buckle; he could break most men in half with his bare hands. Hank has these thoughts as Theo opens the front door and steps out onto the porch. Hank knows it was not the storm, not the wind. He knows the love of his life is out there - alone - and that she just saved their son’s life.
Theo walks with slow even steps on the wooden raised deck that forms the porch, which encircles the lodge. He peers into the night scanning for movement. The beams from the lodge and six cabins form a crisscrossing lattice of light. His eyes and ears are acutely receptive. Theo likes hunting. He always snares his prey.
Underneath the porch, in the two-foot crawl space, Alison stops moving as Theo steps directly above her. She holds her breath. She cranes her neck around to look up and sees the bottom of his shoes through the little gap between the slates of the wood porch. Theo’s instincts are keen and he senses her. He knows for certain someone is near. They both hesitate: Theo above, Alison beneath. Slowly, he turns his head from side-to-side. He feels her presence and even in this driving rain, he smells her. She is trapped. She feels it. She closes her eyes for a second and focuses on taking a long slow breath to try to calm her thumping heart. Theo steps. Lightning. She knows the thunder is coming. She hesitates. Then, boom! The thunder growls, and on her stomach, she stretches out her arms and pulls her body along in the mud during the rumbling. Pulling, she heads for the backside of the lodge. She reaches out her arms. She pulls. Theo takes two steps toward the edge of the porch. Her elbow moves against something soft. She turns to look. Her face is inches from Hobbs’ staring bloody eyes. It is just the tiniest of shrieks - immediately choked off - but too late. Above, Theo looks down and smiles. He jumps from the porch landing his two big feet on the ground. He drops down and looks under the deck. Something is scurrying away in the darkness. He dives under the deck. With his long arms spread wide and his legs moving rapidly he crawls at twice the speed she does. She claws along on her stomach in fierce desperation, slapping her hands down, using her knees to propel her forward. Theo gains on her. His big flat hand reaches for her foot. She yanks it away with only a little gap now between them. With her knees slightly bent, and crawling as far up off the ground as the deck will allow, she speeds like a terrified spider. Her hands plunge into the mud up to her wrist, over and over, while her knees push at the ground frantically. The sharp edge of a broken twig smacks up and cuts her eyelid. She doesn’t feel it. She gasps from the exertion and muddy leaves are sucked into her mouth. She spits. Theo’s hand surges out and grabs hold of her right foot. Panicked, she kicks back hard with her left smashing Theo in the face. Surprised, he lets go and wipes the mud out of his eyes. This is fun, he thinks. He presses on after her. Alison emerges from under the porch at the back of the lodge. She staggers to her feet and darts into the woods. Theo bursts from the crawl space only seconds behind her. He springs to his feet and chases. He is mighty and physically fit; he knows he will catch her. But the ground is slick and her feet are more competent now in the mud than his are. She has a tiny advantage because she has learned some of the tricks of these woods and because she is running for her life and the lives of her family. Nevertheless, he is closing on her. She dodges left. He follows. She jumps over that slick flat rock she knows at her feet, dives to the ground and rolls down the embankment she recognizes. Theo’s right foot lands directly on the sheer rock face, which is covered with mud. His foot slides unexpectedly throwing him off-balance. Surprised, he hits the ground hard and slides down the slippery mud path and off the cliff’s edge. He grabs for anything as his body sails over and he manages a grip on an exposed tree root. He jerks to an abrupt stop -