Between a Bear and a Hard Place(58)

Claire sat up, back comfortably straight against a tree stump, and stared straight ahead. It was an early morning – a very early one. The sun hadn’t risen yet, nor had either of the bears who had been her constant companion-slash-kidnappers. She didn’t blame them – she knew why they were doing what they did – but that didn’t make it any better.

She smiled because something normal was happening. Something that felt like a thing people did. She was so tired of running through branches and hiding under big lumps of humus every single time a helicopter whirred overhead. She didn’t even know why they were hiding. After all, it had been months since the last attack, and just as long since they’d parted ways with the other bears, and with Jill.

God, she missed Jill. That was the first person who seemed to really get Claire Redmon.

It seemed silly now, sitting out in the middle of the woods and buzzing a guy she skipped a date with two months before, but every bit of normality made her feel a little better. Claire had forgotten all about the wild, horrific feeling of being a murderer after she was told that the guy that Fury and Stone were supposed to have ripped ear from ear lived. So now, here she was, wondering what the hell was going to come next.

“Uh... hello?”

The voice came through the receiver, unsure and shaking, and obviously asleep. “Dad?”

I wonder if there’s something wrong with his dad. I mean, why else would he answer a call at... four in the morning asking that? Ugh, why can’t I just calm down?

“No,” Claire said with a little giggle. “Sorry, I have the wrong—“

“Oh, shit,” Nick said. “I can’t remember your name but I sure as hell remember you.”

Claire blushed, even though she was at least two hundred miles away from the guy, and any embarrassment she had was one-hundred-percent, completely and totally lost. “You... do?”

Nick made a sort of chuffing, scoffing sound. “You stood me up,” he said. “I mean, it wasn’t the first time I got stiffed for a date, but for some reason, this one didn’t make me mad. I figured you just had something important to do and got all caught up in it. I heard you guys talking about your job. Seems like a hell of a serious thing, with all the experiments and the door guards who don’t let anything through. Am I right?”

Claire shifted her weight from one hip to the other, and took a long drink from the canteen she’d filled the night before. “You’d never believe me if I told you,” she said with a smile.

Here’s the thing – she didn’t feel anything for Nick. Not after Stone and Fury. She didn’t feel like she was interested in him, or like she needed him, or anything like that. Except... in a way, she did. She did need the normal guy, the friendly guy, the silly waiter with the ginger hair and the freckles that she’d embarrassed with all the sex talk and the nipple clamps.

This isn’t copper I’m smelling, Claire thought, remembering the way Eckert’s sour sweat had tasted in the back of her throat the moment before Fury ripped his neck open. This is a different kind of... cleaner? Pine-Sol? Why would I smell that?

“Are you right?” she asked as her thoughts trailed away from the conversation. A bird flitted past and she snapped back. “Oh, uh, yeah. There was a lot going on.”

He laughed again. This guy was a real good sport for half past four. Or maybe he was just that desperate that he’d remember her two months later and be willing to take a call at such a stupid hour. Somehow though, she didn’t think so. Somehow, she felt that something wasn’t quite that simple.

Claire took a deep breath before she responded, and something in the air caught her nose. She sniffled, she snorted, and then unleashed a massive, almost unbelievably loud, sneeze.

Fury stirred. Stone rolled over, pulling the tattered blanket tight around his shoulders.

But neither of them woke. Neither came to. They both just shifted a little, then went right on snoring again.

“How much are you willing to believe?” Claire asked. “And I mean that I’ve got a real fucking whopper for you.”

Nick let a long, droning, humming sound escape his throat. “Depends on what you’re going to tell me. Is this going to be an abduction story? Because I should probably tell you right now that I don’t much believe in that stuff. I mean, I’m fine with aliens and whatever, but abduction stories always leave me wondering if I’ve had my wallet stolen.”

Why is he talking to me? Why would someone I saw for exactly eighty seconds of my life, care enough to talk to me like this? And why does he sound so interested?