The candle wobbled.
Aly reached out.
But she wasn’t fast enough.
Before she could get to it, the candle had fallen over. It fell off the table, right onto the ancient small woven rug. The rug had been filthy, and Aly remembered that Rob had taken it outside to give it a good beating, getting what had seemed like pounds and pounds of dust out of it.
Aly gasped as the rug caught fire. The flames rose much higher and faster than she would have expected. The rug must have been incredibly dry, and very flammable.
Aly was in no shape to deal with the fire. She could barely walk. What was she supposed to do?
But she tried anyway, casting aside the chair that she’d used to support herself, and trying to grab at the rug. She hoped that she could take it outside, or beat it against the floor to extinguish the flames.
But the flames were high now, and they licked her hands as she tried to grab onto the rug. She instinctively pulled her hand back, gasping in pain from the burn.
“Jordan!” she screamed.
Could he really be that out of it? So far gone that he didn’t hear anything? That he didn’t somehow sense the danger?
Fire was one of those primordial things. It meant health and security. And it meant danger. Extreme danger. Aly felt her body reacting to it now, screaming at her to get out of there, away from the flames. It was something that was hardwired into her. Her body felt like a spring, getting ready to sprint right out of there, despite her physical condition.
She screamed Jordan’s name again. But there was no answer.
The flames had spread to the couch, which was rapidly erupting into something resembling a fireball.
And that’s when Aly really knew it. The house was going up in flames. It was already a lost cause. There was nothing she could do about it.
“Jordan!”
No answer.
She had to get out of there.
And she had to get Jordan out of there too.
He may have been a sleazeball and a drunk, but he was still her uncle. Her blood. She’d already lost her mother. Losing Jordan, as much as she didn’t want to admit it, would be too much.
The flames seemed like they were all around her. Smoke filled the air.
It seemed almost unbelievable, how fast it had all happened.
Visibility was reduced. Her body was hot, and the air felt like it would scorch her.
Her body was still incredibly weak.
But adrenaline coursed through her.
She could do this.
She could save Jordan. Grab him, shake him awake. Or drag him out of the house if she had to.
With determination etched into her face, Aly stepped forward, making her way between the high flames, towards the corner where Jordan lay slumped.
21
Jessica
“He’s gaining on us!”
“I’m pushing it as hard as I can.”
The Subaru engine was whining like it’d never whined before. Jessica was sure it’d simply shut down at any moment, overloaded however engines got overloaded.
Jessica didn’t really know, though. She knew about bikes, not cars. Bikes were something she could understand, with the simple and easy-to-see connection between the source of power (the legs) and the rear wheel. The drivetrain was something she could touch and feel. A car? That was a whole different story. She understood, in theory at least, that it wasn’t totally different.
Jessica had her head spun completely around, her neck craning, as she watched the motorcycle following them.
Up ahead, the road was ending at an intersection.
The trees were ripping by them. They might have been going a hundred miles an hour. Maybe over. Definitely over ninety. And it wasn’t the sort of road you should drive that fast on.
Rob barely slowed down, taking the turn so fast that Jessica feared that they’d lose control completely and crash headlong into a tree.
But somehow Rob kept it together, jerking the wheel hard to get them back on track. Two wheels bumped over uneven earth on the side of the road, but soon all four wheels were back on the pavement.
The motorcycle was still pursuing them.
It was like a country road. It wasn’t exactly curvy, but it definitely wasn’t a straight shot from one end to the other. There were enough slight curves to keep Rob occupied at the wheel.
“Why’d you go that way?” shouted Jessica, above the sound of the engine.
The windows were down, and the air was blowing her hair around crazily.
“What?”
“Why’d you go this way?”
“Back to the lake house,” she heard him shout.
“You’re leading them back to the lake house?”
Rob flashed her a look. She could see it in his eyes. He was scared. And he didn’t know what he was doing.
Suddenly, the noise from the engine cut off.
The car started to slow down immediately. It wasn’t getting any power. It was just coasting along. Jessica may have not known a lot about cars, but she knew that.
Rob shot her a terrified look as he fumbled with the keys, the pedals, and the shifter.
No matter how hard or frantically he tried, he couldn’t get the engine started again.
“Shit,” was all he could say, over and over again.
Through the rear window, Jessica could see the motorcycle rapidly gaining on them.
There was just the slightest decline to the road. If they’d been headed uphill, they might be stopped already.
They must have been going at least a hundred miles an hour. They had a while before the Subaru completely stopped due to lack of momentum.
Rob was still having to turn the wheel, to keep them on the road. There was absolutely no power, and the power steering must have been dead. But their velocity still allowed him to turn the wheel easily enough.
“He’s gaining on us,” said Jessica. “Give me your gun.”
“Of course he’s gaining on us! We’ve got no power. We’re toast. What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to not lose our shit, that’s what we’re going to do. Now give me your gun.”
“What? You’re going to shoot him out the window? Like we’re in some movie?”
“Yes,” said Jessica. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Now for the last time, hand it over.”
With just one hand on the wheel, Rob handed over his gun.
Jessica checked it, felt the weight of it in her hands. It felt good to be armed again.
The Subaru was, little by little, decelerating. It wasn’t much, but it was perceptible.
Jessica didn’t know how long the road went on like this. It wasn’t like they’d have to stop if they came to a stop sign. But surely the slight downhill would end at some point, turning into a slight uphill.
Not that it mattered.
The biker had already closed the distance. He was maybe ten feet behind them.
And he was repositioning his shotgun.
It looked like he was trying to get the gun into position so that he could fire it at them while still riding the motorcycle.
“What’s he doing?” Rob’s voice was anxious. A little high-pitched.
“Trying to shoot us. Maybe blow out a tire.”
“Right now?” Fear in his voice, ducking his head down a little.
“He’s not going to be able to make it. This isn’t the movies. There’s no way he can ride that thing one-handed.”
Jessica was getting into position, trying to get to where she could get as far out the window as she needed to be.
But it was harder than it looked, and it seemed that to get the angle on the shot she’d need, she’d have to be really hanging out of the Subaru. And that didn’t seem possible, unless she wanted to fall.
Again, this wasn’t the movies.
“Aren’t you going to shoot him?”
“I can’t get the angle.”
“Why not?”
This wasn’t the time to have to explain everything to Rob.
Jessica was again spun around in her seat, watching the guy on the bike.
He was close.
Very close.
Still fumbling with the shotgun.
What an amateur.
Suddenly, Jessica had an idea. She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of it before. Or Rob, for that matter.
“OK, Rob. You’ve got to listen to me.”
“What?” Rob’s voice made it sound like he was losing control. And that’s not what would help them right now. But there was no time to get him calmed down. He just needed to be able to follow her instructions.
“Just do what I say. No arguing. OK, on the count of three, you’re going to hit the brakes. And hit them hard. Really slam on them.”
“The brakes? The car’s off. They’re not going to work.”
“They’ll work, trust me. You’ve got to hit them really hard. Use both feet. Really jam them down. I’ll pull the emergency brake while you’re doing that.”
“But, wait...”
Jessica had once, long ago, been in a car that had suddenly quit in the middle of a commute. Her mother had slammed on the brakes, and the car had stopped. Jessica may not have understood how it worked, but in this situation, total knowledge of the mechanics didn’t really matter.
“But...” Rob was still protesting. He was starting to freak out.
“Now!” Jessica screamed right in his ear. There wasn’t any time to try to be calm with him, to try to coax him through this. He just needed to do it.
With both feet, Rob slammed on the brakes.
Jessica seized the emergency brake lever that sat between the seats. She yanked it as hard as she could.
The Subaru jolted. The tires screeched. Jessica was thrown forward, her seatbelt catching her and digging hard into her chest.
Mere seconds later, there was another jolt, and a tremendous noise. The motorcycle behind them had crashed into the Subaru.
Just as Jessica had suspected, the biker hadn’t had enough time to swerve or brake to avoid the Subaru. He’d been too busy trying to get his shotgun into position, and by trying to hold it, he’d lost the crucial ability to maneuver as he’d needed to.
There wasn’t any time to waste.
Jessica’s hand went to her seatbelt button, jamming against the button.
It was stuck.
“Shit,” she muttered.
Rob seemed dazed, and he was mumbling something.
Jessica glanced in the mirror, but she couldn’t see the biker. She knew that it wasn’t likely that he was dead. He was still there. And he still had the shotgun. He was still a threat.
Jessica dug into her pocket, looking for her knife. But it wasn’t there.
Of course it wasn’t there. They’d taken it from her when she’d been kidnapped and tied up.
“Rob, give me your knife. Quick.”
“What’s that?”
Rob sounded dazed. Maybe he’d hit his head.
There wasn’t any time to waste. The seconds were ticking by. Each new second meant that the chance of danger was increasing. All it’d take was for the biker not to be so critically wounded that he couldn’t wield his shotgun.
Jessica reached over and dug her hand into the pocket of Rob’s jeans. She hoped his knife was on her side.
It was. She removed her hand, clutching the knife. With one hand, she flicked it open.
In a single stroke, she sliced through her seatbelt, pulling the blade away from herself.
She was free. She opened the door, stepped out, keeping herself low and behind the Subaru for cover.
The biker was moaning in pain. From somewhere unseen.
Jessica moved quickly, slightly ducking, to the back of the car.
The motorcycle was tangled up with the Subaru’s rear bumper. It lay partially under the Subaru.
There were streaks of bright blood on the pavement that formed a trail that led away from the Subaru.
Jessica followed the trail. The knife was in her hand. It was still opened, and her fingers tightened around the handle. With each step, she stood up straighter, growing less fearful of the man who had kidnapped her and tormented her.
She saw him now. He’d crawled his away off the road. He’d almost reached a tree. The shotgun lay a few feet behind him on the road. Apparently, he’d abandoned it.
There was blood all around him. She couldn’t tell where it was coming from, or what exactly his injuries were.
But it didn’t matter what they were. She knew what she had to do.
With long, purposeful strides, Jessica reached him.
In a single motion, she grabbed his head by the hair, pulled it back, and, with her other hand, ran the knife across his neck.
There was a gurgling noise. Blood came from his mouth.
And that was it. Thirty seconds later, he was dead, his body lying unmoving in blood that was pooling up around him on the dirt.
Jessica gazed down at him, expecting to feel something. But she felt nothing. Nothing except satisfaction that she had lived through another dangerous encounter, that at the end of it, she’d been the one who’d lived.
She leaned down and ran her hands across his pockets and his belt, looking for anything that might be useful. On a carabiner attached to his belt loop, there was a ring of keys. She took it and pocketed it. In another pocket, she found her own knife, plus another, one that she recognized as a Buck 110.
Jessica left him there, and, picking the shotgun up from the ground, she went back to the Subaru to check on Rob.
He was awake, but he still seemed dazed. His hands were vaguely fumbling with his seatbelt.
“It’s a good thing the airbags didn’t go off,” said Jessica, surveying the situation. “You OK, Rob?”
“Yeah, I think so,” said Rob, seeming a little more ‘with it’ now that Jessica addressed him directly again.
“Come on,” she said, using her bloody knife to slice through Rob’s seatbelt. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
“The car?” said Rob.
“We’re leaving it here.”
“Leaving it here?”
“It doesn’t work. Remember? The power cut off as we were driving.”
“Oh, yeah...”
“Come on. We’ve got to go.”
Jessica had to actually grab Rob under his armpits and pull on him until he started to use his own muscles to actually get out of the seat.
She helped him pull himself upright, and he leaned against the side of the Subaru, swaying slightly. He gazed off towards the dead biker with the blood around him.
“Shit,” said Rob.
“Don’t worry about him. I took care of him. Come on.”
“What are we going to do with the car?”
“Leave it,” said Jessica. “We’re not going to be able to fix it.”
Jessica’s mind was rushing through the possibilities. Rob wasn’t really cognizant enough to discuss it with him. She had to figure it out herself, and simply tell him what they needed to do.
There was the possibility that they could fix the Subaru, even though Jessica didn’t know how to do it herself. And she guessed that repairing it was beyond the capabilities of even Jim, who was the handiest of all them.
It’d be a huge blow to lose the Subaru.
But at least it wasn’t loaded down with their gear, which was safely at the lake house.
They might be able to get another vehicle. After all, people would be dying off like flies in the coming days and weeks, leaving their vehicles behind them to be scavenged by people like Jessica.
Trying to hang onto the Subaru meant hiding it somewhere on the side of the road. Or just leaving it in the road.
Hiding it meant expending a lot of energy and time. Energy that they didn’t have. Rob was in a daze. And she wasn’t doing much better. Her head ached and her muscles were burning from struggl
ing against the cords that had bound her.
It was better to just leave the Subaru there.
“Come on,” said Jessica. “Help me get this bike upright. Maybe there’s a chance we can start it.”
She was surveying the motorcycle, and it didn’t look promising. She doubted it would run.
But it didn’t hurt to try.
“What’s that?” said Rob.
“Did you hit your head or something?”
“I think so. The crash or something.”
“Great, now we’ve both been hit in the head. Let’s hope you snap out of it soon.”
22
Aly
“Jordan! Come on. Wake up!”
She was screaming into his ear. She was shaking him as best she could.
But his eyes were closed, and his breathing was shallow. He wasn’t dead, but he was dead to the world. And dead to the flames that had already overtaken the living room.
She couldn’t believe how fast the flames had spread. The room had lit up like a pile of tinder.
She knew she was going to have to make a decision. And she knew that time was running out.
Jordan wasn’t waking up. Not anytime soon.
Aly could feel the intense heat of the flames. If Jordan could sleep through the heat and the growing roar of the flames, he’d sleep through any attempt of hers to wake him from his drunken slumber.
Aly wasn’t about to let herself get burned alive. In just a few seconds, she’d have to decide whether to leave Jordan there to be burned alive, or to try to drag him out through the flames. If she tried to save him, she’d be risking her own life. After all, her own ability to save herself was already severely diminished by her injuries.
Well, she’d test it out first. See how hard it was to drag him.
She seized him under the armpits and started to pull. She pulled as hard as she could.
It wasn’t any good. He moved about an inch, his body sliding just a little against the wall.
The flames were closer. It felt like they were closing in around her.
She needed to get out of there.
It was one of the most difficult decisions she’d ever made, but there were no tears in her eyes when she let go of her uncle and turned her back to his unconscious body, ready to face the flames herself, ready to escape with her own life intact.
Surviving: The Complete Series [Books 1-3] Page 28