by Angela Blake
Fifteen minutes went by and I curdled when I couldn’t fall asleep. The chaos outside was scary. I just didn’t want to wake up with water filling the tent. I’d drown in an instant, especially if I couldn’t unzip the entrance. What if the whole camping site was filling up with water? We’d all drown anyway.
Crash!
Shit that one sounded awfully close. I turned on my phone and used the light to look around. So far, my tent was doing fine. I tried to text Shirley and the boys but there was absolutely no reception this high up in the mountains.
Let’s get back to nature. No phones, no laptops, it’ll be amazing! Those were the words we all repeated when we were planning this stupid trip. Now it all sounds stupid. How the fuck was I supposed to contact them for help?
Crash!
“Ah!” I let out a scream when the last roar of thunder and lightning seemed so loud and close I swore my tent would be the next thing to flash and burn.
Crack!
“What the fuck?” I turned on my phone again and looked up. Something in my tent was creaking. I looked all over and checked the corners and just as I was about to peek out the window flap one of the nails just popped out of the ground, sending a portion of my tent to topple. Water began to flow into my tent and I rushed to unzip the entrance.
Heavy rain slammed against my face when I ran outside, barefoot and in just a pair of shorts and a shirt. I looked at my tent and saw that one of the holding flaps that kept the nails down had blown off. If I wanted to get things back in order I needed to strap it back down.
I turned around and glimpsed at Shirley, Tom and Jack’s tents. They were all still standing but Shirley’s was starting to crumble down as well. Her tent was more expensive than mine, which probably meant it was sturdier, but she was a lazy bitch and it was just a matter of time before her tent would collapse. She was damn lucky to be sleeping in with Tommy tonight.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I muttered to myself as I tried to run through the woods and get the damn flap back. It had been blown off to the bushes and I needed to get it before the wind kicked up again and threw it over the hill. I didn’t want to have to go down a slippery, muddy slope in the midst of a thunderstorm.
“This is so fucking stupid!” I screamed but the roar of the storm drowned out my voice. I ran as quickly as I could but just as I was about to grab the flap it blew away and descended down a small hill leading over to the pool I bathed in.
Should I chase after it? I worried that the storm might have turned that small creek into a raging river and I could drown in an instant if I slipped in.
“Ah, what the hell,” I decided and chased after the stupid flap. I figured if it got too dangerous I’d just go back and crash in with Jack.
That was the dumbest idea I ever came up with. As soon as I stepped on the downward slope I slipped on mud. Instantly I crashed onto the side of the hill and rolled down, my body crashing through bushes and small, thorny trees. I could feel every inch of my body crack each time I bumped into a small rock and my whole journey down halted with a sudden slam against a pine tree. Fortunately for me, I hit it with my shoulder and the pain wasn’t so bad. It would probably bruise in the morning but the adrenaline was keeping me up and alert.
I tried to get up but now my legs were shaking. I was covered in mud and leaves and so much fucking dirt I wanted to scream. When I looked at myself I realized my knees were a little bloody, perhaps from a few small cuts on the way down. Nothing was too painful, however, so I figured I was still okay.
The rain continued to pour down and when I glanced up the sky looked as dark and gloomy as ever. “Fuck this shit,” I told myself and figured I should just head back before I ended up harming myself further.
I tried to go back up the way I came but the pathway was too muddy and slippery. I looked around and saw there was another way back up but when I checked what was close to this road I saw the creek. Just as I figured, the rain made it swell and it was raging fast and dangerous.
“Fuck, this is ridiculous,” I said to myself. The only pathway I had of going back up the hill and to the camping site was situated right on top of the damn river where I’d drown in minutes if I slipped into it.
I made my way to the beginning of the pathway and then looked up. Now that I could see the destination, it wasn’t really that far. The plateau where we camped at was probably less than a fifth of a mile up. I took one step up and –
– slipped on a branch.
“Oh, shit!” I cried out as I fell backward. I tried to look back, knowing the raging river would engulf me in a moment’s notice. Time seemed to come to a standstill as I descended down the small hill and, just out of nowhere, I felt my head slam against a tree trunk instead of a body of water.
I blinked for a moment, wondering how far I was from the water, and passed out.
***
“I think she’s okay,” I heard a deep, male voice mutter.
“You think? It looks like she hit her head hard,” said someone else.
My eyes fluttered as I tried to look at my surroundings. At first, my vision blurred and all I could see was white. I feared that knock on my head blinded me. Fortunately, after a few more minutes, my vision faded in and I realized Brandon was looking down at me. He had me cradled in his arms, my head resting on his leg. Sitting beside him was Chris. I checked up and realized the sky was clear and that it was already early in the morning.
“W-what happened?” I asked as I tried to sit up. Nausea quickly hit me and I leaned back to rest.
“You fell down the hill, looks like it,” Chris answered. He was covered in mud and also had a bruise on his forehead. “We thought you were dead because your body was leaning on a tree log and the river was up to your chest.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t drown,” Brandon said. He had some leaves stuck to his arms and was completely shirtless. “We got lost ourselves. One of our bags was blown away and fell down the hill side. We chased it but the rain tossed us around and we had to swim down the river just to find a suitable place to rest. That’s when we found you.”
I looked at them with shock. “Wait, what? How far are we from the camping site?”
Chris shrugged back. “I don’t know. We swam for a long while. I guess you got lucky and managed to land on a log floating in the water. That probably saved you and prevented you from drowning. My guess is we’re a good eight or nine miles away from the site.”
“Holy shit,” I muttered. I finally got the strength to sit back up. “What the fuck do we do?”
Brandon helped me back up to my feet. I only stood a good five-feet-one and he was about a foot taller than me. I looked like a little girl next to him it almost made me forget we were all wet and covered in mud. I blushed like an idiot.
“First of all, we need to find a safe spot,” Chris said. “Let’s get out and away from the river. Maybe we can find some lodgings or another camping site so we can attend to our wounds, change our clothes or whatever.”
That sounded like a genius idea. I was all game for that. I looked like shit and I felt even worse.
I grabbed Brandon and Chris’ hands, sandwiching myself between them. “Yeah, please, let’s get out of here.”
Chapter Four
It took us a good three hours just to find a decent, safe spot. We moved away from the river and tried to head back West, using the sun as our directional guide. We knew the general direction of the camping site but we were still miles away and nothing here looked familiar.
Fortunately, we did reach a small glade where there was nothing but soft grass and a rocky center that wasn’t filled with mud. The trees around this area were all evergreens and I did spot what looked like a blueberry tree.
I crashed down in the center and lay on my back. “Fuck. We’ve been walking for forever and we’re nowhere near the camping site.”
“If we keep going like this it’ll be nightfall and we’ll be exposed out here,” Chris pointed out. “Wi
thout the rain, all the wild animals out here will go out and we’ll be up high on their hunting list.”
“So we need a place to camp out until we know a bit more about this place,” I said. “Don’t you think our friends are looking for us?”
Brandon nodded but he then pointed to our environment. “Sure they are. I bet they’re all worried about us. Even if they are looking for us it could take days before they find us or before we manage to get back to the camping grounds. It’s best we find a safe spot, rest there, and then each day try to trek further out until we know where we are and how to get back to them.”
That sounded reasonable. I had no survival skills, however, and I wanted to let them know I’d be pretty much useless out here. “I do have to admit though, I suck at this. I can’t build a fire, I can’t really cook unless it’s with my usual appliances and I don’t know the first thing about first aid.”
Both men laughed.
“What’s so funny?” I asked with a frown on my face.
“Don’t you worry,” Brandon said. “We were both in the Marines. We can take care of you, little baby.”
Little baby? Oddly enough, it kind of felt nice to be called that.
“Yeah,” Chris added in. “We can handle all this. You just sit back and stay pretty.”
That got a laugh out of me. “Really, you guys think I’m pretty?”
“No,” Brandon answered. “We think you’re goddamn fucking hot. You’ve got nice tits, too.”
My jaw dropped and I looked at him with a blank expression on my face. I didn’t know what to say to that.
“Yeah, we know you saw us peeping at you when you were taking a bath,” Chris said with a big grin on his face. “You loved flashing those perky tits at us, didn’t you?”
I seriously wanted to smack them both in the face. “Okay, I enjoyed it. Can we go now? I’d rather find a roof to sleep under instead of discussing whether or not I enjoyed flashing for you guys.”
They both laughed again and to be honest, I appreciated the light-hearted moment. Ever since it began raining I was filled with dread and worry. This was legitimately the first time I felt a little okay.
“Are any of you guys hungry?” Brandon asked. “We could get some berries and then look for shelter. There’s probably a cave here or some fallen logs and branches we could use to make a hut or something.”
Berries sounded like a good idea. A place to sleep in sounded even better.
“Yeah, that sounds like a genius idea,” I said. I got up and headed over to the berry tree. Brandon and Chris followed suit. Chris ripped what was left of his shirt and made a makeshift bag out of it. We dumped some berries into it and looked around for something else we could use. Chris took off for a bit and said he was going to look for a tree to climb and see where we were.
We spent about twenty minutes harvesting food when Chris suddenly hollered out.
“Hey! I found something!”
I looked at Brandon and he looked back with a confused shrug. We waited until we saw Chris running back.
“Whew,” he said as he finally caught up to us and leaned down, trying to catch his breath. “I saw a cabin, just a little ways out North. It’s between some trees and it looks like it’s in good shape. Not sure if anyone lives there or not. It could be an old office lodge of the camp site managers or something.”
“I hope there are people,” I told him. “Whether from the camp site administration or not, someone will be able to help us get back.”
Just saying it out loud gave me a strong feeling of redemption and hope.
We walked along a clear path between ridges of trees and after just a few minutes we managed to spot the cabin. Up close, it looked a lot bigger than how Chris described it to be. It was a bungalow but it was long and made of thick logs. The windows were dark and there were no lights turned on, inside and out. That kind of dampened my hopes as it meant no one was there to help us. When we got even closer I realized two of the windows were shattered and there were vines crawling in.
“Wow, this place looks pretty abandoned,” I commented as we stood just a few feet outside the main door.
“It looks pretty solid though,” Brandon exclaimed. “I mean, just look at it. It’s still standing pretty strong. There’s a chimney too so I guess we can get a fire going inside. That’d be nice and comfortable.”
Chris walked up to the door, checked if it was locked, and when he found it wasn’t he opened the front door and went inside. Brandon and I quickly followed.
Inside the cabin was dark and there were a few puddles of water by the broken windows. Other areas were dusty but other than the dirt, leaves, and water it looked like a perfectly maintained cabin. By my guess, it was last used just in the last few months although I couldn’t explain why it was abandoned. There were still some plates behind a glass cabinet, leather couches that looked brand new if not for the dust and the fireplace was in good shape. It had a neat cover that prevented rain water from flooding in and fortunately this cover was shut which meant we could get a fire going this instant if either of these two knew how to build a fire without a lighter or matches.
“Well, we better try to patch these windows with something and then clean out the place,” Chris said. “I’ll go check the rooms and see what still works here.”
He walked out of the living room and entered through the nearby doors. I watched as he took a quick sneak peek at each room while Brandon grabbed some old cloth from the kitchen area and began wiping down the couches.
“We got running water,” Chris hollered from the back. “I think they got this place hooked up to a natural spring or something.”
“Oh damn, that’s music to my ears,” I answered. I rushed to follow him and found him cleaning the bathroom with an old towel from the rooms. “Is that a hotel towel?”
He looked back at me and nodded, “Yeah. I guess this place could be rented out. They got towels here, cooking utensils, a heater, some soap and other things. They even got bathrobes and slippers. I checked the rooms. They even got nice white duvets and those thick blankets.”
Wow, that sounded like a really good hotel description but it was out here in the middle of nowhere.
“I’m going to take a shower then,” I told him.
Chris didn’t budge. It was like he didn’t hear me. He just kept on cleaning like it was nobody’s business.
I cleared my throat. “Uh, Chris? I’m going to take a shower.”
“Huh? Oh right, right,” he got up and started to head out of the bathroom. “I just assumed you wouldn’t mind.”
I laughed and gave him a flying kiss and a wink. He winked back and walked out, allowing me to take a nice bath in private. When I was done, they followed suit and we all just dressed into the bathrobes that were kept in the drawers. These were well protected from dust and dirt and even smelled good.
By evening we were all on the couch having berries. Even though we were out here in the wild, far away from our friends and civilization, I oddly felt secure and at ease with these two. Because I was the only girl here I felt a rush of pride, like I was so important to them.
I smiled and hugged them both.
Chapter Five
Shit, it’s so cold. I awoke shivering in the night. They gave me one of the rooms, the one with all the windows still intact, but even with them all shut I still shuddered. I needed some warmth.
“Fuck this,” I whispered to myself and trod out of the room and back to the living room. They cleaned it out earlier but we were all too tired from the trek to do anything about it. I couldn’t take the cold anymore and tried to get a fire burning with the few logs we had in the fireplace.
“How do I even get this shit started?” I blurted out as I picked up the logs and just stared into the darkness of the hearth. I didn’t know the first thing about building a fire but I did know it involved rubbing wood together until they get a spark. I’ve seen it done on television before, i
n one of those reality TV shows, but I never actually tried.
Well, at least if I keep moving I’d warm myself and if by some dumb luck I do get a fire then I’d be all set.
Picking up some of the logs I tried to get a fire burning. I did everything from scraping off some wood pieces that could burn like paper to rubbing two sticks together furiously to spark some friction. Nothing happened. I kept on trying for another thirty minutes but by the end of that, I was on the floor, exhausted and still freezing my ass off.
“What the fuck did I just waste all this time for?” I muttered to myself. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
“That’s a lot of fucking from a cute petite girl,” a voice answered.
I sat up in surprise and found Brandon looking down at me. Well, I figured it was Brandon. I couldn’t really see since it was so damn dark but he had a slightly bigger build than Chris and his voice was distinguishably more coarse and deeper.
“Shit, you scared me,” I told him as I grabbed his hand and yanked him down to sit beside me on the floor.
“I didn’t mean to,” he said as he took a seat. He grabbed a hold of my hand and squeezed. It felt so reassuring. “Can’t get a fire going?”
“I did try,” I said as I leaned in closer and rested my head on his arm. “Stupid piece of shit won’t catch on.”
Brandon suddenly wrapped me with both his arms and gave me a really tight, warm hug. “I’ll keep you warm, little baby girl.”
Hmm, that felt awfully good. I shut my eyes and just basked in the moment. I pushed him down to the floor and squirmed a bit until I could lie down comfortably and rest my head on his chest. He kept his embrace around me tight. It was a little awkward, however, since we were both wearing old bathrobes and nothing underneath. I felt so exposed without a bra and panties, even though I knew he couldn’t see me in the dark.
Then he moved a little bit and wrapped one of his legs around me. He then pulled me in closer and for the first time, I felt my breasts press against his rock-solid body. It was like his muscles were made of stone.
