Page 85 of Fight
“I’m tired.”
“Then we stop. We’re out of the snow, sun is up, we’re almost to the valley and making great time.”
I take a drink of water. “How much farther?”
“Five miles, give or take. Mostly flat though.”
I smile. “I can do five miles of?—”
Cal’s head snaps to the left. Did he see something? I immediately scan the area for mountain goats.
“Do you hear that?” he asks.
I fold back my hood. There’s a humming. The faint purr of something mechanical. Shooting to my feet, we hurry toward thesound. It’s getting louder, we’re heading in the right direction, but why can’t we see it yet?
The noise crescendos until the source emerges, a red and black side by side UTV comes barreling around the bend. Callahan and I stop in our tracks.
“Holy shit,” he says, laughing. We continue moving, slower this time. Our five miles to safety may have just turned into fifty yards. The off-road vehicle looks out of place in the remote landscape.
Callahan grins, sticking his thumb out as if we’re a couple of hitchhikers in the middle of nowhere.
As they approach, the driver and passenger are beaming. “Is that…?”
“Xander and King.” His smile is ear to ear.
“Are you my Uber?” Callahan shouts over the motor as they roll up.
“Yeah, I heard somebody missed their curfew,” King—Rowan—says, killing the engine and pressing on the emergency brake. I remember playing poker with him in Oregon, which makes the other one Xander. Callahan was right, he does havereallyblue eyes.
Xander steps out and grabs my pack, slipping it from my shoulders. Cal shrugs his off and tosses it in the back.
King lifts his chin to Callahan. “How was your hike, sunshine?”
“Lovely… Xander, King, you remember Scottie.” Callahan introduces us.
“Hi.” I offer a small wave, pushing down the emotion rising in my throat as relief sweeps through me. We made it. “It’s really nice to see you guys.”
King lifts a radio to speak into. “Found them. Subjects alive… Scottie’s got a decent cut on her forehead, but it appears to be healing.”
The radio crackles. “Great news. Any other injuries?” The voice is familiar.
“Is that Matt?” I ask.
He nods, and I want to die of embarrassment. The last thing I want is to have inconvenienced him and caused a problem at my place of work. It’s bad enough I didn’t show up at the station today.
“She dislocated her shoulder a few days ago,” Cal adds. King relays it to my coworker.
We’re ushered into the back seat of the side by side, and just like that, we’re on our way, bouncing toward the trailhead. I shiver as my sweat cools. Cal wraps an arm around me and pulls me close.
“So my text went through?” He calls over the engine.
Xander turns his head to the side. “Yup.”
King spins around in his seat. “We didn’t even know you were missing until we found out Scottie was, then we put two and two together when we couldn’t get ahold of you.”
My brows draw together, and King faces forward again.They knew I was missing?
“Me? How did you find out I was out here before him?” I stick my thumb in Callahan’s direction. “I wasn’t due to report back at work until this morning… I don’t know enough people for someone to report me missing.”