Steve’s eyes hardened. There was still one possibility. If they could draw him close enough, Kelly at least, might be able to escape…David was nearly to the tree line. He was out of time. Abruptly Steve raced toward Kelly. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet, and once again she was running, this time moving deeper into the shadows.
They didn’t speak. There was no time, no opportunity. Kelly was only too aware that they were only yards ahead of David, and David had no intention of letting them escape. A sense of futility overwhelmed her and she nearly gave in to her exhaustion, but Steve would not allow her to stop. Still hand in hand, they fled, Steve dragging her forward into the woods and toward - the ravine?
They would be trapped! Desperately Kelly pulled on Steve’s hand, trying to force him to veer to the left, away from the gully wash that she was sure would mean their certain death; but far from running blindly, Steve’s eyes gleamed with single minded determination. He refused to be deterred, not slowing their pace until they were almost to the ravine itself. At last, he lurched to a stop and looked around for a moment, as if to get his bearings.
“That stump!” He gasped pointing to a jagged black outline about twenty feet from the ravine. “Get behind it, and when the time comes, grab the bag and run!”
“Run where?” She gasped in confusion. “Where are you going?” She demanded, balking as he tried to push her toward the stump.
“Run to the road!” He told her roughly, “and don’t stop running! He won’t follow you – run until you’re safe!” He gave her one more firm shove.
“No! Steve, no!” She cried as she understood something of his plan. She held his hand in hers, fighting to hold on.
“No time, Kelly!” He rasped, too drained of air to speak clearly. “Just do it!” He kissed the hand that clutched at him fiercely. Then shook himself free from her grip, and stumbled closer to the crumbling edge of the cascade that still plummeted through the ravine, where he would be a sitting duck when David approached. The downpours of the last few days had done their work, and the gully roared and gurgled with the sound of water tumbling down through the rock chimney that Alyssa had once tried to climb. Steve had nowhere left to run.
Exhausted and unable to see what Steve hoped to accomplish by allowing David to shoot him on the edge of the ravine, or how this would protect her from David once Steve was dead, Kelly stumbled over to the stump, and threw herself numbly onto the muddy ground .
Almost at once she heard the soft hum of a working hornet's nest. Her eyes focused on the outline of a duffle bag, resting on top of the oak stump, and she began to understand at least part of Steve’s plan. Steve had told her how Pete had riled a hive by dropping a backpack on it, he had just never mentioned which trail they were on when it happened! Now Kelly understood what Steve needed her to do. Stirring up the nest might give them their only chance to fight back, and Steve meant to lure David into their territory.
She peered carefully from behind the stump, waiting for David to follow them, as Steve had known he would. All too soon, she caught sight of a darker shadow cautiously moving against the gray stalks of the trees. Should she do it now? Was he close enough? No…Kelly forced herself to think like David. He wouldn’t shoot Steve immediately. David would need to gloat. He would believe that he could afford to gloat. She must wait.
The shadow moved closer. Kelly felt the brush of wings as a hornet landed on her hand. She willed herself to hold still, to do nothing. A second hornet buzzed her ear. Unable to stop herself, she shook her head trying to drive it away. A stinger pierced the back of her neck and she choked back a cry of pain. She drew back and immediately hornets erupted all around her She sensed more than saw the tiny bodies of the irritated insects rising from the ground. The nest entrance was not in the stump, but among the gnarled roots! She’d been lying on the nest! The gentle hum quickly accelerated into a throbbing growl, and the tiny insects flooded the air around her. Kelly screamed as stingers pierced her through the thin cloth of her blouse and slacks. She scrambled to her feet, unable to endure the attack in silence.
She saw rather than heard the branch splinter in front of her, and knew that at least she had drawn David’s shot away from Steve, who, outlined by the rising moon, still hovered at the top of the ravine, waiting for David to take the bait. She knew he had only moments until David would be close enough to take aim…
But the hornets were everywhere! She knew she was supposed to race back to the trail while David was distracted by the opportunity to kill Steve and the attacking hornets, but she couldn’t do it! She hesitated, knowing instinctively that leaving was the wrong decision but what other…she froze, suddenly knowing exactly what she must do! Kelly felt fate rise up in her as the memory of a nearly forgotten dream reformed in her mind. Another bullet whizzed by her head so close she felt the air part, but she didn’t break stride as she grabbed the duffle bag off of the stump and raced toward Steve. She could just make out his shocked face as she reached for his hand.
“Jump!” She cried, wrapping her arms around him as they both dropped over the edge, into the giddy emptiness of space.
Steve and Kelly crashed into a bulge in the side of the cliff, their clothes and bodies tearing as scrubby bushes and trees deflected them from the certain death of the sheer drop before them, and tumbled them helter-skelter until they dropped once more into nothingness, landing on Alyssa’s ledge in at least six inches of soft mud.
The force of the landing drove the air out of Kelly’s lungs in a whoosh! that left her gasping helplessly for air. She dimly heard Steve’s cry of agony as he thudded against his wounded shoulder, but she couldn’t move to help him. Kelly’s lungs strained desperately, until at last she felt the blessed intake of air as her lungs inflated and oxygen flooded back through her body. She rasped and wheezed, painfully aware of at least ten different sights where the hornets had buried stingers into her skin. But above it all remained one inexorable fact. Her hand groped through the darkness until it closed on Steve’s."
“Can you hear me?”
“Yeah,” he gasped, still trying to gain control of his breathing.
“We’re still alive!”
Steve didn’t answer immediately, but his hand squeezed hers in response.
“I’ll - be happy about that – eventually,” he panted.
Painfully they pulled themselves back as close to the cliff wall as they could, huddling close together to share each others comfort and warmth.
Kelly hugged Steve’s shivering body. They were alive! She marveled. And now, she knew that they would be all right. When the time had come, they had jumped into the blackness and found a safe landing. The Word had been true. Tears of thankfulness filled her eyes, and she buried her head against Steve's chest.
Steve kissed Kelley's tangled hair. He could hear her muffled sobs against his chest. The insanity of what had just happened was beginning to hit him.
"Kelly, what were you thinking?" He admonished her softly, shaking his head. "The chances of us landing here... of surviving that jump...!
"...were already promised!" She cut in excitedly, wiping the tears from her eyes and lifting her head from his shoulder.
"I remembered my dream, Steve! I was ready to do what you'd told me, to stir up the nest and run for the road, but I just couldn't! And it was because of that dream...!"She groped for the right words but she could only shake her head in wonder. "I knew, Steve! Suddenly I knew that we were supposed to jump and that we would land right here!"
Steve could only sit beside Kelly in numb silence, trying to accept the implications of what Kelly had just told him. They should be dead, and yet, here they were!
Kelly's chattering teeth brought his mind back to more practical matters. He took off his suit jacket and draped it around Kelly's shoulders. It had grown so dark, he couldn't even see the edge of their tiny perch, which couldn't be more than a few feet away, but he remembered seeing the bright yellow duffle bag in Kelly's hand as she had drag
ged him over the cliff edge... had it landed here with them as well?
Steve groped around them, and sighed with relief as his hand closed on the nylon material. He pulled the duffle bag closer and fumbled inside for something.
"What are you doing?" Kelly asked curiously, as she huddled against the damp rock and rubbed her arms for warmth.
Steve smiled in the darkness as his hands found what he was looking for. He lifted it out of the bag. "For some reason," he told her, "you had the foresight to grab my duffle bag before you decided to push us off the cliff."
He took her hand and guided it to a piece of material. "Help me unfold these. They're emergency survival blankets. We need to wrap up to keep from getting hypothermia." Together, every muscle protesting the need to reach and stretch, they spread out the first blanket and crawled onto the dry surface. Then Steve opened a second blanket, pulled Kelly close for warmth, and tucked that blanket around their bodies in a protective cocoon. Wrapped tightly in the foil blanket and huddled close to Steve, Kelly sighed and tried to sleep. Her jaw and muscles ached, and her whole body was shaking with shock and cold. They were alive, but it was going to be a long night....
Chapter 48
Mourning
Steve opened his eyes to the murky predawn sky. The first thing he was aware of was Kelly, huddled next to him, sleeping peacefully despite the cold. Her mahogany hair was muddy and tangled with twigs. There was dirt, blood and scratches all over her face, as well as an ugly purple bruise from David’s fist.
David…Steve wasn’t ready to think about him yet. He’d done what he’d had to, to protect Kelly.
Carefully he set thoughts of David aside and concentrated on Kelly. Even in the misty gray of predawn, he could see the angry red welts from the hornet stingers that covered her arms and neck. She was a mess, but she was alive, and Steve felt that the sight of her, sleeping safely by his side, was one of the greatest gifts God could have ever given him.
It would take awhile, though, for him to accept the other things that had happened yesterday. During the night Kelly had told him about Richard Bolton – and about Pete. Steve drew a ragged breath as he tried to wrap his mind around the fact that Pete was gone! It had never occurred to him when David pulled Kelly into the trees that David had had any other target but himself; Kelly was merely the bait. Steve had been certain that David meant to kidnap Kelly, and then force Steve to meet David somewhere of his own choosing – somewhere where Steve would have very little chance of fighting back.
So, instead of racing after her unarmed, or raising an alarm that might cause David to panic and shoot indiscriminately, he had carefully worked his way behind the wedding party, and then he had cut down the side of the summit and reached the boulder in the path only minutes ahead of David and Kelly.
He had never heard the shot that had ended his friend’s life. Steve thought of Deborah, and his heart ached for her. What must she be going through? And poor Gracie would be confused and terrified. Would Lee Ann be able to comfort her, or was she too wrapped in grief for Richard? Steve wondered if his mother and all the other guests had watched the whole gruesome moment on the big screen television.
Beside him, Kelly stirred and groaned as her stiff muscles protested against being moved. She squinted up at the sky. “Morning?” She asked blearily as she drew her exposed arm back under the blanket.
“Just about. Are you still cold?”
“Mmm. A bit,” Kelly admitted.
Steve shifted the foil emergency blanket higher, so it covered Kelly’s shoulders more completely. “Good thing that you held on to that duffle bag when we jumped. These blankets may have saved our lives.”
“Guess it was all part of God’s plan, forcing you to leave it at the top of the cliff last week,” she commented with a weak smile.
Her stomach growled loudly. “Did He think to pack us breakfast, too?” She asked without much hope. “I’m starving.”
“Actually…” Steve reached behind his head and rifled his hand through a side pocket in the bag. “How about a couple of energy bars?” He offered.
Kelly ripped off the wrapper and took a big bite. She groaned in pleasure, and a smile of contentment spread across her battered face. “I do love the way God works,” she sighed. “A very real help in times of trouble,” she quoted, taking another bite.
“Yeah,” Steve agreed, half grimacing, “if you’ve got the faith to obey. Personally, I would have questioned the idea of falling two stories and spending the night stranded in this bird’s nest.”
“Do you suppose that’s why God gave me the dream, instead of you?” She pondered between bites. “I didn’t think, I just – did.”
Steve shrugged. “That just goes to prove it was God leading you. If you’d asked my opinion last night, I’d have told you we stood a better chance of surviving multiple gunshot wounds over jumping off a hundred foot cliff.”
Kelly touched the torn and bloody sleeve of his shirt. “So now you can say that you survived both yesterday.”
Steve looked at the dried blood with detached interest. “I’d almost forgotten about that – I’ve got about a hundred other places that hurt worse…” He grinned. “Guess it was…nuthin’ but a flesh wound.” He rumbled in his best John Wayne accent, and then he shrugged at Kelly’s startled look. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”
Kelly rolled her eyes and fell back against his other shoulder. “Just don’t start calling me your ‘little lady’,” she warned him.
She took another bite of her energy bar and chewed it pensively. “What are we going to do now?” She asked at last. “You don’t think that he’s still at the top waiting for us, do you?” She wondered a little nervously.
Steve was silent for a moment, and then he shifted uncomfortably. “No, I’m pretty sure he’s not.”
Kelly’s eyes wandered uncertainly up the side of the cliff. “But how can you be sure?”
“David’s allergic to bee stings,” Steve told her bleakly. “From the look of you, the entire hive swarmed again last night, and as the only living thing moving up there, I expect that at least a few of them found him. If he didn’t get medical attention pretty quick, he wouldn’t have had much of a chance…” Steve’s voice trailed off. Even now, the thought of deliberately luring David into the path of a hornet’s nest sickened him. It would be an ugly way to die!
Kelly’s eyes widened in comprehension as Steve’s desperate plan finally became clear to her. He had been willing to sacrifice himself to lure David close enough to the hive so that she would have a chance to escape. She touched his face, and her voice was soft and understanding. “Don’t think about it right now,” she told him gently. “You did what you had to. He didn’t leave you much choice.”
Steve took a big breath and let it out slowly. He nodded. Kelly was right. He hadn’t had many choices left, and right now was not the time to indulge in regret over a decision he’d made in desperation. Still, he didn’t know how he would be able to look into Lee Ann Bolton’s eyes, knowing that he’d caused the death of both her children…and possibly Richard Bolton’s death as well.
Don’t think about that now! He told himself firmly.
Instead, Steve stretched his arms and winced, finally aware of the path the bullet had traveled across his bicep. “Other than this little nick,” he said in a determinedly upbeat tone, “we’re in pretty good shape, really. Neither of us seems to have broken anything, thanks to all this mud. That’s a huge blessing right there!”
“But nobody knows were we are!” Kelly reminded him. “We could be here for hours - maybe even days before somebody finds us!”
“Well, once again, thanks to God’s provision and your good sense, we have the duffle bag. And in the duffle bag is a harness, and all the tools we’ll need to climb out of here.”
“Except a rope,” she pointed out dryly.
“That’s because.” Steve told her as he struggled to his knees. “It’s already in position. Pete anchored the rope
himself, right over there, just before the yellow jackets attacked us.” Steve said sadly, pointing to the mud caked chords snaking up the ravine only a few feet from their ledge.
Kelly stared at it for a moment, suddenly unable to swallow the lump in her throat as once again she remembered the look of surprise on Pete’s face as he slowly collapsed beside his bride. “I still can’t believe that David just shot him like that,” she whispered as tears blurred her vision. “And why,” she asked in bewilderment, “would God allow someone like Pete to be killed on his wedding day? I don’t understand why He would make provision to save us, and not Pete, too.”
Steve was quiet for a long time. “That’s the sort of question we can’t always know the reason for. All we can do is believe that God will use this tragedy for good purposes. Reverend Graham always told me that the darkness cannot overcome the light.” He shrugged. “Maybe someday, we’ll understand.”
Kelly drew a ragged breath. Tears welled in her eyes, and Steve realized that tears were beginning to blur his vision as well. But he did not dare to give into the grief yet. They were still stranded down here. He ran his muddy sleeve across his moist eyes and stood up. Every inch of his body protested as he stretched and shook himself to loosen up the frozen joints and muscles. “We can’t think about it right now,” he reminded her roughly. “We still have to get out of here. As you pointed out, I don’t think that anyone has a clue where we are, so it’s up to us.”
Kelly nodded, knowing that Steve was right. Dismally, she got to her knees, folded the foil blankets and pulled the duffle bag closer, searching for the storage packet. Where the bag had been sitting, though, she noticed a filthy, faded blue nylon day pack, half buried in the muck and debris that had washed off of the side of the ravine. Muddy and torn, it had obviously been there a long time. Gingerly, Kelly held it up for Steve to see.
Far Country Page 42