Kristy rolled toward the window and the morning sun hit her eyes. She hadn’t slept long and her body ached. She stretched her rigid muscles and rolled off the mattress. The cabin was cold, so she pulled on her jeans and sweatshirt. She peeked out the doorway and saw Cam still asleep on the cot. She smiled at the sight of him sleeping. She had had a long time to think about everything she had learned, and today she saw him in a completely different light. She wanted to do something for him.

She took a step and the floor creaked beneath her. She stopped and waited to see if Cam would wake up. When he didn’t, she tip-toed all the way to the kitchen and opened the fridge. There were eggs, sausage, and cheese that Cam had packed the night before, and she found some dry food in the cupboard. There were a few pots and pans on the shelf above the stove and she was able to find paper plates and a spatula in a drawer. In one cabinet she found an old coffee kettle, a can of coffee grounds, and three mugs.

Kristy started the coffee first and then tore off chunks of meat and formed small sausage patties. She placed them in the pan and they started to sizzle. Kristy cracked a few egg into another pan and was just beginning to scramble them when she heard a noise behind her. She held the spatula out in front of her and spun around to see Cam leaning against the doorway.

“You gonna fight me off with that?” He was trying to hold back his laughter.

Kristy looked at the spatula and back to Cam, and a smile spread across her face.

“At least it’s hot.” She laughed. “Sorry. I’m a little jumpy.”

“Understandable.” He nodded and laughed at her again. He grabbed one of the mugs she had set on the counter and filled it with coffee. After his first sip, he pointed to the spatula in her hand. “I have some different techniques. After breakfast we’ll see what you’re made of. It smells great.”

They were more relaxed with each other than they had been the day before. They were able to laugh and talk, and they worked together comfortably. After breakfast, Cam was ready to get down to business. They sat down at the table together with Kristy’s laptop, the earpiece, the flash drive.

“I don’t even know what to make of this.” Cam said when he took a collective look at everything on the table.

“What did you hear that made you want to leave so fast?” Kristy picked up the earpiece and looked at it.

“It was them; whoever was outside your apartment was using one of these to communicate with whoever they were talking to, and this was connected to the ones they were using. I could hear them talking to someone telling them everything you were doing. They said you’d called someone and was showing him Alex’s stuff. He must have been on the phone because I could only hear one side of the conversation. He got excited when he told whoever it was that you found the flash drive. He kept saying they found it, they found it and I knew we needed to leave.”

Kristy looked at Cam in disbelief. “How could they be listening? They would have had to…” Then it hit her. “Oh God,” She stood up and started to pace in front of him.

“What?”

“And a few nights ago I went out with my friend, and when I came home I kept thinking things weren’t in their place. They’d been moved slightly, but I didn’t remember moving them. It was really late when I got home. I was so tired, and I’d had some drinks, so I just thought I forgot… oh God…” She was pacing in front of the table with her hands tee-pee’d over her nose and her eyes squeezed shut.

Cam crossed his arms and nodded. He knew immediately. “They bugged your place. Who knows how long they’ve been watching you; listening.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “I bet if we went back there I could find them.”

“How can we go back? If I go back then they will know I left, and then they will know to follow us…” Kristy slumped back into the chair she had been sitting in. She put her elbows on the table and let her head fall into her hands. “We’re stuck here, aren’t we?” Kristy mumbled into her hands.

“We’re not stuck here.” Cam reached across the table and put his hand on her forearm. “We’ll figure this out.”

She took a deep breath and stared at the table.

“Okay,” Kristy raised her eyes and nodded to herself. “What do we do first?”

“See what’s on this.” Cam picked up the flash drive and inserted it into the side of Kristy’s laptop, and turned her laptop so they could both see it. A folder popped up and Kristy clicked on it, revealing several photos. Kristy clicked on the first one and, when it opened, she stared at the screen dumbfounded.

“It’s a cat.” Cam furrowed his brow feeling equally confused.

Kristy closed it and clicked on the next one. They recognized the next few photos as the ones that were on the cell phone that belonged to Alex. The last set of photos caught them by surprise. There were pictures of Alex with Kristy, Alex with Cam, Alex with Claire, and one of Alex standing tall dressed in his uniform. Kristy stopped on the last one and looked at it a little longer than she had at the others. She liked the look of her brother in his uniform and was glad he had left that picture. She wanted to print it and hang it in her apartment.

The last item in the folder was a video file. Kristy clicked on it, but it was password protected.

“Well, shit.” Cam leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

“Should we guess?” Kristy thought the two of them could figure out what may have been her brother’s password.

“No.” Cam pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. Kristy could hear the phone ring on the other end. “Hey, man... I need you to look at something for me… Yeah. It needs a password… No, at my cabin… Okay… Two? I’ll be there… Thanks, man. I’ll see ya then.” Less than a minute later Cam hung up and closed the computer, then stood up and looked at Kristy. “Come on. We have a little while. Put your sweats back on. I want to show you something.”

They stood outside behind the cabin. Cam was facing Kristy. “Okay, if someone comes at you, what do you do?”

“Uh, run?”

“They can run too, probably as fast as you. You need to give yourself a head start. Have you ever been in a fight?”

“No, but I know that thing from Miss Congeniality. S.I.N.G.” Kristy was proud of herself. Cam set a hand on his hip and stifled a small laugh.

“Okay, that’s a movie. This is real. Let me show you.” Cam moved to stand next to Kristy so they were facing the same direction. “If someone comes at you, put your hands up in front of your face. Open your hands; palms out. This way your hands are already up, just in case. Now you’re ready to react. Always guard your face.” Cam held his hands up in front of his face with his palms out. Kristy did the same.

“You gonna make me Bruce Lee?” She joked.

“Nope. Today you just get a crash course. But if you wanna wrestle later…”

“Cam!” She dropped her hands and turned toward him.

“Right, right. Best friend’s sister, off limits. I know the rules.” He stood up straight and shrugged lightly. “Didn’t mean to be weird. Just tryin’ to have a little fun.”

“This is not my idea of fun.” The corner of her mouth turned up. “But you did make me smile. You just surprised me.”

“Oh yeah?” He shifted his weight and turned toward her. “What’s your idea of fun?”

“Uh,” Kristy’s eyes wandered as she thought. “Roller coasters. Haunted houses. Really loud music. You know what I really love, though? A good old backyard BBQ. Being with my friends and family, just sort of hanging out. Playing cards, losing track of time because we’re laughing so hard. Everyone’s relaxed. It’s just easy. Easy like Sunday morning.” She shrugged and turned back to Cam. “That’s more my thing.” His eyes were locked on her; smiling at seeing her body visibly relax as she recalled such positive memories.

“That actually sounds like a blast.” He chuckled lightly. “Tell you what, after all this is behind us, I’ll have one. Maybe I’ll even invite you.” Cam turned back to his original stance.

“How thoughtful of you.” Kristy rolled her eyes and stood beside him with her hands up like before. She caught his smile in the corner of her eye. “Okay, now what?”

Cam put his palms out and resumed the lesson. “Okay, so, if the attacker keeps comin’, make a fist like this.” Cam made a fist with both hands and turned them sideways, knuckles out in front of him, fingers facing toward each other. His hands looked like hammers. “This is called the hammer fist. And you can hit them twice in the face.” He slammed his fists down into the air one at the time. Kristy copied his movements. “You’re aiming for the nose.” Cam said as they repeated the action. “First your strong hand, and then your weaker hand; bam, bam. The nose is one of the most sensitive parts of the body so they will most likely grab their nose and back up. They’ll bend over and, most likely, spread their legs a little wider.” Cam explained. “When they back up, you have a head start. You can run, or, if they keep coming or you’re cornered, you can kick ‘em in the balls.” He saw the surprise on her face. He nudged her and smiled. “I assume you’ve done this before?” She shook her head and he laughed.

“I have never kicked a man in the balls. That’s an awful thing to do.” Kristy brushed some hair out of her face and shook her head. “You would have to do something truly appalling for me to do that.”

Cam jerked his head back slightly. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a woman say that.” He smiled at her disgust. “How about trying to kill you? Does that make the cut?”

Kristy shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, that’s pretty appalling. I’d kick you in the balls for that.”

“Alright,” He chuckled and continued to explain. “When you kick a man in the balls, he’s going to really bend over. I mean, that’s some serious pain.” Cam’s face twisted a bit at the thought. “Anyway, when he does that, you can take a knee to his face.” Cam raised his knee to show Kristy the motion. “Also, when he’s bent over like that, press your forearm into the back of the neck and take hold of the back of his shirt. Come here.” Kristy turned to face him and he pushed her head down and held onto the back of her shirt. “See how you can’t move when I do this?”

“Yeah.” Kristy was bent over in front of Cam.

He brought his knee up to her face slowly. “So you can hold them down and nail them in the face like this.” He let Kristy go.

“Okay,” She said, “Let me try this.” Cam approached her and she kicked her foot at his groin, and then moved forward and took hold of the back of his shirt and brought her knee up to his face.

“Good. That’s really good. Remember, your knees and your elbows are hard bones, so use them whenever you can. Other sensitive parts of the body are going to be the eyes, so if you are close enough you can stick something in their eye or just push your thumb into them. Also, if someone’s holding on to you, pull back on the fingers. Especially the little finger,” He wiggled his pinky. “That’s really going to hurt. Okay. Let’s put it all together.”

They practiced side by side, picking up speed each time they started over.

“Let’s do it one more time, but this time, I’m the bad guy.” Cam took a few steps away and then rushed her to simulate an attacker. Careful not to make contact, she threw her fists at his nose, extended her foot out to his groin, and brought her knee to his face. “Perfect.”