Hikers - The Collection (Complete Box Set of 5 Books)

by Lauren Algeo

  She held her arms out in front of her and Brewer saw how much her hands were shaking. He hoped she’d be able to steady them when the time came to shoot.

  ‘Let’s go,’ he said.

  He led the way through the trees to the water’s edge. He thought there would be thick woods around it however the tree line was sparse and he could see a bridge in the distance. The road they’d been driving on would have carried them over it.

  ‘There you go, take another step closer.’ The hiker had upped his attack. ‘That’s it. One more and you’ll be in that soothing water.’

  ‘Look there!’ Mitch pointed along to their left.

  Brewer could make out a slight movement by the trees at the water’s edge. It had to be the vessel. He checked all around. Where was the hiker? He looked at Ellen’s ashen face and she nodded silently to the left. The hiker was that way too.

  Brewer gestured for them to come closer and they stood in a huddle. The tranquiliser gun in his hands filled the space between them.

  ‘We’ve only got one shot at this,’ he said in a low voice. ‘The hiker can’t know we’re coming. Mitch, I want you to stay by the car.’

  Mitch’s mouth dropped open. ‘But I…’

  Brewer held up his hand. ‘I know, but we need you at the car in case this all goes wrong and we need a quick getaway. Can you handle driving us a short distance? I mean, I don’t know if you ever had any lessons?’

  ‘I can do it.’ Mitch calmed down the second he thought he had an important job to do.

  Brewer turned his attention to Ellen. ‘I’m going to need you to use your ability to find it. We need to flank it, unseen, to get in a good position to shoot. Can you do that?’

  Ellen nodded, hoping she could.

  ‘Good. You’re going to need to keep your mind as blank as you can in case the hiker isn’t completely focussed on the vessel. I’m guessing it is, judging by how close it is to achieving its goal, but it’s better to be safe. I’ll give you the gun when we get close enough.’

  His eyes flicked between the terrified faces of his two new hunting companions. ‘Let’s do this.’

  Chapter 11

  Mitch marched straight back to the car while Brewer and Ellen crept silently through the trees. They moved slowly, not wanting to draw any attention to themselves with the sparse cover. Brewer stayed half a step in front of her, in a subconscious protective manner. He was ready to get her out of there if it began to turn dangerous… more dangerous than it already was.

  His eyes rapidly scanned everywhere for any slight movements. The gun felt light in his hands, and it was similar to the one he and Georgie had used. He wished he were a better shot so he could have carried this out alone. They only had one dart of the insulin for now so he needed Ellen’s skill or risk missing altogether. If it all went to plan, the hiker would never know she was there and she’d never have to endure its anger at her for evading it last time.

  They inched their way past another tall tree and Ellen clutched his arm suddenly. He glanced back questioningly and she put a finger to her lips then pointed to the next cluster of trees. The hiker was over there. In the shadow of one trunk, he could make out a darker silhouette. It was crouched down, looking out towards the water.

  Brewer shifted his position and caught a glimpse of a man standing ankle deep in the shallows. There was the intended victim. He was fairly short and overweight, with sandy-coloured hair. He was only wearing a yellow t-shirt and blue jeans, despite the cool temperature. Brewer couldn’t see his face but he guessed the man was about his age.

  ‘Feels good, doesn’t it?’ The hiker taunted. ‘Why don’t you take another step?’

  The man shuffled forward obediently. Brewer could hear Ellen’s ragged breathing beside him and he was aware this was the first time she’d actually seen the hiker who had changed her life forever. He was partially hidden by shadows but Brewer could see he was wearing a dark shirt and trousers, which surprised him. He was used to only seeing male hikers in light-coloured shirts. This one had dark hair that appeared black in the shade of the tree but was probably brown, and the skin at the base of his neck was pale white. He was looking towards the vessel so they couldn’t see his face, however Brewer knew it would be completely non-descript and relatively ageless.

  He handed the gun silently to Ellen and she steadied herself next to the nearest tree and raised it to her shoulder. Her body language changed the moment she had the gun in her grasp. Her hands were no longer trembling and her hunched shoulders had relaxed. She looked confident and composed. They were less than 100 metres away, well within her range.

  She put her eye closer to the sight and trained the gun on the hiker. He saw her take a deep breath and release it slowly. He turned his gaze to the hiker in anticipation of the shot. This was it. They would find out for sure if insulin was something they could… Ellen lowered the gun.

  Brewer’s head whipped quickly between her and the hiker. She hadn’t shot it? She shook her head at him.

  ‘It’s not clear enough,’ she whispered hoarsely. ‘I can’t guarantee hitting a vein in his neck.’

  They needed the hiker to come out of the shadows to give her an accurate chance. The one word solution flashed up in Brewer’s mind ­– decoy.

  ‘Stay here,’ he murmured to her. ‘I’ll get you your shot.’

  ‘Wait!’ she hissed, realising what he meant. She made a grab for his arm but he shrugged her off.

  ‘Make it count,’ he said.

  He broke into a run and sprinted towards the water. He somehow needed to get the hiker to come to him. He charged straight at the man who was now knee-deep in the murky reservoir. The hiker was taking his time with this kill, relishing in the man’s misery. He would be furious to have it interrupted.

  ‘Hey you!’ Brewer splashed into the water behind the man, not caring that his Doc Martens were going to get ruined. His jeans were instantly soaked up to the knee.

  He made a lot of noise yet the man didn’t move. He carried on staring blankly at the water about three feet in front of him. Brewer felt the hiker trying to get into his mind to find out who he was, and he swatted away his efforts.

  He reached out and hauled the man backwards by the collar of his t-shirt. He glanced over his shoulder at the trees but the hiker hadn’t made an appearance. He was still trying to get into his head from his hiding place.

  Come on, you bastard, Brewer thought. Come out to play.

  He had to do more in order to draw him out. His action had re-awakened the man in the yellow t-shirt’s desire for life. He mistakenly thought Brewer had something to do with what he’d been about to carry out. The man lunged at him with a growl only his balance was off. Brewer gave him a hard shove that sent him sprawling into the water.

  The man’s head dipped under briefly and he came up spluttering and spitting. His eyes had been blue but now they flashed black. The hiker was back inside his mind but not out in the open yet.

  ‘You don’t want to do this.’ Brewer appealed to the man behind the hiker’s anger. ‘You can take back control of your body.’

  The man laughed and his top lip curled up in a snarl. He staggered to his feet, dripping wet. It was useless ­– the hiker had too much control over him. Brewer did the only thing he could think of, he sucker punched the man. His fist connected solidly with the man’s jaw and he heard the unmistakable sound of bone breaking.

  The man collapsed heavily into the water, his eyes rolling back in his head. Brewer had to bend down to hold the man’s shoulders above the water level. His head lolled forward onto his chest.

  There was an audible howl of rage from the trees. With the man unconscious, the hiker had to retreat fully to his own body. He was furious with Brewer. He battered at the door to his memories but he held fast.

  ‘Come and get me!’ Brewer yelled.

  There was a long moment of silence. His arms were straining with the effort of holding the man’s dead weight out of the water. Then the hike
r stepped into view. He moved so fast he seemed to glide towards the edge of the reservoir. His black eyes were burning with hatred.

  ‘Who are you?’ He hissed inside his mind.

  Brewer couldn’t take the effort of supporting the man and keeping the hiker at bay. They were both slipping. He hoisted his arms higher, to prevent the man from drowning, at the same time he gave the hiker another push from his head. It was a weak one.

  He realised he was panting hard. He had to angle his head to see the hiker properly from his hunched over position and sweat trickled down his forehead. He didn’t want to take the man to the safety of the bank yet in case it drove the hiker back into the shadows.

  Come on Ellen, he begged.

  The hiker was fully in the open now. Surely he was far enough away from him for her not to be worried about accidently hitting him instead? The hiker had slithered his way inside his mind again and he pushed all thoughts of their mission to the depths of his memory.

  ‘You have travelled far,’ the hiker teased. ‘Perhaps you have had a wasted journey.’

  Get out, Brewer shouted internally.

  The response was a chilling laugh that echoed around his head. ‘I’m not ready to leave yet.’

  I’ll make you, Brewer growled.

  He barely pushed at the hiker but suddenly he was gone from his mind. He saw him spin round wildly at the edge of the water, clutching at his neck. Ellen. She’d managed a direct hit.

  He caught sight of her to the left. Somehow, while he’d been occupied with the man, she’d flanked round to the hiker’s blind side to get her shot. It must have been perfect as the hiker staggered a couple of steps then fell to his knees.

  Ellen stood uncertainly with the gun still raised. Brewer had to get over there. He began to drag the man in the yellow t-shirt’s body out of the water, his arm muscles screaming with the strain. With one final grunt, he let the man fall to the ground with his legs still submerged in water. His head was on dry land so it was good enough for now. The man was breathing normally through his nose, although there would be a hell of a lot of pain from his jaw when he eventually came to.

  Brewer ran towards the hiker, taking his knife from the belt of his jeans as he went.

  ‘Keep back,’ he instructed a terrified Ellen.

  She let the gun fall to her side and stared at the hiker. He was on all fours now, trying to crawl away from them. Brewer gave him a sharp kick to the back that sent him sprawling face down on the ground. The hiker made no effort to get inside his mind. He writhed on the floor for a few seconds then went still. Brewer cautiously crouched down beside him. He reached out his left hand to turn him over.

  ‘Be careful!’ Ellen called from behind her fingers.

  She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the hiker. Her body was trembling uncontrollably now as adrenaline surged through her veins. She had done it. She’d brought the hiker down and saved a man’s life. She should have been experiencing some positive emotion – pride or elation ­– but all she felt was a sick dread. The hiker wasn’t dead yet and doing this hadn’t brought Lucy back. That hole inside her was far too large for vengeance; it would never be filled.

  Brewer let the hiker flop over until he was flat on his back. He was unconscious with his awful black eyes closed tightly.

  ‘We’re on track,’ Brewer whispered, more to himself. ‘Hypoglycaemic shock. Unconsciousness. Brain damage. Death.’

  They watched silently as the seconds ticked by agonisingly slowly. Brewer hardly dared to breathe. He kept edging nearer, seeing the hiker’s chest rise and fall to let them know he was still alive.

  Less than two minutes later, it stopped. Brewer reached out and checked for a pulse with numb fingers. There wasn’t one. He got wearily to his feet. Ellen took half a step towards him, uncertainty on her face.

  ‘Better add insulin overdose to the list,’ he said, finally allowing himself to break into a grin. ‘He’s dead.’

  Ellen immediately turned and threw up.

  Chapter 12

  ‘I can’t believe it!’ Mitch exclaimed for the tenth time in a row.

  They were all sat in the car, parked outside a small store in Yalesville. Brewer had driven them straight there to get a drink for Ellen. She was sitting in the front passenger seat and sipping water from a plastic bottle.

  ‘Are you sure we should have just left him there?’ Mitch asked. ‘Shouldn’t we study the body or something?’

  ‘No,’ Brewer replied. ‘Leaving him there was the best thing.’

  As soon as the hiker was dead, he’d grabbed Ellen and dashed back to the car so they could put some distance between themselves and the scene.

  ‘What did he look like close up?’ Mitch was jealous to have missed out.

  ‘Just like a normal man,’ Brewer shrugged.

  ‘One I murdered,’ Ellen whispered from beside him. Her face was deathly pale and she looked on the verge of a breakdown.

  ‘No you didn’t,’ he said firmly. ‘You brought down a violent killer and saved that man’s life.’

  He felt a little guilty about leaving the man in the yellow t-shirt lying near the hiker. They’d already saved his life though; there wasn’t time to get him safely back home too. Someone would find him soon enough and get him some medical treatment for that jaw. Brewer rubbed at his bruised knuckles. Thinking about his punch caused another ripple of guilt. Maybe they should call the police anonymously and get them out there? Although, with the hiker’s unidentifiable body so close by, they might think the man had murdered him. How would an insulin overdose show up in an autopsy? They’d removed the empty tranquiliser dart so there was no obvious cause of death. Right now, Ellen was his priority. She’d just been through a hell of a lot in a short space of time.

  ‘You did amazingly well to make that shot,’ he told her.

  ‘I couldn’t have done it without you. That was a very stupid thing to do!’ she scolded. ‘I thought he was going to kill you too.’

  Mitch was a lot more impressed when Brewer filled him in on what had happened.

  ‘You were like some Hollywood action hero!’ he exclaimed.

  ‘A crazy one,’ Ellen reiterated.

  ‘Well, it turned out ok in the end.’ Brewer paused briefly. ‘The hiker couldn’t get in. I expected him to be a lot stronger but he was nowhere near the level of some of the other ones I’ve experienced. He was taking his time to kill that man and now I wonder if that was just because he was working hard to get him to comply.’

  ‘You don’t think they’re as strong here?’ Ellen asked sceptically.

  He knew she was thinking about how that same hiker had managed to drive her daughter to suicide.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said truthfully. ‘He could have just been a weaker one. More of a mixed blood hiker than one of the Grand’s direct descendants. I won’t know until we encounter more of them.’

  ‘We won’t really have to now,’ Mitch piped up. ‘We can go back to Philly and get more insulin to kill them all with.’

  Brewer shook his head slowly. ‘No. Not yet.’

  ‘But we have something that works?’ Ellen frowned at him. ‘Surely we should get as much of it as we can?’

  ‘I could get a full prescription for us then pretend it was lost or stolen to get another load for me to use,’ Mitch suggested.

  ‘I don’t think it’s enough yet,’ Brewer said. ‘We need an arsenal of weapons to use against them. We might not be able to get enough insulin to use on its own, especially not if we encounter a lot of hikers together.’ He was thinking of the ones gathered at the Grand’s house back home. ‘We need several things to attack with. I want to make sure we kill them all this time. No exceptions.’

  Ellen and Mitch still didn’t look convinced. Brewer took a swig from his own bottle of water.

  ‘Ok,’ he said. ‘I guess it’s only fair I tell you exactly what I’m thinking, but just to stress, I don’t expect either of you to be along for the full ride.’

&nb
sp; Mitch leaned forward in anticipation, this sounded good to him. By contrast, Ellen’s body seemed to tense in expectation of bad news.

  ‘The insulin killed that hiker too quickly,’ Brewer said bluntly. ‘That’s great, I know, but it’s also not so great for our main purpose. With the rabies and meningitis, we had at least a couple of hours before it killed them.’ He paused a beat. ‘We had time to interrogate them.’

  Ellen’s eyes flickered closed, that wasn’t what she wanted to hear.

  ‘The Grand is back,’ Brewer carried on. ‘Somehow he’s over here, still killing, only we don’t know where he is. We need to question a hiker to find out that information. Torture it if we have to, I guess. The only way we can do that is if we find a method that gives us a little window of time before they die.’

  ‘What if we only gave them little doses of insulin instead of all at once?’ Mitch was still hanging onto that solution.

  Brewer shook his head. ‘That would give a hiker’s body time to correct its blood sugar levels, then the rest of the insulin dose would be useless.’

  ‘What do you propose we do then?’ Ellen asked.

  ‘First, I think we need to get out of this area sharpish. The Grand will know one of the hikers is dead. He won’t know how for a while yet so we can put some distance between us and here. He’ll send one of his other children to investigate the body.’

  ‘Will he know it was us?’ Mitch asked.

  ‘Not right away. If that man back there had died too, then the discovery of both bodies might have led him to believe the hiker had simply gotten careless and not left the man’s mind before he killed himself. We can assume the man is conscious and gone by now; he might have even left the hiker there instead of calling the police. If the Grand studies the body properly, he’ll know it was foul play and that someone killed one of his children.’ Brewer swallowed. ‘He’ll realise it was me. He knows I escaped his house alive and it’s the type of method I’d use to kill them. Eventually he’ll come for me.’

  Ellen put a tentative hand on his arm. ‘We won’t let him find you. We’ll get as prepared as we can.’