Chapter 7 - Into The Wilderness
The roar of the Jeep’s engine echoed through the valley as it tore backward up the logging road, tires spinning furiously in the mud before finding traction and launching forward. Bullets pinged off the tailgate and shattered the rear window, showering Reno and Brick with glittering shards of safety glass.
"Are you hit bad, Brick?" Reno yelled, pressing a thick shop rag against his bleeding shoulder while the older biker hissed in agony.
"Feels like a hot poker through the meat," Brick gritted out, his face pale and slick with cold sweat. "Just keep the truck moving, kid!"
In the front seat, Mac drove with one hand while holding his revolver ready with the other. In the passenger seat, Maya sat with her window rolled down, her Glock trained on the dark tree line as they bounced violently along the rutted track.
"They're dropping back!" Vance shouted from the truck bed, where he was keeping watch over the rear window with his shotgun resting on the cab roof. "Looks like they lost our tail in the switchbacks!"
"They didn't lose us," Mac said grimly, glancing at the fuel gauge on the dashboard, which was hovering dangerously close to empty. "They know this mountain better than we do. They’re driving us toward the old logging bridge."
"The bridge is out!" Maya said sharply, turning her head to look at Mac. "The flash floods last spring washed out the central pylons. If we hit that ravine at this speed, we go over the cliff."
"Unless we take the old mining trail," Mac replied, cutting the steering wheel hard to the left.
The Jeep fishtailed wildly, tires screeching against gravel as it veered off the main logging road and plunged down a steep, overgrown dirt track barely wide enough for an ATV. Low branches whipped against the windshield, leaving deep white scratches across the glass as they descended deeper into the canyon.
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After ten minutes of heart-stopping driving, the Jeep finally coasted to a halt in the shadow of an abandoned copper mine shaft, its engine ticking loudly as it cooled down in the damp mountain air.
Silence descended once again—a heavy, suffocating quiet broken only by the sound of their own ragged breathing and the steady drip of water from the rusty iron pipes inside the mine entrance.
