I thought of Meek’s heart, of Donna’s hand, and knew that the fates had it in for me. I wasn’t invincible, I was hopeless, and I was going to die out here feeling like I never really lived. The feeling that I never really got a chance was worse than what I knew was coming.

A human mouth wanting to eat me for dinner.

I tried to kick again at the ugly, demonic face but it was no use. My boot was jerked off, ice cold nails dragging along my foot. I shut my eyes and prepared for the slaughter.

A loud blast ricocheted through the forest, vibrating through my bones. The hands let go of my foot and I lifted my head to see a gaping red hole taking over the top half of the creature’s head, brains visible through the bone and muck.

I quickly twisted around to see Trouble thundering toward me with Jake astride him, rifle pointing right at the creature’s mangled face and passing through a puff of grey gunpowder that was hanging in the air. Jake vaulted off his horse and expertly reloaded his gun as he ran toward me.

I gazed up at him, for a moment thinking he meant to shoot me dead too. But he just placed the muzzle of the rifle into the mouth of the creature and pulled the trigger. With a giant explosion that crackled through the trees and made my ears ring fuzzy, the creature’s head came right off, scattering onto the snow like mutilated rose petals.

Jake holstered his rifle down his back and looked at me. He was breathing hard and his eyes were slightly wild, but he looked in complete control, dressed up like he was going for a long ride. He put his hand out for me to help me up, but as soon as he saw my shoulder he quickly dropped to his knees.

“Are you okay, did he get you?” he asked gruffly, his hand hovering above the wound as if he wasn’t sure it was okay to touch me or not.

I shivered away from his fingers and could only nod. I was afraid if I said anything, I’d cry instead. I couldn’t process anything that had happened and my brain felt like a lightning storm. On top of that, I was feeling ashamed that I’d run from him and scared because he’d found me.

“We’ll get you back to the cabin,” he said, lifting me up under my good arm. “Though you should be fine. I reckon he didn’t get you bad, though had I not shown up, you’d probably be missing your foot right now.”

He brought me over to Trouble, his grip on my arm firm but gentle. Before I could try to get on the horse, he picked me up and propped me on the saddle as if I weighed nothing more than a feather. Then he swung his leg up and around until he was pressed right against my back, his arms around my sides, his mouth at my ear.

“I’ve got you safe but we’re going to have to go fast for a bit, just to get out of here. I don’t want to see if he has any buddies hanging around.”

He clucked Trouble into a smooth gallop, the horse all too eager to leave the carnage behind. The movement rocked my body back against his. I closed my eyes, taking small pleasure in feeling safe.

“What happened to Avery?” he asked in a low voice, his breath tickling me.

I could only shake my head.

“Fair enough. Come on, I found Sadie further up the path and hitched her to a tree.”

I turned my head, nearly meeting his lips dead on. “Is Donna okay?”

His mouth ticked up. “She’s still on the horse, if that’s what you mean. You sure tied her tight. Knocked her right out, too. You musta given her something much stronger than you gave me.”

My eyes widened frightfully. “It was Avery.”

He gave me a subtle nod. “I reckoned it was. I guess he didn’t give enough of the funny stuff for my height and weight. Tim was still out last I checked.”

“He doesn’t know?”

“That you and Avery took Donna and some gold and hightailed it out of there? No, he doesn’t.”

“Are you going to tell him?” I asked weakly.

“Don’t see why I should,” he said. “Though I’ll have to tell him what Avery did. I’ll leave you out of it, no worries there, Pine Nut.”

We came around a bend and I could hear Sadie whinny. She was tied up to a low branch, Donna still lying across her shoulders. I held my breath, wondering if she was still alive, and then exhaled noisily when I saw her back rise and fall. In hindsight, my desire to take her with us was nothing but foolish. I wondered how much of it was to ease the guilt that kept eating away at me.

Back at the cabin, Tim was still asleep and snoring away. I was so tired and relieved to be alive that I was delirious. I tried to change Donna’s bandages but Jake insisted he fix me up first, calling me his number one priority. My shoulder wound ached, and though I passed on having the opium, I did swallow a few burning shots of moonshine to ease the pain. Luckily—if I even had luck anymore—the bite wound was fairly shallow.

“Do you think I’ll have rabies?” I panicked at the sudden thought.

“Hard to say,” he said grimly. He had cut through the cloth around the wound and taped the last strip of muslin gauze on top of it. “There we go. All done. Sorry I ruined your dress.”

I let out a dry laugh. My dress was already covered in dirt, blood, and who knows what. The rare moment of lightness only lasted a moment though before the fear was back to plague me. “What if I’m infected?”

“You know, I’m not too sure if that’s what’s going on here,” Jake said, his fingers gently tracing the edge of the gauze, making sure it was flat. My skin danced in response, a reaction that still surprised me. “This seems much more than a case of rabies. This is far, far worse, I reckon. This is a danger unlike any I’ve ever seen. And believe me darlin’, I’ve seen a world of horror.”

I was too afraid to ask if I’d be okay from the bite. It seemed lately all I’d known was fear.

My eyes went to his face, the firmness of his jaw, the little scar that caused a slash through the dark hair on his chin. “If it’s so dangerous, why did you come after us?” I whispered. “To get your gold?”

“No,” he murmured. “To get you.” He gently ran his hand down my arm and then met my eyes. “You’re worth much more than gold.”

I stared at him, lost in the coffee brown depths of his eyes, clamoring onto the words that just came from his lips. I could have stared at him forever. It pushed my reality behind me in a haze.

But he cleared his throat and gave me a sad smile. “You need to rest, Pine Nut. I’ll take care of Donna here. You just get some shut-eye. In the morning we can head back to River Bend. Find Avery. And leave this mad world behind.”

I didn’t fall asleep feeling invincible, but there was a tiny ember of hope burning somewhere deep inside.

“Well, well, well, lookee here. A right Injun Sleeping Beauty.”

My eyes snapped open to see Hank standing right above me. He looked unharmed but dirtier and a bit more crazed in the eyes.

“Give her some room,” Jake said, appearing at Hank’s side and pushing him away from me.

I snapped upright, bringing the animal fur blanket to my chin. Hank and Isaac were peering down at me with disdain while Tim was standing over Donna and sipping from a steaming cup.

“What time is it?” I asked. I felt like I’d been sleeping all morning.

“Time to answer a few questions,” Tim said, his voice hard. “Mainly, what the heck happened?”

I quickly glanced at Jake. His eyes were imploring me to lie, to tell him that Avery forced me to leave. With only him on my side it seemed I had no choice.

But as Jake once said, I always had a choice.

“Avery wanted to go, get out of here and get back to River Bend. Back to safety. I suggested we take a gold bar each as payment that was owed to us.”

Jake let out a small groan of disappointment. I went on, ignoring him, “I couldn’t leave without Donna though, so we brought her along too. Not too far in I got separated from him. Those same monsters we saw yesterday, they were back, but different ones this time. If it wasn’t for Jake finding me, I’d be dead.”