Defiant: Quantic Dreams Book 2 by Elizabeth McLaughlin (best mystery novels of all time .txt) 📕

roughness of the ground. I wiped the sweat from my brow and ran a hand through my hair. Only three hundred feet to go.

It was freezing by the time I had finished, the sweat soaking my body leeching any warmth my muscles generated away from me. This was made worse by my having to sprint back and forth from camp, to fire, to fire, just to keep things going. I didn’t want or both of the fires going out. It was too windy to start another blaze and the flickering had probably attracted every predator for miles. This was do or die.

Taking the branches I had left to dry during the day, I lit one and held it high. The area I had carved out for myself lay in front of me, a patch of land roughly three hundred square feet. Very roughly. I hoped the fire would sustain itself long enough; I was counting on someone noticing within an hour or two-if they hadn’t seen by morning, well, I’d formulate a plan then. I started walking along the perimeter of my dirt piles, trailing the branch as I went. There was a whoosh as the grass caught fire behind me, and then a hiss as it sputtered out.

Seriously?

I tried again. Once more the grass sizzled, but the flames wouldn’t progress more than a foot or so before dying again. Panic shot through me so strongly I almost dropped the torch. What if I couldn’t get the fire lit? I was rapidly running out of supplies and the temperature wasn’t getting any warmer each day. If this didn’t take, I might as well start walking towards the horizon and wait for something to figure out I am edible. I dropped the torch, cursing as it lit a fire underneath my bare feet. Once they started coming, the swearing flowed like water. I threw back my head and howled to the sky. I dragged out every epithet I had ever heard and invented new ones. I set a curse on Gabriel, on his supporters, on my parents for bringing me into this godforsaken place. I screamed so loudly my voice became hoarse. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I stamped my feet into the ground, burning myself in the flames the torch had set. Nothing mattered anymore. I had fought so fucking hard and come so goddamn far only to have my death brought about by the inability to light a simple flame. What a stupid way to die.

“SHIT!” I picked up the torch and flung it as hard as I could towards the shelter door. It crashed against the metal, cloth unravelling and grass exploding everywhere. What fire had stayed with the torch tumbled in fragments to the ground, the embers rolling away from the door. From where I stood, they almost looked like fireflies.

Shit. The word struck me in the head like a rock. Shit could be my savior here. I sprinted past my campsite to the latrine. The smell of urine and feces had done its job warding away animals. The site was untouched. I turned my head and wrinkled my nose as I stuck a hand into the hole and pulled out a handful of my own leavings. It had dried out somewhat and had a clay-like consistency. I set it on the ground next to the hole and gagged as I dug both hands in. Dried or not, the smell was horrific. If anyone was still alive in the shelter, I suspected I would be in for a round of antibiotics-or two. Just don’t shit your pants now. I thought to myself.

When I was finished I had amassed around two fist-sized piles of excrement. Not nearly enough to spread around a three hundred foot perimeter. I settled on the idea that sprinkling it as I walked might work best. The bacteria in the feces would help fuel the flame and the fiber would keep it going long enough to catch in the grass. A quick sprint back to camp and I returned with the tarp I had laid out to catch rainwater. Seeing as this was my last and only shot at rescue I figured it didn’t much matter if I soiled it. I carried my humble fertilizer back to camp where the campfire was starting to burn low. I threw a few of the extra pieces of wood I had set aside on it and took one of the stronger branches for myself. Plunging it into the stinking package I held in my arms I smeared the end of the wood liberally and stuck it into the flames.

“Fuck!” I turned my head and coughed as the reek of burning human feces hit me full in the face, courtesy of a passing breeze. I swallowed hard to keep my gorge from rising any more and spat into the grass. At least it was burning.

I set about my business at the corner of the perimeter, stooping and placing little piles of crap every few feet like some perverse farmer. As unpleasant as the task was, it did work. The grass along the perimeter caught fire like it was dry tinder. I stopped just short of encircling the square in flames; if I didn’t leave a door to escape rescue would be pointless. Returning to my starting point I touched the torch down in random areas, close enough to the established blaze to encourage it to spread. Soon I was starting at a veritable wall of fire and I ran for the gap I had left, barely making it through as the inferno licked at my clothing. Once I had cleared the box I stood back and watched. The dirt that had been overturned to form the perimeter wasn’t very high. What if the fire passed over it and I set the entire field on fire? As soon as I thought it a spark from a burning twig inside the fire popped and landed outside the pile of