29.
Her options were to run around the front, hoping that Tom the Trooper was back from his walkaround. Or cut into the woods and hide out. So stay close to the house and risk Walls shooting her from the windows or risk running across open yard and getting shot in the back for her trouble. Even in her head, the sarcasm was unmistakable.
Surely Tom had heard the gunshot. The gun was small but it had been loud. And the shattering window wasn't necessarily quiet either. Before she realized it, she was heading for the trees. Hopefully she got enough of a headstart to get past the first few. She heard the pop of a gun behind her and instinctively ducked low, sprinting to get behind a decent sized pine tree. There was an answering pop of gunfire, and Avery puzzled over that for a moment before realizing it must have been Tom, returning fire. Maybe they were shooting at each other. She only hoped he'd thought to call it in before going after Walls.
She made it into the treeline and slipped on wet pine needles. It was still raining a fine mist. Which was good. In the growing darkness it meant it was even harder to see. Again she had a choice. Run around the long way back toward the road? The drive was nearly a quarter mile. The road wasn't busy especially at night in the rain. She could also cut due east and should run into a neighbor but Avery couldn't remember if they were closer to the water or set back on a hill. Her mind wasn't fully processing.
Of course there was always the lake.
Ted's house sat on one of the narrow inlets. It would be a simple thing to swim the couple hundred yards to the other side. But she'd still have a hell of a hike to get to help, and she remembered Mark's files. All of those good swimmers who had managed to drown. She didn't want to play into that. Not unless she had no other options.
Another pop rang out behind her. She heard a thump as the bullet hit a tree to her right. So Walls was still coming. And faster than she thought. She went to the left and realized that the water might be her only option. If she kept going straight she was going to run ito a 30 foot drop off with sludgy lakewater at the bottom, a nod to flood prevention. There were a few of the manmade ravines scattered around the lake, and one very large flood plain on the unusual side. She could try to jump it – it might have been ten feet wide – but Avery wasn't going to risk running for her life just to die from a fall into a hole in the ground. A hole she knew was coming.
Lucky for her, she was a stronger swimmer than a runner. And she hadn't lost all of her dancer-like traits. She could swim fast when she wanted to. Avery paused at the water's edge long enough to kick her shoes off then plunged in, diving when the water hit her knees. She came up gasping. The big lake was much colder than the pond. It took long for the deeper water to warm up. The rain didn't help.
And that didn't matter. Avery swam. She heard another pop from behind her but couldn't tell if it had been close. She dived under and swam as long as her breath held out. After the run through the winds, it wasn't long but it got her further from the shore. She had thought maybe Walls wouldn't follow her. He was the sheriff, a cop, but he was nearly twice her age and out of shape. The most exercise she thought he'd taken upon himself was the walk to and from his car.
The sound of a small boat moter surprised her but at the same time made perfect sense. She only wondered where he had stashed the damned thing. As it got closer, she pondered her calm thoughts. And took a small amount of comfort in the fact that he couldn't very well shoot at her while piloting a boat by himself. She was just past the halfway point, trying to remember how deep the water was out here, wondering if there was a current working against her. And the engine noise grew louder with every passing second.
Avery stopped swimming and turned. Walls was getting closer. He had a flashlight he was erratically moving. Looking for her. When it turned in her direction Avery took a deep breath and let herself sink. Once again she stayed under for as long as her lungs would allow. She came up and forced herself to take slow breaths, trying to be quiet. The boat was slowing and the light was pointing off to the side. Avery was trying to find the energy to make a last ditch effort at the other shore when the flashlight turned and landed on her.
The boat engine roared. Avery didn't think. She dived. She felt vibrations as the boat passed where she had been. It was damn near pitch black under the water. She swam, once more moving toward the shore, until her lungs refused to be denied oxygen. She had to surface.
The boat had missed her, but Walls was only fifteen yards away. He didn't have his gun in his hand, only the flashlight. He was looking for her again. "Avery..." He called out her name, softly. "You played right into this. I like it better this way. All I have to do is wait until you get tired. I won't even have to get my hands dirty." He turned toward her. Avery was momentarily blinded by the light. The nearer shore was still fifty yards away and Walls was between her and the rocky strip of beach.
Which meant the water couldn't be as deep as it was in the middle.
Avery took a few deep breaths, gearing up to dive. The boat engine purred softy as he moved closer to where she was treading water. She knew she only had one chance at this so she took a huge breath and dived again. This time she pushed against the water until her fingers touched bottom. It was at least twenty feet. Not horrible, but the inky blackness of the water and the remembrance of so many killed in it nearly undid her resolve.
She fumbled for a few moments, feeling her natural buoyancy trying to pull her upward. And her fingers finally hit upon a rock. Heavy but not huge. She palmed it and wrapped her fingers around it. It would work if she had a chance to use it. Something else brushed against her arm and she would have screamed had she been able. Her free hand swatted outward and it bumped her fingers. Rope. Or netting. She grabbed it and pulled, feeling it snag on something on the bottom. It didn't matter. She had to get some air. She pushed off from the bottom and felt the net give but not fall apart in her hand. The rock made it harder to swim but she only had to go up.
Avery surfaced and sputtered, coughing, trying to drag in a deep lungful of water. A rough hand tangled into her wet hair and made her scream breathlessly as Walls tried to lift her out of the water into the boat.
She didn't give him time to do more than puller her hair. She swung her arm, the one with the rock, and caught him on his unprotected temple. He'd thought she had dived to try to go under him. Not that she'd been hunting up a weapon. Avery felt something warm spread over her fingers. She knew the rock had stunned him, maybe had hurt him, but it hadn't stopped him. His fingers were still in her hair, pulling.
So she slung the arm with the rope net up. With him pulling up, and Avery deadweighting, Walls had no choice but to lean over. The boat rocked precariously, almost turning over. But it lowered him down enough that she got the rope around his neck. She grabbed it and pulled, dropping the rock to put all of her weight into it, until he lost his footing and fell into the cold water of the lake.
She barely had time to take a breath before she was pulled under with him. Walls was heavy, wearing his shoes and his uniform, including his belt with the holster, handcuffs, and a dozen other items. She felt them sinking. His grip loosened in her hair and Avery finally got free of him. But she didn't swim up, not yet. Instead she felt for the rope netting and grabbed it, risking swimming closer to wrap it around his neck a second time. Whatever it was snagged on held tight. Once she took up the slack and wrapped it a third time, there was no more give to the line.
It had to be good enough. She couldn't hold in her breath any longer. Avery kicked toward the surface, feeling Walls groping for something to hold on to as she moved past him, panicked fingers scratching at her shirt, her legs. He briefly caught her ankle but Avery anticipated it, kicking back fiercly and catching what she thought was probably his chin or nose with her heel. And then she was free. She popped to the surface with a nearly screaming intake of air, almost sobbing as she paddled the few feet to the boat where the engine still idled. It took four tried for her tired arms to pull the rest of her weight into the boat. Once she got in, she lay on the floor of the small craft, unable to catch her breath, feeling the misting rain falling on her and not caring.
Avery was too tired to even bother crawling to the boat moter and aiming it back toward her dad's place. Whoever had said exercise released feel good endorphins had obviously never run for their lives. She knew that it was a different thing but her tired mind was trying to make a joke. She laughed weakly. Exhausted, head throbbing from having her hair pulled, sides aching from exertion. She as going to be sore as hell in th emorning. Avery laughed again, not caring that it sounded crazy. She didn't even care if Walls came back up like a murdered at the end of a cheesy horror flick. She just wanted to sleep.
And she must have dozed. When she opened her eyes briefly, it was still dark out but there were voices. Lots of them. And then Mark was picking her up and cradling her close to his chest. He was talking but Avery couldn't hear him. They were moving her, from the small boat to something else. She couldn't see it. She was already sleeping again.
