by Blake Crouch
Then she saw it, a ways up the nearest slope—the tiny cross of Abandon’s church puncturing the low gray clouds. She stood. The town itself lay just a quarter of a mile ahead. She could already see the other structures, and a tinge of pride coursed through her.
I found it in the dark, in the middle of a blizzard. Not bad for a city girl.
The possibility that Quinn was still out there flashed through her mind. She turned off her headlamp and waded on into the box canyon.
SEVENTY
M
ain Street lay empty, nineteenth-century wind chimes tinkling discordantly in the doorway of what had been the mercantile. Abigail stood between the saloon and the hotel, looking up at the bay window, that vantage point from which she’d first seen Isaiah or Stu through the red filter of Emmett’s camera.
She studied the snow in the vicinity. With their tracks from Monday night now a day and a half old, there should’ve been no trace of them under four feet of snow. And yet she saw tracks, at least one fresh set, that moved into the hotel, then south toward the pass.
Abigail waded over to the entrance, stepped through the door frame. She banged her boots against the brick and knocked off the ice, then turned on the headlamp and swept it over the collapsed staircase, the archways, the front desk. Her last time in this hotel lobby, late Monday night, Scott Sawyer had been lying under the lounge’s archway. Now the only sign of him was a dark stain on the floorboards.
She made a cursory inspection of the lounge, glancing under the billiard table, behind the fallen elk head, wondering if Quinn had found Scott, stowed him elsewhere.
If Scott had brought the keys to his Suburban with him on their Monday-night photo shoot, she could forget using his truck. It was seventeen miles from Abandon to the trailhead, another ten from the trailhead to Silverton. Twenty-seven miles. Farther than a marathon, in deep snow, at altitude, sleep-divested, and without food or water.
If my cell doesn’t get service at the pass, that’s what I’m in for. Might as well get going.
She heard a boot step on broken glass—across the lobby, in the dining room.
She rushed toward the doorway as a shadow darted out from behind the bar, footsteps coming after her, crunching over the shattered chandeliers, her heart slamming in her chest like a thing that wanted free. Before she reached the entrance, something grabbed her left arm and a gloved hand squelched her scream, dragging her back from the doorway, pushing her down behind the front desk.
Her headlamp illuminated Scott’s face. “Scott? Oh my God, you’re a—”
“Shhh. Someone was here just fifteen minutes ago.”
“Who?”
“Didn’t recognize them. I heard footsteps in the snow, so I hid behind the bar.”
“How are you alive?” He raised his down vest, yellow fleece jacket, and thermal underwear top so Abigail could see where he’d duct-taped the knife wound closed to stop the bleeding, the right half of his abdomen bloated and inflamed.
“It hurts like hell, and I thought I was dead when they first stuck me. The blade nicked a rib, but it missed my vital organs. I faked it once those men in masks showed up. Hoped if they thought I was dying, maybe they’d just leave me tied up, which is exactly what they did. I came to consciousness last night, managed to free myself. I’ve been resting, gathering my strength to go out and look for everyone.”
Well, they’re all dead because of you and my father, she thought.
Abigail leaned back against the desk, could have fallen asleep inside of a minute.
“The three masked men?” she said. “Ex–Special Forces.”
“Three? I thought there were only two.”
“Your trustworthy assistant was the third.”
“What?” Scott ripped off his headband, ran his fingers through his bleached-out hair.
“Apparently, Jerrod found out the real reason you and Lawrence had come to Abandon.”
If he caught the edge in her voice, Scott didn’t show it, just said, “So what happened?”
She told him everything except that they’d actually found the gold, and when she finished, Scott put his head between his knees and sat absolutely still and silent, though by the light of her headlamp, Abigail saw tears splattering on the floorboards under his face.
“I killed them,” he said.
She put her hand on the back of his neck. “No, you—”
“No, I was their guide. They just came out here to see Abandon, take some stupid fucking pictures, and we used them for their backcountry permit. Jesus Christ.”
“Scott, I know you’re upset, but we have to go for help right now. Lawrence won’t last long in that cave when the water runs out. Now, my cell’s in my pack back at camp. If I get service at the pass, hopefully we can get somebody out here.”
Scott looked up and wiped his face. He stood, limped off into the dining room, returned with his pack. He handed Abigail two Clif Bars and a Nalgene bottle. “The water’s got two packs of Emer’gen-C in it. Get that in you. It’ll help replenish the minerals and vitamins you’ve lost. You’ll need a serious energy boost for what’s ahead of us.”
SEVENTY-ONE
T
hey struck out south toward their campsite, choosing a route behind the buildings in an effort to remain unseen. Despite his wound, Scott moved quickly through the snow, and soon they’d left behind the row of false-fronted cribs at the end of town.
Up-canyon, Abigail spotted the boulder standing on the outskirts of camp. “I recognize that rock,” she said. “The tents are just beyond it.”
As they passed the boulder, Scott said, “Where’s our stuff?”
He went out ahead of her, moving in frantic circles through the area where the tents had been. “I’m not believing this,” he said as he dug in the snow. “Quinn must’ve taken our gear. Everything’s gone. Even Gunter and Gerald.”
“Who?”
“The llamas. Fucker better be packing a fucking arsenal if he touched my boys.”
“You’re sure the tents aren’t just buried? The snow would’ve covered them, right?”
“See this?” Scott knocked the powder off the top of a pyramid-shaped boulder that barely jutted out of the snow. “Lawrence put his tent up right here, by this rock, so he could lay his things on it. Now all his stuff’s gone. But cross your fingers and your toes.” Scott waded over to another boulder, this one capped with four feet of snow. “I never set my tent up Monday night,” he said. “I was too busy fixing supper, helping everyone else get settled into camp. I was gonna do it when we got back from photographing the ghost town. What I’m hoping is that by the time Quinn found our camp, enough snow had fallen to bury my big pack, which I left beside this boulder.”
Scott ducked under the snow. A moment later, he popped up, hoisting his internal-frame Dana Design backpack like a trophy above his head.
Abigail worked her way over to him. “What do you have in there?”
“Everything. My tent. Extra clothes. First-aid kit. Sleeping bag. More bottles of water. A gas stove. Food. I don’t think we’d have made it without this.” He brushed the snow off his solid-black pack and loosened the compression straps.
“Please tell me you have a cell phone.”
“Hate the fuckers.”
“So we’re hiking out.”
“Seventeen beautiful miles.” He dropped a big compression bag in the snow. “But no worries. I’ll whip us up a meal before we go.” He reached into the bag, emerged with two packets of Backpacker’s Pantry freeze-dried dinners. “What’s your pleasure? Paella with saffron rice and chicken, or turkey Stroganoff?”
Within the hour, they were on the move again, heading toward the Sawblade, swaddled in ashen clouds.
After a half mile, Quinn’s tracks branched off from the canyon and climbed the slope toward Emerald Basin.
They pushed on, taking turns breaking a trail through the deepening powder.
By the time they reached the ruins of the Godsend, the drifts ca
me to Abigail’s chest.
“Let’s take a breather,” Scott said. They collapsed near the stamp mill at the foot of that steep white slope that swept up two thousand feet into the clouds.
“What happens if Quinn sees our tracks?” Abigail asked.
“Yeah, I’ve been worried about that.”
“I mean, he will eventually see them, right?”
“Probably. And you’re exhausted. I’m hurting. He won’t have to travel that fast to catch us, and he has one hell of an interest in our never leaving these mountains. I’d feel a lot better if it was snowing like a bastard. We’re target practice out here in the open.”
“You got a gun in your pack?”
“Jerrod kept the pistol with him.”
Abigail squinted down-canyon, subconsciously searching for a tiny figure plodding toward them through the snow. “I’ll bet Quinn has a gun,” she said.
“What we have to do is get as much of a head start as we possibly can. I was listening to my weather radio in the hotel last night, and it sounds like it only snowed above eighty-five hundred feet. If we can get down that far, we should be safe. He won’t be able to track us. But as long as we stay in the snow, it’s just a matter of time.”
Abigail struggled to her feet, gave Scott a hand up. “Then let’s get going,” she said. “I’ll lead for a while.”
1893
SEVENTY-TWO
S
he used her thumb to pull the hammer back.
“Good. Now put your finger right here.” He eased it onto the trigger. “No, don’t squeeze yet. Not until you’re ready to shoot something.”
“I’m ready.”
“What are you aiming at?”
“Our cabin.”
The hammer snapped down on an empty chamber.
“Okay, now what if you wanna shoot it again?”
She worked the big hammer back.
“Perfect.”
“This time, I’m shootin the chimney.”
Snap.
“I think you’ve got it.”
She heard harness bells ringing a couple hundred feet below, the burros growing antsy. The preacher took the gun from her and broke it open, dropped shiny cartridges into the chambers.
“This becomes dangerous now,” Stephen said. “It’ll be loud.”
“Why you cryin?”
He gave her the gun, took a wipe from his frock coat, and dabbed his eyes.
“Don’t draw the hammer back ’til you’re ready to shoot it.”
Peering through snow-clad branches, she saw the mule skinner emerge from an empty cabin across the canyon.
“See him?” Stephen asked.
“That man’s sold his saddle like Miss Madsen?”
“He’s even more sick in the head. You wanna help him, don’t you? Send him up to God with everyone else?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You keep the gun inside your cloak until you get close. I don’t want you trying to shoot him until he’s as near to you as that fir tree.”
“Will it hurt him?”
“No. Like Molly, he’s already in great pain. You’re making it go away. After the first shot, he’ll fall down. You be real careful, and you pull that hammer back again, and you walk up to him and shoot him in the head.”
The sick mule skinner shouted, “Anyone here?”—his voice so faint and lonesome, rising like a prayer from the canyon floor.
“I don’t wanna.”
“I know, but it’s time.”
“I’m scared.”
“Nothing to be scared of, Harriet.”
“You do it.” She handed him the gun, but he shoved it back.
“God told me this chore falls to you, that you’re His little angel of darkness, and He allowed me to save you for this very purpose. Do you see the perfection of His grand design? Please, Harriet. Go end that poor man’s suffering.”
“If I do good, you’ll dope me with a sinker and some raspberry jam?”
“I promise.”
“Mr. Cole, is God gonna give me new ones?”
“New what, honey?”
“Daddy and Mama.”
Stephen stared down into Harriet’s dark eyes. “I’ll be caring for you.”
“Bethany’s daddy was the best I ever saw. She called him Papa.”
Stephen blushed. “Well, I suppose that would probably be all right if you wanted to um . . . you know . . . call me that.”
Harriet smiled. “Okay, Papa.”
The little girl pushed through the trees and stepped out from the motte of firs. He watched her through the branches, webbing downhill, hands concealed in her cloak, just like he’d told her.
He looked over Abandon—the empty, smokeless cabins, the cribs, silent dance hall, his dark chapel on the opposite slope—and he couldn’t stop the thoughts, remembering that first day he’d arrived here by stage, the town pure energy and motion, the new-sawn yellow boards of the buildings and the smell of fresh-cut wood, streets a soup of mud and shit and garbage, crowded with horses, buggies, pack trains, sidewalks jammed with miners, packers, whores, gamblers, con men, everyone trying to fill their wallets, eyes electric with a peculiar mix of misery, lust, and manic greed.
Who are you?
Stephen Cole.
No, who are you?
God’s
No,
faithful
you murdered
servant.
an entire town.
A gunshot rolled through the canyon.
Thinking, I am Your faithful servant I am Your faithful servant I am Your faithful servant I am Your faithful servant I am Your faithful servant I am faithful faithful faithful
His head fractured with molten pain, and he fell unconscious before the second shot rang out.
SEVENTY-THREE
I
t was a twenty-one burro pack train, the first six animals loaded down with burlap sacks holding three quarters of a ton of Packer’s gold, the next fifteen bearing stiff riders, all fastened to their mounts with one long mecate—Ezekiel Curtice, skin a plum shade of scarlet, burned from the cold and high-altitude sun, frozen straight through, an eviscerated Bart Packer, his four servants, Russell Ilg, Molly Madsen, the albumen print of her husband shoved down the front of her corset, Billy McCabe, a faceless Oatha Wallace, the still-warm mule skinner; and the four other men the preacher had murdered in the day hole on Christmas night.
It was dusk, the snow falling in big, patient flakes.
The preacher sipped from the tincture of arnica and prayed for the fifth time in the last hour that God might ease the awful pain in his head.
From his vantage, he could see the soft glow of his cabin across the canyon, where Harriet slept.
He slapped the rear haunches of the last burro. The animal brayed, and the pack train shuffled on into the mine.
Stephen dropped the shadowgees on the floor of the tunnel and pulled the key out of his pocket.
As he worked it into the padlock, the hair on his neck stood erect. It’s been three days, he thought. They must be dead by now. He dropped the crossbar on the rock, lifted the lever, the bolt retracting, pushed the iron door open with the toe of his arctic.
When the noise of the rusty hinges died away, he listened.
Silence.
He knelt and lighted the rest of the shadowgees, carried them inside three at a time, setting the lamps on the rock around the door. Then he walked back up the tunnel to the end of the pack train and quirted them on.
The donkeys hesitated, reluctant to enter the mine. He slapped their bony rumps with the reata’s braided rawhide. “Get on, now!”
They inched forward, carrying their cargo, the tunnel resonant with the clack of hooves on rock.
He drove the burros through the iron door and followed them into the mine. They bunched up near the entrance, huddled together and braying nervously.
Stephen went to work cutting loose the burlap sacks and hauling the gold bricks into a nearby alcove. Then he
severed the horse hair rope that attached the dead to the burros and shooed the pack train out of the mine and back up the day hole. It is finished.
“There!” he shouted into the cavern. “All yours! For all time!”
He reached down to lift a shadowgee.
Fingers touched his arctic.
He shrieked, tripped, and fell as he moved for the door.
What crawled toward him in the firelight seemed neither man or woman, and barely human. Lipless and toothless, a dried-out shell of a person, it whispered words undecipherable, its inflated tongue lolling out of its mouth like a piece of jerky.
Stephen raised the lamp, and in that trembling firelight, he saw the throng of Abandon in the cavern, most dead, a dozen or so dragging themselves in his direction, beggars searching for crumbs of light. The one who’d touched his boot reached out for him, bulging, lidless eyes desperate for an end to their living death. Stephen wept as he backed into the tunnel and pulled the door shut.
He stood there for a moment, listening to a weak fist pound the iron on the other side.
Please, God, end their suffering. How does that glorify—
It stopped him mid-prayer—framed in that oval of charcoal light at the far end of the tunnel, a silhouette too tall to be a child.
SEVENTY-FOUR
M
ain Street lay empty, wind chimes gossiping in the doorway of the mercantile, where Lana barged inside, unsheathed Joss’s bowie, and stabbed the blade into the first sack she could get her hands on.
The burlap split.
Flour poured onto the board floor.
She brought a cupped handful to her mouth, and despite the feeling that she was yamping from Jessup, the merc’s owner, nothing had ever tasted better.
On her third mouthful, she spotted the jar of elk jerky sitting on the counter, made a break for it, using the knife to carve bite-size pieces, devouring five strips before her stomach offered the first rumble of satisfaction.