Elle could hear yelling and shouting behind her but she didn’t let it stop her as she bolted through the front door, passed a stunned Scorpion and booked it as if her life depended on it. Because she was pretty well sure that it did. She froze for a moment as she made it outside but her instincts kicked in again, veering her to the left and a copse of trees that she was pretty sure looked familiar. At least, she hoped they were the same ones she’d entered through. She prayed with all her heart that Honey was waiting just beyond, the motorcycle running and ready to go.
Because as she made it to the edge of the tree line, she could already hear the revving of motorcycle engines. Her heart leapt up into her throat as she realized what that meant. They were chasing after her. They wanted to find her, and catch her and bring her back to the man who’d offered to buy her. Somehow, that was even more abhorrent in her mind than the way Scorpion had threatened her. Either way, not good.
Elle didn’t look back. She never once looked behind her. She couldn’t. Partly because she was too afraid to see an entire biker gang charging after her, and what that would do to her already tattered morale, but because the tree line grew denser and steeper and more precarious with every frantic step.
It slowed her tremendously, trying to navigate the rocky ground but she knew a twisted ankle was the last the she needed just then. The only thought that went through her head was that she had to get the heck out of dodge, but the combination of panic, adrenaline and fear weren’t making that any easier for her either.
The path got so steep that Elle had to grab at tree trunks and low hanging branches just to keep herself going and she mentally reminded herself to thank Hot Wheels for giving her boots to wear instead of high heels. It had probably saved her life. Elle nearly snorted to herself. She was obviously losing it. Thinking about footwear at a time like this? Cah-razy.
Keep it together, Electra. You got this! For some reason the fake name she’d given as her own had stuck with her. If she remembered correctly Electra was a bad ass crime fighting superhero. She could be that, right? Sure, why not. She did just go head to head with the leader of a notorious biker gang after all.
She forced her focus back to the path in front of her for a moment and looked around with a gasp. Somewhere, in her panicked flight or fear induced delusion that she was actually a crime fighting super hero, she’d lost track of the way back to Honey. Elle was so turned around that she wasn’t even sure if she was still heading towards the road. Everywhere she looked she was surrounded by trees and an ever sloping ascent. Not good. So not good.
A sudden sound caught at her ear and still running on adrenaline fueled instincts, Elle ducked. Quickly, she crouched behind the nearest tree large enough to shield her body and it wasn’t long before the sound was drawing closer.
She held her breath, not even daring to breathe as the footsteps came closer and closer to where she was hiding and she fought the urge to squeeze her eyes shut tight. If someone was going to try and take her, or hurt her, she was damn well going to stare them straight in the eyes.
Two men, lower members of the biker totem pole by the look on their faces told her that most of the members had probably headed in another direction. Elle waited, still holding her breath as they gave a cursory search of the area before turning around and heading back down the slope.
After a long, tense moment when she feared she might actually pass out from lack of oxygen she was able to draw in a gasping breath and lean back against the tree for momentary support. She needed to find Honey. And fast. She didn’t think her nerves would survive another close encounter.
Elle stood on shaky legs, and began climbing once more. Constantly she doubted herself as she backtracked, hoping to spot any familiar landmark that might lead her to where Honey was and away from the men that she could still hear searching for her not that far off in the distance.
Her lungs were burning and fear had started to eat away at the false, adrenaline fueled courage when she heard another sound and froze. A moment later, it came again and if she hadn’t been so terrified that she could barely move she would have jumped for joy. It was the sound of cars driving by. She’d found the road!
It took her two minutes to clear the dense tree line and another two to run towards where Honey was pulled over on the shoulder. Elle waved her arms wildly as she ran towards him but by the seriously concerned look on his face, he was already aware of the men chasing close behind her.
“We have…to go.” She panted exhaustedly and Honey barely gave her time to get on and throw her arms around his waist before cranking the engine. They jerked forward and Elle couldn’t’ hold back the squeak of surprise as they went from zero to sixty in what she was pretty sure was a world record. That’s what it felt like anyway.
This time, Elle really did squeeze her eyes shut tight, partly from the wind whipping at her and partly because she desperately did not want to see just how fast the very hard pavement of the road was moving underneath them. It was a terrifying ride, made even more so when they rounded a bend in the highway and she could fee Honey’s yelled curse reverberate all the way through her.
“Fuck!” The word was lost almost instantly on the wind, taken and carried away, lost forever but he was slowing. She could feel that he was slowing and that scared her even more.
“Why are you…why are you slowing down? No. No, we should definitely not be slowing down.”
“Just relax,” Honey tossed back over his shoulder. Easy for him to say. He didn’t have an entire gang on his tail. With that thought she moved to peak around him, his big body blocking most of the view of what was in front of them and she had to swallow a curse herself. Ahead of her she could see six bikers just pulling out of the unused access road that lead to the front of the Nomad’s warehouse. And they were obviously searching for something.
“Just play it cool.” Honey said as he slowed enough to make a U-turn. The reduced noise of the wind was the only reason that she could even hear his words, “We’re just out for a ride in the nice weather. Nothing else.”
“Honey, what do we do?” Elle asked, unable to keep the tremor out of her voice but as he turned the motorcycle back towards the direction they had come from, she prayed that the engine was loud enough to drown out her fear. She didn’t want Honey to know.
“Just hold on tight, okay?” His voice was hard as he spoke, rife with tension and something else that she couldn’t place. “Hold on tight to me and don’t ever let go.”
Elle thought for a moment that she heard a double meaning in his words, but then he was revving the engine and pushing the throttle and they took off like a fighter jet down a runway and she couldn’t think at all. At least, not of anything except trying to follow Honey’s directions. She clung to him, on the back of the bike as she was there was nothing but a too small stainless steel bar that kept her from sliding right off. But even still, she didn’t let go.
She held on for dear life, her arms wrapped around his waist, her chest completely fused against his back and her fingers digging into the leather of the front of his jacket. She had a strangle hold on him, or at least as much of him as she could grasp and then she made the fatal mistake of looking behind them.
“Oh no. Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. Honey. Honey! They’re following us! They’re following after us! They didn’t buy that we were just out for a ride in the nice weather I think that suspicious U-turn tipped them off. Oh no. Honey! They are behind us!” Elle had to shout the words as loud as she could to be heard over the sound of the roaring engine and whistling wind, and even still most of her words were caught by the wind and dragged away to be lost forever, but she knew that he’d at least gotten the gist of her message because she could feel his whole body tense against hers.
“Close your eyes, Elle!” She thought she heard him shout right before he glanced back over his shoulder at her. “And whatever you do, don’t you fucking let go of me!” There was a desperation in his dark gaze, a desperation that had her doing what he’d asked before she’d even realized it. And so, a second later when he gunned the engine and whipped around the next curve, she didn’t see just how close they had come to the ground as he’d leaned to follow it or the biker’s that were gaining on them from behind.
Her whole world was black, and noise, and Honey. And she wished as hard as she ever wished for anything that they would make it out alive.