The Target by Brad Taylor

Author:Brad Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-10-11T14:11:56+00:00

14

Shoshana retreated to Aaron, taking stock of her situation. She figured they’d been doing no more than thirty miles an hour while on the rutted blacktop, then had slowed once it had run out, driving no faster than fifteen miles an hour when the road had turned into single track. So, figuring they’d been driving a little over an hour, she probably had twenty or twenty-five miles to the main highway, where she could get cell coverage and call Daniel.

But what if there isn’t coverage? She would then be walking south, on the main highway, until she at least reached the location where Derek had taken the call.

Moving further and further away from Aaron.

She glanced at her watch and saw it would be dark soon. She’d be walking through the night, and she’d have to leave him here, unconscious, in the jungle.

So he comes with me.

She ran back to the van, searching for the toolbox she’d seen earlier. It had split open at impact, scattering tools all over the cargo bay. She kicked through the pile of socket wrenches, vice clamps, and drill bits, finding a small hatchet and a hacksaw. She gathered both up and leapt out of the van and into the jungle. In short order, she had two sturdy poles from lengths of saplings.

She returned to the van, snatching up the vinyl tarp. She draped it over the poles and saw it would work. She just needed something to hold it together.

She took the hatchet and went back into the van, attacking the dash as if she were toppling a tree, ignoring the dead bodies as she hacked. Eventually, she had a hole exposing wires underneath. She ripped out two seven-foot sections, then returned to her makeshift litter, threading the wire through the grommets in the tarp.

She finished by lashing a small crossbeam at the bottom, then used her remaining wire to fashion a loop in the front, going from one sapling to another.

She placed the litter next to Aaron, then rolled him on top of it. She wiggled into the loop, took a sapling in each hand, and began to drag him up the slope to the road, the wire on her stomach.

It took fifteen minutes to simply reach the dirt track, her feet slipping and sliding on the slope, forcing her to fight her makeshift litter to keep Aaron from spilling out. By the time she reached the road, she was out of breath. She ran an arm across her forehead, seeing the sun was setting.

She held up the phone, hoping against hope. Nothing. She glanced down the single track, slipped the loop around her waist, and started walking, dragging the dead weight of her team leader.

• • •

One foot. Next foot. One foot. Next foot.

Time had ceased to have any meaning, the blackness of the jungle night enveloping everything, as if she’d had sackcloth dropped over her head. Shoshana was growing delirious, her entire world centered on the mantra in her head.

One foot. Next foot.

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