Weeds had sprung up in the cracks of the road. When Ms. Rodriguez told us how Fred had been snatched, I hadn't realized the spot came this close to the lake's edge. The water continued right up to the forested area where the Leftovers started. If someone tried to bike down this road, they ran the risk of abduction by hungry immortal creatures. I studied the plant life that dotted the area just beyond the boundary. The leaves were bright and spiky, completely tropical and foreign looking against the remaining muted greens and browns of the Sierras.
At least the trees hadn't moved. I was still watching for that phenomenon, but it hadn't happened yet, and it was already early afternoon. I stayed alert, though, as the reports also stated that things could change very quickly. The land itself might be unstable. I scanned back and forth around the boundary, keeping a vigil for myself as my comm occasionally flared with comments from Holt. The Hellraisers weren't seeing much, but we were willing to wait.
"Nothing on the scanner," Jessie said. The waiting and the anticipation were the worst parts. I would much rather the beast just come out so I could start a fight.
"The days pass by with no semblance of time," Kane whispered to me. I bit my tongue to stop myself from whispering that his temporary silence would be much appreciated. Secretly, I liked it… but I worried I might respond to it like I did on the last mission. And Jones was chomping at the bit for something to hold against me. He and Evans were on opposite ends of the respect spectrum, but I was positive that he’d complained to her about his chat with me.
"The air has a heavy feeling here," Kane muttered. His voice grew so soft sometimes that it was like hearing my own random thoughts flitting by. Who knew he was so poetic? When I saw him again, I would tease him mercilessly about this. The minutes trickled by as my team reported in. There was nothing to do but listen to Kane's occasional commentary and watch the trees.
"I'm not sure how long we've been here," Kane said. He had moved on from his grappling lesson with whomever he had been wrestling. Now, his thoughts—I assumed—sounded like he was alone for the moment. "My hunger is going to rip a hole through me. I can't tell them that." He was protecting whoever he had found. Most of all, he was being Kane. He never let those walls down. With him, I always felt as if I was pressing up against an invisible fortress. These words from him were surprising to me… even comforting. I liked that he thought like this, even if this did end up being nothing more than a figment of my imagination.
I shifted from foot to foot as Holt gave me another all-clear signal on the comm. Kane continued, "It's always been hard. Hard made me this way. I can take a little more." My heart stirred with empathy. I knew the feeling. For a moment, a sense of embarrassment crawled over my entire body. Assuming these were his private and personal thoughts, I felt like an intruder.
Why was it hard on you, Kane? Hard was not something I associated with him. Everything he did, he did well. I couldn’t see how someone who radiated strength like that might be struggling… but I wanted to understand. He couldn't hear me, but I could still press.
"I don't want to think of the past," he whispered, more as if he was talking to himself than me. "But it keeps coming back to me. I had to work twice as hard to keep up with everyone. Dorian was smaller than me, but he was better at everything. I couldn't understand why it took so much work for me to catch up. My mom just kept pushing and pushing me. I hope she's okay. She must be worried. I've always been one mishap from pushing her over the edge. She had such a weird back-and-forth dance with me. One minute, she would be telling me to work hard to be twice as fierce and cunning as the others, but… then she would freak out over nothing. In LA, she hovered over me like I was made of glass. Why does she look at me like that? I've never been able to figure it out."
Mommy issues. Uh-oh. I swallowed a hard lump in my throat, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. Yes, I understood issues with mothers as much as the next person. It was different from my own mother, who only nagged me in the rare moments when she decided to take on a parenting role. Those moments were always at random. Too bad she’d gotten a daughter who actively sought out danger. At this very moment, I was literally using myself as human bait to tempt a deranged creature into coming out and attacking me. Maybe that was another reason why Kane and I got along, but… I was sure Kane wouldn’t have wanted me to hear this. And yet, I had no choice but to listen, because he just kept talking.
"I was raised to be twice as good as everyone around me, but being here is torture. I’m starving half the time and going slower than ever. At least the kids don't seem to notice." He sighed with such heaviness that my heart felt an actual pang of hurt. I wanted so badly to see his face. Where was he? Was he talking about the Harvester kids we’d been
