Elinor stays behind while Mo and Farid go into the village at night; she hears shots, and begins worrying that they've been killed. Not sure what else to do, Elinor begins to make her way toward the village, even though she's unarmed.
Luckily Mo catches up with Elinor before she can try to get in. He and Farid are fine: what happened is that Cockerell was on guard duty by Meggie's room, and he recognized Mo and raised the alarm.
So it's back to Plan B: start a giant fire, hope it's enough of a distraction to get Meggie out. Mo is determined to rescue Meggie, no matter the cost.
Elinor thinks the fire will go poorly, so she waits til Mo and Farid are asleep, returns to her car, and drives to the nearest village, hoping to find a police station.