They both hopped out of Candace’s candy-apple-red Jeep Cherokee, slammed their doors and flip-flopped their way toward the shoe outlet. Nicole trailed her agitated friend into the store and down an aisle. Candace stopped to admire a pair of furry brown boots, but Nicole grabbed them out of her hands and held them behind her back.
"Intervention resumed," Nicole said with a smirk.
Candace rolled her eyes impatiently and huffed.
"We always back each other up on the trails. Why not in regular everyday life?" Nicole asked.
"What are you asking me? Just get to your point, Nikki, because I know you have one," Candace said.
"I need you to come with me tomorrow when I pick up Adam at his trailer park and we go hang out at Rainbow Lake," she said.
Candace's green eyes bugged out.
"Nikki, I already told you I don't want to be dragged into this. I half-expected that he'd pop by the mall today as it was. That kid and his creepy-ass friend are not my kind of people."
"So you won't back me up on this?" Nicole persisted, still clutching the boots behind her back.
"Stop putting me in an uncomfortable position, Nikki," Candace said. "I don't want to hang out with Adam Upton for the 100th time."
"Why can't you go out of your comfort zone for a change, girl?" Nicole asked. "There's strength in numbers and I'm tired of trying to do this all on my own. So what if the kid lives in a trailer and has a screwed-up home life? He's still a high school senior just like us. He comes from a broken family just like me. We're lucky we get to live in nice homes in fairly nice neighborhoods and that our moms didn't die from a drug overdose when we were 3 years old. Put yourself in his shoes for once. How would you like it if you were poor and everybody looked down on you because of it ... even though you were born into that and had no control over it?"
Candace briefly pretended to claw her eyes out with her red finger nails, but then she softened her approach and placed her hands on Nicole's shoulders.
"Nikki, you're such a nice and noble person — you really are," she said. "I respect what you're trying to do even though I think it's quite possibly dangerous and, hopefully, pointless. But I really, really don't want to go with you and Adam to the lake tomorrow."
Nicole nodded.
"Then I respect your decision as final and I won't bring it up again," she said somberly.
Candace sighed as she observed her best friend's resigned disappointment.
"But I'm not finished with what I was going to say," she added. "I will meet you at the lake in my own car to make sure he doesn't try to kill you or do God knows what else."
Nicole smiled and let out her own sigh — of relief.
"Thanks C.C.," she said softly, handing the boots back to Candace. "Now go buy these before I do."
CHAPTER 8: DEMONS AND TRAIL ANGELS
Adam raised his hunting rifle at the narrow space between two towering pine trees and pictured a closed door.
Suddenly the door springs open and out floods an endless line of targets — not on four feet, but two, pushing and shoving to get out of the school building and onto the grassy field.
Three-heartbeat, two-heartbeat, one-heartbeat: Adam's right finger goes full throttle. He mows them down from his perfect sniper spot — at the edge of the woods, beyond the practice field. His breathing remains steady, his emotions in check for maximum efficiency. He wants to kill them all. To do that, he needs to be a machine — just like his semiautomatic rifle. The weapon doesn't think; neither does he. Just aim and shoot. Drop Rifle 1, grab Rifle 2 and repeat with Rifles 3 and 4 that lie near his feet. There's not enough time to reload.
Adam's ears welcome the screams like a round of applause, and soon the wailing of sirens join the din. The fire alarm was pulled at exactly 12:14 p.m. and that set the carnage in motion. The fire trucks will arrive first, but they'll want no part of this and he knows it. They'll wait for the police and the SWAT teams. There's still a couple of minutes to be a killing machine before fleeing into the woods.
Adam pans the killing field — his eyes and rifle are one. Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-boom! Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-boom! The smell of gun powder is intoxicating as his targets keep falling, rolling, screaming — seemingly in slow motion. It's going so well he allows himself to think about what Thomas is doing inside the school — firing at will, forcing the targets to flee more quickly out the door and into Adam's personal turkey shoot. The students and teachers are caught in a vise of vicious force that's ripping them full of holes. It's truly a genius and diabolical plan that will ensure their place among the greatest mass killers of all time.
Adam scopes the field again and sees no standing targets. He smiles and trains his rifle toward the door once more, just in case.
Three-heartbeat, two-heartbeat, one-heartbeat: It's her. Blue hair shining in the mid-day sun. Terrified face. Tears.
"Call me Nikki," the voice in Adam's brain says amid the sirens and screams. His finger freezes on the trigger. He can't shoot her as she sprints away from the door and directly toward his hidden position, though he knows she can't possibly see him in his camouflage outfit.
Then she falls — no more than 20 yards from reaching the edge of the woods. Adam feels sick to his stomach at the sight of her, the strands of blue and brown hair spilling lifelessly around her crumpled body. His eyes and rifle automatically shift focus back to the doorway, where he sees Thomas standing in the entrance, a black pistol raised triumphantly in each hand and a smile clearly directed at Adam's position in the woods.
It's done. They're all dead.
Lakeview Regional High School now belongs to Adam Upton and Thomas Lee Harvey, the first killers to wipe out an entire school.
Adam closed his eyes, shook his head and then focused again on the empty space between the pine trees. There was no door. No deer either. Just shadows, confusion ... and that awful feeling in his gut.
...
"I saw Dead Girl Walking talking to Johnny Football Hero in the hall again Friday," Thomas said, his right hand undulating with the breeze as he rode shotgun in Adam's truck along a hilly, windy road late on Sunday morning. There were four black rifle cases in the back of the truck, but no deer carcasses.
"So what," Adam said, his eyes glazed and his right hand on top of the steering wheel.
"I thought you were gonna do her and now she's already banging someone else?" Thomas snickered.
"We're just friends. I told you that!" Adam shot back angrily. "I wanted to bang the other one all along."
"How's that going?"
"Shut the fuck up, Lee!" Adam shouted with a menacing glare. "I'll kill you right now and dump your body in the woods. The turkey vultures will eat you for Sunday dinner."
"Now that's the Adam we all love," Thomas replied with his best creepy grin. "A helluva lot better than the moody fuck you've been all morning. Is your head on straight, man? Are we doing this or what?"
"Hell yeah we are ... if you live long enough to be a part of it," Adam shot back. "I don't need shit from you. I get enough from my father."
"How is Gary? Still popping?"
"Of course."
"And how's Brody boy — ready for Thursday I hope?"
"I'll make him ready, the dumbass."
"Good," Thomas said with a nod. "We need to time this Chinese fire drill and see where all the dick wads and whores line up. What better day than 9/11 for a dress rehearsal?"
Adam grunted, still in a daze.
"What?" Thomas asked.
"I heard you," Adam yelled.
"OK you big ol' bastard," Thomas shouted back. "I just hope your hunting skills are up to the fucking challenge next week because you sucked today."
"So did you, Lee. Keep talking shit like that and I'll be hauling your corpse to the butcher," Adam snapped, then gunned it down a steep hill.
...
Two hours later, Adam sat somewhat uncomfortably in the passenger seat of Nicole's car as she pulled into a dirt parking lot on the
southwestern edge of Rainbow Lake. The sun poked through puffy clouds on a pleasant 60-degree day.
"I've got someone else coming to join us any minute," Nicole said, wearing a blue No. 12 New England Patriots jersey, the number worn by quarterback Tom Brady.
"Who?" Adam asked, slightly annoyed.
"There she is now," Nicole said, pointing at Candace's Jeep. She figured Adam would get over the third-wheel change in plan at the sight of the head-turning, auburn-haired girl. She was correct.
Adam's air of protest got immediately sucked out of him. He failed to breathe while watching Candace's long, svelte body slip out of her Jeep, sling a small orange pack over her shoulder and stride toward them. She wore a tight black short-sleeved shirt that said "You can't handle this" in white letters across her chest, orange-and-black shorts, orange socks and tan hiking boots. Even Nicole did a semi-aghast double-take at her unusually bold fashion statement. Was Candace deliberately trying to turn Adam on to distract him from being more than friends with Nicole or was she simply hoping to overpower the boy's senses with cocky words and garish colors? Nicole didn't really care. She was just happy her friend had showed up at all.
"Right on time," Nicole said, smiling as she checked her pink wristwatch and pulled her hair into a ponytail.
Adam appeared uncomfortably shy as he was the last of the three to close the car door and stand up in the nearly empty parking lot.
"Adam, this is my best friend Candace ... Candace, this is Adam Upton," Nicole introduced them while grabbing her small green pack.
Adam shook Candace's hand, but he didn't look her in the eyes.
"Nice to finally meet you, Adam, even though we go to the same school," Candace said, attempting to break the ice.
"Yeah ... good to meet you, too," he replied awkwardly. Adam wore a camouflage sweatshirt, blue jeans and black sneakers for the hike, but he didn't carry a pack.
Nicole and Candace both sensed that Adam had no experience hanging out with two attractive girls at the same time, and they smiled knowingly at each other while Adam bowed his head and kicked at the dirt. Nicole felt emboldened that her theory about approaching Adam from a position of strength in numbers might actually make an impact. Perhaps she could get through to the boy a week ahead of her deadline. She just hoped Candace would let her do most of the talking as they had planned. Otherwise, knowing her friend's tendency to be blunt, things could go awry pretty quickly.
"I parked here because I knew it wouldn't be crowded on this side of the lake and we could hike a mile or so to the west shore canoe landing area. That's a good place to have our lunch," Nicole explained to Adam. "You don't mind hiking a little, do you Adam?"
Adam stole a glance at Candace, who forced a smile, and quickly turned to face Nicole.
"Not at all," he said, trying to act normal but failing. His sudden lack of confidence in the company of both girls was striking.
"Great, let's go," Nicole said, leading them across the lot and toward the woods. "The trail head is over here."
Candace motioned for Adam to follow Nicole, he nodded and began walking between the two girls in single file on a narrow, densely wooded path. The three teens moved briskly along a flat stretch for a quarter of a mile before they began a fairly steep ascent through majestic maples, soaring evergreens and striking birch trees. Up they went toward the top of a 400-foot bluff that overlooked the large, egg-shaped lake.
Bright green ferns carpeted both sides of the trail as Adam carefully stepped over intermittent jagged rocks and exposed roots. The last thing he wanted to do was trip and make a fool of himself in front of Candace Cooper. Already self-conscious about his labored breathing and the sweat that was beginning to dampen his forehead and armpits, Adam wondered why he suddenly cared what other people thought of him. This strange, silent march in the middle of nowhere with two girls he barely knew made his thoughts go off the rails — into unknown territory.
"It's not all like this, Adam," Nicole reassured him as she glanced back over her shoulder. "It goes down after this bluff. There's a pretty cool waterfall up ahead, too, where we can stop for a drink."
"It's OK. I'm fine," he replied.
They crested the bluff and heard the waterfall before they saw it. Just off to the right, a stream forged through the trees at an angle and disappeared over the rocky shoulder of the bluff. Nicole led them off the path, down a well-worn and steep side trail, and stopped alongside the waterfall. The foaming water cascaded over several descending layers of rocks and into another stream below that fed the lake.
Nicole grabbed two water bottles from her pack and handed one to Adam.
"Thanks," he said with a slight grin.
"You're welcome," she said.
Candace had a bottle of her own as they all drank and admired the waterfall.
"What do you think of hiking so far?" Nicole asked Adam.
"I'm out of shape, but it's pretty cool," he said, slightly more comfortable with the girls now.
"Candace and I have climbed most of the big peaks in the Presidential Range over the last couple of years," Nicole said proudly.
"Yeah, we try not to do anything less than 4,000 feet," Candace added with a laugh.
"Wow," Adam said. "Have you climbed Mount Washington?"
"Oh yeah, three times for me," Nicole replied.
"Twice for me," Candace said, holding up two fingers as she studied Adam more closely and wondered what really was going through his mind at that moment. Small talk didn't distract her from the elephant in the woods, but she kept her mouth shut for the sake of her friend.
"We just climbed it as part of a three-summit loop last month before school started," Nicole said. "We even camped out under the stars in a tent above the tree line, which is technically illegal."
"Correction: you camped out," Candace said. "I slept in Lakes of the Clouds Hut."
"That is true," Nicole said. "Candace helped cover for me so I could sleep under the stars."
Adam's eyes and ears bounced from girl to girl with interest. He was not even sure this conversation in the woods was real. It felt more like a dream because it was an experience so unlike anything he had ever had or could've expected in his life to this point. The feeling he got from actually being invited and included in this adventure with these two girls was as exhilarating as it was foreign. The depressing confusion from his daydream during the deer hunt, and the bitter aftertaste from his talk with Thomas in the truck, had been replaced with a surreal sense of wonder and almost happiness — all in the matter of a couple of hours. The extreme down and up now left him slightly dizzy and at a loss for words, but he suddenly felt more alive and in the moment than he could ever remember. It was like a light beer buzz, without the beer.
"I should drink water more often," he blurted out with a chuckle. He did manage not to snort.
Candace laughed at his out-of-the-blue observation. Adam blushed when he realized his random statement had absolutely nothing to do with the girls' conversation about hiking.
"You want more water, Adam?" Nicole asked.
"No, I'm just crazy, don't pay any attention to me," he replied, staring at the waterfall again.
Candace took a step back and another sip of water. Perhaps she was uncomfortable with the word "crazy." But Nicole stepped toward Adam and waited until he returned her gaze.
"You are not crazy, Adam," she said. "If you were, I wouldn't have invited you on a hike in the woods with us, would I?"
Candace raised one eyebrow and looked away as Adam shook his head.
"Why would you guys want to hang out with someone like me?" he asked, seriously. "I guess I'm just confused."
Candace kept her mouth shut, but her eyes spoke volumes. Nicole gave her a quick, reproachful glance, and then refocused on Adam as the steady rush of the waterfall provided soothing ambience for this impromptu shrink session under the trees. All that was missing was a sofa for the patient.
"We're all Lakeview Golden Eagles, we're all membe
rs of the Class of 2015 — why wouldn't we hang out?" Nicole asked him. "We're all into the outdoors. You like hunting, we like hiking, we live in a beautiful state ..."
Nicole could see Candace grimace at the word "hunting" out of the corner of her eye and knew she needed to get them all back on the trail fast — before her friend bailed back to the parking lot.
"Let's get back on the main trail, Adam, and head toward our lunch spot," she said, putting her hand on his arm and guiding him back up the slope.
"OK," he said.
Candace let them walk a few paces, checked her iPhone and then followed with some hesitation.
...
The three hikers emerged from the woods and onto a narrow, V-shaped wedge of sand that sloped down to the lake's tranquil blue water. Canoes, kayaks and small boats usually were launched from bigger, more accessible points around the lake. This location mostly was used for landings and lunches, but no one occupied the place when they arrived, except for three ducks waddling into the shallow water and drifting to the right.
Nicole pulled a white-and-yellow blanket out of her pack and spread it on the sand with help from Candace. Adam smiled and looked across the lake. A couple of kayakers were barely visible near the opposite shore about two miles away.
"It really quiets down here after Labor Day," Nicole said as she passed out chicken salad wraps, a small bag of chips and stubby plastic water bottles to Adam and Candace before sitting down to start on her own lunch.
"Yeah, I like it more when it's not so crazy here," Candace said, sitting down next to Nicole. Adam was the last to sit, but he seemed more at ease with the girls now and smiled more regularly.
"Thanks for lunch," he said, squinting at Nicole.
"You're welcome, Adam," she replied, smiling as she released her hair from her ponytail.
The way the sun hit some of her fine blue strands brought back an unpleasant memory for Adam, and he suddenly felt awful about the shooting plot he and Thomas were actively planning. However, the chicken wrap looked so good and he was so hungry from hiking that he forced himself to eat despite the bile in his gut. The tasty food and the pretty companions helped him pretend, for now at least, that there was no such plot against his fellow Lakeview Golden Eagles.