Alaska Wilde 7 last half

"I love you, Allie!" Mark's voice came through the trees. Even through the pounding hooves and sound of the ultralight, the words were surprisingly distinct.

Allie reached the edge of the dense woods and slowed accommodate the thickening of branches and brush. Jay tried to keep up, but began to lose sight of them as they zigzagged through the woods.

"Allie! Wait!" he called. Shock of shocks, she stopped. The pack horses crowed in around her.

The ultralight swooped past at about the same time Jay caught up to Allie.

"It's too—"

"Quiet!" Allie suddenly looked down at the ground.

Jay followed her glance. They were on a trail, but he hadn't noticed it because they'd been galloping. A small rock pile with smaller rocks strewn to the side of the trail looked like they'd been purposely arranged.

"What is that?" Jay asked.

"Beats me, but the rocks were stacked by human hands," she said, her brow crinkling into a frown."Farther back, I saw a couple of other piles of rocks, and others that looked like they were recently moved."

The ultralight coughed a couple of times and began sputtering. They looked up through the treetops. The ultralight was attempting to circle back toward them. It also seemed to be moving too slowly to stay in the air. Suddenly all engine noise ceased.

"He's gonna crash," Allie said unnecessarily.

Even as slowly as the ultralight was traveling, Jay doubted anyone could survive a crash into the towering treetops. Once the ultralight stopped gliding, it would probably go into a vertical drop. When that happened, the plane was pretty much at the mercy of whatever was in its way

Through the treetops, Jay watched one wing clip the top of a tall pine. The ultralight wrenched violently and disappeared from ...

... middle of paper ...

...he crater, it made a made a surprisingly loud crashing sound. Luckily, neither of them had to witness the actual crash with their own eyes.

"No-no-no!" Allie cried out in anguish. She took Jay's hand, more to keep her steady than for comfort, then struggled to her feet, pulling Jay with her.

A preternaturally loud, eerie call pierced the air. Jay felt Allie's hand tighten around his.

"What the hell was that?" Jay asked, the hair on the back of his neck still standing on end even though the call ended seconds earlier.

Allie scanned the area, though she barely moved her head. "Whatever it is, it sounds a lot closer than I like."

Then a loud, odd snort rent the air. Jay and Allie took another cautious step forward toward the unstable edge of the crater and finally reached a place where they could fully see inside the crater.

Allie gasped. Jay's blood ran cold.