Chapter Three: Breaking Down
Well, this was not going well.
I was completely, totally, and quite possibly hopelessly lost. Follow the signs he'd said. And I had done just that until they disappeared, and the gravel road that I'd thought led to the campsite had turned into a dirt road. The dirt road had eventually turned into something that I wasn't entirely sure could be called a road at all.
The final insult had come when I tried to make a two-hundred-point turn because the road had been narrowing for quite some time. A three-point turn definitely wasn't going to happen, even if I had managed to back up the mile it would have taken to find a wide enough spot to attempt it. One of my wheels had slipped over the edge of the small drop-off I'd been desperately trying to avoid just when I thought I'd almost managed it, having scooted forward and backward, cranking the wheel about a hundred times.
The cracking sound, along with the sickening jolt that rocked the van as the bottom of the middle of my van smashed into the road's edge, made my stomach hurt.
Leaning forward, I rested my forehead against the top edge of the steering wheel. I wished I was still asleep in that parking lot that I'd been kicked out of two hours earlier. "It'll be fine," I said aloud into the empty space before reaching for my phone to double-check what I already knew.
I had pulled over at least once every five minutes over the course of the previous hour, checking to see if I had any sort of a cell signal. I didn't. With a glance out the window, I imagined the driver's side tire dangling above the three-foot drop and shook my head.
Scooting across to the passenger side, I found my boots and slipped them on before pushing open the door and then thinking better of it. I knew that spending a good portion of my day walking down this road was likely in the cards, but I wasn't about to start my hike in the dark.
Closing my eyes, I finally did what I wished I'd been doing so many times since I crawled onto my bed the night before and surrendered to sleep.
I didn't sleep long.
Even though I knew that my car was thoroughly wedged in place, I kept drifting off, only to dream that my van, with me inside it, had plunged over the edge of a ravine. This seemed especially ridiculous each time I woke up and glanced at the small ditch we were perched over. And by we, I mean me and the van. Remember, I took my first breath after being birthed on Clarabelle's back seat. That particular seat was long gone, but that isn't the point. The van was practically a family member, and there was no way either of us would be plummeting off of any ledge, big or small.
Once the sky was light enough, I bid Clarabelle goodbye and began the hike back toward town. I donned a pair of jean shorts and a sweatshirt against the slight morning chill before venturing out into the early morning mountain air.
I'd been walking for at least an hour, according to my phone, which still didn't have cell service when I came to the first Y on the road. Stopping, I stared, first in one direction and then in the other. This wasn't good.
I was fairly certain that I'd come down the road on the right-hand side. Still, the problem was, in the dark last night, with my eyes glued to the road, which was basically one enormous pothole after another, I didn't remember seeing any possible turn or alternate routes.
I plodded on, choosing the path I was 96.25% sure I'd come down in the dark last night and squared my shoulders against any lingering doubts. And boy, did those lingering doubts make an appearance when the road began to slope downwards sometime during hour number two. My stomach lurched. I would have remembered if the road had climbed upwards this steeply, would I have? It seemed likely that my van wouldn't even have made it up this slope, I reasoned as I nearly pitched forward when my toe caught on a loose stone.
I was just about to turn around and head back in the opposite direction, cursing the lost hour and the hill I was about to have to walk back up when I heard a voice coming from somewhere just a little further down the hill.
Breathing a sigh of relief, I continued forward, moving more quickly now that I'd stumbled upon what sounded to be at least a couple of fellow parkgoers. When I rounded the bend, three men came into sight, their heads swinging in my direction. My descent of the steep section of the road hadn't been particularly stealthy.
"What the Hell are you doing here?" The man who was closest to me narrowed his eyes suspiciously. He was tall, with a thick mustache and a dark green beanie pulled down over his ears.
"I'm trying to find my way back to the main road, and I think I took a wrong turn. I left my van back there," I gestured vaguely behind me as I took a step back the way I'd come, one hand slipping into my pocket to clutch at my pepper spray.
"She could be a Fed." The man who'd spoken before glared at me as he brushed his dirt-covered hands clean on his pants.
"Do you really think they have more than one person working on this? We've already seen that new Warden. There's no way they brought in a chick too. Not over Ginseng." I shook my head.
"I'm definitely not a Fed." I offered, taking another small step backward, although by the looks of the three men now regarding me suspiciously, the odds weren't in my favor. I hadn't been athletic as a kid, tagging along after my older siblings, and my coordination and athletic prowess hadn't improved with time.
"Which is exactly what a Fed would say." This helpful insight came from a bearded man on his knees with a bucket full of something I couldn't see on the ground beside him. He pushed himself onto his feet, and almost involuntarily, I took another step away.
I wanted to run, but I was fairly certain that if I did, they would chase me, and I was still hoping that I might manage to deescalate the situation where the best case scenario now seemed to be these three paragons of virtue allowing me to walk back the way I'd come and continue with my attempts to find my way back to town.
"We can't let her go." The man who had so far remained silent rubbed one hand across his smoothly shaved head, his eyes fixed on me. "She could go straight to the ranger station and tell them exactly where we are. And you know that judge isn't going to go easy on us after the last time."
"You can definitely let me go, and I promise I will forget that I ever saw you. Again, I'm just trying to get back to the road. I got lost trying to find a campsite last night, and I have absolutely no interest in whatever this little enterprise you have going on here."
With a small terrified wave, I started to jog up the hill, pulling my keychain from my pocket as I went. I heard footsteps pounding behind me before I'd gone two steps. I pushed myself into a run, which wasn't easy on the steep slope, and made it all of ten feet before I sensed I was about to be captured. I could hear him right behind me, closing the distance. This was not my day.
Turning, I pressed the button on the top of the pepper spray and closed my eyes at the last moment, a small part of my brain remembering reading something about making sure the wind didn't blow the stuff back in my direction.
"What the fuck?!?! Bitch."
The man's hands went to his face just as his friend stumbled past him, grabbing my wrist and yanking me in his direction so hard that I fell to my knees.
I didn't even hear the truck, but in the next moment, it felt like everything started happening at once. The man with the mustache yanked me onto my feet and began to tow me after him, shouting to his friends that "he'd found them." The bearded man pulled a gun out of the back of his waistband. And I screamed.
A less terrified witness, or just one who'd managed to keep their eyes open, would have been able to tell you what happened next. Unfortunately, I am not that person. I am the person who, for the second time in less than a minute, in the face of danger, squeezed my eyes shut as if that was going to save me.
I thought that there were shots from behind me, and then someone shoved me, and I was falling backwards, vaguely conscious of strong arms folding around me just a moment before everything went dark.
