Five Days in Summer

snap-kicked at the front of Al’s knees. Al buckled to the floor right next to Amy. David jabbed another kick at Al’s shoulder.
    Al jerked back up to his knees and tried to grab hold of David’s leg. But David was fast; he spun behind Al, who kept reaching and fell by his own momentum. Al was jackknifed backward, bent at the knees, giving David a good clear shot at the crotch. They were taught to kick at the crotch and run for their lives but David had another idea. He’d weaken him with the kick at the crotch then knee him in the spot right under the jaw to knock him out.
    He kicked and the cop moaned and then he kneed him. Al grunted, heaved forward and grabbed on to David’s ankles. He pulled and David crashed to the floor. Al pitched his body in David’s direction like hewanted to land on him, but David rolled away before the man hit the ground.
    David ran to the other side of the boat and just like he wanted Al came for him. David fell into a crouch and braced as Al tripped over him and buckled to the floor.
    Al struggled to his feet and David kept moving, pulling back for a snap-kick-punch-strike. But just as he came forward, the cop twisted to the side and grabbed something. A long knife. David felt the cold blade press into his neck.

Chapter 35
    The little girl was running through the bramble, crying. Ted Joyner fell to his knees and she jumped into his arms.
    Will hurled himself down the hill and leapt onto the dock. He took it in five long bounds, jumped across the water and landed on the deck of the boat. He kicked open the hatch and used his arms to vault himself into the cabin.
    Crimson and panting and dripping with sweat, Detective Al Snow had a knife to David’s throat. David’s eyes twitched to Will’s face and instantly filled with tears.
    Al Snow.
    Emily was wilted against the wall of the boat, her skin a frosty blue. Sam lay at her feet, his face twisted toward Will, terrified, every part of his body shaking against the rope he was tied in. Detective Cardoza lay just to the side, sprawled on the cabin floor.
    It was all wrong, and Will felt an imminent shattering, like fissures speeding through glass.
    Trust yourself.
    “Drop the knife, Snow!”
    Snow’s face seemed to melt, a mask falling away, and what was left was raw and blistered by rage.
    “Don’t do it,” Will said. “It’s over.”
    Snow’s mouth molted into the most hateful leer Will had ever seen as he tightened his grip on the knife’s handle and pressed the blade into David’s skin.
    The moment opened in front of Will with the hopelessness of a chasm too wide to possibly leap, but you leapt anyway, because the ground beneath your feet was just then disintegrating. It was fly or fall. It was the moment that was never supposed to happen, when Will’s limbs became the lethal weapons he was forbidden to use. It was the inevitable moment and it was right now.
    No mind, no thought, pure reaction.
    Will knew only one thing: he would save his family from this freak if he died doing it.
    It took a split second of sheer force to propel himself at Snow and strike the edge of his hand against the side of Snow’s face, twisting him back, hard. Will reached an arm up in a noose around the cop’s neck and slid his other arm through Snow’s elbow to reach the knife. David shrieked. Will squeezed Snow’s wrist, forcing open his hand, and the knife fell to the floor. David slid down and away.
    Will couldn’t stop himself. Even though the knife was down, even though David was free, he tightened his grip on Snow’s hand and jerked his arm down so hard he heard a bone crack. Snow didn’t make a sound but Will felt the pause in his existence and jerked the arm again.
    David took a step toward them.
    “Get back!” Will shouted.
    But David came forward and kicked at Snow’s jaw. Will had never seen his son so enraged. He felt it too, but he wanted David clear of this.
    “David, get back!” Will pleaded.
    David kicked again.
    Snow’s body wilted. A long, pathetic moan seeped out; it was the sound of collapse, like the deflation of an air tunnel.
    “I did it!” David was sweating, heaving for breath.
    Snow crumpled to the floor. Will looked over at Emily and Sam and was overcome by the horror of what had been about to happen to them, what might have already happened to Emily. Her eyes were rolled back, her body was stone — her beautiful body, such stillness. Sammie beat against the floor and issued a high-pitched squeal.