Page 7 of Survive the Night
Fear kept her heart racing, and their mad dash made it beat faster and faster until she felt like her whole body was trembling with the effort. Lightning flickered overhead, making everything too bright for a second before plunging into darkness. Thunder rumbled, shaking the ground and blotting out the sound of her pounding heart and rasping breaths.
At first, Alice didn’t realize that it was raining, that the droplets were pounding against her head and running down her neck to soak into her hoodie. Then it started to pour, falling in heavy sheets of rain, just as she and Mr. Espina entered the trees. The ground immediately fell away in front of them, dropping into a yawning ravine with a creek rushing along the bottom.
Alice tried to automatically brake, but Mr. Espina kept running, and his grip on her arm kept her in motion, as well. A cry escaped her as they flew off the edge, landing three feet down the slope. The dirt had already turned into mud, and they sank into the muck with each step. With Mr. Espina hauling her forward, Alice couldn’t do anything but keep moving her feet, sprinting and sliding and only staying upright thanks to the hand on her arm and her continuous forward motion.
The rain was loud, too loud to hear if Jeb was still shooting. Alice couldn’t look to see how close he was, though. She was too concerned with her high-speed downhill sprint. The slope started to level off, and Alice looked away from her footing for a moment. They’d reached the bottom, and she gave a gasping sob of relief. Splashing through the small creek, she risked a quick glance at the top of the ravine.
There were so many flashlights now—at least ten—bobbing and moving as Aaron’s men climbed down after them. Jeb was the closest and closing the distance quickly. He grabbed a small tree, bringing himself to a sliding stop, and then lifted his gun.
Alice sucked in a breath, trying to force her legs to run even faster. They started to climb the other side of the ravine, but there wasn’t anything close by that was big enough to hide behind, just brush and small trees and lots of weeds. Jeb had a clear shot.
The incline sloped up dramatically, and their run turned into more of a scrambling climb. Mr. Espina released her in order to use both hands. Alice grabbed a clumpy weed, but the plant pulled out of the ground. She started to slide down the slope, and she fumbled to grasp a half-exposed root. That one held, and she reached for the next handhold.
Every second, she expected to feel one of Jeb’s bullets pierce her skin. Her breathing, already rough from fear and exertion, sped up even more. Closing her fingers around a thick vine, she shot a quick glance over her shoulder.
Jeb was standing in the same place she’d last seen him, his flashlight hand supporting his gun hand. The light turned the rest of Jeb’s body into a silhouette, but Alice could clearly see the gun. The rain poured over him, but he stood perfectly still, his head cocked to the side as he aimed.
Then, the ground crumbled under Jeb’s feet. The flashlight and gun went flying as he fell onto his back. He started to slide, traveling several feet before his body ran into a pair of tree trunks that brought him to a rough stop.
“Move!” Mr. Espina’s command broke her paralysis, and she started climbing up the slope again. Temporary rivulets of water coursed down the side of the ravine, and Alice’s feet slid through the muck as she pushed herself forward and up. The tree coverage became heavier, and there were more saplings and roots to grab. Alice sped up, not wanting to look to see if Jeb had gotten up or if the other guards were closing in. She just climbed.
Alice didn’t notice that she was at the top of the ravine until she reached for the next handhold and there was nothing there but grass and weeds. She looked up to see that Mr. Espina was already on his feet and jogging toward an older-model sedan parked on the shoulder. Alice stood and tried to run for the car, but her head spun and her stomach threatened to expel its contents.
Swallowing down bile, she had to settle for a shambling jog. It felt like it took forever to reach the passenger door of the car. She was sure that, any second, Jeb—or, worse, Aaron—would pop out of the ravine. That would be the end of any escape attempt. Aaron would never let her out of his sight until he’d married her off to Logan Jovanovic.
Her hand caught the handle, and she jerked open the car door. In the back of her mind, she mentally apologized to the car’s owner, since she was head-to-toe mud, but that didn’t slow her down. Alice threw herself into the seat as Mr. Espina shot them forward. The door swung shut, slamming with the force of their acceleration, and Alice wiggled out of her backpack, dropping it onto the floor by her feet as she grabbed for her seat belt. By the way Mr. Espina was driving, she had a feeling she’d need it.
She turned to face him as they flew down the road, the windshield wipers working at their fastest speed. “Thank you,” she said.
His only response was a slight upward tilt of his chin.
“I dropped your harness.” She glanced at her muddy hands as if she’d find the missing equipment hanging there. “Sorry.”
The corner of his mouth quirked. “I have others.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.” She settled back in the seat, her muscles easing slightly one by one, leaving her feeling limp and shaky. They were both still alive, though.
They were alive, and she was free.
Chapter 3
“She’s up there.”
Dee stood beneath the rickety frame of the ancient windmill, her head tipped back. Otto took a moment to catch his breath—Dee might be little, but she was fast, and their run through the woods had left him winded. The air left his lungs in visible puffs, despite the warm sun beaming down on them. It was late enough in the fall that the trees were bare and the sparse grass under their feet was brown, but it hadn’t snowed yet, except at the highest mountain peaks he could see in the distance.
As his breathing slowed, Otto followed Dee’s gaze and spotted the small shape wedged in a corner between two metal crossbeams. He resisted the urge to swear.
A familiar snort of laughter brought another slew of mental cursing. “What are you doing here?” Otto asked.
“How could I miss this?”
Otto glanced over his shoulder at a grinning Hugh. “You should go.”
“Are you kidding?” Hugh rested his shoulders against a tree and took his weight off his injured leg. He was trying to be subtle about it, but Otto could see lines of tension and pain etched beneath the casual grin. “This is going to be awesome.”
Having grown up with Hugh, Otto knew that, if pushed, Hugh would only dig in even deeper. As jolly as Hugh appeared, there was a mountain of stubbornness behind his happy-go-lucky smile. With a resigned, silent sigh, Otto moved over to the metal skeleton. There was a ladder—well, most of a ladder, at least, since several rungs were missing—but it didn’t start until about seven feet off the ground. The first step was going to be a doozy.
