The Wolf Code

Chapter 13

Hannah refused to stop running to listen for pursuers.  If anyone had seen her, they would surely sound the alarm, and she would know right away that they had spotted her.  There was no reason to hide at the forest’s edge and wait for them to realize that she was gone.  They would find out soon enough, and the more distance that she could put between herself and that moment, the better.

If she was miles away when they realized that she was gone, they would have more ground to cover than would be possible with the number of men she had seen when the Sheriff first pulled up to the barn.  Maybe there were more men, but Hannah doubted it.  Whatever was going on, she knew that it was highly illegal, and she didn’t think that the Sheriff would be bringing droves of people into the fold.  The more people that knew about his activities, the less likely they would remain a secret.

Hannah stumbled and tripped along the trail as her muscles protested so much use after being Tasered and drugged just a few hours before.  She could finally feel her fingers, and as she flexed them, she found that their dexterity was returning little by little. 

She was focused on her hand when she realized that she hadn’t even checked to see if her phone was still in her pocket, and she quickly reached around and felt the back of her jeans.  She groaned when she came up empty, but she wasn’t surprised that the Sheriff had removed the phone from her pocket.  He would have been a fool not to.

Her skin crawled at the thought of him going through her clothes like that while she lay helpless on the floor of the horse stall.  Even though she couldn’t remember it happening, she felt completely violated.  What else had he done?

She shook her head.  No, she wouldn’t think about questions that had no answer.  She had to focus, and she had to think about things that helped her push through the pain that still lingered from the Taser and being tied up and helped her keep going.

She thought about her dad and wondered how much of what she’d been told was a lie.  Was he still alive?   Did he know where she was?  Did he even know that she was gone?  She doubted he knew that she was missing, and that was a blessing in disguise.  As she put one foot in front of the other, she considered that her father’s memory problems had made Hannah an easy target.  She was alone aside from him, and since he wouldn’t remember forgetting her visit, there was no way he was going to report her missing.    And the man at the rehab facility her father lived in was probably in on it.  That left no one to notice her missing. 

Her foot caught on an exposed root, and she tripped, hands coming out to break her fall automatically.  When her palms hit the ground, she grunted in pain, but she managed to keep her mouth closed just in case one of the Sheriff’s men was nearby.  Her hands were instantly in pain, the pins and needles sensation spreading fast over the entire surface of her palm.  Fresh tears sprang to her eyes, and she swiped them away with the back of her arm.

You have to concentrate, she thought as she angrily pushed herself up and back onto her feet.  Her brain was addled, scrambled from the electric shock and the drugs.  She couldn’t afford to lose herself to thought while she walked in the darkness like she normally would.  She could only focus on one thought at a time, and she was going to have to be mindful of that.  She couldn’t risk injury, and she couldn’t risk walking on autopilot and accidentally heading the wrong direction and ending up back at the barn.

The last thought terrified her.  She took a moment to get her bearings, wondering if this trail had curved or if it had continued in the same general direction like she thought it did.  A quick glance down the trail behind her showed her a little more than the first curve of the long trail.  Without her phone and a watch, she had no way of knowing how long she’d been hobbling through the darkness.  Even if she did know, she had no idea which way she was going.  She was headed away from the barn, and that was her only objective.  She would figure things out when she found a house or a road.  Until then, she was just moving forward.

Her body hurt worse than it had before, now that she had fallen hard onto the ground.  The tendons in her ankle were tight where the root had caught it, but she couldn’t let herself get wrapped up in the pain.  She had to keep moving.

The trail angled upward a few yards beyond where she’d fallen, and that gave her hope.  She knew that her mad dash from the barn hadn’t been downhill, so there was no way that this trail had circled around and ended up back by the barn.  She leaned forward, renewed by this latest development and feeling a little better now that some of the drugs had worn off just a little more.  She had no way of knowing, but she was almost certain that it had been at least an hour since she’d first escaped.  She hadn’t heard a sound behind her.  Maybe the Sheriff had gone to sleep, leaving one of his henchmen to guard a barn that no longer contained their prisoner. 

The man would surely check the barn at some point, and he would find her gone.  But with her tied up and asleep at midnight, the guard might wait as long as two or three in the morning before checking on her right before the Sheriff returned to take her product video for the early morning showing.

She shuddered at the thought, and her empty stomach lurched.  She gagged, but there was nothing to come up, and she kept pushing forward as she wretched.

“Get it together,” she muttered to herself.  “You can’t let this get to you.  Stay focused.”

She continued chanting to herself; stay focused, stay calm, keep going.

Her mantra worked, and pretty soon, she was over the hill and heading downward on a gentle slope.

A sudden shot rang out, and she almost screamed as it echoed off the rock formations that surrounded the area.  The shot hadn’t been close to her, but it had been close enough, and she was certain it had come from behind.

She didn’t know how she knew it, but she was sure that the Sheriff had discovered that she was missing. 

Run! the little voice in her head screamed, and Hannah took off as fast as her tired legs could carry her.  She watched the ground as she did so she didn’t trip, and her going was so much slower than she should have been able to go.  But her limbs still convulsed every few minutes with the after effects of the Taser, and she couldn’t quite lift her feet as high as she needed to.  The final result was a frustrating pace that felt more like running through thick mud than on soft but firm ground.

Still listening behind her, she dashed down the trail as fast as she could even though she didn’t hear any sign that they were on her trail.  There were so many directions she could have gone once she escaped from the barn, she hoped that they wouldn’t have any idea which way to start looking.