“We’re not doing a eulogy,” Drake said dryly.
Connor rummaged around under the curtain, then brought his hand back, holding something plastic in it. Drake glanced down with a grimace and nodded. A name tag. Connor lifted the curtain fabric again, and replaced the tag.
“Still not doing a eulogy,” Drake whispered at Connor’s shoulder.
“You have no tact,” Connor grumbled back.
They waited for a gust of wind to pass, and Drake struck a second match. He dropped it at the foot of the corpse, and the fuel-soaked curtain lit with lime green flames. When the morbid bonfire was fully engulfed, Connor looked up at the sky, following the black smoke as it drifted above their heads, and elbowed Drake in the ribs.
“Rest in peace, Gina,” he said.
Chapter Twelve
RILEY
The canned goods ran out after three days. The air pressure had shifted, letting us know without looking outside that rain was on its way, or something worse. Before Jin and Cole woke, I quietly moved around the cabin, loading my pack with the few supplies that would travel well, and drank a full canister of water before refilling it. The cold tap was refreshing, and I drank it easily. When Jin rose, he joined me in the kitchen and silently worked beside me, shoving his herbs and some of the seasonings into bags and a few small tins. We had half of the powdered milk left, and just over half of a sack of granola. The rest were morsels: stale nuts, a handful of rice, and dried beans for one person. We needed food.
But we had enough tea to last a month. Jin tossed what was left of our food into a pack. He filled a thermos and metal water bottle and shoved them into the sides of the backpack.
“Almost ready?” I asked, impatient.
Cole moaned, and stretched into a sitting position. “Today?” he mumbled.
“Yes,” Jin said. “Now.”
Since he wasn’t in the mood to argue, or be threatened with dismemberment again, Cole stood and retreated to the small bathroom. He came out five minutes later, his face freshly washed and his teeth clean. I watched him tuck in his shirt and step into his suit, wondering how long it would take to hike up to his camper. Thirty minutes? One hour? That could be how much time the boy had left. Just an hour of life. But he didn’t know it, so smiled at us after pulling the cord on his zipper to his throat.
Well, at least he’ll be warm and dry when he dies, I thought. “Five minutes,” I said.
He nodded and began to fold the blankets he slept on, draping each neatly over the back of his chair, then straightened the furniture. Jin and I followed his movements around the cabin, and by the time he had circled back to the front door, it almost looked as if no one had been trapped inside for the last month.
The only thing I took from the cabin was one thin wool blanket, just in case. I rolled it, then folded it in half, and shoved it into the nooks and crannies of my pack. With the coat on that I stole from Jay, I checked the tiny change pocket inside my jeans, and patted the flash drive that held my past, and then stepped onto the overlook.
The trees were alive, dancing gently in the cool breeze, and whispering secrets to their neighbors. By touching bough to bough, pine needle to pine needle, the mysteries of the forest spread across the mountain range, and blew wildly through my hair. I breathed the forest in, and watched a bird fly over the top canopy, vanishing into the early morning sun. Something small chittered in the underbrush, and scurried up a tree trunk. They were alive again, the woods, alive with creatures and sunlight.
“Feels good,” Cole said, surprising me at my side.
I shrugged, though he could see how happy I was to be out of the cabin. “Ready, Jin?” I hollered behind me. He stepped out a few seconds later with the two packs. He handed the one with supplies over to Cole and I glared at him.
“It’s heavier,” he said with a wink.
In single file, we went down the winding series of ramps and steps for the last time, and I kept my hand on the center trunk, letting my fingers pass over each bump and groove, thanking the tree for keeping me safe over the last few weeks.
The snow drifts had melted down to half their size since the last snowfall. The early snow had to compete with an unusually warm front of air, but I didn’t mind. As long as I could get out of the woods long enough to find more supplies and hopefully a working vehicle, Northern Arizona could get as hot as it liked.
Before Cole took the lead, I snagged his arm and brought him close to me. Inside my coat, tucked into my waistband, was one of Jin’s knives and a gun I didn’t remember taking from Jay and Lee’s camper. I wanted Cole to feel them against my hip, to be aware that I had no problem using them if I needed to. In a way, it was a dare. With my eyes, I willed him to hear me: flinch, and I’ll spill out your soft insides. When he turned around and faced the mountain, I hoped that it had worked.
COLE
It took twice as long to climb up the trail as it had the last time he’d made the journey, and that was under the cover of night, with little to go on to guide his way. The snow was a pain in the ass, slushy in parts, packed hard in others, but he didn’t stop, and never complained, mostly because he was afraid of what Riley would do to his manhood if he did.
When they came across the carcass of the downed buck, Cole looked away. It bothered him to see the creature’s eyes, sunken in and no longer fresh, but still watching him. All that could be eaten had been, leaving little more than skin and bones behind. Blood had tinted the snow red around it in a circle that spread out almost twenty feet from the epicenter. The wolves had feasted for sure, but other things, smaller things and bigger things, had come by for a snack, as well.
Cole shuddered and tugged on the hood of his coat. He wasn’t cold, in fact, he was sweating through the microfiber lining of his suit. But the forest creeped him out. There were things all around them, running through the shrubs and darting into the shadows, and the trees themselves were ominous. Their overall gigantic size made him dizzy, and the branches groaned like dying people. As they shuffled through the drifts, struggling to stay on what they thought was the game trail, the trees were dripping. Drip. Drip. Drip. The wet sounds were constant. Like Chinese water torture. He knew it was only melting snow and ice, but he couldn’t stand it, so he hummed as he walked. He hummed anything that came into his head, even the songs his mother used to sing to his little brother, and to him. He hummed until Riley told him to shut up.
With a sigh, he shoved his hands deep into his pockets and hiked. When the trees split, and they came across the large boulder with a crack down its center, he turned them to the north. His spot wasn’t far. Just off a side road that snaked out of the trees and near a small camping site. A few miles from the camper was the highway. And from there, they could go in any direction. He’d show Jin his maps, the ones marked with search areas and supply locations, and let Riley choose where to look for the others. He’d promised them he would help. Plus, he kind of liked having his balls attached to his body, and wanted to keep them right where they were.
“I swear to God and all things with a soul, it was right here.”
Cole stood in shock, facing the spot where his truck had been. It wasn’t there anymore, and by the looks of the ground, it had been moved recently. He felt Riley come up behind him, and stopped breathing, waiting to feel the cold slice of steel rip through his throat, but it didn’t come. When he turned around, he wasn’t surprised to find her in his space, standing at attention, watching him with a suspicious glint in her eyes.
“I swear,” he mumbled. “It was totally here.”
“I believe him,” Jin said. He had circled the large patch of wet weeds where Cole’s camper had been, and rubbed the heel of his boot clean against a fallen branch. “Something large was here, recently.”
Cole nodded, almost shaking his head off his shoulders. “Yeah, right there.”
Riley pushed him to the side and traced through the bald spot in the weeds where snow should have been. But she didn’t stop walking.
/> “Uh, where’s she going?” Cole asked.
“I’m not sure,” Jin answered. He grabbed Cole’s arm and shoved him forward. “But move.”
“There’s nothing out here,” he complained. “We have to go back.”
Riley spun around and flicked her hand at him. “Not an option.”
“We’ll die out here…we have no food!” he argued. Jin continued to push him along, and he tripped over a root that was hidden under the melting snow.
“We’ll find food,” Jin said.
“So, we’re just going to walk?”
“Yes,” Riley snapped at him.
He realized they were crazy. Not just angry, but fucking bat-shit crazy. He snatched his arm free and stopped in the snow, his hands held up in front of him. “I can’t do that…I can’t just walk off into the woods.”
Jin would have to carry him, he thought. Cole rooted his legs into the ground and fisted his hands at his side. He knew he’d fucked up with Kris, and he thought coming out here would help. But Riley was more pissed at him than she had a right to be. He didn’t create the Ark rules, he only followed them. It’s what had kept him alive, and until recently, he didn’t realize he was hurting anyone.
“We don’t have time to stand here and chat. The day only has so many hours in it. Move,” Riley commanded.
He didn’t respond, just crossed his arms and stared at them from under the bulge of his suit hood. She retraced her steps until she stood at Jin’s side, facing him. He shook his head in defiance and tilted his chin up.
“Ah,” she said to Jin with a crooked sneer. “Looks like the kid does have balls.”
He wasn’t sure if her statement was a compliment or a threat. “I ain’t going,” he stated.
She rocked back on her heels and glanced up at the trees. “So, Jin,” she said. “I see two options. We either kill him now, and leave him to the wolves, or we hog-tie him and drag him to the highway.”
Jin shrugged. His narrow eyes turned into slits as he considered Riley’s options.
“Are you serious?” Cole balked.
“We can’t just let you go,” she said. “If it was your Ark buddies who came and took your camper, then they’re probably still on the mountain as we have this little chat. With your camper gone, and without those maps you said you had, now you aren’t worth much, so…” She pulled her coat up and removed the knife, but Jin reached across her, blocking her arm. Cole let out a sigh of relief that Jin had intervened, but then he watched in horror as Jin took the blade from her and turned to face him.
Jin pursed his lips and let his face fall into a scowl. With his eyes locked on Cole’s, he whispered, “Sorry about this, kid.”
RILEY
Cole didn’t struggle as much as expected, and it was done in less than three minutes. Out of breath, Jin wiped the sweat off his brow and felt around in the muddy snow until he found my knife, and then tossed it at my feet.
“You need a break?” I asked him, as he stood and stretched his neck.
“No, let’s go.”
“Are you sure? We could take a moment if you need to sit down,” I pressed.
He glared at me. “I’m fine.”
“Alrighty, then.”
After readjusting my pack, Jin picked up the one that Cole had been wearing and looped a strap around his arm. “Lead the way,” he said.
We walked in a straight line, following the narrow road that led back to the highway, if we were to believe what Cole had said. When the road widened, and then curved sharply to the left, we turned with it. I remembered nothing about my walk through the woods, and Jin had come from a different direction, so the route was new to us. According to Jin’s map, the road would take us down the mountain toward the highway, and intersect only with one other along the way.
I tapped down on the folded paper to be sure I was hearing Jin correctly. “Here? You want to go here?”
“We need supplies,” Jin said.
“I know we need supplies, but we could have saved half a day walking if we’d just gone down the slopes in the first place. Now we’ll be circling back the way we came.”
“Not entirely.” He traced the road with his finger, giving a clear visual of the trek, and I rolled my eyes at him.
“I can see perfectly fine,” I snapped.
The route he wanted to take was shaped like a light bulb. I stared hard at it. “We know there are people there.”
He nodded.
“More than one person. Probably a group,” I added.
He nodded again, and began to fold up the map. He shoved it into his back pocket and watched me decide.
“People means food. If we’re lucky.”
“If we’re lucky.”
“This sucks ass,” I grumbled.
Jin’s eyebrow rose and he folded his arms, displeased with my language.
“Shut up,” I snapped. With a sigh, I ran my hands over my face. “Fine. What if we go around and cut through the trees, maybe move parallel with the road…get close enough to see who’s there, and maybe how many.”
“Solid plan,” Jin said.
“Worst case scenario, we have the cabin, and the snow is low enough to make it up through the trees, right?”
Jin nodded. “We made it up and out, but…” He chewed on the inside of his cheek.
“But what?”
“The snow in the valley is deep. It won’t be as easy. We might have to come back up this way.”
“So, how long of a trek are we talking?”
“It’s a few miles down from here, and we’d have to double back up the next road. Or we could return to the cabin, and cut down the valley through the trees.”
“Go back?” I glared at him. We’d already walked an hour away from where we left Cole. But we came the way we did because Cole had promised a working vehicle. With a groan, I realized walking my way would take the entire day. “It’s probably faster to go back. Smarter.”
Jin smiled. “Probably.”
“Fuck it,” I snapped, kicking at a chunk of snow. It exploded into a hundred smaller pieces and fanned out over the road. “So, we go back.” At least Cole will be happy to see us, I thought.
Chapter Thirteen
CONNOR
“I said you’re not going. You’re staying here,” he ordered.
In the warmest clothing she had, Kris stood defiantly blocking the back door with Zoey’s leash in her hand, the dog anxiously wagging her tail after overhearing the word ‘walk’. Connor stared at the small girl, with her curly hair pulled back, and a rainbow-colored scarf loosely wrapped around her slender neck, covering up most of her scars.
She looked over his shoulder and gaped at Drake. “Why’d you tell him?”
Drake answered with a shrug, pretending to be too busy pulling on his coat to open his mouth with an answer.
“You aren’t going,” Connor repeated.
When he reached out his hand to take the dog’s leash, Kris slapped his arm away. “I’m not staying here. You’ll have to tie me down to a chair or something.”
He laughed, then swallowed loudly when her face distorted into a seething glare. “Listen, Kris. There’s still a lot of snow out there. We’re just going to check out our neighbors and come right back. We’re not climbing up the entire mountain, so there’s no need for you to come.”
“If it’s just a little walk, then why do I have to stay?” she demanded.
Connor had no answer that wouldn’t piss her off. But Drake did. “Because you’re pregnant, Kris. And after that scare upstairs,” he paused to point at the ceiling before clearing his throat, “I figured you’d want a break.”
“I’m not made of glass, you know,” she argued, tightening her grip on Zoey’s leash. The dog was beyond impatient, ready for the walk they were all referring to. “I’ll just follow you,” Kris said.
“No, no you won’t,” Connor argued, pointing a finger at her.
“She can stay here. I’ll watch her,” Ashlyn said. The
men turned around to find her leaning in the hall doorway with her arms crossed, bundled up in a form-fitting sweater and jeans, her brushed hair loose around her shoulders.
“You win, Kris. Let’s go,” Connor said to the girl, while still watching Ashlyn carefully. She shrugged at him with a smile, and retreated upstairs, alone. She took away with her the sweet fragrance of soap, and he began to instantly hate whatever brand she’d showered in. Peonies would never be appealing to him again.
Connor had already warned Jacks that Ashlyn had neared nuclear status, and to watch his back. The new dad didn’t take it well, and had spent most of the day in his room with the baby, the door shut and locked, dealing with his own demons.
“Yay!” Kris said, jumping.
“Relax, kid,” Drake said, opening the back door and bracing against the cold breeze that hit them all. Zoey waited for him to cross the threshold, then scampered out second, pulling against the leash. “This won’t be a fun little stroll. We may not even make it fifty yards beyond the deck.”
“Zoey, wait!” Kris commanded, pulling the leash taught. The dog responded with a whimper, but heeded and sat down, waiting for the rest of them to line up on the deck and stare at the snow-covered slope.
Kris bent down and snapped the snowshoe frames onto her boots, and staggered down the stairs, stepping off the last one carefully. She sank into the snow, but not nearly as much as Connor and Drake did when they followed her. All three pulled their hoods up to keep their necks warm, making them each indistinguishable from any other stranger on the mountain, and Drake pulled a black scarf around his nose and mouth.
“You look creepy like that,” Kris said with a small laugh.
“Great,” Drake mumbled through the fabric. “Goal achieved.” Kris elbowed him, lost her balance, and had to fan her arms out to keep from falling over.
“Enough, children,” Connor said, staring across the valley at the mountain range with trepidation. “Focus, will ya? This is going to suck worse than Ashlyn’s coffee.”
Find Me Series (Book 4): Where Hope is Lost Page 12