Cameron

CAMERON

This guy's leg was a mess, and nothing Cam carried in her pack could help.

Black ooze seeped from the gash on his shin, which was the length of a kitchen knife. The more she cleaned it, the more discharge bubbled from beneath the skin. The smell was something between a shit-covered gas station bathroom and a rotting corpse.

It was hard to even assess the damage without getting sick.

But now that she was crouched next to the man in his makeshift shelter, he didn't look as old as she'd first thought. He might be younger than her, his patchy hair and leather skin a token of the elements more than a sign of his age, just like Isaac. He kind of looked like Isaac, actually, but a few features on his face were more distinct.

"Isn't worth it," he grunted. "Appreciate you trying, though."

Cam hated giving up a clean shirt from her bag, but only a monster wouldn't at least try to keep the wound clean. From her pack she chose a t-shirt included in the mule shipment and never worn, nicked the edge of the hem with her knife, and tore the shirt into strips. She then wrapped his wound, though the black discharge seeped through in seconds. It would have to do until he got to a doctor... or a medic... or whatever the hell was out here. Cam didn't want to think about that yet.

She stood and threw her pack on. The man drained his canteen, and she helped him up. His belongings comprised a school backpack patched and sewn in so many places, the only things left of its original form were the busted zippers and fraying nylon straps.

The man wobbled on his beat-up leg, but despite the damage, he didn't wince. He pointed down the path. "This way."

He walked slowly, and when he began to limp, Cam offered to take his bag and carried it in her hand.

"So, what's this Tooth place?" she asked.

"Commune," said the man. "Only one for miles. Maybe only one, period. Dunno. Ruby says there's more."

"Is Ruby someone at the commune?"

The man shook his head. "Ruby's at the other backpack."

"Backpack? You mean commune ?"

"There's only one commune around here."

The man clearly wasn't all there, and she wouldn't push him just to figure out what he was saying. In fact, the slower he walked, the quieter she became. This didn't feel right; it felt stupid. The path was muddy, but wide and straight, murky water filling imprints of dozens of boots and animal tracks. Well trodden . She hardly wanted to be somewhere well trodden and out in the open. Anything could be watching them from beyond the fringe of the forest.

A trap.

It had all the makings of one, though why would she be led into a trap unless this Tooth commune was full of hostiles? She carried nothing of value other than her rain shell, knife, and the bit of dehydrated food at the bottom of her bag, but maybe that was enough.

A tall unmoving shape on the road ahead gave Cam pause. "What's that?"

The man stopped. His breath rattled, circles beneath his eyes so dark they looked like bruises. He motioned a limp hand toward the shape, and when he'd caught his breath, they approached together.

The statue of a cloaked man stood on a pedestal, the stone dark from age and covered in moss and lichen. Limestone, most likely. The workmanship was good—no, excellent. Despite the wear of the stone, Cam could tell the man's bearded face was once finely detailed.

"The Ranger," said the man. "Bastion of The Mother."

The Mother . The photos on Emmett's phone—the statue of the antlered woman. The Mother Reigns , the message Siena claimed was written in blood on the wall of the cabin she'd found through the tunnel.

"Who is she?" Cam asked. "The Mother."

Cam swore the man's upper lip twitched in a sneer before his expression flattened.

"Is she a saint? A goddess?" Cam pried.

"The Mother," the man repeated, "must be protected at all costs." He meandered past the statue and down the road.

That wasn't much of an answer.

Cam followed him. "Why?"

"Because she will save us all from The Shadow."

The Shadow—was this the darkness that had killed Isaac? The black shapes that had shot through the air like missiles? She'd write the whole thing off as a fairy tale if she hadn't witnessed it herself.

Cam played along. "How is The Mother supposed to save us all from The Shadow?"

"It doesn't matter how. You too will have the same blind faith if you stay here long enough."

Blind faith . Seven years ago, when Cam and the rest of the rescue team searched for the Deadswitch Five, the ranger had provided a lore refresher of the local pioneer cult just in case some freaks had kidnapped the women. Could it be that the pioneer cult from Deadswitch history was alive and well in this place ?

The man didn't seem like he really believed in this Mother or Shadow, which made Cam like him more. "I'm Cam, by the way."

Giving away her name felt like giving away a limb. Impulsive—maybe even stupid.

"Lee," he gasped.

They both fell silent and continued to walk. The forest darkened as dusk fell.

"How far away is The Tooth?" Cam finally asked.

"We'll reach it tomorrow," Lee said.

Well shit . "We should probably find a place?—"

"Fork." A few more paces and Lee limped off the road and into the brush.

"What are you—" Cam cut herself off when she spotted the narrow overgrown path Lee followed. Despite his slowness, she fell behind to keep her distance from whatever waited ahead. The wet evergreens before them reflected a soft pink light. Between the trees and the hollow of a cliff, a shack rested on a mossy platform, the light coming from the window.

Cam gaped at the light. "Does that say Coors Light ?"

Lee emitted a rusty chuckle. "Not anymore, but I reckon it once did."

He was right. Mostly burnt out, the neon sign now read C-o—-Li—t. This building had enough power for a kitschy decorative sign.

Something flashed from the treetops. She pulled her light from her pocket, clicking it on. Copper squares strung together by wire or string littered the branches of the nearby firs. Garland? Ornaments?

Wood screeched beneath Lee's feet as he stepped onto the platform. "You coming?"

Cam pointed up. "What's that in the trees?"

Lee shrugged. "Gotta ask Ruby."

Ruby . Cam's eyes darted to a handmade sign above the door. The Other Backpack was burned into the smooth wood.

Not a commune. A tavern .

"Unreal," Cam whispered.

The door screeched louder than the porch when Lee shoved it open, his grunt more from pain than effort. A deep but feminine voice greeted him. Ruby , Cam assumed. She followed Lee through the door and was met with a rifle pointed at her face.

Cam lifted both her hands in surrender. Yeah, good going, walking face-first into that trap.

"She's good, Rubes." Lee sounded almost bored. "Look at her skin. She don't know who The Mother is either. How about we don't scare off the newborn, yeah?"

Newborn . Why did he keep calling her that?

The woman holding the gun was both big-boned and bone-thin. Her left eye looked weird, but Cam was too distracted by the rifle to get a better glance.

Ruby lowered the gun, distrust lingering on her pockmarked face. "Can't be too careful."

Cam dared to pull her attention away from the woman and study the room. A bar split a makeshift kitchen from a common area with two large tree rounds for tables. Photos, handwritten notes, and newspaper clippings covered the back wall. Crap filled the shelves—beat-up paperbacks, cassettes, VHS tapes, DVDs, CDs, and vinyls. An old radio softly played static on a bar top lined with unlabeled bottles of various shades of ocher liquid. The smell of cooked meat wafted from a pot in the kitchen area.

The filaments in the room's hanging bulb buzzed more loudly than the radio, and Cam suppressed the urge to reach up and flick it. "You have electricity."

Ruby grunted. "Sometimes." Her eyes still drank Cam in. Eye . Her left eye socket bulged with a rainbow-swirled shooter marble.

"How'd you lose it?" Cam asked.

Ruby's lips pulled back in a tight smile. "Infection. Plucked it out myself."

Cam swallowed. The thought of scooping out her own eyeball, especially in a place like this.. .

Her travel partner had already sunk onto a stool. He looked about as bad as he had on the trail, the shirt Cam had wrapped around his leg now entirely black with mud and ooze.

"Tell me you're not hurt." Ruby tucked the gun behind the bar, scowling at Cam the entire time. She hurried to Lee's side, but backpedaled when she saw Lee's leg. "Fishin' fuck, Lee!"

"Ain't even a good reason." Lee's shoulders wilted, and he leaned against the wall. "Scaling a ridge to get back up to the road. Fell and got snagged by a rock. Should have known better."

Ruby knelt and unwrapped Lee's leg. The gash somehow looked so much worse than it had a few hours ago.

"You got that from a rock? " Cam asked.

Ruby heaved an enormous sigh, and again, Cam got the feeling she'd asked a stupid question. But how the hell was she supposed to figure things out if she wasn't asking stupid questions?

"When did this happen?" Cam took off her pack.

"Nah-ah." Ruby pointed to the first door down the very short shotgun hallway. "Bags go in the mudroom. Shoes, too. I just cleaned these floors. Did you touch this?" Ruby gestured to Lee's leg, and Cam just stared at her, unsure where the question was directed. "His leg," she clarified exasperatedly. " Did you touch his leg? "

Irritation pinched inside Cam's chest. "I wrapped it. Is that what you mean?"

"Stay right there. Keep your bag on. Don't touch anything! " Ruby stood and scuttled behind the bar, sweeping up bottles from the shelves as she moved to a basin in the kitchen's corner.

"Two days ago," Lee said, answering the question Cam had asked about his injury.

"You fell two days ago ?" The wound looked like it had been festering for months. "Why does it look so bad?"

"Infection," Ruby said.

"No shit, I've just never seen?—"

"Anything like it?" Ruby returned with a bowl of milky water, a brush, a damp rag, and a dry rag. "Take off your shoes right there. Pick 'em up, and bring 'em into the mud closet. Shoes on the rack, bag on a hook. Wipe the door handles when you're done and then come wash up. Scrub beneath your nails good, but don't break your skin. We'll worry about bathing the rest of you later." Ruby cried out of her good eye as she fussed about, then scowled at Cam and sniffed. "Don't tell me you're dumb, too."

Cam removed her boots, and did as Ruby asked, crossing the front of the tavern in her wet hiking socks. Despite Ruby's first impression, she wasn't dumb. Two mentions of infection plus a cleaning ritual likely wasn't coincidence. But really—a rock? What bacteria or virus was malignant enough to turn Lee's leg into a rotted ham hock in two days?

She placed her things in the mudroom, a tiny closet covered in backpacking tent tarps. As she hung up her bag, she caught a whiff of sulfur either from cleaning reagents or bad bacteria. Clearly this forest was swimming in bad bacteria.

Ruby had stopped crying when she returned to the table. Cam focused on carefully scrubbing her hands and scraping away the gunk from beneath her fingernails.

"Just don't die here , alright? I've got no room out back for another body," Ruby whispered.

Cam froze in her scrubbing.

"I need to make it back to The Tooth, Rubes," Lee said. "I wanna be the one to let him know."

"Of all The Mother-loving places to keel over, The Tooth? You sure it's worth it? Even knowing what they'll do to you?"

Cam had to butt in. "Are you serious? You're making funeral plans?"

Ruby shot Cam another scowl.

"Listen." Cam shook her hands off and dried them with the rag. "I know you think I'm an idiot, but I'm actually a doctor. Not a medical doctor, but I have a PhD and know a lot of wilderness survival bullshit. Plus my dad is a pediatrician. An infection like this doesn't happen, but clearly it does here because you're both acting like he's already dead. Why? "

Cam expected Ruby to respond just as combatively, but she got up from kneeling and went to the bar to change the washbowl liquid. She returned with a bucket and the washbowl, placing both next to Lee.

"Rags in the bucket. I'll burn ‘em later."

Lee tossed the remnants of Cam's shirt into the bucket and then washed his hands in the bowl. He stretched out his injured leg, the wound glistening black in the light of the dull bulb above.

Ruby returned to the bar and picked out a bottle and a set of scratched glasses from the shelves. She pointed to the empty table, and Cam sat as Ruby popped the cork and poured two fingers of the ocher liquid into each glass.

"What's that?" Cam asked.

"Single barrel reserve bourbon shat from the ass of Colonel Sanders himself." Ruby slid Cam a glass. "The fuck you think it is?"

Cam picked up the drink. The liquid smelled like piss and tasted like bathtub hooch, but at least it burned all the way down. Something sharp to wake her up from this fever dream.

"You a researcher?" Ruby asked.

Cam's insides jolted with alarm until she remembered she'd told Ruby about her PhD. "Yeah."

To her surprise, Ruby smiled. "Me too. Or I used to be. I don't know how many years have passed since... well, you know."

No, Cam didn't know. But instead of interrupting for the millionth time, she sipped at her piss juice.

"I don't mean to be so gruff. You don't know any better, and sometimes I feel too jaded to even think straight. But I'll tell you one thing, C— What's your name?"

"Cam." She took another sip. Maybe she should have used a pseudonym. Then again, no one here knew her, so why did it matter ?

"I'll tell you one thing, Cam. You're lucky you found Lee, and you're lucky he took you here. There may not be many people in these parts, but there are stories. Unless newborns like you are whip-sharp with their survival skills or someone teaches ‘em real quick, they tend to not make it very long." Ruby knocked back the rest of her glass and set it on the table with a wince. "Wherever you came from, those rules that run your little world don't apply here. And if you don't accept that, and you don't accept what this forest can do to you in a matter of hours, you might as well waltz outside and stuff your face with the first mushrooms you see, because you ain't gonna last."

Cam leaned back on the stool until her shoulders hit the wall. "You assume I have some fucking idea where here is."

Ruby laughed. "Not at all, little baby. I think you assume I do."