Page 10 of Ash
ChapterEight
Lainey
“Fuck, fuck FUCK.” I slammed my hands down on the bare steering wheel as the tyres hit yet another patch of snow and swerved dangerously to the left. It was the second time in as many minutes that I’d almost crashed. I knew I had to be more careful. Pay more attention to the unlit road and look where I was going but it was easier said than done when it was an almost complete white out on the other side of the windshield.
I tapped the brake, softly because I didn’t want to go careening off the road and into one of the ditches that were hidden by the trees on either side of the mountain road. If that happened in this storm, then no one would find me until I was a Lainey-shaped icicle. I couldn’t afford to crash up here not tonight when everyone thought I had headed back down the mountain, to town. No one would come looking for me.
For the first time since I had done a U-turn a few miles from the army guy's base and headed away from safety I was starting to second-guess my decision. But it was like I couldn’t help myself. The mountain shacks that I had been kept captive in months ago called to me. Begged me to find out their secrets. I knew what Sarah would have said. I was drugged. Nothing I imagined seeing on the mountain for the day I was kept tied up, up there had been real. It had been my imagination. Seeing the faces of monsters when really they were human. But I knew differently.
I knew what I had seen.
And it hadn’t been human.
Hell. It hadn’t been an animal either. Or at least like no other animal, I had ever seen.
But there were stories. There always had been about the monsters that prowled this part of the world. Local legends that I had not paid any mind to. I took notice now. I ate them up gathering all the law I could find.
I….
Something huge darted across the road and any thought of pressing gently down on the brakes evaporated as I slammed my foot down. Screaming I tried desperately to right the car as it skidded towards the left and the huge tree trunks that lined that side of the road. There was no ditch here just hard unmovable trees. Scrambling I turned the wheel but even as I used all of my strength, I knew it was useless.
It’s a strange thing because crashes happen in a blink of an eye but as I went hurtling towards the dark trunks it seemed to take forever. Screaming I finally gave up and threw my hands over my face and head just in the nick of time. The truck, some military-issue monstrosity that I was going to get billed for if I got out of this impacted with something immovable, the door buckling inwards and then the world seemed to shift.
I couldn’t tell what was up and down. Or what the hell was happening. All I could do was cover my face as glass shattered inwards and metal screamed around me. I was screaming as well. Or at least I think it was me screaming it was hard to tell in all the mayhem.
When the car finally stopped moving, and absolute silence wrapped around me. I finally took a breath inwards
F-U-C-K.
Ace was going to kill me. That was my first thought. He had given me the car to go back to town. He hadn’t given me it so I could go galivanting up the mountain on a wild goose chase in the middle of a snowstorm and crash.
“Shitting hell Lainey.” I didn’t even bother keeping my voice low as I spoke to myself, looking around. And it was worse than I’d originally thought. The world had seemed topsy-turvy because I hadn’t just crashed the government vehicle, I’d rolled it. several times if I wasn’t mistaken and I was hanging upside down from my seat belt which if the pain in my shoulder and between my breast was anything to go had cut into my flesh. “You don’t do anything by halves do you, girl.” I fumbled from the clasp. And my hand kept slipping from it before I could press down, it was shaking so much. “Not dead though.” I reminded myself. Must have hit my head because I was having a full-blown, rational conversation with myself. Or maybe I’d hit my head harder than I expected and had some kind of brain injury that just made me think I was being rational.
Finally, my thumb jerked on the button and the moment it did I gave a little scream as I went flying down towards the roof of the car. I hit hard and pain lanced through my shoulders and upper back. It was enough of a shock that I felt winded for a second. Laying there, half upside down in a crumpled heap, I gave into the tears.
This was bad. Not just the fact that I’d crashed but because I was up here alone. No one was going to look for me because they all thought I’d gone home. They all thought I was safe. And the truth couldn’t be farther from the truth. The mountain was a dangerous place even without factoring in the monsters that called it home.
Gritting my teeth, I began to drag myself out of the shattered window with my good arm. The other lay curled up useless against my chest which only made my escape from the ruined car even harder.
Monsters.
I froze. My eyes growing wide as I lay my damp cheek against the snow.
There were monsters up here. Monsters that had snatched me from outside a pub on a busy street.
And something had darted across the road. It had been huge and…. Dread filled my stomach and with a groan, I wiggled through the broken window. Had it done it on purpose? Was it after me again? Steeling myself for the pain I knew was coming, I heaved myself to my feet. Bile rushed up my throat. half from the terror and half from the agony it inflicted on my damaged shoulder. Turning in a tight circle I looked every which way. Squinting again the snow flurries that tried to blind me.
I needed to get off this damn mountain and quickly. There was only one problem I didn’t know which way was down back towards town and which was up. And if I chose wrong then I might as well crawl back into the car and wait to freeze to death.
Blowing out a breath, I made my decision and for good or ill it was one I was sticking to. Because was I hell going to sit here and wait to be some monster’s dinner?
