Page 30

The ground was wet still from the previous night’s rain. Steph was glad to be wearing her hiking boots and not caught short in trainers. It was a minor victory in the circumstances but at least her feet were dry. Kelvin seemed to have a harder time avoiding slipping and every so often would have to grab a tree trunk to steady himself. He was more at ease when they walked through stretches in the open through long grass, although he did little to mask his mutterings as he looked down at his sodden brown leather loafers.

Some wild boar briefly crossed their path at one point, but other than that, Steph was surprised they had not come across anything else. Maybe it was the displacement of the lion; news spreading around the animals in the area to make themselves scarce. It didn’t lessen Steph’s unease.

They were all visibly relieved when Thomas’s cabin came into view, their shoulders relaxing. The door was shut, and for the first time, Steph considered the question ‘what if it was locked?’

Michael went up to the door handle and pulled it down. The door clicked open.

“Sums Thomas up,”

Kelvin sighed.

“All panic and no thought!”

Steph wondered what had been said to him when he left his cabin, but it must have been enough to inhibit his usual habit loops.

Both Kelvin and Steph were about to walk inside when Michael held out a hand and turned a silencing finger towards them. Steph instantly felt her heartbeat increase. What had he heard? She took an instinctive step back and glanced over her shoulder. There was nothing there. Nothing but distant trees, bushes and overgrown grass.

Michael went inside. Steph let him go. Kelvin did the same. Neither felt it necessary to risk themselves. Once again, Steph felt a small pang of shame in her chest.

They needn’t have worried; a minute later a light flicked on, contrasting with the dimming afternoon light under a sky which had dropped to a darker shade of grey.

“It’s clear,”

Michael said as he came to the doorway.

“I just wasn’t sure whether anything had got in seeing as he’d left the door unlocked.”

“And shut the door behind it?”

Kelvin asked, raising an eyebrow as he stepped through the threshold.

“A bear could,”

Michael said, almost defensively.

“Besides, this door swings inwards so it could easily have knocked it shut and trapped itself inside.”

“And couldn’t let itself out the same way it got in? By using the handle?”

“It probably would have pushed and not pulled,”

Michael said, quite seriously.

Kelvin gave Michael a piercing look. Michael shifted his feet uncomfortably for a second before turning away to busy himself with picking through a half-eaten packet of crisps.

Steph thought about what he said as she shut the door behind them – she was careful to turn the lock and slide the bolt across. Would a bear know how to get in? It was possible; it could stumble across it by accident. Bears were becoming pests in many areas in North America due to the ever-encroaching urban expansion. It was common for them to raid bins. Besides, despite what people would like to think, most mammals have a reasonable level of intelligence. It was part of their evolutionary heritage. Steph often imagined how dangerous orcas would be if they had opposable thumbs and fingers to manipulate things. Then again, humans were showing already how dangerous an animal could be with the manipulative digits.

Thomas’s cabin was quite different to Roger’s. Whether it was massively different to Fergus’s was hard to say seeing as Steph’s eyes had been more drawn to that cabin’s red aesthetics rather than the overall arrangement of things. Thomas seemed much more minimalist. There was a small shelf with a few select books – most of them seemed to revolve around maths and card games – as well as a closed laptop on the coffee table and a half-drunk mug of coffee on a coaster. That was really all of note, apart from the crisps Michael had committed himself to. Everything else seemed to be original fittings. There was little really to say what type of person Thomas was… had been. Steph noted there were packets of Frosties and Coco Pops on his shelf, although she was not sure that a grown man who ate children’s cereal suggested anything – everyone knew that children’s cereal was tastier. It was only the need to eat healthily that put bland porridge and granola in her bowl.

“So what’s the plan?”

Steph asked.

“We radio the others, like I said,”

Kelvin replied, already heading towards the back of the cabin.

Steph stayed where she was, letting her eyes follow Kelvin. He reached a small side table at the back of the room between the doors leading to the bedroom and the bathroom respectively. The radio was on the side table. Even this looked like it had been tidily placed so as not to draw too much attention to itself. He began twisting the dials, a white noise beginning to fill the cabin.

A howl sounded somewhere in the distance. Steph looked outside as the first splashes of rain began to patter onto the window. She couldn’t see anything. Another howl answered the first. Again, it was a way off in the distance but had clearly come from a different direction.

“Bastards,”

Michael huffed, rummaging through the cupboards. Steph suddenly realised how hungry she was and was grateful when Michael offered her a cereal bar. He then pulled out a few packets of dried noodles.

“Not a chef, is how one might have described Thomas.”

As Michael began to rummage for a pan to fill with water, Steph turned her eyes back to Kelvin. He was frowning.

“Any luck?”

she asked.

For the first time since she had met him – even taking into account the deaths going on around him – he looked concerned. There was an insecurity in the way his eyes met hers before they briefly flicked away.

“No…”

“No?”

“Nobody seems to be picking up at the house.”

“Have you tried Davey?”

Michael called from the kitchen around the corner.

“Of course, I tried Davey,”

Kelvin replied, walking through to sit on one of the plain grey sofas.

For a moment Michael stopped. He didn’t turn around or say anything, but it was clear to Steph something had caught him. Then he continued pouring water into a pan.

Steph sat down next to Kelvin, contemplating. Outside, the rain intensified.