Rocky Mountain Showdown. Victoria Austin W.
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Laura didn’t even know what this was all about. Why?
Laura hugged Abby more closely to her body, breathing in the smell of children’s shampoo, grilled cheese and that musky scent that came from playing in the forest. Abby’s body was warm and slightly damp from when Laura had piled blankets on top of her and put her down for her nap. The fever she’d been fighting all week was gone for now.
One little foot was bare. Laura found her other shoe and put it on, feeling better that Abby was fully dressed. She ran her hands over the small feet, then went back to rubbing a circle on Abby’s back, though that was more for her own benefit than the little girl’s. Abby was asleep, but the repetition and physical contact soothed Laura. Grounded her. Reminded her that she and Abby were here together. Abby was the only thing Laura needed in this world.
Laura wanted to go look out the window for herself, but she made her legs stay where they were. She wasn’t sure she would be able to peer through the curtains without being detected. And those men had already shown they were willing to shoot in.
She didn’t want to put Abby down, and she sure didn’t want to carry Abby closer to the window—to the men with guns. Laura wished again that her dad were still here. He would know what to do. How to make it right.
Laura smiled as she thought of what he’d say. His voice would be exasperated. Never out of patience with her, but his tone would have suggested that the answer was right there in front of her. Obvious and logical. “Use the tunnel, girl. It’s an escape tunnel. Escape in it.”
The tunnel. Laura sucked in a deep breath, her hand faltering in its circle pattern. How could she have forgotten? When she had first come to live with her dad, she’d been convinced he was some sort of alien. He lived on a mountain. A whole mountain to himself. He talked about not going into their world. And he had a tunnel. It made sense to a seven-year-old.
Laura had found it by accident about a month after coming to the mountain. She had refused to go hunting with Malcolm Grant, still stuck in the grief of losing her parents and the surreal timidity that came with finding herself living on a strange mountain with a new dad.
Mad at herself for crying, yet again, she had thrown her stuffed teddy bear as hard as she could. He’d landed in the closet. After a few minutes of telling herself she wasn’t a baby and didn’t need the silly bear, Laura had climbed off the bed and retrieved her only friend. And she had discovered the latch to the tunnel.
Laura smiled, remembering that moment so clearly. She had lifted the trapdoor, found a flashlight and jumped into the tunnel without thinking. Laura didn’t know enough to be afraid. All Laura knew was that aliens were real, and she was going to take that tunnel to a different planet. She’d talked out loud as she explored, encouraging the aliens to come out and play. They never did, of course.
Her dad had been livid when he found her several hours later. It was the closest he’d ever come to yelling at her. “It’s an escape tunnel, girl. Not a playground. It’s secret. And we both need to pray to God that we’ll never, ever need to use it.”
And they hadn’t. Until now.
Laura tried to take a deep breath, hoping it would calm her. Please, God, let this be the right decision. “I know how we can get out. There’s a tunnel.”
“A tunnel.” Seth sounded like he had just been told that there was a teleportation device hidden in the cabin. Laura couldn’t blame him.
“Yes, a tunnel. An escape tunnel. My dad made it, when he built the cabin. For situations like this.” Laura’s voice didn’t betray the absurdity of those words. Incredulity might be an expected response to a secret escape tunnel, but Laura was loyal to her dad. Even though he’d been dead for a few months now, she was never going to betray him by mocking him. Especially not in front of park rangers.
“Your dad often find himself being shot at by random people?”
Laura tried to hide her wince. She had spent most of her life hearing people criticize her dad, and she had learned to ignore them. Kind of.
“I’m sorry, Laura. I shouldn’t—”
“Stop.” Her voice was loud. Loud and tired and just a touch desperate.
Her little girl moved at the sound of Laura’s voice, lifting her head and opening her eyes. Laura straightened her back, holding Abby more firmly to her chest. She placed her hand on the back of the child’s head, pushed it back into the indent of her neck and breathed in deeply, her nose still in the child’s hair.
She didn’t have time for this, and she had more important things to do right now than defend her dad to this park ranger. Her eyes never broke contact with Seth. Her voice was softer. She didn’t feel like forgiving him or being kind to him. She just felt...weary. Laura suddenly felt very, very weary.
“Just stop. You said we have to get out of here quickly. I’m telling you there’s a way out. I’m going to take it. Are you coming with me?”
Before Seth could open his mouth to answer, Laura was moving again. She meant it about taking the tunnel out of here. Laura wasn’t crazy about going alone, but she would if he didn’t follow. She headed back to the small bedroom and opened the closet door. She got down on her knees, setting Abby on the floor.
“Here, honey, sit here for Mommy for just a second. Okay?” Laura took a moment to rub her hand over the sleepy girl’s cheek. She nodded and leaned against the wall. Satisfied, Laura turned once again to the open closet.
Laura somehow found a latch in the floor—the trapdoor into a tunnel. Standing, she then reached up to the top shelf of her closet and pulled out a couple flashlights. She handed one to Seth, who was standing close to her, just watching.
Then she opened the trapdoor and saw the ladder leading down into the dark. Cool air drifted up, along with the scent of damp earth. Laura didn’t remember the tunnel feeling like a grave when she’d been a child. It did now, though.
The goose bumps that broke out on Laura’s arm had nothing to do with the temperature.
* * *
Seth really did not want to climb down into that pit. That dark hole in the ground. But it was the only way out. And they needed it now.
“Here, let me go first,” he said to Laura, stepping around her so he could be the initial one to descend into the hopefully stable unknown. He stepped onto the ladder and climbed down. At least it felt secure, not shaking or creaking as he put his full weight on it. That was a good sign.
Once Seth reached the bottom, Laura handed Abby to him. Then she climbed down the ladder after him. Seth handed Abby back to Laura and climbed halfway up the ladder so he could close the closet door and then the trapdoor. He wished he had a way to cover up the entrance. Hopefully the assault team wouldn’t find the hidden passage right away. He and Laura needed all the time they could get.
“Here, let me help.” Seth was surprised to see that Laura had set Abby down. She climbed up the ladder with him and focused her light on where the door had closed. There was a latch. And a lock. Seth was suddenly grateful for paranoid men who built escape tunnels and thought to equip them with locks. They secured the door and climbed down.
Laura picked Abby back up and they turned to face the tunneled path in front of them. Their flashlights only illuminated the space about ten feet ahead. It was dark and cold. Damp. Seth couldn’t see the walls surrounding them, but he felt them. “Okay. Guess this is the only way to go now.”
They headed into the black. Laura scanned the interior of the tunnel with her flashlight as they walked. “I haven’t been in this thing for years. I played in it once or twice when I was a child, but Dad was always worried it wouldn’t remain a secret tunnel if I kept using it. He was pretty big on separating toys from survival tools.”
Seth really couldn’t think of anything to say in response to that. He supposed that if he had been a recluse with a secret escape tunnel, he probably wouldn’t have wanted a child playing