As they trailed behind Bridger, she found her pulse speeding up. She had taken the left ax out from its place on her hip, knowing that her right hand was faster at the draw if she needed to use both of her weapons. The blood drops had gotten bigger, and Summer could tell the deer had been desperate to escape since it continued to run while opening up its wound further.
“That’s strange.” She heard Bridger grunt. She looked up from their path to see Bridger had stopped and was staring at the deer stalker’s tracks that abruptly turned to the right away from the tracks of the deer.
“Where’d it g—” Michael began to question.
Bridger held up his hand to signal silence and slowly surveyed the landscape around them. The trees stood still with not even a rustle of leaves from the wind. The three of them listened. Faintly, the moan of an animal could be distinguished.
Summer waited till she was sure of what her ears were telling her and then she bolted towards the direction of the red stained snow.
“Wait!” Bridger half-shouted, trying to keep his voice from echoing off the hills, while being loud enough to draw her attention.
It didn’t work, however, and Summer rushed forward down the slope that they were on and jumped across a small creek. She followed the sound of the struggling breath of the dying animal. For whatever reason, the animal that had attacked the deer had seemed to leave its prey, and she wasn’t going to wait around for it to come back and claim its prize. The inconsistent breathing was getting louder, and she gripped her ax tighter as she swung around the corner of a large boulder to close in on the deer.
She came around the other side to see a small clearing inside of a ravine. The deer was twenty feet away from her, and she used her entire body as she flung the ax from her hand. The ax rotated through the air and made contact with the animal’s neck.
A low bellow boomed through the air as the stag fell to the forest floor. Summer started to move towards the beast when suddenly a rope was flung around her head. She tried to block it with her hands, but it had already landed around her shoulders, and she turned to see a man with a black beard streaked with grey holding the end of the rope. She was pulled from her feet and skidded in the snow as he pulled her towards him.
Summer threw her weight down the ravine towards the center where the deer was breathing its last heavy gulps of air.
Suddenly, an arrow pierced the side of the deer, and it stopped breathing entirely. Summer looked up to see Bridger coming towards her and her captor with another arrow mounted in his crossbow.
Bridger charged towards the man with the rope. The bearded man’s eyes filled with terror and he released the rope, scrambling for a large knife that had been set against the rock several feet away from him.
A man up above the ravine on the opposite side of the boulder appeared on the horizon.
“Stop!” He screamed.
Feeling a shove on her back from the man who was trying to escape Bridger, Summer tumbled down the hill and fell to her knees at the bottom. There was a spark of recognition in the yell she had heard moments before, and something in her paused as she watched the man across the ravine run down the slope towards her.
His face was covered by a ski mask, but some quality in that voice had seemed familiar like the faint notes from the lullaby of a faded dream. Summer watched him in what seemed like slow motion until it was too late. He pulled a knife out from underneath his heavy coat, and a rush of adrenaline poured into Summer’s veins. She tried getting to her feet, but the man easily tackled her to the ground and wrapped his arms around her tightly. He wrestled her to a sitting position in front of him, and she could feel the knife’s edge pressing into her throat.
“Leave him alone.” He yelled. Summer’s skin tingled with the burst of hot breath on the back of her neck.
Bridger and her first attacker were frozen above them. Bridger’s eyes were locked on Summer, but he did not move his crossbow from its position near his face where it was pointed right at the bearded man’s stomach. Bridger’s target was also staring at the two of them, but the arrow’s tip that was only a few yards away prevented the man from making any movement of his own, though his face showed more signs of confusion than anything. Michael had rounded the corner of the boulder, and he was slowly picking up a rock from the ground.
“Don’t move!” The man behind Summer shouted. Michael froze in mid-crouch, and he swallowed as he looked back at the blade that was being applied with a sinister amount of pressure to his sister’s neck.
“Release her.” Bridger’s voice was low and threatening. He repositioned his crossbow ever so slightly. “Or your friend gets it.”
The man facing Bridger seemed to have lost the gravity of his situation and was entirely distracted by the hostage below him. His bushy eyebrows were knitted together as if he was trying to grasp an answer that he had just learned for the first time.
“Summer.” The words fell from his lips like a question, but ended like a statement.
Now it was her turn to be confused. She could feel the pulsing of her heart in the extremities of her hands and feet, and her brain screamed against any concentration beyond finding a way to escape the sharpness near her neck. She squinted to try to see past the ungroomed beard and the flushed face before her.
“Professor McCarthy.” The recognition came, and with it, the removal of the weapon as the man behind her slowly released his hold on her.
“What are you doing here?” She asked in bewilderment.
A brilliant smile separated the mass of facial hair covering the lower half of McCarthy’s face and the rich, deep chuckle that she remembered from another time came vibrating into her ears.
“Probably the same as you.” He pointed to the deer at the bottom of the ravine. “Surviving.”
“But—” Her unbelief was beginning to mount. “You were in California.”
“We were in California. That is before my dear old military brother got word of what was coming, and we bought two plane tickets straight to the mountains of Colorado.”
Slowly, a new awareness began to impress Summer, and she turned her head evenly to face the person who had threatened her life only moments ago.
“You remember my nephew, don’t you?” McCarthy’s voice seemed to be miles away. “I believe you two had some classes together.”
The man behind her pulled the ski mask from his face and revealed the owner to the voice that she had first recognized.
“Hello, Summer.” That same disarming quality emanated from those light blue eyes and easy smile that she had not seen in three years.
“Hello, Julian.” She replied faintly.
Chapter 7
The effect of hearing Julian’s voice after so long jolted Summer’s mind with the sensation of an earthquake. Yet, Summer faced another surprise when Julian pulled her up from the ground where they had wrestled.
“There’s more of us.” He announced.
He pointed to the top of the ravine, and there stood yet another man. The first thing Summer noticed was that he was wearing large snowshoes on the bottom of his boots, which would explain the mysterious tracks they saw following after the deer. It had not been an animal that had attacked the deer ahead of them, but rather the people with Julian who had been stalking it the same as Summer’s group. However, what was even more astonishing was the three female figures that came up behind the snowshoed man. It was hard to discern much about the women, since they were all heavily bundled up in expensive looking winter gear, but they seemed fairly younger than Mccarthy or the man next to them. If Summer were to guess she would say two of them were in their mid to late thirties while the youngest one looked to be between the ages of Tania and Michael.
“So you like older women now?” She looked from the women to Julian accusingly.
He held his hands up in defense.
“It’s not what
it looks like. Though...” He paused and flashed a half suppressed smile at Summer. “You seem a little jealous.”
Summer rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the deer that had been staining the ground red for several minutes now. She grabbed the handle of her left ax and with a tug removed it from the carcass.
“It’s just the same games you’ve always played.” She wiped both sides of the ax in a patch of snow below her. “I’m not surprised.” She straightened back up to face him.
Julian’s face grew serious, and he quickly interjected.
“No, it’s not like that at all. They’re runaways.” He offered. “We ran into them in a similar way to how we’ve run into each other.”
Bridger had reluctantly lowered his crossbow, but Summer saw him leaning in as Julian lowered his voice for the next piece of information.
“Apparently they had been sucked into some kind of a cult.” He drew closer to Summer. “They don’t talk a lot, but from what I can gather, they had been roaming for quite some time before we found them. We had plenty of supplies in our cabin, so we decided to team up. You know numbers equal strength these days.”
“Which is exactly why we should join together.” Mccarthy chimed in, walking up behind them.
“Is it just the three of you?”
Summer looked at the skeptical look on Bridger’s face and turned back to her former professor.
“No. My mother and my sister are also with us, but we left them at camp so that we could hunt.”
“Perfect,” Mccarthy beamed. “I’ve always said I wanted to meet your family and here we find ourselves. Julian’s old man had packed that cabin pretty tightly with essentials. We have canned food, medicine, and I believe Julian may have an extra coat to replace what you’ve been working with.”
Summer cast a downward glance at the dirty coat wrapped around her body with the torn elbow and faded color of blue.
“We would be a more difficult group to attack if we stayed together” She heard herself saying. “But I can’t say that we have much to offer in terms of supplies. We’ve been short of luck lately.”
“Nonsense.” Mccarthy waved his hand and pointed to the ground. “You caught the deer, didn’t you? It looks like you are the hunters our group has been needing. You can only eat canned beans for so long.” He pretended to whisper, poking Summer in the side.
She smiled and spontaneously wrapped her arms around his shoulders in an embrace.
“It’s good to see you.” She murmured.
Bridger had watched the whole exchange from his place above the ravine and Summer saw his eyes narrow when she stepped back from Mccarthy.
“Can I speak with you?” The tone in his voice made it evident that it wasn’t really a question.
Summer nodded her head and excused herself from their newly found friends as she followed Bridger behind the boulder.
“They’re coming with us.” She stubbornly blurted once they were out of sight of the others.
Bridger clenched his jaw and she could see the flares in his eyes from her presumption to speak first.
“I don’t think so.” He threw back, though his voice was low in order to be unheard by anyone on the other side of the rock. “We don’t know them. They’ll just slow us down and they’ll only be intruding on what we’re doing.”
“I know them.” Summer reminded him.
“How do you know you can trust them?” Bridger shot back in growing agitation.
“I’ve already told you. They’re friends from the university. I took Mccarthy’s psychology class during my freshman year. He is one of the main reasons I got my internship.”
“What about the other guy? What was his name? Julie?”
“His nephew.” Summer replied shortly.
Bridger put his hand on the rock above Summer’s head and leaned in closer.
“Look, I know you think you know these people, but don’t you feel it’s a little bit odd with their whole entourage following them around?”
“Desperate times make weird situations for everyone.” Summer quipped back at him, ignoring her own initial reaction when Julian explained the women from the cult. “There’s literally no reason why we shouldn’t stay together. You saw their gear. They’re way more prepared than us, and this winter is turning out to be brutal. You’ve said yourself that we’d be safer with more people. Well, here are the people.”
“I just don’t trust them.” His tone was getting exasperated. Summer breathed out heavily.
“There’s no reason for you not to trust them. I’ve known them for years and—”
“I don’t like the way he looks at you.”
Summer faltered.
“Who?”
“That Julian guy. It bothers me. Besides, there’s only room enough for one leader, and I don’t want to be constantly proving who that is all of the time.”
Summer snorted and put her hand on his shoulder.
“You have nothing to worry about with Julian. Either with me or with who is in charge. It’s obvious that you are the most capable of leading, and they don’t seem like the type of people to challenge someone like you, do they?”
Bridger grunted, but she continued.
“Plus,” Summer swiftly added. “They have canned goods and who knows what other supplies. I can’t remember the last time we had any kind of vegetables with our food. They said they have medicine. You know we need that. And we’ll have more people to ward off scavengers and to help with hunting and everything else.”
Bridger chewed on his lower lip and looked around the corner.
“Fine.” He finally blurted. “But I want them to have different camps than us. I’d prefer not to get murdered in my sleep.”
She knew the best way to handle him in situations like this was only to match his determination with her own, so she simply nodded at Bridger’s last request. Yet, as she walked away and faced the group waiting for them around the corner, she suppressed the temptation to laugh for that would give away how truly relieved she felt.
Chapter 8
“How have you been carrying this?” Summer asked hesitantly, staring at the boxes of canned beans and soup that were in front of her.
“By using these.” Mccarthy pointed to three sleds that were near the cold remains of their bonfire. Summer had kept her distance from Julian ever since she had argued with Bridger, which hadn’t been very hard to do considering her relationship with Julian. He was taking down the tents of their makeshift campsite as Mccarthy continued to explain to their newfound companions. “We just pull them along with us,” He pointed to the looped ropes in front of the sleds. “It probably makes our progress slower, but it makes our dinners better.” Mccarthy patted his belly as evidence.
“And the medicine?” Bridger seemed rather annoyed with the easiness in Mccarthy’s manner.
“Right over here.” Mccarthy gestured to a smaller box on top of the rest. “We have a whole stash of painkillers, rubbing alcohol, over the counter antibiotic. You name it, we got it.”
“And how did you find yourself in possession of all of these drugs?” Bridger asked with mild suspicion.
Mccarthy’s eyebrows raised as if the oddity of the situation had never occurred to him.
“Ah, yes. Let’s just say Julian’s dad was a bit of a prepper.”
“And where is he now?” Bridger continued to press.
“Julian’s family lived in Virginia. About half an hour away from DC.”
That was enough to silence Bridger. Everybody knew that Washington DC and the surrounding areas had faced the total war of Chinese atom bombs years ago.
Julian had finished taking down the tents with the help of the three women who Summer had forgotten about. Actually, it was two women and one girl. The women seemed like the same person in both their cold exterior and in their generic
looking faces. The only real distinction was their separation by an age gap that Summer estimated was above five years. However, the younger one was quite different from them. Her dark skin and black crimped hair made Summer wonder where her actual family was, these two white women were clearly unrelated to her in both their looks and treatment towards her.
They acted as wards and anytime the girl looked like she was going to say something, one of them would be nearby to discourage her. She too had a stoic and uninviting way about her that mimicked the older women, but her bright brown eyes made Summer feel like there was something underneath the mask of avoidance. Yet, overall, their presence seemed to blend into their environment as they silently worked without bringing attention to themselves. They reminded her of the farmer women she had seen in old movies with silent, serious demeanors and calloused hands. There was an idiosyncrasy about them, but she couldn’t pinpoint if it was the remains of fear or the coldness of detached self-assurance. Whatever it was, they never looked her in the eyes long enough to give a definite indication.
Summer spotted the other man who was a part of their traveling group as he leaned up against a tree and watched the rest of them work. He had small eyes and cracked skin, showing the effects of middle age on an apathetic face. He was not as thick as Mccarthy. but was almost as tall as Julian, except that his slumped posture made him appear several inches shorter than his full height. However, Summer did notice one interesting aspect about him. He was wearing large snowshoes on the bottom of his feet, which would explain the mysterious tracks they saw following after the deer.
The women had quickly moved on to bundling the boxes together and tying them down onto the sleds. Michael was placing the folded tent sheets inside of a bag that Julian was holding while knelt down. Julian threw the flap over the bag and stood back up. Summer quickly looked away.
“Our camp isn’t far from here.” She told Mccarthy. “Probably only two miles. We can go pick up my mother and sister and then be on our way.”
Sin: A Survival Romance Fiction (Her Story Trilogy Book 1) Page 5