Risky Extraction

Chapter 32

Allyson felt colder than she had ever been before. Julian turned on the small propane heater, but it did little to warm up the drafty structure. She was not dressed for the cold, and the wind seemed to howl through every little open crevice of the shack.

With her hands restrained behind her, she couldn’t even warm them up, and they were painfully cold. Her fingertips were stinging, and she was sure they were near frostbite.

“Can you please release my hands so I can warm them?” Allyson begged.

“It is colder than I’d expected it to be today. I can’t wait to get out of this damn Canadian weather.” He lifted the heater and brought it closer to her.

“I’ll be leaving soon, but don’t worry. When I’m safely away from here, I’ll send your location to Brent. There should be enough propane to last until morning.” Julian glanced around the shack and then headed to the door. “It was nice to meet you.”

With those words, he opened the door and slammed it behind him. Allyson sat wide-eyed, expecting him to come back, but when seconds turned into minutes, she realized she was there alone.

He hadn’t released her restraints, and although the heater was closer, she was still cold. She struggled with the zip ties, but she didn’t have the strength in her icy hands to break the plastic. She tried to kick her legs free, but again, no luck.

“Damn it,” she shouted into the quiet of the shack.

She shifted in the chair to see if she could move closer to the heater. Maybe there was some way to use the heat to weaken the zip ties. Moving the heavy chair was a struggle, but after shifting several times and once catching herself from tipping over, she was closer to the heater but not enough to touch the plastic restraint against it.

She couldn’t give up. The heat did start to warm her icy fingers, and she flexed them several times to get circulation back in them. She began to tug and pull at the ties to the point she knew they’d bitten through her skin. Still, she didn’t stop. It was so quiet, with only the sound of her grunts as she struggled to escape and the wind outside.

She didn’t know how long Emir had been gone, but she was sure it was enough time for her to escape without him knowing, although he didn’t say he wasn’t coming back.

She’d been struggling forever to get her hands free, but it worked, and she was able to slip her hand out of the bond. When she looked at her wrists, she cringed. The blood was probably the reason she was free.

She looked down at her legs, and her only idea was to stand up and slam the old wooden chair against the side of the shack. It had seen better days, and she was sure it wouldn’t take much to break the legs.

It took three tries before the chair shattered, and she managed to pull her legs free. For a few minutes, she stood by the heater to warm up before she attempted to leave, but what if she got lost? She didn’t even know where she was.

As she warmed herself, she glanced around the sparse shack. There wasn’t much in it, but it did seem familiar. It was as if she’d been there before or somewhere similar. The one window in the structure was boarded up, and she wasn’t keen on opening the door until she knew for sure Julian was gone.

She should probably stop thinking about him as Julian because it wasn’t his name. He was Emir Hasan, the man who’d murdered more people than they probably knew about. She could understand why Titus wanted to keep Sidney away from the man.

“Brent, what do I do? Leave or stay and hope you find me?” Allyson whispered.

As she took a second glance around the shack, she saw a wooden box at the end of the bed. She didn’t expect to find anything, but maybe there was a blanket to use when she hurried across the small area and dropped down to her knees.

The box creaked as she pulled open the top. She pulled the items out one by one and placed them on the floor next to her. Inside were binoculars, a first aid kit, zip ties, game bags, a flashlight, a lighter, and several other things that a hunter would use. She’d seen her dad and uncle pack for their moose hunting trips and had gone with them once, but it wasn’t for her.

If she was right, the large bag at the bottom probably contained rain gear. She ripped open the bag and started to cry. It was exactly what she needed. Under the bag was also a knife and a backpack with protein bars.

She also found a map with the area number on it. As she scanned the map, she knew exactly where she was. This was the same area her dad had hunted, and although it had been a long time since she’d been there, she had a map and could find her way out.

It had turned dark, and heading out into the deep brush of the woods was a stupid idea. She hoped the propane would last all night, so she pulled the heater close to the bed. The mattress wasn’t the cleanest thing, but she needed to try to get some sleep before she made her way out.

Allyson got little to no sleep, but she finally gave up when dawn came around. The heater had shut off before daylight, and she was starting to feel cold, but that wasn’t going to stop her.

She pulled on the gear from the bag she’d found and tucked it in as much as possible. Her boots weren’t meant for deep snow, but at that moment, it was all she had. She shoved the first aid kit, binoculars, lighter, and flashlight into the backpack and pulled it on her back. The knife she kept in her hand in case she needed to use it.

She slowly opened the door and looked out, making sure nobody was there. She was sure Julian or Emir wouldn’t have waited outside all night in the cold, so she felt somewhat confident he was gone. As she closed the shack door, she glanced down at the map at the x. She assumed it was where she was and started to follow the path on the map.

She’d been trudging through the woods for what seemed like hours when there were three loud pops, and someone screamed. Allyson stopped for a moment but continued to make her way along the path. She’d taken three steps when her foot landed in a hole, and she toppled to the ground. The pain surged through her ankle, and she cried out. When she tried to lift her foot, she found it was broken. Now, what was she going to do?