by Nick Randall
“Sshhhh,” her delicate hands drifted over my eyes, willing them to close. “They are bringing you medicine, and once you get well, I will help you. We will escape together. We will go to cabin together, and you will see Holly. We will all be safe.”
Rough footsteps approached, and Steve’s voice echoed from above where I lay on the ground.
“They found antibiotics down at the Park Ranger’s house, so it didn’t take long. Should be enough to get him better for a little while, but not enough to kill off the infection for good. That’s not our concern. He will die one way or another, not many of us get to choose.”
I heard pills in the bottle clattering around as it landed near my head.
“You can nurse him back to health for a while, but once he’s stronger, I don’t want you near him, little one.”
Steve grunted, and his voice trailed away as he spoke.
Chapter 4 (Holly)
We held our breath. The first warm meal in days sitting on the table in front of us, and it grew cold as we calculated and waited.
Little Kate sat in my lap, happily eating the sausage, rice, and beans. She shoveled big spoonfuls into her tiny mouth.
Her cheeks puffed out like a squirrel.
After cleaning up the cabin several nights ago, we had decided to rest up and regain our strength.
Norm reasoned that several night’s sleep would help us make good decisions about our next steps.
Norm and Gordon had woken up early the day after we took back the cabin. The took the morning to bury the bodies out in the woods. We had all been exhausted. Our hearts and minds full of heaviness.
I hadn’t slept much in the nights that followed. I was suspended in thought with only one hope; two of us should go and find Matthew.
We should have left already, taken him in the night, and killed the men, so they couldn’t terrorize us anymore. I had communicated that desperately to Norm and Gordon for days.
The morning had faded into midday, and now, we sat around the table, thinking and not eating, except for the little girl who wouldn’t let me leave her.
We were at a boiling point, and both men knew that I was seething with frustration.
“Okay, Kate,” I startled the men out of their deep rumination. “I am going to tell you a story before you take your afternoon nap. Would you like that?”
She turned her bright eyes to me and nodded enthusiastically.
I lifted her from my lap, took her tiny hand in mine, and walked her back to my room. The boys started clearing away the dishes and wiping down the table.
Once Kate’s breathing had slowed into the deep breathing of calm sleep, I joined Norm and Gordon back in the living room.
The furniture was back in its rightful place, and blood no longer darkened the floors. I sat on the couch, my hands quivering nervously as I waited. Norm sat across from me in his favorite recliner.
No matter how much building and rebuilding was happening, Norm always had that damn recliner somewhere in a covered part of the cabin.
I remember rocking to sleep with him in the summers, watching the fireflies outside. I would wake up nestled in my fluffy down comforter and stuffed animals.
Norm always carried me to sleep and tucked me in safe and sound.
Norm broke the silence.
“After Matthew sacrificing his safety to let you go free. It doesn’t make sense to risk your life to save him. I think you should stay here. We should fortify the cabin and make sure we are prepared if they get here. One of us could double back under the tunnel to rescue Matthew when they make camp near the cabin. No one gets hurt. We just steal him away, go through the tunnel, and keep him safe here. I think that’s the smartest plan.”
Gordon nodded quietly, and I knew I’d lost. It made sense.
Why risk my life when Matthew did everything he could to save it? I knew it made sense, but I couldn’t live with it.
“I’m going. I don’t have a choice in the matter. I can’t live with myself if he dies because of me,” I said.
I stood up, determined, and strode across the room toward the basement door, grabbing the knob.
“Holly, wait!” Norm and Gordon both called after me in unison. I stopped but refused to turn around, afraid that I would break, that I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to Norm a second time.
“Let me and your grandfather go together instead,” Gordon pleaded. “We’re old but not useless.” He chuckled weakly.
And then Norm’s voice continued, “If Matthew’s that important to you, Gordon and I will leave at dusk. I can find him quickly on this mountain. It’s my home. Please, Holly. I don’t think my life would be worth living without you in it. You’re the only family I have left. Besides, you have other responsibilities now. There’s a little girl who needs you. Think about Kate. She’s had so much taken away from her, and she’s latched onto you. If you left now, it would break her heart again.”
I sighed as I released my grip on the doorknob and turned to face them. It wasn’t fair for him to use Kate like that. He knew it, too.
“Either way, I feel selfish. If I let you go, I’m letting you risk your life for something I want. If I go, and something goes wrong, I hurt everyone. I just want everyone I love to be here with me, to be safe. I don’t want to kill people to be able to survive. When did this get so complicated? Within two weeks, our old lives have become foreign to us. We’re murderers. For what? For food and water, for what’s in a backpack or a store. I don’t want to do this anymore,” my voice cracked, but I refused to cry.
I was done with tears. I didn’t have the energy to waste.
I continued, “I’ll do what has to be done until everyone I love is safe. I love you.”
I turned back toward the door, opened it, and headed down to the basement.
My pack was by the door to the cellar. I nabbed it, quickly filling it with items from the shelf - a couple of bottles of water and several foil packs of tuna and beans.
It wouldn’t take long. I could track just as well as my grandfather. I wheeled the shelf away from the tunnel entrance and headed down the dark pathway.
The forest was peaceful, the autumn leaves just beginning to turn. I covered the tunnel entrance and headed out into the woods.
The sun was just below the tops of the trees. I had some time to linger before heading out. I needed a little bit of sunlight to track the group, but I needed some cover, too.
I’d rushed out so quickly that I didn’t think about the time of day. I took the afternoon to really look around the mountain carefully.
I worked my way down from the side of the cabin and around the front, traveling into the woods parallel to the path. Matthew probably would have kept them going in circles around the base of the mountain.
I slowly picked my way down the mountain, cautiously enjoying the woods, and trying not to worry about Matthew.
I remembered hiking these mountains with Norm.
We would hike them every day in the fall. The serenity of the mountain was breathtaking, especially in autumn.
Orange, yellow, and green hues blended with streams of sunlight shining through the trees.
Finally, dusk arrived. I had just picked up a promising lead, signs of a makeshift camp on a patch of bare ground.
The ground was too clean and bare like someone had brushed it clear of tracks before heading out.
It was the only sign they had left behind. Steve was careful, but the men he traveled with were bound to make mistakes.
I had to be close, but I knew Steve wouldn’t be naive enough to go in circles for more than half a day. I stood and surveyed the area.
I would think Steve would want them to head up the mountain. As I considered which way to go, a foreboding crept through me.
My skin prickled, my ears strained to hear any abnormalities in the scenery.
I heard the shuffle of shoes behind me, and I quickly drew my gun and swiveled around to face the interloper.
Norm stood in
front of me with a sheepish half-smile. His eyes speaking an unspoken apology.
“I couldn’t let you go alone.” He shrugged his shoulders and lifted his hands in a defeated gesture. “You’re right. We can’t keep you at the cabin, but no matter how much forbidding you do, you can’t keep me from following you. So . . . let’s get further down the trail before we lose them in the dark.”
I put away my weapon and pulled Norm into a long hug.
Tears stung my eyes as I whispered a muffled “thank you” into his shoulder.
We let go of each other, both of us wiping our eyes and looking up and down the mountain, surveying the area again. I could almost hear Norm’s brain churching.
Both of us stood in deep thought, analyzing the possibilities. I knew Steve, though. Norm didn’t know the calm, calculated tenacity that radiated from Steve.
“I think they probably ended up Southeast at Waters Creek. If this Steve is as good a tracker as you think, he would have thought about the fact that we need a water source near the cabin. No matter how much Matthew is trying to mislead him, he would know to follow the water. Waters Creek is a quarter mile from the cabin and just Southeast of here. You know that’s the creek we use for the cabin.”
He paused and looked at me.
“Okay, but Vogel is very close to Cooper Creek. If he doesn’t know these mountains, he may have gotten lost going up the creek, nowhere near Blood Mountain by your logic. But,” I sighed, relenting, “we are closer to Waters Creek, so we might as well check it out first.”
Night slowly fell around us. We continued on, moving slowly and as quietly as possible. Our steps fell silent as we walked across the moist leaves near the creek. Eventually, we neared an obvious trail.
There was no attempt to cover up tracks, two fresh sets of male footprints heading down the water’s edge, side by side. Norm and I instinctively ducked, walking along in a crouch.
The silence suspended between us until we heard them, voices in the near distance.
The unmistakable deep rasp of Steve echoed through the trees, a small fire flickered ahead of us.
“Spence, Travis . . . you two need to go back and cover those tracks. I saw them coming back. Anyone could sneak up on us,” Steve’s voice commanded.
“Uh . . . Steve . . . well, this morning after you left . . . we let the girl keep an eye on Matthew. She asked if she could check on him. We were only looking away for just a second. They . . they disappeared. We looked all day! You were gone. We couldn’t find them.” The man’s voice quivered in fear.
“What the hell? He’s barely able to walk!” Steve growled, “I said keep an eye on him while I scouted ahead today. You are responsible for this, Spence. I left you in charge.” I heard a crack, someone cried out, and a muffled thud followed, unmistakably a body falling to the ground.
“Leave him there, Travis,” Steve warned. “He’ll be fine by morning. We’ve got to head out at first light. Fortunately, I know where they’re going. I found the cabin this morning. It’s shut tight, and I can’t see or hear anything going on in there. We are just going to have to beat them there. We better find her, or your friend Spence is dead. I doubt they will hike far tonight with the boy still weak.”
Steve’s voice moved closer toward us, but Norm and I were dead still, afraid to move and give our position away.
We could hear him rustling through the branches near us. I held my breath, my hand on my gun.
If he came into clear sight, I could take him out and solve most of our problems, but just as my hopes flared, I heard him turn and his steps receded back toward the camp.
“No use looking for them tonight. Travis, go clean up those tracks. Brantley, you have first watch tonight.”
With that, the campfire was extinguished, and Norm and I backed away in silence.
Chapter 5 (Matthew)
We stumbled through the woods. I was still weak from the infection that had ravaged my body.
We had heard the men calling for us all morning as we distanced ourselves further and further from the camp.
What had felt like weeks in a feverish stupor had only been days. They had found the antibiotics and returned in a day and a half.
After two mornings on ibuprofen and antibiotics, I could sit up and walk unsteadily across the camp.
The third morning of my recovery, Spence and Travis were lounging about, fixing breakfast, sitting by the morning fire, eating.
Steve had left to scout ahead, feeling secure that I was in no state to try and escape. One of them had nicked a flask full of whiskey at the house where they’d secured my antibiotics.
With Steve gone, the men were more relaxed. Shoulders slumped over in laziness. They passed around the flask, laughter ringing out through the trees as the liquor loosened their tongues.
I was sitting up against a tree, eating a can of rice and beans the girl had brought me early that morning.
I could move better than I had let on. I wanted Steve to think I was completely useless for a while longer. I felt a tap at my shoulder, and I turned to see the girl with two packs, one in each hand. She was crouched down on the other side of the tree.
“It’s time,” she whispered, “while they are distracted. Here is a fresh pair of socks and Brantley’s hiking boots. He’s bathing at the river. I was nice enough to leave your shoes for him. Put them on, and let’s go now.”
I quickly set aside the can, hurried on the socks, and laced up the boots before grabbing one of the packs and following her out into the woods.
Our pace was slow but silent. It took us all morning to make four miles. When we heard them calling, we picked up our pace until I couldn’t walk any longer.
All in all, by nightfall, we had covered about nine miles. We had crossed the creek at a narrow place early into the hike, hoping the distance and the sounds of the water would offer cover.
I had fallen in the creek, but the cold water rejuvenated me, numbing my sore leg, and pushing me further. Once night darkened the skies, we hid out in a cluster of large boulders about a half a mile from the creek, too afraid to move.
They could still be out searching for us.
We ate a dry dinner of granola and beef jerky, washing it down with water before covering up under an emergency blanket, our body heat creating a warm pocket for us to hide in until morning.
The next morning, as the sky turned grey, we silently packed the blanket, stretched out the kinks from the hard ground, and shouldered our packs before peaking around the boulders.
This was no way to continue. I had no idea where the camp was, and I didn’t want to break the news to the fragile child walking next to me.
Suddenly, her hand shot out and grabbed my arm, pulling me back.
My leg was stiff from the long walk the day before and failed to shift with the rest of my body. I landed on my back. My head swimming with pinpricks of light.
“Hello, stranger,” I heard a smooth voice, drifting above me. No . . . I figured I was dazed from the lingering infection, the fall, exhaustion . . . but the voice spoke a second time.
“Are you going to say you’re glad to see me, or just leave me to guess?” Her face came into view, floating above me as a stream of sunlight flooded around her.
“H-Holly? Holly!!” I sat up, my heart pounding excitedly. I grabbed her and pulled her down to me in a tumbling hug.
“Why aren’t you at the cabin? Did you make it? You should be safe. I’m so glad to see you. Let me look at you! Are you okay?”
Words tumbled out faster than I could think. I finally let her go, and sat in front of her, looking her over. Her face was flushed and happy. Behind her stood an older man, a wide smile breaking across his face.
“I’m Norm,” he stepped forward.
A tall and well-built older man in his sixties, a headful of silvery hair short and swooping to the side.
His strong hand gripped mine firmly and pulled me up. I winced as my weight shifted to my legs.
Holly r
ushed to prop me up with her body. She was never prettier. Long eyelashes swept up and down as she blinked away joyful tears.
Her deep blue eyes lingered on me with concern. I curled my fingers through her wavy, chestnut locks as she steadied me.
“We need to get out of here, quickly.” Norm began. “The cabin is not far . . .”
I interrupted him, “Wait! There was a girl with me. Holly, you remember the girl you tried to save. They kept her with them. Steve actually cared about her. He didn’t want her to get hurt. Said he didn’t agree with what was going on with the girls.”
“Hey . . . It’s okay.” I called as loudly as I dared. “You can come out. You’re safe.”
We all looked around us, waiting for her until I saw her emerge from behind the cluster of boulders where we had slept.
“We have to go now, or they will catch up to us. We’re already moving slow.” I found my footing and stepped forward to meet her. We joined hands.
“Okay, we’re ready. You lead. We’ll follow.” The four of us headed off, following the river to our new home.
Chapter 6 (Holly)
I kept turning back to look at him again. He walked behind me, hand-in-hand with the girl I’d tried so desperately tried to save.
I smiled at him, happy to see him alive and relatively whole. The young girl looked lonely and sad, but a spark of strength resonated inside her. I could see it in her eyes. A deep drive spurring her on. She was a fighter.
The walk back was less than a mile, but we walked slowly and deliberately.
Steve’s group could move faster, and we knew they planned to cut us off on our way to the cabin.
Norm led us through the back way to the cabin. We made it back into the tunnel and through the cellar without a problem.
Norm went in first. He came back with the all clear. Kate had run to me as soon as I walked out of the basement door and into the living room.
“Where were you? Where were you?” She squeezed me tight and wouldn’t let go. I lifted her into my arms and held her close.
