Sacrifice by John Everson Read Free Book Online Page B

in just a couple hours she’d gone from belligerent self-reliant road tramp to dependent. She was obviously scared to death of being left behind. But he didn’t really want a tagalong right now. Let alone a “wanted” runaway. If she’d been gone overnight, the police had to be looking for her by now. Still, it wouldn’t be long before they could disappear into the deep, rolling forests of pines that hid ravines and rivers and cabins and humans, indiscriminately.
    Joe turned the key and put the car in gear.
    “All right,” he promised. “We’ll see where we end up for the night.”
    It was amazing how fast the Rocky Mountains switch from being hazy bumps on the horizon to looming hills of jagged rock and evergreen dead ahead. Joe had been watching them grow from fuzzy faraway ghosts to grandiose monuments for the past three hours, but now, suddenly the road was rising, and the flatlands were disappearing.
    “Welcome to the mountains!” he proclaimed, and Alex gave a slight smile. She was still clutching the bag she’d bought at the Walgreen’s tight in her hand.
    “Coke?” he asked, offering one of the bottles he’d bought at the gas station, and she accepted with a mumbled thanks. The car filled with shadows as the trees thickened on either side of the car, and in moments they were both staring in awe at walls of rock that enveloped the road. careful, falling rock, a sign warned, and Joe wondered how you could possibly be “careful” about a falling rock. If it came down off one of these craggy boulder-strewn hills, you were either going to be crushed or lucky. Nothing you could do would make a difference. You sure couldn’t hang a left or right turn to avoid it—you’d either hit a solid wall of stone or plummet off the edge of a cliff.
    The engine strained a bit as the incline increased, and soon they were driving round S curves in the hills, following a stream that crashed and frothed over a long strip of boulders. “Welcome to the land of sky blue water,” Joe said out loud, thinking of the friendly bear from the old TV beer ads, but Alex said nothing. He wondered if she even caught the beer commercial reference. Did they even make Hamm’s anymore?
    They were only a half hour or so into the mountains when Joe pulled the car off into a gravel-packed lane. A round wooden sign hung from one of the tall pines near the main road advertising: elma’s campground and cabins. A vacancy sign was tacked to the bottom of the main sign, and he guessed if the cabins were open, some camp space ought to still be free.
    “Let’s try here, huh?” he said, and Alex gave a by-now familiar shrug. He shook his head, pulled up in front of the weathered log cabin office and killed the engine.
    “Wait here,” he said, and slid from the car.
    Elma was a rotund bear of a woman, one of those Amazons with a larger-than-life personality and a hoary mass of silver hair to match. Joe thought her steely hair looked rough enough to use as wire.
    “How can I help you?” she trilled as he entered the cabin guarding the start of the campgrounds. She moved from behind the pine-log counter to extend a meaty hand.
    Joe shook thick sausage fingers and asked for a spot to set up a tent.
    “Oh we’ve got those. Plenty of those. But wouldn’t you rather take one of our cabins? Only twenty dollars a night more, and I can guarantee that the mattresses will be softer than your sleeping bag.”
    “That’s not promising much,” Joe joked, but she didn’t take it as humor.
    “You questioning my facilities, young man?” she said, voice raising quickly. “You think you can find a sweeter cabin in these here hills?”
    “No, I only meant…”
    Elma doubled over. “I was just kidding, boy. My cabins are crap heaps.” She laughed until her breath came in wheezing gasps. Finally, she straightened up and slapped Joe on the shoulder.
    “Those cabins probably got more bugs inside ’em than the ground outside,” she said. “You