“Cal!” Jager is whispering loudly at me from his spot at the bushes trying desperately to usher me back in. But I can’t leave Ace out there alone. And that scream – I know that scream. It’s Maddie’s and I am not about to stop until I know she is safe and sound. I take a few more low steps when I hear Jager tell himself, “That asshole is going to get me killed. Damnit!”
There’s a rustling of bushes and Jager runs by my side. We make our way to where Ace is laying flat on his stomach. Wherever that sound came from wasn’t a gun after all despite the three of us both reacting like we were under attack. Ace gives us the thumbs up sign as we get down low next to him.
“Something’s going on with that window.” Ace points out towards the glass block window we identified earlier. “From here, it looks like it is caving in or something. Maybe the girls are trying to escape.”
I reply back quickly, in an anxious panic, “Or maybe they’re getting killed? Did you hear that scream? That was Maddie’s. She wouldn’t scream like that unless something bad was going down.”
Jager looks back out towards the window and then again to us, “Whatever the fuck is going on, I don’t want to be lying here in a field doing nothing when they spot us. Ace, I want you to sneak around towards the front. Cal and I’ve got that window. We meet in the middle inside when it’s all over with. Got it?”
Ace and I reply a solid yes and Ace begins to slowly kneel, his eyes focused like lasers on the burnt out remains of the repair shop. The unknown is sometimes worse than the known, and all we’ve got here is the knowledge that Maddie is inside, screaming her heart out. Even Ace looks shaky about this deal.
Once Ace is out of our sight and securely around the side of the building, Jager takes the lead by crawling with his gun in his hand towards the building. We’re not even ten feet from our spot when we hear another crash and the clear blocks of the glass window fall in a small topple. I hold my breath as I wait. Second pass, then minutes. We are unable to move, unable to speak.
Then I see it. There’s an arm, a head of messy curls, and the frightened eyes of my girl. My daughter. She gets out of the window and looks back momentarily before running off towards where we stand. Her head darts behind her shoulders as she waits for someone to notice her. But instead of running towards the bad guys, I’m there waiting for her, my arms outstretched.
She shoots past me, totally focused on getting out of whatever hell she was in, until I whisper her name. The small girl stops dead in her tracks before turning once more. When she sees me, her body begins to shake and she falls to her bare knees. Every part of her collapses in exhaustion as I hear her cry out the one word I’ve been longing to hear since I found out she was taken: “Daddy.” She mutters it over again until I scoop her up in my arms, nesting her head against my shoulder.
When she has settled down, I ask her, “Maddie, where is Michelle? Was she with you? Were you alone down there?”
Maddie pulls away and points back at the window. Jager and I both watch as we see a figure, limp and unmoving being thrust up towards the ground. I place Maddie down and begin to run towards the window. My heart drops into my stomach as I think of Michelle lying like that, completely lifeless and alone outside of a burnt down repair shop.
But before I can get anywhere near her, Jager is yelling at me, telling me to stop. Ace comes running from the inside of the garage, waving his arms towards us. “It’s clear! It’s clear! There’s no one inside.” He whispers loudly as he waits for us to follow.
I, again, run towards the body on the ground, uncaring about what else is going around me. But I’m stopped by the sound of gunfire. One round. Two rounds. I see a pair of hands roll out as I back up away from the shop’s wall. A woman, her long hair caked in blood and dust emerges and rolls out of the way over the body of her friend. She backs up straight into my legs as I spy Addison inside, firing directly at her.
Jager is by my side almost immediately, his gun pointed straight at Addison’s head. We begin to scream our commands as I try not to focus on Michelle panting and clenching to the leg of my pants. Even I can’t catch my breath. Because in this moment I realize that it’s done. My girls were safe and with me.
Jager takes over guarding Addison while Maddie goes off with Ace and Michelle’s roommate to wait for the doc to arrive with the cars. But I stay with Michelle, holding onto her as tightly as I can, not wanting to let go until it’s absolutely necessary. She keeps her eyes on me, not even daring to look away. To her, I’m a dream, a savior, a wish come true. To me, she’s hope that tomorrow will be better.