Terry struggled for breath as they ran. “How do you feel about using that? I can tell you now…”
She shook her head. “If my life’s in danger I’ll do what I have to.”
She squinted. The light had changed. Up ahead there was a gap in the rubbish, behind which was a fence with a hole as wide and half as high as a door. The girl was waiting for them there.
Annie’s apprehension grew. What was beyond that fence? All she wanted to do was lie down and never get up again, but the thought of Dan made her push on.
Was it a trap? She didn’t know. She didn’t feel great about crouching down to get through the fence. But she did it all the same. They all did; even Olivia.
She emerged on the other side, half expecting to be grabbed by the very men they were trying to get away from. But no-one grabbed her. She stumbled to her feet and looked around, disappointed to see nothing but a couple of overturned cars that looked like they’d fallen over from the scrapyard.
“Where’s the car?” Clive snapped. “You’d better not be trying to fool us.”
“I’m not. Look. It’s right here.”
They had emerged into what looked like wasteland at the back of the scrapyard. The grass there came up to mid-calf but further into the field it was even wilder. There was a big dip in the middle where bricks and other construction waste had been dumped. Judging by the grass growing all over it, it had been there for a long time.
The girl raised the bonnet and started tinkering.
Annie looked around as bile rose in her throat again. “You said you had a car! Isn’t it working?”
“Can one of you get in and try to start the engine? Now! It worked last time but that was when Max was here.”
“Come on,” Terry snapped. “Hurry up.”
He too, Annie noticed, was paying less attention to the car and more to their surroundings.
“What do you think?” she whispered.
“Getting out might be a problem.”
The fence they’d come under ran the whole width of the scrapyard to the yards beyond. From the dip in the middle, it sloped back up to the other sides about five or six hundred yards away, where it was backed by a series of factories and warehouses.
“Yeah.” She looked around and pointed off into the distance. “It looks like there’s an entry over there. The main thing is whether we can get away without them noticing. I don’t know what kind of car that is, but it doesn’t look like it can outrun much. That’s if she gets it started at all.”
Clive had climbed into the driving seat and was trying to start it. The engine was coughing and spluttering and it made the hairs on Annie’s arms stand on end. Surely those men could hear it?
“Come on,” she hissed. “They’ll hear.”
Should we run now? she wondered. She had no idea where they were and they’d not gotten far that morning. Why the hell had they stopped at that bloody garage? If they hadn’t… well, they’d have had to take their chances with those men and knowing what they now knew about them, that didn’t seem like a very good idea.
“What’s going on?” she asked, marching over to where the girl had her head stuck under the bonnet. “Can you do it? Or are you just stalling?”
The girl raised her head. Her eyes were red-rimmed and swollen, though her mouth was twisted into a look of defiance and hatred. “Max could, if he was here. We got so close the other day and…” she twisted a spanner and the engine roared into life. Eyes wide, she slammed the bonnet shut and rubbed her oily hands on her jeans.
“Come on,” Clive shouted, sticking his head out the window. “Let’s go. Now!”
Olivia opened the passenger door and started to get in. Annie moved towards the rear and stopped. No. This is all wrong.
“Wait, what are you doing?” the girl snapped sullenly. “Give me a gun. That was the deal.”
Annie turned, assessing the situation. None of them knew where they were and none of them knew much about cars. And she’ll get killed if she stays. The girl knew the area and they didn’t. She looked at Terry. He nodded, mouth set in a straight line as he jerked his head back towards the girl.
“Go on then,” the girl said, crossing her arms. “The gun.”
Annie shook her head.
“What do you mean? I’m giving you a car. The least you can do is…”
“Clive. Olivia,” she said sharply. “Get out.” She took a few steps towards the girl. “You’re coming with us. Sorry, but we need you. And you’ll be killed if you stay here by yourself.”
“What, like you care.”
Annie shrugged. “I don’t care. Why would I? You locked us in a garage and set it alight. Get in the car.”
“You ruined everything! They’re here. I need to go. I need them to tell me what happened to Max.”
Annie darted around the front of the car now than Olivia had moved into the back. She didn’t take her eyes—or her weapon—off the girl for a moment. That was a problem she hadn’t thought of. The girl had no incentive to help them. But she was the only one who could get them out. The car sounded delicate enough as it was—one wrong move in that wilderness and they could hit a rock or a pile of bricks. She was willing to bet that the whine of the old engine had already drawn those men’s attention. It was only a matter of time until they came—all they had to do was follow the noise.
She shivered. The girl said they had shotguns. They might risk climbing on top of one of the piles of car parts to get a better view of the surroundings. If they had a good shot… she winced.
Over the din of the engine, she thought she heard voices. Rough voices she didn’t recognise.
“I hear them,” she hissed.
The girl’s eyes widened. She set her jaw and shook her head. “So give me the gun.”
“No.” Annie gestured towards the car with the weapon, trying to stop her hand from shaking—or at least make it less noticeable. “Get in. I don’t want to hurt you but you’ve got to come with us.”
The girl’s hazel eyes were filled with hate. “No way. Do you think I’m that stupid?”
Annie panicked. They were running out of time—maybe they were already out of time. “Then you’re letting Max down. Get in the car. Now. And we’ll help you find him.”
“Come on!” Terry snapped.
“We need to get the hell out of here,” Clive muttered.
Annie waited by the open passenger door, reluctant to get in until the girl did.
“I don’t trust you.”
Annie swallowed. Was she wavering? It was the closest she’d come to agreeing. And they had to go now.
“Who would you rather be stuck with? Us or those men?”
The girl got in the driver’s seat.
34. Si
Humiliated, scared and starving, Si admitted defeat. She didn’t think this lot would shoot her, but she knew the men who’d taken Max wouldn’t think twice about it. And now she had no time left to prepare.
She slammed the door and put the car into gear. A moment later, she was taking off across the grass. The car bounced this way and that as she tried to find a path through the overgrown grass, which hid countless piles of old tyres and construction waste. Part of her wanted to turn sharply, accelerate and just crash into one of the warehouses on the other side of the wasteland.
But she didn’t.
She had Max to think of.
She wrenched the wheel to the right a few seconds before piling straight into a heap of rubble.
“Look where you’re going!” one of them groaned.