There was a sudden squeal of brakes and the car came to a stop in front of her.
Only a part of Ellen's rejoicing mind realized that she was screaming at the top of her voice, "Help me… oh, God! Help me!"
She saw the startled face of a well-dressed middle-aged man and a young girl. Frantically, Ellen dug at the rear door handle and sighed with relief when it opened.
Without hesitation, she jumped in and locked the door, then impulsively bent forward and jammed her fist down on the lock of the girl's front door… oblivious of the wildly excited barking of a German shepherd dog alongside her.
"Help me… Oh, God! Help me! I've been raped… escaped convicts… raped… they're going to kill a senator," Ellen screamed, causing the dog to bark even louder.
"Oh, my God!" the man exclaimed, staring at her in disbelief. Then, without saying anything else, he accelerated the car. When the German shepherd continued to bark loudly and excitedly, he shouted, "Shut up, Rex. Make him be quiet, Sylvia." The dog immediately fell silent.
Ellen lay limply back against the rear seat, her chest rising and falling in short, puppy dog-like pants as she tried vainly to get her breath back. "Watch… watch out for a pickup truck," she said. "They're inside, and they're chasing me. Oh… don't let them stop you. They'll kill me."
The young girl in the front seat turned around, staring wide-eyed at the sobbing, gasping figure behind her. She watched as the events of the past 24 hours abruptly caught up with the hysterical Ellen who sobbed loudly once, gasped, and then slumped unconscious against the dog.
"She's fainted," Sylvia said.
The man, grim-faced, said nothing for a moment, then asked, "Did you hear her say they were going to kill a senator?"
Sylvia nodded.
The driver accelerated even faster as he saw a ferrety looking individual in convict clothing waving his hands in the middle of the road.
Vito dove for his life when he realized the driver was not going to stop; he hit the sandy side of the road and rolled over and down into some wild berry bushes. In pain, he cursed the driver and Ellen – Ellen, especially – while, at the same time, he felt the cold tendrils of fear wrapping around his mind and body. Billy's fury was already terrible to behold; he had sworn to kill Vito and Cash both if the girl got away. From the look on Billy's face, there was no doubt that the gang leader meant it.
The little convict wanted to weep, to run. He climbed painfully to his knees, praying to his own special God that the car would miraculously run out of gas or have an accident right now.
Instead, he saw the lights of the automobile rushing toward the dawn of a new day.
In the back seat, Ellen fought to surface to consciousness. Dimly, the flickering images of memory came to her like brilliantly etched cameos. Then, feeling the warm fur of the German shepherd beside her, the painful cuts on her bare feet, and the leather seat comforting beneath her, she momentarily came to again.
Tears began streaming down her face. During the hours of her captivity and brutal rape, she had wished many times that she were dead.
When she had been sent into the kitchen, she had looked vainly for a knife so she could kill herself. It was not until she was running to freedom that the truth came to her in a blinding revelation. Life was all that mattered – to live, that was all important. To exist, to accommodate… because if one can exist through seemingly endless suffering and woes, then one comes away wearing a cloak of majesty… and with this – boundless hope for tomorrow.
She had learned many things about herself this night… things which she would hide from herself for a long time to come. But one day her mind would trot them out and she could look at them objectively…
She raised her head and saw through tear streaming eyes, that night had gone and a new day had come.