Zero Visibility (11 page)

* * *

Merci moved through the trees away from Nathan. She needed a moment to calm down. His suspicions of Lorelei had opened old wounds. When he spoke, it was as if she was hearing her father talk to her in his judgmental way. She could picture him looking over the top of his half glasses. “Merci, your Pollyanna attitude, always thinking everyone is nice, is why you will never succeed in business. You are too trusting.”

But Nathan wasn’t her father. Over and over, she had seen how kind he was. He could have blamed her for the loss of the backpacks and he hadn’t. He’d saved her life more than once. She needed to get back to him.

Ahead of her, a branch broke and she saw a flash of color. Her heart pounded. The thieves were moving through the forest. She stood paralyzed by uncertainty. She had only stepped thirty feet away from Nathan, but evergreens blocked her view of him. He was in no condition to run. She had to lead the thieves away from where Nathan rested. She dashed into the thick of the trees, breaking branches to alert them to her whereabouts.

She leaped over a fallen log. She could hear them behind her, growing closer. As she ran, she put together a plan. She’d lead them far enough away to keep Nathan safe and then find a hiding place or maybe double back to get him.

She glanced over her shoulder, but couldn’t see anything. As she turned her head, she slammed into a solid mass. A hand went over her mouth. Leather Jacket’s sour breath enveloped her. “Don’t you dare scream for help or I’ll shoot you.” He pushed a gun against her lower back. “Now tell me where your friend is. He must be close by.”

The thieves must have split up in their search for her. She had to keep Nathan safe. “He didn’t make it. He was bleeding really bad.”

The man let out a satisfied chuckle. “That cut I gave him must have done the trick.” He leaned closer over her shoulder so his cheek nearly touched hers. The odor of dirt and cigarettes repulsed her. Her back stiffened. “He doesn’t matter to us, anyway, but you do.”

He grabbed her hair and pulled it so her head tilted toward the sky.

She drew her hand up toward her hair as her eyes rimmed with tears. Her whole body felt as if it was being shaken from the inside. What did he mean to do to her? “Please…please you’re hurting me.”

“Am I now?”

He pushed her forward. When she turned to sneak a glance at him, she saw the bloody strip of wool tied around his leg where she had hit him with the arrow from the crossbow. He walked with a limp.

“What are you staring at?” Leather Jacket barked at her, then yelled over his shoulder. “Check around for him just in case she’s lying.”

The other thief must be close by.

Please, dear God, keep Nathan safe.

A blindfold went over her eyes and a moment later, her hands were bound behind her. Her feet sank into the deep snow. As she was led through the camp, she lost all sense of where she was.

* * *

When Nathan awoke with his cheek resting against the snow, he was chilled to the bone, but the pain seemed to be subsiding. He willed himself to sit up. How much time had gone by? The sun had moved to the midpoint in the sky.

He waited a moment to ensure he was not going to pass out again from getting up too quickly. He pulled off his glove and gripped the tree trunk for support. The pain radiating through his shoulder threatened to send him toppling again. He gritted his teeth and straightened his back. If he didn’t lift the arm that was connected to the injured pectoral muscle, he’d be okay. The trauma to his body had taken its toll. Under normal circumstances, a doctor would have loaded him up with antibiotics and advised him to stay in bed for a day. But these were not normal circumstances.

Where had Merci gone? He had upset her. Maybe that was why she had stomped off. He stumbled through the forest reaching out for tree trunks for support.

He almost cried out for her, but decided against it. When he came to the edge of the forest, he stopped. He had a view of the meadow. By now there were so many sets of footprints through the snow he couldn’t determine how many comings and goings there had been.

His eyes wandered up to the cafeteria. His heart thudded in his chest as he studied the bleak empty landscape. Something had happened to her. He could feel it.

Leaning to one side from the pain, he made his way up to the back door of the cafeteria. The door was ajar. Each deep breath he took sent another jab of pain through him. He slipped into the hallway and pressed against the wall, listening for any sound. If someone was in here, they were being very quiet.

He eased down the hallway toward the office. His footsteps sounded as if they were being broadcast through a loud speaker. Once inside the office, it only took a moment to see that the backpacks were gone. The blood all over the bench where Merci had dressed his wound was evidence of the severity of his injury.

Maybe Merci had decided to go and get the backpacks on her own. He slumped against a wall. Somehow that theory just didn’t seem to hold water. Their paths would have crossed if she had headed back to where he was resting after getting the backpacks.

Nathan pushed himself off the wall and rooted through the office to gather together whatever might be useful. He found several boxes of matches. He took two more of the out-of-date ibuprofen and put the rest back. He still had his pocket knife.

He left by way of the busted front door and set out toward the camp to find Merci. He had no food, his injuries had weakened him and his only weapon was a pocket knife. It didn’t matter. She had saved his life, and he intended to return the favor. More than that, he was coming to realize that he cared deeply about her. If the thieves had taken her, he was going to get her back no matter what.

NINE

M
erci had no idea where she was. The fabric the thieves had tied over her eyes made it impossible for her to see. Even when she tilted her head to try and look underneath the blindfold, she couldn’t make out shapes or even detect slivers of light. The room she was in must be dark and windowless. Her hands were tied behind her. It had taken only moments for the chill from kneeling on a concrete floor to penetrate the layers of clothing.

Her knees ached from putting pressure on them. She moved so she was in a sitting position with her legs out in front of her. In the quiet, her mind wandered. Nathan had been in rough shape when she left him. Would he have been able to slip away before the other thief found him?

The silence in the room was oppressive like a weight on her chest. She couldn’t hear anything that indicated where she was. The air smelled musty.

After maybe ten minutes, she worked up the courage to scoot across the floor. Her foot touched something metal. She repositioned herself so her back was to the object, and she could touch it with her bound hands. She pressed her palm against cold metal. It could be a washing machine or maybe a hot water heater.

Above her, a door swung open and banged against the wall. She heard grunting and footsteps moving around her and then the door slammed shut.

“Is someone else in here?” a familiar voice said from across the room.

Her heart fluttered. The voice was faint. It seemed to be coming from across the room. “Lorelei, is that you?”

“Merci. Oh, Merci. You have no idea how glad I am to hear your voice.”

Merci turned her head toward Lorelei’s voice. “What is going on? Are you tied up, too?”

“Yes,” Lorelei said.

Hope spread through her. Nathan had been wrong. Lorelei was a captive, not a conspirator in this whole terrible event. “Nathan said he saw you in the dorm walking around. What happened? Why did they tie you up?”

There was a moment’s hesitation before Lorelei answered. “Could you keep talking, and I’ll move toward you?”

“Okay, what should I talk about?”

“Just sing that song we were singing in the car.” Lorelei’s voice sounded closer already.

“You mean the one right before the car broke down?” Merci’s voice trembled with emotion. Lorelei was as much of a victim as she was.

“Yeah, do you remember it?” Lorelei sang the first few lines of the song.

Merci joined it. Now the lyrics sounded so childish. Had it been less than twenty-four hours ago that they had been singing and laughing in the car? The naive exhilaration of being on a road trip and the hope and excitement about visiting her Aunt Celeste now seemed a million miles away. The words of the song rang hollowly in the air.

She could hear Lorelei scooting toward her. And then their shoulders touched. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“What happened? Why did they tie you up?”

“I think they are leaving us. I think they are going back to the cabin.” A silence fell between them before Lorelei piped up. “You said Nathan saw us when we were in the dorm?”

“That is what he said. Why did they take you on the snowmobile in first place?” Merci readjusted herself on the hard concrete floor. Though Lorelei’s shoulder was no longer touching hers, she could feel the other woman’s body heat close by. “What’s going on here?”

“This whole thing has been kind of crazy.” Lorelei’s boot scraped the floor as she adjusted her position. “What do you suppose they were looking for back there at the car?”

Merci straightened her spine, struggling to find a comfortable way to sit. Lorelei’s question seemed odd. Wasn’t it obvious what they were looking for? “Probably iPods and laptops. Something they could sell for quick cash. Or maybe they thought we had some cash on us. They probably targeted us when we stopped for gas, followed us and waited for their chance. Why does it matter, anyway?”

“I don’t know. I’m just trying to make sense of all this.” Strain entered Lorelei’s voice.

There was no need to visit the past. It was obviously upsetting. “Why don’t we try to see if we can cut each other free? Maybe if we feel around, we can find something sharp. Could you see anything when they brought you in?”

Lorelei took a long time to answer. “They put a blindfold on me before they brought me here. I know I was led down some steps.”

“Feel around. There might be something useful in this place.” With the small range of motion she could manage, Merci scooted on her behind and patted the floor. She could hear Lorelei moving, as well. “I’m thinking maybe we are underground. It might be a laundry room or cellar or something.” After a few minutes of not finding or feeling anything but hard cold concrete, she stopped. The room had fallen silent again. “Lorelei? Are you okay?”

Something thudded against the outside wall of the building. Merci took in a sharp breath. The door crashed open again. Footsteps, intense and fast, came toward her.

“Merci, I’m here.”

Nathan’s smooth tenor voice comforted her in ways she couldn’t have thought possible. He cut the rope that bound her hands.

She reached up for the blindfold. “We have to untie Lorelei, too.”

“Lorelei? What are you talking about?”

When she took her blindfold off, the only thing she saw in the room was a dryer that wasn’t hooked up and some other broken appliances. “But she was just here. I was talking to her.”

“Merci, please, we have to go.” He pulled her up the stairs.

Merci’s mind reeled as she struggled to understand what had just happened. The building was larger than she had expected. “Is there a back door?”

“Yes, there is. We need to go.” Nathan’s voice held a tone of desperation that told her now was not the time to be asking questions.

They burst out into the sunlight. Merci shielded her eyes. When she saw the man in the orange coat lying on the ground starting to stir, she understood why Nathan was in such a hurry. He must have been standing guard, and Nathan had knocked him out. He’d regain consciousness in a few seconds.

“Come on, we got to go. She may be running to tell the others right now,” Nathan said.

He was talking about Lorelei? Her mind stalled out. This didn’t make any sense.

He tugged on her shoulder. “Merci, come on, we have to get out of here fast.”

She had to let go of her confusion for now. Nathan took off running. She followed.

When Merci looked over her shoulder, she saw the man in the orange coat rising to his feet. A moment later, the man in the leather jacket came around the side of the cabin. Nathan headed back toward the trees. His hand frequently went up to his pectoral muscle where the knife wound was. He bent forward as he ran. Though he didn’t say anything, Merci knew he must still be hurting.

Nathan zigzagged around the pine trees moving in an erratic pattern that would be hard to follow. She stayed close to him, pushing branches out of the way.

They ran for some time until both of them were breathless. Nathan stopped for a moment, leaning against a tree and gulping in air. When she had caught her breath, she said, “Maybe we lost them.”

“I don’t know,” said Nathan. She could almost feel his pain with each ragged breath he took in. “I don’t know why they are chasing us. They’ve already taken our food.”

Shockwaves spread through her. “They found the backpacks?”

He nodded.

“We have to get back to the cabin before nightfall,” she said. She still didn’t understand why Lorelei had pretended to be tied up and blindfolded, but it no longer made sense to try to help her.

He raised his eyebrows in agreement. He turned a half circle as though he were trying to assess where they were. Finally, he pointed. “I think this will get us back on the trail without having to go near the camp again.”

They had run only a short distance when the shouts of the thieves permeated the forest. The noise was coming from two different parts of the forest. The men must have split up. In the mix of voices, Merci detected one that was distinctively female. The voices grew louder, closer.

Nathan turned on his heel and led her in a different direction.

And though she couldn’t totally sort through what had happened, it looked as if Lorelei was somehow connected to these men. She’d lied about being tied up and blindfolded and must have left the second Nathan burst through the door or even minutes before. The reason for the ruse was unclear.