Moving further into the trees proved harder than I’d imagined. We had to be more quiet than we’d been before, with the chance of guards working their way towards us for Max’s body. And Lillian kept stepping on branches, no matter how many times Steph or I shushed her.
After a couple of tense minutes, I thought we were probably hidden enough from view that we could stop and wait for Damon.
“How long do we wait?” Steph asked once we’d sat behind a fallen tree.
“What do you mean?” I watched Lillian crawl further under a bush for cover and pull her jackets tighter around her.
“Well.. what if Damon doesn’t make it around the hard way? He could get hurt or get caught… and then we’re just out here waiting to freeze to death.”
She had a point. But I didn’t have an answer. The only thing I could think about was our last conversation before they had picked us for the next group of runners. I had to avoid meeting her eyes for too long at a time so she wouldn’t read it on me. I wanted us to stay friends. I’d never wanted to put that in jeopardy.
“Mandy… tell me what you’re thinking about.” Steph’s voice was barely a whisper.
Damn. She could read it on me, anyway. That’s why we’d been friends for so long.
“I’m sorry… I just… “ I cleared my throat and changed the subject. “We’ll wait for… an hour. Damon should be able to get around in that time. And if he hasn’t shown up and we haven’t seen or heard anything from the guard, we’ll keep moving. We might have to backtrack a few times and try different paths, but we should be able to find the safe house. He’d said it wasn’t far… just not the direction.”
I knew Steph was staring hard at the side of my head, but I didn’t turn to look at her. I couldn’t break right now. Someone needed to be the leader.
“Okay,” she said after a while. “Need a snack?” She opened her pack and dug around for her crackers and jerky.
“No, no thanks. I have some bread.”
We lapsed into a strange silence. Lillian had dozed off under the bush and we could hear light snores coming from her direction. I hoped it wouldn’t be enough to alert anyone to our presence. But we didn’t hear anything else.
Until a snap of a twig right behind me froze me in place. Steph’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm, and I met her frightened stare. It could be a deer, or a rabbit, or a bear. Maybe Damon had made it around the mountain. Or maybe it was a guard following our tracks from the clearing. I couldn’t breathe for fear of making a sound.
But then Damon walked into view to our left, and I sagged in relief.
I must have sighed out loud because his head whipped towards us, his gun coming up in the same instant. But he relaxed when he saw it was us.
“Oh, good. You had some sense to hide.” He walked into our small enclosure under the log and bush and kicked Lillian’s foot. She jerked awake with a snort and smacked her face into the underside of the bush.
“Get us. We need to get moving. The guards are up there, clearing Max’s body. So we have a small window before they start combing the trees for anyone else. They’ll know he wasn’t alone.”
I hurried to my feet and put out my hand to help Steph up without thinking. But she took my hand and allowed it. Lillian struggled out from underneath the bush and shouldered her pack noisily.
“For fuck’s sake, be quiet, woman,” Damon snapped and Lillian froze. Her face the picture of shame.
Now that was a leader. I hadn’t been able to get Lillian to do that in the slightest. But that’s why he was in charge.
We followed him further into the trees. He got close to the ground, and we copied him. I sensed the nearness of other people without seeing them and knew the guards were close by. Fear clawed beneath my skin and I had to give it my all to hold it together.
At last, we edged up against the side of a cliff, and Damon stopped. He knocked softly on a patch of gray and, to my amazement; it fell away. Or, rather, it opened, because it was a door doing an excellent imitation of a rock. There was even moss growing on it.
A round face framed by tight blonde curls peaked out at us and smiled. The little girl waved us in and stood aside for us to enter to safe house. Thank god for Damon making it around the mountain. We never would have found this safe house and would surely have frozen to death out in the trees.
We crowded into the small room, glad for the warmth that filtered in through a vent in the ceiling. Roof? What would it be called if we were inside a mountain?
“Have a seat. Get warm. I’ll make some tea and fetch the snacks.” The blonde girl ushered us further into the room towards a round table.
“But don’t get too comfortable.” Damon leaned against the far wall. “This is only a pit stop. We still have a long way to go before you’re safe.”