Page 103 of Winter's End

“Let’s get out of here.” Logan grabbed both our hands and dragged us down the long tunnel to the surface.

I had never been so happy to see the night sky.

CHAPTER 28

CAMERON

It would have been a tranquil summer night in July; the dark navy sky played canvas to an ocean of stars floating within its depthless waters. Crickets chirped from tree to tree, singing their song in search of their mates. The distant gush of the falls echoed off the stone faces of the mountain, absorbed only by the feathering of evergreens that thinned out at the mine’s edge.

It would have been tranquil, but the frenzied air within Shane’s truck cabin mirrored a New Orleans Street party without the festivities.

His was the only one of our vehicles that could fit all six of us semi-comfortably, and Kellan’s directions had been evasive enough to make me wary. After we’d been trapped in the cellar for over a day, a quick getaway seemed prudent.

The borrowed truck came with two distraught boyfriends; each vibrating at such a high frequency, I felt the resonance deep in my bones.

An equivalent dread took up space in my body, but not in vibrations. My familiar companion unfurled its ugly head deep in my gut and released heady shots of uncut rage into my bloodstream.

Yet, I remained still. My demons would get their comeuppance. I couldn’t match the tranquility of the night, but I acted as a counterweight to Shane and Drew’s lack of calm.

Shane stared out the passenger side window, frantically searching for any sign of movement. His knee bounced aggressively—a detached limb with epilepsy; he was going to force a hole into the floor.

He turned his beseeching stare back to me. “Man, if you clench your jaw any harder, you’re going to lose your teeth.”

Immediately, I relaxed my facial muscles and felt the tight pang of pain from lactic acid build-up.

Perhaps I wasn’t so calm.

Kellan had messaged me a few hours into the evening. Shane and Drew weren’t with me then; I’d been in a side lot a few streets over from City Hall, playing my part in my brother’s secret plan as we waited for the events of the night to unfold.

His text was brief. A set of coordinates about forty minutes outside of town, an address to a safe location six hours north in Brenton, and the troubling description of‘3 for pickup. Stay out of sight.’

It was only a three-minute detour to pick up Shane and Drew. We all had an emergency bag packed as a ‘just-in-case’ stashed at Hillary’s condo. They’d brought theirs with them,tossed them in the extended cab, and I’d made the trip to the cryptic location in under thirty.

Shane was familiar with the place—an abandoned gold mine primed as a central tunnel for their massive bridge project. The truck was now parked in a gravel pit close by within the shroud of a copse of trees. We couldn’t see the mine entrance, but we could see the rough gravel road that led directly to the highway.

None of us voiced our questions of how they’d gotten here and why. They were too scary to say out loud, and we had no answers to assuage our fears.

“I see something!”

Drew’s exclamation shot me up with adrenaline. Shane and I peered out of the rear window; two shadowed figures raced down the rocky path with a limp body between them. Pain pierced my chest, which was briefly smothered by confusion when another larger figure, carrying its own lifeless form, came into view.

Shane swore behind me. “What in the ever-lovingfuckis going on?”

“Those aren’t ours.”

Whether I said that to soothe him or to soothe myself, I wasn’t sure. But the shadows didn’t match the outlines of our friends, and it was a bright enough night to make that distinction with some certainty.

“There! Cam—that’s them!” Drew’s voice was quickly approaching mania.

Itwasthem. If I hadn’t known their gait or outlines, I’d know it from the way they held hands, as if they were one human protective chain.

I turned the key in the ignition; the headlights flooded the space in front of us, and the three bodies froze like trapped baby deer.

Drew and Shane opened their doors and stepped out, shuffling everyone in. Shane latched onto Winter and wouldn’t let her go, carrying her into the front seat between us. Logan and Travis climbed into the back; their grim, dirty faces set in matching worried scowls.

My little violet’s hair was matted in dirty clumps, and her beautiful gown had ripped in several places. When she turned her head, the insatiable need to maim rippled through me. Her face was bloody, her body was bruised, and her eyes were troubled by whatever had happened in there.

Now wasn’t the time to push. As if she sensed my warring consciousness, she slipped her hand in mine and squeezed.

---