Page 46 of Creed
Summoning up more energy, I forced my face into a smile that I hoped looked genuine.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got it. This isn’t my first time hiking across a mountain.”
Technically, it was my second time, but the boy didn’t need to know that.
We kept going, slowly but steadily. The sounds of the night followed us everywhere, leaving the hair on the back of my neck in a permanently upright position. It felt like we were constantly being watched, and with every unidentifiable noise my imagination kept flipping between the cult we were running from and the natural dangers of the forest.
I wasn’t sure which was worse.
After another hour of hiking, we came upon a small river. I wasn’t sure what the difference between a river and a stream was, but the water here was deep enough and moving fast enough that calling it a river seemed appropriate.
Creed showed no sign of surprise when we reached the river, so I assumed he somehow knew it was there. He checked the direction the river, looking at the sky a few times to cross-reference whatever information was in his head, before declaring “This is a good spot.”
Sensing that we were about to stop for a while, I set the bag down. “A good spot for what?”
Creed also laid Mavis on a large flat rock.
“To throw them off our trail. I don’t know if they have any scent hounds, or expert trackers, but just in case, we should leave a false trail. Give me your shoes.”
Assuming that Creed had a plan, because at this point it was safe to assume he always had a plan, Robyn and I took off our shoes and handed them over without question. We each stood on a rock to keep our socks out of the dirt and watched as Creed walked along the riverbank, stopping occasionally to press our shoes into the soft mud of the riverbank and leave false tracks to make it look like three people were walking side by side.
He continued until he reached a rockier area where our shoes wouldn’t leave any obvious tracks, then he walked backward along his own footprints until he returned to us.
“Here, put these back on and let’s keep going. It’ll be daylight soon enough, and we need to find shelter before then.”
“Since you laid the false trail going downstream, I assume we’re not going that way,” I said as I laced up my boots. “So where are we going?”
Creed pointed across the river. “We’ll cross here. The water will help wash away our scent, and the opposite bank has plenty of large rocks we can climb out on without leaving obvious footprints.
The moment I stepped into the water, I shivered. It was colder than I expected for the middle of summer. According to Creed, the rivers this far into the mountain probably came from thesnow melting off their peaks, but I still hadn’t expected it to be quite so cold.
Robyn yelped the moment he stepped foot into the water, and quickly covered his hands over his mouth to stifle the noise. He’d accidentally stepped into the deeper area, and the water reached halfway up his thigh.
I held onto him as we waded through the river, making sure he didn’t get swept away. The water wasn’t too deep, only coming up to about my waist at its deepest point, but the current was strong, and it could be dangerous if it took our feet out from under us.
We stepped carefully over the loose rocks and slimy plants until we reached the opposite riverbank. Once out of the river, the night air hit my wet skin like someone had dumped ice inside my clothing. I shivered strong enough to make my teeth chatter and hugged my arms close to my chest.
“How much... farther?” I asked, trying not to bite my own tongue when I talked.
Creed looked at Robyn and I shivering with a sympathetic expression. He’d kept Mavis out of the water, so she was dry, and although he was also wet, he showed no signs that he even noticed the cold.
“Not much farther. We just need to get far enough away from the river so that if they aren’t fooled by the false trail, then they still won’t easily find us.”
Apparently, to Creed “not much farther” meant another two hours of hiking. Based on the watch strapped to his wrist, it was just past five in the morning when we saw the first signs of daylight in the sky. We’d escaped some time around one in themorning, so we’d only been hiking for about four hours, yet it felt like we’d been walking for days.
“Here,” Creed finally announced, pointing to a patch of forest that looked no different than anywhere else.
I stood there, doubled over with my hands on my knees as I tried to catch my breath.
“Here, what?”
Creed pulled back a bush to reveal a small opening in the rocks that I hadn’t even noticed.
“We’ll take shelter here for the day and continue our journey once night falls. This should be safe enough.”
The entrance of the cave wasn’t very big, bit inside it was more spacious than I expected. Part of it must have extended underground. I’d just been held in an underground room for days, so the thought of returning underground wasn’t very appealing, but I had to admit it was a great choice for shelter. The ground was dry and comfortable, and the entrance was nearly invisible from the outside.
I threw the bag off my back and collapsed onto the earthen floor. “How did you know this was here? I didn’t even see it when we were standing right next to it.”
