Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(36)

Everyone else jumped right into action, scuffling through the cabin to gather the four boxes we’d packed full of supplies, while I darted around the space, crashing into furniture with my stiff leg and trying to remember all the things I’d meant to pick up before we left. Chargers, I recalled. We’d need chargers, of which I happened to have a few (courtesy of my having broken and lost a couple of phones over the years). And my phone. And my tablet.

Seconds later we were all gathered in the back part of the cabin, the others with their arms full of the boxes we’d packed, me with my hands full of not only my tablet computer, but my sewing kit and a small bag of chargers of various sorts and the phones that had been attached to them. Jace got to work on the door, turning the knob and pushing—only to find it stuck.

I gulped, wishing desperately that I’d at least tried to open the thing at some point. What if it didn’t actually open? What if it was one of those doors that had been functional at some point, but had then been sealed or even built over?

We’d have to go out the window, I realized. Because we definitely weren’t going to be able to use the front door. And I wasn’t even certain that the window would do any good. We’d have to go out one at a time, in the most awkward way possible. If there were Authority agents in the forest near us, they’d be able to pick us off as we appeared.

Jace crouched, put his shoulder firmly to the door, and pushed, the muscles of his legs straining against his pants, and I held my breath.

“Careful,” Kory breathed. “We don’t know if anyone is behind the cabin, and if you go bursting out, it’s bound to draw attention.”

“Why the hell do you think I’m going so slow, rather than charging the damn thing?” Jace muttered through clenched jaws. “And we have to risk it. This is the closest exit to the forest. It’s literally the only way out of here. We’re going to have to make a run for it regardless. We might as well do it from the best possible position.”

Then, quite suddenly, the door gave way and Jace stumbled, almost falling through the now-open space. Abe dove forward to catch him, Ant moving at exactly the same time, and between the two of them, they kept him on his feet.

Jace regained his balance, grabbed the hand mirror from his pocket, and snuck it carefully through the opening, going as slowly as possible. He angled it first one way, then the other, and then straight ahead of him. Then he ducked back in and turned to glance at the rest of us.

Outside, it was eerily quiet, as if the Authority agents had either decided on another manner of getting us to come out, or were now working on their plan B, which might very well include forgetting any negotiation tactics and just pulling out the big guns. My gut told me we had to move quickly, because we had to be out of that cabin before they started shooting into it to get to us. Even if they were behind the cabin already, waiting for us, it would be a quick dash for us to get into the woods, and once we were there, we’d have coverage and it would be harder for them to hit us.

At least we wouldn’t be sitting ducks. We’d be running. Which sounded a hell of a lot better than crouching down in here, waiting to die.

“I don’t know what the owner of this cabin has been doing, but this door was sealed by something,” Jace whispered, fingering the frame and then quickly looking at his fingers. “The Authority might not have been able to see it.” He glanced at me, frowning. “That doesn’t mean that they won’t be back there, waiting behind the cabin, but we can’t stay here.” He glanced at Ant and lifted both eyebrows. “You still have what I gave you?”

Ant nodded once, not bothering to reply, and Jace nodded back, then looked at Kory. “And you?”

Another nod from Kory, and then another from Jace. He picked up his two duffel bags and threw them over his shoulders, then put his backpack on backward so that it covered his chest.

“You two come out directly after me,” he said, heading back toward the door. “Take care of anyone you see. Don’t bother with the chest. Aim for the face. They don’t have armor there. Everyone else, follow them closely. Don’t wait. No matter what you hear.”

He turned and darted out the door without saying anything else, and seconds later Abe shoved a box into my arms and got right behind me, his hands on my shoulders. Ant was just rushing out of the door after Jace, followed by Kory, and then Abe was telling me to run and shoving me out the door in front of him, his body bent over me and sheltering me as we ran.

And then my feet were flying over the ground below us, buoyed by the desperation of knowing that we were hunted animals.

The Authority agents started shooting at us the moment we were outside of the cabin, and Abe ducked lower over me and screamed for Jackie and Nelson to make it quick, then surged forward. Ahead of us, I could see Ant, Kory, and Jace taking aim at something in the trees, and realized that they all had handguns out, and were shooting ahead of them as they ran. Kory turned and shot at something behind us, just as another bullet whizzed past my head, and I ducked, wishing Abe, Kory, and Nelson had the skintight suits. The suits didn’t stop bullets completely, but they were good at deflecting, and anyone without them was so exposed, so vulnerable. If they went down, I didn’t know what I’d do. I didn’t know what any of us would do.

Another bout of shooting came out of the trees ahead of us, and we swerved into the trees to the right and started to rush through the underbrush, Abe’s breath heavy beside me. I could still hear shots to the left of us, though Kory seemed to have hit whoever was shooting from the other side of the cabin, and I knew that those shots would be drawing the Authority agents who might have stayed at the front of the cabin right toward us.