Beside Still Waters (22 page)

             
I’m going to pass out
, she realized.

             
And that’s when she finally remembered the bottle of water.  She reached into her pocket and pulled it out.  She wrapped her left hand around the cap and tried to twist it off.  Her entire body was shaking with the effort and she realized she didn’t have the strength to open it.

             
“God, please, help me,” she thought as she closed her eyes.  She wrapped the skirt around the cap, reached deep inside herself and twisted with everything she had.  It gave way and a moment later she was putting the bottle up to her lips.

             
Her tongue seemed to absorb the first drops that hit them, not even letting them pass to the back of her throat.  She could feel her lips, dry, splitting.  The water was warm but she had never tasted anything so wonderful, so refreshing.  She drained the bottle and nearly became hysterical when she realized there wasn’t any more.

             
She pulled the bananas out of her pocket and tried to peel the first one.  It was just under ripe, though, and didn’t want to peel easily.  She dug her fingernail into the skin, trying to puncture it, but it wouldn’t give.  She brought the banana up to her mouth and bit down on the top as hard as she could.  The taste of the peel nearly made her gag, but she spit it out and then ate the fruit.  She did the same with the next one.

             
And slowly her vision seemed to come back to her.  And with it her ability to think.  There had to be a road somewhere nearby.  She couldn’t hear any passing traffic, but that could just mean that the area she was in was a little more isolated.  She still had no clue which of the islands she was on, not that it would help her even if she did.

             
She stood slowly, and looked around.  She didn’t want to go back in the direction of the house, even if there was a road that way.  If they had discovered she was gone they’d be searching for her and she refused to walk back into their arms. 

The mountains she had been able to see from the house were behind her.  It could be part of the volcano that had formed the island.  If they were, they would form part of the center of the island.  Which meant she should travel away from them, head for the ocean where the majority of the populace would be.

She pushed through the trees, looking for more bananas, but those trees seemed to have given way to palm trees.  She forced herself to keep walking, wondering how far from the ocean she was.

A sound behind her caused her to pause, listening.  Was it an animal, or was that a human footstep?  Her heart began to pound in fear.  Could they have found her already?  She didn’t hear it again and she kept walking, trying to step lightly, but she was too exhausted to do a good job of it.  She picked up her pace, abandoning quiet for speed.

Again she heard a sound behind her, but this time she didn’t stop, she began to move faster, grasping the trunks of the trees with her left hand as she pushed through them.

A sudden squealing sound to her left caused her to spin in that direction.  A flash of brown caught her eye and a moment later she saw the tusk of a wild boar.  She picked up her pace, even more eager to reach civilization.

The trees were becoming fewer.  Surely that had to be a good sign.  She pushed forward.  There had to be a road soon, a house, something. 

And then she saw a break in the tree line, and beyond it, nothing but blue as far as the eye could see.  The ocean, it had to be.  She limped toward it, aware that she was slowing down.  What good the food and water had done couldn’t compensate for her need to sleep and to heal.

Behind her she heard another step and then a crashing sound followed by a shout.  With a gasp she lunged forward, pushing herself harder, praying that she could find the road before her hunters could find her.

She made it to the last tree and then looked around.  All she saw in any direction was red dirt.  No cars, no houses, no roads.  She stared straight ahead and saw the ocean.  She had made it, but why was no one around?  She hurried toward it, knowing in the back of her mind that something was wrong, but she was too tired, too terrified to recognize what it was.

A minute later she figured it out.  She was standing at the edge of a cliff.  Below her was the ocean, no beach, just waves crashing against a few rocks.  She stared in horror.  She was trapped.  The ocean was before her, a long drop beneath, and her enemies were behind.  She twisted her head left and right looking to see where the cliff might start sloping down to the beach.

             
It was Hawaii after all, land of a thousand beaches.  Where was one when she needed it?  She could feel herself beginning to hyperventilate.  The shouts were closer.  They had found her, they were going to recapture her.  There was nowhere she could run, they would be faster.  There was nowhere she could hide. She was standing on a barren plateau with the nearest vegetation a hundred yards distant and not nearly thick enough to be lost within.

             
There was nowhere she could go but down.  She stared at the face of the rock wall, searching for stairs, a pathway, anything.  But the rock face was sheer, unforgiving.  There was no way down.

             
Unless you jump.

             
Bile flooded her mouth and she backed away from the cliff, shaking. 

             
No, never, I can’t
, she thought, her mind seeming to shatter. 
It’s too far, I could never survive it.

             
Yes you could
, the voice whispered again.

             
The rocks would crush her.

             
Not if you fall in the right place.

             
God, you can’t ask me to do this.  You know what happened last time.  My sister…I can’t.

             
“I can’t!” she screamed, staggering away from the edge.

             
You must!  Now!

             
“I can’t, I’ll fall,” she whispered.

             
Let me catch you.

             
God was talking to her. She knew it, felt it.  She had never heard His voice so clear.  And He had never asked anything so impossible of her.  She couldn’t.  Anything else, but not this, never this.  She didn’t want to jump, she couldn’t.

             
And she heard her sister’s voice in her mind, laughing, telling her that it was fine, that nothing was going to happen to her, that she should jump.

             
Her sister had never been more wrong.

             
But God had never been so insistent.

             
Jump!
the voice commanded.

             
And the men were upon her, they would have her in a moment.  She could hear at least two voices.  One of them was Mr. Black.  He was talking to her, but she was long beyond being able to hear him.  There was nothing he could offer her, only more torture and death.  She had nothing he wanted and he would figure that out sooner or later.

             
She couldn’t go back to that room, that house, captivity and the endless, crushing pain and fear.

             
She stepped to the ledge, she looked down.
  Below the waves were crashing on the rocks.

             
She had to jump.  There was no other way.

             
She closed her eyes and she jumped.

14

             
Cindy jumped, expecting to feel the rush of wind on her face and the sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach as she plunged off the cliff into the crushing waves of the ocean below.  But instead she felt a hard hand clamp around her arm and yank her backward.  She fell to the ground hard and opened her eyes to see the face of Mr. Black staring down at her.  She could see fury burning in his eyes.

             
“You’re either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid to try that,” he said.

             
“Stupid,” she heard herself whisper.  It was absurd.  He wasn’t looking for an answer from her.  What compelled her to give one anyway was beyond her.

             
“Clever, heading into the jungle instead of making for the highway.  My sentry never even saw you.”

             
She wanted to cry.  If she had only listened to the voice, if only she had jumped sooner she might be free.

             
Or dead
, she reminded herself.

             
“You have proven yourself to be quite resourceful…again.  This now leaves me with the question of what to do with you.”

             
And from the look on his face she was pretty sure that killing her on the spot was currently topping his list of options.

             
“Take me back to Oahu,” she blurted out.

             
He raised an eyebrow.  “And why on earth would I want to do that?”

             
“Because,” she said, struggling for something to say, something that would buy her time and one more opportunity to escape or be rescued.  “I can take you to where I hid it,” she said.  Her only value to him was in helping find whatever it was he was looking for.

             
“How about you just tell me where it is or I make things really unpleasant for you?”

             
She licked her cracked, bleeding lips.  “More unpleasant than killing me?” she challenged, feeling like an idiot even as she heard the words coming out of her mouth.  “I don’t think so.  And it would be too difficult to describe the location.  And…and only I can retrieve it.”

             
“I’m listening.”

             
She felt panic flare in her.  She was lying through her teeth, struggling to say things that sounded plausible.  “I’m done talking until you get me back to Oahu.”  She pressed her lips together, hoping the symbolic gesture was not lost on him.

             
He pulled a knife out of his pocket and crouched down next to her.  He placed the blade against her cheek and she forced herself to remain absolutely still and stare him in the eyes.  She knew that if she flinched, even in the slightest, it was all over.  He stared back at her, eyes hard and calculating.  She wanted to blink, but she refused to let herself.  It was like some of the insane staring contests she’d had with friends as a kid.  She had always won.  Now was not the time to start losing.

             
He blinked first.  Slowly he stood up and pocketed his knife.  “Okay, we’ll play this your way.  But if you so much as breathe wrong, I will kill you in the most unpleasant way I can think of.  And trust me, you don’t want to see just how creative I can get.”

             
She nodded once, to show that she understood.  There was a man she didn’t recognize with Mr. Black and he came forward and hoisted her to her feet.  He was a large, Hawaiian man, more muscle than fat.  She studied his face, wondering what manner of man he was and if there was any way she could manipulate him into showing some pity.  His expression was impossible to read, though.

             
“Can you please just not drug me again?” she asked Mr. Black.

~

             
Jeremiah arrived at the Royal Hawaiian, which the taxi driver was quick to inform him was a famous old hotel, a landmark.  The hotel was pink.  Jeremiah registered that fact with mild surprise as he leaped out of the car and ran for the lobby.

             
The lobby was large and open on the far end.  Jeremiah scanned the area quickly and then made his way to the elevators.  He had no way of knowing if Marge would actually be in her room, but that’s where Al was heading.  Jeremiah just hoped he wasn’t too late to save her or catch him.

             
When the elevator let him off he headed in the direction of her room, moving fast, but with heightened caution.  Al was armed and a desperate man with a gun was always a dangerous, unpredictable man.

             
When he found the room, he paused for a moment, listening.  He didn’t hear anything and he finally reached out and knocked on the door, making sure to stand well to one side.  A few moments later it was opened by a large, amiable looking woman who blinked at him in curiosity.

             
“Ma’am, my name is Jeremiah.  I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about the accident you had the other day with the life preserver,” he said, staring over her shoulder and trying to get a look into the room.  The way the room was angled, though, he could only see part of it.

             
“Oh, of course, such wonderful timing,” she said, standing back to let him enter.