“No,” he said, interrupting my thoughts, as if he could hear what I was thinking. “Don’t you stop, Zoey, don’t you do it. Keep going.” He coughed, pressing his hand tighter against him. “Drive, baby.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Tears were streaming down my face, and I focused on the rumbling of the engine beneath me, the pressure of the pedal under my foot as we closed the distance between the exit and us.
There was a line of guards at the exit, their guns raised. As we grew closer, they started firing, the bullets hitting the window. Tommy hadn’t lied; the cars were definitely bullet proof, though there were small cracks were they had landed. I flinched as they rained down at us and kept going at them, full speed.
I could feel every muscle in my body tense up. I was going to hit them. They weren’t going to move, and I was going to hit them. There was no time to stop. Stopping would be the worst thing for us to do; I had to keep going. I felt my eyes shut, and a scream ripped through my throat as I barreled through them. I felt warmth on my skin, and my eyes flew open. We were out.
The exit opened right out onto a dirt road. I followed it, glancing backward every so often, my foot still planted firmly on the pedal. There was no one behind us, and this did not bode well. They wouldn’t let us go. Maybe Ash, they saw no purpose in him, and maybe they knew that he was hurt. But would they let me go?
I kept driving, easing up on the speed, taking inventory of the car and my surroundings. The car was full of gas, and I knew there would be minimal supplies in the back, provided by Tommy. I felt his loss again, like a punch to the gut and hoped we would make it out to justify his life. We were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees everywhere. I glanced behind me and saw that there was still no one behind me.
Ash groaned again, low, as if he didn’t want me to hear him.
“Ash?” I asked, my voice wavering as I looked over at him. My knuckles were white as I gripped the steering wheel. “Baby, are you okay?”
“Just. Drive,” he said. His eyes were squeezed shut, and his forehead was pressed to the glass. The car was full of the slow, ragged breaths coming from his mouth.
I took one last look behind me, just to make sure there was no one there, and looked back over to Ash. “I’m sorry.” His eyes flew open and met mine. He opened his mouth to speak, but I kept talking. “This is going to hurt.” I jerked the wheel to the left and we went spiraling into the forest, hitting the ground beneath our wheels rough and hard. Ash winced, but I kept going. I had to keep going.
I navigated through the forest, around trees, not caring if they were scratching up the paint. I hit one tree hard, and the side mirror cracked and hung against the side of the car, useless.
The forest wasn’t very thick, probably because there was a road right on the other side but that’s what I was hoping for. They would expect me to take their dirt road to the actual road but they would never expect me to make the rough trek through the forest. We bounced around, no matter how gentle I tried to be, and I felt Ash’s gasps all the way down my spine. I had to get him somewhere. Sanctuary, we would find Sanctuary and they would fix him.
“Zoey.”
We hadn’t spoken for a while, letting the minutes tick by in silence as we listened, listened for the sound of someone following us. I jumped at the sound of Ash’s voice and looked over at him. “Yeah?”
He raised a shaking hand and pointed. “The road,” he coughed. A dribble of dark red blood sputtered out of his mouth, and I immediately looked away, my stomach clenching. My eyesight followed his finger, and sure enough, there was the road. I felt myself relax against the seat, relieved to see it.
There was a slight incline as we reached the road, and I had to press hard on the gas to get us up and over and onto the smooth pavement of the road. I immediately turned left, away from the compound. We drove for a few minutes in relative silence, watching the empty road before us. Then I saw something in the distance.
I squinted and slammed on the brakes, as two cars, two black SUVs approached us, at top speed. I started to turn around but there was no time. One slammed right into us. I let go of the steering wheel. Screams filled the air as we spun in circles. My hand reached out and I grabbed Ash’s in mine, hoping we would come to a stop soon.
We came to a halt, but I didn’t move. My body was pressed against the sticky leather and everything in front of me was still spinning. I closed my eyes, pressing my lips together. I felt the bile rise up in my throat and the scent of blood was everywhere. “Ash?” I whispered, squeezing the hand that was still clutched in mine.