Chapter 42. Alice
ALICE
It took a long time for Jenny to stop crying. Too long for them to be sitting in the direct sun, with no water. Alice’s skin felt tight and burned. Her head was pounding.
“We have to go,” Alice said. “We’re going to get heatstroke.”
Jenny blinked at her. She looked spaced out, hollow. Alice held Jenny around her bicep and urged her to stand. Jenny carefully got to her feet.
“Where’s the knife?” Alice said.
“I put it in my pack. I didn’t like wearing it.”
“Okay. Come on.” Alice followed a faint path that traveled to the right, which she’d thought was the same as she’d taken down, but the ground was looser, and her legs wobbly.
The flesh around her bullet wound burned.
Her feet kept sliding out from underneath her.
She hadn’t made it far before she fell forward, scraping her stomach as she slid down a few feet.
Jenny had only been a step behind, so she was bumped off-balance and slid along with Alice.
They clung to the hillside as rocks, pebbles, and sand shifted under their feet, rolling and bouncing below.
Jenny’s eyes were wide as she stared up at Alice, who was desperately trying to think of a plan to get them off the hillside that didn’t end with them rolling to the bottom.
Far to their right, the gravel hill changed into patches of soil and was dotted with trees and shrubs that had managed to take root.
If they could make their way across, they could then move upward.
Alice pointed toward the trees. “Try to get over there. Don’t stand up.
” Alice crawled sideways like a spider, with her toes digging in, her knees against the dirt, and her hands holding on to rocks that looked stable.
She’d sweated so much by the time she made it to the first tree that her shirt clung to her back and stomach, and her hair was wet at the nape of her neck.
She rested in the shade, trying to cool her body down, but all she could think of was water. Cold, fresh water. She wished there was a river. She would dive in fully clothed.
Jenny had been following Alice’s path—but a couple of feet below—and she’d also reached the shade. They stayed there for a few moments, then Alice looked at her.
“Ready?”
Jenny nodded.
They climbed the hill, using roots and shrubs, sometimes moving up, sometimes sideways. A dangerous chess game. Finally, the hill leveled out and they were in a thick forest.
When Alice stood, everything around her blurred and spun.
She shot her arm out to brace against a tree trunk until she felt stable.
Jenny was nearby, looking equally wrung out.
Her face was sunburned, her arms and legs dusty and scratched.
Alice’s face was so burned that her sweat stung, and when she made to wipe it away, she could feel the heat radiating from her skin.
It was cooler among the trees, but the forest floor was tangled with thick shrubbery and deadwood, so it was still slow going until they stumbled out onto the tracks. They walked back along the railway ties, the creosote sticky under their shoes. Alice had run farther than she’d realized.
They found the dirt road, and then the car.
Alice was grateful to see the keys still hanging in the ignition.
When Alice opened the driver’s door, a hot wave of cologne and cigarette-scented air rushed out.
She slid inside, wincing as her bare legs touched the velvet seat.
She leaned over to unlock the passenger door, but Jenny was already getting into the back seat.
Alice looked over her shoulder. “You can sit up front.”
Jenny wasn’t listening, though. She’d seen Simon’s backpack on the seat, and her face twisted in anguish. She clutched it to her chest.
Alice fought back her own tears. Even after all that Simon had done, she felt sick when she saw his empty coffee cup on the floor of the passenger side. He’d been alive only hours ago.
Alice wound down her window and looked at Jenny in the rearview mirror. She was still clinging to the backpack like it was the last thing holding her on earth.
“Can you roll your window down, Jenny?”
Jenny sniffled a few times, wiped at her face, and rolled it down, but it took her a couple of times to manage the handle, like she was struggling to make her body move.
“I need the knife.”
Jenny fumbled with the clasps on her backpack. Each movement seemed excruciatingly long to Alice. She wondered if Jenny was delaying. Maybe it was a ruse. She tensed.
When Jenny finally pulled out the knife, it was still in the sheath. She passed it over top of the seat to Alice, who set it down beside her.
Alice reversed the car until the dirt road widened and she could turn the Buick around.
It was only a minute or two before they hit the highway and headed back toward Bellevue.
When they reached the town, though, it was clear that it was far too small to have a hospital.
She didn’t even see a medical clinic. They had to drive back to Blairmore, where they’d stayed at the motel.
Her leg was throbbing. She peered down. She’d bled through her makeshift sock bandage. She glanced up at the rearview mirror at Jenny, who was still clutching Simon’s backpack. The girl was dangerously flushed and glassy-eyed.
They made it to Blairmore and Alice drove around the town, searching for a medical building of some type.
She was beginning to worry that there might not be one, when she finally found a white building with a sign—BLAIRMORE HOSPITAL.
She pulled into a parking lot and shut the engine off.
She turned in her seat so she could see Jenny. Would she bolt?
Jenny looked at Alice. “What’s going to happen now?”
“We’re going to go inside and tell them who we are.”
“They’ll call the police.”
“Yes.”
Jenny took a shuddering breath. “I’ll be arrested.” Her hand dropped to her stomach, and she caressed it as tears coursed down her flushed cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”
Alice didn’t know if Jenny was apologizing to her or the baby. Jenny lifted her head and looked at Alice. Her blue eyes were bright against her sunburned face.
“I guess this is the last time we’ll see each other.”
Alice didn’t know how to respond. Jenny was making it sound like they were friends heading off on different voyages.
“There’ll probably be a court case.”
“Oh.” Jenny turned to stare at the hospital. “Okay.” Alice still wasn’t sure what was going through Jenny’s mind. She was probably in shock—or ready to pass out from heatstroke.
Alice might do the same if she stayed in that car a moment longer.
“Let’s go.” She stepped out, leaving the keys in the ignition, and the knife on the seat.
Jenny climbed out of the rear and hoisted her backpack onto her shoulders. She carried Simon’s pack in front of her body.
They’d only taken a few steps when Alice heard the wail of a siren, rapidly growing closer. An ambulance? Alice and Jenny turned to look at the road.
A black-and-white police car with lights flashing screeched into the parking lot and blocked the Buick. Jenny let out a loud gasp and stumbled backward. Alice stood frozen.
Two policemen jumped out of the patrol car. One from each door, guns drawn. They were yelling, but Alice couldn’t focus on the words. It was just angry noise.
Other people in the parking lot were turning to stare. A woman was running with a child into the building.
One of the cops shouted, “Get your hands up,” and Alice thought he was talking to Jenny, so she didn’t move, but now he was advancing on Alice, his pistol aimed at her, his face red.
“I said get your hands up!”
She lifted her hands into the air. He was telling her to turn around. Then she was shoved against the side of the Buick. Her feet kicked apart, pain lancing up her leg.
“Stop! I’ve been shot.”
Didn’t he see the blood? Hot metal burned her cheek, her chest, and her thighs. She was patted down, hands slid in her pockets, felt around her waist.
“I’m an American. My husband and I were kidnapped.”
Jenny was shouting something nearby, something about Alice.
“She didn’t do anything! Let her go.”
Jenny was on the ground. Her face against the pavement. A cop was kneeling on her legs. Her pack had been torn off. Simon’s was a few feet away. Jenny’s sunglasses were in pieces.
“She’s pregnant!” Alice yelled. “Don’t hurt her.”
Alice’s hands were forced behind her back. Cuffs clicked tight. The cop who had Jenny was dragging her up to standing. She stumbled, swaying on her feet. Then Jenny’s eyes rolled back into her head and her body went limp. The cop caught her just before she fell.