The sound of gunfire cracked through the air and made me flinch and cringe repeatedly as the bullets hit trees around us. The moonlight was filtered by the treetops, so I couldn’t see that well. I kept falling and landing on my brace. Sophie must have been falling too because I could hear her groan and swear. We were definitely being followed. And it was impossible to tell if it was the security guards or the gunmen. Their footsteps and heavy breathing got louder as they gained on us. I was too afraid to slow down to look over my shoulder. But when I heard them speaking Spanish I knew for sure they were the men from the trucks. My stomach sank and collapsed on itself as I realized it probably meant the guards had gone down. I ran faster.
Mason and I caught up to Sophie and I passed her to take the lead. Trevor and I had spent our entire childhood climbing in the forested mountains around Britannia Beach, so I was used to the terrain, but not in the dark. I scrambled over rocks and hopped fallen tree trunks, stumbling almost every fifth stride. Branches slashed my arms and legs as we moved through the dense bush. Mason passed me and stomped through the vegetation to make a path for us. Unfortunately, it was also making it easier for our pursuers. They gained more ground, moving fast—faster than even Trevor could travel. We were so screwed. We reached an opening in the woods and I pulled Sophie and Mason’s hands. “This way.” We sprinted along the edge of the clearing, where it was easier to run.
When we reached the other side, Sophie whimpered then fell to her knees. “Go without me.”
“No.” I stopped and turned to help her. Mason had already pulled her to her feet. I glanced back. I couldn’t see the men, but I knew they were standing in the middle of the clearing because I could hear them talking. “Shh,” I breathed out. Sophie and Mason both turned to see what I was looking at. “It’s too dark for them to see us. They can only hear us. If we stay still, they might leave.”
We all stood perfectly motionless in the shadows of the trees. I tried to slow my breathing to make it quieter, but the best I could do was an erratic wheeze. One of the men shouted something in Spanish. I saw a flash before I heard the crack of a gunshot that was aimed in our direction.
“They have night scopes,” Mason said and shoved us to keep going. We ducked into the forest and started running again. Bullets whizzed by us. One hit the tree right in front of me and the splinters of bark sprayed into my face. It was surreal—like one of my visions, only it was really happening. My muscles burned, my lungs protested with each expansion, and my skin scraped with every fall. Sophie was crying. I turned left and led us uphill, hoping the men would assume we would take the easier downhill route.
As we got higher out of the canopy of the big trees, it was a bit easier to see. I ran along a rocky ridge and turned to reach my hand out for Sophie. We scrambled up a rounded rock mass that overlooked a valley. It was too dark to tell what would be the best escape route.
“I need to stop,” Sophie gasped and rested her hands on her knees.
“We can’t.” I pulled her by the elbow.
She yanked her arm out of my grasp. “I can’t. Go without me.”
“We’re not leaving you here,” Mason said as he checked over his shoulder. “I think we can rest for a second. I can’t hear them.”
“How long do you think we’ve been running?” Sophie asked.
Mason said, “Probably forty-five minutes.”
I knew it had been longer because of where the moon had risen to, probably more like two hours. I searched the sky for a star to follow—that’s what Trevor would have told me to do—not that he was experienced with being chased by men with guns. Tears ran down my face as I thought about Trevor. He was going to be so mad at me. If he were with us, he’d be yelling at me for putting myself and everyone else in so much danger. Actually, if he were with me, none of it would have happened in the first place.
“We have to at least keep walking,” I whispered and headed in the direction of the star.
As we walked, I listened for the sound of the men following us. I was also trying to detect the sound of water. Trevor always told me that if I was lost in the forest I could follow the water downhill. There was no running water, the dense ground brush was impossible to move through quickly, and I couldn’t see worth shit. I stopped in a heavily wooded area and bent over to puke.
“We’re going to die,” I choked out between heaves.
“No we’re not,” Mason said, without much conviction. “We’re going to be okay.”
Sophie stood with her hands on her hips trying to catch her breath. “Maybe we should dig a hole and hide under the mulch.”
“They’re still too close. We don’t have time,” I whispered.
The light of a flashlight scanned across the trees we were standing behind. We all froze. I held my breath. A man’s voice yelled something in Spanish. Sophie and I both looked at Mason for an interpretation.
“Run!” he shouted.
We took off again and zig-zagged through the trees. We scrambled up a rocky incline on an angle to make the climb less steep and I heard the distinct rumbling of running water. It was coming from the other side of a ridge—a huge ridge. Another bullet ricocheted right next to me and sent slate shrapnel flying all around us. Once we cleared the top of the ridge, I dug my heels into the dirt to climb down the slope. I literally had to skid to a stop when I realized I was about to fall over a cliff. The loose dirt slid under my feet and I landed on my butt. Sophie and Mason caught up to me and stared over the edge as I scrambled back to a standing position. We were at the top of a waterfall, which was over fifty feet high. I could only sort of see the river at the bottom in the slivers of moonlight. It was impossible to tell if it was deep enough to jump or if there were rocks under the surface.
“We have to go back,” Mason urged us.
We turned and saw four flashlights bouncing through the forest towards us. “Your dad will pay the ransom. Why don’t we just give up? He’ll pay them and then they’ll release us,” Sophie reasoned.
“It doesn’t work that way here,” Mason muttered under his breath. “They’ll take the ransom and kill us anyway—or worse.”
I grabbed Mason’s hand with the fingers on my braced hand and Sophie’s hand with my good hand, then turned around. “We can jump. I saw this in a vision. We’re going to be fine if we jump.” I pulled and felt resistance from both of them.
“No way,” Sophie scoffed.
“We have no choice.”
“I can’t,” Sophie cried.
Shots rang through the night air and bullets skimmed by dangerously close to my head. “Trust me. I saw it in a vision. It’s going to be okay—I think.” I pulled them again and we all ran three steps, then leapt over the edge.