The lake

Ariel had never been to the Okanagan before, but she knew that it couldn't have been as far a drive as it seemed.  The destination on the map they found in the van was only around 6 hours from Vancouver.
Yet it seemed like they had been driving for twice that.
She noticed a land mark that she had seen already once before when Osmond was driving.  A large windmill, with what looked to be a farm several kilometres away.  She opened her window, and even through the air conditioning she could smell the lake.
It took her a moment to convince herself that she had seen that same windmill before.. And it was because last time the sky was dark.  This time it was lighter out.  She nudged Osmond, who snapped to alertness.
The baby woke as well, and started to squirm about.
"Miriam, where about's are we?" she inquired.
"I'm not exactly sure where the safe house is.  Like I said, I grew up around here, but I've never been to the place we're supposed to be."
Something about her voice resonated with Ariel.  The calm command was shaken.
Miriam wasn't telling the whole story, there's no way that she was this lost.
Osmond looked concerned too.  Ariel was at least comforted that she wasn't alone in her suspicions of their 'nurse'.
Atlas grew more and more restless.  Ariel lifted his mouth to her left breast, but he shirked the opportunity to feed.  Sudden fear shot through Ariel.  A newborn resisting the chance to feed?  That's not right at all... not that Atlas was by any means conventional, but it still filled her full of dread.

Osmond grabbed her hand, and squeezed it in warning.
A squad car up ahead.
Miriam didn't seem bothered though.  In fact, she seemed relieved.
"Keep him covered babe," Osmond instructed as he moved to the passenger side bucket seat.
"Don't worry, this should be nothing." Miriam eased.  But her words were cold and unsettling.  They'd been driving in circles far too long, and only now did any other cars show up on the deserted road, and a squad car?  Bad news.

Miriam slowed to a stop as an RCMP officer stepped into the middle of the road, and walked up to her window.
"Mornin' ma'am," he spoke with a southern accent.
"You lost little lady?"
"Yes sir, we've been trying to find our family farm." She spoke with such ease and unconcern.  All the shakiness in her voice evaporated.
"Well now, just whereabout' that be, sugah?"
Osmond couldn't help but wonder why in the hell a southerner would end up as a mountie in British Columbia... And parked in the middle of the road, with nothing around but a windmill in the distance behind them... He'd seen that windmill, shortly before Miriam suggested she drive.
The alarm in his head started ringing again, he could barely concentrate on what the officer was saying, he looked at his wife, and back at the windmill, then back at his wife, who's eyes began to bug out as if to say, "We're in deep shit.  Do something!"
"Osmond, would you pass me that map out of the glove compartment, please?"
As if unable to control himself, he reached for the map and passed it to her, trying with all his will to hide the look of fear creeping onto his face.
"You aw'right there son?"
"Yeh...yeah...We're just having a hard time finding the place..." he stumbled over his words.
The mountie took the map, and with barely so much as a glance at it he frowned in contemplation.
"I'm afraid there's been a bit o' trouble down thar.  I dunna suggest you folks head that there way jus' yet.
If'n ya like, I could guide ya's to a nearby chapel ya could hold out fer a spell."
"Oh, that would be just wonderful," Miriam obliged.
This time Osmond couldn't help his shock.  He just stared at her, and she turned to him with that same calm face, "See?  The lord provides."
He looked back at his wife, who just stared at him with the same look, and mouthed the word 'no'.
The mountie continued, "Aw 'right then, jus' folla me, now.  It's jus' a tad up the way."
He walked back to his car, and Miriam turned her head to smile at  Osmond.

Before she could form a smile, Osmond cranked her right in the face, then again.  He unbuckled her seat belt, opened the door, and kicked her right out of the van.
He revved up the van and slammed it right into the back of the cruiser, turning it slightly to the side, and then rammed it again.  He backed up quickly, and before the cruiser could get its engine turned on he plowed the van into the side of it and ran it right off the road.
Ariel began screaming "What the hell did you do!  What are you thinking!  Where are we gonna go!"
"We're going right to that farm by the windmill.  We've been circling it for hours!  That bitch knows EXACTLY where we were supposed to go!  Why in the fuck would a canadian mountie have a southern accent and take us to the church?  She's been waiting for them to show up and lead us right into their trap!"
"So what?!  We're just going to show up to a safe house with a cruiser and that mad bitch on our tail?!"
"Would you rather go to that church?!"
"Aaaaaahhh!" She wailed.
But he was right.  They were out of options.

Miriam and the mountie followed as soon as they could.  But they were in no rush.  Ariel was right, Miriam knew that farm.  Knew it well, too.  And she finally had the validation to bring the hand of God down upon it.
She smiled as she contemplated just what Osmond and Ariel were going to do.
As she and her partner followed them she smiled in spite of herself at their intuition.  She didn't think they'd noticed how many times they'd passed the windmill as she waited for the van to be spotted.
However, if they thought the safe house was just going to let them waltz right in, they were sadly mistaken.

"So what do you plan to do, honey?  We don't know how many people may be working with Miriam.  She could have an army down here in no time!  We don't know what she's capable of!"
Ariel was coming undone.
And with all the tension in the van, Atlas began to squirm and flop about like a fish out of water.
Ariel tried to sooth him with her voice, and a tender touch.  But as she pulled the cover back over his head, she looked into his glossy eyes, and he stared straight faced right back at her, then began crying.

Osmond pulled the van around the back of the barn, and skidded up to the door.
He paused for a moment to think.
"Can you make him quiet for a second!" he couldn't help but yell.  He was losing his shit too.
Trying to find calm, she just shot him a look of anger.
Then someone knocked on the window.
Osmond jumped back and stared at a young man, large in stature, covered in dirt and grease, an all around farmhand looking guy.
He rolled down the window enough to hear what the man had to say.
The farmhand stared at him for a moment, looked off to the side as he heard the squad car peeling down the gravel road leading into the property, then back at Osmond, and lastly at the baby.
He soaked this in for a minute, then lifted his hand to the window, with two pills in his palm.
"You can't be here.  There's ammunition in the seats.  Take that kid to the lake and throw it in."
"What!!!" Osmond couldn't believe what he heard, where as Ariel could barely hear him, he talked so calmly.
"We'll have a better chance of saving him through the lake than through them.  Eat these when they catch you."  And he put his hand through the window.
Osmond took the pills, and just stared at the farm hand.
The farm hand started to look exasperated.  He scrunched his face up, and almost with a snarl barked at Osmond, "Go!"  then walked away from the van.

Osmond peeled off just as the cruiser pulled up behind the van.
The squad car spat up dust and gravel as it spun around, giving Miriam enough time to make eye contact with the farm hand.  For a moment they stared at each other, reading each other's soul.  Then something clicked in the farmhands head, and his surly demeanour changed as a smile crossed his face.
This turned Miriam furious.
She could feel her plot slipping through her fingers.  But it wasn't over yet.  There was no way that van could outrun the cruiser.

It wasn't long before the squad car was neck in neck with the van, speeding down the highway.
Ariel placed little Atlas inside the cooler filled with water, swaddling clothes and all.
This freed her hands so she could tear the seats apart in search of weaponry.
She had never held a gun, or would even have dreamed of it, but she'd never have dreamed she'd be running to throw her 'first born shark' into the okanagan lake!
But she found no guns.
Just grenades.
"Ozzy!"  she reverted to his old nickname, "can you use these?  My windows only open from the bottom!"
"Lob it over the van from the right side." he directed.
She pulled the pin and did as he said, but the grenade missed the car and exploded off the road.
"Too far!" he yelled.
"You think I don't know that!?" she retorted.

Miriam had thought there may have been fire power in the van, but never had the time to check.
Oh well, two can play that game.  She pulled the shotgun out from it's holster in the faked out squad car.
"Now Chester, remember, we want that child alive."
"Livin' critter, check.  Yes ma'am."

Osmond could see the lake to their right.  So close, yet so far away.
Up ahead he spotted a place to turn right towards the lake, "Not too far now doll..." he stated, more to reassure himself than her.
Ariel pulled another grenade out, pulled the pin, and hurled it over the van.  It exploded to the left of the cruiser, causing the driver to swerve into the van, which caused Miriam to misfire, right into the vans front carriage, but missing the engine.

Osmond just about lost control.  But he managed to steady the van just long enough to make it to the turn off.
Chester saw this coming, and slowed down to bump the back of the van, trying to mess up their turn, but it was in vain.

The van made it down to the lake side, and Ariel pulled the pins of two grenades and launched them behind the van, both misses.
Miriam opened fire again, this time blowing out the back right tire.
The van skidded and flipped, all of it's passengers thrown around like rag dolls.

Osmond was hurt bad.  But Ariel was worse, her arm had been crushed by the van, as it was still out the window when they flipped.
Atlas!
Osmond could hear him whimpering.  He unbuckled himself, and crawled through the van, which lay on its side, and found his child, still wrapped in a hospital sheet, soaked, but not bruised.
He held Atlas tight for a second, then crawled out of the van.
Standing there waiting for him was Miriam, triumphantly holding the shotgun.  She cocked it and pointed it at his head.
"It's the end of the line, Mr. Mano."  that calm cool command again.
Bitch.  She'd won.

"Noooooo..." Ariel croaked out from inside the van, barely conscious, barely alive.

"Never!  You burn in hell! "  Osmond yelled in defiance.
"You first." she responded.


But she couldn't do it.  She couldn't just kill the parents.  She almost started to cry, but the child was still hers.  He was in her possession, and so were the parents.

Chester could hear the water.
He could hear the waves.
He could almost taste the lake, then he felt drops of water on his head...but there wasn't a cloud in the sky..
He tugged Miriams arm.
"What is it, Chester?"
He turned her around.
The lake had grown, and a tidal wave was coming from out of nowhere.
"There's no way..." She barely had time to believe her eyes before they were all enveloped by the lake.



Osmond did as best he could to hold on to his son and to the van, but the current ripped at his child, and he just didn't have the strength.  Then he remembered that the whole reason they were at the lake was to deliver the baby to it... but this was just insanity.
Against all of his instincts, he kissed his son and the forehead, and let him go.
He could feel the van being pushed out of the lake immediately after he did so.
And in a moments time he was back on the land with his wife, his enemy, and her partner.
He could hear Miriam screaming, "Nooooooo!  Noooooo!  Goddammit!  He was mine!!!"
With precious seconds of her attention paid elsewhere, he crawled over to Ariel, and recessitated her, once she had regained consciousness, he forced her to choke back a pill,
which he then took himself, right before the cuffs clinked around his hands.
Their son was gone.
And to the rest of the world, so were they.