Page 4 of Prisoner of War
“We were all a bit busy saving our own necks, remember?” Minnie pointed out sweetly.
Calli nodded, her eyes takingon a faraway look. “I guess that’s something else I’ll never know either—what it was like for you on the ground. I’m still amazed that Duardo found you and got you to the campground in such a short time. What did he do, carry you?”
“Almost.” Minnie couldn’t help smiling as she remembered the moment that Duardo had appeared, like a superhero in a comic book, out of nowhere, unlooked for but arrivingjust when he was needed most.
She had been forced to abandon her father’s car on the road to Pascuallita. There were too many refugees fleeing south to the city for her to move farther north against the tide. Although she didn’t want to lose the protection the car provided, she thought she would make better time on foot.
Within minutes, as she struggled to push her way through the stream ofhumanity to the side of the road, she knew she was wrong. There were just too many people and she was too short and too light to barrel her way through them. She stepped off the road into the thick growth on the side and peered into the dappled shadows under the canopy. It looked as if it might be easier to move in there. She could walk a few yards away from the road and keep parallel with it so theroad would guide her to Pascuallita.
She forced her way past the growth hemming the road and it did seem lighter and easier to move along. Feeling slightly happier, she turned to the north and worked her way around the trees in her way, glancing over her right shoulder every now and then to spot the road and the long stream of people, cars and other modes of transport all heading south.
Herspirits lifted. It would take much, much longer to reach Pascuallita now, but at least she knew shewouldmake it. When she got there, she would check on Duardo’s family to make sure they had survived the initial outbreak of violence when the Insurrectos had made their move. There was a chance Duardo would be there. He would not casually abandon his family. He had too long been their protector.
If he was not there, then from Pascuallita she remembered the way to the base. On foot, she could sneak up on it and scout around to see if she could find news of Duardo.
She paused for a rest after an hour of steady progress and mopped her brow. The air was thick and musty under the tree tops. It was only then she realized she couldn’t hear the murmur of people and the muted throb of motors.She spun to face the road, her heart hammering.
It was nowhere in sight.
Oh my god. She clutched at her chest as her heart lurched, giving out a queer pang that made her feel like puking. Cold sweat prickled under her arms and down the back of her neck. “Oh shit,” she whispered. The loss of visual contact with the road was bad. Very bad. It was her only means of measuring direction.
She turnedslowly on her heels, a full circle, peering through the trees. She hoped to see something. Movement of some kind. A spot of whiter, brighter light that marked the end of the canopy. Anything that would indicate people, civilization.
The forest was uniformly shadowed, green and still.
The only thing that marked one part of the forest from the other was the slope of the land. It lifted gentlyto Minnie’s left, which could give her a direction. Pascuallita was up in the mountains. The mountains ran like a thick spine down the center of the island of Vistaria. She could keep the slope to her left and that would mean she was moving north.
She took a few hesitant steps in that direction. She wished she had studied the maps of Vistaria when Calli had been poring over them. Calli wasn’there. She had to use her own head. Would following the slope mean she was going north?Think, Minnie!
She stopped and squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed at her temples. If she followed the slope, she would be following the edge of a mountain...and mountains were round at the bottom! All the contour maps showed them as big irregular circles. She would end up heading farther inland, farther intothe mountains where the fighting was going on.
Frustrated, she gave in to the childish impulse to stamp her foot. “I swear, if I get out of this I’m never going to do anything so foolish again!” she muttered. “What thehellwas I thinking? Rescue Duardo? I can’t even save myself, for Christ’s sake!”
She looked around the forest again, hoping that in the last few minutes something might havechanged, that she would spot a detail that would help her find her way out.
Nothing.
Then she froze. Something had made a noise. Far away, at the edge of her hearing. She closed her eyes again, this time to listen. She held her breath and wished her heart would stop thudding in her ears.
There.There. Far off. Definitely coming closer.
She spun to face the direction she thought she had comefrom. The sound had issued from over there. Something moving through the forest toward her? She kept still so she would not miss a single sound. Yes, someone was moving toward her. The sounds were unmistakable. “Hey! Hey! Over here!” Her shout fell flat and echoless. The thick vegetation muffled it.
As she sucked in a breath for another shout, the thought struck her.I’m in enemy territory...andI’m shouting in English.The air backed up in her windpipe, choking her with a hard, painful knot.
Who is coming toward me? Friend or foe?
She glanced around frantically. She couldn’t run. Running would get her more lost and would mark her trail with the sound of her stumbling progress through the forest. She had to hide somewhere until she knew who this was.
She spotted a fallen log, greenwith moss and vines, up against another trunk. At the crotch of the pair, there, she could duck out of sight. She hurried over to the fallen tree and climbed over the massive beam. It was bigger than she’d thought it to be, which was reassuring. She ducked behind it and hugged the still-standing trunk. The tree was solid against her shoulder and that helped too.
The sounds of progress were closeand not nearly as loud as the sounds she had made. Whoever it was, they were sneaking up on her. Not good. She shrank back against the tree, her heart hammering, strained and aching. Any second now, they’d be at the spot where she had been when she’d first heard them. Somehow, she must look over the dead tree and see who it was. If they carried a gun, she would consider them the enemy. There wereregular army soldiers who had swung over to the side of the Insurrectos when they had first declared war.
She had to look. There was no other way to learn who it was because now the person stalking her had come to a stop.
Dead silence.
She must look, but she couldn’t.Gutless!She swore under her breath but still didn’t move. She didn’t have the courage.
Heavy feet landed on the fallen tree,rocking it. She looked up, straight into the opaque eyes of a jaguar. The midnight black creature seemed huge to Minnie, even though they were smaller than a tiger. It rumbled under its breath as it studied her. It was like listening to a cat purr with her ear pushed up against the sub-woofer. Minnie could feel the rumble through her bones.
She jerked back and slammed into the tree behind her,which might well have saved her life, for as she pressed up against the tree, she remembered Robert Redford’s soft voice inOut of Africa,telling a petrified Meryl Streep as she faced down a lion, “Don’t run.”
The jaguar’s hindquarters bunched, as if he gathered himself to spring. Minnie gave a breathless little moan. In that moment she knew it was all over. This was where it was going to end.
She wasn’t ready, not nearly ready. She’d just learned what it was like to truly love a man and there was so much more to discover...
