Quintessential | Joshua Washington

Return - III

At the base of the snow-covered trail, Quinn's booted foot tapping the floor impatiently was the only thing that could be heard in the otherwise serene environment; it was fairly early in the morning and she was a little twitchy and incredibly impatient. "Wish they'd all hurry up so we can get started on hunting down the Washington kid." She grunted, Stuart smiled at her.

"Who're you calling 'kid'? He's older than you." He gently tapped her on top of her head with his gloved fist. "And please stop using the word 'hunt', you'll freak the others out. We're here to find him, not hunt him down like some kind of rabid animal." Stuart chided.

"It's not as if they're here." She huffed, taking a seat on one of the duffle bags they'd brought. At last in the distance she saw a lone coach driving up, "Finally..." Her eyes glittered in anticipation, and sure enough it stopped nearby and the three adolescents got off. First Chris, looking a little uncertain but determined and then Sam and Mike, looking equally miserable about being back.

"Never thought I'd see this again..." Mike mumbled squinting up at the mountainous forest.

"Nice of you to finally show up, I was starting to think you wouldn't be coming." Quinn said as she stood up and dusted off her combat pants. The weather was fairly pleasant, even though snow still covered pretty much everything in sight; as such Quinn had opted for a black turtle neck and body warmer, coupled with easy to move in khaki combat pants and knee high docs for grip. She also wore a pair of thermal gloves and a woolly hat to prevent her body heat from escaping.

"Sorry, we were a little delayed." Chris replied apologetically.

"You can say that again, Jess almost throttled me when I told her I was coming back here." Mike informed them, "She said if I don't make it back she'll kill me...and then you." He turned to Quinn and she smirked a little at him.

"Well then, I'd better get you all back alive hadn't I?" Mike smiled back at her, and nodded to the bag, "What's in the bag? Guns?" She nodded and unzipped it to give them a brief look.

"Mainly, some other supplies too...I want this to be over as quickly as possible but we don't know how long we'll be up there." The three of them stood there in shock.

"How did you get all these?!" Chris asked in awe. Quinn gave him a mysterious little smile and shrugged.

"I know a guy." She picked up a sawn-off shotgun from her bag and zipped it back up. "Shall we go?"

"Hey why can't we have one?" Mike protested.

"I'll give you one once we're actually up there, I don't want you freaking out at every other sound and shooting the wildlife." Chris noted she actually looked pretty amused, evidently she was in higher spirits than when she'd invaded his apartment. "The Algonquian's take that shit really seriously you know." She started off up the trail and Chris and Mike looked after her confused.

"Al...gonquian?" Chris repeated.

"They're a native American tribe...right?" Sam looked to Stuart for clarification and he nodded.

"Yeah, Quinn's relatives stem from those tribes...well, on her dad's side anyway." Stuart picked up the other bag and allowed the others to go before setting off up the trail behind them. "Her mother was an English archaeologist, she was up here looking for artefacts...that how her parents met." He told them all in a low voice, so Quinn wouldn't overhear.

"Now it makes a little more sense..." Chris said nodding his head, "Where's her mom then?" Stuart paused.

"She died when Quinn was 10." Chris shut his mouth and cursed his insensitivity yet again. Suddenly Stuart was hit in the face with a snowball.