 |
|
|
| Mac kicked at the tire. The one time she gets a flat and the spare isn't in the trunk. She shivered in the cold night air and joined her children in the car. "Ni, could you hand me my cell phone, please?" "Where is it?" he asked, looking around on the floor. "Damn!" Mac cursed. "I must have left it on the kitchen counter!" "Maybe someone will come along and help us, Mom," Maddie said from the back seat. Mac shook her head. "I don't know honey. It looks almost deserted out here." "You're right about that," Nicholas said, looking outside. "But don't worry, Mom. When Dad sees we're not back, he'll come looking for us." Maddie nodded. "Or send the Marines to find you!" "Remember when we were at Yellowstone last year? The two of you went behind one of the rock formations to check it out and your father nearly had a heart attack when he couldn't find you." Nicholas nodded. "We really didn't understand then why he always got so scared. That is, until you told us everything..." Mac shivered again. Just thinking about everything her family had gone through was enough to make her nervous right now. Here she was with two of her children, alone, in the dark and the cold. They couldn't keep the heater running forever, but walking in the middle of nowhere didn't seem like a very good plan. "Mom, look!" Maddie said, breaking Mac from her reverie. A car pulled to a stop behind them. "Maddie, don't!" Mac told her as her daughter reached for the door. "I'll go. The two of you wait here." "But--" Nicholas started. "No 'buts', young man." He nodded mutely and watched his mother walked to the other car. He had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Maddie, I'm going out there. Something just isn't sitting right." Maddie's eyes widened. "You mean you're leaving me all alone in here?" "Lock the doors, okay? Everything will be fine, I promise." "Okay, Ni. Be careful!" she said as he slide out of the car. She locked the door and turned around to watch. She couldn't hear what was being said... ************** "No, that's okay," Mac said. "A cell phone is all I need." Mac could smell the alcohol on the guy's breath as he moved closer to her. "That may be all you need, but I need much more than that!" Her Marine instincts took over and she punched him in the stomach. She was about to hit him again when she heard someone cry out. She looked up to see another man holding Nicholas' arm behind his back. "If you don't do what we say, your son won't live to see his next birthday." Mac cried out as the man on the ground, swung his leg out and knocked her to her knees. "MOM!" Nicholas cried. He felt and heard a crack as the man pulled back on his arm. "Let’s get out of here, Jeff!" Jeff pulled out a gun and hit Mac over the head with it. He grinned as she fell to the ground unconscious. Picking her up, he carried her to the car. "I'm ready, Ron. Leave the kid here." "It's been fun, but we have to go," Ron said, shoving Nicholas to the ground. Maddie jumped out of the car as the car pulled out onto the road. "Ni!" she cried, "are you all right?" "I've been better," Nicholas replied, gritting his teeth from the pain in his arm. "What are we going to do? They took Mommy and we can't call Daddy at all," said, tears forming in her brown eyes. Nicholas put his good arm around her shoulder. "There's gotta be a way to get a hold of Dad. Lets look around in the car. Maybe we can find something to use." "Okay," Maddie said, wiping her tears. "But let me look, you shouldn't move that arm too much." Five minutes later, Maddie emerged from looking under the driver's side seat. "You will not believe what I found!" "That's the cell phone Rena thought she lost two days ago! Is it turned on?" Maddie shook her head. "Good, then it should work." |
