Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
They avoided several farms, staying close enough to the boundaries of the properties to prevent detection. While the skies remained overcast, their luck held with no rain.
It neared dusk when they stopped to refill their water bottles and split a can of cold chili. “How much farther?” Peyton asked.
“At this rate, we’re maybe an hour from the border, give or take.” Jake pointed, sweeping his hand. “There’s a road that runs in that direction along it.”
“Any kind of fence, or barrier?”
“Yeah, and a corridor of empty land, but there’s a culvert I use. Might be a little wet right now.”
“I don’t care if I have to swim. I just want to get out of this country.”
“Once we’re closer, I’ll shift and scout ahead. Last time I passed through here they didn’t have active sensors, but it’s been a while.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Peyton neared exhaustion, the cumulative effect of the past several days wearing on him, but they were so close that he didn’t want to stop until they crossed the border.
On the other hand, Jake looked like he could keep going for days on end without stopping. The older shifter moved with the ease and speed of a man a fraction of his age.
Then again, so had Duncan when he emerged from the wilderness.
Screw CrossFit. I guess struggling for survival over multiple decades beats reps at the gym for effectiveness.
From this point on they stayed low, moved slowly, Jake carefully guiding Peyton through more overgrown sections of forest to avoid detection. Mist started settling over the darkening landscape when Jake crouched in a small hollow and waved Peyton close.
“I’ll go on ahead while you wait here,” Jake whispered. “I’ll run the fence both ways for at least a half mile to see if there are any changes from my last trip.”
Peyton looked around and kept his voice down. “I don’t see or hear anything that looks like humans around here.” It was a wooded area, probably an old tree farm, based on the size and regular planting alignment of the trees.
“Me, either,” Jake whispered back, “but we don’t know what kind of sensors they might have. We need to stay quiet.” He quickly stripped and headed off into the dark, soon disappearing in the mist.
Peyton nervously waited. He hoped they wouldn’t have to cross shifted and leave their clothes behind, because that might add an extra level of difficulty to the process. They didn’t want to be shot as wolves, but two naked men running around would definitely draw the wrong kind of attention.
He also didn’t want his eager desire to escape to force a hasty misstep that would get them snagged by authorities.
It felt like forever before Jake finally returned, waiting until he was next to Peyton to shift back.
The man looked darkly irritated. “No patrols anywhere on either side, but I’m seeing what looks like new sensors on the fence. I don’t think they’re video cameras, but I could be wrong. Based on what you said, I might not be recognizing them. Now I’m freaking paranoid as hell.”
“Terrific,” Peyton grumbled. “So what now?”
“Well, the good news is that the culvert I’ve used is still there and not as wet as I thought it’d be.
I think what we should do is walk right up to the end of the woods.
It’s about a mile from here to there. Then shift and drag our backpacks with us through the culvert.
There are woods on the other side we can shift back in.
We’ll be moving so fast that hopefully they won’t even think about investigating since we won’t look like humans.
We’re leaving Russia, not coming in, and the Fins aren’t the ones we need to worry about. Once we’re over there, we’re good.”
Jake dressed and they continued, Peyton painfully aware of how vulnerable he felt in this moment.
He didn’t want to freak Jake out, but the technological advances in sensor equipment since Jake had disappeared meant they could already be under remote surveillance by stationary or drone-mounted sensors.
It felt like forever before Jake stopped him and pointed through the trees.
They hunkered down and Peyton stared, barely making out the fence through the mist.
Without speaking, Jake made the shape of a circle with his hands and pointed again. Following his line of sight, Peyton spotted the culvert and nodded. It would be a tight fit, but they could make it. And, yes, faster as wolves than as humans commando-crawling through the thing.
Peyton touched Jake’s shoulder and used his Prime powers to talk to him silently. “Let’s consolidate into one backpack. Leave behind anything that won’t fit or that we don’t need. We can tie our shoestrings together and carry them around our necks. Bottle of water each, and the knives.”
Jake gave him a thumbs-up, and they quickly stripped and repacked the larger backpack, which Jake had carried. In ten minutes they were ready, and Peyton touched Jake’s shoulder again.
“Do you want me to carry the backpack?” Peyton asked with his Prime.
“No, because I know where I’m going and you can probably outrun me.
I’ll go through first. As soon as you see me emerge from the other end of the culvert, follow me as fast as you can.
We’ll run down the gully that culvert dumps into for about a half mile before we shift back, as long as we can make it that far with the backpack without any problems. At that point, we’re good. ”
“Okay.” Peyton hung his sneakers around his neck and shifted. Jake did likewise, then grabbed one of the backpack’s straps in his mouth, moved it around until he had the best grip possible, and then crept forward.
After listening for a moment, Jake took off, Peyton holding his breath until he saw Jake disappear into the culvert. It felt like forever until he saw the wolf emerge from the other end of it, and then Peyton ran for his life.
Jake was right about the speed differential—Peyton quickly caught up with Jake, snatching the backpack’s other strap as he passed him and matching his speed with Jake’s to lighten the load.
It can’t be this easy, can it?
Still, they ran, quickly making time on four legs over the rocks and shallow rivulets of water sluicing through the gully.
Peyton thought they’d traveled a lot farther than half a mile when Jake finally grunted, slowing and coming to a stop in a thick copse of trees, but he didn’t shift back.
He touched his nose to Peyton’s shoulder.
“I’ll scout ahead.”
Peyton nodded. Both of them dipped their heads and shed their shoes, which they’d managed not to dislodge during their run, and Jake shot off again.
Peyton panted as he caught his breath, finally drinking from one of the rivulets as he waited.
At least they were in Finland. He wasn’t at all familiar with the government or military here, but he suspected that if they were captured there was a smaller chance of them being shot first and questioned later than if the Russians grabbed them.
Ten minutes later, Jake returned and shifted back, and so did Peyton. “All clear,” Jake whispered. There’s a dirt road nearby. I ran it to the top of a hill and saw lights in a house off in the distance. No traffic.”
“Good.”
“I’ll stay shifted if you’ll carry the backpack. Then I can run ahead and scout if we need it instead of wasting time changing clothes.”
“I don’t mind being the scout,” Peyton said.
Jake smirked. “How good’s your Finnish? Or Russian? Because it’s common for people around here to speak both.”
“Ah. Excellent point.”
“Yeah, I thought so. Plus, a guy and his dog are less likely to be shot than two wolves running wild together.”
“Again, you’re outthinking me.”
“Been doing this a long time,” Jake said. “I learned a few things. Sometimes on my scouting trips, if I saw someone walking, I’d do the good-boy act and walk with them wherever they were going so anyone who saw me thought I was their dog.”
Peyton quickly dressed and stuffed all of Jake’s clothes, including his shoes, into the backpack while Jake shifted into wolf form again. Minutes later, they headed out. When they reached the top of the hill Jake had mentioned he nosed Peyton’s hand so he could speak without shifting back.
“See the lights? At two o’clock.”
“Yep. Farm?”
“It’s been a while since I came this way. One of my favorite places to forage was a farm a couple of miles to the south of where we crossed. If I remember correctly, that one up there is a family dairy farm. Older couple.”
But as they approached, Peyton didn’t need to be shifted to know this wasn’t where they should stop. “They have at least four dogs,” he whispered to Jake. “No way we can sneak in there.”
“Agreed.”
They kept moving, walking at a fast clip past the dirt track leading into the farm, fortunately attracting no attention from their dogs and not encountering any vehicles on the road.
At least it was civilization. In the far distance, Peyton spotted what looked like lights atop a cell phone or radio transmission tower.
They cut through another section of forest and headed overland, coming upon a fence at the far edge of a crop field that looked like younger plants.
“Barley,” Jake told him, leading Peyton down the fence line.
“One year this farm had a good crop of potatoes, and I snagged about twenty pounds in one night. That was a while ago, though. When it was easier to cross. I used to keep a sled I’d scored hidden close to the border, but it was plastic and only lasted about two seasons before the damn thing broke.
Never managed to steal another like it. It was convenient because I could make one run that would last me for months. ”
A question floated into Peyton’s mind. “You never stole a gun in all your time out here?”
“That’s not as easy to do. Around here, that’s something that would quickly be missed.
Draws attention. Losing a knife can happen to anyone—it gets dropped or forgotten somewhere, and you buy a new one.
Lose a gun? People start asking questions.
I can use one, but I personally never liked them.
That’s just me. Shifting and running is safer.
Besides, someone sees a big dog with a knife in its mouth, they think oh, he smelled meat on it, or the handle, whatever, how clever and cute he is.
They see a dog carrying a gun? That’s noteworthy, and they start chasing the dog to get the gun back. ”
“I am impressed, Jake. I don’t know if I would’ve thought it through like that.”
“Well, I would’ve been fucked if I hadn’t spent a few years on farms first. Learned the territory and the weather patterns and the people. Gave me chances to scout around and find that spider hole of mine. Rode to town plenty of times in the back of a truck, so I learned the layout, the stores.
“I didn’t just start living out there right away.
I took the better part of a year setting it up.
And I never got greedy. I only took what I needed, so I didn’t raise suspicions.
Too much goes missing at one time, people think thief or vagrant, and grow vigilant.
Besides, finding shelter shifted was easy.
Be a funny, friendly dog, and people will feed you if you beg.
Give you water if you pant and look thirsty.
Limp and whine a little, they feel sorry for you.
You can crawl under a parked car or a house, or curl up in a barn or whatever, and people will leave you alone and not run you off.
“But a human hangs around? Forget it. I’d spend a week or so accumulating things and stashing them, then make a trip to the cave to drop them off.
Lather, rinse, repeat. If there were things I needed to haul off with two hands, I’d scope it out, figure the best time, usually at night, then snatch them.
Kept a stash of clothes close by where I could put them on and do it. ”
“You elevated hiding in plain sight to a whole new level.”
Jake softly chuffed. “Yeah, but it also cost me years with my son that I’ll never get back.”