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“Look, Celine, I don’t know how long we’ll be out here. It’s fine not to eat for a day or two but a week or two? We have to keep our strength up.”
Her face blanched. “A week or two?” Her voice was small. “Lorenzo…”
“I don’t know, okay?” I said and let out a breath with a shudder. “It could be that long. I don’t know how long it will be until we get out of here, and if we don’t make sure we can make the trek…” I’d tried to sugarcoat it for her for this long, but we had to start facing facts and hiding the truth from her wasn’t going to help anyone.
Celine looked panicked. Her eyes flitted through the trees but she wasn’t looking for something, she was going over the new scenarios in her mind. One or two days was a different thing than being here indefinitely.
“I thought we were okay,” she said in a small voice.
“We are, but we have to stay that way.” I looked at her, locking our eyes so that she would focus on me. “This isn’t going to be easy, but we can do this. We just have to stick together and figure this out. One step at a time.”
“One step at a time,” Celine echoed.
“Right. Let’s see what we can do to stay alive, okay?”
She swallowed hard. “Okay.”
I nodded, and we crept on through the trees. I had to burst her bubble and I hated how small and lost she looked. I’d hoped I could keep her world as perfect as it always was, but we had to start facing facts.
Movement through the trees caught my eye, and I held up my hand. I pressed a finger against my lips, showing her to be quiet. She nodded and looked through the trees, too. The storm had ruined a lot of the landscape and there weren’t many creatures out and about, but a sole grouse wandered through the trees, pecking at the mulch, looking for something to eat.
I lifted the rock I’d found to stun it with. My brother and I had done this in Italy so many times, it was second nature. I focused on the weight of the rock in my hand, the feel of it, the coldness that ran through my fingers.
I held up the rock, and I felt Celine draw her breath. When I flung the rock, she covered her face with her hands.
It was a smooth kill, and when it was over, I carried the bird by its neck to where Celine waited for me. She looked a little green.
“You’ll feel differently when we eat it,” I said.
“I don’t know if I will.” She looked like she was going to throw up. “I don’t know what’s worse—the fact that you just did that or the fact that you knowhowto do that.”
I shook my head. “Let’s go,” I said.
A growling sound made me freeze.
“What was that?” Celine asked, and she grabbed my wrist.
“Something else looking for food, too.” I looked around, trying to see movement, looking for wherever the sound had come from. The mountains had all kinds of predators roaming around, from mountain lions and lynxes to black bears and everyone was looking for a bite to eat to survive.
“Let’s go,” I said and grabbed Celine’s hand. I dragged her through the trees in the direction of the cabin.
Behind us, I heard the growling sound again, but no movement. It had to be some sort of cat following us. A bear was louder, not as light on its feet, but it was slower than a cat.
Fuck.
When I saw the cabin, we broke into a flat-out run. I yanked the door open and dragged Celine in before slamming it shut again.
A loud thud against the door suggested we were perfectly on time.
“What is that?” Celine asked, her breathing coming in shallow gasps.
“I don’t know.” I walked to the window. A mountain lion stood on the small porch—I could only see the back of it from my vantage point. It lifted itself up against the door, paced a few times before it lay down. It was going to wait for us.
“We’ll stay here a while longer,” I said dryly. “No more walking for you for today.”
Celine shook her head. “I should be happy to hear that, but that’s… terrifying.”
I nodded. “It will get bored… eventually. Or hungry and go on its own hunt.”
