"Doc... um... Kristin..." Lucas hesitantly called out while shaking her leg. "Come on, you said..."
She slowly opened her eyes, seeing his worried face hovering over hers. "Oh! How long have I been asleep?"
"Several hours, you looked terrible, and you're sick. I didn't want to wake up until I had to. But, um, this morning... or last night… You told me... I just want to go home." He finally pushed out, chewing his lip nervously.
Kristin quickly sat up and searched her pockets. When she found the jar she had stashed, she sighed in relief. "And so we shall."
After she outlined her basic plan, Lucas stared at her in horror. "That... That won't work! They'll catch us again and..." His breath came in short breaths and his eyes filled with tears.
"I know there are a few things that can go wrong, but we have to try." Kristin whispered, "please try to stay calm."
"I'll stay calm," he hissed angrily through gritted teeth, getting off the bed and sitting heavily in front of the computer. "What do you need me to do?"
She pointed to the screen, "do you still have access to the cameras?"
"Yeah, he never locked me out. It's either his ego, or he just doesn't care."
"Good, when was the last time you saw anyone moving?"
Lucas started typing on the keyboard ponderously with the bandages hampering him. "A couple of hours ago."
"And you can see everything?"
"Well… no. I don't know where the Captain is."
Kristin rested her hands on his shoulders, and watched the different video feeds. "He should be behind that door," she pointed out in the hallway. "You can't see into that room? Has anyone gone inside within the last hour?"
"Nobody, why?"
"I guess he must have lied about it needing to be reset, that's a relief." Kristin said mostly to herself. "So you don't know for sure if someone is inside?"
"I never could see it, the first time I saw Captain Bridger was when he stayed in your old room. But, I was watching while you were sleeping, no one went in or out for last five or six hours." He angled his head up to look at her, "what's in there?"
Rather than telling Lucas just how disturbing Nathan's imprisonment was, she shook her head. "I've already taken care of it. With any luck, he'll be ready to go when we are."
"Luck…" Lucas muttered to himself. "So many things can go wrong. Are you sure we shouldn't just wait for the crew? They have to be looking for us by now."
Kristin spun his chair around to face her, "I know you're scared, but…"
"I'm not scared," he contested hotly, "I'm not some stupid kid."
"I'm aware," Kristin kept her tone even and soothing, "but with the withdrawal effects and the adrenaline of what has been happening in the last few days, your serotonin will be unbalanced. If you are… unduly worried, it's natural."
Lucas started to chew his lips, they were already bruised and cracked from the same ongoing act being repeated so frequently. "What if I can't? You… you saw me last night, if I get that bad again…" He trailed off and drooped his head in humiliation, "I'll be useless."
Kneeling down in front him, Kristin forced him to look at her. "I'm frightened too, but we don't have a choice. Remember the hurricane? That was terribly scary as well, and we made it through."
"Ben fell asleep," he snorted, then laughed shortly. His face grew somber again, "I miss them."
"Me too, even the… curious Mr. Krieg." She stood again, and pulled him with. "And if you start to panic, remember this: 'Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.'"
Lucas began to roll his eyes at the sentiment, then stopped. "Wait, I've heard that before."
"Oh?" Kristin suddenly stood and became very interested in gathering supplies. She had just picked up a water bottle and pack of food when she realized how quiet he was. Turning back, she saw an expression she knew all too well.
His head was tilted to the side as he gazed into nothing thoughtfully. "It's so familiar…"
"I'm sure many people have said it through the years."
"No, I heard it recently… I know! A few weeks before the ship went down, Crocker got to pick what we watched on movie night. He made us all sit through this stupid John Wayne documentary, said 'all the young people could learn from him.'" He stared at her, "wait… you like John Wayne?"
"I've seen a few of his things," she admitted sheepishly.
"That quote just rolled off your tongue pretty easily," Lucas continued to push.
Kristin sighed and shrugged, "sometimes a person just wants to watch something simple to relax."
A blush started up her cheeks as she spoke, and his jaw dropped, "you think he's hot!"
"Lucas! Do you want help me get ready or will you be staying?"
"That can't be real." Crocker muttered under his breath after they had all crawled from the SUV's, carrying survival tools and weapons with them.
"It looks like it's from a movie." Ben agreed, staring up apprehensively.
On first inspection the side of the mountain simply looked to have a brick house that was somehow saved from being completely crushed by a horrible rockslide. It was sticking out of it with no support, surrounded by stone and ice. The longer they looked, the easier it was to make out the several structures joined to it on small cliffs. Most were made of the color, and possibly even the same type of rock, as the surrounding area, easily hiding it from prying eyes. Even the lowest building was over a hundred feet up and one lone path led to it. It was steep and narrow, ensuring anyone struggling to climb it would be sighted before they made much headway.
"We'll be picked off before we get anywhere close." Crocker pointed to the small slits in the wall. "Those were originally made for bowmen, but all they need is one sniper now."
Katie stood beside them, sharply motioning with her gloves. "I don't know what kind of secret entrance the kid has, but it must be well hidden. I can't find anything with Probie." The quiet, but unnatural whine of it's engine could be heard in the silent landscape as it tried to climb onto one of the ledges.
They turned to look at Bishal expectantly, both he and Tim were engaged in an argument with the drivers. The native men started to get loud, gesturing wildly to the mountain. Bishal stepped forward and snarled something angrily.
"He just swore… and pretty severely." Miguel mused quietly.
"How do you know?" Ford asked, trying to understand to rapid speaking.
Miguel laughed, "haven't you ever noticed? Tim looks like a scandalized Victorian woman when you swear in front of him. My abuela curses more than that man. Sometimes I send him messages on his console when he's talking to you or Captain Bridger."
"What kind of messages?" Katie stared at him, forgetting her controls for a moment.
He shrugged and grinned mischievously "depends on how much I want to mess with him. I got the whole 'Man from Nantucket' limerick to blink on his screen during the last attack scenario. He wouldn't talk to me for a week, but it was worth it."
"Which one?" Crocker laughed, "there are a few of them."
"The bad one," Miguel admitted.
Ford was preventing from the reprimanding speech he was about to spout off when the drivers jumped back into their vehicles and took off. "That didn't look like it went well."
"No, sir, I'm sorry. They won't stay around, they don't even want to come back for us. I've convinced them to check back in two hours. If we aren't here, they aren't coming back." Tim sighed as he cast an annoyed and slightly awed glace to Bishal. "Things got a little heated, I'm afraid."
"We'll deal with it," Ford nodded. "Where do we go up?"
Tim spoke quietly to Bishal, the child pointed to the path they had already observed. "He said about half way up there is another small fork that isn't watched. Up until then, we have to be careful. Unless everyone is somehow occupied, they'll l see us." He paused and watched Bishal make some motions in the air. "I think they have surveillance cameras, but there isn't a word we both know that translates correctly."
"It's dark, and the snow is pretty heavily, we'll go in low and slow. No lethal force unless it's absolutely necessary. The people coming down might be Zellar's men, or they could just be innocents mixed up in this." Ford looked at the faces around him, "we could be walking into something bad here. We all know what kind of work Zellar does. You need to be prepared for it."
The crew answered him with intense stares, no one questioned his orders or tried to shirk away. Ford smiled proudly, "Tim, is there any way we can convince Bishal to stay here or walk back to town?"
"No, I tried to make him stay in the hotel before we even left. He said he would just follow us and… that I, um… was being... Well, something about a monkey's… backside." Tim blushed hotly, "I think it's safer if he's with us."
"Keep him in back, but make sure if it goes south, he needs to run. I wouldn't put it past Zellar to kill a kid just because he's with us." He turned to the mountain, and adjusted his jacket, "alright, saddle up everyone."