AllFreeNovel
Share Us
LORENZO
Ilayinthedouble bed in the small bedroom. Celine was curled up against me, her body warm underneath the thick covers. Her breathing was deep and rhythmic. She slept like the dead—after all the hiking we’d been doing, I didn’t blame her. I was just as exhausted, but my mind wouldn’t let me sleep in for too long.
I tugged the covers up to my chin against the cold morning air that hung in the cabin.
Whoever had abandoned this cabin had had the good sense to cover it all up with sheets first and that had saved us. The bedding, the couch cushions, anything that could have been ruined by dust and time, was in semi-good condition thanks to the fact they’d been covered.
The storm had raged all night but the cabin had held up, with no leaks and only a few cracks where the wind had driven in to reach us with icy, teasing fingers.
Now, in the early light of day, the storm had died down and the light that fell through the tattered curtains in front of the windows had a silver quality to it.
Was this the quiet after the storm… or before the next one?
The storms that kept rolling back worried me. None of it had shown on the weather forecasts, and I’d checked meticulously a couple of times. If they hadn’t been able to predict this, how long would it continue?
Helicopters couldn’t fly in these electrical storms, and I was nervous that every storm would wash away more of the trails, more of the landscape around us that we needed to cross to get back to civilization.
Not that I had any idea where we were. Our cell phones had no signal and wouldn’t have until we got remotely close to a tower, which meant we were pretty far out.
The fact that we’d washed down the river so far had also confused me completely. I usually had a pretty good sense of direction and where I was but this was a unique—and terrifying—situation.
And Celine was coping with the wilderness remarkably well considering the circumstances.
She’d grown up in a world where everything was done for her, everything was shiny and polished and perfect, and if she needed something, she just had to snap her fingers and it was there. A part of me was irritated with her spoiled attitude, but I had to remember where she came from.
I felt like shit that I’d pushed her to come with me on this camping trip. What if something happened? What if we were seriously injured, or worse…
If something serious happened to her on this trip because we were stranded now, I would never forgive myself.
Celine shifted under the covers and turned to face me before her eyes fluttered open. Her brows knitted into a frown as she tried to figure out where she was, and then her eyes widened as she remembered.
“Morning,” I said.
“Hi.”
“Did you sleep okay?”
She nodded and stretched. “Only because you’re here.”
I smiled. “I’m glad we’re in this together, at least.”
“I’d rather not be in this at all,” Celine said tightly. “But being here with you is much better than dealing with this shit alone.”
God, I didn’t want to think what might have happened to her if I hadn’t been here. A strong sense of protectiveness washed over me.
Celine was by no means weak. She could take care of herself in her world—she was a firecracker and everyone shivered right down to their boots when she was done with them. This wasn’t her world, though, and knowing that she was vulnerable, even if she didn’t want to show her, made me want to protect her.
It grated on me that there was only so much I could do out here.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Sore,” Celine admitted and sat up. She shivered. “It’s freezing.”
“It’s the storm,” I said. “It brought the temperatures down quite a bit.”
Celine wriggled under the covers again. “Do we have to go out in this?”
“We do,” I said. “To find food, if nothing else.”
