Surviving the Wilderness, page 12
TEN
Addison! Jeff ran up the slope toward the shadowy structures of the ghost town. His ears strained to hear his little girl’s voice. His heart beat like a drum in his chest, ready to battle a thousand foes to keep her safe. He reached an outcropping of small buildings, stopping at what he guessed had once been the entrance to the small town. Lightning flashed, illuminating the scene for an instant before it fell dark again. There were maybe ten wooden buildings, scattered and in various states of disrepair. He ran from building to building, bursting through doorways and breaking down doors. Empty rooms filled his eyes. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere. Was it another drone trick? She sounded so real and so close.
“No bed!” Addison’s cries seemed to echo from all directions at once. “No more campin’! I want Gi’ant Dolly! I. Want. My. Daddy!”
Thunder roared like a lion. Desperation surged inside Jeff. It was like the instinct that had caused him to recklessly leap into the water to swim toward his brother’s truck without stopping to check the current, only amped up to a thousand. He wanted to bellow his daughter’s name into the night and tell her that her daddy was coming to save her. He wanted to pull out his knife and fight. Even as he could feel his brain telling him that he needed to take a breath, think and make a wise and cautious plan that wouldn’t put anyone at unnecessary right, it was as if, in that moment, he didn’t know how.
A memory he’d almost forgotten crossed his mind. He’d been sitting in the small, plain room they’d used for the brig when the unit’s military chaplain had knocked on the door and asked to come in. For now, he couldn’t remember the man’s name, only that he was short, with gray hair and glasses, and had proved more than once that he could plank longer than anyone else on base. In hindsight, Jeff couldn’t even remember what the man had actually said to spark a reaction. All he remembered was standing there in front of this placid man twice his age and saying, “I like who I am. I like that I stand up to bullies and don’t let people get hurt on my watch. And I’m not going to let them change me.”
The military chaplain had crossed his arms. “Jeff, I don’t want to change you. I want you to learn to harness all that. You ever seen water cascading violently over a hydro dam powering a city? Giving life to schools, hospitals and families? You see ever a turbine moving in the wind? Take everything in you—your heart, your drive, your fight, your power—and use it to change the world instead of destroying yourself.”
Jeff blinked back the memory and realized he’d run off without the one person who’d come on this journey with him and had the most inside knowledge on the kidnappers. He turned to walk back to Quinn and saw her already standing a few steps behind him.
“I can’t find her,” he said. “She’s not here. I feel like I’m drowning in blinding panic and rage, and that scares me.”
And right now that fear was paralyzing him. Quinn walked to him until they were in the middle of the clearing. Thunder and lightning crashed again in unison, illuminating her face as they stood there in the center of the storm.
“Quinn, why do I feel like my mind is blank and I’ve got lava in my veins?” he said. “I’m better than this. I’m a military veteran. I’m a Canadian Ranger. Rescuing people is my living.”
“You’re also a father,” she said, “whose little girl is crying.” She reached out, grabbed his hand and pressed it against the curve of her neck. Her pulse raced. “Feel that?” she asked. She dropped his hand. “I feel ready to pass out and had to take a few deep breaths before I ran up here. I’ve never been a parent, but I’ve had a father who I loved more than anything in the world. And I would quite literally give up my own life and die for your kid.”
“No camp’in!” Addison’s voice seemed to come from every direction at once. “Want my bed! Want Daddy!”
“Jeff.” Urgency filled Quinn’s voice as she fixed her eyes on him. “You know Addison better than anyone else in this world. Why is she crying right now?”
“What do you mean why?”
“Focus,” Quinn said. “Is she hurt? Is she scared for her life?”
“She’s angry and defiant,” he said. “She gets like this at bedtime. She won’t sleep without her Giant Dolly and bedtime stories. Plus, it’s still well over an hour too early before bedtime. Someone is trying to tell her to go to sleep and she’s not having it.”
Relief brushed his shoulders. Already he could tell her voice was coming from a wooded area to the right of them.
“And I think it’s really her,” he added. “After everything, I can’t discount the fact it’s a drone. But Addison’s got a strong set of lungs and really wails when she’s being stubborn. That little girl’s voice gets so high-pitched, she could almost break glass. No way someone could project that through a speaker without at least some distortion.”
They unzipped their life jackets, left the buildings and moved through the trees toward the sound of Addison’s voice. Nothing but darkness and trees filled his gaze. He listened as Addison’s voice settled down and fell silent, only to surge again moments later in a fresh burst of defiance. No this couldn’t be another drone trick like the one played on them back at camp. Her voice sounded too alive, close and above all real.
He’d never been so thankful for having a little girl who was cranky when it came to an unwanted bedtime. Then he saw the faint light trickling through the trees. He followed it like a beacon through the storm. There stood a small wooden cabin, slightly larger than the others, with both a front and back window. Quinn’s hand brushed his arm as if to silently tell him that she’d seen it too. A yellow beam emanated from the front window, which he guessed by the angle was a flashlight. But the back window was still dark. Did that mean the cabin had two rooms?
They crept closer. Three voices came into focus now. Benny was frustrated, swearing at Kelsey and complaining that Big Poppa was late. Whether or not that had actually been Big Poppa in that helicopter, which he guessed by their arguing they hadn’t actually seen, Benny was convinced Big Poppa would be picking them up, somehow, at any moment to take them out of there. And for some reason Benny had been unable to reach him by satellite phone for over an hour. Meanwhile, Kelsey was trying to coax Addison to lie down on a sleeping bag with an odd, childlike singsong voice that seemed to be fraying with fatigue and stress at the edges. Addison was loudly and stubbornly refusing to sleep.
Jeff and Quinn reached the house and sat on the ground against the side.
“You wait here,” he whispered. “I’ll check around back.”
She nodded.
He gestured to her to stay put and made his way around to the back. The window was a shadowed empty gap in the wall where glass had once been. He glanced in, saw nothing but bare floor illuminated by dim light seeping through from the doorway to the other room. He took off his life jacket, eased his body through headfirst, hit the soft, wet planks, and rolled without making a sound. He found himself in a small and dark room, and crouched up on the balls of his feet and listened. Through the gaps in the dilapidated wall, he could catch of glimpse of what was happening in the other room. The room was long and at least three times the length of the one he was in now. Wind whistled through the chinks in the walls. Missing floorboards punctuated the room like keys in a broken piano.
Then he saw Addison, sitting so close to him now that if he just reached his fingers through the gaps in the planks he’d have been able to touch her golden hair. Benny paced in and out of frame, stepping from one floorboard to another, clutching a gun in one hand, a satellite phone in the other. Dangerous tension radiated through the young man’s frame and Jeff was suddenly reminded of the expression that an addict in painkiller withdrawal would “kill” for a fix. His heart ached and, although he knew he should climb back outside, something inside him was desperate to stay. Then he heard an eager yip and the sound of paws skittering across the floor. He saw Butterscotch charging toward the darkened doorway.
Jeff rushed to the window, dove out headfirst into the bushes and lay there not daring to risk moving or making a sound in case the dog gave up his location.
“Bu’er’scotch come here!” Addison yelled. “No run!”
The dog’s footsteps clattered back into the other room. Jeff let out a long breath. He crawled back to where Quinn sat against the wall beneath the glow of a light-filled window. He sat alongside her, underneath the shelter of the sloping roof and out of the rain. He leaned his head close to hers.
“That was close,” he said and told her what he’d seen through the gaps in the wall. “I thought for a moment the dog was going to blow my cover.”
“Me too,” she whispered. “I risked a glimpse through window. Same as you, I’ve got Benny guarding the front door. He’s jittery, and the only person who’s armed. But he is also holding the phone, which will slow his reaction time.”
“Did you see where Addison and Kelsey were?” he asked. “I could only see the back of Addison’s head.”
“They’re sitting on a sleeping bag against the back wall,” she said.
“How far from the door to the other room?” Jeff asked.
“Not even six feet,” Quinn said. “All it would take is a distraction at the front door to draw Benny and Kelsey’s attention away from Addison, and you could slip in from the room and grab her.”
That meant Quinn would be the one drawing the kidnappers toward her.
“I agree our top priority is getting Addison away from them,” he said. “We don’t want to risk her getting caught in the line of fire if Benny pulls the trigger. But I don’t exactly like the idea of you getting a man with a gun to chase you through the trees.”
“Neither do I,” Quinn said. “But it has to be you that rescues her. She loves and trusts you without hesitation. If anything goes wrong, you need to be the one getting her to safety.”
His daughter’s wailing grew louder, demanding a snack, a drink, all her favorite toys and her bed at home. She was headed for a full-on tantrum now. Kelsey’s cajoling was starting to sound panicked. Benny was yelling and swearing, as if trying match Addison for volume.
They had to get Addison out of there before Benny snapped.
“It’s going to be okay,” Quinn said. “Just run around to the back and get your little girl. Trust me. Even if I can only pull Benny away, I’ve never seen Kelsey with a weapon or show any aggression. I’m confident you’ll be able to take Addison from her.”
But just because that had been true of Kelsey didn’t mean she couldn’t snap as well.
“He’ll kill you,” Jeff said. And I don’t think I’m ready to live without you.
“No, he might try to kill me,” Quinn said. “He might just kidnap me again. Either way, he’ll have to try to catch me first. Addison will be safer if you are the one snatching her from danger. You’re physically stronger, you can carry her better than I can, and she trusts you. And you know it.”
She was right and he knew it. But he also didn’t like it.
“Plus, I’ve tangled with Benny before,” she added. “I know how to get under his skin.”
He really did not like the sound of that.
“Is there anything I can say to change your mind?” he asked.
“No.” She reached over and wrapped her arms around him in a sideways hug. He felt her lips brush against the rough line of his jaw. He slid his arms around her, pulled her close and breathed her in.
“You stay safe, okay?” Jeff asked. “I’m not leaving these woods without you.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “Just go.”
Somehow her words weren’t as reassuring as his heart needed them to be. As Quinn turned and, without looking back, made her way around to the front of the cabin, he realized he’d never asked her what her plan for a diversion to pull Benny and his gun away from Addison was going to be. He crawled around to the back window, checked the room was empty and once again slid his body into the dark room.
Then he waited, crouched just inches away from his daughter, listening to the arguing and tension still erupting in the other room, his heart aching for the moment he could pull Addison safely into his arms.
Moments ticked by. It might not have been more than a few seconds, each one seemed to stretch out to fill an eternity.
Lord, I don’t know if You’re listening, but I promise You that if You bring me safely out of this with my daughter, I will do everything in my power to be the best father I can be and give her the life and happiness she deserves.
Knocking sounded hard and purposeful on the cabin’s front door. Kelsey and Benny fell silent as their heads turned toward the sound. Butterscotch barked and ran for the door so quickly his feet slid on the wood floor. The rapping continued, Benny crossed the floor and Jeff’s heart began to sink.
No... It couldn’t be...
Benny slid the phone into his pocket, checked the clip of his gun for bullets, and yanked the door open.
There stood Quinn on the doorstep. And like a bolt of lightning through his heart, Jeff realized why Quinn hadn’t told him what her plan and the distraction was going to be that would allow him to grab his little girl and take her to safety.
It was Quinn. She was the diversion and she was putting her life directly on the line to help him save his daughter.
* * *
Quinn watched as all the color drained from Benny’s face as if he were staring into the eyes of a ghost. The gun shook in his hand. And for the first time since the day had begun, Quinn genuinely wondered what she actually looked like at the moment. She’d nearly drowned, been drugged, dragged across the ground and buried alive, and then crawled her way out again. Jeff had never once said anything to make her feel self-conscious enough to think about her clothes, face or hair. But now, as she watched the abject horror cross Benny’s face, she wondered just how dirty and bedraggled she must be. His eyes widened like he didn’t know whether to scream, attack her or pass out. She glanced past him to his sister Kelsey. The young woman definitely looked like she was ready to faint. They’d also both turned away from Addison.
“You’re...you’re...” Benny repeated the word like he had no idea which one came next. “I...I...”
“I’m alive,” she said in a low and harsh tone she hoped was soft enough Addison wouldn’t hear. Butterscotch the puppy circled Quinn’s feet and sniffed. The little girl’s fussing had stopped so suddenly it was as if an unseen someone had signaled to her to shush. “After you drugged me, dragged me to a cave and buried me alive.”
Benny’s mouth opened and closed again. Anger pooled into the edges of his eyes. But the only word he managed to bluster was, “How?”
“How did I dig myself out?” she asked. “Slowly, rock by rock.”
And with the help of the most incredible man I’ve ever met, who right now is hiding behind the wall at the back of this room waiting to rescue his daughter from your clutches.
She looked past him to Kelsey, who was shaking so hard she looked sick. And Addison, who was sitting on the floor, with a puzzled look in her eyes as her tears dried, as if listening to a sound only she could hear. And past her, through the knots in the well-worn wood on the floor, she saw a silhouette move and heard the faintest creak of a footstep on the floorboards. It was Jeff. He was there waiting, watching, and biding his time until he was ready to strike.
Fresh courage surrounded Quinn like a cloak.
Benny waved the gun at her. “Get in the cabin.”
No. No matter what, that wasn’t going to happen. His gaze was more than cold and angry now. It was desperate, or even panicked, like a cornered animal. She’d been wrong about him earlier. While Kelsey might want to keep Addison alive, Benny was angry enough to snap. She still believed he’d never fired a gun at someone before. But as Quinn planted her feet on the front doorstep, feeling the storm rain down around her like a curtain, she knew that if she stepped foot inside the cabin and let him close the door behind her, there was no way she’d be making it out alive.
The puppy scampered away from Quinn and darted across the floor to Addison. She watched as the little girl scooped the dog up into her arms.
“I don’t want to fight with you,” Quinn said, deciding to level the truth as a strategic weapon. “I saw a helicopter circling outside like it was looking for someone. I wondered if that was your ride coming to pick you up and if you had any way to call or signal them. I’ve had enough of this forest and I’m willing to call a truce if it gets us all home.”
If it gets Addison home safely to her real home with her daddy who loves her.
“Kelsey!” Benny called. He tossed the satellite phone to his sister so quickly she fumbled as she caught it. “Get out there, find that helicopter and keep calling Big Poppa until he answers.”
“I’m not leaving Addison,” Kelsey said and her head shook. “I’m taking her with me. I’m not leaving her with you.”
“I’m done doing it your way!” Benny shouted. “Thirty thousand dollars for the little girl alive and happy, you said. But only ten thousand if she’s dead. So what? Who cares? It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It wasn’t supposed to take this long. And I’d rather take my share of ten and run. I’m done digging my way deeper into this!”
Kelsey ran past him and into the darkness.
Urgently, Quinn’s eyes darted to Addison, praying she hadn’t heard those terrible words. But the little girl and her puppy were gone. Emptiness filled the place where the child had once sat. Prayers of thanksgiving to God burst like fireworks through her core and she knew without a doubt that Addison was with Jeff.
Lightning flashed across the sky outside for a brief moment, and there, in the back room doorway, she saw Addison tucked safely and securely within the shelter of her father’s arms. Jeff bent his head protectively over his daughter. He glanced up and his blue eyes met Quinn’s for one silent and searing moment that seemed to shake something inside her she couldn’t put into words. Then he turned toward the window and climbed out.
