Chapter 9: The Interrogation
The forest closed around us like a mouth swallowing light. I kept one hand on Niko's jacket, the other wrapped around Ethan's knife, the blade cold against my palm. The map was folded in my pocket, the ink of that X burned into my mind.
"How far do you think it is?" I whispered.
Niko glanced back. His face was hard to read in the dark, but I caught the glint of his eyes. "Half an hour, maybe less. The trail markers stopped a while back, but the map showed it straight through those pines."
We pushed deeper. The ground underfoot was soft with pine needles, muffling our steps. Every branch I brushed sent a shiver down my spine. I kept listening for footsteps that weren't ours, kept expecting to see a shape move between the trunks.
"You think the others are okay?" I asked.
"They've got the cabin, the knife, and a tied-up asshole," Niko said. "Ethan's got a good head for this. Maya too. They'll hold."
I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe the radios were real, that we'd reach some clearing and find salvation waiting in a waterproof box. But the forest felt wrong. Too still. Like the whole ridge was holding its breath.
Niko stopped and raised a hand. I froze.
"What is it?" I breathed.
He tilted his head. "Thought I heard something. To the left."
We stood there, listening. Wind rustled the high branches. Somewhere far off, an owl called. Nothing else. No footsteps. No human sound.
"False alarm," he said, but he didn't sound sure. He reached back and squeezed my hand. "Come on. We keep moving."
We walked a few more minutes. The pines thinned, and I caught glimpses of a clearing ahead, the ground dappled with moonlight. I was about to point it out when the shot split the night.
It came from behind us. From the direction of the cabin.
The sound cracked through the trees like a branch breaking in half, except there was no mistaking it. I'd heard enough gunfire in movies to know what it was, and this was real, close enough that the silence afterward rang in my ears.
Niko spun around. His hand shot out and grabbed my arm.
"That was the cabin," I said. My voice came out thin.
"Yeah." He was already pulling me back the way we came. "We're going back."
"The radios—"
"The radios can wait." His jaw was set, that recklessness in his eyes replaced by something darker. "If they've got a gun, Ethan and Maya are sitting ducks in that cabin. We need to move."
I didn't argue. I ran, Niko's hand locked around mine, branches whipping at my face as we tore back through the dark. The gunshot echoed in my head. One shot. Was it a warning? A killing shot? I didn't know, and that uncertainty was worse than knowing.
We crashed through a patch of undergrowth, and the cabin came into view, a dark lump against the treeline. No firelight in the windows. No movement.
Niko pulled me down behind a fallen log, his breath coming hard. "We go in slow. No telling who's inside right now."
Maya's scream tore through the forest, high and raw, cracking into a sob that cut off like a hand had slapped over her mouth. That sound did something to my legs. I stopped caring about branches, about noise, about anything except getting to that cabin. Niko's hand gripped mine so tight the bones ground together, and we flew.
We burst out of the treeline and I saw it all at once, too fast to process. The cabin door hung crooked, light spilling through the gap. Inside, Ethan lay crumpled on the dusty floorboards, his head turned at a wrong angle, a black bloom spreading across the side of his skull. And on top of Maya, the killer, the broad-faced one, had her pinned beneath him. Her pants were yanked down around her thighs, her legs kicking uselessly, and the killer's weight pressed her into the planks while he fumbled with his own belt.
The knife was in my hand, but I didn't think. I saw a chunk of grey stone by the doorstep and I snatched it up, launched myself through the door, and brought it down on the back of the killer's head with every ounce of strength I had. The crack was wet and solid. He pitched forward, off Maya, and the gun he'd been holding clattered across the floor.
"Anissa!" Niko was behind me.
I didn't answer. I was already on top of the killer, straddling his chest, the rock still in my fist. I dropped it and swung with my bare hands. My knuckles split against his jaw. His head snapped sideways. I hit him again, and again, and again, until my arms ached and his face was a mess of blood and bruise. His eyes rolled. He gurgled, still alive, but limp as a sack of feed.
"Get it off me," Maya was saying, high and frantic. "Get it off me, get it off—"
Niko was already there. He crouched and hauled Maya's pants up over her hips, one hand on her shoulder. "You're okay. You're okay, Maya. Look at me." He pulled her into a hug, and she buried her face in his chest, shaking so hard I could hear her teeth chatter. Then he reached for the gun on the floor and picked it up, grip sure.
I pushed off the killer and crawled to Ethan. His eyes were open, staring at the ceiling. The side of his head was gone. I touched his cheek. His skin was still warm.
He wasn't breathing.
"Is he dead?" The words came out of me like something I was reading off a page.
Niko looked at Ethan, then at me. His jaw tightened. He didn't say anything, which was answer enough.
Maya heard the silence. She pulled back from Niko's chest and looked at Ethan on the floor. For a long second, she made no sound at all. Then a keening wail started low in her chest and rose until it filled the cabin, the awful sound of something breaking past the point of repair. She doubled over, hands on her knees, and sobbed until there was nothing left but dry, hitching gasps.
The killer moaned on the floor. He was coming to, fingers twitching.
Maya's head snapped up. Her eyes were raw and red, and there was something in them that made my blood cold. She stood. She walked to the corner where the gasoline can still sat, the one from the roof, the one that killer had meant to burn us with. She lifted it, sloshing.
"Niko. The knife."
He hesitated. I saw him look at me, and I nodded. He pulled Ethan's hunting knife from my hand, the one I'd been carrying, and gave it to her.
Maya uncapped the can and tilted it. Fuel poured over the killer's body, over his face, into his open mouth where he coughed and choked. He tried to scramble away, but his limbs wouldn't cooperate, too wrecked from my beating. Maya watched him struggle. Then she drew back her foot and kicked him square in the face. His head snapped back. Blood sprayed.
"Not yet," she said, her voice flat and empty. "You tried to take me. You killed him."
She dropped to her knees beside the killer and grabbed the crotch of his trousers. With one slice of Ethan's knife, she cut them open. The blade worked with terrible purpose. He screamed, a thin, reedy sound that rose into a shriek as blood soaked the floor. She cut and pulled and sliced until the parts came away in her fist, then she pried his jaw open and shoved them into his mouth, deep, so he choked.
she said. "This is for Ethan."
She stood. She emptied the rest of the gas can over him, drenching him from head to toe.
"Matches," she said.
Niko looked at her. I saw him weigh it. Then he crossed to the shelf and held out the box he'd used to light the lantern.
Maya took it. She struck one match, and the flame was small and steady in her hand. She looked at the killer, at his wide, terrified eyes, at the mess of blood and gasoline all over his ruined body. Then she dropped the match.
The fire caught with a whoosh, a pillar of orange that turned the cabin hot and bright. The killer's scream was not human, a wet tearing sound that went on and on while his body thrashed and blackened. Maya stood over him and watched. She watched until the thrashing stopped, until the screaming died, until there was nothing left but the crackle of flames and the stench of burning flesh.
Then she turned, walked to Ethan's body, and sank down beside him. She took his hand, the calloused one, the one that had always found hers in the dark. She pressed it to her cheek.
"Not yet," Niko said quietly, watching the fire spread along the boards. He looked around the cabin. "We need to go. Now, before the whole place goes up."