Chapter 9 - The Signal in the Dark
The drone hovered ten feet above the porch, its camera lens unblinking and mechanical, tracking Kristen’s every micro-expression. The white spotlight washed out the color of her beige cardigan, turning it a ghostly gray against the dark wood of the cabin.
"Mommy, make it go away!" Maya screamed, burying her face in Kristen’s side.
"Don't look at it, Leo. Cover your sister's ears," Kristen ordered, her mind racing. She knew that drone was feeding live coordinates back to Marcus’s command center. They had maybe two minutes before the SUVs cut them off on the service road below.
Desperate, Kristen grabbed the heavy piece of shale she had been using to bash the lock and hurled it upward with all her might. The stone clipped the drone's landing gear, sending the machine spinning wildly before it crashed down into the dry brush fifty yards away, its motor whining and dying in a puff of acrid smoke.
"Run! Down the embankment!" Kristen yelled, grabbing her children's hands.
They scrambled down the steep gravel slope on the opposite side of the tracks, plunging into a dense thicket of pine trees that shielded them from the open clearing. Behind them, car doors slammed on the service road, followed by shouted orders and the sound of barking dogs closing in.
They sprinted through the dark forest, branches whipping against their faces, until Kristen spotted a faint, warm glow filtering through the trees ahead—a small, weather-beaten cabin with a stone chimney puffing gray smoke.
Without hesitation, Kristen pounded on the heavy oak door.
A moment later, the door creaked open. Standing in the doorway was an elderly man in a plaid flannel shirt, holding a hunting rifle barrel-down, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"Please," Kristen gasped, her voice desperate. "They're hunting us. You have to help us."
The old man looked past Kristen at the shivering children, his hard expression softening instantly. He lowered the rifle and stepped aside. "Get inside, quick. Before the hounds catch the scent."
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They tumbled into the rustic cabin, the heavy wooden door slamming shut and locking behind them just as the distant baying of search dogs echoed through the valley.
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