by J. R. Ryder
I smiled ever so slightly. “Sure.”
Together, we assembled her tent. Even I was a little rusty.
Fortunately, I managed to make it work.
“How long do you plan to stay out here by yourself?” I asked, growing a little concerned for her safety. The woods were dangerous, even for those who knew how to navigate through its heart of darkness.
“A couple of days. I just need some time to recharge, you know.”
I nodded while looking around for some wood. Most of it was saturated with the snow. “You know, if you needed a place to stay, you can stay with me for a couple of days. I have a nice cottage a few miles in.” I held up my hands. “I know it sounds super creepy since you know nothing about me, but I’m just worried about you out here, all by yourself.”
“Well, don’t.” She snapped. “I can take care of myself.”
The harshness of her tone took me by surprise. I hadn’t been spoken to in such a manner by a woman before.
“Look. I appreciate the help, but I think I can handle it from here.”
“Of course, but seriously, if you find yourself in trouble, please try and find me. I’m just –”
“Don’t bother wasting your breath.” She cut me off with a flick of her wrist.
“At least let me help you with the first…”
“No. I can do it myself.” She gave me such a glare that I knew better than to argue with her.
“Alright, I’m sorry. Just, stay safe, alright.”
“I will.”
It was then that I noticed she had a gun clipped to her belt. I didn’t say anything, but I only hoped that she knew how to use it.
***
The following the day, the sky was painted in a stark white.
Snow.
I could almost smell it on the horizon.
Slipping out of bed, I stepped onto the porch, letting the icy-cold air whip into my face. Who needed coffee when you had mother nature?
Wolf laid down at my feet, resting his head on my foot.
He had helped take the edge off my loneliness, but I could still feel it weighing down on my shoulders.
My thoughts wandered back to Mandy. Was she okay? How had she fared through the night? I wanted to track her down and check on her. At the same time, I knew better than to overstep my boundaries.
If she wanted some alone time, who was I to interfere with that?
“We should gather some wood before the storm rolls in,” I announced.
Wolf immediately got to his feet, ready to follow me wherever I went. I gently rubbed his head, smiling at his faithful nature.
After I was dressed, I grabbed my hunting bow and slung it over my shoulder.
“Might as well get some hunting down while we’re out and about,” I told him.
For a few hours, we walked around, shooting down birds. Quite a few were destroyed by Wolf’s massive jowl. He had yet to learn how to pick them up gently.
“You’ll get the hang of it, buddy.” I scratched his left ear, making him shake his hind leg in delight.
Suddenly, his ears pricked up. He stood completely still, nose pointed forward.
“What is it, boy?” I asked, resting a hand on his back. His fur was standing on end, prickling against my palm.
Preparing for the worst, I grabbed my bow, loading it with an arrow.
He let out a menacing growl, his sharp canine teeth were now on full display. I watched as he crept forward like a beast of prey stalking his dinner.
I followed as silently as I could, holding my breath in anticipation.
What was he sensing?
And then, abruptly, he shot forward, running as fast as he could.
Without a moment of hesitation, I chased right after him, jumping over logs and obstacles just to keep up with him.
When he came to a halt, he sat down and looked up at me with this almost innocent expression.
I looked up to find a cottage.
Could it be…?
I circled around it slowly, keeping to a crouch, feeling like I was back in service. Countless missions involved snooping around and getting information. Most of the time, areas were rigged with landmines, making every step potentially deadly.
At least no such traps would find me here.
I proceeded with caution. My own home was rigged with… custom… home security. I always believed you couldn’t be too careful.
Eventually, I came upon a window. I glanced through it to find my old squad leader dozing off on the couch, a Persian cat on his lap. The cat noticed me and jumped up on Andys chest.
Andy woke with a start and his eyes shot open.
Instinctively, I quickly ducked down.
A second later, he was standing at his door, rifle in hand.
“It’s me,” I called out, holding up my hands in innocence. “Don’t shoot.”
“Damn. I didn’t expect you to find me this quickly.” He chuckled. “Was I that easy to find?”
“No, actually, I wasn’t trying to find you at all. Wolf was the one who led me here.” I jerked my thumb in the dog’s direction, but he was gone.
I turned around, searching for him when I heard a loud, annoyed sounding meow.
Wolf had cornered the cat inside the cottage, looking at it curiously, head cocked to the side.
The cat screeched, lifting a paw and swatting at the pit-bulls nose.
Wolf gave a yelp of surprise before running back to me, hiding behind my leg.
“Quite the killer you got there.” Andy scoffed.
“You’re not one to talk. You have a cat.”
“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with owning a cat.” He countered, whistling softly. The cat jumped up onto the counter next to Andy, rubbing its head against Andy’s chest. “She’s a sweetheart.”
“Wolf doesn’t seem to think so.”
“She was defending herself. Your dog is intimidating. She didn’t know he was a big baby.”
“Hey.” I frowned. “He’ll toughen up.”
“I’m sure he will.” Andy nodded, placing the cat back on the floor. “Anyway, do you want a drink or something? It’s been a while since we’ve spent some time together.”
I shook my head. “I rather not. Nothing against you but there's still just too many bad memories hanging over me, you know? Don’t want to stir anything up.”
“It’s ok.” He nodded his head in understanding. “Don’t worry about it. Maybe we will bump into each other again. And, if you ever need something, you know exactly where to find me. I don’t do much these days.”
“I don’t believe that for a second. You were always the hyperactive one in the squad.”
He shrugged. “Things changed. I didn’t like cats back then.”
I laughed. “Yeah, and I suppose we weren’t hermits.”
“No, we weren’t.”
“Anyway, I should get going. There’s a storm rolling in.”
“I noticed. It looks like it might be a bad one.”
“Yeah, it looks that way.”
“Alright, I’ll see you around.” Andy offered one more smile before closing the door.
The wind whipped around me, seeping through the thin material of my jacket.
It was going to be a brutal storm alright.
I just hoped Mandy would be out of the woods by the time it rolled in.
Chapter 5 (Mandy)
When I woke up I was freezing. The fire had died out in the middle of the night, leaving my campsite frigid. I pulled my blanket tight around my body but still, it wasn’t enough to remove the chill that had settled underneath my skin.
Sighing, I crawled out of the tent, rummaging through my bag to find my thermal- ware.
They were nowhere to be found.
Had I forgotten to pack them?
That’s not good.
I fished my phone out of my pocket, about to check the weather report when I noticed I didn’t have a signal – not even one bar of it.
Bloody brilliant
….
Looking up at the sky, it was completely overcast with white.
Was snow in the forecast?
I didn’t know but my gut told me it was a very real possibility.
My best bet would probably be to get out of the woods while the weather was still decent.
I packed up all my things and slung my backpack over my shoulders.
As I headed back, I regretted the fact that I couldn’t spend a bit more time in the forest. It was a stunningly beautiful place. Plus, it felt good to get a bit of drawing done; especially when I hadn’t had the free time to sit down to do anything of the sort in a long, long time. My job had become my whole life.
I thought back to my time in college. I had majored in criminal justice, but my minor was in art history. I loved everything about art, from the artists to the symbolic meaning behind certain objects to the history behind a piece. It was absolutely fascinating.
Then real life hit me. Once I got a job as a detective, art took a stand on the sidelines.
Not long after, Keith had stepped into my life. At first, he was the charming hero that I always imagined would sweep me off my feet and bring me into a fairytale. Instead, he turned out to be an asshole. If only I had been able to figure out that he was an unstable narcissistic nutcase when we met, he wouldn’t have been able to almost destroy my life.
Just thinking about him would send a chill through my body that made me shudder.
As odd as it sounds, I felt safer here in the wilderness. Even safer than I did in my own home. Back home, I lived with the fear that I would one day find him standing on my doorstep. I feared that he would sweet-talk me back into a relationship with him and the whole hellish mess would repeat itself. I know he is wrong for me in every single way, but I would be lying to myself if I said that I was truly over him.
Some nights, he still visits me in my dreams…
Get it together, Mandy, you don’t need him in your life. You can do so much better for yourself. The rational voices in my head tried to reason with me. It would be madness to get back together with him.
They were right.
But that didn’t mean I would listen.
Above, some birds scuffled about in the trees, waking me from my thoughts.
I paused, looking around.
Huh?
Where was I?
Nothing about this part of the woods looked familiar to me. The trees were much larger with moss running up their trunks. Gnarled roots buried under the ground, making the terrain treacherous. The footpath had completely disappeared.
Crap.
Had I gone the wrong way?
I turned around, about to retrace my steps but then I realized that I had been so caught up in my thoughts that I hadn’t paid attention to where I was headed.
This was not good.
Quickly, I grabbed my compass, turning until the red needle pointed north. Hopefully, this would bring me to safety…
Then again, I had never actually used a compass before. For all I knew, I could just be making things a thousand times worse for myself.
In a last-ditch effort, I pulled out my phone, praying for a signal.
Of course, there wasn’t any.
I was on my own.
***
For hours, I walked around, aimlessly trying to find my way back and telling myself not to panic.
The temperature kept dropping. My fingers had turned pink and my lips blue.
I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to keep this up.
Already, the sun was starting to set.
It would be dark soon and if I got caught in a blizzard during the night, I was done for.
At this point, I didn’t have much of a choice. At least if I set up camp, I’d have some chance at survival.
Taking a deep breath, I did my best to remain calm, despite my mind swirling with every worst-case scenario. The way my pessimistic side saw things, I had a 99% chance of turning into an icicle during the night.
Sounded like a lovely time.
Not.
After struggling with my tent for way too long, I finally managed to assemble it properly.
Now, for firewood.
There were a few twigs scattered here and there but there wasn’t much. If I wanted a fire that would last me through the night, this would never do.
Things were starting to look bleak – very bleak.
I did everything I could to keep myself from panicking.
Keep calm, Mandy, you’ll get through this, you always do.
Right.
I could do this. I just needed to tough it out for a night, that’s all.
I ventured a little further, finally finding the wood that I needed. I piled it next to the tent before starting on the fire. At first, nothing would light. I wasted match after match to no avail. What if I ran out of matches?
Eventually, I managed to get it going, fanning the flames so they could grow.
Satisfied, I lingered by the fire, warming my hands.
“Okay… now… I wait…” I whispered to myself, grabbing a protein bar from my bag, munching on it slowly. I didn’t have that much food and I wanted to conserve it just in case I was stranded out here for a day or two.
I couldn’t sit still for very long.
I got up and started to walk around, letting my body warm up through the movement. I had a pretty good circuit going when I suddenly tripped on an exposed root. I went flying forward. I tried to hold out my hands to stop my fall, but it was too late. The world came crashing into me. My skull rattled around in my head as I collided with a ragged rock that pierced right through me.
Blood was already pouring out of the wound, staining the ground in red.
Desperately, I tried to get up, cursing my clumsiness but as soon as I tried to get up, everything started to spin. My vision became blurry and a thick shadow crept toward the edges.
My stomach churned, tying into a knot.
A sense of queasiness washed over me.
I groaned, throwing up my undigested protein bar.
Gross.
Pain surged through my body, making it hard to focus.
Using every ounce of strength I had, I tried to crawl back to the tent.
At least there, I’d be warm.
But it was no use.
Before I could make much progress, I blacked out.
This was the end, wasn’t it?
***
I don’t know how long I was out for but by the time I woke up again, I could hardly feel my body.
Everything was going numb with the cold.
The kind of cold that feels like it’s burning through your skin.
I tried to move but I was weak and frozen in place.
I blinked back into reality, looking up at an angry sky that whirled back and forth with thick snowflakes.
Fuck.
How long had I been here?
My mind took its time to get back into working order.
Was hyperthermia already setting in?
I wasn’t sure but either way, I was fucking cold.
The snow kept falling, packing around me, higher and higher.
If I didn’t get up I would be buried alive, brought to an early and frozen grave.
To think that it would end like this…
Suddenly, I felt something moving around my stomach. It was quick – desperate.
A second later, I saw Wolf’s face hovering over mine. Thank god. He looked at me for a moment before barking loudly, running off in the opposite direction.
No! Don’t leave!
I wanted to yell at the dog, but my lips were frozen together.
Well, there goes my one chance…
For a while, nothing happened.
I laid there, staring at the sky, unable to move a muscle.
Damnit.
Why couldn’t I have died in my sleep or something? This was just downright torture.
Right before I could slip back into unconsciousness, I hear
my name floating through the air. “Mandy! Mandy!”
