Someone Is Bleeding (12 page)

 Down a hill. Two intersections. I chose the right by dumb luck. I myself speeding around a twisting road, over a wooden bridge and through a woods so deep it reminded me of the Hurtgen Forest, another place where I’d faced death, But then I was on foot fighting war. Now I was in a car and a civilian and at war with no one. But a man was following me and he was going to kill me if he could because he’d been ordered to kill me and there are men who will kill on order. And the man who had ordered him had been my friend once.

A sign.
Sunset Boulevard
. And an arrow pointing. I jerked the wheel around and fired up the hill to Sunset. Now Steig was very close. He knew how to handle that car of his.

There was a hill on the right side I saw as I sped up Sunset toward the Pacific Palisades. I don’t know why I turned onto it. One of those snap decisions made more by reflex than by mind. I just wheeled around and went roaring up the steep incline, watching those heads behind me whip around in the dark and start after me again like blinding monster eyes.

Now I was headed into the hills. I hadn’t a chance in the world of finding anyone to help me. It would deserted up here, probably not a house for miles.

And, for the first time since I’d started being chased, I began to realize how afraid I was. So afraid my body was starting to go numb. A person goes through life and never sees violence except in a war. But this was personal violence. I couldn’t understand it and it frightened me. Steig didn’t even know me but he hated me. And because another man had told him to kill me, he was going at it as if his life depended on it.

A winding road, up and up. I kept the car in second and the pedal on the floor. The phrase occurred to me out of nowhere. I hoped that man had been telling the truth. The creeping indicator indicated that he might have. The motor roared under the dark sky as it kept pulling me up the hill rapidly and I kept spinning the wheel wildly to keep on the road.

A gate across the road!

I jerked the wheel instinctively and the Ford climbed up a small embankment beside the gate. The wheels ground through soft earth and came down again on the other side of the gate, back on the road. I threw the car into second again and picked up speed; then into high. It was a lucky break. Steig couldn’t get the heavier Cadillac through the soft ground easily. I saw his lights spin around behind me as the car skidded, dug into earth.

I moved on through an open gateway into a wide concrete stretch. There was a dark house looming out of the ground on my left And, suddenly, I realized that I was back in Will Rogers State park where Peggy and I had hiked that time. The house was that of the late humorist. The park was closed, there wouldn’t be a soul anywhere close by. My heart jolted as Steig came powering through the gateway after having regained the road.

There were two ways to go. I remembered that the one ahead led to the park entrance. I had come in by the road that is used for the exit. If I went straight ahead, I’d go down that road and come to a closed gate. But there was no way around
that
one.

All in the space of seconds I knew that and I spun the Ford left and headed for a narrow bridge that led to the other road. My fender raked across the wooden railing as I crossed the bridge. I jammed my accelerator to the floor as I gunned up the tree-lined road. That led to . . . I didn’t know.

Stables. Bleak and dark and deathly still under the moonlight. I sped up the road passing training yards, dark buildings. I kept going, praying that there was an exit, my eyes straining ahead to see if there was an exit. There wasn’t. I left the paving and the car plowed over the grass through low bushes, around a flimsy fence. My speed kept going down as the soft earth impeded the wheels.

And, finally, the wheels dug in too far and the whole car spun around crazily, almost tipping over. The wheels started grinding away at the earth.

Without a thought or a plan, I flung open the door and plunged out into the night and started racing across the ground, headed for the thickly overgrown hill on my left.

I jumped out of the Cadillac’s bright head beams. I ran and heard the big car stop and grind itself into the earth. I heard a door slam and other feet running. I reached the foot of the hill and started up.

Steig moved fast for a big man. He was close behind and there was no way I could be quiet. I made a loud noise as I thrashed through bushes and tore through thick undergrowth, slashing my skin, ripping my trousers and shirt sleeves on the brittle twigs.

Not a sound from Steig. He might have been a brainless robot built for only one purpose. He came running up after me, his big feet thudding on the ground, his big body plowing through all the shrubbery that blocked his way.

Something scurried away under my feet and I leapt to the side running. My heart jolted harder still as I remembered the mountain lion tracks Peggy and I had seen that day.

Now my breath was going. A stitch started knifing my side. My face and body ran with sweat. But I couldn’t stop. I thought of falling to the dark ground and hugging it, hoping that Steig would bypass me. But it was too much of a chance. He’d hear the sound of my running stop. And he might even stumble right over me. He wasn’t fooling. He’d just fill my body with bullets.

I kept going. But the going was tough. And getting tougher. The shrubbery was getting so thick I kept banging into branches and being knocked aside. It’s a wonder I didn’t put out my eyes on the sharp sabers of branches. One needle-pointed twig raked across my forehead as I plunged on and the laceration drove lances of pain into my head.

I reached the top of the hill. For a moment I must have been outlined against the sky. Because, suddenly, the night was torn by a loud explosion that echoed. And I heard something whistle by me.

I drove myself over the peak and found a hard, flat path. I started racing down it like a fool, clearly visible. In the bright moonlight. I don’t know what I had in mind. Maybe getting distance between Steig and me. My legs trembled as I ran, they felt as if they were ready to collapse.

Another shot. It kicked up dirt by me and sent me plunging to the right. I couldn’t see where.

My footing was gone. I found myself sliding and clawing down a steep embankment covered with shrubbery. My hands tried to find something to stop my rapid and helpless descent but I got only friction burns. My body kept rubbing and banging against earth and rocks and bushes.

At the bottom of the drop. I turned a complete somersault and landed on my side with a violent impact.

Only fear got me up. My breath was gone. It felt as if it had been ripped from my lungs. My side ached sharply. Every limb ached. Only a force of survival could have kept me moving. I started across the ground, in a hollow so deep that a hill kept most of it in dark shadow.

I heard something overhead and I stopped dead. I thought that if I were silent he might think the fall had killed me.

I looked up and, on the crest of the embankment, saw his big outlined. He was looking down. I held my breath.

He stooped down for support and started climbing down.

I turned and ran. Shrubbery whipped past me, clawing at me like maniacal arms. Branches flailed at my face and body. My chest ached. I breathed through a wide open mouth.

Then Steig lost his grip. I stopped and whirled. I couldn’t see but I heard him clawing his way down the embankment and landing heavily. Silence. I waited. Was it possible he’d been knocked out? I waited, trying to hear something beside my own breathless, whistling gasps.

He was moving again.

I turned with a whimper and started running again. He was still coming. Slower but still coming. He must have been deranged. It was all I could think of. No man could be so intent on killing and be in his right mind. His thick, Teutonic brain was devoid of everything but murderous hate.

I ran into the embankment. And. gasping, looked up to see that I was trapped, blocked by an almost perpendicular wall of earth and bush. No way out but back or sideways. I had no idea how small the hollow was. And if I ran sideways I’d be running out into the spotlight of the moon. I felt a panic-stricken cry tear at my throat.
Help!
I wanted to scream it. But who was there to hear? At least I didn’t lose my mind that badly.

I heard Steig stumbling through the brush. It was like one of those crazy dreams where no matter how ingenuously you hide yourself, your pursuer finds you without any trouble. As if he knew where you were at every moment. That’s what I felt about Steig.

In a brainless fright, I spun around and started to pull myself up the sheer incline. Some of the bushes I held on to slipped out and I grabbed out for more. I half-climbed, half-pulled myself up by my aching arms. I was closer now. I dug my feet into the earth and lurched up the embankment for a way.

I stopped dead and hung there against the earth trying to be absolutely quiet as Steig came bursting through the shrubbery and stood at the bottom of the rise.

I clenched my teeth. The breaths caught and almost choked me. My heart was hammering violently. Was it possible he didn’t see me? I didn’t know then that he’d lost his glasses in his fall and couldn’t see much of anything.

Then dirt trickled down from under my feet and it silted through the air, down on Steig. I twisted my neck to look down. I could see the dark, shapeless hulk of him down there. He was looking up I was sure. It was an insane picture. A half sightless killer ready to fire bullets into my body and me clinging to the side of a hill no more than twenty-five feet above him. Wondering if he could see me. Thinking, momentarily, that Jim had won his victory.

Steig started to climb up.

It was no use going on, I knew that. The hill got steeper and steeper as it went up until it was vertical with the trees and bushes growing out sideways. I couldn’t take it. I was too exhausted, I’d slip and fall. He’d be able to see me.

My mind felt all jumbled and thick as I tried to think of some way to defend myself. I had to have a weapon. A stick, a rock, anything. My eyes fled around, squinting.

I saw one. A big rock. It was perched precariously to my right. My hand touched it, then I had to pull it back quickly to get support.

I reached for the rock again. I lost balance and had to throw myself against the dirt, slapping for support. The dislodged dirt slid down on Steig. He didn’t say anything but kept climbing methodically. I could hear his breathing now, thick, whistling breaths. He was an animal with a quest. Insensitive and mute, he climbed up to kill me. Crawling fear covered my flesh.

I edged over quickly and my fingers touched the cool stone surface. I almost jarred it loose. My heart leaped at the sensation of complete terror in me. I felt as if my hands would freeze, my whole body be struck with paralysis and I would just be stricken there until he came up to me, put the barrel of the gun against my body and pulled the trigger.

The breathing. Closer. Coming up at me. My lips drew back in an uncontrolled gasp of horror. There was no time.
No time!
My mind howled the words. He had heard me, I knew he’d heard me. In a matter of seconds he would be able to see me despite shadow, despite impaired sight. He was almost to the point where his hands touched my feet.

I lurched over, slipped and caught onto a heavy root with one hand, to the rock with the other. I pressed my body against the rock and looked down. My feet slipped and I hung down loosely a moment before I found a foot support. I tested the support with frantic haste. I had to have both hands free.

I froze rigid. Steig was just below me. He’d stopped climbing. He was reaching into his pocket as he squinted up. It was so still I could hear his fumbling hands on his trouser leg.

I grabbed onto the rock and tried to turn. The scuttling sound made him throw up his arm. An explosion surrounded me and I felt hot flame gouge through the flesh on my right shoulder. It must have been the pain that did it. Because I suddenly forgot about balance. I just grabbed onto the rock and started falling down toward Steig.

He threw up his gun again with a guttural cry as my dark body came heaving down on him.

He had no chance to fire. I held the rock before me and drove it violently into his face and we both went flopping down the hill like broken dolls. I grabbed out for support as we fell and managed to grab onto a bush and cling there as his body went all the way down and landed with a single hollow thud.

Silence.

I hung on a long time, my chest shuddering as I breathed. Then, finally, when I’d stopped the terrible shaking a little, I eased myself down the hill to where he was.

I stood over the body.

His face was in moonlight which made it even whiter. It was crushed in.

The sight of it made me gag and turn away. I stood with my back to him, shuddering uncontrollably. Steig’s left arm was twisted out of shape too. He’d been climbing that hill after me with a broken rm.

I don’t know how I found my way back to the car. I was sick and I was exhausted. My legs trembled under me. I shivered from the cold wind. I kept wiping the sweat off my face and neck as I stumbled through the wilderness.

I got lost for a while but finally I spotted the headlights still shining and heard the rumbling of the Cadillac’s motor. Mine had stalled.

I climbed into the Ford and slumped down on the seat. I pulled the door shut and turned out the light and turned off the ignition switch. Then I lay down on the cool seat cover, pressing my cheek against it, gasping for breath. I turned on my back with my legs bent up.

I must have fallen asleep or into an exhausted coma for more than an hour. I jerked up quickly, eyes staring around me and I didn’t remember what had happened for a good minute. Then I straightened up with a groan. My body was sore and aching. Every bone felt bruised, every inch of skin either torn or scratched.

It took a while to back out of the soft earth. I went backwards around the fence, into the stable area again. I left the Cadillac still running, its lights on. I swung my car around and headed back for town.