Page 65 of Lily's Eagle

The man and Lily are nearly at the tree line. As I get my feet under me and stand up, my whole body shakes and I very nearly crash back down to the dirt. But I manage to stay upright.

I take a few stumbling steps after Lily, and my mind figures out that this will never work before my body does.

I can’t save her on my own now. I’ve lost too much blood. I have no weapon.

But that’s not true.

I’m still gripping my father’s knife, the tiny beads on the handle digging into my palm. It’s where my strength to stand and walk is coming from, it’s where my presence of mind is coming from.

I’ll die if I go after the man and Lily now.

I must fight this fight another day.

But the first stumbling steps I take back towards the SUV feel like the worst decision I’ve ever made. The darkest betrayal.

But I’m no use to her, charging the man now. He’ll kill me and take her anyway.

He’s going to lock her in that cabin. I’ll double back and release her when he’s not looking. It’s the only plan that has any chance of succeeding.

The SUV seems like it’s on the other side of the country, and the stumbling steps I’m taking towards it feel like I’m going backwards.

I hear wood slam against wood behind me and the next thing I know, a bullet whizzes past me, traveling dangerously close.

I don’t think about the burning in my body, my lack of strength to walk any faster than I am. I just lunge to the left to get behind one of the rickety structures and hobble towards the trees growing there. A branch as thick as a tree trunk had come down recently and taken a huge chunk of the chain link fence with it. Best luck I’ve had in my entire life. I didn’t even remember the fence when I came this way.

Another shot rings out just as I reach it.

The trees are just beyond it, and I stumble as fast as I can into the semi-darkness they’re offering. My arm is throbbing now, my head is pounding, and I feel like the biggest coward there ever was.

But I’m also the only one that knows where Lily is, the only one who can save her. So I have to stay alive. I have to stop the bleeding in my arm and come back for her. There’s no other way.

And just as I think it, the ground suddenly disappears from beneath my feet and I’m tumbling down a hillside, hitting every root, rock and tree trunk there is, it feels like.

Then with a bone-crunching thunk, something metal breaks my fall. Something black and metal. Lily’s truck. There’s a huge dent in the driver side door which was there before I collided with it.

I try the handle, but the door’s too twisted.

In the distance, up on the hill I just rolled down, barking is growing louder.

He’s sending the dogs after me.

My only hope now is the river.

It’s near. I can feel it slowly flowing by like the life blood of this land. I think I can smell it too.

It might be too far, I might never make it, but I follow it’s pull. I’m limping now on top of everything else, feeling like I’ve broken at least half the bones in my body.

The barking is growing louder and louder behind me. There are only more trees and more grass in front of me, but I think they’re starting to grow sparse and further apart. The sun has made its appearance, shining down bright and clear, making everything sparkle.

The barking behind me is so loud that I’m sure I’ll feel teeth sink into my neck any second now. I can already hear the dog’s hard breathing too. But I keep stumbling to the river that I’ll likely never reach.

And then there it is, glowing a pale gold right in front of me. I wade in, not feeling its cold, only the life and safety it offers. I keep wading straight across, then swim right to the center of its wideness, where the current is strongest.

A few shots ring out, splashing into the water around me, and the dogs’ barks are loud and frantic.

But the current has me, and they’ve lost me. And as soon as I’m around the next bend I’ll find enough strength to get out of the current’s clutches and reach the shore.

Then I’ll return for Lily. And kill everyone and everything that tries to stand in my way.

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