JACK KILBORN ~ ENDURANCE (37 page)

“
You can’t blame yourself, Cam.” She rubbed his back.

“
Sure I can. I could have done something. I could have stopped it.”

Kelly squatted down next to him.
“You were just a kid. What were you supposed to do?”

“
I can hear the screaming right now.” Cam cast a frantic glance into the woods. “I can hear him, like he’s right next to me. Begging to live. And then, after a while, begging to die.” He put his knuckle in his mouth. “It took him such a long time to die.”

Kelly wasn’t sure what to do. He was supposed to be the adult, not her. Lost in the woods, being chased by freaks and a mountain lion, wasn’t a good time to have a nervous breakdown.

“
That’s over
, Cam. Now you’re here with me. You need to be strong. And we need to go find help.”

Cam looked at Kelly like he hadn’t realized she’d been there. “There’s no help. Not for him.” A darkness came over his face. “And not for you.”

“
Stop it, Cam. You’re scaring me.”

“
That’s what my best friend said.” Cam said. “After I tied him up.”

Kelly felt the world start to spin. She thought Cam was just stressed, freaking out because of everything that had happened. Maybe having some kind of flashback.

But now she knew different.

“
You killed him,” she whispered.

Cam didn’t say anything.

“
Did you kill your friend, Cam?”

“
I blamed it on a stranger. Said I was locked in the closet. I think the police suspected me, but no one could prove anything. I wore gloves. Brought along an extra set of clothes.”

“
Why?” Kelly asked, backing away. She really didn’t want to know. She just wanted some time to get some distance between them.

“
To see if I could get away with it. And I did. But even after he died, I could still hear his screams. They were so loud, I couldn’t sleep. I tried to kill myself, but the screaming still wouldn’t go away. So I did it again, with someone else. In the institution. I thought maybe if I killed another person, my friend would have some company, and finally shut the fuck up. But that didn’t work either. So now I’m thinking something else.”

He’s a psycho.
e’sHw
I need to run.

But Kelly was too frightened to move.

“
What are you thinking, Cam?”
Kelly asked, her voice cracking.

Cam pulled a
scalpel from his back pocket. “I’m thinking third time is a charm.”

He lunged at her, grabbing Kelly’s arm, poking
her in the shoulder with the blade.

Kelly screamed like she’d never screamed before in her life.

“
That’s how he screamed,” Cam said.

Then he poked her again.

# # #

Deb, who’d been in a dozen triathlons and three marathons, had
never been so tired. They’d spent the entire night calling for Letti’s daughter, and she was practically hoarse. Each step she took was agonizing. Without the gel socks, her prosthetics chafed at her skin. It felt like everything below her pelvis was one giant blister, getting rubbed with sand.

Mal looked equally dishevelled. She knew how traumatic losing a limb was, both physically and emotionally. That he’d managed to keep going, and even retain a sense of humor, showed Deb what a hell of a guy he really was.

He’d noticed her grimacing earlier, and had offered to shoulder her suitcase with her extra legs in it.

“
I don’t need you to give me a hand,” Deb had told him.

Mal had laughed at that, and when Deb realized what she said, she was mortified.

“
It’s okay. It makes up for my
gotten off on the wrong foot
comment when we met.”

And he took her bag. Just lost a limb, and he took her bag.

If we get out of this alive, I may have to rethink my no dating rule

Letti
was the one who appeared most distraught of all. She continued pushing forward, even with a drastic limp, stopping every minute to shout her daughter’s name.

Deb knew it was counterproductive at this point. Kelly wasn’t answering. And undoubtedly both that cougar, and the remainder of Eleanor’s wacko family, could locate them without much difficulty. But neither she nor Mal told Letti to stop.

If it was my kid, I
wouldn’t stop either.

Deb had no idea how far they’d travelled, because the woods all looked the same. It became a little easier as the sun came up, but after so many trees and rocks
it all just blended together.

“
At least it’s a pretty view,” Mal said, coming up beside Deb.
“Check out those mountains.”

Deb rolled her eyes. “If you’ve seen one mountain, you’ve seen... oh my God.”

“
What?”

“
I
have
seen this mountain. I’ve seen this mountain, from this very spot.”

Deb stopped, looking around. She knew, as long as she lived, she’d always remember this spot.

This is where the mountain lion attacked me. I crawled through this area, with two broken legs.

“
What are you saying, Deb?”

“
Up ahead, just around that bend. The cliff.”

“
The one you...?”

“
Yeah.”

“
So there’s a road around here. Right?”

Deb shook her head. “I had a Jeep. I’d taken it down a trail. The trail is two miles away, but the main road is five more miles.”

“
Seven miles? That’s a long hike. Do you think you can still find the trail?”

“
I don’t have to. After my accident, the county built a lookout platform on top of the mountain I fell from. There might be someone there right now. If not, they for sure have a radio. Direct line to the ranger station.”

Mal was nodding enthusiastically. “We could contact them, they’d pick us up.”

They’d tried using Mal’s phone to call for help, but had led nowhere. Even though they found a cell signal and managed to contact the authorities, no one knew where the Rushmore Inn was. Apparently, triangulating a cell phone signal only worked when there were multiple cell towers. Out here, there was only one, and no way to pinpoint their location.

Mal had argued with various people, and managed to get the forest rangers to agree to send out a helicopter and look for them.

They hadn’t seen any helicopter. And shortly after that conversation, Mal’s battery died.

He attempted it once more, digging the phone out of his pocket. It
wouldn’t even power on. Deb tried taking out the battery, rubbing some saliva on the contact points—a trick that often worked on flashlight batteries. It didn’t work on cell phones.

“
No problem,” Mal said. “We’ll just get to the lookout tower.”

That’s when they heard the scream.

It was so far away, it echoed. But Deb could tell it was from a girl.

“
It’s Kelly,” Letti said, limping up to them. “Kelly! Kelly, it’s Mom!”

If that was Kelly, she didn’t respond.

“
KELLY!”

“
Letti,” Mal said, touching her arm. “We’re near a ranger lookout station. We can get help.”

If Letti heard him, she didn’t show it. Instead, she went limping off into the woods.

“
Letti!” Mal yelled after her. “We can get help!”

The forest swallowed her up.

“
Should we go after her?” Mal asked.

Deb shook her head. “We know our location. There’s a ranger station nearby. The best way we can help her is to get to the authorities.”

“
How far is this station?”

“
Maybe a few hundred yards. But...”

“
But what?”

“
It’s about
seventy feet up the mountain, Mal.”

“
It’s a lookout tower, right? Maybe if we get to the base of the mountain, they’ll see us.”

Deb agreed it was their best shot. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Having a plan reenergized Deb, and she was able to ignore the pain in her legs. But when they finally reached the mountain, she was hit by a wave of vertigo and had to sit down.

It was massive. A giant shel
f of solid, grayish-tan rock. There were some outcroppings, a few seams, a patch of dirt here and there where some bushes managed to take root. But it was steeper than she remembered, and bigger.

The old memories
came stomping back. She could see the sheer place she slipped off of. The spot where she landed. The mountain bent and tilted in her vision like it was falling on top of Deb, about to bury her forever.

“
There’s the base,” Mal said, pointing at a tiny cabin perched on a shelf of the mountainside. “Hey! We’re down here!”

He waved his arms, trying to get a response.

No response came.

Mal walked to the mountainside, where the rock met the soil. He placed a foot on the stone, tried for a handhold, and got up about eight inches before slipping back down.

It was impossible to mountain climb in the leather dress shoes he wore. And it was doubly impossible to climb with only one hand.

Mal came back over to her, his expression grim. She knew what he was thinking.

“
I know,” Deb said. “But I can’t.”

“
You’re superwoman, remember? You’ve even got your mountain climbing legs.”

Mal patted the suitcase. Deb rubbed her face with her hands.

“
You don’t understand, Mal.”

“
Deb, it’s okay to be scared. But you can do this. I’ve seen how you can handle yourself.”

“
Mal...”

“
The other time, it was just a fluke. A freak accident. You can make it this time. You can—”

“
It wasn’t an accident!” Deb said, harsher than she meant to. “It was my fault!”

Mal waited. Deb took a big breath, and sighed.

Time to tell the truth.

“
I was cocky,” she began. “I knew I was a good climber. I knew I could climb this mountain with my eyes closed. So I thought I’d challenge myself.
Remember I told you I was hammering in my first pinion when I started to slide?”

Mal nodded.

“
Look up there.” She pointed at the mountain. “See that angled shelf? That’s where I fell from. I should have used two or three pinions just to get up to that point. But I was cocky.”

“
So when y
ou tried to hammer in your first pinion the rock gave way...”

“
Don’t you get it, Mal? I didn’t use
any
pinions. No ropes. No harnesses. No helmet. I tried to free climb. And I did it without a partner, and without telling anyone where I was. I came here alone, with no gear. It was my own goddamn fault I fell. Not an accident. The rock didn’t give way. I just slipped. It was pure stupidity. I was a fucking fool.”

She waited for Mal’s reaction. His judgement. His disapproval.

He’s got to think I’m as big of an idiot as I think I am.

B
ut Mal’s expression didn’t change. And he didn’t say anything. He simply kneeled down and opened up her suitcase.

Deb shook her head.
“I can’t do it, Mal.”

He took out her mountain climbing legs. The ones she’d never used, except to bash Eleanor’s freaks in the face.

“
Mal, I fell off with two good legs. I can’t climb that as a cripple.”

“
You’re the strongest person I ever met, Deb.”

“
I’m an idiot who ruined my life.”

“
You’re an amazing woman. And you’re going to climb that mountain, get that radio, and save the day.”

He handed her one of the legs. She threw it back at him.

“
Don’t you see I can’t do this!”

“
I’m a writer,” Mal said. “You’re an athlete. If I can learn to type one-handed, you can climb this mountain with no legs.”

“
And what if I fall off again?”

“
Then I’ll catch you.” Mal winked. “This time you didn’t come alone.”

Deb didn’t know whether to cry, scream, or kiss him. She settled for saying, “Gimme the damn legs.”

When she pulled off the Cheetah
s they were filled with sweat. Her skin was mottled and blistered and bleeding in some places. But, oddly enough, she didn’t care that Mal saw. After laying her soul bare, him seeing her stumps wasn’t that big a deal.

Besides, he wasn’t looking at her legs. He was looking at her chest again.

“
If I make it, you owe me dinner,” she said.

“
When you make it, I’ll take you to Rome. I’ll even spring for two rooms so you won’t have to share one with me.”

Deb looked into his eyes, saw trust and acceptance and obvious affection, and decided that he wouldn’t need a separate room.