Chapter 3

The air in the mine shaft grew heavy, thick with the smell of fear and unwashed bodies. We huddled together in the damp darkness, listening.

Above us, we could hear them. The Vultures.

Shouts. Laughter, coarse and cruel. The smash of something breaking.

They were tearing Red Rock apart. Looking for us.

"They're going to find us," a young woman sobbed, clutching her baby.

"Hush now, dear," Martha said, her voice surprisingly steady, though I could see her hands trembling in the dim flashlight beam. "We're safe here for now."

But we weren't. Not really. That flimsy door wouldn't hold for long if they found it.

And they would find it. They always found everything.

"I tried to call Mike again," Chloe whispered beside me, her small ATV's radio useless this deep. "Still no signal. He turned off his radio anyway after I tried to warn him about the Vultures earlier. Said I was spoiling the mood for Lila."

My blood ran cold. He'd deliberately cut himself off.

"He told Jake to make sure no one bothered them," Chloe added, her voice barely audible. "Especially not you, Sarah. He said you'd try to spread lies."

Jake. Mike's deputy. Usually a decent man, but utterly loyal to Mike. If Mike told him the sky was green, Jake would argue with anyone who said otherwise.

A loud crash from near the mine entrance made us all jump.

"They're close," I breathed.

We needed help. Real help. The nearest settlement was a small, fortified ranch, a good twenty-minute ride on a dirt bike, if you knew the back trails. They had men, guns. They'd faced down Vultures before.

But someone had to go.

"Martha," I said, my voice low. "I know the way to the Miller ranch. I can get there on one of the old dirt bikes we stashed."

We kept a couple of beat-up motorcycles hidden in a small shed near the mine, for emergencies. This qualified.

Martha looked at me, her eyes searching mine in the gloom. I was pregnant. Everyone knew.

"You, Sarah? But... your condition."

"There's no one else who knows the trails well enough, or who they'd listen to quickly," I said. It was true. I'd grown up riding these deserts.

"I'll go," Chloe said suddenly, surprising us both. "I'm small, I'm fast. And... and maybe if they see it's me, not you, Mike will listen. He's my brother."

Her bravery was a small, flickering light in the oppressive darkness. But I knew Mike.

"He won't listen, Chloe," I said gently. "He thinks you're with me on this. He already hit you once for trying."

Chloe's face fell, but she straightened her shoulders. "Then I'll go to the Millers. I know the main road there."

The main road would be watched. But it was a chance.

Before I could argue further, she squeezed past a few women and was gone, slipping through a narrow ventilation shaft I hadn't even remembered existed. It was a tight fit, but she was wiry.

We waited. Every sound from outside, every distant shout, stretched our nerves tighter.

An eternity seemed to pass. Maybe thirty minutes.

Then, a scraping sound from the ventilation shaft.

Chloe tumbled back in, covered in dust and grime, her face streaked with tears.

"They... they wouldn't come back," she choked out.

"Who wouldn't come back?" Martha demanded, grabbing her arm. "Mike? The men?"

Chloe nodded, sobbing. "I got through on the ATV radio for a second when I was further out. I told Mike the Vultures were here, that they were in town. He... he said I was lying. That I was trying to trick him, just like you said, Sarah. He said you put me up to it."

She looked down, her small hand going to her cheek. "He told Jake to... to make sure I came straight back here and didn't bother them again. Jake... Jake was angry. He said I was ruining Lila's day."

A fresh wave of despair washed over me.

Then, a deafening BOOM! The ground shook. Dust rained down from the mine ceiling.

They were using explosives on the town. Or maybe... on us.