Chapter 24 - THE FROZEN CANYON
I dove headfirst into the snowbank at the mouth of the culvert, shielding Lily's body with my own as a second round buried itself deep into the frozen embankment beside us. Snow exploded into our faces, freezing cold and blindingly white.
"Keep moving!" I gasped, scrambling on all fours out of the kill zone and into the dense labyrinth of snow-laden pine trees and towering aspen trunks.
The forest offered natural cover, the thick trunks absorbing the momentum of the incoming rounds that snapped the branches above our heads like dry twigs. We scrambled down the steep, snow-covered slope of the ravine, sliding more than running, the friction of our descent tearing at my clothes and bruising my skin against hidden rocks. Lily let out a sharp cry as a low-hanging branch grazed her shoulder, but she bit her lip immediately afterward, showing a fierce, heartbreaking resilience that broke my heart.
"We're almost there, sweetie. Just a little further," I panted, pulling her back into my arms as we reached the bottom of the ravine where the frozen creek bed flattened out into a wider, wind-swept clearing.
Up ahead, through the swirling blizzard, the dull amber glow of the highway streetlights cut through the whiteout like a beacon of hope. Just past the treeline lay the tarmac, where civilian cars drove past in oblivious, mundane ignorance of the nightmare unfolding just yards away in the dark woods.
I pulled out my phone with a freezing, numb hand, praying against all hope for a signal bar. The screen flickered, struggling to connect through the local jamming signals deployed by Eleanor's syndicate, but miraculously, a single, glowing 4G symbol appeared in the corner.
Without hesitation, I dialed the emergency services number, my thumb trembling over the screen.
"911, what is your emergency?" a calm, dispatcher voice answered instantly.
"My name is Marcus Vance! We are being hunted at the Aspen Ridge property off Route 9! Armed mercenaries are attempting to—"
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Before I could finish the sentence, a heavy hand clamped down over my mouth with crushing force, and an arm wrapped around my throat like a steel cable, instantly cutting off my oxygen supply. The phone slipped from my numb fingers, landing softly in the deep snow below.
***
