Page 80 of Escape Velocity

Chapter Seventeen

Amber couldn’t hold back a disgusted sound.

“What?” Max whispered.

“I’m sitting in . . . I don’t know what it is, but it smells awful.”

She moved a little, pulled some leaves off a nearby bush, and swiped decaying vegetation from her pants leg.

But sitting in smelly muck was the least of her worries. Teeth gritted, she kept quiet as she watched light moving around inside the fence.

“They’re looking for us,” Rafe muttered. He leaned toward Max, and the two men had a whispered conversation.

“What are we going to do?” Amber asked.

“Sit tight.”

“But we’ve hardly put any distance between us and them.” she objected.

“Right. They won’t think we’d stay this close to the camp,” Max answered, but she caught the uncertainty in his voice. Maybe this was the right strategy and maybe not.

As she watched, some of the lights came closer, and she saw men who looked like the ones who had hosted them at dinner. Now they held electric torches, which they shined into the vegetation. Some were holding dogs on tethers

She didn’t need Max to tug her into the damp leaves that carpeted the ground. Luckily the spot where she was lying wasn’t as bad as the previous muck.

The three of them stayed stock-still as the torches came closer, and she silently prayed to whatever god would listen that the villagers or the dogs wouldn’t spot her or the two men.

When the group paused nearby, the breath froze in her lungs, and she didn’t let it out until the beams finally moved on.

By the light of the moons, she could see the hunting party. It consisted of men, mostly young, but she did see some of the ones she’d considered to be tribal elders.

They reached the gate in the fence that guarded the compound. Most of the men and the dogs went out, but a couple stayed behind to guard the entrance.

When the main body had moved away, Max squeezed her arm. “We have to find a better hiding place. Deeper in the swamp.”

“Isn’t that more dangerous?”

“What choice do we have?”

She didn’t like it, but she knew he was right.

“Why didn’t the dogs find us?” she asked.

“I think they couldn’t catch our scent above the smell of the stuff you fell into.”

“Lucky for us.”

He turned and looked behind him at the dark swath of vegetation where too many dangers lurked. There was no way to tell what was out there.

She followed his gaze. “Maybe it’s better to just go back,” she murmured.

“We can’t,” Rafe shot back. “No telling what they’d do to us—now that we’ve showed we can’t be trusted.” He pulled down a small dead branch and held it in front of himself, testing the ground. When he was satisfied, he moved farther into the unknown.

She watched his careful progress. Max stayed behind him.

“Why don’t you walk beside him?” she asked.

“Because it’s safer if we don’t make a wide trail for them to follow.”

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