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And it was lights out.
* * *
“Mommy, wake up.”
The sweetest sound drifted to my ears. I moaned and lifted my head from the steering wheel where it lay, a warm liquid trickling down my forehead.
Raising a hand to my head I placed it on the spot that hurt and it came away crimson red. Sucking in a breath and squeezing my eyes closed as pain sliced through my head, I fought to get my bearings.
“Mommy…”
Zander’s small voice snapped me to attention and I unclipped my seatbelt—something I was thankful for—and slowly turned around to find my son.
Witnessing the tears that cascaded down his angelic face had me seeing a different kind of red and I never in my life wanted to harm another person as much as I did to the person who’d put that fear into my precious little boy. The fact that he was still in his booster seat and looked unharmed had the murderous feeling simmering a fraction. But I wouldn’t know for sure until I got to him. Or even later for that matter.
“Does anything hurt, sweet boy?”
“No, but I’m scared, Mommy.”
I assessed him again with my eyes once more, hoping that he wouldn’t feel an ounce of pain even later on.
“Baby, Mommy is coming. Sit still and I will come and get you.”
“O-okay.”
Turning back around, I tried to open the driver's door and failed. It only opened a fraction before hitting against something that was stopping it from opening more than a couple of inches. I had to get to my son. The soft weeping from the backseat was killing me.
Body sore, blood dripping in my eyes, I turned back around and sluggishly crawled between the front seats to get in the back with Zander. As I was going over, something flashed and caught my attention.
A flashlight.
Up on the road, a light was shining down, scanning the area and through the trees. Alarm seized the air in my lungs. Was that the same person who hit us? I hadn’t seen anyone else on the road so it had to be. Panic gripped me as I wondered why he would still be there. Were they not finished with us?
My promise to my son that I would take care of him flitted to my mind and fueled my momentum. Scrambling faster the rest of the way into the backset than my body had liked, I unbuckled Zander and tried to talk to him in calm, soothing words.
“It’s okay, baby. Shh.” Working overtime to keep myself calm as well, I kept talking as I brought him into my embrace. “Mommy’s got you.”
I didn’t know if the person would try coming down to us, but I wasn’t taking the chance of us being sitting ducks. We needed to move.
Hugging my little man close for a second, I reached to the back door handle and prayed it wasn’t stuck as mine had been. A relieved breath exited my lungs when it popped open. With my son wrapped around my front like a monkey, I slowly inched on my butt across the seat and out the door. On wobbling legs, I stood with him in my arms and froze.
At the sound of cracking tree branches and the swivel of the beam of light over my head, I felt paralyzed with terror. Once again, the small voice in my ear got me moving.
Seeming to grasp the situation, he whispered in my ear, “Someone is over there, Mommy.”
On unsteady legs, I held tight to my son and moved forward one step at a time deeper into the trees that surrounded us. I shivered as the cold night air seeped into my body. My coat was in the car long forgotten since my only thought had been getting to my son. I was thankful that he had on a sweatshirt at least but knew it wouldn’t keep him warm for too long.
I couldn’t hear anything any longer and hoped that whoever was out there gave up, but I couldn’t take any chances.
With nothing but the moon to illuminate our way, I searched for a place to hide. Before I got too far, a loud rumbling from farther away broke through the eerie silence. Then the crunching of footsteps started again and I turned to see the light from the flashlight swinging swiftly back and forth. I breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed it was going back up the hill. Then another engine started and I could hear a vehicle speed off.
Was it safe for us to try and get back up the embankment?
The sound of not one vehicle came closer, but multiple and I hoped with everything I had that it was someone to help us.
Please find us, Rowan.
My son and I must have been thinking the same thing as he softly asked, “Will Daddy find us?”
