As soon as the truck stopped, Sergeant Lukes jogged out and motioned for the driver to roll down the window. The two talked for several minutes, with the driver handing out a piece of paper at one point.
While all this was going on, Brandon, with Loni silently tagging along, worked his way close to where the other supervisors were waiting. Right after he got there, Sergeant Lukes finished his conversation and walked over to his colleagues.
“A girl,” he said. “Five years old. Goes by the name Ellie.”
“Just the one?” Mrs. Trieb asked.
“That’s it.”
“Where from?”
“Boulder.”
“Blood test?” Mr. Munson asked.
The sergeant handed over the piece of paper he’d been given. Several of the supervisors looked it over. When they were through, Mrs. Trieb nodded. “All right. Looks good.”
The sergeant moved back to the truck, this time heading for the passenger side, and opened the door. He leaned in for a few seconds. When he backed out, the girl was in his arms. She looked frightened.
The sergeant grabbed the door with his free hand and started to close it, but stopped when the driver said something. A big ball of fluff gently sailed out the door and into the sergeant’s hand. A stuffed bear. He gave it to the girl, and it seemed to calm her down.
There was more conversation. At one point, the sergeant pointed down the road, twisting his hand one way and then the other as if giving directions. When he finally shut the door, the truck took off.
“This is Ellie,” the sergeant said when he returned.
“Hi, Ellie,” Miss Collins said. “Is it okay if I hold you?”
The girl hesitated for only a moment before letting Miss Collins take her.
“Let’s go inside and get you something to eat, huh?” Miss Collins said.
As she turned, the stuffed bear Ellie was holding knocked against one of the other supervisors and fell to the ground. She didn’t realize it until they were almost at the cafeteria door, when she suddenly looked around and started to hyperventilate.
“Bear! Bear!”
“What, sweetie?” Miss Collins asked.
“Bear!” The girl motioned with her hand back the way they’d come.
Brandon scooped it up and hurried over as Miss Collins was turning to see what the girl was talking about. “Here you go,” he said, handing Ellie her stuffed animal.
She immediately hugged it to her chest.
“Thank you,” Miss Collins said.
“No problem.”
The girl gave him a smile.
“Make sure to hold on tight,” he said.
She hugged the bear to her chest and smiled again. “Never let go.”
“That’s right,” he said. “Never let go.”
What a dick.
Jack couldn’t believe the nerve of the guy. Come on. He’d been on the road for more than three hours, and had been awake for…well, he couldn’t remember exactly how long now, but a long time. And on top of that, his headache wasn’t going away.
All he’d asked the guy at Camp Kiley was if he could park his truck off to the side, and sleep in the cab for a little while before he headed back out.
“I’m sorry, sir. I can’t allow you to do that,” the man had said.
Sure, he sounded polite, but he was being an asshole. He’d then gone so far as to give Jack directions to some lodge about ten miles away.
Up here? On the mountain? On these roads? That was too far. Jack was exhausted and hungry, but when he asked for some food? Forget it.
“I’m sure you can get something to eat at the lodge,” the man had said.
How hard would it have been to just give him a sandwich or a piece of fruit, even. A piece of goddamn fruit? They wouldn’t have had to do anything but throw it through the window.
If Jack hadn’t reined himself in, he would have gunned the engine and spun the tires on the way out to show his anger. But an idea had come to him, and if he was going to follow up on it, any show of aggression would’ve put them on alert.
The road between the camp and the highway curved around a hill not long after he left. As soon as he was out of sight of the asshole and his friends, Jack pulled the truck to the side of the road and killed the engine. Before he could open the door, though, he tensed, his eyes squeezing shut.
It felt like a nuclear explosion had just gone off in his head.
Once it eased enough so he could function again, he removed his thick plastic hood with its built-in mask and stumbled out the door. From one of the truck’s exterior compartments, he removed the kit with the aspirin and tried to dry swallow three pills. It was harder than he expected. His throat felt tight, constricted.
The headache. It’s messing up my whole system.
He grabbed a half-empty bottle of water from up front, and used what was left to wash the aspirin down. He leaned against the truck, his eyes closed, and willed the pills to take effect. No such luck.
In fact, the only response he received was a growl from his stomach, notifying him that the aspirin was a poor substitute for food.
He looked across the road. Out there, through the trees, was Camp Kiley, and all the food his stomach could hold. Beds, too. Dammit, they’d have to let him use one.
Stepping away from the truck, he had the fleeting thought that there was some reason he should stay away from the camp. But it was in and out of his mind so fast that by the time he reached the trees, he had forgotten all about it.
That big building — that had to be the one, Jack thought.
The only problem was, most of the people at the camp were inside it. If they spotted him, especially that asshole who’d sent him away, they would probably chase him off again without giving him anything. Easier to sneak in and take what he wanted, but that probably meant waiting longer than his empty stomach could stand.
After scanning the rest of the camp, his gaze settled on the two rows of rectangular buildings. They were obviously dormitories. Maybe he couldn’t get to the main food supply just yet, but if the residents of Camp Kiley were anything like how he was back when he’d gone to camp, some of them would have a little food stashed away in their bags. More than enough, he thought, to tide him over until the kitchen cleared out.
He started with the dorms along the back row since they were hidden from the building the others were in. Moving from bed to bed, he rummaged through each bag he found, but netted only a single candy bar in the first building he checked.
What was wrong with these kids? Hadn’t they ever been to camp before?
Once more, he had the sensation he was missing something, that this situation was different than normal camp. And once more it faded away.
As he entered the second dorm, he felt something in his throat, like maybe he’d swallowed wrong when he’d chomped into the chocolate. He tried to clear it, and ended up coughing for several seconds. Ironically, it actually did the trick, though it left him with a tingling sensation in his chest, like he might have to cough again before long.
Whatever. Just find the food!
The new building proved to be a bit more lucrative. A bag of Doritos, two bottles of water, and a large, half-eaten chocolate chip cookie.
Nothing of note in the third dorm. In the fourth, three sticks of string cheese and another bottle of water.
As he moved toward the front row of four buildings, he heard the crunch of snow not far away. He pressed himself against the side of the nearest dorm, thinking he’d been seen. But the steps continued moving at a steady, unhurried pace, and a few seconds later the door of one of the buildings in the back row opened.