Fight or Flight

by Natalie J. Damschroder

Tom tightened his grip on her shoulder.

  “Please step out of the car, ma’am,” said the man at Van’s window.

  “What seems to be the problem, Officer?” Van asked in as deferential a voice as Kelsey had ever heard from her. She kept both hands on the steering wheel but didn’t move to get out of the car.

  “Please step out of the vehicle,” he repeated. He bent to peer into the back seat. He had a trooper hat on, but Kelsey couldn’t see his uniform clearly. “All of you, please.”

  Van looked back at Kelsey. She shrugged and nodded, not knowing what else to do. Maybe her mom had called the state police, or the local police put out a BOLO or something. Van eased open her door. Tom did the same, blocking Kelsey with his body as she got out behind him. They all remained behind their car doors.

  The cop scanned Van up and down, eyed Tom, and moved to the side to examine Kelsey.

  “Kelsey Miller?”

  Adrenaline flooded her. This guy was either a cop sent by her mother, or one of the bad guys. She knew better than to trust blindly. But she couldn’t say no, in case he was a real cop.

  “Yes.”

  “Please come with us. Your mother’s been hurt and sent us to get you. She was concerned.”

  “Where is she?”

  “She’s safe. Please come with me.” He moved to take Kelsey’s arm. She tried to step back but the car was in her way. Tom shifted to block the officer, who glared at him.

  “You want to be getting back in your car, sir, and going on your way.” He looked at Van. “You, too, ma’am.”

  No way. “They have to come with me,” Kelsey said. “Where is my mother?”

  “She’s in the hospital. She’ll be fine. But she’s very concerned about you, and she’ll be better if she knows you’re safe.”

  “I’ll call her.” She flipped open her phone and pressed the “on” button, fidgeting as it started powering up. She’d shut it off to save the battery, and hoped it had enough juice for a call.

  The officer reached over and took it out of her hand. “She’s not reachable at the moment. She’s in surgery.” He turned the phone off and handed it back. “We need to leave now.”

  Kelsey didn’t want to go. She turned to look at the man behind the vehicle, who’d so far been silent and unmoving. He had the same hat, but his uniform wasn’t the same as the first cop’s. The colors were off. Alarm bells clanged in her head, but she wasn’t sure what to do. If they fought or ran and these were real cops, they could be in trouble.

  “What’s your unit number?” she asked the silent one, trying to buy time.

  “Four six three two, ma’am.”

  Uh-uh. Unit numbers were two digits. These guys were definitely not state police.

  “I’m sorry, I’d rather just go with my friends to the hospital where my mother is,” she told them. “Thank you for your time. Which hospital is she in?”

  The “cops” looked at each other. “St. Rosa’s,” said the one in the back.

  “Why is she there? Municipal is closer to our house.”

  “She wasn’t at home,” the first one said, and now Kelsey knew they were lying. Her caller ID had shown their home number.

  She leaned close to Tom and tilted her head to whisper in his ear. “I can’t go with them.”

  That was all he needed. He pulled back the door he was holding and slammed it forward. Despite his short range, it smacked the cop in the torso hard enough to knock him back.

  Van had been ready, too. She swung her field hockey stick out of the car and slammed it into the back of the cop’s head. He fell sideways, and Tom shoved him down.

  Kelsey was aware of this only peripherally. She expected the other guy to go for a gun, and as soon as Tom moved, she jumped out from behind him, heading for the rear of the car. The “cop” was crouching, pulling the gun from its holster, when she jumped onto the trunk and pushed herself across it, aiming at him with both feet. She hit him in the shoulder and neck. He yelled and went down. Kelsey slid down onto him, pressing his face into the macadam. He couldn’t bring his gun around to shoot her, but he lifted it a few inches off the ground and aimed behind her. Where Tom was. Kelsey screamed and lunged for his arm, but he fired. Not at Tom, but into the tire.

  Tom kicked the gun out of the guy’s hand. It slid under the car, which now listed to the rear left. They weren’t going anywhere in that.

  “Let’s go.” Tom swung Kelsey’s backpack up onto his shoulder and took her elbow, leading her into the strip of woods bordering the highway. Van followed, her field hockey stick tight in her grip, her own backpack already on her back.

  “Where are we going?” Van gasped, dodging tree trunks and leaping roots.

  “Away,” was all Kelsey could say. She had no idea where they were. “Just someplace where we can hide and I can call my mom.”

  “Man, I hope those weren’t real cops.” Tom grunted, pushing Kelsey a little ahead of him. “We’re in a hell of a lot of trouble if they were.”

  “They weren’t.” She was certain of it. “Wait.” They all stopped abruptly. She listened, trying to calm her breathing. They could hear the men crashing through the underbrush, clearly headed in their direction. “Let’s go that way,” she said, pointing left. “Get out of their path. We’ve got to be quiet, too.”

  “Yeah, right,” Van and Tom both said. They headed the way she’d pointed, and moved a little more slowly with a little less noise. The dried leaves underfoot made it impossible, but if they were lucky, the men behind them made enough noise to cover theirs.

  After they’d gone a few hundred yards, she aimed them back toward the far side of the woods. The strip bordering the highway wouldn’t be very wide, and sure enough, they soon emerged onto a big empty cornfield, shorn for the season.

  “Dammit. We could have hidden in there,” Kelsey muttered. Now there was no cover. Also, no farmhouse or barn or any other kind of building that might have a telephone.

  Tom squinted as he scanned the darkness. “Let’s just follow the tree line.” He pointed to the left. “We can move faster, and duck into the woods if we need cover.”

  Kelsey agreed, having no better idea. They started running again, hugging the edge of the woods. Van took the lead, with Tom behind Kelsey. She knew they were bracketing her on purpose, to protect her. She hated to put them through this, but was so grateful, too. She would never have a chance if they weren’t with her.

  “You okay?” she asked Van, who was running at an easy lope now.

  “Sure. This is nothin’ compared to an hour of field hockey.”

  Kelsey knew Tom ran miles every day, too, for football. She, herself, conditioned every day. She briefly wished soccer was the only reason she was in shape. But all those years of paranoia hadn’t been unwarranted. There were people after her. She wished she knew why.

  Add it to the list. Where was her mother? How badly was she hurt? Who was after them, and what made her so important that they hadn’t given up after eighteen years? The urge to call Tyler’s phone again grew so strong her step faltered. Tom bumped into her and caught her shoulders before she fell.

  “You okay?”

  “Fine.”

  He held her for a second. Van stopped a short way ahead and leaned on her stick, panting. Kelsey looked around, wishing for better light. She couldn’t see if there was any place to hide.

  The noise behind them had receded. She couldn’t tell where their pursuers were.

  “Maybe they’ve given up,” Van offered.

  “No. They won’t give up.” She may not know much about what was happening to her, but she did know that.

  ***

  “Stop!”

  Tyler slammed on the brakes and skidded onto the shoulder. Regan shoved her door open and ran across the road to the center median, stymied by the cement wall and her shoulder. Tyler caught up to her after a few seconds.

  “What the hell?”

  “Look.”

  He followed her eager gaze to the cars a
cross the road. One, an old Chevy, was sitting with its doors open and a rear tire flat. The one behind it was a plain dark sedan, but Regan could see there were lights in the dash. They weren’t on. And no one was around.

  “Help me over.” She swung a leg up as Tyler grabbed her waist and hefted her on top of the wall. She sat, aimed, and slid off the other side, landing on her feet and running to the cars.

  Both doors on the Chevy’s driver’s side were open and the keys were still in the ignition. She slid into the front seat and looked around, but it was empty.

  “This might not be theirs,” Tyler cautioned, leaning into the back seat to look under the rugs. “It’s empty back here.”

  Regan opened the glove compartment and grabbed the only thing in it, a white envelope with a blank face. She fumbled it open. The registration inside was to Donald Leigh.

  “It’s theirs. The car belongs to Van or one of her relatives. Where are they?” She struggled back out of the car and looked around. There were scuff marks in the gravel. She looked up as a car passed them. They could have been taken in a third vehicle, but it didn’t seem likely unless the one behind theirs was disabled.

  “I think they went into the woods,” she told Tyler, praying it wasn’t a mother’s foolish hope driving her thoughts, “but please see if that car is working.” She motioned with her chin. “If not, they might have been taken in another one.”

  While Tyler went to the sedan, Regan stepped to the edge of the shoulder, looking into the woods. A trail through the tall grass could have been made by people, and a couple of branches at different spots along the edge of the trees were bent.

  “It seems fine,” Tyler called to her. He joined her on the roadside. “It’s not a cop car.”

  “Great.” She took a deep breath. She’s okay. She’s got to be. “We have to follow them. It looks like they might have taken off and been chased. God, I hope they weren’t caught.”

  “Don’t think about that.” He helped her down the short slope to the grassy ditch and let go as soon as they were on level ground.

  She started trotting, but pain flared through the cut on her hip and her jarred shoulder. The flip-flops weren’t helping, either. “I’ll never catch up like this.”

  “Let me scout ahead,” Tyler offered. “You follow best you can. I’ll pick out their trail so we don’t have to backtrack or anything.”

  “You can track?” It was one of the few things she hadn’t learned how to do. She’d never thought she’d be doing the chasing.

  “Sure. Military training.” He smiled and headed off. She followed as quickly as she could, listening to his progress.

  The phone in her hand beeped. The battery was dying. Why hadn’t she asked if he had a charger? They could have been charging it as they drove. She looked at it, torn, and finally shut it off. It might be necessary later.

  “This way.” Tyler’s soft call barely carried to her. He did know what he was doing. The bad guys would have to be very close to have heard him. She angled left and caught up to him a moment later.

  “Whoever was following them is good,” he said. “They veered off their initial path, and it wasn’t obvious, but the two guys following them saw it. They have training.”

  “Same kind of training you have?” she couldn’t help asking.

  He hesitated. “Maybe.”

  Just great. He could be leading her into a trap. Not that it mattered, if Kelsey was there. She’d do anything to get to her daughter right now. “Let’s keep going.”

  Tyler took off again. Regan sucked in a deep breath and picked up her pace. Every step took her closer to Kelsey. She had no choice but to push through the pain.

  Despite all her training, all her preparation, she’d never had to do this. It was much harder than she’d thought it would be. But dammit, the wherewithal to do it was inside her. She just had to dredge it up.

  ***

  There was nothing. They’d struggled along the tree line for what felt like forever, but all they found was more trees. They probably hadn’t gone as far as it felt like, but exhaustion swept over Kelsey. This wasn’t working. She stopped and put her hands on her knees. “We can’t just keep running,” she panted.

  Van collapsed on the ground beside her. “What else we gonna do?” Kelsey knew Van was tired or she would have said a hell of a lot more.

  “Circle back,” said Tom. They looked up at him. He was leaning against a tree, watching behind them. “Cut back through the woods to the highway, follow the verge back to their car. Maybe we can take it.”

  “That’s brilliant,” Kelsey said. “But what if they kept their keys?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know what else we can do. Some of these farms out here are huge, and there are a lot of miles between exits. We could run until we die of exposure.”

  He was exaggerating, but she knew he was right. “If there are no keys we can try to flag someone down. But we have to be careful.”

  Van struggled to her feet. Her efforts were showing, with her hair flattened and dripping with sweat, and her shirt torn in two places by branches.

  “I’m sorry, you guys. I never meant to drag you into something like this.” Despair threatened to engulf Kelsey. “If anything happens to you…”

  “Shut up.” Tom closed his hand over the back of her neck. “Let’s go.” He pointed into the woods. “There’s a deer trail. Run full out, and stay together.”

  “Okay. You okay?” she asked Van, who nodded and clutched her stick.

  They ran, the trail blissfully smooth, though narrow. The strip of woods was thicker here, but Kelsey could see a flicker of passing headlights. They were almost through when Kelsey heard a shout. She cursed as they all staggered to a halt, not sure where the shout came from, which way they should go.

  “They saw us,” Van gasped.

  “Just run.” Kelsey pushed them ahead of her on the path and sprinted behind them. Hopefully, their pursuers would just follow, not figure out their plan and angle back through the woods, cutting them off.

  Please, God, let them be stupid.

  Chapter Five

  Kelsey, Tom and Van made it to the road but stopped inside the trees. They couldn’t see or hear anyone else, but by now their gasping for air sounded like a bull pen. Kelsey’s lungs burned in her chest…or maybe that burning was fear.

  Tom pulled himself up the short bank to the shoulder. He peered around, then turned to look down on the girls. “I don’t see anything up here.” He held a hand to pull Van, then Kelsey, up to the roadside.

  “Where are the cars?” Kelsey looked for herself when she reached the street. She could barely make out the vehicles down the road. There were no human shapes between them and the car. She started trotting along the gravel shoulder, much slower than she’d started, worn out from running.

  “Kelsey!”

  The shout made her jump. She didn’t consciously recognize the voice, but turned almost automatically. She could make out three figures, two wearing dark clothing, one farther back in a light-colored shirt. Judging by distance, the man in the light shirt was the one who had called her name. The other two were probably the “cops” chasing them.

  One of the two in the middle turned back, toward the other man, but the other one continued running toward her and her friends.

  “You know that guy?” Van pulled at her arm.

  “I think…” But she didn’t have time to think. The fake cop started to hit the man with his billy club, and the other one came closer to them, pulling something from his hip. A gun?

  “Go, go, go!” Tom yelled, pushing both Van and Kelsey ahead of him. Adrenaline gave them new speed, and soon they’d passed their disabled car. Van scrambled into the fake cop car, Tom and Kelsey diving for the back seat. Van cursed when she came up empty at the ignition, and started flipping visors and console compartments. Metal jangled, she whooped, and the car started with a roar. She peeled out before Tom closed the door.

  Kelsey stared through the si
de window, trying to see what was happening as they passed. The “cop” who’d been after them was braced as if he had a weapon.

  “Duck!” she yelled.

  The car swerved as Van obeyed, her foot still to the floor. Something pinged off the roof. They all lifted their heads a little, Kelsey and Tom peering through the rear window.

  “I think we’re clear,” Tom said.

  Van sighed and sat up straight. “Good, ’cause I can barely see over the wheel already, never mind when I’m dodging bullets.” She glanced over her shoulder and let the car slow a little. The others couldn’t follow in the damaged Chevy. “You know that other guy?” she asked again.

  “I’m not sure.” Kelsey paused to buckle her seatbelt with shaking hands. Tom put his arm around her and squeezed reassuringly as she leaned against his shoulder. “I think it might have been Tyler. Our neighbor. It was his cell phone number my mom gave me.” She looked around. “This doesn’t look like a cop car.” There was no grate between the front and back, and the back doors had handles.

  Tom bent to open the backpack he had set at his feet. “We’d better charge your phone.”

  “Yeah.” While Tom pulled the charger free of the mess inside her backpack, Kelsey reached into her pocket. Her empty pocket.

  “Shit.” The back of her throat stung. She blinked furiously, trying not to let the tears make it to her eyes. It was stupid to cry now, after they’d gotten away. Even stupider to cry in front of Tom.

  “What’s the matter?” He leaned forward to look at her, and she swiped at her cheeks.

  “My phone’s gone. I must have dropped it when we were running.”

  “It’s okay, I’ve got mine,” Van said, holding it up. “It’s mostly charged.”

  “Call now. Maybe she’ll answer,” Tom added soothingly.

  “I can’t. I don’t know the number. I programmed it in the first time and forgot it.”

  Her friends didn’t say anything. They didn’t need to. The silence pressed down on Kelsey until she felt immobilized. She didn’t have time to give in to it, though. They neared an exit, well lit. Other cars were merging onto the road.