Marlon shook his head, pulling his arms from his coat and already moving toward his own bedroom. “I was hoping it would take longer. John, you were right; Randall must have been wearing a vest when you shot him. I was out gathering game from the traps and saw him and his cousins. They were on a trail that winds onto the far corner of the property. I don’t think they saw me, but they’re here for a reason.” He stopped and turned to me, his face grim. “He must have figured you would come to the first place you could find, looking for help. And that first place was me—though you wouldn’t have known it, given the state of the storm. Still, he was most likely only looking for a reason to attack me. Now that he’s here, our timeline has grown shorter.”
“Time to go,” I agreed.
At that, to my surprise, Marlon almost smiled.
“Nearly. I bought us some time.” He reached under his sweatshirt and pulled out a sturdy slingshot. “They were near a fairly rough outcropping of rock. Rock that was capped off by quite a bit of snow. Over the years I’ve gotten pretty good with this little pea shooter, and for a while, I made a hobby out of figuring out where to hit a snow bank to cause an avalanche. Just a small one, mind you. But enough of a disaster that it will take them some time to get out of it. I estimate that I’ve given us several hours of head start. Maybe more, if any of them was actually wounded.”
His eyes shot to Angie, and then returned to me. “Are you ready to go? Do you have a sled set up?”
“Yeah, and all our things are ready to pack,” I told him quickly.
Marlon nodded. “Then we can get a head start. Assuming bear-man was at least put off by that avalanche I caused, we have several hours while he finds a way around it. More if the snow actually came down on him or one of his cousins. You two get ready to go. The sooner we’re on the trail, the sooner we’ll find our way to Ellis Woods—and safety.”
I nodded and headed for the upstairs room where I’d been gathering our supplies. I had food, medical supplies, and some clothing for both myself and Angie already laid out on the floor. The food and medical supplies had been in the kitchen. The clothing had been in the closets—and though I hadn’t yet asked why or how Marlon had clothing in our sizes conveniently stored in his closets, that didn’t mean I was going to let it just go by. It was on the same level of “convenient” as so many other things about the man. The size of the house. All the extra rooms. The surgical theater—and all the tools.
The fact that he’d just happened to find us in the woods.
It all meant something. And the moment I had a spare second to think about it and ask some pointed questions, I was going to do just that.
But for now, I was taking what we could get and keeping my mouth shut. Because if we were going to be out on the trail, we were going to need the protection that additional clothing gave us. Especially if we had the bad luck to still be out there when night fell.
I began dividing the goods into three equal piles, assuming that we’d be able to manage three packs. Marlon and I would carry our own, of course, and Angie’s could ride with her in the sled. Yes, it would give the sled-puller additional weight. But it would also give her quick and easy access to the bag if she needed something from it. And it would give her something to rest her leg on. Or lean against.
Whatever worked.
When Marlon appeared, he was carrying a large box with him.
“You don’t think we’re going to be able to take that, do you?” I asked, surprised. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would want to take extras on the road.
But he shook his head and smiled. “It occurred to me that we might run into a situation where we need Angie on her feet rather than in the sled. And then it occurred to me that I had something that would fit the bill.”
He opened the box and pulled out a piece of equipment that I recognized—but had only ever seen in videos.
“An exoskeleton?” I asked softly, running my hand over it. The thing was a marvel of engineering, developed by the military for high-danger situations in the field when soldiers needed to patch their own up in a hurry and didn’t have time to take any extra precautions.
I’d never seen one, even in Afghanistan.
Looking at it, I thought I could see why. The thing was incredibly heavy, with straps for both the upper and lower legs and a metal composite framework that would support the entire leg. It also had a belt that would strap around the waist, and support straps at the groin to minimize shock.
My first instinct was that we didn’t need it, and that it would actually bog us down. But then I thought a bit further and realized that if something happened—if we, for some reason, needed Angie on her feet or stabilized—then we needed something like this. The fact that it would keep her leg straight and steady, and maybe keep her out of pain, was an additional motivating factor.
“How did you get this?” I asked, looking up at him in wonder.
Marlon shrugged. “It was payment from a customer. He was a research and development analyst for one of the big military industrial companies. And it turned out to be too small for most people. Which, I assume, will make it perfect for our little lady here.”
I almost jumped for joy. This would not only help to stabilize Angie’s leg, but also make her more mobile. Mobile to the point that if we needed her to run, she might actually be able to.
This thing might actually save our lives, when it came right down to it.
Across the room, Angie was smiling like a kid. “I’ll be able to walk with you.”
“Not so fast, young lady,” said the former doctor. “This is for when we have to make fast progress. Until then, you rest and let us pull you.”
“So you are coming with us,” she said quietly. “I’d wondered.”
He nodded. “I am. It’s simple, really. Randall is coming here to do damage—and he’ll do it to me even if you two have left. Beyond that, things out there… well, they’ve changed. I can’t stay here unless I know what we’re dealing with. There are things I have to see to. People I have to talk to. And I can only do that in town. Or… Well, I have a better chance of doing it there than here.” He saw the questions on my face and gave me a simple nod. “And it gives me the only excuse I need to help you two on your journey. So I’d appreciate if we don’t discuss it any further.”
I chuckled, recognizing a military or intelligence man’s reasoning for what it was, but Angie shook her head. “Randall will come after us. If you’re with us, you’ll be in danger.”
Marlon met her gaze. “I’m already in danger.” He looked calm and determined. “You see, the big bad bear is after you today, but he’ll be after me too, soon enough. Especially now that law enforcement will be stretched far beyond its capacity to handle the chaos.”
“What would he want with you?”
Marlon’s expression went blank. “His wife might have died from toxins that were introduced somewhere else. But she died on my table. He’s been wanting to kill me ever since. Now it seems he has his chance.”
15
We got out into the ice and snow as quickly as possible, and within moments I had Angie on her new sled, on top of two sleeping bags, inside another, and with several quilts laid over her. I put her pack under her leg and my own pack behind her back.
Hey, as long as I was pulling her, I might as well put my pack to good use, right?
“How’s that?” I asked her breathlessly, the cold already invading my lungs. Yes, it was still early morning, and the sun was shining brightly above. But it was that sort of winter sun that brought bright light and very little warmth. This was going to be a very long, very cold ten miles.
And we were in a hurry. Which was only going to make it seem even longer. Even if Marlon was right and Randall had been trapped in an avalanche—even if he or one of his cousins had been hurt in it—it might not have given us enough of a head start. I didn’t know exactly how far Marlon’s house was from Randall’s, but it couldn’t be more than ten miles for Marlon to have casually found us wandering through the woods.