Eli had to get his bearings. If they got lost, they’d never survive. But the snow had changed things in all directions and made it hard to hear anyone following them.
When the sound of a roaring engine growled through the trees below, he decided he’d take his chances. “Let’s go west,” he whispered, staying behind Mallory while Aidan trudged beside her. “We’ll veer left at that huge spruce jutting out onto the path. I’m fairly sure the turn to the west should be up there.”
“How sure is fairly sure?” Aidan asked, his tone just above a shiver. “I’m not familiar with this area.”
“The falls will be hard to miss since they’ll be mostly frozen over. We’ll need to cross the creek near a deep spot, but they could be waiting on the ice to ambush us.”
“Speaking of ice,” Mallory said. “How do we cross it without the proper traction boots?”
“Very carefully,” Eli retorted. “We’ll stay close to the shore until we find the road out.”
“And if we don’t?” Aidan asked.
“We will, one way or another.” Eli didn’t plan to let anyone freeze tonight, and he sure wasn’t going to let them die.
They crunched through packed and fresh snow, frozen tree limbs and twigs. Eli stumbled and righted himself. Koko remained in his working mode, his footpads giving him some protection. The dog dealt with this trial by fire—or ice in this case—in a professional manner, the way he’d been trained to act. He stopped now and then, lifting his nose in the cold air. That gave Eli a hint that someone could be following them, but he couldn’t cover the deep snow tracks they had to make to get away. Too dangerous to try.
When they reached the spot he’d been searching for, he pointed up. “See the falls. Just a trickle now. They’ll freeze solid before the month is out.”
Mallory glanced up to where a white mass sparkling with icicles all the way down to where the waterfall ended, and the vast creek began. “Wow, if I weren’t running from killers, I’d be in awe.”
“Same here,” Eli replied, glad she still had a dry sense of humor.
“We need a plan,” Mallory said, puffs of fog dancing around her.
“I have a plan,” Eli replied, not sure what his plan actually provided.
“I mean, a plan if we get attacked. You brought your Glock, right?”
He nodded. “Yes, I’ve had it with me in my shoulder holster since they arrived last night. So that’s a plan, I guess.”
“Aidan and I can find limbs and rocks to throw at them or hit them. We can fight and Koko can attack.”
“All good to know,” Eli said, thinking, except for Koko, that might be a bad idea. “Koko can hold them off.”
“But we can help,” Aidan said, already jumping on Mallory’s suggestions. “We won’t leave him, right?”
“No. Hopefully, he’ll scare them away long enough to give us time to make it to the pickup spot.”
“He can at least maim them,” Mallory said on such a pragmatic note Eli shot her a wary glance.
Koko’s head went back and forth, his nose up while he waited for someone to give him a command.
They made the turn and Eli stepped ahead and scanned the dark horizon. A clear white shimmer caught his attention. “I see the creek.”
They hurried down a bluff, dodging falling snow and rocks. His whole body had become numb from cold, but he couldn’t think about that now. Mallory let out a breath and he turned to check on her. “You okay?”
“Fine. Just hit a stump. I think my socks are wet. Both pairs.”
“We’ll need to get you out of those boots soon.”
He didn’t have to tell her about frostbite. Anyone who lived here knew the perils of dealing with frostbite and hypothermia.
He silently prayed that God would lead them to safety. Bettina would tell him to keep going. The motors roaming behind them told him he didn’t have any choice. When the motors cut off, he knew their pursuers were now following them on foot.
He saw the vast wide part of the creek below. “We made it!” he said, turning to check on Mallory and Aidan. But then his elation turned to bone-chilling fear when he spotted a shadow lurking on the curving hillside, about fifty yards behind them.
“Let’s go,” he commanded, practically dragging Mallory down toward the ice-crusted water.
She held on to Koko, and the big dog growled an alert. “They’re behind us, aren’t they?” she asked on a winded breath.
“I think I saw someone, yes.”
Aidan tumbled down the hill, fell, then got up. A gunshot lifted into the air and bullets hissed near where he’d fallen. “Think? No thinking about it. They’re after us.”
Eli motioned. “C’mon.” The only way they could go now was by following the frozen shoreline or taking the shortcut across the widest part of the creek—the part that wouldn’t be all the way frozen yet. The ice could crack, and the people after them would have a clear shot.
They had nowhere to hide.
Mallory ducked while gunfire sounded through the trees, her heart pounding fearfully with each step. Koko didn’t like it, either. Afraid this would throw him back into conflict, she kept talking to him softly and patting him on the head whenever they stopped for a breath. “You’ll be rewarded greatly with a nice prize, I promise,” she said after she tried to take a deep breath. But the cold air hurt her lungs.
“Keep moving from tree to tree,” Eli said. “If you see anything you can use as a weapon, go for it.”
Searching for a big limb kept her mind off the shadows reaching toward her like cold tendrils. A good solid limb could give a person a good solid head injury, or at least a damaged face.
She found her chance when they rounded a twist in the landscape. The broken limb almost tripped her, but she called to Eli.
“Hold on.” Then she handed Koko’s leash to Aidan and managed to lift the small yard-long log off the snow. “It’s sturdy,” she said. “I can make this work.”
Aidan searched around and found a smaller branch and a five-inch jagged rock and dropped it in the deep pocket of his parka. Then he cleaned off the foot-long log. “I’ll try this one. Throw it in their face.”
“Not if they have a gun trained on you,” Eli replied. “But it could come in handy. I have two flares. I’m saving them to alert the team that we need help. But I could use one to blind someone.” He handed one to Aidan. “Take care of this.”
“Anything that works, man,” Aidan said, tugging at his fur-trimmed hood. “I’m freezing.”
They stayed just off the shoreline along the creek. “We’ll only go over the creek as a last resort,” Eli told them. “It’s deepest here, and not as stable, so we’ll have to be careful.”
The ground was too slippery. If they got stuck, they would be a perfect target for a sniper. Mallory’s teeth chattered, but she held her head up to study their surroundings.
Eli tried his cell again. “Still no signal. The old back road isn’t far from here. The colonel planned to get someone in here to watch for us, based on my coordinates. We just need to find their location.”
Aidan shook his head. “With this weather? Who would try?”
“Our team,” Eli said. “They won’t leave us out here.”
Eli wiped ice away from his skin and squinted into the curve. “I see the road ahead. It curves away from the creek.”
Aidan did a fist pump. “Yes.”
Mallory let out a sigh of relief.
Koko woofed.
Eli turned to them. “We need to cross that little stretch of ice to get there.”
Aidan and Mallory looked at the deep part of the creek and then back to him.
“It looks a lot bigger than it is,” he said. “It’s only about fifty or sixty feet wide, but it’s the best way to get there from here.”
He guided Mallory ahead and then looked at Aidan. “Hold one hand on her shoulder and follow her toward the shore across the way, okay?”
Aidan did as he asked, bobbing his head. “I won’t let go.”
Mallory rolled her eyes. “I’m perfectly capable of getting across the ice by myself if I have to. I can handle following the shoreline once I’m close.”
“That’s the idea,” Eli replied. “Just stick together, okay?”
“What about you?” Aidan asked.
“I’ll cover you.” Eli checked the surroundings. Then he reached inside his parka and pulled out his pistol. “Get ready, and whatever happens, you both keep running. Hear me?”
Mallory shook her head. Eli couldn’t defend himself alone. “I’m leaving Koko with you.”
“No. Just go, Mallory, and take Koko with you.”
Up above them, snow showered down and rocks crashed onto the frozen water. “Go!” he repeated. “We don’t have time to argue.”