Zero Visibility

by Sharon Dunn

  She nodded and slipped underneath his arm as he wrapped it around her. “Thanks. That’s better.”

  Just like it had been better a few minutes before when he had decided to kiss her. He’d never been so impulsive in his life. Now he knew why he had kissed her. They were in a life-and-death situation. There wasn’t time for formalities and first dates. If they didn’t get out of this alive, he wanted her to know he liked her.

  Merci turned her face toward him. “What do we do now?”

  “They probably won’t start looking for us until full daylight. They’re eating right now. We’ll be able to see where in the camp they are at first light.” He checked his watch. “Sunrise will be in about forty minutes.”

  “But we don’t have any way to defend ourselves,” Merci said.

  The frustration over not finding bullets had been delayed by having to run out of the cafeteria so quickly. The full force of that reality hit him like a blow to the chest. “Why don’t we eat and drink something from our packs, and I’ll figure it out.”

  Merci pulled a protein bar and a water bottle from her pack. Together they watched the slow warm glow of morning spread across the camp, rimming the trees in gold and warming the hue of the snow.

  Nathan chewed his protein bar as he watched the camp and cycled through an inventory of solutions for getting Lorelei back. It was possible that the rescue would be a simple thing of finding her alone and breaking her free. On the other hand, she might already be dead. He wrestled with a possible solution when an idea popped into his head. “Crossbows.”

  Merci furled her forehead. “Crossbows?”

  “In the activities shed. They are stored there. I’m pretty sure they are not hauled away in the off-season. I know it is hardly a fair match, but it is better than nothing. I used to be pretty good with a crossbow.”

  “It’s worth a try. We’ve come this far.” Her expression grew serious. “Do you think Lorelei is still alive?”

  “We have to find out. If we can’t find her, I say we head back to the cabin. If this weather holds, the plows will be up here in less than twenty-four hours.”

  “That long?”

  “The deputy might push to get up here faster since he was expecting us in town. It’s not something we should count on, though.” The realization of how alone they were in this fight sank in.

  Merci sat for a long moment with her head tilted toward the sky. He wondered if she was praying. Then she stared out at the camp and light slowly spread across it. “Look over there.”

  She pointed toward a long skinny building that was used as a girls’ dorm on the other side of the camp. Smoke rose out of the chimney.

  “That must be where they are?” He took in a calming breath. If things didn’t go as he planned, it could cost them their lives. “Over there is the activities storage shed.” He pointed to a small cabin.

  “It’s not that far from here. We should go before we have full daylight.” Merci spoke in a monotone, probably an effort to push down any fear she might be wrestling with.

  Climbing down proved easier than getting up. Merci followed behind him as he walked through the snow toward the small cabin. The thieves had not broken down the door of the activities cabin. They must have thought it was too small to be where the food was.

  Nathan pulled out his key ring and released the padlock. The place smelled musty. As he shone the flashlight around the windowless room, it looked as if the storage procedures hadn’t changed since he was a kid.

  Various plastic boxes were labeled Balls, Paintball and Frisbees. The archery gear took up several boxes. He pulled one off a shelf.

  Merci leaned over to peer in the box. “Maybe a bow and arrow would be better.”

  “The crossbows are more powerful. Once the string is cocked not as much arm strength is needed.” He pulled one of the arrows out and turned it around in his hand.

  He located two crossbows and two sets of arrows. For safety, these arrows were not as sharp as those used for hunting, but they would pierce a target just fine, so they might do some damage at close range. “You ever use one of these before?”

  She shook her head. He took a moment to show her how to cock the string and place the arrow in. He held the bow up to eye level. “Once the arrow is in place, you just look down your sight and pull the trigger.”

  Even as he instructed her, he prayed it wouldn’t come to having to use these things to defend themselves. They stepped out of the cabin with the crossbows in their hands and the quivers slung over their shoulders.

  They moved cautiously, slipping behind buildings and trees for cover. The smell of smoke became evident as they approached three identical buildings. All the buildings were long with small windows lining the long side.

  The sky had begun to lighten up. They hid behind a large evergreen. Nathan could make out the smoke rising from one chimney. He tapped Merci’s shoulder and pointed. She nodded in understanding. He signaled that she should stay behind while he moved in to see what he could.

  Again, she nodded in agreement and settled down at the base of the tree. Crouching, he ran toward the next bit of cover, a woodpile that hadn’t been stacked yet. When he looked back, Merci was leaning out, watching him.

  He gripped his crossbow in his gloved hand and darted for the final bit of cover, the dorm closest to them. The thieves were in the middle dorm. He was about to edge around the corner to the short side of the dorm when he heard a door burst open. Leather Coat came into view with the gun in his hand.

  Heart pounding, Nathan glanced back to the tree where Merci was. She had slipped into hiding. The thief stepped off the concrete slab by the door and walked a wide circle, stopping every few seconds to survey the area around him.

  The man walked out quite a ways from the occupied dorm in a straight line. Then he turned and moved toward the first dorm. Nathan slipped to the other side of the building and sunk low to the ground. He could hear the approaching footsteps. When the man coughed, it sounded as if he was right in front of Nathan.

  Nathan pressed harder against the building, not even daring to breathe. He adjusted his grip on the crossbow and slid the arrow into place. The time it took to hear the retreating footsteps seemed like an eternity.

  Nathan waited for a long moment after the area had gone quiet before he dared to move. He angled around to look at the closed door of the second dorm. The man in the leather jacket had limited his patrol to a big arc around the front of the building.

  The dorm was one long structure without any interior walls and only rows of beds with a bathroom at one end and a fireplace at the other. He would be able to see if Lorelei was inside by peering through one of the windows.

  The problem was he didn’t know where they were in the dorm. He ran toward the back of the building and hunkered down against the wall of the other dorm. He lifted his chin. He ran the risk of being seen here, if someone looked out the window, but it allowed him to look for movement in several windows.

  He sat with the sound of his own breathing surrounding him like a drumbeat. It looked as though the thieves had managed to come up with some form of light. The middle part of the dorm was illuminated. Only the main building and the cafeteria were wired for electricity. They must have found a Coleman or another flashlight.

  Crouching, he moved toward the window where the light was the strongest. He raised himself up slowly. If he moved into a standing position, he would have a clear view of what was going on in there, but he would also be spotted the second someone looked toward the window. Not a good idea. Most people could sense when they were being stared at.

  He bent his knees and peered through the window with his eyes barely above the bottom sill. A bed was pushed up against the window blocking his view. He ran bent over to the next window. Most of his view was of the man in the orange coat with his back to the window.

  The man moved slightly. Nathan angled his head to take in more of the room.

  The third thief, the leader they called
Hawthorne, was perched on the top bunk opposite the window. Leather Jacket lay on a lower bunk with his face to the wall. He couldn’t see Lorelei anywhere. He moved down to the next window. Open, industrial-size cans of food were on one of the nightstands.

  Hawthorne and Orange Coat were having some sort of loud discussion that sounded as though it verged on being an argument. Obviously, things had not gone as planned. They had intended to take whatever treasure two college girls might have and head for the highway. Now they were stranded and half starved. The quick gestures and set jaws of both men indicated that the conversation seemed even more tense than the earlier one they had overheard in the main building.

  Hawthorne jumped down from the bunk. His swagger and expansive gestures suggested confidence and control. Growing frustrated, Nathan moved to the next window. Where was Lorelei? He refused to believe that she was dead. Maybe they had her tied up in one of the other buildings.

  No, that didn’t make sense. They would have put a guard on her. The view through the third window was covered in shadows as it fell outside the circle of illumination created by the lanterns.

  Still no Lorelei. His spirits sank. Had they missed the signs of an assault or worse on the way up here? Maybe the darkness had hidden the blood trail in the snow. What if all of this had been for nothing? What if they were too late?

  As he struggled with his doubt, a chill crept into his muscles from standing still. He moved back to the window where he had the clearest view. The discussion between Hawthorne and Orange Coat had lost much of its energy. The larger man slumped down in a lower bunk and Hawthorne paced and ran his fingers through his blond hair.

  To get warmed up and to see if he could locate Lorelei, Nathan circled the building, peering in each window, hoping to see Lorelei tied up in some dark corner. Within a few minutes, he had rounded the building to the other long end. Much of the interior was still so dark it was hard to discern anything.

  Another possibility nudged at the corners of his consciousness. What if the thieves had marched Lorelei into the woods and shot her once she was no longer of use to them? He shut down that idea almost as quickly as it had popped into his head. He couldn’t give up hope…not yet.

  He moved back to a window that provided better light to watch the interaction. Orange Coat lifted one of the industrial-size cans and looked inside it. Leather Jacket was no longer on the bed, and Nathan couldn’t see where he had gone. Hawthorne continued to pace. There was really nothing going on here. He should probably just go back to Merci, and they could wait and watch for Lorelei to make an appearance.

  Hawthorne took a cell phone out of his pocket, held it to his ear and pulled it away to look at the keyboard. He grimaced and held the cell phone at arm’s length. People’s actions in a crisis were sometimes illogical.

  Unless Hawthorne knew a snowplow operator who owed him a big favor, nobody was going to come up here and whisk them back into town. Maybe Hawthorne had thought they could hike out, and he wanted to call someone to give them a ride once they got to the highway. Also, not a very viable plan.

  Nathan had seen it in his work as an EMT a hundred times, the illogical coping mechanisms of people in crisis. People in burning office buildings returned to their desk to turn off their computers out of habit before seeking safety. Hawthorne and his gang probably didn’t have lots of winter survival skills. If they were smart, they would stay at the camp where they at least had shelter and warmth.

  Lorelei stepped into view. Nathan’s head jerked back. She’d come out of nowhere. She walked toward Hawthorne. She hadn’t been tied up. Nothing in her expression suggested a state of terror though there was a hesitation in her step as she approached Hawthorne. She waited for him to look up. Something in his expression must have communicated that it was okay to approach him.

  She handed Hawthorne a purple phone that sparkled when it caught the light. Then he saw something that caused his old suspicions to rise to the surface again. The gesture lasted only a nano second, but Lorelei reached up and brushed Hawthorne’s upper arm before she walked away. Nathan’s mind reeled. The gesture appeared to be one of affection.

  With the phone in his hand, Hawthorne turned toward the window. Nathan ducked down. A metal clicking sound caused him to look up. Nathan froze. He was looking directly into the barrel of the handgun held by the man in the leather jacket. The man smiled at him. “Find what you were looking for?” He pulled a knife out of his pocket. “A gun is too quick for you. Let’s make this slow and painful, shall we?”

  SEVEN

  Merci shifted side to side in an effort to keep warm. She’d grown cold sitting on the ground behind the tree that hid her from view and had decided standing up and moving was a better option. Twice she’d peeked out from behind the tree. The first time she’d seen Nathan as he had headed behind the first dorm building. The second time she hadn’t seen any sign of life anywhere.

  She guessed that maybe twenty minutes had passed. She twirled the crossbow in her hand. She’d practiced cocking the bow and putting the arrow in place so many times she could probably do it in the dark. Nathan had been gone a long time. She peeked out from behind the tree again.

  The emerging light allowed her to see the dorms and the rest of the camp. She saw the back side of the sign at the entrance of the camp where they had come in. After she checked her watch, a rising sense of panic made the hairs on the back of her head stand up. Too much time had passed without any signs of disruption or Nathan’s return. Where was he? Did he need her help?

  She couldn’t just sit here while something bad happened to him. She moved in a little closer, using the pile of unstacked firewood for cover. When she looked out over the logs, the man in the leather jacket was headed back toward the dorm. He must have slipped out when she wasn’t looking.

  He walked deliberately toward the door then stopped abruptly and angled his head. Instead of going inside, Leather Jacket disappeared around the side of the dorm out of Merci’s view. Merci clamored to her feet as adrenaline surged through her. The last time she’d spotted Nathan he was headed toward that side of the building. Unless Nathan had moved, the thief was going right toward Nathan.

  Merci pushed past her fear as she raced through the snow. Ducking down into a crouch, she closed in on the lighted windows of the middle dorm. The thieves must be in there. She slammed herself against the wall. Her heart pounded out a furious beat. She closed her eyes. She prayed that Nathan had moved somewhere out of view and wasn’t in danger.

  She ran around to the narrow end of the middle dorm where there was less light spilling out. Her feet sunk into the snow. She pulled the arrow from her quiver and placed it in the crossbow just like Nathan had shown her. She swung around the corner.

  It took her only a second to absorb what she saw. Leather Jacket twirled a knife that caught glints of sunlight. Nathan curled forward in a defensive posture, clutching his shoulder. Leather Jacket bent his knee and kicked Nathan across the jaw with his cowboy boot. Nathan fell backward in the snow.

  Her finger trembled when she placed it in the trigger of the crossbow. Her whole hand was shaking. Before the thief had time to register that she had come around the corner, she lifted the crossbow, looked down the sight and pulled the trigger. The yelp of pain that sounded more like a dog than a man shattered the early morning air.

  Noise came from inside the dorm. Doors slamming. People shouting. Feet stomping.

  Nathan was next to her pulling her up. She must have crumpled to the ground after she shot the arrow. Leather Jacket’s cry of pain acted like a direct blow to her eardrum. The thief bent over, clutching his leg. Drops of blood stained the white snow. She had done that. She had hurt another human being.

  Nathan pulled her to her feet and dragged her away. When she looked over her shoulder, the other two men had come outside. She locked gazes for a moment with Hawthorne. His eyes grew wide, and his face registered rage.

  They ran faster than she had ever run in her life. Dried tr
ee branches grazed her cheeks. Nathan guided her still deeper into the forest. She stumbled, but he caught her and lifted her up.

  “Come on Merci, you’ve got to keep going.”

  Her legs wobbled. She couldn’t find the strength to stand.

  “You’re going into shock. Focus on moving forward. Can you do that for me?”

  She couldn’t let go of the images in her head. She had shot a man and made him bleed. “I don’t know.”

  “They’re after us, Merci. We have to keep moving.” Then she noticed that he gripped his shoulder.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

  She saw the blood on his hand and the sliced fabric of the coat. What had that animal done to him?

  He grabbed her hand as they ran through the thick evergreens. She couldn’t manage a deep breath. Her legs still felt like burning pillars. They had run for at least ten minutes. She couldn’t hear any noise behind her.

  Nathan planted his feet and bent over. He slumped to his knees and coughed. The snow below him grew red with blood.

  She fell on the ground beside him. “What happened? What did he do to you?”

  Nathan groaned, straightened his back and squared his shoulders. “He kicked me in the stomach. That’s all. I’ll be all right.”

  Then she noticed the blood on his face. “It looks like he did more than that.” Her fingers trailed down to his chest. She unzipped his coat to get a better look at the bloodstain on his shirt. “Is that a knife wound?”

  “The guy is one of those sickos who enjoys inflicting pain on people.” Nathan gritted his teeth. The tightness of his jaw revealed how much pain he was in.

  She peeled back his shirt and took in a sharp breath. “The cut is really deep and still bleeding.”

  Nathan rose to his feet. Though he tried to hide it, she caught the wince of pain. “It was a blessing in a way. If he had just shot me on the spot, there wouldn’t have been enough time for you to get there.”