Chapter 11

Alex

The small camp hides them from typical views. It would be difficult for someone, especially Clark, to find them. Alex tucked Layla close to him as tiredness took both. She slept soundly as he kept an eye out, searching and listening to everything around them. Alex and Layla were not the only ones in the mountains—some of the predators crept around, avoiding the people through their hunting.

The morning came too quickly. They had a quick breakfast before continuing toward the nearby town. They could view it in the distance by late afternoon, the ramshackle buildings from the 1950s, designed to see nuclear testing results from miles away, learning about the destructive damage done from the testing. The buildings in the fake town had been bleached from the sun and worn from the weather, along with what wreckage the testing had done. The entire area was blanketed in sheets of dust and dirt, age, and animals. It had several points to make for traps and set up sightlines before attempting to signal for Clark.

Approaching the town, Alex pulled out his gun and flashlight to search the area for any animals or the small off chance that Clark had made it before them. The village had several buildings still standing, though few windows survived, but most were destroyed and unusable for the plan. They searched as the sunset, seeing wildlife scurrying away until they found a stable home near the edge of the town. Settling into the house, Alex set up traps on the front and back doors and spikes in front of the remaining windows. It wasn’t perfect, but these houses were over seventy years old.

Layla didn’t bother with a usual campfire. Still, she used the old stove as a firepit, giving warm food and some heat in the cooling evening air while Alex finished protecting the house. Settling down for the evening, they went over the plan several times.

“I have something we can do to make sure he knows where we are,” Layla stated in the middle of the rounds of the planning. Alex tilted his head for her to continue. “I can make a call from my phone.”

“And?”

“If he is hunting me, he will have it tracked, so I can make a mistake to call for help in San Francisco. He will know exactly where we are and will find us right here, right?”

“Probably. I don’t love the idea. He knows you have company, so he will be on guard.”

“He would be on guard no matter what, so knowing he knows you are here isn’t changing anything. We can plan around that and get prepared.” They agreed before eating and prepared for sleep. They would make it to the town tomorrow, start designing the trap to handle Clark. Alex took brief naps, catching up on the little sleep he had been running on for days as Layla kept watch, promising she would wake him if something occurred. Around midnight, Alex slipped into a deeper sleep.