Color Me Grey: Book One of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles (10 page)

I must have dozed off because the next thing
I remembered was the door to the SUV swinging open and Mr. Black
ordered, “Up. Out.”

I immediately and instinctively followed
orders. Mr. Black pointed at the ground in front of me. “Put it
on.”

There lying at my feet was a green canvas
backpack and a pair of hiking boots. I also found a green army-type
jacket to wear. I put the boots on and felt the tenderness in my
shoulder. I pulled the jacket on and snatched up the backpack and
immediately regretted it. That thing was HEAVY and didn’t help my
shoulder any. I guessed it weighed at least fifty pounds.

I shrugged it on and noticed the sun hadn’t
been up for too long. There was a mist hanging close to the ground
and the sky had a pinkish hue. We weren’t even on a road. No road
to be seen. Somehow Mr. Black had gotten this big SUV through the
close trees.

“
Keep up,” he said and marched off into
the woods.

I was in decent shape and didn’t have much
trouble keeping up for the first few hours. I was enjoying the
scenery and occasional wildlife sighting. Then slowly my shoulder
started aching, my feet hurt and my back was killing me. I slowed a
bit and was falling behind when Mr. Black yelled, “I won’t wait.
Keep up or fail.” I seriously considered stopping a few hours
later. I was silently crying as I plodded on behind Mr. Black.
Tears were rolling down my face but I didn’t dare make a sound. I
was exhausted and almost passed out more than once. We must have
traveled at least ten miles when we came upon a stream.

Mr. Black stopped and said, “We’ll take a
brief, rest here.” He reached for his canteen in the side pocket of
his backpack and said, “You better drink some water, but not too
much, you’ll get sick.”

I reached around to take my pack off and he
said, “Leave it on, you won’t be able to pick it back up.” He came
over and took my canteen out of my pack and handed it to me.

“
Remember, not too much,” he repeated
and then began to dig in the pack again. He handed me Vaseline,
foot powder and a pair of socks.

“
Change your socks, Vaseline between
your toes and foot powder in your socks and shoes,” he
said.

I sat down and went to work changing my socks
and following the rest of his directions.

“
I’ll be back with lunch,” he said and
disappeared into the woods. I hoped he’d be gone for a couple of
hours. Maybe he would run back to Sal’s and bring me a club
sandwich. Hey, if you’re going to dream, dream big. Maybe he was
running to a payphone to order in pizza. Pizza sounded good. I had
my shoes back on and Mr. Black wasn’t back yet. Thank goodness for
small favors.

“
Lunch.” I woke up to Mr. Black’s
voice. I had been using my pack to lean on and had my legs
stretched straight out in front of me. My mouth had been wide open
and was dried out.

Mr. Black had built a fire and had something
on a stick, holding it over the flame. It looked to be a mammal or
reptile of some sort. It had no head or tail, but it had four juicy
looking legs.

I thought I had been in pain from Leonard’s
punch the other night, but I literally fell to my knees while
trying to stand up. I was on my second attempt when Mr. Black
appeared at my side. He extended his hand and helped me up. He had
been harsh all day so this change in attitude was a bit
surprising.

“
You’ve done good today. I’ve not met
many men that can do what you just did and not complain,” he said
by way of explanation.

He went back to the fire and pulled some meat
off the creature and handed it to me. I did my best to wipe the
ashes and burned pieces off but ended up just shoving it all in my
mouth.

“
Pace yourself,” he said. It was hot,
so I spit it back into my hand and started to eat more like a lady.
There was a bit of a wild taste to the meat but it was pretty good.
I wondered what it was but thought better of asking. After I was
full I would ask what I had just ate. I wasn’t a picky eater, but I
had found the
idea
of some foods made me gag. I would rather
not eat a reptile, but if this was a lizard of some kind I may have
to change my mind.

Between us we picked the bones clean in about
five minutes. Mr. Black put out the fire and said, “Let’s get a
move on, we have a long way to go.”

“
What did we eat?” I asked while I
stood.

“
Squirrel,” he replied.

Poor thing, I thought. Squirrels were cute
little things. I pictured one sitting on a log, his tail twitching
like they constantly do. Didn’t taste all that bad though.

Once we started moving again it was a new
kind of pain. I ached everywhere, but it was a dull ache. I no
longer checked out the scenery or occasional wildlife sighting. I
watched the back of Mr. Blacks hiking boots go up and down. I
concentrated on his footfalls and matched them step for step. I
counted them, lost my place and started over again.

Mr. Black stopped and I stopped. I noticed
that it was almost dark. Maybe we were going to stop for the night.
Don’t get your hopes up, it’s probably just dinner break I told
myself.

He took his backpack off and started to
remove the bedroll that was fastened to the bottom. I stood there
and watched him, not fully comprehending what was going on. He
rolled it out on the ground and then came up to me and took the
pack off my back and did the same with my bedroll.

“
Help me find some firewood,” he said
when he was done.

He got up and went one direction and I went
the other. I came back with an armload of dead twigs and he had
already gotten the fire started.

“
Is this enough?” I asked, my voice
hoarse.

“
Yeah. Get some rest. We’ll eat in the
morning.” With that I laid down and promptly fell
asleep.

“
Breakfast.” Mr. Black nudged me with
his boot.

I sat straight up and looked around. Where
was I? Shit, now I remember. Damn, I thought maybe I was in hell.
No such luck.

“
What time is it?” I asked
him.

“
Time for breakfast,” he said.
Smartass, I thought. I wasn’t in the best of moods this morning or
evening or whenever it was. It was as dark as it could get. The
only light available came from the fire and the eerie eyes in the
distance.

“
What’s out there?” I asked.

“
Don’t know for sure. Maybe wolves.
Most likely deer,” he said.

Great, wolves. I ate the jerky he handed to
me and sipped on my water. All the while I kept my attention on the
eyes around us.

We sat in silence and waited for the sun to
come around to our side of the world again. Slowly the mist formed
on the ground and the brightest stars started to fade. Eventually
the sky turned from a black to a bluish gray. Then the first hints
of pink and orange began to show on the clouds. Mr. Black had put
the fire out sometime between black and gray so we could fully
appreciate the sunrise.

“
On your feet,” he said before the sun
was visible. I felt cheated. I stood and all the aches of the
previous day came back. I had a little trouble lifting the pack but
managed to get it up alone. I had to use one arm because the
bruised shoulder hurt too much. I couldn’t make that arm move
without breaking into a sweat. I had to do some special
maneuvering. I leaned down and put my injured arm under the strap
and then turned around and hiked the whole thing up on my other
arm. Then I adjusted the strap for the bad arm.

Mr. Black was already marching away through a
particularly thick stand of trees. Once inside the stand I couldn’t
see more than a few feet in front or to either side of me. I
managed to catch up to Mr. Black with no problem. His pace was a
lot less brisk this morning, more of a casual stroll.

I strolled along behind him and before long
we came to the edge of the thickly placed trees. Not more than one
hundred feet away stood a small cabin. Was this our destination? I
hoped so. I loved the outdoors, but I was too tired to enjoy it. A
nice bed, or lumpy bed for that matter, would be wonderful.

We strolled up to the door and Mr. Black went
in. I stood on the porch and thought about it. We had been hiking
less than fifteen minutes. We could have been here last night. I
wouldn’t have had to sleep on the ground. I could have gotten an
extra fifteen minutes of sleep. My anger was building as I thought
about how close we had been to the cabin all along.

“
Why didn’t we just hike to the cabin
last night?” I asked with a hint of frustration in my
voice.

“
I like to camp,” he said.

“
You like to camp?” I replied with my
eyebrows raised.

“
We made good time yesterday but the
program calls for a night in the woods,” he said.

I decided it would be best not to pursue this
line of questioning much longer. Mr. Black was, after all, at least
three times my size. I didn’t want to provoke him because I didn’t
know exactly what he might do. He had me guessing. One minute he
could be a major hard ass, the next he was helping me out.

I walked into the cabin and looked around. It
was about the size of my place, maybe a bit bigger. It looked as if
it had been used recently. The outside of the cabin led me to
believe the place hadn’t seen people in years. The inside was
different. It was by no means elaborate, just the basics. A
refrigerator and stove in the kitchen. A wooden table that was big
enough to seat six comfortably. Two recliners, a couch and books in
a bookshelf along one wall but no TV. There were five bedrooms,
each with a single bed and not much else. And one bathroom with a
toilet, sink and shower.

Mr. Black had taken off his pack and set it
on the floor next to the table. I did the same and asked him, “What
now?” I was eyeing the bathroom. I’d love to have a shower and then
maybe a nap.

“
Get cleaned up,” he tipped his head in
the direction of the bathroom. “When you come out I want to take a
look at that shoulder,” he added.

“
I’m fine,” I said walking toward the
bathroom. I didn’t like to admit to any kind of fault or liability
I might have. As far as I was concerned I was darn close to
perfect. Besides, the only way he could inspect the area was if I
had no shirt on and being without my shirt in front of Mr. Black
made me nervous.

“
All the same, I
will
take a
look,” he replied in a voice that made me believe he would see my
shoulder if he had to hold me down to do it.

“
You’ve got fifteen minutes,” he added
as I shut the door behind me.

Fifteen minutes, I thought with disdain. I
locked the door. I thought about taking my time then thought better
of it. He would probably just break down the door.

I hurried out of my clothes and started the
shower. I half expected to have nothing but cold water, but it
warmed up quickly. I found soap, shampoo and conditioner and used a
bit of each. After I finished washing up I got directly out of the
shower and found clothes on the toilet lid. They were nicely folded
and had a toothbrush sitting neatly on top. I dried off and wrapped
my hair up in the towel. The pants were loose fitting, tons of
pockets, comfortable and black. The shirt was a black tank top and
my shoulder was nicely displayed. That ended the worry of showing
private parts to Mr. Black. My hiking boots were set on the floor
next to the toilet with fresh socks rolled up inside. The boots
completed the outfit. I looked like a bad ass with a towel on her
head. I found toothpaste on the back of the pedestal sink and
brushed my teeth. I didn’t have a hairbrush. Shit. I imagine Mr.
No-hair didn’t think to bring a brush. Oh well, I used my fingers
to get at the tangles and pulled it into the all-purpose braid.

I stepped out of the bathroom and Mr. Black
was in one of the bedrooms rummaging around. I walked to the door
of the room and watched.

“
This is your room,” he said. My pack
was lying on the bed. It was open but it didn’t look like it had
been unpacked.

“
Take this outside and empty it,” he
said motioning to the backpack on the bed. I went and picked up the
pack and glanced inside. It was filled with ROCKS.
ROCKS!

“
Rocks!?” I repeated out loud. Then I
looked at Mr. Black.

“
Did I carry these rocks all the way up
here?” I asked in disbelief. Rocks, I thought again.

“
Yep.” That’s all he had to say was,
yep. Fine, I thought and I stomped out of the room to dump my rocks
outside.

I stepped outside and it was still early
morning. I hefted the pack out a ways from the cabin in hopes that
Mr. Black wouldn’t find the rocks to put them back in my pack
later. I wonder what
he
carried up here, probably just the
necessities. He wasn’t undergoing training.

I went back into the cabin and Mr. Black was
walking out of a different bedroom toward the bathroom. He turned
and said, “Now, empty mine.” He pointed to his pack still on the
floor by the table. It looked like the side pockets had been gone
through but the main body of the pack looked undisturbed.

I walked over to it while he shut the
bathroom door. I reached down to pick it up and it didn’t budge. I
ended up having to drag it to the door. The damn thing was filled
to almost overflowing with rocks. Who was this guy? I got it to the
deck but didn’t want to drag it down the stairs. It would make too
much noise and Mr. Black would know that I had to drag the thing. I
started pulling out rocks and pitching them out away from the
cabin. At least the guy was working hard, the same as me, I
thought. I found a new respect for him as I emptied the pack. Some
of the rocks were large enough that I had to pick them up with both
hands and carry them away from the building monkey style. I had my
arms stretched almost to the ground in front of me and my back
hunched over. I finally got the last of the stones out of his pack
and went back inside.