Chapter 5 #2
“Just relax, baby,” he said. “Once we’re done here, I’ll let you take all the pictures you want. You just need to pay the toll first. You didn’t think this kind of access would be free, did ya’?”
Hot bile rose up in my throat as Franklin threw his leg over mine, clumsily climbing over me in the passenger’s seat.
I didn’t want to believe it. This couldn’t be happening.
But it was.
And if I didn’t do something fast, my situation was about to get a hell of a lot worse.
“I said get off me,” I shouted, slamming the heel of my palm as hard as I could against the bridge of his nose.
His howl of pain filled the calm night air as an explosion of hot, sticky blood rained down, soaking my clothes.
“You bitch,” Franklin shouted, both his hands shooting up to cover the torrent of gore pouring from his nostrils.
The moment his hands were off me, I jerked my kneecap up between his legs, connecting with the soft, vulnerable bits there, and his howl turned into a high-pitched cry.
Injured on both the top and bottom, the bastard instinctively curled in on himself, turtling to protect his tender areas from further harm.
Seizing the moment, I pushed him off me and threw open the door. Pausing for just a second to scoop up the pile of crumpled fatigues that my camera had landed in and cradling the bundle to my chest, I took off running.
Only to remember there was no place to run.
No place with cover at least.
Everything out here was wide open. There were no buildings. No crops. Not even a field of tall grass. The last trees I’d seen were a half a mile away.
I was completely exposed.
In this kind of open terrain, I’d never make it the ten miles back to Goldwood. Not before Franklin recovered.
But I had to try. What else could I do?
God help me, I prayed as I took off running through the open field. I moved as hard and as fast as I could, not slowing down even when the sound of his yowling started to fade. I figured I had about two to three minutes before he sat up, turned the ignition on the Jeep, and came after me.
And when he caught up to me…well, God really would need to help me then.
Strangely, I wasn’t afraid Franklin was going to kill me.
I’d seen my death thousands of times, and this wasn’t how it happened.
I died in a forest so thick I could barely move through it, not in a wide open field.
Besides, I wasn’t even wearing that ridiculous T-shirt Deke had given me.
The cursed thing was probably still crumpled up on the bar where I’d left it.
But for the first time in my life, I was realizing that some things were even more terrifying than the prospect of death.
So I ran like hell, legs flying and arms pumping at my side, but I couldn’t have made it more than a quarter mile before I heard the Jeep’s engine roaring to life behind me.
Shit.
I needed to think of something. Quick.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the headlights starting to turn my way as Franklin ground the transmission into first gear. In just another second, I’d be lit up like a fugitive caught in a spotlight.
I’d run out of time.
So, I did the only thing that I could. I dropped down to the ground and molded my body against one of the redwood stumps. Shreds of the soft bark slid beneath my fingernails as I gripped to the side, my lips moving in silent prayer that someone up there would get me through this unharmed.
And for a moment, I’d really thought that prayer was answered.
I watched as the bright twin lights slowly moved over the spot where I was lying, illuminating everything but me.
“Where are you, bitsh?” Franklin called out across the empty field. Already, the swelling from his broken nose was causing him to slur the sounds together. “It’s no use trying to hide, Hannah. I’m going to find you, and when I do, I’m gonna kill you.”
The son of a bitch sounded like he meant it too. His voice practically dripped with rage.
Clearly, fighting my way out of his grasp hadn’t just injured his body. I’d also wounded his ego. And every woman knew there was nothing more dangerous than a man with bruised pride.
I waited until the beams from the headlights had swung past me, then I jumped up and started running the opposite direction—away from town.
Maybe if I got lucky, he’d guess that I’d headed back to civilization and keep traveling away from me.
But I’d always had terrible luck, and about a minute later, I saw his headlights turning back my way.
My whole body buzzing with fear, I dove for the nearest stump...but this time I wasn’t fast enough.
The edge of the light lit up my lower half before I could tuck them safely away. A second later, Franklin’s high-pitched laugh carried across the open field, turning my blood to ice.
“Found you!” he crowed. “Now you’re gonna pay!”
The Jeep’s engine revved. Rocks and pebbles flew from underneath its spinning tires as it rocketed toward me, dinging off the metal undercarriage before thudding into the dirt.
Face down on the ground, my mind spun. What the hell was I supposed to do now? I couldn’t run. As angry as the bastard was, he’d probably just mow me down with the 4x4. But I couldn’t just give up.
The thought of what Franklin would do to me if he managed to haul me back into his passenger seat was enough to turn my guts to water. I’d rather deal with a body full of broken bones than let the son of a bitch put his hands on me again.
Just the thought was enough to shake the fear out of me and haul me back up to my feet.
With the headlights at my back, I bolted. Even though I knew there was no way I could possibly outrun a Jeep, I still had to try.
Growing up, my mom had always complained about my stubbornness, but what can I say? Surrender just isn’t in my nature.
Every time I heard the roar of the engine closing, I’d pivot ninety degrees, forcing Franklin to brake as he turned the wheel. Again and again, I dodged him like this, staying just out of his reach.
But then my legs started turning to rubber, and my lungs burned.
It was only a matter of time until—
Ah!
The front bumper of the Jeep clipped the back of my thigh when I failed to turn away fast enough, knocking me off balance. The bundle holding my camera flew from my hands as I crashed to the ground. The air left my lungs in a giant whoosh even as bright, sudden pain blossomed inside me.
But the impact didn’t stop me from moving.
My momentum, combined with the car’s, caused me to roll across the dirt for several more yards, picking up fresh cuts and bruises as my body helplessly tumbled. Until I hit something massive and unmovable with a dull thud.
I looked up to see a tower of bare concrete looming above me.
The Wall.
All that running and I’d ended up exactly where I’d started.
If I’d had any air in my lungs, I might have laughed at the absurdity of it all.
As it was, I barely had enough energy to pull myself upright as Franklin stopped the Jeep just inches from where I was standing. And here I’d thought he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to use the weight of the Jeep to squash me like a bug against the stony surface.
“You whore!” he shouted as the driver’s side door flew open. “Here I was, being the nice guy and showing you something hardly anyone gets to see in person, and how do you repay me? With a broken nose and a kick in the balls.”
I spat in his direction, but the inside of my mouth tasted thick and coppery. “C-Come any closer, and I’ll rip those balls right off.”
Stepping into the high beams, I caught sight of the semi-automatic service pistol in Franklin’s hand. “No, you won’t.”
Fuck.
I tried to run again, but only made it a single step before the bastard’s hand wrapped around my ponytail and yanked me toward him. Tears sprang up in my eyes as a scream ripped from my throat.
“Shut up,” he screeched in my ear. “You had your chance for fun. Now it’s my turn.”
With brutal force, he slammed me against the vehicle’s hood, forcing my face against the hot metal.
“Franklin, stop,” I pleaded. “Please! You don’t have to do this.”
“And you didn’t have to crush my damn nuts,” he hissed back at me, pressing the muzzle of the gun against the base of my skull.
My whole body went cold, and I started shaking, realizing that maybe I’d been wrong about my death this whole time. That I wasn’t destined to die in the Wilds after all, but just five feet outside it instead.
The second I felt Franklin’s hand slip around my waist, I screamed and thrashed anew.
Knowing they might be the last sounds I ever made, I shrieked as loud as I could.
Loud enough for the sound to carry miles.
Loud enough that volume blocked out all other sounds in my ears, from my pounding heart to my chattering teeth.
And to my surprise, Franklin froze.
The barrel of the gun eased back from my head.
“Did you hear that?” the bastard whispered.
My screams?
Yeah, I’d heard them. And we were about to hear them again.
Us and everyone within a ten-mile radius, if I could manage it. I sucked in a deep breath, preparing to let loose, when the weight of Franklin’s hips pulled back from mine.
Even though he still had a vise-like grip on my ponytail, I was able to spin around just far enough to see Franklin staring out into the darkness, his head and pistol flashing back and forth across the field.
But after staring straight into the Jeep’s brights for so long, I doubted he could see a thing.
I certainly couldn’t.
“Let me go,” I screamed.
“Shush,” he hissed.
Then I heard it.
A roar.
A real animal roar. Like none I’d ever heard before.
Low and gravelly and simmering with primal rage.
Oh fuck.
“What was that?” I demanded. “Oh, God, tell me it’s not what I think it is.”
But Franklin didn’t answer. Instead, he whipped me in front of him like a human shield as he started inching back toward the driver’s side door, shaking the whole way.
Before he could get there, the roar sounded again—closer this time. Much closer.