Chapter 9

The interior of the small shack was dim, and until Caleb pulled out a small electric lantern from his bag, everything had a sinister, shadowy quality. The lantern did little to drive away the dark chill of the place, but at least she could see the ranger's rugged features.

At that moment Dani forgot to be mad at him. "Thank you," she said, sincerity ringing like a bell in her voice. "I could have been injured, or worse."

His cool blue eyes met hers for a moment, and Dani felt a strange but comforting heat fill her body. He quickly looked away. "Don't mention it."

Caleb dug in his bag and began pulling out supplies. He set two-liter bottles of water, a sealed package of jerky, another of trail mix, a first aid kit, a flashlight, and a plastic box holding spare batteries and a wind-up radio on the table.

"This is the emergency pack I keep in the ATV," he told her as he arranged the items on the table. "It isn't much, but it should last us until we can make our way out of here."

"And how long do you think that will be?" she asked him as she squatted next to her duffel bag and began removing her specimen jars.

"Not before tomorrow morning, that's for sure." He straightened and watched her set the three frog containers on the table. "And just what are these?" he asked, humor and frustration warring in his voice.

"These are my latest specimens," she announced. "I plan on taking them into the lab next week for analysis and dissection. I hope my findings will support the theory that they are separate species."

"I told you to grab the essentials, and you bring three frogs?"

"They ARE essential!" she protested, unable to see the full smirk on his shadowed face, but she could see enough to know he was enjoying himself. "Besides...they could have been hurt."

"Hurt?!?" His voice was incredulous. "But you just said you were going to dissect them!"

"I know, but...oh forget it, you wouldn't understand."

Caleb laughed. "You're right, I probably wouldn't."

Dani felt a smile turn up the corners of her mouth and she barely kept herself from giggling. Unfortunately, a sudden chill ran through her, and she shook, her fingers barely able to re-zip her duffel.

"You're cold," she heard him say, his voice turning gruff. He unrolled her sleeping bag and slid it around her shaking shoulders. "It's going to be a chilly night." He frowned at the place where a stack of firewood should be. "With all this rain, it'll be impossible to find any dry wood, even if there wasn't a biblical-level flood going on."

His words seemed to conjure the storm again, and Dani heard several large groans outside of the shack. One particularly loud one was followed by a huge crack, and the thump of a tree hitting the ground. The shack shook around them, and Dani again wondered about the probability of debris taking out the shelter they'd found.

Her anxious eyes found his and couldn't hide their fear. His features tightened, his lips drawing into a thin line. It seemed her fright galvanized him into action and he reached up to the bed in the wall and pulled the thin padding off of it, setting it in front of the stove.

"I know you must have packed your notes and books," he told her as he made his way back to the bunk. "You got anything in there you can spare?"

"Spare? What do you mean?"

Caleb stood beside the bed, his large hands placed on the wooden bed frame that jutted out of the wall. "Anything we can burn?"

"Burn? My notes? My BOOKS?" She didn't understand. "They won't burn for long, and we'll be just as cold as before, only I'll be without my necessary supplies!"

"We just need them to get a fire started. And hopefully, we won't need much. Just see if you can find a few scraps of paper or something," he said, failing to hide his rising annoyance.

"But what are you gonna burn?"

"This," he said, and pulled hard against the wooden frame of the bunk. The nails gave a protesting shriek as the board pulled away. He'd started on the short side, pulling the four-foot long board away from the wall and struggling to detach it from the outer corner and its companion boards.

Having freed the two-inch thick board, he angled it and brought it down against the edge of the large spool several times. At last the old board cracked and split in half. He then repeated the process with the smaller pieces. Finally, he had a small pile of wood before him and looked expectantly at her.

Dani pulled open her pack and riffled through the papers it held. She didn't dare part with any of her own notes, but perhaps there was an article or two she could do without. She came across one entitled "The Inability of Frog Species to Coexist Peacefully" and yanked it out. "Here's one." She passed it to him.

Caleb knelt on the pad before the wood stove and started to tear the article into smaller pieces. He arranged them carefully in the stove's iron belly, then frowned down at the pile of wood near his feet. "We still need some kind of kindling. See if you can find any small twigs or pine cones or something on the floor." He didn't sound too hopeful about finding anything, but as he bent to search the stove area for kindling, she sighed and did the same.

Dani grabbed the flashlight from the makeshift table and began exploring the shack floor. She swung the light into the corners but found nothing. She fell to her knees before the bench and crouched down, shining the flashlight underneath. The light fell upon a dusty box shoved under the bench, one she must have missed in her earlier rudimentary inspection of the cabin. She tugged the box out from under the bench and opened it.

"Found something," she said with a grin.

Caleb stood and approached, bending over her to peer into the box. It was filled with various liquor bottles, each at least half-full.

"Not gonna help much," the ranger said with a frown. "We could burn the box, though. Pull out those bottles and pass it over."

She took the bottles out of the box, investigating each one. "Hmm, this is some expensive booze for a shack like this." She held one bottle up to the dim light, her tone filled with disbelief and wonder. "This is a forty-year old single malt scotch."

"Unless there are some sticks in there, it won't help."

"Maybe it won't help you," she said, unscrewing the lid of the scotch bottle, "but I could sure use a drink." She put the bottle to her lips and swallowed, the burning liquor scorching a path down her throat and into her worried belly.

Sighing, she returned the cap. It might not get a fire started, but at least it helped calm her nerves.

Dani brought the bottle with her to the table and set it down as she bent over her specimen. They looked no worse for wear, but they were being oddly quiet. It was said that animals can sense natural disasters and Dani wondered if the flood could account for their abnormal silence.

Her gaze was drawn back to the scotch, and she wondered if another belt would bring her tranquility. Her eyes suddenly widened, realizing that she'd overlooked the obvious. "Hey, how many sticks do you need?"

"As many as I can get," Caleb replied, his eyes still sweeping the floor for refuse.

Dani popped the top off the first specimen container, making sure to keep an eye on the frog inside so that he didn't escape. She carefully brushed the leaves off the twigs stashed inside and then pulled the twigs out, stacking them on the table. She did the same thing to the other two containers, and in the end, she had a small pile of a dozen or so twigs.

"Here," she said, walking over to him, her hands full of sticks. His eyes lit with amazement.

"Where'd you get these?" he asked, and Dani thought she might have heard a hint of admiration in his deep voice.

"Let's just say that the prisoners on Death Row won't miss their creature comforts that much."

"Let's hope these are enough," he said, crouching before the stove again. For the next twenty minutes or so he carefully coaxed the paper and meager kindling to light, then huffed and puffed until the old lumber took flame. Finally, the fire was stable enough to leave alone, and he moved away from the stove, allowing a warm orange glow to blanket the room.