“He’s gone,” she said. “He’s gone.”
And then she was weeping, and her body was shaking, and she didn’t know what to do because the boogeyman was killed, she killed him and he would never haunt her steps or her sleep ever again and she was free.
She inched backward, pushed herself up on her hands and knees, and then managed to get to her feet though every part of her was trembling. Her eyes went black for a minute, like she was about to faint, but she breathed deep and managed to stay upright.
C.P. was still lying in the snow, but he wasn’t facedown anymore. He’d turned to his side, and his eyes were open.
“C.P.!” she said, and hurried to him.
There was blood in the snow but not as much as she expected, just a little blot of red against white. “I thought you were dead,” she said, and then she was crying again.
“Hey,” he said, flapping his arm at her in a gesture that was probably meant to comfort. “Don’t cry. It’s okay. I saw what you did. You were so brave. The bravest girl I’ve ever seen.”
“You don’t think I’m a coward anymore?” she said, sobbing.
“Ah, well. I never should have said that. I can be an absolute jerk sometimes.”
“Okay,” Mattie said, crying harder.
“I mean, you don’t have to agree with me,” he said. “Listen, do you think you can help me get this pack off for a minute? I feel like a turtle stuck on its shell.”
Mattie wiped her face with her mittens and then helped him ease the strap off his right arm. He pushed off his side then, leaving the pack behind in the snow as his left arm came free. Mattie saw the place where the bullet had entered his left shoulder then, the blood staining his coat and the stuffing leaking out of the hole in the jacket.
He followed her gaze and said, “It’s actually not that bad, I think. I don’t want to be stupid manly about it but I’m pretty sure that guy didn’t hit anything vital. He was aiming for my heart, I’m sure, and with that giant elephant gun he would have made my heart explode without a doubt. But I don’t think he could see too well, with that fucked-up eye. And I think this puffy coat probably saved me, too—it makes me look a lot bigger than I really am. It seems like the bullet just skimmed through the top of my shoulder, but I’m not going to take my jacket off and check it out right now.”
“We should bandage it,” Mattie said.
“No, we should get the hell out of here before something else happens,” he said. “That guy might be gone, but the monster is still in the woods. And if you’re right and it’s picking us off when we’re injured . . . well, as the injured person I vote we get out of its territory as soon as possible. The bad news is that I don’t think I can carry that pack now with my shoulder the way it is, and it’s way too heavy for you.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mattie said. “We won’t need the tent. We’re not going to sleep. We’re going to keep moving until we’re safe.”
“Okay,” C.P. said. “I’m on board with that plan. But let’s put Griffin’s camera and notebook in that sack you have with the food, all right? I still want to take those with us.”
They transferred the camera and notebook to Mattie’s bag. The camera did make the bag heavier but not too much. C.P. offered to carry the sack but Mattie shook her head.
“I can manage, and the strap would irritate your shoulder.”
Then she remembered William stumbling forward, the rifle clattering to the ground. “The rifle!” she said, and went back toward the cliff’s edge.
It hadn’t fallen off the cliff with William, as she feared. Mattie picked it up. It was heavy, and she didn’t know if it still had ammunition inside, but if it did then they might need it.
She brought it back to C.P., who checked to see how many shots were left.
“Looks like ten. He probably had extra ammo in his pockets but we’re not going to climb down to check. You still have those keys, right?” C.P. asked.
Mattie felt for the string around her neck and pulled the key ring out to show him.
“Damn, I really hope we find that guy’s car,” C.P. said. “I have never wanted to not walk so much in my entire life.”
“We should go back to the stream,” Mattie said. “It’s not far from here, and we’ll know for sure that we’re heading in the right direction. And we won’t be under the trees.”
C.P. cast a wary glance at the tree branches hanging over them. “Right. But we’ll have to go through the woods again to get there.”