Who Corey Was

45

A long car ride later, we stood across from a vast treeline. The breeze cut into my hoodie, the yellow windbreaker having been sacrificed to all the blood of the last few days. We leaned against the car, staring into the forest depths.

"God, this was stupid. They could be anywhere!" I groaned.

Xander sighed. "We'll figure it out. We'll head to Madeleine County. Maybe they'll be there. But the park's about to close. We gotta go."

I looked to the dusky sky. We'd wasted a whole day on this forest. A futile effort. I sighed, climbing into the passenger seat and glaring towards the tiny ranger station at the parking lot entrance.

As Xander climbed in the front seat, I saw it. I seized his arm. "Xander!"

"Ow! What!"

"There!"

A shadow. A silhouette as someone ducked beneath the ranger station window in the growing darkness. As I held my breath, two more smaller shadows followed. Xander started the car, but we were too far for the headlights to illuminate them. Their heads shot in our direction, and they took off into the treeline.

Xander and I exchanged a look. A trap? Maybe. He slowly drove over to where the figures had disappeared. He stopped but didn't park the car. I cracked my window and peered out into the woods.

"Corey?" a voice called quietly, quickly shushed.

I gasped in relief. "Alice!"

I reached behind me and popped the back door open. The three shadows materialized from behind trees and slid into the backseat. I turned around in my seat. Despite the fact that we'd only been separated a couple days, I was desperately relieved to have the five of us united again.

Xander wasted no time driving away. He also wasted no time berating Alice. "Really? Calling out to a random car? What if it hadn't been us? What if it had been Faus or Doe?"

"Lay off her, Xander," Dylan defended.

"It turned out okay," I interjected, "but you do need to be prepared for next time."

Alice sat in silence. "Besides," I added, "she's the reason we all found each other anyways. Briar Forest." I turned to Dylan. "How did you guys get here anyways?"

Dylan glanced at Sarah before replying with a look that said he already knew how I'd feel about his words. "We wanted to save as much of the money as we could. We took a bus part way. We were too young to rent a car so...we hitchhiked."

Xander's jaw tensed. I knew what he was thinking. I was thinking it too. It had been a reckless and stupid and unsafe choice. There were witnesses to their location now. They could track us.

I cleared my throat in the silence. "Okay. What's done is done. They won't be able to track us now."

Sarah spoke up. "Yeah, where'd you get this car anyways?"

I glanced at Xander. It was my turn to make the face, knowing how Dylan's morals would respond. "Xander...convinced someone...to gift it to us." I had chosen my words carefully. Dylan was mad.

"Smart thinking," Sarah replied with an approving smirk.

Dylan made a critical sound. "So, we've resorted to grand theft auto now."

"At least my way doesn't result in God knows how many people being able to identify us," Xander retorted.

"Guys," I groaned.

Dylan wasn't done. "Oh, so I guess the law means nothing now."

"Your way wasn't exactly legal either."

"Enough!" This from the most unlikely source, Alice. The car fell silent. "We're together. We're not being followed. And we have more pressing issues than how we got here."

The silence remained. I caught Alice's eye in the rear view then looked out the window to hide the proud smile on my face. That's my best friend, my Shrimp Puff.