Richard
Once more, we drive, covering the same ground, when, with a jolt, James sits upright. “There’s the signal again! It’s only a mile or so away, on the road, back the way we came.”
His fingers dance over his keyboard as he zooms in on the signal, pausing only to clutch at the dashboard as Michael makes a screeching one-eighty turn. The three of us press back in our seats as he accelerates hard, the smell of burning rubber blooming through the air.
Screaming down the winding mountain road, we break out from the dark enclosure of the pines and as we take a corner, swaying into the turn as we do so, the headlights swing onto a running figure….
No…. Two running figures….
It’s Charlotte, racing pell-mell, dragging Elizabeth behind her, almost towing her….
She’s done it!
She’s fucking done it!
Whatever you want Charlotte….
…. Anything you want….
But as the headlights catch them, Charlotte twists around, the lights directly in her eyes. Even from here, her expression, feral with calculation, is clear.
She U-turns, almost spinning to run the opposite way, her fingers gripping Elizabeth’s wrist, hauling my wife behind her….
All she can see is glare….
As she turns, Elizabeth stumbles, losing her footing, but Charlotte yanks her upright, dragging her along and away.
Michael slaps a hand on the wheel. “Fuck! They don’t realise it’s us.”
Elizabeth is staggering, clearly exhausted. But Charlotte doesn’t release her grip, leaning into her stride as she pulls her along. In the dark, I struggle for a moment to find the window switch, but as it slides down, I yell out, then lean out, waving. “Elizabeth! Charlotte! It’s us….”
My wife is slow to react, her movements sluggish. But Charlotte spins on her axis, still with Elizabeth swinging behind her, and now, running directly for us, is shouting something at us, her free arm gesturing wildly….
What’s she saying?
…. but within seconds her message is overtaken by events as car lights swing onto us from off-road. Another vehicle races up the hill towards us, towards the fleeing women.
Michael curses and slams onto the accelerator, but it’s not clear who will reach the women first. Spot-lit by beams from three directions, Charlotte halts, hovers for a fraction of a second, then suddenly releases Elizabeth, shoving her in our direction, gesticulating and screeching instructions at her.
My wife totters towards us, but Charlotte dashes off to one side, vanishing into the darkness, and one of the cars turns to follow.
James. “We can’t follow
can they…” mutters Michael, his foot still hard on the gas as he helter-skelters towards Elizabeth. “Get ready to pull her in,” he shouts back to me, but I’m
of the headlamps, her eyes are desperate, swollen, her face white and tear-streaked as, seeing me, arms outstretched, she screams
Michael jams on the brakes, in a tyre-shredding, teeth-jarring deceleration, but the
encircle my wife, lifting her clear off her feet as I haul her in. As soon as I have her inside, without even the door closed, with a gut-slinging turn, we set off
lap, sobbing and wailing helplessly, but there
every shot, Elizabeth whimpers, burying her face in my chest. “Charlotte,” she whispers. “She got us out, got us
her tight.
driving at reckless speed around some object in the dark. All the while, James guides him with bare words and gestures
down at where bullets skip
Michael treads hard to the floor, and the car
two cars giving chase, shots firing as we skid madly from side to side, Michael swerves crazily to swing the
The headlights beam ahead into a bright blindness of trees,
Where is she?
at the cost of
ever look them in the eye
and with shots ricocheting all around us, it is only a matter of time before our pursuers succeed in
I can’t say anything…
…. I just can’t….
wife cradled in my arms, instead, I
fuck’s
Charlotte. She’s here somewhere, but she’s running, and
tight. I’ll flood the area with
If we lose a tyre, we’ve all had it, and we’ll be no use
jerks a glance at him, his voice unbelieving. “You’re saying we
of his nose, speaking quietly. “We’ve got Beth. Let’s get her to safety. We’ll come back. How far away can she be? And if we come in daylight, with the police, perhaps she’ll see it’s us and come out
sags in his
highway, before they get the tyres and disable the
“We’re on our way.”
the shoulder. “I’ve spoken to Will. He’s going to saturate the
beginning, despite the gunshots, to regain her composure. “And perhaps Charlotte
weirdly illuminated on a night-vision setting. “We’re only a minute or so off the main road.” He
terse, unhappy gesture,
the area, and as we approach the highway, lights, blue and amber, flash in all directions. The pursuing glare behind us
his screen, sighs, his voice weary. “We’re down to just the one tracer and it’s travelling with us.”
my arms, wiping a hand over her face.