Page 11 of Shattered Home

My heart broke for my soft-spoken friend. At least I knew I had a chance of finding my family back in town. Hers was on the opposite side of the country and she had absolutely zero way to contact them. And if what Matthew said was true, this was happening across the nation.

“Mina, what if I told you there was a way to find others and to leave?” I began, hoping this was my chance to get someone on my side.

Mina’s head whipped up, her green eyes wide. “What are you talking about?”

“Murphy and I finally heard a radio broadcast. They’re asking everyone to go to the nearest camp. They said they were government aided. This could be our chance to get out of here, go somewhere with shelter and real food.”

My words rushed at the end, inflecting every ounce of persuasion into my voice as I could. Mina chewed on her lip as she processed my words and I let her have a moment to decide which side of the coin she wanted to fall on.

As I waited for a response, a set of eyes glared into the back of my head, and I turned to find Rainer’s hateful gaze on me. When my eyes met his, his brows furrowed even further, his lips turning down. It was as if he knew what I was telling Mina, like he could peer inside my brain and see my plan developing to get us the hell out of here. And based on the daggers he sent my way, he wasn’t a fan. Big surprise there.

“Why didn’t you guys say something right when you got back? We could be packing up already.”

At Mina’s words, I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew someone else would want to get out of here. I couldn’t be the only one slowly going insane. However, I hesitated before answering. I didn’t want to throw Murphy under the bus, and I wasn’t sure how Mina felt about Rainer. He wasn’t an asshole to her.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to decide how to respond, when Mina’s gaze fell on the man who I assumed was still glaring at me.

“Oh. He won’t want to leave, will he?”

“And leave the opportunity to be the American Bear Grylls? Highly unlikely,” I muttered, refusing to give in and see if he was still watching us.

“Well then, he can stay here. Why can’t the rest of us leave?” Mina asked, turning back toward me.

The tears had stopped flowing from her eyes, only leaving dried tracks on her freckled cheeks and a glimmer of hope in her eyes. Her question was one I had thought of during the few hours it took us to get back to camp. Why couldn’t we just leave without Rainer and Murphy?

The answer really was simple: we needed someone with a gun. I wasn’t fully convinced we wouldn’t run into another Brett and Matthew. Add to the fact that the Montana wilderness was filled with bears and wolves, and I didn’t trust that an unarmed group could make it back into town without some injuries. It was a miracle I had lasted on my own as long as I did at the beginning without an animal finding me.

I explained as much to Mina, and she frowned before thinning her lips in a determined stare. “Then we’ll convince them. I’m going to go talk to Sasha.”

Without any further conversation, she hopped up from the ground, brushing off the back of her legs before hurrying over to Sasha. Stephanie had rejoined her parents, so Mina jumped right into conversation. I watched from my spot on the ground, more hope unfurling in my stomach, when Sasha’s eyes widened in interest. I was so immersed in watching the two I didn’t hear the feet approaching until a shadow stood over me. I didn’t need to look up to know it was Rainer.

“What did you tell her?” He spat, and my shoulders tightened.

Whenever he was around, it seemed my body was always prepared for a fight. Usually, I would back down, trying to keep the peace amongst the group. But now I had the knowledge that soon I may be leaving him, never to see his glare again, and I was tired of giving in.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I refused to glance at him, picking at the hard dirt beneath me with my fingernails.

This only pissed Rainer off more, because he dropped into a crouch before me, his blue eyes searing through me.

“Don’t bullshit me, Alessia. Murphy told you that the information you heard was something we needed to talk about.”

Lifting my gaze to his, I didn’t flinch under his glare, instead sending him one of my own. In that moment, I decided if he and Murphy wanted to stay, I’d be leaving anyway. I’d rather face a grizzly than deal with his bad attitude one more day.

“Funny, I thought that was what I was doing. Talking about it with the others. Maybe Murphy should have said what he really meant, we needed to talk about it with you.”

Groaning, Rainer tugged on his long blonde hair, glancing back at Mina and Sasha before turning his sharp gaze back to me.

“We have no idea that those camps are safe. Who do you think set the fires to begin with? It could very well be the people that now want us to go to the camps.”

I hated to admit that his reasoning made sense. I hadn’t entirely thought about who was in charge of the camps. I had been so ready to get out of these woods that I was ready to trust the broadcast, assuming they had our best interests at heart. Maybe that was a side of effect of the way I had grown up, I was too trusting of authority figures. However, I wasn’t about to admit this to Rainer.

“Well, we have no idea if we don’t go!” I threw my hands up in the air, Rainer’s frustration bleeding into me. “How long do you plan to stay out here, Rainer? We won’t survive once winter comes again, even you have to know that.”

He frowned and I knew he did know that. We didn’t have the supplies needed to survive a frigid Montana winter. We’d be dead within weeks of the first snowfall, if not sooner.

Rainer didn’t respond to my words, standing back up to his full height and stomping away toward Emmanuel and Murphy, who were whispering off to the side of the fire. I watched as the three of them spoke in hushed whispers, all their faces scrunched in concern.

Later, once we were all sat around the fire, eating the deer meat Elizabeth had cooked, Rainer finally addressed the issue at hand.

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