“Desiree,” I hissed, shaking her.
“Hmm?” she said, waking up with a slight smile.
I put my finger to my lips and widened my eyes. Quickly, she seemed to figure out something was wrong, and I watched her take a deep breath and not exhale. Another voice came from outside the cabin, and she snapped her head to that side and then back to me. The fear in her eyes was heart-wrenching.
“You need to put on as many clothes as you can comfortably run in, and quietly,” I said, barely putting breath into the words so I was nearly mouthing them.
She nodded, her bottom lip beginning to tremble, but her eyes stayed sharp. She was terrified, but she was also determined. There was a survival streak in her. She was going to need it.
I slipped out of the bed, grabbing the thermal long underwear I had tossed into the hamper and slipping them on, then sliding on jeans overtop of them. A thermal shirt went on under another T-shirt and then an overshirt. Finally, a light jacket and then a thick canvas coat. I had lived in the mountain long enough to know that the layers were the important part. Mobility was key, but it was moot if I froze to death.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Desiree adding layers herself. Her hands were shaking as she slipped on a pair of snow pants that she had grabbed from her place. They were bright purple, and I worried it would make her more visible in the snow, but there was no time to argue now. We needed to get moving. They were going to be inside the cabin soon enough.
My main gun case was in the living room, but I didn’t want to try to get in there. There were windows and the front door, and the last thing I needed was to be caught waiting on the timer for the case. Instead, I opened the closet in the bedroom and found the shoebox that I kept the revolver in. The safe underneath had a 9 mm, and I hit the combination, hoping it would time out in enough time for me to get it too, but as I attached the holster for the revolver to my belt, I heard them on the front porch.
It sounded like two, maybe three men. The back door of the cabin was a hidden one from the outside. There was no doorknob on the outside, and the only way to access it was from inside the bedroom. I could get in because I knew where the frame was and could slide a knife inside to open the latch if it was unlocked, but my guess was they didn’t know it was there. Which meant they thought if they had the windows and the front door covered, they had us trapped.
I motioned for Desiree to follow me, but she kept looking back to the door of the bedroom. I had shut it to give us that extra second in case we needed it, but the thump as the men slammed into the front door of the cabin was bone-rattling. I knew she was resisting the urge to scream. Civilians always did. But loud noises only made me focus sharper on the areas where the noise didn’t come from. Those were the places you could survive.
Carefully, I opened the back door a crack and peered out. No one seemed to be close, and I opened it further. If we could get over to the side of the cabin without windows, it was possible we could slip into the woods on that side without being seen.
I motioned to Desiree the direction we would go and put my finger to my lip again. She had tugged a beanie hat down over her ears, and I wished I had grabbed one too. My ears were already stinging in the predawn cold.
Desiree gently walked out of the back door and onto the snow, going as quietly as she could. I pulled the revolver out and trained it on the side of the cabin where the noise had come from, shutting the door quietly and pushing it until it latched. Desiree was already on the side of the house, and she beckoned me. I took two steps into the snow and turned to look at her.
“Run,” I whispered.
She took off through the snow and into the woods. I followed closely behind, holstering the gun so I could pump my arms and move quickly. I had just reached the tree line when I heard a shout behind us and the crack of gunfire. A tree somewhere in the distance beside me took the bullet, and the ricochet filled the air. Desiree was in a full sprint ahead of me, and I wound through the trees to catch up to her.