5: In the Field but on the Ground
Robert crawled out of bed at six, three hours later. He had not slept at all. He soon had dressed, eaten, and was off to the airport. The FBI plane was waiting for him, along with Leo and Charlie. Upon arrival at the prison the three were briefed on Marson’s escape and possible places he would have gone. Robert could tell the other two thought this was a waste of time as they already knew this information, but Robert picked up on some little details that only someone closer to Marson could know or describe, of which one of the guards briefing them was. He made a mental note to look into his background. Someone here must have helped with the escape.
After the brief Robert started the ball rolling. He set up headquarters in one of the prison offices and started setting patrol boundaries in areas surrounding the prison and assigning a group and a lead to each. When going through the file he found that Marson grew up in a rural area with lots of woods. There seemed to be a sort of comfort for objects surrounding him, but not blocking out all view. This was confirmed in Robert’s mind when he started asking around and finding out that Marson enjoyed being outside amongst others as often as possible. He soon picked out three forested areas that were somewhat populated, as Marson would need supplies, and starting heavy searches there. He assigned Leo and Charlie to oversee the searches while he himself would go around the prison and ask more questions. He made a special note to the search teams to keep and ear out for homes that sounded too quiet.
He spent two days questioning prisoners, guards, and staff about Marson. His questions seemed more concerned about the prisoner’s actions and daily life, but he knew in these questions he would find some clues. At the end of two days of questioning Robert received a call from one of the search groups. After questioning the locals the group had found one family that had seen a man the day before who matched the description of Marson. Robert quickly headed off after informing all the other search teams to make a perimeter around the sighting and start clearing residents. On his way out he informed the Prison warden of his suspicions on a certain guard that had briefed him, and one of the kitchen staff. He arrived at the newly established base camp within the hour and started getting a briefing on what was going on and where the searches were begin conducted. Robert then joined up with a party searching the general area of the sighting. They continued searching the area through the rest of the day, questioning the locals that hadn’t evacuated yet and staying in contact with the other search parties. It was getting towards dusk and thoughts of setting up camp were coming into the parties’ minds, when Robert and his group came upon a small clearing and a house. The lights were on and there were cars in the driveway; meaning someone was home. This was far in the forest, so they must not have heard the warning to evacuate or at least not headed it. Robert thought he would go and inform them; when he noticed it was really quiet. He motioned to the party to halt at the edge of the clearing. He pointed out the sign that said beware of dog. They weren’t exactly being quiet, so that dog should have heard them, something was wrong.
“Group up,” he whispered. “Were going to check out the house, there are twenty of us, I want a group of three to cover each side of the house, stay under cover, you two will cover the garage, you three the back door, and you two and I will go up to the front door. Be careful for traps that may alert our position, in case we haven’t been heard yet, I am going to try and get a view in the front windows. If I see the residents and they appear at ease we will ring the doorbell, otherwise the six of us will enter on my command. The rest of you keep and eye out for anyone trying to leave the building. Hold your fire until you’ve identified the person or persons, when we exit we will move into the clearing and stay there, anyone else will head for a car or the woods. All right, let’s move out.”
Robert and his men moved quietly across the yard to the front door while three men moved to the back door. He made sure two guys were positioned at the garage and the remainder surrounded the house, but stayed out of the clearing. Robert left his guys near the front steps while he crept up to one of the front windows. The blinds had been let down. He peeked through a gap and at first saw nothing but an empty living room. Then his heart skipped a beat as he came across a body lying on the floor. It appeared to be the mother lying in a pool of blood. He wrenched his eyes from the scene and crawled back to the other two.
“Looks like he’s here, one of the family members has been shot. Get on the radio and let the group at the back door know we are going to enter on my command.”
“We have a confirmed sighting; we are moving in, is everyone in position?”
“Confirmed, we have surrounded the house.”
“We await your command at the back door.”
“We are waiting at the garage.”
“On three: one, two, three.”
The door crashed open as Robert’s men kicked it in, he covered from behind. He stepped onto the landing gun at the ready. The room was clear; he could hear movement at the back of the house. He signaled the other two to head around to the left while he took the right, where the body of the mom lay. He moved around the entrance to the living room checking the corners of the room. He moved in, there was no sound or movement. He walked over to the body and crouched down to check for a pulse. He caught a movement from behind him and spun bringing his pistol around. He felt a stab of pain as something connected with the left side of his face and he then felt himself falling. His head hit the ground, sending a searing pain across its right side. His ears were ringing, he vision was blurry, but he could just make out the face of the mom feet from his. She was dead, he could tell from the eyes, the expression, the last moments of fear etched in them. He starred in horror unable to take his eyes away, then all of a sudden his vision cleared, he wasn’t in the house anymore… he was cold. He tried to move and realized he was tied to a wall. He looked up and saw James Ferguson tied to the wall to the left of him, he was dead. He looked straight ahead, there sitting at the desk was Trent Frennur. Trent was looking straight at him, with a steady crazed look in his eyes and a smile of amusement on his face. He started toying with what looked like a group of instruments. His picked one up and got up, walking slowly toward Robert. Robert’s mind was racing; he didn’t know why he was here. He was getting cold, he couldn’t break eye contact, and he couldn’t take it.
“This isn’t real, you are dead! This can’t be happening, I can’t be here! Please! Please let me wake up, let me go, I don’t want to be here!”
Trent started laughing, still walking closer. Robert started screaming. He felt something in his hand, in sheer desperation he tried to bring his arm up and it came. He found he had a pistol in his hand, he pulled trigger. Trent’s expression changed to shock as he lunged for the ground the bullet missing him by inches. Robert felt himself get held down and the gun wrenched from his grasp by someone he couldn’t see. He felt another stab of pain and his vision went dark and he heard voices. He tried to struggle...it was no use, it was over.