Sara’s knees turned to liquid at the sight of her assailant slumped in the dirt, groping at the stick in his body.
“Run!” Dane pulled her by the arm toward the woods. “The others are coming.”
Sara grabbed her bucket of food from where she’d dropped it and attempted to find her footing, but every step felt as if she ran in waist-high mud instead of in the woods. Her mind swirled as she replayed the last few minutes.
Dane had shot someone with an arrow, right before her eyes. He’d saved her.
Dane shot someone with a fucking arrow.
The men at the cabin called out for help as they found their friend on the ground. The sound of angry yells cleared the fog from Sara’s head and she ran faster, hoisting her bucket of food into her arms. She staggered under the weight as it threw her off balance. But she didn’t care. There wasn’t a chance in hell she’d leave so much food behind when she still didn’t know what awaited them.
Dane led the way through the bushes and trees off-trail so it was harder for her to follow. That probably meant it would be harder for others to follow them too.
“You okay?” he asked over his shoulder.
“Sure. Fine. Great.”
“You don’t sound very convincing.”
“I’m sorry if I’m a little on edge. People attacked your house, then attacked me, and then you killed someone with an arrow.” Her voice cracked, giving away her emotions.
He paused and pulled her into his arms, kissing her forehead. “I didn’t kill anyone. I put an arrow in his shoulder. At worst he’ll get an infection and not be able to hold a big stick for a while. At best, he’ll heal completely. But if someone threatens you again, and killing him is the only option for saving you, I’ll do it without hesitation.”
He kissed her lips quickly, then took the bucket of food from her arms and stalked off into the woods again.
Walking was a little easier, but she was still weighed down by her pack and the bow. She trekked on as best she could, trying not to stumble. The moon was full in the night sky, helping to light the way a little.
Even hours later, as the sun began to rise and her footsteps began to falter, every time she heard a branch snap behind her, she startled, expecting one of the men from the cabin to grab her.
Chapter Ten
Dane kept a steady pace until he saw the old quarry come into view. It was the best place he could think of to stop and rest for a while. He didn’t suspect anyone from the cabin had followed them so far into the woods, but he wanted to wait it out for a little while to be sure.
They passed by the run-down shack that used to be an outpost for the quarry, not bothering to stop or check it out. He’d looked inside it long ago on one of his walks and hadn’t found anything but rotting wood and cobwebs. That wasn’t a good spot to stay. Even if it sheltered them a little, the roof could cave in at any second.
“We’ll stop here to rest for a while,” he said, setting his things down at the base of a large oak tree. A short stone wall ran behind the tree in both directions for as far as he could see. It wasn’t much for shelter or protection, but it was the best he could do. Hopefully, the tree and wall together would provide enough protection from the elements and anyone or anything passing by.
They leaned against the wall and each other for support while they caught their breath. It had been a long, fast-paced hike through the woods and all on no sleep. He wished more than anything they’d had time to prepare for this trek instead of being forced from his home with little more than the clothes they wore and the weapons on their backs.
“There’s a stream fifty feet or so past this wall. I’ll try to find something to put water in later and wander down there. It should be pretty clean. Hopefully the outbreak isn’t transmitted through water.”
Sara set her backpack in front of her, opened it, and pulled out a blue water bottle. She twisted off the lid, pulled something from inside, fiddled with it a couple of seconds then reassembled the whole thing. “Use this. It will filter the water from the stream.”
“Will it even filter out viruses?”
“So it claimed.” He took her bottle to the stream and filled it, took a few long drinks through the filtering straw to satisfy his own thirst, then filled it again and returned to Sara. “It tasted clean and cold. Can’t ask for more than that.”
She drank heavily then set the bottle aside. “So what now?”
“Now we wait a bit to make sure we weren’t followed, then you go the rest of the way to the bunker and I go...somewhere. I don’t know where, but I’ll find a place.”
Her hand felt good in his. He would miss it. She squeezed tight.
“You’re coming with me.” It was a demand, not a question. He could already tell the difference in her tone after only knowing her a short time.
“No. I’m not. Your family is expecting you alone. That’s what they should get.”
“I don’t care what they expect. I want you with me.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled against his side. Her chest expanded with a deep yawn.
“Why don’t you rest a bit and I’ll keep watch? I’ll make sure no one followed us.”
Without agreeing verbally, she lay down on the ground next to him, resting her head in his lap. Stroking his fingers through her hair, he only counted to about twenty before her breaths evened out and her body relaxed.
Dane watched Sara sleep, looking so peaceful and calm. And beautiful. He was tempted to take her up on her offer to go to the bunker, but should he? Did he want to deal with the fallout from her family over her breaking her word? Or would it make it easier on her if he got her to the bunker and then disappeared?
Of course, that would mean he’d have to leave her. Could he do that?
For a girl he’d only known a short time, she’d sure made a huge impression on him. He’d go so far as to say she’d found a way into his heart, and that wasn’t an easy thing to do. Few had tried over the years since he’d been on his own, but none had succeeded.
Until Sara came along.
He hadn’t thought he was lonely at the cabin these last five years, but seeing how much more life there had been in his place with Sara there proved to him he had been. The place had been downright empty before her. He’d been empty before her, too.
But he didn’t feel empty anymore.
With Sara around, he felt...hopeful, which was really saying something given the state of the world at present. Any hope was worth holding on to. Especially if that hope was Sara.
***
Sara woke to find her head on Dane’s wadded-up shirt instead of his leg, which she distinctly remembered falling asleep on. He moved around the outskirts of their little clearing, wearing nothing on top but his gorgeous, bare chest.
“What’re you doing?” she asked, sitting up.
“Gathering wood,” he answered, not looking up from his mission.
“Why?” She yawned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. How long had she been out? The shadows already looked way shorter than she’d expected them to. Her stomach growled. “How long did I sleep?”
“Because I’m going to make a small fire and kill us something to eat. And I think you were out about four hours or so. It’s somewhere near lunchtime.”
He dropped a pile of wood near her feet. Her gaze flittered across his naked chest. She vividly remembered their activities from the previous night, before the ambush and subsequent fleeing happened. But as much as she’d like to dwell on her memories of being in his bed, she couldn’t.
“I guess you want your shirt back,” she said, offering it to him reluctantly.
“Do you have matches in that bag of yours?” he asked, slipping his shirt over his head and tugging it down into place.
“I can do better than matches.” She pulled out the tiny stove she’d packed and opened it to unwrap one of the fuel disks as well as a container of waterproof matches. A minute later, she had the disk burning in the stove and the included cooking s
urface inserted above the flames.
“I’m not going to lie,” Dane said, smiling. “I’m impressed and sort of turned on by your preparedness.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet.” Next she opened her bucket of food and pulled out a pot that fit perfectly on the stove and a couple of packets of freeze- dried meals. “Would you care for chicken à la king this fine afternoon or perhaps a tasty beef chili? Or maybe a broccoli-and-cheddar soup would be more to your liking.”
“So many choices of fine cuisine. I don’t know what to choose. You pick.”
“Chicken it is,” she said, selecting the packet she needed. Dane took the others from her hands to examine them while she got busy making their meal. She poured the contents of the food pouch into the pot, added clean water from the filtered bottle and stirred until it was warm.
“Can you hand me a couple of bowls and sporks from the bucket?” she asked.
When he handed her the bowls, she poured the chicken into them and stuck a spoon/fork combo utensil into each. “Lunch is ready.”
Dane accepted the proffered bowl and they sat side by side on the low, stone wall. “Not bad,” he said after a few bites.
Sara had to agree. It wasn’t a gourmet meal by any stretch, but it was easier than attempting to cook something else in the middle of nowhere. When they finished eating, Dane lay down where she’d slept earlier, using his arm as a pillow while she took their pot and dishes down to the little stream to clean them.
As she swirled water into the dishes, rubbing them as clean as she could with her hands, she hoped she wasn’t infecting herself with whatever virus had caused the outbreak. She didn’t feel sick and Dane didn’t look sick, so maybe the world had gotten lucky and the outbreak had been contained. Maybe the virus never reached pandemic proportions at all. It wouldn’t be the first time the news media had overreacted to a situation.
Of course, the power and communications systems were still down and that was not a good sign. Whatever had happened, whatever was still to happen, their best bet was the bunker. Now she had to figure out where it was relative to their current location.
After everything had been cleaned, she put it all back into the bucket of food. They could survive out here like this for a month with the supply she had, but she prayed they didn’t have to.
Sara sat a few feet from Dane with a map spread out in front of her, one she’d had stashed in a pocket of her backpack. On it, a series of tiny symbols of various shapes and colors decorated numerous parts of the depicted area. If someone didn’t know what they were looking at, they wouldn’t know what any of the symbols meant, nor which one was actually important.
But she did.
The little flame symbol that looked as if it should stand for something corrosive and dangerous was the location of their initial meeting point, very near the hidden entrance to the bunker. They’d thought it was smarter not to give away the exact location just in case someone got a hold of their map and decided to investigate each marker’s location.
While Dane slept, Sara studied the map, looking up once in a while to make sure no one approached them. Every now and then, she got the distinct feeling of being watched, but when she glanced around, no one was there. It was probably a symptom of being in a strange place under an even stranger set of circumstances. Still, the rational thought did little to put her at ease. She probably wouldn’t feel totally comfortable and safe until she was tucked into the bunker.
On the map, she noticed a section of wavy lines, which looked to be a lake. Not too far from it was a symbol of two crossed pickaxes. That must be the quarry they were in right now. So if she read the map correctly, and she thought she did, then they had to head due west until they passed the far end of the lake, then turn south into the hills. They’d find the bunker less than a mile from the lake, a location they’d picked on purpose for its natural resource availability.
Dane stirred, waking much sooner than Sara had anticipated. He sat up looking not nearly refreshed enough after his quick nap.
“I haven’t seen so much as a leaf move. Why don’t you sleep a little longer?”
“I’m fine. I think we should figure out where to go and get a move on. If those guys had followed us, they’d be here already, so I think it’s safe for us to head to the bunker now.”
Sara motioned for Dane to join her. “I think I figured out where we are on the map. Does this look right to you?” she asked, pointing to what she thought was the quarry symbol.
Dane peered at the map for a moment before answering, then pointed to a spot just to the right, not too far from the highway. “The cabin was about here, and I’d say that symbol must be for the area we’re in now. So where on this map are we actually headed to? The only thing you mentioned last night about the bunker was that it was to the west so that’s the way I took us.”
Without hesitation, she pointed to the flames symbol. “This isn’t the exact location, but it’s the meeting place to find it. That’s where we need to get to.”
“That shouldn’t take us too long, depending on what the terrain is like. Maybe we can be there by tomorrow morning if we head out now.”
“Sounds good.” She folded the map and tucked it into the pocket it had come from before putting her pack on. Next she picked up her bow and quiver. She reached for the bucket of food, but Dane grabbed it before she could.
“I’ll carry it for a while,” he said.
As they started toward their final destination, Sara let her mind wander with daydreams about what awaited them at the bunker. Her family—her brother and sister and both of her parents. Hopefully they’d even brought their little pug, Spike. Just the thought of reuniting with her family brought tears to her eyes.
She picked up her pace. They couldn’t get there soon enough. And when they did, she hoped they would embrace Dane with open arms since the only reason she’d make it there safely to begin with was because he’d saved her. A couple of times. Surely her family would hear their story and allow him to stay. And if they didn’t, then she’d make them change their minds.
The outbreak had already taken so much from her. She wasn’t about to let it take Dane away too. She’d fight for him if she had to, the same way he’d fought for her.
Chapter Eleven
Dane was impressed Sara could keep up with his pace on the uneven and challenging terrain as well as she did. He was used to hiking in the area since he did it almost every weekend, but she wasn’t; yet she kept putting one foot in front of the other with unyielding perseverance.
She was so much stronger than he’d originally thought when he’d found her hiding under a blanket in the back of her truck. That day felt like a lifetime ago.
They reached the lake as the sun started to set. The light, almost blinding in its beauty, twinkled along the water’s surface. They didn’t stop to watch, simply carried on. They still had to make it to the other side, then a little farther to the rendezvous point.
Once the sun disappeared fully, Dane realized they would have problems. The full moon from the night before was gone, replaced by a sliver of light in the sky. They pulled out the flashlights she had in her bag and used those, but even still, they only illuminated a small patch of ground. It was difficult to accurately judge the depth and distance of the rocks and logs they climbed over.
Two hours later, they’d made it to the other side of the lake, practically panting with exhaustion. The trek was infinitely harder in the dark than it had been when the sun was still up.
“I think we should stop here, eat, drink, and sleep for a while. We can get up again at first light and find the meeting place. We must be close now, right?”
“I think so. Let’s get a fire started and then we can study the map.”
They set to work making a camp in a small cluster of pines. The trees would help block out any wind or rain that might come up, but it was still open enough for them to light the fire safely. Dane got their cooking stove going while Sara looked in her b
ag for other useful items. When she pulled out shiny rectangles of tinfoil, he chuckled.
“Have any baked potatoes in there? I could really go for one with sour cream and bacon bits right now.”
“These aren’t for cooking, they’re for sleeping.” She opened one of the packages and unfolded a large silver sheet. “These blankets are supposed to help you retain your body heat. I thought maybe we could put one under us and the other one over us. Unless you’d rather wrap up in your own blanket.”
“I don’t mind sharing,” he said. “Maybe we’ll find other ways to increase our body heat, too.”
“Not even the end of the world can inhibit a man’s libido, can it?”
“Not mine. And thank God for that. Because that would be a world I wouldn’t want to live in.”
“It’s good to know your priorities are sound.”
They worked together to make a meal, which like earlier in the day was fast and tasty. As they ate, Sara unfolded the map in front of them, near the light of the cooking fire.
“I think if we go a little farther, we’ll reach this old fire pit. That’s our meeting place. I doubt anyone is still hanging around there waiting for me, but we still need to hit that location to get to the bunker.”
“We should be able to find it easily after we’re rested and there’s more light. Then where do we go from there? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.” There was still a chance she could change her mind about telling him the exact location of the bunker. By the sound of her family, they’d planned ahead and no one would find their location without specific instructions.
Sara paused, putting her hand on his thigh. “I want you with me and that means you need to know where it is. I told you, I don’t care what my family says. You’re with me now and they can deal with it.”
He nodded. “So where do we go?”
Then There Was You Page 7