Fire in the Woods (14 page)

David.

I dabbed a tear from the corner of my eye. The second dampened my pillow. He was from another planet, for goodness sake. What was I going to do?

I closed my eyes, begging sleep to take me away for a few hours. A snore rattled the room from the bed above me. A cricket chirped somewhere in the house. The refrigerator in the kitchen below us hummed through the floorboards. Yeah, that wasn’t going to drive me nuts. Maggie rolled over, and her bed squeaked. The clock in the family room downstairs chimed at the top of the hour. I yanked the blanket over my head.

The chirping stopped. Maggie’s snore melted into deep breathing—and—something else.

A tall broad silhouette moved toward me in the darkness.

I sat up. “Who…”

David, barely visible in the moonlight, placed his finger over his lips. “Sorry.”

“Dude, you gotta stop doing that.” I smoothed back my bangs. “What are you doing? If Maggie’s dad catches you…”

“He won’t. He left a few minutes ago.”

“Oh.” Knowing I must be a mess, I grabbed my hair and tied it into a speed braid. “Are you okay? Are you cold?”

“No. I’m fine.” His fingers wrapped around mine. His touch warmed my skin. “I got the signal.”

“Already?” I took in a deep breath, trying to calm my pounding heart. “Okay, so—where do you need to go?”

“Latitude 39-46.505192 north by longitude 074-57.071403 west.”

“Wow. I hope you don’t expect me to know where that is.”

He shifted closer and rubbed his cheek against my forehead. My lips parted, every ounce of me yearning for more contact.

David pulled away. “I know I need to head south. When I get close, I’ll feel them. They will draw me to the extraction point.”

Strong arms enveloped me. His bandage tickled my neck as he nuzzled my hair. I clutched at his sweatshirt, desperate for his touch.

“I can’t ask any more of you,” he whispered.

A pain stabbed deep within my chest. “You’re not leaving me here. You don’t know your way around, and this is my planet. You’ll need help.”

The moonlight caught David’s grin. “You’ll come with me?”

“Of course. We’ve come this far, haven’t we?”

He nodded, the most wonderful look of relief filling his eyes. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning. I have fifty-two hours to get there.”

Something in my chest sunk and sat on the top of my stomach.
Was I really going to do this? The Army was looking for him. What could one teenager do to help? His eyes melted me. I didn’t have to think long. It didn’t matter. I only needed to be with him. “Do you know how far we have to go?”

David’s sigh filled the room. “No.”

“Wake up, idiots,” Maggie’s throaty voice startled me. “We’re not in the Stone Age. Plug the stinking coordinates into a GPS. Now, can we please get some sleep?” She rolled over, trailing her blankets across the floor near her bed.

I smiled at David. More than anything, I wanted him to cuddle up beside me, hold me, make me feel safe. He brushed my cheek with his. The heat of his skin penetrated my sanity and left me witless.

“We’ll leave tomorrow morning then.” He hesitated, his eyes searching through mine. A smile crept across his lips before he slipped back through the door.

Dawn arrived after a long night of staring out the window and studying the stars. I decided to skip the shower, and threw my hair up in a ponytail as I walked down the stairs.

David lay sleeping on the couch, cuddled under the blankets. His long, dark lashes fluttered open as I approached.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“No problem.” He sat up, completely alert
.
I wished I could wake up that quick. “Are you ready to leave?”

“Leave? Now? What about breakfast?”

His jaw tightened. “Okay, but I’m uncomfortable here. I want to get going.”

I dug through the refrigerator and found some apples and tangerines in the fruit drawer for David. I cracked open a strawberry-banana yogurt for me and scooped some into my mouth. I hoped Mrs. Baker wouldn’t mind us raiding the fridge.

David’s turquoise eyes seemed to study me, giving me the chance to lose myself in him. This was it. I was actually going to run with David, defying my father to the umpteenth degree. I probably needed my head examined.

The right thing to do would be to turn David in. Yeah, that would make Dad happy. Maybe that would make him finally trust me. But his trust wasn’t what I needed. Not really.

Helping David was the right thing to do. Dad didn’t know him. To Dad, David was the bad guy. The target. The object of his mission. No. Dad didn’t understand that David was a person who just wanted to get home.

I fingered the envelope with the cash and credit card in my pocket. Boy was Dad going to be pissed, but I’d probably need this money for something more than clothes.

Maggie tip-toed down the stairs in her pink plaid pajamas and sneakers. Her tangled curls stuck out at odd angles.

“I’m glad you guys are still here,” she whispered. “We’re in deep dog-doo.” She opened up a drawer and plucked out a set of keys. “My mom is on the phone right now. I heard David’s name three times.”

My heart fluttered. “Who is she talking to?”

“Does it matter? We’re toast. We need to leave, like, now.” She held her finger to her lips as she opened the front door and led us out.

A crisp, cool morning greeted us. David pulled down on the gray arms of his sweatshirt, concealing his hands within the fleece and rubbing his biceps while Maggie unlocked the car.

“Here. Let me help you.” I reached for his hood and drew the soft lining over his ears. A lock of his bangs fell into his eye. I pushed the dark strands away, gently gliding my fingertips across his cheek. Damn, he was beautiful.

“Thanks,” he said, tucking his covered hands beneath his armpits. “Why is it so cold?”

I drank in a breath of the invigorating morning air. “It’s kind of normal this time of year. It’ll warm up in an hour or so.”

He grimaced, obviously not sharing my enthusiasm. I guess I wouldn’t be too happy either if I were freezing. I opened the back passenger-side door. A woosh of Pine Barrens air freshener tickled my nose. So much for the clean scent of morning.

David’s lips tightened as I gestured to the door. He slid inside, resting his hand on the red plush seat as his gaze probed every part of the crimson interior.

I slipped beside him in the back seat. “It’s okay, it’s just a car.”

“Something this small actually moves?”

“Well, it’s not a limousine or anything, but it’ll drive south.”

David eased himself back in the seat, placing his hand on the roof and pressing against it.

I yanked on my seat belt. “It’ll probably be a good idea to buckle up. This isn’t like space travel, I’m sure.”

David watched me click my belt before sitting back and securing his own.

Maggie turned the key in the ignition. “All right fugitives, let’s get going.”

The engine roared to life.

David cried out and reached for the ceiling. He gaped, his eyes wide with fright.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“The car is exploding!”

“No it’s not.”

“Why is it making that noise?”

I laughed. “David, that’s the engine. It’s supposed to sound that way.”

“Are you sure?” Fright shot from his eyes.

“Not completely. Ya never know. Cars do explode sometimes.” Maggie snickered, smiling at me in the rear-view mirror.

Troublemaker.
I tapped David’s knee in hopes of soothing his fears.

My mind drifted to a few nights ago, when a large, silent ship flew over my house, blocking out the stars. Not one of ours…one of theirs. “Your ships don’t make any noise, do they?”

“Not that kind of noise, no.”

He slowly let go of the ceiling as Maggie pulled away from the curb. Less than a minute into our journey, Maggie stopped the car, exited, and walked over to the passenger side.

She opened my door. “Get out.”

“What?”

She opened David’s door and motioned to the guard shack down the block. “It hit me that if my mom was talking to either one of our dads on the phone, the MPs may be cued in already. They may be on the lookout for both of you.”

David got out and stood beside me. His skin paled.

Maggie was right. We couldn’t risk trying to pass the MP’s, but the entire compound was surrounded by security fencing, and at a young age, I’d discovered that barbed wire is not your friend. I rubbed the scar on my left arm. Definitely not your friend.

“What should we do?” I asked.

“You can climb the fence beside the Hutchinson’s house.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

Near the Hutchinson’s backyard, there was a small break in the barbed wire. A very small break. Kids always climbed over the fence rather than taking the long way around the compound if they’d missed the school bus. That fence was high, though, and I liked my feet on the ground.

Maggie folded her arms. “Stop looking at me like I’ve split my gourd. We didn’t really have time to devise a fool-proof plan.”

I nodded. She was right. There weren’t many options. I couldn’t let my fears get in the way. Not now. “Okay. The fence it is.”

Maggie slipped back into her car. “I’ll try to drive through the gate. Unless my mom’s found me missing, they shouldn’t be looking for me. I’ll meet you at the corner of Ackey and Adams.”

She didn’t give me a chance to argue. Before I could compute what was going on, she was heading for the guard shack at the end of the street.

“Where is this
Hutchinson’s house
?” David asked.

I shook the confused fog from my head. “Over here.”

We scooted down the street and around the block until we came to the Hutchinson’s unit beside the western fence. I shuttered, eyeing the sharp barbs lining the top of the enclosure. My scar ached just looking at them.

David chewed the side of his cheek. “There is supposed to be a safe place to climb?”

I shivered, but I didn’t think it was from the morning chill. “Yeah, over here.”

We circled the Hunchinson’s trash cans. Just beside the tree shading their backyard was the two-foot break in the barbs. Shoot. Was that fence always that high?

Something rustled in their back yard. Did they still have that German Shepherd? I prayed not.

David reached up and grabbed the chain links. The fence rattled, and something hit the Hutchinson’s wooden privacy fence like a neutron bomb. Their devil-dog barked and growled like someone was murdering his owner or something.

David reached up, and within a second he was perched atop the fence. How’d he do that?

The barbs hung dangerously close on either side of him. The dog continued to cause a raucous as David reached his hand down.

“Come on. Jump up.”

Jump up, he says. Friggin’ alien Spider-Man. I couldn’t just…

The dog hit the fence again, and the wood cracked. Good motivator. I jumped up and David grabbed my wrist, lifting me with ease. He settled me on his lap, and I got a good look at
Lucifer, or whatever that big, black, snarling menace’s name was. Yeah, he pretty much looked like a big hungry demon.
Not liking this at all.

Mr. Hutchinson walked out the back door. “Shadow! What’s wrong, boy?”

He looked up, and my heart dropped. I mean it really dropped. Something tore, and before I knew what had happened, David landed on the ground with me in his arms.

“We need to go. Now.”

I grabbed his hand and we ran. Where would Maggie meet us? Adams and what street?

Dangit. I ran for Adams and prayed for the best.

A siren’s howl pierced the morning sky. Boy, were we in trouble. Could that be for us already? What a stupid idea, going to Maggie’s house. But where else would we have gone? We were trapped in an enclosed base with the Army looking for David. It was a lose-lose situation no matter what we’d done.

I don’t think I breathed or had another thought until Maggie pulled up alongside us.

She jumped out of the car, leaving it running. She waved me to the driver’s side. “Go. Just go. You have your GPS, right?”

“You’re giving me your car? Are you sure?” I slipped into the driver’s seat.

Maggie opened the passenger side door for David, and closed him in. “I’ll stay here and provide recon. I’ll let you know if they’re on your tail of not.” She leaned through the window. “Just bring my car back in one piece, okay?”

I wished I could hug her. “Thanks Maggs. You’re the best.”

She saluted. “Now get out of here before anyone sees you.”

Too late. Mr. Hutchinson was probably on the phone already. I hit the gas petal and turned on my phone. One missed call from unavailable flashed across the screen. I dismissed it and called up the GPS app.

“What’re the coordinates again?”

“Latitude 39-46.505192 north by longitude 074-57.071403 west.”

I pulled up to a stop sign. “Okay, can you slow down a minute there? I can’t type fast and I don’t want to end up in Maine somewhere.”

David repeated the directions at a more type-able speed.

“
Calculating route
,” my GPS said. David lifted an eyebrow.

“That’s Michelle, my navigator’s voice. She gets me everywhere…or at least she did, when I had a car.”

“What happened to your car?”

I flinched, a vision of sirens and ambulances flashing through my mind. “You don’t want to know.”

David itched a jagged rip on the left arm of his sweat jacket. I hoped he didn’t get cut on the barbs. He wasn’t complaining, so I figured I’d take a look when we were farther away. Much farther away. The top of my knee poked out from a hole in my jeans as well. I wasn’t hurt though, so until I knew we were safe, I’d keep driving and we’d take stock of the damage later.

I pulled out onto the road, passing the entry to the woods and leaving the residential section.

“
Turn right on route sixty-eight north,
” Michelle said.

I glanced at the screen. “It says here, we are about 50 minutes away from your coordinates. We’ll be there in no time.” As long as the Army doesn’t catch us, or the police, or the Air Force. I peeked through the windshield, checking the sky.