“Telling someone—anyone—I’m even remotely interested in them is a giant leap for me. I mean, I know this is big for both of us, I guess.”
She nodded.
“I guess I don’t know what is going through your heart or mind. Or if you’re only interested in me because, for all we know, I’m basically the last man on earth.” Boy did she have an incredible smile. “But given what I’ve been through, I’m not looking to ‘date’ anyone.” I watched her brow furrow as she tried to figure out what I was saying. “It’s kind of an all or nothing thing for me. I don’t mean to suggest I’m leaving Sophie behind, because she always will be in my heart, but if I do move on, I have to know you want me to move on. I have to know that you mean—”
Her kiss cut me off. Damn. Her hot breath gave me major chills, her soft tongue smoothly making all the right moves. I turned towards her as we continued to kiss, moving my right hand to her left knee. She took that hand and lifted it to the side of her chest. I could feel her heart pounding every bit as hard as mine. I thought I was going to pass out. But her mouth-to-mouth skills kept me fully conscious.
When she finally pulled back for a second to look at me, I could see it in her eyes. She wasn’t looking to date, either. She too was all or nothing. It was an incredible leap of faith for her to trust a man—any man—but she was telling me she trusted me. I was speechless.
“I mean it, Ryan,” she said in total seriousness. Damn.
I leaned in to kiss her again, for one more perfect moment. And then we were interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream.
Drama had terrible timing.
FORTY-FIVE: “Black Friday”
Then there was another scream. This one was even louder, and clearly female. It also seemed a little bit closer.
About fifteen seconds later Danny was out on the ledge, with his Springfield drawn and pointed at us. Cameron was right behind him. “You guys okay?” Danny asked. “I thought you were being attacked!”
“It’s not us,” Tara replied.
I was looking down towards the camp. “It was down there.”
We heard one more scream. This one was definitely closer.
“Cam, get our rifles,” Danny whispered, and Cameron scrambled into the tunnel, returning a few seconds later with the guns.
“Blake was already bringing them to us,” Cameron whispered. Blake stepped out on the ledge with the rest of us.
Sam wasn’t far behind him. “What’s going on?”
Danny activated the night vision on his scope and scanned down the road towards the camp. He could see three men running down the road with guns in hand, chasing something—or someone. They were laughing and pointing ahead of them. There were no gunshots though. Danny kept looking, and finally he saw what they were laughing at. A girl was running down the middle of the road, stark naked and barefoot. Danny watched her fall and get back up. Then we heard a gunshot. Danny watched, but she didn’t flinch. They’d missed her.
He talked us step-by-step through what he saw, but never took his eye away from the scope or the scope away from the girl. She was clearly hysterical, but she wasn’t screaming anymore and seemed more intent on increasing the gap between her and the pursuers. But it was below forty degrees now, and she was naked. Where did she think she could go?
That seemed to be what the men behind her were thinking too. They had stopped running and were briskly walking after her now. One of them was carrying a bottle of some kind of alcohol, and they kept passing it around as they walked towards the girl. She was less than a half-mile from us now. “Danny,” Tara whispered.
“Uh huh,” he answered.
“Is she okay?” Tara asked, clearly concerned.
“No. I don’t know. She’s all bloody. Looks like she took a nasty beating.” He shook his head.
“Can we do anything?” Now she was even more worried.
Danny nodded, but didn’t answer right away. “We can. But it’s not a smart move.”
“We can’t just leave her,” Tara whispered.
No one knew better than Danny and me what she was feeling. Tara was envisioning that young girl as herself twelve years ago. No one had stepped in and helped her. We both knew Tara wasn’t telling us we had to do something, but it didn’t seem right to let the girl die like this. Whatever those men had done to her…
“Cameron and Blake,” Danny said then. “Let’s go.” He handed his R11 to Sam. “You stay here and watch with Dad. If you see me waving my arm at you, do what you can to help us without giving away your position. A few shots, but not too many. But only if necessary.” Loud and clear!
They went inside and threw on their winter jackets. Dad moved the door for them, handed each of them a suppressed rifle, and they exited towards the falls. The sun had cleared the snow away from the path today, but it remained slick. Still, they made good time.
Sam and I were watching from above through our high-powered scopes. Tara had stepped just inside the entry, listening to our whispered updates. The thick fog was now blanketing the entire valley below us, but switching our scopes to thermal mode allowed us to keep following everyone’s movements. Danny and Cameron were distinctive; with their ghost suits on, their heat signals appeared as little more than tiny dots. Blake, the girl and the soldiers, by contrast, were large glowing rainbow blobs. It took a little more focus to tell them apart. The girl had run past our position but was still in sight and had collapsed face-first on the icy road. It seemed a mile, barefoot and naked, had been all she could manage. She was giving up.
The men were gaining ground on her, but apparently couldn’t yet see her lying in the road. About that time, one of the soldiers decided to turn back. The other two continued on and passed directly in front of where Danny, Cameron, and Blake were crouching in the fog-covered ditch. I watched as either Danny or Cameron’s dot split off to the right and the other went left with Blake. The dot that went right now was stationary alongside the road, apparently in an ideal tactical position. The soldiers closed in on the girl and seemed to have finally seen her. Their laughter eerily echoed up the face of the mountain as they took their final steps. The fog wasn’t as thick where she was lying in the road, so we quickly switched our scopes from thermal back to night vision. The two soldiers stood above her, and I watched as one of the men unzipped his pants, preparing to urinate on her. What kind of sick…
Danny chose that moment to come out of the ditch. He took three long strides and stabbed a knife deep into the guy’s neck. The other guy turned towards Danny in time for Blake to crush his head in with a rock. I watched as Danny stripped one of the men down to his underwear, taking boots and all. Genius. When someone finds them, they’ll think the girl took the clothes and boots to stay warm and get away. I spun my scope towards the third soldier, but he was still walking back towards camp. He hadn’t heard a thing. I watched Danny pull the knife out of the guy’s neck and walk over to the girl.
“What is he doing?” Sam asked beside me.
“No clue,” I replied, as Danny knelt down beside her and appeared to take her hand, then stood up again and returned to the soldier, stabbing him in the neck again. Okay? Not quite sure what that was all about.
“What the hell?” Sam whispered sharply.
“No idea,” was all I could say. My focus was on Blake now.
Blake knelt down by the girl’s head, presumably attempting to talk to her. She had to be in shock. We still hadn’t seen her move on her own. He slowly rolled her over and helped her into the pants they’d taken off the man. They finally got her to sit up, and Danny helped her into a shirt. He took his jacket off and covered her, and then Blake picked her up.