Chapter 5 - The Highway Chase
Brenda rolled down her window completely, completely ignoring the freezing wind whipping through her car.
She held a heavy, black handgun in her right hand and pointed it directly at my face.
"Pull the car over right now, Sarah, or I will blow your brains all over the highway!" Brenda screamed maniacally.
I panicked and jerked the steering wheel hard to the right, sending my car careening onto the gravel shoulder.
Sparks flew wildly into the air as the side of my sedan scraped against the rusted metal guardrail.
David reached across the center console and grabbed the steering wheel to help me regain control of the vehicle.
"Do not stop, Sarah, she is actually going to kill us!" my brother yelled frantically.
I managed to stabilize the car and merged back into the fast lane, completely blowing past a semi-truck.
Brenda fired a single shot that shattered my rear windshield, sending a shower of glass raining down on the back seats.
I ducked instinctively, my heart pounding so hard I thought my chest was going to explode.
I needed to find a way to lose her before she managed to put a bullet through one of our heads.
I saw a bright green sign approaching that indicated an upcoming exit for an abandoned industrial park.
I waited until the absolute last possible second before violently jerking the car toward the exit ramp.
My tires screeched loudly as the car skidded sideways, barely missing the concrete divider.
Brenda tried to follow my sudden maneuver, but her massive SUV was far too heavy to make the sharp turn.
I watched in my rearview mirror as her vehicle spun wildly out of control across the wet highway.
The SUV slammed hard into the concrete barrier, crushing the front hood and deploying all the airbags.
I did not stop to check if she had survived the horrific crash.
I sped down the dark, winding road into the empty industrial park and hid my car behind a massive shipping container.
I turned the engine off and slumped over the steering wheel, gasping for air as the adrenaline slowly left my system.
David patted my shoulder and praised my driving skills, but his hand was shaking uncontrollably.
"We cannot go to the FBI office tonight, Brenda clearly has trackers on our vehicles," David pointed out.
He was right, because there was no other way she could have found us so quickly in the dark.
I reached under my steering column and found a small, magnetic black box blinking with a red LED light.
I ripped the tracker off the metal and threw it as far as I could into the tall weeds.
We needed a completely safe place to hide until the sun came up and the federal building opened.
David suggested we break into his old boss's deserted warehouse located just a few miles away.
We abandoned my damaged car and walked for an hour through the freezing, muddy fields to reach the warehouse.
The building was massive, dark, and smelled strongly of old motor oil and decaying cardboard.
We pried a loose piece of sheet metal off the back door and slipped quietly into the pitch-black interior.
I collapsed onto a stack of dirty shipping pallets, utterly exhausted and completely terrified for my daughter's life.
David pulled the USB flash drive from his pocket and stared at it like it was the holy grail.
"We have them, Sarah, tomorrow morning this nightmare will finally be over," he promised softly.
Suddenly, the massive overhead warehouse lights flickered on, instantly blinding us with harsh white fluorescence.
A voice echoed through the massive room from the elevated metal catwalk above us.
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"You really thought it would be that easy to escape me?" the chilling voice asked.
I looked up and saw my husband, Mark, standing on the catwalk with a loaded shotgun pointed directly at my chest.
