Chapter 10 #2
They got back into the cart in the late afternoon, having exhausted all avenues, and left Cherryville. Soon, they were on the open road, and Alice began to wonder if Kyle and his friends were all talk and no action.
“We could have done something,” she insisted.
“No! It would only have gotten folks killed,” Kyle retorted. “We know how these folks think, and it would only have turned out to be a disaster.”
“You don’t know that!” she yelled. “These aren’t your bandits! They could be different.”
Suddenly, the cart pulled to a stop. There was a huge log across the road.
“What is this?” Alice asked.
The men looked at each other.
“Ambush?” Kyle asked.
In the dimming light, torches flared on all sides of them.
Before Alice could say anything, Kyle and Michael pulled pistols from their holsters. Kyle pushed her down into the cart so that all she could see was the sky between the black branches of the trees lining the road.
“You should keep your noses out of other people’s business!” a man’s voice boomed.
Alice raised her head to see who had spoken.
“Keep your head down,” Kyle snapped, pushing her down again. It was the harshest tone she’d ever heard in his voice, and it scared her badly. He also lay low, waiting with his gun up.
And then, in an instant, the bullets began to fly through the air. They thunked into the side of the cart, coming from all sides. Kyle rose to return fire. A moment later, so did Michael.
“Get us out of here,” Kyle called to Warren.
Everything was so loud, and there were so many booms and crashes, and the horse was screaming, and then a man somewhere screamed. Alice froze in terror, unable to even cry out, she was so terrified.
Lord, save us all, please!
It felt like a year, but was most likely only a couple of seconds that they were in the thick of things before Warren turned the cart, and they raced back the way they had come, but the torches and the light, the bullets and the screaming, followed them.
“We won’t lose them on the road!” Kyle yelled. “There’s a clearing just over there up ahead. Pull in.”
They did, and they tumbled out of the cart. Kyle took his knife and sliced through the leather straps holding the horse in place.
“Go!” he ordered Alice, turning the animal toward her. “Ride through the forest and get back to Grunnersberg. We’ll follow on foot.”
“But,” she said. “What about?—”
“Just go!” Kyle said. “I won’t leave my friends. You need to get to safety.”
Alice’s heart wrenched in her chest, but she nodded and mounted the horse. Holding on to what was left of the reins, she urged the horse to run. He was afraid, and she could feel it in the nervous twitching of his muscles.
Kyle looked at her for a long, intent moment, during which something passed between them. Then he followed Michael and Warren into the trees and disappeared.
She urged the horse to run, and it took off, thundering through the trees. Behind her came the sounds of their attackers finding the cart. They shouted to each other and noted the hoofprints heading in one direction and the footprints in the other.
Their voices carried for a bit, and then she could only hear the sound but not the words.
The horse was tired. It had been a long day pulling the cart, and where he had thought he would have an easy walk home, he was now having to run for his life through a forest. Alice felt sorry for him. When she could, she slowed their pace.
Soon they came to a swiftly flowing stream. She would either have to ride along its bank or cross it. Alice had a feeling that Grunnersberg was on the opposite bank as they had crossed a stream earlier that day.
It was quite dark now, with the sun having completely set and only a faint glow still lingering on the horizon. It wasn’t enough to see anything properly. She would have to find her way in the dark.
Dismounting, she walked into the water. To her relief, it wasn’t deep, only up to her mid-shins.
She led the horse into the water, and an idea came to her.
If she led the horse a little ways before heading to the other bank, she could mislead any pursuers.
They wouldn’t know if she had gone up or downstream.
Making her way as quickly as possible, Alice led the horse in the direction of Grunnersberg, walking in the water all the while.
She had to go carefully, and more than once, she almost slipped in the mud.
She could hear voices calling to each other.
They sounded far away, but the sound was funny.
It could carry a long way, or the person could be right on top of her. In the dark, how would she know?
The stream’s current grew stronger, and the water rose to her knees.
“It’s okay. We can handle it being up to our knees, right?” she said to the horse. “God will keep us safe. He will.”
The horse had his ears back. He clearly didn’t like this. Well, neither did she, but there were things a person had to do to survive, however scary they might be.
The water rose to her waist, and suddenly, the bank was quite a bit further than it had been. Alice stopped. This wasn’t good. She could hear all manner of creatures beginning to stir in the night air. There were chirrups and croaks and funny hooting sounds that sent chills through her.
“We’d better back up a little, horse,” she said.
The horse’s ears were flat against his head, and he seemed to be staring at something in the water.
Alice could see silhouettes of things floating in the water not far from her. The funny thing about them was that they weren’t moving with the current. They were moving against it.
“Oh no,” she said and tried to back the horse around.
A hand clamped onto her mouth, and Alice could only grunt in response as arms closed around her, knocking the breath from her.
“I thought there was one more,” a man said.
His breath was terrible. It smelled of rot and disease, and Alice almost threw up the sandwich from her earlier meal.
“A horse doesn’t keep going, not on its own like that.
Give it a few hundred yards, maybe a mile, and the horse stops running and starts walking.
It definitely doesn’t head downstream in the water. ”
Alice’s heart was thudding in her chest.
What could she do? She was all alone. Kyle believed she would be safer if the bandits thought the horse had run off on its own, but he was wrong. Clearly, she would have been safer with him and Michael and Warren. Where were they? Had they been captured too?
And then she saw the ripple in the water. A log-like thing was coming closer and closer. What on Earth …
She struggled in the man’s grasp and managed to turn them. The man lost his footing entirely, but he didn’t lose his hold on her, and as he fell, he pulled Alice down with him. She lost the reins and fell backward into the water.
It closed around her, and she felt the chill of it enter her ears and cover her head. She hit the silty bottom quickly and soon pushed herself up.
The thing was close. She sat still as it floated up to where the smelly man had gone under, and then it dipped into the water, disappearing from the surface.
Alice didn’t wait. She got up as quickly as her water-soaked clothes would allow and stumbled after the horse. It had run a few steps back the way they had come, away from the tussling humans. She grabbed the reins and headed for the far bank.
A scream rang through the air, filled with pain and horror and fear. Turning, Alice saw silhouetted shapes flailing about in the churning water. She couldn’t see what was happening, but it sounded terrible.
A word came to mind. Alligator. Hadn’t Mr. Benson warned her when she arrived that they were in the rivers and streams and swamps? He had told her that she couldn’t go swimming here as she had back home because the fearsome reptiles quite liked human prey.
She hurried the rest of the way out of the water. If there was one, there would be others. The screams that were growing in volume behind her only confirmed that theory.
On the far bank, Alice stopped only to pour the water out of her boots and wring some of it from her clothes. Then, she and the horse began the long walk back to the Cloudy Lemon.
They followed the stream for a while until they managed to find a road and a bridge.
Alice was so thankful. There was also a signpost, but the night was pitch-black now, with no moon at all.
Thankfully, her matches were in her bag in a waterproof wrapping.
She got one lit and read that Grunnersberg was about four miles in the direction they were already heading in.
There was hope.
But where was Kyle? Was he okay? Had the bandits captured him? How would she know? And where was she supposed to send help?
Alice didn’t know, and she was too exhausted now to try to figure it out.
She mounted the horse again, and together, they set off at a good pace.
Soon they would reach the town, and then she would let smarter people like the sheriff work out how to save Kyle.
All she could do to help him was raise the alarm—and she would certainly do that.
Even if she had to wake up every last person in town.
She sat up straighter and turned the horse’s head toward home. In the distance, lightning crackled in the sky.
“I think we’d better hurry,” she said to the horse and urged him on.
God, please keep Kyle and the others safe. Keep Chrissie and Jason safe too. And help us all figure a way out of this mess!