The Dark Rift: Ascension (The Dark Rift Book Series 1) (17 page)

Jodie ran alongside Bob, Nick and Hunter as they followed the ATVs. One carried Christy and Noah, the other Mei and Leah. Each was also loaded with gear and backpacks, straining to move up the hill under the weight of their loads.

Christy pulled over to the side of the path. "Too narrow to go on with these machines, kiddo," she said, helping Noah off of the ATV.

"Thanks, Mom. That was fun," Noah said.

Jodie smiled at the irony of Noah's statement and he looked embarrassed. "I mean, if all this wasn't happening, that would've been fun," Noah clarified.

"When we're outta this mess, my man, you and I are gonna go for a long, long ride," Nick said. "Maybe your mom will even come, now that she’s a pro on this thing." Nick smiled broadly, as he helped Leah off of the ATV.

Jodie could see him looking tentatively toward Christy, thinking this must be his way of asking for a date. She made a mental note to talk to him about timing as she held in a laugh.

"We'll see," Christy said, smiling back.

Jodie could appreciate Nick's efforts to keep the mood light for Noah's sake, but thought Noah was probably dealing with their situation better than anyone else was, at this point.

"Well, let's get going," Bob said. "We should hide these ATVs for the return trip. Let's take everything we need, first." Bob pulled out the backpacks loaded on the ATVs and handed them out to everyone.

"How far do we have to go to get to those coordinates?" Mei asked.

Jodie walked over to Mei with a map illuminated by a flashlight. "From my calculations, we're only about two hundred yards from our destination."

Bob passed a backpack to Jodie and he strapped the other one on. Noah grabbed a duffle bag and Nick and Mei drove the ATVs off into the woods. The ATV engines shut off and they waited as Nick and Mei came back quietly to join them.

Jodie stood in front of the group. "We’re going up about halfway. Then, you’ll all wait there while Bob and I go the rest of the way. There’s no debating this one. If and when it looks safe, one of us will come back to get everyone."

Even in the dim light, Jodie could see the anxious look on Leah's face. "I don’t know if I can navigate this pathway," Leah said.

Nick put his hand on Leah's shoulder. "No problem. You were coming with me, anyway. On a bad day, I could carry three or four of you."

Jodie glanced at Christy. "Are you both feeling well enough to go on?"

Noah gave a thumbs up. "Yes, we’re good to go," Christy said.

"Great. I’m counting on all of you to tell me if you're having any problems. This is a fairly short climb and you can rest while you wait for Bob and me to go to the top. Let’s get going. Everybody keep quiet."

Noah bent down to look in Hunter’s face. "Hear that, boy? We gotta keep quiet. No barking. Okay, boy?"

Hunter wagged his tail and licked Noah’s face.

Jodie started up the pathway, followed by Christy, Noah and Hunter, Mei, and Nick carrying Leah. Bob followed, last. They moved silently for about fifteen minutes and the path became abruptly steep.

Jodie motioned to the group to stop. Nick lowered Leah to the ground.

"Looks like this is a good place to stop. Find somewhere off in the trees to hide while Bob and I continue on."

Bob moved to the front of the line as the group started to disperse into the woods. Before Nick could pick up Leah to carry her, Bob grabbed his arm to stop him and pulled him to the side. "If we're not back in two hours, take everyone and get out of here, whatever way you can, okay?"

Jodie wondered if any of them would be able to get out of this situation alive.

"Okay, boss. You'll be back, though," Nick said.

Jodie and Bob started up the trail. When they were about a hundred feet or so away, out of earshot of their companions, Jodie turned to Bob and said, "I just want to find a way off of this mountain. We can’t go back the way we came, but if we can find a road to the other side, maybe one of us can walk down and get some help. If we do find anything up here, I’m not sure that we should even approach it."

Bob nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. It seems like there’s a lot of effort being made to either keep us from getting up there or force us into a trap. Trouble is, now that they know about us, whoever they are, none of us will be safe again until we resolve this."

Jodie considered Bob’s statement, afraid he was right.

They kept moving until the path became so steep they had to crawl on all fours. When the path leveled out and they thought they were close to their destination, they stopped and looked around in the dimly lit forest.

The view looked about the same as it did below. No roadways, fences, or signs of a military installation were present, as far as Jodie could see in the starlit night. Not hearing anything other than nighttime forest sounds, they moved on, looking for the continuation of the trail, but saw nothing. They stood, scanning the dark forest ahead for a sign of something, anything.

"I don’t understand," Bob said quietly. "We can’t be that far off, can we? I mean, we should be right in the vicinity of the coordinates on the map, but there’s nothing, nothing at all. It should be right here."

"Let’s keep walking a couple hundred feet. It’s hard to tell where we are in the dark. We could still be coming up on it," Jodie said.

"Or, we could have missed it already," Bob said.

They moved on, searching in the darkness for another half-hour. Jodie leaned up against a tree, trying to get her bearings and thinking of how disappointed the rest of the group would be, finding out that nothing was at the top of the hill. Especially Noah, she thought. They would need to find Fester another way.

Jodie looked over at Bob, who appeared to be staring at something. He motioned to her in the direction from which they came. She could hear rustling in the underbrush from where Bob was pointing. Whatever or whoever was coming through the forest was making a lot of noise. She pulled her gun out, pointing it into the darkness, and waited. Branches started moving in front of her. Suddenly, something burst through the trees and her trigger finger tensed as Hunter ran up to her, tail wagging.

Jodie relaxed her hand holding the gun and leaned down to calm him. "Oh my God, Hunter," she whispered in his ear, hugging him and letting him lick her face. "You almost had a really bad day."

Jodie looked up toward where Bob was standing, but he was gone. She moved through the trees, telling Hunter to heel, looking for Bob. She turned to Hunter to pull him closer and the dog’s body became rigid. The quiet seemed to roar in Jodie's ears and she realized the sound she was hearing was her own breath. She jumped as a scream pierced the still air of the woods. It sounded like a man’s voice coming from the direction of the path she and Bob walked up, but Jodie couldn’t be sure. She scrambled back to the path and crouched to the ground, peering into the darkness.

"Hunter, I have to go down there and you have to stay right here. You have to do this for me. Stay, boy," she said, navigating down the steep path in the dark. Hunter sat and watched. Jodie crept back onto the path as a shot rang out. She fell to the ground, slamming her face on the gravel, scraping her palms. She heard men’s voices and saw flashlight beams swinging back and forth in the darkness up ahead. She waited and listened, watching the lights, separated by a hundred or so feet.

Abruptly, light shone down on the forest floor, followed by several thumping noises. Jodie looked towards the direction the noise came from and thought she could see a shadow of something swinging through the air. In the dim light, she could make out two figures moving up the path. A bright flash temporarily blinded her as the retort from a gun blast rang in her ears. She blinked hard to try to see and heard the thumping noises again. Another muzzle blast lit up the dark forest. She tried to make out what was happening in front of her, but light trails still floated across her vision. Her ears were ringing. Jodie touched her face and felt something wet and sticky. Brushing her hand against her forehead, she winced at the pain from touching an open wound on her scalp.

"Jodie Watts? Are you out there?"

Jodie recognized the voice, but didn’t know what to make of the situation and if she should respond.

"Jodie, it’s Chuck Wending. Are you out there?"

"You’re gonna want to drop that weapon, Wending," Bob commanded. Jodie slumped back toward the ground, relieved to hear Bob's voice.

"But, I’m here to help you," Wending said, sounding a little whiny. "Okay, I’ll drop it."

Jodie called from the relative safety of the trees. "I’m over here, Bob." She stood up slowly and clicked her flashlight on, illuminating Wending standing in the middle of the path, Bob holding a gun on him.

"Look, I took care of those guys for you," Wending said. "They’ve got trucks filled with bodies back there. And, what happened to Jodie’s cabin?"

"Why are you dressed like that? You look like an auto mechanic," Bob said, lowering his gun.

"I had these in my truck," Wending said, pointing to his coveralls. "Thought I could move in the dark better."

"I think I scratched my head back there," Jodie said, as she met Bob and Wending in the trail. She felt wobbly on her feet. Wending reached out to steady her as her legs buckled. He lowered her to the ground gently.

"You got any first aid supplies with you?" Wending asked.

Bob bent down and shined the light in her face. "Oh my God, Jodie, what happened to you?"

Jodie was nauseous. And her head hurt. She wondered why the pounding between her ears was increasing in intensity. Even though she was very dizzy and her vision was blurred, Jodie could see that Chuck Wending had tears in his eyes. She felt him grasp her hand. She heard rustling and Mei crawled out of the forest, backpack in hand.

"Let me help, please," she said to Wending. "You’ll have to let go, Officer Wending." Mei pulled his hand off of Jodie’s and pushed him back. She took the flashlight from Jodie's hand and shined it at her face.

"I think I hit my head on a rock or something when I fell," Jodie said.

"No, I don't think so," Mei said, digging in her bag, bringing out a handful of gauze and pressing down on the top of Jodie’s head.

Jodie jumped at the stinging pain.

"I saw a lot of these kinds of wounds when I worked in the city. Looks more like you got shot. A bullet must have grazed your head. You’ve got a nice four-inch crease from your forehead to the top of your scalp." Mei rummaged in her first aid kit for supplies and dabbed at the wound with gauze and sterile solution, causing Jodie to grit her teeth. She breathed deeply, fighting the urge to vomit. Mei pulled away the gauze. "At least it’s not too deep. You’re lucky. Another inch lower and we might not be talking to you right now."

Jodie wiped the tears out of her eyes. Lucky was about the last thing she felt.

"She’s shot? Who shot her? I’ll kill the son of a bitch," Wending blubbered.

"Well, Chuck, since no one fired their weapon except for you, maybe you’d like to take a wild guess," Bob said.

"What? No ... Oh my God, Jodie. I’m so sorry."

Jodie thought their situation was comical, in a way. On top of all the other blundering, now, the idiot had shot her in the head. Yet, she felt sympathy for him. Even though he was an absolute ass the previous day, she sensed that Debi from the Drive ‘n Dine was right. There was a good man underneath all of that bluster. "No need to be sorry, Chuck. It was an accident. We might not have made it if you hadn’t been here," Jodie said.

"Did you see anybody else on your way up here, Officer Wending?" Bob said.

Wending stood, staring at Jodie, not responding.

Bob cleared his throat. "Officer Wending?"

"Uh, what? I mean, no, but I don’t think we got ‘em all. I mean, I got the two on the path and there were five. Can I pick up my gun? I might still need it."

"Yes, just be careful of what you’re shooting at, okay?" Bob said.

Wending bent over to pick up his rifle and looked at Jodie. "She gonna be okay?"

"Yes, Officer Wending," Mei said. "She'll be fine."

"I don’t know what to say, Jodie. I’m so sorry. By the looks of your cabin, I didn’t know if you were even still alive. I saw that mess and I wanted to kill them … I mean, I knew if I didn’t kill them, they’d probably kill me."

Jodie wondered if he said it right the first time. She knew he wanted to protect her. The site of her cabin probably triggered homicidal thoughts in him. The same kind of thoughts she was having.

Another flashlight clicked on in the distance and Bob aimed his gun at it. "It’s just us, boss," Nick called out. "Is Jodie okay?"

"She'll be fine," Mei said, tearing off a piece of tape to secure the bandage to Jodie's forehead.

Leah limped through the woods toward them, aided by Nick. She held onto a stick, bent at an odd angle. When she got closer, Jodie could see it was her cane, or what was left of it.

"I tackled two of ‘em and Leah knocked ‘em out with her secret weapon," Nick said. "Looks like she’ll need a new walking implement, though. Wending, you’re tied with Leah, minus the half-point for shooting Jodie, that is."