First Family (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell 4)

The corridor ended in a thick door.

Diane tried to turn the old door handle but it wouldn’t budge.

Willa already had out her tools. While Diane held the light she inserted the instruments and worked quickly but methodically.

“How’d you learn to do this?”

“It comes in handy if your little sister keeps locking herself in the bathroom,” said Willa as she pushed and prodded with her pick, praying for the pins to fall into their correct slots.

Diane looked down the passage. “They’re coming. Oh my God, I think they’re coming. Hurry. Hurry!”

“If I rush, it won’t work, okay?” Willa said calmly.

“If you don’t they’ll catch us.”

The last pin dropped, and Willa turned the tension tool and with Diane’s help they pushed the stout wooden door open. The light bursting through caused them both to shield their eyes. They rushed out and looked around, squinting.

Then the pounding of footsteps hit them harder than the sunlight had.

“Come on,” Diane yelled.

She grabbed Willa’s hand and they ran toward the flat land straight ahead even as the little plane touched down.

Diane said, “Who do you think that is?”

Willa looked around, noting that the

only way in or out looked to be by plane. “Not anyone we want to run into. This way, quick.”

They changed direction and ducked behind a chunk of rock just as Daryl and Carlos erupted from the mineshaft and sprinted off in different directions. Willa and Diane crawled and clawed their way up the narrow, steep ridge, keeping as low as possible.

“Maybe we can get to the top and then go down the other side,” gasped Willa.

Diane was breathing so hard she couldn’t answer back. She grabbed hold of Willa. “I just need to catch my breath. I’ve never been much into exercise.”

A minute later they started their ascent again. They got to the top of the ridge, crossed it, and then looked over the edge on the other side.

“God help us,” said Diane. It was steep and nearly sheer. “I can’t make it down there.”

“Well, I’m going to try,” said Willa. “Do you think you can find a place to hide? If I get away I’ll bring help.”

Diane looked around. “I think I can.” She looked over the edge again. “Willa, you’ll get killed. You can’t go.”

“I have to try.”

She gripped the edge of a boulder, aimed her foot at a narrow ledge, and took a step down. The ledge held though a few pebbles and dirt, disrupted by her maneuver, slid off the mountain and cascaded downward where they were caught by the swirling wind.

“Please be careful,” said Diane.

“I’m trying,” said Willa breathlessly. “It’s really hard.”

She lowered herself to another ledge and was just about to attempt another movement when the rock she was standing on gave way.

“Willa!” screamed Diane.

Willa grabbed at anything she could find to halt her fall, but nothing she touched held as dirt and rock pelted her.

“Help me!”