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“No prob,” Ryan said. “We’ve got incoming. They’re still a distance away, but moving fast.” He grinned at them. “Better run, boys.”
They took off at a pace Joe knew must have been murder on Callum’s damaged legs, but he never slowed or said a word of complaint. Joe led them into a maze of rock formations that looked like slabs of concrete reaching for the sky.
“Anybody else feel like they’re an extra in Planet of the Apes?” Ryan said.
They squeezed through the narrow passageways and clambered over the boulders in their path. Without comm units, they had to rely on hand signals to communicate. Silence was the key. And although their pace was slower than Joe would have taken it alone, Callum didn’t make a sound.
They heard men move through the natural maze behind them, getting closer. Scrambling over a series of rocks, they made their way towards a wide gap in the wall of stone. Through the gap were open fields and distant houses.
“I see a road,” Joe mouthed.
“How far?” Callum mouthed back.
“Fifteen minutes’ run.”
Callum set his jaw. He grabbed the rock to his left to haul himself up over the boulders in their path. As he put his weight on the top of the stone in front of him, his foot slid. He fell forward. Joe was close enough to catch him before he hit the rock. But he wasn’t fast enough to stop Callum’s leg from getting wedged between two huge boulders.
Voices were getting closer. They were running out of time. Callum tugged at his leg, but it didn’t move. Ryan tried to lever it out, but it was wedged tight.
“Leave me,” Callum ordered.
“Don’t be an ass,” Joe said. “Unstrap the leg. We’ll carry you.”
“Too heavy. I’ll slow you down. Can’t risk it. Give me your backup ammo and I’ll hold them off while you sprint for the road.”
“To hell with that.” Ryan produced a flip knife from his pocket and sliced through Callum’s jeans. As soon as he saw the prosthetic straps, he sliced through those too.
For a second, Joe thought Callum was going to kill Ryan.
“We don’t leave anyone behind,” Ryan said. “We’re all for one and one for all. We’re the bloody musketeers.”
Joe cracked a sm
ile as he thrust his shoulder under Callum’s arm. “Hold on. You’ve got one leg; you can still take your weight. I’ll balance you out.”
Grim and furious, Callum did as he was told. They ran as best they could, with Ryan watching their backs. If they were slow before, now they were crawling. But they made it through the opening in the rocks and into the field.
“Bushes,” Callum said. “We have to go low.”
They rushed for the first set of bushes that could cover them.
They were hidden just as Esteban’s men emerged from the rocky maze.
“Is it safe now?” Patricia whispered into the blackness.
“I don’t know,” Julia said. “I haven’t heard anything for a while, but they could be waiting for us. We’ll give it a little more time.” For once in her life, sitting in a small space in the dark wasn’t a relaxing experience.
“Did you hear that?” Elle whispered.
They were silent, straining to hear. Julia was about to tell Elle she’d imagined it when she heard a scraping sound. They froze, each of them trying to become invisible in the dark stairwell.
“It’s probably a rat,” Patricia said hopefully.
“Big rat,” Elle said. “Maybe we should go back out into the chapel.”
It was time to confess. “I don’t know how to open the door from the inside,” Julia said.
There was a heavy silence.
