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"Park it and get out," I told her

"I’m in my underwear"

"And your nose is broken Does it look like I give a fuck?" In ed state, I had no patience and no ti onthat put one foot in front of the other, the only thing that gave et out"

She opened the door and looked at the hard earth of caked sand and rocks "I don’t have shoes," she said pitifully She eyed a beach bag I had in the backseat that had a towel and flip flops spilling out of it "Can I wear your flip flops? Otherwise it’ll hurt too much to walk"

"Oh for fuck’s sake!" I leaned in the back to grab the bag

Big mistake

Stupid, foolish, Ellie

Sophia slaun in the backseat I cried out and quickly grabbed the gun, twisting back inoff into the distance, a s her Hurts too much to walk, un trained on her as she went But I couldn’t just shoot her I needed her I quickly started booking it after her as fast as I could go I pressed down on h the pain until I didn’t feel anything any

Because she was barefoot and the terrain was anything but friendly, she was running slow enough that I was gaining on her What a sight ould have been for any spectator to see; a girl in a tee-shirt and underwear running barefoot through the Mojave Desert followed by a li chick with a revolver and a psychotic look on her face, dust rising up around us and floating to the blue sky

It wasn’t long before I had her

I did a running tackle and brought her straight into the dirt, slaround She cried out in pain but I did not give a shit anyainst

I yanked her up off the ground, so fucking te her to the boneyard But so her forward

"Nice try," I said,into her ar feet "Even a pedicure won’t fix that"

She whi, trying to disturb as little sand as possible while stillfrolare and dust, my throat raw and dry, but we soldiered on, step after step, until we reached the edge of the perimeter fence We stopped and looked up The barbed wire at the top was rusted to shit and tumbleweed blew past on the other side of the chain links, heading to a scrap pile of jet engine parts They wouldn’t have scaled it and from the looks of the condition of this part of the yard, there was probably an easier way in

I brought her around to the back and alked down the fence, around Joshua trees, cacti and wild shrubs and heaps of scrap metal that didn’t quite make it inside the bone yard Finally we spotted an area where the chain links had been cut Our ticket in Maybe our only way out

I took a deep breath and walked us through the opening

We were inside

It was fucking eerie

Up close the planes looked like an armada of plane crashes Some of them were charred, some were broken into bits There were flotation devices scattered around, oxygenoff of shrubs Many co about, stripped inside of all furniture and instruments Some planes looked like they were about to fly away and sos were stacked in piles

No wonder they picked this place It scared the shit out of you just being there

We walked carefully out into the ear, standing up-right like a giant metal tree, and the severed tail end of a Cessna

I stopped and pulled her back once ere in the open again Planes surrounded us, eachan eye, watching our every et out of harm’s way But if they didn’t see me with Sophia, they wouldn’t kno damn serious I was

"Hello?" I called out,back from the motionless aircraft I cleared my throat and yelled, "I have your sister You knohat I want"

I looked around in circles, searching every creepy corner of the boneyard, as far as I could see They could be everywhere

And nowhere

I put the gun to Sophia’s head "If you’re lying to round out

"I’m not," she moaned, obviously in distress Good "I told you the truth They said planes You brought me here"

Shit Fuck Shit

Was I wrong about this place? Were they somewhere else entirely?

Was Camden already handed over?

Already dead?

I sed hard and rubbed ether I couldn’t lose it now Not now Not until I knew

"Look," Sophia whispered I followed her gaze over to one of the airplanes

There was a face at the

I let out a gasp and then started looking closer There was soer seat There was another person behind a wing

We weren’t alone

There was a shuffle by one of the decapitated plane heads and soun held lazily to his side Like Javier, he was fond of slick suits and he looked like a co chin and greasy hair

"You must be Ellie Watt," Vincent said as he stopped a few yards away, tu between us like we’d been placed in a Western TV show set "Nice to finally s, all second-hand information, of course"

"Where’s Caainst its will

"Ca "I don’t know I expected to see him here, not you and not un into her head "I don’t want to kill her but I will if I have to"

He nodded as if he were impressed "I can see that Hopefully you won’t have to h decisions" His eyes darted to the side "And there’s the man of the hour"

I whippedtoward us, Javier behind hi a denim shirt, black shorts, hands raised above his head I took in the details like I’d never see hiain Because maybe I wouldn’t