Part IV

Note: Thanks to Alex for reminding me about posting! :D You're amazing!

“Hey! Be nice!” Sabrina punched James’s arm.

“Well, if you are going to ask me stupid questions then I have a god-given right to be as sarcastic as I want.” James massaged his shoulder. “God, woman, steroids much?”

Sabrina smiled, her face beaming with pride. Arthur rolled his eyes, although he wasn’t sure who it was directed at.

“So, anyway, we are on our way to stop Cal from wreaking havoc on the world. Neither of us has been to his house, nor do we know where it is. So, you can lead us there.” Arthur smiled brightly.

“Yeah! No.” James shook his head aggressively. “I am never going back there.”

“What? Why?” Sabrina punched his arm again.

“Shit, woman! Stop it!”

“Why won’t you help us?” Arthur asked wishing his could put his hand over Sabrina’s to calm her down, but didn’t want to reach over James.

“Were you not listening to my story? Hello! Banned from ever coming back. Billionaire with hired assassins at his beck and call. No job or place to hide. I rather like my life, thank you very much,” said James loudly, waving his arms.

“You don’t have to come in, just show us the way to the house. We don’t know where it is. Please, James.” Sabrina laid her hand on James’s arm. James looked from Arthur to Sabrina and back again. He sighed dramatically.

“Fine.” He graciously accepted a hug from Sabrina. “I will show you how to get there. But, only if you promise me that you will do everything in your power to land Cal in prison where he belongs.”

“We promise,” I hope, Arthur said.

“Let’s go!” Sabrina stood up and started walking towards the city.

Arthur looked at James. “So, you think we should follow her?”

James shook his head. “Nah.”

Arthur smirked, but stood up and followed Sabrina into the burning city anyway.


A few hours later, the group had looted their rock climbing shop and had enough camping equipment to last them a week. The food they had to buy from a nearby convenience store. They had left the money under the cash register for the food they had taken. James was adamant they didn’t needed to leave any money because it would only be stolen. Arthur, however, insisted on it.

It was two o’ clock in the morning by the time they had passed the last house of Saddler. They were walking along a gravel road that led into the low hills in the distance. Small fields of weeds surrounded them. Arthur was almost dead on his feet.

“Can’t we make camp here?” he said trying to keep his voice to a minimum whine.

“No,” Sabrina replied and kept walking.

James looked at Arthur exhausted. “Is she always like this?”

Arthur nodded and nearly fell to his knees. “Sabrina, I’m so tired. You know I never stay up this late. Please, let’s stop for the night.”

James stopped a few feet in front of Arthur. “I agree. I don’t think I’ve ever walked this much in my entire life. Come on.”

“We don’t know when Cal intends on releasing his virus on the world’s computers. We have to keep going.” She kept walking.

Arthur and James exchanged looks. They nodded and began to set up camp in the middle of a gravel road. Sabrina hadn’t been carrying anything except extra batteries, water purification tablets and other not-so-necessary necessities. Arthur took the tent off his pack and started setting it up. He handed James some matches.

“Here. Start a fire.”

James looked at the matches with a disbelieving look. “You want me to start a fire, a campfire?” He threw the box back at Arthur. “Sorry, I don’t watch Survivor.”

“It’s not that hard. Look.” Arthur grabbed some litter and the matches. “Paper, fire, warmth, warm food.” He set the flaming paper on the ground. “There. I made it. You make it bigger.”

James muttered something under his breath and left to find more garbage. Arthur sighed and looked up. A faint blue light had entered the area. Sabrina had returned and was texting on her cell phone.

“Who are you talking to?” Arthur asked, going back to putting up the tent.

“My mother. Apparently, Saddler is on the news. She wanted to know if I was okay.”

“And she text messaged you? Why didn’t she just call?”

“She thinks she’s trendy if she texts.”

Arthur dusted off his hands and stepped back to survey his work. “What do you think? Will all three of us fit?”

Sabrina put her cell back in her pocket and hugged Arthur. “Of course! We can snuggle.” She looked up at him before laying her head on his chest.

Feeling his eyes start to close, he hugged her close and kissed the top of her head. “Come on. Let’s go to bed.”

Sabrina nodded. She set her pack down next to Arthurs. They laid out their sleeping bags with Sabrina’s in the middle.

“Arthur, I think I’m going to get cold tonight. Can we zip our sleeping bags together?” She gave him a sly look. “Can I trust you to keep your hands to yourself?”

“No, while we are sleeping, I’m going to molest you,” Arthur replied and zipped the two bags together. “Don’t you know me well enough to know that I never make the first move?”

They climbed in and Sabrina snuggled up to him. She looked up from where her head had been resting on his chest.

“That’s true. When you dated Sheryl, nothing ever happened because you were too chicken to even kiss her.” Sabrina settled comfortably against him.

That’s because I love you. “You’re right. I’m a social retard.” He yawned and put his arm around Sabrina holding her close.

“Yes, you are.” She smiled against his chest. “But you’re my social retard.”

Arthur’s face lit with bliss. She had never said anything like that before. Despite his joy, his fatigue overwhelmed him and soon they were both asleep.

James walked back into the campsite, his arms full of trash. He looked around and dropped his cache near the smoking paper. Walking over to the tent confused, he looked in.

“Oh bugger that! That’s the last time I go for fire stuff.” He crawled in the tent and into the other sleeping bag to sleep.


Arthur was the first one up the next morning. He extricated himself from Sabrina’s arms and crawled out of the tent. He opened James’s backpack and took out a few granola bars to munch. Sabrina sleeps late if no one wakes her and Arthur looked back at the tent, judging by the way James is snoring, he won’t be up anytime soon either.

Arthur looked around. The air was hazy with the smoke that was still fluttering up from the city. He breathed deeply and wrinkled his nose. It wasn’t the fresh air he was used to when he went hiking. He walked away from the camp toward the mountains. They were quite close to the lower hills and the juniper trees were starting to become more pronounced. Arthur walked over to a cedar tree and ran his hand over the bark. He loved being in nature. Regardless of the smoke in the air, it was a picturesque morning. Arthur felt a song bubbling up in his throat.

“Oh, what a good-looking sunrise! Oh, what a beautiful day! I’ve got a wonderful inkling the universe’s going my way.” Arthur walked slowly back to camp. “Every sound on the earth is my music. All the sounds of the earth are—”

“Were you just trying to sing something that sounded vaguely like Oklahoma?” James asked, crawling out of the tent.

“Yeah, he does that,” Sabrina answered, crawling out as well.

Arthur blushed beet red and sat down to make a campfire. Sabrina, who was answering a text message, glanced over at him.

“Don’t bother. We are only going to eat granola bars on the way.”

“But what about my coffee?” James looked at them bewildered as if he’d never heard of such a thing as people not drinking coffee in the morning.

“You’re just going to have to go without it for the time being.” Arthur started packing up.

“I’m warning you now, I get very… cantankerous when I don’t get my morning caffeine. I’m going to be obnoxious and ornery!”

“I think we can deal with it,” Sabrina replied, still texting.

Arthur, who had loaded up the tent and sleeping bags already, turned to look at her. “Who are you texting now?”

“Larry. He’s back from his navy post and saw the news. He wanted to know if I was okay,” she responded. She stuck her cell phone in her pocket. “It’s good that we brought that battery charger. I might be out of battery soon.”

“Well, if people would stop texting you and just assume you are dead, you wouldn’t have that problem,” James said sarcastically.

“Well, if you died, we wouldn’t have to deal with you either,” Sabrina shot back.

“Ah, yes, but then, you would never find out where Cal lives,” James answered smugly.

Sabrina muttered something under her breath. Arthur laughed and started walking having picked up his backpack. James grumbled and picked up his as well.

“Come on, guys, cheer up. It’s a new morning.”

“Yeah, without my coffee.”

“And my shower.”

Arthur sighed. “When we find a stream or a pond, we can wash off there.”

“What about my coffee?” James asked resentfully.

“You will just have to do without.”

“Why does she get her cleanliness, but I don’t get my coffee!” It was clearly not a question. Muttering, James walked a few feet ahead of Arthur and Sabrina. Sabrina leaned toward Arthur.

“If he’s going to be like this, maybe we should have told him about the instant coffee in his backpack.”

Arthur shook his head and kept walking behind James.


Arthur and Sabrina followed James into the forest that covered the mountain side. James walked ahead of them muttering things under his breath; “stupid people” “coffee” “I hate Cal” and more often than not, “Coffee!!” They trekked until nightfall when James suddenly stopped.

“We stop here,” he said gruffly.

“But we still have moonlight to hike by. It has to be only like seven o’ clock,” Sabrina complained.

“I said, ‘we stop here’!”

“Okay, gees, calm down. Let’s all get along.” Arthur held out his hands in a placating fashion. “Sabrina, we can stop here for the night.”

Sabrina huffed and walked away, her cell phone in her hand.

“Sabrina, wait!” Arthur set down his pack and ran after her. “Who’ve you been texting all day long?”

“Cal,” she said calmly. Arthur snorted.

“No, really. Who are you talking to?"

“Everyone. They want to know if I’m okay, where I’m going to stay now, how you are, where you are going to stay, if we are engaged, if I have a boyfriend, etcetera, etcetera.” She glared at him. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to pee.”

Arthur blushed and walked back to the campsite. James was trying to set up the tent and yelling obscenities at it. Arthur rushed over and took the poles from the angry reporter before he hurt someone or himself.

“James, let me do this. Can you start a fire today?”

Grumbling, James muttered, “I suppose,” and grabbed the box of matches.

Before long, the tent was up and the fire started. James had brewed up some instant coffee and his mood had lightened considerably. He sipped the dark liquid, savoring it. He peeked at Arthur over his mug.

“Where did your lover go?” he asked acerbically. Arthur had noticed throughout the day that James’s attitude toward Sabrina had soured significantly since their first meeting.

“She uh… er… had to go… release… herself,” Arthur replied blushing. “And she’s not my lover.”

James chuckled. “She went to have a piss, huh? She’s been gone an awful long time just to take a pee.” He took another sip. “Maybe you should go look for her.”

Arthur stood up. “You’re right! She’s been gone too long. Maybe she got eaten by a bear…”

“We can only hope,” James muttered as Arthur walked into the trees.

The further he walked, the more anxious he got. She has been gone way too long. These mountains are filled with wild animals and she isn’t very careful. I hope nothing's happened to her. Panic gripped his heart in its icy grasp until he saw a blue glow in a little glade. His eyes adjusted and saw that Sabrina was talking on her cell phone. As Arthur got closer, he could hear some of her conversation.

“I tried to get them to keep… You know… He is so lazy… I can’t wait to… again. I miss you. Wait until I… release…. Thanks! Tell… I miss him too. Talk… later.” She closed her cell phone and sat on an overturned tree.