Free After and Again by Michael McLellan Page A

you mean not right?” Zack hissed.
      “I will explain, Zack, please, just get us out,” she answered. Zack removed the lock and set it on the ground.
      “Now listen,” he whispered, “I’m going to open this up and you’re going to climb out one at a time and hold each others hands, then I’m going to lead you up onto the mountain. You have to be quiet ! Lets go.”
      He opened the gate and Emily Hodgkins climbed out and put her hand up for the next woman. “Wait,” she said quietly, bring Liz up first.”
      A moment later his mother was at the opening; Zack came forward and he and Emily helped her out of the wagon. “Mom?” Zack said, beginning to cry. Liz McQueen just stood there as if staring at something over Zack’s shoulder. “Mama what—”
    “Zack, we have to go, they’ll be coming soon!” Emily said, pushing him gently away and taking his mothers hand. The rest of the women were trundling out of the wagon joining hands. Emily took Zack’s and said “Get us out of here, Zack.”
      He led the chain of women (and girls he noticed) back down the line of tethered horses and dropped down the short embankment just before he reached the last horse. It was dark and impossible for the escapees to see where they were putting their feet, and though the women were trying to be quiet the sound of snapping twigs and crunching leaves would have given them away had the camp not been so loud.
      Zack circled back and headed up the mountain in the direction that he had left Grace. He was a little unsure of himself in the darkness and hoped that he would find her without fumbling around too much. He didn’t want to, but was prepared to leave the mare if necessary.
      There were a million questions that he wanted to ask; he wanted to hug his mom and find out what was wrong with her, he wanted to find out if Santiago and Michael were at the camp. He held his tongue, and to the women’s credit they kept silent as well, and outside of the occasional stumble that abruptly yanked everyone else to a halt, they were moving along fairly smoothly. Zack was a bit surprised at how easy it had been to free the women, but in retrospect he realized that the gang only had them locked up so that they couldn’t escape. Rescue had probably never entered the murderer’s minds.
      Grace whinnied and Zack followed the sound taking silent pride in the fact that he navigated the woods in the dark and came out almost spot on. There was a small clearing where the mare was tied and Zack told the women to rest a moment. “Oh, Zack!” Emily said, dropping his mother’s hand and hugging him fiercely. “We thought we’d never see anyone again. Who else is with you?”
      “There is no one else,” Zack said, gently breaking the embrace and turning to his mother. The rest of the women had sat down and Liz McQueen just stood there, it was too dark to make out her features clearly. “Mom what’s wrong?” he asked putting his hand on her cheek.
      “Zack, they did stuff to her,” Emily said from behind him. “To all of them, except me, Lacy, and Eileen, we were for….later.”
      “What stuff?” he asked, through clenched teeth, knowing the answer already. Just then a scream came through the forest; “YOU WHORES! GET YOUR ASSES BACK HERE NOW!”
      Some of the women started crying, and they all stood up ready to run. Zack turned to Emily, “Take my mom and get everyone to join hands again. We’re an hour ahead, it’s dark and they’re drunk. The top of the mountain can’t be more than a half-hour away and then we’ll be going downhill and they will still be going uphill. I don’t think they’re going to chase us that far tonight though, they’ll wait until morning and come after us on horseback. C’mon, get them going, I have to grab Grace.”
      Zack untied Grace and patted her neck. The mare nuzzled him with her head obviously glad to see him. He lifted his pack off of the saddle horn and quickly