Higher Ground by Becky Black (notion reading list txt) 📗

He paused, looking at the silent faces watching him. Adam’s argument about sticking with Zach giving the best odds for survival played out in his mind and came out of his mouth.

“But if I’m right, then by following me, you get to live. If I’m right and you go back to Arius, you will die.”

He’d frightened them—he saw it in the faces of many of them. But he had to make them see. After spending the day wishing he and Adam were alone out here, he now feared that by this time tomorrow, they might well be.

“Please, don’t let the hardship of the journey cloud your judgment. There’s only one rational choice here.” He looked around at the faces one last time. His tribe, Adam had called them. “That’s all I have to say.”

And he had to get away suddenly. He walked, knees trembling, to his tent and then behind it, where he dropped to all fours and threw up. He knelt there, trembling, until he heard someone behind him. Adam. He held out a water bottle. Even in the near darkness, Zach could see the concern on his face.

“You okay?”

Zach drank water and spat. He rubbed a hand across his face, wiping away sweat and tears. “Adam, would you make me some tea? With honey in it if anyone has any.”

His mother used to give him honeyed tea when he got sick. It had earned him some teasing from roommates when he’d treated his infrequent student hangovers with it. But it worked for him.

“Ah, sure,” Adam said. “Why don’t you go into the tent and lie down? I’ll be a few minutes. And don’t worry. They’re tired, not thinking straight. Jones is all mouth. He’ll have changed his mind by morning.”

Zach wanted to believe it. But just as he could be wrong, so could Adam.

“Adam. Do you think I could be wrong?”

“We already talked about this, and you were obviously listening, as you gave them the same argument I gave you.”

Zach smiled. “Yes, I did. Thank you. It’s a good argument. Faultless logic.”

But would tired, aching, frightened people respond to logic?

* * * *

Zach woke in the morning spooned against Adam, lying on top of their sleeping bag. They hadn’t had sex the night before; Zach had fallen asleep shortly after he drank the tea Adam brought him, only partially undressed, too tired to get out of more than his boots and pants.

Adam’s erection pressed against Zach’s buttock, making him wish he had the time to turn into Adam’s arms and kiss him awake. Peel off his clothes and worship his beautiful body. Zach had a semierection himself, but knew he just needed to use the bathroom—the latrine, he’d have to call it—and began to move carefully out of Adam’s arms. Adam murmured, turned on his back, and went on sleeping.

But he didn’t get to sleep for long. Zach realized someone was right outside their tent. When he began moving around, they spoke. Korrie’s voice.

“Better come out here, lads.”

Zach pulled on some pants, moving less cautiously and waking Adam.

“Wha’ss goin’ on?” Adam muttered.

“I don’t know. Ann says to come outside.” Zach unzipped the door flap and scrambled out. Korrie sat outside, drinking from a steaming mug. Many others were awake and moving about, even though it was only 05:15. They were making breakfast and breaking camp, all rather quiet and subdued. A sudden fear gripped Zach. Korrie looked up at him as he stood.

“Some of them are turning back.”

“No!”

Zach’s shout brought people’s attention to him, and he ran to the dying campfire, finding Jones arguing with the Franes.

“You can’t go!” Zach cried. “You can’t go back!”

“I can do whatever I want,” Jones said. “At least half of them are coming with me, and if I can persuade them, I’ll take the rest too.”

“You’re certainly not persuading us,” Visha said. She scooped up Amina, who’d come up and taken her hand. “We’re not fools.”

“You’re the biggest fools here,” Jones said. “Gray, Dr. Howie, mad old Korrie, what have any of them got to lose? But you? You’ve lost your jobs and your home, made yourself criminals for him. You’re fools.”

“That’s enough,” Torres said as Simon stepped forward, ready to take issue with this. She stood between those two but looked at Zach.

“I’m going too,” she said.

“What?” Damn. He should have known. She had no loyalty to Zach; she didn’t believe him. She’d only come to do her job.

“Someone has to keep the peace,” she said as Jones stomped off to supervise the packing up. Simon took his family to have breakfast. Torres watched them go and looked back at Zach. “I know it means leaving your group with no cops. But I think I’m more needed with them. You’re less of a hothead than Jones.”

“Barbara, please, you can’t do this. You’re supposed to protect these people. You can’t take them back into danger.”

“I protect them; I don’t tell them what to do.”

“Then don’t go. Please don’t go with them.” She might only be here to do a job, but she’d been such an asset to the group he didn’t want to lose her. And he liked her. He didn’t want her to die.

She smiled and shook her head. She still didn’t believe him. Still thought nothing would happen. “I’ll see you back in town, Zach. And I’ll tell everyone you were acting for what you thought best, even if—”

He cut her off by turning away, unable to stand it. Adam stood behind him, hastily dressed, hair uncombed. He looked worried and then quite alarmed as Zach turned to him. How stricken must Zach look to produce such a shocked expression? He tried to pull himself together, harden his heart. He couldn’t stop Jones going. He could only keep on climbing with whoever would come with him.

“Come and eat,” Adam said, an invitation that appealed, despite Zach’s miserable state. He’d woken up hungry, since his dinner last night hadn’t stayed down long. He followed Adam