Whiteout by Gabriel Dylan

Author:Gabriel Dylan [Gabriel Dylan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788951081
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
Published: 2018-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-four

Tara was staring at her phone screen when Poppy’s croaked mumblings made her look up. On the sofa across from her, Poppy sounded like she’d been crawling across some arid desert, starved of water. Cold beads of sweat shone on her forehead.

For a moment Poppy lingered at the edge of sleep, then she opened her eyes and glanced up blearily at Tara. It seemed to take her a while to come back into the room and Tara wondered if the strange hallucinations she’d complained of earlier that morning were still plaguing her. She sighed, switched off her phone and gazed in Poppy’s direction.

“So the voices … are they still there?”

A little at a time, the confusion slipped from Poppy’s face and she nodded slowly. “They come and go. But some of the things they say aren’t nice.”

Poppy tried on a stoic smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Tara felt a prickle of unease, and she found herself trying to keep a little distance from the other girl and the possibility of some weird infection from the bite.

“But it’s just a fever, right? That’s what Hanna reckoned. Once they find us, once someone comes, they’ll fix you up, bandage your leg and you’ll be fine, won’t you?”

Poppy’s lack of answer spoke volumes. She swallowed dryly and nodded at Tara’s phone. “Anything?”

“Nothing. I’ve not been able to get any signal since the day it started snowing. Since the day everyone vanished. I can’t even make an emergency call. And now I’m pretty sure my battery’s going to die next time I switch it on.”

She leaned her head back against the sofa and glanced over at Poppy’s ankle, where blood still seeped slowly through the material. “How’s your leg?”

Poppy reached her pale fingers down towards the wound. “It hurts. And I’m so, so tired. I can’t do any more than hobble, so unless those two find something that can carry me off the mountain, I won’t be going anywhere. But the pain’s bearable as long as I keep doped up on painkillers.”

Tara nodded absently, her attention caught by a movement out beyond the shutters. They had made a rough camp of sorts on the first floor of the decaying hostel and a growing pile of debris was starting to develop on the floorboards. Hanna had scavenged some more cans of food at first light, and the empties lay derelict on the floor, among a few bottles of water and a pile of sleeping bags and duvets.

Nico had insisted that they let a little light into the lounge, just for their own sanity, and Tara stood and placed her hands on the shutters, opening them a fraction more. She blinked against the daylight, watching the whirling flakes outside, then she shook her head and came and sat back down next to Poppy.

“Nothing. Maybe those two ran away together. Maybe they realized that we’re not going to survive another night and they made a break for it.” She realized what she was saying. “Do you … do you think they did?”

Poppy shook her head slowly.

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