One of them reached for a radio and Aaron panicked, grabbing the radio from his belt and switching the power button off as fast as he could.

“Control. Copy?” There was a loud click preceding the attempt and no static like their was on the receiving set. The man waited a little then tried again. “Control Copy?”

“Fucking useless prick.” Said the balaclava'ed man next to him and they both set off down the stairs away from Aaron and his friend the corpse without even looking up his way. Aaron opened the door, keeping an ear out for the fading footsteps on the stairs and he pulled 'Jack' along with him through the door, easing it shut silently and drawing a deep breath of relief.

He was in a hallway and there were a few shelves and cupboards lining it where he was, the other end led to some doors. A large cupboard near the stairwell exit looked big enough to stash 'Jack' into it so he opened it up and found it full of cleaning products. It took him a few minutes to transplant the products to shelves and other cupboards but he soon had a big enough space to fit the body into, once he removed the floating board shelf that ran across the middle.

'Jack' was in the cupboard easily enough and he fit into the space, but with his limbs falling away they kept pushing the the cupbaord open again no matter how he arranged the arms and he had nothing to secure them with. The problem was the door, it was not a latched or lockable cupboard, it had a pressure catch and it was one that would come free easily. The awkward way that 'Jack' was sitting meant that his arms would flop sideways or forward and bump the door open, exposing the fact that there was a body in there. Aaron shoved, kicked and prodded at the body, eventually pulling him out again and trying him at a different angle. He twisted 'Jack' into a contorted shape and it was easier to jackknife his body, and tip him head first into the space so that he was technically upside down with his legs bent up and across the top of the space, his head and shoulders underneath. Now the door would shut and stay shut.

He still had the long board that formed the shelf and he did not want to leave it there so that people would wonder about it so he carried it along with him as he re-opened the door to the stairs a crack and checked that the coast was clear. He snuck up three more levels until he reached the cavity above the floors where the elevator shafts rose to and the access to the roof area. The board from the shelf was laid in the dark along the wall where no one would look twice at it and with some of the other detritus like cans and rags that had been left there too, it fit in perfectly.

Aaron turned the radio on and kept the volume low only to hear the other man still looking for 'control', which he assumed was 'Jack' the poor, deceased and now cupboarded man a few floors away. After a few minutes of radio silence a new voice broke in, one he recognised as the Huntmaster, the man who claimed responsibility for his mother's kidnapping and the one that was setting Aaron these impossible tasks to achieve. The same man who made the rules and threw these military types at him.

His blood ran cold with fear and anger, frustration was high at the strings this guy was pulling. Aaron was on his own and this guy had what? A private army? How unfair was that? How the hell was he going to find his Mom and free her if he was up against an arch villain type like this?

“Bravo Team, Alpha is still in the vicinity. Continue search, his cell is still pinging that address.”

His cell phone? How was this guy able to do all this? Military mercenary types, tracking private cell phones, guns and bullets, kidnapping? Why was he being picked on like this? Why Aaron Hunt?

The cell came out of his pocket and he was about to take the battery out when he thought it might make a better diversion. The doorway to the roof was locked but not very secure, with some brute force, kicking and digging the blade of the knife into the wood to splinter and weaken it, the exit opened and he was out in the night air.

The rain had eased to nothing, just spitting and a gentle breeze, which was good as he would not have relished being cold and wet on top of running for his life. There were a number of buildings nearby and a road that ran on two sides, the building being on the corner. A long way up he thought about trying to throw it across to another building, or down to street level but that could have shattered the phone, rendering the signal dead and therefore useless. He could see a garbage truck approaching with an open top, it was the perfect target.

The truck pulled up and reversed into the alley alongside the building, it was going to pass right under him and he could get a straight shot to the open cavity filled with garbage. He waited until the truck drew up alongside where he was at the edge of the roof and then he threw it out and down off the building. The phone dropped in a gentle arc through the air and before it was even half way to the ground he knew it was going to miss. His heart sank as it bounced off the side of the truck and ricocheted into a dumpster that was sitting nearby.

So now the cell phone was still on, still registering the building and he could not turn it off or relocate it without getting caught.

Perfect.

Then his luck changed and the truck's arms reached to the side and picked the dumpster up and emptied the contents into the truck, the phone along with it. Aaron's heart hammered in his chest, it was going to work! What were the chances of that happening, he had no idea but he was so very grateful that it did. The empty dumpster was back against the wall and the truck slowly made it's way out of the alley when Aaron's radio, the one he stole from 'Jack' the corpse buzzed an update from Bravo Team.

“Checking the roof access, it looks like it's been forced. Weapons hot.”