“You were not successful?” Michael asked.
“Nay. I can’t get any service.” Frowning, she tucked the phone into one of her jeans pockets. “Do you think it’s the trees? Do trees block the signal? I don’t think I’ve ever seen any this tall before.”
Michael and Adam both looked up and around at the trees.
Robert stood with his hands on his hips, his tunic stained with her blood, a scowl marring his otherwise handsome features.
“Whom do you wish to call?” Stephen asked.
Clearly, he wasn’t the brightest bulb.
“911,” she repeated, returning to her backpack. “Josh, two dead men—at least I hope they’re both dead—and who knows how many others are still out there.” For the first time, she noticed the cylindrical nylon bag that was lying on the ground beside her backpack. She frowned. “That’s weird.”
“Is aught amiss?” Robert asked.
“I don’t know.” She opened the drawstring end and confirmed her suspicions. “It’s our camping tent. Josh left it in the trunk after we got back from our trip last month. I don’t know why it’s here. Josh wasn’t carrying it when we left the car. I know he wasn’t. He didn’t even want me to bring my backpack.” Which also hadn’t been with her in the clearing when she had fallen, come to think of it. So why was it here? What did it mean?
Kneeling down, she set the tent aside and began to rifle through her pack again in search of the bottles of water Marcus had included. Her mouth was so dry it felt as though no liquid had crossed her lips in days. She couldn’t blame the heat since the air had cooled quite a bit. So it must be a result of the blood loss. She was light-headed, too, and hoped some water might help clear her head. “We need the police to organize a search. And Josh will need medical attention when we find him. The last time I saw him…” Her throat closed off. Tears blurred her vision.
After he had collapsed, he had lain so still.
Robert knelt beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “We shall find him for you.”
Nodding, she dipped her chin and continued to rummage through her things. At last, her fingers brushed the familiar cold plastic.
When Beth stood with the water bottle and began to unscrew its top, she suddenly found herself encircled by four enormous men who gazed at the bottle as though it were a perfect, baseball-sized diamond. “Do you, uh, want some water?” she asked no one in particular, assuming thirst inspired their interest.
“’Tis water inside there?” Stephen asked.
Nodding, she held it up so they could read the label.
“What manner of container is that?” Michael queried.
“Is that parchment wrapped about it?” Adam followed. “Such colors!”
Beth looked down at the object in her hand, wondering what was so unusual about it. “It’s a plastic bottle full of spring water. What’s the big deal?”
When they continued to ooh and ahh over it, she raised puzzled eyes to Robert’s.
“We have never before seen the like,” he explained.
“You mean you’ve never seen this brand?” Improbable, considering one could purchase it in just about any grocery or convenience store in Texas. “Or you’ve never seen a bottle this size?”
Stephen reached out and gave the bottle a squeeze before she could stop him. It emitted a squishing noise as bubbles and large droplets of water oozed out from the base of the partially unscrewed lid. “It gives!” he cried, as excited as a child.
Then they all wanted to squeeze it.
“Hey—hey—hey!” Beth called out, backing away from them and swiveling to place her body between them and the water. When Stephen reached around to take it from her, she slapped his large, gloved hand away. “Stop that!”
“Stephen, leave her be,” Robert ordered, even though he had squeezed the bottle himself a time or two.
Only when she was sure they would all obey him did she turn back around, both hands locked protectively around the bottle. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything. I just didn’t bring that much with me. It would’ve made the pack too heavy.”
Their gazes remained fixed on the bottle.
Were they even listening to her?
“You’re more than welcome to drink some,” she offered. “But I can’t afford to let you waste any of it on the ground while you pretend you’ve never seen plastic before. I want to save some for Josh.”
“The flask is formed from plastic?” Robert asked.
Bewildered, Beth looked down at the bottle, then up at him. “Well, yeah. Aye.”
“We have none of us ever beheld plastic.”
Beth looked from one to the next, taking in their befuddled expressions and melding them with their strange garments. “Ohhh. Is this part of the whole reenactment thing?”