She nodded. “We need to get your girlfriend out of the house before then. Come on, keep moving. I’ll tell you what I know once we’re clear of this place.”
She led him deeper into the forest. It was an area he hadn’t encountered before, but that wasn’t saying much. Everything he had seen during the past few hours was new to him, a troubling mystery unfolding in literally the backyard of his childhood.I’ve been coming here to see Grandpa Lee since I was a kid, and never knew any of this was back here, he kept thinking.If my grandpa knew about it, why did he hide it from me?
He worried about his grandfather. He knew Amiya was in the house, but where was Grandpa Lee? Was he somewhere safe? Had he recovered from his medical crisis?
The helpers, Betty and that other guy, had confiscated his cell phone. He wished he still had it, even if he couldn’t raise a signal. He would have liked to at least try to reach someone in the outside world: his mom, Omar, anyone. The more time he spent in these backwoods, imprisoned in this bizarre environment with its own set of rules and its own strange hierarchy, the less connected he felt to the modern life he had always known.
Insects buzzed around him. It was getting later in the afternoon, but the onslaught of heat had continued. Traveling through the forest was like swimming in a steam bath.
He was starving, too. He hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast that morning.
He studied Raven as she led him through the woods, her petite but strong hand hooked over his. She said she was seventeen, and he believed she might be, but based on her been-there, done-that demeanor she could have been older. He wondered about the horrors she had witnessed here.
More than anything else, he wondered why she stayed.
They neared the creek, and Nick began to recognize his surroundings again. Raven had just taken them on a different route to the water. She released his hand, picked her way down the muddy bank to the water, knelt, and cupped both hands in the stream. She splashed water over her face, took deep sips.
“That water’s not safe to drink,” Nick said. “You should boil it first.”
“This might be the only water you get for a while.” She drank from the bowl of her hands. “I’ve got bigger issues to worry about than catching a few germs.”
Nick looked around, reassured himself that they had lost their pursuers. He joined Raven at the creek’s edge. The stream looked clean, but that meant nothing; earning a doctorate in a field of scientific study had filled his mind with all sorts of disturbing facts about what likely lurked in this water.
But he was thirsty. Escaping through the steaming woods had wrung buckets of sweat from his pores. His risk of severe dehydration was more pressing than the likelihood of ingesting harmful parasites.
He dipped his fingers in the creek, found the water cool. He formed a cup with his hand and sipped. It had an earthy flavor, but otherwise tasted fine.
Raven watched him. “Good, huh?”
“Do you have anything to eat?” he asked. “I’m starving.”
“When was the last time you ate something?” Her eyes narrowed.
“This morning, breakfast. Why?”
“What did you eat?” she asked.
“We went to Starbucks. I had a breakfast sandwich—it had an egg, bacon, and cheese. I had a cup of yogurt, too.”
“Wow, that sounds so good.” She closed her eyes, licked her lips. “If you ate like that just this morning, you aren’t starving. Not yet.”
He frowned. “Well, what the hell do you eat, then?”
“Whatever I can find.” She stared at him. “Some of these trees out here have fruit and berries. I’ve learned which ones make me sick and which ones are okay to eat.”
“That’s it? Damn, no wonder you’re so thin.”
“I’ve killed rabbits a few times,” she said, lifting her chin proudly. “I started fires and cooked them on it. It was a lot of work, but it wassogood.”
“Foraging for berries, hunting rabbits with sharpened sticks . . . that’s no way for a girl your age to live,” he said. “You ought to be graduating high school and prepping for college, Raven.”
“Tell me about it.” She gave him a hard look. “I’m doing what I can just to survive.”
Nick took another sip of water, cleared a large rock on the bank, and sat on it.
“I don’t understand what’s going on out here,” he said. “Tell me everything you know. Please.”
Raven glanced around them and peered at the sky, as if reassuring herself that it was okay to let her guard down.
