Out of Place (11 page)

Chapter 18

They came to a steep section
. It was still too dark to continue without risking a fall. The moonlight wasn’t casting enough glow to show the degree of the slope since it was behind them now. But Zack could tell they were overlooking a valley.

“We’re going to have to stop here.”

Emily sank down to the hard dirt with a groan. He eased down next to her, sucking a hard breath as the pain of bending hit him.

“
Are you all right?” Emily asked

He nodded and zipped off his jacket to check the wound
, turning so the moonlight would hit it.

Emily gasped. “Oh
, that’s nasty, what happened?”

“He shot me.
No big deal.” He could see the diameter of her eyes grow as she took a quick breath.

“
No big deal? Are you crazy? My God, Zack, this is nuts. You could’ve been killed. We can’t keep going like this.”

He turned his T-shirt over, and put the clean side over the wound and retied it. It was clotting, but still oozing. “What do you suggest we do?”

Emily looked up. The moon hit her face and he saw the tears brewing in her eyes. “Hey.” He touched her shoulder. “Don’t cry. I’m fine, really.”

She forced an uneasy smile. “This time. But we’re a mess. I nearly fell to my death and you’ve
nearly been shot and killed.”

“Don’t be so dramatic. You didn’t nearly fall to your death, you just fell. And this is a scratch.”

“A scratch that was two inches away from being a disaster.”

He sighed.
“Well, what can we do?”

She shook her head in rapid bursts.
“I should turn myself over to him. It’s the only way.”

“
It’s a stupid, risky idea.”

“I can convince him that I
’ll cooperate. He wants me. I have the only thing we can negotiate. I can give up to him.”

“That’s not an option.”

Emily was emphatic. “It might be the only hope. I can’t have your death on my conscience. He’s already killed my friends, and your friends, the ATV couple, and I don’t want another death…I don’t want your death…If I can save you, I feel like I have to.”

“Emily, that course of action could just wind up with your death on my consci
ence. Right?”

She leaned back into a tree. “I just want to go home
and see my family.”

Zack
felt a crushing dismay hit his chest. He was torn. The last thing he wanted to do was tell her, but he had to. It was only right. It was either going to strengthen her or crush her. But nearly getting shot had opened his eyes. “Emily, there’s something you should know.” She looked at him, when those doe eyes focused on him, his breath escaped.

“What is it?”

He shook his head and looked away.

“
Zack, what is it?” She reached out and touched his hand. “Please, you can tell me anything. We’re out here alone with our lives hanging by a thread, don’t hold out on me.”

“I didn’t want to tell you. But
if something happens to me, I think you should know.”

“Go ahead.”

“The first day of our hike, there was a story on the news wire. A man in New Jersey killed his wife and some other people, and burned their house down.”

She nodded strongly. “Harry?”

“I’m pretty sure.”

“It makes sense. He told us his wife was divorcing him just before we left.”

Zack sighed and looked at her. “There’s more. It wasn’t his house. It was the house next door.” Her eyes narrowed, but he pressed on. “They found multiple bodies in the fire: his wife and his next door neighbors.”

She shook her head. “No—no, that doesn’t mean anything. It could have been anyone.” She pulled her hand away from him. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I’m just being honest. I didn’t want you to get into a situation where you might make a decision based on something that’s not there.”

“You don’t know anything
. You didn’t hear the names. You don’t know anything.” She started to cry a little more and before long, the tears were really flowing. “No, you don’t know anything.”

Zack
nodded. “You’re right. I don’t know anything for sure. I could be wrong. They didn’t release the names at the time. It could have been another neighbor.”

She wrapped her arms around her body, and started rocking
back and forth.

“I’m an idiot
. I should never have said anything. Emily, I’m sorry. Don’t listen to me.”

Her silent tears were not silent anymore, as a whimper ushered in a guttural moan.

“Emily.” He reached over and touched her shoulder. She pulled away. But then she leaned into him. He put his arm around her, wincing from the pain as she leaned into his bullet wound.

“It’s not true
,” she said.

“Okay.” He should have never told her. Now he was cursing himself for doing it. Thinking back now
, he’s not even sure what compelled him to do it. There was some rationale there, but now it seemed stupid. He didn’t like hurting her. It broke his heart and he didn’t ever want to do it again. What’re the chances she’s going to need that information out here?

Maybe he got the news report all wrong. But when she told the story of this guy being her father’s best friend and neighbor, it seemed to fit. He’d heard the story second hand from Donovan as he read it on his phone, so maybe it was all wrong.

He just let her cry it out.

***

Emily felt like her guts had been ripped out. It couldn’t be true, it was that simple. She wouldn’t let herself believe it. Why he’d even made up such a story, she couldn’t even imagine. Part of her wanted to hate him, but part of her wanted to throw herself into his arms.

“Emily, say something.”
Zack leaned in closer to her. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

She ignored him, sort of. The voice in her head would not shut off
, but the tongue in her mouth was paralyzed, stuck to the roof of her mouth and growing dry.

“Emily, there
’s a reason I told you. I didn’t want to hurt you. I just wanted you to know. We’re out here in the middle of nowhere with a madman hunting us. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But something inside me had to be honest with you. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t keep it inside anymore. I hope you can understand that. I want to be wrong. I’ve never wanted to be more wrong in my entire life. But the truth is, I like you, Emily. I’ve only known you a short time, but you’re a good person and I consider you a friend. If it’s one thing you need to know about me, it’s that I’m honest with my friends—brutally honest, sometimes. I can’t hide things from them. It eats me up inside. When you were just some stranger out here, it wasn’t hard. But the more we spend time together, the more I feel like I can call you a friend.”

Emily didn’t want to look at him, she stared pointlessly at her scratched up knees in
an effort not to. He said he was her friend, but he had a funny way of showing it. In her world, friends protect each other, they don’t crush their dreams. But he said he had a reason. “You said you told me for a reason. What reason?”

“I told you because I don’t want you to do something stupid
, like turn yourself over to him. You’ve considered it and I want you to understand the level of evil we’re dealing with here. I mean, I know you know, but this is more than just his obsession over you.”

Emily looked to him.
She still didn’t want to believe it.

“Emily, even if it was some random family down the street, you have to know.”

She wiped her tears and nodded. “I know. I get it.”

“Then promise me you’ll run.”

“Huh?”

“If we get into a situation, and he has me cornered, promise me you’ll run.”

She met his eyes and saw the intensity dancing in the moonlight. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head. “How about we don’t let him catch us?”

“I’d love nothing more.”

Chapter 19

The sun was just creeping up somewhere over the horizon. It was still dark out, but the sky was turning predawn purple. Zack softly shook Emily’s shoulder to wake her up. “Hey, c’mon, we need to get moving.”

Emily sat up after her short nap. Neither one was sleeping
much. It was just a few short naps every couple of hours. It was the best way to keep an ear out for things. And the only way to keep the critters and bugs from attacking. They could get up, walk around and shake off the nasty things. They felt it was best not to start any fires because that would be highly conspicuous in the middle of the darkness.

“We should be moving
,” Zack said.

She stretched and stood, brushing the dry soil off her legs and butt. They ate a bit and drank some water
before heading out.

It was a slow hike
. They were both tired and wounded, but they had to keep moving. Even small progress was still progress. If they’d had a flashlight they would have gone all night. But it was just too risky to travel by moonlight on these heavily wooded trails.

Zack
wished he had a map, but going by memory and his usually solid sense of direction, he knew they had to head east at all costs. He didn’t know where they were, but he knew that heading east was the way to go. Out in these parts, there was always civilization to the east and nothing but more wilderness to the west.

The problem was that this psycho probably knew the same thing and was heading the same way.

As if reading his mind, Emily asked, “Where’re we heading?”

“East.”

“That’s kinda vague, don’t you think?”

“Well, I know there’s another ranger station somewhere east of here, we passed
it on the way up the mountain.”

“How far?”

“I’m not sure. The problem is we’re way off the beaten path now and I don’t know how far south we went while running.”

“So you have no idea where were going. Great. Good to know.”

“It’s not that dire.”

“Sounds pretty dire. It sounds like we’re going to end up walking for day
s to the middle of nowhere.”

“Well, if we keep heading east
, eventually we’ll walk into the Atlantic Ocean—so it’s not that dire.”

“He drove me like an hour west from
Virginia Beach.”

He stopped a
nd looked at her. “I got news: we’re like three hours away from Virginia Beach.”

“I thought we were in
Virginia still.”

“
We are, but the trail is a long way from Virginia Beach.” Zack started walking again. He needed to formulate a plan for every contingency. It was how his mind worked. He needed to know every possible play. “Is there anything he said to you that might have given away his plans? What was he planning on doing with you?”

“I don’t know
. He acted like he was just going to keep me.”

“
So he had to have another place besides that cabin.”

“He did say that we were going to have to leave there, after you guys came up to the cabin.” Emily stopped. “Why does it matter?”

Zack shrugged. “I just want to get into his head a little bit. We’re outgunned but we’re not going to be outsmarted. I know there’s a way to beat this guy.”

Emily started up the trail again.
Zack watched her go again for a few seconds and then followed. His side was hurting, but he didn’t feel any new seepage, so the wound must have clotted. As he looked at Emily’s back, he was amazed at how much of a mess she was. Her white T-shirt was stained with so much blood on the back it was as much crimson as it was white at this point. It was torn in three places and her blonde hair was caked with a mixture of blood and dirt. But the crazy thing was that she still looked great to him. Even all messed up and dirty, she looked like an angel.

He hurried to catch up. They came to a ridge that looked out over a wide valley.
Zack took in the view and studied the ridges in the distance. “I know where we are.”

Emily kicked a rock over the steep edge. “Where are we?”

He pointed out. “See that third section of mountains? There’s an old settlement, over that far ridge. It’s a ghost town now, but at one time it was a moonshine runner’s town.”

“What does that mean for us?”

“It means other people. It means we’re not that far off the Appalachian Trail after all. Hundreds of hikers a year visit that place. It’s a popular destination to start and finish your hike if you’re not doing the whole two thousand miles of the trail.”

“I sense a
‘but.’”

“We can’t get there by going back to the trail, it’s too risky. He could be staking out
that junction.”

“I sense another
‘but.’”

“But there is another way.” He nodded down the hill.

“You’re kidding me.”

“It will take us two days to get there
if we walk around the mountain. We could be there by tonight if we go down.”

“There’s no way, it’s way too steep.”

He shrugged. “We can do it. I’ve climbed steeper.”

“Without rigging or gear?”

“Yeah, hand over foot.”

She looked down at her feet.
“I don’t even have boots. I’m in running shoes here. My shoulder is killing me, my knees hurt.”

“This is not
the time to be a crying little girl.”

“Excuse me
!”

“Yeah, you’ve gone all cry
-baby on me. I thought you were supposed to be some sort of tough bitch, an athlete who never backs down from a challenge. You’re all talk.”

She put her hands on her hips.
“Hey, jerk-wad, you don’t know me—”

“Are you mad?”

“Hell, yeah, I’m mad.”

“Good, now
do you think you can climb down this mountain?”

Emily opened her mouth, but didn’t say anything.

“Well?”

She shrank back down a little.
“It’s not that I’m not tough.”

“
Well, then, what is it?”

She bit her lip and looked over the edge. “
I’m just really—really afraid of heights. I mean, like I get all locked up and panicked.”

Zack
sighed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I was trying to rile you up. I didn’t mean to push you.”

“Just looking over this edge makes me a little dizzy.”

Having started out a psych major, Zack knew well the seriousness of legitimate fears. He also knew they could be overcome, but didn’t have time to try and talk her through it right now. Getting down to that town was paramount. It was the best shot they had to run into help.

He looked out over the valley, trying to get a scope of the land and he didn’t see another way around this. “We could walk this ridgeline, but it would take hours just to get to the valley floor.”

“I’m sorry. I just don’t think I can do it.”

He put his hand on her shoulder.
“It’s okay. Maybe if we walk to the other side of this edge here, there’s a softer way down.”

“I’m okay with a trail, just not
a cliff.”

“So you’re
maybe not so much afraid of heights, as you are afraid of falling.”

Emily frowned and looked at him. “I never thought of it like that.”

“Have you ever been in a plane?”

“Yeah.”

“Were you afraid?”

“A little.”

“Of being in the air? Or crashing?”

She nodded. “I see where you’re going with this.”

“I like to root it out.”

“You should be a psych major.”

Zack laughed. “I was for two years.”

“
Oh, right, you told me that. Why’d you change?”

“
I guess I’m just not a sit behind a desk kinda guy, and that’s where it was leading. Plus, my mother was a psychologist and it made her miserable. Dealing with other people’s problems can really drain your soul. Now she teaches others how to listen to other people’s problems.”

In the brief moment of silence between them
, Zack heard a whizzing noise. Then the ground around their feet started popping up as the bullets ripped into the soil. “Go!” he yelled and pushed Emily back towards the woods.

They dove over the edge of a rise and ducked down.
Zack surveyed the land. They were pinned down. If Harry was on the opposite ridge, or below on the valley floor, he had a clear look at them no matter which way they walked in three directions. There was only one way to go.

“How’d he find us?” Emily asked.

“He must’ve known where we were heading. That town is the only thing around here. He obviously knows this area well.”

“What do we do?”

Zack didn’t dare stick his head up, he could almost feel the scope of the rifle probing the side of this hill waiting for them to appear. If they had climbed down that ridge, they would’ve been sitting ducks with no protection. Emily’s fear may have saved their lives.

Emily turned and put her back against the dirt, looking into the woods. “What if we crawl that way?”

Zack nodded. “I was thinking that. Just keep your head down.”

They rolled to their stomachs and soldier-crawled away from the hill, deeper into the woods.
Zack felt like he did at the tough-mudder race he did in spring with Rick, but in that there was no one with a high-powered assault rifle trying to shoot them. That was something they did for fun, to push their physical limits. This was not fun in any way. They came to a narrow section and he let Emily crawl in front of him.

The hill started sloping down and that was a good thing. It put them out of the line of fire with each passing foot they went down.

They must have stayed out of sight because no other shots rang out. They got up and started walking deeper into the unknown.