Private Rogue

Chapter 88

Beth was crying with exhaustion and the children were weeping as their little hands clawed desperately at the earth. All three of them were digging the hole Beth had started with the broken length of pipe. She felt a growing sense of desperation. Time was not their ally, and she knew escape was their only way of avoiding death. Danny’s fingers were raw, Maria’s bleeding.

“Please stop,” Beth said. “Let me do it.”

“No,” Maria replied tearfully. “We want to help. We have to get out!”

Danny’s face was covered in dirty streaks from where he kept wiping it with his muddy hands. Fresh tears sprang to Beth’s eyes as she looked at her brave children.

“I’m so proud of you both,” she choked out. “Let me check it.”

The hole was now big enough for the children to escape, but at last attempt it had been too small for Beth. She pushed her head into it, scrabbled under the wall, and tried to force her shoulders through. She could see the snow-covered field on the other side of the steel wall and was invigorated by a blast of cold fresh air. She pushed but the earth would not yield. She couldn’t negotiate her way through. It was a matter of centimeters only. She pushed herself back under the wall and inside the barn.

“A little more,” she said, and they resumed digging.

She hacked at the ground with the length of pipe, and the children clawed the loose earth clear. Her spirit was almost broken and she longed for sleep, but she couldn’t afford to indulge her ruined muscles and broken mind. Her children needed her to keep going.

She stopped suddenly and so did Maria and Danny. They heard the sound of a lock being opened.

“Go!” Beth said, grabbing Danny.

“Not without you,” he cried.

“I’m coming,” she told him. “Go.”

She pushed him into the hole and under the wall then grabbed Maria.

“Take him to the woods,” Beth said. “Hide!”

“Mom—” Maria began, but Beth cut her off.

“Go.” She kissed her daughter on the head and pushed her into the hole. Maria wriggled through and Beth tried to follow. She threw herself down as she heard the door open behind her. There was a shout in Russian and she heard footsteps pounding across the concrete floor of the barn.

She pushed against the frozen ground and cried with the pain and effort. She could see the snow-covered field and the forest in the distance, but there was no sign of the children.

Please let them be safe, she thought.

She pushed desperately as the footsteps drew closer, but she was stuck half in and half out of the barn. Then she felt hands on her shoulders and turned to see the children either side of her, Danny to her left and Maria to her right. They grabbed her under her arms.

“Push!” Maria yelled. “Come on, Mom. Push!”

Behind her the heavy footsteps were close. She knew she had just seconds. Beth pushed with every remaining ounce of strength. There was a gunshot. Then another. She felt the wall above her shake under the impact of the bullets. Fear and anger surged, but most of all she was propelled by the desire to be with her children.

She strained every fiber and felt the cold earth shift. She elbowed aside a giant clod of soil and wriggled further through the hole. Steely fingers grabbed her ankle, but she kicked out and pulled her leg through. Someone tried to shoot through the wall but the bullets stalled against the tempered steel.

She heard shouts in Russian from inside the barn and knew they were coming for her and the children.

“Run!” Beth yelled.

She grabbed the kids and pulled them forward, aiming for the treeline on the other side of the field. The snow was deep and hard going, and she was bloody, bruised and battered, but she was free.

And determined to stay that way.