"I'll try again in the morning."
But we all knew that if there'd been any houses or inhabited cabins nearby, I should have been able to spot light.
We trudged back to the others and told them.
"There must be people out there somewhere," I said when we finished. "We're not in the middle of Alaska. The nearest house can't be more than ten, fifteen kilometers away."
"Which Corey can't walk with his busted knee," Hayley said.
"I know. That's why we'll split up in the morning. I can move fast--fifteen kilometers isn't even a half-marathon."
"I'll go with you," Daniel said. "I can keep up. For tonight, though, we need to get someplace more sheltered."
I nodded. "We'll need to find a stream, too. Fresh water."
"You mean we have to go farther into the forest?" Corey said. "We got off that island for you, but I'm not sure we should be hiding so far away that we won't see a real rescue team if they come."
And so it began. Round two of the great debate. Once again, we split along the same lines--Sam, Daniel, and I wanted to push on, while Corey, Nicole, and Hayley wanted to stay. Daniel could have swayed Corey. But he was injured and we couldn't bring ourselves to insist he tramp through the forest in agony.
We finally agreed to head closer to the beach, where they could spend the night. We'd return for them in the morning.
Splitting up felt wrong, like we were just being stubborn. Yet as wrong as it felt to separate, it felt even more wrong to stay so close to the crash site. Also, Daniel and I were soaked. We needed to try starting a fire to dry out. We couldn't do that within sight of the crash.
So Sam, Daniel, and I left Corey, Hayley, and Nicole and continued on with Kenjii. We located a stream and followed it until we found a cave where we could spend the night. Well, not so much a cave as a sheltered spot under an outcropping of rock. But sheltered was the key word. Plenty of dead vegetation had blown in and dried out, and Daniel managed to knock rocks together, get a spark, and light a tiny blaze. Considering I'd escaped a raging forest fire earlier that day, I was good with tiny.
We huddled around that small campfire and tried not to think about how cold it was or how hungry we were. Kenjii was dry now, and she felt like a furry hot water bottle between Daniel and me. I should be able to find nuts in the morning, maybe even some late berries. For now, there was nothing we could do about it. We'd drunk from the stream and it was indeed fresh water and that was all we needed, however much our stomachs disagreed.
I looked at Sam, huddled with us by the blaze, and I figured now was a good time to ask her some tough questions. No way was she going to stomp off into the night, away from the heat.
"You know why those people took us," I said. "Or you think you do. It has something to do with you. With why you were searching Mina Lee's cottage, why you took her file on you, and why you flipped out when I grabbed it."
She said nothing.
Daniel had stretched out on his side, cheek propped on his hand. He lifted his head now. "This isn't the time to keep secrets. If you think you know why they're after us, you need to--"
"Benandanti."
Daniel sat up. "What?"
"Benandanti," Sam said. "It's--"
"We know what it is. A cult of Italian witch-hunters killed during the Inquisition."
She stared at us. "Where did you hear that?"
"Mina sent Daniel to a book at the Nanaimo library," I said. "She gave him a reference and page number. It led to an article on the benandanti."
"Oh." She paused, then nodded, her expression ... satisfied. Pleased even. "Well, the book didn't get it right. They never do. Benandanti weren't witch-hunters. They were demon-hunters, who evolved into general-purpose evil hunters. Supernatural evil, that is. So sure, witches would be a target, if witches were hurting anyone with their powers. So would sorcerers, werewolves, vampires, half-demons. Especially half-demons, because they have demon blood and demons were the benandanti's original target."
"You're saying this like ... you believe in it," Daniel said slowly.
Rafe had said skin-walkers had gone extinct, but other races hadn't. He hadn't said what those races were, but I figured it was all those paranormal types Sam just mentioned, ones we still saw in movies and books, continuing to play a role in folklore after others faded. Because they had continued to exist while others, like benandanti, had not.
"You know why Mina sent you to that page, right?" Sam said.
"I figured she picked some random entry in a book no one ever checked out."
"Really?" She met his gaze. "Is that honestly what you think?"