The Rescue by Everette Morgan Page A

hear much on the radio, it normally had something to do with the Jackals and it was never good.  It seemed that their main purpose was to capture or kill whatever survivors they came across.  They were a nasty group of the worst kind.  This could definitely be trouble for Marcus. Normally Marcus did everything in his power not to get involved with anything going on.  It was too risky but people were another matter… His dad had made it a priority to teach him the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  Marcus knew that if he was in a similar fix he would want someone to try to help him.  Of course, right now he was hoping that they didn’t have a prisoner and if that was the case… then that would be awesome. He would just track them out of the valley and leave them alone.  If they did have a prisoner… then number one… he was going to be ticked off.  Then number two… as God was his witness… they would have to deal with him.
    Marcus had videoed the vehicles as they rolled past and had watched the video several times to see if he could see what the second vehicle was carrying but the camera angle just wasn’t good enough to tell.  Although he couldn’t see what it was carrying, he was almost positive what it held.  He had seen and heard of this type of situation many, many times.  As he sat contemplating this, he knew it would be another forty-five minutes before they rolled through the valley where he would be able to see them from his vantage point on the rocky ledge at the northeastern point of the mountain.  Not in any hurry, Marcus loaded up on the ATV and headed out toward his lookout.
    Still taking his time, Marcus drove out to his favorite vantage point and stopped about fifty yards short of his destination.  He took his rifle and scope, walked several more yards, dropped to his knees and crawled the last few yards to the edge of the rocky cliff.  Prostrate on the rock outcropping, Marcus laid his rifle aside and set up his spotting scope.  It took a few minutes but he was finally able to spot them with the scope.  It would be another twenty minutes before they were in range well enough for a decent detailed look.  Some of the larger dinosaurs had made havoc with a few of the trees near the road and the little convoy would have to stop and clear the way.  Finally, they made it in range close enough to get a good look at them.  As the trucks slowed and rolled to a stop at a large downed oak tree blocking the road, Marcus focused in on them. 
    The first truck had two people sitting in the front.  The driver and, after watching them for a while, also a passenger that he decided was actually the leader of this band of lowlifes. They both got out of the truck, the leader started barking orders, and the passengers from the back began to unload.  Marcus counted six passengers coming out of the back of the truck.  Then the driver and passenger from the other truck got out and joined the group.  Ten total. Even though he was almost positive now that they had prisoners, Marcus was really hoping that they actually didn’t have anyone in their cage.  His mind was racing now thinking about the possibilities and he wasn’t sure there was any way he could handle ten people at once.
    As he continued watching, he still didn’t have a clear view of the cage on the second truck.  Several trees and the truck sitting at a bad angle prevented this.  The group looked like a bunch of army rejects who hadn’t been seen a shower in a month of Sundays.  Most were dressed in some kind of camouflage clothing although they were wearing different styles and most had modified them by ripping off the sleeves or something else to make them look different.  The leader was a muscled-up thug wearing a black skull cap and an army green, dirty t-shirt with the arms missing covered by a camouflage hunting vest.  He was big.  From this distance, Marcus was estimating that the guy was