Yesterday I acted on impulse and kissed a nerd at our schools lock-in. I hated him for so long but for the last couple of years my feelings have been changing towards Freddie, the nub. I didn't let it show, of course, not even to Carly, my best friend. Both Carly and Freddie thought I was in love with Brad. Freddie's Pear Pad app said I was in love but it didn't say with who. Yes, I'm in love with a dork. Both Carly and Freddie were telling me to 'Go for it!' and that I should 'Make a move!' to let Brad know I was interested in him. Well, it wasn't Brad, it was Freddie and, without thinking, I kissed him! He just stood as still as a statue in shock, didn't even kiss back. Does he like me that way at all? I've given him plenty of reasons to hate me but he's still stuck around with me and Carly. But since he didn't kiss me back or say anything, I ran off. Actually I climbed my way out of that situation. The school was locked for the night so I had to climb over the courtyard fence to get away. I spent a long night lying awake wondering what I had done, how had I changed our lives? This afternoon, I'm dragging my feet on going over to Carly's apartment. What is he going to say about last night? No more putting it off, I'm sure both Carly and Freddie have gotten home from the lock-in and had gotten some sleep and are up now. Time to face the music and see what I've done to our lives.
I got off the bus near Bushwell Plaza and headed over there. There was a couple of cop cars out front of the building. Someone get whacked in there or what? As soon as I got off the elevator on the 8th floor I could tell the excitement was on that floor. There were cops and other people everywhere. Oh no, did Spencer's latest invention kill someone? I didn't smell smoke so he didn't set the place on fire again. The doors to both the Shay apartment and the Benson apartment were open. I found Carly in her own apartment, in tears. "What's happened!" I exclaimed, totally confused but way worried.
"It's the Shadow Hammer! He's got Freddie!" Carly cried.
"Whoa, slow down, what do you mean he's 'got' Freddie? Is Freddie ok?" I asked.
"Freddie's mom got home from work about an hour ago and their apartment has been smashed up with a hammer. And Freddie is missing and there is some of his blood on the floor in his room and smudges leading out to the elevator. He even left a hammer hanging, smashed into Freddie's bedroom door! Sam, I'm so scared for Freddie!" she explained.
I felt my heart sink. The Shadow Hammer was no one to fool around with! Thanks to Freddie they caught him after numerous robberies but since he never used a gun in any of his robberies he got bail and then skipped out. Would he kill Freddie? Torture him? Obviously he'd already hurt Freddie if there was blood. He wouldn't have dragged a dead body out in broad daylight and the blood trail went to the elevator so Freddie had to be alive when they left the building. "What did Lewbert say? Did he see anything?" I asked Carly.
"He was in his office when they left and all he did was scream about the smudges of blood on his floor." Carly said with distain.
I made a mental note to plan some hideous episodes of 'Messin' with Lewbert', even if they were too cruel to show on iCarly. "What are the cops doing about finding him?" I wanted to know everything! This was MY Freddie that was missing. Ok, so he's not really mine but that's how I felt.
"They are going over the apartment for fingerprints and other clues to prove it was the Shadow Hammer but they aren't doing anything to find him yet other than they went over to the Hammers known apartment and found nothing. They are waiting for a ransom call. He's not a kidnapper! There isn't going to be a ransom call." she wailed.
"Then I will find him!" I vowed and was out of the door like a shot. I went to straight to my Uncle Carmine, he's got connections in low places and a soft spot for me. I explained to him about how Freddie helped catch this scum who was now out, skipped on bail, and had Freddie, my friend and maybe more than just a friend. Could he help find him for me?
"You mean that tech geek from your web show? You like him?" Uncle Carmine asked.
"Yes, that guy! And, yeah, I like him." I said with a blush.
"Does he like you back? Is he worthy of you?" he asked.
"Uncle Carmine! Does it really matter right now? We've got to find him and get him away from the Shadow Hammer!" I exclaimed.
"I just want to know if he's worth the trouble to find. I mean, if he's not treating my favorite niece the way she deserves maybe he's not worth finding." he said.
"Fine! I only let him know last night that I thought of him in more than just a friendly way and he hasn't even had a chance to tell me how he feels. But he's always been very nice to me, even when I'm not so nice to him." I admitted.
"All right, Sammi Girl, for you, I will see what I can find out. Keep your cell nearby."
"Thanks, Uncle Carmine" I said and gave him a big hug.
After leaving my Uncles place I went back to the Bushwell Plaza to sit and wait with Carly. "Where did you go?" she asked when I got there.
"I put out some feelers on finding Freddie." I said. And that was all I was going to say. I didn't want Carly involved lest things get hairy. Things around my uncle often get hairy and I can handle it, Carly is too nice of a girl to be associated with someone like my uncle. And if he had to do some bad things to find my Freddie I wanted his involvement to be anonymous so he wouldn't get in trouble for doing me a favor.
"What kind of feelers do you mean?" Carly wanted to know.
"It's best if you don't know, Carls." I told her.
"Ok, if you say so, but don't do anything dangerous or stupid, please. I've already got one friend in danger!" she said. "It's going to be dinner time soon and everyone helping will need to be fed. That will give us something productive to do instead of sitting here going crazy." Carly suggested.
I hate cooking but I couldn't just sit still and if I was in the kitchen helping I could snack on what we were making so I agreed. While dinner was in the oven Carly ran to the store to get some cup cakes and cookies for dessert and while she was gone my cell phone beeped with a text. It was from my uncle. "Know where he is, come. Dress warm, wear boots." Wear boots? Where are we going? Who cares! He knows where we can find Freddie! I was out the door like a shot. I got home and dressed warm and in boots and went to my uncle's place. "Where are we going?" I asked when I saw him.
"Up into the mountains a bit." was all he would say. "This is Snake." he said as the three of us climbed in my uncle's truck. Snake was a big guy with lots of tattoos. Same sort of guy my uncle usually hung around with and he seemed ok. At that point anyone willing to help find Freddie was ok in my book. We drove into the foothills of the mountains to a large public dock next to a swimming beach that was now closed for the year. My uncle got out of the truck and we followed him out onto the dock. He used some binoculars to look into the mountains rising from the other side of the lake. "Yup, I see it." he said.
"See what?" I asked.
He handed me the binoculars and told me to look at the other side of the lake. "You see the two bright red maple trees over there? Find the point right between them and then look up a couple hundred feet and see if you can't see a cabin up there."
It was easy enough to find the nice red maple trees but I didn't see anything man made anywhere above them. I keep looking and then I spotted it, in some dense pines. "I see a bit of a roof with a chimney!" I exclaimed.
"Yup, that's it. My sources say that's the Shadow Hammer's hide out for when the heat is on him. We can drive about a quarter of the way around the lake. Then we have to hike the rest of the way to the other side and hike up some pretty steep terrain to get to the cabin. Not even a foot path up to it." he said.
We drove as far as we could and left the truck and started out on foot. The hike around the lake was easy enough but the hike up the mountain to the cabin was strenuous. "Wait here." my uncle said to me before leaving the trees near the cabin. He and Snake checked things out with their guns drawn. They crept up to the door of the small cabin and peeked in the grimy windows. Then Snake went inside while my Uncle Carmine waited outside keeping an eye on things. Snake came out and said something to my uncle and he waved me over, "Kid is inside, no sign of the Hammer, we'll look around out here."
I ran in the little cabin and my heart stopped at the sight of the bloody, dirty body of Freddie on the floor of the cabin in nothing but his boxers. Was he dead? No, wait, his chest was moving. He's alive, just unconscious at the moment. I ran to him and knelt down to turn him over so I could see his face. Other than some smudges of dirt and blood the only thing wrong with his face was a black eye. But the rest of his body was covered in round welts and bruises, many of the blows had broken the skin so he had blood all over. The Hammer had beaten him with a hammer! I called his name and shook his shoulders and he opened his one good eye just a bit and looked at me. Then he suddenly looked shocked and whispered, "Get out of here, Sam! He'll come back." Then he lolled his head back and, I think, was unconscious again.
"I'm not going anywhere, I'm here to help you." I promised him, even if he wasn't awake. "And I'm glad he'll come back so we can take care of him!" And just then I heard some yelling outside the cabin and heard a couple of shots fired. I sure hope that was my uncle's or Snake's gun and not the Hammer's gun.
Just a few minutes later my uncle came to the cabin. "He was in the outhouse about 20 or 30 yards off yonder" he said gesturing to the far side of the cabin. "He tried to tackle Snake but when I fired a couple of shots he tried to jump away from Snake and accidently fell over the edge of a small cliff and landed on some rocks below. I don't think he'll be bothering anyone ever again. Whoa, that boy's fairly beat up. Let me check him over."
My uncle has been in plenty of scrapes and is a master at survival. He checked over Freddie and figured he'd survive. "Probably a couple broken ribs is the worst of it, mostly just some cuts and bruises but he's gonna be mighty sore for a while." Then he looked around the little cabin. The front side, facing the lake, had the door on one side and the rest of that wall was a kitchen area. In the middle of the little cabin was an old fashioned oven for heating and cooking with wood. Off on one side wall was a propane heater. The back wall had a small table with two mismatched chairs in one corner and a single bed and dresser in the other corner. Not much, but as a hide out, it had the basics. My uncle looked in the dresser and all the cupboards and drawers. "You should be ok here for a few days." he finally said.
"What!" I exclaimed.
"Snake and me's gotta get home to check in with our parole officers tonight and that boy isn't in any shape to hike down to the car and won't be for a few days. You will have to stay here with him." he explained.
"Can't we get him out of here? He needs a doctor!" I cried.
"Can't get a vehicle of any kind up that slope, even if there wasn't all the trees. And perched here on this outcrop on the face of the mountain it'd be nearly impossible to do a helicopter rescue. Besides, he's going to be fine, just needs a few days rest. I'll come back for you on Wednesday, around noon, ok? Then we can help him down to the truck." my uncle said. "I really don't want to have to explain the body to any authorities."
"There's food?" I asked.
"Yup, even saw a couple canned hams in there. Lots of canned and dried goods and bottled water, you'll be fine." he assured me. "It'll be dark soon. I'll light this kerosene lantern for you." He lit the lantern and then he and Snake lifted Freddie into the bed. I took out my phone and made a short video and handed it over to my uncle and then they left me alone with a hurt Freddie.
So, now what do I do? I've never taken care of a sick person before! For a few moments I just watched Freddie sleep. He really was a handsome guy. My fingers itched to straighten out his mussed up hair and then muss it all up again. My stomach growled. It was past 8 pm and I hadn't had dinner yet. How long has it been since Freddie ate? I rummaged around in the cupboards and found some canned soup that would do for tonight. I glanced around for the microwave, oh yeah, no electricity. I groaned. I'd have to go out quick before it got too dark and get some wood to cook with, thank heavens for the propane heater so I wouldn't have to get enough wood for heating the cabin too. There was a fair supply of sticks right near the cabin so that it didn't take me long to get what I thought was more than enough wood to heat up the soup. A stack of old newspapers near the stove helped me get the wood started on fire. Before long I had a small pot of warm soup on the stove. I was pretty proud of myself. I ate about half the soup and brought a bowl of soup and a spoon to Freddie. I shook him gently and called out his name to wake him. He slowly woke up and opened his one good eye and looked around. "Where is the Hammer?" he asked.
"Gone for good." was all I would say. "How are you feeling? I brought you some soup, you need to eat."
"I feel like I got run over by a truck... again. I'm not hungry." he mumbled.
"Freddie, we have to hike out of here in 3 days so you need to eat to keep up your strength and get better. Even if you're not hungry, please, eat." I begged.
"M'kay." he said and tried to sit up. I put the bowl down and helped him sit up and get propped up against the pillows and headboard. He seemed too tired to eat. I finally decided to spoon feed him. I grabbed one of the chairs and pulled it up to the bed to feed him. At first it felt silly, he's not a baby needing to be spoon fed. But right now he's as weak as a baby and after a few spoonfuls it felt nice to be able to feed him and help him get stronger. He only ate about half of his soup before he just couldn't stay awake any longer so I helped him lay back down and I finished off the rest of his soup. Ok, food... check. Shelter... check. Heat... I turned to the propane furnace. We'd be needing that, the nights were getting pretty chilly now and this shack of a cabin didn't have any insulation. I took the front cover off the furnace and, thankfully, the back of the cover had instructions for lighting it. I read them over, got the matches from the stove and tried to light it. It just would not light. I re-read the instructions and found the gas gauge on the furnace. Empty. Oh, chiz! The only heat we'd have would be the wood stove. I took the lantern and went outside to get some more wood but with only one hand free and not wanting to go very far from the cabin there wasn't much I could gather. It would have to do for tonight. I brought it back into the cabin and went ahead and put all of it in the stove. I checked on Freddie. It was his left eye that was blackened so when he was sleeping with his head turned to the left and the blanket up, covering his other injuries, he looked like he was just peacefully sleeping. I've never seen him asleep before, he's really cute with his face all relaxed in sleep. So, now what do I do?
I remembered there was a book in one of the dresser drawers. An old western novel, ick. Oh well, it was all I had, I settled in the chair next to the bed to read for a while.
It didn't take long to burn up all the wood I had gathered. The cabin wasn't cold but it was still quite chilly. I piled all but one thick blanket on Freddie and wrapped the one extra around me and laid down on the rug by the bed. It wasn't very comfortable and it took me a long time to fall asleep. Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up because Freddie was moving around and moaning. "Freddie, what's wrong?" I asked him.
"C-c-cold! And I have to go to the bathroom." he said.
Oh no, the outhouse, that I'd used earlier when out getting wood, was too far away for him to walk to in this condition and now it was the middle of the night and pitch dark. Think! Think! I got it! "Do you just have to pee?" I asked.
"Yeah, real bad." he replied.
I got an old jar for him to use and handed it to him. He looked at me like I had two heads. "It's the middle of the night and you're too weak to walk out to the outhouse." He looked embarrassed. I slowly closed my eyes and turned around and waited.
"This is so embarrassing! Ok, I'm done." he said. And I took the jar from him and put it outside the door. I might be completely unaffected by the dark when walking around Seattle at night but this was the woods! I could empty the jar in the morning. I went back to the bed and Freddie was looking more comfortable but shivering with cold.
"There's no way to heat this place. Should I get in bed with you? We could huddle together for warmth." I ventured. Please say yes. I was still worried about what he would finally say about me kissing him at the lock-in but if he was willing to huddle with me, for warmth of course, then he didn't totally hate me.
"That would be nice." he said. I put the blanket I'd had on top of all of his blankets and got into bed with him. I snuggled up close and after a while I felt quite a bit warmer so I imagine he did too. It had been a long exhausting day after a night of almost no sleep so finally I fell into a deep sleep.
