Dasyueshan Mountain Forest, Taiwan
GERMAN SHEPHERDS. LUKE couldn’t be certain but he thought he recognized the sound. They could hear them through the trees, baying, barking. Still distant, but they’d be picking up their scent at any moment. Forty kilos of muscle, fur and teeth. Luke had seen one of these attack dogs bring down a man in seconds.
He shot Jenny an ominous look. Was she thinking the same as him? He had no means of telling. Not without blurting it out in front of Hannah. ‘Time to move,’ he said, handing the gun back to Jenny. ‘Hannah?’ He motioned for her to hold on to his neck as he hoisted her onto his back and took off through the undergrowth. But it was slow going, much too slow, as Luke knew it would be, weighed down as he was with an extra body. Jenny went ahead, stopping every few metres, turning round, waiting for him to catch up, the sound of dogs drawing ever closer. The voice in Luke’s head was telling him: we are not going to make this.
And then, unexpectedly, another noise and close by too: a car, then another, the sound of wheels on tarmac. A road, not a rough, uneven mountain trail. Their path to freedom, if only they could reach it. Then the earth rose up and smashed Luke in the face. He’d tripped, it was a root, a branch, a hole in the forest floor, and he’d gone sprawling face-down into the dirt. He heard Hannah’s agonized cry as she toppled off him. Winded, Luke scrambled back to his feet but the dogs were closing in now. Two, three hundred metres at most. Decision time. He looked at Jenny and she gave him the tiniest nod. It was all he needed. This was the most terrible choice but they had to do it. They had to be ruthless. Or everything they had come here for would be lost.
Without saying a word, Jenny handed Hannah the hunting knife that she’d been carrying all this time. She shrugged in silent apology, then she and Luke turned on their heels and sprinted away through the forest, heading for the road … leaving Hannah to the dogs.