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“Be careful,” I managed.
“I might as well die feeling alive,” she shouted to overpower the roar from the tires against the road. I squeezed my eyes shut, focusing on the pain to distract me from the impending death she implied. And I thought riding a car with Johnny was bad.
I needed to get off the highway. Needed to stop somewhere and wait for directions. But each crossing flew by and once I saw, it was too late to turn. How did people do this?
“Get off this road.”
“I’m trying!” I shouted. “It’s too fast.”
“Then slow the fuck down!”
He had a point. But if I did, wouldn’t the people catch up? The more distance I left between us, the better. As several intersections swished by, I had no other choice. Easing off the gas, the car came to what felt like a crawl. My heart hammered in my head as my eyes darted to the rearview mirror again and again.
“Left!” Marc barked, and I saw the little road just in time to fling the car abruptly off the road and onto a smaller one. No one was behind, but I took no chances. Stepping on the gas again, the car shot forward.
The road was straight, leading in between an endless row of trees. The forest grew deeper and darker the longer I drove, blocking out the sunlight and filling me with an uneasy feeling I couldn’t shake. The car flew over bumps, each one making Marc groan and cuss. I winced, hating to be the one causing him pain, but this was necessary. I read enough books to know how to shake a tail. And as another turn approached, I took it, leading us onto another even smaller road. This one a mud-mixed gravel piece of land that did nothing but slow us down.
I whimpered, clinging to the wheel as the car tore up a cloud of dust that blew into my eyes.
Johnny called back, and Marc put him on speaker.
“There’s a small town near you,” he said. “Drive north.”
“Where’s north?” I cried. Was I supposed to know what that meant? In this labyrinth of small roads and dead ends, I didn’t know north from south. How was I supposed to find a town in the middle of freaking nowhere?
“Turn right,” Marc hissed. I did, almost hitting a tree as the car took the curve too fast. I screamed, gripping the wheel tight as I jerked it to the side.
Marc cursed. I squeezed my eyes close, then popped them open just as fast.
The road led to a bigger one, and the mud hardened into asphalt again. I let out a shaky breath. Buildings appeared to the right. Big square boxes with smoke coming from tall outlets. A foul smell reached my nose, and I wrinkled it, casting one more glance to the side. Trucks came and went. Big piles of timber were stacked next to the road. I pressed down on the gas a bit harder, needing to get away from the awful smell of what could only be some sort of a factory.
The further we drove, less trees and the more houses lined the street.
“Found the town!” I shouted. “Now what?” I had no idea where we were, and Marc looked like he tried his best to stay conscious instead of telling me what to do and where to go. “Johnny!”
“I’m searching!”
Shit!I swallowed the panic. Casting nervous glances at the clusters of people standing outside stores and walking the sidewalks, I tried to appear normal. As if I wasn’t driving a car withbullet holesin the front window. As if I knew what the heck I was doing behind the wheel. I couldn’t stop and ask for help. Who could I trust? Where were we in relative to the people chasing us? Had I lost them? Or were they just waiting to ambush us again?
“Marc?” I whimpered. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Just fucking drive,” he rasped without looking, and I wanted to cry. Drive, where? Where could I go?
People stopped to stare as I passed them, kids pointing and pulling their mother’s arms to get attention from their gossiping to the strange car creeping down their street. I increased the speed. One thing I knew, here was not the right place to be. The cracked windscreen drew attention. Lots of it. And I didn’t dare to imagine the blood on the car. We hit a man, after all.
“There’re only dead ends,” Johnny informed, and I wanted to cry.
Dead ends meant we were trapped. I couldn’t go down a road that ended in the middle of a forest with no place to run. If those people came…
“Got one!” Johnny called out. “Do you see a gas station on the left?”
I scanned the street, seeing nothing but old houses and staring people. When I was ready to tell himno, the sign popped up above the rooftops. “See it!”
“Turn there.”
I found the road, leading away from civilization and deep into a forest.
“Johnny?”
