Chapter 6

Lance nodded and then flipped off the safety before bringing it to his head and taking a deep breath. He then stood that way for a few minutes, listening to the nearing sirens and to his own heartbeat.

“Well, are you gonna do it, or not?” Lance opened his eyes and then fell to the floor in tears dropping the gun by his side.

“I want to, but I can’t!”

“Good. I don’t think that you’ve learned your lesson yet.” With that Lance began crying harder and Marns quieted down to listen through his captor’s wails, when he felt a strange roughness against his wrist. He immediately turned his head as far over as he could, and almost burst out in laughter when he realized that when Lance had taken the gun it had cut halfway through one of his bindings! He looked up at Lance and then Johnson, smiling when he realized that neither of them were paying any attention to what he was doing. He quickly began pulling at the binding and tugging at it to free himself. When his wrists were free, Marns looked nervously at the others to make sure that they wouldn’t notice him untying his ankles, and then he started at that.

Before long he was completely free, and then he searched his vicinity. Before he could untie Johnson he needed to get the gun out of Lance’s reach. He was a murderer and there was no telling what he would do if he got a hold of a gun while his two hostages were escaping. Marns thought over his attack carefully, ignoring the now loud sirens in the background. Then, all of a sudden Marns kicked the gun away from Lance, put a foot against his chest to keep him from getting up, and then began untying Johnson.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“What do you think I’m doing?! I’m trying to save you!” Before long both men were untied, and they could hear screaming voices off in the distance.

“Officer Marns?! Officer Johnson?!”

“Yes! You are going back where you belong!” He jumped up in glee and pointed to Lance who was shivering on the floor.

“It’s all over. It’s all done.” Lance had a blank stare upon his face, and simply shivering in fear as Marns ran out of the shack and began screaming to get the attention of the police officers searching for them.

“We’re over here!” Lance cringed when he heard it, and then Johnson ran over to him and sat him up as he heard more screaming.

“We’re coming! Wait where you are!” He cried to Lance who only looked back at him with that same blank stare.

“Lance, come on. You have to get up and get away from here. You have to hurry.”

“I can’t. I can’t do it anymore.”

“Don’t say that man. You’re strong, and you don’t deserve to go back.” They both heard loud pounding footsteps, and Lance shook his head to get out of his stupor.

“There’s not enough time to get away. I can’t go back, Paul. I can’t. Please…” Lance picked up the gun that had been kicked away from his hands earlier, and handed it to Johnson.

“Please…” Johnson looked down at the gun, and then up at the horrified face in front of him. It simply oozed with an overpowering fear.

“Lance…” Lance interrupted him with another plea.

“Please…” With that Johnson lifted the gun to Lance’s head and placed the end right between his eyes. They both closed their eyes and whispered a short prayer simultaneously. Then Johnson took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. When he did the other three officers ran into the room, screaming.

“What was that gun shot?! What happened?!” Johnson opened his eyes and looked at the lax body lying in front of him. He spent a moment of silence watching the still body as it lay dead. It looked so peaceful, so restful, and so innocent.

“Well, what happened, already?!”

“Self defense. He tried to kill me.”

“Well, I guess it goes like that sometimes. We better call the sheriff to come and get the body.” Johnson watched as a white sheet was draped over the body, and he followed the others out to the door to walk back to their car.

He sighed and closed his eyes as a single tear fell down his cheek. It was a tear of sorrow, a tear of compassion, but most of all it was a tear of finality, because now he knew for sure that it was all over.