Page 151 of The Vanishing Place
“Shit.” Effie let out a long breath. “Right.”
“Lewis has been sleeping in a bivvy thing somewhere close, and watching.”
Effie gave the girl an encouraging smile. “You’ve done great, Anya. Really great.”
“I thought, you know, that Lewis would phone his police friends when we got here. When he saw that…” She stopped. “Then they’d bring the big helicopters and the dogs and stuff. But there’s no phone signal out here. Lewis was real mad at me. He said if we don’t die, that I’m grounded for life.” Anya glanced up. “But Lewis wouldn’t go back to Koraha. He said he wouldn’t leave you again.”
Effie took her hand. “Come on. Let’s go find them.”
“We need to get to the clearing. Lewis said to meet there.”
They walked for fifteen minutes, just two specks of light, nothing stirring but the leaves beneath their feet. The fabric wrapped around Effie’s feet had soaked through, and the soles of her feet throbbed, but the pain was numbed by the beat of adrenaline. By the thought of Lewis.
“We’re close,” said Anya. She pointed to a marked tree. “See?”
A crack exploded through the still air, and the tree next to them shook. Splinters of bark swept past Effie’s face, and she threw herself in front of the child, shielding her. Then she looked up, the light of her head-torch sending a beam of white through the trees. A figure appeared in the shaft of light. A dark mass. There—then gone. A trick of the light—of her mind.
“What is it?” whispered Anya.
“I don’t—”
A second crack tore a hole in the night, the sound throbbing in Effie’s skull, and she stumbled back. But in the dark, there was nothing. Her chest heaved so loudly that she could barely hear her own thoughts.
“Effie!” Anya screamed.
“It’s okay.” Effie swung her head from left to right. Then she saw him.
Daniel stood ten meters away, his legs braced wide, the fingers of his right hand curled around the handle of a gun. For a second, none of them moved. They just stared at each other. Then Daniel’s face broke into a cold smile and he started to walk forward. As he raised his gun, aiming at them, Effie pushed the girl behind her.
“No!” A scream fractured the quiet. And suddenly, Tia was there. She threw herself at Daniel, wild and loud and vicious, and he dropped the gun. She lunged at him, curling her arms and legs around his body and clawing at his face. But Daniel threw Tia off like she was nothing. Anya tried to run forward but Effie clutched the girl’s clothes, holding her tight as she writhed and squirmed. Effie turned, using her body to block the child’s view, then she reached out and switched their head-torches off, plunging them into darkness.
Only the white circles of Daniel’s and Tia’s torches remained, one glowing dot unmoving on the ground and the other towering high. The sounds that accompanied the black made Effie want to cry.
The thud of feet kicked into flesh. The animallike groans of pain.
“Mum,” Anya screamed.
Then a voice, a stillness, came out of nowhere.
“We need to keep moving,” he whispered.
“Lewis?”
“Yes.”
The warmth of his breath brushed against Effie’s cheek as the outline of his face appeared from the shadows.
“You need to get Anya away from here,” he said.
“We can’t leave Tia.”
“Cover the girl. Make sure she can’t see.”
Then Lewis turned on his head-torch, illuminating the image of Daniel and Tia. There was blood smeared across Daniel’s faceand his clothes were covered in dirt, but he was smiling. Tia was curled on the ground, unmoving but not dead, her arms held up to protect her head and face. Lewis took a step forward, pointing a gun at Daniel.
“Police,” said Lewis. “I need you to step back.”
Daniel raised his arms, then started to inch back from the mound at his feet.
