Chapter 8 - The Desperate Escape
Glass showered over Maya as she desperately slammed on the brakes.
The sudden deceleration caused the black SUV to shoot past them on the highway.
Maya lost control of the sedan, and the vehicle skidded violently through the muddy shoulder.
They crashed into a deep ditch, the car coming to a jarring, permanent halt.
"Is everyone okay?" Maya coughed, waving away the smoke from the deployed airbags.
Caleb and Malik nodded, quickly unbuckling their seatbelts in the dark.
The black SUV reversed back down the highway and parked near the edge of the ditch.
Two large, masked men stepped out of the vehicle, holding bright tactical flashlights.
"Grab the laptop and run into the woods!" Maya ordered, pushing the boys out the passenger door.
Caleb grabbed the laptop bag containing the MP3 player, and he sprinted into the dense forest with Malik.
Maya stayed behind to distract the men, shouting at them to buy the boys some precious time.
Caleb and Malik ran blindly through the thick brush, branches whipping against their faces.
They could hear the heavy boots of one of the masked men chasing closely behind them.
"This way!" Caleb yelled, pulling Malik toward the sound of rushing water.
They reached the edge of a deep, fast-moving river illuminated only by the moonlight.
The masked man burst through the trees behind them, shining his flashlight directly onto Caleb's back.
"Stop right there, kid, or I will make this hurt," the man growled threateningly.
Caleb panicked and tried to leap across a cluster of slippery rocks near the riverbank.
His foot slipped on a patch of wet moss, and he fell hard onto his side.
The laptop bag slipped from his grasp, tumbling down the rocks.
Caleb watched in absolute horror as the bag splashed into the freezing, turbulent river.
The current instantly swept the bag away, swallowing their only piece of evidence in the dark water.
May you like
The masked man laughed cruelly, stepping forward to grab Caleb by the collar.
"Looks like your little crusade is officially over," the man mocked.
