The Long Fall of Night: The Long Fall of Night Book 1 (48 page)

Aaron frowned after him. “I offered to switch with him.”

“He’s stubborn,” Jennifer said with a pat to Aaron’s chest.

“I think Elliot and I are going to pair off to get some hunting done. Charlotte was talking about washing clothes, and Brian and Riley were making bets on who could catch the biggest fish. What are you guys going to do today?”

Aaron sucked in a big breath. “Damn, that feels good. I think Jennifer, Tim, and I are going to try our hand at Riley’s snares. Tim got me thinking last night that if we catch something small first, we can try to use it as bait for something bigger. The more meat we dry today, the longer we can last in the mountains if we have to.”

“Well, we will still be able to hunt, but if we don’t have to take time for that, we can walk farther,” Ash speculated. “Worth a shot.”

They regrouped over a breakfast of freeze-dried eggs and then scattered to their various tasks for the day. Elliot briefly wondered if someone shouldn’t stay and watch their stuff, but really, they hadn’t seen a soul in over a week. There was no one left to worry about, considering they were far from anywhere remotely urban. Who was going to steal it?

Elliot ordered Ghost to go with Brian and Riley, thinking he’d be harder to camouflage while they stalked game, so it was just him and Ash setting off into the trees in the direction opposite the creek. They walked south for several minutes, and Elliot’s stomach turned over as he thought about what he wanted to say. It was likely his only opportunity to talk to Ash until they retired for the night, and despite feeling buoyed by the promise of civilization in just days, Elliot’s sense of time running out was growing, not fading.

Ash held up a hand to halt him and peered into the trees on the trail ahead of them. Twigs snapped and a deer, a young doe, stepped into view, her mouth moving as she munched. Every time she dipped her head for more foliage, she disappeared. They didn’t have the best angle so Ash put his finger to his lips and carefully moved a few steps farther up the trail. Whisper quiet, he nocked an arrow and aimed, closed one eye, and loosed.

He missed.

As the deer crashed away through the underbrush, Ash cursed. “It’s a lot harder than it ever looked on TV.”

Elliot grinned. “Of course it is. TV will rot your brain.”

“Not anymore,” Ash quipped.

They continued for several more minutes until they spotted another deer, this one a buck with a smallish rack, only four points. This time, Ash motioned him to stand beside him on a fortuitously wide section of the trail, and they both took aim. If Ash missed, Elliot could try for it as it fled.

But Ash didn’t miss. The arrow flew true and hit the deer in the heart, felling it with a crash followed by thunderous silence. They approached cautiously in case the animal wasn’t quite dead, but there was no reason to worry. Its beautiful flank was still, and the last plant it had plucked feathered out of its mouth, unmoving.

With a grin, Ash passed Elliot the bow and took off the quiver of arrows before situating the animal across his shoulders, legs forward so he could walk and hold it steady with both hands. He made sure to keep the bloody side up so as not to trash his new t-shirt. Elliot slipped into the quiver straps and followed him toward their camp. Even though he hadn’t been the one to take the deer down, a quiet sense of accomplishment stole over him.

“Ash,” he said as they walked, deciding it was now or never. “There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

“Yeah?”

Okay, so maybe that they weren’t looking at each other sucked, but Elliot took a deep breath anyway. “Remember when you said I have the choice to stay with you when we reach your uncle’s, and I said I wanted to because my parents don’t exactly listen to me?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, there’s kind of another reason.”

“What’s that?”

“This last month, after everything that’s happened to us, it feels wrong to split up. Aaron and Jennifer going off to Oregon is going to suck.”

“I hear that. I like them.”

“But even if it were just the two of us, I wouldn’t want to go anywhere but where you’re going. See, where everything else has been out of control, you’ve kept me calm. Sang to me when I needed it. Watched over me, protected me.” Now he was rambling and needed to get to the fucking point. “And I’m not saying I’d stay with you only because of that, because it’s not true. Well, not entirely true. But you know what I mean, we’re… friends now.”

“Of course we are,” Ash said, moving steadily along.

“Back in school, it was a convenient arrangement for both of us. What I’m trying to say is that our… relationship had grown. Become something more.”

“I hope so,” Ash said, his tone wry. “Considering what we get up to at night.”

“Can you be serious for a minute? I’m trying to tell you something here, and it’s not easy.”

Through the brush ahead, Elliot could see the bright blue of one of the tents and someone moving around at camp, so he only had seconds.

Ash stopped and turned, looking at him around the curved leg of the deer. “Okay, I’m being serious.”

“We’ve… gotten closer, I think, and I need….” He sighed and wished his hands weren’t full so he could run his fingers through his hair. He plunged on. “I’m in love with you.”

Ash raised both brows, a slow smile spreading over his lips. “And you would stay with me no matter who was with us or where we end up because of that?”

“That’s what I’m trying to say.” Elliot wished he could stop shaking, and he made sure to move his fingers well away from the trigger of the rifle.

Ash opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by his sister’s shouting.

“What the fucking hell?”

They turned and crashed the rest of the way along the trail, the deer bouncing across Ash’s shoulders in front of Elliot’s face like a macabre, overstuffed scarf. When they reached their encampment, they spotted Charlotte with a pile of wet clothes at her feet, staring around in disbelief.

The camp was annihilated. The breeze fluttered strips of their tents hanging from the tent pole skeletons, and tufts of sleeping bag stuffing rolled along like cotton tumbleweeds. The packs lay like war casualties, their innards trailing from holes in the rough canvas as if they’d actually been disemboweled. The lone fishing pole Brian and Riley hadn’t taken was snapped into several pieces, and the tatters of everything flapped and waved in near silent taunting. There was no one else but Charlotte in sight. The others must not have heard her shout.

Elliot helped Ash lower the deer to a patch of grass and then they walked around, assessing the damage.

“This is bad,” Charlotte said, fear creeping into her voice. “This is really fucking bad.”

“Now hold on,” Ash said, trying to keep her calm with a motion of his hands. “There’s no need to flip out just yet.”

Elliot held up one of the backpacks. The entire bottom had been ripped out.

“Oh really?” Charlotte pointed in his direction. “Even if something survived, we have nothing to carry it in. The nearest town is more than a day’s hike back the way we came, and you said you pretty much cleaned them out of food.” Her voice rose the more she realized how bleak this was.

“I just caught food,” Ash pointed to the deer.

“And how the fuck are we going to dress it without a knife!” she hollered, hysteria building. “How are we going to light the fire again without matches?”

Elliot cast about at the destruction and noted that yes, all that seemed to be left were the pots and none of the items they’d used to gather more food or cook it. Something suddenly occurred to him. The figure he’d seen through the trees a minute ago hadn’t been Charlotte. They’d almost interrupted the guy. Blood drained from his face.

“The other guns.”

Ash glanced up, startled. “You have one rifle. Still have the Colt on you?” Elliot nodded. He didn’t go anywhere without it anymore. “Charlotte, I gave you the other Colt, and Aaron took the Browning rifle. So we have them all, except maybe the gun Brian got in Indiana.”

“You mean whoever did this could come back
armed
?” She flailed her hands, and Ash immediately went to wrap his arms around her.

“We don’t know that.”

“Oh my god, what do we do now?”

“We don’t panic,” Ash answered sternly, taking her by the shoulders and looking into her face. “We salvage what we can and then we see if there’s a camp supply store up here. I highly doubt, with all the trails, there’s nowhere we could stock up on something. It’s spring time, so even if we have to sleep one night without a tent, we’re going to be fine. We’re at a low enough elevation we won’t be in danger. Okay? Let’s round up everyone and try to decide what to do next.”

Elliot had been wandering around the camp, looking at everything, trying to decide what else might be missing. When he spied a LifeStraw wedged under the still-anchored lip of one of the tents, he breathed a sigh of relief. Even if they had to share, they’d be able to get fresh water. The tatters of his and Ash’s tent flapped in a stronger breeze, catching his attention, and he moved closer, peering into the part still propped up by poles.

His breath caught.

“Oh my god,” he said, frantically diving forward and moving the pieces of nylon out of the way. “Ash, oh my god.” Horror. Sheer and utter horror filled him as he realized what he was looking at.

White fur.

Bloody white fur.

“They killed Ghost!” he yelled, his voice rising to an octave he wouldn’t have thought he was capable of. “That’s my dog!”

Ash dropped beside him and pulled him into his arms, rocking him and immediately beginning to sing their song. Elliot didn’t try to fight the hot tears that stung his eyes, and he pushed his face into Ash’s t-shirt. The new smell of it was so wrong in these circumstances, but he clung to that detail anyway.

Ash kept singing until Charlotte spoke. “No, Elliot. Hon, it’s not Ghost.”

She’d rounded the side of the tent to get a closer look at the heap of white fur.

“They’re not your dog, sweetie. Rabbits. White rabbits piled up to look like something bigger. They are on your sleeping bag, though, which doesn’t look shredded. Maybe I can wash out the blood.”

Elliot pulled away from Ash but didn’t let go entirely. Charlotte reached into the mess and hefted one rabbit by its foot. It was large, easily the size of a full-grown cat or bigger. She held up another rabbit and the last bit of white fur still on his sleeping bag suddenly looked like what it actually was. Not Ghost.

“Oh thank god,” he sniffled, getting control of himself.

The scuff of a boot behind them got their attention. Aaron guided Jennifer into camp, offering her support. She had a hand on her belly and wasn’t looking up from where she needed to put her feet to keep going. Her breathing was labored.

“What happened?” Charlotte demanded, dropping the rabbits and scurrying to Jennifer’s side to help Aaron settle her to the ground to lean back on the log.

“She had a couple of sharp pains while we were hiking. I have a small Doppler in my med kid and want to get the baby’s heart—” Aaron had just realized how decimated their surroundings were. “What the fuck?”

“Vandals,” Ash said. “Don’t know. Where’s your med kit?”

“It was in my tent.” Aaron stormed over to it to find their stuff had also been ransacked. Ash went with him while Elliot sat beside Jennifer and gripped her hand.

“Don’t worry about all this,” he said, trying to keep her calm even as her eyes widened, taking in the mess. “Baby first.” She nodded and kept up her yoga breathing, her fingers on his hand painfully tight.

“Here, is this it?” Ash asked, picking through Aaron’s white metal box. He held up a wand that looked like a microphone.

“That’s it. Is everything in there, and they just threw the box around?”

“No,” Ash said grimly as Aaron picked up a half-rolled tube. “All the gauze and bandages are cut to pieces, the medicines are all mixed together, and I don’t see the scissors or the scalpel you had.”

Elliot’s blood ran cold. “Ash.”

“Yeah?”

“My pills. Find my pills.”

Aaron dropped in front of Jennifer and gently lifted her shirt. Behind him, Ash set the medical box down and went to their tent again. He emerged with a ruined backpack that might have been Elliot’s and shoved his hand in. When he pulled it back out amid the rattle of a pill bottle, Elliot could have shouted for joy.

“Oh, thank god,” Ash murmured.

“Okay, sweetheart,” Aaron said to his fiancée. “I got the belly jelly, and it’s going to be cold. Good thing I wouldn’t let you keep doing this and run the battery down, huh?”

“Yeah,” Jennifer gritted out. “Safe not sorry. Hurry up.”

He spread the lubricant on her baby bump, and she leaned back to make it easier for him to slide the wand down to her lower abdomen. After a few torturous minutes of hearing her blood circulating, the steady rhythm of a rapid heartbeat thrummed through the air. Aaron counted while he looked at his watch, closing his eyes when he calculated the beats per minute.

“Baby’s heart rate is fine, Jenn. But you’re not moving for the rest of the day.”

“Aaron, look around us. I can’t exactly lie in a hammock and eat chocolate while you clean the house.”

“Not taking chances. Get comfortable on the ground, babe, while we figure out what the hell happened here.”

“Charlotte, go to the creek and tell Brian not to come back to camp until we say it’s safe. Riley doesn’t need to see this,” Ash instructed. “Jennifer, do you need anything? Water or maybe….” His voice fell away. “There’s not a lot I can offer you. Water?”

“No, I’m fine,” she said, crossing her legs lotus style and rubbing both hands over her swollen abdomen.

“Where’s Tim?” Ash turned to Aaron. “Wasn’t he trapping with you?”

Trapping.
Elliot froze.
Trapping rabbits to put on my sleeping bag before he demolished our camp and ran off.

“He went off by himself the first couple hours we were setting snares. Then he was with us until about fifteen minutes ago, when Jennifer had her first sharp pain. I sent him back here to see if anyone was around to help me get her back or bring me my med box.”