Wish You Were Here

24

We huddled around Grant.

"Aaron," Grant confirmed. "We found him."

Our mouths dropped. Cal gripped my upper arm.

"He's at a cabin - surprise, I know, another cabin! - but we think Dean and Gina stay there most of the time. More of their stuff was there, and much better furniture and stuff like that. They're holding Aaron there," Grant spoke quickly.

"Sorry, but shouldn't we leave from here? In case more guys come?" Beth's shaking voice interrupted.

"She's right," I admitted. "We shouldn't be here."

"We have nowhere else to go," Grant sighed. "Plus, we need to all sit down and create a strategy. We can get Aaron. But we'll have to be careful and do it right."

"So what are you saying?" Cal asked him. "You want us to stay here?"

Grant looked at Will. "How bad is it down there?" He motioned downstairs.

Will shrugged. "There's a dead body on the floor, so...Do you mean on a scale from one to ten, or..?"

Grant looked at me. I shook my head. "I really don't want to go back down there."

"Alright, look," Grant said softly. "If we put something heavy against the door, we can stay up here. For now. We don't have to stay here all night. I was thinking maybe we should go try to rescue Aaron when it gets dark outside anyway."

"How far is that cabin and what exactly do we have to do?" Cal asked.

Will whispered something to Grant, and he nodded in agreement.

"One sec," Grant told Cal.

Will opened the hatch and Grant followed him as they ducked into the stairs.

"What are you doing?" I shouted down to them.

We heard them grunting and making noise, but none of us wanted to peek down to see what they were doing. I grew impatient and was about to yell down to them again when Grant's butt came out of the hatch.

"Whoa!" Cal jumped back.

Grant slowly inched his way out of the stairway backwards. He was clutching one end of the couch, tugging at it. Will was at the other end, trying to shove it up the stairs. Cal and I both stood near Beth, out of the way, watching them. Their faces were flushed red as they finally got the couch all the way up. It landed with a loud thud and once Will was back upstairs, he shut the hatch and they pushed the couch in front of the door. They collapsed onto the cushions.

"Seriously?" Cal asked, standing in front of them with her arms folded.

Grant took a sip of water. "Okay, so, as I was saying..."

He pulled the pencil and folded paper out of his pocket. Will reached over and dragged the table over so it sat in front of them. Beth was still sitting on the chair, her eyes watching as the table scraped against the floor moving away from her.

Grant placed the paper on the table and I walked over to see what he had scribbled all over it. He was still sitting low on the couch.

"Comfy?" I asked sarcastically.

He smiled a toothy grin and I shook my head, trying not to laugh.

"Okay," He sat up straighter. "This spot here is us now." He drew a tiny square on the paper.

"And this," he continued. "This is where Aaron is. The cabin has two floors, not including a basement or anything underground. Dean and Gina sleep on the second floor. Aaron is being held on the first floor. The front door is too obvious and I don't trust it."