The end of the world is only the beginning.
A waterborne disease has contaminated the world’s fresh water, decimating the human race. Seventeen-year-old Eli McShane and his friends flee the chaos and violence in Phoenix and journey north toward the rumored location of a safe water source. They add several to their number, including the mysterious Hannah, who is being hunted by a dangerous man. Desperation brings out the worst in many of the travelers, infecting even those closest to Eli. When division comes, will he be able to hold his group together or will each fall victim to their own thirst for survival?
Join some old friends from Glenrock and Jack's Peak in this thrilling first book of the Thirst Duology. Best-selling author Jill Williamson has brought back the breathtaking suspense of the The Safe Lands series in this chilling prequel that will leave readers panting for the next installment.
A waterborne disease has contaminated the world’s fresh water, decimating the human race. Seventeen-year-old Eli McShane and his friends flee the chaos and violence in Phoenix and journey north toward the rumored location of a safe water source. They add several to their number, including the mysterious Hannah, who is being hunted by a dangerous man. Desperation brings out the worst in many of the travelers, infecting even those closest to Eli. When division comes, will he be able to hold his group together or will each fall victim to their own thirst for survival?
Join some old friends from Glenrock and Jack's Peak in this thrilling first book of the Thirst Duology. Best-selling author Jill Williamson has brought back the breathtaking suspense of the The Safe Lands series in this chilling prequel that will leave readers panting for the next installment.
ISBN-13: 978-0998523064
Excerpt from
Thirst
Chapter One
“First!” I jogged up the split log steps of Deadwood Lodge and yanked on the antler door handle. It didn’t budge.
“This ain’t a race, boy.” Andy Reinhold clumped up the stairs behind me. “What? Is it locked? Shouldn’t be.” Our guide and the owner of Wilderness Way Adventures was a retired US Army Ranger who had become the quintessential mountain man. His hair and beard were so bushy that his eyes, nose, and cheeks were pretty much all you could see of his face.
I cupped my hand against the glass window on the slab door and peered inside. “The lobby is dark.” I shrugged off my pack and let it fall to the planked porch. My shoulders loved the weightless freedom. The twelve-day extreme survival training camp had been awesome, but I was ready to go home.
Reinhold stepped past me and tugged on the handle. “No biggie. I got a key stashed over here.”
While Reinhold approached the aspen tree on the side of the building, I turned back to the yard. The dirt parking lot held four vehicles: Reinhold’s rusty Ford pickup, Mark’s Impala, Antônia’s Prius, and Riggs’s fancy new Range Rover Evoque. No sign of my dad. Bummer. Our group had left our campsite at dawn. I checked my watch. It was 9:40 a.m. now. We were a bit late, if anything, so Dad should be here by now.
If we left soon we’d be home in time for dinner. Mom, knowing we’d be eating vegan meals all this time, had promised to grill steaks tonight. I honestly hadn’t minded the camping food, but I missed me some meat.
Across the grassy clearing, Riggs trudged out of the forest with Jaylee, followed closely by Kimama, Reinhold’s eleven-year-old daughter. Jaylee’s reddish-brown pigtails swung as she walked. She laughed at something Riggs said. The sound carried all the way to where I stood and gnawed at my stomach. Stupid Riggs, anyway. When Wayne had gotten sick, Riggs had jumped in at the last-minute to be our “male leader,” but the dude was only two years older than most of us.
Squeaking hinges diverted my attention from Riggs and Jaylee. Reinhold stepped inside the lodge. I followed. In the lobby, a strong, fishy odor hung on the air.
I wrinkled my nose. “Smells like Chipeta’s been eating salmon.”
Reinhold inhaled deeply. “Don’t know what that smell is, but it ain’t salmon.” He flipped the light switch. Nothing happened. “Power’s out.” He walked to the front desk and snatched up a sheet of paper. He squinted, tilted the paper toward the light from the open front door. His eyes flicked back and forth as he read, eyebrows scrunched. He grunted and his hands fell to his side, the paper crumpling in one fist.
“What’s it say?” I asked.
“Chipeta’s home sick.”
“Must be bad to keep Chipeta home.” Reinhold’s wife, a Ute native, could have led any wilderness adventure on her own. She was one tough lady.
“I’ll give her a call.” Reinhold walked behind the desk and picked up the cordless phone, put it to his ear, then slammed it back in the charger. “Cursed technology. Got a corded phone in my office.” He strode down the hallway, his boots clumping on the hardwood floor.
I went back out to the porch, expecting to see Jaylee and Riggs, but Kimama sat alone on the bottom step. I sank down beside her and stretched out my legs. My hiking boots were dusty from the Colorado mountain trails. “How you doing, Kimama?”
“I just like to give them a moment, you know?” Kimama looked at me and smirked. “It has been twelve days.”
Only a kid like Kimama would think of something like that and not be weirded out. “No worries. Your mom’s not in there. She left a note that said she’s home sick.”
Kimama frowned. “Mama doesn’t get sick.”
I shrugged and looked back out over the grassy yard. Zach, Josh, and Cristobal were crossing the lawn followed closely by Antônia, our female sponsor. A hundred yards behind them, Mark and Erin had just stepped out of the forest. They looked bad. They’d gotten sick a couple days ago—or one of them had gotten sick and given it to the other. For the past few nights we’d been awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of dry heaves.
Maybe they’d caught something from Reinhold’s wife before we left.
Still no sign of Logan. Big surprise. I hoped Riggs hadn’t murdered him and left him for dead.
A horn beeped in the parking lot, making me jump. I stood up, looking for our silver Honda minivan, but there were only the same four vehicles in the lot.
“They’re in his car,” Kimama said.
My stomach slid into my boots as my gaze shifted to the Range Rover. Sure enough, I could see Riggs and Jaylee’s silhouettes in the front seats. Jaylee in the driver’s seat. I slumped back to the step, propped my elbows on my knees, and ran my hands through my greasy hair. I needed a shower.
“You like her, don’t you, Eli?”
I tensed and glanced at Kimama. She looked just like her mom. Tanned skin, round face, dark brown eyes, and black hair twisted into two braids that ran down to her waist. She was giving me that look. The one my sister always gives me when she knows I’m lying. I hadn’t even said anything!
“She doesn’t deserve you,” Kimama said. “Mother says, ‘those who have one foot in the canoe and one foot on the shore are going to fall into the river.’ Jaylee is nuts to chase after Riggs.”
Now it was my turn to question her. “You don’t like Riggs?”
She thought about it. “Mother also says, ‘It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand.’ That’s his problem, I think.”
I chuckled, recalling my parents’ discussion about this very topic in regards to Riggs. Mom didn’t trust him. Said he was all talk and no brains. Dad didn’t trust him, either, but he’d argued that Riggs had volunteered to chaperone, and that had said a lot. Dad said we should be thankful for his generosity. I’d stayed quiet, torn, because I knew Riggs had only volunteered because Jaylee had begged him, but if I’d told my parents that, they might not have let me come.
But seriously. Talk about a no-win situation. I’d spent the last twelve days asking myself what Jaylee saw in Rigley Orcutt, which was dumb because the guy was twenty, a college student, rich, and drove that spaceship of a car. He had a trim goatee and a massive tattoo of wings on his shoulder blades that ran down the backs of both arms to his elbows. Plus every girl in my youth group—including my sister—said he was hot.
It was nice to know at least one girl didn’t think Riggs was all that great, even if she was only eleven.
I glanced back to the parking lot, past the Evoque to the road. Where was my dad? My cell phone was dead in my pack, and I couldn’t charge it with the electricity out.
Footsteps on the porch behind us preceded Reinhold’s deep voice. “No answer at home. She must be sleeping it off, whatever it is. Your dad ain’t here yet?”
I shook my head.
Reinhold stepped between us down the five porch steps and turned to offer a hand to his daughter. “Let’s get your pack in the truck so we can take off as soon as their ride shows. I want to get home and see your mama.” Reinhold hoisted Kimama to her feet, and the two set off for the parking lot. He glanced over his shoulder. “Eli, go use my office phone to call your ride.”
I dragged my weary body back inside Deadwood Lodge. It really did reek like rotten fish. The light from the door and front windows lit the hallway enough so that I didn’t run into the walls as I inched my way into the building, but I couldn’t see squat in Reinhold’s office. I fumbled around until my eyes adjusted enough to spot the outline of a desk. I managed to find the phone, and when I lifted the receiver, the dial tone rang in my ear. Weird that the phone got power when nothing else did.
I couldn’t remember Dad’s cell number, so I dialed home. It rang and rang—the answering machine didn’t even pick up. I also tried Lizzie’s cell since it was only one number off from my own. The call went straight to voicemail.
I left a message then stumbled back out to the porch. My gaze scanned the parking lot for the minivan. Still no sign.
Where was my dad?
Something hit the top of my head, fell to my boots, and rattled across the porch. A pinecone. I looked up and took another to the forehead. My best friend Zach peeked out from behind a massive ponderosa, cackled, and pelted me with a few more.
I scooped up the pinecones and returned fire. “You’re just mad ’cause I beat you back, slowpoke.”
Zach blew a raspberry. “First is the worst, man.”
I ran out of ammo. “Oh yeah? What were you, sixth? If first is the worst, what’s sixth?”
“Kimama said seeing six crows brings gold and wealth, so I figure that’s a win.” Zach approached the porch, slung off his pack, and dropped it on the ground. He fell onto the grass beside it, groaning. “No Silver Bullet?”
The Silver Bullet was Zach’s nickname for my parents’ minivan. “Nope.” I yawned. “Man, I want a shower. I feel like I’ve been deep-fried.”
“Mmm. Deep fried. I want some KFC. And some Cold Stone. I’m starving.”
“You’ve clearly wasted away under Reinhold’s cooking,” I said. “I’m surprised you’re still alive.” Reinhold had provided meals of rice, beans, pasta, potatoes, whole-grain breads, nuts, granola, and oats, along with an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables. It hadn’t been a good fit for Zach, king of the junk food junkies.
“I need sugar, McShane. White. Granulated. Just a five pound bag and a spoon will do me fine.”
“You’re suffering from withdrawal. You should get into a support group before you go on a binge and hurt yourself.”
It looked like everyone had made it back, finally. My youth group was not comprised of professional hikers. This was my obsession. I had wanted to come here. I had talked my youth pastor into it. I had organized fundraisers and begged people to come along. But then Pastor Wayne had gotten sick, and Riggs had stepped in at the last minute to take his place as chaperone.
And ruined my plans to hike for twelve days with Jaylee Jennings.
Most of the others were lying in the grassy lawn, spread eagle, packs strewn about. From the sound of things, Mark was off in the trees being sick again. Poor guy.
Movement in the distance caught my eye, and I was relieved to see Logan finally dragging his way across the clearing. His face was flushed and his blond afro looked like clown hair, but he’d made it. I was proud of him.
We hung around outside the lodge, waiting for my dad to show. Jaylee and Riggs finally emerged from the Evoque and sat in the grass with the others. Those with vehicles packed up their gear. Reinhold dragged me back to his office so I could try calling home again. Still no answer.
Antônia and Erin left first, the Prius barely making a sound as it rolled away. Antônia hoped to make it back to Phoenix before the Urgent Care closed. Jaylee had ridden up with them, but I guess she’d be coming home with us now. Dad would never let her ride back alone with Riggs. I couldn’t help it. This made me smile.
Mark and my dad had convoyed on the way up, but I couldn’t blame Mark when he, Josh, and Cristobal piled into the Impala and took off. Sick or not, after twelve days in the wilderness, everyone was ready to go home. That left me, Zach, Logan, and Jaylee.
Oh, and Riggs, of course, our so-called male chaperone.
Reinhold got impatient and started a portable generator so I could plug in my iPhone and try my dad’s cell. But when I finally got power, I had no service.
“You had service before. All y’all did!” Reinhold stalked off, muttering to himself about the ills of technology.
Jaylee, Zach, and Logan went inside to try Reinhold’s old-school phone. Now that my iPhone had some power, I wrote down my parents’ cell numbers on a sheet of paper from my journal, just in case I needed them again. When I was done, I joined everyone in Reinhold’s office.
“The power must be out in Phoenix too,” Logan said. “None of us are getting through.”
Jaylee clicked her tongue. “Land lines should still work.”
“Only if they’re corded phones like this one,” Logan said. “Does your apartment have a corded phone?”
Jaylee rolled her eyes and left the office.
I took the receiver from Logan and tried my parents’ cell phones now that I had the numbers. Both went to voicemail without ringing. I pressed my thumb against the reset button. “This is starting to freak me out.”
“If our country was invaded, they’d attack the big cities first and cut the power,” Logan said. “That would hamstring most our population.”
“You know what?” Zach said. “It’s probably aliens.”
“It could be,” Logan said.
“Dude, I was joking.”
“Still, it’s not an impossibility,” Logan said, “though an invading country is more likely.”
I wasn’t in the mood for Logan’s conspiracies, so I headed back outside. Zach and Logan’s footsteps clumped behind me in the hallway, Logan still working his point.
“I’m just saying, we’ve made ourselves vulnerable to infiltration from the inside. There are plenty of sleeper cells living in America, and when they’re ready to attack, they’ll take us by surprise. Boom. Done.”
“Okay, I got you,” Zach said. “But how about you keep that quiet, okay? Reinhold won’t like it if you get Kimama all scared.”
“Good point,” Logan said.
I grinned, amused by Zach’s cleverness and the knowledge that not much in this world could scare a kid like Kimama.
I stepped back onto the porch and squinted in the sunlight. Jaylee was standing beside Riggs, who was doing pushups with both hands on the rail. Show off.
“I can’t get through,” I said. “I just get voicemail on cell numbers, endless ringing on land lines.”
Jaylee looked right at me, fixed her big, brown eyes on mine. “How are you going to get home?”
The question tangled the thoughts in my brain.
“Guess you should have gone with Antônia and Erin,” Logan said. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because I didn’t want to catch whatever Erin has,” Jaylee said, turning her attention to our male sponsor. “And Riggs said I could ride with him.”
My gut churned, and I again searched the driveway for signs of my dad.
“What about the rest of us?” Logan asked.
“Hey, it’s no problem.” Riggs shoved off the railing. “I’ve got belts for five.”
“I call shotgun!” Jaylee said.
No, no, this was not happening. The only reason my dad had taken a day off work to drive us up here was so that we would not be in the car with Rigley Orcutt. I couldn’t very well say that, so instead I tried, “But what if my dad gets here and we’re gone?”
Riggs shrugged. “We’ll probably pass him, but go ahead and leave a note on the door just in case.”
“Seriously? A note?” I couldn’t believe Riggs was being so nonchalant about this. “The man drives seven hours to pick us up and we’re not here?”
“What if something happened to him?” Jaylee said, tugging on one of her pigtails. “What if the van broke down or something like that and he’s stranded?”
“Eli’s dad’s a mechanic,” Logan said. “He could handle it.”
“But he might not have the parts or tools or whatever with him,” Jaylee said.
“Yeah,” Riggs said. “What if he’s miles from anywhere? Has to walk to a gas station and call a tow? By the time he gets the van fixed, we could be to Flagstaff. And if we don’t pass him on the way, you’ll have reception by Flagstaff and can call him and tell him what’s up.”
“I think it’s a great plan,” Jaylee said, beaming.
Sure she did.
“Makes sense,” Reinhold said. “Might as well get on the road while it’s still early. Likely will save time in the long run.”
Great. Now even Reinhold was siding with Riggs. I looked to Zach. At six-foot-one, he was taller than anyone here, Riggs included. I needed him on my side. “What do you think, man?”
Zach met my gaze, and his eye twitched, a sign he was thinking hard about this. “Your dad’s never late. Something must be up. It’s pretty desolate for miles. If we don’t see him, one of our phones is bound to have some bars by Flagstaff.”
Traitor. I was completely outnumbered. “Fine. Let’s go home.”
Jaylee whooped and ran toward the Range Rover. I went back for my pack. I wrote my dad a note, and Reinhold stapled it to the door so it wouldn’t have a chance of blowing away.
“Hey,” he said when we’d finished. “I know this is the last thing you wanted at the end of this trip.”
He was talking about Riggs. There’d been a couple nights up in the mountains where Riggs had gotten on my nerves. I might have vented to Reinhold about it a time or three.
I sighed. “It’s fine. I’ll be fine.”
“I know you will. But if things get hard, remember what I told you. The guy is just a substitute teacher. There’s more to being a leader than telling people what to do.”
“I know.” People actually needed to listen. The sad thing was, no one ever listened to me because I wasn’t a cool, tattooed college student or a six-foot-one athlete. “I guess I’m just worried about my dad,” I added.
“Your dad’s a smart man. I’m sure he’s fine.”
I hoped so.
I said goodbye to Reinhold and Kimama, who reminded me to follow the wolf, whatever that meant. Then we loaded up Riggs’s Evoque. The thing was like an iPhone on wheels. It was candy apple red with a tinted sunroof that covered the whole hood of the car. It had a touchscreen computer console with GPS and internet—internet that couldn’t find a signal either. A pewter skull hung by a string from his rearview mirror. Seemed kind of ominous.
Jaylee sat shotgun—she had called it, after all.
“Jaylee,” I said, following her to the car, “you’re really going to make Zach fold himself into the back?”
She turned a pouty smile on Zach. “Do you mind? Would you rather have the front?”
Say “Yes!” I thought. But Zach just shrugged. “Don’t matter to me.”
Jaylee hugged him. “Thank you!” Then ran off to claim her seat.
Zach caught me glaring his way. “What?” he asked, then a smile stretched across his face. “Oh, I get it.” And he switched to baby talk. “Did I wooen aww your pwans to sit wiff Jaywee?”
“Shut up,” I said.
Honestly, though, I wasn’t sure what bothered me more, that Jaylee wanted to sit by Riggs or that she’d force someone as big as Zach to squish into the back seat for a seven hour drive.
Regardless of my internal conflict, Zach, Logan, and I crammed into the second row. I lost rock-scissors-paper with Logan and had to sit in the middle. Forget Zach. There wasn’t much leg room for any of us back there, but I guessed it beat walking. Riggs put on some music, loud enough that I couldn’t hear what he and Jaylee were saying to one another.
And so we headed for Arizona. The Colorado roads were barren but for road kill. We saw two dead skunks, several squirrels, and three deer. Strangely, we never saw one moving vehicle, even when passing through some small towns, though there were several abandoned cars on the roadside.
It wasn’t that early in the day. Where was everyone?
Logan must have been thinking the same thing, because he said, “What is this, Christmas day?” then guffawed at his own joke.
Logan’s laugh . . . I’m not even kidding . . . it’s loud.
I didn’t find the situation funny. I kept thinking about how the cell phones weren’t working and the power was out and my dad hadn’t showed to pick us up and how, at that moment, Riggs had steered the Evoque into the opposite lane to avoid driving over a dead coyote.
We passed into Arizona and continued to see an unusual amount of road kill. I don’t think we passed a mile without seeing a dead bird, snake, or javelina, which are hairy, wild pigs.
The first place Riggs stopped for gas was closed. The second place was boarded up. Someone had nailed one-by-sixes over the windows and doors. I would’ve guessed the place had been out of business for years except we’d stopped there on the way up.
True to form, Logan was the first to panic. “We’re not going to make it home without gas. What are we going to do? Phoenix is another 400 miles!”
In the rearview mirror, Riggs’s cold blue eyes flashed our way. “Don’t start freaking out, kid. There are more than two gas stations on this highway, I promise you.”
Logan had driven Riggs nuts the past twelve days. Logan can do that to a person. It made me feel a bit better, knowing I wasn’t the most paranoid person in the car, until Riggs said, “Dude, is that your dad’s van?”
My gaze shot out the front as Riggs steered into the oncoming lane and slowed to a stop, nose-to-nose with the Silver Bullet. I shoved Zach toward the door, my pulse skyrocketing.
“Get out of the car, man. Move!”
“I’m going!” Zach climbed out, and I followed, leaving the door open.
The Honda was parked on the gravelly shoulder of the road, northbound. The doors were locked. No sign of my dad. I circled the van, checked all four tires. What was going on?
Logan yelled out Zach’s open door. “Check under the hood, Eli.”
I lifted my hands. “The doors are locked!” I could pop it if I got on the ground under the engine, but I’d need a long screwdriver. And Riggs didn’t have any tools.
“Do you have a spare key?” Riggs asked out the driver’s side window.
“No. And I’m not going to break a window, either, Logan, so don’t suggest it.”
“If you did, I could hotwire it,” Logan said.
“You could not.” Zach slammed the door on Logan’s rebuttal and walked to where I stood between the two vehicles. “What do you want to do, Eli?”
My skin crawled, heat rolling from my stomach to my chest. I read the concern in Zach’s eyes but shrugged it off with a deep breath.
“I don’t know.” I checked my cell phone. “Still no signal.” I squinted out over the endless sagebrush. “Let’s wait a few minutes. He could, uh, could be out taking a leak.”
“Good point.”
But the minutes ticked by, and my dad didn’t show.
“What are we doing, people?” Riggs asked from the car.
“May as well keep moving,” Zach said. “I mean, we didn’t pass him walking.”
I nodded. “Yeah, okay. He probably headed back the other way, to a gas station or something.”
Back at the car, I ripped a sheet of paper out of my journal and wrote my dad another note. I secured it under the driver’s side windshield wiper and hoped he’d see it. Then I climbed back into the Evoque, but it felt wrong, like I was leaving my dad for dead, like I would regret this choice for the rest of my life.
“What’s the plan?” Riggs asked once we were inside. He’d shut off the music, and everything seemed extra quiet inside.
“Keep going,” I said, as if it were no big deal, though I felt sick saying it. “He must have walked south since we didn’t see him on the road.”
“South it is.” Riggs stepped on the gas and steered back into the right lane.
Helpless, I watched the van as we rolled away, craned my neck until it hurt.
“I can so hotwire a car, Eli. Anyone can. It’s not that difficult.”
“Logan,” Zach said. “You’re not helping.”
“But you guys are acting like you don’t believe me, and I—”
“Fine,” I said, fire shooting through me. “You could have hotwired it. But what good would that do us or my dad? He’s probably just up the road. We can’t steal his ride.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s a good point,” Logan said. “But once we find Mr. McShane, he might need my help to get it started. What kind of engine does that Honda have? A four-cylinder?”
I pushed down my desire to throttle Logan, my eyes scanning the road for any sign of my dad. “Six-cylinder.”
“Oh. I think the wires on a six cylinder are on the side, near the center of the engine. I’d have to take a look to be sure.”
I gritted my teeth and glanced at Zach. His lips were curved into a small grin.
I elbowed him and whispered, “Laugh it up, chuckles.”
Riggs slammed on the brakes.
Jaylee screamed.
I jerked my gaze out the front windshield. About ten yards away, a body lay on the side of the road, a red gas can beside it. The sight just about stopped my heart.
“This ain’t a race, boy.” Andy Reinhold clumped up the stairs behind me. “What? Is it locked? Shouldn’t be.” Our guide and the owner of Wilderness Way Adventures was a retired US Army Ranger who had become the quintessential mountain man. His hair and beard were so bushy that his eyes, nose, and cheeks were pretty much all you could see of his face.
I cupped my hand against the glass window on the slab door and peered inside. “The lobby is dark.” I shrugged off my pack and let it fall to the planked porch. My shoulders loved the weightless freedom. The twelve-day extreme survival training camp had been awesome, but I was ready to go home.
Reinhold stepped past me and tugged on the handle. “No biggie. I got a key stashed over here.”
While Reinhold approached the aspen tree on the side of the building, I turned back to the yard. The dirt parking lot held four vehicles: Reinhold’s rusty Ford pickup, Mark’s Impala, Antônia’s Prius, and Riggs’s fancy new Range Rover Evoque. No sign of my dad. Bummer. Our group had left our campsite at dawn. I checked my watch. It was 9:40 a.m. now. We were a bit late, if anything, so Dad should be here by now.
If we left soon we’d be home in time for dinner. Mom, knowing we’d be eating vegan meals all this time, had promised to grill steaks tonight. I honestly hadn’t minded the camping food, but I missed me some meat.
Across the grassy clearing, Riggs trudged out of the forest with Jaylee, followed closely by Kimama, Reinhold’s eleven-year-old daughter. Jaylee’s reddish-brown pigtails swung as she walked. She laughed at something Riggs said. The sound carried all the way to where I stood and gnawed at my stomach. Stupid Riggs, anyway. When Wayne had gotten sick, Riggs had jumped in at the last-minute to be our “male leader,” but the dude was only two years older than most of us.
Squeaking hinges diverted my attention from Riggs and Jaylee. Reinhold stepped inside the lodge. I followed. In the lobby, a strong, fishy odor hung on the air.
I wrinkled my nose. “Smells like Chipeta’s been eating salmon.”
Reinhold inhaled deeply. “Don’t know what that smell is, but it ain’t salmon.” He flipped the light switch. Nothing happened. “Power’s out.” He walked to the front desk and snatched up a sheet of paper. He squinted, tilted the paper toward the light from the open front door. His eyes flicked back and forth as he read, eyebrows scrunched. He grunted and his hands fell to his side, the paper crumpling in one fist.
“What’s it say?” I asked.
“Chipeta’s home sick.”
“Must be bad to keep Chipeta home.” Reinhold’s wife, a Ute native, could have led any wilderness adventure on her own. She was one tough lady.
“I’ll give her a call.” Reinhold walked behind the desk and picked up the cordless phone, put it to his ear, then slammed it back in the charger. “Cursed technology. Got a corded phone in my office.” He strode down the hallway, his boots clumping on the hardwood floor.
I went back out to the porch, expecting to see Jaylee and Riggs, but Kimama sat alone on the bottom step. I sank down beside her and stretched out my legs. My hiking boots were dusty from the Colorado mountain trails. “How you doing, Kimama?”
“I just like to give them a moment, you know?” Kimama looked at me and smirked. “It has been twelve days.”
Only a kid like Kimama would think of something like that and not be weirded out. “No worries. Your mom’s not in there. She left a note that said she’s home sick.”
Kimama frowned. “Mama doesn’t get sick.”
I shrugged and looked back out over the grassy yard. Zach, Josh, and Cristobal were crossing the lawn followed closely by Antônia, our female sponsor. A hundred yards behind them, Mark and Erin had just stepped out of the forest. They looked bad. They’d gotten sick a couple days ago—or one of them had gotten sick and given it to the other. For the past few nights we’d been awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of dry heaves.
Maybe they’d caught something from Reinhold’s wife before we left.
Still no sign of Logan. Big surprise. I hoped Riggs hadn’t murdered him and left him for dead.
A horn beeped in the parking lot, making me jump. I stood up, looking for our silver Honda minivan, but there were only the same four vehicles in the lot.
“They’re in his car,” Kimama said.
My stomach slid into my boots as my gaze shifted to the Range Rover. Sure enough, I could see Riggs and Jaylee’s silhouettes in the front seats. Jaylee in the driver’s seat. I slumped back to the step, propped my elbows on my knees, and ran my hands through my greasy hair. I needed a shower.
“You like her, don’t you, Eli?”
I tensed and glanced at Kimama. She looked just like her mom. Tanned skin, round face, dark brown eyes, and black hair twisted into two braids that ran down to her waist. She was giving me that look. The one my sister always gives me when she knows I’m lying. I hadn’t even said anything!
“She doesn’t deserve you,” Kimama said. “Mother says, ‘those who have one foot in the canoe and one foot on the shore are going to fall into the river.’ Jaylee is nuts to chase after Riggs.”
Now it was my turn to question her. “You don’t like Riggs?”
She thought about it. “Mother also says, ‘It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand.’ That’s his problem, I think.”
I chuckled, recalling my parents’ discussion about this very topic in regards to Riggs. Mom didn’t trust him. Said he was all talk and no brains. Dad didn’t trust him, either, but he’d argued that Riggs had volunteered to chaperone, and that had said a lot. Dad said we should be thankful for his generosity. I’d stayed quiet, torn, because I knew Riggs had only volunteered because Jaylee had begged him, but if I’d told my parents that, they might not have let me come.
But seriously. Talk about a no-win situation. I’d spent the last twelve days asking myself what Jaylee saw in Rigley Orcutt, which was dumb because the guy was twenty, a college student, rich, and drove that spaceship of a car. He had a trim goatee and a massive tattoo of wings on his shoulder blades that ran down the backs of both arms to his elbows. Plus every girl in my youth group—including my sister—said he was hot.
It was nice to know at least one girl didn’t think Riggs was all that great, even if she was only eleven.
I glanced back to the parking lot, past the Evoque to the road. Where was my dad? My cell phone was dead in my pack, and I couldn’t charge it with the electricity out.
Footsteps on the porch behind us preceded Reinhold’s deep voice. “No answer at home. She must be sleeping it off, whatever it is. Your dad ain’t here yet?”
I shook my head.
Reinhold stepped between us down the five porch steps and turned to offer a hand to his daughter. “Let’s get your pack in the truck so we can take off as soon as their ride shows. I want to get home and see your mama.” Reinhold hoisted Kimama to her feet, and the two set off for the parking lot. He glanced over his shoulder. “Eli, go use my office phone to call your ride.”
I dragged my weary body back inside Deadwood Lodge. It really did reek like rotten fish. The light from the door and front windows lit the hallway enough so that I didn’t run into the walls as I inched my way into the building, but I couldn’t see squat in Reinhold’s office. I fumbled around until my eyes adjusted enough to spot the outline of a desk. I managed to find the phone, and when I lifted the receiver, the dial tone rang in my ear. Weird that the phone got power when nothing else did.
I couldn’t remember Dad’s cell number, so I dialed home. It rang and rang—the answering machine didn’t even pick up. I also tried Lizzie’s cell since it was only one number off from my own. The call went straight to voicemail.
I left a message then stumbled back out to the porch. My gaze scanned the parking lot for the minivan. Still no sign.
Where was my dad?
Something hit the top of my head, fell to my boots, and rattled across the porch. A pinecone. I looked up and took another to the forehead. My best friend Zach peeked out from behind a massive ponderosa, cackled, and pelted me with a few more.
I scooped up the pinecones and returned fire. “You’re just mad ’cause I beat you back, slowpoke.”
Zach blew a raspberry. “First is the worst, man.”
I ran out of ammo. “Oh yeah? What were you, sixth? If first is the worst, what’s sixth?”
“Kimama said seeing six crows brings gold and wealth, so I figure that’s a win.” Zach approached the porch, slung off his pack, and dropped it on the ground. He fell onto the grass beside it, groaning. “No Silver Bullet?”
The Silver Bullet was Zach’s nickname for my parents’ minivan. “Nope.” I yawned. “Man, I want a shower. I feel like I’ve been deep-fried.”
“Mmm. Deep fried. I want some KFC. And some Cold Stone. I’m starving.”
“You’ve clearly wasted away under Reinhold’s cooking,” I said. “I’m surprised you’re still alive.” Reinhold had provided meals of rice, beans, pasta, potatoes, whole-grain breads, nuts, granola, and oats, along with an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables. It hadn’t been a good fit for Zach, king of the junk food junkies.
“I need sugar, McShane. White. Granulated. Just a five pound bag and a spoon will do me fine.”
“You’re suffering from withdrawal. You should get into a support group before you go on a binge and hurt yourself.”
It looked like everyone had made it back, finally. My youth group was not comprised of professional hikers. This was my obsession. I had wanted to come here. I had talked my youth pastor into it. I had organized fundraisers and begged people to come along. But then Pastor Wayne had gotten sick, and Riggs had stepped in at the last minute to take his place as chaperone.
And ruined my plans to hike for twelve days with Jaylee Jennings.
Most of the others were lying in the grassy lawn, spread eagle, packs strewn about. From the sound of things, Mark was off in the trees being sick again. Poor guy.
Movement in the distance caught my eye, and I was relieved to see Logan finally dragging his way across the clearing. His face was flushed and his blond afro looked like clown hair, but he’d made it. I was proud of him.
We hung around outside the lodge, waiting for my dad to show. Jaylee and Riggs finally emerged from the Evoque and sat in the grass with the others. Those with vehicles packed up their gear. Reinhold dragged me back to his office so I could try calling home again. Still no answer.
Antônia and Erin left first, the Prius barely making a sound as it rolled away. Antônia hoped to make it back to Phoenix before the Urgent Care closed. Jaylee had ridden up with them, but I guess she’d be coming home with us now. Dad would never let her ride back alone with Riggs. I couldn’t help it. This made me smile.
Mark and my dad had convoyed on the way up, but I couldn’t blame Mark when he, Josh, and Cristobal piled into the Impala and took off. Sick or not, after twelve days in the wilderness, everyone was ready to go home. That left me, Zach, Logan, and Jaylee.
Oh, and Riggs, of course, our so-called male chaperone.
Reinhold got impatient and started a portable generator so I could plug in my iPhone and try my dad’s cell. But when I finally got power, I had no service.
“You had service before. All y’all did!” Reinhold stalked off, muttering to himself about the ills of technology.
Jaylee, Zach, and Logan went inside to try Reinhold’s old-school phone. Now that my iPhone had some power, I wrote down my parents’ cell numbers on a sheet of paper from my journal, just in case I needed them again. When I was done, I joined everyone in Reinhold’s office.
“The power must be out in Phoenix too,” Logan said. “None of us are getting through.”
Jaylee clicked her tongue. “Land lines should still work.”
“Only if they’re corded phones like this one,” Logan said. “Does your apartment have a corded phone?”
Jaylee rolled her eyes and left the office.
I took the receiver from Logan and tried my parents’ cell phones now that I had the numbers. Both went to voicemail without ringing. I pressed my thumb against the reset button. “This is starting to freak me out.”
“If our country was invaded, they’d attack the big cities first and cut the power,” Logan said. “That would hamstring most our population.”
“You know what?” Zach said. “It’s probably aliens.”
“It could be,” Logan said.
“Dude, I was joking.”
“Still, it’s not an impossibility,” Logan said, “though an invading country is more likely.”
I wasn’t in the mood for Logan’s conspiracies, so I headed back outside. Zach and Logan’s footsteps clumped behind me in the hallway, Logan still working his point.
“I’m just saying, we’ve made ourselves vulnerable to infiltration from the inside. There are plenty of sleeper cells living in America, and when they’re ready to attack, they’ll take us by surprise. Boom. Done.”
“Okay, I got you,” Zach said. “But how about you keep that quiet, okay? Reinhold won’t like it if you get Kimama all scared.”
“Good point,” Logan said.
I grinned, amused by Zach’s cleverness and the knowledge that not much in this world could scare a kid like Kimama.
I stepped back onto the porch and squinted in the sunlight. Jaylee was standing beside Riggs, who was doing pushups with both hands on the rail. Show off.
“I can’t get through,” I said. “I just get voicemail on cell numbers, endless ringing on land lines.”
Jaylee looked right at me, fixed her big, brown eyes on mine. “How are you going to get home?”
The question tangled the thoughts in my brain.
“Guess you should have gone with Antônia and Erin,” Logan said. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because I didn’t want to catch whatever Erin has,” Jaylee said, turning her attention to our male sponsor. “And Riggs said I could ride with him.”
My gut churned, and I again searched the driveway for signs of my dad.
“What about the rest of us?” Logan asked.
“Hey, it’s no problem.” Riggs shoved off the railing. “I’ve got belts for five.”
“I call shotgun!” Jaylee said.
No, no, this was not happening. The only reason my dad had taken a day off work to drive us up here was so that we would not be in the car with Rigley Orcutt. I couldn’t very well say that, so instead I tried, “But what if my dad gets here and we’re gone?”
Riggs shrugged. “We’ll probably pass him, but go ahead and leave a note on the door just in case.”
“Seriously? A note?” I couldn’t believe Riggs was being so nonchalant about this. “The man drives seven hours to pick us up and we’re not here?”
“What if something happened to him?” Jaylee said, tugging on one of her pigtails. “What if the van broke down or something like that and he’s stranded?”
“Eli’s dad’s a mechanic,” Logan said. “He could handle it.”
“But he might not have the parts or tools or whatever with him,” Jaylee said.
“Yeah,” Riggs said. “What if he’s miles from anywhere? Has to walk to a gas station and call a tow? By the time he gets the van fixed, we could be to Flagstaff. And if we don’t pass him on the way, you’ll have reception by Flagstaff and can call him and tell him what’s up.”
“I think it’s a great plan,” Jaylee said, beaming.
Sure she did.
“Makes sense,” Reinhold said. “Might as well get on the road while it’s still early. Likely will save time in the long run.”
Great. Now even Reinhold was siding with Riggs. I looked to Zach. At six-foot-one, he was taller than anyone here, Riggs included. I needed him on my side. “What do you think, man?”
Zach met my gaze, and his eye twitched, a sign he was thinking hard about this. “Your dad’s never late. Something must be up. It’s pretty desolate for miles. If we don’t see him, one of our phones is bound to have some bars by Flagstaff.”
Traitor. I was completely outnumbered. “Fine. Let’s go home.”
Jaylee whooped and ran toward the Range Rover. I went back for my pack. I wrote my dad a note, and Reinhold stapled it to the door so it wouldn’t have a chance of blowing away.
“Hey,” he said when we’d finished. “I know this is the last thing you wanted at the end of this trip.”
He was talking about Riggs. There’d been a couple nights up in the mountains where Riggs had gotten on my nerves. I might have vented to Reinhold about it a time or three.
I sighed. “It’s fine. I’ll be fine.”
“I know you will. But if things get hard, remember what I told you. The guy is just a substitute teacher. There’s more to being a leader than telling people what to do.”
“I know.” People actually needed to listen. The sad thing was, no one ever listened to me because I wasn’t a cool, tattooed college student or a six-foot-one athlete. “I guess I’m just worried about my dad,” I added.
“Your dad’s a smart man. I’m sure he’s fine.”
I hoped so.
I said goodbye to Reinhold and Kimama, who reminded me to follow the wolf, whatever that meant. Then we loaded up Riggs’s Evoque. The thing was like an iPhone on wheels. It was candy apple red with a tinted sunroof that covered the whole hood of the car. It had a touchscreen computer console with GPS and internet—internet that couldn’t find a signal either. A pewter skull hung by a string from his rearview mirror. Seemed kind of ominous.
Jaylee sat shotgun—she had called it, after all.
“Jaylee,” I said, following her to the car, “you’re really going to make Zach fold himself into the back?”
She turned a pouty smile on Zach. “Do you mind? Would you rather have the front?”
Say “Yes!” I thought. But Zach just shrugged. “Don’t matter to me.”
Jaylee hugged him. “Thank you!” Then ran off to claim her seat.
Zach caught me glaring his way. “What?” he asked, then a smile stretched across his face. “Oh, I get it.” And he switched to baby talk. “Did I wooen aww your pwans to sit wiff Jaywee?”
“Shut up,” I said.
Honestly, though, I wasn’t sure what bothered me more, that Jaylee wanted to sit by Riggs or that she’d force someone as big as Zach to squish into the back seat for a seven hour drive.
Regardless of my internal conflict, Zach, Logan, and I crammed into the second row. I lost rock-scissors-paper with Logan and had to sit in the middle. Forget Zach. There wasn’t much leg room for any of us back there, but I guessed it beat walking. Riggs put on some music, loud enough that I couldn’t hear what he and Jaylee were saying to one another.
And so we headed for Arizona. The Colorado roads were barren but for road kill. We saw two dead skunks, several squirrels, and three deer. Strangely, we never saw one moving vehicle, even when passing through some small towns, though there were several abandoned cars on the roadside.
It wasn’t that early in the day. Where was everyone?
Logan must have been thinking the same thing, because he said, “What is this, Christmas day?” then guffawed at his own joke.
Logan’s laugh . . . I’m not even kidding . . . it’s loud.
I didn’t find the situation funny. I kept thinking about how the cell phones weren’t working and the power was out and my dad hadn’t showed to pick us up and how, at that moment, Riggs had steered the Evoque into the opposite lane to avoid driving over a dead coyote.
We passed into Arizona and continued to see an unusual amount of road kill. I don’t think we passed a mile without seeing a dead bird, snake, or javelina, which are hairy, wild pigs.
The first place Riggs stopped for gas was closed. The second place was boarded up. Someone had nailed one-by-sixes over the windows and doors. I would’ve guessed the place had been out of business for years except we’d stopped there on the way up.
True to form, Logan was the first to panic. “We’re not going to make it home without gas. What are we going to do? Phoenix is another 400 miles!”
In the rearview mirror, Riggs’s cold blue eyes flashed our way. “Don’t start freaking out, kid. There are more than two gas stations on this highway, I promise you.”
Logan had driven Riggs nuts the past twelve days. Logan can do that to a person. It made me feel a bit better, knowing I wasn’t the most paranoid person in the car, until Riggs said, “Dude, is that your dad’s van?”
My gaze shot out the front as Riggs steered into the oncoming lane and slowed to a stop, nose-to-nose with the Silver Bullet. I shoved Zach toward the door, my pulse skyrocketing.
“Get out of the car, man. Move!”
“I’m going!” Zach climbed out, and I followed, leaving the door open.
The Honda was parked on the gravelly shoulder of the road, northbound. The doors were locked. No sign of my dad. I circled the van, checked all four tires. What was going on?
Logan yelled out Zach’s open door. “Check under the hood, Eli.”
I lifted my hands. “The doors are locked!” I could pop it if I got on the ground under the engine, but I’d need a long screwdriver. And Riggs didn’t have any tools.
“Do you have a spare key?” Riggs asked out the driver’s side window.
“No. And I’m not going to break a window, either, Logan, so don’t suggest it.”
“If you did, I could hotwire it,” Logan said.
“You could not.” Zach slammed the door on Logan’s rebuttal and walked to where I stood between the two vehicles. “What do you want to do, Eli?”
My skin crawled, heat rolling from my stomach to my chest. I read the concern in Zach’s eyes but shrugged it off with a deep breath.
“I don’t know.” I checked my cell phone. “Still no signal.” I squinted out over the endless sagebrush. “Let’s wait a few minutes. He could, uh, could be out taking a leak.”
“Good point.”
But the minutes ticked by, and my dad didn’t show.
“What are we doing, people?” Riggs asked from the car.
“May as well keep moving,” Zach said. “I mean, we didn’t pass him walking.”
I nodded. “Yeah, okay. He probably headed back the other way, to a gas station or something.”
Back at the car, I ripped a sheet of paper out of my journal and wrote my dad another note. I secured it under the driver’s side windshield wiper and hoped he’d see it. Then I climbed back into the Evoque, but it felt wrong, like I was leaving my dad for dead, like I would regret this choice for the rest of my life.
“What’s the plan?” Riggs asked once we were inside. He’d shut off the music, and everything seemed extra quiet inside.
“Keep going,” I said, as if it were no big deal, though I felt sick saying it. “He must have walked south since we didn’t see him on the road.”
“South it is.” Riggs stepped on the gas and steered back into the right lane.
Helpless, I watched the van as we rolled away, craned my neck until it hurt.
“I can so hotwire a car, Eli. Anyone can. It’s not that difficult.”
“Logan,” Zach said. “You’re not helping.”
“But you guys are acting like you don’t believe me, and I—”
“Fine,” I said, fire shooting through me. “You could have hotwired it. But what good would that do us or my dad? He’s probably just up the road. We can’t steal his ride.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s a good point,” Logan said. “But once we find Mr. McShane, he might need my help to get it started. What kind of engine does that Honda have? A four-cylinder?”
I pushed down my desire to throttle Logan, my eyes scanning the road for any sign of my dad. “Six-cylinder.”
“Oh. I think the wires on a six cylinder are on the side, near the center of the engine. I’d have to take a look to be sure.”
I gritted my teeth and glanced at Zach. His lips were curved into a small grin.
I elbowed him and whispered, “Laugh it up, chuckles.”
Riggs slammed on the brakes.
Jaylee screamed.
I jerked my gaze out the front windshield. About ten yards away, a body lay on the side of the road, a red gas can beside it. The sight just about stopped my heart.
Used with permission from author Jill Williamson.
 Jill Williamson | Jill Williamson writes fantasy and science fiction for teens and adults. She grew up in Alaska, staying up and reading by the summer daylight that wouldn't go away. This led to a love of books and writing, and her debut novel, By Darkness Hid, won several awards and was named a Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror novel of 2009 by VOYA magazine. She loves giving writing workshops and blogs for teen writers at www.GoTeenWriters.com, which has been named as one of Writer’s Digest’s “101 Best Websites for Writers.” She now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two children. |
