Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Finley
As I come around, my brain is hazy and I can’t remember how I wound up on the floor with a jacket under my head as a pillow. “There you are,” Mercury says as he helps me sit upright.
“What happened?” I ask, clutching my head as the room settles around me and stops spinning like it’s on an axis.
“You passed out,” he informs me as he wraps his arms around me and drags my head into the apex of his chest.
“Because of what you said,” I say, my tone flat.
“I think… I think maybe that was more than I could handle, Mercury. Knowing that they’ve got stockpiles of weapons and ammunition so that they can hunt people?
What kind of sick piece of shit does someone have to be to even entertain doing something so vile and reprehensible? ”
“Not sure, wildcat, but regardless of what we find out, I want you to keep one thing in mind, you survived.”
“Yeah, thanks to you,” I mutter. “We both know that if you hadn’t found me, the elements, the wildlife, or even one of those scumbags would’ve finished me off.”
“Maybe so, Fin, but you didn’t succumb to the injuries or the infections. That says a lot about your internal fortitude,” Orion says, walking over to where we’re at and crouching. “And before you make a smartass remark, cuz, I already knew that word.”
I slowly shake my head, clearing the last of the blurriness, and grin. The zombie apocalypse could be upon us, and they’d still be giving each other shit. “Y’all are something else,” I tease.
“Of course we are, we’re Kings,” Orion jests. He looks at Mercury and adds, “The guys are coming. Seems Orbit found out a few things that Gemini says you need to know.”
I watch as Mercury narrows his eyes at Orion and huffs. “He didn’t give you any further information than that?” he asks.
“Said it was something he needs to tell you in person,” Orion announces. “I bet it’s bad since Orbit didn’t send it en masse like he did the other details he discovered.”
“And it’s something I need to know?” Mercury presses. “It’s gotta mean it involves my tracking, right?”
I shrug because I have absolutely no idea. “Maybe?” I reply. “I mean, you said you were back out where you found me looking for clues. What if this Orbit guy has found some information that can help you find them?”
“We’ll find out soon enough,” Orion states as we all hear the roar of the bikes as they pull into the parking lot.
“Speak of them and they shall come,” I joke as the motorcycles are cut off and the floor stops vibrating. Reaching out, I clutch Mercury’s hand since a swarm of butterflies have suddenly taken flight in my belly.
“You’re safe, you know that right?” he asks, peering down at me.
“My head knows that, but my anxiety doesn’t,” I counter.
“Nothing will ever happen to you as long as I’m around. I’ll fight every one of your demons and send them straight back to hell before I let a single hair on your head get messed up.” If there was ever a swooning moment, this would be it. I’m surprised I’m not a puddle on the ground.
“I believe your intentions are good, Mercury. But life has taught me we can’t control everything that happens to us, no matter how much we think we’ve prepared ourselves.”
A sharp whistle penetrates the air as Gemini walks through the bay door and waves his hand, calling us over to him. “You good to stand now, wildcat?”
“I am, and if not, you’ll support me,” I remark.
“Absolutely. You won’t ever fall with me around to support you,” he rumbles, his chest vibrating from the resounding friction of his words.
As a unit, the three of us walk toward where Pisces and Aries are standing, Orion near enough that he can catch me if I fall in that direction.
Truthfully, I don’t think that’ll happen since Mercury has his arm around my waist. The warmth seeping through my shirt is helping to ground me in the here and now, since I spiraled so spectacularly into all the what if’s that would’ve happened had he not found me that day.
Because those bastards won’t stop. How both Skippy and I ended up surviving is a question for the gods, that’s for damn sure.
“What’s going on?” Mercury asks Gemini once we reach their huddle.
“Were you aware that Montana is home to the Blackfeet tribe?” Gemini parries back, answering a question with a question.
“And that their reservation is over one million acres in size? They butt up against Glacier National Forest and if my geography skills are still on point, that means they’re not far from us whatsoever. ”
“Okay, thanks for the lesson, professor, what does that mean for us and our current situation?” Orion questions.
“Orbit found some chatter on the web and it seems that some of their caves have been being used by someone because they found ammunition as well as guns stockpiled. They check the caves several times during the year to make sure there are no dead animals, and at their last check, they were empty,” Gemini states.
I watch Mercury’s expression morph into pure rage.
He’s so angry, it practically radiates off of him and I have to remind myself that his emotion is not directed at me.
No, it’s at the fuckers who are sick and twisted.
“I need to meet with the tribe’s chief,” he says.
“Because we’ll need permission to go onto their land, and it would definitely be easier for them to have someone escort me to these caves than for me to search them out myself. ”
“You won’t be going on your own, brother,” Gemini replies. “By now, we’re pretty sure that the Jeffries family is neck-deep in this shit, and their reach is long. What if they’ve managed to convince the Blackfeet tribe to get involved?”
I’m already shaking my head at his words.
“I’ve bounced around a lot, so keep that in mind.
During one of my travels, I found myself lost in the Glacier National Forest while hiking.
It was one of the Blackfeet men who found me and got me safely back to my vehicle.
But first, he had their medicine woman check me over since I had taken a tumble down a ravine.
That’s not their personality, Gemini. Like many of the indigenous in this country, they’re trying to survive.
In fact, Mercury, when y’all meet with them, you need to see if any of their women are missing. It’s a whole movement.”
Since this is the most I’ve spoken at one time, all of them are staring at me, their jaws agape. It’s so quiet, I can hear the slight buzzing of a nearby insect!
“MMIW?” Orion asks. When Gemini shoots him a look, he expounds.
“Look, there are countless murdered and missing indigenous women out there. They don’t get the attention that pretty caucasian women get and that’s a fucking travesty.
Anyone who’s missing, regardless of their ethnicity, should have the same efforts behind finding them, or at least locating their remains so their family can have some sort of closure.
Not that there’s really any of that when the circumstances are so heinous. ”
“I think Orion’s growing up,” Pisces stage whispers to Aries. “He’s using multi-syllable words and he’s using them in their proper context!”
Orion growls and I see a side of him I wasn’t sure existed.
“Listen, fuckers, in every family there’s a jokester and when we were kids, that’s the position y’all put me in to keep us from getting into so much trouble when we pulled the shit we did.
But I’ve got a fucking brain and I actually use it.
I saw the documentary when I was streaming one night and was curious so I watched it.
Do you know the agony those families go through?
Remember how Gaby Petito’s family was? How her story was broadcasted nationwide?
Well, it’s the same, without all the headlines or news anchors. They deserve to be found, too.”
“Alright, alright, everyone take a deep breath and step back,” Gemini orders. “O’s right and it’s possible if these fuckers are using caves on indigenous land, they’ve snatched a few people along the way while they ‘perfected’ their hunt.”
“I’m going to be sick,” I say as I rush toward the employee restroom, thankful that Orion got the electricity and water turned on.
I spend long minutes throwing up everything since I was a toddler, or at least it feels that way, before I feel a cool cloth on the back of my neck.
“Go away,” I mumble to the bowl, my hand reaching up to flush the toilet.
“Wildcat, that’s not happening,” Mercury rumbles. “You okay now?”
“I just… those people… Mercury, one of the reasons I even had a fighting chance is because I was a seasoned hiker. I knew how to ration, how to conserve my strength, all the things. Most people don’t have those skills, you know what I mean?
How many bones are buried out there? How many of them belong to people who were just going about their daily lives only to find themselves in a hell not of their own making? How many?”
Tears are now streaming down my face at the sheer entitlement these assholes have to think that someone else’s life is worth so little that they’re no more than an animal. What on earth got twisted in them that they thought it would be okay to treat a human being like prey?