Page 78 of Survive the Night
“Sarah, move this way.” Blessard continued to walk slowly backward, and Sarah took a step toward him and then another. Her mind spun as she tried to think of a plan, a way out of this. A tiny part of her wondered if the lieutenant was right. Was she worth it? If the town was saved from annihilation, wasn’t that worth the loss of her freedom?
Then, she remembered Grace.
The Jovanovics wanted to kill Grace. If Blessard got his way, Grace wouldn’t just be trapped in a marriage with nasty Logan Jovanovic. Grace would be dead. Even if Sarah had been willing to give herself up to save the town, she wasn’t about to sacrifice Grace. She took a step closer to Blessard.
Think! She needed a plan, but her thoughts were slipping past so quickly she couldn’t grab on to any of them.
Slowly, they moved away from Otto and closer to where the snowmobiles were parked. Sarah felt horribly exposed out in the open, and she braced herself, expecting a fist or a bullet to hit her at any second. The lieutenant’s face tightened with displeasure as he took quick glances around, never looking away long enough to give her a chance to run.
Suddenly, he raised the gun in the air and fired, the explosive crack ringing through the night. The moment the gun was no longer aimed at her, it felt as if a rope holding her back had snapped. Without hesitating, she lunged forward, slamming against the lieutenant’s chest and taking both of them to the ground.
Blessard let out a grunt as she landed on top of him, but he quickly recovered, rolling them over so that Sarah was on the bottom. Terror surged through her as he loomed over her, his body pressing her into the snow. She struggled, but he held her down, his teeth bared with determination.
His expression blanked, and his eyes went wide and then sagged closed. As his head dropped forward, he went limp, flattening her and pushing her even more deeply into the snowdrift. Panic filled her as snow toppled over her face and his suffocating weight made it hard to breathe.
Then he was gone, and she was being hauled out of the snow and into Otto’s arms.
“Is he dead?” she asked, her voice shaking as she clutched handfuls of his coat.
“No. Just unconscious.” He moved her away from him. “We need to hurry. He fired that shot to call your brother’s men here.”
The reality of their situation crashed down on her again, and her body sagged. Otto caught her before she toppled back in the snow, but she pulled out of his hold. There wasn’t time for her to have a freak-out. She needed to move.
Sarah’s legs began to work again, and she ran next to Otto, Xena following closely behind her. Yanking his radio off his belt, Otto hurled it to the side. Sarah was baffled for a moment until it hit her—Blessard must have been using it to track them. Somehow, he’d led Aaron’s army right to them. It felt wrong to stay out in the open, rather than sprinting for the cover of the trees, but she trusted Otto. He’d get them out of this. As they ran across the open area toward the snowmobiles, the snow grabbed at Sarah’s boots, trying to slow her down. Blessard’s gunshot must’ve succeeded in alerting the other mercenaries, since all six were running toward Otto and Sarah. Otto straddled one of the snowmobiles and started the engine, and Sarah jumped on behind him. She turned toward Xena, but she just backed away from the sled, cowering.
Jumping off, Otto grabbed the dog, scooping her up as if she weighed eight pounds rather than eighty. As he turned toward the snowmobile again, Sarah moved up closer to the front, grabbing the handlebars. She’d never ridden a snowmobile, and panic filled her brain, shrieking that she couldn’t do this. Forcing herself to shove back the terror, she looked down at the controls. She was smart. She could figure it out. She had to figure it out, or she and Otto and Xena were dead.
There were no pedals at her feet, so she assumed the accelerator and brake were by her hands. As soon as she felt Otto’s—and Xena’s—weight drop onto the seat behind her, she pushed the lever under her right thumb and the snowmobile jumped ahead. Startled, she released it, and the sled slowed abruptly, jerking her forward.
Sarah pressed it again, prepared this time as it shot forward. It accelerated quickly, and everything blurred as cold air hit her unprotected eyes. The snowmobile’s runners skipped over the uneven drifts, bouncing its passengers, and Sarah had to force herself not to slow down. Even though she felt completely terrified and out of control, this wasn’t the time to take it slow.
She could hear a popping sound over the engine, and her worst fears were confirmed when Otto shouted, “Zigzag! They’re shooting!”
Sarah tried, turning the handlebars and leaning first left and then right and then left again. They flew up a small hill, twisting from side to side. As they crested it, Otto shouted.
“Trap!”
She instinctively turned, just as the runner snagged on the edge of a tarp lying on the ground, hidden and all but buried beneath snow, pulling it askew and revealing a deep pit in front of them. Hauling on the right handlebar, Sarah leaned as much as she could into the turn as the left runner slid out over empty space that had been hidden by the tarp. Her brain was screaming with horror as she pulled on the right grip with all her might, terrified that she’d eluded Aaron’s thugs just to drop the three of them into an enormous hole in the ground. Snow sprayed in an arc as the snowmobile banked. The left skid caught the ground at the edge of the hole, and they shot forward onto solid ground.
Sarah dragged in a desperate breath as she accelerated, flying away from the hole that had nearly killed them. “What was that?” she yelled, almost dizzy with relief and terror at what had almost happened.
“Booby trap! Gordon has them everywhere on the property!” Otto shouted back, and Sarah mentally and thoroughly cursed Gordon’s intense paranoia. There was no time to slow down and recover, even though her whole body trembled from the close call. Aaron’s goons were still chasing them—and shooting. She began her zigzag pattern again, twisting back and forth until the boundary fence came into view. She slowed, uncertain.
“Ram it!” Otto yelled right by her ear, and she jammed her thumb down on the gas. The sled shot forward, unexpectedly fast, and Sarah was tossed back into Xena. The dog gave a small yelp.
“Sorry!” Sarah shouted, all her focus on trying to steer, to keep the powerful machine under control. She stared at the gate as it got closer, terrified to drive into it but determined to get away. Hunching lower, she pressed down so hard on the accelerator that her hand shook with tension.
Something was wrong, though. Instead of speeding up, the sled started to slow, the engine making a rough skip every few seconds until it sputtered and cut out.
“No!” Sarah pushed on the gas, but it was no use. The snowmobile was dead, only inertia keeping them skidding across the snow. Gradually, they slowed until they were barely moving at all.
“Switch!” Otto ordered, and Sarah automatically obeyed, swinging off and then on again behind Xena, locking her arms around the trembling dog before Xena could even think about jumping off. Sarah looked behind them, seeing the bobbing lights as the other snowmobiles grew closer. She clutched Xena more tightly, burying her face in the dog’s hard shoulder as Otto tried to restart the engine.
There was nothing, just empty clicks.
“Let’s go,” he said, swinging off and helping her dismount at the same time. Xena jumped into the snow behind them. Grabbing hands, they ran toward the fence. What had seemed so close when they were speeding toward it now looked painfully far away. The snow was even deeper here, swallowing Sarah’s boots and making each step pull at her sore quads. The nightmarish feeling returned. She was running as fast as she could, but it was still too slow.
The snowmobiles were loud now, buzzing like a swarm of bees, the lights so close and bright that they lit up the boundary fence. It was like a glowing target, one that Sarah knew she would never reach in time.
