I took a deep breath through the pain and looked around again. There were footprints in the freshly fallen snow, leading into the treeline ahead, but no other sign of whoever had killed The Shadow.
Seeing those footprints headed in a similar direction to Hailey’s smaller ones, which also led into the forest a few heet further to the left, panic hit me that he would hurt her too, and I set off rushing as fast as I could move to catch up with her, determined to protect her.
We had escaped The Shadow, both of us. There was no way I was going to let her be hurt, or worse, now that we both had a chance to get home.
Luckily the snow provided me with a trail of every step she had taken and I followed it through the thick trees. Every step caused pain to shoot down through my ankle, and up through my torso, and breathing was it’s own form of torture, my battered ribs only allowing me to take short shallow gasps. I knew I was moving solely powered by adrenaline and determination.
I started calling out for Hailey, knowing it was a huge risk, but having little choice. Hailey could move a lot faster than me, and her hearing me and stopping was my only chance of catching up to her. I knew I was also alerting the guy with the gun to my location if he was still lurking around, but at least he might come to me instead of going after Hailey, if he was actually looking for either of us. Surely if he meant to hurt me, he’d have shot me in the cabin right after The Shadow?
“HAILEY!” I yelled as loud as I could. My voice, as usual, let me down and it came out much quieter than I needed it to.
More stumbling than running, I forged on. I was grabbing the trees as I fell from one to the other, making myself stay on my feet and keep moving. I knew if I wanted to get Hailey to her parents, and myself to my guys I had to keep pushing.
I stopped, sure I had seen movement from the corner of my eye. I turned to my right slowly, bunching my hands into the fists Kyle had taught me, and tensing my entire body, ready to fight like hell if the crazy with a gun appeared. Instead Hailey slowly slid out from where she had been hiding behind a thick tree. She was silently sobbing, tears streaking down her filth covered face.
“Oh thank God!” I whispered, the relief great as I dropped to my knees. “It’s ok sweetie. Come here.” I opened my arms and she ran right into them, hugging me with ferocity. I held her back as I finally allowed a few tears of my own to run free down my face.
“Are you alright? Are you hurt?” I asked after a few minutes. I pulled her back and held her at arm’s length so I could look her over for cuts from the glass, or any other injuries, but apart from her entire body shivering wildly, and the deep wheeze from her chest, she seemed alright.
She nodded, to which question I wasn’t sure, but I hoped it was that she was alright. She smoothed a hand over my right cheek, which I guessed was pretty badly bruised judging by the tenderness of it, then looked behind me with panic and question.
“He can’t hurt us anymore Hailey. We’re safe.” I whispered, knowing what she was asking me. She nodded again, but there was a fear and darkness in her eyes that I knew she would always carry with her in some way, and I hated it. No child should ever have to experience an iota of what this little girl had for the last four weeks.
“I’m going to get you home to your Mom and Dad now sweetie, I promise.” I struggled to my feet and hurried to brush away the tears of pain the movement caused. We were both shivering hard, and I knew we couldn’t stay where we were for much longer before hypothermia set in.
I hated it, but I quickly realised our only option was to head back to the cabin to find a cell, or phone to get help. If that wasn’t possible then I’d have to try and drive the van to civilisation. Either way, turning back was the better option over trekking through the forest in winter temperatures, injured, starved and ill equipped
I took Hailey’s hand, soothing her reluctance to go back with assurances we would be safe, and trailed back the way we had come, following my own footsteps.
We were close to the cabin when I heard the slamming of a car door and froze. Worried I had misjudged and The Shadow wasn’t dead, or that it was the gunman come back to finish what he started, I pulled Hailey behind a tree and pressed her between my body and the trunk, hiding us completely from anyone who came toward us.
“It’s ok.” I whispered when she looked up to me with sheer terror. I placed my trembling hands on her shoulders to try and soothe her, but locked my stare ahead of us, ready to run and get her out of there if anyone came through the trees.
It was likely only minutes, but felt like hours as we stood there completely silent, just listening. I had heard someone go into the cabin, and there had been some banging around inside it, but no voices or other sounds.
Hailey, who had her arms wrapped around my waist as she fought to keep her wheezing breaths quiet, gripped me tighter when there was the distinct sound of heavy feet running through, and out of the cabin.
“If I say run, I need you to just go that way really fast, ok?” I told her, my voice
