No Shelter Trilogy (Omnibus, Books 1-3)

by T. S. Welti

  “Get behind me,” Isaac says, as he approaches the trap slowly with gun ready.

  “I thought you said he was out of bullets?” I reply.

  “Well, that’s assuming he didn’t have any in his pockets,” Isaac replies before he calls out. “Vic! You awake down there?”

  No reply.

  The forest is still, but the air is charged with the energy of a coming storm.

  “Vic!” Isaac calls out again. “If you don’t answer me I’m coming in blasting!”

  Still no answer.

  “What if he’s dead?” I whisper.

  “Then we don’t have to go to Umbra anymore,” Mary replies.

  I feel a twinge of guilt as I imagine how Vic’s death would solve so many of our problems.

  “This is your last chance, Vic!” Isaac shouts, as he inches closer to the trap.

  When there’s no reply he begins blasting off one roaring shot after another. I cover my ears and watch in awe as the snow explodes around him like storm clouds.

  Mary and I step forward as the snow settles and Isaac is rubbing his forearm where Eve and I wrapped his gunshot wound less than an hour ago. We gaze into the trap Eve managed to dig by herself while Daedric, Mary, and I were off rescuing Isaac from the Guardians. We didn’t know when we left Eve and Elysia alone that the Guardians were following us everywhere we went, lurking in the shadows for hundreds of miles, waiting for Qiana or Isaac to slip up and give away the location of the secret entrance to Umbra.

  But there are no Guardians lurking in this hole. Vic is gone.

  Isaac tears through the snow and into the cabin. He throws open the bedroom door and flips on the light.

  “Pack up. We’re leaving,” he says, as he yanks a blanket off one of the three empty bunks and hands it to me.

  Daedric and Elysia sit up in the bottom bunk. “What the f—” Daedric cries, before he realizes Elysia is laying next to him. “Lysi, go see what Eve is doing.”

  Elysia pushes Daedric aside so she can scoot off the bed then she skips out of the room.

  Daedric carefully sets his foot on the floor. “What’s going on?”

  “Vic escaped,” I reply, as I fold the blanket Isaac gave me into a neat square.

  “So what? He’s out of ammo,” Daedric replies.

  “We don’t know for sure he’s out of ammo,” Isaac replies. “We have to get out of here before he takes someone hostage or starts picking us off one by one.”

  Daedric stares at me as I stuff the folded blanket into my backpack. I heave Daedric’s backpack onto the bed next to mine and stuff another folded blanket into his backpack. When I look back at him he’s staring at his injured foot.

  “How the hell am I supposed to outrun him like this?” Daedric says.

  Isaac is busy rummaging through the dresser drawers for useful things like scarves and socks, but I’m certain he heard the question.

  “Why don’t we just sleep in shifts?” I suggest. “Half of us awake while the other half sleep.”

  Isaac turns around to face me. “And how long is it going to take before someone goes to the bathroom alone without thinking twice. You want to stay here and act like prisoners? Do you want to be the one Vic takes to Umbra?”

  “I don’t know the way to Umbra,” I reply.

  Isaac is the only one who knows the way to Umbra. Isaac is the one Vic is after, but Vic will do anything to get Isaac to talk. And there’s only one person Vic can threaten to get Isaac to spill his guts.

  I collapse onto the bottom bunk across the room from Daedric and bury my face in my hands. Isaac sits next to me. The weight of his hand on my back makes me want to sink into the ground and disappear.

  CHAPTER 3

  “I’ll stay behind,” Daedric says. “You guys don’t need me dragging you down.”

  “You can’t stay here,” I say. “It’s not safe for Elysia and you can’t abandon her… She needs you.”

  I can feel Isaac’s eyes on me as I speak these words. He removes his hand from my back and sighs.

  “You don’t have to stay here,” he says to Daedric. “If we head out in the opposite direction of Umbra, Vic won’t find us. We can find somewhere to hide out for a couple of weeks while your foot heals.”

  Hearing Isaac say this makes me almost forget everything he told me about betraying his brother and the terrible things he did to Mary when they were together.

  Isaac stands and leaves the room without another word. I stand to go after him, but something stops me. Daedric continues to stare at his foot and I feel the need to say something.

  “I’m… really confused,” I whisper.

  “Yeah, don’t worry about it. I’m not giving you any ultimatums,” he replies then he nods toward the doorway. “I can’t compete with that.”

  “That’s not true,” I reply, but I don’t elaborate. “How’s your foot?”

  “Hurts like hell, but I’m used to that kind of pain.”

  “Oh, please,” I reply and he grins at me. “Seriously, do you need me to find you a crutch?”

  He shakes his head. “Nah, but can you grab that bottle of pain meds from the medicine cabinet and put them in my backpack, you know, just in case.”

  I resist the urge to scold him for pretending everything is okay when he’s obviously in real pain. The bottle of pain medicine in the bathroom is not the drugstore medicine I expected. What I find is a prescription bottle with the name Judith Greenwood. I carry the bottle back to the bedroom and Daedric is already on his feet with his backpack slung over one shoulder.

  I pull the backpack off his shoulder and throw it onto the bed. “Isaac can carry that for you. He doesn’t have a backpack to carry,” I say, as I slide open the zipper on one of the smaller pouches and stuff the bottle of pills inside.

  “Are you going to ask me about the name on the bottle?” he says.

  I shrug. “It was your mom’s?”

  “Yeah, she was addicted to those things,” he replies.

  “Judith Greenwood,” I whisper.

  “Daedric Greenwood,” he says.

  Nada Greenwood.

  No.

  Nada Faulk.

  Absolutely not.

  Daedric chuckles. “What are you thinking? Your face got all funny.”

  “Nothing,” I reply, as I pull on my backpack and grab Daedric’s. “Let’s go.”

  I bump into Mary as I come out of the bedroom. She shoves past me and finds her backpack lying on the bottom bunk next to Eve’s.

  “Were you going through my stuff, Nada?” she shouts at me as I’m walking through the corridor toward the living room.

  I don’t even bother responding. Daedric follows me into the living room where we find Isaac talking to Eve.

  “We don’t have room for all the traps. Just bring the smaller traps,” he tells her.

  Eve looks hesitant at this suggestion. “We’re going to be out there for months. We need as many sizes as possible,” she replies.

  “Eve is right,” Daedric says, before he plops down on the sofa. “Especially this time of year when so many animals have gone into hibernation. We’re gonna starve if we depend on Nada to hunt for us.”

  “Thank a lot,” I say.

  “It’s just the truth,” Daedric replies. “What if you get hurt or something? We can hunt, but no one can hunt like you.”

  I try not to look too pleased with Daedric’s compliment.

  “Fine,” Isaac says. “Bring one of each size, but that’s it. We have a ton of first-aid supplies to pack.”

  When everything’s packed, Isaac tries to take my backpack from me. I tighten my grip on the straps.

  “You’re carrying Daedric’s pack,” I say.

  His eyebrows fly up in disbelief.

  “It’s heavier than mine,” I say.

  Isaac shakes his head and pulls on Daedric’s pack without a word of protest. He picks up the shotgun that rests against the inside of the front door and opens the door slowly.

  “H
e’s gonna kill me in my sleep,” Daedric whispers in my ear.

  “Not funny,” I reply.

  Isaac leads us toward the back of the cabin and into the woods in the opposite direction of Umbra. When we’re far enough from the cabin we begin searching for a hideout.

  The white forest is a blank sheet of paper waiting for us to spell out all our secrets. Every footprint, every drop of blood, everything we touch, is marked by our presence. We have to find a cave or something underground where we can hide out long enough for Daedric’s foot to heal.

  “We have to start covering our tracks,” Isaac says. “Can you handle that, Mary?”

  Mary rolls her eyes, but she doesn’t protest. She takes her place at the back of the group and uses a scarf wrapped around the tip of a walking stick to erase our footprints in the snow.

  “Can you get me one of those pills?” Daedric whispers to me.

  His cheeks are red and his forehead is glistening with sweat.

  “Do you need to rest?” I ask.

  He shakes his head as he limps along. I put my arm around his waist and force him to stand still.

  “Isaac? Stop!” I call out.

  He turns around and sees me holding Daedric up. He hands Eve the shotgun and races to my side. Eve stares at the gun in her hands as if she’s holding a bomb.

  Isaac throws his arm around Daedric’s waist and I pull the bottle of pills out of the backpack. I pop one in Daedric’s mouth. He swallows the pill and I stuff the bottle back into the pack. Isaac and I help Daedric forward, but we move sluggishly as he keeps stumbling. Finally, Isaac and I set Daedric down on a small boulder to rest.

  “Daedric, are you gonna die?” Elysia asks.

  Daedric laughs. “I’m not gonna die. It just hurts a little.”

  I pull Isaac aside. “We have to find a campsite quick. The more he walks the more blood he’s going to lose.”

  “Don’t you think I know that, Nada,” he replies. “There’s no shelter out here. We’re in the middle of the mountains. Do you want to sleep in the freaking snow?”

  “Don’t put this off on me, Isaac. I didn’t want any of this,” I reply.

  “You’re the one who insisted we bring him.”

  “Are you suggesting we should have left him behind to die?”

  “I’m not saying that,” he says. “He’s the one who wanted to stay behind.”

  “He was offering to stay behind to help us.”

  “Yeah, because he’s so freaking noble, especially the way he ditched us in the middle of the desert last week. What a great guy.”

  Isaac and I glare at each other in silence.

  “I FOUND IT!” Eve shouts.

  Eve dashes toward us, her boots kicking up snow, with the shotgun pointed at us.

  “Point that somewhere else!” Isaac shouts.

  Eve stops and throws the gun down. “I found a cave,” she says, slightly out of breath. “Come on.”

  The cave is long and narrow with a high pointed ceiling where a sliver of moonlight shines through. My heart flutters at the sight of it. It’s almost identical to the first cave Isaac and I shared after the Whitmore High School riot two and a half years ago.

  Isaac and I set Daedric down at the rear of the cave. I wonder if Isaac sees what I see.

  He leans over and whispers in my ear. “I’m sorry for what I said about him.”

  We set our backpacks on the ground and I lay out Daedric’s sleeping bag for him to get in. Eve helps me remove Daedric’s boots and change the dressing on his foot. The gunshot wound took out a quarter-sized chunk from the outer edge of his left foot. The sight of the oozing mangled flesh makes me queasy again. When we’re done wrapping his foot, he crawls into his sleeping bag and falls right to sleep.

  Mary tucks herself into her sleeping bag as Isaac gets a fire started near the cave entrance. Eve and Elysia slip inside Eve’s sleeping bag and Eve whispers a song to Elysia before they go to sleep. I take a seat next to Isaac as he lights the fire.

  “Remember the first time I took you hunting,” I ask him.

  He smiles. “You were such a Nazi with all your rules. ‘Don’t walk!’, ‘Don’t stand up!’, ‘Don’t breath!’ I thought you were just gonna get it over with and kill me.”

  “I was a Nazi?” I reply. “What about you? You were so annoying with all your stories about Vic and the stuff they did to people. I swear, you gave me nightmares for months with those stories.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that?”

  “I didn’t want you to think I was a dumb fifteen-year-old girl who couldn’t handle it,” I reply, as I stare at the growing fire. “Man, we were just kids.”

  We’re silent for a moment before the cold slinks beneath my coat and I start to shiver. Isaac wraps his arm around my shoulder and pulls me close. I nestle my head into the crook of his neck and close my eyes.

  He kisses my forehead as he rubs my arm to warm me. “Sweet dreams, my little Nazi.”

  CHAPTER 4

  Twelve days in such tight quarters has everyone on edge, but Daedric is in good spirits. The gunshot wound on his foot has stopped oozing. Isaac’s wound closed two days ago. I’ve managed to catch two squirrels, one owl, one vole rat, and four foxes in this area, which has been more than enough when combined with the food we brought from the cabin.

  When we finish our breakfast of watery oatmeal and fried fox legs, Daedric takes Elysia for a walk to stretch his legs while Eve leaves to check the traps. Isaac sets off to gather more firewood, leaving me alone with Mary. After such a huge meal, I have to adjust my belt buckle down to the next notch.

  “Packing it on for hibernation?” Mary asks. “Or are you pregnant?”

  The word blasts through my consciousness like a bullet. I try to remember how many weeks it’s been since my last menstrual period, but I can’t remember. It definitely happened before Isaac and I…

  I smile at Mary to hide the panic. “I’m going hunting. Don’t forget to sharpen your knives.”

  Isaac enters the cave and raises an eyebrow at my comment. “What’s that all about?” he asks.

  I shove my way past him to get as far from Mary and this conversation as possible. The cool air swirls around me and I try not to vomit the oatmeal swirling in my belly. I close my eyes and take deep breaths, but the Earth sways beneath my feet.

  Please don’t let this happen. Please not right now.

  My entire body breaks out in a cold sweat as I heave half-chewed oatmeal all over the fresh snow.

  Isaac appears at my side instantly. “Are you okay?” he asks, pulling my hair out of my face as another surge of vomit explodes from my mouth.

  “I need to sit down,” I say, gripping his jacket for support.

  He scoops me into his arms and lays me on top of our sleeping bag. I shake my head wildly. I’m not done. My mouth gushes saliva as one final gurgle of vomit bubbles up inside my mouth. I spit it out on the floor then I lay back on the sleeping bag.

  Isaac pulls the sleeping bag around me and zips it up. He places his hand on my forehead and frowns.

  “You don’t have a fever.”

  Of course, I don’t. I’m not sick.

  “Just go back to sleep,” he whispers, planting a kiss on my nose. “You can hunt tomorrow.”

  I turn over in the sleeping bag so I face the cave wall and I drift off instantly. I wake intermittently, catching snippets of conversation, whispered worries. When I finally feel rested, I open my eyes and peer outside into the blackness. I slept all day.

  “You think it was the fox?” Daedric asks me.

  Mary and him are the only ones present.

  “They went to set up the traps,” Mary says, as she sharpens her machete.

  I sit up and smooth my hair with my fingers. “I don’t know,” I reply to Daedric. “But I feel better now.”

  “Yeah, that’s how denial works,” Mary mutters.

  Daedric smiles at Mary’s jab. “Never willing to let one slide.”

  Mary
shrugs and continues sharpening her knife. Did she tell Daedric? No, he wouldn’t smile at her comment if he knew the truth.

  I pull on my boots and zip up my jacket before I march outside. I need to find Isaac. I need to talk to him before Mary does. Daedric follows me outside still wearing a slight limp.

  “Hey, where are you going?” he asks. “You can’t go out there. You’ll get lost.”

  “I’m not going out there,” I say, as I pull my hood over my head. “I’m just going to wait here till they get back.”

  “Come on, Nada. She’s trying to get under your skin. What you do is none of her business.”

  “What do you mean? What did she tell you?”

  “What do you mean? She didn’t tell me anything.”

  I shake my head as if the answer to this question is nothing important.

  “You storm out like she insulted your dead mother and now you’re gonna act like it’s no big deal?”

  “Please don’t talk about my mom,” I reply.

  “Yeah, whatever, Nada,” he replies, before he disappears into the cave.

  My nose is frozen by the time Eve, Isaac, and Elysia return from setting up the traps for the night. I have to force myself not to blurt my worried thoughts as they approach the cave.

  “What are you doing out here?” Isaac says, as he places his hand on my cheek. “You’re freezing. How long have you been out here?”

  Eve glances at me as she and Elysia enter the cave. She knows. We know too much about each other. I know Eve had her period last week because she asked to borrow a pair of my pants one morning when she got an unpleasant wake up call. I know Mary’s was the week before because everyone suffered her nastier than usual mood swings.

  “Come on. Let’s get inside,” Isaac says, but I grab his arm to stop him.

  “Wait. I need to talk to you.”

  He can see how nervous I am and it’s making him nervous. I take a deep breath partially to calm myself and partially as a stall tactic.

  “Wow,” I say, as I stuff my hands into the pockets of my jacket. “It’s so cold out here.”