Walking Amongst Them (Among Us, Book 2)

ropes & deadlines

Jerald, of course, hadn't really been woken up during the night to take a shift watching over the situation.

Cody's face went flat and unimpressed as he gazed at the sputtering man in his sleeping bag. He looked like a child who'd been caught. And after looking at Cody's face, he faltered. He wasn't sure if he'd woken up at all.

I tried to watch them all without showing my thoughts, but it didn't matter. They didn't look my way, like I wasn't even worth being a potential source of information. The one with the scars on his face stood up, and I noticed that his left leg had a slight weakness to it when he stood up, in the knee. I stored that thought away for a possible escape plan.

He walked slowly over towards Jerald, until he was standing right in front of him, towering over him a full head length. Jerald had at least scrambled to his feet, and was now blinking rapidly as he looked upon his traveling companion.

"Gary, you know me. I saved you, that one time in Vegas, remember?" Scarface, or Gary, whatever, hesitated only a fraction of a second, but Jerald's hungry eyes caught it, "man, it won't happen again."

There was a heavy pause, and even Cody, who had been packing up his bag, stopped to watch. Gary stayed still longer than I expected, but then his hand shot out and he punched Jerald in the throat, dropping him to the dirt in the swift move. Gary spit on the ground near Jerald.

"I'll let boss man deal with your pathetic ass," he grumbled and turned away, kicking snow up into the fire, over the small rock formation that created the fire pit itself.

His eyes drifted up, and through the smoke he glared at me.

"You got something to say?"

I shrugged at him, and he scowled, glancing towards Cody, "if boss man doesn't want her for himself, I'll go at her. If she isn't up to snuff, maybe you can keep her. If she survives," he smiled a bit, like there was a joke.

Cody didn't share his smile, and I was suddenly worried for new reasons. Where were they taking me? And to who? I wanted to demand the answers, but as Cody made no return comment and went back to packing his- my bag, I wondered if I could even trust him.

I wanted to.

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Two hours later and we were finally moving on from the campsite. Despite how big and bad Gary thought he was, he wasn't. It took him the first hour to pack his bag, eat and be ready for the day. The second hour he told Jerald to watch camp, me to watch Jerald, and Cody to kill either of us who failed.

Cody again said nothing, only gave a hard nod as Gary left camp to hunt.

He returned with nothing to show for the time he'd wasted, and I thought I could smell some faint liquor scent, but I wasn't sure.

Cody had given me the bag he'd traded for mine, and told me to make myself useful. It was the first thing he'd said directly to me since last night, and he'd waited to say it until Gary was present. I saw Gary give Cody a slight improving look, but when Cody turned to face it, the look was gone.

I was starting to see why he was the so-called leader of this little traveling party.

"We're ready to move out when you are. How was the hunt?"

"Pathetic," Gary said, and I had to agree with him. He turned towards Jerald and spit in his direction," you ready to meet your maker, boy? We'll be back at camp by tonight, probably before dinner."

This seemed to mean something, and I noticed Cody's shoulders tense, he stood in front of me, blocking most of my body but not my line of sight. I felt my hand reach out to reassure him we'd be fine, but my wrist tugged on my other wrist, reminding me of the ropes I'd been tied in not too long ago.