Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
A glint in Bigfoot’s hand warned Ezra shit was about to go down. He’d never actually seen a gun before, but he’d watched enough movies to understand what Bigfoot was carrying. This experiment was not going the way he’d hoped at all.
Some aspects were surprisingly delightful, though. Like the fact he was on an adventure with Chaz, his stupid teenage-style crush. That part was fucking awesome. The other bits made the mission fucked up. Being trapped in a forest followed by being chased by Bigfoot sucked.
They ran as though their life depended on it. Technically, it did. Gun-waving Bigfoots were a legitimate threat.
Ezra wasn’t sure which way to go, but he ran as fast as he could through the trees and bushes. Chaz was behind him, keeping up, but Ezra worried that would change. Chaz wasn’t built for a long-distance sprint. Ezra wasn’t either, but his lengthy limbs helped. He stopped when a boulder blocked him and he couldn’t see the lake anymore. Ezra sucked in air and closed his eyes, trying to bring his body back down to a resting state. Chaz’s colour was high, and his breathing was more laboured than Ezra expected. “Chaz?”
“I’m fine,” he gasped. Ezra itched to help, but his mind was blank. This was Chaz’s body and fight. He could only remain on the sidelines. “I don’t run. Not like that.”
“I gotcha. Don’t have a heart attack or anything.” Ezra fell back on the smooth rock and rested. He eyed the wild path they took, expecting Bigfoot to appear. Thankfully, there was nothing.
As Chaz’s colour normalized, he leaned against the rock and laced their fingers together. The simple handhold was a way to communicate they were a team and in it together. Ezra appreciated the touch because holy fuck, the situation had escalated from being minorly inconvenienced in the woods to terrifying chases.
“What was that?”
“Dunno, other than fucked up.” Chaz furrowed his brow. “That’s not the same guy we left behind, is it?”
Ezra cast his mind back to the dead body and tried to remember features from the costume and person inside. It was all hazy. “I don’t think so? Our guy was smaller, I believe. Bigfoot… isn’t real, is he?”
“What? No! Jesus, Ezra. What the hell? I mean, he could be real, but not here. Didn’t we establish that?” Chaz barked out. Ezra curled his shoulders in. Seeing the large shape chasing them frazzled him. Ezra began reconsidering everything he knew about life in general.
“I don’t know! Chaz, I’m tired, and this is confusing. This has gone way above my paygrade.” Ezra pulled off his hat and rubbed it across his head. Everything was a mess. They’d been making progress, but somehow they were back to being lost with no sense of direction, and bad guys were chasing them.
Chaz tugged him into a hug and squeezed tight. Ezra rested his head against Chaz’s and breathed in the hot scent of man. The dose of affection helped to ground him and keep him steady. Chaz kissed his cheek, whispering words Ezra didn’t quite hear, but that was okay. It was Chaz. The tone of his voice was enough.
Pulling away, Chaz rifled through his bag of awesomeness and pulled out the steel water bottle. He took a swig before passing it to Ezra. The water was metallic and gross, but still quenched some of his thirst.
“Obviously, Ricky and George have a more elaborate plan than we realized. Now we need to figure out what’s really going on.” Chaz had another sip of water before tucking the bottle away.
“They phoned from a Guelph number, and they had mine somehow because they managed to dial it twice,” Ezra recalled. Small clues were beginning to appear. He was a target, but why?
“Did they know who you were? Did they say your name at all?” Chaz asked. The fierce attitude was back, and Ezra relaxed as it wasn’t aimed at him.
“Not that I remember? They were intent on telling me where to meet.” Ezra bit his lip. “Maybe they meant to call some other guy and kept getting me instead? Oh, God. I fucked it up. I was the one who put us in this mess.” Ezra swayed as the blood drained from his body. He'd accidentally set this whole damn thing in motion. Though April did connect with Chaz and tell him about the Bigfoot fiasco involving hikers, so Ricky and George were part of this scheme.
“No! Shh, calm down. You didn’t do this alone. If you put your mind to it, maybe consider you saved a person’s life? If the person who was supposed to take the call had answered, they’d be dead? Or arrested?” Chaz offered. It didn’t help. Ezra pictured April reprimanding him and taking away his chance to run a Canadian office. He was screwed.
“I’m sorry, Chaz. You were all retired and shit. Then I brought you into this. You could have been on your back deck, looking at water instead.” Ezra shook his head as he thought of the lives he'd ruined by being curious. God, if he hadn’t been intent on proving to April he was capable of doing more for the company or to see if he could find the mysterious Chaz, none of this dangerous shit would have occurred.
A gentle tap on his cheek and Chaz’s intense glare in his face cleared some doubt from his mind. “You good?”
“Yeah, sorry. I just…. Goddamnit, Chaz, what do we do?” Ezra’s urge to bite his nails was strong, and he had to force himself to keep his hands low.
“We try for the bay and find a campground. It’s the most logical plan we have. Once we’re there, we call for reinforcements. Basically, we need to move now and rest rarely. You get me?”
“If we have to?” Ezra sighed. Running was the bane of his life. He hated it. His legs despised it. However, if it helped them to return to civilization, he’d be all for it. “What about you?”
“What do you mean, what about me?” The glare singed Ezra’s face.
Ezra wasn’t going to back down. Chaz’s colour had just returned to its normal pink. If they continued at full speed to wherever Chaz planned on leading them, Ezra was sure a heart attack would occur or some other medical emergency. “I mean, can you handle running for that long?”
“If I have to, I will,” Chaz snarled. Ezra pressed his lips together, keeping the snarky words from attacking Chaz. He wasn’t being cruel on purpose, but Chaz’s health was important.
“I want to go on our date. I am going to do certain things with you. If you die on me, I will be sad.” Ezra grabbed Chaz’s hand and squeezed hard.
“Goddamnit, Ezra.” The defiant anger in Chaz’s eyes melted away, leaving behind fear. “That’s my dream too.”
“Okay. Glad we’re on the same page. Now what?”
“Not run full speed?” Chaz teased. He kissed the back of Ezra’s hand before starting up once more. The pace was faster than a walk, but it wasn’t fast.
Ezra peeked behind him as they pushed through the dense trees, making sure Bigfoot hadn’t kept pace with them.
“Stop looking. We’ll hear them once they catch up,” Chaz said as he pulled Ezra along. Ezra winced. He hadn't thought Chaz noticed. “Come on, we’re fine.”
Their hands remained locked together as they moved. An urgency filled their steps as they tried to find the bay and Chaz’s campground. Ezra didn’t share the doubts he had, because upsetting Chaz was the last thing he wished to do.
Parts of this chase niggled at Ezra’s worry centre instead. Not every dot had been connected yet, but Ezra knew they were somehow. Why had Bigfoot chased them and then stopped? Were they cattle, and Bigfoot was leading them to the paddock? What was the point of the gun? If this was a photo scam like they suspected, then a gun would be useless. Ezra tightened his grip on Chaz’s hands as he ran through every dangerous scenario.
“What’s wrong?” Chaz’s ability to sense Ezra’s moods was disconcerting. Ezra wasn’t sure if he was ready to share his latest theory yet. He hoped he could ponder on it before explaining it.
“Just thinking.” That seemed safe.
“About what?” Apparently not safe enough.
“I’m trying to understand where Bigfoot came from and why isn’t he still dead? Something’s fishy,” Ezra said. It wasn’t the clearest way of hiding his opinions, but Chaz might stop asking him questions.
“Right? My grey matter is tingling.” Chaz pressed onward. “The whole fucking Bigfoot was a red flag I ignored.”
Ezra wrinkled his nose, rushing to catch up to Chaz so he didn’t have to strain to hear him. “What was that?”
“Bigfoot and red flags. I should have noticed them.”
“Ahh. Since we can see most of the picture, we have a chance to solve our mysteries. Like who lured us here, and what’s the actual point?” Ezra blurted out. His brain demanded answers.
“We find them and ask?” Chaz suggested. “Give them a bit of what for.”
“True.” Ezra wrinkled his nose. Chaz’s plan had merit, but the whys still bothered Ezra.
“Come on, Ez. We won’t solve the world’s problems by standing around and dithering.” Chaz tugged him to pick up his speed. He was right. They had to find safety before anything could be resolved. The answers were out there, not here.
Every rustle in the trees and every foreign sound were like nails dragging down Ezra’s back. The glint of the gun’s muzzle etched itself into his brain. Nightmares would rule his life now. He was sure of it. Something moved closer than he liked. Ezra stopped, unable to put one leg in front of the other despite Chaz pulling him.
“What?” Chaz asked when he gave up on budging Ezra.
“There’s something over there.” Ezra stared through the gloom of the trees, fixated on a black blob in the distance. “I think it’s Bigfoot. The creature’s too humanesque to be a bear.”
Chaz squinted and leaned forward. He was silent as he studied the area Ezra pointed out. Ezra swallowed as the shape shifted. Yup, it had to be their Bigfoot. The creature raised his arm, and Ezra shoved Chaz out of the way. Something whistled as it whizzed through the air and smashed into a nearby tree, causing the bark to shatter everywhere.
“Chaz?” Ezra patted Chaz’s chest as he searched for wounds. Chaz grabbed his hands. His eyes were clear as he communicated his health silently. Ezra bobbed his head. Chaz was fine. They were fine.
“Come on. We need to move. No more potshots,” Chaz whispered. They crouched as they ran through bushes and young saplings. Chaz led them on a more circuitous route, putting large trees and residual boulders between them and the shooter.
“Why are we getting shot at? We haven’t done anything yet!” Ezra gasped as he tried to maintain the pace Chaz set. There had been too much exercise today, and he was done. He liked being a desk jockey. He hadn’t realized field agents had to be in shape. This was pure hell.
“Trying to incapacitate us. Make us easier to catch. I don’t know. Less talking, more speed,” Chaz ordered. His grip on Ezra’s hand was slippery as they ran. Ezra tried to fix the grip, but too many moving parts–watching for tree roots, not stepping on Chaz’s feet, and listening for bad guys who were truly bad—had him releasing Chaz’s hand.
“Chaz!” Ezra tried to maintain the gap between him and the person chasing him. His vision was spotty from breathing too hard. Chaz spun before Ezra tripped over a tree root. He didn’t have time to brace himself on the dirt and face-planted on the ground. Pain shot through his body as his nose smashed against the root. Stars exploded in his vision as he lay there, completely stunned.
“Ezra!” He heard Chaz’s voice through the buzz of shock. Nothing allowed him to reassure Chaz as Chaz squatted near his head. “Goddamn, that’s a lot of blood.”
“Mr. Adams, Mr. Smith, you’ve led us on a merry chase.” Ezra twitched as the new enemy approached them. It didn’t sound like they’d dress up as Bigfoot. His voice was more polished and refined. “I appreciate it, of course. Your participation gave us quite a thrill. We have a lot of things to improve on, and soon… this event will be ready for my friends.”