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Dammit, we didn’t prepare for this situation! I don’t know whether to pull my gun to try and aim in the dark or flee.
If I try to aim and miss, it’ll give away our position, so I think there’s only one thing we can do.
I scramble off the four-wheeler and get Lyla down, and then I start running, with her following without needing me to instruct her.
I have to give the girl credit for keeping up with my pace. It’s not as fast as I can sprint, but it’s close as I run in the direction of the motel.
All I have to do is get Lyla to the motel, where Hugo and Jordan will be waiting as backup.
Where Thane is waiting.
He said this was a bad idea, and I can’t wait to tell him he was right.
I just hope I get the chance.
The sound of loud, heavy footsteps behind me isn’t Lyla’s.
Somehow, he’s gaining on us. Fast.
“He’s catching up,” I whisper to Lyla to encourage her to speed up. When she doesn’t, I grab her arm and try to drag her along faster.
One second, we’re running, and the next, my head rocks forward, and I fall forward into darkness.
* * *
I jerk awake, thanks to the sound of gunfire, but my body refuses to move another muscle. Not even my eyelids will open. There’s no choice but to keep lying uncomfortably and facedown, paralyzed on what I think is the hard ground. At least I can still smell. The scent of copper pennies and damp leaves is all around me, so close to my mouth I can almost taste them both.
There are muffled voices that I can’t make out. It’s like cotton balls have been shoved into my ears.
As my hearing comes back, it’s joined by the absolute worst stabbing pain radiating from the back of my skull.
“What…the…fuck?” someone pants.
“Check on RJ!”
The sound of my name has my eyes finally able to blink opening.
Cool fingers press on my neck, and then I hear the person say, “He’s okay. Pulse is strong. He’s breathing. Head’s bleeding, though. Pretty bad.”
The voice is familiar, but I can’t think of the name that goes with it.
Wow, thanks to being paralyzed and in pain, I’m somehow even dumber than before.
“I think he…he maybe got hit in the back of the head with something,” a woman explains. “It wasn’t a bullet.”
“Ambulance…on the way…to the motel. Called while I was coughing up a lung. Let’s get him up,” someone else says.
Suddenly, I’m lifted off the ground, making my head swim and ache worse. I’m so tired. I just need to lie back down and close my eyes, but they keep yanking on me. “Fuck off. I’m sleepin’, asshole.”
“He’s awake, thank fuck.”
“RJ, man, your head’s fucked-up. We’re taking you to get it looked at.”
Back on my feet, the world turns right side up. Flashes of light land on a bunch of trees. Why am I in the woods?
“What the fuck happened?” a gruff voice asks. “You told me to ‘stay put no matter what,’ but I heard gunshots.”
“It’s under control,” a voice I’ve heard my entire life answers. “Help us get RJ to the parking lot. An ambulance is on the way.”
