by April Henry
She slid her phone from her pocket. Still no service. It was nearly two in the morning. They had been hiking six hours. It felt like forever.
Once the trail widened, Wyatt began again to walk up and down the line. He checked in with folks, joked around, but still kept everyone moving. Natalia realized that he did something similar during rushes at the Dairy Barn. Until today she hadn’t appreciated how vital his efforts were to keeping things running smoothly.
As Wyatt fell back into step with her, he reached for her hand without saying anything. For a moment, the press of his warm, calloused fingers made her forget about everything else. She wondered what it would be like to kiss Wyatt. The thought even took her mind off Trask. He was regarding her dully, his eyes at half-mast.
Ahead of them, the trail curved. When Natalia and Wyatt rounded the bend, the people at the head of the line had come to a halt. Wyatt let go of her hand and went forward to see what was wrong.
A tree had snapped at the base and fallen across the trail. The light from her headlamp traced the trunk, which was a little bigger around than a telephone pole. At the roots, where it had splintered, was a black, rotting spot. The tree’s crown was propped up by the branches. The top edge of the trunk was about waist-high and the bottom edge ended about two feet above the ground. Wyatt leaned his full weight on it and gave it a shove, but it didn’t budge.
Too tired even to debate what to do, some people started clambering over while others crawled under. Deciding she would rather start on the ground than fall onto it, Natalia opted for the latter. First she pushed her pack through, then went under herself. Rough bark scraped the top of her head, and the metallic scent of earth filled her nostrils. The glow of her headlamp picked out the scrapes on her hands, the dirt rimming her fingernails. She had cleared the trunk and was about to stand up when a cracking and groaning noise to her left jolted her with panic. She threw herself forward.
And then AJ screamed. When Natalia turned back, he was flat on his belly, his hands pushing his backpack in front of him, and the trunk resting on his lower back and hips.
And there was no space between them. Whatever branches had been holding up the trunk must have snapped.
Natalia dropped to her knees next to AJ. “Do you feel like anything’s broken?”
“I don’t know.” His voice shook. “I don’t think so. It feels more like pressure than pain.”
“That’s good,” she said in cheerful voice. She had no idea if it really was, but at least it might not be as bad as it looked. “Can you feel your toes? Move them?” She could sense everyone’s gaze on them. Zion was starting to cry. The questions hung in the air as they waited for an answer.
“Yeah,” AJ finally said. But when he tried to scoot forward, he stopped with a groan. “I think I’m just stuck. But I’m really stuck.”
Wyatt’s voice rang out. “Okay, everybody, we’ve got to get that log off AJ.”
“How are we going to do that?” Zion said through tears. “It’s too big.”
“No it’s not,” Wyatt insisted. “Not if we all lift together. We just need to give him an inch or two. And then AJ, you’ll use your elbows to drag yourself forward.”
“Sure,” AJ said.
Wyatt looked at them. About half the group was on each side of the log. “Okay, guys, stay on whatever side of the trunk you’re on and get on either side of AJ. I want the strongest people closest to him.”
They each found a space facing the log. Natalia was across from Wyatt, both of them on the left side of AJ’s body. Although she shouldn’t think of that word with regards to AJ, because body sounded too much like something dead.
“Okay. This is what we’re going to do. When I give the word, we’re going to keep our heads up, push our butts back, and squat down with our backs straight. Don’t let your knees get ahead of your toes. Then we’ll all quickly find a knot or a branch or anything to grab on to underneath. And then we’ll tighten our bellies and lift on my count. Everybody ready?”
There was a chorus of agreement.
“Okay, AJ, be ready to move as soon as you feel the log moving.” Wyatt took a deep breath. “Now, everybody else, keep your back straight, bend your knees, stick your butt back, and squat.”
Natalia’s knees grazed the rough bark as she followed Wyatt’s instructions.
“Reach under and find something to hold on to before we lift.”
Her fingers found a crack, and she pressed them into it.
“Now on my count tighten your belly, straighten your knees, and lift. One. Two. Three. Go.”
Natalia gritted her teeth and heaved. Or tried to. The log didn’t seem to have moved at all. Her elbows pressed against her knees and her lower back protested as she strained to stand. The air was torn by grunts and shouts as they all struggled to raise the trunk. But centimeter by centimeter, it edged a tiny bit higher. The muscles in her upper arms started to quiver.
“Go, AJ, go!” Wyatt ordered.
And suddenly AJ was worming his way out. And then he was free.
“Okay, everyone get your body parts out of the way and on my count let go.” Wyatt took a deep breath. “One. Two. Three. Drop!”
The trunk landed without crushing anyone’s toes. In fact, it was still about four inches above the ground, supported by a broken branch farther up or just the natural contours of the land. That small space must be the reason that AJ didn’t have a broken back.
To Natalia’s immense relief, AJ got to his knees and then his feet. She went up to him and touched his arm. “Do you have any numbness or tingling?”
“No.” He rubbed the small of his back. “I think I’m going to have one hell of a bruise, though.”
“Do you mind if I look?”
For an answer, he turned around, tugging up his shirt and backpack. In the light from her headlamp, the skin was abraded, dotted with blood.
“Is it okay if I touch your spine?”
“Go ahead.”
She reached under his shirt and with her fingertips pressed his spine from the curve of his back down to the crack of his buttocks. He was as furry on the back as he was on the front, but she was past feeling grossed out. AJ sucked in his breath toward the end, but otherwise didn’t complain. She repeated the movements on each side. But her fingers found no lumps or unexpected edges, and AJ didn’t hiss in pain.
Her shoulders loosened. “I think you’re okay.”
Susan gave AJ a hug. “Oh, honey, I’m so glad.”
Natalia looked around the ring of faces. Her headlamp played over them one by one. She saw exhaustion, fear, and grim determination. What emotions did her own face betray?
Wyatt sighed. “I think we need to stop and rest for a while. It’s too dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Jason echoed. “What about what’s behind us?”
“We’ve put some distance between us and the fire.” Marco cleared his throat and spit. “And B’s phone is dead, and mine almost is, which means no more flashlights. I don’t feel safe trying to keep walking in the dark.” He hadn’t complained once about hiking in open-toed Tevas, but Natalia figured it couldn’t be easy.
“It feels like we’ve all used up a year’s supply of adrenaline.” Pushing up his worthless sunglasses, Darryl scrubbed his face with his hands. “Everyone’s dead on their feet.”
“And I’m hungry.” Zion sounded like he was close to tears.
“I don’t know.” Natalia couldn’t keep her voice from trembling. “Is it really safe? What if the wind picks up or changes direction?”
“I’m not saying we sleep for eight hours,” Wyatt said gently. “But if we keep pushing without a break, I think we’re just asking for more injuries. As soon as we come to a clearing, let’s stop and eat something, check the map, and rest for an hour or two. Even if you don’t sleep, it will recharge your batteries. In Eagle Scouts, we call it STOP. Stop, Think, Observe, Plan.”
The others nodded in agreement. Reluctantly, Natalia did, too.
; CHAPTER 18
NAKED AND AFRAID
2:17 A.M.
“I THINK THIS IS as good a spot as any.” Wyatt turned in a circle in the small clearing they had just reached. “It’s flat and relatively clear.”
People were already sitting, going through their packs or smoothing out a place to lie down. Wyatt had set down Trask, and now his parents were fussing over him. Natalia tilted her head back. It should have been a clear night, but the stars were obscured by a haze of smoke.
“Hey, guys,” Wyatt said. “Before we try to rest, I think we should take inventory. Does anyone besides me have a water filter, like a LifeStraw?” When people shook their heads, he said, “I only have one, but if everyone fills up their bottles at the creek, we can pass it around and take turns using it.” He knelt by his backpack, which Marco had set down, unzipped it, and found first the filter and then a tiny silver square that turned out to be an emergency blanket. He spread it out. “Why don’t we put whatever we’ve got on here.”
“I sure hope our cars are okay,” Marco said as he pulled a set of keys from his pocket. “Mine’s a real classic. A 1966 Sunbeam Alpine. They don’t make them like that anymore.”
“Marco has a thing for cars old enough to have belonged to his grandparents,” Beatriz teased as she set down her towel and water bottle on the space blanket. “Cars so old that they spend more time up on lifts with him tinkering on them than they do on the road. Some days I think he loves that car more than he loves me.”
Wyatt said, “I guess we don’t need to add our phones or keys, not unless there’s something useful on your key chain.” Marco repocketed his keys.
“About all we have is a diaper,” Lisa said, “which I’m going to use right now. Oh, and some hand sanitizer.” She picked up Trask and carried him behind a tree.
With Trask fussing in the background, people took items from their packs and pockets and added them to the silver square. For his grandpa’s benefit, Zion narrated each addition. Marco added the leash he’d been wearing around his neck. In his pockets he had a pair of sunglasses, an inhaler, and a bandanna. A few people had food: an apple, a handful of baby carrots in a plastic bag, two Nature Valley granola bars, a small bag of almonds, a KIND bar. AJ’s pack had a book about easy day hikes, sunscreen, and an aerosol can that turned out to be bear spray. People looked at each other but didn’t comment.
From her pack, Natalia added a LUNA bar, her whistle, her first aid kit, and her beach towel. But she found herself reluctant to pull out one item: her phone charger. A bunch of people were going to want to use it. Her phone was still at 43 percent, but the idea of it going to zero, of not being able to communicate once they were back in range of a cell tower, made her feel itchy with panic. Finally she pulled it out and added it to the pile.
“Wait—is that a phone charger?” Marco leaned forward. He was cradling Blue like a big furry baby while on one side Beatriz rubbed his belly and on the other Susan scratched behind his ears.
“My grandpa’s phone is down to seven percent,” Zion said.
Jason held up his. “Mine’s at sixteen.”
“I know it has enough to recharge one phone from zero to a hundred,” Natalia said. “I don’t know if that means it can get like three phones to thirty-three percent.”
Wyatt said, “Let’s start by having Marco hook up to it first and at least get him up to twenty so he and Beatriz can have a light source. And then we can decide who gets it next.” As he spoke, he started pulling things out of his pack and pockets. He had the most of anyone. In addition to the space blanket, map, headlamp, first aid kit, parachute cord, and compass, he also had two Clif bars, two PowerBars, his and Marco’s sunscreen, a knife, rain pants, a fleece jacket, a T-shirt, something in a stuff sack he called a bivy bag, and an emergency waterproof poncho that folded down to a square.
“What’s that?” Beatriz pointed at a four-inch-long orange plastic tube Wyatt was adding to the pile.
“It’s a whistle, but it’s also got a compass, a signal mirror, and a flint fire starter. And the whole thing is a waterproof match holder.”
“You should go on that TV show Naked and Afraid,” Marco said. “That would be perfect for the one item you’re allowed to bring on.”
Next, Wyatt added a flattened roll of TP and a small trowel. Seeing them reminded Natalia about how many hours she had been ignoring her need to go. Intuiting people’s thoughts, Wyatt said, “After this, I’ll dig a trench behind a tree and we can take turns using it. Start at one end, cover your poop, and try not to use too much TP.”
From his pants pocket, Darryl pulled out a yellow box and reluctantly added it to the pile.
“EpiPens?” Wyatt asked. “For you?”
“Zion. He’s allergic to bees.”
Susan’s pack, which had a sleeping bag strapped to the bottom, had some duplicates of Wyatt’s items. She also had a small stove, coffee-making supplies, a bandanna, a bungie cord, and something that looked like a red stick of dynamite.
“A road flare?” AJ asked. “Why do you have that?”
Susan frowned in frustration as she sought the right words. “It begins the fire camp.”
Wyatt helped her out. “Some people use it as a campfire starter. It burns itself up so the only thing you need to pack out is the plastic cap.”
“Why not just use matches?” Zion asked.
“Matches take up less space, but flares don’t require kindling, and they’ll even work on damp wood.”
“I guess the one thing we don’t need to worry about is how to start a fire,” Natalia said. Still, something about the flare nagged her. Maybe she’d seen one recently, marking the site of an accident?
The last thing out of Susan’s pack was a quart-sized plastic bag. Natalia’s mouth watered when she saw what it was filled with: a mix of raisins, M&M’s, and peanuts.
Wyatt added it to the other food. The pile looked large until Natalia thought about how it had to be split a dozen ways.
“What about you, Jason?” Ryan asked. “Don’t you have anything to add to the pile?” He exchanged a meaningful glance with Lisa, who had returned with Trask. The toddler was crying, the sound rhythmic and exhausted.
Jason was wearing cargo shorts with what seemed like dozens of pockets. He shook his head. “Nope. I don’t have anything.”
Getting to his feet, Marco moved closer to him. “That’s not true. I’ve seen you patting your pockets all night. What have you got in there?”
Jason stood up, too, as did AJ. Slowly, reluctantly, Jason pushed his hands into his front pockets. But when they emerged a second later, they were empty. He held them out. “Like I said, I’ve got nothing, dude.”
As Jason spoke Blue hunched his shoulders and bared his teeth. The faintest of growls buzzed around him.
“Let me help you look.” Marco crowded closer and then grabbed one of his arms, while AJ grabbed the other. Jason shouted and twisted in protest.
“I got this,” Marco said. His free hand pushed into one of Jason’s pockets. When he pulled it out, something glinted on his palm. People gasped in surprise. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t food.
Wyatt got to his feet and stepped closer so that his headlamp illuminated it. The object was a little smaller than Marco’s palm. Shaped something like a snowflake, it was made of dozens of twinkling white gems. Set inside the snowflake shape was a cross made of red shimmering stones. The place where the arms of the cross met was marked with a sparkling jewel the size of a dime.
“Oh my God,” Beatriz breathed. “Are those real diamonds?”
Jason opened his mouth but nothing came out. Natalia felt like she could almost hear his thoughts as they scrambled around, looking for an explanation.
Into the silence came a crashing sound behind them. It got louder by the second. The darkness seemed to amplify it. Snapping, cracking, splintering. A bolt of adrenaline shot down Natalia’s spine. What could make that kind of noise?
The jewelry forgotten, they
tossed glances at one another, eyes wide. Lisa hugged Trask so tight he let out a startled hiccup and abruptly stopped crying.
Staring in the direction of the racket, Blue began to bark frantically. Marco grabbed his collar as he strained forward.
A deer burst into the clearing. A buck with a huge rack of antlers. Majestic and as improbable as a dream. It leapt right over the silver space blanket, clearing it easily, and then galloped back into the trees.
They were all still mesmerized, when Jason darted to the pile. He leaned down and grabbed up the can of bear spray and the plastic bag of trail mix. Then he turned and ran.
CHAPTER 19
IN HER BONES
2:42 A.M.
WYATT TOOK A STEP as if to run after Jason.
Natalia grabbed his arm. “Just let him go.”
“Oh, snap!” Zion looked delighted as he put it all together. “So that thing was real?”
Marco shook his head in disbelief. “Where would somebody get something like that?”
“What was it that he was holding?” Darryl asked. “I couldn’t really see it.”
“It was like this big pin covered with diamonds and rubies,” Beatriz explained. “And it looked old. Like something from another century.”
“Maybe it wasn’t real,” AJ suggested.
Natalia remembered Jason’s desperate expression. “Only why would anyone take fake ornate jewelry on a hike? Plus if it was fake, Jason would have said something right away.”
“We know one thing for sure.” Ryan made a scoffing noise. “It can’t have belonged to him. So he must have stolen it.”
Lisa was still jigging Trask up and down, even though he had stopped crying. “Maybe he robbed a jewelry store.”
