Wish You Were Here

21

The only way I was going to keep my mind off worrying was to keep busy. We had all been so preoccupied staring at the screens, we hadn't even checked out the rest of the room. I checked cabinets and drawers first. Any food, water, weapons, or anything remotely useful was placed in a pile in the middle of the floor. We even lifted up the couch cushions under Beth.

I had hoped we would find more hidden shelves within the walls down there, but we didn't. Actually, everything down there was in plain sight. Underneath the screens were large cabinets. They were probably meant for storage, judging by their size, but they were almost empty.

In the end, our pile included a box of (stale) granola bars, loose change, two band-aids, a book of matches from what I could only assume was a seedy bar, a deck of cards, a few cans of (flat) soda, a pad of paper and a pencil, a torn blue tarp, and a metal letter opener.

I passed out granola bars and we sipped from one of the soda cans. We placed everything else onto the counter top underneath the screens. Cal sat on the couch staring straight ahead. There hadn't been any action on any of the screens since we saw Dean beating on Aaron. Grant went back upstairs and secured the cabin as best he could before retreating back downstairs. We closed the hatch, but it didn't lock.

We pushed the couch a little closer to the back wall to give us more room on the floor. Cal took some of the pillows from the couch and threw them on the floor, lying just below it. I sat on one side of the couch and positioned Beth's legs over my lap so she could lay down. Grant and Will both refused a pillow and curled up on the floor. I knew as I fell asleep that when I woke up, Grant and Will would be gone. I took a long look at them both before closing my eyes.

Before they left, Grant had also taken the pencil and a few pieces of paper, folding and stuffing them into his back pocket. I heard them get up before dawn and tip toe out. As much as I wanted to say something, I didn't. I pretended to be asleep and heard them close the hatch and then go out the cabin door.

We figured it would take Grant and Will most of the day before they returned. Even without Beth slowing them down, they still had to backtrack to where Aaron had left us and then head in that direction. We had no idea how far Aaron had gone.

The three of us awoke but didn't move. It's not like we had anywhere to go. Cal kept an eye on the screens, but nothing was happening. So far her only reports to Beth and me were "Nothing's happening" or a frustrated "What the heck?!"

To me, no news was good news when it came to those screens. I didn't want to say it aloud, but I was relieved every time Cal said nothing was happening. That meant Dean and Gina hadn't captured Grant or Will.

As the morning led to afternoon, I wondered where Grant and Aaron could be. How far had they gotten? The room we were in had one overhead light, but it provided enough light for us. I took a seat near Beth on the couch. Since we had nothing but time on our hands, I figured I might as well get to know her.

"So," I smiled. "Where are you from?"

She laughed at my sudden question. "Minneapolis."

"Oh, I really want to go there!" I told her. "The Mall of America sounds awesome!"

"It is," she agreed and then looked down at her leg. "It's huge. The largest mall in the country. So...it's a lot of walking, to say the least."

"You'll be running circles around that place soon enough!" I tried to cheer her up.

"What about you?" she asked.

"I'm from Texas. Just outside of Houston," I replied.

She gave me a suspicious look. "You don't look like a cowgirl."

She tried to keep a serious expression, but then burst into laughter.

"I'm kidding! I hate stereotypes like that!" she said.

I sighed in relief. "Me too! Why everyone thinks Texas is just a bunch of cowboys, I don't know."

She giggled. "That's one of the reasons I had been looking forward to going away to camp. Just to visit another state and meet new people...you know, all the stuff you can't really learn in school. You have to experience it for yourself."

I nodded in agreement. "That's it! You just put words to how I've been feeling for years. I mean, don't get me wrong. I love Texas and I'm a proud Texas girl. But when else do you get the chance to venture out of your comfort zone, right?"

"Right! I love hearing different accents. It's so funny to me that we could all live in America, but have so many different accents. Or use different slang and stuff," she marveled.

"Don't let this ruin that for you," I told her. "Dean and Gina, I mean. I have to keep telling myself that once we get out of here, I'll still want to travel. I don't think I could live if I was too afraid to leave the house."

She nodded slowly. "I don't want this to change me. But I also know it probably will, at least a little bit...Can you tell me about, well, when you all came through that door? Where were you coming from?"

I closed my eyes for a minute.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I didn't mean to turn this conversation into something dark. You don't have to tell me."

"No," I assured her. "It's okay. You'll hear about it eventually anyway and I'd actually prefer if you heard it from one of us rather than the police or whoever."

I glanced over at Cal who was propped up against some pillows in the corner. She had dozed off to sleep, so I lowered my voice. I explained it all to Beth. She sat next to me, hanging on my every word, her eyes wide.

"Fortunately, we weren't there too long. I mean, in comparison to the eight weeks we had feared we'd be there," I sighed.

"I'm so sorry," Beth whispered.

"Me too," I smiled.

We sat in silence for a few minutes. I was glad I had gotten the chance to talk to her. It felt like we had bonded a little bit, which seemed less than impossible given our circumstances. Cal woke up and stretched out her arms.

"I'm going to the ladies' room." She winked. That was our code word for going outside to use the bathroom, so to speak. We had been walking outside behind the cabin and as uncomfortable as it could be, we all agreed it was better than sharing that one disgusting toilet in the basement.

Cal lifted the hatch and closed it gently behind her. I heard the cabin door open and close. Beth yawned and I was about to tell her to take a nap, when I thought I heard noises outside. It was hard to tell from down below, but then I distinctly heard two male voices.

"I think I heard Grant and Will-" Beth said cheerfully.

I hesitated. The voices didn't sound like them, although it could have been that from where I stood the sound was muffled. The cabin door opened and I walked slowly over to the stairs to try and hear them better. I strained to listen.
Beth turned slightly on the couch and was staring at me, not making a sound.

I spun around and looked at her.

"It's not them. We need to hide. Now!"