Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Hide and seek

You would think crossing a state, that is roughly three hundred miles from north to south, wouldn’t take more than a day or two. Well, you would be right, assuming no traffic, good weather, oh and that the world hadn’t come to a screeching halt due to the apocalypse.

What should have taken half a day, took the three of them over a week. Almost two in fact. Two grueling weeks being locked up in a tin can – with one person that was infatuated with you and another whom you couldn’t stand – was not a fun experience for Norman.

The only break from the monotony of it all was the times they were forced to hide from Sin’s men. They hadn’t given up searching for them, in fact, it was becoming harder to avoid running into patrols. The group had a few close calls, but the drone they snagged from the first group of attackers allowed them to scout ahead and avoid getting caught more than once.

It was a good thing they had it. One enterprising group of Sin’s flunkeys had set up a hidden roadblock, complete with a spike strip. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue but this was one of the only roads that led north on this stretch of Colorado.

The roadblock forced them to backtrack a full day to find an alternate route, which is one of the reasons why it had taken so long to get near the border. It was a lot of two steps forward, one step back, just to stay ahead of being caught.

Oh, but they weren’t out of the woods yet.

Sin had figured out where they were heading to – thanks to the few close run-ins they had – and sent men to block off any road north out of Colorado.

With so many vehicles moving back and forth, the three of them had to hunker down in an abandoned RV park. It had one of those covered gazebos used for large park gatherings in it. The building was in poor condition but the roof was still intact and tall enough to park the van under, ensuring they were not visible from the air in case they had more drones out looking for them.

“What are we going to do?” Norman growled in frustration.

He had grown snippy over the last few days, thanks to being confined to the van for an extended period of time, and having his energy reservoir running dry. His dwindling mana had lasted far longer than he thought it would but he was feeling the effects of the withdrawal. It started a few days ago as minor itches, after a day, it turned into a crawling sensation under his skin. That crawling sensation spread to his entire body and left him feeling completely exhausted. Now he just constantly felt cold, like nothing would warm him up ever again. He wasn’t dead though, considering he still had a heartbeat – yeah, he had checked – so that was something.

He popped the top off one of his potions and sucked it down, earning a fleeting look of disgust from Toby, and a concerned look from Anna. He ignored both.

“Norman, are you going to be ok?”

Norman nodded at Anna’s question, not trusting himself not to snap if he spoke. The potion took the edge off, but only for about an hour.

“Just re-up, for god sake,” Toby said for like the twentieth time.

“I told you, I can’t. Are you deaf?”

Toby just threw his hands up in defeat. Norman could understand Toby’s frustration. Norman wanted nothing more than to rid himself of this feeling. But Norman needed to know how long this withdrawal would last and how bad it would be. Norman had spilled the beans about his issue with the blood after the three of them left the cabin. He didn’t want to call it an addiction, but he was having withdrawal, so it probably wasn’t far off.

Honestly, sucking down the potions was probably prolonging his suffering since they contained a bit of magic. But he wasn’t nearly masochistic enough to go through this without some buffer for the worst of it.

He was glad he had discovered the additional beneficial effects of the potion.

The first day was the worst, unable to endure the torture any longer, he grabbed one of his bottles and sucked it down in hopes that it could cure him of the ailment. If that didn’t work he had planned to consume more of the magic powder just to end his misery. While the potion didn’t heal the symptoms, it did help and that was enough to keep Norman going. But he had a limited supply of the potions and they were quickly running out the longer they were stuck in this location.

“We need to wait for Sin’s men to get bored and leave, then we can sneak across the border,” Toby finally answered Norman’s initial question.

Norman knew this but in his condition, he just couldn’t accept it. “Why? Let's just leave the van behind and hike across on foot.”

“Uh, huh? How long do you think you would last in your condition?”

Norman grunted, refusing to answer the question. He knew he wouldn’t make it far.

“If Sin’s men don’t give up in a few days, we may have no choice but to do that anyway. I’ve seen groups of them moving south and searching nearby properties. They haven’t spotted the drone yet, but they could soon. If we need to abandon the van, you need to be in top shape.”

“Give me one more day.” Norman shivered, pulling the blanket tighter around himself. “If I’m not improved by then, I will take a new dose.”

The three sat in silence for the rest of the night.

The next day, Norman woke up feeling like he had been run over by a bus. His entire body ached, but gone was the itching and crawling sensation that had plagued him for the past three days. He was still cold, but it wasn’t the same bone-aching cold where it felt like he would never be warm again. This was more like the chill you felt when getting over some nasty flu.

He sat up, smelling something cooking, the smell made his stomach rumble. Norman made his way out of the van, thankful for the fresh air. The van was starting to smell like a group of unwashed hipsters lived in it for a year while they toured Burning Man and other such venues. In other words, gross.

Toby was sitting on one of the few intact picnic tables and grilling some fish in a pan on an electric hotplate.

Norman was glad for the van’s ability to provide electricity, even if it was only limited. Cooked food was the only thing they had going for them at the moment. The group didn’t dare have a fire so most mornings were rather chilly. Even if the flames weren’t noticed during the day, you would be blind to miss the smoke. The hotplate had come from the cabin along with the pan and some seasonings. The rest either came from the store or that fancy house they looted.

“Finally better?” Toby asked as he absentmindedly poked at the fish in the pan.

“As good as I’m likely to get in the time we got.”

“That’s good because we’re going to have to leave the van and make a run for it tonight.”

“Why, what changed?” Norman asked as he sat on the other side of the picnic table.

“I used the drone to scout the roads out of here. There are men posted at all of the intersections.”

“Shit. You think they know where we are?”

Toby shook his head. “If they did, they would have already made a move to capture us. I think they are just canvasing the area to prevent our escape in case we are here.”

“Makes sense. But shouldn’t we just leave as soon as possible today?”

“That would be fine while we are in the woods, but as soon as we hit that prairie across the state line, we will stick out like sore thumbs. We need to get there after dark so we aren’t stuck waiting near the treeline by the border. So you better eat up, because we aren’t going to be able to carry much with us.”

***

The three of them quickly prepared to head out as the sun started to touch the horizon. They had a good five-mile hike to the border that Norman wasn’t looking forward to.

“Hold up,” Toby stopped the group. “I forgot something in the van. You two keep going along this trail, I will catch up in a few minutes.”

“You sure, we could just wait for you here,” Anna stated.

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“Nah, we need to cover as much ground as possible and I’m in better shape than either of you. Just keep quiet and keep an eye out.”

“Are you calling me fat?” Anna huffed.

“Not fat, just short,” Toby smirked. “I would be surprised if you make it a mile before I catch back up.”

“Oh yeah! Well, watch us. We’ll be so far ahead you won’t catch us for two miles. Come on Norman, let's go.” Anna stuck her tongue out at her brother before turning and hurrying down the trail.

Norman watched the little ball of indignation tromp off down the trail before turning back toward Toby. “Why do you really need to go back?”

“I’m going to leave a little surprise for our pursuers. With any luck, it might also draw some of them out of the woods, making it easier for us to sneak past them. You both have guns, you should be fine. Just don’t fucking shoot me when I return.”

Norman wasn’t sure about being fine, and he would leave the shooting to Anna and Toby. He did have one of the guns taken from the men who tried to assault the cabin but he was leery of using it. His luck with firearms wasn’t the greatest so far. But he didn’t have any mana available to activate his orbs and didn’t have time to top off his supply so it was better than nothing.

True to his word Toby caught up with them in less than fifteen minutes, approaching at a fast sprint. The man wasn’t even breathing hard from the exertion. That’s when Norman remembered that Toby didn’t need to breathe so of course he wouldn’t be out of breath.

“Such a cheat,” he huffed quietly, wiping away the sweat on his brow.

“You say something?” Anna asked.

Norman just shook his head. “Just complaining about my sore feet.”

Norman wasn’t the only one in a foul mood. Anna was sulking after Toby caught up with them so quickly. Not that the pair had raced through the woods but they had kept up a pretty steady pace on the uneven terrain.

By the time they had made it halfway to their destination, the sun was almost set behind the distant mountains. This cast long shadows through the woods, making them have to slow their pace so as not to trip over exposed roots and hidden rocks.

The area they were in was filled with small gullies and short rock outcroppings. It made it harder to be spotted amongst the trees of the forest, but also made traversing the area much more difficult.

They didn’t dare use flashlights to light their way through the dense growth of trees, instead relying on the waning light and another unlikely source to light their way.

Thankfully, the people pursuing them weren’t as scared of being discovered. Occasionally, the group would see flashes of light cast through the trees as a group of searchers passed nearby.

When this happened, Norman and the others simply crouched and waited for them to move on. It didn’t appear the men were overly thorough in their search attempts. Norman couldn’t blame them as he slapped yet another mosquito off of his neck. Mosquitos weren’t the only annoyance buzzing about, the woods were thick with other bugs as well. Which helped mask their noise, but made for a really awful experience without some bug spray.

About a mile from their destination, they heard a distant boom.

“What was that?” Anna hissed.

Toby put his finger to his lips as a sign to stay quiet as he motioned the two of them to pick up the pace.

Norman realized why a moment later as he spotted three lights bouncing wildly in their direction. At first, he thought they were coming straight toward them and he tensed up, ready to pull out the gun Toby had given him. But the groups of searchers passed by them. It had been close call, only a few dozen feet separated the two groups as Sin’s men raced toward where the noise had come from.

Toby kept them moving for another five minutes before he spoke up.

“I used that race gas we left behind and the electronics from the drone to set up a crude IED. I forgot to account for the van’s battery pack though. That explosion was louder than it should have been from this distance.”

“Why couldn’t we have used that as a distraction from a different area?” Norman huffed out as he tried to keep his breathing steady while they jogged along the dark trail. His body was struggling so soon after getting over his withdrawal.

“I didn’t have time to move the items over by hand, and there was no guarantee they wouldn’t have come across it before we were ready to leave. That’s why I waited until after we left camp to set it up. And before you ask, I couldn’t pick and choose when it went off. I set up a very quick and dirty trigger that would activate if any of the van doors got opened.”

Norman wasn’t going to ask. He figured Toby had a reason for the way he set the bomb up.

Soon the group neared the end of the forest. It came quicker than they would have liked.

“Fuck!” Toby cursed quietly.

The group was crouched a dozen feet inside the woodline. Safe from easy detection. The problem was, someone had cleared the trees up to the border. That left a no-mans land of roughly a hundred feet to cross. Not insurmountable, but given they also had to quickly vanish into a thick sea of grass past the border, it wasn’t ideal.

To make it even worse, there were vehicles with powerful lights covering the area in question.

“We’re going to have to crawl across. Take your backpacks off and push them ahead of you. Try to stay as low and quiet as possible.”

Norman was getting a bad feeling about this whole plan but he didn’t have any better idea to escape Colorado and going back wasn’t an option.

Anna went first with Norman following about ten feet back while Toby took up the rear. It was a slow painful slog through the tree stumps. Rocks and roots dug at Norman’s belly while he was poked and prodded by the thick layer of pine needles on the ground.

They were almost there when Norman heard a man yell.

“It’s them!”

“Run!” Toby yelled a moment later.

Then he heard Toby start to fire his gun. Norman carefully pulled his own gun out and aimed it toward one of the vehicles in the distance. He would have aimed it at a person but he couldn’t see any people due to the harsh glare of the lights. He pulled the trigger and it clicked. Confused, Norman tried to remember what Toby had shown him.

He racked the slide, made sure the safety was off, and aimed again, all while trying not to trip over his own feet as he ran. He pulled the trigger again and it clicked, again. Then he ejected the magazine to inspect it – Toby had yelled at him when he called it a clip – and found it empty.

“You gave me an unloaded gun?” Norman’s words were covered up by the pounding of his feet, the fire from Toby and now Anna, and a few return shots from the people chasing them, but Norman was sure Toby had heard him.

That was proven true a moment later as Toby caught up, pushing Norman even faster. “You weren’t supposed to use it, it was just there to make you feel safe. You think I would give you a loaded weapon after what happened last time?”

Norman wanted to be angry, but he realized Toby was right. Instead of responding, he just put all of his energy into running as they raced through the remaining stumps and into the tall grass, leaving Sin’s men behind. It appeared Sin’s men did not wish to cross the border to chase the three of them. Something about that made Norman think this escape plan might not be such a good idea.

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