by Adele Huxley
“Bryan? Bry, it’s Liz. Anything yet, over?”
I held the radio to my chest to muffle the sound. Staring at the ceiling, I couldn’t shake that horrible sensation I’d felt too many times before. This isn’t real. This isn’t happening. I’m having a bad dream and I’ll wake up soon.
Every other time though, I’d been alone in my stressful situation. The first time with Rick and Kayla, I had no way of knowing if Bryan or the police would get to me in time. And then in New Zealand, I was so helpless. First in the gondola and then not knowing what happened to Bryan. But now, I was surrounded by the entire town. It just didn’t seem possible that something horrible could happen to all of us at once.
The radio crackled in my hand making me jump. I fumbled around, actually pressing a couple buttons and missing Bryan’s message.
“Say again, over.”
I lifted the radio to my ear, the volume down low just in case he came back with any bad news. “We’ve searched the entire perimeter. Someone thought they might’ve spotted footprints leading out into the woods, but there’s no way of knowing for sure.” I shivered at both possibilities. Either the poor kid had wandered into the forest, or somebody was out there hiding.
“I think we’ve covered everything in here, over,” I said reluctantly.
“Liz, you don’t have to say over every single line. We are not in a movie or in the military,” he said with dry humor. “I’m heading out to the barns with Chris. We’re going to jump in two of the snowcats and do a wider search. It’ll be good to get the last of them out anyway.”
It made sense and I’m surprised we hadn’t thought of it before. The snowcats could climb through a significant amount of snow and the bright lights could show anything in their path. We’d used two to flatten the parking lot for the helicopter, but this would work as well. “Okay, I’ll hold down the fort here, over. Shit. Sorry,” I said quickly.
I checked with the other searchers and none of them came back with anything new. With my heart heavy, I had to make my way back to the Goldbergs. In this case, no news was not good news.
I found Dani and Marie sitting beside them at the small table, usually used for staff breaks. All of them clutched fresh cups of tea. Four pairs of eyes looked up as I approached, and I could feel them collectively hold their breath. Not wanting to extend the moment any longer, I just shook my head.
“We haven’t found anything yet,” I said. “Everybody is still searching, I’m sure we’ll find him soon.”
“You said he was drinking, right? Did he try to get you to drink, too?” Mr. Goldberg asked his daughter. The way he asked it sounded weary, as if it were something they had battled many times before. She seemed like such a vivacious girl. It wouldn’t be a surprise if she’d given them trouble.
Marie looked at her hands, picking flakes of polish from her nails. “He had a flask of something, but honestly, I didn’t realize how much he’d had.”
Dani snorted in derision but remained quiet. I thought the reaction odd but Mrs. Goldberg started sobbing again, and I simply couldn’t bear to watch. I made a quick apology that I needed to check on Jack. As I made my way through the main room, a hand was at my elbow, pulling me around. I came face-to-face with Dani with an expression like thunder.
“Is that the truth?” she spat.
I was taken aback by her rage. “Of course it is. Why would I keep anything from them?” I defended indignantly.
“Oh, I don’t know, because that’s what you fucking do?” she whispered harshly, flinging her hands up into the air.
Under the circumstances, I did not have the patience to deal with her little temper tantrum. I understood she was under more stress than the rest of us and wasn’t coping very well, but I wasn’t about to let her take it out on me. I faced her fully, squaring my shoulders and coming to my full height. She may not have known a lot about me, but I was willing to give her a quick lesson.
“You might want to rethink your tone,” I said tightly.
To her credit, she stepped right in my face. “Or what? What could you do to me that hasn’t already been done?”
“I’m not the enemy here.”
“No? 'Cause you certainly aren’t the fucking hero this time, Liz.” She was shouting now, drawing the attention of many around us. I tried to guide her back into the kitchen, but she tore her arm free.
“I’m not trying to be…”
Dani gritted her teeth as her eyes narrowed. “I hate you.”
Before we took anything further, Walt stepped between us. He put his arm across Dani’s waist as if breaking up a possible fistfight. “Okay… why don’t we come over here for a bit. Let’s go play with the baby…” he said as he tried to lead Dani away. She glared up at him, almost as if she wanted to hit him, too, until storming off in the opposite direction.
I took a few steps back and just as I was about to apologize to the Goldbergs for her outburst, the lodge went black. It wasn’t as noticeable as it was the first time, because most of the lights had been turned off to conserve energy. It was subtle. I noticed the Christmas tree go dark, the hum of the walk-in coolers stop. The howl of the wind outside grew louder in the absence.
“Shit, that’s not good,” I muttered to myself.
Dani whacked my shoulder with hers as she stormed past back into the kitchen. I blinked a few times in shock, numbly bringing the radio to my lips and calling for Bryan.
“Bryan?”
“Hi, yeah. We just saw it. We’re on the far side of the lodge now, we can swing around and go check. Is everything okay?” Bryan said.
“I think so.”
“Chris? Are you there, Chris?” Bryan replied. After a moment, the radio crackled.
“Here, boss. I’ll go check the gennies, see what’s up.”
“Good man, thanks.”
I breathed a little better knowing Chris was on top of it. Honestly, I didn’t know what we would’ve done if we hadn’t had his help through all this. Keeping this lodge together was not a two-person job.
Still reeling from my altercation with Dani, I walked into the Great Hall. More and more people were noticing the power was completely out now. A handful of kids were crying, which of course, got others crying too. As I tried to check on Walt and Jack, Ellen from the hair salon stepped in front of me, her hands on her hips.
“I think you owe us an explanation,” she declared indignantly. Standing behind her was her twin sister, Annie. Her voice carried loud enough to gain the attention of everyone around us.
“We’re having a problem with the generators, yes. Bryan is out right now with one of the maintenance crew trying to…”
Annie huffed, stepping past her sister and practically yelling in my face. “That’s the least of our worries, if what people are saying is true.”
I felt practically every pair of eyes on me at once. Jesus, they all know. My mind raced, quickly fighting to figure out how to subdue their fears. “I don’t think this is something we really should talk about in front of the children,” I said slowly.
Like some sort of sick tag team ambush duo, Ellen pushed in front of Annie. “Stop brushing us off. We should talk about it right here. It’s the secrets that’ll kill us.”
I looked around to see pretty much every person within earshot staring at us. I didn’t see any other option. I took a step to the side and faced the crowd at large.
“I would be happy to answer any questions anybody has. But please,” I said, looking around the room, “keep in mind there are children here. I don’t want anyone getting too alarmed and…”
“When is the power going to come back on?” a man from the back called out.
“As I said, Bryan and a few maintenance workers are outside right now checking on it. We’re doing the best we can considering the conditions outside. We are at the height of the storm.” Almost as if proving my point, the huge gust of wind blew around the lodge, battering the windows with pellets of snow.
“Why was there a fire
?”
“We’re looking into that.”
“When is the storm supposed to end? We haven’t heard any weather updates,” an older woman yelled.
“The last report I heard wasn’t good. We’ve already received somewhere in the neighborhood of five to six feet of snow…” The room gasped followed by a few mumbled whispers. “This might seem unbelievable, but the report we last got said that we were going to get the same again through the night into tomorrow.”
The crowd murmured in surprise and disbelief. That amount of snow was historic, storm of the century levels. For the first time, I was actually glad for the ridiculous totals. At least they can’t blame me for the weather.
“Excuse me,” an unfamiliar woman said standing up and looking around. “My husband and I booked a room for five days. Should we talk to you about a refund?”
The room erupted into groans, the locals grumbling. Ellen clapped her hands together to gain their attention, glaring at me the whole time.
“That isn’t what I wanted to ask,” she threw at me. “When were you going to tell us that a young boy has gone missing? I have two daughters and if there’s something I need to know to keep them safe…”
The rest of her questions, even though she was standing beside me, were drowned out by shouts from the crowd. Panic had well and truly taken hold. I held my hands up in an effort to gain order. Even though she knew nothing about the situation, Ellen began fielding questions, spitting out answers that were merely rumors.
As the ruckus began to die down, somebody else called out from the crowd. “Is it true there isn’t enough food for everyone?”
“I heard somebody died in the bathroom,” another person screamed out.
Each rumor was met with a murmur of rising fear and panic. When I was a kid watching those nature programs, I could never understand how the lions won. They were always drastically outnumbered. If the prey didn’t turn and run, the lions wouldn’t have a chance to pick anyone off. In that moment, I understood their panic at the deepest level. We don’t need a lion to spook us, I thought. The wildebeests scare each other. The lions just sit and wait for it all to go down before picking them off.
The radio my pocket crackled with static. In the noise I couldn’t understand what Bryan was trying to say. The lodge already in an uproar, I extracted myself to a quieter place and responded.
“Sorry Bryan, I’m here. Did you find him?”
When he responded he was out of breath, like he had been jogging at full pelt. “Liz, get Dusty. We’re coming in the front. We got him.”
As happy as I was to hear that, I realized that it couldn’t have come at a worse time. If I had at least managed to maintain the calm, we would’ve been able to get him in quietly and without scaring everyone.
Spotting Sally in the crowd only a few feet away, I pushed my way through and looped my arm through hers. “I need your help. They found him outside, and they have to bring him in the front. We need to clear a path to the kitchen.”
Sally’s face turned ashen, but she nodded grimly. “What you need me to do?”
I could’ve kissed that woman. “I need to go find Dusty and then go grab as many first aid kits as I can. If you can get a few people to help you keep a path clear and guard the doors, that would be amazing. Make sure they can go straight into the kitchen.”
“You got it. I think Melinda came up this morning with the last wave of townies,” she said as I was pulling away.
The name gave me pause. The memory of the first time we’d met rushed back, in a similar stressful situation. She was on the floor of the kitchen, hunched over one of my friends, trying to save her from overdosing. She’d been so calm, no-nonsense. We were just a bunch of kids afraid of getting caught with drugs…
Sally grabbed my arm, her eyes wide. “Is he… is he going to be okay?”
With my heart in my throat, I forced the old memory away, and patted her hand. I could see my fear reflected in her dark eyes. “Bryan didn’t have a chance to say, but it sounded serious. I’m glad Melinda’s here, too.”
I found Dusty checking up on Marie’s mom, she and Dani sitting nearby as she sucked oxygen from the spare tank. I tried to ignore the evil look Dani shot me, so I could deliver the news. I crouched down and kept my voice low even though the din in the lodge was growing by the minute.
“Bryan just radioed and said that they found him, but he’s hurt,” I said directly to Dusty. He looked exhausted. As one of the few paramedics in Tellure Hollow, and with Lacey gone, he had the unlucky fortune of taking care of every ill person at the lodge.
Dani and Marie both shot to their feet, speaking at the same time.
“I’m coming with you.”
“Where is he?”
I grabbed Dusty’s arm as he flung his emergency kit over his shoulder. “I’ll try to find Melinda, but do you need anything else?”
There was a dark look in his eyes as he pressed his lips together. “I have no idea until I get there. Where is he?”
“We’re putting him in the kitchen,” I said, nodding backwards.
I grabbed the two girls as they moved to push past. “You need to give them space so they can help him.”
“Right, ‘cause you’ve helped him so much already,” Dani growled over her shoulder as they jogged to the kitchen.
I regretted walking in there the instant I pushed through those swinging doors. Compared to the madness Liz had created out in the main area, it was at least a controlled sort of chaos. But the blood… there was so much blood.
Bryan and Dusty had carried Miah into the kitchen, placed him on one of the metal prep tables, which allowed both EMTs to work on him from either side. They spoke to each other in a hushed, clipped language. The woman was trying to cut off his clothes while Dusty wiped him clean, searching for the wounds.
An older woman with graying hair rushed through the doors to the table. “Melinda, how can I help?” she asked the paramedics.
“We need lots of blankets and warm water, not hot. Find storage bags, grocery bags, anything flexible that can hold water,” Melinda replied quickly. Her dark hair pulled back in a tight bun, she gave off a commanding, competent air. “Warm, not hot!”
A few people stood on the perimeter holding up flashlights so the two could work. His still body glowed in the darkness, the shadowy figures only adding to the eeriness.
“This gash is pretty nasty,” said Dusty. Even from a few feet away, I could see the deep cut disappear into his hairline.
“He’s definitely hypothermic, but my thermometer stops at 93.” She felt along his limbs, holding his hand with both of hers. Pressing a stethoscope to his chest, she listened to his breathing and heart before continuing. “I don’t think he’s unconscious because of the cold.”
Bryan backed away, his clothes covered in blood. He stood tense, frightened, angry. Liz had her arm around Mrs. Goldberg, which left me seething. His blood is on her hands, I thought as I watched her fake kindness.
I caught glimpses of Miah as the EMTs moved around. His dirty blond hair was matted with blood, tattered clothes dropping to the floor.
“Why is there so much…” I mumbled, staring as the blood pooled on the table by his head.
Marie answered beside me, her voice numb. “Because of the cold. Blood moves slower when the body is cold. Warm it up…”
“How do you know that?”
“Hunting,” she said flatly.
I glanced over at my cousin standing by himself, his hands balled into fists at his side. Without a word to Marie, I walked away to join him.
Bryan didn’t notice as I approached, startling when I spoke. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
He seemed to shake out of a fog, focusing on me as if I stood at a great distance. He looked down at himself, pulling the blood-soaked clothes away from his torso in disbelief. “No, I’m fine. Just a little… I swear we looked there. There’s no way we could have missed him.”
My mouth went dry. “Wh
ere did you find him? Out in the forest?”
Bryan shook his head, still looking off into the distance as if he were still living it all over again. “We must not have seen him. We were swinging around from the parking lot, going back to the barns to put the groomers away. Bobby saw him first, saw his red jacket.”
I touched his arm, trying to bring him back to center. “Where?”
He tilted his head to the right. “In the chair. He was just slouched there.” He finally focused on me, his eyes dark and wild. “I know he wasn’t there when we first looked. You looked out there too, didn’t you?”
Chair? I wondered. Oh shit, he means the big one out front… I backed away, a little scared by his intensity. “Yeah, but we didn’t look in the chair.” Oh my God… he could’ve been right there and we didn’t know…
Bryan glanced up and over my shoulder. I followed his gaze to see Liz approaching. A voice came across the radio hanging loosely from his hand.
“Boss? You there? The gennie is well and truly busted. You there?”
Bryan lifted it to his mouth and not wanting to cause any more trouble with Liz, I walked away, glaring at her as I tried to get closer to Miah’s side.
I stared at his face as I drew closer, willing his eyes to open. The EMTs worked by the bright light of the flashlights and tiny headlamps glowing on their heads.
“A lot of this blood isn’t his,” Dusty murmured as he worked.
“Then whoever did this is in a world of hurt, too,” the woman replied. She lifted his hand to show Dusty the blood collected under his nails.
Miah lay unconscious and aside from his boxers, bare on the table. Smears of red stained his skin, but other than a handful of bruises, his body looked relatively unscathed. They piled bags of warm water along his chest, stomach, and sides, throwing layer upon layer of blankets over his body. He looked so peaceful.