Chapter 10: Embers in the Wind
They hit a dead end. A massive, sheer rock face rose seventy feet into the air, blocking their path. The ravine had funneled them into a natural trap. The baying of the hounds was deafening now, perhaps less than a hundred yards away. The tactical lights pierced the fog, painting the wet rocks around them in harsh, strobe-like flashes.
"Mom," Chloe sobbed, backing up against the cold, wet stone. "Mom, please."
Lilith looked at the rock wall, then back at the approaching lights. She did the math in her head. It was a cold, brutal calculus. If they stayed together, they would both be taken. If Julian's men got them, death would be a mercy compared to what awaited them in the basement of whatever was left of the Vance estate.
Lilith knelt down in the mud. She grabbed Chloe by the shoulders, pulling the girl into a fierce, bone-crushing embrace. She smelled her daughter’s hair, memorizing the scent of her, the feel of her small, fragile heartbeat.
"Listen to me," Lilith said, her voice breaking for the first time. She pressed a small, waterproof flashlight into Chloe’s hand. "There is a fissure in the rock right there. It’s too small for a grown man, but you can fit. You squeeze through, you keep crawling, and you don't stop until you hit the river. You follow the river north."
"No!" Chloe screamed, grabbing Lilith’s coat. "You come with me! We go together!"
"I can't fit, baby," Lilith lied, her tears finally falling, mixing with the dirt on her face. "I have to buy you time."
"Mom, please!"
"Go!" Lilith shoved her toward the crack in the rocks. "If you love me, you live! Go!"
Weeping hysterically, Chloe squeezed into the dark, damp crevice of the rock face. Lilith watched her disappear into the blackness, then turned around to face the approaching lights. She drew her gun, racking the slide with a heavy, metallic clack.
Through the fog, the dark silhouettes of heavily armed men emerged. Dozens of them. Red laser sights danced across Lilith’s chest, a constellation of violent intent.
"Lilith!" a voice boomed through a megaphone. "Drop the weapon! It's over!"
Lilith stood tall. She thought of the fire she had started, the empire she had tried to burn down. She knew the flames weren't enough. The rot was too deep. But she would make them bleed for every inch they took tonight.
She raised her gun, aiming blindly into the blinding lights.
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In the dark, narrow confines of the rock fissure, Chloe crawled on her bleeding hands and knees. She heard the commanding shout, followed by a deafening, continuous roar of automatic gunfire that echoed through the ravine like the end of the world. Then, a horrifying silence fell over the woods, broken only by the frantic barking of the hounds.
Chloe stopped crawling. She curled into a ball in the pitch black, her hands clamped over her mouth to muffle her screams, completely alone in the dark, waiting for the men in the white suits to come and dig her out.
