Barren Crossroads

Thaw the Heart

Chapter 12

Welcome the Blank Place

It was cold. The chill had settled deeply into her bones, so that she could feel them creak and ache, her skin sapped of all color. She'd wrapped herself in every bit of spare clothing she had, and made Rick do the same. "Last I heard, they were in Arizona. Which means unless you have à car, I think we have à couple weeks of walking," she told him. She was almost worried that even if Hunters didn't come along, the cold might kill them anyways.

"We'll manage. The faster we leave, the faster we can return," he said, and his smile flashed quicksilver against his tanned face. Kaelie didn't comment on the "we" part of his statement. She just nodded.

They'd only been outside à few minutes, making sure everything was ready, but she already wanted to go back into Rick's home, and curl back up in front of his fire. When the screaming started, she almost didn't react. It felt like her life had been one attack after another, one fight after another since the day she sat down in Jace's class.

She shook her head and snapped her eyes up to Rick's. He looked stricken, the smile gone, his mouth pressed in à thin line. "What the fuck?" he growled, and then he took off, sprinting back through the camp. Kaelie followed him, trying to push her way through the people that stampeded towards them.

"Hunters," someone screamed, and it was high, shrill, ringing in her ears and rattling in her skull. Kaelie felt her stomach drop, and nausea swirled in her gut.

"Shit," she whispered, still running after Rick. She felt short of breath, light headed, trying to heave air into her lungs. "Rick," she shouted. "Rick, wait!"

He whirled around so fast that she collided solidly with his broad chest. He caught her, steadying her with à firm grip and her heart pounded against her ribs. "What, Sarah?" he snapped and she flinched.

"You can't just- Rick, you know how these people are. You can't just run into à fight with them," she shouted.

"Do you fucking see these people? Do you hear them? I am not letting them die to à fucking Hunter," he yelled back.

He spun back around and strode off, and he slipped à gun from under his sweater. Kaelie pulled her own knife and followed him. As she did, she tried to direct people behind her, to get back in the houses. "Stay inside," she said. "I'll come get you, just get away from them!"

She shoved them past her, and stumbled to a stop somewhere near what she thought was the center of Rick's camp. He was standing stock still, his gun still in one hand, but both raised and held out to the side. In front of him stood three Hunters, all armed, all with the same mask of cruel indifference on their faces.

"Hey, Rick," the one in the middle drawled, a lanky, tall man with small, cold eyes. "Haven't seen you in à while. How ya been? Where's the girl? The hot one?"

Rick stiffened even further if it was possible, agony in his shoulders and Kaelie felt like she couldn't breathe. The man in the middle tapped his chin like he was thinking, and then his eyes lit up with à cold glee. "Oh, no. That's right, I remember. Boss killed the whining little mutt."

Rick growled. "Fuck you. Why are you here? Last I heard, that boss was dead. And so were the rest of you," he spit.

Kaelie tried to slink farther behind him. She was glad that her hair as tucked under a stocking hat. She gripped her knife so tightly that her fingers were bleached of color and her hand shook. She edged her body into à protective stance, ready to launch herself in front of Rick.

"That may be true," the Hunter responded. "But that doesn't mean that you stop paying your dues, does it?"

He looked to the to Hunters beside him, à heavier man, and a muscular woman with à shaved head, and à severe jawline. "Fara, Jeff, round up à few of them. I think it's been, oh, eight weeks since our last visit? Grab one for every week. Got to set an example after all."