Ben struggled to see around the weaving Toyota. He didn’t notice anything coming up on the road ahead, but that was little consolation. A quick glance at the Blazer’s speedometer told him they hadn’t slowed down much. Did Rita even have the strength to pull Allie’s leg off the accelerator?

  A sharp swerve put the Toyota on the left-hand shoulder, where it continued drifting toward the median, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake. That was exactly where Ben did not want Allie and Rita to end up. Any sudden steering changes in the sloped, grassy separation between the roads could end up flipping the truck. Not to mention the occasional section of guard rail hidden in the deep grass. A head-on collision with one of those barriers would be catastrophic, not just for the truck. With vegetation growing almost as tall as the Toyota’s hood, there was no telling what hazards lay just out of sight in the sea of weeds.

  There were so many things that could go wrong at any second; it was almost too much to think about. And all this on top of a bigger issue he hadn’t even had time to consider yet. Was Allie okay? She was unconscious, but why? Was it heat stroke, dehydration, or something worse? Ben shook the thoughts away for now. He was sure Sandy was worried enough about Allie for the both of them.

  He’d barely had a chance to recover from the grueling hike back to the truck. He was physically exhausted, yes, but mentally exhausted as well. Think, think. Come on. What was the best way to stop the truck? Ben reached for the radio but stopped. He’d already tried contacting Rita on the radio and she hadn’t responded. She either didn’t have it on or couldn’t get to it. He leaned out his window instead.

  “Rita, you have to get it out of gear!” Ben shouted over the Blazer’s exhaust.

  Even if Rita couldn’t pull Allie’s foot off the gas, taking the truck out of gear would at least stop its forward momentum. With the gas pedal mashed down and the truck in neutral, the chance of damaging the engine was high, but it was a risk he was willing to take. They were bound to run out of open road soon.

  He was about to suggest that Sandy take a more aggressive position off the left rear quarter of the Toyota. But before he could speak, Allie and Rita began drifting back toward the road. The small measure of relief he felt about the change of direction away from the dangerous median and the waist-high grass was short-lived, though.

  “Dad, there’s a wreck coming up, on the left. Over.” Joel was still excited and rightfully so, but he was back to using proper radio etiquette. Not that Ben really cared all that much, given the circumstances. It was an indicator, however, that his son was capable of acting with a level head. Ben wasn’t surprised by the news of an impending obstacle on the road, but that didn’t make it any less daunting. And it meant they could no longer wait for Rita to regain control of the truck.

  “I want you to use the rear tire to try and slow them down. We’ll come up on the left side and keep them from drifting toward the wreck if we have to. Over.” Ben felt Sandy’s gaze, albeit briefly.

  “You want me to pull up next to them?”

  “Nice and easy. We can’t let them head back toward the shoulder. You can do it.” Ben had confidence in her. His bigger concern was the Jeep and how it would handle being pushed from behind by a runaway truck. The Jeep wouldn’t stand a chance if the Blazer or the Scout had needed to be stopped. The Toyota weighed about as much as the Scrambler, though. Even with the pickup in gear, Joel should be able to slow it down enough that Ben would feel comfortable jumping into the bed of the Toyota, if it came to that. But the thought of jumping from one moving vehicle to another hardly brought the word “comfort” to mind, no matter what speed they were moving.

  Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that. Between the Blazer and the Jeep, they might be able to bring the Toyota to a stop. Of course, there was the chance this could all go wrong. In fact, the odds were in favor of this turning out poorly. That wasn’t something he had time to think about right now, nor did he want to. They were all out of options.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Make sure you guys have your seat belts on. No brakes at first. Get lined up with the Toyota and coast until you’re touching. You need to be dead center of the hood, understand? Over.” Ben was worried the pickup would hit the back of the Jeep off-center enough to force Joel and Brad left or right, subsequently causing a pursuit intervention technique, a tactical driving procedure designed to spin a runaway or fleeing vehicle out of control. The opposite of what they were shooting for here.

  At this speed, a maneuver like that could be catastrophic for a vehicle with such a short wheelbase. Any sudden movements to either side could easily initiate a rollover. The seat belts and roll bar would protect the boys in theory, but there were no safety measures in place for Gunner, another detail Ben tried his best not to dwell on.

  Sandy pulled to the right of the little pickup and began speeding up in order to match Allie’s speed. Ben noticed the Jeep line up directly in front of the Toyota and slowly begin to creep backward as the space between the two vehicles shrank.

  “All right, pull up even with them, but keep a car’s width between us in case they suddenly come our way.” Ben didn’t want to be right next to the Toyota when Joel made the initial contact, just in case there was any lateral drift in their direction.

  “I’ll do my best.” Sandy sat up straight in the driver’s seat and gripped the wheel firmly with both hands. As they approached, Ben got his first glimpse of Allie. She was slumped over behind the wheel, her hair whipping around in the wind. Rita was desperately trying to wrestle the gear stick out of place and was simultaneously trying to push Allie’s leg from its position on the accelerator, all while doing her best to keep the pickup on the road.

  “I need help. It’s stuck!” Rita yelled when she noticed the Blazer. The sound of the Toyota’s engine over-revving from traveling too fast in a lower gear drowned out the Blazer’s exhaust, and Ben wondered how much longer the little pickup could take this kind of abuse. She should have been able to slip the Toyota out of gear but was obviously having trouble doing that. Maybe if Joel could slow them down, that would help.

  “Allie… Allie!” Sandy called out to her daughter in vain. Allie remained motionless behind the wheel. “What’s wrong with her?” Sandy was starting to lose it. After seeing Allie like that, Ben didn’t blame her, but it wouldn’t improve the situation if she lost her cool. He was worried for Allie, too, but the sooner they stopped the truck, the sooner they could help her. And that was what they had to focus on right now.

  “It’s probably the heat. She’ll be all right. We need to focus on stopping them right now.” Ben looked away from the runaway Toyota for a moment and locked eyes with Sandy. She nodded in agreement but remained silent. The tears running down her cheeks blew back across her face as she kept her hands planted on the wheel.

  Ben returned his attention to the Jeep just in time to see the Toyota’s hood contact the rear-mounted spare tire on the Scrambler. The meeting of the two vehicles was much more uneventful than he anticipated.

  “Nice and easy now, start braking. Over.” Joel didn’t answer, but Ben didn’t expect him to. A few seconds later, the Jeep’s brake lights flashed on and off. It was working; the Toyota was slowing down.

  Clank!

  “I got it!” Ben heard Rita yell before noticing the tone of the engine change. The RPMs spiked quickly, but the Toyota started to decelerate at a faster rate. The forces exchanged between the two vehicles as Joel applied more rigorous braking were visible in the wrinkled sheet metal of the Toyota’s hood. The Jeep’s oversized spare dug into the faded blue paint and started peeling the hood back like it was made of aluminum foil. That didn’t matter, though. What mattered was that it was working, and both the Jeep and the Toyota were slowing down without any noticeable steering issues.

  “It’s stuck!” Ben heard Joel yell over the chaos. They were all so close now that there was no need for the radio anymore.

  “That’s okay. Keep it steady. It’s working,” Ben shouted back. He could see that the Jeep’s tire was past the radiator and had settled into the space between the front of the Toyota’s engine and the grille. The two vehicles were locked together now. There was no turning back.

  Gunner was unsettled, to say the least, by the sound of metal on metal and the high-pitched whining of the Toyota’s overtaxed engine. Cowering, with his tail tucked, he turned in circles while searching for an escape from the noise of the tire dragging across the hood and pushing farther toward the Toyota’s windshield. It didn’t help matters any that the Jeep sat higher than the little pickup. Allie and Rita were slowly getting wedged under the back end of the Scrambler. Just a little longer was all they needed to bring the Toyota to a stop. With any luck, that would happen before the Jeep’s back tires were wedged off the ground high enough to lose traction.

  That last couple yards of travel seemed to take forever, and even though the pickup was barely doing five miles an hour, it somehow kept pushing the Jeep forward until finally coming to a complete stop. Allie’s head jolted forward and then back just as fast, bouncing off the headrest.

  Rita let out a roar of frustration and was finally able to pull Allie’s foot off the accelerator.

  “The key!” Ben yelled. Rita yanked the key out of the ignition, and the Toyota’s engine sputtered to a halt. Sandy stomped on the brakes and stopped the Blazer so hard it caused Bajer to slide off the back seat. She almost forgot to put the truck in park before bailing from the driver’s seat but caught her mistake before jumping out. She ran to her daughter’s open window.

  “Allie, honey, can you hear me?” Sandy fumbled with the door handle, not realizing it was locked until Joel joined her and helped pull Allie from the driver’s seat. They laid her down in the shade of the Blazer. Gunner, no longer apprehensive of the situation, stared down at them from the back of the Scrambler.

  “What happened?” Sandy asked Rita.

  “I don’t know. One minute we were talking. I looked away for a second, and when I looked back, she was out. Maybe the heat.” Rita, still inside the truck, leaned over the bench seat to watch as Joel and Sandy tried to revive Allie.

  Martin pulled up behind them, and Carlos flew from the Scout faster than Ben had ever seen the old man move. He wasted no time getting to the passenger side of the Toyota and checking on his wife. Ben ran back to the Blazer to grab the coolest water bottle he could find and check on Emma. He’d practically forgotten all about his daughter in the excitement. Martin jogged toward them, but Ben caught him by the arm.

  “I need you to keep your eyes peeled for trouble.” Ben glanced up and down the interstate. “Both directions.”

  “Got it.” Martin started back to the Scout, presumably to get his rifle, but stopped mid-stride. “Is she gonna be okay?”

  “I think so.” Ben didn’t have time to chat right now. He reached into the back of the Blazer and searched for a full Nalgene, all the while keeping his eyes on Emma. He grabbed two bottles and shoved one at his daughter.

  “Em, I want you to drink something.” He pulled the sleeping bag away from her face as she groaned in protest. Allie is the priority right now. Have to keep moving.

  Ben returned to the others and found them gathered around Allie. She was still lying on the ground. Brad came running at the group, back from the Jeep with Joel’s bright red Durango Demons sweatshirt.

  “This?” Brad asked.

  “Yeah, thanks.” Joel rolled up the sweatshirt and placed it under Allie’s head, replacing his hand. Sandy was timing Allie’s pulse while Rita fanned a large piece of cardboard over all of them. She’d sent Carlos to retrieve some water, too, apparently, along with a towel.

  “Here,” Carlos said. Rita used the remaining water in the half-full bottle to wet the towel as best as she could. Carefully, she wrapped the towel around Allie’s head and face, making sure not to cover her nose or mouth. With her hair pulled back, Ben noticed Allie’s flushed complexion; bright red splotches dotted her face. No stranger to heat stroke, he’d seen more than his share of it from his time in the sandbox.

  Joel helped position Allie in a more upright seated position while Sandy tried to get some water into her mouth. Ben was relieved to see Allie starting to come around. At first, she refused the water, but Sandy persisted until she swallowed a mouthful of the not very cool liquid.

  “What’s going on?” Slowly, Allie came to life. A little confused, she sat up farther with Joel’s assistance.

  “Here, drink some more. You need it.” Sandy held the Nalgene up to Allie’s chapped lips.

  “Looks like you passed out from heat stroke.” Ben stepped to the left and blocked a beam of sunlight that slipped past the Blazer and landed on Allie. “You’ll be okay. Just need to stay hydrated.” He couldn’t help but feel somewhat responsible for Allie’s condition. They’d pushed straight through lunch, and even though everyone was perfectly capable of fending for themselves, it had been a hard day.

  Ben had also set an ambitious schedule, not that he had a choice. The last fuel stop wasn’t exactly a place he wanted to spend any more time than necessary. Normally, they would have taken advantage of the stop and stayed for a while in the shade. But that wasn’t an option, thanks to the Patriot Hooligans. Other than fuel and emergencies, he didn’t see any other choice but to drive straight through until they reached Rita’s daughter’s house.

  “How’s Emma doing?” Allie caught Ben off guard with the question. It shouldn’t have. He knew the content of her character. Here was a girl who had just passed out and nearly died, or was almost seriously injured in a runaway vehicle, and her biggest concern was Emma.

  “She’s the same. Still running a fever. Been sleeping a lot,” Ben answered.

  Allie attempted to get up on her own but quickly sat back down on the blacktop.

  “Whoa there, where do you think you’re going?” Sandy protested.

  “We’re wasting time here. We need to keep moving. Emma isn’t going to get any better sitting here, and neither are we. Plus, the ground is hot!” Allie pulled the wet towel farther back on her head, uncovering more of her face. She had already started to regain a more natural color. She was right, though. Emma wasn’t going to recover until she got the medicine she needed. Her other point was a valid one as well. Sitting out here in the open, baking in the afternoon sun on the hot asphalt, wasn’t doing them any good, either.

  Ben hated to be the one to say it, but it needed to be said.

  “We need to get moving.” He looked around the group. Everyone met his gaze with the same expression; they knew what he and Allie were saying was true, but it hurt to admit it. Aside from their immediate needs, there was a gang of bloodthirsty bandits on their tail, something he was certain none of them had forgotten and no one needed to be reminded of.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Ben offered his hand to Allie. As he pulled her up, Joel and Sandy helped from either side.

  “I’m okay, guys. Really. I’m feeling much better,” Allie insisted.

  “Just the same, someone needs to drive for a while. Rita, you feeling up to it?”

  “Yes, I can take over.”

  “I can drive.” Carlos stood up straight.

  “We’re not going anywhere until we do something about this.” Joel stood with his hands on his hips, surveying the damage caused by the incident. “I mean, look at this.”

  The Jeep’s spare tire had ridden up and over the grille of the smaller pickup, and now the inside of the rim was firmly wedged behind the radiator. The sheet metal of the hood was trapped under the deflated tire and wrinkled up like a crushed soda can. The Blazer wasn’t the only vehicle running without a spare anymore. Much to Ben’s dismay, they would not be leaving here anytime soon.

  “Grab the jack from the Jeep and let’s see if we can get this taken care of.” Ben joined Joel near the hood of the Toyota. “It looks worse than it is, I think. If we can lift the Jeep up enough to clear the rim, maybe we can push the pickup out from under it.”

  Joel nodded and he and Brad went to retrieve the hood-mounted Hi-Lift from the Jeep. It was the same kind Joel carried in the Blazer, but with their current gear load, the Jeep’s was easier and quicker to get to. Ben stared at the tangled vehicles for a few seconds before turning to Sandy.

  “Why don’t you take Allie back to the Blazer and let her sit for a while and get some fluids in her? Maybe you can check on Emma, too.”

  “Sure, the dogs are going to need some water as well.” Sandy squinted as she glanced skyward. “That truck’s going to feel like an oven if we sit here too long.”

  “We’ll get moving again soon.” Ben hoped he was right. It already felt like he was being cooked alive on the surface of the road. Trying to separate these two vehicles wasn’t going to be any fun.

  Brad and Joel returned with the jack, and they got to work right away. Lifting the back end of the Jeep didn’t take long, and after a few more pumps on the jack handle, the rim was clear of the radiator. Carlos sat behind the wheel while Ben, Brad, and Joel pushed the Toyota backward until they were clear. Ben let the boys lower the Jeep and stow the jack while he inspected the damage to the pickup. He was both surprised and pleased to see that it was mostly cosmetic.

  Now for the moment of truth. “Go ahead. Fire it up,” Ben instructed.

  Carlos turned the key, and the Toyota sputtered to life. The engine idled and hummed along perfectly, aside from the occasional tick. Ben shook his head in disbelief. The little truck was battered and bruised, but none of the damage seemed to affect its mechanical condition. He was tempted to lift the hood and do a quick check of the engine compartment to make sure there wasn’t any unseen damage that would come back to haunt them a few miles down the road, but he decided to leave well enough alone. Besides, he wasn’t sure he could get the hood to open without the use of some tools or a crowbar, and he was even less sure he’d be able to latch it closed again.