Storm (Special Forces: Operation Alpha): A Linear Tactical Series Novel by Janie Crouch & Operation Alpha

Author:Janie Crouch & Operation Alpha [Crouch, Janie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aces Press
Published: 2020-10-05T23:00:00+00:00

They hiked through the morning, stopping for lunch, then heading toward where they would be rafting for a couple of hours this afternoon before stopping for the evening. Once again, Sam and Eva were eating up all the attention being given to them by the Dempsey brothers. Barb and Francis enjoyed their company too.

But who wouldn’t enjoy the company of two handsome outdoor experts?

The group would’ve moved much more quickly if Noah and Tanner didn’t stop to answer all the questions and point out different plants and animals along the way, but no one seemed to mind. One conversation about bears got poor Eva a little nervous, so Noah had to take Sam to the side so they could finish while Tanner distracted Eva with a caterpillar on a tree.

Marilyn could’ve gone without seeing the racer snake a couple dozen feet from them, but Sam—okay, and Tanner and Noah—had thought it was pretty cool. At least it had slithered in the other direction.

Noah and Tanner’s theme was clear for everyone they were guiding—respect nature. Nature wasn’t always gentle or pretty, but it was always something to be respectful of.

They were about thirty minutes from the rafting point when Noah stopped and pointed out a group of marmots lying out on a rock, far enough from the humans not to feel threatened. The guys passed around the binoculars so everyone could take a closer look at the large ground squirrels.

Tanner helped Eva hold the binoculars so she could see. “Marmots are pretty cool. They eat grass and flowers and live in groups of between ten and twenty. During warm weather, they pretty much spend all day eating and lying out in the sun, getting fat.”

Which was better than standing there yelling “Alan!” like in those YouTube videos.

Sam wasn’t impressed. “Sounds kind of boring.”

“The amazing thing about marmots is that they hibernate over half their lives,” Tanner said. “They’re underground at least six months out of every year, living inside a hole, just trying to survive.”

Eva looked at the guys, eyes wide. “They stay inside a hole for six months? They don’t come out to eat or anything?”

Tanner tapped her nose. “Nope. They just hunker down, breathe in and out, and survive. That’s it.”

Sam and Bree were both murmuring something, but Marilyn wasn’t really listening.

She was a marmot.

God, how depressing was that? Spending half her life living in a hole, just trying to survive. That was basically the very definition of what she’d done for the duration of her marriage. Even worse, it was what she was still doing by hiding the facets of her past from Noah.

Breathe in, breathe out, survive. Stay in a hole. Hide.

It was pathetic.

Noah spoke, looking at her, even though he was addressing Sam’s statement. “I don’t think marmots are boring at all. I think they’re pretty amazing. They don’t really have any true defense mechanisms like other animals do, and it’s just sheer strength of will that keeps them alive during the winter. They survive because they are determined to.

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