Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
Toby
“What do you mean, hunt them back?”
I shrug. “I mean, right now, they’re in our backyard, aren’t they? We know this forest. They don’t. Instead of fleeing and not knowing if they are chasing us, now is our chance to get the upper hand.”
Harry’s eyes glitter. “You think two of us could take out three of them? They’ve got guns.”
“I’m not saying we do it with might. We do it with stealth,” I say. “We’re politicians, remember? Crafty and underhanded tactics are our specialty.”
“Well, you’ve just described the Labour caucus, but us Conservatives are made from a different ilk.”
I arch an eyebrow. “What? Even more slimy and untrustworthy?”
Harry chooses not to engage in another round of political sledging, which is probably a good call.
“They have guns,” he points out instead.
“All we need is to overtake their method of communication and disable them from coming after us.”
“You make it sound simple,” Harry says.
I shrug. “We can keep it as simple as we want it to be. Let’s do a stock take of what we actually have to work with.”
It doesn’t take long to do an inventory because it’s a rather pitiful list.
I feel a ridiculous pang of loss at the thought of all our other possessions reduced to ashes in the cabin.
“I’m mourning the loss of the survival kit,” I say to Harry. “It’s been with us since the beginning. I feel like Tom Hanks in the film Castaway. Remember how he named his volleyball?”
“I guess I should be thankful you didn’t start talking to the survival kit,” Harry says.
“Given you are my only company out here, it’s almost a miracle I didn’t start speaking to inanimate objects.”
Harry reaches out and pulls me to him.
“Can inanimate objects do everything I do to you?” he murmurs in my ear.
“I don’t know. Once again, I haven’t tried all the sex toys out there, so I can’t tell you if there’s a Harry substit—”
I stop talking because Harry’s kissing me, and that’s far more important than continuing to mock him.
It’s a fierce kiss that I know contains so much of his anxiety, but then it smooths out to something tender and sweet.
Kissing Harry makes me feel stronger.
I don’t know how to describe the confidence I have in myself now.
I’ve gone from pure fear to “I can do anything with Harry on my side.”
I’m buoyed by adrenaline. I want to live. I want to survive.
But equally, anger is fueling me. That cabin was our home. These people kidnapped us for whatever nefarious reason, stranded us in the wilderness, and now have taken everything we had away from us.
I reluctantly break away from kissing Harry.
“Right, I think under the cover of darkness will be our best bet.” I look up at the clear sky. “It’s going to be a clear night with an almost full moon. We should have enough light to navigate.”
“Do you think we could find something to knock them out?”
“It’s a pity the cabin burned down, or we could have used your unwashed socks,” I reply.
“I don’t think getting into a debate about whose stenches are the worst would be particularly productive to our task,” Harry replies.
I rub my beard with my hands.
“What have we learnt out here?” I ask slowly.
“A lot of things.”
He’s right. I can’t begin to catalog everything I’ve learned out here, everything from catching a fish to making fire to how to choke down fried rabbit liver.
But what I’ve learned the most about is Harry. I know this man’s strengths and weaknesses, just like he knows mine. And out of everything we’ve learned, I have the feeling that is what will come in the most useful. Together, that makes us a pretty indestructible force.
My mind ticks back over the list of things we have at our disposal.
“I think we forgot some essential items in our stock take,” I say.
Harry’s forehead rumples. “What did we forget?”
“The game and fish we caught today.”
The creases in his forehead deepen. “You want to attempt to cook food now? The smoke will attract the terrorists.”
“No, I don’t want to cook anything. But what did we learn happens if you don’t dispose of leftover food properly?” I ask.
“It attracts scavengers,” Harry says.
I give a wolfish smile. “I think it’s time to start planning.”