Cold Pursuit - Carla Neggers [99]
We could sit out the storm, Nora thought, surveying the dry, cozy cabin.
She and Devin had enough supplies to last at least another day, and maybe he could figure out how to install the chimney and get the woodstove working.
Nora liked the idea that no one else would be able to find the cabin, either. They’d be safe there.
She’d get Devin, and tell him her idea.
As she started back for the door, she heard someone moving fast in the evergreens out in front of the cabin and went still, stifling a startled scream.
“Nora!”
Devin.
“Run, Nora, run! Hide!”
He was yelling frantically, and she could hear the terror in his voice. Her heart jumped, a painful jolt of adrenaline surging through her as she gulped in air. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t have a weapon or know how to fight or anything.
“Stay away from her!”
Devin, Devin, Devin.
Nora bolted for the cabin’s back door, tore it open and scrambled outside, over scrap lumber and an old tarp slick with snow. She dived into the trees and crouched down low, snow whipping into her face and down her neck, sharp branches clawing at her.
My backpack…
She’d left it in the cabin. She had on her hat and gloves, but her tent, her sleeping bag—all her supplies were in her pack. She couldn’t turn back, and she moved fast down a short incline into a steep, shallow gully.
The leaves were wet and slippery under the snow. One wrong step, and she could fall and break an ankle, knock herself out on a rock. Even if she was able to get right up again, she didn’t want to lose her head start.
Devin, where are you?
She kept moving. She didn’t call him, didn’t say a word. She tried to make as little noise as possible as she descended the short, very steep hill into the crevice of the gully. She couldn’t hear the sounds of running anymore—just her own panting, and, she swore, her thumping heart.
The sky seemed to disappear, become a part of the endless trees towering over her. The snow came down nonstop. She looked up at it and felt as if she were in the middle of an all-white kaleidoscope that just kept whirling and wouldn’t let her out.
Choking back tears, too frightened to cry, she stumbled and fell onto one knee. The deep, sopping leaves and evergreen needles immediately soaked through her pants. She got up, shaking now.
Rotting fallen trees and huge boulders, some taller than she, littered the crevice, offering places to hide. Nora knew she had to stop, or whoever was chasing Devin would hear her, see her, follow her footprints…find her.
I need to help Dev.
But what could she do? She was defenseless, helpless. She didn’t know where he was. Who was after him.
Maybe it was just a bear chasing him, and he’ll be all right.
She dropped behind a massive boulder, into snow and brown, wet leaves. She sank as low as she could, squeezing herself between the cold granite behind her and the gnarly roots and trunk of a tall evergreen in front of her. She curled herself into a tight ball, trying to make herself as invisible and as hard to find as possible.
She knew it wasn’t a bear chasing Devin.
She realized her hat had come off and pulled up her hood, which she should have done sooner to keep the snow from going down her neck. She thought of Elijah explaining how to trap body heat. Wind and cold, wet conditions were the enemy.
And here she was, tucked against cold, wet rock and sitting on cold, wet ground, both of which would suck the warmth out of her and send the cold straight in.
It was snowing. Hard.
At least I’m out of the worst of the wind.
Without her pack, with her pants already wet…
She started to cry, but she could hear Elijah warning the class not to waste energy and body heat panicking.
And she didn’t want whoever was out there to find her.
She drew her knees up under her chin and watched the snow collect on the spruce needles and dead leaves.
Now she knew how Drew Cameron had died up here.
He was murdered.
Just like Alex.
She strained