Shocked (5 page)

The rain that begins to fall hinders our progress. It’s cold: close to the cusp of freezing, I’m sure. This cold rain permeates through all of my clothes, chilling me right to the bone. Any hope of making more progress today washes away. If we don’t find some type of shelter soon we may not survive to get anywhere. Add the wind whipping and our tent becomes basically useless.

It starts to come down so hard that we can barely see in front of us and the rain now has a bite of ice to it. My teeth are chattering so hard that it feels like they’re going to break. Lucas grabs hold of me and begins to pull me up a rocky face of the mountain. I follow blindly.

The relief is immediate when he drags me into the mouth of the cave. We collapse on the ground, just lying there for a moment, catching our breath. In a few minutes I’ll worry about what else can possibly reside in here. Currently I’m enjoying not being pelted with ice too much.

Lucas moves first. With a groan he drops his backpack to the ground and stands up, stretching. I follow his example and look warily outside where the ice seems to be taking over the rain and the wind still roars ferociously. It’s very dark already, the storm shadowing out the last hours of daylight. With a huff I accept that this is where we’ll have to spend the night.

“We need a fire.” Lucas says. He takes a flashlight out of his bag and flicks the switch. It doesn’t turn on and he smacks it a few times. Still nothing. Then the oddest thing happens. Lucas flips out—something I’ve never seen him do before. The flashlight flies into the wall of the cave and smashes, making me jump. “What the hell!” He screams. “Can’t just one stupid thing go right? Every time I think we’ve caught a break, some crap like this happens! I don’t know if I can take it anymore. I just want to freaking see where I’m going!”

Part of me gets the tiniest bit scared by his outburst. He’s supposed to be the calm one between the two of us, but I get it. Having my own meltdowns now and again, I understand that the flashlight just set him off. It’s not the cause of his stress; just the manifestation of it. Then I have an idea.

I hold my hands in front of me and create a very low charged sphere in my hands. It can’t really hurt anything (maybe give it a good zap) that’s all. It’s not as bright as the beam of the flashlight may have been, but emits a soft glow. This provides enough light for us to see further into the cave.

Lucas freezes mid-fit to gape at me. I forget that he’s only seen me do this a few times and always when he did he’s distracted. His expression changes from shock to awe and he moves closer—ice, wind and flashlight forgotten.

“That’s so cool.” He says.

“Will this work until we get a fire going?” I ask and feel kind of proud because controlling this sphere barely requires my attention anymore.

“Uh-huh,” he mumbles now. “We need to find some dry wood. Can you follow me back here a bit?”

“Yeah, let’s go.” I’m just glad he’s done with his breakdown.

It takes some searching, but we eventually find enough wood to make and sustain a semi-decent fire for the night. For a second, I think Lucas might have another meltdown when he finds his lighter waterlogged from the rain. I nip that in the bud by placing the energy sphere into the tower of sticks and leaves. It ignites and I’m grateful that whatever creature inhabited the cave before us has moved on.

The fire helps. Lucas spreads out first the tent and then the sleeping bag on the floor of the cave. It’s only a little damp and dries off fairly quickly next to the fire. I rummage through my own pack and try to find drier clothes than the ones I have on. Lucas follows suit and after finding his own, pulls some cord out of his bag. He strings it from the craggy top of one rock formation to the next and we have a clothesline.

“Um, I’ll see how it looks out there if you want to get changed.” He doesn’t look at me, just wanders towards the mouth of the cave.

I walk a few feet back in the cave out of the light of the fire. Lucas is not within view now, so I quickly undress and put on the drier clothes that I have, feeling instantly better. Wandering back to the fire, I call, “Done,” and hang my clothes to dry.

“It’s getting bad out there. Ice and snow are coming down now.” He says and walks back to me. “Just—uh, look that way I guess.” He motions to where he just came from.

“Okay.” I stare into the darkness and begin to think aloud. “We should eat something.”

“Yeah, probably. You can look now.” I do and for a moment my thoughts are gone. Lucas’ clothes don’t seem to fare as well in his backpack as mine do. His extra shirt hangs to dry next to his other one and his pants hang low on his hips. I give myself a mental head shake and draw my gaze away from his well-defined chest and stomach. “Kat?”

“Yeah, sorry. Food.” I move towards my pack and pull out the sandwiches that Kim packed us.

It would be nice to cook something over the fire…we don’t always have the luxury of one, but the sandwiches won’t keep and the other food will. I toss Lucas his sandwich and take a big bite of my own. Kim makes a mean sandwich too. My desire for cooking quickly diminishes.

When we finish I check the clothes on the line. They’re still wet; some more than others. Lucas feeds some more wood into the fire. I really wish he’d put a shirt on.

It makes me wonder what kind of person I am. I love Mason. I miss him terribly. Yet I can’t stop staring at shirtless Lucas. Sure, he’s got a nice body—
any
red-blooded woman can see that. But it doesn’t change the guilt I feel for betraying Mason.

Plus it’s really awkward. Ever since yesterday morning things are weird. Neither of us brings it up and I know he feels it too. Our camaraderie is almost non-existent, and the weirdness level is through the roof.

“I’m pretty tired. Maybe we should just call it a night.” It doesn’t surprise me to see the relief in his eyes when I say this.

“Yeah, that’s probably best. I’ll make sure the fire keeps going, you get some rest.”

Lying on the corner of the sleeping bag, I don’t answer. I just try to keep as much space between my spot and his as possible. I’m not lying when I say I’m tired. Despite the thoughts weighing in my head I quickly fall asleep.

We spend three days in the stupid cave due to the weather. The snow and ice continue until the storm breaks sometime during the third night. We explore the cave further and luckily find more wood for the fire. In the back of the cave we find an underground spring. In all fairness, the cave is pretty awesome. It’s just being stuck here that sucks.

This morning the sun shines brilliantly into the mouth of the cave. We pack up our stuff and extinguish the fire, sweeping the remnants of it into the corner. Lucas says it’s better to look like we haven’ been here: it’s safer that way. He’s probably right.

We just about get our packs on when we hear a noise outside. Eyes wide I look to Lucas for instructions. He grabs my hand and pulls me back in the cave, into the darkness. We feel our way against the wall and hide behind a large rock formation. Voices begin to drift in.

“How far could they have gotten on foot? In this weather, no less? There’re no footprints here but our own. We’re wasting our time.” It’s a rough, dry voice.

“General Carch said no stone unturned. So we’ll overturn everything until we find her.” This voice sounds snobby. Gruff like the other guy, but snobby nonetheless.

“None of the locals have even seen them!” The dry voice exclaims.

“I don’t care. The infection doesn’t just stop and move. We can spread it, but only she can stop it like this. She’s here somewhere.”

“Well, she’s not in this cave. We should keep moving.”

Their footsteps fade away and I’m still too scared to move. My hands are clenched and my body hums. The electricity that runs through me is tied to my emotions. They got so close. Thanks to Lucas’ smart thinking they don’t discover our presence.

Lucas releases my hand quickly with a tiny yelp. “Sorry,” I whisper sheepishly. Guess I still have some work to do with control. “That was a little too close.”

“S’okay, I get it.” He peeks around the rock quickly. “Stay here for a minute.”

My body shakes too hard to disagree. I try to collect myself while I wait. It’s not that I can’t stop them all if I have to…just that I don’t really want to. Every life I take eats a little more of my soul away. What freaks me out the most is that with them this close, I don’t know if I have any other options. I can’t lead them to the others.

Before I’m able to get myself all worked up again, Lucas returns. “They’re clearing out. If we’re going to move we should do it now. Just stay behind me and keep quiet.”

He moves swiftly out the mouth of the cave. This time around his ninja moves don’t seem so funny. While I follow Lucas verbatim his cheesy moves actually keep us hidden far more than I’ll ever let him know.

We keep at it for what seems like forever. After a while Lucas straightens up and begins to walk normally. It feels good to stand up straight again. A little later Lucas stops. “We should eat. You know, refuel.”

Finding a spot of a fallen log that wasn’t covered by ice and snow, I sit down. My feet are cold and tired already, just like the rest of me. Once the adrenaline wears off the tiredness set in, but I have something strong to keep me going: a desperate drive to find my friends—my family really. The only people I have left in the world.

We finish up in silence and Lucas looks at me. “You ready?” He asks.

“Yeah…yeah, I am.”

We hike until dark and spend the night next to a tree. We take turns sleeping and keeping watch. We have to cross a couple roads, but we don’t encounter anyone and stay in the seclusion of the trees otherwise. It certainly hasn’t been easy-going, though it’s far better to know that we’re making some progress and not sitting in a cave.

We don’t speak much. It makes it easier to keep an ear out for others. Plus things are still kind of weird between us. We keep going like this much of the morning.

Lucas stops for what I assume is lunchtime. Our rations are running kind of low so we split a bag of peanuts when a thought crosses my mind. “You know this is impossible. They can basically track me by the infection. You should just tell me where to go and find somewhere safe. I’m like a danger magnet right now. I understand if you don’t want to go any further.”

He pauses with his mid peanut and looks at me. “Kat, really? First off, if I didn’t stumble across you back at the cottage the infection would have gotten me by now—hands down. So you kind of already saved my life and I owe you.” He pops another peanut in his mouth and chomps on it before he continues. “Second, I’ve been thinking about the whole tracking you thing. We’re obviously on the edge of the infected area now, or through it. Once that happens, they’re grasping at straws unless you set off some major surge. We just have to get a little bit farther West and then they’ll be flying blind.”