AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I couldn’t go for the house without risking getting shot.
I was pinned down here behind the giant cross-sections of oak tree.
My only option was to crawl backwards, keeping the logs between me and the shooters.
The barn was about ten feet directly behind me.
If I could just get inside…
Ax in hand, I crawled on my belly towards the barn.
I reached the outside wall. The wooden planks were dry-rotted and crumbling near the ground, and I was able to use the ax to bash a big enough hole for me to crawl through.
Unfortunately, the noise let them know exactly where I was.
Once inside the barn, I crawled behind an empty feed bin before I stood up.
They would come for me. That much was certain. But would they split up? One go for Lucia while the other came for me?
Would they both go for Lucia and take her hostage?
Or would they both come after me to get rid of the biggest threat first?
I had no idea. All I knew was that I had to be ready for them.
I glanced at the front of the barn.
The door had long ago rotted and fallen off its hinges, so the doorway was open – about 12 feet wide and 10 feet tall.
I couldn’t just stand next to the doorway and wait for them, though. That would be the first thing they checked.
I could hide in the loft at the rear of the barn – but then I would have to wait for them to come find me. Bad idea.
…what if I could hide up in the rafters?
There were half a dozen wooden columns sunk into the concrete floor. They reached up into the rafters and held up the entire barn.
Joists – big wooden beams running parallel to the ground – connected all the columns about ten feet up.
I held my ax high overhead and swung it into the wooden column nearest the doorway. The blade sunk into the wood with a solid thock and stayed there.
Then I climbed onto one of the feed bins, jumped, and grabbed onto a joist with my hands.
I prayed it would support my weight as I pulled myself up on top of it.
It held.
Then I crept like a tightrope walker across the joist – praying some more as the wood groaned beneath me – until I reached the wooden column closest to the door.
I wiggled the ax head out of the wood, held it up like a baseball bat –
And waited.
I listened carefully.
The shower wasn’t running in the house anymore.
Had Lucia heard the gunshots? She must have.
