back to bed, it began to rain. Charlie roused enough to hear it coming down on the roof, and then rolled over and went back to sleep. It rained off and on all night, and when he woke the next morning, the cabin was cold. He got up to turn up the thermostat, and when he glanced out the window, he noticed the raindrops had frozen onto the bushes.
No wonder it was cold in the cabin. It had fallen below freezing last night. The plus side was that the ground was too warm to freeze, so the only ice was on the trees and the grass.
But it prompted him to think about building a fire. Wood had been laid in the fireplace, complete with kindling below it to start the logs to burning. He took the grill lighter from the mantel and set the kindling ablaze, then went to make coffee.
By the time the logs were ablaze, he was on the sofa with a cup of coffee and a honey bun. He turned on the television again and watched mindlessly as he ate, but it was hard for Charlie to relax. He didn’t know what to do with the day. He thought about packing up and driving on to somewhere else, but was beginning to realize there wasn’t anywhere to go to get away from his truth, and so he sat, staring into the fire.
By midmorning, he was antsy from doing nothing, and decided to go out and get some air. He put on his coat, then, because he was in the mountains, slipped his handgun into the inside pocket of his jacket and locked the cabin on his way out.
He thought about driving down to the lake, then changed his mind and took off walking up the road, passing other cabins as he went. Some had been rented, but more were standing empty. If this had been summer, they would have been full, with people everywhere.
He soon wandered off the road and up into the trees, crunching leaves and kicking pine cones as he went. Squirrels scolded. A hawk screeched from somewhere up above the canopy. The air was cold on his face, but he was warm beneath his coat.
It wasn’t until he began hearing a lot of vehicles, and people talking loudly back up on the road, that he began to wonder what was going on. Then he caught a glimpse of what looked like state police cruisers and realized something serious was happening.
And the moment he walked out of the trees, a vehicle from the park department stopped.
“Sir. Two inmates have escaped from the McAlester Penitentiary and were sighted in the park about an hour ago. We’re asking everyone to get back to their cabins and stay there until we sound an all clear.”
“Damn,” Charlie said. “Are they dangerous?”
“Reported to be armed and dangerous,” the ranger said. “What cabin are you in?”
“Number One.”
“That’s a good distance away. Hop in and I’ll give you a ride back.”
“Thanks,” Charlie said, and got in, glad for the lift.
As soon as they arrived, Charlie got out, unlocked the front door, carried in some more dry firewood, then went inside, locking it back behind him.
He laid his handgun on a table in the living room, added a couple of logs onto the burning embers in the fireplace, then set the alarm on his Jeep and went through the cabin checking windows to make sure they were locked.
After that, he turned on the television, found a local station that was covering the search, and then grabbed a cold pop and a bag of chips for the lunch he’d missed and settled in.
The police factor increased as the ensuing hours passed. He kept hearing choppers flying over, and knew finding them by air would be hard, considering the heavily forested mountains around them. He hoped they found them before dark, because no one in the park would be sleeping tonight if they didn’t.
It was just after sunset when Charlie stepped out to bring firewood in for the night. He paused on the steps to check out the area, and then began gathering up an armload. He was just about ready to go back inside when he heard a bloodcurdling scream from up the road.
He dropped the firewood, darted back inside, grabbed his handgun from the table and slammed the door shut behind him as he leaped off the steps.
The woman’s screams were getting louder, which meant he had to be getting closer. Three of