Part 19 (2/2)

Joey came back twice more and combined the piles until he had a good area large enough for all of them to sleep on. He added some leaf litter, tested the bed and declared it suitable for sleeping.

Jenny collapsed onto it immediately. Annja followed and then sat up when she saw Joey going out again.

”Aren't you sleeping?”

Joey nodded overhead. ”Remember where you are? The Pacific Northwest? See that cloud? It's going to rain.”

Jenny groaned. ”Not again.”

Joey smiled. ”I'll get some branches and more boughs so we can have a waterproof roof over us. Once that's done, I'll get a small fire going to warm the shelter. In an hour we'll all be asleep.”

Annja turned as the first of Jenny's light snores reached her ears. ”Looks like someone's already out.”

”Good,” Joey said. ”I'll be back soon.”

Annja watched him go and then turned to look at Jenny. She wondered what her friend had gotten mixed up in. Jenny was exhausted and she'd almost died tonight, and yet she seemed determined to continue her quest, regardless of the threat to her safety.

Annja knew she'd go along. There was no way she could turn her back on her friend, not knowing what she did about the situation. Even if it was precious little.

Jenny would need protecting. If not from the external threats like the mysterious gunmen, then from herself. Annja had seen obsession kill other people and knew that Jenny could easily fall prey to the same fate.

I won't let her die, she thought.

Joey came back into the camp dragging branches behind him. ”She still out?”

”Yeah.”

”Good. I don't want her hearing this.”

Annja frowned. ”Hearing what?”

Behind Joey, Annja could hear a low howl of some sort. It sounded like a cross between a coyote and a banshee. She looked at Joey. ”What the heck is that?”

Joey busied himself with thatching a roof together. ”I don't know. Now if you'll help me make this roof, we can get to bed and hopefully forget we ever heard that. Because it's not something I've ever heard before.”

”Ever?”

”Never,” Joey said. ”But whatever it is, it sounds like it's coming this way.”

Chapter 11.

Joey and Annja thatched a roof together more quickly than she would have thought possible. But Joey was a master at building shelters, and Annja had done more than her fair share of roughing it, so he got her squared away as he laid down the branches and boughs. He stood outside the shelter, even as the howling sounds grew louder.

Behind Annja, Jenny stirred and then woke up. ”What's that noise?”

Annja shushed her. ”Joey's making sure that the shelter can't be seen from outside.”

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