Out of Place (9 page)

Chapter 15

Emily
curtailed her excitement as they ran towards the noise. She trusted Zack’s judgment, but didn’t trust luck to swing their way. They headed towards the sound of the ATV that he was certain was going to be their ticket out of here.

“This way
,”
He
he
said as they cut off the trail and headed over the black-dirt ridge. They hurried down a sharp embankment, and came to flat area, where they broke into a brisk run, dodging trees left and right and leaping over a downed log. Running up another short hill, busting through some thick brush, they landed on a narrow trail with two worn grooves and a tall hump in the center.

Zack
looked left, then right. “Damn. I hope they didn’t pass us.”

The distant burgle of the engine got closer and Emily saw the lights of the ATV slowly flicker around the soft corner.
Zack stepped into the trail and started flagging them down. It was a single ATV with two riders. They slowed and the driver approached them cautiously.

“
Hey.” Zack stepped up to them. “We need your help.”

The
passenger flipped up the visor on the black helmet and revealed a young woman’s face, maybe around Emily’s age. The driver flipped up his mirrored visor and spoke loudly over the idling engine. “What’s up?”

“We need help,
” Zack said. “Some psycho is chasing us with an assault rifle. We need to get out of here.”

Emily could clearly see there was no place for them to ride with the couple. “Do either of you have a phone that gets reception?”
she asked.

The girl on the back said
in a southern accent, “No, this here is a dead zone for my carrier—won’t work until we get up the other side of this mountain ridge. But we can scoot back towards Singer.”

“Okay,”
Zack said. “Could you please go back there as fast as you can and call for help?”

The driver looked around skeptically
. “Where is this supposed psycho at?”

“Look, dude, I’m not screwing with you. This guy killed three of my friends right in front of me back at
Vestal Lake. We got to the Eagle Point ranger station, and the ranger was dead. This is some serious shit, bro, I’m not kidding.”

The guy must have seen the seriousness in their faces, because he nodded positively. “Okay, I’ll zoom
back there and make the call. You guys stay on this trail.”

“Thank you,” Emily said.
“Thank you so much.”

They watched the ATV turn around on the tight trail and pull away. Emily felt a little bit of hope for the first time since this ordeal started.
It wasn’t overwhelming because there were no guarantees. “Do you think they’ll do it?”

Zack
shrugged. “I hope so. I don’t know where this trail leads to, though. It might be a while until they get back if they have go back to Singer. I think that’s several miles.”

She looked up at the hill behind them. “At least we don’t have to climb back up that.”

“Yeah, it was much easier coming down.” Emily rested her back against the wall of rock behind her. “We have to get out of here.” She looked up through the thick trees to the sky. “How long till dark?”

He looked up. “About three hours before we start to lose light.”

“They won’t be that long. Right?”

Zack
shook his head. “Doubt it.”

Emily took a small drink of water and capped the canteen. “Can I have a bar?”

Zack shimmied the backpack off and zipped open the pocket, took out a bar and tossed it over to her.

Emily opened the package, broke off half the bar and offered the other to
Zack. “Here.”

“No, go ahead
. We have enough.”

Emily shook her head.
“I don’t want to eat too much in case we have to run again.”

He nodded and took the other half.

“These are so good.” She loved peanut butter. It was basically her favorite food. She ate it on bread, celery, carrots, apples, and just about anything you could think of. “I love peanut butter.”

Zack
nodded as he swallowed his last bite. “Me too, it’s like my favorite food.”

She laughed. “That’s so funny, I was just thinking that.”
Sometimes it was weird how they had such random things in common.

“
Did you ever have it with blueberries?”

“Actually, no.”

“It’s good. You put a handful of blueberries in the microwave until they’re mush, spread them on some whole wheat toast and then put peanut butter on top.”

“So it’s like blueberry jelly?”

“Yeah, kinda, only no sugar added.”

“Hmm, sounds pretty good.” She chased her last bite with a sip of water and offered the canteen to
Zack, who sipped a bit and handed it back. She laughed to herself and said, “Peanut butter, hockey, Princeton—you’re a pretty cool dude.”

He laughed. “Thanks, it took me a lot of years
to perfect my coolness.”

“Ha
ha, and you’re clearly humble. If you tell me you drive a classic muscle car I just might have to kiss you.”

He turned his head. “Sorry, I hate old cars. I drive a brand new Volkswagen Jetta.”

“Euro-trash,” she joked.

“German engineering at
its cheapest.”

She smiled. “I actually love old Beetles.”

“Old cars look cool, but drive like crap. They’re loud and uncomfortable, they ride sloppy. I’d rather have my cheap V-dub than any classic old car.”

“I can understand. I do like my little Honda.
” She sighed. “I tell you, when we get out of here, I might just spend a little cash and get an old Camaro.”

“More power to you.”

The distant sound of the ATV coming down the trail caught their attention and they shared a look of excitement. Emily was actually feeling a bit of relief. She was afraid they wouldn’t come back. “That was fast.”

As the lights of the ATV shimmered around the corner
through the trees, she noticed there was only a single rider this time. Maybe they’d split up to wait for the police. The ATV stopped a bit farther away then she expected, then it slowly crept towards them. But all hope was dashed when the sun hit his khaki tactical clothes and the rider pulled out a pistol with his free hand.

She froze, but
Zack yanked her hard and pulled her off the trail down the opposite hill and into the thick woods. The cracking of the gun split the air and echoed off the rock walls around them.

Bullets cracked and splintered
trees all around them as they chugged hard down the hill at breakneck speeds. The darkness was growing thicker as they got deeper into the tight pines. The hill got very steep very quickly and she was going so fast she couldn’t keep her footing. She started to lose balance and an unexpected log stretched across their path.

Zack
was able to leap the log, but she didn’t make it and caught her left foot. It sent her flying. She put her hands out to stop the fall, but hit a tree with the side of her face and shoulder, twisted off, and fell backwards.

She
hit the ground back first and started tumbling feet-over-head until she came to a hard stop at the bottom. Her head was spinning, she tried to keep her eyes focused, tried to keep from passing out.

Emily tried to catch her breath but it was hard. S
he looked up at Zack, who stood over her saying something, but she couldn’t hear the words. His lips were moving, but the only thing she could hear was the ringing in her ears.

Nausea hit her hard, she tried to move
, but it wasn’t happening and a sudden rush of pain attacked her body all over. She heard his voice, but the words were jumbled and she could have sworn she heard Zack say, “Hey, you with the leather mullet—go to the front of the cave.”

Finally
, she felt so bad she closed her eyes.

Chapter 16

Zack
had no choice but to pick Emily up and carry her. She was looking pretty banged up and he had no time to wait for her to come to. He scooped her up in his arms and slowly made his way down the other side of the hill.

The ground was softer here so he could walk
harder and still hear. The ATV sound chugged somewhere in the distance, which was a good thing. As long as he heard that, he knew the guy wasn’t close.

He pushed his tiring legs hard as the steepness of the hill increased quite a bit.
Level ground couldn’t come soon enough, and with a few final strides, he made his way into a pasture.

At the center of the
last field, a large hill stood before another section of woods. He gritted his teeth and tried to run to that section, he had a hunch there might be a place to rest. As he approached, his suspicion was confirmed. There was a section of rocks, which led upwards a few levels. About halfway up the face was a deep recess with some shelter.

It wasn’t quite a cave
, but it was something. It was a good defensive position. He had to rest and the sky was going to get dark very soon. Nighttime came quickly out in the woods.

He carried Emily up the natural staircase and laid her down on the flat rocks.
Using the backpack to prop her head up, he needed to survey the damage she had from the fall.

Inspecting her face, she had a cut on her bottom lip, and her left cheek was
scratched up. It wasn’t horrible. Both her knees were scratched, too. He rolled her onto her side and saw some blood on her back, seeping through her white T-shirt.

Rolling up her shirt, he saw a
nasty, bloody scratch on her shoulder blade, where a blue strap-style bikini top was fitted. The wide band seemed to have protected her a little from worse damage. There was also a little bit of blood on the back of her head. He reached into the backpack and took out the first-aid kit. After cleaning and dressing the wound on her back, he moved to her head, carefully spreading her thick blonde hair with one hand and irrigating the wound with the other. It wasn’t real bad, hopefully it would clot. He took a blob of antibiotic gel and dabbed it onto the cut.

There was another
superficial wound on her ribcage, he swabbed that up, and carefully pulled her shirt back down. Easing her back onto the backpack pillow, he took a deep breath and leaned against the rock wall.

When he’d taken his survival co
urse a couple years ago, the least comprehensive part was the first-aid section. Lucky for him, he’d dated a nurse at the time and she’d spent considerable time with the participants after the instructor had used up all his knowledge.

He and
Sarna dated for two years. He was the first American guy she’d dated after moving here from the Ukraine. They’d met in the hospital when Zack had to take his older brother there when he fell down the steps and broke his ankle. In the years before Jake died, he was always getting hurt because he was always drunk. He started drinking when he was seventeen and never stopped. It just went in a wicked downward spiral. Two trips to rehab seemed to make no difference. He just couldn’t get his head straight.

The saddest part of his disease was that Jake Anderson was quite possibl
y the best young hockey player the state of New Jersey had ever seen. He was so good he made scouts drool all across the country.
Hockey Week
magazine called him the next great American player.

Sarna w
as there for him when Jake died, but maybe his proposal was one step too far. He was hurting, and he actually thought she was going to say no, but she didn’t. He probably could have done things differently there, but mistakes were made on both sides.

Zack
halted his breathing, listening for the ATV, but it was out of earshot. Or the rider had turned off the engine to listen for them. Things were so big out here, you couldn’t just go chasing without a good idea of where you were going. This guy had no idea Emily had fallen, so for all he knew they were still running down the hill or had cut back around down the mountain behind him.

Emily groaned and
Zack looked over at her. She opened her eyes and reached for her sore ribs, then to the back of her head as she sat up. “What happened?”

“You wiped out, hard.”

She lifted up her shirt and looked at her ribs. “Ouch, this hurts.” She winced and rolled her shoulder. “What’s on my back?”

“A bandage, you have a gash on your shoulder blade.”

She touched the back of her hand to her face and felt her lip. “I’m a mess.”

“You fell into some trees and bushes
and rocks…all that good stuff.”

Emily nodded. “I remember now.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” He wanted to get an idea of how bad, if any, concussion symptoms she might have.

“I remember you were standing over me.” She laughed, then winced because it
clearly hurt a little.

“What?”

“You said something funny.”

“I did?
”

“You said something about a leather mullet.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Yeah, you said,
‘hey, you, with the leather mullet, go to the front of the cave.’” She made a face. “Okay, maybe I didn’t hear you right.”

Zack
laughed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t remember what I said, but I can assure you I’ve never said that. But either way, you don’t seem to have any memory loss.”

She looked around. “I don’t know how we got here.”

“I carried you here, you were unconscious.”

“You carried me here? And you cleaned my wounds.”

He nodded. “Yup.”

“So, you’re like, a pretty resourceful superhero.”

Zack laughed a little. “No so much.”

“Still, impressive.”

“What was I going to do? Leave you there to be scooped up by some psycho?”

She shrugged. “A lot of people would
’ve saved their own asses. Harry wants me. If he had me, he’d probably let you go.”

Zack
shook his head. “I’m not about to take that chance. If he gets you, chances are no one will ever see you again. I couldn’t live with myself.”

Emily turned her
body and let her legs hang over the edge of the short ledge. She looked at Zack. “We got those ATV riders killed, didn’t we?”

Zack
blew an audible breath. “I don’t know.”

“Well, if not for us
, they wouldn’t have gone back that way.”

“Maybe not
. But maybe they would have eventually, and the same result could’ve happened.”

“I feel sick.”

“Hey, this isn’t our fault. None of this is our fault. This freaking psycho is out of his mind. Nothing he does is going to make sense on any level.”

Emily leaned forward a bit. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know, but I heard the ATV heading back around the ridge, then it went out of earshot. Even if he knows exactly where we went, it will take him hours to get around that mountain on the ATV, and I doubt he goes on foot now.”

An uneasy look took hold of her face. “What if he’s coming right now?”

“It’s getting dark. We’ll see or hear him coming.”

She nodded.
“As long as one of us stays awake.”

“
Yeah, that was my fault. It won’t happen again.”

Emily slid a bit closer to him. It was getting colder
as the darkness fell. “Thank you, Zack.” She looked at him and pursed her lips. “What’s your last name?”

“
Anderson.”

She nodded and held out her hand. “Good to meet you
, Zack Anderson. I’m Emily Bontrager.”

Zack
shook her hand. “Bontrager, spelled like the bicycle company?”

She
looked surprised. “Exactly.”

“Any relation?”

“There’s some debate about that.”

“No kidding?”

“My uncle swears we are. He does all this family tree stuff, but we don’t know for sure.”

“Too bad. I was hoping for a discount on some mountain bike parts
,” he joked.

She looked at him
more seriously. “I’ll make you a deal. If we get out of this alive, I’ll buy you a whole new bike, any one you want.”

He
let out a small laugh. “That’s very nice of you, but I can’t even afford the one I want, I doubt you could.”

Emily shrugged. “Don’t be so sure about that.”

“What’re you, rich?”

She turned her
tilted her head. “Yeah, kinda.”

“Seriously? I was only kidding.”

She twisted her lips. “I’m not.”

“I thought you said you
r father was like a plumber or something.”

She snickered. “No, he’s a computer network technician for a perfume company.”

“So, how’re you rich?”

She bashfully looked away
and shrugged. “I used to be on television.”

Zack
moved his head back in surprise. “You’re messing with me. Right?”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

He crossed his arms. “In what capacity?”

She flipped her hair jokingly.
“I was a child star.”

“Do tell this story, please.”

“Well, when I was four, we were standing in line at the Dairy-Dairy ice cream shop in Hoboken and this couple came up to my mother and asked if I wanted to be in their new commercial. So she said yes. Apparently, I was cute enough that a popular kid’s cereal wanted me for their campaign. That led to a bunch of other commercials and then one day we got invited to an audition for a role on a television show. I got it. So for a few years I played Elle Brockton on
Sunrise Coast
.”

“
Sunrise Coast
? I remember that show. Kinda like a soap opera type drama, right?”

She nodded. “
Then after that was over, I was on another show for a couple years. I made a bunch of money, and unlike most showbiz parents, mine didn’t steal any. In fact, my father invested it very wisely in some tech companies, so the moment I turned eighteen, I sorta got rich.”

“Wow, that’s incredible. I’m sitting here with a movie star.”

Emily chuckled. “Not so much. I was only in two movies, very small parts.”

“Okay
, a television star.”

“
Nah, it wasn’t a big deal.”

He turned his head. “It’s kind of a big deal.”

“It had its fun moments.”

“Why’d you give it up?”

“Who says I did?”

Zack
shrugged. “I guess I just figured, since you were going to college and all that.”

“Well, I did sort of give it up
, but maybe not forever, I could always go back to it someday if I wanted to try it again. But being an adult actor is a lot different than being a kid on a TV show.”

“But why
’d you stop at all?”

She
thoughtfully tilted her head. “I guess I just wanted to have a regular life. I like the work aspect of it, it’s fun. But I don’t really like the lifestyle. And to be honest, I’m not crazy about the people that surround you. Everyone is so catty and conceited. I’m not like that. I don’t want to be one of these stupid girls carrying around a pink dog in a purse and taking selfies all day long, just dying for validation and reassurance on how beautiful they are.”

Zack
nodded. “Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?”

She gave him a narrowed glance.
“Nice.”

“I’m kidding.
That’s actually a very mature outlook.”

“I told you I’m not a kid.”

“It has nothing to do with age. I know forty year old women who’re not mature enough to have that outlook.”

She smiled at him and nudged his elbow
. “You’re a pretty smart kid.” Then she winced.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, my shoulder hurts.”

“How’s everything else feel?”

She moved her neck around. “My neck is kinda stiff.”

“We’re going to have to stay here for the night now.”
He could see Emily shivering. “Are you cold?”

She nodded. “A little.”

Zack dug into the backpack, took out the small plastic packet and unfolded the solar blanket. “Here.” He wrapped the blanket around her. “These are very warm.”

She took hold of the corners and pulled it tight around her shoulders. “Thanks.” She inched a little closer to him so they were basically touching.