Hiking for Danger (9 page)
Authors: Capri Montgomery
“So do you study ants?”
“I study bugs,” she snapped. “You know the male ants die as soon as they mate…in your case I might strangle you sooner.”
He laughed. He actually laughed. She was so glad he could find the situation funny even though she was freaking out. “Stop doing that Cody. I’m just trying to say that when a nest is threatened, just like wasp and bees and some of the other insects they don’t hide. They send out an army to protect what’s theirs.”
“We don’t have an army. While one call to Gavin could get me some help in here I know it’s not going to happen because one, we don’t have reception at this level, and two, it would take too long for him to get here in relation to the threat.”
“So we’ll have to be our own army. We can’t keep running. One of them is bound to catch up with us eventually.”
“So are there ants like in the movies where they eat people? Is that possible?”
“Those are Army ants and yes, enough of them can take down a large animal. Now enough with the gosh darn ants already!”
“You brought them up.”
“Well I’m sorry I did,” she mumbled.
“Look,” he said seriously. “I know you’re right. I know we can’t stay on the run, but there is nowhere safe out here for me to put you. In case you haven’t noticed the scene around you there is no coverage. Even if I found a cave I could guarantee you it’s home to a bear so that leaves the open spaces and he, whomever he is, can come at you from any direction and kill you before I can get back to you.”
“They don’t want me dead.”
“Just because they wanted you put someplace safe does not mean they aren’t planning to kill you.”
“They’re not,” she told him.
“Yeah, are you psychic now too?”
“No, observant. They’re hunters. They want the chase, the sport, the challenge. An injured woman is not a good hunt. They would wait until I healed before they hunted me, which means even if they got me you would have time to get me back.”
He growled low. “No. We will not use you as bait.”
She wasn’t saying use her as bait. She was saying he needed to go on the hunt and stop being the hunted.
“We’re not insects, Sahara. It’s time you realize humans have more intelligence than an insect.”
She snorted. “No they don’t. From what I have learned over the years, insects will protect their home and their queen. Humans, on the other hand, seem too eager to destroy everything.”
“Not all humans.”
She nodded. “Most,” she said softly. “I can’t even watch the news, Cody. It’s like every time I turn it on somebody has been murdered. No matter where you go you just can’t get away from crazy—not even out here. This place is so beautiful and peaceful and look at what happens. The beasts in this forest isn’t the four legged kind, it’s the two legged kind—humans, who will kill anything just to make themselves feel larger and more important than they’ll ever be.”
“Sahara, there are a lot of crazy people out there, but that’s not everybody—it’s just the ones the news decides to talk about. Come out of your lab and study the better half of humanity for a change.”
“If you find it, show it to me.”
“Hey!”
She smiled. “You and Parker are not included in that philosophical debate—neither is Shell. You know what I like about insects, especially bees and ants, is that they’re social insects. They live together as a family and work together for the good of the colony. Humans could take a page out of that book and learn from it. You, Parker and Shell were the only ones not willing to bury a hatchet in my back to save your lives.”
“You seemed willing to do that on your own to me.”
“To save yours,” she said without thinking. “I mean…”
“You wanted to save me? You were going to leave yourself alone out here without any support just to save a man you barely know.”
When he said it like that it did sound crazy. In fact, when she thought about it that’s exactly what some of the ants would do—sacrifice themselves to save the colony. Perhaps humans and ants were more alike than she readily admitted. Maybe her next research project should bring in a psychologist and they could study the correlation of ant and human ways of being.
“Woman,” he tightened his hold on her, “you have a much bigger heart than I thought. I could fall in love with you.” He didn’t seem to be trying to hide his words or cover over them as if he had made a mistake. No, he meant to say them. He wanted her to know his affection for her thus far and that he thought it could grow into something more. Ironically, she wanted it to develop into something more.
“I could fall in love with you too,” she said softly. She really could fall in love with him.
“So, about these ants,” he said casually. “What exactly does the male ant do other than dying after mating?”
She laughed. “It really depends on the species but for the most part eat, mate and die. The female breeders have the better luck as they, depending on the species, sometimes get to mate with more than one. Sometimes ten!”
“Well if we mate you will not be mating with ten others,” he told her.
“And you won’t be dying afterward either,” she mumbled.
“That I won’t,” he winked. “So why ants?”
“For my analogy?”
“No, I get your analogy I just won’t be caving to your demand for me to leave you somewhere. Why did you decide to study ants?”
“Actually my focus was their relative—the wasp. And of course I studied bees. But at some point you have to pick a focus if you plan to reach expert status so I picked the wasp. Along the way I did extensive ant research as well since they’re relatives and all. But when I was growing up I studied a lot of bugs. I just found them fascinating. But one must have focus right?”
He shrugged. “I guess it depends on what your end goal is. If you want to be an expert at something then focus is needed, although I think you can do more than one thing at a time. But if you just want to learn all that you can then I suppose at some point it would be okay to change direction.”
“What did you say?”
“I said I think it would be okay to change direction.”
She had wanted to do that. She had been thinking of doing it. But for what she did, for the grants she received it didn’t leave room to study every insect known to man. She was grounded to duty, anchored to responsible adulthood. When she entered the world of college they demanded she focus and so she focused. She wouldn’t say that was bad. Her career was strong. She had published multiple papers and gotten several grants, but she missed that girl—the one who could look at any insect and be captivated for days.
“What are you thinking about now? Did I upset you or something? Because you’ve gone quiet again.”
She smiled. “No. You just said something I have wanted to do for a few years now—change direction.”
“You want to leave entomology?”
“No. I just wanted to study something else—another insect.”
“Oh yeah, which one?”
“Well I have always been a bit fascinated with the Acrididae family, particularly the Nomadracis septemfasciata.”
“Should I even ask what that is?”
She laughed. There was something strange about how relaxed she had become talking to him while something was hunting them, but then she gathered that’s why he was trying to keep her talking. He probably noticed her blood pressure was through the roof from stress and worry and she was two shakes away from stressing herself into a stroke. “The red locust,” she said. “Locusts are part of the Acrididae family. All locust are grasshoppers but not all grasshoppers are locust—now isn’t that cool?” She giggled. She had always been fascinated with that topic. “I might study the Nomadracis septemfasciata or the
Chortoicetes Terminifera—the Australian Plague Locust. They both interest me. Of course I only really dreamed of making the change. I don’t think I have the courage to walk away from what I do now.”
Chortoicetes Terminifera—the Australian Plague Locust. They both interest me. Of course I only really dreamed of making the change. I don’t think I have the courage to walk away from what I do now.”
“Sure you do,” he told her. “Life is too short not to do what you love. Your interests are elsewhere so why not spread your wings and fly, grasshopper?” He looked at her and winked.
She laughed. “If I have wings I can use to fly then I’m for sure a locust, Ranger.” She gave him her best attempt at a sultry voice when she called him Ranger. “Well actually some grasshoppers can fly, but some have wings and can’t use them to fly whereas a locust…” She looked at the way he had been watching her while they walked. “What?”
“That settles it—you’re too fascinated with locust to not be studying them. You should definitely consider a change of direction when you get home.”
He was right, and perhaps that scared her because in so little time he had assessed her passion and summed up her fear of not going for what interested her as being crazy. “Just do it,” was his mantra and she needed to adopt it for herself too.
“So, Locust Lady—”
“Don’t even go there,” she glared at him and all he did was smirk.
“I saw this movie once where they ate people. Can they do that?”
She laughed hard. “You watch way too much science fiction…but you know I saw that movie too. It was good.” She looked up at him. “You already know half this stuff don’t you?”
“I know a little, but not a lot. You’re educating me…but yeah, I know they don’t eat people.”
“Well, you never know. One day what they eat might be scares and they’ll have to change direction.”
“Oh God no. Changing direction is not always a good thing.”
She smiled at the worried expression on his face. He was holding up with gun toting men hunting them, but a little thing like flesh eating locust scared him? Now that was priceless. “Did you see the movie with the worms?”
“Honey, I lived on science fiction novels and movies as a kid. Other than studying everything I could on nature, hiking, surviving the wilderness, science fiction definitely kept me entertained. The one with the ants got to me though. I can’t even see an ant without wanting to kill it.”
She wasn’t sure which movie he was referencing since there were so many. “You know the scary part is that that really could happen. There are ants that when in a swarm can and will take down large animals. When we survive this you should come to dinner with me and I’ll tell you more.” She had just, in a very strange way, asked him out. Why was she still nervous around this man? Clearly he liked her—at least a little anyway.
“Dinner—yes. Talk of man eating ants—no. Sorry honey but that’s a real mood killer for me.”
She snickered. “Well we wouldn’t want to kill your mood now would we?” She heard the sound before she felt a sting in her shoulder. “Cody?” She felt her body going numb and her eyes closing. She felt herself falling and the last thing she remembered was hitting the ground and seeing Cody run away from her. He left her.
Chapter Seven
C
ody took cover
. It wouldn’t help for both of them to end up unconscious—assuming this guy had two darts in that gun. Since he had used a dart on Sahara that told Cody she was right, they wanted her alive for some reason—and all the reasons that came to mind were nothing good at all. He had to leave her so he could avoid being shot himself. He darted for the trees because he could run with them serving as his shield. The one thing he counted on was the man would be too busy savoring his first catch that he wouldn’t see him coming up from behind him. He would not leave Sahara behind.
ody took cover
. It wouldn’t help for both of them to end up unconscious—assuming this guy had two darts in that gun. Since he had used a dart on Sahara that told Cody she was right, they wanted her alive for some reason—and all the reasons that came to mind were nothing good at all. He had to leave her so he could avoid being shot himself. He darted for the trees because he could run with them serving as his shield. The one thing he counted on was the man would be too busy savoring his first catch that he wouldn’t see him coming up from behind him. He would not leave Sahara behind.
“Hey sweetness,” he heard the guy say. “I’m Jed and since I bagged you you’re officially my prize. Dad only let me come this way because I wanted you when I saw you. I gave up a lot of prize money to bag you, doll. Chris would have won the competition anyway. I might as well get the best prize out of this game. Don’t worry, doll, I won’t mount your head on my wall—yet. Keep me happy and you’ll stay alive.” He patted her on her behind. “Jed’s going to start right here, baby.”
Cody came from a side angle, knocking Jed to the ground which caused his gun to skid out of his hand. “Like hell you will,” he said as he did what he always did well—fight. It didn’t take long for him to get the upper hand and while he wasn’t military like his friends and, he wasn’t at ease with taking a life, he had no problem taking this man’s life. The only way to save Sahara and himself and the rest of his friends was to take this guy out of the equation—one by one he had to make sure they wouldn’t get up to kill again. Tying them up would have been great if he had something he could be sure would keep them, plus he couldn’t bank on keeping this guy’s family from releasing him. So when it came down to that one final moment, the moment where he had to choose between releasing his arm from around the man’s neck and continuing the pressure until he crushed the man’s windpipe completely he chose to keep going until the threat was exterminated.
Cody let Jed’s body fall to the ground and then he went to Sahara. The tranquilizer dart was still sticking in her shoulder so he carefully extracted it. The last thing he needed was for both of them to end up unconscious and immobile. He went back to pick up both guns Jed had with him, an AR-15 and a Sig—“not your typical hunting weapon,” he said. “Unless you planned to hunt human game.” He secured the weapons in ways that allowed him to hoist Sahara over his shoulder. He couldn’t leave her there and she clearly couldn’t walk out on her own. The only option he had was to carry her. This kind of carrying wasn’t in a way he wished to carry her—draped over his shoulder instead of having her legs wrapped around his waist as he carried her to a bedroom—his bedroom.
Jesus! They were being hunted like wild animals and he still could fathom a fantasy that had him growing more erect by the second. Adrenalin, a hot woman consumed him. Biological chemistry and needs sure did know how to pick the worst possible time to take control.
Parker didn’t have to rush anybody because by the time the other guy started shooting at them they were moving triple time. Keeping everybody organized was the issue. Stacey stayed close while Riley tried to go wide. Shell and Don were nearly leading the pack and Georgia and Jack were still going strong with the group too while Julian and Debbie had gotten separated from each other and from the pack. He remembered seeing Julian run one way after Debbie fell. Parker had gone back to help her up, but he had to keep moving too because they were all his responsibility. He told her to keep moving, but he would guess he should have added a sense of direction because she split east while everybody else had been moving west. “This way,” he had yelled, but he couldn’t go after her because Misty was starting to break off in the direction Riley went and he had to try to round them all up like cattle. This was not a situation he was familiar with. He had no training other than that of a hiking guide. He wasn’t a ranger; he had never been in the military or on the police force. What he knew how to do was lead a hike, get people down safely and keep them safe from the forces of nature—but keeping them alive when the danger was human’s bent on murder wasn’t something he knew how to do. He was also worried about his friend. How many men had gone his way? And how was he supposed to do it alone when he had to help Sahara too?
If they made it out of this alive he was going to have to be sure help got back to his friend with haste.
He heard a sharp crack.
“Woohoo! Got one!” A man yelled. Parker wondered who had been shot, but he couldn’t go back because he had to make sure the others were safe. Making his job a thousand times more difficult was the fact that they couldn’t stay together. How difficult was it for people to just follow each other? No, they had to run scatter-brain through the woods. Granted if they separated they couldn’t all be picked off at once, or so he thought. There was more than one man and since he didn’t know how many more it could be possible that they could all be killed at once. But still, separating and running blindly through the forest was dumb. They needed to stick with him so he could get them down off that mountain alive.
He kept running, leading those who stuck with him to safety—relative safety. The sooner they got to the cliff that they would have to scale down the better off they would all be. It was steep, but the tree coverage was heavy. Whoever was out there shooting at them wouldn’t be able to hit them from a far and he would have to harness his weapon to make the descent. They would have a moderate break if they kept up this pace he wouldn’t get close enough to get a good shot in there. If they slowed too much then he could easily get to an angle that would allow a perfect kill shot. They had to keep moving. They had to survive.
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