by Sharon Dunn
Lacey kneeled down, took her gloves off and reached to press the buttons that opened the helmet. She pulled it off. The man underneath the helmet had short blond hair. His eyes darted back and forth, filled with fear.
“What are you up to?”
“Please, I needed the money.”
“What are you talking about?” Jude leaned closer to him.
Lacey stared at the man. His snowsuit had made him look bulkier than he actually was. Was it possible this was the tall thin man who had attacked her while they were in town? It wasn’t the same snowmobile that had come at them. This snowmobile looked like one that was owned by the city. Of course, he wouldn’t have come for them on a snowmobile he had tried to mow them down with.
“Someone paid you to try to kill us?”
The man looked like he might cry. “My wife has cancer. We had no way to pay for the treatment.” The man coughed. “I can’t breathe.”
Jude took his knees off the man.
Still gasping, the man sat up.
“Somebody hired you? Who?”
The man stared at the ground and then lifted his head to talk. His eyes grew wide and then he fell over backward. A single bullet had pierced the middle of his forehead.
All the air left Lacey’s lungs. As she stared at the dead man, her stomach churned. She feared she might throw up.
A numbness settled into her mind and body and everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. The snow by the man’s head turned crimson. Jude grabbed her by the elbow and sprinted toward the snowmobile.
More shots were fired from above them at the rim of the bowl. Now she saw why they had been taken here. It made them easy targets. She suspected it was the broad-shouldered man shooting at them. He must have radioed the tall thin man to pick them up and bring them here to be shot. Now she understood what the phrase shooting fish in a barrel meant. The tall thin man was probably just supposed to leave them there. But when the shooter saw that he was talking to them, he’d been eliminated. Before they could even get on the snowmobile, shots hit it. The engine stopped running. Liquid, probably gasoline, leaked out onto the snow.
Jude slipped over the side of the snowmobile and crouched. She rolled off the seat and pressed in beside him. Her heart pounded. She still wasn’t able to fully process what had happened.
How long were they safe here using the snowmobile as cover before the shooter repositioned to have a clean shot at them? She surveyed the trees, catching some movement, a flash of white. The shooter must be in snow camouflage. “He’s there. I think he went deeper into the trees.”
“He must be moving to get another shot at us.” Jude stared up at the untouched snow that led to the tree line. “We can’t stay here. We have a few minutes while he repositions.”
That plan would only work if he didn’t come back out from the forest and see them running up the bowl to get to the trees. They’d have to run for some distance out in the open before they got to the trees that were on the opposite end of where they’d seen the shooter, even then they’d have to hope they didn’t encounter him in the forest.
They took off, slowed by the depth of the snow. Lacey glanced nervously at the edge of the forest, seeing nothing. Though fatigued, she lifted her legs and kept going. They made it to the forest without being shot at again. Once at the safety of the trees, she stopped to catch her breath and listen. Bands of light streamed through the evergreens.
Jude tugged on her sleeve.
She was fully aware that they might encounter the kidnapper at any time. Their tracks in the pristine snow would reveal exactly where they had gone if the shooter slipped out to check their position. Maybe he had predicted which way they would run and was waiting for them. It wasn’t like there were options.
A crackling sound somewhere deeper in the trees reached her ears. Her heart pounded. It could be human.
Jude put his finger up to his lips. He stepped carefully, and she followed. They moved slowly past one tree and then another. It was cold enough that she could see her breath.
She glanced around. Breath came out from behind one of the trees less than twenty feet away.
“Run.” Her voice came out in a hoarse whisper. The rifle shot nearly drowned out her command. Her eardrum rattled from the percussive impact of the bullet breaking through the air.
Jude took off through the trees. She sprinted as well, running on a slightly different path. If they stayed close together, it would be that much easier to shoot them both.
She ran for several minutes, breathing heavily from the exertion. She’d lost sight of Jude but could guess at where he was. The pathways through the trees were limited.
Another shot knocked a tree branch above her off. It hit her shoulder before falling to the ground. The trees seemed to go on forever. She wondered if she should move toward where the forest opened up to get an idea of where they were in relationship to the main road. That was their best hope for finding help.
Lacey glanced over her shoulder. Where had the shooter gone?
They ran as fast as the deep snow would allow. The snowmobile ride that had ended in the driver’s death had gotten her completely turned around. The sun was in the middle of the sky, it was hard to get her bearings.
She hurried after Jude, glancing over her shoulder and wondering what had become of the man with the rifle. It had to be the same man who’d been after them all along, the broad-shouldered man who had run Jude off the road.
It was just a matter of time before he caught up with Jude and her.
FOURTEEN
Lacey fought for breath as she hurried downhill after Jude through the trees. Jude seemed to know where he was going. Both of them continued to look over their shoulders.
After jogging for what felt like more than an hour, Jude slowed down. They hadn’t seen or heard the shooter or the snowmobile.
They trudged, not talking. She was tired and hungry. She’d witnessed a man die right in front of her. “I need to rest.” She slouched down using a tree trunk as a backrest.
Jude sat down beside her.
She wanted to cry but no tears came.
He wrapped his arms around her. “I know it’s all been a bit much.”
She lay her head on his shoulder. “That man who died in the bowl. It sounds like he did all this for the money for his wife.”
They couldn’t stay here. They had to keep moving. It got dark by five o’clock. That gave them some time. It felt good to rest and to be here with Jude even though their situation was not good.
Jude glanced at the sky again. “How far off the main road do you think that guy took us when we ended up in that bowl?”
“Not long. Maybe ten minutes before we got there.” It was hard to even calculate. Walking was so much slower than going by snowmobile.
He squeezed her shoulder. “Lev and the others must be looking for us. They will widen their search when they don’t find us on the main road.”
Lev and the town of Lodgepole had limited resources and they were in a crisis situation. And the man who had shot at them in the bowl was still out there. “I’m sure they’ll do all they can.” She couldn’t hide how hopeless she felt.
She turned to face him. He held her. She liked that he didn’t tell her everything was going to be okay, because that wasn’t necessarily so. He touched her ear and cheek with his palm. She closed her eyes relishing the warmth of his hand.
She let out a heavy breath and tilted her head toward him. He kissed her forehead and then her lips. He pulled back and gazed at her and then hugged her close. She let out a breath and relaxed.
He spoke into her ear. His voice barely above a whisper. “We have to keep moving.”
“I know,” she said. She pulled back and removed her glove so she could touch his jaw. “We should try to get to a high place, so we can try to see any landmarks that might he
lp us figure out where we are.”
He nodded. They rose together and headed uphill. The wind intensified as the temperature dropped and the sun slipped lower in the sky. They huddled close together as they walked until they came to a high spot that provided a view of the mountain below.
The sky had turned gray and it was hard to see much more than the outline of mountain formation and forest. Far off in the distance, the twinkling golden lights of Lodgepole were just barely visible.
She felt a mixture of relief and despair. “So far away,” she said.
“But at least we have an idea of where we’re at.”
The cold made her face feel numb and her stomach growled. She turned in a half circle, hoping to see some lights that indicated a house or cabin close by. They could head toward the lights, but at some point, they’d descend into a valley and the mountain in front of them would block their view of Lodgepole. In a few more hours they would be in total darkness. She saw no sign of the mountain road that led into town.
She turned toward him. “I’m not sure what to do.”
“Let’s hike a little farther up and see if we can spot anything else.” He offered her a comforting smile.
She knew that Jude had made the best decision in a terrible situation. They could not stay out here all night. They’d freeze to death. She knew also from having worked outside in the winter that every step they took expended precious energy.
They trudged a little farther up the mountain through a grove of aspens. Though there were no leaves left on the trees, their white trunks glowed in the darkness. They came to another vantage point and peered out. The lights of the town were still visible.
Far below them, she saw a moving light. “That has to be where the road is.” At this distance there was no way of knowing if the snowmobile belonged to a searcher or to the man who had tried to kill them.
Jude squeezed her arm. “That’s where we go, then.”
They headed down the steep incline. She angled her foot and dug her heels into the snow to create a secure foothold. The snow seemed to be cascading around them. She was aware that this high up, with as much snow as there had been, the avalanche danger was significant.
The snowmobile headlights disappeared from view probably rounding a corner on the mountain road. In the nighttime silence, the hum of the snowmobile motor echoed up the mountain.
They headed downward in a straight line. Several times they encountered snowmobile tracks that weren’t on the road. People had been all over the mountain, maybe searching for Jude and Lacey. Once they were down in the valley, they could no longer see the lights of the town. They trekked back up the mountain. Fatigue had settled into Lacey’s leg muscles. She couldn’t stop thinking about sleep and food. Several times her eyes bobbed shut and then she jerked awake as she walked. The important thing was to keep moving. The sound of the snowmobile faded.
Finally, they stepped out onto the road. The lights of Lodgepole were again visible but still very far away. Jude reached over with his gloved hand and squeezed hers. He’d stuck the hand that didn’t have a glove into his pocket.
“We should pray,” she said. Why did things have to get to this point before she even thought to reach out for the help that was always there, always available?
They walked side by side. “God, we are afraid and cold,” Jude said. He took several more steps without saying anything.
“We know that You are the God who can do anything,” she said and then she fell quiet. Her breath came out in cloud-like puffs. She listened to their muffled footsteps on the soft snow. The fabric of their snowsuits made a swishing sound as they moved along the road.
Jude picked up the prayer, asking God to give them the strength to keep going. And then he recited the first lines of Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.”
She said the next line.
And so they walked reciting the psalm that offered so much comfort and promise of God’s care. Each of them saying a line and then walking in silence for several seconds before the other voiced the next part of the psalm.
Once they were finished, they trudged without talking until Jude cleared his throat. “I owe you a debt of gratitude for restoring my faith.”
“I didn’t know that’s what I did.”
The wind blew snow around. The stars twinkling above them offered only a little light to see by. In spite of the bleakness and the cold, she felt her hope renewed.
Jude stopped for a moment and lifted his head. “I think I hear something.”
She couldn’t hear anything but the wind rushing through the treetops of the evergreens that grew close to the road. The odd mixture of joy and then dread flooded through her. Was the snowmobile they heard coming to rescue them or kill them?
* * *
Jude’s mind shifted into high gear. He tuned his ears to his surroundings trying to detect if the snowmobile he heard was above them or below them. He was keenly aware that his feet and face felt numb. His legs weighed a thousand pounds. He was beyond exhausted.
The sound faded rather than grew closer but the echo effect of the mountain made him uncertain if he was hearing correctly. The only thing he knew for sure was that there was a snowmobile somewhere close.
Then the sound faded. He listened, thinking maybe he would hear it again. His hope deflated like a balloon losing air. An intense gust of air hit them. He turned slightly and put his gloved hand up to his face to protect it.
The wind died down. He peered out. First at the lights of Lodgepole and then down the mountain. A lump in the snow several turns down the mountain road caught his attention. He walked to the edge of the road squinting to make sure he was seeing clearly. His spirits lifted. “I know where we are.”
She stepped toward him and he pointed down to where the lump was. She followed the direction of his hand. “Your wrecked car.” Enough of the snow had blown away to make the top part of the car visible.
“We must be close enough to radio the base station.”
Lacey touched her chest, her voice filled with pain. “I took the radio out of my suit when I slept in Mr. Wilson’s little shed. I forgot to grab it in all the excitement. I can’t believe I did that.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Jude said. “We’ll figure this out together. The car will provide some shelter for us.”
They cut off from the road and moved in a straight line toward the half-exposed car. Once they got to it, it was clear the front doors were too buried in snow to open. They dug away at a back door with their hands. He stuck his ungloved hand in his pocket to warm it and kept digging one-handed.
Out of breath from the frenzy of digging, Lacey stood back. Jude reached for the door handle, stepping aside so Lacey could get in first. He crawled in after her.
The entire front windshield was covered in snow. They both sat trying to catch their breaths.
“Do you have, like, a winter survival kit in here?” Lacey slumped against the seat.
He thought for a moment. The morning he’d taken off to tail the car the kidnapper had stolen felt like an eon ago. He shook his head. And then he turned to the cargo area in the back where he had a blanket for his dog. He handed it to her.
“What about in the front seat? Any food or anything that might be useful? I’m smaller. I can crawl through and look.”
Again, he searched his memory. “There’s a flashlight in the glove compartment.”
She crawled over the front seat, opened the glove compartment and handed him the flashlight which he shone so she could see better. She opened the console that was in between seats and laughed. “Ketchup packets. A couple of sugar packets.”
Jude rubbed his hands together. “We will dine in style.”
She let out a little laugh before shoving the packets into her pocket. “Food is energy at this point.” She searched around a little more before
joining him again in the backseat. “Maybe save it for when we hike out.”
They both got underneath the blanket for warmth. He wrapped an arm around her. She rested her head on his chest. “God is funny, isn’t He?”
“What do you mean?”
“We prayed thinking the answer to our prayers would be for one of the snowmobilers to find us.”
“But God saw another option.” He nestled close to her. They’d be able to stay warm enough until daylight. “I’ll take first watch.” The man with the rifle was probably still searching for them. He listened to the steady soft sound of Lacey’s breathing as she slept. He turned his head slightly to stare out at the darkness.
His eyelids felt heavy. He nodded off and shook himself awake. Outside it was still dark. Lacey stirred awake. She pulled away from him.
“I feel more rested. I’ll sit watch, so you can get some sleep,” she said.
He was grateful for her offer. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. His brain fogged from exhaustion and he felt himself relaxing as he fell into a deeper sleep.
He awoke one time in the night. Lacey had moved away from him and was resting her cheek against the door. He saw no lights outside. When he rolled down the window in the backseat all he heard was the wind. He had only a view out the back window where he saw no snowmobile lights.
He fell back asleep, waking when the sun shot through the window and warmed him. Lacey was already awake.
She touched her stomach. “Boy am I hungry.” She drew out the sugar and ketchup packets and divided them evenly. They ate quickly. Jude pushed open the door they had dug out of the snow.
They ran straight down the mountain, connecting with the road as it wound toward Lodgepole. They’d only gone a short distance when they heard a snowmobile above them.
Jude glanced up.
“I saw him,” Lacey said. “He has a rifle with him. He must have been waiting for us. I wonder why he stayed away all night.”
Her words sent a bolt of fear through him. He looked around for a hiding place as the sound of the snowmobile grew louder.
