Spratt had walked about a half-mile down the road when he saw a growing illumination coming from behind him. He knew these were headlights even before he heard the noise of the car that they belonged to. Spratt immediately jumped into the overgrown ditch on the side of the road and listened as a car approached; not too slowly but not fast enough to be somebody with a real destination either. As the car passed by his location, he determined that this was a police car by the sound of the engine…Spratt didn’t know why but police cars just SOUND different than other vehicles. After the car passed his location, a quick look at the taillights revealed the unmistakable outline of a Crown Victoria. Spratt’s heart started beating exponentially quicker as another police car headed in his direction; he lowered his head back into the ditch and tried to be as still as possible. Spratt could hear the cars braking every so often as they continued in the direction of the river.
Both cars eventually came back and were headed just as slowly in the opposite direction towards the hotel. One of them passed Spratt but, as the second one passed Spratt’s location, it stopped momentarily before continuing on. Spratt waited for few minutes to determine if he could hear the cars returning and, after many moments of silence, he got out of the ditch and started walking again. Beneficially for him, he was on the downside of a hill and this was a very dark road; the cops would HAVE to use their headlights and he would be able to see them before they were able to see him. If they came back, he was going to jump in the ditch again.
Eventually, Spratt came to a crossroads of sorts. A set of railroad tracks intersected the roadway and it gave him an idea. He knew that the tracks eventually crossed the river in the form of a trestle downtown but wasn’t sure if there may be another, closer, crossing; he had never seen a different one but there may be one that isn’t visible from the vehicle bridges that he had always crossed. To the left, the tracks would probably follow the river for a while but he didn’t know if they would cross back over. Definitely walking down the tracks would keep him out of the sight of the cops…they surely couldn’t drive their patrol cars down the tracks! The cops would have to be on foot if they were going to follow him. The issue was which direction to choose. He certainly didn’t want to get anywhere near downtown after the close calls that night but worried that the tracks in the other direction wouldn’t cross the river at all and may veer deeper into Georgia. If he went in the unknown direction, he might wind up in the middle of the State. Certainly that direction would take him away from this city but he was so close to South Carolina and he wanted to leave the State as soon as possible. Even if he were caught immediately upon stepping foot in South Carolina, he would have to have an extradition hearing before being returned to Georgia and that could take months; which would mean more time away from the horrible conditions of the chain gang even if he were locked up in a county jail during that period. He decided to take the known route and started walking on the tracks leading towards town.
It’s not as easy to walk down a set of railroad tracks as one might think. The ties aren’t really that close together and you have to take large steps to stay on the wood and avoid the gravel bedding underneath. Spratt did his best to only step on the wooden ties because the gravel made a LOT of noise in the middle of the night. Eventually, the tracks passed behind a residential community. Spratt tripped at one point (“Damn work boots aren’t so fucking comfortable now!”) and stepped on the gravel alerting every single dog in the neighborhood who, after being wakened, decided to bark and howl in competition with each other to see who could be the loudest. Spratt imagined every single resident being woken up by the noise but could only see the rooftops due to the fence separating the tracks from the back yards. “Fuck!” thought Spratt, “Somebody is going to think that I’m a burglar and call the cops!” Spratt continued down the tracks just wanting to get as far away as possible.
After having walked what seemed like a couple of hours, Spratt could finally make out the outskirts of town. He came along the tracks to where the city had a water filtration facility on a canal that diverted the river water. At this point, the tracks were on a high embankment and he looked down into the water facility to see a worker staring straight up at him, or so it seemed. Spratt thought about going down there to ask for some water but decided not to have any contact and continued down the tracks praying that the worker hadn’t noticed him. Spratt was nearing a part of the canal area that turned into a flat grassy area separated from the rest of the town by dirt embankments and was mostly used by teenagers wanting to make out after a date or gather for a bit of underage drinking. It was way too late for even these events to be taking place but Spratt heard some tires grinding on the dirt road and knew a vehicle was approaching even though he hadn’t seen any headlights. “Maybe it’s not too late for some of them.” Spratt thought while trying to see the outline of the vehicle in the dark.
Spratt couldn’t see where the car was but knew that it had stopped somewhere because he no longer heard the tires grinding against the dirt. The dead quiet was then interrupted by the crackle of a two-way radio and Spratt knew immediately that this was a police car. “Goddamnit!” Spratt dropped immediately into a patch of grass next to the roadway wondering if he had been seen in the background of the moonlight. This was not the best hiding spot but Spratt couldn’t risk any further movement to find a better one. He was frozen in place as he felt some ants starting to crawl on his arm and heard the car start moving again.
The car rolled closer and closer but Spratt could do nothing but stay where he was and pray that he wouldn’t be noticed. His head was faced away from the direction of the car but he could tell that the headlights were not on because there was no illumination anywhere. The car drew nearer and nearer and finally stopped right beside Spratt’s location. “FUCK!” Spratt screamed to himself but didn’t move. The car was literally inches (INCHES!!) away from Spratt and he could see the front fender out of his right eye. It was a red, unmarked car; the type that detectives drive. Spratt literally could have reached out and touched the damn thing! He didn’t hear a door opening but heard the unintelligible crackle of the radio when he noticed a spot of light illuminating the area to his right. He knew the cop must have been using his spotlight to search for something and the spotlight came really close to shining on Spratt although it never directly landed on him but the car didn’t move from its spot.
Spratt’s thoughts were racing! “Is this motherfucker looking for delinquent teenagers?” wondered Spratt, “Did that fucking worker at the water plant see me and call the cops for a suspicious person?” Spratt didn’t hear the driver’s door open (which was on the opposite side of the car from where Spratt was located) but saw the interior lamp come on when it did. He DID hear it close though and the light extinguished itself simultaneously. Spratt distinguished three or four footsteps and then, pure silence again. Spratt couldn’t see the cop and wondered if he might be about to pounce on him. Spratt tightened every muscle in his body in preparation for either fight or flight when he heard the unmistakable sound of a man relieving himself. The cop was urinating! Literally six feet away from Spratt on the other side of the car, a cop was pissing into the weeds. “Holy FUCK!” thought Spratt but stayed completely motionless.
The cop pissed for what seemed like thirty minutes and, apparently drained, got back in the car but didn’t leave. Spratt heard the unmistakable sound of a Zippo lighter being opened and lit and then smelled the smoke from a cigarette coming from the rolled down window of the car. “Just go the fuck away!” Spratt tried to mentally order the cop. The headlights came on and almost illuminated Spratt in their beam but Spratt was not quite in their path. The cop finally put the car in gear and drove away leaving Spratt able to breathe again but nervous and shaken. “Holy FUCK!” screamed Spratt’s mind again, “That motherfucker was close! Lucky he didn’t piss on me!” Spratt waited a few more minutes before getting up. After scraping the ants off of his arm and taking a piss himself, he started nervously walking in the direction of downtown again.
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