Death Cache (30 page)

Since Gage agreed with him, there was no point in reassuring him. Robert should’ve thought about Chloe, rather than looking at the geocache as another way of getting back into Tern’s life.

“The only thing we can do is hike on. The sooner we make it to the river, the better our chances.”

“Unless the killer is already there waiting for us,” Robert said, but he struggled to his feet, noticed the piece of jerky still clutched in his hand and ate it.

“Tern?” Gage brushed his fingers down her arm to get her attention, since she was staring off into space. He wondered what she saw. Did her Athabascan blood speak of their demise or their salvation? She focused on him, her almond-shaped eyes heavy with sadness but also full of resolve. “Wake Nadia. I want to be on the trail in five. I don’t like the look of those clouds.”

Tern knelt next to Nadia and shook her shoulder, none too gently. Nadia woke with a start and jerked into a sitting position.

She raised her head and looked into Tern’s eyes, her voice just loud enough to carry. “Help was never going to come. We’re all going to die.”

“We’re not,” Tern said firmly.

“I would have stayed,” Nadia continued. “If you guys hadn’t forced me to leave, I would have stayed at camp…and died.” She dropped her face into her hands. “I don’t want to die.”

“None of us do. Now snap out of it, Nadia.” Tern grabbed Nadia by the arm and helped haul her to her feet. “We need to move and think positive.”

Nadia dropped her hands and seemed to give herself a mental shake, but continued to look exhausted and beaten. “Okay. Okay, I’ll be fine. Let’s go.”

Gage didn’t know what to think of Nadia. It seemed unlikely that she could be the mastermind behind this, but he wasn’t above suspecting everyone until he knew the truth. The only one he trusted was Tern. The woman had never given him a reason not to trust her, while Nadia had.

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY-
T
WO

Her legs were going to drop off.

Tern trudged along behind Gage trying not to think of how much she hurt. The ache in her skull had bloomed and spread throughout her whole body. The shock of finding the dead pilot and the harsh reality of their situation had set in like an egg timer. Their days were numbered if they didn’t find help. If the killer didn’t get them first, the Alaskan wilderness would finish them.

They needed to reach the river. All survival guides tell you to head for water. Rivers, and streams, flow downhill toward civilization. But the Yukon River was anything but civilized. It journeyed just shy of two thousand miles, beginning in British Columbia and meandering through the Yukon Territory and Alaska to pour into the Bering Sea through the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, the richest fishing grounds in the world. The Yukon River was one of the major means of transportation during the Klondike Gold Rush. Back then many paddle-wheeled boats would have traversed the river. But today fisherman, tourists, and Alaskans used the river for food, entertainment, and transportation. Most would be concentrated around towns and villages.

What were the chances that they would be able to get help clear up here, just south of the Arctic?

What would her family do without her? She didn’t want to think these thoughts, but couldn’t force them back. Her family had already lost so much with her dad’s death. Raven would be okay. She had Aidan and Fox now. Her brother Lynx had his wife Eva and their new little girl. Her mom had just married their Uncle Pike after years of denying her feelings for the big bear of a man. So they had each other. It was her little sister Chickadee that Tern worried about the most. She was almost seventeen and the teenage years were rough. Tern had been about Chickadee’s age when their dad was murdered. Their mother would do her best to be there for Chickadee, and so would Raven. Lynx was clueless when it came to the women of the family. When things got all touchy-feely, he went hunting..

Chickadee was so much like Tern. They had a special connection that had been getting stronger and richer since Chickadee had been working with her at the shop on the weekends and holidays, spending the night in Fairbanks with her, too, for that special one-on-one girl time.

Chickadee would be lost.

For that matter, so would Chloe.

It broke Tern’s heart not knowing what would happen to the two girls if she and Robert didn’t make it back.

She’d never thought about her life in those terms, as she was sure Robert hadn’t until now either. Wasn’t that how life worked? You thought you were invincible until it became apparent that you weren’t. Hell, she didn’t even have a last will and testament drawn up. Why should she, when she was only twenty-eight?

Raven would know how she’d want her stuff divided. The shop could go to Chickadee if she wanted it. But then Tern wanted Chickadee to attend college and have that experience. Not be saddled with the heavy responsibility of a business. Raven would think of that, wouldn’t she?

Tern didn’t have a lot of personal items. Car, clothes, a few pieces of nice jewelry, some art she couldn’t bear to sell in the shop and had kept. She had a few lucrative investments. Surely the file would be found and her assets given to those who needed them most? Raven would divide everything between the families. Her most precious possession was the arctic tern her dad carved and she had that on her, thanks to the killer. If she was meant to die, it seemed fitting that the little bird flew with her into the spirit world.

Gage stopped in front of her and she almost ran into the back of him since she was so lost in thought.

“Let’s make camp here for the night.”

“Thank you, God,” Nadia said, dropping her backpack and following it to sprawl on the ground.

Robert groaned as he unclipped the waistband of his large backpack and let it slide down his arms.

Tern wanted to collapse, too, but if she lay down, she wouldn’t be getting up again and there was still work to do.

“I’m starving,” Robert said.

Case in point, they needed to find food, gather firewood, and erect some sort of shelter. The swollen clouds looked like they were going to dump their contents at any moment.

She was so tired.

“Hey, you okay?” Gage asked.

She nodded. It was too much effort to voice anything, plus she figured if she was able to talk she’d probably cry.

Gage had picked a good spot to stop. It wasn’t the Captain Cook Hotel, but there was a small brook for water, soft forest floor to sleep on instead of the rock they’d laid on the previous night. She didn’t want to remember what had happened between her and Gage in that cave. Or Nadia and Robert for that matter.

“First on the list is shelter before the rain arrives.” Gage gazed up at the darkening sky. “Tern, can you and Nadia see if you can find anything for dinner?”

She nodded again, really glad that she’d remained standing.

“Stay within sight,” Gage warned, his eyes traveling over her with worry.

Nadia groaned as she struggled to her feet. Tern wanted to join in the groan, but sound seemed beyond her.

She opened her backpack and grabbed the plastic bladder for water, an extra t-shirt to use as a bag, and headed toward the small brook looking for anything edible.

Nadia trooped behind her. “What I wouldn’t give for a cheeseburger. No offense, Tern, but I’m tired of eating like an herbivore.”

She grunted her agreement. A cheeseburger with an order of onion rings sounded heavenly. Her stomach growled. She’d never take fast food for granted again.

Scanning the forest floor, there wasn’t anything that looked appetizing. Not after the cheeseburger reference.

Tern glanced at the blackening sky for deliverance. The rest of them were counting on her to fill their bellies with something that would silence the biting hunger. She was just so tired, which meant more than ever that she needed to eat. Food was the only thing that would keep up her strength.

Nadia glanced along the banks of the gurgling brook. “So what goodies are you going to pull out of that?” There wasn’t a lot of optimism in her tone.

Tern studied the surrounding plants, hoping her headache didn’t mess with the knowledge rattling around inside her brain. What if she selected the wrong plant? She picked up a wet stone. “Stone soup?”

Nadia chuckled and then sobered. “I really hope you’re not serious?”

Tern shrugged and tossed the stone back into the brook. “Not a lot here.” At least, not a lot they could eat that wouldn’t cause hallucinations, paralysis, or death. The area was moist and full of moss. She picked a few coltsfoot and handed them to Nadia. While good for menstrual cramps, coltsfoot could also be steamed or sautéed and the roots roasted. Though it wasn’t one of her favorites because of its felt-like texture. She found some nagoonberry blossoms and popped a few into her mouth, revealing in the tart raspberry taste. She tied the top of the t-shirt she’d brought into a knot and used it as a container, picking the bush clean of flowers. If it were later in the season, there would be berries similar to raspberries, only bigger and juicer. Like the cheeseburger, there was something to be said for buying produce at the corner store rather than foraging in the forest.

“Unless we go hunting, this is the best I can do.” They hadn’t seen any animals since they had left the airplane and the dead pilot. They probably carried the stench of death on them and anything with a brain, no matter how small, was giving them a wide berth.

“Seriously?” Nadia asked. “That all you’re going to gather? Flowers and stalks?”

“There isn’t anything else edible, Nadia.”

“What about this? It smells nice.” She pointed to a bunch of water hemlock.

“You’ll feel like your lungs are drowning as it shuts down your respiratory system.”

“Seriously?” she said again, turning back with renewed interest to the plant with orange stalks and fragrant little bunches of white flowers. “Wow. What about this one here?”

“It’ll take two to three weeks to kill you, but it will get the job done.”

“Wow. I never knew.” She gave the greenery around her a look of appreciation.

“Some of the prettiest flowers and plants are the deadliest.” Tern took out her knife and cut some bark off a willow tree. She needed to get rid of her plaguing headache. “Come on. Let’s fill up the water. I need to get off my feet.”

They returned to Robert and Gage and found that the men had built a shelter by cutting and weaving pine branches together. One of the Mylar thermal blankets was pitched like a tent under the pine boughs and would hopefully help with the rain they were going to get. There was maybe three feet of height inside and it spanned just enough distance for the four of them to sleep side by side. Cramped quarters, to say the least, but Tern didn’t care. All she wanted to do was crawl in there and sleep.

“No fire?” Nadia asked.

“Plan on getting to it,” Robert said, “if the weather holds.”

A raindrop hit Tern on the cheek. One drop turned into many, and before they could crawl into the opening the four of them were soaked.

“Well,” Robert said with a huff. “At least it isn’t snowing.”

“Yet,” Nadia added under her breath.

Since it could very well be snow they were dealing with rather than rain, like they had a few days ago, Tern found the comment funny. Either that or she was just so tired she was punchy. Whatever the reason, she started to laugh. Instead of humor, the sound held a kind of crazy despair. Gage looked at her with worry but she couldn’t seem to stop. It wasn’t long before moisture filled her eyes.

Her shoulders shook, her head pounded, and everything went gray and cold. Gage’s arm wrapped around her and she didn’t care that he’d broken her heart again that morning. She curled into the safety and warmth of his arms and cried.

“Shit, how long is she going to do that?” Robert said.

“As long as she needs to,” Gage answered. “Go outside if it bothers you.”

“Right, and get wetter than we already are?”

“Take your pick.”

“Shit,” he said again, scratching the growth of his four-day beard.

Tern didn’t care. All she wanted was to be home in her house or at the lodge in Chatanika with her family. The thought of never seeing them again made her sobs come harder. Gage rubbed her back and held her tighter, letting her cry.

“I can’t listen to this,” Robert said. “Enough already.”

“Tern, honey, you’re killing me here,” Gage whispered in her ear.

“Seriously, Tern, you’re going to have us all in tears,” Nadia added.

“Look, things aren’t that bad,” Robert said.

That had her lifting her head and staring at him in shock. “Are you kidding me?” Tern asked. “Tell me how they aren’t that bad?”

“Well…we’re still alive,” Robert pointed out.

“You gotta do better than that.” But Tern wiped her eyes and straightened away from Gage. He dropped his arms from around her and she immediately missed his heat.

“We have shelter.”

“In a manner of speaking,” Nadia grumbled.

“Hey, this is a very cool shelter,” Robert said. “One of the best I’ve ever built.”