by C J Singh
I shrugged, putting my supplies back in my bag. “Just lucky, I guess.” He watched me in silence, and I think of Old Bob and the boys heading out to find his friends. Jace didn’t seem too bad, more confused than anything, so I can’t imagine his friends being much worse. I turned to him. “Here’s the deal. You are going to take me to where your friends are. If you do, I’ll let you live.”
“You haven’t done much dealing before have you, Spunky. What you just offered isn’t much of a deal. Why would I compromise my friends to you and your fist-happy father figure?”
“Did you just call me Spunky?” I watched his mouth twitch, but he quickly licked the cut on his lip.
“Well, you wouldn’t tell me your real name. I needed to call you something.”
“Yeah. Don’t call me that again,” I snapped as he smirked; he was going to be difficult I could feel it. “It’s a deal for you. I am trying to help you and your friends.”
He tried to scoot up more, but it looked painful with his hands and feet still tied. “Really? How so?” He sucked in a breath. “Can you call off your guard here? His breath stinks.” Ash sat not two feet from him panting happily.
Rolling my eyes, I pulled out a small flip knife from my pocket. “Ash, leave him.” Ash trotted back to the doorway and lay down with a groan. I took a few steps toward Jace when he flinched back, glancing at the knife.
“All right, all right, I won’t call you Spunky anymore.”
I stopped mid-step and smirked. “Just sit forward.”
He hesitated a moment before giving in. Crouching in front of him, I pinned him with a stare. “If you try anything, I won’t hesitate to kill you or let Ash have you. Understand?”
With a twinkle in his eye, he nodded. “Understood.” Not believable, but I wasn’t concerned, he was wounded.
Right as I finished sawing the rope from his hands, he added a soft, “Spunky.”
I elbowed him in the side as I got up, and he coughed out a chuckle. “Wow. Aggressive much?”
“Are you going to help me find your friends or should I just kill you now?”
He reached down to his ankles and untied his feet. When he was fully free, he stood stretching his body. “Just tell me, how would you be helping us?” His tone turned serious.
“If we don’t go find your friends, my fist-happy father figure and brothers are going to find your friends first and kill them.” He dropped his arms slowly and opened his mouth like he was going to say something, the tip of his perfect white teeth showing, but instead he closed it into a tight line and nodded, and I gave a quiet sigh of relief.
Chapter 4
Jace
“OK. You have my attention. How do I know you aren’t just trying to get me to show you where my friends are so you can kill us all together?” I couldn’t believe I was here, saying this. I mean not too long ago, my dad had to pull some strings to get Jim, Landon, and me out of the city before we were executed, and now, I’m being held captive with a crazy woodland tribe that keeps wolves for pets. Like real wolves.
She sighed, dropping her head back. “If that was my plan, I wouldn’t have come in, cleaned your wounds, and untied you. I would have beat the location out of you, then when I got it, I would have killed you and gone to kill your friends.”
Did her eyes just glow? I think they did. I have never seen eyes like hers, one blue and one gold. It almost matched her wolf’s gold-eyed stare. “OK.” I paused and took a step from the wall, pushing my hair from my face. “So, what happens when we do find them? How will you convince your fist-happy father figure not to kill us?”
She fidgeted a few steps back and forth, avoiding my eyes. Her wolf nudged her. “Well, I haven’t thought that far.”
“You haven’t thought that far.” I gave her a dry stare.
“Yeah. My current problem is keeping you alive. Not what happens next. We can deal with that when it comes.” Her upper cheeks flushed with frustration, her gold eye glowing again, or was that just the light?
“OK. Fine. At least tell me how you will get your family not to kill us?” I narrowed my eyes at her. I was making her nervous. It was fun seeing her squirm. There weren’t many girls in the city this interesting, and if there were, they were heavily guarded by overprotective parents. They didn’t want them to associate with a delinquent like me, even with my powerful father.
She stood a little straighter. “I don’t really know, but I promise I will.”
“Seriously?” I couldn’t hold the laugh that escaped me. “You want me to blindly follow you, a girl whom I just met and know nothing about, but who promises me that she can talk her crazy family out of killing my friends and me. Not to mention that a day ago I thought there was no one living outside the city, and now I find myself among a group who have lived here for what... seventeen years?”
“Well... yeah.” She tried to keep her composure, but I could feel her confidence waver. Her eyes darted everywhere but at mine as she shuffled her feet. Her wolf paced between her and the door, his eyes glued to me. Straightening my back, I lifted my chin at him, to make myself larger than I felt as his eyes calculated my movement. I had never been around a wild animal... or any animal for that matter.
Ah! What the hell. We all die sometime.
“All right.”
Her eyes shot to mine, and she held her mouth open a moment. “Really? Like... really?” Her wolf stopped, cocking his head at me. His mouth almost looked like it curled into a smile. Can we say creepy?
“Well, I was feeling pretty confident about my decision until now. You sure you’re up for this?”
She cleared her throat. “Yeah! Yeah of course. Let’s do this.”
“OK then. Let’s get going.” I started toward the door, but an unnaturally strong grip on my arm pulled me back. “Ow! Whoa there, Spunky. That’s my bad arm.”
She quickly pulled away. “Sorry, but ” – she paused, narrowing her eyes – “first off, I told you not to call me Spunky. Second, you can’t just walk out there.”
“Why not? I mean, we don’t have any time to lose. Haven’t they already left to find my friends?”
“Yeah, but there’s still Ellie. If she learns that I untied you and am planning to run away with you, she will find some way to stop us. Probably by killing you herself.”
“Wow.” I held up my hands with an overdramatic look. “Nice family you have.” Giving her a little wink, I continued, “I guess it isn’t the first time someone tried to kill me for running away with a girl.” My smirk faded when her expression was blank. “Never mind. OK then, what’s your plan?”
She paced for a moment with her finger on her chin. The poster child for being lost in thought. Stopping, she turned to me. “Just hang tight. I’ll figure something out.”
“Uh, yeah, sure?” My stomach sank, and I did my best not to take my chances and bolt out the door. Maybe that would be better than leaving it up to her.
“OK, great. Just be ready. I’ll be back.” She left the boathouse with her wolf at her heels.
I started back toward the log piled wall when the door swung back open, scraping on the stone ground. She stuck her head inside. “And if you try and escape, Ash and I will track you down and kill you ourselves. If we don’t, the fever or virus, or whatever you call it, will get you.” The light behind her made her long, apricot hair glow as it framed her sculpted cheekbones. She was pretty, very pretty.
“Umm, I thought you said that there wasn’t any fever.”
“I said I didn’t have it, not that there wasn’t one.”
Crap.
“Yeah, got it.”
She stared at me, trying to gauge if I was being serious. “Good.” She started to shut the door.
“Hey.”
She stuck her head back in, eyebrows raised.
“Um, when you come back, can you maybe bri
ng me a hair tie or something? My hair is driving me crazy.” I smiled sheepishly and held in a laugh when her mouth dropped open. Her response was the slam of the door.
“What the hell has happened to my life?” I muttered to myself sliding down the pile of logs to sit, the bark scratching my back. “Hang tight until the crazy-eyed girl comes to get me. Perfect.” I closed my eyes and waited.
Chapter 5
Tristan
We had been walking a few hours when Old Bob slowed and crouched to examine the dirt and leaf litter on the ground. My gut still clenched at what he told us outside the house, and I didn’t want to leave Eden alone with that guy, but he insisted that with Ellie and Ash, she would be fine. He was injured pretty badly, and he will be worse off if he tries anything stupid.
“This is where I found them. They went in that direction.” Old Bob stood and pointed to the east through the thick brush and trees.
“OK, let’s go then.”
“Wait. I’m starving. Can we eat something?” Tate asked, rubbing his belly dramatically.
Old Bob chuckled. “Yeah, sure.”
Walking to a few large trees, we sat down against the trunks. I slid my back around, trying to get comfortable, but the hard, jagged bark made it impossible. We each took out our sacks of food and I eyed mine, unsure if my nervous stomach would let me eat. Tate dug right into his food, not a worry on his face. How could he be so calm? Eden was special, Old Bob had said. I had always known she was different than us, but so special that people from the city may be coming for her? Old Bob was pretty adamant they could be coming, and it made me uneasy.
“Hey, man. You good?” Tate asked me.
I gave him and Old Bob a quick glance. “Yeah, I’m good. Just doing some thinking.” Old Bob focused on his apple, but by the twitch of his eyebrow, I knew he was listening.
“Yeah, I get it.”
Old Bob cleared his throat. “You don’t like that I left Eden alone at the cabin with that guy.”
“No.” Our eyes met as he lowered his apple and took a long breath.
“You two are young. You were just babies when the Fever moved through what was left of our home. I have lived through much more, the war being the worst thing possible. If you knew what the world was like before it was wiped out by bombs, you may look at things differently. I know threats, and Jace, he’s not an immediate threat to Eden or Ellie.”
“But what you said—”
“I know what I said.” He took a bite of his apple. “But that guy”—he pointed back toward our cabin—“that guy isn’t able to do much. He’s too beaten up.”
My shoulders dropped at his words. Old Bob has spoken of the war before, but only briefly, and he avoided the topic whenever he could, especially if Ellie was around. “I’m sure you’re right. I just... I just can’t crack this feeling that something isn’t right.” I picked up a twig and snapped it in half.
Tate gave my shoulder a playful pat as he popped part of a boiled egg in his mouth. “Well, I can crack your head for you and see what’s inside.”
I punched his arm back. “I’d like to see you try!” I smiled, but it fell quickly.
Old Bob studied my face. “Well, you know what I always say about your gut feelings.”
“To listen.”
He nods. “Then listen. What is it telling you?”
Looking between them, I sighed. “It’s telling me to go back.”
Tate chewed slowly as he watched me carefully. “You really feel all this? Why don’t I feel like this?”
Old Bob chuckled. “People are different, Tate.” He stood and wiped off the dirt from his pants. “If your gut is telling you that, then I feel you should go back. Tate and I can handle this.”
“You sure?” The knot in my stomach loosened a bit at the understanding in his eyes.
“I’m sure.”
I wasted no time and stood, stuffing my food back into my bag. I can eat when I get back to the cabin, but until I am there and see that Eden and Ellie are safe, I can’t put anything in my stomach. “All right. I’ll see you both later.”
Old Bob held out his hand to me. I looked at it a moment before taking it. He squeezed and pulled me forward into a hug. “I’m proud of you. You’re beginning to think like a man.” Pushing me back, he held my shoulders with a smile. The memory of green eyes crinkling at the corners flashed through my mind, and I stood taller with pride. My father always looked at me with this same look. My heart tightened at the last memory of him before he died. He had lain next to me, sick and holding my hand. I felt him slowly turn cold until someone slipped his hand from my grasp. Too many people died within those first few weeks in the woods, almost everyone. They have become my family, and I wasn’t going to let some stranger from the woods take that away from me.
“Thanks.”
I coughed as Tate slapped my back. “See ya later, buddy.” I shrugged him off, trying to hide the redness in my cheeks from my memory.
“Right. See ya.” I turned and headed back toward the cabin, but before I was too far, I turned, walking backward. “Don’t be heroes! If it’s too much, just come back!”
Their laughs echoed through the leaves, their feet crunching the twigs and leaves on the ground.
“Always!” Old Bob yelled back.
I turned, increasing to a jog back toward home.
Chapter 6
Jace
My head drooped down and my eyes fluttered shut when the door scraped open. Jolting to my feet, I hissed as pain shot through me, instinctively pulling my arm into myself.
“What?” I croaked.
“Let’s go! We don’t have a lot of time!”
I hobbled to the door behind her, nursing my bad arm. Man, it ached badly. She peered outside, then reached back to grab my shirt and tugged me forward.
“Let’s go. Don’t stop until I say. We have to get as far as we can.”
“I will try, but—”
Yanking me forward until my nose touched hers, she locked her eyes to mine, and yes, her gold eye did glow. I gulped.
“There is no trying. You will run. I know you’re sore, but just suck it up and deal with it. If you don’t make it, I won’t help you. Understand?”
I nodded. What had gotten into her? Straightening my back, I prepared to run through the pain.
She took one last glance outside before running straight ahead, toward the trees. I followed closely, limping, but my long legs helped me keep pace. At the top of the small hill, chaos erupted. A woman, I assume Ellie, was screaming with chickens squawking and goats and sheep running everywhere while the girl’s wolf yipped excitedly chasing the animals to cause a frenzy. This was her brilliant plan?
“What...” –I bent over, breathing heavily— “did... you do?”
“Move, talk later!” she hollered at me.
We ran through the tree line on the far side of the yard. She kept running, jumping over logs, ducking under branches, not letting up one bit. I followed much less gracefully than her, tripping over the logs rather than jumping them, but I managed to keep up. My body screamed. When we finally slowed, I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment and leaned against the tree. After a minute of panting, I opened my eyes but immediately closed them while rubbing my temples. The world spun and it caused my head to ache. Seeing her up ahead, I took a step, but then leaned back against the tree, gripping my stomach. The hunger I had felt earlier changed to nausea. I didn’t trust the food she gave me, so I had pushed it to the side, despite my growling belly.
“Can we... rest a moment?”
She turned back. “Just for a moment. We need to keep moving.” She stopped and leaned against a large oak tree and dug in her pack, pulling out a water bottle.
I leaned next to her, but my legs gave way and I slid down to the ground. My head still throbbed, but at least the world
stopped spinning. “I thought... you would never... stop.”
“You’re just out of shape.” She smirked and handed me the bottle.
“Thanks.” I took a long drink. Wiping spilled water off my chin, I said, “Just so we’re clear, I’m not out of shape, just injured.”
“Yeah, sure.” She angled her body to face me. “I need you to tell me where your friends are now.”
“Ah, yeah. About that.” I pulled myself up to standing again with the support from the tree and fought the bile down that threatened to come up. “I don’t really know exactly where they are.” I lowered my head, avoiding her glare.
“What do you mean, you don’t know exactly where they are?”
“Well, as you know, I come from the city. Never been out here before, so...” I took a few steps away from her. I didn’t want to be within reach if she decided to attack, and by the narrowing of her eyes, she wasn’t happy. “So, I’m not really sure where they are.”
Her face flushed. “What? So, you don’t have any idea where they are? Nothing?” She didn’t yell but made more of a hiss. It was scary, really scary.
“Well, not nothing. I do know we found a cave. That’s where we were planning on staying. Know any caves?” I shuffled my feet. Please, please, please know some caves.
“A cave. Was this cave near a cliff or woods?”
Tilting my head, I thought back. I had only seen it once, but I don’t remember a cliff, only trees. “Woods,” I said confidently.
“It’s this way. Come on.”
She didn’t wait for me as she hiked on. I sighed and limped after her. “Where is your trusty sidekick?”
“He stayed behind to make sure Ellie would be safe.” She kept her eyes forward. “If you don’t mind, I really don’t feel like talking. So just shut up and follow me.”
I had been planning on asking fifty questions, but based on her edginess decided against it. “Yeah, no problem, Spunky.”
She sucked in a breath and paused mid-step, but continued to face forward. I thought she would turn around to show her anger, at least yell at me, but she just shook her head and continued on. She had poise. I would give her that.
