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“Stop Don’t go a step farther,” a man yelled “Come back, just the way you came”

/> Jennifer spun around A ly tall, big h his lower face was covered by black facial hair, she could easily see that his lips were slanted into a frown The color of his ely sensual in coh appearance He wore a blue flannel shirt and insulated coat that was surely too heavy for the war day

She had a fleeting i and black clutched in his hand

She turned and sprang toward the forest strea she needed was to be isolated in the forest hat appeared to be souy Her heart seee in her throat when she heard the sound of leaves crunching behind her He was co after her, and fast!

Her gaze flickered around in rising panic Should she try to get ahead of him and find a place to hide? No, it was too late The sound of his footsteps echoed nearer

“Stop, damn it!” he bellowed

Her feet slowed, but Jennifer wasn’t sure why Had it been the hint of frustration in his voice or had she been instinctively following his authoritative coround collapsed beneath her feet

Horror seized her entire body as she began to free-fall, freezing the breath in her lungs She flailed with her hands and gripped desperately when soh her palhtened her hold and her body jerked in the air; her fall had stalled for a partial second before she heard a snapping sound and was falling once again

She sla her brain Rocks pelted her She couldn’t draw breath as she blinked dirt out of her eyes A curse rattled the air Through a disoriented haze she saw a shadowed figure suspended froht speckled with dust and debris

It took her a ister pain, but when it came, it was sharp and brutal She cried out, shock and discoain She sat up partially, propping her upper body on her elbow

What the hell had happened?

She coughed and wiped soil and bits of leaves out of her eyes and off her face It was pitch-black beyond the colu sound of the stream, but louder now

It suddenly struck her what had occurred She’d fallen into some kind of soft spot She was currently twenty or so feet below the ground, and water fro between rocks into the chamber where she’d fallen The man had also fallen into the soft spot as he’d chased after her, but had halted his pluround

She knew a moment of ambivalence If the htain, however, there would be no one to contact a rescue team

“Hold on!” she shouted in rising panic

She heard the sounds of rocks cru resignedly pissed

Jennifer scuttled back in alar the aches in her shoulder, ribs and hip He landed with a e, solid body and hissed curses after iracefully than she had

Jennifer didn’t knohat to do She’d been running froo, and now she was stuck with him in some dark hole beneath the forest She peered around It was very dark outside of the streaht An invisible force pressed down on her lungs The dark was Jennifer’s worst fear She couldn’t breathe

Do not even go there, Turner

She gathered herself froe into all-out panic and had another look around the dark hole If there was anywhere to run, she couldn’t see the path The rough-looking luuy seemed a better bet than the unknown terrors of the pitch blackness

“Are you okay?” she asked shakily