35. Storm

The soft fire light that makes it's way into the tent isn't enough to illuminate Gage's face. His dark figure moves down and you feel him sit next to you. Your stomach churns when you feel him place his hand next to yours on the hem of the sleeping bag. You feel your fingers grow weak and he easily pulls it away from you. The only noise you can hear is the crackling embers of the fire outside. You close your eyes as you feel the front of the sleeping bag slip off your body and expose your torso and legs. It wasn't as cold this night so you had taken the jeans Gage lent you off before going to sleep. You regain enough strength in your hands to tug the bottom of the shirt further down your thighs. You feel a calloused brush against your calf and wince when it comes into contact with your swollen ankle. You feel Gage begin untying the cloth he had wrapped around it the other day. After the bandage comes off you gasp in surprise when you feel a cool substance being rubbed on it. There's now an pungent, earthy, smell in the air as Gage re-wraps your ankle and helps you slip your sock back on.

When he's done you feel his fingers slip around your arm and he pulls you up. You have to press a hand against his chest to keep yourself steady as he immediately takes a step forward and leads you out of the tent. It's still fairly warm out but you wish he had let you grab your pants before coming out. The front panels of the shirt end at your mid thigh providing a decent amount of coverage, still not as much as you'd like right now. When Gage helps you sit down you finally get a look at his face. His normally sharp eyes look distracted and you notice he's shaved somehow. He sits down a couple of feet away from you and rolls his shoulders back, you hear a joint in his back pop. He sighs, straightening back up, then turns his gaze back to you. You study his face noting how tired he looks, there are dark bags under his eyes, and you wonder how much he's been sleeping at night. He certainly doesn't let you sleep as long as you'd like. Raising a hand to your mouth, you try to stifle a yawn at this thought, but fail. "It shouldn't be too much longer." You lower your hand from your mouth and turn back to Gage when you hear this.

You're about to say something else when you're distracted by a large drop of water hitting your bare leg. You look up towards the sky just in time for another drop to hit your forehead. "Shit." you hear Gage mumble as he gets to his feet and begins kicking dirt onto the fire. Once it's out he tosses the burnt logs a good distance from the area then goes to pack the tent up. The rain begins falling at a steady trickle and you reach a hesitant hand out to the backpack Gage left by your side. Surely he can't be mad at you for just reaching in for his jacket. After stealing a quick look in his direction you see his back is still turned to you as he folds the tent up. You silently unclasp the top flap with one hand, periodically, glancing in Gage's direction to make sure he's still distracted. The jacket is heavy so you have to divert your attention for a moment while you use both hands to slowly pull the jacket out. You go to close to flap put freeze as you happen to glance inside and clearly make out the handle of handgun. Before you can do anything else you jump as one of Gage's large boots lands next to the backpack. It doesn't make sense to you how he's able to move so quickly and quietly in this terrain.

You slowly look up at him through strands of hair that have fallen in front of your face. He silently closes the backpack, without taking his eyes off of you, and slings it over his shoulder. After he turns and walks back to the half packed tent you run a hand across your wet face. You can't believe this entire time you had a weapon right on your back. Looking over you see Gage open the backpack and reach inside, presumably pulling the handgun out. You inhale sharply, carefully watching his movements. You finally exhale when you see him pull a key out of his pocket and unlock the satchel he's been carrying, before placing the gun inside. He locks the satchel then comes over and places the backpack in the same spot it had been in before. You don't dare say a word, you haven't even put his jacket on yet. You can feel water trickle down along your hair before dripping on to your slightly exposed collar bone. When he's done packing the tent you realize you never asked for your pants and you don't see them anywhere.

Gage seems to be in a hurry and you've probably already made him angry by going through his backpack, so you don't say anything. You do finally put the jacket on on, however, thankful it's somewhat water proof. Your flannel is completely soaked but you shiver as you feel the wet fabric against your skin. Gage walks over and to your surprise he slings the backpack over his free shoulder, the satchel and duffel bag are on his opposite side. You pull back slightly when he reaches down and scoops you into his arms. In just under five minutes he's packed up the camp, destroyed any evidence you were ever there, and was continuing on through the forest. You have to wrap your arms around the his neck to keep yourself from jostling around too much. Gage seems to be going in a specific direction, but stops occasionally, as if trying to remember which way to go. The rain is getting harder and you hear a deep rumbling up above. It's not soon after that a huge flash of lightening streaks across the sky. You pull yourself closer to Gage as cold wind cuts across your body. Your legs are freezing but that becomes the least of your concerns when you feel a small, cold, object hit your leg. Then another, and another, you quickly realize it's beginning to hail.

Small pieces of ice pelt your body and you feel Gage pick up his pace. Moments later he stops by a large tree and takes a look at either side of it, cursing softly. He takes another look both ways before finally deciding to go to the right of the tree. It seems he made the right choice because after another few minutes you see a small cave up ahead. The opening is fairly small and Gage has stoop down to get inside. He sets you down on the cold rock floor just as you hear the hail storm outside grow worse. You scoot away from the cave's opening as larger pieces of hail begin bounce off the ground outside and roll in. Gage's breath is slightly ragged and he drops all of the bags to floor before leaning against the wall of the cave. He breaths in deeply then slowly sinks to the floor and stretches his legs out in front of him. One of his boots gently bumps your leg as he does. It's not a very big cave and you're relieve it's not deep either as you can see the end of the cave behind you whenever the cave is illuminated by the lightening outside. The sky has grown dark and you can sense the storm is going to let up any time soon.