Sudden Independents by Ted Hill Read Free Book Online Page B

measuring him for a new winter coat.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked.
    “You really don’t believe anymore?”
    Scout crossed his arms, feeling exposed. “I don’t know what to believe in.”
    Catherine bent down and collected the water bottles. “I’ll just have to fix that, won’t I?”
    “What are you talking about?”
    Catherine smiled. “Let’s go check on Hunter.” She skipped ahead, leaving him standing there befuddled.
    Along the way Scout gathered more sizable sticks under the branches of slumbering elm trees to feed the fire’s hunger back at camp. When he added them, the coals brightened and soon the flames popped and snapped over the new wood. Hunter hadn’t budged from the spot where he’d landed.
    “He was making a funny noise earlier,” Catherine said. “That’s what woke me up.”
    “Yeah, funny’s one way to put it.”
    She knelt and placed her hand on Hunter’s head. Scout smiled at her concern. Maybe she was feeling for his temperature.
    “I think I got his arm set right,” Scout said, consoling any fears she might possess. “Now it’s just going to take time for him to heal.”
    Catherine laid her hands on the splint. “You did very well.”
    Scout rushed forward in a surge of panic. “Be careful, you might mess up the set.”
    “Don’t worry, silly. I’m just going to heal him so you believe again.”
    She seemed careful about not moving or placing any pressure on Hunter’s arm and that decreased Scout’s anxiety. He shook his head. Catherine was laying hands like an evangelist performing miracle nonsense. He plunked his tired bottom by the fire and felt the crush of drowsiness the moment he was settled.
    His head was just starting to loll when a yellow light pulsed underneath Catherine’s hands. Her forehead creased in concentration with sweat beading in the folds and instantly running down the sides of her face. The light crept up her arms like water soaking into a sponge.
    Scout scrambled to his feet and rubbed his eyes. This couldn’t be happening. It wasn’t real; he’d fallen asleep. What the heck was that light?
    The yellow light gradually spread over Catherine and Hunter, completely covering them in a shinning intensity that proved hard to watch for periods longer than a couple seconds. Hunter’s head twisted back and forth and he groaned in his sleep as his feet shook violently. Catherine remained fixed and steady.
    Scout became aware of his own breathing, ragged and harsh in the otherwise silent night. He was afraid to move, scared to look, and terrified he was losing his mind.
    Then Catherine opened her mouth and the yellow light retreated, sliding off of her and Hunter only to disappear completely down her narrow throat. She closed her mouth and everything went dark, even though Scout heard the fire crackling and assumed—hoped—the stars still hung in the sky.
    A moment passed. He finally focused in on Catherine’s dark silhouette kneeling next to Hunter’s prone body on the ground. Scout was struck with indecision: should he tap Catherine on the shoulder and see what’s up, or jump on his bike and ride for his life?
    Catherine opened her eyes and the bright yellow light blasted forth, filling the entire area with its blinding radiance, like the sun going supernova, dazzling Scout’s sight once more.
    Scout threw up his arms to shield his eyes, and then fell to his knees, disoriented by the overwhelming brilliance that thrummed like a living current all around him. An instant later the yellow light was extinguished by the night.
    For a moment Scout saw only yellow spirals and squiggly lines swirling in his vision. The campfire flames rustled from the wind, and smoke filled his nose. Coughing, he waved his hands and crawled clear, relieved as his eyesight slowly returned.
    Catherine lay in a heap beside Hunter.
    Scout paced back and forth, wishing someone would wake up and explain what just happened. She was only a little girl. No way did yellow light