Hart said nothing.
"Okay," Alex said, lying back in his sleeping bag. "Your turn. Where'd you come from?"
Hart continued staring out across the river. "Well, I'm from Colorado. My mother died in a car accident almost the day I was born. My father..." He slowly shook his head. "He was a great man. A soldier, actually, a real war hero. Decorated by the president and everything."
Alex thought he knew what was coming.
"But...that didn't really translate into being a good father. He was never around...so I had to learn my own way. And since Dad had made himself by killing people, the only way I knew how was to fight. Combat helped my find some purpose, even if it was just with people my age. But it also made me a few enemies. Then Dad..." he trailed off.
"What?" Alex wanted to hear the end of the story.
"He vanished. Just disappeared from the front lines."
"Where was he?"
"Iraq. One of the first ones there. It was 2003, and just four years ago he had left Kosovo...he was in Bosnia and Kuwait as well. Some say he was captured, some say he died."
"What do you say?"
"I think maybe...he just got disillusioned. Tired of it all. He just walked off...and nobody saw him again. I was ten."
"What did you do when he vanished?"
"Well, like I said, at that point I was in a lot of people's bad books, including the cops."
"I feel your pain."
"So, I had to flee the country. And I just wound up here, and kept fighting, because in places like Porcupine, it earns you respect. But I never forgot...and sometimes at night, I can't help myself going looking for him."
Alex had been sitting up, but collapsed again. This was a lot to handle--he was no longer the only one of them who had had a rough life. Then, he remembered Sarah in the orphanage, the death of Jake's parents, and the indifference of Anthony's. He rolled over and lay facedown, resting his head on his arms. These people had all been through as bad as he had, and Alex had been deluding himself that he was the martyr.
"Okay," he said at last. "Let's get some sleep."
Hart threw his bag down on the opposite side of the fire. "G'night."
"Good night."
Alex lay back, and let sleep overtake him. He made it a long time, to almost five in the morning, when he was awakened by a scream followed by two shots from a pistol aimed into the air.
CHAPTER 18
Fifteen Miles Out
The first shot woke Alex to the point of grogginess, but the second brought him sharply awake. He forced himself out of his sleeping bag, stuffed it back into his backpack, and looked around for his coat before realizing that he was wearing it. He jumped over the fire, which had burned itself to embers, and kicked Hart several times.
"Alex, what the hell..."
"Get up! C'mon!"
"What's happening? Do you think we're losing?"
"There's a lot the other team stands to lose! I heard gunshots! Now get the hell up!"
"Jesus Christ!" Hart leapt up immediately, slung his backpack over the shoulder, and picked up the rifle. "Where did they come from!?"
"I--I don't know!" Alex had always had a great weakness when it came to identifying the origins of sounds. "I--I think...somewhere in that direction..."
Hart forced Alex aside as he waded into the creek. "This'll get us there fastest. Hurry!"
Alex checked that he was carrying everything, stamped out the fire, and then leapt into the stream after Hart. His legs, up to his knees, were instantly drenched in frigid, icy, burning water. His teeth started chattering viciously. Hart raised the rifle and fired toward the sky in acknowledgement of the call for help.
The fog was particularly dense that early morning, and Alex could not see more than a foot ahead of him. He followed the course of the stream, and could not help but think about what was happening to Sarah and Anthony while they were heading towards them. At last Hart called his name and told him to get out of the river to the right.
"Are they here?" Alex yelled into the fog.
"Probably!"
Suddenly they heard another scream sounding from no more than yards to their left. Alex raced in the general direction and found a tangle of bushes and trees blocking his path. Roaring in rage, he kicked and tore with his hands and feet, forcing a sizable hole in the brush at the expense of numerous cuts and bruises along his limbs. He struggled his way through, and found the source of the gunshots and scream.
Anthony was lying on the ground, conscious but not making any sound, as Sarah kneeled by his leg, binding it with a piece of cloth they had purchased in Porcupine. The leg itself was lying in a pool of blood, and was covered with tears and what appeared to be bite marks. As she wound the bandage he screamed again.
"Dammit, Sarah!" he shouted angrily. "Why can't you be more careful!"
"I'm sorry!" Sarah said in a desperate tone of voice, fighting to finish the bandage. "I--Alex! Hart!"
"What happened to you?" Hart asked.
"We were--I--that is to say, we..." Anthony seemed reluctant to finish the sentence.
"We were attacked by a bear," Sarah finished for him. Anthony looked down as though ashamed of himself.
Alex and Hart exchanged looks.
"We saw the bear too," Hart said.
"It didn't see us, though," Alex put in. "It was just walking along a ridge. It looked so peaceful."
"I'm never trusting animals again," Anthony grumbled.
Hart rounded on him. "That isn't fair!" he shouted. "Black bears really rarely attack humans. We just happened to run across the one that was out for blood."
Sarah walked between them to cut off an unnecessary argument, and began to explain. "We went to sleep in this clearing, and the bear woke us up just a little while ago. It went for Anthony first, and got his leg. Tore it up pretty badly, too...I yelled and shouted, and got Anthony to do it too, and we scared it off. If we hadn't we might be having a very different conversation right now. But that doesn't mean it's not still out there."
"I can't believe it. How could I have screwed up so badly!?" Anthony yelled. "I didn't even think about bears! Why did none of you tell me?"
"We didn't know," Alex told him.
"Hart must have known!"
"I didn't either. Bear attacks don't happen often around here, like I just said."
Anthony had no reply, but simply hung his head and allowed Sarah to finish binding his leg. Alex knew what was happening: Anthony was making this a question of his failed leadership, and not of his bad luck in running across a murderous bear. Suddenly, with a jolt, he remembered the contest.
Sarah turned to him. "So what do we do know?"
Alex considered the question for a long time, staring at the sky between the leaves of the trees. Finally he spoke. "I think we should continue the contest."
"What!?" said Sarah and Hart in unison, then looked at each other. Anthony nodded in agreement, as Alex thought he would.
"Alex," Sarah said, "think about this."
"Do you think I didn't?"
"What's more important!?" she shouted, scowling murderously and looking angrier than Alex had ever seen her. "Your argument with Anthony or all our lives?"
"It's a matter of safety, too!" he shouted back. "If a bear appears would you rather it get all of us or two of us?"
Sarah had no response, and looked down at her feet.
"Okay," he said, looking around at his three allies. "We're going to change teams. Hart's the biggest, so he can go with Anthony and help him walk."
Hart looked resentful, but Alex glared at him, attempting to send the message that he was needed for this.
"That leaves me to go with Sarah. We'll stay the night here and move on in the morning."
"I don't think any of us are going to get any more sleep," Anthony said. "We've only got fifteen miles to go. Why don't we just head out now?"
Sarah looked highly exasperated but said nothing.
"Are we all okay with the teams?"
>
Everybody reluctantly nodded.
"Good. Let's move."
With Anthony's leg bandaged, they struck camp in five minutes, and set out, once again, along different trails--Hart and Anthony into the woods and Alex and Sarah across the creek.
The land they crossed was even more beautiful at sunrise--as the sky lightened behind the heavy clouds, a land they had never seen before was illuminated, and the world changed colors as if it could not decide before finally settling on those which it knew and dearly loved.
Unfortunately, late in the morning, the fog settled in again, and visibility became very poor. It began to mist again just after noon, and soon they were constantly having to double back to check that they were going in the right direction.
Eventually, they found themselves heading for Duck Mountain in the distance, at the base of which the rails of the Trans-Shield Express ran. Alex allowed himself a whoop of celebration at this, and even Sarah looked happy that their goal was in reach. At last he turned to her.
"You know what this means, right?
"Sort of..."
"It means we made it!" he shouted gleefully, and spontaneously embraced her. "We did it! We're going to Sawtooth!"
Sarah was slightly confused--it was unlike Alex to show this much emotion--but she returned the hug and released him. "I know I signed on for this just so I could leave..." she said, "but it's good to be here anyway."
"Forget about that," Alex said, still grinning broadly. "Once we're there, we can put Woodsbrook behind us. Sawtooth lets kids like us--unwanted, outcasts, rejects--become our own. Nowhere else but there do we get new lives."
"You make it sound pretty nice," Sarah said. She could not help smiling as well.
"Are you kidding?" Alex replied. "It'll be home."
Ordoñez and Levache were standing in a clearing full of thawing snow. Ordoñez looked around angrily and knelt to examine the ground. Either way he was going to lose the trail--if it rained any more that it was, the snow would melt, but if it didn't snow soon, it would melt also. It would take all his tracking prowess for this.
"Ordoñez," Levache began, "perhaps if we--"
Ordoñez looked around and stood up slowly. "Francois," he said quietly, "which of us is doing the tracking?"
"I merely have a suggestion--"
"This is my job! And I have told you not to interrupt my work! When we find the boy, then you can kill him! Then you can speak and I will not interrupt you! Hunting the target is not exactly easy work, even when alone!"
Levache was filled with cool rage. "You requested my help, Ordoñez," he seethed. "I am the killer. I have never missed a shot...whereas you, I believe, have missed quite a few."
Ordoñez opened his mouth, then closed it again, then realized that both of them were clutching the firearms in their pockets. "You won't kill me," he said at last. "How the hell will you get out of here without me?"
It was Levache's turn to be struck dumb. He let go of the gun, and stood silently. Ordoñez returned to his work, each plotting a thousand ways to kill the other.
Alex and Sarah stood watching Duck Mountain for some time, until finally he suggested that they keep moving. It was no longer a question of who would win; Hart, who would have to carry Anthony, would be severely hampered.
They walked for a while in a kind of trance, falling into a rhythm of steps, each thinking their own thoughts.
The sky opened up. The clouds that had been holding back a deluge of water gave in, releasing the greatest torrent of water either of them had ever seen.
Sarah instantly dove out of the way, under a tree, with her coat over her head. She swung her arm wildly, motioning unsubtly for Alex to find some cover too.
He didn't. As Sarah looked at him as though he was insane, he stood and allowed the rain to fall on him, looking out into it, widening his arms to catch more of it.
At last he had his fill of the rain and walked over to the tree under which Sarah was sheltering. She predictably blew up at him.
"What the hell were you thinking!? Can't you see how hard it's raining? What's the matter with you!?"
"Unlike some people," Alex began--grinning, he had been waiting for Sarah to ask this--"I never saw the problem with the rain. It's just water. It's natural. It's beautiful...and yet people flee before it. Why?"
Sarah opened her mouth to retaliate before realizing that Alex had asked a real question. "Umm...I really don't know."
"Exactly. It'll take a mind much greater than mine to fathom the rain...but the clouds. What's the matter with them?"
Again, Sarah thought but could not answer.
"Under the blue sky, everything looks one way, But under the clouds, it looks another way...under the rain, it looks yet another way...even at night the world shows a different face."
They sat for a while, watching the downpour which showed no signs of abating. Alex was suddenly struck with an impulse to ask the question he had been holding back ever since he had seen the two of them looking at each other.
"What do you think of Hart?"
Sarah looked surprised. "Why?"
"I'm just, um, curious."
Sarah eyed him suspiciously. "He's nice. He definitely knows the wild. He's not bad-looking either. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"You don't...y'know..."
"I don't think that's any of your business," she replied, glaring fiercely.
"It's just...to keep you safe..." Alex said weakly.
"I thought," she snapped, "that you took him along so he could reform!"
"That doesn't mean he's reformed yet!" Alex said, at equal volume. "Hart lives and dies by combat. He'd smash your face in if you shortchanged him. It's the only way he knows how to solve any of his problems."
"People change, Alex," Sarah said, looking off into the rain. "Just like...just like that land you're always talking about."
"People don't change."
"I'll bet that isn't even why you care!" Sarah shouted, slightly louder than she would have liked. "If I didn't know you better...I'd say you were jealous."
Alex looked away pointedly so she could not see him turning red. "Yeah," he said at last. "Good thing you know me better."
They walked in silence for the last ten miles of the journey. The entire time, nothing eventful happened, save for one sighting of another black bear ambling along a hill a distance to their left. At last, as the sun was setting, tired and limping slowly, they arrived at the limits of a tiny town calling itself Express Village.
It was obvious, just by looking at the place, that it had grown up around the railroad. It was easily the smallest town they had been to so far; it contained nothing more than a smattering of buildings and homes, all of which probably belonged to station employees. There were some places to eat and sleep, but only to accommodate those waiting for the train to resume movement. In fact, if the Trans-Shield Express was not in the middle of a long stretch between major destinations, it would not stop here to refuel, and the town would not exist at all.
They walked into the thick of these few buildings, and looked around for the other team. Suddenly, Alex heard two shouts coming from near them.
Hart strolled out of a building near them, and Anthony came behind him, limping unsteadily and leaning on his good leg. Alex turned toward them, and felt a sinking in the pit of his stomach--he had lost.
They met in the middle of the street, and Alex bowed. "Congratulations, Anthony. You win."
Anthony looked insulted. "Are you kidding? I didn't win!"
Alex was puzzled. "But...you got here first, didn't you?"
Anthony looked at his feet. "I didn't. Hart practically had to drag me half the time."
Hart laughed. "You're too modest."
"I'm not! I didn't win. I didn't walk the distance."
"Well, I didn't either! Sarah and I got here second!"
Sarah stepped forward. "If that's the way it is...I guess nobody wins."
Soon they didn't care. Anthony pointed a
nd they all turned around. They saw their salvation: the way out of the long and arduous journey, the end of their travels, the end of dodging bullets. A long line of many steel train cars sat idly at the station, and passengers sauntered off it to find lodging for the night.
What nobody saw was two men, waiting on the station steps, concealing guns under their overcoats. It was almost Francois Levache's turn to work.
Cold Snow: A Legal Thriller Page 20