“Hey, you’re the second person to buy these today,” the employee held up the fishing gut and bells.
“Is that right? What did the other person look like that bought these items?”
“They were both blond. Brother and sister, I think—they looked similar.”
“Was she about this tall”—Eddie held his hand by his shoulder—“and rather petite?” The employee nodded.
“Did they say where they were going?” Eddie asked. “No, but they did buy one of these.” The employee put a hunting trail map of the Illinois woods on the counter.
“I’ll have one of those too, please,” Eddie smiled and paid for all of the items that he bought. He and Max walked back to the car, and once they were inside, he opened the map and started looking for possible trails that Ness and Wyatt would have chosen to go on. “If they were heading up north, then they would have diverted off this trail to get to a good vantage point of the cabin.
“Ness, you clever girl.” Eddie smiled.
28
The sun set behind the horizon, and Ness woke up from a deep slumber. She rubbed her eyes and crawled out of the tent. “How long have I been out?” Ness asked.
“About five hours,” Wyatt said, smiling. He was pouring a tin of beans into a small pot and adding slices of cured sausage into the mixture.
“Holy crap, why didn’t you wake me?” Ness protested.
“Well, you were pretty out of it, and I still feel fine. Besides, you’ll make it up to me later on when I’m cuddled in and you have to sit out in the night air,” Wyatt winked at her.
“I hope you’re hungry: dinner is almost ready,” Wyatt added as he stirred the sausage and bean mixture in the pot; it bubbled on the little gas stove. “I am, actually,” Ness crawled out toward Wyatt and sat on the boulder next to him.
“Grab some bread rolls from the pack—we need something to scoop this out with,” Wyatt instructed Ness, who quickly obeyed and grabbed the bread. A few minutes later, they were both plunging into their meals.
“Do you have any cell phone reception?” Ness asked. “Barely. I get a bar every few minutes, but then it drops quickly. It is worrying me that I haven’t been able to get in touch with the hospital or Dad,” Wyatt said, looking back at the cabin.
“I’m sure everything is fine. I’ve been meaning to ask you, how does the detonator work for the plastic explosives?” Ness watched the sun disappear entirely and darkness take hold of the sky.
“There are two pins that are inserted into the explosive that are linked to a battery-operated charge. The batteries send in electric charge through the pins and into the explosive material which ignites it, and then it explodes. The detonator that we have here uses radio frequencies to connect with the receiver down there. If we push the detonator here, the signal is sent to the receiver and . . . well, boom.”
“How do you know that we’re not too far from the receiver for the signal to be sent?” Ness asked.
Wyatt turned the detonator over. “You see this red light over here? If we go out of range, then that light will stop glowing. At the moment it’s glowing brightly, so be very careful not to push that button by mistake,” Wyatt smiled.
“I’ll be sure to leave it out of harm’s way then,” Ness said.
“What if he doesn’t come, Ness? What if he chooses to go after Lindsay and Dad instead of coming for us?” Wyatt sounded worried as the darkness enveloped the trees around them.
“Wyatt, they’re safe. Eddie can’t get to them. And, since he can’t get to them, he will want to continue the game with us. He’ll come, if he isn’t here already,” Ness said as her face became more difficult to see with the ever-fading light.
“Alright,” Wyatt took the last bite of his dinner, wiped the stainless-steel cup out with his bread, and grabbed the rifle. “I want to show you how the night-vision works on this thing. It has batteries that can last for a few days, but if you’re constantly looking through it, it’s going to mess up your own night-vision in your eyes. Tonight, it’s a full moon, so it will be best if we allow our eyes to completely adjust to the darkness.”
“How long does that take?” Ness asked.
“Well, your pupils start dilating almost immediately when you’re in a low light area, but for your full night-vision to kick in, it takes around an hour.”
“There’s something you don’t learn in high school biology,” Ness smiled.
They sat in silence for a long while, just listening to the surroundings. The creek babbled nearby, but it wasn’t loud enough to drown out other sounds. They both watched the cabin in hopes that they’d spot Eddie coming up the usual road.
Wyatt turned his head quickly. “Did you hear that?” he whispered.
“One of the bells sounded in the distance,” Ness answered as quietly as she could. “It could just be an animal.”
“Yeah, but it might not be. We have to move,” Wyatt said, grabbing the rifle, detonator, and bag with other weapons. They ran down the embankment as quickly as they could. They passed through the clearing, around the cabin, and into the opposite tree line. Wyatt dropped to the ground; he aimed the rifle toward the vantage point and turned on the night-vision scope. He adjusted the scope for 700 yards and laid down on his stomach. Ness lay quietly next to him.
