Chapter 13 - Strangers.

"Was this your card?"

"No."

Carson chuckled at the young boy's attempt to entertain his older brother. She stared out the window, wrapped in her grey blanket blanket, staring at the snowflakes as they made their way down to the white ground beneath them. If they weren't in a life or death situation, she would probably be enjoying this.

"Yeah it is," she heard Caleb say. She turned her head towards the two boys, smiling at Caleb, who smiled back at her before turning back to his brother.

"Ok, just give me a second," the young boy said as he picked another card from the deck. "How about this one?"

Bradley stayed quiet for a second before Carson spoke up for the first time after a few hours.

"Was it that one?" She asked, getting up from her seat by the window and walking towards the boys.

When the boy didn't speak up, Carson listened for a second.

"What?" Caleb asked, noticing the drop of colour in the two's faces.

Suddenly, there was a noise from outside, and Bradley's head snapped towards the door, as well as Carson's and his brother's.

"What is that?" Bradley asked to the two, knowing neither could actually answer him.

"I don't know," Carson replied, dropping her blanket to the floor as she slowly walked towards the door.

"Brad?" Caleb asked as his brother got up to stand next to the girl.

"Dad," the older boy called.

"Dad!" Caleb said.

"Elliot, wake up," Carson said, following the lead of the other two.

Caleb grabbed the shotgun from the side of the room as Elliot finally opened his eyes.

"What?" He asked.

Just then, the door opened, and two men with guns appeared at the door.

"Hey!" Caleb yelled, raising the gun and pointing it towards the strangers.

"Jesus Christ!" One of the men yelled, putting his hands up.

"Woah!" Elliot yelled as he shot up from the chair he'd been sitting on and swiftly moved in front of the kids.

Bradley immediately grabbed Carson's hand and pushed her behind him, making the girl roll her eyes as she stepped forward so she was next to him.

He gave her a look which she returned, shrugging and turning her attention back to the two men standing in the doorway of the cabin.

"Who the fuck... who the fuck are you?" Elliot asked the men, a panicking look in his eye.

"Look, does he know what he's doing?" One of the men asked, referring to Caleb and the gun he was pointing at him.

Elliot looked at Caleb for a moment before grabbing the gun from his hands and pointing it towards the two men.

"Woah!" One of them said again, not really knowing how to respond to Elliot's actions.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Elliot asked, lacing his voice with hatred.

But Carson could see right through his act. Well, almost. Elliot wasn't just concerned about the fact that the men showed up at the cabin... it was almost as if he didn't want  them there.

The man closest to the group turned towards the other one, and the two started to have a hushed conversation in something that sounded a whole lot like French to the blonde.

"Hey, hey, hey, you talk English. What the hell are you doing here?" Elliot asked again, not dropping his aim from the strangers.

"Look," one of them said, "we've been out here huntin' for three days, all right? We tried to leave earlier but we couldn't get the truck out."

Elliot just looked at the men, not really knowing what to do except keep his gun pointed at them.

After a few moments he spoke, not letting his gaze shift from the pair.

"Brad, get their guns."

Bradley just stood still, scared to really move.

"Brad, get their guns. Now!" Elliot repeated, a little more harshly this time.

The younger boy moved forward, doing as he was told.

"Put them in the back room," Elliot ordered.

The first man gave his gun away more willingly than the second.

"It's ok, it's ok," he reassured his partner as he hesitantly gave Bradley his gun.

Bradley moved back to the group, heading towards the back room, but not before shooting Carson a glance which she returned with a worried expression.

Once he was out of sight, Elliot started speaking again.

"So, where's your truck?" He asked, still keeping the gun up.

The first man gave him a weird look, as if he was trying to figure him out, but answered his question nevertheless.

"On the access road, just around the cabin, down that trail." He pointed the different directions with his glove covered hand, his voice sounding extremely confused. He paused for a moment before speaking again.

"I don't... look, I'm Richard, ok? This is Luke."

The man who's name was Luke started talking in French again, which made Elliot even more frustrated than he already was.

"Stop talking French, ok?" Elliot said, his anger clear in his tone.

When he didn't stop, Bradley was the one that spoke up.

"Hey! Parlez anglais, s'il vous plait."

Carson turned to him, as well as the rest of the people surrounding the boy, slightly surprised, but not too much. She knew Bradley was a smart guy, but she thought he would be more into Spanish than French.

Richard made everyone's gaze snap back towards the two as he spoke.

"He's– he just said we were here first, ok?" He said, referring to his companion.

"We can share," Caleb announced, speaking up for the first time since the door had opened. "It'll be alright."

Elliot shot his son a glance, but before he had the chance to speak, Richard took over.

"Listen to your son, ok?"

Carson noticed his voice had turned to a completely different tone, one that sent shivers down her spine. It was almost a command.

"It's not even your fuckin' cabin, man."

After another pause, Elliot tried to think of something to say to make the men leave, but nothing came to mind before Caleb spoke up again.

"We can't just leave them out there. It's freezing," he stated, matter-of-factly.

Carson hadn't said a work the entire time, and she probably wasn't going to unless it was needed.

The duo slowly walked into the cabin, eyeing Elliot as they did so.

Caleb watched, fear filling his eyes as he watched them.

Carson noticed the change in the boy's behaviour and put an arm around his shoulders, bringing him a little closer to her.

The younger boy looked at her with a grateful look, and she gave him a warm smile.

"What're you boys doing up here anyway?" Luke asked, turning to the kids.

Carson let out a cough, and the man got the message.

"And girl." He looked at her for a moment before adding a "sorry."

She simply gave him a look, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"He was teaching us to shoot,"Caleb replied.

"Yeah?" Luke said, amused by the young boy's behaviour.

Bradley started coughing, interrupting the conversation.

"Are you ok?" The older man asked, looking at Bradley with a genuinely worried expression.

Before the boy had the chance to reply, his brother beat him to it.

"He fell through the ice. Carson did, too. To save him. It was crazy."

Luke looked at between the two oldest kids, wanting to make a comment, but he decided against it.

"No shit," he said instead, an idea making its way into his brain. Luke pulled out a bottle from his jacket pocket and started handing over to Bradley.

"Have some of this. Soothe your throat."

Elliot didn't even give the two teens time to respond as he stopped all motion in the room.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?"

All eyes turned to him, Carson's included. She'd been busy trying to read the writing on the bottle, trying to figure out if it was something she knew from her past. Or, better yet, her father's past.

"They're kids," Elliot continued, trying to keep his voice calm.

"Hey man, relax," Luke said, backing away from the Bradley and Carson. "I'm just tryin' to help."

Carson's ears perked up at the sound of his voice. It was deep, a little hoarse, as if he was trying to get his message across to not just Elliot, but to everybody in the room. But at the same time it sounded menacing, like a warning to not try anything stupid.

These guys might not have guns, but God knows what they're hiding under those coats, Carson thought, a shiver going down her spine.

It was Elliot's voice that snapped the girl out of her thoughts.

"You go over there in the corner and relax."

Bradley had been breathing slightly more heavily than usual, and was staring at the gun Elliot was clutching at his side.

Carson had the sudden urge to hold the boy, try to calm him down. And she would have... if Elliot's words hadn't caught her attention first.

"You guys go in the back room and get some sleep," the older man said, not bothering to look away from the strangers.

Carson looked at him for a second, unsure if to ask him where she would sleep, but decided against it.

"We're not tired," Caleb complained, not wanting to leave his father alone with the two men.

"Now," Elliot replied, his voice strong.

He got his point across, because Caleb, though hesitantly, moved away from the column he'd been leaning on and started making his way towards the back door.

Bradley went next, standing from his chair and following his little brother at a slow pace.

Caleb opened the door, making his way inside.

Bradley was about to follow but stopped, noticing the absence of a third person.

He turned around to see Carson looking at Elliot, her face covered in an expression the boy couldn't quite place. He didn't have time to study it further, since she moved her head so she was looking at Luke.

The man looked at her for a moment before shifting his gaze back to Elliot, then back to her. Their eyes locked for a moment, and it seemed like some sort of message had passed between them.

"Carson," Bradley called, his voice sounding much harsher than he thought it would.

The girl's head snapped in his direction, and, with one final glance towards Elliot, she made her way towards the boy.

Bradley let her inside before shutting the door, locking it.

The three teens stood in silence for a minute, all in deep thought about what had just happened. And, most importantly, what was going to happen next.

Caleb was the first to speak up.

"Well, we might as well sleep. There's not much we can do anyways. You guys need to rest and I guess I am tired."

Carson and Bradley nodded, but only the girl moved.

She turned on her heal, taking the extra pillow and blanket from the chair that sat near the door and threw them in a corner.

The two boys just looked at her as she started setting them up, before plopping down on the floor.

Bradley caught on to what she was doing and rolled his eyes.

"Do we really need to have this conversation again?"

Carson looked at him for a moment before cocking an eyebrow.

"I'm sleeping on the floor, Brad. There's no way I'm letting you or Caleb do that."

"Do I have to remind you how last time's conversation went?" The boy asked, cracking a light grin at the memory.

Now it was Carson's turn to roll her eyes. "You know, I would have beat you. I just gave you an easy win."

"I don't doubt that."

The girl smirked at the brunet before turning towards the pillow, picking it up and hugging it to her chest, her legs crossed underneath her.

The boy's grin turned into a smile as he watched her. He probably could have watched her for ages, but decided on doing something else instead. He slowly started making his way towards her, making her look at him with a questioning look.

"Brad, what are you–"

She didn't finish her sentence as he lunged at her, wrapping his arms around her waist and hauling her up from the floor.

"Bradley!" Carson shrieked, trying not to burst out laughing as he carried her around the room.

Caleb simply sat on his bed, watching as his brother finally happy. Genuinely happy. And it was just because of her.

The two older teens kept laughing, the entire scene similar to when they had just met. Only this time, both of them were getting butterflies in their stomachs.

Bradley finally got tired of spinning, his head swirling around from the dizziness. He dropped Carson backwards, careful to have her land on the bed and not on the floor. What he didn't calculate, though, was the fact that the girl's arms were wrapped tightly around his neck, clinging on for dear life.

Both went sprawling onto the bed, breathless from laughter, a smile still on both their faces. Both were quickly replaced by a look neither could really place, as gold met brown and Carson's breath hitched in her throat.

Bradley was on top of her, his hands pinning her arms down and his nose was nearly touching hers.

Both of them thought they should look away.

Neither of them did.

The moment was interrupted by Caleb, who gave a light cough, reminding the older kids of his presence.

Bradley let out an awkward cough, carefully getting off Carson and shoving his hands in his pockets.

Carson got up next, copying the boy's actions before making her way back to her corner.

"Well, uh, goodnight, I guess."

She pulled the blanket over herself, turning so she was facing the wall.

No one said anything after that.