Chapter Thirteen
The burst of adrenaline kept Fiona going for a long time. In fact, she didn’t even feel tired for several minutes. She kept her attention on the back of Roz’s head, several yards away and occasionally slipping away into the trees. She would push herself then, her legs a whirl of speed, and suddenly see the other woman again. They were running too hard to give her a chance to glance behind them, but she was fairly certain that if someone was chasing them, she would have heard them coming, even over her gasping breath.
They maintained this tortuous speed long past the point at which the initial scare had worn off. Fiona could feel herself starting to slow, her legs no longer willing to do what she told them. She was sure she would fall so far behind Roz she’d be lost forever. If Roz turned somewhere too quickly or sharply, she would never find her again.
Roz appeared then, suddenly, hiding partly behind an enormous tree, gesturing wildly at Fiona. Fiona made herself put the last of her energy into a final burst of speed, sailing over several fallen logs and rocks, finally catching up. Roz dragged her behind the tree and roughly pushed the straps of the backpack off Fiona’s shoulders, slipping it onto her own back a moment later. She let Fiona catch her breath and then grabbed her arm, pulling her close. She was still whispering.
“We’re almost to the rock scramble. It’s maybe half a mile from here.” She pointed forward in the direction they’d been running. “We’re going to have to go down it as quickly as possible.”
“Did they see you?” Fiona said, staring around the tree, back into the woods behind them.
Roz shook her hard. “I don’t think so. But they definitely heard that sound you made.”
“I’m sorry.”
Roz lifted one shoulder. Nothing could be done about it now.
“What did you—”
“Shh!” Roz suddenly said, slapping a hand over Fiona’s mouth.
Fiona struggled and then froze, hearing something coming from the woods. She and Roz stared back the way they came, waiting, but didn’t see anything. They could hear, however, the sound of breaking branches. Even during the seconds that they listened, Fiona could tell that whatever it was, it was getting closer, coming from at least two different directions directly toward them.
Roz gestured for her to follow, and the two of them broke into a light trot away from the sounds. As they fled, Roz seemed a little more hesitant, pausing more often before moving forward again.
Finally, it was lighter ahead of them through the woods, and before long, Fiona could see the sky opening up beyond the edge of the trees where the rock scramble began. They paused there, staring down the long, treacherous valley of broken boulders and stones. Roz groaned and slapped the tree next to her, clearly furious.
“Damn it. I knew it.”
“What?” Fiona asked.
“We’re off course. I got thrown off by that little jog of ours. I thought it might happen after our last stop, but I wasn’t sure.”
“What’s the problem? Can’t we make it to the bottom here?”
“Of course we can. But there’s a reason we went up this where we did yesterday. That area has the easiest ascent and descent. I’ve never tried going up or down anywhere near here. It’s not safe.”
“So should we try to go down somewhere else?”
Roz shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t know how. We would have to backtrack over there. The only real option other than trying here is to go down near the waterfall.” She pointed to their right. “There are some good handholds on the rocks along the edge. But I wouldn’t want to do that without rope. It can be slippery.”
In a word, Fiona realized, they were screwed. If they backtracked, they would probably run into whoever was chasing them. If they tried either of the other descents, they were risking their lives. Already, time was slipping away. She could tell by the long shadows on the ground that the sun was getting ready to set. An hour or more had passed since they sat by the river, having their awful meal, and they were hardly any distance nearer their goal.
Fiona stared down the length of the rock scramble in front of them. It didn’t seem any better or worse than the one they’d come up yesterday, but she was no expert. Here at the edge, the initial drop-off was a little more extreme—five feet down to the first ledge. Beyond that, it was, perhaps, a little steeper down to the flat ground of the valley, and the boulders in their way seemed much larger here and there along that earlier route, but other than that, she couldn’t tell why this was such a problem.
“It doesn’t look—”
CRACK.
She instantly recognized the sound of the gun, and the two of them dropped to the ground. Fiona had heard people say that gunfire sounded like fireworks, but she’d known, instinctively, to get down and out of the way the very instant she heard the shot. Some part of her, perhaps, had also expected it. Ever since they’d started running, she’d known something would come for them.
CRACK.
A gun fired again, hitting a tree some five feet away, splinters of wood flying into the air. Both she and Roz were pressed into the dirt on their stomachs, as flat as they could manage. Fiona put her hands over the back of her head, Roz doing the same, their faces inches apart.
“We have to go,” Roz said, gesturing toward the slanting scrabble to her right.
“How can we? We’ll be like sitting ducks—”
CRACK. CRACK.
Again, a nearby tree let lose two bursts of broken, splintered wood.
“We don’t have a choice,” Roz said. “The angle will help, too. We’ll have to try to hide behind a bigger boulder where they can’t shoot at us.”
“And then what?”
“We’ll figure that out when we get there.”
“Are you crazy?”
But Roz was already army-crawling toward the rock scramble, still nearly flat on the ground, and when she reached the edge, she glanced back at Fiona and motioned for her to follow. The earth was rough and painful under her elbows, and as Fiona dragged herself to the edge of the rocks, she expected to be shot in the back of the head.
Roz swung her legs over the edge and dropped off. Fiona followed suit, and Roz grabbed her waist, helping her down. They were already safer here over the edge, and for a second, Fiona wondered if they might not simply stay here. It would be difficult for whoever was shooting at them to see them here unless they peeked over the edge. Maybe she and Roz could throw something at them or grab their ankles.
Roz, however, had other ideas, as she immediately started moving down the scramble, leaping from stone to stone, huddling low between hops, a little like a giant frog. Fiona had to use every ounce of her will to follow, starting three times before she made her first jump. The boulder she landed on shifted a little, and she let out a little cry of fright. Roz whirled around, gesturing wildly for her to hurry, but it took her a second to move forward. Between the boulders and large stones, smaller rocks filled in the gaps, almost as if they’d been poured in there on purpose. Fiona stepped on a patch of this scree twice, nearly twisting her ankle both times. She was so focused on her movement forward, it never occurred to her to look back, but when she glanced up to see where Roz had gone, she saw the other woman staring up and behind her, watching something.
“Get down!” Roz shouted.
Fiona started to drop without thinking and landed hard on her knees and one wrist. That pain was eclipsed in an instant when a searing punch of white agony flashed across her left shoulder. Instinctively, she jerked away, likely saving her own life. Another CRACK, and the stone she’d been on seconds before released a puff of dust as a bullet ricocheted off it.
Roz was there, suddenly, dragging her bodily forward, and Fiona, who was reeling from the pain, was dimly aware of the sound of gunfire above and behind them, exploding in little bursts of sound and dust all around them.
Finally, Roz dragged her behind the first large boulder, and the gunfire stopped as if it had been turned off. Roz propped her up with her back to the boulder, then removed the backpack before digging around inside. She cursed and shook her head.
“I forgot—this is your pack. Mine had the first-aid kit. And the compass.”
Fiona tried to laugh and then hissed, her right hand instinctively going for her left shoulder. Roz caught it, shaking her head.
“Try not to touch it with your bare hand. It’s not bleeding very much. Just a graze, I think.”
“Feels like more than a graze.”
“I bet. I thought for sure it was going to be worse. In fact, for a second, I thought…” She shook her head, eyes suddenly shining and cast downward. She took a deep, shaky breath. “Anyway, let me push back some of your sleeve here and check it. I’ll wash it out a little with water, and we can tie a bandana around it for now.”
“Are we safe here?”
Roz lifted her hands. “Who knows? They could head down this way any minute. But they don’t know exactly where we are. It wouldn’t be the smartest thing for them to try.”
“Yeah, but they have guns and we don’t.”
Roz hefted a grapefruit-sized rock in one hand. “It would still hurt like hell to be hit with one of these. Maybe even knock a fucker out.”
“Or kill him,” Fiona said.
“We could hope. Anyway, I don’t think they’re coming down this way. I bet they’ll descend somewhere else and wait for us at the bottom.”
Gingerly, Roz pushed Fiona’s sleeve back, and Fiona couldn’t help but let out a low hiss of pain. Roz took out her Leatherman and snipped up the side of one sleeve, exposing the bloody shoulder. Fiona had to look away, suddenly woozy, and she hissed again when Roz poured some of their water over her wound.
“It seems okay,” Roz finally said. “Like I thought—grazed the skin and muscle along the edge there. I’m going to fold one bandana to cover the wound and then tie it on with a second, so I’ll need you to hold this folded one while I knot the other one. Think you can do that?”
Fiona mumbled an assent, still not looking, and Roz guided her hand to the wound. Fiona took a deep breath before pushing down, seeing stars for a second before her head cleared again. With the wound covered, she could risk peeking again, and Roz tied the second bandana under her armpit and around the top of her shoulder.
Roz studied it and then shook her head. “I don’t know that it’s going to hold very well. Maybe you should put your long-sleeved shirt on over all this to help hold in in place.”
She seemed so frustrated and disappointed in her work Fiona almost laughed. Instead, she touched the side of Roz’s face. Roz jumped slightly and then smiled, apologetically, before taking Fiona’s hand in hers.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. And thanks.”
“What? For this? It’s sloppy as hell.”
Fiona rolled her eyes. “It’s fine, and not just for that.” She squeezed Roz’s fingers. “For saving my life. You ran through gunfire for me. Thank you.”
Roz’s fingers slipped through hers, and she went back to rubbing her mouth. It was dark enough that Fiona wasn’t sure if she was blushing, but something told her she was. She touched Roz’s arm.
“I owe you my life.”
Roz shook her head, tried to talk, and then cleared her throat. “You don’t owe me anything.”
If her shoulder hadn’t hurt so much, Fiona would have leant forward right then and kissed her. As it was, the moment passed. Roz looked away, staring down the rock scramble toward the flat ground at the bottom. It had never seemed farther away.
“So what’s the plan?” Fiona finally asked.
Roz sighed and moved close to her, leaning back against the boulder Fiona was propped on.
“We’ll have to wait. At least until it starts to get dark—maybe later. It’s stupid to go down these boulders and rocks in the dark, and even stupider without a light, but it might be our only chance. I don’t know how long they’ll wait up there before leaving to head down themselves. And they could split up, too.”
“How many are there?”
“At least three—that’s how many I saw in the clearing back there.”
“What were they like? Did you recognize anyone?”
Roz didn’t respond beyond shaking her head, still staring at the ground in front of her. She’d crossed her arms over her knees.
“What?” Fiona asked after a long pause. “What is it?”
Roz made eye contact. “It’s crazy. They were all wearing masks.”
Fiona frowned. “Masks? Like ski masks?”
Roz shook her head. “No—like Halloween, but not quite. More like something you’d see in a movie. Like at a festival or a carnival or something.”
Fiona continued to frown at her, still confused. “You mean like at a masquerade—that kind of mask? Wood or leather or something like that?”
Roz lifted her shoulders. “Sort of. They’re hard to describe. It was hard enough to believe my eyes when I saw them the first time, but I don’t understand why they were wearing them there by themselves in the woods. It was just them. Why cover their faces up like that when no one’s around? It was creepy as hell.”
It’s more than creepy, Fiona thought. These people, whoever they are, were complete lunatics. Everything they’d done had been the behavior of someone completely detached from reality.
“Did you see anything else? Anything stand out?” Fiona asked.
Roz shook her head. “No—except that one of them is a woman. She was watching the big guy chop at the tree. The third one was a guard, maybe. He was standing apart from the big one and the woman, watching the woods and pacing back and forth.”
Fiona couldn’t help but shudder. Roz slid an arm around her waist, careful of her shoulder, and pulled her closer.
“So they were just standing there, chopping a tree down?” Fiona asked.
“They weren’t cutting it down. The big guy was making those marks we’ve seen in the trees a few times now. He was standing on a ladder, of all things.”
“Did you see anything else? Any other equipment, horses, anything like that?”
Roz shook her head. “Nothing. Only the three of them. I didn’t even see their guns.”
“So they must have some kind of camp or something nearby.”
“Maybe.”
They were quiet for a while. Fiona couldn’t help but think that they were missing some crucial piece of information here. These people, whoever they were, had been one step ahead of them from the beginning. To her, this suggested a base of operations and maybe means of surveillance.
The sun had partially set, the world now dim and gray around them. Already, most of the heat of the late afternoon had drained away, and she couldn’t help but shiver. The sweat all over her was now chill and unpleasant, and her shoulder was throbbing, dully but constantly.
“Let me get the hammock out,” Roz said. “It could work as a blanket. You should put on your long-sleeve shirt, too.”
“Okay, but you should wear my fleece.”
Roz helped her pull her long-sleeved, silk undershirt over the shirt she was wearing, and the pain from her shoulder so sharp and searing she had to bite her tongue to keep from crying out. If their pursuers were still watching for them, they would no doubt have heard them long before this, but she also didn’t want to make their location too obvious.
A few minutes later, both huddled under the space blanket and the hammock, Fiona felt relatively comfortable. Sitting here would eventually start to bother her—the rock was already hurting her butt and back—but for now she was content to wait here with Roz. They’d joined hands under the hammock over their backs and the crinkly space blanket over their legs, and Fiona’s knees were slightly crossed over Roz’s. They couldn’t have sat closer unless she was in Roz’s lap.
Surprisingly, despite the unforgiving rock behind and below them, Fiona felt herself jerk awake a few minutes later.
“You should keep sleeping,” Roz said, almost whispering. “I’ll wake you in an hour or two when it’s darker.”
“What about you?” Fiona asked, stifling a loud yawn.
“I’ll be okay. Sleep now and get some rest. We can’t move until there’s no way for them to see us.”
Fiona wanted to protest, but, half-awake, she let her eyelids drop closed and was fast asleep within seconds.