Gray (Book 3) Read Free Page B

turn far enough to face him. “You saved my life, I think.”
    “Maybe we’re close to even, then. I owed you a couple.”
    “No way,” she said turning back and resting against him once more.
    “Let’s stop keeping score.”
    “Okay.” But her mind did travel back anyway, trying to tally up the score. He rescued her unconscious body after she’d been attacked in a town—something Mills, but she’d forgotten its name now. She’d saved him from the Walmart gang. They’d saved each other from the cultists. He knew how to shoot game, she knew how to fish. And once upon a time, she’d had a bow and arrows. She could make more, if they found a source of wood. “Help me stand,” she said.
    “I don’t know,” he said.
    “I do. Enough self-indulgence. Help me up.”
    He rose and pulled her to her feet. Her heart pounded outrageously at the tiny effort, and she had to cling to his supporting arms to stay upright. “Damn, damn, damn.”
    “Give your body a couple hours to turn the fish into energy.”
    “We need to go today. Down to the lake.”
    “We will. Don’t rush it. We have hours of daylight yet.”
    “If we’re set up before dusk, I can fish some more.”
    “Okay, okay. Sit and take it easy for now, though. Do you have to use the latrine?”
    “Soon,” she said. Her legs buckled, and he eased her back down.
    “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “In a couple hours, you’ll start to feel better. I felt a whole lot better when I woke up after eating last night.”
    “I want to be able to walk now .” She slapped at the snow weakly, in frustration.
    “Of course you do.” He patted her on the head, made sure she had her balance, and then he turned to crawl into last night’s shelter. He came up with her sleeping bag and wound it around her shoulders. “Pull it under your butt if you can.”
    She could, but again, the small effort drained her for several minutes. “Tell me about the lake.”
    “Well, it’s under three feet of snow, so I couldn’t tell for sure how big it was. Frozen solid for almost a foot. It took five minutes with the hatchet to punch out a fishing hole, and I was sure I’d scared away every fish for miles around by then.”
    “Maybe I should go back into the snow cave,” she said. “I’m cold.” No sense in wasting the calories to keep herself warm.
    “Sure. Let me help you.”
    With his help, she reached the entrance and crawled in. He pushed her sleeping bag in after her. “Coming?” she called out.
    “I’m going to hunt for fuel while you’re resting. I’ll be back in an hour or so, and we’ll eat again.”
    She lay back and gathered her strength, willing the little bit of food to start fueling her muscles. It was whitefish, though, almost pure protein. Even a big fish like he had caught would barely be enough to keep them both alive for a day. She had to get herself together, quit being such a weakling, and get down there and catch more fish. Benjamin could hunt while she fished or hunt for wood for a fire. She could explain how she wanted to fashion a syringe to clean out his wound, and he could keep his eyes out for anything that would serve to build one.
    She must have dozed, for it seemed like no time later when he was calling her name. She crawled out and he handed over a sizeable chunk of half-frozen fish, about half the size of her hand. She took off her glove to eat it. Making herself not wolf it down took an amazing amount of self-control, but she managed. After swallowing the last morsel and sucking off her fingers, she scrubbed them in the snow. She tugged her glove back on.
    “Sorry it was still raw, but I didn’t find any wood.”
    “Maybe there’s some at the lake or river.”
    “It’s more likely. I’ll find the edges of the water and spend some time digging around there.”
    “And hunt for animal sign.”
    “Didn’t see any yesterday, but yeah, I’ll keep looking.”
    Fish were better than nothing, but catching enough to keep