“Don’t move,” Derek whispered into Julia’s ear. “Not a muscle. If you pull back, you could set it off just as surely as stepping forward.”
His breath tickled her ear, but there was nothing funny about what was happening. She’d been helping him walk back when they heard cries coming from the direction where they’d left Mitch to work on Arthur. In her haste to hurry up, she’d forgotten about the pitfalls of this place.
She felt guilty about leaving the poor kid, but the opportunity to wring some information about Sophie from these bastards had seized hold of her. Unfortunately, Ezekiel Lesterfield had already been dead by the time they found him, something that gave her no small amount of satisfaction, but ultimately didn’t do much to help her sister.
Now here she was, her leg pressed against a trip wire, afraid to so much as breathe lest she trigger it.
“Hold steady.” Derek slowly disengaged from her grasp, doing whatever he could to keep her from shifting her weight.
She could feel the heat radiating off him, saw droplets of sweat dripping down his face. He was probably running a fever, the result of pushing himself too far too soon.
He was trying to mask how hard he was breathing – probably his way of reassuring her – but was doing a poor job at it. Nevertheless, she appreciated the effort.
It felt as if her heart skipped a beat as he finally untangled himself from her. He reached up to tap his earpiece. “Mitch, come in. Do you read me, over?” A second later, he tried again. “Just give me a ping, that’s all I need. Over.” The expression on his face said it all. “Shit!”
For a moment, she was worried he’d race off to help his friend, leaving her alone and trapped in the woods, but then Derek dropped to his knees next to her. A new fear instantly took hold – that he was going to pass out right there – but, fortunately, it appeared to be purposeful. He slowly crept forward to investigate the wire her ankle was pushing against.
He moved off into the bushes to the right, barely making a sound as he did whatever the hell he was doing. It didn’t matter so long as the end result wasn’t her being impaled or worse.
A few seconds passed, then Derek whispered in a barely audible tone, “Your light. Kill it. Now!”
She was tempted to ask if he was crazy, but the urgency in his voice said otherwise. Praying that she wasn’t about to condemn herself to a death she wouldn’t see coming, she reached up and flipped her headlamp off.
A moment later, she heard it. The barest rustle of leaves, a small twig snapping. She held her breath and realized Derek was doing the same. Well, either that, or he was unconscious, although she really hoped that wasn’t the case.
Up ahead, moving parallel to the way they’d been going, she thought she spotted movement. Not much, just the sway of a branch a couple yards away. It was hard to tell in the darkness, even with her eyes adjusted to the gloom. More than once this night she’d jumped at what she thought to be something moving in the dark, only to realize it was her eyes playing tricks on her.
Julia didn’t think that was the case now. Derek had apparently heard it, too, even before she had. She did her best to become little more than a dead spot in the woods, silently praying things didn’t get worse.
Again she thought she heard something, this time further on. It was slight, just barely there. Whoever or whatever it was, they were definitely heading in the direction she and Derek had been going – back toward Mitch, Arthur, and that guy who worked for Zeist.
Damn it all!
Sadly, there wasn’t much she could do about it, not with her life perhaps a pound of pressure away from being snuffed out. Even if she could draw her gun and fire without setting off the trap – a dubious proposition – there was little chance of hitting anything through the trees. So she remained as still as she could, hoping that their friends were okay, even if she didn’t believe that to be the case.
Julia was just about to call out to Derek again when she heard something else. More movement, this time coming from behind them.
What the hell?!
Whatever Derek was doing, he continued to remain silent, and again she couldn’t help but fear that he’d succumbed to his injuries, leaving her trapped and alone.
Julia risked turning her head and realized it was definitely not her imagination. She saw a trio of lights in her periphery, and they appeared to be headed her way.
“Derek,” she whispered as low as she could and still be heard. There was no response. With her light off, she couldn’t see where he was, although he couldn’t have been more than a few feet away. She certainly hadn’t heard him move off. At least she hoped he hadn’t.
As the lights – lanterns from the look of it – drew ever closer, she debated her course of action. There was little doubt in her mind that whoever was out there was unfriendly, be they mutant freaks or the governor’s men. The difference was, that latter group would just arrest her. The others, she didn’t really want to think about it. Julia desperately wanted to learn what had happened to her sister, but this wasn’t the way she hoped to do it.
She was rooted in place, neither able to move nor adequately defend herself.
Whatever she was going to do needed to be done quickly. Two of the lanterns appeared to be fanning back and forth, as if searching, but one of them steadied and pointed in her direction. She’d been spotted.
“Don’t shoot!” she cried out, raising her hands above her head. “Please!”
If the others hadn’t noticed her before, they certainly had now.
A gunshot rang out in the darkness. She saw a muzzle flash and heard wood splinter from a tree only a few feet away. Julia almost dove for cover out of instinct alone, but managed to hold her ground at the last possible second.
“Don’t move,” a rough voice cried out. “Only warning you get.”
Julia stayed as still as she could, sweat pouring down her face despite the cool night air. She silently prayed for Eric Zeist or one of his men to step from the forest. Right at that moment, a jail cell didn’t sound too bad.
The three figures who stepped from the brush were shrouded in shadow, but when they held up their lanterns, Julia saw enough to know that, whoever they were, they didn’t work for the governor.
♦ ♦ ♦
The faint sound of movement caught Noah’s ears just as he removed his teeth from the trespasser’s ruined throat. He coughed out a thick wad of blood and eyed his handiwork with a smile.
Someone was coming and their timing was perfect.
He didn’t spy any lights approaching through the trees. Not that it meant anything.
Crouching down to all fours, Noah slipped beneath a felled trunk and began to work his way around the clearing, slow and steady, but keeping close so he could see who emerged. Once in place, he took several deep gulps of air so as to get his breathing under control, his respiration sounding like halted chuffs. He’d been over-exerting himself, first searching for Sarah and then dealing with these intruders. His injuries from the day before, minor yet still painful, weren’t helping matters. His chest was starting to hurt. If he didn’t calm down a bit, they’d hear him the second they moved into the clearing, and he didn’t want that.
A moment later, a dark shape stepped from the tree line. Noah crouched low, preparing to engage this newcomer, but then there came a shout from off in the distance. It was a bit distorted, but he could have sworn he heard a female voice cry out, “Don’t shoot! Please!”
My Sarah!
Before he could react, a gunshot rang out ... a rifle, from the sound of it.
Whoever had stepped into the clearing halted in their tracks and turned back as if listening for more.
A male voice followed, one Noah recognized. Elijah perhaps, and he was saying something about a warning shot. That was good. If any of his kin dared to hurt Sarah, they’d have to pry his teeth out of their throat next.
That assumed it actually was his Sarah. He’d only heard her for a moment. Definitely female, but he wasn’t entirely certain the voice was hers.
The trespasser before him held their ground, probably debating what to do. Then they turned back toward the clearing and surveyed it before muttering a quiet, “Oh no.”
Noah’s eyes opened wide. The figure was dark, despite his eyes being well attuned to the night, almost a void against the blackness of the forest. But the voice that had come from it was unmistakable. His Sarah was here, no more than twenty feet away.
His kin could keep whoever they’d found. In fact, with any luck, she’d keep them busy for a while so he could...
He was about to move from his spot, but then she pulled something from her back – a rifle judging by the brief glint of starlight the barrel caught. She leaned it against a tree at the edge of the clearing and moved in.
But why? Why disarm herself if she was going to...
His question was answered a moment later as she pulled a second weapon from her shoulder. This one she kept hold of.
Noah began to understand. When they’d found Nathanial, he’d been without his weapon. There’d been that empty gun case in Pa’s room as well. Then there was Ezra’s body, shot in the back. His Sarah was smart, far smarter than Ezekiel had given her credit for. She was hunting them and taking their weapons as her own – as trophies.
A woman like her was truly a force to be reckoned with, and she would soon be all his.
He continued to watch from the shadows as she first checked the body of the trespasser he’d just finished. A smile crossed his face, knowing what she would find. She’d examine the others next, putting her back to him. Then he would strike.
As much as he liked that idea – the thought of getting his hands on her – he was forced to acknowledge it was still risky. If she knew what she was doing, as he now believed she did, rushing her from across the clearing was potentially dangerous.
He needed to play this game as smart as she was.
Noah didn’t normally hunt with weapons. It was rare that he needed them, his body tough and resilient as it was. But he wasn’t bulletproof. That much he knew. The grimy bandages still covering his wounds were testament to that.
As good as his claws were for rending flesh, they wouldn’t be much help if he was caught at a distance.
He turned to where she’d discarded the first weapon and decided on his course of action.
♦ ♦ ♦
“What have we got here?” the one in the middle asked from the side of his misshapen face.
The two others, equally as grotesque, chuckled as they advanced upon her, weapons raised.
“Nice night for a walk, ain’t it, Sarah?” the leftmost one said.
Julia wasn’t sure whether he’d mistaken her for someone else, but realized that keeping them talking was her best course of action. By then, she was certain Derek had passed out, or worse. Rescue seemed little more than a fantasy. It was all up to her now. “I’m ... looking for my sister Sophie.”
“Sophie?” the middle one replied. “Don’t know anyone by that name. I do know a Sarah, though. More than one, as a matter of fact. How about this? You take off that rifle you’re wearing, nice and slow. Sidearm and pack, too. Toss them to us, and we’ll take you to meet them. Would you like that?”
The crooked smile he wore terrified Julia to her very core. They were passing looks back and forth between each other as if they were cats who’d just caught a mouse. Worse, they had her dead to rights. There was no way they’d miss if she tried anything, not with three against one and her barely able to move.
She carefully slid the rifle strap off her shoulder, then her backpack, making it a point to not move her leg. She tossed them behind her, toward them, then did the same with the Glock at her side.
“That’s mighty considerate of you,” Crooked Smile, the one seemingly in charge of this threesome, said. “Now, why don’t you tell us whether there are any more of you out here?”
“They’re dead,” Julia replied, craning her neck to keep them in sight. “You bastards killed them.”
“Maybe we did and maybe we didn’t. But if you’re lying to us, believe me, we’ll know.”
He stepped forward and retrieved her weapons, taking a moment to look them over. “Nice. Fine prizes for all our troubles tonight.” He shoved her pistol into his belt, then shouldered his own rifle and held on to hers.
The leader nodded to his two buddies and together, they approached her. The nearer they got, the more clearly she could see them and the less she liked it. Derek hadn’t been kidding. It was a whole family of monstrosities – their asymmetrical bodies all displaying numerous deformities, but nothing that seemed to hinder them in any way that might help her.
Crooked Smile reached a hand up to her cheek and grinned. “There’s plenty enough here to share, boys.”
Right before his fingers could touch her skin, though, Julia’s legs were kicked out from beneath her.
She fell with a cry of surprise and landed hard on the ground. A strong arm grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her flat.
“Stay down!”
Julia turned her head just in time to see Derek let go of the trip wire he’d been holding onto.