Eventually, long after the sun had gone down, Hunter left and we lay down to sleep. I looked at the window. The shutters had been moved into place hours ago, locking us in and everything else out. It was strangely comforting. I’d lived my whole life in rooms without real windows and the shutters made it a little easier to sleep somehow.
I rolled onto my back and sighed as I tried to fall asleep. A hand found mine in the darkness and our fingertips brushed against each other. A jolt of energy ran up my arm at the contact, but I left my hand in place and Coal didn’t move either.
My fingers twitched with the desire to take hold of his but I didn’t, instead staying where I was with that minimal contact remaining in place. But even that much was enough get my heart racing.
I wasn’t sure what it was about the wild man who had saved my life, but something about him just drew me in like a moth to a flame. I felt like there were a thousand secrets lurking in the depths of his dark eyes and I wanted to unravel each and every one.
***
A pounding on the door brought me to my senses. It was still pitch black in the room but as I squinted about, the shutters outside the windows opened mechanically, letting in the light of the dawn which was just cresting the trees. The pounding sounded again from the front door and I stumbled up to open it.
I spent several moments searching for the scanner to click the door open in my dazed state before I remembered there wouldn't be one. It then took me an embarrassingly long time to work out how the lock on the door unbolted manually.
After much rattling, an irritated kick and a bit of swearing, I managed to swing the door open and found Hunter towering over me in the doorway with his characteristic grin slapped across his face.
"It's not normal to be that cheery at this time of the morning," I muttered as I worked to fight of the dreams which clung to me.
"It's not normal for the majority of a person's hair to point upwards but who am I to judge?" He winked and I ran a hand through the tangle as I stepped back to let him in.
"I thought first light was a turn of phrase not an actual time." I scowled as I searched the cupboards for some form of caffeine. I wouldn’t be human again without my fix and I could hear a dollop of bitchy lacing my tone already but I was powerless to stop it. Must. Find. Coffee.
I could hear the others stirring in the bedroom as I hunted.
"Clearly." Hunter raised an eyebrow which seemed to judge my shorts and tank-top make do pyjamas. I frowned at him.
"You realise I didn't exactly get time to pack when I left the city."
"Obviously." He smiled and picked at his fingernails in a superior way - I don't even know how you can make doing that look superior but he did.
“I've borrowed a few things and it seemed a bit much to ask for night wear too-"
"Uh-hu." How could a noise sound judgemental? I found some coffee and set the kettle boiling. "Two sugars," Hunter added.
"Besides, you don't look too peachy yourself." I eyed his spotless tank top and camouflage pants and huffed at my entirely inaccurate insult.
To my utter frustration, Hunter started laughing. I slammed an extra coffee mug onto the counter hard enough that it should have cracked and when it didn't I was even more annoyed. I spun on my heel and opened my mouth, ready to snarl something, just as Coal walked out of the bedroom.
"Leave her alone Hunter." He smiled and slapped the huge man on the back. "What's he done to you?" he asked me.
"I... he... I don't know." I dropped my hands down on the table in exasperation.
“Don't sweat it, it's a special talent of his." He walked around the table towards me and laid a hand on top of mine. "Deep breath." I did as I was told and my rage evaporated, though it may have had more to do with standing so close to Coal than it had to do with any breathing exercises.
“She's not one of your little projects," Coal berated him.
Hunter spread his hands before him to protest his innocence.
"It's habit," Hunter said.
"What is?" I asked.
"Baiting people. It's a kind of training that he likes to use. It's supposed to help teach you how to keep a clear head under difficult circumstances," Coal explained.
“Why would I need that?" I narrowed my eyes at Hunter. Maybe I'd been hasty in deciding I liked him.
"Sometimes, in a fight, a distraction can cost you dearly. Keeping a clear head can be very important." Hunter smiled. "Sorry."
I rolled my eyes. "It's fine. It might not be a bad idea for me to have some advantages in a fight."
"I thought they trained you for the Lawless Trials?" Coal asked.
"She can shoot and throw knives almost like a pro," Laurie said walking into the room. "But in a fist fight, she'd lose to a five year old."
“I'm not that bad," I protested.
"Seriously, if you're ever out of ammo and knives - just run," she advised me.
"Are you really that bad?" Alicia arrived looking irritatingly perfect and I ran my fingers through my hair again.
"No," I snapped. "I'm getting changed." I stormed into the bedroom with my coffee in hand and rooted around until I found my trials pants and boots and a clean white tank top. I pulled a brush through my hair and took a breath before re-emerging in the living area. Several deep swigs of the life giving nectar and my inner bitch was calming down. I took a deep breath and headed back out to join the others as they sat down for breakfast.
"Sorry if I upset you," Laurie said, holding my eye as I reentered the room and I waved off her apology. "But if we're heading into a fight it's only fair that we all know each other's strengths and weaknesses."
“It's okay, I know I'm not great in a fist fight," I sighed.
"Maybe I can give you some lessons when we get back," Coal offered.
"Or maybe, as someone who actually knows how to train people, I could." Hunter gave Coal a look that I couldn't work out.
"Or maybe I could!" Alicia gushed. "Seriously people, can we talk about something relevant to the mission. I'll give Maya some extra knives later, problem solved." I smiled at Alicia's forthright manner.
“Thanks," I said and she flashed me a smile back.
“So what's the plan?" Laurie asked.
"Simple. Breakfast, then we hit the road," Hunter said as he produced a bag filled with fresh croissants and a jar of strawberry jam.
The journey north was going to take two days by road. There was a farmhouse a little farther than half way where we’d take shelter for the night in the middle of the trip then it was straight on to the bunker.
The trees changed subtly as the car wound its way onwards. They were darker the further north we went, the leaves rougher in appearance. The undergrowth was different too, it looked spongey and damp but not humid like the forest we’d entered initially. It just looked wet. The temperature dropped as well and I huddled down into my seat, my breath misting on the windows.
"Is it much further?" I asked. Laurie was asleep again and Alicia was concentrating on the road. Coal had been staring vacantly out of the opposite window in silence for what seemed like years. "I'm bored to death."
“I'm not sure it's possible to be bored to death," Coal replied, his mouth curling up at the side.
"Well it must be. I can feel my heart giving up on beating, my lungs can't be bothered to work and my brain is definitely trying to disintegrate." And my legs were numb, I was hungry and I needed to pee but I tried to rein in the moaning a bit.
"What do you want me to do about it?"
"If I knew I'd have done it myself already." I looked over my shoulder at Kaloo who had curled up in the truck bed and fallen asleep. Her fur blew back and forth in the wind but she looked perfectly at ease. I shivered at the thought of being out there with her. Behind us on the road were two other trucks, filled with Hunter and his men.
I could feel Coal watching me and shifted my eyes to meet his.
"What?" I asked.
“I was just wondering what this must be li
ke for you, after living hidden away in your tower your whole life. To come out here, to see all of this. You're coping extremely well considering." He gave me a look that made me feel like a science experiment.
“Am I now?"
"Yes."
We sat in silence for several moments looking at each other. I didn't know what else to say to him. He was distractingly attractive and every time I thought of something I instantly forgot it. And the look in his eyes said he knew it, that cocky smile always playing around the lips I watched too often.
"Do you steal weapons from the Lawless Trials often?" I asked to break the tension.
“Not really. I was looking for some plants they needed in the hospital. I had more trouble finding them than I expected and I ended up close to the battlefield." He shrugged. "I've always been a bit of an opportunist so I thought it wouldn't hurt to stock up."
"So it was just dumb luck that we met then?"
"I guess. You can think of it as fate or divine intervention if you prefer," he teased.
"Maybe I do prefer. I'd rather not think that my life was one random choice made by a stranger away from being over."
"Okay then. I prefer to think things happen for a reason too. Maybe you can return the favour and save my life some time."
"If the opportunity ever arises then I promise I will," I said. Though the likelihood of him ever needing to be saved by me seemed rather slim.
"I'll hold you to that." He smiled and it sounded like he meant it.
I held my fist out to him with my pinky finger extended.
"What's that for?" he asked, looking blankly at my hand.
"Pinky swear. A promise means nothing if it's not a pinky swear." He still looked confused so I caught hold of his hand and linked his little finger with mine. "Now it's official."
Coal looked baffled and then started laughing as he took his hand back.
"So do you feel like telling us why we didn't stay at your house last night?" I asked casually.
"Us?" He glanced at Laurie who was asleep again.
"Well you can tell me and I'll fill her in later," I offered.
"It's nothing really I just didn't exactly leave town under the best of circumstances last time I was there. I might have pissed off a few people and I couldn't be bothered to deal with it for the sake of one night." He glanced back out of his window.
"Did you piss off anyone in particular?" I asked.
"Maybe. Probably not. I doubt she's holding a grudge really."
I bit my tongue against the questions that his answer raised and racked my brain for a different topic of conversation.
"Any chance this farm has hot water?" I asked.
“Yeah, we have a power generating turbine at all of our secured buildings. There's a network of them up and down the country."
"Well that's something then."
We lapsed back into silence and the minutes dragged on. I drummed my hands against my legs again and again and was eventually rewarded by Alicia swerving the car hard enough to make me hit my head against the glass.
"Ow!" I rubbed at my forehead as Alicia laughed. I glanced back at Kaloo but she hadn't even woken up at the movement.
A few moments later we turned off of the road onto a dirt track. The wheels kicked up a spray of mud and Alicia slowed us down. Hunter's trucks sped past us and disappeared ahead, splattering my window with mud as they went.
“It's about a mile down this track. I don't fancy having a rock fling up and damage this baby – Baba would have my ass for it. So they can go ahead and ruin their own trucks, but I don’t need another debt to pay off," Alicia called over her shoulder.
“Isn't it getting a bit dark? Do we have to worry about cougars out here?" I asked.
"No," Coal replied. "Not cougars."
“What then?"
"Hopefully nothing, but predatory creatures are more active at night so it's always a little riskier to be out and about which is why we prefer to be indoors."
I ignored his vagueness and looked out at the gloom.
The trees weren't thick around the track but created a barrier further out. We were surrounded by tall plants with husks on their tips and it changed the landscape drastically. It made it easier to see the sky and I watched as stars blinked into view.
“Is this corn?" I asked.
"Yes. It never used to grow as tall as this apparently but now it's over twenty five feet at full height. It produces at least four times as much corn per husk as the original plant too," Coal said.
"I suppose this is what they were aiming for originally," I mused.
“Shouldn't screw around with nature." Laurie waggled a finger authoritatively, awake at last.
The truck started to judder a bit then made a whining sound before giving up and coming to a halt.
"Damn it," Alicia cursed, slapping her hands down on the steering wheel. "We're out of power. We need to get to the farm house to charge it up again."
"Should we wait here for Hunter to realise that we got left behind?" Laurie asked.
The engine stopping meant that the heating had gone off and I was already feeling the cold creeping in. Alicia considered what to do.
“No. It's not far. We can walk it in less time than it would take for them to even realise we were missing." She opened her door and hopped out, the rest of us followed. It felt so good to stretch my legs after being cooped up for hours and I was glad of the opportunity to move about.
Alicia climbed up on top of the truck to look around.
“The road circles the field. I can see the other trucks still making their way around but the farm is just through there," she said, jumping down and pointing into the corn field.
“Through the middle of the field? In the dark?" I asked, trying to make it sound like the prospect wasn't terrifying.
“Well it's still the best part of a mile if we walk around the road but it's less than half that through the field. We can run it in like five minutes, ten tops," Alicia said.
I glanced at Laurie who shrugged and Coal who was looking up at the dark sky.
"Let's do it then, just all stick together no matter what," Coal said. He let out a whistle and Kaloo jumped out of the truck and bounded around us, obviously pleased to stretch her legs too.
Alicia locked the truck and we shouldered our packs.
"Let's go," Coal said and we pushed our way into the corn.
We soon realised that we could barely walk through the dense corn stalks let alone run. We kept in single file, forcing a path between them which was much harder than it should have been.
The stalks were surprisingly rigid. They resisted our passage and snapped back into position with enough force to actually hurt on the few times that they caught me by surprise. Kaloo didn't seem to have nearly as much trouble, she darted in and out of view, her rustling appearances making me jump every time.
Alicia had taken the lead followed by Laurie and me, then Coal.
I stumbled over something hidden by my feet and his arm was suddenly around my waist, keeping me upright. How nice it would be if I could just stop falling over my own feet.
“Thank you." I turned to face him with a blush lining my cheeks and he let me go.
The corn snapped back into place, instantly surrounding us as the others moved ahead and we were suddenly alone. I glanced down and saw my boot lace trailing into the mud.
"Tie it or you'll just fall over again," Coal said with a teasing grin.
I smiled apologetically and dropped down to one knee. Coal took his assault rifle from his back and turned to look at the corn surrounding us.
My numb fingers fumbled with the fine laces but I finally pulled them tight and stood. The cold pressed against me and I shivered. Coal turned and bumped into me and I had to catch hold of his arm so that I didn't fall over again.
“I'm sorry," Coal said.
I dropped his arm quickly. Our breath rose in little clouds of vapour between us.
A keening howl started up
somewhere to our right.
"What was that?" I gasped and Coal pressed his hand across my mouth, silencing me.
“Coyote," he whispered. "Hopefully just one." He beckoned and we followed the slightly bent path that the others had taken onwards into the surrounding stalks.
A yapping noise started to our left and was joined by another somewhere behind us.
"Why is there never just one?" I hissed.
“Stay slow and quiet," he whispered and we pushed on carefully.
The corn that towered above us let only slithers of moonlight through and there was no way to tell how far we still had to go.
The inflexible stalks were practically impossible to move through with any semblance of stealth. Every movement we made caused a chorus of rustling, signalling our position to the pack of wild dogs that were slowly forming a circle around us.
The yapping carried on, picking up from several directions and making my pulse race.
Coal took a knife from his belt and motioned for me to follow suit. Rather than empowering me, the feeling of the weapon in my hand just made me more worried. Great aim wouldn't do me much good against an attacker that I wouldn't see until they were on top of me. But I pushed against my inclination to panic and found the cold, calm place within me that would help me focus on the fight.
A strong gust of freezing wind sent a wave of movement through the field and I shivered again.
On and on we slipped through the maze of corn while howls pierced the night air all around us more and more frequently.
The wind finally let up and I tried to get the chattering of my teeth under control, wondering why the hell I’d left my jacket behind in the truck. The metal hilt of my knife was so cold that it sent pain up my arm and made my hand feel numb. I adjusted my grip and held the blade steady.
A shape burst between the stalks and I raised my knife only to have Coal knock it back down with his free hand. It was Kaloo, her hackles were raised and she let out a high pitched bark that sounded like a warning. She circled us once then started forward purposefully, keeping close.
Rebel Rising: A Dystopian Romance (Cage of Lies Book 1) Page 23