“How many more places do you want to check today?” Amber asked.
Alan paused. She could almost read his mind at that moment. He had been about to say that she was crazy—they had been through enough for one day. Instead, he reassessed and said, “Four more. We’re not getting that close again though. If they do have some way of communicating, I don’t want to find out how they defend themselves.”
“Agreed.”
# # #
“How was your day?” Mary asked over her shoulder when Amber knocked and then let herself in.
“Good. Productive.”
“I see you’re back on a daytime schedule,” Mary said as she turned. As soon as she got a look at Amber’s face, her tone changed. “Jeezum! What happened to your face?”
“It’s nothing. I caught the wrong end of pepper spray.”
“Sit down. I have just the thing.”
Amber sat down at the table and let Ricky’s mom fuss over her. She could tell that there would be no use in trying to fight it. Mary hurried to a closet and came back with supplies. To the puffy skin around Amber’s eyes, she applied some kind of ointment, and then made Amber tilt her head back so she could squirt something into her eyes.
Amber swallowed and tasted whatever it was in the back of her throat.
“Try to keep them shut as much as you can. Why don’t you park yourself in the living room and you can listen to the radio.”
“Thanks, but if you don’t mind, I would like to lay down upstairs.”
“Of course,” Mary said. “Tucker, you go with her. If you need anything at all, tell Tucker and he’ll come down and get me.”
Amber smiled at that. The dog followed her up the stairs and jumped up on the bed to stretch out next to her. For the first time that day, Amber felt at ease.
She woke to a light knock on the door. Tucker was already gone.
“Come in.”
Ricky pulled up a chair. “Hey.”
Aside from some crust in the corner of her eyes, they felt fine.
“Mom said you got hit with pepper spray? What happened?”
Amber swung her legs over the side of the bed and then stretched out her back.
“We found one of them, Ricky. Alan was right—he figured out where they would be hiding just from looking at maps.”
Ricky slumped back in the chair with a long exhale.
“One of them.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s not good news.”
Amber frowned.
“I mean, if they’re not together, then it’s going to be nearly impossible to wipe them out. There have to be dozens or more, right? We don’t have a chance at tracking every single one of them down.”
“It’s better than not having any clue at all,” Amber said.
Ricky didn’t seem to hear. “I read this thing about coyotes. When they howl, it’s like they’re doing a local census to find out how many of them there are in the area, you know? If you kill some of the coyotes and their howl isn’t heard, it can actually cause the females in the area to have increased litter sizes. You can’t wipe them out because they produce more offspring when their numbers are threatened.”
“Yeah, but weren’t they nearly wiped out? At least in some places.”
Ricky nodded. “I just wonder—if we take out half of them, are they just going to infect even more people when they come out of hibernation.”
“Stop it.”
His eyes finally met hers. “Sorry?”
“Stop trying to throw in the towel before we even start. Remember, this is not some independent species. They have to feed on people. They can only increase their numbers through people. The one we found today was hiding under a manmade structure. We can wipe them out because we know where they have to be.”
“Around people,” he said.
“Right.”
“We hope. I mean, how do we know for sure?”
“Stop it.”
Ricky sat up straight. “Yes. I will. Sorry. It has been a long day. I came up to ask if you want to go out with us to get dinner.”
Amber shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m not sure I feel up to a whole restaurant thing.”
“No—sorry—not to go to a restaurant. We’re going to get dinner and bring it back.”
“Can I go like this?”
“Of course.”
“Then yes.”
# # #
It was just getting dark as they pulled out onto the main road and Vernon took a left. Ricky’s parents were sitting in the front seats. Tucker was between Amber and Ricky in back.
Vernon kept looking at her in the rearview mirror. Amber met his stare and held it.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.
Mary backhanded his arm. “Leave her alone. She’s fine.”
“That’s from pepper spray?”
“Bear spray, actually,” Amber said. “And my eyes feel fine now.”
“Okay.”
They pulled into the parking lot with a food truck parked at the far end.
“Are you sure they’re open?” Mary asked.
“This is the place with the good fries, right?” Amber asked.
Ricky nodded, but his mother said, “Not as good as Fred’s. Vernon—who told you this place was open?”
“The truck’s here, isn’t it?”
“It doesn’t look open,” Ricky said.
“They’re never open until May at the earliest,” Mary said. She got out as soon as Vernon stopped the car. Ricky got out on the other side and Tucker went after him.
Amber and Vernon both stayed in the car while mother and son investigated. There was a little light leaking from around the door of the food truck, but it was all closed up. The sign outside had lights mounted to it, but they weren’t on.
“If they’re looking for business, they’re going about it all wrong,” Vernon said.
Tucker approached the food truck first. Ricky called him back when he attempted to pee on the side of the place. Mary walked up, read a sign and then knocked on the shuttered window.
“How long has this place been here?” Amber asked.
“With these owners, just a couple of years. The food is much better now. They were talking about extending the season, so I wasn’t that surprised when Leo told me they were already open.”
They sat in silence for a moment. Amber leaned
