The Hunter, The Dragon And The Smokey Mountain Angel
Chapter 11

Julia awoke feeling the wind in her hair but she was only floating inches above the ground. She arched her back slowly and her body lifted until she was standing on her feet. The Blanket dropped from her naked body and she felt suddenly powerful. Something from her last dream still pumped through her veins. She wanted to fly and knew she could but was afraid to do it.

Then she thought about Andrew and she felt her pulse quicken.

He must have left late last night.

She hadn’t planned on making love to him like that, but it was love that they had made. She smiled. Relationships had not been on the top of her to–do list but it was now. He was someone special. She felt connected to him in ways her mind couldn’t comprehend. He had walked in past her inner walls with simple kindness and honesty.

The police!

She quickly found her phone and called the police. When the lady answered the phone, she gave her name and the information Andrew had told her about the case. There was a long pause before Julia asked, “Is there anything new on my ex–husband and son?”

“You must be Julia,” The officer said.

“Yes.” She heard tapping on a keyboard.

The officer said, “The number you called on, is this your return number?”

“Yes! Can you tell me anything about my son?”

“Miss, the missing persons report,” more tapping sounds in the back ground, “Andrew filed the day before still shows, {In progress,} why didn’t you file the report Julia?

Julia stopped for a moment. Since waking up in the hospital, her mind had been either in a fog or in shock from pain but there was something more. She searched her memory, she had a new clarity of mind but something had been blocking her, slowing her progress, yes even stopping her from telling people... what,

Where I live

Then the warning returned to her memory, “The hunter is coming.”

The dispatch officer sounded impatient when she asked, “Never mind, can I set up a time for an officer to meet you and ask a few more questions?”

“Yes! Please!”

“Okay Miss Anderson, We’ll call you when we’re ready to send someone over.”

“Okay, thanks,” Julia hung up as her heart raced. She needed to discover what the voice was and who this Hunter is.

Could it be a terrorist using some kind of mind control? She wondered, is someone seeking revenge for the deaths I’m responsible for.

However, it didn’t make since,

Why not just kill me or... worse and what is the presence?

Julia flinched as her phone started buzzing and a preprogramed alarm started playing a Jazz tune. It was time to go to work.

She gathered her things and checked her apron, she was surprised to replace another wad of cash. She didn’t count her tips yesterday. It was only $248.00 and some change. She felt disappointed but it wasn’t bad money for the kind of work she did. Anything over $100 was actually better than she expected but she needed a lot more money just to get her Driver’s License back and more than that to live on. How she would produce $600 each month plus rent and food was beyond her...

She fixed her hair, took her uniform off the hanger in front of the fireplace and put it in her bag. Then she floated out the back door and down the driveway. When she reached the mailbox, she saw the real estate agent waiting in her Mercedes.

The ground began to shake and Julia watched as the trees swayed. She could feel the tension in the air, as if something was straining against a great force, then released it into the ground.

The passenger side window rolled down and the woman said, “The sheriff will be here in the morning to evict you, but I hope he sends you to jail. I lost a commission because of you!”

Julia said, “I’m sorry about all this but do you have to be so cruel?”

“You look fine to me honey. Besides, you chose all this.” The woman spat back, “Next time you might get your priorities straight.”

Julia turned and walked away before she could say what she was really thinking. A few minutes later the black Mercedes sped past her at high speed with the horn blowing and the woman’s middle finger waving out the window.

She really wished she could call in a drone strike but then changed her mind. She looked at the time on her phone.

30 minutes to make it to the Waffle House.

The roads were clear, so she lifted off the ground and rose up above the trees, found the trail she had used the day before and descended on it.

She pushed her speed to the limit as she avoided tree branches and newly formed spider webs. A mixture of emotions washed through her. Andrew’s kiss, her lost son and now eviction from her home stretched her mind in every direction and all at the same time. Then she slowed as she reached the edge of the forest and lowered her body to the ground. There were people walking on the rocks not far from her downstream but they were looking the other way.

She moved across the water like and eagle about to catch its prey. When she set her feet on the ground, it was 20 minutes before her shift. She quickly put her uniform shirt on. Her phone buzzed and she saw Andrew’s message, “Last minute emergency with school project, won’t be in today. C U tonight after work?”

Julia quickly text, “Yes.”

A few seconds later, he buzzed her back, “Miss you already!”

Julia missed him too. She placed her phone in her bag, went inside and ate breakfast. Before she could finish eating, the restaurant began to fill with many of the same people, men, who had come the day before and nearly all of them wanted to sit in her section.

She took a last bite, excused herself and then started what turned out to be a very busy shift.

Seven hours later, she cashed out and turned down several offers for a ride to the hair salon. She only wanted to ride with Andrew now.

She walked to the Hair Salon and her stylist greeted her at the door. She smiled and said, “Okay, I’m ready for the works.”

She was going to lose her house tomorrow but she could get a hotel in a day or two and then maybe an apartment in a few months but she was going to look great. When her hair was done, she moved to the other side of the salon and had her nails done and got a chair massage. The massage therapist whispered to her that she felt like a bag of nuts and bolts. Julia laughed and explained what the doctors had done to her spine but the therapist couldn’t believe that she could even move much less seem to float across the room.

Julia shut her mouth, tipped him well and paid the cashier.

She float–walked to Walmart and bought nail clippers and a tent, just in case the sheriff really does evict her from her house the next day. She wanted to get a better cell phone that could access the internet but between the phone’s price and her bad credit it still wasn’t an option. If the police couldn’t replace her son soon she’d be forced to take the drastic measures she’d hoped to avoid. She paused in thought,

There has to be a way to get the word out about my missing son...

The police would help but this was all taking too long. She had enough money to drop leaflets around the city but she didn’t have any pictures of Noah to print...

Julia shook her head in frustration,

For now, I’ve got to keep moving forward and be ready when a way opens up...

After leaving Walmart, she stood at the edge of the parking lot and looked at the space across the street where she had been given the treatment that let her fly...

The voice had started making sense that day.

It wasn’t until after that treatment that the groaning and growling had changed into clear words.

She wondered if the military had some new technology they were testing out on her without her knowledge...

She glanced to her right and her eyes settled on the Air Force recruitment office. The last time she had gone there, her mind was still in a swamp, she was desperate and without hope, all distractions. It was time to demand answers and not leave until she got her money and found out what happened to her squad and commanders. They had to know what was going on and what was happening to her. If they arrested her then at least she would get a lawyer... Weren’t they the ones responsible for what happened to her money while she was in hospital?

The screech of tires coming from her left snapped her out of her thoughts. An old pickup truck, like the one she had seen the other day had stopped in front of the Applebee’s. Julia’s eyebrows lifted as two men jumped out of the truck. They were carrying shotguns as they ran inside the front door.

Julia dropped her bag, checked that the road was clear, rose several inches above the ground and then darted across the street.

When she reached the other side, she found the old truck parked on the side of the building and it was still running. By the sound of it’s rumbling, she could tell the motor had been modified. This wasn’t some old clunker about to break down it was a getaway vehicle!

As quietly as she could, Julia opened the front door to the restaurant and floated inside.

A gruff, male voice said, “I want all the girls’ clothes off! You guys over there by the register and girls inside the kitchen.”

“We don’t have time for this!” The younger man said.

“I only need two minutes on that one. After you get the cash you can have seconds or take that boy over there.”

Julia floated closer towards the two men shaking her head, so that the restaurant workers would know to keep quiet about her presence. She had to make exaggerated movements to stop herself from flying into the ceiling or ground. She hadn’t practiced flying very much and her full body movements looked a little like a dolphin swimming.

A few of the servers glanced at her, their eyes went wide but then they quickly looked back at the two men when they saw her shaking her head slowly. The two men had been to busy arguing among themselves to see anyone react to her floating up behind them.

Both men stood to the left of the bar facing the kitchen and near side entrance. The older man was big and tall. He had on overalls and a red T–shirt, wore a beard and kept his shotgun pointed at the men lined up to the left. Julia thought she had seen him before, maybe he was the man who had helped her the other day with the protester but she couldn’t place the face. The younger man glanced repeatedly at the old man as his gun motioned for the now naked women to lay down on the tiled floor.

“I need her,” He pointed with his beard toward a pretty server, “to be on all fours.”

Several of the girls and a few of the guys were crying but as Julia approached, she grew quiet and looked away.

The younger robber said, “You heard–em! Get on all fours and point yer ass up!”

Julia wasn’t a large girl to begin with and after being laid up in the hospital for a year, she was barely over a hundred pounds, but she knew how to use surprise and leverage to her advantage. She wasn’t strong, being able to fly didn’t give her super strength but the sight before her made her feel 10 times stronger.

She quietly took a glass off the bar and waited for the younger man to step closer to the bearded robber and then she tossed the glass over their heads and it broke against the side exit! The two men flinched at the sound of the shattering glass!

Julia lifted herself to the ceiling and dropped at full speed. Just as she slammed into the smaller man, she reached out and took his shotgun and paused in midair as the two men collided. The older man pulled the trigger and his shotgun blasted a hole in the ceiling as it tumbled to the ground. Julia swooped down on the fallen shotgun like a hawk on a rabbit and snatched it up. She continued flying not waiting to see what the men would do next. The servers parted as she raced through the kitchen, out the back door and dropped the shotguns on the roof.

She heard the roar of the trucks engine and tires screeching. She hesitated. The people inside were more important than catching these two men. The back door had swung shut and locked by itself, so she flew around and entered through the front door. The girls were nearly dressed when she floated into the kitchen. She asked, “Is everyone okay?”

“The manager helped one of the employees to his feet and said, “We are all shaken up. I think they were going to kill us all.”

“Are you an angel?” The girl who had been forced to undress and get on the floor asked as she quickly pulled her panties back on.

“No, I’m just in the Air Force,” Julia replied.

“But how do you fly like that?” another girl asked.

“I don’t care what you say, you are an angel,” said one of the cooks.

“I’ve got to see if I can identify where those men went. Can someone give me a pen and paper?” Julia said.

A server handed her a receipt book and his pen. Julia took them, turned and flew out the front door.

The truck’s tires had left burnout marks, as they turned right out of the parking lot. She lifted high into the air and hovered for a moment. She squinted and spotted the truck stuck in traffic just at the edge of her sight.

In her mind, she envisioned a bright orb of light stretching into a spear. She bent her whole body towards it. The wind whipped her hair back as she flew over buildings heading for the old truck. She wished she were like Super Girl but she didn’t think she would ever be able to fly that fast.

The light turned green and the truck started moving. It swerved around the car in front of it but the other cars in that lane were driving slow. The delay gave Julia time to catch up. She could see the tag and quickly jotted down the numbers.

Then the truck began blowing its horn. The cars started moving out of its way and the truck sped down the street.

Julia pushed her speed as fast as she could go but the supped–up truck turned right on the access road and disappeared up the mountain.

She rose above the trees and followed the mountain ridge until the road appeared again. She hoped that the winding road had slowed the truck. She lowered into a large tree above the road and waited. Minutes passed and she grew impatient.

She jump–floated from tree branch to tree branch back tracking until she smelled burnt rubber and saw more tire tracks. The truck had turned onto a dirt road that led around the mountain. After following it for a while, she realized that they could have turned off any of the many side roads or parked in the garage in any of the log cabins she had passed.

Frustrated, she decided to head back toward town. She lifted into the air. The sun hung on the horizon giving way to twilight. She could smell the mixture of trees and car exhaust fumes. When she was back on the main road, she found several helicopters flying in circles and one had spotted her. Seconds later, two more choppers appeared and started to approach her.

Julia considered flying into the woods and doing exactly what those horrible men had done and disappear but an idea came to mind.

She rose into the air and flew slowly towards the Applebee’s. The helicopters surrounded her and nearly blinded her with their spotlights. She was careful to fly slowly, so that she would have their full attention.

She ignored the honking coming from below. The main road became a parking lot as people rushed out of the strip malls. Many stepped out of their cars and onto the road and stared up with their camera phones snapping pictures and screaming in surprise.

Julia landed in the Applebee’s parking lot. Several police cruisers, ambulances, fire trucks and Action News vans were surrounding the restaurant. News cameras pointed at her and followed her, as she walked in the front door.

Lights flashed as several reporters pushed microphones in her face. They asked, “Are you the Smokey Mountain Angel?”

Julia said, “I am Julia Anderson and I’m looking for my son. Can you help me?”