Daemon was up early and had breakfast cooking when a gunshot woke the girls. Daemon stood up slowly and listened for any more shots, while the girls scrambled for cover.
“Don’t worry, whoever took that shot wasn’t aiming at us. My guess is whoever it was is about a mile away,” Daemon said as he walked over to Angelica.
Sara started collecting her bedroll and other things.
Angelica waited for Sara to get out of earshot to find out what he wanted to talk about. “What’s the plan? You have the look you get when you know I’m not going to be happy with you,” Angelica asked, trying to get Daemon to say what he was thinking and not try to figure out a way to keep her from getting upset.
“I want you two to head off in that direction.” Daemon pointed west. “I’m going to go back to the gorge and see if I can’t slow them down some.”
“What about the Rift demons or other things in the woods?” Angelica asked, trying to keep the concern out of her voice. She knew Daemon could tell she was nervous but there was no need making him feel any worse.
“We’re still a long way from the ruins so there’s not much chance you’ll run into any demons. You should sense them long before they get near you, so if you feel anything stop or turn around. As for animals, they won’t come this close to the ruins.”
Daemon walked over to Sara as she was getting her breakfast. “I guess you were right: I should have brought one of the rifles. I need to use the one you brought this morning.”
“Okay. So what’s going on?” Sara replied, not sure if she should be more nervous or curious.
“I’m going back to the gorge while you and Angie go west. I’ll catch up to you later today.”
“What? Why? How will you find us?” Daemon scared her but he also made her feel safer when he was there to protect her.
“Don’t worry. I can always find Angie; you just stay with her and you’ll be all right. I want to get a look at who’s following us and maybe slow them down a little.” Daemon picked up Sara’s rifle and ammo belt and disappeared into the forest.
Angelica joined Sara at the fire to eat her breakfast. She wasn’t happy about Daemon going back to face the men chasing them alone but at least he’d taken a rifle.
“He’ll be all right; no need to worry about him,” Sara observed, breaking Angelica’s train of thought. Sara had finished eating and was sipping her tea. “Are we going to carry his packs with us or leave them here?”
“We can leave them. They would slow us down too much, and we need to move as fast as possible,” Angelica replied between mouthfuls.
“Are you sure he’ll be able to catch up if we do that?”
“Sure, he knows these woods better than anyone, except maybe Dad.” Angelica stopped mid-sentence as the pain of her father’s death washed over her. Sara started crying as Angelica unconsciously projected her feelings of loss, which made Angelica feel even worse when she realized that she was inflicting her pain on Sara. Angelica fought to get control of her emotions as Sara pulled her into a comforting hug.
The girls just sat there rocking each other for a few minutes as the emotional trauma of the last few days washed over them. The loss of friends and family, of betrayal, and the frightened run through the woods came flooding back on both of them. They had both been in shock or too busy to let the reality of what was happening sink in, but now it was hitting them full force. Slowly Angelica got control and carefully pushed Sara away, gently holding her at arms’ length. It took them a few more minutes to calm down enough to collect their gear and wordlessly leave camp.