Free Edgewood Series: Books 1 - 3 by Karen McQuestion

noticed me lurking and sent him to grab me? What had Mallory said about getting found out? That it would be dangerous. That was the word she used. Dangerous, as in life-threatening. I didn’t even want to know what those armed guards would do to a trespasser.
    I heard the worker rustling through the tall grass, getting closer and closer. My heart pounded so loudly I was afraid it would give me away. But no one else could hear that, could they?
    In the distance I still heard the buzzing and the movement of the other men, but it was the one walking toward me I worried about. Closer, closer, closer. He cleared his throat in a threatening way. Just when I thought I should make a run for it, the worker stopped walking. I was in the back of the building and he was around the adjacent side, so close I was willing to bet I could reach my arm around the corner and touch him. Near enough he could jump out and grab me.
    But neither of those things happened, because the next thing I heard was the sound of a zipper and the unmistakable sound (and smell) of pee hitting the side of the building. The guy wasn’t coming to find me; he just needed to take a whiz. I looked up at the starry sky and thanked God. What a relief. I exhaled silently and gave my heart permission to slow down.
    As soon as the guy was done I vowed to head straight home to the safety of my bedroom. And never leave again. I wasn’t made for this much stress. I waited while the guy peed, and peed, and peed some more. Man, he really had to go. I leaned my head back against the building and let myself relax, just a little bit. In a minute I’d hear him walk back to the work site and then I’d be safe.
    I heard the stream taper off, and a zipper being yanked up. And then a click and the EMF humming like he’d turned the detector back on. A few seconds later, his detector made the raucous beeping sound it had made earlier in the field. Startled, I jumped. Over the noise, I heard him say, “What the hell?” to himself, and then he shouted back to the others, “I’ve got something here.”
    I didn’t wait around to see what happened next. I ran. I ran as fast as I could, which suddenly didn’t seem fast enough. I heard the guy yell, “Hey!” and knew I’d been spotted.
    There was a small incline behind the building and I was out in the open. Not great, but that’s the way it was. I didn’t have time to think about it much anyway. I was on fast-forward, my legs fueled by adrenaline and fear.
    I’d have more places to hide once I got to the houses of Old Edgewood, the neighborhood where Nelly Smith (now in the hospital) resided. But that was three blocks away. Behind me I heard the pounding feet and a voice calling out for me to stop, but there was distance between us, and besides, I was younger and faster.
    When I reached the road, I made a rookie move and looked behind me. I told myself it was just a quick glance to assess the situation, but it turned out to be a big mistake. Two men were coming after me. The worker who’d stopped to pee was the closest of the two, the detector dangling from his hand; periodically it would beep, which was weird, since we weren’t anywhere near the field with the fragments. The other guy was one of the armed guards, a burly man whose large shoulders and overall build made him resemble the Hulk. Despite their advanced ages, they were speedy, and my pause to look helped them to gain on me.
    I’d been on the track team in middle school, but I heard how competitive things got in high school and didn’t even bother joining my freshman year. A good decision, I’d thought at the time, since I’m really not much of an athlete. Since middle school, I’ve played baseball with the local rec team over the summer and disc golf and basketball with my friends just for fun, but that was the extent of it. None of it had prepared me for this night.
    “Halt!” one of the men shouted behind me.
    “Stop or I’ll shoot!”
    Halt. Stop or