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I dropped. I didn’t think about the stupidity of dropping onto an armed woman probably twice my size. I just let go and rolled off the branch, that inner voice screaming What are you doing?!… in far less polite language.
I hit the woman. We both went down, her cushioning my fall. I leaped up, ignoring the squeaks of protest from my jolted body. I yanked out my knife and—
The woman lay at the foot of the tree, her head a few inches from it. She had a net veil hanging from her hat but through it I could see that her eyes were closed, and her mouth lolled open. She must have hit the trunk and been knocked out. I resisted the urge to check, grabbed her radio, and spun, searching for the gun. It wasn’t there. No rifle and no pistol…or not one I could see. I took a good look around to see if she’d dropped it. Nothing.
Either her partner had it or she had one hidden under her jacket. I paused, wanting to check, but was afraid of rousing her. One last look, then I snatched up the fallen flashlight and ran.
Forty-one
I WAS SURE I was heading in the direction
Derek told me, so all the security teams should be behind me. But after less than a minute, I heard the tramp of boots again. I dropped and covered my radio. I turned the volume all the way down, even though it had been silent since I’d taken it.
I crawled into the nearest patch of brush and lay on my stomach. The footsteps seemed to be going parallel to me, neither approaching nor retreating.
“Tell me how a full squad of us can lose four teenagers in less than twenty acres of woods,” a man’s voice said. “Davidoff is not going to be happy. ”
Another man answered, “With any luck, he’ll never find out. We’ve still got an hour before daylight. Plenty of time. How far can they get?”
They continued walking and talking, their voices and steps receding. When they were gone, I started creeping out, then stopped. If all four of us were out here, should I be heading for safety? Or trying to find the others?
Um, if you go to that safe spot, where Derek expects you to be, you won’t have to worry about finding them. They’ll come to you.
What if they need my help?
You accidentally knocked out one woman and suddenly you’re Rambo?
It felt cowardly getting myself to safety, but my inner voice had a point—if that’s where Derek expected me to be, then I’d better head there and meet him.
But I did feel a bit like Rambo—switchblade in one hand, radio in the other, flashlight jammed in my waistband—as I stealthily crept through the thick woods.
Yeah, as long as you don’t trip and impale yourself on your own knife.
I closed the blade.
“Chloe?” a female voice whispered.
I whirled so fast my foot slid on the soft ground. “Tori?”
I squinted into the night. The woods here were so dark I could only make out shapes that could as easily be trees and bushes as people. My fingers touched the flashlight, but I pulled back and kept looking.
“Tori?”
“Shhh. This way, hon. ”
The endearment made the hair on my neck rise.
“Aunt Lauren?”
“Shhh. Follow me. ”
I caught a glimpse of a figure. It was as faint as the voice, and all I could see was a pale shirt glowing ahead. I didn’t move. It sounded like Aunt Lauren and the figure was her size, but I couldn’t be sure and I wasn’t running after her like a little kid, so desperate to believe that I raced into a trap.
I took out my flashlight and clicked it on, but she was darting between trees, and it was impossible to make out more than her shape and shirt. Then she glanced back and I got just a glimpse of a profile, a swing of blond hair—an imperfect view, but enough for my gut to say that’s her.
She waved for me to hurry, then veered left into deeper forest. I followed, still cautious, no matter what my gut said. I was jogging past a patch of bushes when a figure lunged out. Before I could spin, it grabbed me, a hand clamping over my mouth, cutting short my yelp.
“It’s me,” Derek whispered.
He tried pulling me into the bushes, but I resisted.
“Aunt Lauren,” I said. “I saw Aunt Lauren. ”
He gave me a look like he must have heard me wrong.
“My aunt. She’s here. She’s—” I pointed in the direction she’d gone. “I was following her. ”
“I didn’t see anyone. ”
“She was wearing a light shirt. She ran past—”
“Chloe, I’ve been right here. I saw you coming. No one else ran—” He stopped short, realizing what he was saying. If I’d seen her and he hadn’t…
My chest seized. “No…”
“It was an illusion,” he said quickly. “A spell to trap you. My dad’s done stuff like that and…” He rubbed his hand over his mouth, then said, firmer, “That’s what it was. ”
I’d wondered the same thing, but now, hearing it from his mouth, when it should have supported my own doubts, all I could think was: a ghost. I saw Aunt Lauren’s ghost. The forest blurred, and his hand on my arm seemed the only thing holding me up.
“Chloe? It was a spell. It’s dark. You didn’t get a good look. ”
All true. Totally true. And yet…I shook it off and straightened, pulling from his grasp. When he hesitated, hand out, ready to grab me if I collapsed, I stepped away.
“I’m fine. So what’s the plan?”
“We’ll wait here—”
Footsteps sounded. We pushed into the bushes and crouched. A flashlight beam skimmed the trees like a searchlight.
“I know you kids are back here,” a man said. “I heard voices. ”
Derek and I stayed still. His shallow breathing hissed at my ear. My back was against him and I could feel the thump of his heart. The flashlight beam kept coming, cutting through the darkness. It passed over our bushes. Then it stopped, came back, and shone full in our faces.
“Okay, you two. Come out of there. ”
I could only see a veiled figure silhouetted behind the flashlight’s glare.
“Come out,” he said again.
Derek’s breath warmed my ear. “When I say run, run. ” Then, louder, “Put the gun down and we’ll come out. ”
“It is down. ”
With the light shining in our eyes and the man hidden behind it, there was no way to know if he was telling the truth.
He lifted his free hand and waved it. “See, no gun. Now come—”
The man dropped forward, like he’d been hit from behind. The flashlight tumbled to the ground, beam arcing through the air. Derek shot past me and tackled the man as he started to rise. Simon stepped from the darkness behind the man, hands raised for another knock-back spell.
“Run,” Derek said, holding the struggling man. When Simon and I hesitated, he snarled, “Run!”
