Wanted (25 page)

Tremors subsiding, Jessie raised her head slowly. Between gasps for breath she muttered, “I picked a hell of a time to quit drinking.”

In spite of himself, Carl smirked, but then quickly turned away to survey the landscape before anyone noticed. “Tanya, with me, let’s see if we can find something to shoot.”

Tanya jumped, startled by the sudden command. Dusty looked at her, his eyes narrowed with hurt and suspicion. She climbed stiffly to her feet. To Jessie and Dusty Carl said, “Head back the way we come. At the bottom of the last ravine we crossed through head deeper into it, towards the east. There’s a group of boulders we can set up camp in. One’s tipped over. Dig out a bowl and see if you can gather some kindling.”

With everyone busy, Carl headed off, cutting to the west up and over the lip of the ridge they had been crouched behind. Tanya followed him after he got a few steps ahead, glancing back only once to offer a smile to her brother. Dusty, for his part, only nodded.

Carl moved quickly, with only Tanya to guide, and in minutes both of them were breathing heavily from the rugged terrain. He paused on a small bluff, staring around at the valley below them as well as a gentle slope off to the right that was no doubt filled with terrain that made it anything but gentle.

“
How’s the leg?” Tanya asked him between breaths while she, too, surveyed the wilderness.

“
Which one?” he asked.

“
The snake bite… wait, which one? Why?”

He shrugged. “Fine. Had to dig some shrapnel out of the other one after Edland. Nothing deep though. Don’t worry. No sign of infection either.”

He glanced at her and saw her shaking her head as she peered off into the distance. She pointed a minute later. “What’s that?”

“
Mule deer,” Carl said, catching sight of it quickly. He waited and soon they saw three others as well. “Go ahead, aim for the small one.”

“
The small one?” She asked, confused.

“
Easier to carry. This is one meal, maybe two, we’re after. Ain’t stocking up for the winter.”

“
Oh, good point,” she said, then dropped down to lie on the rocky ground. She shifted to find a good position, then locked the legs of the bipod on the rifle before sighting in the deer. “Range?”

Carl squinted, taking a moment to judge the distance. “About 400 yards, maybe a little shy. Got a headwind too, not strong, but enough. Coming slightly left to right.”

He heard her take a deep breath and let it go. He watched her, not the deer, for a moment and admired how perfectly still she was. “Take it when you’re ready,” he told her softly.

“
You sure you don’t want to do this, you’re a better shot,” she offered, hiding the excitement in her voice.

“
Gun’s sighted in for you now,” he pointed out, reminding her of the dozens of rounds she had fired the day before they rescued Dustin and Jessie.

Tanya did not nod, just took another breath. Her finger caressed the trigger lightly, feeling how touchy it was and knowing it was only a hair of pressure she needed to give it to make it explode. Carl looked back to the deer again, sizing them up and assuming she would take the one furthest from them. It looked the smallest. No sooner had he made the guess then he heard and felt the rifle crack next to him. He watched the deer, unblinking, as the unseen bullet spiraled through the air at supersonic velocity.

The deer spasmed, its front legs coming off the ground in a surprised leap even as its hind legs collapsed beneath it. The other deer exploded into action, spooked by the behavior of the dropped deer as well as the sound of the rifle that was reaching them at the same time.

“
Good shot,” Carl observed. “Spined it, won’t run far.”

“
Less than 400 yards,” Tanya said, her voice a little subdued. “I hit it high.”

Carl shrugged, it would be dead by the time they got to it, that’s all that mattered to him.

“
That was hard,” she admitted, climbing to her feet and following him as he picked his way down to the valley in front of them.

“
Huh?” Carl asked, a little confused. It seemed a pretty straight forward and clean shot to him. Lots of scrub and trees, but the deer were picking through a clearing without any real cover.

“
Shooting it… killing it, I mean,” she said.

Carl glanced at her, surprised.

“
It’s just an animal, it never did anything wrong. It never hurt anyone and never stole from anyone,” she explained, seeing his look. “Those guys back in Edland? They weren’t animals, they were assholes. I didn’t feel anything for killing them, I’m sure somebody would thank me for doing it. But that deer…”

Carl nodded. “I understand,” he told her, finding himself impressed by the young woman. “Most of us deserve it, at some time or another. Humans or animals though, it’s a matter of survival.”

She laughed sharply. “Survival? That deer wasn’t threatening us.”

“
No, but we need food. You shooting it’s no different than a pack of coyotes running it to the ground.”

“
Oh,” Tanya said thoughtfully. She lapsed into silence as they walked, giving Carl a chance to think about the girl and wonder just what it was she was getting herself into.

“
You know, she’s really trying to get better,” he heard her say as they walked up on the clearing with the deer in it. It was laying there, dead. Blood had turned the ground dark beneath. “You should cut her a little slack.”

“
Aw Christ,” he muttered. “Can’t I have half an hour of peace without that girl ruining my day?”

He spun around when he heard Tanya laugh behind him. His squinted glare made her laugh again, then she shook her head and said, “So that’s your problem with her… you like her!”

Wide eyed in shock, Carl quickly recovered to glare at her. “Like her? Like her to leave or maybe fall off a cliff, sure.”

Tanya just shook her head and smiled, a knowing look in her eye. Carl wanted to wipe the grin off her face with his boot. How could he possibly like Jessie? She was a nightmare! An addict and a whore, she’d spit in his face with every chance he’d given her. So what if she was the best looking thing he’d seen since…well, probably ever. Simple fact was that she was distracting and a nuisance, and that was a kind description for her.

“
You keep that up and I’ll be sending you with her,” he growled, then dropped down next to the deer and took out his knife.

Tanya stayed silent while he gutted the deer. He cut out the back straps and the heart, then cut a few more pieces of meat from it when he considered how many people he had to feed. Finished, he tried to scrape the blood from his arms on some wadded up grasses. He gathered up several more long grasses and used those to wrap the meat in, then started back without a word to Tanya. He saw her eyes twinkling with amusement as she passed but he chose to not rise to the bait.

Chapter 15

“
What do we do with it?” Dustin asked her, staring at the still body of the snake that Jessie had just clubbed with the butt of her rifle.

“
It’s dead,” she said, prodding it with the barrel just to be safe. “Leave it, I guess. If they don’t come back with anything maybe Carl knows how to cook it.”

Dusty glanced off to the west. They had heard the shot a few minutes ago. They assumed it had been Carl and Tanya, but beyond that they knew nothing. “Sure, why not. He knows everything else, doesn’t he?”

Jessie rubbed her head and sighed. The worst of the tremors had passed but her throat ached for want of something to drink and her chest burned from all the labored breathing she had been doing. In spite of that, the dull headaches that occasionally rose to a piercing shriek in her temples were the worst of it.

“
Cut him some slack, Dusty, he just-“

“
He just wants you gone!” Dusty snapped. “I don’t get it! You covered for me and Tanya both. You’ve been there for us more than he has. Why’s he got to have this attitude about always knowing what’s best. Shit, it’s like… like living with my dad or something.”

“
Your dad always know what’s right?” Jessie asked him.

Dusty barked out a bitter laugh. “Thinks he does. He doesn’t have a clue. Sure, maybe he knows business and maybe he knows his bio-tech stuff, but he doesn’t know shit about me or Tanya. What’s best for us, I mean. He thinks he’s got that all figured out, never mind what we want.”

Jessie tried to perk up and listen. He was telling her more than she had known and she wondered if it was serious, or just him blowing off steam. “I don’t know your dad but I’m sure he means well,” she offered consolingly. “Don’t all dads mean well?”

“
Beats me,” he muttered, kicking some stones away from the boulders Carl had directed them to set up a camp in.

Jessie smiled sadly. Her dad hadn’t been the best man out there, but he treated her all right. Before Darin died, at least. Afterwards, he drank a lot more and didn’t talk to her much. Then she left and never had the chance to hear from him again. “He’s a busy guy, I’m sure he just wants what’s best for you,” she offered.

“
Maybe,” he said, blowing it off. “I’m going to find some wood or something.”

“
Good idea, let me help,” she said, stepping out of the shade of the rocks and looking around. “All I know is that I could really use a bath. I’ve got dirt and sand in places that… well, this bathing suit’s not hiding anything, I’m sure you can imagine.”

Dustin glanced at her, his eyes taking in her exposed legs below Carl’s jacket. He blushed when he realized she had seen him and looked away. “Yeah, I guess.”

“
Hey, it’s okay,” she told him, trying to cheer him up again. “It’s flattering, really… and I know what goes through the mind of a young man your age.”

Dusty chuckled a little but did not look back. “Yeah, maybe.”

“
Don’t feel bad, guys think that at all ages,” she told him, catching his eye and winking.

Dustin couldn’t help but smile back, then he got back to work and picked up some broken saguaro ribs. “I know one guy who doesn’t think that way,” he said.

Jessie sighed, they were back on Carl, her biggest problem. “He’s a different kind of guy,” she offered, bending over carefully to scrape some of the dried moss and lichen that grew on the sides of the rocks.

“
Why’s he hate you so much?”

“
I don’t know if he hates me, Dusty,” Jessie said, straightening up and paying for the too-quick movement with a nausea inducing throb in her head. When it cleared she opened her eyes and smiled weakly at the concerned look her gave her. “I think Carl’s used to being alone. He’s always in control that way, I guess. With you guys he feels safe, he can order you around to do whatever he needs you to.”

“
So what about you? He hates you because you stood up to him a couple of times? Or because you’re not tripping over yourself to follow him around like my sister.”

“
Whoa there,” Jessie said, holding up a hand filled with lichen. She pushed it into a pocket of the coat before continuing. “Your sister does not have a crush on Carl, trust me!”

“
Sure does act like it,” he grumbled.

Jessie took a moment to think about what Dustin was saying. She disguised it by taking the moss back to their makeshift camp, then returned to find him assaulting a dead pine tree. “Hey, wait a minute, okay?”

He stopped, gasping for breath but more angry than ever, and stared at her.

“
Your sister’s an athlete, right? That means she has to be pretty tough on herself. Lots of discipline and control,” she theorized. “Well, she’s had coaches and trainers most of her life too, I bet?”

Dustin nodded, not seeing where this was going.

“
She’s always had that then, somebody to ride her ass and not cut her any slack,” she said, proud of herself for figuring it out. “Sounds like Carl to me.”

“
You think Carl’s training her? For what – he doesn’t know anything about gymnastics.”

“
No, not that, and maybe not anything,” Jessie explained. “I mean she sees him as filling that role in her life. She’s not into him like that, you know, she’s just looking for something familiar, something to help her deal with everything.”

Dustin grunted but said nothing else. Jessie smiled; she knew he was going to think about it and maybe cut his sister some slack. Carl too, she figured. That only left her. Dusty already thought the world of her, she knew, she just wished Carl and Tanya did too.

“
I’m sorry,” she said to Dusty a moment later, just as he was looking for a rock to smash into the naked tree limbs to try and break them off. “Sorry about all the stories I made up and sorry I’ve been such a mess.”

Dusty shrugged, embarrassed to try and talk about it. “We had this talk already,” he mumbled.

Jessie nodded, smiling a little in spite of a fresh batch of chills that wracked her body. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad.”

“
So stop feeling bad already,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Get over it and start doing whatever it is you should be doing.”

Jessie stared at him in shock. She knew he was angry at the world right now and too young to really understand what all was going on, but it still stung to be rebuked by a 15 year old. She turned away, surprised at how fragile she felt emotionally and hid the unshed tears that came to her eyes. She looked around and started gathering more material for their campsite, not trusting herself to talk yet and not knowing if she wanted to until he had gotten over his issues.