Page 103 of Pied Sniper

“Me? You meanwe,” said Huey.

“Youkidnappedme,remember? You didn’t even stick to the plan! You and Cal insisted on doing something else.”

“We wanted you to look genuinely scared for it to appear more real. That’s why we surprised you during that live video!”

“You shot me!”

“It was an accident!”

“You didn’t even demand the ransom properly like we planned.”

“Jeez, Tiffany! It’s not my fault Abigail didn’t get all the money like you said she would. I told you your friend Flavia would be good for it. This is one big, freakin’ mess!” Wood banged and I wondered who punched the shed door. “There’s a first aid pack in the cabin. I don’t want a dead body on my hands if we can avoid it. We can check her out and then get out of here or dump her somewhere else. Cal will know what to do.”

“At least she can tell everyone I was scared. You have to uncuff me. Although maybe we should shoot her just like you did me…” said Tiffany as their voices began to recede.

This was my one chance. I couldn’t wait for them to come back and assist me, or bundle me into a truck to dump me somewhere while they made their escape. And I sure as hell would not be Tiffany’s star witness so she could get away with this!

I opened my eyes, scanned the shed and found it empty but the door was cracked open. Scrambling to my feet, I hurried to the door and peeked out. No one stood guard. I was right; it was the small shed I saw earlier. Lights were on in the cabin, punctuating the darkness. I eased through the door before pushing it back to the same sized crack it was and circled the shed. I couldn’t go back to the car. The car keys were gone and even if I had my phone with me, there was no cell service. If I hightailed it to the road, it was so late that the traffic would be infrequent. They would capture me before I flagged anyone down and then I would probably be in a worse situation.

My only choice was to navigate the woods and get to the ranger’s station on the other side. There was a phone there. It was a few miles away and very dark, and I wasn’t exactly dressed for the excursion. The night air was turning cold, but at least there wouldn’t be anything that might eat me. Bears had not been spotted in the area of years. And if I found a trail, I could surely avoid snakes and other nasty critters. Even the thought of accidentally standing on one made my stomach roil. Did they hide at night? I sure hoped so because I did not feel brave.

The ranger’s station was almost directly in front of the cabin, although several miles away. They would probably expect me to head to the main road in search of a ride. I glanced at the cabin, then into the dark woods and made my break for it. I was only running for a few minutes when I heard a shout. Panic propelled me forwards, branches and twigs catching my jacket and pulling my hair. I swatted them away with my bound hands.

“She’s gone! Find her!” yelled Tiffany.

Chapter Twenty-One

I snuggled into a small hollow under a fallen tree. I found it by accident having rounded the felled trunk before I lost my footing and slid down the muddy slope into a gully. But what seemed like bad luck at the time turned out to be a stroke of luck. I was protected from the wind and away from anyone’s view, allowing me a little time to collect myself. Huddled in the hollow, I thought about what I overheard. The men were Cal and Huey. They had to be Tiffany’s cousins, the men that her mom wrote off as her followers, not leaders. Of course, Tiffany could have hooked up with them here and enticed them into a get-rich-quick kidnapping scheme.

When I made a break for freedom, the trio had followed me into the forest. They were armed with flashlights and who knew what else? From the night of her fake kidnapping, I remembered that one of them had a gun. That man was either a really bad marksman and accidentally shot her like Tiffany complained, or he had really good aim and deliberately shot her in a place where it wouldn’t inflict serious damage. I didn’t want to find out which one he was. They were quiet now and I hadn’t heard them for a few minutes. I doubted they turned back. More than likely, they spread out and were listening for me. Three against one weren’t the best odds.

On the other hand, Tiffany and her cousins had done some pretty stupid things so far. That had to work to my advantage.

I breathed deeply, forcing myself to relax for a moment even though I was shivering and cold. “I can only control that which I can control,” I muttered to myself, remembering a magnet I saw on my parents’ fridge. What I could control right now was staying hidden and unbinding my wrists. I dug into my pocket and pulled out the knife, flipping the blade open. Stuffing the handle between my knees, I suspended the bindings tightly across the blade and began to seesaw back and forth. The bindings soon began to fray. Then the knife slipped and I nicked my wrist. I winced, mashing my lips together so I didn’t make any noise and repositioned the knife, repeating the motion until the ties popped free. With one last tug, I wrenched my wrists apart. I inspected them as best I could in the dark. They were red and I could see marks but my skin wasn’t broken anywhere except where I nicked it. I scrabbled in my pockets for a clean tissue and pressed it against the small wound, then tucked the knife away.

Having my wrists finally free was great but one thing became very clear: I couldn’t stay here all night. They could still find me, or give up and disappear, taking hours of lead time in which case, we might never see them again. As for Tiffany, it was my word against hers. She could easily claim my fleeting view of her in the house was an hallucination; a symptom of my head injury and I couldn’t prove her wrong. I hadn’t taken a photo or made a recording, and even if I did, my phone was gone. Sure, people might believe me, but that didn’t matter if it couldn’t be proven legally. I had to continue my escape through the woods and ensure they were caught. And to keep them engaged in my pursuit, I would have to let them see me. But one of them had a gun, so I could easily be injured or killed.

Before I made any move, I needed a plan. If I followed the stars peeking through the dark sky above the tall pines, they would provide excellent navigation. Unfortunately, I had no idea which star to follow, so scrap that. The only solution was to keep moving forward until I hit a trail and then follow that the whole way out of here, hoping to find a signpost to identify my path. Maybe that wasn’t a genius idea… I would only be slightly faster than a sitting duck on an open trail. Perhaps if I found a trail, I could run parallel to it? That would provide me with ample cover as well as a good path to follow. It would probably slow me too down since I’d be traversing the undergrowth but that would have to do. A slower, safer route was better than a faster, more dangerous one.

I tucked my neck deeper into my jacket and braced myself, ready to start moving when I heard a twig crack. And was that a boot stomping? The sound of hands rubbing together? An owl hooted somewhere in the trees and I waited, hardly able to breathe.

“She’s not here,” called out one of the men, too close for comfort.Cal,I thought. “She probably circled back to the main road.”

A flashlight passed over me and I pressed my body against the bank. “I have Tiffany’s car keys. She can’t drive away. She’d have to walk miles,” said the second man.Huey the shooter.

“What about the Jeep keys? Where are they?” asked Cal.

“Back at the cabin.”

“Shit.”

“You think she’d steal them?”

“Sure. She stole Tiffany’s car to get here. Why wouldn’t she steal mine to get away? We need to check in case she circled back to the cabin instead. C’mon.” Dried leaves crunched underfoot as they walked away. I counted, forcing myself to be slow with the numbers, trying to time how far away they were when I could no longer hear them. I’d only been running ten minutes, I thought, when I found the gully. My slow progress through the thick undergrowth meant I had to be less than a mile from the cabin. How long would it take them to jog back there? Another ten minutes, and less than a minute to see the Jeep was still there — I could have kicked myself for not thinking of that! — and what would they do then? Drive it up to the road in search of me or return to the forest? Either way, I had a little bit of time but not much and what little I did have, I couldn’t afford to waste.

A crack of thunder rolled overhead, making me jump.Terrific. Just terrific.Rain was all I needed! After a few moments of pondering… maybe that was a good thing? Rain would create an ideal buffer between me and my not very active pursuers. I had no choice but to go forward, deeper into the forest. I hoped when they reached the cabin they might be easily persuaded to stay indoors. That would be good because if the rain softened the forest floor, my tracks would be more visible in the mud and I couldn’t risk leaving a clear trail. I held out my hand, gauging the conditions and a fat raindrop fell into my palm.

I hadn’t heard the men for a few minutes. Easing out of my makeshift refuge, I kept to a crouch as I turned and tried to peer through the thick undergrowth surrounding the fallen log. I couldn’t make out much and the forest seemed very still. Importantly, I couldn’t see Tiffany, her stooges or their flashlights. Not that I had any time to spare. They had to be back at the cabin by now. Next, they would either search around the house and head up to the highway or circle back here. if the latter were their choice, I didn’t want to be here when they did.

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