Cassie said a prayer before rounding the turn—the one she’d hoped would show her a valley with a town or even a paved road on the other side.
“Please, God. I don’t have much food or water left, and my strength is almost gone. I don’t know how much farther I can go.”
She was only feet from knowing her fate when her fate was decided for her by the whirring noise overhead. Cassie shielded her eyes, looked up, then saw it—a drone hovering several hundred feet above her.
No, no, no. I didn’t come this far for nothing!
She ducked under an evergreen to stay hidden, but her gut told her that she’d already been seen. She had been out in the open.
This can’t be happening! They’re going to find me even if I do stay under tree cover. They know the area, and they’ll box me in.
Cassie scrambled from one tree to the next as she did her best to stay out of sight. She had to get around the bend to see what was on the other side. If there was a road, she would try to reach it, but would Bart’s men be waiting for her? She darted to a boulder then another tree as the drone circled. Even at the risk of being seen, she rounded the last curve. She had to know.
On her hands and knees and beneath the longest branches of a large pine, Cassie crawled to the mountain’s edge and looked over to see if a road was down there somewhere. Then she saw it. Snaking through the valley was a paved two-lane road. She had no idea where it went, but it meant civilization couldn’t be far away. Bart’s men had to get supplies and food somewhere, and when Bart loaded the others in the cattle trailer and drove away, he had to connect with a paved road at some point. A town could be just out of sight on the other side of a curve where the road disappeared and the next mountain obstructed her view. Cassie had to get to the valley floor. She would do her best to stay hidden as she worked her way down the mountain. She knew the vehicles at the ranch, and when and if she reached the road, she needed to stay hidden from any vehicles that looked familiar.
As Cassie made her way down the mountainside, rocks slipped beneath her shoes. She had to watch her footing, but the hovering drone unnerved her. She was sure the men watching its screen saw her every move. Cassie was heading to dangerous territory—the road—and the men would be nearby again. She had to outwit them. They were all hunters and could track animals, plus they had rifles and radios, and with the drone, they had an even better advantage. As she descended the mountain, she took cover wherever she could to stay out of sight. To Bart’s men, she was no different than prey.
Cassie assumed it would take three to four hours to reach the valley floor, especially if she was ducking and dodging to avoid the drone. She was smaller than those men, and she would have to stay hidden and be as inconspicuous as possible since she had nothing to defend herself with except her mind. Chances were, they’d be coming up as she was going down. She could grab a limb for a weapon if she needed one, but she would have no chance at all against a bullet.