Page 33 of Search for the Truth
The speedometer was at forty miles per hour when they went in, and she had to drop even farther the deeper they went.
Everything rattled.
Clem’s quiet lasted a few yards in and then she was crying again.
The car chasing them followed but had to drop their speed just as fast. It made Blake’s stomach drop. She’d been hoping that whatever the driver had wanted from them wouldn’t continue with the added trouble.
She was wrong.
“Did you make it?” Liam’s voice could barely be heard over the sound of the field beating against the car that dared run through it.
“Yeah,” Blake yelled out. “They did too.” She looked down at the speedometer again. “I’m slowing but we’re going to hit the tree line sooner rather than later. Where are—”
The call dropped. Blake heard the familiar beep sound play through the car’s speaker. The spotty service that Seven Roads’s more rural areas usually sported had finally claimed their call.
It couldn’t have happened at a worse time.
“We’re—we’re okay,” Blake yelled back to Clem, trying to be as soothing as possible. The truth was they sounded like they were in a tin can during a tornado. The darkness around them made it even more terrifying. As an adult it wound Blake’s nerves tight.
But now wasn’t the time to worry about their feelings.
The tree line that ended the field was near the edge of the bouncing headlight beams.
There was no way she could keep driving once she got there.
She was going to have to turn and hope the car didn’t—
The headlights behind them shifted. Blake watched in the rearview as the car behind them seemingly lost control. It took a hard right.
She didn’t waste the breakaway.
Blake turned left with every intention of driving along the tree line before going back to the main road. But a horrifying sound followed by an awful shuddering changed that plan quick.
“Hold on, Clem!”
The front right tire didn’t just blow. It exploded.
Blake felt it through the floorboard.
It was the nail in the coffin of her plan to flee.
She let off the gas pedal and held on to the steering wheel for dear life.
The next moment felt like it stretched hours when really it must have been only a few seconds. The car wobbled violently until coming to a stop a few feet from massive oak trees.
Blake whipped her head around to look out of the back windshield.
The pursuing car must have also been disabled. It was stopped a few yards diagonal to them. Without waiting to see what the driver did next, Blake made a split-second decision.
She tore her seat belt off and threw open her door. She repeated the sequence in reverse as she hurried to get Clem out of her car seat. The girl didn’t fight her, but her sobbing pushed against Blake’s chest when she had her out and against her.
“Wrap your legs around me,” she told the girl firmly. “We’re going to run now.”
No sooner than she said it did Clem follow the directive. Her little arms wound around Blake’s neck just as her legs fastened around Blake’s waist. The added weight would make her slow, but Blake could at least gain enough distance to maybe turn the tables and ambush whoever followed.
Ifthey followed. Maybe wrecking was enough to deter the driver?
A new terrifying sound broke through the night.
