Page 90 of Shadowing You

“What?”

She lifted a hand, and he listened. Nothing but birdsong.

Then he heard it.

An engine, far off. It could be anything. A logger, a farmer, some local just passing through. Except there was no passing here. The road ended at this cabin.

The engine was getting louder, closer.

Mei Lin turned her face to his, her eyes wide.

“Hurry.”

While she shoved on her sneakers, he snatched the last of their things, then swept his gaze around the cabin. It was the same as it had been, but they’d disturbed the dust and the staleness of the place. Whoever that was would know.

Nothing for it now.

Zipping her jacket, Mei Lin stepped outside, and he followed, locked the door, and hid the key under the rock where he’d found it. They crossed the clearing to the narrow, barely-a-trail they’d navigated two days earlier.

Picking their way through the forest, they moved as fast as they could with the trees and bushes fighting them. He kept one hand out, prepared to steady Mei Lin if she stumbled. The ground that had been squishy with rain two days earlier was dry and crispy with ice this morning, making silence impossible. They didn’t need to be quiet yet, not until that engine stopped.

The engine grew louder behind them. Thank God Mei Lin had heard it. Thank God they’d been awake and nearly ready to go.

The trail dropped off to the right, climbed to the left. The trees were close, the underbrush thick. It would take them hours to go a couple of miles. This wasn’t the plan.

The thought made him stop.

Mei Lin must’ve realized because she did, too, turning to look at him. “What⁠—?”

“Wait.”

Stepping beside him, she looked at him like he’d lost it. Maybe he had. But he couldn’t stop thinking about Michael’s suggestion the day before.

He scanned the slope above them. “We need to go back.”

“What?” Her voice stayed low, but the pitch climbed.

“To the road, not the cabin.”

“They came in on the road.”

“If we go this way, the only towns we’ll know how to get to are Fuyin and the village I reached yesterday, and we need to avoid both of them. We need the road.”

“We will go toward the village and find a road there. We don’t have to go into the village, just skirt around it.”

“There’s no road out to the north. The only road leads back to Fuyin.”

“How do you know this?”

“From the map on the wall.”

“But roads have cameras.”

“There are threats in the forest too. We need the road.”

Her mouth was pinched closed, but then she nodded, trusting his judgment.

Father, don’t let me get her killed.