Chapter Thirty-One
If there’s a stronger word for hate then that’s how I feel about Boyd. Loathe, despise, scorn, none of those words are strong enough to express just how much I hate him. There isn’t a shred of human decency left in this man and I truly believe that killing him would be doing the whole world a favor. I never thought I was a violent person before but now I plot different ways to kill him with every step I take as I struggle to climb this steep slope. These dark thoughts help fuel the rage that’s giving me the will to make it up the difficult ascent while pulling a flagging Glo with me. He taunts us to move faster from his royal perch on the hover sled that he’s been lounging on since we started this morning.
He woke us by jerking the ropes he’d tied us with until we both came sputtering awake, laughing gleefully when Gloria let out a small scream of shock. He untied my feet and the rope that connected both of us to him, but then tied Glo and me together with only a few feet of slack between us so we were forced to stay side by side. He didn’t even have the decency to look away as we did our bathroom business. I had thought going in a bowl in the cart with Beck was embarrassing, but this was flat out humiliating as he watched us with a wicked sneer.
Once we had finished our business he lost interest and stomped over to the sled to grab the basket of food. There wasn’t much left in it after he plowed through it the night before so he threw it to the ground after eating what was left.
“Looks like no breakfast for you two! Oh well, time to eat the miles.” He said with a cruel laugh.
I shook my head in disbelief. Did this idiot really think we could hike all day with no food in us?
“The sled needs a few hours to charge. There wasn’t enough light left last night after we stopped to charge it back up.”
He curses and kicks the basket away from his foot. “Fine. Sit right there and don’t move until it’s time to go then!” He stabs a finger at the ground under our feet.
We sit on the hard rock and watch him stomp around the sled mumbling to himself until he starts pulling bins, boxes, and bags off of the sled and going through each one. I have to bite my lip hard not to scream at him when he starts throwing our belongings over his shoulder to be discarded. Glo’s clutching my arm as he tosses all the little mementos that we have left from our home like garbage. By the time he’s done, all that’s left besides the boxes of rations and water jugs are the wooden chest with my plant clippings and my two small, stunted potted trees. When he flips the lid open I force myself to look away and bite harder on my lip until blood fills my mouth. There’s a chance that we’ll be able to escape him at some point and come back to collect all of our things but if I show him how much I value those clippings, he’ll rip them to shreds just to torture me.
I hear the thunks of the chest and pots hitting the ground but I’m too afraid to look so when Glo’s grip on my arm eases and becomes a rub, I take that as a good sign that he’s just discarded them and not destroyed the contents.
“If we’re just going to sit here, then make yourself useful and start cooking some food. Make enough for a couple days so I don’t have to worry about it on the way back.” He barks in my direction, before sitting in a spot of shade with one of the few books I had packed and a shirt full of the tiny oranges and limes that he’s stripped from the trees. A snarky reply is on the tip of my tongue about him not being able to read but I swallow it down as Glo and I get up and move to the food to start cooking. It’s not lost on me that he said “his way back” and not “our way back.” It’s just one more confirmation that he plans on either killing us when we get to the claim or just tying us up and leaving us there to die.
When Boyd discarded our belongings, he tossed all the cooking gear as well so I have to sort through the mess to find everything I need. Glo takes that opportunity to scoop soil back into the tree pots and stand them back up. She nudges both the pots and the chest closer to the rock wall so they will be in shade for part of the day. I give her a grateful smile for that and she silently tilts her head towards the water jugs on the sled. I sneak a glance at Boyd but he’s busy peeling our fruit so I give her a small nod. She slides closer to the sled and snags one of the partially empty jugs while I gather the pans and small stove to give her cover. I try and keep my head on a swivel like I’m searching for things I need to cook as I watch Boyd to make sure he doesn’t look over and see her watering the pots and dumping the rest of the water into the chest. When she slides back over to me and takes a pot and pan from the pile in my arms, I let out the breath I’ve been holding. It’s not much of a victory but at least the plants will live for a few more days unattended if we can get out of this mess.
We set up a cooking area and go rescue the basket from where Boyd had kicked it. Being tied together makes these chores slightly more difficult but I feel better with her by my side instead of being Boyd’s body hostage. I don’t know if he’ll allow us to eat anything later in the day so as I cook the food we nibble away at it. I spend the next hour making easy to eat food, wrapping it up in cloth and packing it away in the basket for later. I make little pouches of nuts and dried fruit and make Glo fill her pockets with them so if the worst happens we’ll have something to eat we can sneak later. I fill my own pockets with tightly rolled tortilla spread with protein past and seasoning. Most likely, they’ll be a mushy mess by the end of the day but we’ll eat them anyway if we have too.
I’ve just closed up the basket and am getting ready to clean up the cooking gear when a shadow falls over me.
“Leave it and let’s go. That thing has charged enough for now.” Boyd commands with a painful nudge of his boot in my ribs.
I scoot away from him and help Glo to her feet as he scoops up the basket and drops it on the sled. We fold all the panels back into the sled and latch the bumpers into place and then start it up. It raises up off of the ground and I’m about to send it forwards when Boyd steps up onto it and sits right in the middle of it. He gives me a satisfied grin.
“Lost a lot of dead weight so it shouldn’t have a problem carrying me now, right?”
I don’t give him the satisfaction of a reply just turn and start the sled moving. My biggest challenge will be not rolling around laughing when he slides right off of the sled when we go down the steep hill ahead. It only takes a few minutes for us to get the ledge and seconds after we go over before he’s letting out a strangled, “Whoa! Stop! Stop this thing!”
He slides to the front and climbs over barrier guard that’s holding all the bins back when I bring it to a stop and sends me a glare before waving me, the sled, and Glo on ahead. I swear I kept my expression blank but he must have seen something in my eyes because when I pass him, he reaches out and slaps the back of my head leaving my scalp stinging and my eyes watering.
There are only a few really steep spots that we have to manage with most of the path having switchbacks that zig zag down. Climbing up the other side will be brutal. Judging by the sun, I estimate we’ll make the top of the climb by noon. I hope Boyd will let us rest there for a bit as we’ll be wiped out as we reach the hottest part of the day.
When we get to the bottom, he has me stop the sled again and climbs back onto it. He settles with his back to the path ahead and his feet braced on the rear barrier to prevent himself from sliding off as the sled tilts for the angle of the hill. This time I let my disgust of him show briefly before dropping my head and starting the climb. I keep one hand on Glo to help her and one hand on the remote in case I get the chance to flip it or smash it or...blow it up if I could!
We’ve barely made it half way up when Glo starts stumbling and I have to practically drag her along with me. I ask Boyd for water for her but he just points to the top. I pull her along with me but after ten minutes, she goes down for good. I ignore Boyd’s yells when I bring the sled to a stop, turn and lift Glo up and set her on the sled.
“You tied us together! I can’t go any faster than she can. Please, Boyd, let her ride the rest of the way up
so we can get this climb done!”
He opens his mouth to yell but then slams it shut and stabs a finger ahead so I get the sled moving again. I thought I could go faster with Glo off her feet but it’s just as hard because I’m forced to walk beside the sled with the rope tethering us. I just put my head down and let the rage build as I imagine all the pain and torture I’d like to inflict on him. The rage takes me most of the way to the top but by the time we crest the hill, I just want him to die. I no longer care about all the ways to make him pay, I just want this over.
I stop the sled on level ground and drop to my knees beside it to catch my breath. The sun is so hot and it feels like it’s frying the sweat I’ve built up from the climb right through my clothes. I just want to sit and drink water for a few minutes but Boyd steps off the sled and drops Glo to the ground beside me.
“Let’s go. That took way too long. I want to get to the gold today.”
I use the sled to pull myself back to my feet and pull Glo up as well as he strides ahead. As we start following him, I snatch a jug of water and take deep swallows until my stomach hurts. I no longer care about rationing it. I’m not going to be able to keep going without it. I pass it back to Glo and hear her gulping it as well. As we trudge after Boyd, I start thinking about my grandfather and water. There’s no way he could carry in enough water to stay on his claim for weeks at a time so he must either have a water source or storage at his claims. I pray that’s true if we can’t get away from Boyd and he leaves us there to die.
Thankfully, the way ahead is more manageable with no more crazy ups and downs. We trudge along slowly in the hot sun and even Boyd is forced to slow right down in the heat. He stays ahead of us for most of the afternoon but looks back frequently to make sure we haven’t made a run for it. I’m not sure where we would even run to at this point. A couple of times I position Glo ahead of me to block Boyd’s view in case he looks back, and check the map. There’s only one more main feature between us and the claim and from the map, it looks like some kind of bridge. I marvel at the things my grandfather was able to accomplish in his day. He had access to advanced technology and unlimited supplies it seems, but it still would have taken a huge amount of work to construct the camouflaged cavern and build bridges out here all alone. He must have been an amazing man and I wish I could have known him. How different our lives might have been if he hadn’t died so young.
“He’s stopping,” Glo whispers to me, breaking me out of my thoughts.
I look up from the ground I’d been focusing on for so long and am surprised that the sun is getting lower in the sky behind me and shadows are starting to fill the landscape. I also become aware of the sluggish hum from the sled. Without a full charge this morning and the strain of carrying Boyd up the hill, the battery is almost done. Maybe I should have been charging as we went the last few hours but I’m glad I didn’t think of it because now we can stop and rest for the night.
We catch up to Boyd and he’s standing before the mouth of a bridge that spans a twenty-foot divide in the landscape. Unlike the planks from the last small gap, this bridge has waist high pillars with thick chains anchoring it to the rock. The cross boards are the same type of plastic wood from before but this time they are threaded through with more chain.
Boyd unties me from Glo and gives me a shove towards the bridge.
“You first! If that thing is rotted through, you’ll know soon enough.”
I let out a deeply weary sigh and take a step but before I get to the bridge, a low beeping noise rings out. Boyd goes nuts, pulling out his gun and pointing it in all directions.
“What the hell is that? What’s that noise? Where’s it coming from?” His voice is frantic like any minute now we’re going to come under attack. Glo’s tiny squeak of a voice has him freezing in place.
“It’s the low battery warning from the sled.”
If I had any energy left, I’d laugh right out loud at the look on his face as it flushes red. Thankfully, I don’t or he’d probably beat me half to death from his embarrassment at overreacting to something so silly.
He looks between Glo and me as we stand, staring at him and wait for instructions. It seems to make him even angrier. I swear steam comes out of his ears when he screams at me.
“Get that thing opened up and charging. We camp here tonight!”
He shoves past me and starts hauling on the pillars to see if they are firmly stuck in the ground so I send Glo an exaggerated eye roll and get the first smile from her in two days. We’re old pros at opening up the solar panels by now so it only takes us a few minutes. I snag the basket from the sled while Boyd’s back is still turned and pull out two of the wraps, hand one to Glo and nod to a rock a few feet away where we quickly sit and start eating.
When he’s satisfied with the stability of the bridge supports he comes back towards us but pauses when he sees us eating. He doesn’t say anything but his mouth goes flat, hard, and mean before he snags the basket and gets his own food. The three of us sit in silence eating our meal but Boyd’s eyes never leave us and they’re full of malice.
As soon as he swallows the last bite of food, he stands up and comes over to us. When he grabs Glo’s arm and hauls her away, she digs in her heels but she’s no match for his brute strength. I want to fly at him and scratch his eyes out but I know it will have no effect on him so when he starts looping rope around her, I sit tight figuring he’s going to tie us up like he did last night. He’s using more rope than he did before though. There’s a loop around her thighs, one around her butt and a final one under her arms. I don’t really get the point of tying her up that way but I don’t really understand most things about Boyd.
I shoot to my feet in concern when he shoves her over to the bridge but he just loops a few coils around the pillar like she’s a dog on a leash. Once he’s knotted it, he pulls her away from the pillar a few steps and turns to me.
“I think it’s time we had that...talk.”
As soon as he sees the fear fill my eyes he grins and shoves Glo out and over the edge of the chasm. Her scream of terror as she drops out of sight mixes with the one that rips from my chest until they echo on the rock all around us, sounding like a roar.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Pain is my constant companion. It has stayed with me every step of the hike and not long after the sun came up, its friend burn joined us. The pack on my back is my tormentor. Its weight keeps me bowed but also pushes me forward. I haven’t stopped since I left the cavern, afraid that I won’t be able to start again. I just keep my eyes on the path ahead of me, watching for their footprints in the dust, move one foot forward and repeat. The sun shining directly down on me tells me it’s noon or close to it, but time doesn’t matter anymore, only the next step.
The bag on the ground comes into my field of vision but before I can process it, my feet have stumbled over it sending me crashing down to the rock. All I can do is lay there for a few minutes and blink away the stars that swim in my vision. The weight of the pack keeps me pinned to the ground when I finally get the energy to try and stand so I just roll to the side and unclip the straps and slide my arms out. Free of the weight for the first time in close to seven hours, I feel light as a feather.
I push myself up onto my knees and look around the area, confused at what I’m seeing. There’s stuff everywhere. Clothes are strewn on the ground between boxes and bags. There’s a stove with a dirty pan on it not far away but it’s the green over by a rock wall that catches my interest the most. I push to my feet and stagger over to it. Claudia’s two small fruit trees rest in the shade. I don’t understand this at all. Why would they leave all of their stuff here? I can’t see her throwing all of her and Glo’s stuff around like this but I can see my brother doing it. A cold finger of terror shoots down my spine as I whirl around and search the whole area for their bodies. My heart only stops racing when I can’t find them or any sign of violence.
I walk ahead on the path and take a look down into
a steep valley and sigh. That’s going to be a brutal descent and then climb to get through with the pack. I’m about to turn and retrieve it to get going again when a flash from the other side of the valley pulls my eyes back. I squint and try to make out what caused the flash but it’s too far away to make out anything but bumps and mounds in the landscape. I strain my eyes but nothing really comes clear until I register that a few of the bumps that were there have disappeared. I close my eyes and think hard. Is it them? Could it have been their outlines that disappeared? Could I really have caught up to them?
I turn away from the view and march back to my pack. Glo would have slowed them down. Her short little legs wouldn’t have been able to go as fast as Día and Boyd, so he would have been forced to go at her pace. The sled would also take time to recharge so it’s possible that I have made up some of the time on them. I drop to my knees and open the pack and take a page from my brother’s book. I start lightening my load. Everything comes out and I look it all over before shaking my head. No, no pack at all, just the water, a knife, a flashlight and the gun. That’s all I’m going to take. I spend fifteen minutes resting while I eat another of the MRE’s, chew down the last six pills and drink as much from the built-in water canteen as I can. I cram the rest of what I’m taking into my pockets, grab the spare container of water and leave. Hopefully, if everything goes well, the three of us will be coming back here soon and can retrieve all of the things we’ve left.
Going down the hill without the pack on my back feels amazing and by the time I hit the bottom and start up the other side the pain has backed off again. Sadly, it only lasts until I’m halfway up the other side. The steep incline is punishing and I often end up dropping to my knees and crawling up some of it. I’m forced to take many breaks as darkness starts to crowd my vision again. No amount of food or old pills can make up for the injuries and stress I’ve put on my body.
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