Mel and I set off into the forest, hopefully towards our rendezvous point. My ankle feels surprisingly good for what it’s been through. I barely even feel the sting, but that could just be because of my sudden intense desire to find Ríjez and make sure he’s safe. He could very well be dead by now. I shouldn’t have waited so long to search. I should have left Mella’s camp and been on my way as soon as I had woken up, regardless of the foreign noises and the threat of the men stalking the woods.
“Exactly how long do you think the guys are going to be ‘immobile’?” I ask nervously.
“I’d give it a couple more days. We should be well out of the area by then.”
Trampling on, our footsteps seeming obnoxious in the dead silence of the forest, we follow the dips and curves of the area, always conscious of our footing. The last thing we needed was for both of us to fall prey to more of Rigs traps.
Where it was blustery all day, tonight it is unusually calm, and the temperature seems almost balmy. I’m tempted to extricate myself from my many layers of clothing, but I don’t want to waste more time.
Finally, after much plodding along, we come to the clearing with the pit.
“Jesus…” Mella mutters fearfully.
My eyes grow wide as the cloud-filtered moonlight allows me better vision. The land is pocked with dozens of beach ball-sized holes, and the trees lining the area are all bent at unnatural angles, facing outward into the forest. The tang of decaying blood reaches my nose on a soft breeze. I force my gag reflex away and carefully tread on the mushy ground, my boots sinking in with a sickening squish. I try to go farther, but Mella latches onto the wrist of my jacket, effectively halting me even as I hiss at her to let me go.
“Something isn’t right,” she murmurs quietly.
I give her my best ‘no shit, Sherlock’ look. “The only thing not right here is the fact that I don’t see Ríjez,” I say stiffly, wrenching my jacket out of her hold.
“Stay put!” she snaps, but I ignore her, plodding onward to check the craters. The smaller holes are filled with dark red liquid reflecting the glow of the moon. The stench of gore is dizzying, nauseating, and more pronounced as I come closer to the pit that we had tossed Andy into. Hesitantly, I peer over the edge as a thick cloud eclipses the mood, dimming the light to the point of blinding me.
“Damn you,” I hiss. I don’t crouch down, knowing that it will only bring me closer to the blood-soaked ground, as well as Andy’s corpse.
The moonlight finally returns, slowly shedding shards of illumination on the clearing. And into the pit.
A startled gasp lodges itself in my throat.
“Mella? Mella!” I cry urgently, even though I try to keep it low. Panic and fear weave tightly in my chest, adrenaline fires my brain and lungs, making me pant in anxiety. I claw the palms of my hands in an effort to keep my mind in its fragile realm of sanity.
Mella sprints over to me, crouches down to my level and gazes into the pit. “My God...".
My voice sounds horribly constricted when I say, “I guess it wasn’t satisfied with Dev.”
Shaking her head, she straightens to her full height, clasps my shoulder, and pulls us both away. “We need to get out of these woods. Now.”
I nod numbly, but one synapse of thought raises its defiant head. “What about Ríjez?”
Mella purses her lips and drags me to the edge of the clearing. “We’re just going to have to hope that he’s still out there,” she says stonily. “For now, we need to move, with or without him.”
Erratic rustling sounds from the depths of the woods, close enough to make my stomach knot in fear and my hands unconsciously raise the gun in its direction. Mella grips my shoulder, either to pull me back or keep me in front of her. My breath hitches as the rustling continues, louder, closer, a distinct figure coalescing out of the gloom as yet more clouds hamper the light of the moon and soak the clearing in blots of blackness. The fine hairs on my arms stand to attention, as if someone has dragged an electrical wire over them.
With memories of that single night of hell that tossed me into this whole ordeal, I take aim and wait for the being to emerge from the woods.
“Whoa, whoa! Don’t shoot!”
I stand frozen for about half a second. Then, the gun literally drops from my palms in relief and I find myself flying towards his voice and latching my arms around his neck. A muffled “oomph” falls from his throat, but his arms come around me and enfold me in their warmth, squeezing me almost painfully tight.
“Thank God…” I sob into his shirt as I clutch onto him for dear life, my fingers digging into his neck. I relish his warmth, his thick, woodsy scent, his scruffy hair tickling my eyes and stubbles scratching my cheek. His kisses my forehead, runs his fingers through my matted hair. I don’t even care that he ends up ripping a few stubborn strands out.
But I do care that he wasn’t here earlier and that he nearly gave me a panic attack. I rear back with the nastiest glare I can manage with tears in my eyes. “I swear to God if you run off on me like that again, I’ll neuter you with a crowbar.”
This earns me a slightly amused and alarmed look. “Wasn’t exactly my fault, kiddo,” he defends himself easily. “Drew and those other two might have gotten me if I’d stayed. I had to get out of here.” He steps away from me and studies the clearing with a concerned look. “What happened here?”
“You tell us,” Mella says impatiently as she saunters up to us. Oh, goody. Now that Ríjez is back in the picture, she’s back in bitch mode.
He watches her her oddly. “Did I not just say that I left?” he asks rhetorically.
“No. No, you didn’t,” she counters frostily, her arms crossed tightly and her mouth set in a firm line. “Where were you, exactly?” He opens his mouth to reply, but she plows on. “Obviously nowhere around here. There’s not a scratch on you.”
“Look, we don’t have to turn this into an interrogation,” I interrupt forcefully. “I’m sick and tired of you two going at each other’s throats. Play nice.”
Although, now that she mentions it, he really does look to be in good shape. His skin even seems to be glowing healthily, and his eyes are practically radiating vitality, making them appear even darker than usual.
Looking down at me thoughtfully, Ríjez smiles brighter than I’ve ever seen him smile before. Under regular circumstances, this may have been creepy, but I’m just too relieved by his safe-and-sound appearance to care. “I’ll be good. Promise.”
“You’d better,” I warn amiably, unable to keep the grin off my face. “I’m not kidding about the crowbar.”
“And if she won’t, you know I will,” Mella breaks in. Her usual smirk is nowhere to be seen. Nothing but malicious promise shows in her eyes.
Ríjez eyes her as if she’s a pesky insect (which is actually pretty funny, since he has to look up at her), then blinks forcefully and pins her with a mild glare. “I don’t doubt it.”
“Good,” she says crisply. Then she glances around the clearing, sighing once more. “We should probably be off then. No need to stick around when the cavalry comes along.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Ríjez mouth the word, as if he’s never heard it before. I turn to him and say, “We’ve got a bit more than Drew and his crew after us now. Mella and I kind of…” I trail off uneasily, shuffling my feet.
“Beat the ever-loving tar out of them,” Mella finishes proudly. I shoot her a venomous look. “Don’t be modest now, dear. You’re the one who killed a man, after all. And with a gun, no less. Without pulling the trigger.”
Ríjez turns to me, eyebrow cocked inquisitively, and worry tightening his eyes. “Really?” he asks quietly. “No joke?”
Gnashing my teeth, I glare at Mella but slowly nod my head once in affirmation. There is a pause so long that I’m sure he’s too sickened to reply. Shame weighs on me like the ocean on a diver. Only I have no protective gear, and the heavy substance floods my system and threatens to drown me in the awful feeling. I jump when he rests his hand on my shoulder and squeezes gently. “You do what you have to in order to survive, kiddo. Natural selection and whatnot.”
“Yeah. Sure.” I shake my head and square my shoulders, hefting the gun. “Are we going to stand here all night or what? I kind of want to get moving, if you two don’t mind. Kinda smells around here.”
Mella nods and flicks a serious stare at Ríjez. “Well, you know these woods better than either of us, I presume.” She waves her hands grandly. “Lead on, good sir.”
I can’t contain my giggle as he looks at her in bafflement and then throws his chin high in arrogance and leads us west, towards the abandoned town.
Again, we find ourselves trampling loudly through the dead woods, but at least now we’re heading away from Rigs and the complex, and with Ríjez and two guns, I feel a lot safer. Okay, not a lot safer, but as safe as one can feel when being hunted down by vengeful vagrants. And they are vengeful, I have no doubt about that.