Far Country (62 page)

           
“Go home now, Fiona!”  Fiona needed no more prompting. She bolted down the
trail. Steve felt a momentary relief as Fiona disappeared around a turn in the
road, but he had no more time to worry about Gracie’s dog.  David was
advancing warily toward the trees, his gun held at the ready.

           
Steve’s fingers hovered uselessly near his own belt.  As a ranger, he was
a licensed law enforcement officer and carried a gun of his own. Today, dressed
for a wedding, he was not wearing a weapon, and he felt helpless. Steve glanced
behind him, where Kelly huddled behind a granite boulder, still breathing in
loud raspy gasps. He knew they could not hope to outrun or hide from David.
Even in the fading daylight there was still enough light for David to find them
and finish the job. 

           
Steve’s eyes hardened. There was still one possibility. If they could draw him
close enough, Kelly at least, might be able to escape…David was nearly to the
tree line. He was out of time. Abruptly Steve raced toward Kelly. He grabbed
her hand and pulled her to her feet, and once again she was running, this time
moving deeper into the shadows.

           
They didn’t speak. There was no time, no opportunity.  Kelly was only too
aware that they were only yards ahead of David, and David had no intention of
letting them escape. A sense of futility overwhelmed her and she nearly gave in
to her exhaustion, but Steve would not allow her to stop.  Still hand in
hand, they fled, Steve dragging her forward into the woods and toward - the
ravine?

           
They would be trapped! Desperately Kelly pulled on Steve’s hand, trying to
force him to veer to the left, away from the gully wash that she was sure would
mean their certain death; but far from running blindly, Steve’s eyes gleamed
with single minded determination. He refused to be deterred, not slowing their
pace until they were almost to the ravine itself. At last, he lurched to a stop
and looked around for a moment, as if to get his bearings.

           
“That stump!” He gasped pointing to a jagged black outline about twenty feet
from the ravine. “Get behind it, and when the time comes, grab the bag and
run!”

           
“Run where?” She gasped in confusion. “Where are you going?” She demanded,
balking as he tried to push her toward the stump.

           
“Run to the road!” He told her roughly, “and don’t stop running! He won’t
follow you – run until you’re safe!” He gave her one more firm shove.

           
“No! Steve, no!” She cried as she understood something of his plan. She held
his hand in hers, fighting to hold on.

           
“No time, Kelly!” He rasped, too drained of air to speak clearly. “Just do it!”
He kissed the hand that clutched at him fiercely. Then shook himself free from
her grip, and stumbled closer to the crumbling edge of the cascade that still
plummeted through the ravine, where he would be a sitting duck when David
approached. The downpours of the last few days had done their work, and the
gully roared and gurgled with the sound of water tumbling down through the rock
chimney that Alyssa had once tried to climb. Steve had nowhere left to run.

           
Exhausted and unable to see what Steve hoped to accomplish by allowing David to
shoot him on the edge of the ravine, or how this would protect her from David
once Steve was dead, Kelly stumbled over to the stump, and threw herself numbly
onto the muddy ground .

           
Almost at once she heard the soft hum of a working hornet's nest. Her eyes focused
on the outline of a duffle bag, resting on top of the oak stump, and she began
to understand at least part of Steve’s plan. Steve had told her how Pete had
riled a hive by dropping a backpack on it, he had just never mentioned which
trail they were on when it happened! Now Kelly understood what Steve needed her
to do. Stirring up the nest might give them their only chance to fight back,
and Steve meant to lure David into their territory.

           
She peered carefully from behind the stump, waiting for David to follow them,
as Steve had known he would.  All too soon, she caught sight of a darker
shadow cautiously moving against the gray stalks of the trees.  Should she
do it now? Was he close enough?  No…Kelly forced herself to think like
David.  He wouldn’t shoot Steve immediately. David would need to gloat. He
would believe that he could afford to gloat.  She must wait.

           
The shadow moved closer.  Kelly felt the brush of wings as a hornet landed
on her hand.  She willed herself to hold still, to do nothing. A second
hornet buzzed her ear. Unable to stop herself, she shook her head trying to
drive it away. A stinger pierced the back of her neck and she choked back a cry
of pain. She drew back and immediately hornets erupted all around her She
sensed more than saw the tiny bodies of the irritated insects rising from the
ground. The nest entrance was not in the stump, but among the gnarled roots!
She’d been lying on the nest!  The gentle hum quickly accelerated into a
throbbing growl, and the tiny insects flooded the air around her. Kelly
screamed as stingers pierced her through the thin cloth of her blouse and
slacks. She scrambled to her feet, unable to endure the attack in silence.

           
She saw rather than heard the branch splinter in front of her, and knew that at
least she had drawn David’s shot away from Steve, who, outlined by the rising
moon, still hovered at the top of the ravine, waiting for David to take the
bait. She knew he had only moments until David would be close enough to take
aim…

           
But the hornets were everywhere! She knew she was supposed to race back to the
trail while David was distracted by the opportunity to kill Steve and the
attacking hornets, but she couldn’t do it! She hesitated, knowing instinctively
that leaving was the wrong decision but what other…she froze, suddenly knowing
exactly what she must do!  Kelly felt fate rise up in her as the memory of
a nearly forgotten dream reformed in her mind. Another bullet whizzed by her
head so close she felt the air part, but she didn’t break stride as she grabbed
the duffle bag off of the stump and raced toward Steve. She could just make out
his shocked face as she reached for his hand.

           
“Jump!” She cried, wrapping her arms around him as they both dropped over the
edge, into the giddy emptiness of space.

           
Steve and Kelly crashed into a bulge in the side of the cliff, their clothes
and bodies tearing as scrubby bushes and trees deflected them from the certain
death of the sheer drop before them, and tumbled them helter-skelter until they
dropped once more into nothingness, landing on Alyssa’s ledge in at least six
inches of soft mud.

           
The force of the landing drove the air out of Kelly’s lungs in a
whoosh!
that left her gasping helplessly for air. She dimly heard Steve’s cry of agony
as he thudded against his wounded shoulder, but she couldn’t move to help him.
Kelly’s lungs strained desperately, until at last she felt the blessed intake
of air as her lungs inflated and oxygen flooded back through her body. 
She rasped and wheezed, painfully aware of at least ten different
sights
where the hornets had buried stingers into her skin.
But above it all remained one inexorable fact. Her hand groped through the
darkness until it closed on Steve’s."  

           
“Can you hear me?”    

           
“Yeah,” he gasped, still trying to gain control of his breathing.

           
“We’re still alive!”  

           
Steve didn’t answer immediately, but his hand squeezed hers in response.

           
“I’ll -  be happy about that – eventually,” he panted.

           
Painfully they pulled themselves back as close to the cliff wall as they could,
huddling close together to share each
others
comfort
and warmth.

           
Kelly hugged Steve’s shivering body.
They were alive!
She marveled. And
now, she knew that they would be all right. When the time had come, they had
jumped into the blackness and found a safe landing.  The Word had been
true. Tears of thankfulness filled her eyes, and she buried her head against
Steve's chest.

           
Steve kissed Kelley's tangled hair. He could hear her muffled sobs against
his   chest. The insanity of what had just happened was beginning to
hit him.

           
"Kelly, what were you thinking?" He admonished her softly, shaking
his head. "The chances of us landing here... of
surviving
that
jump...!

           
"...were already promised!" She cut in excitedly, wiping the tears
from her eyes and lifting her head from his shoulder. 

           
"I remembered my dream, Steve! I was ready to do what you'd told me, to
stir up the nest and run for the road, but  I just couldn't! And it was
because of that dream...!"She groped for the right words but she could
only shake her head in wonder.  "I
knew
, Steve! Suddenly I
knew
that we were supposed to jump and that we would land right here!"

           
Steve could only sit beside Kelly in numb silence, trying to accept the
implications of what Kelly had just told him. They should be dead, and yet,
here
they were!

           
Kelly's chattering teeth brought his mind back to more practical matters. He
took off  his suit jacket and draped it around Kelly's shoulders.  It
had grown so dark, he couldn't even see the edge of their tiny perch, which
couldn't be more than a few feet away, but he remembered seeing the bright
yellow duffle bag in Kelly's hand as she had dragged him over the cliff edge...
had it landed here with them as well?

           
Steve groped around them, and sighed with relief as his hand closed on the nylon
material. He pulled the duffle bag closer and fumbled inside for something.

           
"What are you doing?" Kelly asked curiously, as she huddled against
the damp rock and rubbed her arms for warmth.

           
Steve smiled in the darkness as his hands found what he was looking for. He
lifted it out of the bag. "For some reason," he told her, "you
had the foresight to grab my duffle bag before you decided to push us off the
cliff."

           
He took her hand and guided it to a piece of material. "Help me unfold
these. They're emergency survival blankets. We need to wrap up to keep from
getting hypothermia." Together, every muscle protesting the need to reach
and stretch, they spread out the first blanket and crawled onto the dry
surface. Then Steve opened a second blanket, pulled Kelly close for warmth, and
tucked that blanket around their bodies in a protective cocoon. Wrapped tightly
in the foil blanket and huddled close to Steve, Kelly sighed and tried to
sleep. Her jaw and muscles ached, and her whole body was shaking with shock and
cold. They were alive, but it was going to be a long night....

           
Steve opened his eyes to the murky predawn sky. The first thing he was aware of
was Kelly, huddled next to him, sleeping peacefully despite the cold.  Her
mahogany hair was muddy and tangled with twigs.  There was dirt, blood and
scratches all over her face, as well as an ugly purple bruise from David’s
fist. 

           
David
…Steve wasn’t ready to think about him yet.  He’d done what
he’d had to, to protect Kelly. 

           
Carefully he set thoughts of David aside and concentrated on Kelly.  Even
in the misty gray of predawn, he could see the angry red welts from the hornet
stingers that covered her arms and neck.  She was a mess, but she was
alive, and Steve felt that the sight of her, sleeping safely by his side, was
one of the greatest gifts God could have ever given him. 

           
It would take awhile, though, for him to accept the other things that had happened
yesterday. During the night Kelly had told him about Richard Bolton – and about
Pete. Steve drew a ragged breath as he tried to wrap his mind around the fact
that Pete was gone! It had never occurred to him when David pulled Kelly into
the trees that David had had any other target but himself; Kelly was merely the
bait. Steve had been certain that David meant to kidnap Kelly, and then force
Steve to meet David somewhere of his own choosing – somewhere where Steve would
have very little chance of fighting back.  

           
So, instead of racing after her unarmed, or raising an alarm that might cause
David to panic and shoot indiscriminately, he had carefully worked his way
behind the wedding party, and then he had cut down the side of the summit and
reached the boulder in the path only minutes ahead of David and Kelly. 

           
He had never heard the shot that had ended his friend’s life. Steve thought of
Deborah, and his heart ached for her. What must she be going through?  And
poor Gracie would be confused and terrified. Would Lee Ann be able to comfort
her, or was she too wrapped in grief for Richard? Steve wondered if his mother
and all the other guests had watched the whole gruesome moment on the big
screen television.

           
Beside him, Kelly stirred and groaned as her stiff muscles protested against
being moved. She squinted up at the sky.  “Morning?” She asked blearily as
she drew her exposed arm back under the blanket.