The Valley 44

Kerwin watched the crashed patrol car for a moment before deciding that the officers in the vehicle were no longer a threat to him. Jack Wild on the other hand, having almost reached the rear of the patrol car, Melissa was trapped inside of, was, even if he still appeared to be unarmed. Hurriedly, he removed the spent shells from his shotgun and replaced them with fresh ones he dug out from the pocket of his jacket; he then reached into the Land Rover to retrieve the bag containing the ‘valuables’ he had gathered from the house - he figured he could afford to leave behind the food, because that could be replaced when he sold his ‘valuables’. With the shotgun held awkwardly in one hand, he climbed over the crumpled bonnet of the patrol car and dropped down when he reached the other side. After a quick adjustment to the bag on his shoulder, he approached the driver’s door. Melissa was still struggling with the air - bag when Kerwin yanked open the door at her side and didn’t immediately realise what was going on. By the time she did, he had ripped a hole in the air -bag, deflating it, and reached in to undo her seat belt. She tried to fight him off as he grabbed her by the front of her uniform blouse and hauled her out of the driver’s seat, to no avail. When she realised that she lacked the strength to fight Kerwin off, she used the only tactic she could think of; she went completely limp as she was pulled from the car, with the result that she fell to the ground rather than being hauled to her feet as Kerwin intended. Her move meant Kerwin had to change his grip and reach down to lift her up, which was what she intended, it gave her an opportunity and she took it. The moment Melissa felt Kerwin’s hold on her loosen, she wrenched herself free and surged to her feet. One hand went for the shotgun he held, to keep him from using it, while the other went for his face. She was successful in pushing the shotgun away so it couldn’t be used against her, he caught her other hand before she could do any damage to his face, however, and she found herself being spun around and secured in a grip that she found impossible to break free of, despite her best efforts. ‘Get back,’ Kerwin told Jack Wild, raising his shotgun one - handed so it was pointed in the general direction of the author while he tightened his other around Melissa to stop her struggles. ‘I said get back.’ He squeezed the first trigger, more to discourage Wild, who was making his way around the rear of the patrol car towards him, than because he wanted to kill him. Despite that he was disappointed to see that Wild’s sudden dive back behind the rear of the patrol car saved him from harm. ‘Give it up, Kerwin,’ Jack said as he pushed himself up from the ground, in pain from the numerous injuries he had gathered over the past few days but glad that his reflexes were still sharp enough to keep him from being shot. ‘There’s nowhere for you to go.’ Kerwin looked around quickly and then smiled nastily. ‘Who’s gonna stop me leaving? YOU? I’ve got this.’ He waved the shotgun. ‘And I’ve got Melissa. As long as I’ve got these, there’s nothing you can do to stop me, now get outta my way.’ He took a step towards the rear of the patrol car and Wild, his grip on Melissa tight enough to ensure she could not escape while the muzzle of his shotgun, despite the wavering caused by his one - handed grip, remained pointed at Wild threateningly. ‘Don’t make things worse than they already are.’ Jack told the teen, speaking in as reasonable a voice as he could manage - he had never done a negotiator’s course while he was with the police, but he had some idea of how to handle such a situation. ‘There are armed police on their way to the village, they’ll be here soon, and when they arrive you’ll be caught, or killed if you try and force the issue. Things will go better for you if you surrender now.’ ‘I’m not an idiot,’ Kerwin snapped. ‘Things won’t go better for me no matter what I do. Now back up and give me the keys to your car, I don’t care which one, I just want a vehicle, and whatever money you’ve got on you.’ Jack grimaced. ‘I can’t do that,’ he said regretfully. He carried on quickly when anger flashed across Kerwin’s face. ‘I Haven’t got any money on me, nor have I got either of my car keys. I don’t even have my mobile on me.’ Melissa could feel Kerwin tensing through the grip he had on her, and was sure it was only a matter of time before he tried to shoot Jack again. She had no intention of allowing that to happen, if it was at all possible for her to stop it, and she wasn’t sure it was given how good a job Kerwin was doing for restraining her with just the one arm. She knew that working on a farm helped to develop muscles, but she wouldn’t have thought it could make a teen that much stronger than her - no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t free herself, she couldn’t even pull an arm free. She might not have the use of her arms, which hampered her significantly, but Melissa realised there was something she could do to try and stop Kerwin shooting Jack. Hooking her right foot behind Kerwin’s leg, she threw herself back into him while twisting her body to throw his aim off should he manage to pull the second trigger on the shotgun. Jack saw the opportunity created by Melissa’s action and left his position of cover. He closed the distance between himself and the two struggling figures as quickly as he could, before the teen murderer could get control of his captive and his weapon. As he hurried forward, he reached a hand out towards the shotgun; he didn’t know a lot about weapons, he had never taken the firearms course, but he knew that as long as he kept the muzzle pointed away from him he couldn’t be shot. He caught the long barrel of the deadly weapon with his left hand and immediately gave it a tug. He had been planning on simply keeping the weapon away from him while he tried to free Melissa, but now that he had hold of it he realised it was a better idea for him to disarm the teen. Kerwin had to think and act quickly when he felt the tug that almost pulled the shotgun from his grasp. He tightened the grip he had on the gun with his right hand and abandoned his efforts to subdue Melissa with his left, leaving her to fall to the ground, at the same time he took his finger from the trigger - he didn’t want to fire his one remaining shot accidentally, especially when he wasn’t in a position to reload. Jack wrenched and twisted at the shotgun as he sought to disarm Kerwin, who he soon realised was stronger than him, especially in his current wounded condition. His efforts weren’t helped when he stumbled over Melissa, who was in the act of pushing herself to her feet so she could join the struggle. HE fell to one knee and had to let go of the shotgun with his right hand so he could put it down to keep from falling over completely; releasing half his grip on the weapon was the last thing he wanted to do, but the move was automatic and made without conscious thought. Kerwin gave the shotgun in his hands a massive tug the moment he saw Jack’s hand leave the gun. He was hoping to wrench it free while Jack was off - balance so he could turn it on the man and use it as it had been intended. Luck was not with him, however, just as it hadn’t been during the rest of the morning somehow Jack managed to keep the shotgun pointed away from his body while he struggled to get back to his feet. From her position on the ground, Melissa saw that there was no way for her to untangle herself from Jack without knocking him over. If she did that he would be forced to let go of the shotgun completely, which would mean they were both as good as dead. Despite being hampered by being on the ground, tangled up with Jack, and squashed against the side of her patrol car, she was determined to do whatever she could to arrest Kerwin and bring him to justice for the numerous murders he had committed..