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look. “I did. A few blocks off the lake on the north side of town.”
    “I’ve never been to Chicago. Is it worth visiting?”
    “It’s a lovely city.” She went on to tell him all the many reasons he should take a trip to the Windy City. He liked listening to her voice. The melodic tone was soothing. He detected a hint of an accent in the way she dropped her th sound in the and replaced it with a d. So the lake became d’lake. The accent became more pronounced the longer they traveled. A clear sign of her fatigue.
    The forest deepened, the trees growing more dense, shutting out the setting sun. Time seemed suspended. Sweat broke out on Jeff’s back despite the dropping temperature. The electrical humming sound remained a background noise like an annoying mosquito, underscoring the chirp of birds, the ticking of insects. The vibrating noise wasn’t necessarily growing louder, but not quieter, either.
    Whatever was making the humming wasn’t a small generator attached to a video camera. He wouldn’t stake his life or Tessa’s on the belief that finding the source of the sound would bring them anything but trouble. Like the toxin, it was out of place, an intrusion that shouldn’t be there in the forest. A possible danger. One that may or may not prove to be deadly.
    “Shouldn’t we have hit the fire road by now?” Tessa asked, the strain of the afternoon trembling in her voice. Or was that a shiver from the cold?
    All around them the world turned from bright and vibrant colors to monochrome grays as the waning light of dusk slowly and surely disappeared.
    “We have to have traveled twenty miles by now.”
    He hated to disappoint her but he’d guess more like six miles. He kept that to himself. He checked the time on his phone. They’d been in the woods for nearly seven hours. And unfortunately still no cell service.
    She stumbled on an exposed root.
    He clamped his hand around her elbow. “You okay?”
    She took a deep breath and straightened. “I’m good.”
    The woman wouldn’t admit to any weakness. He let go and admired her willingness to endure. So much for his assumption that she was too high maintenance for the outdoors.
    They trudged on as the oppressive darkness closed in around them. A wolf howled. Uncomfortably close. The glacial air invading the forest seeped through his shirt.
    Hiking at night wasn’t wise, especially as the terrain climbed, making the going more arduous. They didn’t have a trail to follow through the dense foliage. Despite keeping up the constant dialogue, they could easily startle a wary animal in the dark or stumble over a fallen branch. “We need to stop and make camp until daylight.”
    “Shouldn’t we keep going? The fire road can’t be that far. I have a flashlight and headlamp.”
    Of course she did. “Not a good idea. It’s getting colder, a wind has picked up and even with light it’s dangerous out here at night.”
    “Won’t stopping make us sitting ducks?” she asked, her voice rising slightly. “The bad guys aren’t going to stop, are they?”
    “If they’re smart, they are. Though if they’d wanted us dead, they’d have killed us by now. They want us in these woods.”
    “Maybe to give them time to clean up the toxic waste.”
    “That could be it.” Or they were to be made into human targets. In which case, any light would be their enemy. “But injuring ourselves stumbling around in the dark isn’t the only thing we have to worry about. It’s what hunts in the dark. And if we’re moving, we’re prey.”
    “And stopping, we’re not?”
    “Hunkered down, we have a better shot of not being caught unawares.”
    There was the briefest of pauses before she said, “We’ll need to build some sort of windbreak.”
    He shifted her duffel bag. “You wouldn’t happen to have one in here, would you?” The thing weighed heavy across his shoulder.
    “Unfortunately, no. But I do have a raincoat.”
    That would help. “You were smart to bring