They expect me to run for the road. They expect me to seek help, flag down a car, try to disappear into civilization.
I turn east instead.
The terrain gets rougher almost immediately. Rocky outcroppings, steep drops, dense undergrowth that tears at my clothes. This isn't the direction of safety. This is the direction of wilderness, of nothing, of getting lost and dying alone in the mountains.
But it's also the direction they won't expect.
I climb.
My thighs burn as I scramble up a steep embankment. My hands are scraped raw from grabbing rocks and roots. The go bag on my shoulder throws off my balance, but I don't drop it.Water. First aid kit. Emergency beacon. Everything I need to survive.
Everything except Deck.
I push the thought away. I can't think about him right now. Can't picture him lying on that slope, his shoulder torn open, his eyes telling me to run even as his voice begged me to stay.
He's alive. He has to be alive. The man on the radio said Target One was secondary, not eliminated. They want him for information. They won't kill him until they have me.
Which means I need to stay free long enough to figure out how to save him.
I pause behind a massive boulder, pressing my back against cold stone, forcing myself to breathe slowly despite the fire in my lungs. I strain to listen.
No footsteps. No voices. No flashlight beams cutting through the trees.
I've lost them. For now.
I keep climbing until I reach a small plateau overlooking the valley. From here, I can see flashlight beams sweeping near the main road, searching the trees where they expected me to be. They're looking in the wrong place.
I allow myself thirty seconds to rest. My chest heaves, my muscles scream, but I'm alive. I'm free.
Now what?
The emergency beacon in my bag could summon help. Mace and the Guardian Peak team would come. But activating it would also give away my position to anyone monitoring emergency frequencies. And by the time help arrived, the contractors might have me.
I need a different plan.
Deck showed me the property maps during one of our security briefings. Guardian Peak's main compound is elevenmiles south. Eleven miles through wilderness I barely know, in the dark, with armed men hunting me.
But if I can reach it, if I can get to Mace and the team...
We can go back for Deck.
The thought crystallizes into purpose. I'm not running away. I'm running toward help. Toward the only people who might be able to save the man I love.
I check the compass that Deck insisted we add to the go bag and orient myself south. Then I start walking.
The next two hours are the hardest of my life.
I move through terrain that wants to kill me. Ravines that appear out of nowhere. Rock faces that force me to backtrack. Streams swollen with snowmelt that soak me to the knees.
But I keep going.
Deck's training runs through my head on a loop.Watch your footing. Control your breathing. Use the terrain as cover. Move from shadow to shadow.
I stop every few minutes to listen. The searchers have spread out, their flashlight beams now distant pinpricks in the darkness behind me. Either they've lost my trail or they're regrouping for a wider search pattern.
Either way, I have time. Not much, but enough.
Dawn is starting to lighten the eastern sky when I hear the vehicle.
