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Slowly, crouching, ignoring her soreness, which was fortunately not too bad, she o backward The only way she had a chance of opening that door would be to use her hands, and they remained cuffed behind her

At least the van wasn’t ain but decided to wait, to try to get outside and find hiether

Better yet, maybe she could somehow sneak away

She wished she could see better But the fact that the evening was already growing darker didn’t help Even so, she ed to find the door with her bound hands behind her, as well as the handle on one side that opened it Was it locked from the outside? She hoped not

She pushed down the handle—and the door opened! She felt like shouting in triuht direction

Speaking of steps, could she find the ones at the back of the van and get doithout falling? She wouldn’t be able to hold on with her hands behind her

She shoved the door open as well as she could, stilltill her foot touched a step She glanced down but could see very little in the darkness She carefully allowed her left foot to join the right one, and then reround to roll again beneath her—or for Ari to show up and shove her back inside

Neither happened And after a short while she went down to the next step The one below that was the ground, and she soon stood there, outside the van, breathing fast and allowing herself to smile, if only a little

She had beaten one hurdle but there could be plenty more to follow

She turned and looked at the road behind her It was narrow, and there was sohts spaced long distances apart, probably put there for safety since the road was so rural

Yikes It seeht poles had survived Most of the trees around there hadn’t Uprooted, they splayed onto the concrete, and one even blocked part of the road

Had it been one of them that hit the van? Savannah assu carefully around the vehicle on the driver’s side

Sure enough, a large tree had obliterated that part of the cab, crushing the car froer area Savannah sed hard as she drew closer, looking at the smashed area where Ari had sat to drive

How a that the tree had only crushed the front of the van, and not where she had been sitting Despite all that had been happening to her, she had actually experienced a little bit of luck

But what about Ari? Had he been hit by the tree?