Kellen

 

We’re three hours into our hike and one thing’s for certain.

People are assholes.

The few houses and stores we passed at the beginning of our trek around the town revealed heavily armed people who were less than friendly. We got the message loud and clear. Keep moving…or else.

So we kept moving.

Now, it’s dark and we’re hiking up a steep incline through the thick forest. Not exactly the safest option, but if we want to hit Tioga Road, we have to take this path. From Tioga Road, which should be an easier journey for a bit since it’ll be on asphalt, it’ll take another three hours or so to reach Tenaya Lake where we hope to find cabins or some sort of lodging. At the very least, we’ll find a campground.

An animal brays up ahead, making everyone slow to a stop. Under the cover of trees, it’s dark aside from the beams of our mini flashlights.

“What was that?” Gerry hisses, eyes wide as he glances back at me.

The animal makes the sound again. Pained. Dying. Horrible and haunting.

“Coyote?” someone asks.

“Bear,” Kyle answers.

I don’t think it’s either.

“These parts are known for their bighorn sheep,” Dan offers. “Could be one of them.”

The sounds quiet, so we continue forward. Up ahead, there seems to be a clearing and it’s lighter than the deep thicket of the forest. Elise cries out happily.

“It’s a road!” she shrieks.

I want to shush her, especially if an injured and possibly angry animal is nearby, but Kyle beats me to it.

“For fuck’s sake, Elise, are you trying to get us killed?”

Tyler shoots me an exasperated look. Everyone is crabby, stressed, cold, and tired. There’s bound to be arguments, especially where Kyle’s concerned.

Pretzel begins yapping as we near the road and Jesse attempts to make him stop. Over the high-pitched barking, I hear Aaron curse.

He stops on the edge of the road, Hope close to him, while Elise stands a bit away, hands covering her mouth.

“What happened?” Judy asks, tugging her exhausted children with her, one holding on to each hand.

Dan stops her with his arm and shakes his head. “The kids shouldn’t see this.”

I grab hold of Tyler’s bicep, hauling him after me so we can see what the cause for alarm is. As soon as the pale moonlight reveals the source, I wish I could have been spared like Dan’s family.

What the fuck?

A mule deer lies in the road, its front legs nothing but bone from hooves to its knees. It’s as if the flesh has been eaten away.

What could do this?

A coyote?

Upon a closer look, the deer has the same deterioration around its mouth. It continues to make pitiful, pained sounds, its entire body convulsing.

Aaron points one of the shotguns we pilfered from the kidnappers at the poor animal. “We need to put it out of its misery.”

I release Tyler and let out a grunt. “Save the ammo. We don’t know what we’ll encounter. I’ll take care of it.”

Unsheathing a hunting knife from my belt, compliments of the general store, I approach the deer. The more I inspect the deer, the more I determine this wasn’t done by some animal. Could this be a flesh-eating disease of some sort?

I kneel beside it and then swiftly shove the blade under its neck, into the chest cavity, and piercing the heart. The shaking and braying sounds eventually cease completely. With a heavy sigh, I clean my knife blade on the leg of my pants before rising to my feet to address the group.

“Don’t drink the water even if it looks fresh and is glacier fed,” I advise. “We have our bottles that’ll hopefully last us until Lee Vining, but just in case, we’ll need to make sure we boil and filter any water we consume.”

“What are you thinking?” Dan asks, frowning. “Flesh-eating bacteria?”

“It’s possible,” I state, remembering a documentary I once watched. The effects on the humans were disturbing. “Better to be safe than sorry.”

Elise, now sniffling, rubs her hands together. “It just keeps getting from bad to worse, doesn’t it? God, it’s so cold. We’ll probably all lose our fingers from frostbite next. I knew I should have grabbed some gloves.”

Kyle sneers at her and shakes his head like her very presence disgusts him. I usher her onto the road and in the eastward direction we’re headed. Soon, everyone is back on track, our boots making soft thudding sounds on the asphalt. Thankfully, we don’t encounter any more animals.

“It’s getting colder,” Tyler says, voice low so it doesn’t carry. “This has been the longest fucking day.”

It’s been the longest week.

I keep expecting to wake up from this nightmarish reality.

Wishful thinking.

Clouds, scattered at first, dance their way over the moon, making our trek impossibly dark. We’re forced to use our flashlights again. The road curves and winds, completely surrounded by trees. There’s nothing to see. No rest stops or gas stations or stores.

Just trees, more trees, round the bend and yep, more trees.

This goes on for a couple of hours or so. While we all started out eagerly traipsing down the road when we got past the dying deer, now we’ve all slowed down. Everyone is dragging their feet and yawning. Silas starts to cry and begs for his dad to carry him.

“I can’t feel my hands,” Elise gripes, her voice carrying all the way from the front of the group to where we are in the back. “We’re going to die on this road.”

Though I know we all feel the same, I can’t let everyone fall into that line of thinking. They’ll give up and we’ve got too far to go to give up.

“We’ll stop soon,” I assure her. “As soon as we find a place suitable to camp.”

She makes a huff of displeasure but doesn’t argue. Once we’re back on our way, Tyler nudges me with his shoulder.

“When we stop, want to share a tent?” He looks over at me and then laughs at my lifted brow. “What? You’re warm. I’m not trying to get fresh with you.”

At this, I smirk. “Sure, man, sure.”

He elbows me and I grin at him. This earns me a bright smile in return. My first instinct is to shy away from the idea of sharing a tent with this good-looking younger man because my employees and the others in my group will be witnesses to it. But the more time I spend with Tyler, the more I realize I don’t give a damn.

Life, apparently, is too short.

You have to take all the pleasure in it while you can.

Sharing a tent would be an absolute pleasure, too. Would we just hold each other? Would we play tic-tac-toe? Or would we do more?

Kiss. Touch. Put our mouths all over each other.

I thicken uncomfortably in my pants. Now’s not the time to think about having sex with Tyler. Hell, later, in the tent really isn’t the time either. Surviving this shit show should be my primary focus.

And yet…

I can’t help but wonder what sort of bedroom antics he likes. He’s younger and slightly smaller than me, but that doesn’t necessarily make us compatible in bed. Maybe he likes to top. And I’m no bottom. This attraction could be snuffed out as soon as we zip up our tent and act on it.

Then what?

Will things be awkward?

Will he leave my side to stand by his brothers?

I hate the roiling in my gut at that thought. I’ve become attached to Tyler as if I’ve known him my whole life, not just for a matter of days. Allowing distance to be put between us over something as silly as sexual positions sounds like torture.

There will definitely be no sex happening.

I can’t lose him. Not when I need him so fucking badly.

As if tuned into my thoughts, he shoots me a curious stare. He reaches back to take my hand. His skin is icy, but with our hands gripping each other, they both quickly warm.

His easy, affectionate touch is all I need. I’m certainly not risking losing it over hooking up.

But, God, I’d love to pin him beneath me and kiss him breathless.

“Look!” Elise yells, her voice piercing the quiet night. “A hot spring! Look at the steam!”

She runs ahead, the wind whipping her dark hair around in violent circles.

“Elise,” I call out after her. “Slow down.”

“Don’t worry, Kellen, I’m not going to drink it. I’m just going to warm my hands up.”

We all trot after her, eager to also put our hands in the hot spring. Hell, maybe even our feet, too. She reaches the steaming pool on the side of the road before any of us. I get a whiff of something peculiar.

Elise drops to her knees, grinning back at us before she dips her hands into the water. The horrified howl that escapes next has us all staring at her in confusion. Her face twists into one of pain as she jerks her hands back. She looks at her shaking hands and then starts screaming at the top of her lungs.

I charge forward, hot on Aaron’s heels. When we make it to her, we quickly take in the scene. Her hands are something out of a horror show. They sizzle and steam as the flesh erodes and falls away in chunks. This causes her screaming to turn shriller and she begins flailing. Before we can stop her, she flings more bloody tissue from her hands all over the ground around her.

What the hell just happened?

“Stay back,” Aaron yells to our group. “Something’s wrong with the water. It’s turned to acid.”

Elise’s wails are cut short when she passes out, no doubt from the horror and pain, and her head hits the ground with an audible thump. Tyler shows up in an instant beside me, already pulling his first aid kit from his backpack. He squats beside her to inspect her hands.

“Holy shit,” he hisses. “This is bad. Kellen, this is really bad.”

There’s chatter and even some gagging behind us, but I can’t focus on that right now. I snap into action, carefully lifting one of her arms just below the elbow so we can see the damage.

The acid—or whatever the hell was in the water—has melted off all the skin on her hands. Her fingernails are gone and her hands continue to sizzle as bone is beginning to be revealed.

“I don’t know what to do for this,” Tyler says, voice panicked. “What do we do?”

Aaron scrubs a palm down over his weary face and shrugs. “Hell if I know.”

“We have to do something,” Hope chokes out. “Maybe treat it like a burn until we can get help.”

Until we can get help…

Tyler gives her a jerky nod and starts fumbling through the kit. He locates the antibiotic ointment packages and begins liberally squeezing it out onto her hands. It’s hard to do anything when we can’t exactly touch her hands without fear of getting the acid on us as well.

I find some padded bandages and rip them open. We place them on the tops of her hands. Then, he carefully begins wrapping her hands in the rolled gauze. He uses up every roll until her hands are completely covered. Blood dots the white gauze as it starts soaking through.

“What do we do now?” he asks, looking up at me.

Stopping isn’t an option. We have to get help and fast.

“We hoof it until we find people,” I rasp out. “And then we’ll force them to help us via any means necessary.”

Aaron lifts his gun and nods at me. “Loud and clear, boss.”

“Hang in there, Elise,” I murmur, scooping her passed out form into my arms. “We’re going to get you help.”