Guardian: Book One

by A.L. Crouch

Chapter 12

  “Ssshhh, it’s okay Alexandra. You’ve got to stay completely still. It’s almost over. I’ve got you.”

  I focused on Donovan’s voice and realized with shock that I wasn’t breathing. Worse still, I was shaking. In my panicked state I didn’t dare take a breath for fear that the use of even that much muscle would make the shaking worse. Maybe it would be better if I just passed out, I thought as the light from the cracks ebbed and rippled in my vision. Yes, just slip into a deep sleep and escape the terror around me. Escape it all . . . perhaps for good.

  “Stay with me Alexandra, stay with me!” Donovan’s words came out rushed and tortured.

  Just then, all of the light from the crevices vanished as my pursuer took a step forward and blocked what little daylight shone on us through the blanket of trees above. I forced my eyes upward, intent on seeing, on knowing who was out there before I lost consciousness. All I saw was blackness. I closed my eyes and let it consume me. I longed to slip into it, to rest at last. The end.

  “He’s leaving. You did it Alexandra. Hang in there just a few seconds longer.” Donovan’s voice pulled me back.

  I forced my eyes open and when I saw that daylight again permeated the darkness around me, I fought to keep them open. Donovan’s smooth voice spoke calming words to me as I thought about that night, all those years ago, when his voice had been the only light in an impossible darkness. It had sustained me then, and it sustained me now.

  A great heaving sigh of frustration erupt from the stillness around us, and then heavy steps jogged off through the brush, crunching and snapping violently. I took a deep, ragged breath but remained still, all my senses alert and vibrating. The footsteps disappeared into the distance and I waited, rigid, until several minutes had passed and I heard nothing. Only then did I allow my muscles to ease as I panted for breath until it seemed my lungs would explode from the amount of air I sucked in.

  “He’s gone, you did it. We should move, try to get to safer ground,” Donovan said and the warmth around my arms lightened and faded.

  I was too afraid to uncover myself, my body remaining one with the muck and moist earth. My mind refused to process relief.

  “It’s okay, he’s gone. Trust me Alexandra,” Donovan whispered.

  Donovan’s voice pulled me from my shocked state. I brushed the branches and mangled leaves from my face and limbs. My muscles ached and I noticed for the first time that I was cold. My jeans, now wet and clinging to my skin, held the frigid dampness against me, chilling me with each new gust of autumn wind. I stood on shaky legs and took stock of my injuries. Aside from the gash on my thigh, I was relieved that I had suffered only a few scratches and scrapes during my fall.

  “You’re hurt.”

  The worry in Donovan’s voice made me take a closer look at the gash in my leg. It was deep, but had stopped bleeding.

  “It’s just a scrape, I’ll be fine,” I answered, my voice quivering.

  “We have to keep moving, he might decide to double back. Can you walk?”

  “Yes, let’s get out of here,” I nodded and followed Donovan’s voice which came from the opposite direction from where my attacker had disappeared.

  I took wide steps, which stung, in order to avoid the cluttering of downed branches and thorny bushes.

  “Wait,” Donovan said and I halted mid-step.

  “What is it? Is he coming back?”

  “No. Take off your sweater,” He urged.

  “What? Why?” I was confused, it was freezing.

  “It’s bright red. You’re easy to spot you out here like that. You have to get rid of it. Bury it under some of this debris.”

  I hesitated for a minute but pulled the muddied sweater over my head. The cool air nipped at my bare arms, but I was grateful that the tank top I wore beneath it was dry. I jammed the sweater beneath a pile of dead branches and covered it with leaves until the red was no longer distinguishable from the shades of brown covering it.

  “Good, now let’s go,” Donovan urged and we plunged ahead.

  We traveled for a while wordlessly, me tripping over shrubbery and branches, but eager to get somewhere where I could rest. The forest went on forever in a million different directions, and the sunlight was dipping further and further beneath the tree line. I was exhausted and worried about Will.

  “Shouldn’t we go back up towards the road?” I paused to catch my breath.

  “No, he would have thought of that. That’s the first place he’ll look,” Donovan answered a few feet ahead of me.

  “But it’s also the first place anyone will look, right? The police . . . Will?” I urged.

  “We don’t know that anyone beside this man is out looking for you yet.”

  “But Will’s car is up there. Will could be up there waiting for me to come back. He could be hurt,” I pleaded to the trees before me, wishing I could see Donovan’s face. “What about Will?”

  “We can’t worry about him right now, Alexandra. He doesn’t matter right now.”

  I recoiled, his words stung as if he had stabbed me with them.

  “How can you say that? Is this because you don’t like him?”

  Donovan sighed and his voice got closer. He spoke from right beside me now, his tone urgent and all business.

  “I never said I didn’t like him. What I said was that I don’t trust him and I don’t. Neither should you. Did you hear how hard he was pushing you back there?” Donovan paused and took a loud breath before going on. “It doesn’t matter if I like him or not. None of that matters right now, do you understand? All that matters right now is you, YOUR safety. Nothing else matters.”

  I could imagine him there, looking into my eyes, making sure I understood what he said next. I glared ahead in defiance shaking my head. Donovan sighed again and his voice softened.

  “Look, we have think strategically about this, okay?” He said. “Whoever is after you will be expecting you to go back up to the road, back to the car. He will be expecting you to go back and look for Will or flag down some help. HE will be waiting, and it’s not worth the risk of going up there in the hopes that he is not the only one.”

  Huffing, I lowered my eyes. He was right, but damn it, I didn’t want him to be. I wanted more than anything to go back and find Will and make our way back to the station. But he was right. Whoever was out there would be waiting for me there.

  I threw my hands up in frustration, but knew I had only myself to be angry with. It had been my idea to come out here. I hadn’t listened to Donovan or to Sulley and now my life was on the line and Will could be out there injured or worse. It was all my fault.

  “Damn it. So what do we do? Where are we going? It’s going to be dark soon.”

  Donovan’s voice came as calm as a whisper. “We keep moving, until we find a safer place to wait.”

  “Wait for what?” I shrugged, defeated and exhausted.

  “For the Calvary,” Donovan said.

  My shoulders dropped. The thought of being stuck in these woods in the dark with a madman after me made my stomach twist around itself.

  “Come on, let’s keep moving.” Donovan said, his voice moving in front of me.

  I sighed and hurled myself forward. Every step made my legs ache and tremble and my arm muscles seized with the dropping temperature.

  “You’re doing great. Just keep moving forward,” Donovan encouraged and I brooded.

  “Easy for you to say,” I grumbled but continued on. “You’re celestial.”