The two of them stood with their backs against the building. There was no sign of a car and no noise came to them. They looked at one another, feeling freedom and terrified of losing it.
“Which way?” Ellie asked, looking around. There were clear fields to one side and trees to the other.
“Let’s head for the trees and try to get our bearings from there,” she suggested.
“Let’s do it!” Ellie said and they moved off into the long grass that would lead them five hundred yards to the treeline.
Chapter 38
CARSON LEMOND’S EYES cleared of tears and his head stopped spinning. He lay there stunned. He’d never taken a beating like it in his life and he cursed himself for underestimating the two girls. Their zeal and desire to be free must have given them the strength they never had before in their lives. They had been vicious too; they had no concern about him or keeping him alive that was clear. Bitches. He could hear their progress, the noises amplified by the open shaft before him. He pulled himself to his knees and shook his head to clear it. He wasn’t going to let them get away with this.
His ribs ached as he got to his knees to get up and Carson knew at once that a few of them were broken. It was causing him difficulty breathing and fresh tears came to his eyes at the pain. None of this served as a discouragement, however. If anything it gave rise to further anger within him and he didn’t just want to hurt those girls any more but kill them!
He got to his feet and practically fell forward onto the wall as he put his head into the shaft and looked up. He just caught the glimpse of one of their legs as they pulled themselves outside into the open air. If Spalding was gone, as he assumed the girls knew he was, they could be clear of here before he knew it. Time was against him and he had to forget all about how his body was feeling and just focus on getting those girls back for what they'd done to him.
Ignoring the pain was much harder than he imagined and his body cried out with every movement up that narrow shaft. He was very glad of the ease of the technical part of the climb but every movement of his body hurt him somewhere; there was simply no avoiding the pain. The girls, the girls, the girls, he said over and over in his head, they had to pay for this. This is what he used to drive him on. As he got closer to the top though he too began to feel the fresh air and he could see the sunlight and a new idea came to mind. Now he too was tasting freedom and it tasted good.
The notion of getting away from here, finding somewhere safe started to push away the anger he felt at the girls and now all he wanted was to be back on the road to Canada. If he could get back to civilization he was sure Buddy would be able to set something up for him again and this time he wasn’t going to let anything get in his way or distract him.
It took a few minutes more but then Carson squeezed himself out through the hole and got to his feet, breathing hard and holding his ribs where the pain was worst. Movement caught his eye and he looked to the tall grass and saw Megan and Ellie halfway to a copse of trees. He would probably never catch them with the state he was in right now but that didn’t matter anymore, now he had to take care of himself.
He turned to look around and then with horror realised he was not alone. The hulking frame of Dwight Spalding stood next to him, leaning with his back against the wall and watching the girls escape.
“I tried to stop them,” Carson said, the urge to urinate coming sharp and fast.
“I know,” Dwight said without looking at him.
“Aren’t you going to go after them?” Carson asked when a few more moments had passed and Spalding still hadn’t moved.
“There’s no need for that,” he replied smiling. "Those girls put in a lot of work to escape and I don’t think it would be fair to snatch that away from them.”
“You’re letting them go?” Carson asked, he was incredulous and didn’t understand this at all. “What about me?” Carson asked, a glimmer of hope that he too would be let leave.
“You’ll be free tonight when we go and meet Tyler,” Spalding said. He was still looking after the girls and he had a strange expression on his face, it reminded Carson of a proud father but that didn’t make any sense. As he looked at the giant man, Spalding took out a small device and pressed a button on it.
“We better get going,” he said to Carson, “It won’t be long before the police are here now.”
“What are you going to do about the others down there?” Carson asked. Spalding held up the little gadget in his hand and shook it saying,
“That’s already been taken care of.” He walked back towards the front of the house and Carson looked once more out to the girls but they were gone; out of sight in the trees. It was then that he heard the first muffled screams of those down below the house and the hissing noise from the pipes that told him how the poisonous gas was being delivered down there. He felt sick and threw up but there was nothing he could do about it but follow along with Spalding’s instructions. He just
