Page 68 of Reclaiming Adelaide

There wasn’t a place on this earth she could hide. I’d tear this city apart, the next, and the next, until I found her, even if it were her bones rotting in a shallow grave.

I’d find her.

20

Thesunbledthroughthe spider-webbed windshield, creating a prism effect across my sweating body.

How long had I slept?

My body ached despite waking up several times to the hard blowing wind and switching positions, then letting the soothing sway lull me back to sleep.

But now it was warm, way too warm, and the wind had calmed. Sometime into the night, I must’ve kicked my blanket off onto the filthy van floor.

A wave of warmth intermingled with a chill rolled up my spine and over my shoulders as I cranked my neck from side to side.

I swiped the bead of sweat from my brow as my stomach gurgled. Damn. I knew I should have bought snacks.

What time was it?

I couldn’t have slept that long because I didn’t feel rested or rejuvenated. Instead, I felt used, sluggish, and exhausted. I glanced down at my phone lying on the laptop bag.

“What?” That can’t be right. It was eleven-forty-five. I’d slept all morning in this god-awful heat?

Another wave of sweaty chills rippled up my chest and into my throat. I needed to get out of this sauna. I shoved the blanket into my bag, grabbed my laptop, and pocketed my phone, doing an extra sweep of anything I might have missed before tugging on the sliding door.

My pulse shot up in my ears, my heart hammering against my breastbone. I jerked again, but it didn’t budge.

I put my bags down, wrapped both hands around the metal door, and then tugged.

Nothing.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Exhaling a puff of irritation, I turned toward the shut double doors at the rear, void of any windows, and shuffled the three steps to the rear.

A shiny metal bar for a handle held the key to my escape, yet when I tugged on it, the crumpled metal groaned but didn’t budge.

Oh my God.

Sweat bloomed across my back and trickled down, collecting on the waistband of my sweats. My throat constricted.

What if I didn’t get out of here? No one would find me, and somehow those feral cats would find a way in here and eat my body. Or rats.

I cried out and banged on the back doors. “Help me, please! Someone!”

The thick air sat like syrup, slugging down my windpipe and pooling at the bottom of my terror-gripped lungs.

I moved back up to the middle and weaved my fingers into the rounded-diamond-shaped metal, which separated me from the front where the locks were and tugged. My shaky arms turned to Jello as I struggled, curving in the metal grate in the center, only for it to spring back to normal when I let it go.

“Ahhh!” I shook the grate and slapped it with my open hand. “Goddammit!”

I rushed to the back, my legs slick with perspiration in these heavy sweats, and laid on the floor, giving the back a solid kick like a battering ram.

Tiny sparks of light shimmered through with each kick but disappeared once the pressure released.

“Shit.”

This wasn’t right. I waved my hand in front of my face in a makeshift fan and slowly breathed out. A droplet of sweat raced down my temple to my cheek as I returned to the sliding door again.

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