The thought made her eyes open. Her sobbing stopped.
Her mother couldn’t save her. Wolf wasn’t coming. It was her and this sicko, and that’s how it was going to be. She had only one thing left to do, and that was to die with dignity, or somehow kill this bastard first.
Buck up!
Pushing her legs straight she realized that sound of the diesel engine had become a steady growl. The swiveling light was now a constant glow.
The tarp ripped back again. She blinked, surprised to see the clouds above. It was still daylight but just barely. She must not have been out for too long since the blow to her head.
"I can't shoot you," he said. "I don't have a gun for that this time."
He looked out into the distance as he spoke, not at her.
“I don’t care,” he said under his breath. “No, forget it. Stop.” He hit the side of his head with his open palm, looking as if he was trying to eject inner voices speaking to him out of his opposite ear.
"I'll knock you out again so it's not so scary,” he said, eyes looking into another universe. “I’m sorry.”
The man ducked away and the tailgate lowered again. Again the truck sagged down as he stepped up.
Feeling him brush against her knee, she kicked up and out as hard as she could with both feet lashed together, a ramrod powered by all her might and fear. But she connected with nothing. He feet slammed hard back down onto the truck bed.
Wrestling her like she was a captured rodeo animal, he turned her over and pulled her by the legs, scraping her face along the chipped, dented truck bed as she slid back. Her hip banged hard over the threshold, then the side of her face slammed against the tailgate as he yanked her off the truck bed’s edge.
The breath barked out of her lungs and she lay on the ground trying to inhale through her nose, but the air wouldn’t come. The familiar bug-like stars swirled at the edges of her vision.
Giving her no reprieve, not a second, he dragged her with frightening speed across the wet earth.
Her face and head slid over rocks, her chest scraped, sharp pain turning to cold numbness. She tried to turn, giving the side of her face and shoulder the full brunt of the attack.
Lightning flickered overhead, illuminating the entire area around her in one flash. She saw the giant earth mover standing like a monster looming high above. The bolt of electricity crawled across the sky and then back again, giving her plenty of light to see something else: a gaping black hole.
Her breath came back with a squealing noise as it filled her chest with agonizing slowness. There was the sound of a thousand tinkling bells in her ears. She was going to pass out. Good. She didn't want to be conscious for this.
Suddenly, the man stopped and dropped her legs.
“What is it?” he asked nobody. “Shit.” He walked away with quick, crunching steps, then came back and knelt down next to her.
Again, she was not here as a human, it seemed, just a thing he had to deal with. She pleaded through the duct tape.
“Shut up,” he said, this time putting his face close to hers.
She lurched forward and head-butted him in the face. It was hardly a knock-out blow but she felt ultimate satisfaction at finally getting a lick in.
“Ah!” he put his hand on his cheek. Another flash of lightning showed his grimacing mouth.
She expected retaliation to come hard and swift, but instead he turned and looked at something far away.
Blinking away her tears, she followed his gaze to a pair of headlights barreling down the road. She let out a squeal of excitement seeing the light bar affixed to the top and the SBCSD paint job.
With the injection of adrenaline spiking her bloodstream she rolled to her side, onto her back, and then her other side. Using her momentum she kept rolling, again and again, away from the open mouth in the earth waiting to eat her.
"Stop!"
He was already on top of her, slapping his hand on her shoulder, but she didn’t care. She thrashed as hard as she could, ignoring the pain shooting through her wrists as she pulled her legs up again to kick.
"Stop it!"
He swatted her feet away, knelt on top of her chest, and punched her twice in the face with the force of a dropping boulder.
She felt one of her teeth loosen behind the duct tape. Suddenly, she couldn't breathe. Blood clogged her nose, choked it. She snorted hard and swallowed, and then she sat motionless, feeling the darkness close in even harder now. She concentrated on her ragged breathing, slowing, slowing...
Her head slammed on a rock. She was gliding along the ground again. No, she was still conscious.
Don't do it!
She tried to scream but no sound came out this time.
Then it was too late. Her body went weightless for a moment, then she landed impossibly hard onto ground. The darkness completely engulfed her.
And the monster roared again.
Chapter 35
Wolf’s SUV finally dipped out of the clouds as he descended the ski slope-like grade road into the mine. His unsafe speed seemed to double as he saw the final turn leading into the flat zone of the mine yard coming fast.
He pressed the brakes and took his eyes off the road to assess the situation down in the mine yard. In the fading light and aided by a single flood bulb mounted on top of one of the trailers, he saw two blue pickups parked next to a couple of ATVs.
Two pickups were missing. What did that mean?
Down the valley, toward the cut, he saw the faint glow of another light, but it was hidden behind a slope.
Whatever they were doing to Piper Cain, the first step was to get them to stop and come deal with him. He
