The Leader, Frank, jumped off of his snowmobile; he tore off his ski mask and marched through the snow towards the snowmobile that Jose and Needles sat on. Everything about Frank was hard and lean, his eyes were like glittering black stones set deep in a face that seemed like it was carved from granite. His dark eyes never left the two men as he raced through the snow at them.

Jose, small and twitchy, dismounted the snowmobile and stepped aside; he knew Frank was coming for Needles and he wanted to put some distance between himself and Needles right now.

Needles, a tall and wiry man, lifted up his ski mask. Prison tattoos peeked out from underneath his coat collar and wound their way up the sides of his neck. His long, unruly hair cascaded down to his shoulders. Usually Needles was an imposing figure; the kind of man you thought twice about messing with, an air of danger and violence about him. But right now he looked stunned; his eyes were wide and nervous, his mouth hung open slightly. He watched Frank march towards him.

“What the fuck, Needles?!” Frank yelled. “What the fuck happened back there?”

Needles shook his head no as he stared at Frank with lost eyes. “I don’t know, Frank. That old man, he wouldn’t get on the floor. He … he grabbed me. Tried to attack me.”

“So you kill him?”

Needles didn’t have an answer for Frank.

Frank was only a few feet away from Needles, insane fury dancing in his eyes.

Cole and Trevor dismounted their snowmobile and Cole pulled up his ski mask, revealing a handsome face and close-cropped dark hair. He rushed over and stepped in between Frank and Needles at the last second. “Come on, Frank. Let’s think about this for a minute.”

Frank turned to Cole – they locked eyes. Cole’s muscles tensed; he was ready for anything right now. He’d seen Frank angry before, but never this angry. Finally, Frank stepped away. He paced through the snow for a moment, breathing out a long slow breath.

Cole watched Frank, still a little unsure about him for a moment. “What now, boss?”

Frank looked at Cole, then at the others. “Change of plans.”

“Change of plans?” Jose yelled.

“Yes, a change of plans,” Frank growled at Jose. “Since that psycho motherfucker over there decided to kill someone, every cop in the state is going to be looking for us now.”

A silence blanketed them for a moment. Frank glanced at Trevor, a pale but athletic-looking man who looked more like a grad student than a bank robber. Trevor pulled out a pair of glasses from his coat pocket, completing the look. He took a folded paper out of his jacket, unfolded it, and studied it for a moment. It was a hand-drawn map. He looked up and pointed at the dark woods. “If we go through those woods for about half a mile, there will be a road.”

Stella’s rusty Chevy Suburban rumbled down the lonely snow-covered road, walls of evergreens lined both sides of the roads; it made her feel like she was driving through a gigantic maze, a white path that twisted through big green walls. She concentrated on the road, gripping the steering wheel as the windshield wipers struggled to push the falling snow out of the way.

The heater blasted warm air at Stella and David as the radio played classic rock and roll. The song ended. “That was Fleetwood Mac,” the DJ on the radio said. “Looks like there’s no end in sight for the big series of snowstorms moving through. Some areas can expect at least another foot of snow and possible whiteout conditions.”

“Yeah, we know,” Stella muttered at the radio.

Stella watched the road, slowing down a little as they rounded a curve which revealed more trees. More and more trees. Unending trees. No buildings. No other cars in sight. No signs of human life. She hadn’t seen another vehicle for the last twenty minutes. That was probably because everybody else knew about the snowstorm; they were already tucked safely inside their homes, ready to ride out the storm. They weren’t driving through it like idiots.

She glanced at David who stared out the windshield, his body rigid, his face tense. He looked out the passenger window and watched the dark green blur of trees whip by, then he turned around and stared out the back window of the Suburban, watching the road and dark trees disappear into a mist of white snow.

Stella forced a smile – hopefully a reassuring smile. “David, don’t worry. It didn’t follow us.”

David turned and stared at Stella with his dark eyes, searching her eyes for the truth.

Stella smiled and changed the subject. “Don’t you want to know where we’re going?”

David nodded. “Where?” he whispered.

“My aunt’s house. She lives in northern Colorado. We’ll be safe up there. I promise. Then we’ll figure out what to do next. We’ll call someone for you.”

David looked down at his coat and toyed with one of the buttons.

Stella watched the road for a moment as she rounded a bend. She glanced back at David as she talked to him. “There has to be someone I can call for you.”

No answer from David.

“David, why won’t you tell me?”

Still no answer from David.

“You need to talk to me,” she said a little louder and sharper than she had intended.

David looked at Stella. His eyes drilled into hers, they seemed to burn into her mind for a split second. “My parents aren’t here anymore.”

The words shocked Stella. “What do you mean? What happened to them?”

David looked out the windshield, his eyes widened in shock. “Look out!!”

Stella looked back at the road and saw a man dressed in a dark coat standing in the middle of the snow-covered road; he waved his arms, trying to flag her down. She stomped her foot on the brake. Too hard. The tires locked up; the Suburban skidded along the snow and ice, sliding helplessly.

“Hold on!” Stella shouted at David as she muscled the steering wheel, trying to turn the truck, watching in horror as the man only stood there, perhaps frozen with fear. The truck got closer and closer to the man, and then it slid right past him, barely missing him.

Her truck slid off the side of the road and ran down through a ditch where it crashed through snow drifts and shrubs, running some of the shrubs over, crunching them to the ground, before finally coming to a stop with a jolt.

Stella sat there for a moment in shock; her fingers gripped the steering wheel like she was still driving. The windshield wipers thumped back and forth, the headlights stabbed through the murky daylight, one of the headlight beams at a crazy angle now.

For a moment Stella’s mind buzzed with panic. It was him, her mind whispered, it was the person she’d seen standing in the road when they’d left the dig site. But her rational mind fought back. It wasn’t the same person. She’d seen the man’s face for a split second as she slid past him.

She turned to David. “Are you okay?”

David nodded as a shudder of breath escaped him, his eyes still wide with shock.

Stella looked back out the windshield as she exhaled a long breath. “What … who was – ”

A rapping at her driver’s window cut her words off, a small scream escaped her throat. She turned and stared straight into Cole’s ruggedly handsome face.

“Are you okay?” Cole called through the driver’s window. He bent down, his face close to the glass, his breath coming out in plumes, fogging the glass a little.

Stella nodded as she rolled down the window; the freezing air invaded the truck immediately. “Yeah, we’re okay. What were you doing in the middle of the road? Is something wrong?”

Cole winced as he pulled his pistol out from his coat pocket. “I’m sorry, lady.” He pointed the gun at her. “We need your vehicle.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Stella couldn’t move or respond; she could only stare at the barrel of Cole’s gun pointed at her face.

Cole backed up a few steps, his boots sinking down into the snow piled up on the side of the road. He looked across the road, but his pistol was still aimed right at Stella.