Vision Quest

12. Tuesday Part 4 The Chase

POV: Roger

    Car chases where the hero gets away from the bad guys chasing him always seem to work in the movies. You know, in real life, it is harder than it looks.

I tried everything I'd ever seen in the movies and some I hadn't. I tried dodging in and out between cars in heavy traffic, but they always caught up. I tried ducking into parking garages, but they were always waiting for us on the outside. I was not about to try driving down a city sidewalk. This was not a movie, and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to think of all the things that can go wrong trying to drive down a city sidewalk. I did, however, have a couple of ideas left.

"Roger, I'm worried. These guys are not giving up."

"Hang on." I made a sharp turn into a shopping center and then got into line at an automated car wash.

"Really Roger? Do you think this is a good time for a car wash?" she asked incredulously.

"I am hoping they get in line behind us and then once the conveyor that pulls them through grabs on to them, we can get away while they are stuck in the wash," I explained.

That didn't happen. They didn't get in line and simply waited for us at the exit. As we came out of the car wash, they were out of their car and tried to flag us down. Hutch came right up to my car slapped his hand down on the trunk and yelled that they just wanted to talk. I lost sight of Starsky. Regardless, I wasn't going to wait around for him to show up. I just sped away.

Back on the road, it wasn't long before I spotted them behind us again. It was as if they had a tracker on my car. Seemed unlikely, but maybe Starsky was putting a tracker on us while Hutch was slapping our trunk.

Finally, I remembered an isolated residential neighborhood where one of the guys I have had do some work around the apartment complex lived. The neighborhood was a relatively new small housing development that only had one apparent entrance which was also the only apparent exit. I had given him a ride home once when his car was in the shop. His house was at the back of the development right next to a dirt road that disappeared into the national forest behind his house. I had asked him about it, and he had explained it was a forest service road rarely used. It was unpaved and was not for normal traffic. I figured that it would not be on normal street maps. From the back of the residential neighborhood, it went through a forested area. My friend told me that it eventually led to a paved road that connected to interstate 80.

I decided it was my best chance. I pulled into the only known entrance to the neighborhood. I figured they would wait at the entrance thinking there was no other way out.

It seemed to have worked. We made it through the neighborhood to the forest service road and finally to the interstate, and they were nowhere to be seen. We stayed on 80 until we got to the turnoff that led to the dirt road which eventually led to the trailhead where our quest was to begin. At the turnoff there was a gas station where we made a pit stop to allow Ritu a civilized bathroom break. By then it had been over an hour since we'd seen our pursuers. I decided we were in the clear.

We made it to the trailhead without further incidents. The trailhead was at the end of the dirt road where there was a gravel parking area. We were the only car there. We unloaded our stuff, got our packs on and headed up the trail.