NorthWest (John Hazard - Book II) (21 page)

The key ring attached to his belt loop, it turned out, was actually a small flint and steel kit. As the others gathered around, Eddie knelt over the small pile of tinder he had gathered. Even John was curious and stopped to watch as Eddie made a motion with his hands sending a bright flash of sparks up into the night.

John smiled as he turned again to the task at hand. Eddie had surprised him, and he felt relief as he realized they would not have to rely on the near empty lighter he had found. There was plenty of dead wood laying around, and John used the flashlight only when necessary. Meanwhile, he could see the sparks continuing to float up from the campsite until finally he heard a cheer as the team began to clap. A small fire had sprung from the fire pit.

Eddie had done well and stayed close to the others who gathered around the growing fire. With John out collecting wood, he felt somewhat responsible for the team and held the hatchet firmly in his white knuckled fist. Each of the others was scanning the surrounding woods which somehow seemed darker and deeper as the flames grew higher.

Raj and the women were jittery and tensed up at every sound and crackle coming out of the black night. An occasional hoot or howl in the distance had them huddling closer together. As Eddie added increasingly larger pieces of wood to the fire, they were forced to back away from the growing heat, putting a few feet of space between them.

Eddie and John had agreed on a whistle system to verify their whereabouts while away from the group. Occasionally a whistle sounded from the woods, and Emily took comfort in knowing that John was safe and would be back sitting next to her soon.

Eddie’s mind was racing even as he answered John with his own signature whistle. What would he do if John was attacked and eaten by those things? All he had was the hatchet he was holding. Would this be enough to fight them off if he had to? And if the things charged the campsite, would he and Karla be able to get away? Could he really run away if the others were being ripped apart? Could he leave them behind bleeding and screaming?

He looked over at Karla sitting there in the firelight, and remembered her beautiful naked body lying next to him the night before. Suddenly he was quite sure of the answer. “Yes,” he said out loud while the others looked back at him quizzically.

“Yes what?” Emily asked, helping him find some larger pieces of wood to add to the fire.

“Nothing… I was just thinking out loud.” He averted his eyes pretending to look off into the woods. His discomfort faded quickly as he reasoned that he probably wasn’t the only one thinking about survival. He had no idea how right he was.

Macy was warming herself next to the fire that was growing in the rock lined pit. She was thinking about what they had seen today and what they might face come daylight or, God forbid, sometime later tonight in the darkness.

The creatures that had nearly torn them apart were not the same aliens who had abducted her all those years ago. The monsters that had traumatized her and her sister had seemed more like scientists, coldly conducting their experiments on humans, not devouring them like mindless beasts.

Her memories were quite clear when it came to the terror and pain she had experienced, but she could never remember those who had attended her as anything but hazy figures somehow void of any distinguishing features. The monsters she had encountered today were definitely of a different species and different in a really fucking bad way!

Macy contemplated what she would do if they were attacked again. She recalled an old saying, ‘If you and a friend are being chased by a bear, don’t worry about outrunning the bear. You only have to outrun your friend.’ A wicked half-smile crossed her face as she considered her competition.

If they had to run, she figured John would be out in front. He seemed to be the most athletic member of the team, a survivor and tough as nails. His obvious passion for Emily was his weakness, however, and that alone would be enough to hold him back. If Emily was injured or fell behind for any reason, he would probably rush to save her. 

Eddie, well, he was a sucker for Karla and would die defending her if need be. That left Sherri and Raj with no connection to anyone else here now that Marcus was gone. If one or both of them lagged behind, no one would bitch if they somehow happened to end up sacrificing themselves to slow the creatures down.

She knew it was a cold and calculating thought, so she kept it to herself. After all, this wasn’t reality TV. This was not a threat concocted by some producer to drum up better ratings. There was no team building, no strategic alliances here. The only connections in this group were natural relationships. She doubted they wanted to play her way or make a plan for surviving that involved sacrificing a few players.

It didn’t matter. She had decided before planning this trip that these people weren’t all that important. Nothing else mattered but solving the mystery behind her sister’s disappearance, and exacting revenge on their kidnappers. Now she was determined to live. She realized there were not going to be any answers and surely no revenge. There was only a good chance that she and every person with her was going to die if they couldn’t get out of here and get some kind of help.

Next to her, Raj sat staring at Karla’s gorgeous breasts generously exposed by the low cut of her tight fitting t-shirt and shining like two delicious melons in the firelight. His mind drifted as he dreamed about what he had missed while saving his virginity for marriage. He had decided when he was a teenager that even if his friends were sneaking off to lose their virginity with the whores of his village, he would keep his body clean for his betrothed. What if he died now, a virgin, and never having fulfilled the desires he had saved?

Watching Eddie use his hatchet, he tried to put such thoughts out of his mind. He couldn’t help but think about the hatchet he had taken out of his cart at the outdoor store, and how he had worried that he would be sorry he had done so. Well, he was sorry all right. If he had that hatchet right now, he could protect himself if some shit went down, and maybe even save Karla. He would have those huge tits rubbing against him out of gratitude. What a thought!

“It really sucked, what happened to Marcus I mean.” Rubbing her arms to warm them, Sherri broke the silence.

“Yeah, but that’s what saved us. I wish I could thank him,” said Eddie. “If we had gotten to this camp before they caught up to us, maybe we could have fought them off.” He eyed the business end of the hatchet turning it from side to side as he spoke.

Karla looked hard at Eddie. “I don’t think so, Eddie. You saw how many of those things there were back at that clearing. You didn’t find that hatchet right away, and they would have eaten us before we even had a chance to look around.”

Eddie blushed a little. “Well, I think he might still be alive if we had made it this far.”

John had just returned with a massive armload of firewood and caught the gist of the conversation. He dropped the load to the ground, saying, “Look, even if we had found this place, I don’t know if we could have stopped those things without some kind of sacrifice. Old ‘Ho-Tep’ is with his ancestors now. They’re probably laughing at us there in the spirit world. And here we are trying to figure out how to survive.” He was now wearing a flannel shirt he had found in the brush. “Eddie, put that thing to some use and chop up some of these branches.”

Eddie reached over and grabbed one of the large branches that John had dragged behind him and began chopping it into smaller pieces. John continued, “We need to have some kind of a plan for morning. If those fuckers are sleeping out there, they might wake before sunrise like the birds do.”

He took one of the logs from the pile he had just dropped and laid it in the fire pit. It sizzled in the hot flames. Emily added a few more pieces of wood, as he sat down to rest.

“We got lucky tonight.” John reached into his shirt and pulled out something that crackled like some kind of wrapper. “There was another backpack out there tangled in the brush. I found this shirt, a couple of energy bars and a bag of peanuts. They seem to be in pretty good shape. Anybody hungry?”

Forty One

“Hey, boss, I don’t think this bitch is coming back.” The well-dressed man pushed his sunglasses down and massaged the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “I ain’t seen nothin’ here all day. How much longer do I have to sit here?”

The response came quick and loud from the man on the other end of the phone. He held the phone away from his ear as the yelling continued, then put it back against his face as he replied, “Sure, boss. As long as it takes.” He pressed the button to sign off and let out a long sigh, banging his head against the head rest.

It had been three days since he and his partner had kicked in the door of that girl’s apartment and popped some shots at her from the fire escape.  She got away with some man in a car. He had taken a lot of shit for his mistake. Now he was being punished by being forced to sit here staked out in half-day shifts waiting for her to return.

It was unusual for anyone to abandon their apartment and all of their possessions like that. He had expected her to come by to pick up some clothes or something by now, but she had not returned. As far as he knew, she was never coming back.

He had been told that a couple of guys had been sent to stake out the airport. The perky bitch at the airport had told them the girl had probably taken off in some plane. It wasn’t clear if Ms. Sparks was going to be gone for a day or a week. The boss clearly didn’t give a shit. Until she returned home this was his hell, sitting on some boring street, bored out of his fucking mind, watching a boring apartment building.

The sound of his stomach growling mocked him for not taking time to pick up some food on his way here. It was too late for that now.

Forty Two

The energy bars and peanuts that John had found in the woods didn’t even come close to taking the edge off the hungry growls from their stomachs. Divided equally, it had amounted to a small handful of food for each of them. As Emily distributed the snacks, John had reminded them, “This could be the last food we have for the next several days. It would be good to eat half of it now and save the rest for later.”

Everyone stared back at him. How could they think of saving something for later when there wasn’t even enough for now? John ate half of his ration, returned the rest to an empty wrapper and shoved it into his pocket. He noticed Emily doing the same. She smiled back at him as she realized he was watching. The rest of the team was slowly chewing the remains of their portion, savoring the flavor, and leaving nothing in reserve.

Eddie’s fire building skills were well appreciated and a large campfire was still crackling in the pit while the group huddled around taking comfort from the glow. They seemed almost at ease. Perhaps the warmth of the fire and little bit of food had given them some small hope that they might actually survive this ordeal.

John understood that hope and faith were crucial to survival, but he also recognized that he was surrounded with some of the most self-absorbed, unrealistic and helpless people he had ever been involved with. It was, after all, a class from a community college not a crack military unit, and there was still an undercurrent of tension in the group.

“How long do you think it will take before they realize we’re missing and start to search for us?” Eddie’s question came like a shot out of the dark, breaking the silence.

“Is that all we are? Missing people? I think we have bigger fucking problems than that, jerk wad.” Raj’s words lashed out, but no one reacted. Everyone was fully aware of the deep shit they were in. No one felt any need to respond to Raj’s outburst.

John had been mentally reviewing the events of the day, trying to recall anything that might be important to help them escape the trouble they might face tomorrow. “You know, Macy, I just thought about something from the alien death camp back there.”

Macy took offense at the tone of his question. “Oh yeah? What’s that, Mr. Hazard? The part where several of us pissed our pants?” She eyed the men and touched herself to draw attention to the fact that she had not.

“No, not at all, Dr. Renner,” he sneered back at her. “It was something you said to that fucking alien while I was trying to cut myself free, remember? So I could save your ass?”

“And just what would that be? I don’t remember doing much talking. We were all more concerned about dying.” She backed down a little.

“Well, you didn’t seem to be afraid. In fact, it sounded like you were asking that fucker about someone named… Mary, I think it was.” He paused as she sat there glaring at him. “You said something about being taken to a ship? And I don’t think you were referring to the Queen Mary. Is there something you would like to share with us, Dr. Renner?”

“Fuck you, John! You wouldn’t understand.” She put her finger in her mouth and dug something from between her teeth and spit it into the fire. Suddenly, she had shifted from college professor to a streetwise punk girl with an attitude. “You don’t need to be all up in my business. You’ve got your own shit to worry about, Hazard.”

“Oh, and what would that be? The fact that we are stranded in these woods with no food, aliens out to eat us, and little hope of a rescue? You’re right. I do have my own shit to worry about!” He was getting a bit tired of her smartass comments.