Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

He was rounding the van, heading to the driver’s side, when he noticed something…off.

What? He slowed though didn’t stop. Something was wrong. Something wasn’t quite right, but what? Something he had seen?

No. He had a feeling. The back of his neck prickled with a sudden premonition. I’m being watched.

But that was crazy, wasn’t it? They were in the middle of nowhere. He swept a quick glance at the snow around the van and along the base of the mountain. No footprints other than his from the night before, and those no more than vague dimples beneath fresh snow.

I feel something. I saw something. That prickly sensation was still there. He stood, by the van and out of the wind, now motionless. His breath rose in puffs that slowly eddied and swirled then tore apart in feathery strands like cotton candy. He faced the mountain; the narrow road carved into the hills leading up to the springs was to his left. Without turning his head, he slipped his gaze from the van and the mountain toward the leading edge of the road?—

And that was when he saw it—and knew a fresh disaster had found them.