Begrudgingly, I nod. I’m not used to people taking care of me. Growing up, I was always a tough but careful kid so I didn’t get hurt much. When I did, I walked into wherever I was staying and cleaned myself up. If I waited for someone else to do it, I would have stayed dirty all night.
After Lucca finishes his triage, I try to move away from Noah, but he resists. “I’ve got you. You don’t need to sit on the ground. It will mess up your dress.”
“You’re going to mess up your pants!” I complain to him. “It’s not my dress, though, so I better be careful, as long as you don’t mind. I don’t want your legs to fall asleep in case we have to run.”
Now, worry for Noah adds to my anxiety to get moving. Lily will forgive me if her dress is messed up if we’re being shot at, but I won’t forgive myself if Noah’s hurt in the process.
“My legs will be fine.” Noah pats my arm in reassurance. “Stay where you are. If we’re here for too long, you can sit with Lucca.”
I sigh but don’t move, trying to stay calm and still as my impatience for the others to get back drives me crazy. Just because we don’t hear any more gunfire doesn’t mean something else didn’t happen to them. Even though Jay’s some crazy ninja or something doesn’t mean he’s invincible.
Time drags as we wait for their return. After a while, I move over and sit with Lucca to give Noah a break. Noah’s smile doesn’t reach his eyes as he watches me leave him; although, there must be some relief because he stretches out his long legs once I’m gone.
“We should go running in the mornings,” I say to Noah who mentioned he likes to run to remind himself he can. “I used to do that almost every day. We’ll feel like we’re in boot camp if we do that, though. Start the day with running and end it with martial arts. Never mind. I’ll just go by myself. You guys can sleep in.”
“I like running. If you want to run, I’ll run with you.” Noah replies. “I would feel better knowing you aren’t out here alone when we don’t know what’s going on.”
“I’ll run, too. I don’t run as much as I used to.” Lucca’s voice rumbles through his chest and into my back. “My dad wanted me to play football, but I didn’t want to be pushed into it. I’m sure with his support I could have made it far.”
Lucca sounds almost wistful thinking about his parents. Does he regret not doing more with them around the things they liked so they might have noticed him more?
I’m about to ask him when Jay and Parker run up to us.
Parker stops in front of Lucca and grabs my face. “How bad are you hurt? You weren’t hit, were you? Why didn’t you guys take her to the clinic?”
I put my hands up to stop his barrage of questions. “I’m fine. I’m not hit. We wanted to wait for you so you knew where we were. Now, how is everything out there? Should we go back up to the main building to check on everyone, or did they go back to the cabins?”
“It’s my turn to slow you down.” Parker laughs. “We didn’t see anyone we didn’t know. That doesn’t mean someone we do know wasn’t the shooter, but we don’t think so. Some went back to the cabins, but most have gone back to the auditorium. I think we should go there. We can crash in our team room if we need to.”
Jay pulls me to my feet, and Parker helps Noah and Lucca stand. Jay pushes Lucca’s tie off my head and tries to check out my cut, but I grab his hand to stop him. “We can check it out later. We should move along.”
His hands fall to his sides as he glances around. “Let’s go the back way behind the buildings to avoid as much open space as possible. If this is just idiots with guns, they may think it’s funny to shoot our way. I doubt they’re advanced enough to not let a stray bullet hit us.”
Jay steps in front of me to take the lead. With him in front of me, I can’t see much and lightly touch his back to help guide my way.
As we reach the corner of the main building, we hear voices. Jay puts up his fist to stop us. I’ve seen this in movies before, but I suspect he learned it from his dad.
“How did they get back here?” Kelly demands. We can’t see them, but I recognize her voice.
“I don’t know. Everything’s under surveillance, but someone cut the feed,” Mr. Smyth explains. “I’m having tech look through everything now to see if we can catch anymore.”
I want to say something to the boys, but someone puts their arm around me in a gesture to stay still. They must know I want to talk or walk out there and confront Kelly and Mr. Smyth.
“Do you think they know she’s here? I never met her mother, but from the pictures, she looks just like her.” What’s Kelly talking about? So, it isn’t kids messing around?
I need some answers. I try to pull away, but the arm around me tightens to hold me prisoner. Parker whispers into my ear, “Let’s hear them out. Maybe we can learn more.”
He’s right though. We need to hear what else is being said. I relax, but Parker doesn’t let go.
“She acts just like her mother, too,” Mr. Smyth replies to Kelly. “Most of the pictures were destroyed, but someone still may have a copy. No one here, other than me, ever met Lesia, so without a picture, they would never know. I think they suspect she’s here, though.”
One of the girls here is being threatened. We can rule out Fallon because Parker didn’t move to question them once the mother’s name was mentioned. We can’t rule out Lily and Lara just because they weren’t in our group tonight, but I wouldn’t start messing around with scaring people if my target wasn’t around. Although, Mr. Smyth said they probably don’t know who the target is. They could just be trying to scare everyone.
My initial doubts about this place flare up. The campers here are incredibly intelligent. It has to be more than that, though. My thoughts cut short when Kelly says, “Has everyone been secured back in the cabins or in the auditorium?”
“No. We’re still rounding people up. We’ll do another headcount in thirty minutes. We sent people down to the lake to make sure no one went there for the evening.” That’s Ms. Carlton.
Has she been there the entire time?
“Good. I’ll go do a sweep of the girls’ cabins,” Kelly says.
Crunching sounds reach our ears, so we move quickly to make it appear like we’re just walking up.
“You should be back in your cabins,” Kelly says to the boys. I don’t think she can see me behind them.
Parker steps up and speaks for us. “We didn’t know what was going on, so we hid behind the gardeners shed. We decided to come back up here once we thought it was safe.”
“I’ll walk you back to your cabins. There’s no reason to stay up here. We’ll have one of the counselors escort the others back once they’re done with their rounds.” Kelly tries to throw as much authority into her voice as possible. Even though she isn’t much taller than me, the guys tower over her. After that conversation we overheard, I don’t think any of us know if we can trust her or anyone.
“We would feel more comfortable down here together. We also need to have Cassie’s head checked out.” Parker reaches back and gently pulls me forward.