By choice or by force Ch. 06

Her mind was working overtime as she studied her surroundings and weighed up her options.

The walk was not too long, but it was well out of the lights of the house, with only a couple of wimpy looking flood lights, pointing down from the top of the open gate.

Laurie touched the cold metal as she looked around idly, noting the camera just beside one of the lights.

It seemed to be pointing right down into the very middle of the road, and so she side-stepped out of its field of vision and then smiled back at Iain who moved towards her.

He reached out as if to grab her and she turned and moved just enough into the road so that he missed.

"You know something," she began conversationally as she looked over her shoulder at him, and he stepped up behind her.

"No... what?

"Well since Iris married James, and James has his own properties and estate, and so on... well they did not want to inherit much from my father, and so it was decided that dad's estate would be passed on to me... and my partner..."

"Oh?"

He stepped even closer and his tone warmed with interest, the nearest thing to affection that she had received from him yet, Laurie thought with bitter amusement.

"Yes... and since we are so close, and he is my father... why don't we stroll across so that I can introduce you to him?" she suggested as though the thought has just occurred to her. "We can ask for his blessing... which I know he'll give when he sees how much I love you." She opened her eyes wide, and tried to look as adoring as she could.

It must have been convincing because he suddenly grinned widely.

"Yes," he said eagerly taking her hand tightly in his. "Why don't we?"

They cut across the darkened road and scrambled down the steep embankment.

"Would we do better to go back for a car and drive round to the house?" Iain grunted sourly at one point.

Laurie laughed. "I promise you this way is much quicker, ours and your uncle's land are so close that they almost touch, in places... it's not far at all," she said lightly as she deliberately kept moving.

She had run across this land so many times over the years; that she knew every bump and hole by heart.

Iain did not though and as she led him across, she made sure he found every single one of them.

"Shit!" he snapped at one point and then his hand suddenly left hers as he went over heavily.

"Iain my love!" she knelt down "Are you hurt... are you okay!" she demanded anxiously.

He slowly pulled his foot out of a tight hole in the ground and he winced as he flexed his ankle.

"No, I am bloody well not!" he snapped as the pain flooded through him. "I think that I twisted my damned ankle."

"What? Oh, my dear... my... my poor love!" she floundered around in a panic.

"Well don't just sit there... go and get some help!" he snapped again.

She shot to her feet, and turned. "I'll be right back, try not to move your foot too much."

She ran lightly away and knew that she would soon be out of his eye range.

Her father's back veranda was lit up brightly and the door was standing invitingly open.

"Daddy!" Laurie called out as she rushed inside.

Her father was sat on the sofa reading a book and he looked up startled at her sudden appearance.

He still had a tendency to go very pale, when fatigue hit him, and he had not quite gained the weight that he had lost during his illness; and even though she was still afraid, she knew that she had to be careful.

"Laurie! What on earth?"

"Daddy," she said as she rushed across to him. "Daddy I'm - we are in trouble!"

"What's happened... what are you talking about?"

She pulled him to his feet. "I will explain as we go... but we must leave now - right now!"

"Leave?"

"Yes, we have to go!"

She turned away from him as he seemed to remain on his feet.

"Where are your car keys?"

"Laurie I am not going anywhere until you explain... and even then..."

"I promise daddy," she said anxiously, "But we have to go... your keys... your pills?" she said as she suddenly thought.

She turned back the way she had come in and pulled the doors closed, and then locked them. Then she pulled the curtains across as if for good measure.

She turned back to her father, who will still standing there and beginning to look alarmed.

"Laurie!" he demanded again.

"We have to leave - we are in danger daddy we have to leave now!"

"Well can't I at least pack something - and you, you have nothing with you, and where are we to go?"

"No time, we just have to go, we have to go daddy we have to go - now, now before they come after me!"

She took his elbow as though to lead him out, but then spotting his bottles and packets of tablets on the side, she let go and scooped up a large plastic fruit bowl sitting there. She tipped the fruit out letting it tumble heavily to the floor and then swept her arm across to brush all his pills into the bowl.

"Now, your keys?"

Her very real fear and anxiety seemed to be transmitting itself to him, as he reached across and picked up a set of keys.

"Wait!" he said firmly.

"No daddy there's no time, they'll be here any minute daddy, we have to leave now."

He did not reply but just walked quickly into the kitchen and she heard him rummaging around for a moment.

Then he came back carrying a box, and judging by the way he was grunting and the colour in his face, she concluded that it was a heavy box.

"My coat and get one for yourself off the coat stand." he instructed.

"But daddy..."

"We don't know where we are going or nothing, so let's take a few supplies at least,"

Laurie was still very anxious but her father seemed to be on board for the moment so that was something at least.

"Okay," she pulled two heavy looking coats down from the coat pegs.

"Now you go and start the car, and dump these things in the back and I will be right behind you."

"Come now dad!"

"No, I need to get some things out of my safe... my bank cards and cash, then I will lock up and we can go."

She knew that arguing would just delay them more, and so she meekly did as he said.

"Please hurry," she whispered as she pulled open the front door.

She carried the bowl and the coats over to the car, and then dumped them onto the back seat, after that she placed the bowl on the floor of the car, behind the passenger seat. And then she rushed back for the box.

It was heavy, and she grunted as she hauled it across and dropped it on top of the coats.

She looked over her shoulder towards the house, and was relieved to see her father there and pulling the door too behind him.

"Oh, thank god!" she whispered tearfully as she scrambled into the driver's seat and switched on the engine.

"Hurry daddy," she said as he pulled open the passenger door.

She did not wait for him to buckle up. As soon as he closed his door, she put her foot down and the car screeched out of the driveway and on to the dark country road.

She kept her foot down as she took them away from both her father's house and Bill Frawnings' estate as well.

Her father sat watching her in silence for a while, but when it seemed like she was not going to talk, he sighed.

"Now you can explain please - daughter of mine, and it had better be good!"

Greg sat in silence as his daughter began her emotional low-voiced story. All the time she kept her eyes on the road as he sat side on watching her.

She told him of the abduction, and of her attempted rescue, she glossed over Michael by saying only that he was her neighbour who had unwittingly become involved, but she could not stop the anguish in her voice, whenever she mentioned his name.

"Anyway, once the others had left, I saw my opportunity to get away and ran home!" she finished as she brushed a tear from her cheek.

"And you don't know who this man was and where he took them?"

"No... but he scared me dad, he seemed so strong... so powerful, and I think he means to use us... Iris, Aunt Trudy and me - to set up some sort of lab and use our blood to fight their disease."

"Our disease," he corrected thoughtfully as he turned to look at the road ahead. He sat silent for a few moments and then he heaved a sigh. "Pull the car to the side of the road, Laurie."

She automatically did as he instructed and as the car came to a halt, he pulled out his mobile phone.

"I am going to make a quick call, and I want you to slide over to the passenger seat, since I will be driving from here on."

She sat and watched as her father walked into the headlights of the car.

She could see that he was talking to someone, and then his chin came up as though in surprise; and his shoulders went back. He began to wave his free arm around and she could see his anger building.

"Oh daddy," she whimpered from the car.

Suddenly he shoved the phone back into his pocket and strode to the driver's side.

She cowered in the corner as he turned the car around and began to drive back the way that they had come.

"Where are we going?" she whimpered miserably.

"To sort this mess out - once and for all!" Greg told her through gritted teeth.