Page 54 of Eagle

All five of us turned and stared down the long trek to the back of the building, before Ella said, “The only entrance is usually here at the front, unless they created another one.”

We were in a three-story chicken house, and it was a long, rectangular building with windows. However, the windows had some kind of wire mesh across the bottom, so they weren’t big enough for us to squeeze through.

“Shit!” I muttered.

“Let me run down and check it out just in case.”

I put my ear to the door again as Lola took off down the center of the building like she was running an Olympic race. I couldn’t hear anything outside, but I was too afraid to open the door. When I stepped back, I looked to see if I could lock it from inside, but there was no lock. The sound of motorcycles outside made my stomach churn, until I realized that they were heading away from the building, not towards it.

“Hey!” Lola shouted from the other end. “Come on!” She motioned us with a wave.

As we ran, I wondered how Lola had made the run look so effortless in her bare feet. Maybe she walked around more than I did without shoes, and her feet had toughened up. All I knew was that I winced with every step. The door that Lola was standing in front of looked like it had been added after the building had been built, as it didn’t match the rest of the building.

Something off to the side caught Lola’s attention, and I watched as she reached for what turned out to be a sack of some kind. She drew it around her waist, and then pulled the scrunchie from her hair to use it to secure the ends of the cloth together at her waist. Jillian and Ella followed suit. I’d slipped into my shorts earlier, and Val was already in shorts.

“They must have had a door put in so they could escape out the back if they needed to,” Lola remarked.

“Which is what we’re going to do,” I smiled. “I heard some of them leave right before you called out, but that doesn’t mean we’re alone.” There was a cross bar blocking the door, and with Lola’s help, we lifted it off the slider and dropped it to the floor. “Keep your fingers crossed, ladies.”

I opened the door slowly and cautiously. My heart was pounding hard in my chest, and I didn’t realize that I was holding my breath until I peered around the half-opened doorway and looked. No one was there! I glanced back at the girls. “Okay, this isn’t going to be easy.” We were in bathing suits and barefoot, but at least we were escaping. “There’s a tree line directly across this building. Let’s move as fast as we can and get out of sight.”

I pushed the door all the way open and stepped outside with the girls right behind me. Ella shut the door behind her, and we paused long enough to look around. “Anyone recognize where we might be?” Everyone shook their heads when my eyes stopped on them. “Okay. The grass is tall. Try to crouch as we go.”

It felt like an eternity, but it only took us five minutes to reach the trees. Once we were safely out of sight we stopped, and the relief we all felt was palpable. Nervous smiles followed.

“We’re not out of trouble yet.”

I agreed with Val. “That’s why we need to put as much distance between here and them. Once they discover we’re gone, you can bet they’re going to come looking for us.”

I had no idea where we were or where we’d end up, but I started walking gingerly through

the woods. With a little luck we’d come across a farm or house where we could make a phone call.

“Ouch, damnit!” Jillian reached down and rubbed her heel. “I stepped on something sharp!”

“Shh!” Ella cautioned.

“Anyone else think we’re stupid for walking through the woods when we don’t know where we’re going?” Jillian’s tone held humor in it.

“And in our bare feet!” Val whisper yelled.

“What else were we supposed to do?” Lola whispered back.

“Please be quiet.”

I could hear the worry in Ella’s plea, and now that I knew her history with the Maniacs, I understood why she would be nervous.

“Sounds carry.”

For the next half hour, all I heard were the soft exclamations the girls made when they stepped on something or got slapped in the face by a branch. I found myself taking the lead as we went single file through the woods. I kept close to the tree line so that we wouldn’t get lost, and followed the direction of the road, keeping behind brush and trees in case one of the Maniacs rode past.

We stopped and ducked as suddenly the familiar sound of a motorcycle approached and sped past.

“Was it one of them?” Jillian asked.

“Not sure,” I replied. “But I doubt it was one of ours. They wouldn’t come looking for us alone.” I didn’t know if that was true or not, but I wanted to believe it.

“It’s starting to get dark,” Ella said in a worried tone. “I don’t really want to be walking around barefoot in the dark.”