T hey weren’t going to get two of us without a fight.
“We’re safe if we stick together.” I wasn’t at all sure that was true, but saying it made me feel better.
The first place I thought about was the big yellow tent. We walked in, trying to see anything in the cavernous canvas interior. It was almost two in the morning, the moon was behind a cloud, and there was no light inside that yellow monstrosity at all. He could have been there, but we wouldn’t have seen him. The second place I thought of was the little camper village. Crayer had a tent there, and Crayer was on guard duty. That might be a perfect place to hide someone.
There wasn’t much light there either, just the dark shadows of maybe twenty campers and tents set up along a row of trees. One of the campers had a dim lamp that set out an eerie glow, but that was it.
As we approached the area I heard a slow rumble, like a dog growling.
“Hold on,” I whispered softly, my voice raspy and my throat getting sore. The sound was coming from a small camper, the windows open. I listened carefully and there it was again, a low rumble. And again. And again. Maybe a guard dog.
“Maybe we shouldn’t go any farther.” I could feel sweat running down my chest.
“Oh, for crying out loud. It’s just somebody snoring.” She pulled me away and we walked down to Crayer’s tent.
We walked past four poles and a tarp where someone had piled some canned goods on a table, two more tiny aluminum pull-behind trailers that looked about the size of our bedroom in Carol City, and three brightly colored tents. Mint green, burgundy, and a powder blue.
As we got closer to Crayer’s tent, Em squeezed my hand tighter. “He’s out here somewhere.”
“James?”
“Your friend, Mr. Crayer.”
“Yeah.”
“I suppose he might find us.”
“We’re not breaking any laws.”
In her soft voice, whispering, she said, “That doesn’t seem to make any difference, does it?”
It was possible. The village was in an open area, the big revival tent back to our left, but in the dark, Crayer could come out of nowhere and I did remember that he carried a gun. I was constantly aware of that fact.