Chapter 107
LUCY
My car had a fob and could be controlled electronically, but the doors still had that old-school button that toggled between open and closed.
I came up with my plan in the splittest of split-seconds, and moved my right foot past April and used it to toggle the door to closed. She was still hitting me, but that didn’t matter with everything else that was going on.
We were moving very slowly, but we were moving. We could fall off that cliff at any moment.
It was time to pull a rabbit from my hat.
I shuffled my body back and raised my handcuffs toward where I thought the open/close button was for my door. My hands weren’t good for much, but this was something they could do.
April continued swinging wildly and occasionally, connecting. Her eyes didn’t look all there, as if the Taser had blown a gasket. I don’t think she’d noticed we had started moving.
But then the car went over some kind of rock and bounced slightly in the air.
“Holy shit,” April yelled.
I continued trying to unlock my door. The car was now picking up a little speed, and I knew I only had a few seconds.
April turned around and tried to open her door, which wouldn’t budge. She didn’t realize I’d locked it with my foot.
“No!” She yelled as she grabbed the door again. Maybe if she hadn’t been Tased and her mind was all there, she would have known to look for the lock, but she kept reaching for the door handle.
I was able to find my lock. I used my fingers to press it to unlock.
And now for the toughest part of all.
There was a handle right below where my head was, so I planned on bringing my head down onto the handle, which would push the door slightly open, and then I’d launch myself backward.
It was a thousand to one, but what choice did I have?
I could now hear the water below. I had a second or two. No more.
I violently lowered my head backward onto the handle, and I heard the door open. I used my hands below me to shuffle my body even closer to the now open door.
Just when I thought I was going to make it, April lunged at me and grabbed hold of my feet.
I wasn’t going to make it. We were going to go over the cliff together. Die together.
Don’t give up, Lucy!
I was able to get my left foot free from April’s grasp and kicked her in the face. She fell backward against the locked door behind her, and it held.
I pushed backward one more time, swung my legs toward the door, and did some sort of half-assed somersault out of the side of the car.
I landed on the dirt with a thud, and less than a second later, the car went plummeting toward the Pacific Ocean.