Every Second

53

Somewhere in New York State

Lori ran with Billy through the dark woods, terrified, breathless, her heart bursting.

Images of her life streaked before her: Dan’s smile when she first met him at college; their wedding day; his tear-filled eyes above the surgical mask in the delivery room when they had Billy; his last words…

“Go get Billy… I’ll be right behind you!”

Something had cleaved inside and Lori needed to let loose a great guttural, animal shriek at the horror she now faced. A wail was about to erupt and shoot to the heavens, beseeching God to turn back time and release her from this netherworld.

Why, why, why?

But she couldn’t scream. They would hear her. She choked back her sobs and fought against the shock, the cold, the painful stomach spasms, helping Billy as they ran.

The whip-snip of bullets in the trees had ceased; the distant echoes of voices had long faded. How long had it been? She didn’t know. How far had they fled? She didn’t know. But fear compelled her to keep moving.

Fear that the murderers were gaining on them.

Fear that at any time they could detonate the vests. If they got far enough away maybe they’d be out of range. Lori held fast to that hope.

As it grew dark, they had to slow down. It was harder to see now and the cumbersome vests and Lori’s bound hands made it difficult to travel. Lori refused to jettison the backpack of food, water and laptop, despite the extra weight. It was all they had now, along with their will to survive.

Keep moving, keep moving.

Legs numb. Sides and arms aching, lungs sore, throats dry and ragged from panicked breathing. But they kept moving through the dense stands of sweet-scented woods. Branches scraped their faces and arms, snagged and pulled at them. The terrain was rocky, uneven and dangerous.

They stumbled often and when Billy had cried out, Lori comforted him.

As they continued, she heard him sobbing through his clenched jaw and she was pierced with the thought that he’d witnessed his father’s murder.

Did he see it? Does he know Dan’s dead?

She was uncertain. They hadn’t stopped. There’d been no time to talk.

Eventually they could go no farther. They settled in along a small hollow in a soft hillside. In silence, they gathered branches to pull over them for cover. The temperature had plunged and they shivered quietly. The running had warmed them, but Lori knew the freezing air would make it worse for them while they were still.

She searched blindly through the backpack, opening the zipped pockets, desperate for anything that would help them survive. Feeling around, she let out a gasp of relief when her fingers found a folded pocket knife. She held it to her face to examine it for the groove she needed, then opened the blade and very carefully cut Billy’s wrists free of the plastic cuffs, passing the knife, so he could do the same for her.

The freedom to move their hands and arms was a victory, and it gave Lori a measure of hope. She considered attempting to remove the bombs, which she thought might be possible by moving their arms, sliding the vests up and over their heads. But the way they were rigged, zippered and Velcroed, with wires running across the front, drove home her fear that any attempt to free themselves might cause the bombs to explode. They’d had them this long and they were still alive. She’d only try removing them as a last resort. Besides, now they offered warmth.

She continued searching the bag, finding a sweatshirt and ball cap. Taking her time, she put them on Billy. Swishing sounds in the backpack led her to discover a plastic bottle of water that felt nearly full.

“Easy,” she whispered to him as he drank. “We have to save as much as we can.”

She felt the laptop and debated whether to turn it on and use it. Maybe, just maybe, if there was service, the computer could be a lifeline to help. But she decided against trying to find out right now, worried that the light of the screen would give away their location or activate some other tracking feature she might not be aware of. No, she didn’t want to take that risk. Not now.

She pulled Billy close, both of them trembling, gasping erratically as they fought to stay warm. The night carried the intermittent sounds of nocturnal animals moving through the forest.

“I’m scared, Mom,” Billy whispered.

She held him tighter.

“We’ll be okay. Try to rest. It’s the best thing.”

“But…what happened to Dad?”

His question cut through her. She pushed back a sob and anguished over whether to lie to her son to protect him, or if it was best to just tell him the truth.

“I heard shouting,” Billy insisted. “I heard Dad’s voice. I know it was him. Then there was all this shooting. Mom, what happened?”

Lori swallowed hard and realized that, after all Billy had been through, he needed to know the truth.

“Yes, sweetheart, your dad was outside. The two other men brought him here, then Daddy did a very, very brave thing. He fought back, so fast and so hard, that we-” her voice broke “-that we were able to get free…”

“So where is he?”

“Honey, I’m so sorry, but he didn’t-they-they shot him.”

Billy pulled away from her, whispering harshly, “No! You’re lying!”

“Shhh-shh.”

Lori pressed her little boy’s face tight to her body, practically feeling his heart break, feeling him shake as he sobbed against her.

“He saved us, sweetheart. Daddy did what he had to, so that we could get away. He saved us and now we have to do our best to get home, so we can tell police what they did. Promise me we’ll fight hard, together, for Daddy, okay?”

Lori felt his head moving up and down against her as she stared up to the sky at the crescent moon and prayed.