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Like Cade did the previous day, I use a large stick to whack my route through the foliage. Not only does it help clear my route, it also gives me a path to follow to get back again.
I just have to hope I’m heading in the right direction.
I hope Laney is all right back at the cabin with the boys. She’s going to have to get used to handling them if we’re stuck here for any length of time. I can’t be with her twenty-four-seven. Besides, I worry about myself as much as I do the boys. My reaction to Laney last night is playing on my mind, and then this morning I woke up with an erection. Luckily, she was nowhere near me, so she hadn’t noticed, but I definitely did. I need to focus harder on marrying the young woman she is now with the chubby toddler I used to know, but I’m finding it impossible. I don’t know if it’s because she seems so completely different, or if my memories from back then are just so clouded from all thebooze and drugs, but when I look at her, all I see is a beautiful young woman I met only a couple of days ago.
I hear the water before I see it, the gentle rush of a river.
I pick up my pace and push my way through the foliage.
The river is wide, but not too fast. The areas closest to the bank are almost pool-like, still and clear. I move closer and squat at the edge and dip both hands into the water. I bring it up to my face, splashing my skin with the cool water and exhaling a breath.
It’s good the water is moving—it’s more likely to be clean than finding a stagnant water source—but we’ll still have to boil it before drinking it. There’s no way of knowing if an animal has fallen into the water and died farther upstream, plus feces from the wildlife—bird and fish included—will be in the water. As I think of fish, there’s a splash somewhere to my right, and I catch a flash of silver. There are probably trout in these waters.
My stomach growls at the thought of grilled fish.
Of course, I’ll have to catch it first. I’m no fisherman, and I don’t remember seeing any kind of fishing rods or nets back at the cabin, but that doesn’t mean they’re not hidden away somewhere. Or maybe we can improvise, though with what, I’ve no idea.
I realize I’m thinking as though we’re going to be here long enough to worry about things like the food running out. There isn’t a lot, and, after raising Cade and Darius through their teenage years, I’m fully aware that they need a lot of food.
I glance up at the blue sky, praying to hear the thrum of engines. There’s nothing, though, except the twittering of birds and the buzzing of insects.
Pushing myself back to standing, I turn back to the cabin. I should have brought something to collect the water in, then I could have gotten it straight onto the woodfire to boil and would have saved myself a trip.
I take a long inhale, savoring the peace and trying to quiet the torrent of worries that are crashing through me. I want to believe we’ll be found in the next day or two, but what if we’re not? How long can the four of us survive out here? We have shelter, and a fireplace, and if we can figure out how to hunt and fish and forage, we won’t starve. But we’re at the tail end of the summer now, when all those things are plentiful. What will happen when winter comes and the snow falls and the river freezes? How will we make it through then?
No, we’ll be found long before that happens. I’m sure of it. Like Cade said, it’s Darius fucking Riviera who is missing. Maybe if it was just me, Cade, and Laney, people wouldn’t care so much about us and they’d stop looking after a few days, but Darius’s plane crashing will be all over the news and social media. His fans will keep pushing for him to be found, or for them to at least get answers. There will be social media and GoFundMe campaigns. They won’t just let it go.
With these reassurances, I leave the river and make my way back to the cabin. I continue to clear a path as I go, ensuring it’ll be easy for either myself or one of the others to find their way back.
I get back to the cabin to discover everyone is there. Laney has been picking blueberries, while Darius keeps watch. I’m not sure what Cade has been up to, but it’s not worth questioning him. He’s had a stick up his ass ever since I mentioned bringing Laney into our lives—albeit temporarily.
“Everyone okay?” I ask, assessing them.
Laney flashes a bright smile. “I found blueberries.”
“That’s great, Laney.”
There’s something about the smile that’s too forced. I know we’re not exactly in a smiling situation, but I can sense the tension on the air.
“Well, the good news is I found a river, and it’s only about a ten-minute walk from here. I’ve done my best to clear a path as I went, so it should be easy enough to find again. We need to find containers bigger than the small bottles we currently have for water so we can bring it back up to the cabin.”
“There are some pots in the kitchen,” Laney says. “They’re metal, so we’ll be able to use them for boiling the water, too.”
“That’s great.”
“I found a couple of flashlights, too. They’re working, but God knows how long the batteries will last, and I didn’t find any replacements.”
“We’ll keep them for emergencies.”
When it gets dark, the only light we’ll have will be from the fireplace and the few candles that are around the cabin. We really will have to get back to nature—wake when the sun rises, and sleep when it sets.
I want to believe we won’t be here long enough for it to be an issue, but a gnawing deep inside of me won’t let me.
Chapter Eighteen
Laney
WE’VE MADE SEVERALtrips to and from the river, carrying what water we can. Though there are logs in the woodshed out the back, we also gather any fallen sticks and branches we find.
