“Would you quit that, you bastard. Someone’s going to come by here and that’ll be the end.” She felt herself being lifted by the shoulders. “Grab her feet, you creep, and let’s go.”

“Have you got that rock?”

“How in hell am I supposed to carry her and the rock? I’ll go back for it when I put her down.” Amanda took her first deep breath in hours. If she had a chance, it would be now. She sagged artistically in their grasp until she felt Rick start to loosen his grip on her shoulders. “Here, this’ll be good enough. Drop her.”

As they dropped her, she flung herself sideways and rolled, landing on her shaky feet and hands; she was just able to push herself up. She staggered two steps, got caught by some bushes, thrust them aside fiercely and plunged forward, helplessly, down the side of an abyss.

Chapter 9

Amanda was sitting on a large bus that was traveling over an enormously high, arched bridge. The bus skidded suddenly and swerved, and then turned into a huge recalcitrant pony that bucked and threw her off its back and down toward the deep blue-black water beneath. She plunged miles and miles through the blackness. Her mouth felt dry and muffled, stuffed with thick black cotton wool; her head buzzed and echoed and her stomach heaved. Then she was awake and aware only of a stabbing agony in her arm and shoulder. Memory trickled back slowly. She knew she must be very quick, and very quiet, but she couldn’t remember why. From up above her she became aware of furious whisperings and muted scuffles. That was it. She had fallen and left them up there. She remembered it all now. She must have passed out when she landed. How long had she been unconscious? It felt like a very long time, but if they were still up there discussing her, it couldn’t have been for more than a few moments.

It was time to explore her position. She was lying on her left side, with her face very close to some slimy-feeling substance and with something very hard pressing into her spine. Gingerly, she wriggled her toes, and then tried to move first one leg, then the other. They both seemed to function. She tried to dig her toes in to push herself upright, but her shoes caught on something that gave and left her with nothing under her feet but empty air. The movement caused a rustling from the branches and twigs she had dislodged.

“I heard her move,” hissed a voice from above. “She must be all right.”

“Go back to the car and get the flashlight out of the trunk—the big one. The keys are in the ignition. Quick!”

Panic seized Amanda once again. She had to get away from here before they came to get her. She tried to move her whole body, but it was clear that she was too tightly wedged; by the feel of things she was between a very unyielding tree trunk and the damp bottom of a gully. Automatically she put her hands down and tried to lever herself up. The throbbing pain that she had been living with for the last few minutes rapidly changed into excruciating agony. She gasped and felt tears pouring down her cheeks. She stopped and rested, panting with shock. Think, Amanda, she screamed silently to herself, think! You have to get yourself out of here. Push with your other hand. She scrabbled around in the dirt to get her right hand under her and pushed. Nothing happened. She never had been able to do push-ups in gym class, and one-handed push-ups were simply impossible. Suddenly there was another noise from above, and a huge beam of light began to move back and forth around her. She had to get away from here. Move Amanda, you idiot, you twit, you . . . She couldn’t come up with the words needed to spur herself on.

“There she is—down there. See?” The hiss chilled her.

“That’s not her. Damn those goddamn green clothes they wear. They’re impossible to see. Keep looking. She must have fallen somewhere close to here.”

“There’s a path over there that goes down to the bottom of the ravine, Jimmy. We’re better off down there. Let’s go.”

“Wait. You go. Take the flashlight. I’ll stay here until you get under me. Otherwise we’ll never know where she went down. And stay there until I get down.”

Rick’s heavy footsteps moved away at a rapid pace. For a few moments, anyway, they wouldn’t have that light near her. She couldn’t push herself with her feet; her knees were too wedged-in to be of any use; she couldn’t lever herself with the one arm that worked. She reached out ahead of her. There was ground, steeply sloped, but solid; her hand caught a branch. She gave it an experimental tug and it held, at least for the moment. She pulled frantically and her body moved out of its vise an inch or two; she retched with the pain. She pulled again, moved another few inches, and her body turned at the same time, ever so slightly. For a moment she could think of nothing but the pain. Then she heard Rick’s ponderous footfalls, this time below her. I must get my knees under me. I must. Come on, Amanda, pull—to hell with the arm, pull! She yanked again, moved another six inches, heeled dangerously over on her left side now that the tree trunk no longer provided support, and lay there sobbing in pain.

“Hey, Jimmy. Where the hell are you? She’s somewhere up above me, but I can’t see exactly where.”

“Just a minute. I’ll be right down. Shine the goddamn light back on the path.” More sounds of feet, lighter, this time, and faster. “Shine the light on the path, you idiot.” A crash and scuffle. “Not in my goddamn eyes you bastard, on the path.”

Desperate, Amanda clutched her branch and slowly drew one knee forward. It found a niche to rest in, and she brought up the other knee, positioning it carefully against her old enemy, the tree trunk. With a heave she was in a more tenable position. Not exactly on all fours—her useless arm was dangling painfully. Nancy Drew would have improvised a sling at this point, and then probably some sort of defensive weapon. Amanda could almost smile at the idea.

From her more upright position she was able to look around her and try to figure out where she was. Far below her she saw the powerful flashlight beam illuminating the path. Dizziness washed in and then receded as she realized just how high up she was. Then the light stabbed the darkness around her once again. They must both be below now. The beam traveled over the steep slope beneath, slowly and regularly, sweeping back and forth, starting way ahead of her and moving back over every inch of ground. With each horizontal sweep it moved higher and higher. She crouched to present as small a target as possible. Suddenly it was level with her, up ahead, throwing the rough terrain into dramatic relief. She saw that she was on a narrow ledge that ran level for about fifteen or twenty feet and ended in a tangle of thick undergrowth, probably another fissure in the surface of the slope. Then the light caught her. It moved on, then stopped. It moved back.

“There she is. Way up there. See that white? It’s her. She must be hurt—she isn’t moving. Let’s go.” With ferocious scrambling and muttered curses they launched themselves at the slope.

The din made by two full-grown men hurtling up a steep wooded slope in the dark hampered by a large flashlight that bumps and crashes is impressive, and certainly adequate to cover the noise made by a terrified and rather small fifteen-year-old girl crawling rapidly along a fairly level ledge. Amanda tried very hard not to think of the height and sheerness of the drop beside her; she wished fervently that her functioning arm had been on the other side to save her in case she started to fall, but terror pushed her on regardless. She moved at a sort of crouching run, steadying herself with her good hand every step or two and falling down on her knees for support every five or six steps. It was a surprisingly speedy method of getting from place to place. Suddenly her hand reached for the ground and encountered nothing but a handful of small branches. She moved her knees up to the edge and felt over. It was another bottomless pit as far as she could tell, but it was the only place to go. Soon those two would have made it up to the ledge and would start searching for her again—they had the advantage: four arms, four legs, and a light. She waved her arm back and forth over the void until it encountered something solid—a branch, or perhaps a sapling, growing in the cut. She turned around and flattened on her belly, edged herself over, feet first, reached out and grabbed the branch. She slid, slowly at first, then faster; the branch snapped in her hand and she landed with a sickening thud on her feet, then sat down, suddenly.