SHIVER

by Tiffinie Helmer

  Why had she let Nadia talk her into getting on this plane? There was no way that this trip could end well, other than winning and being named the best geocacher in the state. Regardless if she’d seemed a coward, she should have run from the hangar and left this crew on their own. The plane bumped along in a pocket of turbulence as though nodding in agreement.

  She’d introduced all these people to the high-tech sport of geocaching, a treasure hunt where the participants used GPS to find hidden caches full of rewards that ranged from simple trinkets, to further instructions, and sometimes money. Damned if these people would prove that they were now better at the techie sport than she was.

  After about an hour, the floatplane dipped, beginning its decent. She caught a view out the windows and anticipation replaced the foreboding that bubbled in her thoughts. A glacier-fed lake glistened like an expensive jewel below them, a color man would never be able to duplicate. Iced mountain tops, perfectly frosted by Mother Nature, crowded around the lake as though hoping to pick up any secrets it might whisper of time and space. Spruce ranging in colors of the darkest blue to green to black competed for room among the birch trees. A clearing revealed a nest of small cabins along the south bank of the lake, directly opposite the glacier that receded above the valley.

  The DeHavilland skimmed the placid waters of the lake and came to a stop along the sandy bank near the cabins. Hugh powered down the Beaver and silence pressed in.

  “Welcome to Nowitna Lake,” Hugh said, rolling up his hip waders and climbing out onto the float of the plane. He hopped onto the bank and secured the plane to a birch tree before wading into the water. One by one, they climbed out onto the floats and jumped to shore. Hugh unloaded their packs, tossing them the short distance. It was up to them to catch them or not. Tern seized hers just as it would have smacked her in the face. As it was, she stumbled back a few steps.

  Hugh waded to shore, pulled out an envelope from his back pocket, and handed it to Nadia. “Here you go. Instructions are in there on the rules of the game. I’ll be back in a week to pick you up.” Once that was done, he didn’t waste any time in untying the plane, turning it around, and hopping aboard.

  They watched, standing in a line, as Hugh took off. Tern wondered if they were all thinking the same thing she was.

  Just where the hell were they, and what would they do if he didn’t come back?

  “Well,” Mac said, hitching up his backpack on brick-like shoulders and grabbing his rifle. “The day isn’t getting any younger. I suggest we make camp and cook up some grub.”

  They gathered their gear and headed toward the base camp just a few hundred yards up from the lake. The spot was breathtaking. Grasses so green it hurt Tern’s eyes to look at them were intermixed with wildflowers of blue bells, forget-me-nots, brook mint, and cowslips. The air was clean and crisp. Rejuvenating.

  Tern breathed in a deep breath and slowly let it out. She’d been locked up too long in her shop this season getting ready for the tourists. It was actually unheard of for her to take time off from work during the summer. It was her money making season, but she had a good crew and she badly needed the break from commitments and responsibilities. The sun beat down with teasing fingers, tempting her into shedding her jacket.

  The camp was made up of three small log cabins making up a half moon. Tern and Nadia entered the first cabin, while the men carried their gear into the remaining cabins. The small space housed two cots each. A shelf, hooks for clothes, an end table between the cots, and a wood stove for heating in winter. The bare necessities. It caused a smile to spread over Tern’s face, while Nadia frowned.

  “This is it?” she asked, scanning the small space as though some modern day amenities would suddenly appear.

  “Did you expect maid service?”

  “Running water would have been nice.”

  “There’s a pristine lake out front.” Tern gestured to the view out the door she’d left propped open for air and light. The little cabin only sported a tiny window, which wasn’t able to brighten the dark, rough-honed log interior.

  “You’re enjoying, this aren’t you?”

  “God, yes.” Tern rolled out her sleeping bag on one of the cots and then laid down on it. “I didn’t realize how badly I needed to get out of town until we got here.” She turned her head to gaze at Nadia, who fought to untie her sleeping bag. “Thanks for talking me into coming.”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” Nadia mumbled. “We still need to find a bathroom.”

  “I’m sure there’s an outhouse in back of the cabins.”

  “Eww, seriously?” Her mouth dropped open.

  Tern laughed at Nadia’s staggered expression. “Come on, let’s unpack and then get something to eat.” She sat up and opened her backpack. As she pulled out her GPS, clothes, toiletries, extra pair of shoes, and pistol, she began to notice some things missing. And her stuff was always more organized than this. “Nadia, do you have everything you packed?”

  “Hmm?” Nadia lifted her head from reading the back of one of the many steamy romance novels she was never without. “What?”

  “I’m missing my satellite phone, mammoth bag of M&M’s, moose jerky…it looks like someone rifled through my pack.” Tern frowned.

  Nadia dropped the book onto her cot and rummaged through her own backpack. “What the hell? My phone’s gone, too, so are my waterproof matches and the goodies I packed.”

  Lucky knocked on the outside of the cabin. “Hey, the old man’s called a meeting.”

  A shiver of unease settled into her bones. Tern looked at Nadia, and they silently followed Lucky to where the men were standing around a dug out fire pit with sawed-off logs for seats circling the area.

  “Your things have been gone through too?” Tern asked.

  “Seems to be the case with all of us,” Gage said, his jaw hard, eyes narrowed. “My satellite phone is gone, along with the food items I brought.”

  The same was murmured around the empty fire pit.

  “My first aid kit was taken, too, along with the MREs I’d packed,” Robert said.

  “Didn’t the invite say food would be provided?” Lucky asked. “Aren’t you guys jumping to conclusions?”

  “I think it’s damn right suspicious that all our food and emergency supplies were taken,” Gage fired back.

  “Those of you who brought weapons were left with them,” Lucky pointed out.

  “I suggest we start a fire,” Mac said, calling a halt to the bickering. “The temperature is going to drop fast, once the sun settles over those peaks. Then we’d better do an inventory of what we’ve been left with. Does anyone have any matches or a lighter?”

  “My matches were taken,” Nadia said in a small voice and a few of the men shook their heads.

  “I’ve got a lighter.” Robert reached into the front pocket of his jeans. “Gave up the smokes months ago, but can’t seem to give up carrying the lighter.” He looked at Tern as he informed the group of this little personal fact. Another of her complaints about him had been the cigarettes.

  Gage broke the uncomfortable silence. “I’ll gather some firewood.” He headed for the trees.

  “Good idea,” Mac said. “I suggest we all do the same.”

  Tern and Nadia walked down to the lake to gather what they could find along the bank.

  They returned with enough dry wood to feed a fire throughout the night. Robert started a nice blaze with the dried spruce moss Gage had brought back with the wood he’d gathered. Soon a pleasant snap and crackle was a comforting song to the breeze tickling the coin leaves of the birch trees.

  Tern took a seat, reaching her hands out to the flames. She’d put her jacket back on as the temperature had indeed dropped when the sun, while not setting this close to the Arctic Circle, had dipped just below the high peaks of the mountains surrounding them. The breeze wafting off the glacier to the north plunged the temperature twenty degrees cooler than it had been when they’d arrived. They were in for a cold night.<
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  One by one the players of the game took seats on the stumps. Nadia sat next to Tern, Lucky close on Nadia’s left. Robert on Tern’s right while Mac sat across and Gage remained standing, whittling a piece of diamond willow.

  “This is much better,” Nadia said, reaching her feet closer to the heat of the fire. “But what are we going to do about food?”

  “Nadia, let me see the envelope the pilot gave you,” Mac asked.

  “Oh, right. I almost forgot about the game, what with all our stuff liberated.” Nadia jumped up and rushed to their cabin, returning quickly, and handing the envelope to Mac.

  He opened it with a slice of his knife, bending the blade back into its case and slipping it into the scabbard on his belt. He shook out the folded pages, scanned them. “Well, it seems we aren’t just to have a race against each other to find the geocaches, but finding them will aid in our survival.” He passed the pages around the group.

  “What?” Nadia jumped to her feet. “There isn’t any food?”

  “Doesn’t seem like it. We either catch what we eat, or start searching for geocaches and hope they have the supplies these pages promise.”

  “How the hell is this a competition?” Lucky asked, a scowl on his face.

  “It’s a test of our survival skills,” Mac said, not looking unhappy about the prospect.

  “That isn’t what we signed up for,” Robert added, though he didn’t seem adverse to the challenge presented either.

  “We knew this was an extreme competition,” Mac said. “We all agreed by showing up to this little party.”

  “I’m here to prove I’m the best geocacher in the state,” Lucky said. “That’s what I signed up for.”

  “We already know who the best is.” Mac nodded toward Tern.

  “Is there any food at all?” Nadia asked. “I’m starved.”

  “By the looks of the rules, we aren’t going to eat until we locate a few geocaches,” Mac said. “It’s getting late. I suggest we divide up into pairs. No sense in being stupid. There will be protection against the unfriendlies if we stay in numbers. Tern, you pair up with me—”

  “What?” Robert scoffed. “No way do the old man and the broad get to pair up.”

  “Who the hell are you calling a broad?” Tern asked. “Talk like that is going to get you hurt.”

  “I’d love you to try it, babe.” Robert cocked his brow at her in challenge, then turned back to Mac. “And who the fuck put you in charge?” he sneered.

  “Age and wisdom, you little shit.” Mac stood over Robert, who at least had the survival instincts to back down. “Now—”

  “The little shit has a point,” Gage interrupted. “No offense, Mac, but you’re older and the women are weaker—”

  “Hey,” Tern spat.

  Gage ignored her objection and continued, “We should keep the strength ratio as close to even as we can for protection.”

  “Draw names,” Lucky said. “Luck of the draw.”

  “I’ll get some paper and a pen.” Nadia once again rushed back to their cabin. She returned, wrote everyone’s name on a piece of paper and tore them into slips. “Gage, can I borrow your hat?”

  Gage took off his ball cap and handed it to her, being careful not to get too close to Tern.

  Nadia put the names into the cap and one by one drew out a name.

  “Robert with—” she reached for a piece of paper “—Mac.” She tossed the names into the fire and glanced around waiting for objections, when no one said anything she drew again. “Lucky with, oh, me.” She smiled at Lucky, and then faced Tern. “I guess that leaves you and Gage.” She mouthed a sorry.

  Sorry didn’t begin to cover it.

  Tern couldn’t look at Gage, but felt his irritation from behind her where he’d waited for the return of his hat. Of all the people to be paired up with, Gage was her last choice. Everything had seemed to go wrong since she’d entered the hangar this morning.

  “All right then,” Mac said. “Let’s divide up and see what we can find. Does everyone have a weapon?” He answered their nods with a short one of his own. “Fire three shots with a full second between each shot if you get into trouble.” He motioned with the paper that had the geocache coordinates on them. “Leroy, you and Nadia head south over that hill. Tern, since you’re more mountain goat than human, you and Gage head north. By these coordinates, looks as though you might have some ice to navigate. Be careful. Robert and I will head west. I suggest we only give ourselves two hours. Find what you can in that time frame, then reconvene back here.” He looked at each of them in turn. “Got it?”

  “I need a minute.” Tern grabbed Nadia’s arm and dragged her toward their cabin. “What the hell was that all about?”

  “What?” Nadia wrenched her arm free.

  “Pairing me up with Gage? You know he’s the last man I want to spend time with.”

  “Sweetie, it was the luck of the draw.” Nadia continued ignoring Tern’s scoff, “You need to find out what happened between the two of you anyway.”

  “Nope.” Tern folded her arms over her chest as if that would help protect her heart. “If he couldn’t tell me then, I don’t want to hear it now.”

  “Yes, you do. It’s been eating you up inside.” Nadia cocked a hip. “Ever think that maybe this is fate?”

  “Fate isn’t this sick.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. It paired me up with Lucky.” A smile she tried to hide gave her away.

  “As if that wasn’t who you wanted to be with anyway.”

  She shrugged. “He’s the most fun of the bunch. There’s an unfair ratio of men to women, and since they’ve all had a taste of you, it’s up to me to protect myself from being passed around,” she said, tongue in cheek.

  “You bitch.”

  Nadia laughed. “Come on, get over it, and let’s have some fun. Think of the havoc you can cause Gage. Get back at him for his mistreatment of you.”

  “Right.”

  “Hey, you wouldn’t mind if Lucky and I hooked up, would you?”

  “Uh…” Did she care? There was a part of her that still cared deeply for Lucky, and she wasn’t hiking down that trail again. But Nadia and Lucky? He’d break her heart. “Be careful, Nadia. He isn’t the kind of man who sticks around.”

  “My favorite. Use ‘em and abuse ‘em.” Nadia gave a sly smile. “Time for the games to begin.”

  Tern hopped onto a smooth boulder that had been tumbled and spat out by the glacier. The air coming off the ice chilled her to the bone every time she stopped to catch her breath. As long as she kept moving the cold didn’t sink in.

  The glacier nestled blue in a valley of black spruce with craggy outcropping. The crystal clearness of the lake lay below, topped by a sky so azure it was almost white. Not even a jet stream marred the translucent sky. It felt as though if she focused just enough, she’d be able to catch a glimpse into Heaven.

  The only thing to ruin this moment was the man trailing behind her. Gage cocked the shotgun again.

  “How many times do you need to check that thing? It isn’t like the bullets are going to disappear.”

  “I don’t like this.”

  “You could have stayed in camp.”

  “That’s not what I meant. This whole set up. It doesn’t feel right. Having no contact with the outside world concerns me. What if someone gets hurt? A week can be a long time to wait for help to arrive. If it arrives,” he grumbled.

  “Afraid of a little adventure?” Tern taunted. They’d only spoken a few words on the hike toward the glacier. Nothing that wasn’t absolutely necessary.

  “I’m not afraid.”

  She turned and gave him a long look. He’d been afraid of her.

  “I’m not afraid of you either,” he said, reading her expression correctly. It irked her that he could still do that.

  “Riiight.” Like he wouldn’t have agreed to this ‘little adventure’ if he’d known she was going to be along. She dismissed him and started climbing agai
n, her feet sliding to a hard stop when he grabbed her arm and swiveled her to face him.

  “I am not afraid of you,” he repeated through strong, white teeth.

  She studied him, eyes bright green, flashing golden specks from within, his nostrils flaring. She moved in closer and laid her hand on his chest. His heart hammered under her palm, and he swallowed hard.

  “You’re so afraid of me you can’t stand it,” she whispered, slinking closer, until their bodies touched from breasts to thighs. His eyes smoldered over and his lips parted.

  “Your very bones melt when I get close to you,” she continued. “The blood runs hot in your veins, and you want to do wicked things with me. You’re scared to death of what I can make you feel.” She let that sink in before she stepped back.

  His hand fell from her arm as though in defeat.

  “Don’t worry, Gage, you’re safe from me. A man dumps me like you did and there isn’t anything more that I want from him.” She left him there, hoping his mouth gaped open as he salivated after her. She almost turned back to relish his expression, but knew she’d lose ground if she did. Instead, she consulted her GPS. The geocache had to be around here somewhere.

  While the GPS coordinates got them close to the cache, it didn’t put them on top of one. The excitement of the hunt replaced the twisted pleasure of messing with Gage.

  Served the deadbeat right.

  Six months she’d waited for him. And nothing. She was disappointed in herself that she still gave a damn. She should have been able to turn off her feelings like a faucet. But then she’d never been so deep before.

  Tern mentally shook herself and concentrated on finding the cache. The light bouncing off the glacier hurt her eyes. So she reached into her front pocket—where she’d stored her sunglasses when they’d been in the darkness of the trees—and put them on. As she did, it cut the rays of the sun and allowed her to see the sharp corner of something square. As far as she knew, Mother Nature hadn’t gotten around to perfecting the square.