* * *

Melissa was crawling as fast as she could, but was still a good fifty feet from the top when she heard the first police car fly past, and then another, and now she was sobbing, trying to catch them before they were all gone.

Another flew past, and she was crying “stop, please stop,” even though she knew it was futile. She couldn’t even hear herself over the sound of the sirens.

Then she heard a fourth car coming. She was less than ten feet from the top when she slipped. She dug her toes into the hill and caught the slide, and then had to regain the ground she’d lost, but the car was already gone. When the fifth car sped past and the sirens began to fade, she didn’t quit.

There’ll be one more. There will be one more.

All of a sudden, she felt the flat surface of the road beneath her fingers and looked up. She’d made it! She toed her feet into the ground again and pushed herself up a few more inches, but then stopped. If she moved her feet again, she’d slide back. Without anything to hang onto to pull herself the rest of the way up, she put her head down and started praying three words over and over again.

“Help me, God. Help me, God.”

A minute passed, and then another, and the sweat on her body was making the scratches sting and burn. When she heard another car coming up the slope without a siren, she started shouting and waving her hand. She knew they couldn’t see her body, but maybe they’d hear her. Maybe they’d see her waving. It was all she could do to help herself.

* * *

Without knowing the twists and turns of the road like the locals, Sully had been forced to back off the eighty miles an hour he’d been running and was praying this road only went one way. If the police took a turn, he’d lose them. Leaving the blacktop and having to driving in the muddy ruts of the cars ahead of him slowed him down even more. He’d already hit one pothole, and now he knew to watch for them so he didn’t blow a tire.

He had just started up another slope and was looking at the road ahead of him when he saw movement at the side of the road. He shifted his gaze and then couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Just a hand and part of someone’s arm up in the air, and they were waving for help! The thought went through his mind that maybe Slade had dumped her off the side of the hill. He hit the brakes, then killed the engine, and the minute he got out of the car, he heard her voice.

“Melissa!” he shouted and ran toward the edge of the road, where he saw the precarious position she was in, then dropped down on his belly and grabbed her by the wrist. “I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you.”