The car that had been chasing us backed up and then moved sideways to partially block the road behind us.
Axel put on his high beams.
For a moment we sat in silence, looking at the two plain cars sitting idle in the road. It didn’t look like an accident, nor did it seem official.
My aunt peered forward from her seat. “Is that a police roadblock?”
“Unlikely,” Axel said. He honked his horn twice in succession, but no one got out.
I watched Axel’s eyes in the rearview mirror and realized that he was focused on what was happening behind us.
“This is an ambush,” he said calmly. “They’ve got guns. Get down.”
Instead of ducking, I looked behind me. Two men were walking toward the back of our vehicle carrying large automatic weapons.
My aunt screamed and pointed ahead of us. Four men had stepped out of the cars in front. They were dressed completely in black, they wore masks and they held huge weapons.
“I need you to get down, Mila,” Axel ordered, but I was completely frozen. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from what was unfolding in front of me. I grasped the seat in front of me, but that was the only movement I seemed capable of.
Axel hit the gas and accelerated so hard I was nearly thrown back. He drove the SUV straight toward the parked cars. The men stood and fired their weapons, but when they realized that Axel wasn’t stopping, they all dove to the side as we barreled toward them.
“Brace yourself,” Axel said calmly, right before he smashed the front of our SUV into the back of their car. It happened in a second. The entire SUV jolted hard, and my seat belt tightened around me upon impact, but their car absorbed most of the crash and spun one of the other cars sideways, allowing us to basically drive past it. There was a heavy plunking all around us, and it took me a moment to realize it was the sound of multiple bullets hitting the metal of our vehicle. But the glass windows merely fractured.
Beside me, my aunt had her head between her legs. She was shrieking with fear and panic.
“I need you to call your uncle for me,” Axel said, as he cranked the wheel of the SUV, spinning it ninety degrees to the left.
I nearly lost hold of my phone when we drove down into a ditch and then up the steep embankment on the other side. Then we plowed through an insane amount of brush before blasting into a mature corn field. Dried stalks slapped and pounded us on all sides. The corn reached well above the roof of the SUV, and our visibility completely disappeared. It felt like we were in a giant, weird car wash.
My uncle answered on the first ring. “Where are you?” he barked.
I put him on speaker. “They’re shooting at us. We’re in the cornfield, the one beside the pond.” I gasped as the vehicle banged and bumped over tilled mounds of earth and the smell of crushed greenery filled the cabin. Beside me, my aunt moaned.
I could hear my uncle shouting, and then he came back to me. “Tell Axel to drive up the north side of the pond. We’re on our way.”
I held the phone toward Axel, who spoke loudly. “Our back tires have been shot out, and we might not make it.”
Grisha responded. “Hold them back.”
“I recognized one of the men. He was Volkov.”
“We’re on our way,” my uncle barked. “Hold the line.”
I disconnected our call and looked back in dismay when the big bright lights of a truck shone eerily through the cornstalks as it chased us. It was so close I could hear the roar of the engine.
They rammed us with tremendous power, and we fishtailed wildly over bumps while Axel struggled to maintain control.
My aunt wailed dramatically the second time they surged forward and rammed into us, but it was their final hit that nearly sent the SUV rolling. Axel worked to recover from that assault, but we ended up sliding into a steep ditch next to the field and coming to a dead stop.
I looked behind me, but the truck had driven slightly past us. I could see its taillights off to the side. I watched in shock as Axel got out of the driver’s seat and unholstered his weapon.
“What are you doing?” I whispered harshly.
“My job,” he said calmly, as he slid back the top of his gun with a resounding click.
I was terrified he’d get shot and we’d be left stranded in the vehicle without protection.
“Just stay.” I couldn’t keep the fear out of my voice.
