Invictus

Chapters 33: Trail Of The Beast

I'll give Joe this, the man knew how to cook. It was a meal to remember. I don't know what was more impressive, the fact that he was blind and able to cook at all or the fact that the food tasted incredible. We shared a quiet meal over rosemary potatoes, pot roast, albrûlée. Everyone was too deep in thought to talk, so Joe did most of it for us. When the meal was done we showered, after which we retreated to our rooms. Adam took a sleeping bag from the Infiniti and slept outside.

When it came time for my shower, I purposely took a detour towards the bathroom nearest to where Kya's room was. The journey there felt like I had a ball and chain attached to my ankle. I thought about knocking and apologizing for how I'd acted hours earlier. But when I saw Trenton turn down the hall and make eye contact with me I knew it was best to keep going.

The shower felt amazing and the heat helped to relax me. I dozed off quickly. Unfortunately, I was awakened just as quick by a familiar face; Trenton.

"Let's go," he whispered.

"What time is it?"

"Early. We need to make the Park before dawn. Less people that see us entering the better. Come on." Trenton flicked on the light switch and walked out of the room. It didn't take long to get me up after that.

Since the car was already packed, it didn't matter that we were all half-asleep.

"Where we going now?" Adam asked.

"Yellowstone." I said to Adam.

"What's there?" He asked me.

"Last member of our team." Kya said to him, hopping inside the SUV.

"When are we gonna deal with Manuel?" Adam asked Trenton.

"If we can survive Hellena, then we get our shot at Manuel." Trenton said with a forced smile. It was obvious something was bothering him.

We all got inside. "The Park even open this early?" Adam asked.

"Open twenty four hours according to their website." Santiago groaned, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Not saying bye to Joe?" Kya asked Trenton.

Trenton put the keys in the ignition and paused. "We said our goodbyes last night." He then started the SUV and let the autopilot take us the rest of the way. Since the car was completely electronic Santiago was able override the safety protocols on the vehicle. That meant that the head and tail lights stayed off while we drove. To anyone who happened to be up and saw our SUV moving down the road it would have looked like a ghost was driving it. Unless there were street lights, we were practically invisible under the cover of the early morning darkness.

We entered through the southern entrance and continued to make our way north. After another hour or two the SUV finally came to a stop. From there we unloaded all our gear and handed out black weatherproof jackets. Adam, of course, didn't need one. The backpacks Trenton gave to us were absurd. Even with my strength I could tell that what I was carrying must have weighed 150 pounds. The others packs didn't look quite as bad, but I had no doubt that they would start to feel them once we were a few miles deep as well.

"What's in these things?" Kya asked, slinging the heavy pack onto her back.

"Everything we need to survive out here." Trenton said with a breathy laugh.

I unzipped mine to see what was inside and found four heavy car batteries inside.

"What these for?" I asked Trenton.

"Power Z. We're gonna need as much of it as we can get out there."

Once Adam had set fire to the SUV we made our way into a heavily wooded area of the park. It was too dark for anyone else to see the signs without flashlights. My eyes however, were able to make them out before we turned them on. We were heading into the Shoshone Forest, a name I recognized from a lesson on the national parks in one of my classes... which was weird because it was a lesson from middle school.