Ice -- Wolv book II

24 - Rot

"Stay away from me!"

What? What are you talking about? It's me!

"You must leave this place! It isn't safe here!"

I'm well aware of that. It wasn't safe to begin with! C'mon, what's going on with you? What happened?

"Go find your girlfriend! Don't come back!"

Wait! Where did you go?

It's me!

          *         *         *         *

I slowly woke up, tossing and turning inside my drafty tent as daylight slowly filtered through the canvas until my eyelids could drown the light out no more.

I was freezing. I could see my breath condensing in the air above me, and every inch of me was shaking through my skin.

I crawled out of my sleeping bag and the tent, out onto the half frozen ground. The sky above was crystal clear, and the lake was, once again, completely smooth. There wasn't so much as a bubble on the water.

Smooth sailing, I guess.

I filtered through some lake water and slammed it back, following it up with a few granola bars. What Nahanni had called "food" had turned out to be a handful of expired protein and granola bars, and two rather unsanitary-looking MRE's. A twisted metal spoon had been thrown into the mix, just for good measure.

I shook my head and began taking my camp down. Never would I have ventured out to a place like Atikaki with so little food! Good thing I won't be here for long then. I hope. I couldn't afford to get caught out here when the snow finally hit, just as I couldn't afford to make any stupid mistakes. I have no margin for error out here! If I messed up out here, I was dead.

Again.

Ha, ha.

I pushed the boat back into the water and swung myself inside, letting the boat slowly drift away from the shore. Despite the cold, and my overwhelming loneliness, I was momentarily reminded why I'd once loved this place. I couldn't deny that it was beautiful, despite the blood that had been spilled.

I started the engine, breaking the silence of the lake. I didn't have time to sight-see, not this time around.

What if Mingan doesn't want to come back with me? I steered the boat across the waters, taking an off-shoot river towards Brad Lake. He's been here without us for so long already. What if he'd settled back down with the others? What if he doesn't even need rescuing? Boy, I'd sure look like an idiot then!

The boat skimmed across the waters, leaving me to zone out. Aside from the wind rushing past my face, the park remained stubbornly quiet. It was as if every living thing here had died, leaving not so much as a sparrow to make a sound.

It was eerie.

As the hours wore on, my stomach began to churn nervously. Kilometer after kilometer raced by, until I'd reached the tributary creek that would take me to Black Lake. Even half an hour out, my heart was already pounding inside my chest, and my eyes were darting along the treeline, searching for the scouts that had  to be there. I was so close to the den already; there was no way that I'd made it this far unseen. Maybe I'm just not seeing them. Ha! How could I, anyways? My vision wasn't sharp like it had been, and my nose was basically useless. I wouldn't see any wolves until they were right next to me.

But the silence still unnerved me.

Nobody had howled at me to scare me away, nothing.

I throttled the motor down to idle as the creek rounded a bend, and the long, narrow expanse of Black Lake slid into view.