Free Vampires in Devil Town by Wayne Hixon

out of the sliding side door, disappearing into the night.
  But she couldn’t do that.
  She had promised this girl, both her captor and her liberator, that she would help her get away from this boy and she intended to keep her promise.
  Grabbing up a handful of rope from the floor of the van, she twisted the unknotted end around her hand. She swung the heavier knotted end toward Bones’ face, aiming for his eyes. He fought this attack off with his right hand and frantically tried to grab the knife out of Rain’s hand with his left, shouting desperate curses all the while.
  Rain managed to drag the knife across his chest but, mostly, all the blade got was leather.
  But she had broken from his hold.
  With her left hand, Rachel grabbed Rain and, with her right, she grabbed the long handle for the sliding door and yanked it back. The door slid open, Rachel simultaneously falling out of it and dragging Rain behind her.
  Together, they were out into the night, in some kind of small hollow, running up a hill from the direction Rachel presumed they had come.
  “You two better get back here!” Bones shouted, his breath rasping as he ran behind them.
  “Run faster!” Rain hissed.
  Rachel heard the loud report of a gun and half expected to feel a bullet bite into her back or her leg. But apparently Bones was too full of rage to really focus and take aim. Rain was also unfelled by the shot. It gave Rachel impetus to run even faster and find some cover but here on the side of this hill, cover seemed to be somewhat absent. The woods were just over the ridge.
  She ran in a crazy zigzag pattern, not sure if Bones was following them or not. Another shot went off and Rachel would have sworn she heard the bullet whistle past her ear. That would be great. Come all this way just to get shot in the head.
  When they reached the road at the ridge, Rain threw herself down into the gravel. Not knowing what else to do, Rachel did the same.
  Here, the air was a little mistier, a little thicker than it had been back in town. Rachel couldn’t make Bones out and figured he couldn’t see them either.
  “Let’s go straight across the road, into the woods. He’ll think we stayed on the road,” Rain said. “Stay low.”
  “Right,” Rachel replied, admiring the other girl’s combat skills.
  The woods began immediately on the other side of the road and descended sharply. Running downhill made them much faster. Now Rachel feared flattening herself against a tree more than she feared Bones’ gun. It was too dark for him to see. Nearly impossible with the added darkness and occlusion of the woods, she figured.
  The two girls continued to run, brambles lashing at their ankles and thorns scraping their faces.
  Eventually, Rain stopped.
  “I can’t run any more right now,” she said, panting.
  Slowing her breathing, Rain pricked up her ears, listening for any sounds of Bones. Rachel did the same.
  Rain pulled a pack of cigarettes from the inside pocket of her leather biker’s jacket. Reaching to pull a cigarette from the pack, she flinched and pointed to something on the back of her hand. Rachel squinted her eyes and looked.
  “What’s that?” she asked.
  Rain snorted a laugh. “I think it’s his fucking ear lobe.”
  With the middle finger of her other hand, she flicked it off and said, “Gross.”
  “He’ll never miss it.”
  Rachel wished she had a coat. She was still dressed for bed, without the comfort of shoes. Her feet had to be a bloody mess but she was so eager to get away from the greater danger she hadn’t felt anything underfoot.
  “Can I have one of those?” Rachel asked, not really knowing why she would want one since she didn’t usually smoke, had been nagging Jacob for months to stop smoking, and her lungs were burning from running.
  “Sure,” Rain said, holding the pack out to her.
  “Thanks for what you did back