“I wish you weren’t.”
“These guys forced you into this—I know that, but I really wish you’d gone back, even alone.”
“I can take it, Roz. I promise.”
Roz smiled at her. “I know you can. You’re one tough cookie. If I’d lost a fingernail, I’d be crying right now.”
Fiona laughed, knowing she was being flattered, but loving it anyway. “You’re damn right I’m tough.”
Roz smiled more broadly and squeezed her knees again before standing up. “You okay by yourself for a bit? I need to get something to eat.”
“Go ahead. I’ll be fine.”
Roz squeezed her shoulder before walking away. The others were seated far across the little clearing they were in, and, almost as if she’d been waiting for her turn, Jill came toward her.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
Jill sat down next to her, both quiet for a long time.
“I’m sorry about earlier,” Jill said.
Fiona was surprised and must have shown it, as Jill smiled back. “I know. You’re not used to me admitting when I’m being an asshole.”
“I didn’t say—”
“It’s okay, Fiona. I know you’re thinking it. And I’m sorry if you think I bullied you into all this. I really thought you’d come around. I honestly didn’t know you still wanted to go back.”
Fiona stared at her, realizing that she meant it. Jill was so oblivious to anyone but herself, she hadn’t read Fiona’s actions as anything but consent. Not that this was new. Jill had acted this way throughout their friendship.
Once again, there was nothing to say, and Fiona nodded. Jill brightened at once, clearly understanding her response as acceptance, and shot to her feet.
“Let me have your pack for a few minutes. I’m going to take a little more of the weight.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I know. I insist. You’re hurt. Let me help you out for the rest of the day, at least. I want to, okay?”
“Okay, Jill. Thanks.”
Jill smiled at her, looping Fiona’s backpack off her shoulder, and Fiona’s spirits rose a little at the sight. Maybe, despite everything, things would be okay after all. Jill was trying to make amends, and despite her injuries, the long rest had done Fiona some good. She’d embarrassed herself in front of Roz again, but that was nothing new. The woman was obviously just being nice yesterday and today—she was fooling herself to believe there was any other motive. If she could let go of her crush, maybe she wouldn’t have to feel so bad about how she acted in front of her. She could just be herself.
Fiona took a long pull from her water bottle, dumped some on her face, and scrubbed briefly at the sweat and crusted tears with her fingertips. The warm water was still cooler than the hot, almost sultry air.
When she opened her eyes, Roz had approached again, so silently she was almost startled. Roz grinned at her.
“Better?”
Fiona smiled back and nodded. “Much.”
“You okay to keep going soon? In fifteen minutes or so?”
Coming from anyone else, she might have found the question a little patronizing. After all, what choice did she have? They couldn’t stay here forever. But when Roz asked her, it didn’t come off that way.
“I’ll be ready.”
“Good,” Roz said, flashing that gorgeous smile. “Give me your bottle, and I’ll fill it for you. Eat something solid, too. We have a long way to go before camp.”
She walked away, Fiona’s heart lifting even further at the sight of her lithe, almost mesmerizing gait. The last hour had been a disaster, but it hadn’t broken her, and it hadn’t broken the group. No one was angry with her for the delay, and with the scramble behind them, things could only get better.
Chapter Seven
Roz pushed them hard—almost harder than Fiona could take. Her knees, battered from the scramble, seemed to complain the entire time. They were hiking at a disadvantage today, as they had to go farther, faster than usual to make camp on time. Normally they’d have been on the trail several hours before they started, and with the delay at the scramble, they had to hustle to make up for lost time. Roz had a contingency plan in case they couldn’t reach the campsite before dark, but she wanted them to try to make the original destination before implementing the backup option. This meant very infrequent and very short breaks, but with all the recent drama, not talking to each other for any length was probably a good thing.
The sun had started to fade into early evening almost exactly when Fiona was about to call it quits. For what felt like hours now, she’d been battling the urge to simply sit down and stop, and her legs and knees felt like they were beginning to shut down. Already, she was starting to trip more often, losing coordination, and she’d fallen behind the others. She could still see them ahead in the woods, but they were getting farther and farther away. She watched her feet, concentrating on putting one in front of the other without stumbling over them, and when she glanced up again, the others had stopped. At first she thought they were waiting for her, but when she finally hustled up behind them, they were all staring into the woods in front of them. Fiona was panting, and it took her a second to get enough air for words.
“What…” She had to pause and take a shaky gasp, “are we looking at?”
“Shhh!” Jill said.
“I heard something,” Roz said quietly.
Fiona could hear nothing over the pounding blood in her ears and her own whistling breath, and both Jill and Carol made quieting motions. She put a hand over her mouth to stifle the sound and tried to listen as she bent at the waist, her other hand on her knee. She heard nothing but the usual sounds of the woods, and when she stood up again, the others were looking around at each other, confused.
Roz shrugged. “I guess I imagined it. Come on. Let’s get going.”
She started to move, and Fiona almost began to cry. “Wait, wait. I need a minute. Please. I can’t keep going like this without a longer break.”
Roz turned toward her, looking almost annoyed, but the others were nodding agreement, already taking off their packs. Fiona saw now that their faces were strained, everyone smudged with sweat and dirt. Even Roz seemed a little peaked, her eyes ringed with fatigue. She stared into the woods again and sighed before turning back to them.
“Okay. Ten minutes.”
Everyone talked at once.
“What?”
“That’s not enough—”
“I’m about to fall over—”
Roz held up a hand. “Guys, I know today has been rough, but we’re almost there.”
“How close is almost?” Jill asked.
Roz glanced into the woods in front of them again and shrugged. “Half an hour, maybe forty-five minutes from here. Definitely not more than an hour.”
Jill sighed and rolled her shoulders and neck. “Okay. Fine. But give us fifteen, okay? I’m about ready to fall down right here.” She turned to Fiona. “How are you doing? You okay? Your hands all right?”
With her pack off her back, Fiona felt much better, and she managed a weak smile. “I’m okay. I can go a little farther.”
Jill squeezed her shoulder. “I’m proud of you. You’re holding up better than the rest of us.”
In her near-exhaustion, Fiona found this remark touching rather than patronizing, and tears prickled at the corners of her eyes.
“Thanks.”
Jill grinned and winked. “Since you’re in such good shape, you owe me a massage when we get to camp. I feel like knives are jabbing me in the shoulders.”
Fiona winked back. “I’ll do you if you do me.”
“Who’s doing whom?” Carol asked.
“You can do better than this tramp, Fiona,” Sarah said, nudging her.
“She wishes,” Jill said, rolling her eyes.
The four of them sat down on the ground next to each other, and Roz wandered ahead a little, ostensibly to check the trail. She was clearly still keepin
g some distance from them. While they had trekked most of the afternoon in near silence, the atmosphere had been stressful from the moment they woke up. The strain had to be particularly hard on Roz. She had to keep the four of them going, adjust the speed to make up for the lost morning, and deal with whatever emotional turmoil she had to be in after the guys’ abandonment and the argument with Jill. Fiona was tempted to walk up to her and offer her recognition and gratitude for all she’d done and gone through today, but she looked peaceful over there on her own.
Jill nudged her in the ribs. “She likes you.”
Fiona rolled her eyes. “She does not.”
“More than me, anyway. She thinks I’m a pain in the ass.”
“You are a pain in the ass.”
Jill touched the back of her hand. “I’m serious, Fiona. I think you have a real shot with her. I’ve seen her watching you a few times and the two of you talking together. Every time she gets a little moony. I’m not kidding you here. She’s really into you. You should go for it.”
Fiona was about to retort, but Jill was pulled into a conversation about dinner with Carol and Sarah, and she was left to her own thoughts. The idea that Roz might find her attractive was flattering, but she also didn’t quite believe it, certainly not with the three of her friends here, too. She was the runt of the litter compared to them. Still, she couldn’t help but watch as Roz continued to examine the trail and the woods, her solitude clearly chosen, part of who she was. What would it be like to be part of that quiet peace?
As if she’d sensed Fiona’s gaze, Roz turned back toward them, walking softly and surely through the woods, almost silent. She seemed as much a part of these woods as the trees and animals around her, her neutral-colored clothing nearly camouflage.
“That’s fifteen,” she said.
The four of them groaned in unison, then laughed. Fiona felt suddenly jubilant, excited, even. The fact that they were going to make it to camp felt like a dream. Even an hour ago, she honestly thought she wouldn’t be able to do it. Now, as she struggled into her pack again, the aches and pains of the day immediately back and barking for attention, she knew she could do anything. Between the speed, distance, and elevation gain, today had been the hardest day they would have this entire trip, and she’d done it. She could be as proud of herself as she pleased.
“I like the smiles, guys,” Roz said, cinching her pack. “I thought you all would hate me by now.”
“Oh, we do,” Jill said, smiling. “But we’re too hungry to care right now.”
Roz smiled a little, obviously recognizing the attempt at a joke. “Okay. Let’s get you to camp then, and you can eat as much as you want. Maybe you won’t hate me so much when your stomach is full.”
The trail here had evened out, and, perhaps because of the break, or perhaps because they were almost finished, the final leg didn’t feel as arduous as before. Fiona even felt a little spring in her step, as if her pack had magically lightened. The woods were a little thinner, too, the sunlight breaking through a little more often than before. Fiona could tell by the angle of the light that it was late in the day, but they probably had at least another hour to go before they began to lose the light. Even then, there would likely be another hour of dim sunset before it was difficult to see without a headlamp. If camp was as close as Roz thought, they should have everything set up before that happened.
The sound of the water gradually faded, and Fiona remembered that Roz had mentioned that the river diverted from the trail in a few places. She didn’t like the idea that they would have to trek farther for the water they would need, nor did she like the thought that they were well and fully lost back here if something happened to Roz. Perhaps because of the lack of water here, the trail was even harder to detect through the woods. Everything was carpeted with dried pine needles, with very little broken undergrowth to point the way. Roz, however, was walking surely, carefully, following some path she could clearly see. Watching her from behind, her strong legs eating up the miles, was the single pleasure of the day.
Right as Fiona’s second wind died, and just when her shoulders started to scream again in protest, Roz suddenly slowed to a stop. She turned back to them and pointed.
“We made it.”
There, ahead in the woods, was a wide clearing, the end of the day’s sunlight streaming down on it like a little oasis. Everyone around her sighed with relief, and the four of them nearly staggered the final yards. Fiona tripped her last few steps, but she managed to snag the side of a tree before going down entirely. She unclipped her chest and waist belts and let the pack drop off her back, the relief so overwhelming she groaned.
“All right,” Roz said. “One person should start dinner, one should get water, and someone should set up the tents. I also want to hang half the food so we’re not doing all that in the dark, and I’ll need a hand. We can do the second half after we eat.”
“I’ll help you,” Fiona said, surprising herself.
Roz gave her a strained smile. “Thanks. Okay. Let’s get started.”
They divided the food bags into two piles while Sarah started on the tents, Carol set off on the faint trail toward the water, and Jill started dinner. Between the five of them, each person had carried a different part of tonight’s meal. Roz had sent them a very detailed list of what to buy and what to divide for every night of the trip. Doing this meant that they could have slightly more elaborate meals at the end of the day, as one-person cooking was slow and generally monotonous.
Fiona and Roz loaded two of the bear canisters, and then Roz led the way through the woods some hundred yards away. Like last night, the canisters were hung as counterweights on a high branch. Bears had learned long ago that they could simply chew or claw through any trailing rope that attached to the ground, so the trick was hanging food in a tree far enough off that ground that they couldn’t climb up to it. Obviously, Roz had chosen a specific tree for this long ago, as the one they walked to was ideal—no low branches to climb, the nearest one to the ground far too high to reach. Roz needed her to hold the ropes to keep them from tangling and to keep them taut. She used the hanging branch as a kind of lever to haul the food up with the second rope.
The process was usually slow and tedious, something Fiona had struggled to do well in the past, but this was anything but. Fiona enjoyed watching Roz work. As with everything, she was efficient and sure, none of her movements wasted or rushed. Fiona stood far enough back to be out of the way, which gave her an excellent view of the woman. She didn’t even have to worry about staring at her, as she needed to watch her to help effectively.
Roz twitched the second rope, and the other end dropped to the ground. The food hung perfectly above the ground. She gave Fiona a warm smile.
“Thanks for your help.”
“Sure,” Fiona said, a little breathless. That smile undid her every time.
“You can leave the second rope here since we’ll need to do this again after we eat.”
“Of course.” Fiona dropped it in a heap.
“We should help Carol get the water.”
“Mmm hmmm,” Fiona said, starting to lose her ability to make coherent speech. Her cheeks were burning, but she couldn’t break eye contact with the woman. Roz was staring at her, one eyebrow crooked up in a question, and the expression was so endearing, so adorable, Fiona almost said something about it.
“So we should go,” Roz said, clearly waiting for her now.
“Yes.”
Roz laughed and shook her head, then walked toward her, in the direction of camp, passing close enough that Fiona felt the heat from her body. The edge of Roz’s shirt brushed against the exposed skin on her forearm, and Fiona shivered, closing her eyes. It was all she could do not to grab Roz’s arm and…there the fantasy broke down, and Fiona’s eyes snapped open. She wasn’t brave enough to imagine what came next.
“Are you coming?” Roz asked, already several feet away.
“Yes,” Fiona said, and started follow
ing her.
They hadn’t walked more than a few feet before the screaming started. Both froze for a second, and then Roz took off, running so hard and fast Fiona couldn’t keep up with her. She disappeared around a particularly thick clump of bushes, and Fiona almost called out to her to slow down, but someone screamed again, closer, and she made herself keep going. Once she could see Roz again, some hundred feet away back in camp, Fiona pushed herself to speed up. The screams were louder now, and she saw Roz pause, listen, and then race toward the sound.
Fiona was vaguely aware as she dashed through camp that the others weren’t there, and the dread she’d been fighting washed through her, closing off clear thought. Who was hurt? Who was screaming? What had happened?
Roz was far ahead now, but her light-colored pants were visible as a flash of brightness in the woods. Fiona made herself go faster, bending slightly at the waist where a stitch had begun, working hard to avoid hitting trees as she ran. Branches were slashing at her face, and she was dimly aware of a sharp, stinging pain across her cheek, but she ignored it, her focus entirely on her moving legs.
She ran into a clearing and almost collided with Jill before she was able to stop herself. She took in the scene in a sweep of terror before she could make sense of what she was seeing.
Carol had been swallowed by the earth, only the top of her head visible. Her face was pinched in pain, and she let out another ear-piercing scream. She’d fallen into some kind of hole. It was some six feet deep, judging by how much of her could be seen, but Fiona couldn’t understand what had happened. The ground around Carol seemed to have caved in, but Fiona could see branches sticking up out of the hole around her, too. Almost as if—
Jill said it before she could think of the words. “It’s a pit trap. Like for wild boar.”
These were, of course, exactly the words she’d been trying to think of. Someone had dug a hole here and covered it with earth and branches. But why? Who?
Sarah was crouched some five feet to the left of the hole, face ashen with horror. Roz sprawled on the ground, flat on her stomach, her hands stretched out in front of her like a swimmer.
From the Woods Page 8
