Chapter 10 - The Fallen Bridge
Ahead of them, where the private mountain road met Route 9, two black utility vans were parked diagonally across the narrow two-lane bridge. Heavy spotlights clicked on, blinding Victor and Clara with glaring halogen beams.
""Hang on!"" Victor roared.
Instead of slowing down, Victor engaged the heavy-duty four-wheel drive and accelerated straight toward the narrow gap between the front bumper of the first van and the bridge’s rusted steel railing.
""You’re going to kill us!"" Julianna screamed.
The impact was deafening. The SUV’s steel-reinforced bumper caught the front fender of the utility van, tearing away fiberglass and metal with a violent screech. The collision knocked their vehicle sideways, two wheels lifting off the asphalt before slamming back down onto the bridge surface with bone-jarring force.
They broke through the barricade, but their radiator was spewing thick white steam, and the steering wheel was violently shaking in Victor’s grip.
Behind them, gunfire erupted from the bridge guards, rounds pinging off their armored tailgate like hail.
A mile down the highway, Victor pulled the dying vehicle off into an overgrown logging trail beneath a canopy of dense pine trees. The engine sputtered, wheezed, and finally died in a cloud of boiling coolant.
Silence rushed back into the cabin, broken only by the sound of heavy rain pattering on the roof and Julianna’s ragged breathing.
""Engine’s dead,"" Victor said quietly, checking his wristwatch. ""It’s four in the morning. We’re forty miles from Boston, completely off the grid.""
Clara stepped out into the mud, pulling her jacket tightly around her shoulders. She looked at the smoldering vehicle, then down at the cassette tape she had managed to save.
""We walk to the nearest rail depot,"" Clara said, her voice uncompromising.
Julianna stepped out after her, looking down at her ruined wedding dress, shivering in the freezing rain. For the first time, she looked at Clara not with contempt or fear, but with something resembling awe.
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""Why didn't you leave me in that cellar?"" Julianna asked quietly. ""I spent my whole life wearing your clothes, sleeping in your bedroom, spending your inheritance. Why save me?""
Clara looked at her sister in the shadows. ""Because you were Richard’s victim too. But if you want to survive the night, Julianna, you need to tear that damn white dress off.""
