There was a faint sound behind them and Cam’s eyes popped open. They each looked to see if the other had heard it too. They stilled and waited; they didn’t even breathe.

They heard it again.

A faint crashing noise. The sound of breaking glass.

Cam just let his head fall back against the rock again. “Aw, man…”

Kristy wrinkled her brow in confusion. She looked at Cam and then back in the direction the noise had come from, the direction of the cabin, and then she knew. “Oh no…” She turned to Cam, who had his eyes closed again. “I’m so sorry,”

“Shhh,” He put his hand up to her mouth and opened his eyes. “They’re just windows. They can be replaced. Did you hold on to the gun case?”

“I never let it go. What about the backpack? The flash drive?” Kristy started to panic.

“In my pocket.” Cam smiled down at her.

Kristy let her head relax against the rock and breathed a sigh of relief.

The sun was beginning to set and Kristy was getting cold. Her only jacket was packed away in Cam’s truck. Cam felt her start to shiver and took his jacket off and put it around her shoulders. “Here, put this on.”

“Thank you.” She slid her arms into the oversized sleeves. The jacket was still warm with his body heat. “How’s your ankle? Does it still hurt?”

“A little.” Cam pushed himself off the ground and tried to stand up. Kristy took one look at his face when he tried to walk on it and knew he was still in more pain than he would admit.

She shook her head at him. “Sit down.” She knelt down by his feet and started to untie the laces on his boot. He reached forward to stop her, but she smacked his hand away.

“Okay, fine.” He sat back and laughed. Kristy gently pushed up his pant leg and loosened the laces one row at a time. She pulled the flaps apart and pulled his sock down as much as she could. It was definitely swollen and looked like it was starting to bruise. Alex sprained his ankle once and it had looked like this. She remembered that the doctor told him to wrap it up tight, ice it, and elevate it.

“Okay,” she sat back on her heels and chewed on her lip as she thought about it. Then she looked at Cam. “I think you just sprained it. I’m going to lace your boot up, but tighter than it was, so tell me if I start to cut off your circulation.” He grinned and nodded, and she went to work carefully pulling each row of laces a little tighter until the sides of his boot were wrapped snugly around his ankle. She tied it and pulled his pant leg back down, and started looking around.

“What are you looking for?”

“I need… I’ll be right back.” Kristy poked her head out from under the ledge they had been using for cover and looked both ways like she was about to cross a busy street.

“Where are you going?” Cam leaned forward and reached for her.

“I just need to get… I need a big rock. I’ll be right back.” She turned back to him. “I won’t go out of sight, just right around here for a minute.” She reassured him. Kristy left the small cubby and stood up out in the open. It was almost dark, so she scanned the area quickly and smiled when she spotted the perfect one at the base of a tree a few yards away. Cam leaned forward to keep an eye on her as she walked away from him. When she came back, she was rolling a rock about the size of a basketball toward him.

“Move your leg over.” She instructed when she was closer.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Kristy rolled the rock to the spot he had moved his leg from and lifted his injured ankle to the top of the rock. “There.” She said, satisfied. “I think that’s all I can do for now. I know ice is good, but we don’t have any of that.”

“You’ve done plenty.” Cam smiled. “Thank you.” She started to sit back down in the same spot she left.

“No, sit on the inside.” Cam waved her to the other side of him. “We’re going to spend the night here.” She sat down on the other side of Cam and stretched her legs out in front of her. He reached over and pulled the case toward him. He pulled out his pistol and the magazine.

“What’s that for?”

“I just want it out; just in case.” He set it on the ground next to his leg where he could reach it if he needed to. If someone were to come down the hill after them, Cam would see them first, and he would be ready.

The wind blew and Kristy noticed Cam rub his hands together. She took off his jacket and handed it back to him.

“No, you keep it.” He said when Kristy tried to put it around his shoulders.

“You’re cold too.” Kristy protested.

“Get a little closer.” Cam told Kristy. She scooted into him as much as she could. Cam took the jacket from her and draped it over the front of the two of them like a blanket. He took Kristy’s hands and rubbed them between his to keep them warm.

Not long after, every bit of sunlight was gone and the temperature dropped. They stayed huddled together under Cam’s jacket. Kristy started yawning as it got darker, but she was still too alert to think about sleep. She broke the silence.

“Can I ask you something? It’s about what you told me the other night, about your parents…” Kristy trailed off. She wasn’t sure how he felt about talking about it.

“Yeah, it’s okay. I can talk about it.”

“Where did you go? I mean, when you realized they weren’t coming back.”

“My uncle Rich took me in. Not really my uncle, just a close friend of my parents. He’d been around my whole life, but as I got older I didn’t see him as much. When my parents left, he was one of the people I called to see if he had heard from them. He said no but asked me to let him know what happened. When I had talked to everyone I could think of, I called him back. He came over and helped me pack up all my stuff, which wasn’t much, and he moved me into his house. Even after I got into all that trouble, he never gave up on me.” Cam paused and stared at the ground. “That’s when he taught me to play the guitar. It’s funny; he always acted more like a father than my actual father.”

“He sounds wonderful. Where is he now? Can I meet him?”

“He died when I was 23. Heart attack.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” He smiled and continued. “He left me everything. The cabin, the house; it was all his.”

“He sounds great.”

“Yeah, he was. I’m lucky. I would’ve been on the streets.” Cam rubbed her hands between his again under the jacket. “So, that’s why I hold on to the people I can call family.”

“Count me in.” Kristy smiled and yawned again. This time it was contagious and Cam yawned too. The body heat had warmed them and the sleepiness started to set in. Kristy leaned her head on Cam’s shoulder and closed her eyes. She fell asleep first. Cam watched her breathe steadily in and out as she clung to his arm and leaned into him a little more. His arm was falling asleep, but he didn’t want to wake her. He rested his outside hand on top of the pistol that lay on the ground, set his head back against the rock wall, and drifted into a restless sleep.

* * *

“Who the hell is shooting?” Logan hollered at all the men that were with him. “We need her alive!” They looked around at each other confused and shrugged their shoulders. “Well someone was shooting at us. Damn it, they got Hillman. You three, spread out and see if there is anyone else out there. It came from up there. Keep an eye out for the sister and the guy who’s with her.” Logan pointed out into the distance behind the cabin. Three of the men wandered off to search. “The rest of you, come with me.”

The cabin door crashed open and Logan’s boots crunched over the broken glass and pieces of wood on the floor as he entered the room and turned on a light. “Search it.” He instructed the three other men who were with him. “Find out how much they know. And I want to know where they’re going.” The men started tearing through the cabin and Logan strolled into the kitchen and opened the fridge. Nothing but water bottles. He opened one and walked around watching his men open drawers and look under couch cushions. There weren’t a lot of places to hide valuables in the bare cabin.

“How’s your balls, Stearns?” Logan asked one of the men.

“I’ll kill that bitch.” Muttered Kevin Stearns, the man who had attacked Kristy earlier.

“Sir, there’s nothing here.” One of the men reported to Logan.

“There has to something. Look harder.” Logan stood stone-faced in the center of the cabin surrounded by his men. After some thought he said, “Take pictures of everything inside and out.”

Logan went outside and looked through what was in the truck. Sleeping bags, clothes; nothing of much interest. He knew the man with Kristy had a gun with him when he ran. He pushed aside the bag of ammo and found a purse. He dug through it and found the paper he had written the fake phone number on at Kristy’s apartment. He knew she wouldn’t use it. There was nothing else useful in the truck. Whatever they found must be on them. He had to find a way to track them without them knowing.

The sun was starting to go down. The men were standing in the main room of the cabin waiting for instruction. Logan stomped back into the cabin and looked around. They had searched every inch of it and had come up with nothing. “Let’s clear out.”