CHAPTER 2 - SOME PLACE WE CALLED HOME
The hike back to the safe house was long, full of clingy bushes and steep slopes. Whenever the ground evened Sam ran till her lungs ached, praying that it would snow heavily tonight and cover her tracks. By the time the rotting, half-fallen fence came into view the forest had grown so dark, it was like a navy filter had covered her eyes. Hefting herself over she cursed as the toe of her combat boot hooked the top. Stumbling up she rushed through the last bit of forest, till the familiar building came into view.
They had made the abandoned church as their current home. Like all the other places they had hidden in these past two weeks, it was as run-down-looking as possible. Nestled amongst the trees it stood, bent crooked from the wind. Its garden was covered in dead bushes and dried up weeds, hiding the place so well that it was easy to miss. It was perfect for them, a place there could be held no chances someone would want to explore, even if they found it.
Pausing behind one of the pine trunks Sam surveyed her surroundings, making sure that the couple hadn't followed her. Once the coast was clear she bolted forward, worming her way through the dead undergrowth and up the mold covered steps. On the porch sat the once grand doors, one on the verge of swing off its hinge. Through the gap, there was a tiny orange glow, so faint yet easy to spot in the fading light. Great, so Tucker hadn't listened to her warnings after all.
She knocked ten times to the title theme of Doomed, pressing against the wall as she waited. A soft, grumpy muttering came from the other side, a loud scraping as the bench seat was dragged from the door. Slowly the still-movable door opened just a crack, Tucker peering through. At the sight of her, he grinned, eyes shining behind his cracked glasses.
"Password?"
"Seriously Tuck, not in the mood." She scowled, annoyed that he wanted to pull such a cliché joke at a time like this. Squeezing forcefully through the door Sam made her way into the entranceway, stamping off the snow that was stuck to the soles of her boots.
"Hey, just trying to get a laugh from you."
" Ha Ha."
He pushed the bench back with a grunt. Little good it would do if someone really wanted to get in. But it was more of the thought it was there that made them feel a little safer. The wood was as soft as cardboard, one good push and it would crumble in seconds. Even Tucker with his weak limbs could smash it down. Pulling her boots off Sam rubbed her sore toes back to life. Through the other door frame, she could see the main chapel, their small battery lamp glowing in the middle.
"You can see it through the door."
" I had a feeling you could. But I don't want to become a mole, Sam. It's hard enough to read Betty's screen in pitch darkness."
Sam rolled her eyes at the mere mention of that damn PDA. That thing was going to get them killed one of these days. Kicking her shoes next to the other two pairs she entered their 'Den', which mostly consisted of sleeping bags, odd blankets, their portable stove, and an unused radio. It was a dismal camp, but it was all they had.
Dumping the pack next to the others Sam proceeded to unzipped hers, hearing Tucker stroll up behind. He grinned when he saw that the pack was bulging, rubbing his hands together in glee.
"What did you get? Sausages? Some ham? Or maybe a big juicy steak- "
Sam took out the single tin with a smug smile. "One tin of tomato soup."
Adding it to their small pile of food tins he wrinkled his nose in disgust. " One little tin? How are we going to survive on just revolting vegetable soups and tin beans? We need proteins!"
"Well, next time you can go get the supplies yourself. It's not my fault that's most of the shops are cleared out…" she fell silent, remembering the real reason she had gotten the tin.
"Well, I'm blaming you when we're all weak and sick because we become malnourished! -"
"Tucker, I was seen."
He froze, stunned at her words. "This couple saw me. I don't think they recognized me at the time, but... What with all the news reports..."
"Damn," He pulled out his PDA, quickly tapping the screen. "Got to make a note of that. Now I'll need to keep an eye on the local news reports if they mention you in the coming days. Are you sure they didn't recognize you?"
"Positive. They were nothing like the others. Just a normal, innocent couple."
Tucker's eyes narrowed, one eyebrow raised. "I hope your right about that. Leaving in a rush again is really going to wear me out! I'm not built for all this stealthy, on-the-run stuff."
Without another word, he headed back over to the lamp, were a small laptop glowed in the dimness. Wrapping a bunch of blankets around his shoulders he madly began to type. Sam sighed once he got into that tech-geek mindset he wouldn't stop for hours. Taking out the pile of bandages and a box of the painkillers she grabbed their small first aid box, looking around the hall for Danny. It wasn't a surprise now to come back and not see him straight away, but this time he was nowhere in sight.
"Where is he?"
Tucker didn't even look away from the screen as he pointed up. Puzzled she followed his finger, peering at the rafters above. Thanks to it being dusk, the holes in the roof barely let off any light outside, casting the roof into deep shadows. It took all her concentration to finally spot Danny, just visible on the least rotted side of the church. Groaning Sam rose, marching over to the spot. Just perfect, so now he was hiding in places where they couldn't get to him. Walking underneath, arms crossed and ready for an argument, Sam pouted up.
"Danny! Get down-"
Drip. She jumped when something fell in the corner of her vision. Another drop joined the growing puddle in front of her. At first, she thought it was just another roof leak, but the puddle was too…dark. Nervous she bent down, the moment her fingertips touched the warm, sticky liquid her stomach sank.
"Your wounds opened again!"
He ignored her, shifting away. Anger rose inside Sam, the same anger she had tried to use to snap him back to his senses early. But that hadn't worked at all, only making his mood fouler. They had ended up bickering for hours until Tucker had finally stepped between them. After that, Danny had been keeping his distance from them, whenever they had tried to talk to him it was almost impossible to get a good answer. Though Sam acted frustrated at his abrupt change of attitude, deep down it scared her.
Sickening as it was, Sam knew she'd have to try a more positive approach. Planting on a smile she hoped that it wouldn't look as forced as it felt.
"I've got some bandages when I was out. Um…come down and I'll wrap it up properly."
Still, it got nothing out of him. A few more drops joined the puddle.
"Danny please."
She hated how frightened her voice sounded then, unable to keep her real concerns from creeping in. Yet it worked; Danny sighed if reluctantly, swinging his legs over the beam. She waited for those white rings, but to Sam's dismay he dropped down normally. He landed with a loud crack of wood, deafening as it echoed around the chapel. She rushed to him as his legs buckled. He hissed, gripping his stomach as the wound opened more from the jolt.
"You idiot! You should have gone ghost!"
"Don't want to." Scowling through the pain with narrow eyes he gently pulled away from her support. He stood there swaying lightly, trying to hide the bleeding under his blanket. But already the new clothes they'd found for him were soaked. Sam bit her lip, holding back a troubling comment. It wouldn't help.
Without saying another word, she looped his arm around her shoulder. At first, he grumbled at the support, but the death glare Sam sent him stopped the words from even leaving his mouth. Together they limped over to the lamp, Sam wondering how pathetic they all must look.
Sitting Danny down against one of the benches Sam glanced over at Tucker. The tech nerd still hadn't even looked up from that damn computer.
"Why did you let him get up there!" they were being too loud, but right now that was the least of their worries.
Tucker snorted, fingers never stopping a beat as he typed. "You seriously think I could have stopped him?"
"You could have at least tried to…" Sam sighed. Getting angry with Tucker when he was actually right was a waste of time. Forgetting him she dug around for the small metal first aid kit. It was time to wrap Danny's wounds with a proper bandage, not just some ripped up shirts. Seeing what she was about to do he let the blanket fall off him, shuffling so that she could roll his shirt up without any problem. Finding the small bottle of antiseptic Sam took a rag of Danny's last shirt and dabbed the cloth, moving forward.
"You ready?"
He nodded, carefully rolling up the shirt without it catching on the wrapping. Slowly, trying not to feel sick Sam pulled off the bloody strips of fabric hiding his injury, noting him tense. Once they were gone she pressed on the infected area with the antiseptic, refusing to look at his face.
It was like she zapped him. With a yelp he gasped, slamming his fist down on the seat behind him. All of them flinched as the sound rebounded around the hall. Gritting her teeth, she continued till she was happy that it was clean enough. Dabbing another clean rag, she gestured for him to turn around.
"Now the other side."
It looked like he hadn't heard her at first, likely fighting to stay conscious. But after a few ragged breaths, he shifted around, showing her the other mess on his back, parallel with the other. Like before he when rigid at the stinging, but it was much quicker than before. Sighing Sam sat back, observing the wound as she unwrapped the new dressings from their plastic package.
The gunshot holes still hadn't closed over. This wasn't right. Normally Danny should have healed completely by now, becoming nothing more than a pair of ugly scars. And yet after two weeks since he'd been shot, the wounds refused to close. At first, Sam thought that maybe something was wrong with his powers. But now an even worse theory crossed her mind.
Danny was stopping his healing powers on purpose.
No, she shook the thought out of her head. She didn't even want to think about that, it couldn't be the reason. But what else could it be?
Quickly she wrapped up his torso, pleased that he finally had a proper dressing. Giving Danny a weak smile she sighed. "There, that should help it heal. Until we find some stitches that will have to do."
Danny gave her a skeptical look. "It's not healing Sam. It's just…too severe."
"Come on, don't say that! Sooner or later your powers will have to kick in. And when they do, everything will finally be okay."
He pulled his blanket back up again, closing his eyes. "Whatever."
Biting her lip again Sam gave him some space, shuffling over to Tucker. He was madly browsing through the news, trying to find out as much information as he could before the battery ran out.
"So," Sam whispered. "Any news?"
"Well, …there's good news and bad news."
"Get to the point."
"Fine. Good news is that both our families are still listed as 'Missing' so that's…good, I think. Both of us as still listed on the missing list too, so at least we know no one knows where we are."
He clicked into another tab, skimming the text. "The bad news is Amity Park is now completely in the dark. Reports are that the Guys in White were trying to get a team to dismantle the ghost portal, but they're not reporting whether they actually did it. Most of the towns around Amity have been evacuated, we're in the quarantine zone now. But no one's heard anything from Amity since..."
They both looked at Danny, who they found glaring back at them. "You know I can hear you guys."
"Sorry dude." Tucker pointed at the screen. "But seriously, everyone's getting really anxious. No one really knows what's happening or why. Hell, this has even gone international! There's even talk about placing the evacuation on the surrounding states. Things are going downhill like mega fast."
"Great. So Amity Parks dead."
"We don't know that!" snapped Sam, suddenly having enough of Danny's foul mood. "Just because we haven't heard anything from there doesn't mean everyone's dead! Maybe they're all got away or someone got the ghost shields up in time. But I refuse to believe the whole towns gone without seeing it myself!"
Danny sighed, rubbing his neck. "Face it, Sam, there's no way the town's still standing." He stood painfully, fixing them with a gloomy frown. "It's gone."
And with that he headed to their sleeping bags, slumping heavily onto his. Sam was about to march over to him to give him a piece of her mind, but Tucker grabbed her arm, pulling her down.
"No Sam. Leave him alone."
"But-"
Tucker shook his head, a pained expression crossing his brow. "He's lost everything. We just need to give him some space to process all this-"
They all jumped at a shrill, rattling noise blasted around the hall. Sam quickly headed to the source, Danny's bag, rummaging through his stuff. It was his cell phone, vibrating against the metal Fenton thermos. She quickly removed it from the metal, cupping it in her hands till it stopped. Checking the screen Sam scowled when she saw the caller's ID.
"Who was it?" Tucker closed the laptop with a click, moving to her side to peer at the cell phone.
"It's Plasmius again."
Quickly she shot a glance at Danny, finding him watching her. She waited for him to say something about the call, after all, Plasmius had been trying to contact him every day this week. But Danny didn't utter a word, turning his back to them. Curiosity grew in Sam, mixed with concern. She just knew that creep was involved in all of this somehow, and that Danny knew exactly what that involvement was. However, he had told them nothing of what had happened after he had left Casper High in a panic. No amount of hounding him for questions had solved that.
"You sure we should keep doing that?"
Sam whipped angrily around, appalled that Tucker would even suggest that. "What!?"
Tucker fidgeted, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Look, Sam… I hate to break it to you, but we're not doing too well on our own. Maybe, urgh, maybe we should answer and see what Plasmius wants. Whatever it is can't be as bad as what's happened to us-"
"No! There is no way we are talking to that sleazy jerk! He wouldn't even help us anyway. All he'd do is use this bad situation to get what he wants from Danny! And I'm not giving Danny another headache to deal with!"
She stormed off to the entrance, glancing at Danny's still form. "I'll take first watch."