Chapter 27 #2
He pointed to a stone on the corner of the building. Kara squinted. “1923. Wow. It’s historic. So that’s the bad news?”
“No, the bad news is we’re going to be doing a lot of walking to find a house. Maybe miles. Are you okay to walk?”
“I’ll make it.”
“Your leg.”
“We’re both beat up, Matt. We don’t have a choice. We can’t stay here because neither of us is in a condition to fight and
we don’t have any weapons. But neither of us is going to make it two miles without water. Can we eat that fruit?”
“What fruit?” He shielded his eyes from the sun and looked to where Kara pointed to a thick gaggle of bushes. “Blackberries.
Yeah, we can eat those. They grow all over southern Georgia, both wild and in crops. Blackberries, blueberries, strawberries.”
“I thought Georgia was the Peach State or something.”
“Peaches, too, but not this far south.”
They walked over to the bushes. Matt sampled one. It was warm from the heat and a bit overripe, but it tasted like paradise.
“Not too fast,” he said, looking around. “One at a time.” He didn’t want either of them getting sick.
They were on a deeply pitted gravel road that hadn’t been maintained since the hurricane swept through. A wide creek flowed
on the other side of the blackberry thicket—wild blackberries usually grew along rivers and creeks. He didn’t see any maintained
crops—the fields around the cannery were fallow, with ragged bushes of blueberries bursting through here and there. Farms
were also victims of hurricanes.
But they could follow this road and would eventually hit either a house or a county road. They would have to be cautious about flagging down a car in case Reid’s partner was on her way here, but they could hide and assess any approaching vehicle. If they found a house, they’d call in the cavalry.
“Okay,” he said after slowly eating a dozen berries. “We walk along here so we can grab berries as we move. That will help
with energy and dehydration. If we hear anything, we hide—we don’t know when Reid’s partner will return. But first, I’m going
to destroy the generator.”
“Where is it?”
“Based on the sound, it’s on the other side of the factory.”
“Why? There’s no reason to, and they could have it set as a booby trap, too.”
“Because I don’t know if there are cameras out here, and I don’t want them to know which direction we go. It’ll buy us a little
time, at a minimum. It won’t take me long. Sit here, under this tree, and wait for me.”
“Matt—”
“Trust me.”
“Okay.” Kara sat, pulled another blackberry off the bush. “Ten minutes, or I’m following.”
“Fair enough.”
He kissed her because he was so relieved that they were alive and help was imminent. “Eat the berries slowly,” he warned her,
then headed to the other side of the factory.
Kara watched Matt walk back toward the factory and she sat heavily on the ground, feeling both relieved and ill.
Her leg throbbed. She knew it was bad. Not like fatal bad, but the cut was deep and that disgusting water sitting in the factory
probably wasn’t helping matters. She didn’t dare untie Matt’s shirt to check the damage—there would be time enough to do that
when they were in a more secure location.
She leaned against the tree and ate another berry. She went slow as Matt had warned because her stomach felt queasy. She certainly didn’t want to puke. What she would give for a cold water bottle. Hell, a warm water bottle would suit her just fine. She closed her eyes, enjoying the sun on her face.
“Kara! Kara, wake up!”
She felt a sting on her cheek and batted Matt’s hand away. “What? Jeez.”
“Thank God,” he muttered, his hands on her forehead, her neck, his fingers inspecting her leg.
“Ow! Stop!”
“You lost consciousness.”
“No,” she said. “The sun felt good, maybe I fell asleep. Damn. I should have been watching, in case—”
“You weren’t responsive,” he said slowly. “Look at me.”
She did, and saw the panic on his face. “I’m okay,” she said.
“Can you make it?”
“Yes,” she insisted. “Or, you can leave me and get help. I can hide in the bushes—”
“No way am I leaving you. We’ll rest whenever you need to, okay?”
“I didn’t mean to scare you.” She ran her fingers across his bare chest, trying to lighten the mood and wipe the fear off
his face. “This would be kind of sexy, if we both didn’t stink to high heaven.”
He helped her up, and she bit back a cry when she put too much weight on her cut leg. Instead, she forced a smile. “You can
nurse me back to health,” she said. “That’ll be fun.”
“Getting you into bed is always fun,” he said lightly, but she saw the concern on his face.
“I love you,” she said seriously. “You’re stuck with me, so get that look off your face. I’m okay, I promise.”
“I’m holding you to that,” he said. “Lean on me.”
“I might have to, just a bit.”
They slowly walked down the gravel road, Kara limping but managing just fine, she thought. They stopped a couple times to eat berries and rest. After the third stop, she looked across the field and thought she was hallucinating.
“Matt, is that a house?”
She pointed not at the end of the gravel road, but across the field, to a cut-out in a grove of trees.
“Maybe it’s a mirage,” she said, feeling disorientated.
Matt looked. “You were right the first time. It’s a house.”
“What if it was flooded and abandoned, too?”
“Maybe it was, but I don’t know how long this road is, and honestly, Kara, you look like shit.”
“Jeez, always the Casanova, aren’t you?”
“Abandoned or not, it’s shelter, and if we’re lucky, we’ll find water. So we go there and lie low, and if it’s safe, I can
leave you to get help.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she said, and they detoured across the field.