“Yeah, that would be way too messy,” Stu chimed in. “There’s someone in the area that should be able to meet you somewhere within a mile or two of your location. Up for a walk?”
Cole didn’t answer right away because he was distracted by the sound of what might or might not have been distant thunder. When the sound died away, he whispered, “I’m up for a run. Just tell me where I need to go.”
“I’ve already sent word to one of Gerald’s contacts in that area. Head due south until you meet up with a paved highway that’s running from northeast to southwest.”
“Hold on a second. I’m a city boy. We don’t come equipped with compasses.”
“You don’t have a compass on you?” Stu asked.
“Just a minute.” Without waiting for confirmation, Cole set the phone down and started rooting through Gerald’s bag. Sure enough, he found a survival knife complete with a compass in the handle. Just what every boy wanted for Christmas. Picking up the phone, he announced, “Found one.”
“Good. Head south until you hit that highway. It shouldn’t be more than two or three miles.”
“Two or three miles?”
“Yeah,” Stu replied. “Maybe four. No more than five, though. I can’t get an exact fix on your position.”
“Never mind. I’m on my way.”
“Do you need them to bring anything?”
“A division of Marines and a tank would be nice,” Cole replied.
Stu chuckled and capped it off with a snort. “I mean like a medical kit or food or anything.”
Checking the phone’s screen, Cole saw that there was still plenty of life in the batteries. Apparently, Gerald was one of those rare, mythical breeds of men who had a thousand dollar phone and didn’t have it surgically connected to his ear long enough to wear the charge down.
“What’s the matter?” Stu asked intently. “You sound hurt.”
“Not hurt,” Cole gasped as he zipped up the bag, then hefted it over his shoulder and started running. “Just moving faster than I have for months. I really need to start going back to the gym again.”
“You’re pretty high up and it must be cold there. Let’s see…yep. I just checked the weather in your area.”
“And?”
“It’s cold,” Stu reported.
Now it was Cole’s turn to laugh. With his legs churning through the snow and his feet already tingling within his boots, he didn’t exactly have breath to spare. It did, however, feel good to take action rather than just try and piece together what was going on. “What about Paige?” Cole asked. “I still need to get ahold of her.”
“I can try to connect you if you don’t mind holding.”
“I’ve got nothing else to do right now. If it sounds like I’m dying, just ignore it.”
As Stu clicked away at his keyboard, he said, “You gotta tell me more about that creature sometime, dude. I’ll bet it was awesome.”
Now that he’d cleared the trees, Cole was dashing through a wide-open field of snow. He could still hear the occasional roar in the distance, but it sounded like it was getting farther away rather than closer. When he thought he heard another animal’s growl mixed in with the first, he put some more steam into his strides and kept running. The compass in the knife handle rattled noisily within its plastic casing, but indicated that he was more or less southward bound.
“Awesome isn’t really…the word…that comes to mind,” Cole wheezed.
Gerald’s bag was strapped across his back, and the knife stuck out from one of his jacket pockets like a mutated pen. Having seen a few models similar to the old man’s satellite phone, Cole quickly found the earpiece in one of the carrying case’s little pockets. Once the piece was plugged into the phone and his ear, Cole gasped, “Hello? Can you hear me?”
“Yeah,” Stu replied instantly. “What’s wrong?”
“Just checking the equipment.”
“You sound a little rough, but I can hear you.”
“That’s not surprising,” Cole said. “If my legs don’t freeze, they may just fall off in protest. Not to mention…the very distinct…possibility of a heart attack.”
“Eh, don’t be so hard on yourself. So is something chasing you? What is it?”
Before Cole was forced to make up a story that didn’t end with him being slapped around and tossed aside, Stu interrupted.
“Just a sec, Cole. I’ve got Paige ready to join in. Here she is.”
The next voice that filled Cole’s ear was sharp and concise. Compared to Stu’s easy rambling, this woman sounded more like something stabbing him through the eardrum.
“Who is this?” she snapped.
“My name’s Cole. I’m a friend of Gerald.”
“Never heard of you. How’d you get this phone number?”
“Gerald gave it to me.” He had to stop so he could catch his breath. Thankfully, the terrain was kind enough to slope downward and give him a few tall trees on either side for cover, so he wasn’t charging like a dark dot in the middle of a white field. The cold air must have been doing him some good, because his breath was coming easier and his limbs weren’t killing him. Either that or his body was just numb enough to keep working through the agony that he’d earned from years of sitting on his ass with a video-game controller in his hand.
“Gerald is…he’s…” Wincing even though he didn’t know this woman, Cole forced himself to spit out the truth before he was cut off by any number of flukes that could interrupt a phone signal from the middle of nowhere. “He’s dead.”
Instead of crying or expressing the shock he’d been expecting, the woman asked, “Was there anyone else with him?”
“Yes. Brad was there.”
“Is he dead too?”
Cole felt a bit of relief since he didn’t have to spell it all out. “Afraid so.”
When she spoke again, Paige’s voice was considerably less severe. “And who are you, Cole?”
“I met Brad and Gerald on a hunting trip. Gerald told me to tell you what happened before you heard it from anyone else. I know you may not believe this but…he told me to tell you that it took a…it was…” Gritting his teeth, Cole struggled to cut through everything else that had happened so he could focus upon one particular moment. Finally, he remembered the exact words Gerald had used. “He said to tell you…only a Full Blood could take Brad down. I don’t know what that means. I may have gotten it wrong, but—”
“You didn’t get it wrong,” Paige said with a touch of sadness in her voice. “So they’re both really dead.”
Now that he picked up on the sorrow he’d been expecting from the woman, Cole felt like an ass for wanting to hear it. “Yeah,” he said as he slowed to a stop and pulled in a few more breaths. “We were attacked by some sort of animal. I think it’s still chasing me.”
“You saw it?” Paige asked. “You saw the Full Blood?”
“If a Full Blood is a big, ugly monster that can tear through a room full of hunters and shake off automatic fire, then I saw it.”
“Are you the only one who survived?”
“I think so,” Cole replied as he looked around. There was a surprising amount of distance already between him and the cabin. Other than a few trees, he didn’t see much else. “A few others made it out, but I’ve been hearing that thing prowling around. It might be after them.”
“Have the MEG guys arranged for someone to pick you up?”
“Yeah. I’m headed there now.”
“Good. I’ll find out who’s picking you up and get in touch with them. This is very important, Cole. Did Gerald or Brad give you anything to take back?”
“Yes. I’ve got a knife. Or maybe it’s a sword.”
“Perfect. Does it have anything on it?”
“There’s some blood and some markings.” Chuckling, Cole added, “Honestly, I don’t know what I’m looking for.”
“That’s perfect. Keep the knife the way it is, blood and all.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes,” Paige said. “Wrap it up and bring it with you. It’s very important. Have the police or anyone found the
