EDGE OF DAY

CHAPTER SEVEN

"They're shooting at us!"

Ed veered onto a slip road. They skidded around a cracked, overgrown roundabout, swinging into a side road way too fast.

"Watch out for the bush!" Day screamed. The car ploughed through a wall of dense shrub and came to a standstill. Ed cut the engine. Day's seatbelt released and shot back into its ceiling casing.

"Open doors," Ed ordered.

"Please remain calm, the police are on their way."

"Let's try the override system," he muttered. Day jumped, as Ed slammed his fist into the voice box of the car. The plastic cracked. Ed removed the debris and began doing something to the wires. Within seconds, the doors swished up. Day stumbled out, battering aside brambles and branches, trying to get as far away as possible in case the vehicle exploded.

"Turn that damn beeping off," Ed snapped.

She took a moment to connect the beeping with her wrist monitor. Her fingers shook as she tapped in the code to try to disconnect, despite knowing it was impossible. The monitor only let you disconnect in safe public spaces.

Ed grabbed her arm. She recoiled. He smacked the monitor cover with the Lineman's pliers he'd used for the car wiring. The screen broke. Flecks of bio-plastic cut her wrists.

Shock rippled through her. He'd broken her monitor! Was he insane? How was she supposed to survive without it?

"Move it!" he ordered. He had a backpack on and carried a metal stick, which he extended like a vintage telescope and used to cut a path away from the roundabout.

"We're not going to get very far without oxygen," she called after him.

His figure vanished, concealed by the brambles and bush. "We've got at least an hour," he shouted back. "The oxygen out here is nowhere near as bad as they pretend."

Her heartbeat hammered at a manic pace. This was crazy. It was like she was on the edge of a cliff, and each time she thought she had caught hold of something to pull back up, she just slipped further from the edge.

She did not want to go with Ed. But now he'd broken her monitor, and the police were about to show up to serve driving penalties, what choice did she have? Once again she felt cornered, forced to follow Ed though her whole being resisted it.

Suddenly, the black van raced into view. She ducked down and backed stepped deeper into the bushes.

The van skidded around the roundabout and came to a screeching halt. The passenger door flung open. A man jumped out. He was dressed from head to foot in black, including balaclava and smart-gun.

"Can you pick up any signs of the vehicle?" he called to the driver.

"Nothing."

Mr Balaclava revolved three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, scanning the landscape for clues. Ed had chosen where to crash the car pretty damn well if this guy couldn't see it from the road. The bush was such a tangled mess the hole they'd ploughed through it wasn't obvious.

Beads of perspiration prickled above Day's lip. Her hands trembled. Her legs were like marshmallow. She doubted she'd be able to get up and run after Ed even if the man saw her.

"Hang on," Mr Balaclava said. "There's something over here."

Her heart popped into her throat, choking her. She shuffled backwards, trying to keep the rustling and twig snapping to a minimum. The man strode towards her, studying where the car had gone into the bush.