Chapter 5 - The Hunter In The Fog
A thick, freezing fog rolled down from the peaks, swallowing the pine forests in a blinding shroud of gray. Sister Esperanza moved like a ghost through the underbrush, her bare feet numb to the jagged stones and icy brambles tearing at her flesh.
She held two-year-old Mateo tightly against her hip with one arm, while little Sofia lay bundled against her chest in the canvas sling, sleeping fitfully beneath the heavy woolen habit. Every breath Esperanza drew felt like glass in her lungs. She had lived a cloistered, sedentary life of prayer and needlework; her body was entirely unaccustomed to running through mountain wilderness in the dead of winter.
Worse, a deep, persistent cramp was beginning to coil low in her abdomen.
No, she prayed frantically, pressing a hand against her stomach. Not now. Please, God, not this child.
Whether the pregnancy was a natural miracle or the product of monstrous human science, the life growing inside her was innocent. She had felt its tiny pulse stirring within her just two days prior. She could not lose it.
Suddenly, a pair of brilliant yellow beams cut through the dense fog ahead.
Esperanza dropped instantly behind a fallen pine trunk, pulling Mateo down beside her and pressing her hand gently over the toddler's mouth. ""Hush, my sweet angel,"" she breathed against his ear. ""Stay silent as a little mouse.""
A black sedan crawled slowly down the winding mountain road just thirty yards away. The vehicle moved at a walking pace, its spotlight panning aggressively left and right, sweeping the tree trunks, illuminating the falling flakes of early snow.
Through the windshield, illuminated by the dashboard glow, sat Dr. Paloma.
His face was pale, tight with desperation. Esperanza watched as the car stopped near the edge of the culvert. Paloma stepped out, leaving the engine running and the door open. In his right hand, he carried a heavy flashlight; in his left, he held a stainless steel case.
""Esperanza!"" his voice echoed through the trees, falsely sweet, dripping with venomous patronization. ""Esperanza, child, come out! It's Dr. Paloma! Mother Caridad was confused—she had an episode! You are endangering the baby, Esperanza! You need your medication!""
Esperanza curled tighter behind the log, her heart hammering against her ribs so loudly she feared the doctor would hear it over the rumble of the car engine.
Mateo squirmed in her arms, cold and terrified. A dry twig snapped beneath the boy’s foot.
Dr. Paloma’s flashlight instantly froze on the brush.
""I hear you, little one,"" Paloma said, his voice dropping an octave as his boots crunched through the frosted grass. ""Don't be frightened. The doctor is here.""
He was less than twenty feet away. The beam of light was creeping up the bark of the fallen log, inches from exposing Mateo’s woolen blanket.
Esperanza realized she had no weapon, no strength to fight a grown man, and two infants to protect. If Paloma reached them, he would sedate her, drag them into the trunk, and they would vanish into the shadowy network of Fernando’s high-paying clients forever.
She had only one advantage: she had grown up in these mountains before being placed in the convent. She knew where the old logging flumes lay.
Reaching down into the snow, Esperanza found a heavy, jagged river stone. With every ounce of strength remaining in her trembling right arm, she hurled the rock far to the right, toward the steep ravine on the opposite side of the road.
The stone crashed violently through the branches, bouncing off the boulder field below with a loud, clattering roar.
""There you are!"" Paloma yelled, lunging toward the ravine with his flashlight raised, entirely abandoning the log.
May you like
""Now,"" Esperanza whispered.
She rose swiftly from the shadows and bolted across the road behind the idling car, disappearing into the black safety of the southern forest.
