Earth(18)

I took a deep breath and tried again, aware of Shawn breathing down my neck.

"Come on!" I shouted at it. The ball obliged, falling the rest of the way toward me. I extended my hand, and the ball grew smaller, fitting in my palm. Within seconds, it winked out, extinguishing itself. I smiled.

The circle of fire around us roared in reaction. Blood mixed with the flame and it grew higher and thicker, closing in on us.

I turned to Shawn.

He was smiling. "Too late."





* * *





The next morning, after a rough patch of unintentional head-butting by Bee, I woke to Alex and Susan talking together by the fire.

Did they even sleep?

Susan's hair told me yes. Alex – I wasn't so sure.

Bee snored; her head heavy on my arm. Pins and needles raced through my limb from the weight. I had to pee, but I wasn't quite ready to rouse the little one. The smell of coffee tempted me. I turned to look at Alex and Susan. Their backs were to me, but I could see them working together to pour boiling water over crushed beans. The steamy liquid ran through a filter and into a camp cup. They took turns sipping from it.

"I miss cream," Susan said, voice low.

"We had some a few months ago, when we came across that dairy farm," Alex reminded her. Susan stuck out her tongue in distaste. He pretended not to notice. "At least you had that – I haven't seen sugar in over a year."

Susan took another sip, "We should save some for Kaitlyn."

"These beans can be used again," Alex placed another pot of water over the fire for boiling. "And here, let's warm up these canned peaches for Bee. She'll be hungry as soon as she wakes up. She deserves a treat."

"Do you think she'll be scared to get back on the river?" Susan asked.

I hadn't thought of that.

"I don't know. I'm a little more worried about how Kaitlyn will act."

Susan nodded. "Have you noticed the bags under her eyes? They are getting darker by the day. I don't think she sleeps much anymore." Susan kept lowering her voice.

"Hell, her nightmares are keeping me up now," said Alex. "Good thing Bee is a heavy sleeper."

Heavy head, too. I flexed my arm muscles. Come to think of it, last night was the best night's sleep I had in a while. Maybe it was just pure exhaustion.

Alex started analyzing my nightmares, "Do you think it's because of what happened?"

What happened? I strained to hear them.

Susan shrugged. "She hasn't mentioned anything leading up to Daybreak. Maybe it's a sort of memory loss."

"Or maybe just a subconscious block, but one day the memories are going to catch up with her and it won't be pretty." Alex threw his head back, finishing the drink.

They couldn't have been talking about what happened when I was kidnapped by Shawn; Susan and I had had a few conversations about that the past year. We knew we had to face him again, and talking about him openly let us fear him less. It was extremely therapeutic.

Bee whimpered, and both turned to look at us. I closed my eyes, feigning deep breaths of sleep.

"Come on, they'll be up soon. Turn the peaches so they don't burn. I'll pour more coffee," Alex said.

Thanks, Bee. I would have to discover the source of the mystery nightmares on my own.





Chapter 12





Thunder





"Earthquake in Huntington," Alex said as we pushed our canoe into the river.

"Huh?" I asked, preoccupied with the balancing act of moving to the front, with Bee in one arm and an oar in another. It wouldn't do to immediately dump Bee in the river on her first day back in.

"The camp across the river linked up with someone from Huntington last night on their Hamm radio. They said there was an earthquake three days ago." Alex pushed the canoe into deeper water, then jumped in himself without a wobble. His learning curve with this whole canoe thing was much steeper than mine.

"Wasn't that the big city we just went through?" Susan asked, sitting in the very front, playing navigator. We decided to stick with the fab four after yesterday's incident; no more splitting up.

"Yep," said Alex.

"So what are you saying?" I asked.

"I'm not saying anything, except that maybe we ought to reach out. See what information we can gather about places we left, as well as our next destination. Whether the natural disasters are caused by someone in our group or not," he cleared his throat, "we don't want to be leaving a trail."

Susan glanced at me over her shoulder. "Could just be a coincidence."

"Could be," I agreed. Desperation crept up my chest. She was finding excuses, trying not to be obvious about the truth.

So was Alex. "Could be a spy from our group, leaving bread crumbs the only way they know how," he suggested in a much lower voice.