Booktree.ng_Forgotten-Witness

no idea if Emily was strong enough to stay as they were.
“I don’t know where to go,” Amelia answered.
The words were barely out of her mouth when Emily bolted,
scrambling up, fighting through the plants, all arms and legs,
and grunts. Josie caught her gown but she twisted and turned
until she was free. The younger women fought their way out
and into the rain. Tenting their hands over their eyes, they
squinted against the needles of water.
“There!” Josie sprinted ahead with Amelia on their heels.
All three women crashed through the forest, Emily too far
ahead to be caught. She fought through the low hanging
branches, pounded across the ground cover, slipped on the
muddy bare patches of ground, slashed at the vines with
frantic hands. She was suddenly strong, all motion, a physical
force to be reckoned with. More than that, though, Emily
Bates seemed to have a purpose. Something spawned her
flight, something drove her to keep a step ahead of her
daughter, and something deep in her brain guided her forward
on a true path. Suddenly, Josie realized they were getting close
to the cliffs.
“Mom!” she screamed, but she had lost sight of Emily.
When she reached the place where she had last seen her
mother Josie fell to her knees, bent over, and slammed her fists
into the ground, but Amelia was sharper eyed.
“Get up. Get up. Look at this.” Amelia hunkered down a
few feet away, pushing aside plants. “She’s in there.”
“Where?” Josie crawled to Amelia and got onto her
haunches. At first all she saw were plants and vines but then
her eyes adjusted.
“A cave?”
“Something else,” Amelia said.
They peered at a corridor high enough and wide enough for
two men to walk through. At one time it had been paved but
the concrete was now cracked and broken. A dry breeze blew