| Sample Chapter - February 23, 2008Chapter One
Chapter One: The Jump
I peeked around the corner of the rundown building, and gazed across the gravel parking lot. Sure enough, over on the far side there were three large black cars, and yes, just past those cars, there was a neon green 2006 Kawasaki Ninja 500R. It almost looked sinister, leaning forward, as if ready to take off at any second, all angles and points, gleaming in the sunlight. A dark ominous figure stood, leaning against the car next to the bike, dressed in black pants, black boots, black leather jacket, even the bandana around his head was black. As he puffed on a cigarette tendrils of gray smoke wisped slowly before his face, and gradually dissolved into the air above him. Dark sunglasses obscured his eyes, and he rested his left hand on the huge black machine gun that hung from his shoulder. Even from this distance he seemed to radiate a steely cold energy, and as I watched him, my heart was pounding so hard that my whole body was shaking. I looked down at the keys I was holding. Somehow dear old Mr. Clarke had managed to get hold of them, and secretly pass them on to me. He had gently enveloped my hands in his rough and leathery ones and although his hands were hard they felt warm and loving at the same time. Once the keys were in my possession, he had looked me in the eye with a serious expression, and whispered quietly, “You can do this Sarah. You have the strength in your heart. It’ll be just like riding your dirt bike. You must go, and get help.”
“But what will you do?” I had pleaded desperately, frightened that it would be the last time I would ever see the kindly old man, “We can’t leave you here!”
“You must Sarah, there is no choice. The best thing you can do for me is to escape, and find help. I will be here waiting, don’t worry.” He smiled, and crinkles formed beside his twinkling eyes.
Don’t worry? Yeah right! To think this started out as a nice, quiet, family vacation just a week ago! Yet here I am about to steal a motorcycle from under the noses of a bunch of gun-toting goons, and roar off down a dirt road that just happens to run beside a massive cliff on an island, off the coast of Spain, called Gibraltar! I’m sure this kind of thing happens to every 16-year-old girl… no sweat! I’m not even sure I’ll be able to drive that thing! Sure it’s a small bike, and yeah, I’ve ridden dirt bikes for three years now, but really…? It’s not a dirt bike; it’s a motorcycle, with a lot more power than I’m used to! I felt raw panic building up in the pit of my stomach, but quickly pushed it back down. I can’t lose it now.
“Well are we going?” my brother whispered softly, pulling me from my thoughts. I ducked back behind the corner, and turned to look at him. Poor guy, there he was, just your average ten year old kid, who loves video games, and spends his afternoons playing road hockey. He certainly didn’t deserve this adventure! He stood looking forlorn, in his wrinkled, dirty clothes, his brown eyes wide with fear, and his face ashen. I couldn’t help but notice that he was actually shaking. Slung over his shoulders was his trusty black knapsack, he never leaves home without it, and right now, let me tell you, we’re not letting that thing out of our sight. What’s in that backpack is worth a fortune, and people have been killed for it! My brother bit his lower lip, probably dreading my answer.
“Hang on Derek,” I quietly responded. “The coast isn’t clear yet.” I cautiously took another peek around the corner. Unfortunately the guy was still there in the parking lot, standing by the bike like a statue, puffing on his cigarette. My gaze dropped to the machine gun dangling in front of him. I’m no weapons expert, but the size of that thing alone makes me tremble. I don’t want to find out the hard way exactly what kind of damage that gun is capable of. Beside me Derek blew out a long, shaky breath from between pursed lips.
“I wish he would just hurry up, and go. Sooner or later they’re going to notice we’re missing,” he said in a low trembling voice.
“I know… I know…”
Suddenly I heard voices shouting. Someone inside the building was urgently calling the black clad gunman.
“Uh oh… I think its sooner!” Derek gasped, and swallowed hard. The man at the car flung his cigarette butt on the ground, and went jogging towards the building’s entrance. This is it, I thought to myself, as soon as he’s through that door we’re going. I watched him as he ran around the three black cars, across the lot, and up the stone steps that led to the front doors of the run down military building.
“Okay, let’s go!” I exclaimed the minute the gunman had stepped through the entrance and disappeared. Instantly I grabbed Derek’s hand, and started to run, my feet pounding across the gravel as fast as they would go. It was a surreal moment, and I almost felt as if someone, or something, had taken over my body and I was no longer in control. Stones crunched beneath our feet, and our legs frantically wind milled, as we tore across that parking lot like a streak of lightening. The air whipped, and whistled past my ears. My one free arm was pumping hard, the other squeezing Derek’s hand, and desperately clutching it, as if hanging on for dear life. Our heightened senses made it seem as if we were making a huge amount of noise, causing us to push our straining muscles even harder. In a flash we were past the three big black cars, and roaring right up to that neon green bike. I came to a sudden halt, my brother plowing into the back of me, and I stood there for a minute staring at the shiny machine. This was going to be the moment of truth; either that bike was going to start, and I was going to be able to handle it, or this was the end of the road!
“Come on sis…!” Derek urged, panting hard. Just as Mr. Clarke had said, two helmets dangled from the back of the seat. I grabbed them, handed one to my brother, and slammed the other on my head. It was a little big, but I needed it for the wind visor. Throwing my leg over the bike, I hopped onto the saddle, and a second later my brother jumped on behind me. The bike bounced under our collective weight. Wrapping his arms around my waist, Derek squeezed hard, and clung to me with all of his might. Quickly I pulled out the choke, and went to put the key in the ignition, but my hands were shaking so badly that I fumbled clumsily, trying to line up the key with its slot. Precious seconds were ticking by relentlessly. Finally, with a wave of relief, I jammed the key home, and turned it to the on position. Looking down I checked the bike, taking mental notes: the kill switch was on “run,” shifter in neutral… here we go! I squeezed the clutch, hit the start button, and the engine roared to life. Pushing in the choke I then popped the clutch, and with a jolt, we rocketed across that parking lot like a bat out of hell, gravel showering out behind us in dusty fireworks. A quick glance in the rear view mirror revealed a frightening reality; in the bouncing reflection I could see a throng of men with machine guns, and rifles spilling from the front door of the building like angry bee’s pouring from a hive. There was a lot of running, yelling, and pointing in our direction. I raised my eyes, focused on the parking lot’s exit that was straight ahead, and opened the throttle as far as I dared. The wind whipped through my hair as it splayed out from under my helmet, and it would have been exhilarating if it were not for the trouble I found myself in. We exited the lot through a break in a low stonewall, and banking left we roared out onto a dirt road. I knew it wouldn’t be long before those three big, black cars would be tearing after us, so I gave it all I had, jumping quickly up the gears, and cranking the throttle. The road before me cut down through the rocky landscape, and made its way towards a cliff edge, ending, as far as I could see, at some sort of a T-junction.
“Here they come!” Derek yelled above the bike’s whining engine. He had taken a look behind us to see the three big black cars come flying out of the parking lot; their back ends fishtailing wildly in clouds of dust, and smoke. At this point we had reached the “T” intersection, and the paved road, but there was no way I was going to stop to check for traffic. We simply couldn’t afford to waste precious time; I had to take a chance! Around the corner we raced, leaning hard, Derek tightening his grip around me. Mercifully there were no cars on the highway, so we made the turn safely, although maybe a car or two would have been nice… heavens knows we sure could use a little help right about now. The paved road ran along the edge of a high and treacherous cliff which fell away steeply to the jagged rocks below. It wound its way down to a small, quaint village with red rooftops, and tiny cobblestone streets. That little village was my destination. I had to get there before those gun-toting goons caught up to us, and ran us off the road… or worse! It looked like a good long ride though, and this wasn’t going to be easy.
Down the road we flew as I desperately tried to gain some distance, but it was only seconds later when, like nails across a chalkboard, I heard the shrill screech of tires as the pursuing vehicles hit the pavement behind us. Apparently they didn’t bother to stop, and check for traffic either! The rocks around us were covered with an almost impenetrable mass of vegetation known as Maquis. Gibraltar’s landscape was certainly rugged, but it all became a blur as we sped past, roaring like a freight train. There was no time for sight seeing.
A thundering crack split the air around us, and I jumped with fright, causing the bike to swerve momentarily.
“Whoa easy sis…!” Derek shouted.
“What the heck was that?” I shrieked back at him.
“I think they’re shooting at us!” he responded. I stole a glance in the rear view mirror to see the first of the three large black sedans gaining on us quickly. From the passenger side window a sinister figure hung like some stooped, macabre vulture, a large rife dangling from his hands as he struggled to level it, and fix a bead on his target: us! He too was dressed in black like a modern day grim reaper.
“Dear God, please help us,” I whispered the prayer under my breath. Another boom and I heard a bullet whistle by my left ear. That one must have been very, very close. It was at that moment that a small orange light blinked to life on one of my gauges. I glanced down to see what it was, and there, a tiny little gas tank shone up at me. We were almost out of gas! I felt sick to my stomach.
“Oh no,” I muttered to myself quietly. There was no way was I going to tell Derek about this, he would be devastated. It seems our little get-away was going to be very short lived indeed. Up ahead the road made a right turn into the trees, putting some landscape between the road, and the cliff. If only we could reach that turn, I thought to myself. Another bullet ripped past us, dangerously close. I began swerving back and forth, figuring that the zigzag motion might make it a little harder for them to hit us. The leading black sedan was drawing very near as we closed in on the turn. We were no more than a hundred feet away from that curve in the highway, when suddenly a massive, dark blue transport truck came barreling around the corner ahead of us, and due to my swerving we were directly in it’s path! Derek screamed in panic, but his voice was drowned out by a blast from the truck’s monstrously loud horn. The driver of the huge vehicle yanked his steering wheel hard to his right, as I sharply banked the neon green Ninja in the other direction. We whipped past each other with barely a foot to spare! The black sedan right behind us however, was not quite so lucky. He had tried to go to his left, to avoid the big transport, but did not have enough time to make it. With a huge crash, and the groan of twisting metal, the transport slammed into the passenger side of that lead car. The force of the collision sent the black sedan into a wild three sixty spin, banging, and crashing over the rocks at the side of the road. Suddenly, in a blinding flash of yellow and orange it exploded into flames, and flew over the edge of the cliff like one of those flaming pinwheels you nail to a tree on the Victoria Day weekend.
“Did you see that?” Derek shouted, but I didn’t have time to look as the other two cars pulled up behind, and continued to pursue us as if nothing had happened. These guys were unbelievable! With any luck however, I thought to myself, the trucker will now stop, call the police, and then maybe we can get some help up here. I checked the rear view mirror, and could see another goon worming his way out of the passenger window in the second car, rifle in hand. He hoisted the large gun up against his shoulder, and began to level it at us. By now we had raced right around that corner, and the road had begun to curve to the left, soon to straighten out again. Hope however, was fading fast; I mean really… how long can our small amount of gas last? Suddenly the answer to my prayers appeared; just up ahead, on the left hand side of the highway, and coming up fast, was a small rest area for tourists. It was nothing fancy, just a little grassy clearing, a few picnic tables, and a couple of outhouses. But it was what was at the back of that grassy clearing that had caught my eye. There, in the thick trees that surrounded the tiny spot, was an opening… the entrance to a trail! This was just what I needed.
“Yes!” I shouted triumphantly.
“What is it?” asked Derek, but again, I was too busy concentrating to respond. I leaned left, and sent the bike roaring across both lanes of the highway, making a b-line towards the rest area. As I did the gun-man hanging out the passenger window of the second car took his first shot. BOOM! The thundering blast was followed by the shrill clang of metal, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a small, white rectangle fly thirty into the air, twirling end over end. It came clattering down onto the pavement somewhere in the distance, far off down the road.
“Holy cow,” Derek yelled, “that guy just shot off our license plate!” Cranking my right wrist I gunned the neon green Ninja into the rest area parking lot, and streaked across it in a matter of seconds. We hit the curb on the far side, banging up onto the grass.
“Sis what the heck are you doing?” my brother called. I wanted to answer him, but could not; I was just too engaged to respond. All of my mental faculties, in fact every part of my very being, was focused intently upon the task of keeping that bike balanced at the incredible speed we were doing. Sweat was pouring down my face from beneath my helmet, stinging my eyes, and leaving a salty taste on my lips. Clumps of dirt spat out behind us as the bike raced across the nicely manicured lawn towards the trail entrance, straining, and reaching with everything it had, its powerful engine buzzing furiously like an angry insect. Behind us, over the roar of our motor, I heard the fiery screech of tires as the two pursuing vehicles skidded into the picnic area parking lot, and braked to a smoking halt. Doors began opening, and slamming shut, there were shouts, and gunshots.
“Later boys…!” I shouted in triumph, and I actually laughed as my brother, and I whizzed through the opening in the trees, and onto the trail. The Ninja’s tires hit the rough, uneven surface of the forest floor, and whole bike began to tremble, and vibrate as it rocked over roots, and potholes. I gripped the handlebars tightly, pushing myself up off of the seat, fighting to keep control. This rugged terrain was quite a bit trickier than the nice paved roadway. Overhead, beams of sunlight, that had muscled their way through the leaves on the trees, cascaded over us in a dappling effect as we rode. Unfortunately we didn’t get very far down that trail. After five short minutes the engine suddenly started to splutter, and we began to slow down. In a panic I desperately cranked the throttle, but it was to no avail. In spite of my best efforts we continued to loose speed until finally, without warning, the angry buzz of our engine faded away to nothing. The worst had happened, we were out of gas. I coasted to a stop, and put my feet down.
“What the heck…?” Derek gasped in shock.
“We’re out of gas.” I simply said.
“Out of gas…we’re out of gas? You’ve got to be kidding Sarah! Well that’s just great! Now what are we going to do?” Good question. I stood there straddling the bike for a moment, surveying the woods around us, and thinking. All was quiet, except for those pleasant, sunny day forest sounds: birds chirping, the wind softly rustling through the branches in the trees. My brother glanced behind us, his brown eyes intently searching the trail.
“Do you think they’ve given up the chase? Maybe we got far enough away?” he said apprehensively. At that moment, as if on cue, there came an angry shout from the distance. Derek sighed in disbelief. “I guess not.”
“Believe me, those guys are not going to give up until they get their greedy little hands on the items you’ve got in that back pack of yours!” I responded, and squinting, I gazed down the trail to see if I could spot them.
“I can’t believe those guys,” growled Derek in frustration.
“Oh they love us bro’” I popped the kickstand down. “Off you get Derek, we’ve gotta move!” We jumped from the bike, and pulling off my helmet, I threw it into the woods, and took off down the trail.
“Come on!” I called back as I ran. Derek chucked his helmet too, and followed after me, his backpack bouncing behind him.
“Where does this trail go?” my brother asked breathlessly as we hopped over tree roots, and rocks, moving as quickly as we could.
“I have no idea,” I answered between pants, “but I do know that we’ve got to put as much distance as possible between us and those crazies!” Our feet pounded on, and I soon noticed that our trail was rapidly coming to an end. Up ahead there was a gap between the trees, and beyond that a blazing blue sky.
“Maybe there’s a house or something up there,” Derek gasped. He was running out of steam, and starting to slow down. Heck… I was getting winded too, but the shouts behind us pushed me onwards. I had no choice however; I had to slow my pace for Derek’s sake. Finally we broke through the trees, and out into the sunlight, to find ourselves gazing at an awesome spectacle. The trail had ended at a lookout that was perched on the lip of the enormous cliff. I cautiously inched my way to the stonewall that served as a barrier protecting sightseers. What an incredible view it was. To the left, far below, it dropped a thousand feet to a rugged, rocky shoreline where large, sparkling, blue waves crashed into huge jagged, gray rocks, and exploded into sheets of white foam. Above the water gulls circled and dove, their plaintive calls cutting through the noise of the crashing surf. To the right, that same shoreline turned into a beach, moving away from the cliff, and nestled there, off in the distance, was the tiny village that had been our destination. As my eyes followed the shoreline I noticed that beside the lookout there was a wooden boardwalk, with a staircase that seemed to descend down the face of the cliff.
“What on earth…?” I muttered, and standing on my tiptoes I tried to see where the staircase led. It seemed to zigzag a short ways down the rock face to another lookout, this one a wooden structure.
“Hey!” Derek shouted, pointing at the stairway. “We can still get away!”
“Are you crazy?” I frantically exclaimed between gasps, still trying to catch my breath. “We’d be sitting ducks going down that thing, besides… I don’t think it really goes anywhere!” I turned, and looked back down the trail. To my horror I could see them now, charging after us, still pretty far away in the shadowed, hazy distance, but definitely visible, and there was a whole bunch of them! I swallowed hard.
“Hey there…!” The sudden shout to our right caused my brother and me both to jump. Turning, we saw a young couple quite a ways from us, standing at the edge of the cliff. One of them was headed our way. He was a young man, looked to be somewhere in his early twenties, with a tanned face, deep blue eyes, and spiky blond hair. He wore some kind of blue body suit with racing stripes that ran down the arms, and he had a pair of goggles perched on his head. When he spoke, he revealed a thick Australian accent.
“Are you two alright? You came running out of those woods like you’d seen a ghost.”
“No were not alright!” I shouted to him in desperation, “We need help!” My brother and I ran to the stranger, thankful to finally see a friendly face. “We’ve been kidnapped, but escaped, and they’re hunting us down!” The words spilled frantically from my lips.
“And they’re right behind us!” Derek added. “They’ve got guns!” The stranger’s pleasant smile instantly dropped, and he gaped at us in shock.
“Are you kidding me mate?” he asked incredulously. At that moment angry shouts echoed from the trail. They were much louder now, closing in.
“That’s them, they’re coming!” Derek gasped eyes wide with fear.
“Quickly! Come with me!” the blond stranger said, and grabbing my hand, he turned and started jogging along the cliff. I in turn grabbed for Derek’s hand, and the three of us began to run. Whether it was what we said, or the looks on our faces, or maybe perhaps the shouts, I’m not sure… but it was obvious that this Australian stranger was taking us seriously… thank goodness!
“Julie!” the Australian called ahead to his partner as we raced along the edge of the cliff towards her. Standing about seventy yards away she too was wearing a blue body suit that showed off a very athletic figure. Long blond hair framed a pretty, tanned face, and she stood amidst a clutter of equipment. She looked up at us as we fast approached.
“Hook up the training harnesses quickly!” our rescuer hollered. “It’s an emergency!” At that, Julie jumped into action, and began working with haste amongst the equipment at her feet. When we reached her she was frantically finishing her set up.
“You take the girl, and I’ll take the boy!”
“Keith what’s going on?” Julie asked as she worked. “Is someone hurt?”
“No, but I think these two are in real trouble.” The Australian, apparently named Keith, replied, “I think we’d better hurry!” He too began fumbling with the equipment. It wasn’t two minutes later when the entire crew of armed men burst from forest, and stopped, looking this way, and that, anxious to find their prey. In seconds they spied us, and began running full tilt in our direction.
“Hey you…! Stop right there!” they shouted as they charged. Guns started blazing, bullets pounding into the earth all around us. It was at that very moment that I did something that I never imagined I would have done in a million years. I ran as fast as I could, with this total stranger whom I had only just met, to the edge of a thousand foot cliff, and jumped off into the clear blue sky.
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