He looked back at me and in the thin light I saw the look of defeat on his brow. “Wait until morning I guess.”

I sighed and turned around, heading back to the cabin. He was right as he often was. There wasn’t much we could do until morning. There was no way we were going to make our way back to Rigby’s at night, which meant we were shit out of luck.

Once we were back inside, Mitch went to make sure the remaining llamas were OK. Luckily they were fine, though thoroughly spooked and uneasy about the whole event. We still didn’t know what happened, whether Twat– I mean, Apricot got loose and then was attacked or whether he was taken from the pen. I wanted to think it was the former, because if it was the later, then it meant that we could be taken from the cabin. That’s if there was a beast, and you know what, I was starting to think there was. Why on earth would Rigby and Christina decapitate their own llama – something that would have cost a pretty penny – in order to prove a point? There were better ways to do it, however from the furrow on Dex’s brow as he sat near the fire, I could tell he was still thinking it over. I knew he had a darker view of humanity than I had and would be quicker to place the blame on a fame-hungry business.

Even with all the doors locked and Mitch taking watch for most of the night, his eyes bug-eyed and creepy as hell, shotgun in his lap, I barely slept. In fact, because I couldn’t sleep by our feeble bedroom window, Dex and I ended up bringing all of bedding out into the living area and sleeping in front of the fire. I felt a hell of a lot safer this way, even though trigger-happy Mitch was in the room with me. And unlike my fantasies, this was no time for sex with Dex on the rug.

When I finally did drift off though, I found no respite. I dreamed of teeth, blood and claws.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The next morning I felt like my mouth and head were shoved full of cotton balls. The lack of sleep wasn’t taking it easy on me and I slogged around the cabin in a half-asleep state. I wish I could say this meant I was more relaxed and chill but though it felt like the world was passing by me like mud, I was still nervy from the night before.

And I was also getting a little cabin crazy, which is probably why, when Mitch suggested we go camping, I didn’t protest as much as I thought I would.

I still protested, though.

We were outside surveying the remains of Apricot in the sunshine. It was a piercing blue sky that soared high above the trees and the world around me glistened like a Christmas card. It was warmer, too, and I found myself sweating underneath my gloves and hat, which still didn’t counteract the chills I got whenever I caught a glimpse of blood out of the corner of my eye, the slaughter even redder now in the broad daylight.

I was keeping the camera focused on Mitch and Dex as they argued over what to do.

“We really need to get back to Rigby,” I told them, Mitch especially.

“Rigby is too far away,” he answered, not looking at me. He shoved the sleeves of his army-issued jacket up his arms in a huff. “And the walkie talkies are useless.”

That they were. We had been trying all morning, but neither of them could pick up any signal. It was like broadcasting into thin air.

“He’s not too far away,” I countered. “That was an easy walk, just over an hour. We could be there and back before lunch time.”

“Then you guys go ahead,” Mitch said with hard eyes. “I’m finding out what happened to the llama before it gets picked up by the raptors.”

Oh shit. “Raptors?” I questioned with shaking lips.

“Birds of prey,” Mitch said, like I was an idiot. “They’ll come and pick off whatever is left behind. I thought you celebrities were all about finding the proof. Well here is your proof, if you want it. If you don’t, tough tits, but I’m going and I’m taking a llama with me.”

“You’re camping?” Dex asked.

“Couldn’t pick a better day to do it, could I?” Mitch growled back, raising his arms to the saturated sky. “You’re both welcome to join me still. I can take you to the places on the map, just like Rigby wanted.”

I remembered the map that Christina had given me, then decided it was best to keep it a secret for now. I looked to Dex. He had his newsboy cap pulled low on his head, his eyebrow ring glinting in the sunlight. He was thinking and thinking hard and I knew that the decision would come to me. It usually did.

As I thought, when his brows couldn’t knit together enough, he raised his head and looked at me with wondering eyes. “Well, kiddo, what do you think?”

What did I think? If Dex and I left for Rigby’s, we’d be on our own without a guide. It didn’t seem like a tough trail to follow but it was one we were unfamiliar with. With luck it would take us a short while to get there. Without luck, we could veer way off course with minimal food, no protection and walkie talkies that didn’t work. It didn’t seem like a very good plan.

“Will my llama lead us back?” I asked hopefully.

“Your llama will lead you to my llama,” Mitch answered confidently. “And I’m the one with the food.”

I wiggled my lips back and forth. “What about if we stay behind in the cabin and wait for you to return?”

Mitch shrugged. “If you want to do that, be my guest. Just know that I’m taking the gun and according to Rigby, that thing can open doors.”

“Perry,” Dex said gently, coming over to me and guiding me away from Mitch with his arm. He lowered his voice and spoke into my ear. “This is totally up to you. Whatever you decide, that’s what we’ll do.”

“That’s putting an awful lot of pressure on me,” I whispered back. “What do you want to do?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

I studied his eyes. They were conflicted as anything but I caught a hint of resolve somewhere inside. He knew. He usually did.

“You want to go with Mitch,” I supplied.

“I want what you want.”

“Are you going to resent me if I make us stay behind?”

I expected a roll of his eyes or some kind of rebuttal. Instead he took both his hands and cupped my face in them. My skin tingled under the warmth of his touch.

“Baby,” he said, his tone gruff yet solemn, “there’s nothing you could ever do to make me resent you. You’re my light, remember that.”

My lungs constricted and a flush of warmth filled my lips and I waited, anxiously, for him to do something like kiss me. Something to distract me from the sincerity of his words. But he didn’t do anything except hold my face close to his and stare at me like he was trying to read my soul.

When I realized I wasn’t going to get a straight answer out of him other than the one he was giving me, I knew I had to make the decision all on my own. He did not want to be held accountable for anything that happened and I couldn’t blame him for that.

Still, I had to remind him, “You don’t want to put me in danger…”

He shook his head gently. “No. I don’t. And if I thought one choice was less dangerous than the other, then that’s the choice I’d be making. And there would be nothing you could say about it.”

My swallow felt thick in my throat and I wanted him to keep holding onto me a few minutes longer. But eventually his hands dropped away and my skin was met with sparks of cold from the mountain breeze.

The fact was, Mitch was going. I needed to know where exactly and for how long. I wanted to get some footage – that is the reason we came – but I didn’t want to go on a wild goose chase down a mountain. I trusted Dex with my life and I knew he’d do anything to protect me, whether that meant getting me back to Rigby’s or guarding me at the cabin. But when it came down to the place we were, the wilderness around us, I had to rely on Mitch. He was a creep who made my skin crawl and I wasn’t sure if I could totally trust him, but I felt he was the safest person to be around. He had nothing to gain from the expedition except a hunting trophy of some sort. He wasn’t afraid. Maybe we shouldn’t have been either.

I cleared my throat and looked around Dex’s shoulder to him. He was chewing tobacco and watching us with feigned interest.

“Aren’t you scared?” I asked him.

“Of what?” was Mitch’s response.

“Of what’s out there?”

He chuckled to himself, totally humorless. “No, girly. I ain’t scared. Cuz I don’t know what’s out there. I want to find out though.”

“You don’t think it can kill us?”

“Hell, maybe it can. Lots of things out there can kill you. You just have to be prepared. If you think I’m some redneck moron who’s just going to take off into the bush after something without arming himself to the teeth, you’ve got another thing coming. I’m a hunter. I hunt things. It’s not the other way around.”

I exchanged a look with Dex.

“Whatever you want to do,” Dex whispered. “I won’t let anything happen to you either way.”

And you know, I believed him.

I threw my shoulders back in an attempt to appear brave and looked at both of them.

“Well considering I’ll go crazy if I have to spend one more day in that cabin and I’m not about trust our abilities to find our way back, I guess we’ll be joining you on your camping trip, Mitch.”

Mitch’s face remained passive at my response, but just as I was about to head back inside to pack, I caught a gleam in his eye. It was something worse than sinister. It was excited.

~~~

Because there were only so many hours in the day, we had to pack fast. Rigby had left us with a lot of essentials but with only two llamas left, we couldn’t take everything. We decided protection against the cold was the most important. I was already feeling pretty ripe thanks to the freezing cold towel-showers I had taken from the wash basin, so I figured it wouldn’t matter if I lived in the same clothes for the next day or two. It would save on space and instead we packed a copious amount of space blankets. A lot of high energy foods like chocolate bars, nuts and jerky were in all of our small backpacks, as well as the dehydrated camping food. Even though the walkie talkies still weren’t getting a signal, we brought them along anyway. I wished we had some other way of getting help in an emergency – our cell phones were useless and I ended up leaving mine behind - but I prayed that they’d end up working somewhere along the way.

Just as we got the llamas outfitted, our packing job not as neat and tidy as the one Christina did, Mitch walked up to Dex and handed him a rifle.

“You know how to shoot, bud?”

Dex raised his brows and then looked to me. “If you remember correctly, Perry’s the one who can shoot a gun.”

Mitch didn’t even give me a glance. “Never trust a woman with a gun, son.”

“She’d do a lot better than Charlton Heston.”

“Charlton Heston’s dead.”

“Exactly.”

“Um,” I spoke up, giving Tonto a nervous pat. “Do we really need two guns?”

“What if there are two of your beasts?” Mitch responded, still looking at Dex. No, he was staring him down until Dex reluctantly took the rifle into his hands. Oh this was just brilliant.