One Grave Less

again? Twice she had let her down. Diane wanted to cry. Instead, she waited for the next lightning and searched.
    Nothing. She moved forward down the hiking trail, more slowly this time, looking for hiding places.
    “Ariel, honey,” she said, but it came out as a croak.
    The next flash of lightning, she saw another shoe. She ran to it.
    “Ariel,” she shouted as loud as she could.
    “Mama?”
    The voice was so soft Diane wasn’t sure she heard it.
    “Ariel,” she shouted again, “it’s Mama. Where are you, baby?”
    “Mama.”
    It was louder this time. Coming from a thicket beside the ditch up ahead. Diane raced to it. Lightning flashed and Ariel came running to her. Diane held her.
    “Baby, I’m so sorry.”
    “I bit him, Mama. He won’t try to hurt me again.”
    “No, baby, he won’t.”
    “Well, ain’t this cute?”
    Diane pushed Ariel behind her and turned to the voice.
    Another supersoldier. He had caught them out in the open.
    “You’re the bitch that chewed up James.” His laugh sounded like some weird sound effect coming through the deluge of wind and rain. “He’s really pissed. He’ll like it that I found you. You still got no notion where that package is? I’ll bet if we put a gun to that runt’s head, you’ll come up with it right quick. Now drop your gun. You don’t have a chance to raise it before I pop you one.”
    Diane stood looking at him, thinking.
    “Drop it, bitch, or I’ll drop you.”
    Diane dropped the gun. It splashed and disappeared in the puddle of water beside her.
    “Now, come over here,” he said.
    Frank was right. They shouldn’t have split up. But if they hadn’t, they may never have found Ariel.
    “Come. Over. Here. Now,” he barked, trying to yell above the howl of the storm.
    The lightning flashed a dozen, two dozen times, until it was a giant, continuous, arcing electrical spark lighting the sky, and Diane heard the sound of a freight train, saw the giant shadow, saw the supersoldier turn.
    “What the hell?” he said.
    Diane reached behind her and pulled Steven’s gun from her waistband. Before the man could turn back toward them, she aimed the weapon with firm hands and fired at his head and neck until there were no more bullets. She knew from the jerks of his body he was hit multiple times.
    Diane saw him snatched up by the storm just as she jumped for the ditch beside the trail, holding Ariel to her.
    They didn’t move, hardly breathed, until the roaring noise subsided.
    “What was that?” whispered Ariel.
    “That was our friend the tornado,” said Diane. She squeezed Ariel to her. “Love your heart, baby girl,” she said.
    “Where did the tornado take him?” asked Ariel.
    “I hope a long way from here. Kansas maybe,” said Diane.
    Diane was afraid to leave the bushes and the ditch, afraid of finding another soldier and not having any more bullets, or encountering another tornado. She settled into as comfortable a spot as she could find and pulled Ariel on top of her, trying to cushion her from the hard wet ground.
    “Are you all right, baby?” Diane asked her.
    “I’m fine. Lindsay and I had to do stuff like this all the time,” said Ariel.
    “You like her, don’t you?” said Diane, smiling into the darkness. Sticks poked at her back and she was wet and tired, but she was never more comfortable.
    She felt Ariel nodding. “I was afraid she might leave me if everything got too hard, but she didn’t.”
    “Ariel, baby, I’m so sorry . . .”
    Ariel put a hand on Diane’s mouth. “You didn’t leave me,” she said. “The bad man took me away. I love you, Mama.”
    “And I love you, baby,” Diane said.
    The rain began to let up and the wind died down to a hard breeze, but it was still dark.
    “Ariel. Diane.”
    Another voice in the darkness. This one belonged to Frank.
    “Here,” she said.
    She got up and ran to Frank, carrying Ariel. He embraced them both. He had the ruby slippers in his hand.
    “We need to get back to the museum,” said Frank. “I found Liam in the woods—or rather, he found me. He’s been tracking the mercenaries. He has them all taken out but one.”
    “Our friend the tornado took him to Kansas,” said Ariel.
    Frank stared at her a moment. Then he looked at Diane.
    “That’s what happened,” she said.
    “You’re kidding me, aren’t you?” he said.
    “Nope. It was a sight to see,” said Diane.
    “I see you found Steven,” said Frank.
    “Ariel bit him and got away. I shot