Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

A Distraction

ZACH

After I spit into Connor’s face, the look in his eyes sends chills through my whole body. He glares down with those icy blue eyes. Then he strikes me hard on the cheek with his fist. My vision flashes white, and my ears ring. A hot pain shoots out from where his fist landed.

He’s coming back for another hit when the sound of an explosion comes from my left. Vibrations rock the room, and bits of dust kick up from the ground. Everyone looks up, surprised. I crack a smile. It’s got to be Aiden.

Another explosion, but this one is closer. Tiny bits of concrete fall off the walls and ceiling, covering everything in a cloud of fine dust.

Connor points to Wayne and then to me. “You. Watch him. The rest of you are with me.” He runs off toward the explosions with the other two in tow.

Wayne stares at me with a sadistic grin on his face. “Well, well, well. Isn’t this interesting?” He walks toward me. My constraints bind tightly as I try desperately to get free.

As he approaches, he clenches his fists. “What’s the matter? You don’t have anything to say now that it’s just you and me, smart ass?”

I fight against the plastic ties. Digging deep, I use all the force buried inside me, trying to break free. But it’s useless. The binds are too strong.

Wayne puts his face right up to mine, then plants his tongue on my cheek. “You taste good.” His breath is stale with whiskey and chewing tobacco.

Good god. This can’t be happening. With his head next to mine, I lurch forward and smack my skull hard against his. He staggers back with a look of shock covering his face.

“Oh, you’re gonna pay for that, you little shit!” He comes racing at me, a pistol in his raised hand, ready to strike. I reel back, waiting for the impact. It’s going to hurt like a sonofabitch. He’s inches away before his gun flies out of his hand, clattering harmlessly on the ground. A hand reaches around, covering his mouth as an arm travels around his neck. Eyes wide, Wayne flails his arms and legs. His face goes purple as he fights for air, then collapses in a heap on the floor.

Aiden stands behind him. Conflicting emotions consume me. I’ve never been so happy and furious at the same time. He’s a bastard. But the bastard came to rescue me.

“Aiden, thank god,” I squeak, overcome with relief.

Aiden runs up and cups his hands against my cheeks. “Are you hurt?”

“A little banged up, but I’ll live.”

“I’m so glad I found you. Let’s get you out of this chair.” He cuts my bonds with a knife, and relief follows, but also pain. The zip tie around my left leg cut a deep gash into my skin, and I’m bleeding from it.

As soon as I’m free, I punch Aiden hard in the shoulder, and he yelps.

“That’s for leaving me.”

And then I hug him like I never want to let him go. “And this is for saving me,” I whisper in his ear.

“I’m so sorry, Zach. I have a lot more apologizing to do. But for now, we have to go.”

We end our embrace, and Aiden runs for the exit opposite the explosions. “C’mon, we gotta run.”

My left leg howls with pain, but I try to ignore it and hobble along behind him. The note Aiden wrote me sits on the ground, dropped by Connor. Part of me wants to leave it behind and forget this dark moment. But I grab it anyway and stash it in my pocket. Some things are too significant to forget.

“Connor and the others went that way, right?” Aiden points to the far side of the room, and I nod.

“Good.” He continues in the other direction. “Follow me.”

We run to a metal door at the right side of the turbine room. As we get to it, the door on the far side opens, and Connor comes in with the others. Connor looks up, and his face twists with rage.

“Stop them!”

Aiden pauses for a moment to glance back. The expression on his face is complex, to say the least. Anger mixed with sorrow. “Let’s go,” he says quietly.

Tyra and the man with the gray goatee head toward us, drawing their guns. The moment they do, we run out the door and slam it behind us. The brutal impact of bullets against the door sends concussive blasts through the stairwell.

We sprint up the stairs, three steps at a time. As we open the door at the top, the downstairs door opens. Aiden grabs the last grenade off his belt, pulls the pin, and sends it clattering down the metal stairway.

“Fire in the hole,” Aiden yells. It says so much about Aiden that he warns the very people trying to kill us. He trained to survive in this terrible world but still has a gentle heart.

“Go back!” voices from below yell as the door shuts.

We jump out of the top door and slam it shut as the grenade detonates, sending vibrations through everything.

“That’ll buy is a little time but not much,” Aiden says.

We’re on a metal catwalk spanning a rushing torrent of water. It extends to our left and slopes downward in what looks like a massive water slide, angling steeply at first, then gradually at the end.

“Okay, this is our stop.” Aiden gestures to the water below us.

“You’re kidding, right?” My voice cracks as I gape at the harrowing descent.

“I’m afraid not. There’s a boat at the bottom.”

“Is it safe?”

“This is the spillway for the dam. Wildlife pass through it all the time. If it’s safe for salmon, it should be safe for us.”

“Let’s go together.” I look at Aiden with pleading eyes.

“Okay, take my hand.”

Hand in hand, we jump from the catwalk into the spillway, and the current sweeps us off our feet. The water pushes us along, sending us over a curved edge and down the length of the slide. It’s not as smooth as a water slide, but not as bad as I feared. My pants take most of the beating on the rough cement. The descent is fast at first, but it levels out gradually until I plunge into the cold waters of the Columbia, with Aiden still by my side, holding my hand.

When we surface, Aiden swims to a small rowboat moored next to the spillway, and I follow. He hoists himself up into the boat first, then lends me a hand and heaves me over the edge. We both tumble into the bottom of the boat, our bodies intertwined and our faces inches apart. I’m still a mix of emotions, and anger and hurt courses through me, but rising above it all is this overwhelming desire to hold him close and never let go.

Aiden has a pained expression. “Zach, I’m so sorry. As soon as I left, I knew it was a mistake. I came back to get you, but they had already—”

I put a finger over his mouth. “I’ll want a full explanation later, but right now, this is what I need.”

And then I kiss him.

As our lips join, it’s filled with all the intensity of the moment. Rough and angry but also yearning and grateful. As we press our bodies together, I run my hands through his wet hair. I forget the world around me for a few seconds, and I am lost in the moment, lost in Aiden’s grasp.

We pull away from each other almost simultaneously as our gaze turns to the dam looming above. The tenuous nature of our situation comes snapping back, and reality sets in.

“Wow,” Aiden whispers.

“Yeah.” I give a hushed laugh.

“I don’t expect you to forgive me yet.” Aiden looks at me with vulnerable eyes.

“We’ll talk. But right now, let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Agreed.” Aiden sits up and grabs the oars.

I’ll set my hurt aside until we are safe. He thought he was protecting me. That much I understand, but he can’t make decisions for me. He needs to understand that before we can move forward. I hope I can forgive him and learn to trust him again.

Aiden rows the boat downstream, away from the dam, as fast as possible but quietly. It’s not a moment too soon. On top of the dam, flashlights shine around in all directions. But we’ve made it far enough, just a dark spot in the middle of the massive Columbia River.

Aiden stops rowing and lets the current carry us. He talks in a whisper. “Let’s coast for a bit. Keep things quiet.”

“Where are we going?” I ask in a hushed tone.

“I want us to get farther downriver before we head to the west shore.”

“How on earth did you find me?”

“I got to the camp right when they captured you. I ran after you the whole way. When they drove to the dam, I saw exactly where they took you.”

I shudder at the memories of them binding my arms and throwing the bag over my head. But Aiden returned to rescue me. I want to forgive him, though these conflicting feelings continue to churn in my gut.

“If you’d been there, we might have both been captured,” I say, almost talking to myself. “Or worse.”

“That’s still no excuse for leaving you.” Aiden looks down, avoiding my gaze.

I sigh. “But thank you for coming back.” I smile slightly. His face lightens a bit at the sight of it.

“Zach, I’ll always come for you. No matter what.” The earnestness in his eyes gives me hope that we can get past this.

“I mean, you practically blew up a dam to get me.” I chuckle. “Those were Ezra’s grenades?”

Aiden nods. “I knew they’d come in handy eventually. I’ve never used one before. It was kinda fun.”

“And this boat?”

“I found it tied to the dock next to the dam. I rowed out until I found a spot I could climb up. Didn’t take long to find you. Connor’s voice projects.”

“You’re just like James Bond.”

“Does that make you a Bond girl?” Aiden says with a tentative smile.

“Bond boy, thank you very much.”

We both laugh under our breath. I’m happy to joke with him again, but my laughter is bit hollow with my hurt right under the surface.

Aiden looks up and down the river. “We should be far enough away. I’m going to row us to the west shore.”

He takes the oars and quietly nudges us westward. Soon, the boat scrapes the bottom, and he hops out and drags it ashore. He grabs the backpack he stowed in the boat and slings it over his shoulders. “We’re down to one backpack now, so we’ll have to share everything from here on out.”

Together, we push the boat out into the water as far as we can, watching it for a moment to be sure the current has picked it up. If anybody finds it, we want it far from where we landed.

Aiden points up to the foothills in front of us. “We need to get into those hills before the sun rises. I’m afraid we’re going to be on foot for a while.”

I nod. Blood has seeped into my sock from where the zip tie cut into my left leg. I’ll wait until we’re out of sight from the river before I mention it, but it hurts like a bitch.

And with that, we make our way into the foothills of the Columbia River Gorge.