In the distance, engines roared to life. Vehicles. The search would not stop. Not immediately. Not until someone decided it was bad publicity to chase a crying child through the countryside.
Janessa slowed the wheel barrow near the edge of the woods. She could not push much farther. Her strength was faltering. She sank to her knees beside Cody.
“Listen to me,” she said. “I do not know what happens next. I do not have a plan. But I know you deserve better than that place. You deserve to be loved. You deserve to be seen.”
Cody nodded, tears spilling over again. But this time they were not the same kind of tears. These were tears with hope inside them.
“What if they catch us,” he asked.
“Then they catch us. But you will not go back unnoticed. I will not let them pretend you are invisible. I will make them hear you.”
He reached out and cupped her cheek with his tiny palm. “I am not invisible right now.”
She covered his hand with hers. “No. You are not.”
Branches snapped behind them. The guards were coming closer. The engines grew louder. Janessa stood, legs unsteady. She gripped the wheel barrow again.
“We go on,” she said. “Just until we cannot.”
