Outlaw's Promise(77)

Running with no hands was exhausting and terrifying. One slip and I’d go headfirst down the slope with no way to stop myself. I couldn’t put my hands up to fend off twigs so I had to just close my eyes and let them scrape across my face.

But I couldn’t slow down. I could hear the two guys in suits tearing down the slope behind me. Occasionally, a shot would ring out. I was far enough in front and the light was low enough that they’d missed so far, but twice I’d seen a bullet take a chunk out of a tree, scarily close. I was already out of breath but I had to push myself faster, faster—

I stumbled and had to crouch so I didn’t go right over. I slid on my ass for a few seconds and then managed to regain my balance, panting. Shit! Now they were even closer.

And they were boxing me in. I’d been planning to skirt around the edge of the lake but they’d spread out so that, whichever way I turned, I’d be coming right at one of them. The only way I could go was straight downhill, towards the water, and that was a dead end.

The closer I got to the lake, the boggier the ground got. At first, my boots just slipped a little but soon I was running on a thin crust of leaves and moss on top of a thick, black quagmire. And as the light faded, I couldn’t see where to put my feet. The ground would be solid, solid, then suddenly I’d go in up to my ankle and have to waste precious seconds getting free. It tired me even more, my legs throbbing and aching. And every single step jolted my injured head, sending fresh pain shooting through my skull.#p#分页标题#e#

Lungs burning and muscles screaming, I burst out of the trees and skidded to a stop. I’d reached the water. In front of me, inky-black smoothness extended into the distance, as if someone had laid a colossal sheet of glass. Shit! I looked left and right, my heart thumping in my chest. I couldn’t see them but I could hear them scrambling through the trees towards me.

I bent double, heaving for air. I was dead. I couldn’t go left or right or I’d run right into them. I couldn’t make it back up the slope without my hands. That only left the water.

And I couldn’t swim with my hands cuffed. Fuck.

Part of me almost gave up. I pictured myself just standing there, head bowed, waiting for them. A quick bullet to the back of the head and it would all be over.

But then Annabelle had no chance at all. My hands tightened into fists.

I started to wade out into the water. I didn’t have a plan except to hide. But there were was nowhere to hide except under the surface and I couldn’t hold my breath for long.

My boots sank into the thick mud of the lake bottom. The water crept up my ankles, my calves, my thighs, warm from the sun but still cool enough to make me shiver. Behind me, the guys had almost reached the shore.

I was immersed up to my chest, now. I threw myself forward to start swimming...and immediately started to sink. Fuck! I’d been right: swimming was impossible. My hands jerked uselessly at the handcuffs. I rolled onto my back and went completely under the water, gulping in a mouthful of it. No!

I kicked hard and my head broke the surface. I coughed and choked, blinking through the water. My toes could only just touch the bottom, now. I could tread water like this for a few minutes but I was dead as soon as they saw me. The only chance was to stay underwater.

By now the sun was so low that the surface of the lake was almost black. Simple, primal fear took over. No creature wants to drown itself. I can’t!

But then I heard shouts, right at the shoreline. I took a lungful of air, pushed my legs out from under me...and slid under the water.

I couldn’t see much but I could make out indistinct, moving shapes at the edge of the lake. They knew I’d gone in the water: that was the only place I could have gone.

My only chance was if they assumed I’d drowned and walked away before I ran out of air. For about thirty seconds, I thought maybe that would work. Then a beam of blinding light lit up the water in a huge fan shape above me. Shit! One of them had a flashlight. And they were going to make sure I was dead. All they had to do was to wait for a few minutes and I’d either have to show myself or I’d drown.

By now, my lungs were straining. When I dived, I’d still been out of breath from my run down the hill, plus my chest was still battered from inhaling smoke and red-hot air. My brain was screaming at me to breathe and it was harder and harder to fight the response to surface. If I surfaced, I was dead. But if I stayed down, I’d die anyway.

The flashlight beam swept over me again and again, back and forth. I was starting to panic, now, my wrists jerking at the handcuffs, the metal cutting deep. I twisted underwater, thrashing like a fish on a line. Don’t surface. Fight it. Fight it. Maybe they’ll give up.