“What do they want?”

Bobbi said, “They want to sell us, I heard one of them talking when I woke up after they first took me. They thought I was still out.”

“Did they say where?”

“I heard something about overseas, like Pakistan or someplace like that.”

All the girls made large eyes when Bobbi said Pakistan.

Kelly said, “I don’t want to go to Pakistan or anyplace else. I want to go home.”

The other girls nodded. Consuela said, “When do we leave?”

Kelly glanced out the door and saw the three adults still standing by the fire, their backs toward the barn. “We go now.”

Bobbi said, “Do we go all at once, or one at a time, and what direction?”

Kelly said, “I think we need to go one at a time so we can be quiet. Go out the door and stay by the barn to reach the corner, then go around it and run to the back of the barn so it is between us and the people at the fire.”

As they clustered together like frightened quail and shuffled to the edge of the open door, Kelly said again, “Be quiet, don’t go fast, but not slow, either.”

“Who goes first?” Consuela asked.

Bobbi said, “Kelly picks the order, and that’s how we’ll go.”

The others nodded in agreement. Kelly named the order, leaving Bobbi for next to last, and herself for last. “Okay, be quiet now.” The first one peeked around the door’s edge, then scurried out, disappearing into flickering shadows from the fire. The others did well, and no one made noise.

When Bobbi and Kelly were left, they shook hands again as Bobbi stepped to the door, then stopped. The people facing the fire turned so their backs were to it and their faces were toward the barn door.

Bobbi looked at the adults, then at Kelly. “We need to go, but both at the same time, and in opposite directions. One of us might make it and can call the police.”

Kelly saw the women and man moving around, shuffling their feet and standing on one foot, then the other, showing they wouldn’t stay much longer by the fire. “We don’t have a choice, do we?”

Bobbi said, “Nope. I’ll go right, you go left. Ma

ybe luck will help one of us.”

“Maybe both, we’re young and fast, they’re old.”

Bobbi grinned at that. “You ready?”

“Ready.”

The two girls shot out of the open barn door like the start of a sprint race. Bobbi cut left, and a second later, Kelly went right.

Both ran as hard as they could as the yells of alarm came from the two women and the man.

Kelly ran faster, and approached the corner of the barn. She chanced a backward look and saw the black-haired woman, Kit pull something shiny from her waist and throw it like a pitcher throwing a fastball, even making a “Pah!” sound when she released it.

The knife flashed in the firelight and hit Bobbi high under her arm, making a sound like striking meat with a stick.

Bobbi staggered and reached for the shining handle where the blade sunk to the hilt, but her fingers couldn’t grasp it. Kelly stopped, but Bobbi saw her and yelled, “Go!” as she fell to her knees, coughing blood.

Nadine ran like a sprinter and closed the distance to Kelly by half. The eleven-year old looked once more at Bobbi before racing into the darkness toward the hills.

Kelly sprinted until reaching the first hill, then she ran steady, but not full out. She curved around the first small hill, then drove with her legs like pistons to go up the second, larger one, making sure to dodge behind every plant or bush that might offer a hiding place.

Kelly breathed hard, but not to the point of exhaustion. She heard Nadine coming, cursing and slipping on loose rocks. Once, Nadine ran into a cactus, and she howled at that, calling Kelly, “You little bitch!”

Tags: Billy Kring Thriller
Source: readsnovelonline.net