Desperate Escape

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“We run!” Grant grabbed Maddie’s hand as she continued to pray, pulling her away from the scene with Antonio carrying Ana right behind them.

Smoke filled her lungs as they ran. Her eyes burned, and her legs threatened to give out, partly from fear, partly from the excursion. Her mind scrambled to sort through the facts as she knew them, while trying not to stumble beside Grant. She’d seen the explosion. Someone had purposely blown up that car. Which meant they were out there. After them. Guilt slivered through her. Grant should never have tried to come after her. Even with his military background, he’d put not only his life, but the life of Antonio at risk. And she’d seen the kind of men who had been holding her. Even if they ran, they would come after them.

Lit only by the night sky, Maddie clutched the strap of her backpack with one arm and struggled to keep up with Grant as they ran along a narrow dirt path, shielded on one side by the thick forest. She glanced back, worried about how long Antonio would be able to carry Ana. Worried about how long all of them could continue at this pace. All she could do was pray that the shadows would play to their advantage and hide them from the rebels.

Grant’s hand gripped hers as they ran. Silvery traces of moonlight encircled them, bathing the surrounding terrain in a hazy glow. How had her situation escalated to this? Until the past few days, she’d firmly believed her decision to come to Africa had been worth any inconveniences of life in a foreign country. Even if her decision to come had been partly selfish.

After four years of dating “Mr. Right,” reality had hit her, and she’d realized she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life in settling for what everyone else wanted for her. But not what was best for her. In joining a medical team working in Guinea-Bissau and escaping the American rat race, she’d hoped to find a missing part of herself in helping others.

What she’d found had been far more than she’d expected.

While her family had been convinced she was crazy for even considering the idea, it had been here, in one of the poorest countries in the world, that she’d found an unexplainable joy. And slowly, she’d begun to find that missing piece of herself. Even the tragedy and heartache she faced at the hospital every day was countered by the deep sense of community, faith and a life never taken for granted by those around her.

She kept running. The sticky night air pressed against her and her lungs. She fought for air as she listened for signs of pursuit from behind. Lightning struck in the distance. The night around them hummed with the sounds of insects and other nocturnal creatures. If someone was after them, she couldn’t hear them.

Grant held up his hand and then led her off the road and into the edges of the dark forest. “We’ll stop here for a moment. Hopefully we’ve put enough distance between us and whoever’s out there, but I need to contact my pilot. Keep your eyes out for anyone following us.”

Grant pulled out a phone from his back pocket. Maddie pressed her hand against her chest, trying to catch her breath while he held up his phone to get a better signal. Lungs still constricted, she bent down next to Ana where Antonio had laid her on the ground. The young girl groaned, but at least her fever was down slightly.

“I can’t get through,” Grant said, walking another dozen feet away from them, still holding up the phone.

Antonio knelt down beside her. “How is she?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s malaria, but I don’t have the resources to treat her properly. I can give her the rehydration drink for now, but she needs to be at a proper hospital with an IV drip and a dose of antimalarial drugs.”

For now—just like at the camp—she’d have to do with their limited resources.

Maddie looked up as Grant walked back toward them. Memories flooded through her mind. He had always been the tall, quiet hero she’d looked up to. Her brother’s best friend. The man who brought toffee for the holidays and refrigerator magnets from his travels for her mom. He’d also been the man who’d cried at Darren’s funeral and stood beside her as they laid the casket into the ground.

And now he’d come to rescue her.

“Why’d you come for me?” she asked. She caught the weight of the situation in his gaze.

He hesitated as he studied her face. “I promised your brother before he died I’d look after you.”

And six years later he’d risked his life to keep that promise?

Her heart stirred as she dropped her gaze. “What do we do now?”

“I sent a text to the pilot. All I can do now is hope it gets through. I’m worried he might be walking into a trap if they land at the airstrip right now.”

“Who is he? Your pilot friend.”

“His name’s Colton Landry. He dropped us here three hours ago. He grew up on both sides of the border. His mother’s from Michigan and his father’s French Canadian. He works as a pilot for West African Mission Aviation. They use aircraft to help provide medical care, rescue and disaster relief, as well as transport of medical and food supplies.”

“And he agreed to be a part of your crazy plan?”

He shot her a smile. “You needed to be rescued.”

Maddie looked away to search the black night for movement but saw nothing. Except for thunder rumbling in the distance, an eerie quiet greeted her. With limited options she had no idea what the next-best move was. She’d heard the planes take off and land from the small, nearby airfield and realized the strip must be a part of the drug route. Which meant Grant could be right. If someone knew they were coming, then more than likely they’d be watching the airstrip.

She’d seen what they’d done to the vehicle. They could easily do the same thing to the plane.

Grant turned to Antonio. “What do you think? You know this area better than any of us. What’s the best way out of here?”

“The only other way off this island is by boat.”

Maddie knew that finding their way in the dark was going to be difficult, if not impossible. And extremely dangerous.

“How far to the port?” Grant asked.

Antonio glanced at Ana. “Without a vehicle...at night...”

“There’s a couple of Jeeps back at the camp,” Maddie said. “If we go back—”

“It’s not worth the risk going back,” Antonio said. “We got lucky one time. A second time...”

“He’s right,” Grant said.

“Then what?” Maddie asked. “We can’t go back, we can’t continue? Is that what you’re saying? And what if they come after us?”

“I don’t think it’s a question of if, but when.” Grant slid his phone into his back pocket.

Antonio knelt down and started drawing a crude map of the area with a stick. “Our options are limited without a plane. Drug traffickers use these islands for a reason. Not only because they’re fairly isolated, but our police force doesn’t own a boat, so they’re pretty much free to do what they want.”

Once Maddie had made the decision to come to Africa, she’d studied everything she could find on the tiny West African country of Guinea-Bissau. About half the size of South Carolina, it included dozens of isolated islands off its coast. Even on the mainland, there wasn’t a developed or well-maintained infrastructure, and on top of that only around 10 percent of the roads were paved. Which was the primary reason the majority of the population lived within a dozen miles of a waterway.

But, like Antonio had implied, she also knew that the lack of an easy way out wasn’t the only issue they were facing. The country—its islands in particular—had become a drug trafficker’s dream. Drugs arrived from South America and were temporarily stored in warehouses, where wholesalers turned around and quickly transported them out of the country—on speedboats along the coast, by overland routes and even by swallowers who ingested the capsules and left via commercial flights to their final destination in Europe.

“So our best way out?” Grant asked.

“We’re here,” Antonio explained, pointing to his map. “On one of the dozens of islands off the coast, and we need to get to the mainland. Our best chance is to head away from here on foot toward the sea, where we can eventually catch a boat to the mainland.”

Grant nodded and moved to pick up Ana. “We need to get going. I’ll carry her for a while.”

A hundred yards farther, Maddie heard a rustling in the woods beside them. Her heart threatened to explode. Six armed men stepped out of the darkness, and surrounded them.

* * *

Grant slowly lowered Ana to the ground and stepped in front of the armed men, hoping to keep her and Maddie out of the line of fire. Maybe his cockeyed plan to rescue her had been too risky, but no matter what happened in the next few minutes, he still didn’t regret his decision to come. Waiting for official channels to move could have easily taken weeks, even months. And more than likely, they would have killed her before that happened.

He glanced at Maddie and caught the determined tilt of her chin. Good. She was going to need every ounce of fight she could muster. Because this wasn’t over. Not yet. If he had anything to do with it, they were still going to find a way out of here.

“They’re taking us back to the camp,” Antonio said, translating for the leader who spoke one of the local dialects.

“Wait...” Grant took a step forward and nodded at Antonio. “Ask them what they want?”