And all too soon, we’re standing by the spot we’d camped for the past two nights.
Were they watching us at the campsite and I never saw?
“Are you just like… wandering? Like what the fuck are you even seeing?” Landon asks as he squats down to try to see what I’m seeing. He grabs a stick and pokes an earthworm like it might have the answers.
Then I follow the path out of the camp and over to where we spent part of the first night.
Were we really being followed for that long? And I never once noticed it? No… longer than that… all the way back to where we got lost, maybe a bit before. I look around, realizing that I’ve lost the trail. So I’ve figured out where they first found us, but not where they’ve gone.
“Did we just walk in a circle? Did I sacrifice my legs for a circle?” Landon asks.
“They started following us here.”
“Are you joking? They were following us for two days?”
I draw in a sharp breath. “I left you all alone. I left you sleeping and unguarded so many times.”
“Deus, you realize we’re all supers, right? And that this doesn’t all fall on your shoulders? No? I’m talking to a wall? Am I? Oh wow. Good conversation.”
“I’m a failure,” I decide.
Landon grabs me and begins trying to choke me. I just let him because I deserve it.
“You little shit, you didn’t just… ‘fail.’ None of us noticed this! So it’s not all on you! They’re obviously not here anymore, so let’s head to the hospital and see how Ellison’s doing. We have shit reception out here.”
“You go ahead; I’m going to keep looking.”
Landon switches from choking me to grabbing my face in his hands. “You’re really worried about Ellison. I can tell.”
I pause before shaking my head. No, my focus is on figuring out what happened. What others think. Not my own feelings or thoughts. Never my own. My own feelings and thoughts don’t matter.
He grips my face harder. “For me. Please. Go for me. What if you need to protect Ellison at the hospital?”
I debate that, but I know he’s right. “Okay. Let’s go.”
I just really hope I’m not making a mistake. That I’m not leaving something critical behind.
Landon grabs my hand and squeezes it. “Come, come. I need your guidance and your help, and possibly even your legs.”
“You have walked farther than I bet you’ve walked in your entire life,” I say.
He lifts a finger, like he’s going to tell me I’m wrong, before shrugging. “You’re probably right.”
Then he holds his arms out to me, telling me that this is why he wants me to go with him. I heft him up and throw him over my shoulder so I still have easy access to my guns. “Watch my back.”
“Yes, sir,” he says as he hangs there like a limp noodle. He’s quite pleased by this arrangement and has no problem being carried out of the woods like this or being seen by others who have brought us a vehicle.
CHAPTER FIVE
DEUS
When we reach the hospital, the others are all waiting in a room as I question why I would possibly waste time sitting here. It’s such nonsense.
August smiles when he looks up and sees us. “Find anything?”
“No, I have failed,” I say as I pull out my invoice pad and add an “I am a failure” discount. It’s a significant amount because I have failed significantly. I probably owe them money after this.
Landon grabs the pen and scribbles out the discount. “You haven’t failed.” He turns toward August. “He’s acting like he did nothing while he pointed out things that I’m pretty confident weren’t even there. He’d be like, ‘Look at the way this thin blade of grass has been tilted at a point-three-degree angle, which means that the culprit was running at two point three miles per hour.’”
