Winter's Destiny (29 page)

The ledge moved. Suddenly, the area beneath them slipped. Instinctively, Eickher let go of Jamie and grabbed for the rock wall.

Amy had anticipated that. A split second before the scientist let go of Jamie, she had her hands around her son. In the next second, she was flying toward the cave, the ledge crumbling and falling behind her. The entire ridge would go at any second.

Eickher screamed, but she didn’t dare look back. Her eyes were pinned on the cave opening. Her feet seemed to have lost the ledge. The trail gave way with her every footfall and dropped into the sea.

The cave entrance was only four feet. Three. Two. Then, the ledge went out from under her.

Eickher’s hands flailed along the bluff wall, looking for something to grab onto. He slipped down about ten feet before his fingers found a hold. Then, the entire ledge slid out from under him. His legs flew free. Desperate, he searched for a place to put his feet, his knees scrapping the rough area left behind. He found a rock for his feet and put his toes on it.

Sweat mixed with mist from the waterfall. He saw Amy race for the mouth of the first cave, the ledge going out from under her. She dove for the entrance, barely making it. Conniving bitch had saved the boy. She must have figured this would happen.

Eickher checked the trail. No sign of the sheriff. Yet. Eickher knew he was an open target where he was; he had to get into the cave. The ledge between him and the cave entrance had vanished into the swirling sea below him. Adeptly, he found new places to put his hands and feet, moving slowly and steadily sideways toward the cave. He grew impatient. If the sheriff came around the corner, that would be it. Move faster. No time for caution. Almost there. I’ll get that bitch.

With Jamie in her arms, Amy dove through the small rocky opening to the cave. She landed on her right side, trying not to injure Jamie, and wiggled her legs in behind her.

It was dark and damp inside. The rock curvature dripped water, chilling her to the bone, but she was glad to be alive and to have her son away from Eickher. They were in the smallest of the three caves, with no room to stand, but it was quite deep inside. Amy pushed into a corner beside the entrance and pulled Jamie tight to her. Already she felt claustrophobic.

She savored the reprieve from Eickher. With every step down the trail Eickher sunk deeper into madness. The scientist had become an evil, terrifying force. But where was he now? Had he fallen into the sea when the ledge collapsed?

“Where’s that man, Mommy?”

Amy peered out. To her horror, she saw him a few feet below her. Cold black eyes bored into her. “You’re dead, bitch.” he screamed. “You set me up for this. You’re going to pay!”

Amy jumped back, her heart pounding. The moment had come. If Eickher made it into the cave, he’d kill them. He had to be stopped. Amy looked around. No loose rocks, nothing to use as a weapon. The thought of touching him with her bare hands was deplorable. There had to be another way.

A sinister rage burned in Eickher. He recognized it and tried to curb it. He knew from experience that when these black episodes occurred, he lost rationality and did things that subverted his best interests. He tried to calm down, but the ravaging fire that burned inside him was flaring out of control. He could barely think now. The heat was searing his brain, like it always did. He panted, spittle running from his mouth.

He would kill that bitch. And the kid. He could barely wait. He could feel her neck in his bare hands already! Yes! The excitement of the kill coursed through his veins, energizing him. His muscles pumped, his heart raced.

The wall he was climbing crumbled as he inched his way up. With a burst of energy, he scaled the rock face, his bird-like eyes on the entrance above him.

She was in there. Suddenly, she appeared above him. “You’re dead, bitch.” he screamed. “You set me up for this. You’re going to pay!”

Amy moved Jamie deep inside the cave. “Stay right here, Jamie. Don’t move, okay?”

The boy nodded.

Amy scrambled back to the entrance. Eickher was coming for them. His madness had overtaken him. Amy knew he was going to kill both of them. There wasn’t much time. He’d reach the cave entrance any second.

She reached back into her pocket and pulled out the insulin syringe that Alesha had given her back at The Cliff House. Holding it up, she pulled back on the plunger sucking air into the syringe, the way Alesha had instructed. Air bubbles mixed with Humalog and injected directly into the carotid artery would finish him instantly. Amy prepared herself, and then peeked out of the cave to see where he was. It was a huge mistake.

He was hanging off the vertical wall right under the entrance, his head almost level with the floor. With reptilian speed, his arm slithered up. His icy hand grabbed her neck in a death grip. “Ha! I’ve got you now, Bitch. Say goodbye to your boy.” Still outside the cave, he leapt upward, yanking her down to the rocky floor of the entrance, his grip on her enabling him to scramble up a little higher. He squeezed her windpipe with his skeletal fingers.

Amy’s entire body flew into overdrive. Using her left hand, she pried at his fingers, trying to free them. They were like steel around her neck. She couldn’t breathe! Her windpipe was collapsing. Her vision grew blurry. He was clinging to her, his face contorted, ugly, his black eyes bloodshot and evil, his breath vile.

Her hand tightened on the syringe and with one last effort, she focused on his pulsing carotid artery.
Do it!

Eickher squeezed hard, her windpipe fragile in his grasp. “You whore! You’ve destroyed everything!” he screamed. “Everything! My life’s work is incomplete because of you!” He wanted her to suffer, to gasp, to beg, and to writhe in pain. He wanted her to pay for desecrating his plan, for obliterating everything he’d worked a lifetime for. He wanted to watch her grovel in agony, convulse, and then die with the knowledge that her life was ending very slowly. 

Eickher felt himself slipping down the rock bluff and grabbed onto the lip at the cave entrance with his other hand. He tried to pull himself back up. His shoes kicked and scratched at the rocks, looking for a purchase, but pieces of the wall crumbled with each impact. A huge section gave way beneath him and he slid down, dragging Amy halfway out of the entrance.

Suddenly, a hypodermic needle flashed by him. He jerked backward to avoid it. At the same instant, the ledge broke away. He was falling!

“No-o-o-o-!” His scream pierced the air. Then—an abrupt silence.

The earsplitting scream echoed through the cave, bouncing off the rock.

As if in slow motion, Eickher fell, his arms reaching for Amy, his eyes riveted on hers, his scream piercing in her eardrumss. His feet cut right through the outside of the massive whirlpool and he disappeared into the angry swirling ocean.

A moment later, he burst back up through the surface. Fighting to stay afloat, he was washed around the circumference of the giant whirlpool, his arms flailing as he fought against the deadly suction. Then, it caught him and he was sucked into the dark green vortex.

He was gone. 

A moment later, as a final coup de grace, an enormous wave broke over the protective horseshoe of rocks, obliterating the whirlpool, and smashing into the rock bluff, sending spray right up into the cave.

Amy rolled back inside, her eyes squeezed shut, unaware of the tears streaming down her face. Her world went dark, her heart cried out, and her soul ached. The cave echoed only the sounds of the sea and water dripping all around her. His was the face of a madman, contorted and ugly, and it was overpowering in her mind.

“Mommy, are you asleep?”

The clear, sweet voice penetrated her pain. She was on her back at the cave entrance. Her throat and neck ached. She couldn’t swallow and it hurt to breathe. It took her a few minutes to sit upright. “Mommy’s awake,” Amy croaked.

With trepidation, she leaned over glanced out of the entrance.

Eickher was gone.

From the cave, there was no way back to the trail. The outcropping she had traversed had fallen into the sea. The wall that Eickher scaled was still crumbling. In fact, a huge section was missing beneath her, leaving a large hollow below the cave entrance. From where they were, even Dallas wouldn’t be able to help them.

The tide was rising quickly. Without the protective horseshoe of rocks, one powerful wave after another rolled in and crashed against the bluff. Soon the ocean would come roaring into the cave.

Amy turned away. Jamie was exactly where she left him. She went to him, pulling him from the recess where she had placed him, and hugged him tight. Never, had it felt so good to hold her child. That wonderful, special warmth flooded through her. She felt a kiss land on her cheek.

“Love you, Jamie. I love you so much,” she whispered hoarsely.

They huddled together for a few minutes while Amy collected herself. She had to find a way out of the cave. Jamie was shivering with cold. She opened his wet jacket and her own, and pulled him tight to her chest, warming him.

Looking around, she saw a pinnacle of light near the very back recess of the cave. Maybe there was another way out. When Jamie stopped shivering, she zipped him up, took his hand, and half crawled toward the back wall. With each step, the ceiling grew lower, forcing her down. Her pulse quickened. Sweat broke out on her forehead. Small spaces. She hated them and glanced back at the opening, trying to calm herself.

Jamie shivered next to her. His clothing was soaked. Being so little, his body heat dispersed quickly and he’d been wet too long. They had to find a way out. Amy crawled forward until her head hit something hard. She was at the end of the cave, but light was filtering from a tunnel that curved off to her right.

A tunnel? Narrow, constricted, dark—

She’d never be able to go in
a tunnel
.

Dallas wrapped the rope around Alesha and tossed the end to Larson, who stood waiting on the other side of the gap. “Okay,” he instructed her, “take a run at it and head on over to Deputy Larson. He’ll catch you on the other side.”

This time Alesha made the jump with no problem. When she landed, she turned around and gave Dallas a small proud smile. “Go now, Sheriff,” she called to him, “and thank you.”

Larson undid the line, coiled it, and tossed it back to Dallas. “How do you want to handle this, Sheriff?”

Dallas told him, “Winds down. Chopper’s on its way. SAR is on the north trail. I’m going to keep going.” Dallas looped the rope over his shoulder. “Take Alesha back.”

Alesha called back, “Please hurry, Sheriff. Amy needs you. She’s in desperate trouble.”

The narrow tunnel was barely big enough for both of them. Amy couldn’t get enough air. They were in a dark, damp, constricted space. Her penlight battery had died long ago. Icy sweat trickled into her eyes and down her back. Her heart raced. She felt trapped. Panic descended on her. The ceiling was too low… the space too small. She wanted out so badly, it was all she could do not to slide back out of the tunnel.

“Mommy? I’m cold.”

His small shivering body snapped her away from the terror. She had to get Jamie out of there. She had to keep going. She forced herself to concentrate on the light ahead and inched along.

Then, she inhaled fresh air and wiggled forward. The tunnel grew brighter. She moved forward another foot. And another. She bumped into a wall and found herself looking straight up into a tube. The gray overcast sky was visible high above her. She squeezed upright into the pipe and wiggled to a standing position, pulling Jamie up with her. The tube, about twice her height, was sheer and damp with no handholds.

How would they ever get to the top?

Dallas stood by the waterfall, a sense of devastation overtaking him. The trail had collapsed into the sea. Obviously, it had just happened. Had Amy and Jamie tried to make it to the cave? Had the trail fallen out from under them? Did they fall to their deaths? Or did they make it to the entrance? Where the hell were they?

“Amy! Amy, are you in the cave? Amy…” Dallas called out over and over, but no answer.

With the tide rising and the giant waves pounding against the bluff, there was no way of reaching the entrance. He examined the rocks that followed the waterfall up the bluff. If he was careful, he could climb up the side. He checked the knot at the end of the rope and adjusted the loop, and then using it like a lasso, he tossed it up high, over a boulder, but the loop slipped off. Dallas tried again. This time the rope landed behind a crack in the boulder. When Dallas pulled the rope taut, it slipped into the crack and caught. He started up.

The climb was slippery, slimy, wet, and steep. On the positive side, the rain had stopped. As he worked his way to the top, he thought about Amy. It was hard to think of anyone or anything else these days. She had captured his heart. The past few hours had been hell. He was afraid for her and Jamie’s lives. Somehow, no matter what it took, he had to find them.

When he reached the top of the waterfall, he re-coiled the rope and headed north through the woods. A while later, he found himself onto the north trail. The largest cave was ahead of him, but where was the small one? He climbed to the top of the big cave and stood, looking back toward the waterfall. From up top it was difficult to determine where one cave began and another ended.