“Almost,” he said as he shoved the last of the whiskey into the side of his backpack.
“Really?” I asked. “You can buy whiskey anywhere.”
“You’re assuming that we won’t be on the run and having to hide from sight every minute of this journey,” Adam said. “Besides, if things get too hairy and it doesn’t look good, the three of us are going to have a final shot together before whatever end we meet.”
“Damn, that was pretty dark,” I said. “Even for you.”
“Just keeping it real,” Adam grinned as he tried to lighten the mood a bit after delving deep into the depths of what a bad idea this might turn out to be. “What is he doing?”
Adam tilted his head toward Michael, who was still wrestling with trying to make the entire thick blanket fit into his backpack.
“Best not to ask I think,” I giggled.
When the bags were packed, we went into bed to lie down. There were only a few hours left until morning and I got the feeling that this was the last solid chunk of peaceful sleep that we would be getting for a few days. Our plan was as well thought out as it could be, but it was also completely crazy and ridiculously risky.
“Do you think we’re going to make it?” I asked in a quiet whisper as I laid curled up between them on the bed.
I liked this cabin and it made me sad to think that this was the last time that the three of us would ever lay here together again.
“Hard to say,” Adam answered honestly. “But no matter what happens, we’ll give it as big of a push as we can.”
“Michael?” I asked, searching from an answer from him too.
He laid quietly beside me for a few minutes. I could feel the rise and fall of his chest and hear his slow breathing as he thought before giving me an answer.
“I think it’s a good idea and a solid plan,” he said finally. “It’s smart to do something bold and brash, and there’s a decent chance that they won’t expect it and that it will work. Are there a million ways that it could completely blow up in our faces? Yes. But there’s at least a couple of very feasible chances that it won’t. None of the cops will be expecting it. Rob definitely won’t be expecting it. And that all works to our advantage.”
He rolled to his side and stared straight into my eyes as he continued to speak.
“Just promise me one thing, Lisette,” he said with a heavy weight to his voice. “If we don’t get back to you within the time frame that we discussed, you need to leave.”
“You know I can’t do that,” I said. “I won’t ever leave you again. If something goes wrong, then it goes wrong for all of us. I’m not leaving you guys behind.”
“Adam,” Michael said as he looked over my shoulder and tried to get Adam to back him up on this.
“Sorry, man,” he said with a shrug that I could feel against my shoulder. “I’m with Lisette on this one. It’s all or nothing with the three of us at this point.”
Michael’s gaze looked back at him as he sighed. I think he knew that was the answer he was going to get from me even before he asked it, but he had to give it a try anyway.
“Then we had better all hope this works,” he said.
None of us slept well that night. We were all restless with nerves and we all held onto each other a little tighter than usual. I didn’t take my hand off of Michael’s chest for the entire night, and even when the morning light broke, I still didn’t want to let him go.
We piled into the car with our backpacks tucked down against the floorboards and went into town to get what we needed from the store. This time, our purchase was a bit out of the ordinary. The cashier looked at us with an invasively perplexed glance when she saw our assortment of goods on the conveyer belt. Boxes of hair dye, colored contacts, scissors, a couple jugs of water and some hand towels, and a few other things that looked as though we were either having a midlife existential crisis or were about to commit a murder.
“Halloween party,” Adam said as he tried to come up with an excuse that the cashier would believe.
“But it’s not even spring yet,” the cashier said with one side of her mouth pinched up into a pout. She looked as if she was maybe all of eighteen years old, and not ready to buy anyone’s bullshit story about preparing for a Halloween party in January.
Adam was getting ready to say something else, but she had already finished ringing us up and was giving Michael the total.
“Have fun at your kinky winter Halloween party,” she smirked as we walked away with our purchase.
On any other day I probably would have either shot back a sarcastic comment to her or laughed right alongside of her. But today was not any other day. Today was the day that would put into motion the course that our lives would take.
As soon as we got into the car, Michael drove us toward the empty lot that bordered the town library parking lot. We unpacked all of the things that we had purchased and got ready to do a really makeshift job of completely changing our appearances in the backseat of the car.
“You ready?” Michael asked as he held the scissors to my hair.
“Yeah,” I said as I closed my eyes. “Do it.”
8
This time, when we walked through the mountain wilderness, I knew it would be the last time. As much as I dreaded making the hike all the way back to the cave, I also tried to prolong each moment, because I knew that what might happen afterward would be unknown.
The plan was for me to hide out in the cave that Rob had hid Stacy in. It was far enough away to keep me safe, and far enough away to make a good spot for them to run to once they had Rob with them. Michael and Adam knew these woods now like the back of their hands and could navigate them even with their eyes closed (theoretically at least) which would mean that as soon as they had Rob, they could trek through the pitch black night nonstop until they made it back to me at the cave. If everything went according to plan, that’s what would happen.
I didn’t much like my part of the plan. All I had to do was sit here and wait. I hated that actually. I wanted to go too. I wanted to get Rob and stay with Michael and Adam. But it was too many people, and the guys could move faster through the woods at night without me. I was a distraction to all three of them and I knew it. As much as I hated it, they would be more focused and more brutal if they didn’t have to worry about keeping me safe. So now, we were on our way to deliver me to the cave. They were only going to walk me halfway, and then they would turn around and head into the town toward Rob. I would make it the second half of the way on my own.
We were all ready for what would come after the rescue. All three of us had changed our appearances. My hair was cut to above shoulder length now and died a strange shade of dark brown that definitely didn’t look like my natural color. Michael had died his hair darker too, and when I looked at him I had a hard time deciphering whether it was how handsome he was or how much I loved him, which made him look gorgeous to me no matter what color his hair and eyes were. We had all also put in different colored contact lenses (the cosmetic kind that can come in all different crazy colors). I was surprised that the store here even had them, but I guess there are vanity items in every small town and city in America. Adam’s eye color was now the coolest looking one, I thought. It was a dark green with specks of gold that made him look slightly unhuman. Our new looks were strange because we all still looked like us—but not. The modifications would at least be enough to keep anyone from recognizing us at first glance and from matching up with any old identification. We wouldn’t need our passports for the way that we were intending to sneak across the border. In fact, our old identities would be all but gone once we got out of the states, and there was no sense in holding onto any of it. It was kind of freeing, to not only look different but also feel different.
“Okay, this is it,” Michael said when we reached the halfway point.
I didn’t want him to say that. I didn’t want to let them go. It wasn’t that I was afraid of going the rest of the way by myself—I wasn’t. I was more afraid to let them go back into the town without me. I didn’t know what would be waiting for them there or how the rest of our plan would work. What if it didn’t work? What if it all failed and I didn’t even realize they were in trouble until a couple of days had passed? By the time I would be able to reach them, it might be too late.
