Chapter Sixteen
Rand left Chris to deal with Serena and paced the shipping container, his steps ringing on the floor. In the dim light, he examined the sides of the container. “I’m trying to find some weakness we can use to our advantage,” he said. After a full circuit of the box, he ended up beside Chris and Serena once more. Serena had stopped crying and was sitting with her arm around Harley, stroking his side.
“Search and rescue and the sheriff’s department will still be searching for us,” he said. He spoke just loud enough to be heard over the rain but not loud enough for the guards to make out his words.
“Maybe not in this rain,” Chris said. “The safety of the searchers always comes first.”
“I could try to overpower the guards,” he said.
“There are three of them, plus Jedediah,” Serena said.
“And they have guns,” Chris said. “I think our best opportunity is going to be when they try to move us. Maybe we can create some kind of distraction. I could pretend to faint?” Even to her ears, the plan sounded dubious.
“When they come to get us, they’re going to have all three guards and maybe some reinforcements from the camp or the helicopter,” Rand said. “That’s also likely to be when they decide to deal with me—either right before or right after you leave.”
An icy shiver raced through her. “What do you mean, ‘deal’ with you?” she asked.
“They don’t have any intention of sending me with you and Serena in that helicopter,” he said. “They’ll get me out of the way as soon as possible.”
Chris stared. She wanted to protest, but she saw the truth in his words. Jedediah wouldn’t want to deal with Harley either. If they were all going to get out of this alive, they had to figure out a way to escape before the helicopter arrived.
“We need to eliminate the guards one at a time,” Rand said. He looked toward the door. “It would help if we could see who was out there. I’m guessing the guards take shifts, with only one or two at a time here at the container.”
“There’s a gap around the door,” Serena said. She moved over to the door and pressed her eye to the gap. “From down here I can see out.” Pause. “I see two guys. One is sitting on a rock, huddled under a tarp. The other is pacing back and forth. He’s wearing a poncho. They both look pretty wet and miserable.”
Rand moved closer to Chris. One hand resting on her shoulder, he leaned over and spoke in her ear. “If you can create some kind of distraction, maybe we can get the guards inside and overpower them.”
“That will only work if they both come in here,” she said.
“They might welcome the chance to get out of the rain. Or, if you can create a big enough ruckus, they might believe they’ll need to work together to subdue you.”
She nodded. “I’m willing to try.”
He looked around. “I wish I had something I could use to hit them over the head. Even a big rock would do.”
There were no rocks in the shipping container, and the guards had taken their packs. “There’s the slop bucket,” she said. “But it’s empty.”
“It has sand or cat litter in it,” he said. “If we throw that in their faces, it will momentarily blind them. Maybe enough for me to get hold of one of their guns.”
“That’s a lot of if s,” she said. “But I can’t think of a better idea.”
R AND WASN ’ T CONVINCED his plan would work, but he couldn’t see a viable alternative. “Serena,” he called. “We need your help.”
She joined them, and Rand explained their plan. “We need you to stay to one side and keep hold of Harley,” Rand said. “As soon as I give the word, you take off running, out of the container and away from the area. Chris and I will be right behind you.”
She nodded. “All right.” She took hold of the dog’s collar and coaxed him to the front corner of the container, just to the right of the door.
Rand looked at Chris. “Are you ready?”
She blew out a breath. “Ready.”
He moved to the left of the door and she faced it, then threw back her head and let out a shriek. Rand started. “Oh no, oh no, oh no!” she shouted. “Help! Someone please help!” The hair on the back of his neck rose. If he hadn’t known she was faking, he would have been totally convinced.
Someone pounded on the door. “Quiet down in there!” a man yelled.
Chris shrieked even louder. “No! No! Please help! Help!”
“What’s going on?” a second male voice demanded.
More shrieks and wails from Chris. Serena joined in. “Oh no! It’s horrible. Help! Help!”
The chain rattled, followed by the scrape of the bar. The door creaked open, and one man stuck his head inside. “What’s going on in here?”
Chris sank to the floor and thrashed around, moaning and groaning. The first guard moved inside. Chris thrashed harder and shrieked more. “You have to help her!” Serena pleaded.
Harley began barking, adding to the deafening echo within the container. The first guard knelt beside Chris and grabbed her arm. She rolled away from him, thrashing harder.
“You need to hold her down, or she’ll hurt herself,” Serena cried.
“Joel, get in here!” the first guard cried. “I need your help!”
The second guard stepped inside. “What’s going on?”
“Help me with her,” the first guard said.
Joel moved in and stood beside the first man.
Rand rushed forward. He hurled the contents of the pail into the face of first one man and then the other. They staggered, and he punched the first man, breaking his nose. Then he wrenched the rifle from the guard’s hands and used it as a club to hit the second man. He went down, and Harley immediately bit him.
“Get him off me!” the first man screamed.
“Harley, release!” Chris shouted. She was on her feet now. She picked up the second man’s rifle and hit him over the head. Both men were on the ground now—one unconscious, the other groaning.
“Let’s go!” Rand grabbed her hand.
“Serena!” Chris called.
“I’m right here. Harley, follow me.” She raced out the door, and the others followed.
The rain hit them in an icy downpour. Rand scanned the area but saw no other guards. Maybe the storm had muffled the sounds of their struggle enough that Jedediah and the third guard hadn’t heard. “Which way do we go?” Chris asked.
Rand had no idea, but he reasoned Jedediah and the other guard were probably somewhere facing the door of the container. “This way!” He pointed to the rear of their former prison.
They ran, slipping on mud and slick rock but getting up and going again. Serena stayed with them, the dog at her side. Their course gradually took them downhill. Rand tried to picture the topo map of the area he had studied last night, but he couldn’t relate this soggy landscape to what had been printed there. All they could do was continue to put distance between themselves and their captors.
After what felt like an hour but was probably only a fraction of that, they entered a drainage, clumps of grass and wildflowers replacing bare rock, a thin trickle of water cutting a path ahead of them. The rain slowed, then stopped, and the sky began to clear. Rand stopped beneath a rock ledge and they rested, waiting for their breathing to return to normal before anyone spoke. “Where are we going?” Serena asked.
“I don’t know,” Rand admitted. “But a drainage like this should lead to a stream or a road or something.” He hoped. He wasn’t certain that was true.
Chris looked up the way they had just come. “I don’t hear anyone following us,” she said.
“Maybe they’re gathering reinforcements.” He straightened. “Let’s keep going.”
They walked now, instead of running, but they kept a steady pace. No one complained, though he knew they were all hungry and tired. He fell into step beside Serena. “How are you doing?” he asked. “Are you in pain?”
She shrugged. “My face hurts. But I’ll be okay.”
The drainage they had been following did end—not at a stream or road but in a box canyon. They spent the next two hours picking their way up the canyon walls, grappling with mud and loose rock before finally emerging at the top as the sun was sinking. “We need to find a place to spend the night,” Rand said.
They studied the landscape. Rand wished he had his pack and binoculars. “That looks like a building over there.” Chris pointed to the west. “Maybe an old mine ruin.”
They trudged in the fading light toward the structure, which proved to be the remains of a cabin, the roof mostly gone and one wall collapsing. But they cleared out a dry spot at the back. With the darkness, the temperature had dropped, and they were all shivering, with no way to make a fire.
“Let’s huddle together,” Chris said. “We’ll keep each other warm.”
They put Serena between them, with Harley at her feet. Soon, she was breathing evenly, asleep. Chris stroked her hair. “I’m still so angry that they beat her,” she said softly. “She’s just a child.”
“She’s safe with us now,” Rand said. But for how much longer? The Exalted and his followers had proved they were relentless in their pursuit.
“Why does he want me so badly?” she asked. “Why go to so much trouble to have me?”
“Maybe it’s because you defied him and got away,” Rand said. “He wants revenge, or to make an example of you for his followers. Or maybe he’s obsessed. He’s decided he has to have you, and that’s what drives him.” He wrapped his arm around her. “But I’m not going to let him have you.” He didn’t know how he could stop them, but he would do everything in his power to keep her with him.
She tilted her head back and looked up, blinking rapidly. He wondered if she was holding back tears.
“T HE WORLD LOOKS so big from here,” Rand said.
She nodded. Her world inside the Vine had been so small. Everything revolved around the Exalted and life in the camps. Their whole focus was obeying the Exalted, serving him and, thus, somehow, perfecting themselves. Even though she had told Rand she wasn’t as fully indoctrinated as Serena, it had taken her a long time after she and her mother had left to accept that no one and no situation was perfect.
Rand leaned in closer, and she turned toward him. She shifted until she was pressed against him, then kissed him. The kiss was a surrender—not to him as much as to the part of her that wanted to rest, to feel safe in his arms. And it was a release of the tension she had been holding in too long. She had fought against trusting anyone else for so many years that it had become second nature, but Rand made her want to trust him, with her secrets, her fears and her very life. The feeling both frightened and thrilled her, and she did her best to translate those sensations into that kiss.
He brought his hand up to caress the side of her neck, and she leaned into his touch. She wanted to be closer to him, but the child between them prevented that. She had to be content with drinking in the taste of him, the soft pressure of his lips, the firm caress of his hand. She wished she could see more of his face in the darkness, but maybe that only heightened the experience of that kiss. It warmed her through and fed a growing desire within her. “I wish we were alone, somewhere more comfortable,” she whispered.
“If I have to be here,” he said, “I’m glad it’s with you.”
She laughed, more nerves than mirth. “You have a strange idea of romance.”
He kissed her again. Okay, not strange at all. If he could make her feel this way with a kiss, imagine what he could do with more time and room.
Serena moaned and stirred between them, and they pulled apart a little. Their situation was truly awful—stranded and lost, pursued by people who probably wanted to kill Rand and Harley and make Serena’s and Chris’s lives miserable. But Chris was no longer afraid. Was this what it was like to be in love?
R AND WOKE BEFORE DAWN , cold and stiff and hungry. He tried to extricate himself from the tangle they had slept in without disturbing the others, but Chris woke up. “Is something wrong?” she asked.
“I’m just getting up to stretch my legs.” He stood, wincing as he straightened his aching limbs. “I’m going to see if I can find us some water.”
Outside, the damp chill of early morning stung his skin. The sky had lightened from black to sooty gray. Rand picked his way across a stretch of gravel into a clump of willows. Just beyond the willows, a spring seeped from the ground into a moss-rimmed pool. He knelt and scooped water into his hand. It was clear and sweet smelling. He drank deeply, scooping water into his mouth over and over. They would all probably have to be treated for the giardia bacteria that was endemic in mountain waterways, but that was a small price to pay for freedom.
A buzzing startled him and he leaped to his feet, searching for the source of the sound. It came from the sky. He looked up and saw a drone hovering overhead. He immediately crouched and burrowed farther into the cover of the willows. Had the drone seen him? The sheriff’s department had a drone they were using to search for Chris. Was this it? Or did it belong to the Vine?
He waited until the drone was out of sight, the sound of its buzzing fading, and hurried back to the miner’s shack. Chris and Serena were both up now, and Chris was braiding Serena’s long dark hair. “I found a spring,” Rand said. “The water is cool and sweet.”
“I’m so thirsty,” Serena said. She rubbed her stomach. “Hungry too.”
“I know.” Rand patted her shoulder. “I’m hoping we’ll be safe and eating a good dinner by tonight.”
“Did you see anything to indicate which way we should go?” Chris asked. She finished the braid and wrapped the end with a strip of what looked like torn T-shirt. Dark shadows beneath her eyes and her pale complexion betrayed her weariness. But she was still the most beautiful woman he knew. The memory of the kisses they had shared last night sent heat through him. He believed she was starting to trust him, and he hoped that would lead to a future together.
She was looking at him curiously, and he realized he hadn’t answered her question. “I didn’t look around much.” He hesitated, then added, “I spotted a drone. I don’t know if it saw me or not.”
“What’s a drone?” Serena asked.
“It’s like a miniature helicopter with a camera attached,” Rand said. “It can fly around and take pictures of anything on the ground. Do you know if the Vine has anything like that?”
She shook her head. “I never saw anything like that.”
Rand glanced at Chris. “The sheriff said he would be using a drone to search for you. I’m hoping this one belongs to them, but I wasn’t sure, so I stayed out of the open.”
Chris dusted off her hands. “Let’s get a drink and see if we can figure out where to head next.”
Rand led the way to the little spring, and they took turns drinking the water. Chris walked along the stream for a short distance, then returned. “I can’t tell if it goes anywhere or not.”
“Let’s climb up a little higher and see if we can find a spot with a better view of the countryside.”
They moved slowly up a steep hill behind the ruins of the cabin. Even Serena was moving with little energy today. If they didn’t find help soon, they were going to be in real trouble. No food, little water and little sleep were starting to take their toll. At the top, Rand studied the land spread out before them—a cream-and-brown-and-gold expanse of rock, like taffy spilling from the pot. Clumps of trees and falling-down mine ruins and rusted equipment dotted the landscape as if scattered by a child’s hand. He fixed his gaze on a narrow band of white cutting across a slope below.
“Is that a road?” Chris asked.
He nodded. “I think so.” Probably a backcountry Jeep road, but if they could reach it and head downhill, they would eventually come to a more major road, with traffic and people and the help they needed.
They set off, grateful for the easier downhill travel but at the same time aware of how exposed they were on the treeless slope. He kept glancing overhead, wondering if the drone would return.
As if responding to his thoughts, a distant buzzing reached them. “What’s that noise?” Serena asked.
Rand scanned the sky. The drone was flying straight toward them. There was nowhere to hide. He dropped into a squat. “Get down,” he said. “If we can blend into the rock, it might not see us.” It was a trick used by prey animals—freeze and hope the predator doesn’t notice.
They huddled together on the ground as the drone passed over them. It didn’t hover or circle back. Was it possible they had avoided detection again?
They hurried on. Rand was anxious to reach the cover of the trees. They were almost there when a much louder sound cut the air—a deep throbbing he felt in his chest. “It’s a helicopter!” Serena shouted.
“Run for the trees!” Rand yelled.