Chapter 5
Once Upon a Time…
The soup was Campbell’s Chicken Noodle, and it came with crumbled Ritz Crackers in a large coffee mug. Zach presented it to me as if he were a waiter, on a tray with a cloth napkin over his arm. “Soup for madam?” he joked, but the joke fell flat.
Kara groaned from where she still lay in bed. The pillow had returned to its place over her head. “You never serve me soup in the morning,” she complained good-naturedly.
“You haven’t been this ill,” Zach retorted. “But I got several cans on the fire. If you’re hungry, that is.”
“The fire?” I said.
“This motel has a large fire pit out back. I’m keeping a fire going for water and meals,” Zach explained. “The pit is made out of bricks. Easy to bank.”
“I don’t want canned food for breakfast,” Kara said firmly. “I want an apple bran muffin and a Cinnamon Dolce Latte from Starbucks.”
I sipped soup. It tasted good. It tasted as though I hadn’t eaten for days. Then I sighed. “I miss Starbucks, too. White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino. Grande, of course.”
Kara sighed sentimentally. “A kindred soul. Where are you from, Sophie?”
“Springfield,” I said. “But we were in the mountains when…” I trailed off because I didn’t want to think of my father. I didn’t want to think of waking up alone and feeling as though no one would ever say another word to me.
“When it happened,” Zach finished. He leaned against the door frame and looked outside. Once, he looked over at me and our eyes connected. I caught a flash of intensity there, and I looked away, down at the floor, before something really weird happened. I drank more soup and nodded instead.
“I’m from Klamath Falls,” Kara said. I think she could tell that I really didn’t want to talk about what had happened to my parents. “My family was from there. Half of the town is gone now. It looks like a very odd forest made of trees that walk and move very slowly, hugging along the river and running right up to the lake. I suppose I should count myself lucky that I didn’t live in that part. Those trees, I think they might be carnivorous.”
“I saw a town that seemed as though it had turned into a swamp,” I offered, not surprised by Kara’s revelation. “Nothing left of the houses and businesses. Just swamp. With something funny living in it. Something with three toes. I didn’t see anything but its tracks. And I heard a really weird call.”
“One of the mountains has disappeared,” Zach said contemplatively. “Brave new world. And do we need to talk about the new additions? Gryphons, big animals in the woods that you hear but never see, I think maybe I saw a centaur, but I never got close enough to tell for sure.”
“I’ve got a notebook with my stuff,” I said. Talking to the two was distinctly strange. “I tried to write down what I saw, and where, and how dangerous it seemed. I tried to sketch the animals, too.”
“Have you had a chance to add our little friends?” Kara said from where she still lay in bed.
“Our little friends?”
“The little pixie things,” she said. “They led us right to you. If they hadn’t done something to that guy, then you would have been as dead as that poor other bastard. A pile of bones with cut marks all over…”
“Kara!” Zach said fiercely.
“What? She doesn’t need to know?”
“She’s still weak,” he insisted. “Give her a chance to get some strength back.” He straightened and shot me another look that I couldn’t decipher. It seemed like Zach was full of looks like that. I was uncomfortable, and I wasn’t sure how to act. I went back to the soup, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish any more. Besides that, what I really wanted was to go to the bathroom and then back to bed. I wiggled uneasily, feeling incredibly stiff.
Kara sat up in bed, dressed in a Go Army t-shirt and gray sweats. She shrugged at Zach and then looked at me sharply. “She’s pooped anyway. Sophie, do you need to go to the bathroom?”
Zach started to say something and Kara interrupted, “Kid, she doesn’t want you in the bathroom with her.”
He glared at her before spinning and leaving the room.
I said, “I do need to go to the bathroom. I feel like I haven’t gone for days.”
“Oh, you’ve gone, just not in the bathroom.”
I blushed self-consciously.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” Kara said, rising up to her entire height. I hadn’t realized it before, but she was tall for a woman, almost as tall as Zach. She was a solid, middle-aged lady with a lot of short gray hair and steel blue eyes. If I hadn’t known she had been in the army I would have guessed her a marine drill sergeant. She was in her forties, not much younger than my parents, and I suddenly wondered about her family. I think she could read it in my eyes.
“My parents died a long time ago,” she said quietly. “I had a partner in Klamath Falls. When I woke up, the only thing that was left was this.” She held up her left arm and showed me a thick silver cuff bracelet that she was wearing. It was a pretty thing set with amber stones.
My hand went to my neck, and I jerked in shock. The necklace with my parents’ wedding rings was gone. Kara saw the movement and lifted her eyes questioningly.
“My parents’ wedding rings,” I explained. “They were on a chain around my neck. I had them on yesterday.”
“There wasn’t a chain or rings on you,” Kara said gently. “It must have broken off when…the psycho jerk decided to play games. I’m sorry.” She cleared her throat and then added, “But that wasn’t yesterday, hon. It was about a week ago.”
“A week,” I repeated dumbly. “I’ve been sick for a full seven days?”
Kara nodded. “Let me help you to the bathroom.”
“Yeah,” I agreed because I didn’t know what else to say. Oh, my conversational skills had definitely improved since the change to be sure.