Page 38 of Backwoods
Nick blinked. The sudden turn of events had made him dizzy. “I, uh, had opened up a hole, here.”
“We might still need to use it. Quick, give me your hands.”
He offered her his shackled wrists. Using her key, she unlocked one restraint, and then the other. Then she knelt and disengaged the shackles on his feet.
“I don’t even know how to thank you,” he said, massaging his chafed wrists.
For the first time she offered a brief smile. “I’m Raven, by the way. Don’t thank me until we get clear of the plantation.”
“I can’t leave without my girlfriend, Amiya. They took her away to?—”
“They took her to the big house; I saw it,” Raven said. “I can’t sneak in there—it’s too dangerous. We’ll have to figure out something else, but first we need to get off the plantation.”
“How old are you, anyway?”
“I’m seventeen.” She gave him a challenging glare. “Please, no snide remarks about how I look like a little kid. I’ve heard them my entire life and I’m not in the mood. Now let’smove.”
She grabbed one of his hands as if he were a child and tugged him toward the barn door. The door rattled, and Raven halted in mid-step, spun, and pushed Nick in the back.
“Go through the hole you made,” she whispered. “Hurry, hurry.”
Nick slipped the hammer into a belt loop of his Levi’s. Getting low to the ground, in a crab-walk stance, he scrambled forward. His knee joints popped like firecrackers. Straw spun in his face. He reached the gap in the boards just as the barn door banged open.
“I know y’all in here,” a male voice said. “You can’t run off. Come on out.”
“Keep moving,” Raven whispered, nudging him forward.
Nick crawled forward on his hands and knees, the edges of the boards scraping against his shoulders and back. A splinter speared his neck, and he bit his tongue to hold back a cry. He wove into the tall weeds on the other side.
Raven slipped through the hole after him as quick as a shadow, fitted one of the boards back into place.
“That’ll do for a little bit,” she said, coming beside him. “Stay low to the ground. The weeds will give us some cover.”
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“Just follow me.” She grabbed his hand again, as if he were a child who needed to be led. “Let’s go.”
24
Nick realized that Raven had mastered the layout of the plantation. Crouching, warning him to stay low, she took him without hesitation to a small shed-like building standing in a grove of pine trees. They took cover behind the structure.
“Stay down,” she whispered. “Someone’s close.”
Nick heard footsteps crunching through the grass. Someone muttered and cut wind. Nick scowled as the stench reached his nostrils and held back a cough. Raven wrinkled her nose.
After a half minute or so, the searcher moved on through the weeds.
From there, Raven guided him in another direction, into a region thick with trees and undergrowth. Off in the distance, Nick saw a row of three nearly identical squat, ramshackle log cabins.
“Are those slave quarters?” He pointed.
“People I know live there.” She tugged his hand. “We’ve got to put some more distance between us and the plantation. They’re going to be looking for you.”
“Who will? These helpers?”
“Yeah, until sunset.” Her brows furrowed with worry. “Thenhecomes.”
“The Overseer,” Nick said.
