Untouchable ~ A Jared Leto/MARS Fanfiction

Chapter One

Shelby and I have been on the old, unused trail since dinner. Though she's used to the exercise and the rough terrain, two hours straight is enough for an eleven-year-old. Especially since she's stubbornly hung onto her own pack, even when I've repeatedly offered to take it. "I'm good, Mom," she's answered each time, her rugged hiking boots kicking up little clouds of rust-colored dust as we continue down the nearly-obscure path through the forest, dry creek beds and fissures of small canyons in north-central Arizona.

If I were doing this alone, I could go on a few more hours before stopping and making camp. I would keep moving, because staying in one place any longer than absolutely necessary is too risky. We haven't been gone long enough, we haven't gone far enough to slow down.

But Shelby's exhausted. I scan the deepening indigo sky for signs of anything beyond a lone red hawk circling overhead, its occasional piercing cry splitting the air above. I haven't heard a plane or a chopper; if I had, I wouldn't dare to be on the trail at all. We'd be in the thickest forest surrounding us.

A drone, though. A drone is silent, or at least relatively so. And I wouldn't put it past Todd or one of his friends to send one up.

Right...a drone. From eighteen hundred miles northeast of here? C'mon.

But my ex-husband might no longer be in Minnesota. He might be on his way. He might be here. In Phoenix, in Flagstaff, in Sedona, or waiting around the next bend of the path. He's capable of appearing out of nowhere, silent and deadly.

"Mom?" Shelby's voice is soft...she's remembered the instructions I gave her the day we left, and her voice blends with the rustling of undergrowth, the chirping of birds, and the quiet liquid burble of a shallow creek not far off the trail to the right. Only because she is my daughter and we are so incredibly in tune with each other in every way do I hear her. I walk over to her and murmur, "What's up, kiddo?"

Shelby gestures at a clearing on a hillside. "How about somewhere over there? Over the top of this hill and the on the other side of the creek I can hear." She plays with one of her ash-blonde braids, waiting for my approval.

"Looks good from here. Let's check it out." As long as we can't be spotted, but can still observe, I add silently as we leave the trail and move in near silence through the undergrowth toward the sound of the creek. Shelby knows as well as I do that we have to be careful. She knows what her father is capable of. A surge of fury makes me clench my hands into tight fists, and I can't resist a glance down at my daughter's face as she walks beside me, her small features alert, serious and focused; hers is a child's face that is wise beyond her years, in part because she's seen and gone through more than a little girl ever should.

She's tough, though. Tough, smart, independent, and capable. Everything I've taught her to be. Well...we both taught her. I do have to credit Todd for much of Shelby's survivalist training even though I hate his guts, even though the deadlier elements of his skills nearly killed me the last time he snapped, and his cunning and stealth enabled him to take Shelby from me.

"Perfect," I pronounce when Shelby points at a cluster of huge oaks with a clearing in the middle of them. It's across the creek, but the water isn't very deep and the current isn't terribly fast. About a hundred yards beyond the other side of the creek is a fifty-foot wall of rock, glowing scarlet with the residual light of sunset. The top edge of the cliff is wooded, and the trees in between should provide adequate cover from any prying eyes that might be up there. But its position would give me a great 360-degree view of our surroundings. I look down at the creek. "I guess we're going wading, though."