One minute passed, and then another, and another, and sweat was running into her eyes and down the back of her neck. Then, like before, when she got the first knot untied around her ankles, it was easier to undo the other.

Once her hands and feet were free, she didn’t feel so helpless. She began feeling around inside the trunk for anything she could use as a weapon and thought of the doughnut spare beneath the carpeting on which she was lying, and the funky little jack and lug wrench that went with it.

She was reaching for the edge of the carpeting when the car hit a pothole. She reached out to brace herself, desperate to grab onto anything to keep from being bounced up against the trunk lid again.

After that big bounce, the driver stomped the accelerator. She could hear mud flying up beneath the fenders and grimaced. The ride was getting so rough that it was making her feel nauseous. She was searching for something to hold onto when she felt some kind of lever. Without thinking what it might be, she grabbed onto it with all her strength, bracing for the next jolt.

One second the car was moving, and the next it hit a hole so deep that it momentarily stopped. The sudden stop threw Melissa forward. The lever she was holding onto popped the trunk lid. One second she was in darkness, and the next she was looking at trees and blue sky. She’d been holding onto the safety release, and now she was free!

She scrambled up onto her knees and had one leg out of the vehicle when he stomped the gas again, sending mud flying out into the air behind him. The lurch was nothing short of a launch that ejected Melissa out of the trunk. The trunk lid slammed shut as the driver kept going, and so did Melissa. She landed hard on the edge of the road. When she tried to get up, she lost her balance and fell backward onto a steep slope that led to the hollow below. Her descent was out of her control, and she picked up speed as she continued to slide. She began screaming and grabbing for bushes and trees, reaching for anything that would stop her fall, but the slope was as slick as the road above, and she couldn’t get traction.

She saw a sapling just below her that had grown up between two larger trees. If she could just catch it, it might save her. She stiffened her leg, and when her left foot hit one of the big trees, it slowed her down enough to make a grab for the sapling.

She caught it with both hands, but the pain that shot through her shoulders as it yanked her to a halt made her feel as though her arms were being pulled out of their sockets. The good news was she wasn’t sliding anymore.

Still clutching the sapling, Melissa lay there trying to catch her breath and, in the quiet, heard sirens in the distance. The police! Sully had come home. He knew she’d been taken, and somehow they knew where the man was going. She had to get back to the road or they’d never see her, and the only way to make that happen was to crawl.