Desperate Escape

“I don’t think you have cholera, but I’m still going to give you some of the rehydration mix. Drink as much of this as you can.”

Ana took a sip. “If I don’t have cholera, then what is it?”

“I don’t have a way to test you, but it’s a good chance it’s malaria.”

Cholera had a way of spreading quickly through a community, but malaria killed hundreds of thousands of people every year, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. And Maddie had no drugs to fight the parasite. All she could do was monitor Ana closely, make sure she stayed hydrated and try to keep the fever down.

“How long have you lived here?” Maddie asked, taking the opportunity she’d been hoping for to talk to Ana away from the listening ears of her captors.

She shrugged; wide chocolate-colored eyes looked up at Maddie in the flickering light. “As long as I can remember. My mother married one of the men in the camp.”

“Where is she now?”

“She died a year ago giving birth.”

Maddie caught the sadness in her expression. “And your father?”

“He’s dead, too.”

“So now you cook and do their laundry.”

Ana nodded.

But Maddie knew one day soon the men would start coming to her asking for more than just clean clothes.

“What about school?” she asked, taking the empty cup.

“I liked school, but now...there is too much work to be done.”

“Don’t you have any other family? Someone else you could live with away from the camp?”

“Before she died, my mother told me I should find a way to get to the capital where my grandmother stays. She lives upstairs in a blue-painted house that has a balcony on a narrow street.” A slight smile settled on her lips. “But the mainland is far, and I have no way to get there.”

Maddie turned to pour some more of the rehydration drink into Ana’s cup and stopped. A figure stood in the darkened doorway. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

God, I need You to intervene in this situation... Again...

“I told you it wasn’t safe for anyone other than patients to be in here,” she said as she stood up to face the man.

The man took another step forward.

“Stop—”

“Wait. It’s okay.” He continued speaking in perfect English from the shadows, his voice barely above a whisper. “It’s Grant Reese.”

“Grant? I don’t...” She paused midsentence, as memories of a girlhood crush flickered through her mind. How was it possible he was here?

But there was no time to figure out how he’d found her halfway around the world.

A second man stepped in behind him.

“This is my friend Antonio. We need to get you out of here. Now.”

“Wait... I can’t go.” Her mind spun, still unable to determine if this was a dream, or if someone had actually come to rescue her. “Not yet.”

“Why?”

“There’s a young girl here... Ana...” Like herself, Ana wasn’t here by choice. And she wasn’t going to leave her behind. “If I leave her here...”

She tried to hold back the fear starting to crush her. Over the past five days she’d dreamed of some handsome Special Ops soldier coming to her rescue. In her dreams everything might have ended happily ever after, but there was only one ending for this scenario if they tried to escape and got caught. And, she realized, only one ending for Ana if she was left behind.

“Where is she?” Grant whispered.

“Right here with me.” Maddie turned to Ana. “Do you want to leave with us?”

“Yes—”

“I’m not sure that’s possible,” Antonio interrupted.

“We have to take her,” Maddie said, pulling a thin blanket around the girl’s neck and grabbing the backpack she’d had on her when she’d been abducted. She had so many questions, but all of them would have to wait for now. “And we need to hurry. The guards are eating and won’t be paying a lot of attention for the next few minutes, but they’ll be done soon. How far do we have to walk?”

She tightened her grip around Ana’s waist. There was no way the girl could walk out of here on her own.

“Just over a kilometer,” Grant said. “We’ve got a car waiting. Then we’ll drive to the airstrip where we have a plane ready to pick us up.”

“I’ll carry her,” Antonio said, reaching down to pick her up.

Maddie nodded and turned back to Grant, wishing she could see the familiar bright blue eyes she remembered all too well. “Thank you. Both of you.”

“You can thank us later, once we get out of here in one piece,” Grant said.

She slipped through the shadows behind them toward the edge of the compound, trying to swallow the fear threatening to engulf her. Because she’d seen what they had done with her coworker from the hospital. And knew what they’d do to her if they caught her trying to escape.

She glanced back at the cooking fires, before hurrying to catch up with Grant. The men were still busy eating, and there were no signs of any of the guards in front of them. But even that didn’t help calm the panic. She quickened her steps across the tangled mass of vines beneath her feet, her rib cage pressing against her lungs as they hurried over a low section of the wall and then hastened into the forest. She was terrified the men were following in the darkness. Terrified this wasn’t really over. Because somehow, she’d become the prey in a game she didn’t know how to play.

She stumbled, but Grant was there to catch her. She felt his arm wrap around her waist. Felt the warmth of his hands as he steadied her. And caught a glimpse of his expression as he looked at her.

“We’re almost there,” he said, breaking into her thoughts.

She caught a glimpse of the waiting car as they came out of the thick wooded area. A second later, a streak of orange lit the night air in an arch and then dropped back toward the horizon, enveloping the car in a ball of flames.

TWO (#ulink_862d4a86-1228-5b1c-b3d2-410579f82fd5)

Maddie watched in horror as flames completely consumed the vehicle. She stumbled backward, away from the heat radiating from the car. Someone had to have seen them escape, which meant they needed to run. But where? Darkness had long since settled in around them. Without a vehicle—without knowing where they were going—finding their way out of here was going to be almost impossible.

And whoever had set off the explosion was somewhere nearby. She searched beyond the blaze lighting up the night sky, but saw no one.

Please, God, please... You’ve brought us this far. There has to be another way out.