rattled. We began to slow down. I glanced back and saw that the two gunmen were following us, but they didn’t appear to be in a hurry. “We were lucky,” I said.
“Lucky? I love my car and those bastards killed it.”
“We weren’t going all that fast,” I said. “They could have shot us both in the head. Easily. We’re lucky they still haven’t found the predator.”
We crested the top of a hill and started down. The engine suddenly made a loud grinding noise. The car was dying.
Catherine put the car in neutral so we could drift to the bottom of the hill. “Shit!” she said again. She sounded close to tears. “Those assholes shot at us! Should I have stopped for them and let them search the car?” For the first time, I heard uncertainty in her voice.
“No,” I told her. “After they searched, they would have held on to us, and I don’t think we would have liked it.”
She took a deep breath. “Right. Of course. I knew that.” The Acura reached the bottom of the slope and lost momentum against the next rise. Catherine twisted the wheel so it blocked the road. “I’m sorry. The gunfire has me a little rattled. We run for the gate, don’t we?”
“I think so. Those guys will be coming up behind us, and the old man ordered the floating storm to kill everyone it found between the house and the fence. Although …”
“Although what?”
“He didn’t seem to have complete control over it.”
She sighed again. “Let me get my jump bag.” She grabbed a small, stuffed duffel bag from the floor behind her and got out of the car. Then she began jogging up the road. I followed her but spared a glance behind us. The two gunmen hadn’t made it over the hill yet. We didn’t sprint because we weren’t sure how far we had to go, but we did hustle.
“Ray,” she said. She was not breathing hard, but she didn’t look comfortable. “I’m sorry for what I said. You’ve been a solid guy. You didn’t have to come out here to warn me, but if you hadn’t …”
“Thanks,” I said, feeling a tremendous sense of relief that I couldn’t really explain. It was hard to admit how much I wanted her acceptance, and through her the acceptance of the society as a whole.
And that hadn’t been easy for her to say.
“Too bad you’re a wooden man.”
“Let’s save our breath, okay?” But I knew what she meant. A wooden man didn’t come with a long life expectancy.
The treetops cast long shadows across the road. The woods around me seemed to become more clear. My eyes were adjusting, I thought, but something didn’t seem right. The shadows were too sharp. I grabbed Catherine’s sleeve and pulled her to a stop. She cringed just a little, and I let go of her.
The long, crooked shadows of the trees were slowly moving toward us. I glanced up. Ahead and to the left there was a light in the sky. It was dimmer and smaller than a full moon, but it was growing brighter.
“Lord above,” Catherine said. “It’s coming right toward us.”
I heard hissing, like water drops boiling in a skillet. It was, in fact, coming right toward us.
Catherine bolted for the downhill slope at the edge of the road. The bramble was thick there and the ground uneven. “No!” I shouted. “This way!” I ran back up the road.
I glanced back once to see that she had followed and that she could keep up. The floating storm passed over the trees onto the road. We ran around the Acura and up the hill.
“Where are we going?” Catherine called.
I slowed down to let her get next to me. An old joke popped into my head about running away from a bear, but I didn’t think she’d find it funny. Catherine’s mouth was set in a determined frown, and her forehead was a mass of wrinkles. She already had streaks of sweat down the side of her face.
Ahead of us, the two gunmen had reached the top of the slope. They had already seen the floating storm, of course. The tall one with the elaborate hair was talking very excitedly on his cell. His partner was short and round, with a Moe Howard haircut that made him seem like comic relief. He didn’t have a fearful expression; he looked like he was seeing the awful end he’d always expected.
I risked one glance back at the creature behind me. It was traveling along the road now, but I couldn’t tell if it was gaining or not.
The gunmen glanced at Catherine and me. I could see their indecision.
“Run for your lives!” I screamed at them, letting my face show some of the terror I was feeling. They shrank away from me, understanding the tone of my voice if not the words. Fear is contagious. The men in the basement had proved that.
They turned their attention back to the predator. Haircut pulled his cellphone away from his ear and winced as though it had stung him.
We were fewer than ten yards from them now. I grabbed Catherine’s elbow and shoved her toward a deer path on the side of the road.
It was a steep drop-off. We hopped partway down the hill until I slipped in the mud and fell, body-sledding into the back of Catherine’s legs and knocking her on top of me.
We struck a tree trunk at the bottom of a shallow ravine and tumbled into the mud. I jumped up, pulled Catherine to her feet, and followed her up the slope ahead.
Gunshots. We both stopped at the top of the little slope and looked up at the road.
The two gunmen were holding their ground, standing in two-handed firing stances: shoulders squared, legs
