The Three (27 page)

They climbed a gentle hill that ended on a wide, paved highway. As Kael examined the gravel on the other side, Anna stepped out onto the road, taking in the broken yellow line in the center of the asphalt that seemed to go on forever. Autumn colors framed a path she hoped they wouldn’t have to take.

“Fuck!” Kael cussed.

“Trail doesn’t continue on the other side?” Anna already knew the answer, but she felt her stomach clench in anticipation as the implications hit her.

“No. I’m guessing they’re traveling along the highway.”

“Well, we can assume they’re heading northeast.”

“Yeah.” Kael checked the compass she carried in her pocket. She pointed to Anna’s right. “That means we go this way.”

Anna stared off into the distance where the road curved, wondering what lay beyond the terrain she could see. A lone billboard stood fifty feet in front of them, the faded advertisement for Dr. Pepper tattered from years of weather. Next to it, a car sat abandoned with the front doors standing open.

“You should walk on one side of the road, and I’ll walk on the other,” Kael said. “We’ll keep our eyes open for where they may have left the highway.”

“You’re doing okay?” Anna asked.

“Lay off, all right?” Kael snapped in response. When Anna drew away from her side, Kael turned with a tired sigh. “Listen, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

They didn’t speak as they continued to walk.

It was at least three o’clock in the afternoon before Anna had to force Kael to take a break. For nearly an hour, her lover had been stumbling every few steps. It was painful to watch and impossible to ignore.

Kind of like how much I have to pee right now.

“Kael.” Anna stopped walking on her side of the highway. “It’s time for a break.”

“No chance.” Kael kept walking. “We’re not making good time as it is. If we ever want to catch up to them, we need to keep going.”

Anna could allow Kael a lot of things, but on this she would be firm. “We need to keep up our strength, and you know it. We need to eat.”

“We can eat as we walk,” Kael called back over her shoulder.

Huffing in exasperation, Anna jogged to catch up with her. At no time did she stop searching her side of the road for clues as to the movement of the men who had taken Elin. “Goddamn it, Kael, I need to rest for a minute. I’m about to piss myself here. You can bet that those guys who took Elin are taking breaks. If we don’t, how long do you think we’re gonna last? Even if we caught up to them—”

“All right!” Kael exploded. “I get it. Fine, we’ll take a break. You go piss, and I’ll make some lunch.”

Anna blinked at Kael’s fury. Unwilling to be intimidated by her lover, she resisted the urge to overreact. “I’m not the bad guy here, Kael, and you know it.”

Kael’s eyes softened. “I’m trying. I swear I’m trying.”

“So am I.” Anna touched Kael’s shoulder, then looked up sharply as a weak whining sound filtered through the trees around them. Puzzled, she tipped her head. There was something oddly familiar about the sound.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yes, but I don’t know what the hell it is.”

“I think it’s a dog.” She’d only ever heard one dog, back in her tribe, and this brought back the memory of Lucky immediately. Anna stepped off the highway, intent on heading toward the mewling sound.

Kael drew her knife and lumbered reluctantly across the highway with her, calling, “Anna, we don’t have time for this.”

They had ventured only a few yards into the forest, when Anna saw a dog lying at the base of a tree, its golden hair matted with blood. She dropped to her knees next to it, knowing they were too late.

“The poor thing,” she mourned, stroking its plush coat.

This dog looked nothing like Lucky, who had been sleek and black. This one had longer hair and a more earnest face. Anna felt truly sad that they had not been here to save her.

“Looks like wolves,” Kael said, grimly surveying the wounds to the dog’s back legs and throat. “Let’s go.

They could be hanging around.”

Anna stood up, and they started back toward the road when she heard another mewling whimper and halted. The noise from the forest just barely tickled her senses, and she tried hard to pinpoint the source, quickly forging a path through the trees.

“We don’t have time for this,” Kael hissed. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I hear something. Hurt…or maybe…Kael, it sounds like a baby.”

“Just great.”

Anna dropped her gaze to the forest floor. The little noises of distress grew louder, and she stooped low to search through the vegetation.

“I hear it, too.” Curiosity tempered the frustration in Kael’s tone.

Anna pushed back the thick, leafy branches of a squat bush and gasped at what she found. Three tiny, still forms were scattered on the ground. Baby dogs—puppies. I think momma was protecting her babies.

From her left, beyond a large oak tree, a small squeal demanded her attention, and she pushed the undergrowth aside urgently until she saw a small pale shape. He was tiny. Stumbling. His eyes were open and alert, but he seemed confused. Anna’s mouth dropped open, and she bent to scoop the puppy up, bringing him close to her chest to warm him. She pressed her lips to silky golden fur and chuckled as the puppy licked her face with a tiny pink tongue.

“Absolutely not.”

Anna looked up at Kael with a goofy smile. “I think he’s the only one who survived.”

“Good for him,” Kael said dryly. “Wish him luck on his journeys.”

Anna cooed into the puppy’s floppy little ear. “Don’t listen to him. Kael’s just grumpy.”

For the first time in days, a genuine smile tugged at Kael’s mouth. “He’ll slow us down.”

Anna held the puppy away from her chest, wrinkling her nose as he began to squirm. “He won’t. I’ll carry him until he can keep up.”

“He’ll need more bathroom breaks than even you.”

“It’ll slow us down maybe, what…twenty, thirty seconds every few hours? Think of what Elin will say when we get her back.”

Kael’s face softened. “She’d love a puppy, wouldn’t she?”

“Of course she would.” She held the puppy up to Kael. “When’s the last time you even saw something like this? A puppy?”

“I’ve never seen one that small. I remember a few bigger dogs, when I was a kid.”

“Elin would be furious if she thought that we just left this little guy out here to fend for himself.” Anna maintained a straight face even as Kael’s eyes flashed with mild panic. “Don’t you think?”

“How would she find out?”

“We’re bringing her this puppy. End of discussion.” Anna handed the puppy to Kael, who accepted it awkwardly. “It’s my decision, and I’ll take care of him, I promise.”

“Anna—”

“Besides, he’s a good omen. I can feel it.”

Kael lifted the puppy into the air, staring intensely into his tiny face. The puppy squirmed and panted in her hands, staring back. At length, she rolled her eyes and thrust him back into Anna’s hands. “We should name him Zep,” she said as she started the short walk back to the highway.

“Zep?” Anna stared into the puppy’s blue eyes, trying to see whatever Kael had seen.

“Short for Led Zeppelin,” Kael called back over her shoulder. In a quieter voice, she added, “Elin will love that. She says they’re the best rock band ever.”

Highway 65-north was much wider than the Wendell H. Ford West Kentucky Parkway they’d left behind.

Kael was dragging, and Anna wondered how she was still walking at all. They’d been traveling for days, and Kael was barely sleeping. As usual, her gaze was fixed on the side of the road in a desperate, never-ending quest for clues. Her shoulders were slumped, and she walked with mindless determination. Anna knew that her days and nights were spent worrying about Elin and agonizing over their helplessness, which was more fully realized with every step they took not even sure they were going in the right direction.

Two days ago, they’d made a decision at an interchange for Interstate 65. Going north was the natural guess, but Anna couldn’t say for certain that they were still on the right trail. It was impossible to track someone on a concrete highway. Fucking bastards.

Anna wondered how much longer they could go on. Zep squirmed within her arms. Taking him was silly, and he did slow them down a little, but Anna had to believe in Elin’s potential wrath over leaving a tiny thing like Zep alone in the woods. It kept Elin alive for her, a guiding presence, even as she felt the lover who walked next to her slipping farther and farther away.

“Somebody’s coming,” Kael hissed.

Anna looked up, snapped out of her distraction by the knowledge that, yes, someone was approaching from the north. She strained to see into the distance, but the road curved and she couldn’t make out the source of the noises she barely heard.

Kael tugged on her arm with exhausted impatience. “We’ll hide until they pass.”

Anna shook her head and stood on her tiptoes so she could study the road ahead. “Do you think you could defend yourself if you needed to?”

“Of course I can.” Kael shot her a dark look, full of increasingly familiar short-tempered irritation. Anna worried that the blow to the head and Kael’s quickness to anger were related, but hoped it was simply a temporary reaction to the pain and lack of sleep. If it was permanent, they could be in trouble. “But we don’t look for trouble unless there’s no other choice, remember?”

“I remember, but maybe whoever this is has seen the Procreationists. They’re coming from that direction.

Maybe they’ve passed them and can tell us something about where they’re heading. Maybe they even have some idea of where they’ve camped.”

“Maybe they won’t have any idea. Maybe they’re just assholes who would love to run across a couple of victims today.”

“Maybe. But we’re running out of options, Kael. Without talking to people, we’re just guessing. What happens when we get to the next interchange? It may not be so easy as north and south.”

Kael reached out, but stopped short of taking Anna’s arm again. She stared at Anna with tired, bloodshot eyes. “I’m scared.” The words escaped in a rough whisper. “I’m scared of something happening to you. I’m scared of not being able to make it to Elin.”

Anna pulled Kael into an awkward one-armed hug, making sure to shift Zep so he wouldn’t be crushed.

She understood Kael’s fear, but she was more afraid of taking even one step in the wrong direction, away from Elin. She needed her family back. They both did. “I know, baby. But we need to take a chance right now. If these people know something—”

With a defeated smile, Kael stepped away. “I know you’re right. I just…hate people.”

“I know you do. But I’ll protect you.”

“Thanks.” Kael released a humorless snort and stepped to the middle of the road, her hands on her hips.

“Let’s meet them head-on.”

“I agree. Will you put Zep on my back for me?” She turned so that Kael could tuck the small puppy into the sling they had fashioned for him, which Anna wore over her shoulders.

“He’s all set.” Kael let her hand rest on Anna’s hip, startling her into remaining still to soak up the unexpected caress. Then Kael pressed a quick kiss to the side of Anna’s neck. “Let’s do this.”

“Thank you.”

Kael shrugged, then continued walking. “Well, you’re right. We need something to go on. Following this fucking highway is driving me crazy.”

They met the two young men at the curve in the road. Anna felt Kael tense at the sight of the healthy men who eyed them with obvious surprise, but kept approaching with confidence. The taller man, perhaps in his late twenties, dismissed Kael with a brief gaze, but stared at Anna hungrily. The other one, a boy of perhaps sixteen, glanced back and forth between them with innocent curiosity.

“Hey there,” Kael called out as they approached, her voice deep and powerful. It was so convincing that Anna almost forgot she had been worrying only minutes earlier about whether Kael could stay on her feet.

“Good afternoon.”

The strangers closed the distance between them, coming to a stop about six feet away. Four pairs of eyes examined and evaluated in practiced wariness, then accepted with tentative caution. The older of the men nodded at Kael, then gave Anna a cocky grin. He had an unshaven face and dark hair that reached his shoulders. “Good afternoon. I’m Robby.”

Kael wrapped a possessive arm around Anna’s waist, and Anna leaned into her, grateful for the contact. It was more affection than she’d experienced in days. “I’m Kael, and this is Anna.”

Robby licked his lips. “She yours?” he asked Kael.

Kael pulled Anna closer. “That’s a hell of a question.” With her free hand, she touched the bow that was strapped to her back.

The boy stepped forward and offered Kael his hand. Upon closer inspection, Anna guessed him to be in his late teens. His blond hair was even lighter than Garrett’s had been. “I’m Matt. Robby didn’t mean nothing by it. We’re coming from Ohio. It’s nice to meet you.”

Kael released Anna to shake the boy’s hand, shooting Robby a cold look as she affirmed, “She’s mine.”

Anna repressed the urge to sigh. Privately, she raged at being talked about as though she weren’t there, but she understood the reality of the situation. Trying to look her most confident, she shook Matt’s hand and asked, “Have you been traveling on this highway long?”

The boy gave her a shy smile. “Since Louisville. Before that we were traveling alongside Interstate 71.”

Anna nodded, though it meant nothing to her. “Seen anyone else traveling along this road the last couple days?”

The boy opened his mouth to answer, but Robby stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Why do you want to know? Looking for trouble?”

“What, only you can ask the questions?” Kael stepped forward, getting in Robby’s face. “Let the kid answer.”