Apprehended (Amber Alert Series Book 3)

by Sara Schoen

  It was hard to search with no light source; the entire room was pitch black and I was mostly relying on my sense of touch. I couldn't see where I was looking, but I couldn't wait for my eyes to adjust to search. They would have to adjust while I searched, and then maybe I would see what I was missing.

  But there was nothing from what I could tell.

  I felt my breathing start to pick up as a panic took over my body. What if I couldn't escape? What if I never found out how they got out? I would be here when Alec got back, and he would finish the job, just like he threatened to. He would kill the girls, and then me. No one would know what happened here. No one would find us until it was too late, and Alec would be long gone. I had to before he came back.

  Alec's footsteps suddenly slowed above me. I paused, holding my breath in an attempt to listen for him. There was a long moment before he started moving again. His steps raced above me and back toward the basement door. My heart stopped, what if he's already coming back to finish the job. He could kill me first, and then go get the girls and leave as if he was never here. Why would he wait to get rid of me? It would only cause more problems for him in the long run.

  My breathing started to quiver uncontrollably as I heard him at the door. The knob was turning wildly, but just when I thought he was going to come in, he stepped away. He left the door and started to walk through the house.

  I took a deep breath to relax myself as I realized that he had locked me in.

  I still had time to look for an exit, and since it wasn't in the floor it had to be in the cage itself. I started to look at the chain link fence, my eyes slowly adjusting so I could faintly see the diamond pattern the fence made. My fingers danced along the many links, they raced along seeking any distortion that would allow me to manipulate the fencing. I had started at the door of the cage since there was already a small gap from the natural fencing, but I didn't find it. I continued along the cage sides until I got to the wall in the back of the cage, and that's when my fingers found it. There was a hole in the far edge of the cage, right up against the wall. It was sharp, as if they had cut it or spent a lot of time sawing away at it.

  I grabbed part of the chain link fence, and it slowly pulled away to reveal a large hole. It bent back to about the size of a storage box, and I couldn't help but feel proud of them. I felt a smile spread across my face as I moved to the other side of the cage and found the same sized hole. There must have been a slot cut out of each other their cages that they worked on night and day to eventually get out. That's how they got out of the cages, but how did they get out of the basement without being seen?

  They couldn't have gone up the stairs since Alec had been home the last few days, and surely would have seen at least one of them leaving. That meant that there was some way to get out from the basement; there was another escape route. I crawled out of the cage, and began to look around. There wasn't an easily noticed exit, but then again that was a good thing otherwise Alec would have seen it.

  I began to search the corners of the basement, knowing that they would be the furthest from Alec's sights when he came to check on them, but also hidden in the shadows so that it wouldn't have been seen. I looked at the floor first, I couldn't imagine that they would have covered it extensively in fear of making noise that Alec would hear and come to check on. They would have had it close to the cages so that when they escaped, they could leave quickly and making as little sound as possible.

  I shifted through the mix of dirt and concrete until my hands discovered a loose piece of cement. I wrapped my fingers around one of the edges as my other hand pushed down on the other side of the block. It lifted up enough for me to grab hold of and slide away from the hole that appeared beneath it. I glanced down to see a tunnel just large enough for the girls to squeeze through.

  It was like a prison escape, I thought to myself as a chuckle escaped my lips. These girls had taken so much time to plan this escape. They had spent the time cutting out an escape from the cages and then even more digging a way out. They had prepared it, and waited until the perfect time. I just wish that they had told me that they had dug a way out, but if they had I would have left. Then they would have been on their own and if they weren't quick enough then they'd get caught, because Alec would immediately come down here to look for me, or to kill them.

  The only way their escape worked was if I stayed in the house. I had to be sacrificed for them to get out, and they knew it.

  I bit my inner cheek, trying not to get upset that they had left me here in order to escape. The truth is, if I was saving the majority I would have done the same thing. I'm sure they felt awful for leaving me behind, or maybe they didn't, either way now I just had to find them. I had to make sure that they were safe, but I didn't know what waited for me in the tunnel. I didn't know whether they closed it up after escaping so Alec wouldn't find it, or if it had caved in while they were traveling through. That was scary to think about.

  Alec's footsteps paced overhead, causing me to panic as they slowly made their way back to me. I tensed as Alec stopped just overhead, there was silence. He didn't move, and for a while I didn't even breathe. I was afraid that he had heard me moving around, that he was going to come and check on me if he did, I would have to react quickly or he'd find the escape route and I'd be trapped. I had to get out to save not only myself, but also those that would be affected if he managed to escape and start again somewhere else.

  Alec moved away from the basement door, and I let out a breath of relief. I looked back into the hole, and prayed that there wouldn't be any problems while I went through. After I collected myself, I slipped into the tunnel headfirst. I had managed to slip through the hole and start my journey to the outside without any problems, which is until I heard the door slam above me.

  Alec had left the house to start looking for the girls. I just had to hope that I found them before he did, or else we'd all be dead by morning. Once he was done with us, he would flee, and Alec would get off free no matter if the police managed to find him afterward or not, because there would be no evidence against him. It had to end now, or no girls would be safe ever again.

  I crawled through the tunnel without any problems. It was tight, but hadn't caved in and it was gradually becoming bigger as I continued to crawl. That had been my biggest fear, if the tunnel had collapsed after they went through, or while they were escaping. They could have died, but luckily, the worst hadn't happened and it seemed that all the girls had made it out. Soon I was heading upward, and as the climb became almost vertical a light was streaming into the tunnel, blinding me.

  A smile curved at the edges of my lips as I crawled out of the hole. I pulled myself out of the hole to see that the tunnel had come out behind the house. I took in a moment to feel the air on my face, and the sun on my skin. For the first time, I felt freedom and I never wanted to lose it again. Then I heard Alec, he was calling for the girls, taunting them. He was coming around the house, he was going to run into me if I didn't move. So I sprinted, I had to run for my life and the other girls.

  Chapter 25

  I was zigzagging through trees, racing through the leaf clutter on the woods' floor, and trying to find a way out of his sight. I didn't want him to see me, and I didn't have the time to properly search for the girls yet. The back of the house had backed up to the trees, but provided a small clearing that I had to pass through before I got to the forest. I had raced across the clearing just in time as Alec rounded the corner of the house and came into view. I hoped that they wouldn't still be in the woods, that they had managed to make it back to town before Alec noticed they were gone. If even one of them had made it back, then that would mean Callum would find out and would be here soon.

  That's if they made it.

  Some girls may have been too weak to make the trip. Two girls in the basement never made it out, and it made me wonder if they had tried and just collapsed or if they knew they wouldn't be able to make it. Had the girls put them back in their cages
so that Alec wouldn't figure out how they moved? How far had each girl made it? I know they would try, but we had to be far from town judging how long Alec's trips to the store took. Would they have trusted someone to give them a ride to town? Would they have even traveled together?

  I could see Tegan taking charge of what they would do. She probably led them, and was forced to make the tough choices for the other girls. She had probably decided where the girls would go, what to do with the girls in the basement that couldn't make it, and she would have been the one to decide if they split up or not.

  I had to think like Tegan to figure out what they would have done.

  "Oh girls, girls! Where are you?" Alec called, interrupting my thoughts, as he ran toward me. Panic raced through my veins as I heard how close he was. I sprinted through the leaves, and tried to stay off the path that he had clearly made for himself. I could hear him following me, calling after me. I dashed around a large tree, and slid under some bushes that were close behind it.

  My feet went first, and I was able to flip over onto my stomach. My feet stuck out from the bushes that I had taken shelter under. They covered from my head to my waist, it would be enough hopefully because I was out of time I was able to watch the direction that Alec was going to be coming from, and he was coming fast judging from the sound of his voice.

  There wasn't much time left, but I had to cover myself more thoroughly. I tried to move the leaves littering the ground to surround me so that I wouldn't be seen. I wasn't able to turn around and cover from my waist down, but I was able to conceal my face and clothes from Alec's view. I was going to coat the bushes with leaves too, so that it blended in, but there wasn't time. I could hear his footsteps coming closer to me, quick and determined.

  He had heard me.

  I quickly ducked further under the bushes and moved some of the leaf litter so that it covered me from the side he was coming from. It wouldn't do much good if he moved around, but maybe I could make it so he wouldn't have a reason to move toward me. I collected the leaves to my side so that I could lay down flat against the ground. The leaves covered my face, but my body behind the bushes wasn’t covered.

  "Oh girls, where are you?" Alec called. I had run out of time. I was just going to have to take the chance, and hope that he didn't see me. "Come on, don't make me chase you. Don't you want to go home? The woods are no place for a young girl. You never know what lurks behind every tree."

  I watched in horror as he started to move toward me. I found myself holding my breath as he passed by me. If he moved behind me it was game over. He would see me, and I'd have to make a break for it, or fight him again. Even with the adrenaline that was flowing through my veins, I don't think I could have handled another fight with him. I was tired and weak. I just had to make it out of here alive that was all I could hope to do.

  "I know at least one of you is out here. I'm going to track you down, and I'm going to drag you back into that basement so you can see all of your friends one more time, then I will kill you all," he yelled as he slowed his pace to look around for me.

  I felt the breath suddenly become stuck in my throat. His words had shocked me, and even though I knew his plan before I left the house; it terrified me He didn't know who he was looking for, but now that he knew I was out here he was going to hunt me down.

  "So who is it that's out here?" Alec questioned, his voice drifting closer and closer to my hiding spot.

  I peered through the leaves that I had concealed myself in. I could see Alec pacing, looking for me. He had heard me and he wasn't going to give up until he found me.

  I watched Alec for a few moments before he suddenly became still. He stood like a statue, not moving or speaking, I was pretty sure he didn't even blink. He was focusing on listening, waiting for me to grow anxious and make a run for it. I could see the anger etched on his face, but also the thrill in his eyes and the smile that curved at the edges of his lips. He was enjoying the chase, he lived for it, just like Steve had.

  Steve had lived for the chase. He admired the fight in the girls, loved watching them try to escape, but most loved catching them. He would give them a few days to make a run for it, knowing that they would get turned around, and then hunt them down. It would depend on his mood for what he would do once he caught the girls, but luckily for me I had never seen that first hand.

  Until now.

  Anna and I hadn't been caught while we were escaping. We had gotten lucky, but I wasn't sure I could repeat it. Anna had been pulling me along the entire time, she kept one step ahead of Steve, but it had been so long since I last thought about how we escaped. It was a painful time for me to remember because the fear was prevalent, the anxiety was worse, but the physical aspects of it were grueling.

  There were fallen trees, and thick foliage that cut into my legs. We had run for days, slept very little, and almost never rested. I know Anna had done it so that we could both make it out alive, but I was so young that I didn't know any better. I didn't understand the risks that she was taking by taking me with her, and I complained the entire time.

  Anna had to sit me down and tell me, bluntly, what was going to happen if we were caught. She would be taken away from me, and I would be in Steve's house without her or Garrett. I didn't really understand, but I knew the fear. I didn't want to live alone with Steve, even if it meant running past every town we came across. So I sucked it up, and just went with whatever she said, because I couldn't bear the thought of losing her again. So we ran, and didn't stop until we made it to my hometown. It was difficult, but if I could do it then, I could do it now.

  I just had to wait for Alec to give me an opportunity.

  He couldn't wait for me to show myself forever. He would have to go back and get a car soon, because he wouldn't waste too much time looking for me. He'd have to start looking for the girls who could be in town by now. He couldn't spend too much time searching here otherwise he could lose them, and risk getting caught. If I could wait him out, just wait for him to get in his car to go look for the girls, then I could back track and make a break toward town, if only I knew where town was or when he was going to give up.

  Chapter 26

  I watched as Alec moved around me a few more times. He must have known that I was here, because he hadn't moved past this spot. He heard me, and had managed to narrow it down to a general area where I should be. It was like a hunter tracking down his prey. He was circling, and soon he would close in for the kill.

  While he traveled around, I had been able to maneuver myself slowly fully under the bush. I had to curl into a ball, and lay beside my leaf cover so that I could be the best hidden, but it was only a matter of time before Alec started to look under bushes. He was growing agitated, he knew where I was, but not where I was hiding, and the more time he spent with me, the less time he had to look for the other girls or make an escape.

  "I can't waste much more time on this," he muttered to himself as he walked by. "There are two other girls I have to find."

  I caught myself smiling as I heard him bicker with himself. He thought that I was one of the girls, and that there were only two others left out there. He wasn't including me in his search because he didn't know how the girls got out.

  "The police will be coming soon if I don't find them," Alec stated, seeming to try to mule over his options. "I can't have the police coming, otherwise they will find everything, which means I can't be here. I may have to run," he muttered to himself.

  I swallowed the anxiety that sentence caused me. I knew that if he ran, we may never find him. He could change his appearance, change his name, and start all over again. If we were lucky we would get him when he started again, but that rarely happened. He would learn from this, and he would become harder to catch. He was already difficult to find, we even said that we wouldn't find him unless he made a mistake.

  I wondered what Alec's would be, or mine.

  "I really can't waste much more time with this," Alec stated close by. I heard his
footsteps walk past, and then he stopped about ten feet from me. I held my breath, and prayed that he would leave soon so that I could leave.

  He continued to mutter to himself, and I tried to figure a way out. I couldn't just hide the entire time. Eventually he would leave, then I would make a break for it like Anna. I would have to go toward town to find help in case those other girls didn't make it. All I had to do was wait for Alec to leave.

  If he ever did.

  Suddenly, I realized that I couldn't hear Alec moving anymore. I tried to listen to the smallest noise, but I didn't notice anything until he was right on top of me.

  "I can't waste more time with this," he growled from behind me. I reacted before I thought about what it would do for me. I could feel his hand reaching for me, so I rolled out from under the bush and took off running deeper into the forest.

  I had been forced out of my hiding spot, and now I couldn't give it a second thought. I couldn't be sure that he hadn't seen my face, but I had rolled out and started sprinting. There was a possibility that I looked enough like the other girls that he still didn't know that I was the one he was chasing around, but either way Alec would stop at nothing until I was beaten down and submissive or dead; nothing else.

  I wish that I could know what became over the other girls, but I wouldn't know that until it was all over. I wouldn't see them again, unless I ended this, and I would finish this before he killed us all. I would make sure that no one would ever try to copy this, never follow Steve Bennett's footsteps again, and this time there wouldn't be laws made out of fear. There would be no "gun welding lunatics" discussions, and I'd make sure that there was only improvement after this, not a few steps backwards.

  If he was going to hunt me down, then I would make it my goal to wear him down. If I could make him exhausted, then I could have a fighting chance of escaping, and still having him here to take when the police arrived. If I got lucky, I could put him in one of his own cages and let him suffer like countless girls had before him. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that since he still knew the area better than I did and could sneak up on me, and that he could beat me until I was unconscious, but I could try and hoped that I succeeded.