Keeping the vehicle at about five miles per hour, he nudged the SUV forward, moving down the tracks and onto the bridge. “Easy does it.”
Thu-thunk thu-thunk thu-thunk.
Kristi whispered to herself. “Don’t look down. Don’t look down.”
“I’ve got this, angel.” He sure as fuck hoped he did.
He expected they’d survive the fall, but he wasn’t sure they’d survive the river. If they didn’t drown, they’d run a high risk of becoming lunch.
Fuck that.
He focused straight ahead, held the wheel steady, the tires finding a rhythm over the uneven surface of railway ties and the space between them.
Thu-thunk thu-thunk thu-thunk.
Kristi sat, absolutely silent and still, beside him.
“Breathe, Kristi.” He heard her exhale, his gaze fixed on the tracks ahead of him. “We’re already a third of the way across.”
“I’m keeping my eyes shut.”
He couldn’t blame her for that. Looking ahead, he could see they were on tracks, but if he looked out his side window, there was nothing but a sheer drop to the river.
He drove slowly forward.
Pop!
Kristi gasped as the vehicle jerked to the right.
Malik got control of it again, but he knew what had happened. “We lost our front right tire. It was probably punctured by a spike or bolt. We’ve got a spare in the back. We’re good.”
They had a spare. One spare. If they blew a second tire, they’d be in trouble. Either way, they had no option but to keep moving forward.
Thwap-thunk thwap-thunk thwap-thunk.
“We’re halfway there.”
The blown tire made it more difficult to steer, but he held on, fighting a constant pull to the right.
“Do you hear that?” Kristi asked.
“What?”
“It sounds like…” Kristi looked over her shoulder. “A train!”
He glanced in his rearview mirror, saw a freight train speeding toward the bridge behind them. “No fucking way!”
“I thought Ranger Tinubu said this bridge wasn’t in use!”
“He said it wasn’t used often. Hang on.” Malik accelerated, but the faster he went, the harder it was to control the steering.
They were two-thirds of the way across now. Just another five hundred feet to go.
But the train was moving much faster.
Kristi looked over her shoulder. “It’s catching up with us!”
The conductor gave them a deafening blast of his whistle, waving through his window for them to go faster, the train so close Malik could see his face.