Who Says You Can't Hide?

[MurderWeasel]

((William Lohman continued from How Not to Meet))

Will and Clarisse had not consciously headed for the cabin. They had left the town in a hurry, and had only later realized the direction they were heading in. It had been as close to perfect as possible. The maps showed a cabin out in the middle of nowhere. It would be a good place to regroup, Will figured. There, maybe he could start to come to terms with everything that had happened so far.

It was insane. Flat out crazy. No other way to say it. If he hadn't been center stage in this wacky little drama, he would never have believed it. As it was, though, Will was panting and sweating as he arrived. He hadn't had a walk like that in this sort of heat before. The elements could very well cause a lot of trouble. He knew a bit about military history, and terrain was a huge deal. People lost wars all the time because they failed to account for disease or cold weather. It would be something to watch. Their rations were not sufficient to last them well for more than a couple days. That would also be something to keep track of.

The cabin looked fairly safe. There was nobody around, at least. One of the windows had been broken out, Will saw as he approached, presumably from the inside, since the shattered glass mostly lay outside the cabin. He couldn't see anyone who could have done it. Perhaps they had left.

"Hello?" he called. "Is anyone there?"

Will was still rather shaken up from what had happened back in the town, but he had managed to rationalize a lot of it away by now. The person, maybe they had just tripped. Maybe that was why there had been blood. This was a dangerous place. He should have helped. He'd run away because his nerves were frayed, that was all. No one had been intentionally hurt.

There was no reply. Like he had thought, nobody was around, unless someone was hiding to ambush and kill them both. If that was the case, they would get ambushed just as badly turning to walk away as they would wandering into the cabin. Better, he figured, to die with a modicum of comfort and dignity.

"You want to check it out?" he asked Clarisse. He was not, come to think of it, entirely sure how they had ended up traveling together, or who had taken the lead. She was nice, though, and she wasn't trying to kill him, and that had to count for something.

[MurderWeasel]

Really, though, he was just glad to have someone to be with. The only thing worse than their current situation would have been facing it alone.

[Namira]

As Clarisse trailed along behind Will, the heat took a toll on her. She hadn't been fit for a long time, and for somebody like her this was practically torturous. Still, physical discomfort took a backseat to mental upset. What had happened back at the cabin... she'd came within an inch of knocking Will's head clean off, and not only that, but somebody had been killed within a few feet of them.

Her ideals did not seem nearly as firm any more. Her fears seemed all the more real.

Clarisse looked down to her map, then at the cabin Will had pointed at, then back down again. An idea of sorts was forming in her mind. Maybe not the best way to handle all of this, but... perhaps the most dignified.

"Will..." she said slowly. "I want to talk something over with you. We need to go..." she scrutinised the map again. "Okay," she turned, pointed. "That way. With me?"

[MurderWeasel]

Clarisse didn't want to give the cabin a look. That wasn't such a big deal. It really wasn't even so surprising. Will had been experiencing some second thoughts and doubts himself. It really could be a trap. Clarisse might have saved his life just now.

Maybe he was just projecting, or perhaps he was internalizing what he read in her tone of voice. It was hard to tell. Clarisse had something serious she wanted to discuss, though. That... that sounded promising. Not in the happy way things had been before all of this, but in a way like maybe things could somehow come back to a shadow of alright again. Maybe he was deluding himself, but that was okay. Will wasn't a leader. He was glad to have some of the responsibility lifting from his shoulders now. Clarisse could tell him what to do. Then at least he wouldn't be responsible. He'd just make sure not to do anything that offended his morals.

It was funny. There had been so few tough choices in Canada. Now he had to consider killing. What a joke. Will could never do something like that, could never hurt someone else so intentionally.

"Yeah," he said, nodding to add a bit of enthusiasm to his agreement. "Let's go."

He followed Clarisse, away from the cabin, off to what he could only hope was a better place.

((William Lohman and Clarisse Huntingdon continued in Only One Place to Run))