Page 47 of Burn

The sound of a gun going off cracked through the sounds of tires squealing against the pavement and the metal buckling. I held on for dear life as we spun right off the side of the road.

Then we were plunging downward at a sharp angle. A scream erupted as we fell, then bounced as we hit something. The tires scrambling just added more adrenaline to pumping through my system. I half expected we were going to roll.

We teetered precariously before the Jeep slammed downward with another crunch and we stopped. There was lights above us on the road. Our headlights blazed out into the empty in front of us.

“Down,” Bones ordered. With shaking hands, I unclipped the safety belt and then slid down to the floor. Every muscle in my body hurt and I was shaking all over again. He was already slipping out of the passenger side and vanished like so much smoke.

“Taser,” Voodoo said, slipping a hand between the seats and wrapping my fingers around the device. “Stay down, I’ll check the best side for you to get out if you need to.”

I barely had time to process those words and then Voodoo disappeared after Bones. I hugged the floor, torn betweenstraining to listen for what was happening outside the Jeep and not hearing it.

Gunfire exploded through the darkness. I put a hand over my head like it would stop a bullet if that hit the car and went through it to shoot me. Right. The vehicle shook.

The motion had my stomach bottoming out. Head lifted, I stared upward at the door. Voodoo was going to tell me what was safer to get out, but he was gone.

Did that mean there wasn’t a safe path? Or was it just a case that he was distracted? The explosion of gunfire cracked on. One.

Two.

Three-four-five in rapid succession just added to the terror sliding through me. Guns. Running people off the road. Chaining men and women inside a truck. Being coerced or raped?—

I didn’t know what the hell had happened to sink me so deeply into all of this, but I desperately needed it to stop.

Glass splintered on the passenger side. Another bullet plinked through it and then into the windshield. The spider web of cracks spread out like we were in some kind of disaster movie. The whole effect was made eerier still by the low-radiance blue lights that were on around the floors and doors.

Not enough to really see, but to give everything a blue cast. There was a masculine shout somewhere and my heart plummeted with it as the man fell. He sounded like he was falling and his cry followed him.

Something hit the side of the Jeep and it gave a little shudder.

I needed out of the car.Right now. The bullets hit the passenger side so they had to be firing from that direction. Driver’s side would be safer. I scooted over to that door and flipped the lock to unlocked.

More gun shots ruptured the unsettling silence. Frankly, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to hear more. Sucking in a deep breath, I pulled the handle to open the door and a light turned on over my head.

Bullets sprayed the back window then hit the seats over my head and more glass broke. Unwilling to stay in here now, I shoved out, staying as low as I could. The ground was uneven. Rocks dug into my knees and grass tickled my palms as I crawled away from the Jeep.

Shouts came from above. There were headlights slicing through the darkness up there. Shadows leapt upward, covering the light then vanishing again. Staying by the Jeep was a bad idea.

Going up would be a bad idea. What I needed was to get away from the Jeep. The battle in the barn had been more controlled. Even then, Voodoo disappeared, and he dealt with the men but I’d had a place to be.

In the dark, with two of them out there and the rest of me hurting? No, I didn’t want to stay still. Not rising, I moved on hands and knees to stay down and figure out where the earth fell away.

It didn’t actually take that long before the surface seemed to be angling downward. I’d encountered more rocks, and pebbles. There was broken glass too. Twisting to sit, I slid down the side a ways. The lack of any light down here made it almost impossible to see. In theory, there was a road down here, right? The road going the other way?

I hesitated with each spot I slid, I didn’t want to fall or go tumbling down the hill. A sound like a boot on a rock scuffed behind me and I crouched lower. I didn’t think anyone could see me, but I couldn’t see them either.

Glancing back the way I’d come—I thought—I searched the darkness for any sign of the men or Voodoo or Bones. But if theywere there, I couldn’t make them out. My pulse hammered faster and it was getting hard to take a deeper breath.

Another scrape of a shoe and I twisted to look the other way. Had I gotten turned around? What if I was moving closer to the car? No, the hill beneath me still angled down, so uphill would be where the car was. Downhill was safety.

Maybe.

Did I stay? Did I need to continue scooting?

Rocks went flying, skipping over each other and scattering. Then one of those pebbles hit me.

It didn’t scatter so much as thunk.

Everything went quiet. Even the gunshots and shouts from above. The night was utterly, bafflingly silent.

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