Chapter 6 - The Hunt in the Timber Ravine
Bullets tore through the cedar logs of the cabin, showering us in splinters and acrid gunpowder smoke.
I scooped baby Clara from the incubator, wrapping her tightly inside my insulated fleece jacket and securing her against my chest.
The cold air hit her face, and she let out a tiny, gasping cry that was instantly swallowed by the thunder outside.
Miller pushed aside a heavy pine wardrobe against the back wall, revealing a narrow wooden crawlspace window.
"Go through there!" Miller ordered, firing three deliberate shots through the front wall to suppress the enforcers.
"The slope drops fifty feet down into the creek bed!
Follow the water east toward the old rail tracks!
"I'm not leaving you behind, Sheriff!" I yelled over the deafening reports of gunfire.
"I am sixty-two years old, Maya, and for the last four months, I have been living a lie while my child suffered!" he barked back.
"My life ended the day I believed Conrad Vance!
"Now get my granddaughter out of here before they flank the cabin!
I squeezed through the narrow window, landing hard on the slick pine needles outside in the pouring rain.
Mud soaked through my scrubs, but I curled my body tightly around Clara, shielding her from the impact.
Behind me, the sound of a heavy boot kicked through the front door of the cabin, followed by intense shouting.
"Miller!
Drop the weapon!" Briggs screamed from inside.
A single, deafening gunshot rang out, followed by a sickening thud.
My heart plummeted into my stomach, thinking the Sheriff had been executed.
Suddenly, a tall, bleeding figure tumbled out of the cabin window and slid down the muddy embankment beside me.
It was Miller, clutching his left arm where a bullet had grazed the muscle, but his right hand still gripped his Glock.
"Keep moving, Maya!" he breathed heavily, his face streaked with dirt and blood.
"Briggs took a round to the leg, but the second merc is right behind us!
We scrambled down the steep, rocky slope into the raging creek bed.
The freezing water rushed up to our knees, numbing our legs with every agonizing step.
Clara was shivering beneath my coat, her breathing growing shallow against my chest.
"She can't survive this cold much longer, Sheriff!" I cried out as the rain lashed against us.
"She was born premature!
Her lungs are collapsing without supplemental oxygen!
Miller stopped in the middle of the rushing water, looking ahead through the dark canopy of pines.
"Half a mile down this bend is the old pumping station for the Vance timber mill," Miller said, breathing raggedly.
"It has power, heat, and an emergency landline phone.
"And more importantly, it has an underground access tunnel that connects directly into the basement of Vance’s private clinic.
I stared at him in disbelief through the pouring rain.
"A tunnel?
Why would a timber mill connect to a medical clinic?
"Because twenty years ago, that clinic was the corporate research lab for the Vance chemical company," Miller explained grimly.
"Conrad Vance didn't just choose that building for a clinic because of its location.
"He chose it because it was built like a private fortress with secrets buried fifty feet beneath the earth.
"That is where he is keeping Julianne.
May you like
"We aren't running away anymore, Maya.
"We are going to bring my girl home.
