The Prodigal Saga: The Escapee

Chapter 8: Rescue

(Daniel POV)

I grinned as I saw the trail of blood. She'd be dead in no time, judging by the steady stain on the snow. I turned to Charlotte and smirked.

"Get my field men and the cadaver dogs to track the corpse down and bring her to me for harvesting." I ordered. Charlotte nodded.

"And the children?" she asked. I turned to face her with a cold look.

"Drag them back!" I ordered. "If they put up a fight, beat the little vermin." Hynes saluted and ran away as I looked through the porthole to the bloody snow.

"How's that for killing two birds with one stone?" I asked, looking down to my bloody knife in my hands.

"Captain...a ship's headed our way. I believe the Carter boy's aboard." I smirked and turned around.

"Let him find us, then." I said, raising my eyebrows briefly. "The fool doesn't know what he's in for."

———————————————————————————

(Wesley POV)

I paced around the room, looking at Jeff, who was slaving away on Hudson's computer. Gen was sitting at the RADAR tracker, hoping to find Issacs' ship.

"Jeff, anything on the tracker we installed in Issacs' firewall?" I asked. Jeff shrugged.

"Believe me, I'd have told ye if I was there yet." he explained. "I'll have -"

"It's them!" Gen shouted, pointing to a blip in the RADAR. "Off the Russian coast!" I scoffed.

"How do you know?" I asked. "It could be just another ship on the RADAR circuit." Jeff shouted out in joy and shot up.

"It isn't!" he cried in joy. "Their firewall is literally a hundred yards away. That's the Wisteria!" I leaned on the wall, sighing in relief. After three days I finally found her!

"Alright, get ready to board the ship. Wesley, you get Merideth." Madam Krow ordered, her face split into a brilliant grin, as did mine. I looked to Gen.

"We got him." I sighed in relief, pacing. Just a hundred yards kept me from running Isaacs through with my sword. I smirked. "Beautiful."

———————————————————————————

"Prepare to board!" I shouted to Blade as Madam Krow ordered the anchor lowered. I jumped onto the ledge of the ship, glaring down the ship beside me and roped myself aboard, finding the man that had done Hudson's tattoos, Mac. I grabbed him.

"Where's Isaacs!" I growled. Mac went wide eyed.

"Wesley Carter! Erm...the cap'n's in his study." Mac pointed to the cabin in front of me and I nodded, dropping the man and storming in. I kicked the door down and grabbed Issacs by the shirt.

"Wesley!" Issacs smirked. "How nice of you to join me." I snarled and slammed him into a wall.

"Where is she!?" I demanded. Daniel looked utterly confused.

"Where is who?" I hit him into the wall again.

"You know damn well who! Where is she!?" I shouted at him. Daniel chuckled and pushed me off of him.

"Oh, Merideth!" Daniel laughed, loud and coldly. "Oh, I sent her out to...cool off?"I snarled and grabbed his collar.

"You better hope that she's still alive!" Daniel laughed.

"Oh, you're too late. She's already dead." he told me. I snarled, letting him go and running off the docks with my coat until I found the blood trail mixed with footprints that were barely filled in with fresh snow. Merideth's footprints! I went running after them, following the blood until I heard barking. I froze.

"Cadaver dogs." I muttered, waiting to see Issacs' men, but instead finding Russian police, a man and a woman with a picture. A picture of me!

"You!" they said, in thick Russian accents. "Wesley Carter! Freeze!" I froze and got on the ground as they searched me violently. The woman stood, holding a bloody knife in hand.

"Blood." she said, turning to me. "You're under arrest for the murder of Merideth Hudson." I froze.

"What?!" I shouted. "I didn't hurt her! I -" I stopped. How did I feel about that child? Now wasn't the time to speculate, I had to get my ass out of being arrested before they hacked my "criminal" record and sent me back to England. I fought, drawing my sword and knocking the man out. "I'm terribly sorry to do this, but I'm desperate." I grabbed the woman, with much effort due to her size and knocked her out the same as her partner, wiping as much of the blood as I could off of the blade. There wasn't as much, but there was a little leftover.

"I regret it." I repeated, cleaning the knife in the snow and laying it beside the man. I took my sword. Maybe they wouldn't notice it was me if I carved a symbol in the tree, turn their hunt on someone else. I smirked. J.R. had always mentioned that he had gang mates in Russia...now I could pin this one on the Oafs. I carved their symbol into a tree and proceeded to follow Merideth's footprints, which were accompanied by little footprints, like those of a toddler's. I also noticed that in the tree was a coat, a thin one to preserve body heat. I swore, she was out in a winter's hellhole and didn't have anything to keep her warm!? Shelby came running after me and grabbed my arm.

"What are you doing!?" she shouted at me. I whipped around to her.

"Trying to get Hudson, what does it look like I -" I froze when the tracks stopped. There was an imprint of a body in snow...but Merideth was nowhere to be found. I swore punching a tree until my hand burst open. I swore and cradled it gently as I looked around.

"Did anyone come to take her!?" I demanded. Shelby sighed.

"No, because they would have made more footprints. Look, there's a larger set coming and going that way!" she pointed to the distance and I saw a large set of feet, most likely a man's, come toward the site, and then away with the same two sets of toddler footprints.

"It couldn't have been from Daniel or his men." I muttered. "Because they would have followed the blood trail."

"And they aren't that big in the foot area." Shelby added. "At least, I hope not." I stood straighter.

"That means..." I looked down and saw a glint of silver. I picked it up and saw it was a whistle, still wet with spittle. "Merideth must have blown this to get help! That means..." Shelby and I looked to each other.

"Merideth is still alive!" we said together. "Follow those footprints!" I ran, following the footprints until we got to an old post house, smoke blowing through the chimney. I took a deep breath and opened the door, steeling myself to what I would see...or what I hoped I didn't see.

Holding my breath, the door inched open and I nearly dropped to my knees in shock.