His mind racing, he forced himself to take calm, deep breaths, to think of this as a challenge. A hunt.
How much of a head start did she have?
Not enough, he figured. He hadn’t been gone long enough for her to have traveled too many miles. Though the forest was dense with good cover, she would stick to trails or old roads to keep from getting lost. It was dark…
He glanced to the place where he kept his flashlight. Gone.
Quickly he searched the rest of the house. She’d taken a knife and a lighter, but no extra batteries. Her flashlight would fail quickly, before dawn, no doubt, and the lighter she’d nabbed wouldn’t help her. He considered the fact that she could start a fire, attract attention, but she wouldn’t. For fear of attracting him and starting a blaze that, in these tinder-dry woods might consume her.
There was only one rutted, old forestry road up here and though there were hiking and deer trails, they all convened at one spot.
The bridges.
One for the train.
Another originally built for logging, for trucks.
Both used to span a narrow part of the canyon, each one less than a quarter of a mile from the other.
The only other way off the mountain was around the back side, but one had to climb upward before finding an equally daunting precipitous path down. He banked on the fact that the kid would head downhill rather than up.
So he’d just have to find her.
He headed outside.
His truck was already loaded with the essentials: his rifle, ammunition, hunting knife, boots, gloves, night vision goggles and rope.
He’d catch the little bitch by morning.
Nothing and no one was going to ruin his plans.
He’d come too far.
Dani’s flashlight was useless, the weak beam giving out completely. Exhausted, she found a tree and sat behind it. Maybe she could sleep, for just a few hours, until dawn. She couldn’t move in the darkness.
But he’ll find you. You know he will. You have to keep going. Just keep moving.
She wanted to break into a million pieces, to cry and pray for her father to come find her. But it was too late. She was in this alone. Tears started to track down her dusty cheeks, but she told herself to keep going. This was no time to be a wimp. She’d just have to inch along—that was it, follow the trail and…
She felt a rumble.
The ground shook.
The trees trembled.
Holy crap, was this an earthquake? She couldn’t believe her bad luck. On top of everything else, would she have to endure a friggin’ earthquake?
She shot to her feet, wondering what to do, which way to run, and then she heard it, the familiar rush of a train barreling through the night.
Where? She looked around frantically. Where?
Louder and louder it came, the thunder of its wheels upon the tracks deafening, an incredible roar.
A light shined through the forest as the train approached. Moving quickly, ignoring her sore muscles, Dani ran through the trees and underbrush that suddenly gave way to the tracks, laid over a big swath of cleared land. The light was nearly upon her and with a deafening rush, the engines clattered noisily by, rushing at a breakneck speed, dragging a long tail of freight cars behind.
No chance to hop the train or ride a rail, she thought, wishing desperately that she could somehow climb aboard, stow away in the big metal containers and leave these miserable woods behind. At the next stop she’d go to the authorities, the sheriff or any cop on the street, and tell them about the whack job and what he’d done to her.
Of course it was all fantasy.