RESCUE
ME!
by
CQB
Chapter 12
The Chapters
Sam Radley knew he couldn’t risk Callie and Vanessa’s lives. Amy Gantz was just too close to the girls. He winced as he watched Gantz shove the two teenagers into the small, dark building. Now, however, the girls were protected from the gun the Gantz woman carried. Sam watched as she tucked the gun into her jacket pocket and began locking the door.
Sam re-holstered his own weapon and leaped from the trees, diving toward Amy Gantz. Amy turned at the sudden rustling. Startled at seeing a man leaping towards her, Amy quickly dropped the key to the door and reached inside her jacket for her semi-automatic.
Sam tackled the young woman around the knees, not giving her time to aim. They fell together in a tangle of arms and legs. But the quiet of the woodland was suddenly shattered by a gun shot.
* * *
After securing Cyrus Landles in the car trunk, Fenton Hardy moved as rapidly as he felt was safe along the path in the woods behind the Gantz house.
He didn’t use his flashlight for fear of being discovered. Surprise was his best weapon right now. But, without light, the path was difficult to see. After traveling some distance, he peered through the darkness and could make out a vague, boxy shape in the distance – perhaps a small building in the midst of the trees.
A gun shot suddenly pierced the still, night air, bringing the detective to a stop. All caution was now thrown to the wind as Fenton made a bee-line toward where the sound had originated – the building up ahead.
* * *
“So…hard to…see,” Frank Hardy whispered as he came to a stop at the top of the secret escape tunnel Timothy Gantz had installed in his underground workshop. The higher the teenager climbed, the more difficult breathing became for him.
The light from the laptop was nothing more than a dim glow far below him, but Frank could make out the dark shape of his brother climbing up just below him.
Joe felt sluggish; his muscles were on automatic, forcing him to keep climbing the ladder. He stopped and looked up into the blackness when his hand came in contact with Frank’s foot.
“Are we…there…yet?”
Frank didn’t answer, instead saving his energy for opening the door. He felt around for a latch or some other way to open the metal door. ‘Come on!’ his brain screamed, fighting to not lose consciousness. He glanced down again. If he passed out, he’d fall and take Joe with him to their death, 80 feet below.
‘God, please,’ Frank silently begged. Just when he thought all was lost, his fingers brushed against a handle. Frank tugged with what little strength he had left and felt the door instantly release.
“Joe…we’re…out.”
They tumbled out of the opening onto the mossy forest floor, gulping in the clean, musk-scented air.
“I never thought breathing could feel so good,” Joe said, lying back on the cool ground.
“I know what you mean, little brother,” Frank agreed, feeling very refreshed already, “That was too close for comfort!”
Their relief and restoration was cut short when a gunshot brought them to full alert.
“Frank, it could be Dad and Sam,” Joe suggested, getting to his feet.
“Yes, and it came from that direction,” Frank pointed. Through the trees, the boys could see the top of the cement block building they had entered earlier.
“Let’s go,” Joe said as he led the way through the pine trees.
* * *
Sam finally pinned Amy Gantz to the ground, though the woman fought ferociously. He wrestled the gun from her hand and tossed it aside. She kicked and lashed out at him with her feet, wearying Sam. His side was burning fiercely and he could see blood seeping through his shirt near the waistband of his jeans.
“Looks like you could use a hand, partner,” Fenton Hardy quickly made his way toward the struggling pair. He pulled out his extra hand cuffs and secured Amy’s hands behind her back. “Don’t move, Miss Gantz,” he ordered before turning his attention to Sam.
“Let me see.”
“Flesh wound, Fent,” Sam grinned. “Burns like crazy, but it’s nothing serious.” He nodded toward the building, “She locked the girls in there, and I suspect the boys might be in there, too. She dropped the keys by the door.”
Fenton rushed to the steel door and quickly had it opened. Callie Shaw and Vanessa Bender emerged uninjured, but babbling hysterically about Frank and Joe suffocating underground.
“Wait, girls,” Fenton ordered, “you aren’t making any sense. Slow down and tell me where the boys are.”
“She said they were underground in her brother’s workshop,” Callie sobbed, pointing to the Gantz woman.
“Yes,” Vanessa added, her lower lip trembling, “she turned off the generator so there wouldn’t be any air down there. They…they probably suffocated by now.”
Fenton paled, but quickly composed himself. He hurried to the generator, but saw that the machine had been destroyed. Fighting a feeling of despair, he went into the building and inspected the wall. Finding the seam to the elevator, he tried to pry it open with his bare hands. It was hopeless. He ran back outside.
“Sam, I’ve got to get to the boys,” Fenton said, urgency evident in his voice. “I’m going back to the boys’ van. They’ll have a crowbar in there and I can…”
“Dad! Sam!” Fenton stopped speaking and turned toward the sound of familiar voices calling through the trees.
“Thank God!” the detective sighed, seeing his sons weaving through the pines toward him. He hurried towards the boys and the trio embraced.
“The gun shot?” Joe spoke as soon as his father released him.
“Minor injury,” Sam said from behind them, “however, I do think it’ll need stitched up and I’m bleeding all over my new jeans!”
The boys and their father looked at Sam and smiled. The muscular detective was leaning against a Birch sapling, one hand pressed against his side, the other hand gripping a gun pointed at Amy Gantz.
Frank’s eyes widened in surprise as he looked past Sam; waiting along the trees in their ‘Wizard of Oz’ costumes, stood Callie and Vanessa.
“What in the world are you two doing here?”
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Disclaimer
The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.