The sky above the forest seemed to have swallowed up the stars, and the remnants of the moon did little to light the way as Delilah Lewis drew in her breath and cautiously waded down to the shore of the river. She was careful not to slip on the rocks her father had just warned her about two seconds earlier. If she had her cell phone with her, she could use it as a flashlight, but her dad had insisted, “No electronics on the camping trip.” She knew he relished days like this, and even though it was fairly warm outside for February, Delilah didn’t want to let him know how absolutely miserable she was already, just one day into the long weekend.
Dax Forest was made to be a park ranger. That’s what his friends always said, anyway. Not only had he been one of the youngest boys in his troop to reach Eagle Scout, he had the perfect name for someone who liked to spend the majority of his time outdoors. That’s why when he’d decided to forgo college and take this opportunity to become a park ranger the year before, no one had been surprised.When he was younger, his father had taught him how to fish and hunt, how to survive outside. In fact, he was often far ahead of the rest of his Boy Scout friends and earned all of his b
The sound of her shoes hitting the treadmill was a noise Cadence Findley had grown to love over the last year and a half. Sometimes she didn’t even listen to music when she worked out, preferring to focus on the sound of her rubber soles thunking against the endless black road beneath her feet. She knew she was running particularly fast when it sounded like a heavy deluge was falling, and by now she could usually tell when she’d reached thirty-five miles per hour without even glancing at the numbers because it had a certain… cadence to it.Today, she was preoccupied
“Oh, sorry, Cadence!” Ashley said, stepping back out of the way.“No, I’m sorry,” Cadence replied, forcing a smile on her face. They danced around each other for a moment before Cadence finally stepped out into the hall and held the door open for Ashley. They shared a little giggle, which was totally fake on Cadence’s part, and then she headed onto the shower, the easy smile Aaron had brought to her lips only a few moments ago gone.
Aaron pulled up a map on the projector behind him. “The Xs all mark spots where the recent attacks have occurred—the ones we know about that are certainly ours. This is just America, but a look at other countries and continents would show a similar pattern.”Cadence turned to study the map. All of the Xs seemed to be in rural locations, all near major highways, and some of them close to each other.
The small ranch-style house sat in the middle of a row of similar unassuming houses in the better part of town, from what Elliott could tell, if there was a better part of town in Pryor, Oklahoma. Driving in, he’d notice there wasn’t much about this tiny village to get too excited about.Brandon said his mom usually got home from her job at the nursing home around 5:30, a little later if she stopped by the liquor store on the way, which Brandon noted was pretty much every afternoon. A glance at the time on his IAC told him she should be pulling into the driveway any minute now.
“Tell you?” Amanda echoed, her tone not nearly as calm as his. “Tell you? Why? So you could come and take him? Steal him away from me in the middle of the night?”“You know I’d never do that,” Elliott said, not taking her bait, not yet, anyway. An argument was brewing, but he’d weather the storm. For now.“How do I know that?” she s
Cassidy Findley sat alone on the top of the trainee apartment building in a comfortable wicker chair with thick pillows Brandon Keen, her boyfriend of about three weeks, had set up for her here. She decided that the higher the elevation, the nearer the atmosphere, the quieter, the more alone she felt, the better her chances of feeling into the darkness to see what she could discover. It was more than a little comforting, however, to know that he was just on the other side of the door that led back into the building, should the process freak her out.Her older sister Cadence had asked her a few
Elliott called the elevator with his IAC, boarded it, and waited for it to reach his floor, his mind still going over the conversation he’d had with Amanda. He honestly wasn’t too surprised at her reaction to seeing him, though he had hoped she’d take some time to think about things and at least decide to get help for her addiction.He walked into his apartment and was immediately surprised to see his son there. After living here for forty years alone, having a roommate was taking some getting used to. Brandon was pacing back and forth in front of the sofa where Cassidy was s