Breakwater: Rick (BBW Bad Boy Space Bear Shifter Romance) (Star Bears Book 2) (194 page)

I took out my map and compass, and after a few minutes I had plotted out our route to the next landmark. “We follow the river downstream. In about four hours we should come to an old bridge, which we’ll go over,”

“Is it a trail bridge?” Dale said.

“No, it’s an old logger’s bridge,” I said.

“How old?” Jimmy said.

“Who cares how old it is? It’s the fastest route?” Mr. Duggar said. He looked at me expectantly.

“Yeah, it’ll save us a lot of time. If we have to take a trail bridge, we’re going twenty miles upstream in the wrong direction,” I said.

Jimmy looked at Dale. Dale shrugged.

“The loggers’ bridge is very old,” I said. “But we’re just three people. They built these for horse and cart to travel over. Trust me, it will not be an issue.”

Four hours later, right on schedule, we reached the bridge. It was now less a bridge and more of a beaver apartment complex. The long timbers had collapsed, falling into the water and bobbing up and down. Some upright beams stood out of the water, useful for handholds, but this was not a safe passage. The river was now twice as wide, and thanks to some smaller tributaries they passed on the way, much deeper.

“Not an issue, huh?” Jimmy said.

I shot him a dirty look. “I’m doing my best here, and with the information I had, I made a call. I’m sorry if that wasn’t good enough for you!”

“Here, here. Teresa, you did a fine job. We’re making great time and this bridge will do just fine,” Mr. Duggar said. “Lay off her, Jimmy.”

I appreciated his supportive words, and glared at Jimmy some more.

Jimmy sighed and nodded. “I’m sorry, Teresa.”

“Apology accepted,” I said, already tired of being angry. Holding a grudge took a lot of effort, and this hiking was tough enough without having to be grumpy while doing it.

“Move aside, boys,” I said. “I’ll show you how it’s done.”

I stepped past all three men, Mr. Duggar with a bemused look on his face. I looked straight ahead at the other bank and just began walking across. I knew the key was to move forward, swiftly and with purpose. Faltering, hesitating or delaying would mean I’d fall in and get soaked, and probably lose some gear.

Left foot, right foot. I passed deftly from log to log, using the upright poles when necessary. I felt my right ankle dip into the water, but pulled it right out and pretty much sprinted across the last quarter of the bridge. I got to the other side, my legs shaking, and a noise reaching me from across the river.

I looked back over and Dale and Jimmy were cheering me. They pumped their fists in the air. I did a curtsy and almost fell on my ass, the thirty pounds of gear on my back not appreciating my ladylike nature.

We made camp that evening in a flat clearing ringed by trees. I watched my little camp stove fire up and begin heating my tin cup of water. Another dinner of ramen. Like I didn’t get enough of this back in the real world.
 

“Whatcha having tonight, Dale?” I said.

“Instant. Mashed. Potatoes!” he said, raising both hands in the air in triumph.

“How about you Jimmy?” I said.

Jimmy gave a shrug and thrust his hand into his food bag, pulling out the first thing he found. “Couscous it is,” he said. He was not enthusiastic.

“How about you, Mr. Duggar?” I said.

Mr. Duggar was at the edge of camp, fiddling with something in his hands. I could see a glow illuminate his face. When he heard my voice, he shoved the thing into his pocket and spun around.

I looked over at Jimmy and Dale, and they whispered something between them. I couldn’t catch what they said, and before I could ask, Mr. Duggar sat down near us.

“Tonight, Teresa, I’ll be enjoying the finest mechanically separated beef and pork product known to man,” he said. From his pack he produced a Slim Jim and began to carefully open it.

“Eww,” I said.

“You young kids spend too much time surviving, and not enough time living,” Mr. Duggar said, snapping into his meat snack with relish.
 

We turned in after dinner, and I checked my map for a little while before going to sleep. We were making better time than expected, and we might reach our destination the following day if we managed the same pace. It was hard to tell because the next day we’d be climbing in altitude, several thousand feet. That would slow us down for sure.

I was stumbling out of my tent, an immense chill all around me. The pressure from my bladder was intense, and I hurried off to the woodline to relieve myself. Everything was cast in a cold blue moonlight. I did my best to make sure I wasn’t squatting over a patch of poison ivy, but sometimes you just have to drop your drawers and hope for the best. The cold air felt refreshing against my trimmed pussy.

I stood up after finishing, and began to walk back to my tent. I heard a noise off to my right and froze. Something big had shifted a branch, and my eyes strained in the dark to identify it. I silently cursed leaving my headlamp back in the tent.

Another crash of branches and then it was right in front of me. Four hundred pounds and jet black. The bear was the biggest living thing I’d ever seen without a pane of glass in between us. The fur near its face was matted, it’s eyes yellow and dull. It’s large head weaved left to right.

I remembered all the sage wisdom about what to do. I remembered that the bear was probably more scared of me than I was of it. I remembered all that bullshit. But it doesn’t matter when this huge beast is steps away from you. I wanted to run, but I was too scared. I wanted to scream, but I was too scared. So I did nothing. I watched, paralyzed with fear.

The bear tilted it’s head and looked off to it’s right. It pivoted to face that direction and stomped the ground in front of it. It swayed it’s head back and forth aggressively, and even let out a strange little hoot.

Then I heard it. A low, rumbling growl coming from off in the trees where the bear was facing. It cut through the night air and I swear that even the insects stopped chirping when they heard that.
 

The bear’s ears went flat against it’s head and it began to shuffle backwards. Eventually it spun around noisily in the trees and ran off at full gallop.

“Teresa!” Dale said, running up to me from the camp. “Was that a bear?”

“Shh!” I said, “there’s a wolf nearby!”

A sharp laugh came from the trees and Jimmy walked out. “Sorry, no wolf here. Holy shit that was cool,” he said.

“You scared the shit out of me!” I said, punching him in the arm. “How did you do that?”

Jimmy rubbed his arm and flashed me a grin. “I’m afraid that’s on a need to know basis, ma’am.”

“The moral of this story is to hold it until morning,” I said as we walked back to camp.

The next afternoon, we edged our way down into a ravine, large scraggly bushes hemming us in. Shear white stone walls rose up on either side of us, and even though it was barely noon, it was dark in this lower area.

“Are you sure this is it?” Mr. Duggar said.

I double-checked my map. “Yes,” I said, confidently.

“Finally,” Jimmy said. His face lit up at the possibility of finding what they came out here for.

“I see something ahead,” Dale said, at the front of the group. He pulled some branches away from the stone wall and revealed a passage behind it. We’d have to stoop to get inside, but it opened up further in.

I followed behind Dale and Jimmy, and Mr. Duggar came in behind me. After walking in bent over, the cave opened up and we could stand up straight. We could hear water dripping far off in the distance, indicating that this cave linked up with others in a system. We didn’t know how far or how deep the caves went. Mr. Duggar had geological scans, but dates and the name of the company that conducted them had been redacted.

We turned on our headlamps, illuminating our surroundings. The walls were an orangish-red, and stalactites hung down from above. Several tunnels led off from the main chamber.

Right near our feet, a shallow pool of water extended through the test of the cave. I knelt down and shined my headlamp at the edge of the pool. there was a loose gravel, covered in moss. On top of the moss was a pink toadstool.

I recalled the document Mr. Duggar had given each of us, describing the fungi we were looking for. It was theoretical, it’s physical description a best guess, and Mr. Duggar had stressed that our chances of actually finding these mushrooms was very slim. His company had been searching for some time now. A pink toadstool was what they had come out to find.

“Holy shit,” I said.

“Back up!” Mr. Duggar said, almost screaming. He scrambled forward on hands and knees. He shone his light on the mushroom, “Yes, yes, yes!” He took a phone from his pocket and began taking photos of the mushroom.

I shared a smile with Jimmy and Dale. We’d done it! We found a new species!

Mr. Duggar stood up and faced us. His phone was in his hand, and I could hear it ringing on speakerphone. A voice picked up on the other end. “Data received,” the man on the other end said. “Hold for confirmation.”

“I thought phones didn’t work out here,” Dale said quietly to Jimmy.

“Who is that?” I said.

“Shut up,” Mr. Duggar said.

I recoiled from the rude response, already killing the buzz I felt from our victory.

“Specimen confirmed,” the man on the phone said. “You are cleared to proceed. Cleanup team will meet at the rendezvous point in two days.” The voice then hung up.

“Cleanup team? What’s going on here?” I said.

Mr. Duggar carefully put the phone away. “I suppose you deserve to know, after all. Mushrooms have unique biochemical properties, and this one mores than others. Once weaponized, it will make sarin gas look like breath freshener.”

“What?!” I said, jaw hung open. “I didn’t know that’s what we were here to get!”

“You younger generation have no imagination, no ambition!” he said, shrieking.

“Just relax,” Dale said, holding up his hand.

“For years I’ve been trying to find this god damned thing. Putting up with lousy kids, ingrates!” Mr. Duggar said. “But now I don’t need you two anymore.”

Without warning, Mr. Duggar pulled a pistol from his pocket and shot Dale in the chest. It was like the cave exploded in sound and light, and I fell to the ground with my hands to my ears.

I saw Mr. Duggar fire a second shot and hit Jimmy in the chest. He fell over onto his brother.
 

I screamed, not understanding what I was seeing. I saw Mr. Duggar level the barrel of the gun at me. I held my hands up. “Please, please, please!”

“Teresa, be quiet,” Mr. Duggar said, calmly. His voice was so calm, so serene. “Do you want to live?”

I looked over at Jimmy and Dale. I couldn’t tell if they were still breathing. My eyes teared up and I began to cry.

“Do you want to live?” Mr. Duggar said, as plainly as you’d ask someone if they wanted a cup of tea.

I felt myself nodding, not even sure where the ability came from. I was now alone with this madman, far off in the remote wilderness. No one would come looking for us anytime soon. I needed to play for time.

“Good,” he said, keeping the pistol pointed at me. “I have a new set of coordinates for you. A cabin, not too far from here. We’re going to go there.” He motioned with the pistol towards the cave entrance. “Now move it.”

I struggled to my feet, my knees almost buckling underneath me. I looked down at the brothers, and I saw so much blood that I nearly fainted. A sharp prod in the side from Mr. Duggar’s gun propelled me out of the cave back into the bright sunlit day.

“Just put them out of your mind, Teresa,” Mr. Duggar said, soothingly.

“You, you’re crazy! You’re a psychopath!” I said, trembling against the stone wall of the ravine. “Help!” I screamed.

“Scream all you want, Teresa. No one is out here. But if you won’t cooperate, I’ll have no use for you,” he said, punctuating the last few words by cocking the hammer back on the pistol.

“Ok, ok!” I said, panicking. “I’ll do whatever you want!”

“Excellent! there’s hope for you yet,” he said. From his pocket he produced a small slip of paper.

My trembling hand took it from him. It was a longitude and latitude coordinate pairing. I took out my map. “Please, can you call an ambulance? Maybe someone can get here in time to help them.”

“Your loyalty will get you in trouble, Teresa. Right now you’ve got more pressing concerns,” he said. He tapped the barrel of the pistol against the map.

I checked the coordinates against the map and nodded. “I can get you there.”

“You can get us there,” he said, correcting me.

I grit my teeth together and tried to stop my eyes from tearing up. I didn’t want to give this bastard the satisfaction.

“Obstinate as well? We’ll have to work on that,” he said. “Lead on, navigator!”

I trudged out of the ravine, Mr. Duggar close behind. Every step was a battle against letting out a sob. The thought of Jimmy and Dale in that dank dark cave, possibly still alive…It was maddening.

But Mr. Duggar was right about one thing: I had a more pressing concern right now. Murderers didn’t have much reason to leave witnesses if they didn’t have to. I was a liability for him, a loose end. I had to play my cards just right, and act when the time was right. Or I was going to end up in a cave somewhere as well.

I knew I couldn’t run. His gun would make short work of me, and he wouldn’t hesitate to use it. So that left fighting, and again I was outmatched. He had a good eight inches and hundred pounds in his advantage. I had my big knife, but I don’t think he’d let me get close enough to use it.

“Ok, let’s take a break,” Mr. Duggar said.