Now, Mitch was driving slowly uphill on snow--slicked switchbacks. Finally, the Taurus slowed and turned off the road. Fear flooded my system, and I was afraid I might piss myself or worse, every part of me felt so loose.
I had to get the car door open and jump out—-and I’d have to do it with my mouth. I got my teeth on the door handle and pulled. Nothing happened. I could see there was no lock on the front passenger door either. While I’d been able to open the car door earlier when we toured the mine, I hadn’t noticed there were child locks on the damn doors, unlockable only from the driver’s seat.
No way to get out, just like the cabin.
Terror shrilled down my spine.
The car stopped and the ignition switched off. The driver’s side door opened, and I felt the car rise as Mitch got out. The door closed and I heard him walking around the car. I quickly moved away from the door so I wouldn’t pitch headfirst out. I closed my eyes. If I pretended to still be unconscious, maybe I could run once Mitch pulled me from the car. I didn’t believe he would shoot me inside the Taurus, because that would leave evidence. He was too smart for that, and I hoped that would work in my favor.
HOW WOULD I ever catch up? I couldn’t compete with a car, but I had to try. So now I really ran. My best time for a mile was 5:37. But that was on a treadmill at low altitude. I’d have to beat that and then some if Dekker was going to live.
And I would have to do it going uphill in the snow at ten thousand feet above sea level.
The words inside the silver box around my neck bubbled up into my consciousness. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary. I let them repeat in my head as I ran, spurring me on.
My eyes watered unceasingly. I kept my elbows in, back straight—-I pretended Dad was timing me and shouting instructions. Knees up! Tuck your butt in!
My sinuses burned. My lungs felt like they were collapsing, my calf muscles like they were being shaved from my bones. But I ran, because Dekker’s life depended on it. My clothes were wet inside and out, sweat and snow conspiring to throw me into hypothermia the moment I stopped running. But I couldn’t dwell on that. All I could think about was getting to Dekker and a phone.
The tall pines that lined the road had gathered snow, now just white flashes as I ran past them. My quads knotted and cramped.
Every third breath or so made me feel as if I would overinflate and explode, because I couldn’t wring enough oxygen out of this air. But I kept on. Switchback to switchback. The only sounds were my ragged gasps for breath and my shoes pounding the pavement.
Pain exploded in my left leg as part of my left calf muscle ripped loose. The sensation made lights sparkle in front of my eyes, but I couldn’t stop. Not now.
Dizziness rose as the Black Star mine, dark and dead, swelled up in the near distance.
I HOOKED MY right foot under the seat in front of me as the car door opened and a whoosh of cold air filled the Taurus. Mitch grabbed my shoulders, tipped me sideways and tried to lift me out of the car, but made an exasperated sound when he couldn’t. When he bent to dislodge my foot from under the front seat, I tensed and brought my opposite knee up, hitting him in the face.
He grunted, wound up and threw a punch, but I turned my head and the blow glanced off my ear.
“Get out of the car,” he said, pulling me by the hair.
I fell out headfirst, driving rocks and gravel into my scalp, making my already aching head ring. Mitch closed the car door and yanked at the wrist restraints, which bit into my skin and forced a yelp from me.
I SLOWED TO a limp at the crest of the hill, above the tailings pond. There sat the Taurus, parked and running, throwing billowy fumes into the air. I couldn’t swallow, my throat was so dry. I had to recover, and quick. My eyeballs felt as if they’d shrunk and my field of vision was narrowed almost to the point of blindness.
I rubbed them and gasped for air, trying to determine if Mitch or Dekker were in the car. It appeared to be empty. Where were they? At the bottom of the slope, by the edge of the water, I saw two mounds of black, like two bears foraging slowly along the rocky ground. Was I hallucinating? But then I saw it was Mitch, dragging Dekker’s motionless body toward the deep lake.
The only possible thing to do at that point was run down to the mine and the office building to find a phone, because there was no way I could go down to the lake. Even as exhausted as I was, the thought of being that close to the water petrified me. The few times I’d been anywhere near a river or lake, I’d felt this weird compulsion to throw myself in, -coupled with a terror that I’d be knocked in, that I’d drown.