Free Open Roads by Zach Bohannon

either side of it, spinning it around faster and faster. Dylan’s hair blew in the wind, and Gabriel hadn’t seen him smile like this at all in the short time that he’d known him. His heart sank with the reality that he’d have to pull the boy out of this, but knew it would happen sooner or later.
    “We really need to get going,” Gabriel said. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we appreciate your generosity and trusting us enough to bring us up here, especially with how things went down back at the store, but I should’ve been in Washington a week ago.”
    Charlie bowed his head and nodded. “Yeah, I understand.”
    Thunder sounded in the distance and Gabriel turned back to see dark clouds gathering in the sky. He looked up and could see the sun about to be overtaken by a gunmetal portrait directly above their heads. Within moments, the campground was overshadowed and Gabriel felt the first rain drop.
    “Alright, we gotta get goin’ so we don’t get caught in this,” Gabriel said.
    Charlie chuckled. “The sky’s about to open, man. You don’t wanna be caught dead driving back down to the main roads in the rain, believe me. Especially in that minivan.”
    Gabriel sighed and started to speak again, but Will cut in.
    “He’s right,” Will said. “We need to just wait this out up here.”
    A thunder clap roared in the sky again, and Jessica hurried over to the men gathered at the picnic table.
    “Got somewhere we can go before it starts pouring?” she asked Charlie.
    Charlie nodded. “I’ve got the keys to most these places in my cabin.”
    As Charlie hopped up off the picnic table and jogged to his cabin, Gabriel drew in a deep breath and shook his head.
    “We need to get going. We can’t waste anymore time.”
    “You kidding?” Jessica asked. “It’s about to pour and we’re in a minivan. We’ll slide right off that road on the way down.”
    And then the sky opened.

CHAPTER TEN

    Instead of all six of them cramming into one of the small cabins together, the group ended up in two units — Will, Holly, and Mary Beth in one. Two doors down, Gabriel, Jessica, and Dylan settled into another.
    As rain pattered on the roof and beat against the gravel outside, Will looked around the living area of the small cabin. A half-empty water bottle sat on a coffee table next to an open entertainment magazine. In the small dining area, a jacket hung over one of the chairs pushed under the hand-built, wood table, large enough to seat six people.
    Mary Beth and Holly appeared from a doorway on the other side of the room.
    “Someone’s clothes are on the bed,” Mary Beth said. “Does someone live here?”
    Will could see in Holly’s face that she had figured out exactly the same thing he had. Someone had been staying here before the cabin suddenly became vacant.
    “We’ll check and see if they’re Mr. Charlie’s or one of the others’ here, sweetie,” Holly said, making up something to keep the child’s head from spinning. “Why don’t you go sit over there on the couch?”
    Mary Beth skipped over to the loveseat and grabbed the magazine off the coffee table, rapidly thumbing through he pages to try and find something that interested her.
    Will walked to the bedroom, grabbing Holly’s arm to take her with him.
    An open suitcase lay on the bed, a man’s clothes neatly packed inside. On the floor at the other side of the bed lay another suitcase. It was closed, but a man’s button-up plaid shirt lay on top of it, next to a pair of boots. The bed itself was unmade, its sheets and comforter tossed. Will walked to the bathroom and saw the toiletries neatly placed on either side of the twin vanity. He emerged from the restroom, coming to where Holly stood looking at the bed.
    “This is just creepy,” Holly said.
    “I don’t know,” Will said. “When I was at the hospital, I lay in that bed wondering how many people had died in it.”
    “Yeah, but their crap wasn’t still