by Adele Huxley
A hissing sound made them freeze. First the front door wheezed shut, then the second. Penny’s heart rate tripled in her chest as she and Rhett stared at one another.
It was pure coincidence they were caught on the bus when it happened. It was a horrible twist of fate that the doors closed just as the two attackers lingering behind still watched. To anyone on the outside, it would’ve definitely appeared as though there were people inside when in fact, the doors had an automatic trigger to shut after being left open for a certain amount of time.
“Fuck me,” she whispered. As if she weren’t already scared enough, she saw a flash of fear in Rhett’s expression before he bent to check on the attackers.
“They’re coming.”
With expert precision, he unslung the rifle from his back and quickly checked it over.
“Good! Good, you can kill them!”
“I don’t have much ammo. I only have what’s left in my stock from the last race. The rest of it is down below with my bag.”
Penny’s throat constricted as she saw the attackers break into a slow loping jog toward them. She shifted back out of instinct. “You only need two.”
“No.” He grabbed her forearm with surprising strength, delivering enough pain to break through the cloud of fear descending on her brain. “You stick with me. We have to move fast but smart, okay? There’s only two of them.”
She could only blink and nod, the panic constricting every word in her throat.
They watched as the attackers flanked the bus. One approached from behind, the other from the front. Both had their guns trained on the now-closed doors.
“They can’t get in!” she whispered harshly.
Rhett’s focus remained steady and firm. “Their bullets can.”
As they crouched away from a direct line to the doors, he scanned the bus once more. She followed his gaze when his eyes locked on the emergency window to their left.
“No. No way,” she said with a shake of her head. “They’ll hear.”
“Exactly.” He shifted his weight, causing the bus to rock just a touch. If they had any doubts about someone hiding inside, they were firmly put to rest. “I’m going to pop it out. The second I do, you open that door and run as fast as you can toward those trees.”
Penny violently shook her head. “They’re gonna shoot me like they shot the driver. I don’t want—”
Rhett shifted over her as he moved to the window. “You don’t have much of a choice here.”
She crouched in position, her hand hovering over the bright red release button. Her breath came in quick spurts, as if she’d already sprinted a hundred yards.
Rhett studied the mechanism that kept the window secured in place. From her point of view, it looked like he’d need to release three latches and push the window out. He gave her a single nod over his shoulder before he moved into action.
SNAP.
The two at the sides detached.
CLICK.
The bottom latch came undone. It drew the attention of the one at the front, but the one by her door hadn’t yet moved. Rhett tried to shove the window out, but it wouldn’t budge. Drawn by the noise, the attacker at the back finally jogged out of sight. He rocked back and with a hand on the seats at either side, he slammed his foot against the glass.
Despite the cushion of snow below, the window still made a deafening sound as it crashed. Penny was able to time the door with the exact moment it landed.
She didn’t hesitate. She just ran. Jumping the last two steps almost made her face-plant into the snow, but she sprinted as fast as she physically could toward the small growth of pine trees at the top of the hill. Her boots slipped and slid along the pavement making it feel as though she were running through sand.
Every second she expected a bullet to slam into her back. Every step she thought would be her last. When the first shot rang out, she winced, forgetting she’d feel it before she heard it.
It seemed like it took hours to reach the edge of the forest, but once she did, relief. As she plunged into the thick of it, she slid around a broad trunk and looked back expecting to see Rhett not far behind.
She ran her finger over the small button on the device in her pocket. It was the only thing she’d managed to grab from her bag before getting pushed off the bus. It was the only thing that might save them… but she hesitated.
It means extraction for me, but not the others. I have no idea where they’ve been taken.
What she couldn’t admit to herself was the moment she pressed that button, her cover was blown, as well as any time she might have left with Phoenix.
Rhett was obviously giving the attackers trouble. Although he was outnumbered, they couldn’t cover each exit at the same time. Whenever they ran to the doors, he made a noise at the window. When they tried to split up, he’d duck out the escape. The gunshot she heard must’ve either been out of frustration or distraction.
To her horror, she watched as the attackers paused to confer. The furthest one gestured up to the forest where she was hiding before he nodded toward the bus. The closer one spun on the ball of his foot and set off in her direction at a frightening clip. Even though they couldn’t see her, the footprints she’d left in the snow may as well have been a shiny, blinking arrow.
She watched long enough to see Rhett jump from the window as the attacker charged onto the bus. Rhett braced his landing with his hand. He immediately pressed himself against the side of the coach and froze.
Penny couldn’t wait any longer. The man pursuing her was gaining fast. She turned and fled deeper into the thicket. The hill she’d just climbed dropped away toward a valley below on the back side.
Thankfully, the snow wasn’t as deep under the trees, but it didn’t mean it was easy going. It took a lot of concentration to move hastily and carefully, ensuring she didn’t trip or slip.
A gunshot rang out, echoing against the stony mountains. It sounded close and in her panic, she crouched and looked back. It was so near, she thought it was a warning shot from her pursuer, but there was no one to be seen. In her haste, she tripped over a root or fallen branch and went down hard.
The steep slope turned her fall into a bit of a tumble. She rolled twice before smashing into a big rock. Cursing the pain but grateful for the handhold, she scooted behind it as rapidly as she could.
Penny tried to control her breathing. As long as she could sit still and be quiet, she had a chance. The slope she’d just fallen down was steep, perhaps too steep for her stalker to attempt. She could only hope.
The cold seeped into her bones the longer she sat still. When she shifted a tiny amount to keep blood running to her legs, snow fell into the gaps of her boots, stinging her bare skin. There was no way of knowing how long she’d been sitting out there. Everything had gone quiet. The moment she wondered if he’d given up the chase, she heard a stick crack a few feet behind.
Her heart rate tripled. She pressed against the rock as if she could morph into it. With tiny, shallow breaths, she tried to keep any visible signs of her presence hidden. But there was nothing she could do about her tracks.
Of course, she thought. Why risk hurting yourself when you can just follow the damn footprints through the snow? Slow and steady…
The sounds crept closer and closer until it seemed as though he’d stopped just above her head.
Angry and terrified, Penny decided she wasn’t going to sit there waiting to be captured. The moment he came any closer, she promised herself she’d jump into action.
They were in a stand off, whether he knew it or not. For agonizing seconds she stayed perfectly still, breathing into her sleeve to hide the fog. Her muscles screamed for release, but she forced herself to stay.
And the moment she heard him take a step closer down the hill, she jumped out of her hiding spot.
“Surprise, motherfucker!” she screamed. Because of the height difference, the only thing she could reach was his ankles. So that’s what she went for. With two strong
hands, she pulled him down.
He let out a cry of shock but quickly recovered, rolling into the tumble rather than allow her take him down completely. He abandoned the weapon in his hand so he could grip her with both hands.
The last thing she remembered was the fast rotation of sky and land, blue and white. They came to an abrupt stop and it was with a smattering of stars across her vision, the world went dark.
* * *
Penny had never felt more disoriented in her life than when she awoke next. Her whole perspective of the world simply didn’t make sense. Her head throbbed. She was freezing cold. Somehow she was moving yet her legs were totally still.
It took a while before she realized she was being carried, and even then, she didn’t immediately remember the circumstances that’d brought her to that point. What focused the whole terrible scene was a glimpse of the white and gray camo pants as they trudged through the snow.
Penny thrashed in her captors arms. The sudden squirming caught him off guard, but he had a good grip. Her hands and ankles were bound, so there wasn’t much she could do but wriggle on his shoulder. The fresh exertion got her heart pumping again. Droplets of new blood dripped from the wound on her head, leaving a trail in the snow.
“Let me go!” She screamed and fought, but there was nothing she could do to get free.
When it became obvious there was no getting away, she moved to plan B. Pay attention to everything. She absorbed every detail and feature around her in the hopes she could use it.
There was no telling how far from the broken down bus he’d carried her, but they were approaching a collection of barns and outbuildings. They appeared a little run down but not completely derelict, as if abandoned only a few years ago.
The landscape had no real discernible differences. Rocks, trees, snow, mountains. They all looked alike to her panicked and terrified eyes.
She caught movement off to the left. A pair of people dressed in the same winter gear were tending to a snowmobile. A small part of her was excited to see there was at least a means to get away quickly, as long as she could make her way to it.
The joy was erased as they plunged into darkness. Petrified of what could happen when taken inside, of what had happened to the others, she thrashed and screamed with renewed fear.
“Let me go! You can’t do this!”
All her protests earned her was a hard fall. Her kidnapper flung her from his shoulder to the floor without any care. She landed on her hip and side with a grunt. The impact knocked the wind from her lungs and the fire from her veins. It gave the captor enough time to pick her up and tie her in a seated position.
As he stood, she feebly kicked out at him and missed, striking at empty air. He cursed under his breath in a language she didn’t understand and in a voice distorted by technology. The meager light from outside disappeared as he slammed the door shut.
Penny sucked air into her lungs and allowed her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She knew the fear she felt at not being able to breathe would pass. It was the fear she didn’t have an answer for, the one all around her, that she focused on.
The room was filled with people, people she hoped were the other passengers on the bus. Sure enough, their whispered voices gave hints.
“Who is it?”
“I have no idea.”
“Are you hurt?”
She kept her mouth shut. She didn’t want to give anything away too quickly. With frigid fingers, she groped around, touching the bindings, trying to figure out what she was attached to. That’s when she made contact with another hand.
Penny spun her head to the right and blinked into the darkness, still unable to see. She didn’t have time to recognize him before his voice stabbed her heart.
“Oh Jesus Christ,” Phoenix moaned.
Chapter 3
Of all the people to get tied to, Phoenix thought. “Well, this day just went from bad to worse.”
“What is it? What’s going on?” Rebel asked in a hoarse whisper. “Who was it?”
“It’s her.”
Phoenix yanked his hands back which accidentally slammed hers against the post between them. She grunted in pain but stayed quiet.
It was with a combination of relief and annoyance he relaxed in his restraints. She was the one person he’d been most concerned about and the one person he wanted nothing to do with.
“Apparently they’ve started the torture portion of this kidnapping already,” he muttered into the darkness.
He’d been one of the first marched into this particular building. As they roughly guided them toward the clutter of barns and sheds, more camouflaged men emerged. They were ripped apart and reorganized, seemingly at random.
Phoenix was shoved into this barn, pushed to his knees, and bound to a rough, wooden post. He sat alone in this vast, dark room for countless minutes before another was brought in and thrown to the ground. He was lucky enough to have a position near the door, so it was easy to see who was dragged in.
One by one, they were led in. Some he recognized from his bus, others he figured were from one of the buses behind. His heart leapt when he spotted Hadley. He waited until she was situated not far from where he was tied and the kidnapper had left.
“Are you okay?” he’d whispered harshly.
“Where’s Hunter?” she hissed back.
“I don’t know. They seem to be—”
The door opened again and out of instinct, he slammed his mouth shut. None of the attackers had demanded anything of them, but it felt safer to remain quiet. A young girl he didn’t know was pushed along the narrow pathway to the back of the barn.
One by one they were ushered through, strategically secured somewhere in the barn, and left. It was a slow kind of torture, waiting for a familiar face to appear while simultaneously hoping they’d somehow gotten away.
Rebel had been tied to Hadley. Claire strode by with a gash along her cheek and was guided around to a spot just behind him. Hunter was one of the last to arrive, placed directly across from him. When it was quiet, Phoenix chanced it.
“Hey man, you okay?”
Hunter lifted his chin from his chest and nodded. “Just grazed me. No big deal.”
Phoenix squinted into the darkness, suspecting he was trying to sound brave for the benefit of listening ears. “You sure?”
“Never better.” His dry throat clicked as he swallowed. “Post-adrenaline dump. You know how it is.”
The door opened less frequently. He could sense Rebel waiting for Rhett to appear. And although he would be loathe to admit it, he'd waited to see Penny’s figure stride through as well.
Now that she was tied to him, all his seething hatred for her rushed back. Now, he wished she’d been left out in the snow.
“So, what is this?” he whispered to her.
“What do you mean?”
He rocked his head against the rough wood and spoke into the dim light. “These guys are your buddies, right? What are they up to? Money? What?”
“Fuck off.”
Phoenix tugged at their intertwined restraints. “Would if I could, babe.”
A long interval of silence stretched through the room. He peered around, not really knowing what he was looking for. Light broke through gaps in the ceiling and walls. It was cold, but the shelter provided a welcome break from the worst part of the wind. It was a large, cluttered barn, filled to the rafters with what appeared to be random junk.
Not many people spoke and when they did, their voices were low and hushed. A few sobbed quietly. After a while, it became obvious no more people were going to be brought in.
Rebel seemed to make that realization faster than he had, although she didn’t sound as broken up about it as he would’ve thought.
“Did any of you see Rhett?” she whispered.
“He might be in another barn,” Hunter suggested.
“Maybe.”
“It’s gonna be okay,” Phoenix tried to comfort her.
“Oh, I know.”
Her perky response surprised him. “I’m just curious where he’s gotten off to.”
He leaned back and wondered if the stress of the situation had cracked her. She made it sound like she’d lost track of him in a shopping mall, not in the middle of a terrorist attack. He nudged Penny and spoke in a low voice.
“You didn’t see anything, did you?”
She paused, just long enough for his heart to jump into his throat at the thought she had bad news. Instead, she scared the shit out of him.
“I need help in here!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. The sound pierced through the quiet like an explosion. People all around the barn gasped in shock.
“What are you doing?” he growled.
“Help! I need medical help here!”
He wrenched on the restraints in hopes that a little pain might get her attention. “Stop it!”
“If you think they’re my friends, then what do you care?” she snapped. “Help!”
With a fearful glance toward the doorway, he tried to reason with her. “What are you hoping to achieve here, then? To prove me wrong?”
She whipped around to face him, her shoulder just brushing his. “I got a hard enough hit to the head I was knocked out. Blood is still dripping from the wound and I’m feeling more than a little woozy.”
The concern for her that gripped his throat quickly vanished as she screamed for help once more.
“Will you, for once in your life, shut the fuck up? You’re going to bring them in here and the last thing I want right now is a big red target on my back.”
“I’m not about to risk dying of a concussion because you’re such a chickenshit.”
Phoenix gritted his teeth together with such strength he feared they might crack.
“You are the single most infuriating woman I have ever had the displeasure of—”
The door cracked open. A whoosh of air swept snow into the barn. While his emotions surrounding Penny were tumultuous to say the least, he still didn’t want anything to seriously happen to her.