Agony. Every single movement had become sheer agony.
* * *
Something interesting had happened. The quickstep march of Buddy, Cap and the other guy had slowed down. They made no pretense of continuing to search. In fact, having left a very obvious trail to this point, they had become suddenly quite interested in leaving none at all.
Proof they had come in here, but no proof of where they went next.
They gathered in a knot and began talking. Craig couldn’t hear them, and the lack of noise they were making now made it hard for him to creep any closer. He reached for the volume on his radio, and turned it all the way down to make sure no errant sound alerted them. Although, to his dismay, the damn radio had been utterly silent. Soon, though, given the growing lateness of the hour, searchers were going to start sending messages back and forth that they were heading back to the command post.
His heart squeezed as he thought about Sky possibly having to make it through this night. But he didn’t focus on that for long. Right now he had a more immediate problem: What were those guys talking about?
Moving with stealth, aided by the wetness of the forest floor, which kept leaves and pine needles from crunching, he crept closer.
“...just wait another hour or so and head back,” Cap said.
“You can’t...” Buddy’s voice grew muffled, making the rest inaudible.
“Look,” said Cap, sharply, “the hero thing you wanted to do? It works as good for us if we find her dead in the morning as if we find her alive now.”
“No,” Buddy said. “No! You know where she is, and we can’t leave her to die. Damn it, Cap, it’s not like she knows anything. She’ll be as grateful to us as anyone.”
“Dead or alive makes no difference. Why do you think I brought us this way?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I came this way so we could make sure no one else finds her, Buddy. Time to grow up, man. You want a revolution? Then prove you’re tough enough.”
Craig’s blood curdled in his veins. He waited for Buddy to object, but the man didn’t.
“No one else is coming this way,” Cap said. “That’s obvious now, and we’ve been steering away from her anyway. We’re covered, no one will find her and in the morning we can be heroes.”
“What if she’s not dead, Cap?” the other guy said. “She might make it through the night.”
“If she does, we can take care of that.”
“That’s just wrong,” Buddy said hotly. “Damn it, she’s not an enemy. She’s just a painter.”
“How do you know that? She may have been put there to watch us.”
Once again Buddy fell silent. Moving silently, Craig punched the distress signal on his radio, sending out the beacon Lucy would be watching for.
Damn, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. All of this to make them look like heroes, and so much the better if Sky died?
He began planning ways to take them out. He calculated angles of attack. Three of them wasn’t too many, but unfortunately they were better armed. He’d need surprise. Big-time surprise.
He began to circle around them to the one direction from which they wouldn’t expect anyone to come: ahead of where they’d been walking.
Keeping low, shotgun carefully cradled in his arms, he sought the moment and the opportunity.
“You didn’t tell me you wanted her dead,” Buddy said unhappily.
“But it was your great idea anyway,” Cap said sarcastically. “Man up, Buddy. The revolution has no room for wimps.”
Craig heard the most chilling thing then. Buddy said, “You’re right.”
So the argument was over. These guys intended to leave Sky out overnight, regardless of her condition, and if she wasn’t dead by morning, Cap was going to take care of it somehow. Hell, he’d probably make Buddy roll a boulder down on her.
The absence of Sky had convinced him of one thing: she was hurt or she’d have long since returned. How badly, he didn’t even want to imagine.
Anger thrummed steadily now, trumping even worry, but his head remained absolutely clear. He just needed his opportunity. One little sliver of time to act.
* * *
Sky had wedged herself into the niche, trying to minimize body contact with the rock inside, and while she could physically feel that it was capturing warmth on that side of her, the other side seemed to be losing it just as rapidly. The pain in her leg rose and ebbed like a tide, reaching crescendos that