“Well, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I took it off of you.” His voice was lowered, and he reached again for her waist.
She dodged his grasp and looked around the abandoned forest for a route of escape.
“Stop it!” She demanded, but he came at her again. This time, she wasn’t as successful at avoiding him, and he grabbed onto the edge of her coat. She flung her weight away from him, but he grabbed her wrists as she did so.
“Let me go.” She cried and fought against his suffocating clasp.
“Calm down.” He demanded with clenched jaw as he wrestled with her jerks to get away. She slipped one hand away from him, and she saw anger flare in his eyes as she pulled the other one with all her might.
“You’re fine!” He repeated over again and wildly stretched for her wrist. She eluded his hand and tried to push him to the ground.
He grunted, but her shove had little impact, and by the time she saw his hand coming at her face, it was too late. He slapped her hard across her cheek, causing her to half spin before falling into the snow.
“I have needs, Summer.” He said indignantly, looking down at her as she held her face. She looked up at him resentfully, and he returned her stare before the hard lines around the corners of his mouth eased into an attempt at sympathy.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen.” He breathed out in frustration. “I was just trying so hard to relate with you, and it hurt to have you be so defensive, especially when I’ve been providing for you and your family for so long. You’ve been there for me before, and I imagined that you would at least be willing to show a little gratitude.”
He looked down to see what effect his words had on her, but she stared up at him dumbfounded.
“And of course I wanted to please you.” He quickly added, reaching for her arm to pull her up.
She flung her arm away and scrambled to her feet in defiance.
“You disgust me.” Her voice shook with savagery, and he was thrown off guard as she glared at him.
Blood was dripping down her nose, and she wiped it with her sleeve before deliberately turning her back on him. She walked from the direction she came, while Bridger watched her go.
“Wait!” He called, but this only spurred her to break into a sprint and he didn’t try to follow.
She ran past the camp and jumped over a half frozen creek with the fury building up inside of her. Past the stream, there was a small clearing surrounded by trees on every side and Summer stopped in the middle of it, panting for air. She curled her fist into a ball and felt her own nails digging into the palm of her hand. She stood that way, slowing clenching and unclenching her fists as she tried to erase what had just happened in her mind.
Suddenly, she pulled both axes out of the holster and viciously threw them into the trunk of a stocky pine. Violently, she pulled them from the wood’s grip and spread her legs to shoulder width as she slid the left ax out of her holster while keeping the right ax in her hand. This time, she breathed out and aimed her right ax at a trunk that was at least fifty feet away from her. She yelled and chucked the flying ax towards her target. It soared in rotations and stuck in the tree in a perfectly vertical position. She continued to throw and retrieve her axes. It was a relief to feel the muscles of her arms working to deliver precise blows that landed with a bite and exactness that only she controlled. She lunged into the throws, and the trees around her became increasingly splintered with marks from the axes. She did this for a long time shouting as she threw her weapons. Soon, the snow turned from white to blue as the fading light of dusk set in, and the shadows of the trees grew longer and then spread out into dimness all around.
“That’s an interesting way to chop firewood.” Summer turned to see Julian watching her. It was too dark to see his features clearly, but there was admiration in the voice. “You’re good.” He said climbing up to the clearing where she stood drenched with sweat.
She walked over to where her ax was still sticking out of a poplar tree and looked expectantly at Julian as he seemed like he had something he wanted to say but hesitated.
“How did you know I was here?” She asked, wiping her brow with her sleeve.
“Tania said she saw you head this way.” He said, pointing behind him back to the camp area. “And then I just followed the sound of ninja slashing.” He attempted to laugh.
Summer faked a courtesy smile and bent down to clean her ax in the snow. Julian’s laugh quickly died off.
“Hey, Summer?”
She had been taking an unnecessarily long time to wipe her ax clean, but now she stood up to face him. Julian’s face seemed unsure, yet there was earnestness in his expression as well.
“I wanted to talk to you about something, but I don’t really know how to begin.” He paused, but Summer said nothing, so he continued.
“Look, our two groups have been together for some time now, and I’ve grown quite attached to your family. I know we’ve always had an odd relationship, but I just don’t want there to be any animosity between us.”
“There’s not.” Summer reassured him as if it was a closed case. She started past him, but he spoke out again, stopping her with his voice.
“That’s not all.” He admitted, stepping back so that he was still in front of her. “It’s more than that. I don’t know if it’s anything from the past or maybe just the whole survival element of our lives, but I don’t like the way we’ve been with each other. I haven’t been the quickest to understand where you’ve been coming from and I apologize for anything I may have done to offend or disrespect you. The truth is, the more I’ve seen you, the more I’ve admired your tenacity and courage. I don’t want to fight with you again. I don’t even want to compete with you like we used to do. It’s uncanny to me that we found each other again when our whole world has fallen apart.”
He paused as if he was going to say more and breathed out forcefully.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is I’d like to be your friend.You’re worried about Bridger and your family, and I’m sure a million other things. I get that, and I don’t want to overstep my bounds, but at the same time, I don’t want to pretend like we’re strangers anymore.”
He waited for her reaction as Summer’s face was stiff and unreadable. Finally, she swallowed.
“Alright.” She agreed. “I could use a friend right now.”
The words were barely audible since Summer was trying to mask the emotion in her voice, but Julian smiled joyfully.
“Good.” He stated simply.
Together, they made their way back down to the camp with the burning fire as their compass point. They walked without talking, and Summer tried to casually touch the area around her cheekbone without him noticing. The skin was hot to the touch and felt puffed with swelling. Her eye also hurt, but she was just thankful that Julian was walking on the other side of her.
“Where have you been?” Michael called, waving them over to where he was standing by the fire.
They both greeted him, but Summer stood away from the fire, hoping to remain undetected in the glowing light.
“What happened to your face?” Tania’s mouth gaped open as she had a clear view of Summer on her right side.
“Nothing.” She nervously looked at Julian, revealing the bruising that had started to discolor around her eye.
His eyes widened with shock and Summer moved so that she wasn’t facing him again.
“What happened?” He asked, moving so that he could get a better look at her face. She shied away, but he turned her head to him.
“I’m fine.” She tried to dismiss his attention and waved his hand away from her.
“No, you’re not. What happened to you?”
“She was with Bridger,” Michael spoke up from his place at the fire. “I saw her run in the opposite direction after he followed her into the woods.”
Julian’s face changed from surprise to anger as he realized the implications of what Michael was saying.
“He hit you?” He asked incredulously, but Summer merely turned her gaze to the ground.
Julian scoured the campsite until he found Bridger and Phil talking near Bridger’s tent. Bridger didn’t have time to think before Julian’s hands were ripping at his collar, throwing him to the ground viciously.
“I know what you did, you coward!” Julian shouted, furiously.
Bridger struggled to rise, but Julian jumped on top of him and pinned him to the ground. Summer and her siblings had breathlessly followed Julian after Michael’s revelation and Julian’s yell had brought the remainder of the camp’s occupants to the site. They now stood frozen in horror as they watched Bridger wrestle to get free.
“Get off of me!” He commanded, but Julian slammed his back into the icy snow once more.
“I always knew you were a snake, but I never imagined you would stoop this low. You probably thought you could get away with it, didn’t you? Maybe you should try hitting a man and see how that works out for you.”
Up to this point, Bridger had been primarily focused on escaping Julian’s abrupt attack, but he momentarily paused as it clicked and he turned his head to look at Summer.
“It was an accident!” He cried, appealing to her for support.
Julian looked at Summer too, and Bridger took advantage of the moment to throw Julian off of him. He staggered to his feet and ran at Julian with his fist doubled. Julian ducked nimbly and pushed Bridger’s back, sending him flying into a nearby snowbank.
“Stop it!” Summer screamed as she watched in paralyzed panic.
Bridger rushed to turn around, but not before Julian had tackled him back into the bank. They both grunted as they went down and rolled several times in the snow as they tried to wrestle their way on top. Julian finally landed above Bridger and lifted his arm to deliver a blow.
“It was an accident!” Summer shrieked, throwing herself in between the two men and pulling Julian to his feet and away from Bridger.
“How could that have been an accident?” Julian asked as he grudgingly saw Bridger get to his feet.
Bridger was breathing heavily and didn’t attempt to continue the fight. Instead, he rose and brushed the snow off of his coat and legs and looked to Summer with an arrogant calmness.
“Of course, it was an accident. I wouldn’t hit Summer. That doesn’t make any sense.”
Julian looked infuriated.
“Yes, it was a mistake.” Summer hurriedly agreed, trying to get Julian to look at her face instead of behind her at Bridger. Finally, Julian looked at her, but his eyes were still vehement.
“A hit that makes that kind of mark isn’t an accident.” He said, gesturing to the purple that was darkening around her eye and cheek. “Why are you defending him?”
“We were practicing throwing with my axes.” She said at a suspiciously fast speed. “I was trying to show him a new technique I’d been working on, and he accidentally clipped me with his elbow when he went to try it. It was really my fault for standing so close to him.”
Summer smiled reassuringly, but Julian winced when he saw her bruising. He faltered when he noticed the pleading in her green eyes, and she gripped his arm in an almost intimate way.
“Please let it go.” Her words were imploring. “You said you wanted to be my friend and so I’m asking you as a friend to let it go.”
He searched her face for a long time looking for a hint as to what he believed had really happened, but her features were firmly set and unflinching. He glared one more time at Bridger who was standing there smugly and then turned to Summer with a sigh.
“Alright.” He conceded. “Let’s go get some food.”
He motioned to the fire and relief spread through Summer’s face.
“Thank you.” She said and followed him back to the fire with everyone else slowly filing off to join them.
Michael had stayed back further away from the fire, and he watched Phil slink back up to Bridger.
“Julian is always butting his way into other people’s business.” Michael heard him say resentfully. Though, the next words were what disturbed him the most.
“Yes,” Bridger agreed flatly. “Someone’s going to have to teach him a lesson one of these days.” Michael withdrew deeper into the darkness that hid him and then went around the back of the tent so that they wouldn’t find him eavesdropping. His mood lifted a little when he returned to the campfire and saw everyone else sitting around the pot of soup and meat. Tania had made a snowball that Summer was pressing against the side of her face and Mccarthy was handing out bowls of soup that he ladled out of the pot. The atmosphere was serious, but there was also a sense of mild contentment as everyone in the circle seemed at ease in the quiet. He snuggled into his mother’s blanket that she beckoned for him to share with her, and soon, the tempestuous weight of sleep had closed his eyes.
Chapter 16
The worst part of winter was always the middle when there had already been months of enduring the cold, but the hope of spring was still too far away. It felt slightly like being a swimmer who swims half of the distance between two shores only to realize that one’s stamina was gone at the midway point. One would try to keep swimming, but the exhaustion of every moment makes the impossible distance to the shore portend the inevitable end of drowning. The safety of the mountains felt less significant when it meant more extreme temperatures and thicker snowfalls, and the group debated about possibly coming down from the mountains to continue their trek. Bridger appeared as fed up with the cold season as everyone else and possibly more so. It was he who made the final call that they would start navigating their way downwards. Their progress was slow since the snow was not a friend to anyone traveling downhill and they spent a good portion of their time finding different routes that avoided heights that would be too steep to get down.
One day, the sun was reflecting off of the white powder, causing a blinding effect as the light bounced off of the ground and into everyone’s eyes. They had paused as Bridger scouted out their next path and Summer leaned against a tree, planting her face inside the crook of her elbow to try to escape the sun. She felt a tap on her shoulder blade and looked up to see Stephanie beside her. She did not speak but pointed to a patch of snow next to where Meline was also leaning against a tree.
The snow was speckled with dots of blood.
Summer frantically looked back at Stephanie who seemed used to being the bearer of bad news.
“She coughed it up.” She confided.
Summer felt her stomach drop, and her eyes narrowed in on her mom, noting the heaviness of her breathing.
“We should carry her in the sled.” It was clear that Stephanie had already been thinking about this. “We’ll have to tie her in, to keep her from falling out, but at this point, she really shouldn’t be traveling like this.”
A crack of guilt hit the knot in Summer’s stomach, and she nodded energetically.
“You’re right. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that before.”
She padded her way over to where Meline was trying to catch her breath and began whispering in her ear. Meline tried to resist the suggestion at first, but her own frailty argued against her, and soon she was bundled inside of the extra sled. From that time forward, everyone took turns pulling the different sleds. The majority of the time the men would pull the loads, except for Phil who argued that he had an injured back that no one had ever heard about until then.
Michael was eager to prove himself to the other men, even though he must have measured at least thirty pounds lighter than any of them, and he insisted on taking equal rotations with pulling his mother’s sled. They had been catching small game along
the way, which reassured Summer of Michael’s ability to keep up his strength, but she was never too far away in case he needed an extra anchor during their descents.
Ever since the fight, Julian and Bridger were never close together, and Bridger made it a point always to place himself at the head of the group. This meant that Julian could be found in the back, which inadvertently put him in the position to guide the other’s way down as a support while they struggled to follow Bridger’s trails.
Late one day, they had traveled a surprisingly good distance compared to their recent progress, when they came across a particularly treacherous looking slope. Bridger started inching his way down with his feet slanted horizontally against the mountainside. He put the sled of supplies in front of him, and Mccarthy did the same with his. Stephanie and each Mary followed in the footsteps left by them and started climbing down.
Tania breathed out and stared down at the mountain that was dotted with trees resisting the pull of gravity. It had been one of those days that felt like the work of three days rolled into one, but Tania moved herself into action and followed Bridger’s path, Summer stood behind her waiting. Julian was helping Michael readjust the ropes of Meline’s sled so that he could have it go in front of him as the others had done, and he was the last one down once Michael started forward. Michael was walking with his back leaning far backward to counteract the weight of the sled and the gravity that was tugging at it. His footsteps were heavy as he set them down into the holes left by Summer’s feet. The sun was shining, and the wet snow clung to the bottom of his shoes, covering the treads of his soles.
There was a rock sticking out that Michael stretched his foot to reach over, momentarily shifting all of his weight onto his other leg. Suddenly, his supporting foot slipped out from under him, and he crashed to the ground as the sled pulled him forward. The rope around his torso snapped with the impact, and the sled began sliding down the mountain with Meline strapped inside of it. Summer saw the sled speed past her, and she dove after it with her hands wildly reaching for the broken rope. She caught it with her hand, but the sled was heavier than her, and she lurched forward sliding on her stomach as the sled sped past Mccarthy and then Bridger.
Sin: A Survival Romance Fiction (Her Story Trilogy Book 1) Page 12