“Hang on!” she said to Mariah. “I’m gonna try something!”
She gave the steering wheel a sudden turn to the left. The Marauder, its claws sheathed, lost traction and found itself thrown to the far end of the platform. It smashed into the railing, warping the metal, its back end falling halfway through the barriers.
Tegan yelled at Mariah to brace for impact. The big man realized what the girl was up to; his smug look was wiped clear off and he dove out of the way. The mammoth machine hit the smaller fuel truck, tearing open the body of the tanker, which burst into a tower of flames.
The Marauder that had been hanging precariously on the railing fell away burning and writhing, and let out an agonized scream.
Nearly blinded by the inferno, Tegan pointed the vehicle forward as she kept the gas pedal floored. The mining truck bulldozed past the fuel tanker, pushing the crushed vehicle aside, then continued on, obliterating the guard house and the boom gates and spreading the blazing fuel onto the remains.
Tegan, her pulse rocketing, steered the giant truck through the exit and out of the mining site. There was more gunfire but the vehicle picked up speed on the wide dirt road as it made its way downhill, putting more distance between the girls and their abductors by the second.
“We got out!” Mariah screamed, arms raised above her head victoriously. “We actually got out! I can’t believe your harebrained plan worked!”
“Me neither!” Tegan screamed back, laughing. “Not your run-of-the-mill damsels in distress, huh?” She held up her hand and Mariah high-fived her.
Mariah powered down her window and stuck her head out of the cab. “Hey, stinkheads! How’d you like that, you—”
Whatever further words came out of her mouth were drowned out by Tegan’s exultantly hitting the truck’s deafening air horn.
We’re out!
“I
don’t recall being this dirty in my life,” Mariah commented as she looked down and took stock of her mud-caked self.
Tegan giggled. “Me neither.”
Mariah leaned back and took a few calming breaths, willing her heart to return to its normal rate as Tegan drove along the dirt road. The path, flanked by tall pine trees, was wide enough for two mining trucks to pass side-by-side.
“What now?” she asked. “We’ve got no phones to call anyone, since those jerks apparently took them.”
“We find the nearest pay phone and call the guys,” Tegan replied simply. Her eyes were glued on the road.
Mariah frowned. “Shouldn’t we call the cops?”
“Yes, right after we call the guys. We need to know if they’re alright.”
Mariah nodded and glanced at the mirror mounted on the far side of the vehicle to ensure that they weren’t being followed.
“We clear?” Tegan asked.
“Looks like it. The fire would have held them for a while.”
“Good, good.”
Mariah rolled her shoulders and stretched out her feet. “I’m pretty sure we gave them a big shock back there.”
Tegan smiled slightly. “There’s no better way to leave that rotten hole than to make them wish they’d never taken us in the first place.” Then, darkly, she added, “I hope Tony comes back to this mess and sees what a failure his plan was. I hope his boss crushes him like the roach he is.”
“That would be nice,” Mariah muttered as she peeled some dried mud from her arm. She glanced back at the mirror, then slowly sat up straight. “Oh, no.”
A pair of headlights flashed to life some distance behind, rapidly growing bigger. As Mariah watched, a second pair of headlights appeared from behind the first.
Tegan must have stolen a quick look at her own side mirror, because an oath escaped her mouth. “This can’t be happening! I thought they’d given up!”
Two loud thumps startled the girls. Adrenaline kicked in, coursing through Mariah’s veins like acid. “They’re shooting at us again! Drive faster!”
“I’m trying!”
Mariah held her seatbelt tightly as the mining truck sped down the dark, inclined road, leaving a tempest of dust in its wake. “Can’t we go any faster?”
Tegan, hunched over the wheel, groaned. “I wish! We can barely do past fifty with this thing!”
More gunshots rang out in the night, unrelenting. “I think they’re aiming for our tires,” Mariah said, alarmed.
“This thing has four massive tires at the back—I don’t think losing one or two would be a problem.”
Mariah let go of her seatbelt and pulled at her hair instead.
A few small lights appeared a mile or so away. The girls squinted into the darkness, trying to make out what it was. Tegan gasped. “Town!”
Mariah covered her mouth, unable to believe their luck. Then her eyes caught a quick flash of something that reflected the truck headlights four hundred yards away. “Phone booth!” she shouted. “There’s a pay phone up ahead! Stop there!”
“Oh, yeah, let’s just stop to make a phone call while they blow holes through us! Great idea!” Just as Tegan spoke, more bullets struck the back of their vehicle.
Mariah unbuckled herself and threw open her door. Paying no attention to Tegan’s protests, she stepped out onto the platform and looked around the big body of the mining truck to get a proper view of their pursuers. “It’s Elvis! He’s shooting, and so’s a guy in the other Hummer!”
Tegan completely disregarded her. “Are you dense?
Get in!
”
“Hold on, I wanna try something!” Mariah eyed the thirty-foot power poles that lined the road at intervals. A crazy idea budded in her mind.
Am I strong enough to do this?
she thought nervously, wrapping her fingers tightly around the cool railing.
Guess I’ll find out . . . Here goes nothing.
She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes. The gunshots, engines, and background noises faded into oblivion, leaving her to listen to nothing but the steady flow of blood pulsing in her ears. A lightness overcame her and, for a brief moment, she felt as if her feet had lifted off the platform.
Her eyes snapped open with newfound determination. Through her lashes, she directed her entire focus onto a power pole ahead of the pursuers. The wooden post moved only a bit but remained fixed in the dirt. She could already feel the wearying effect of uprooting the heavy pole wedged six feet into the ground. Still, she would not give in. With all her might, she willed it upward. The pole slowly lifted out of the dirt, slanting toward the road.
Come on, come on . . .
Just as the Hummers came within feet of the pole, Mariah let it drop. She watched, transfixed, as it plummeted to the ground with a satisfying crash. The drivers of the Hummers slammed on their brakes but were too late.
Running side by side, both vehicles collided with the fallen pole. Flashes of electricity traveled down the length of the pole from the wires and leapt into the sparse bushes on either side of the road. A few small flames leapt to life in the foliage, slowly growing bigger and flicking upward like a serpent’s tongue.
From inside the cab, Tegan let out a wild howl. “You crazy, amazing idiot—well done! Looks like you cut the lights to the town, though!”
Mariah was grinning from ear to ear so hard it hurt, and her trembling had eased. She stayed on the platform, keeping an eye on their pursuers. To her dismay, the Hummers were already backing up, exposing damaged bumpers and hoods. They turned and went off the road, rounding the pole through the scattered trees.
“They’re still coming!” Mariah cautioned. Tegan let out a frustrated yell. Mariah quickly dug in her pockets and came up with a few coins. “We’re close to the pay phone, slow down a bit.”
“We can’t just stop here!”
“Look, we’ve got less than fifteen seconds before they’re on us! I need two to see if the phone lines still work. If they do, I’ll give you a thumbs-up and you just keep driving on.” Even as Mariah spoke, she was startled by her confident tone.
Tegan shook her head defiantly. “No way. Not happening. I’m not leaving you.”
“Too late.” Mariah ran across to the ladder on the right of the platform and descended. When her feet reached the bottom rung, she held on.
“Mariah! No!”
“It has to be done! Do it, Tegan!”
The vehicle slowed just enough for Mariah to jump from the ladder. She hit the ground running, not once looking back. When she reached the pay phone, she snatched up the handset. There was a dial tone. She stuck her thumb up at Tegan, then frenziedly waved her away.
The machine picked up speed and rumbled on.
Mariah saw the Hummers bounce up the shoulder and back onto the main road. She dove behind thick bushes, blending into the shadows, and waited for the vehicles to pass, her breathing heavy.
The moment she felt the Hummers were a good distance away, she hastened back to the pay phone and picked up the handset again. She slipped a quarter into the coin slot and called Jag’s number. It went to voicemail right away.
She panicked again. Something had happened to them, she was sure of it.
I should call the cops right now.
As she reached up to enter the emergency number, she paused. Maybe she could try Aari’s phone. If that didn’t work, then she’d call the police.
She nearly broke the keypad while punching in her friend’s number. This time, there was ringing. Mariah hit the side of the pay phone edgily.
“Hello?”
Mariah nearly burst out sobbing at the familiar voice. “Aari!”
“Wha—Mariah? Is that you?”
Mariah leaned heavily against the pay phone. “Y-yeah, it’s me.”
“Oh, my God! Hold on . . . Okay, you’re on speaker now.”
Jag’s voice filled her earpiece. “’Riah?”
“I’m here,” she said weakly.
“Where are you? Are you okay?”
“I . . . ” Mariah steadied herself. “I’m fine. Tegan and I escaped. I’m somewhere . . . I’m on a road that leads up to a mining site where we were held, but I don’t know where we are.”
“A mine site?” Aari repeated.
“QMI. Some big open pit mine.”
“QMI? You sure?”
“Yeah, Why?”
Kody’s voice cut in. “You’re not gonna
believe
this. We’re on our way to check around that place right now.”
Mariah was so inexplicably relieved to hear their voices, it took her a few seconds to realize what Kody had just said. “Are you serious? How? Where are you?”
“Not far,” Jag said. “Is Teegs okay?”
“Uh . . . I hope so . . . ”
“What do you mean, you hope so?”
“She dropped me off at the pay phone so I could make the call. There are people after us.”
“Wait, wait—what do you mean she dropped you off? And how many people are there?”
“Four or five, I think. They’re in Hummers. And Tegan’s in a really, really huge mining truck.”
There was bewildered silence on the other end, then Jag said, “Okay, you’re up on the road that leads to the mine, right? We’ll get Tegan, then come for you. Hang tight.”
“Be quick. Please.” She glanced down the road toward the town. “There’s so much we have to tell you about.”
Jag’s tone grew gentle and reassuring. “We’ll be there soon. Promise.”
Mariah hung up the call. She fell to her knees then, and prayed that the guys would arrive in time to help Tegan.
“W
hat if this is a trap?” Kody asked, leaning forward so his head was between Marshall and Jag. The Mustang was rolling on an empty road heading north. A sign beside the lane read ‘Welcome to Pinos Altos—A Mining Ghost Town That Still Thrives! Altitude: 7,020 feet. Population: 206.’
“A trap?” Jag echoed.
“Yeah,” Kody said. He questioned how he, of all people, was the only one to have this possibility come to mind. “What if the abductors are using Mariah and Tegan as bait and making them say stuff so they’d nab us when we come?”
The air seemed to have been sucked right out of the car.
“I got so worked up about finding the girls that it didn’t even occur to me,” Aari murmured.
“’Riah sounded genuinely relieved to hear us,” Jag countered. “I don’t think she’d fake something like that even under duress.”
“We’re still going in,” Marshall said firmly. “Trap or no trap, we’re getting your friends back.”
The boys looked at one another and then nodded, resolute.
“How far are we from the mine site, Aari?” Jag asked.
Aari was staring down at his phone; Kody took a peek over his shoulder as Aari said, “If the location of the mine on QMI’s website is right, then according to the map we’re about fifteen minutes out.”
Marshall stepped down on the gas pedal. “We’ll be there sooner than that.”
Kody was unable to sit still in the back of the car. No one in the vehicle had slept a wink in the past thirty hours but Mariah’s call had erased any trace of fatigue. The guys had become discouraged after driving hundreds of streets and searching so many buildings. Now that the girls were nearby they couldn’t help but treat this moment as a miracle.
Trees and shrubs on the side of the road eventually thinned out until the car reached a rather derelict-looking town. As they made a left turn onto a street called Bear Creek Road, they noticed a handful of houses that appeared to have been recently renovated, but the further in they went, the more run-down the town became.
The Mustang’s headlights illuminated the rough road ahead. Old brick houses bore tin roofs and were surrounded by short fences. The homes were spread out from each other and, except for a couple of timeworn cars parked on the side of the streets, the place looked abandoned.
“Welcome to Pinos Altos,” Marshall said, voice low as he brought the Mustang to a stop.
“Where are all the lights?” Kody asked, checking the side and rear window. “I see street lamps, but nothing’s on.”
“Maybe this place wouldn’t look so bad if there was some light,” Aari said, looking up from his phone.
“Maybe. But it—” Kody’s words were cut off by a series of bangs that caught them all off guard.
“Whoa—did you hear that?” Jag asked.
Kody’s hearing focused in, but he needn’t have bothered because the second time the sounds rang out, the boys knew instantly what it was.
“Gunshots!” Aari hissed.
Marshall put the Mustang back into motion. “We’re definitely in the right place.”