Backcountry

by Pamela Beason

  “Well, crap,” Aidan observed. “That’s quite the predicament.”

  “And the falls are downstream.” Maya moaned.

  “Shh.” Nobody had ever survived the long drop onto the rocks below those falls.

  She tied the rope to the closest tree. “Olivia, keep hold of Nick,” Sam shouted to the kids below. “Nick, try to grab this rope.”

  She flung it toward him. The end snapped into the dirt a foot above Nick’s head. But when he pulled his hand from the sand to reach for it, he and Olivia began to slide again. Nick pinwheeled his arms, trying to swim upward through the sand for the rope, but slipped even further downhill. Olivia screamed until they stopped moving, then dissolved into hiccupping sobs.

  Sam felt like screaming herself.

  Taylor stated the obvious. “The rope’s not long enough.”

  Gabriel took a step closer to the edge. The sand beneath his feet slumped, and Aidan grabbed the boy by the back of his shirt just in time to keep him from tumbling down the slope to join the other two.

  “Everyone step back, now!” She hated to lose sight of Nick and Olivia, but the rest of them were in danger of collapsing the soft sand hill into an avalanche that would bury the two kids below or shove them over the bank into the raging stream.

  Six pairs of eyes focused on her, waiting for instructions.

  Shit, don’t look at me, she thought, save yourselves! She paced. There had to be a way.

  She couldn’t see any branches long enough and stout enough to be helpful. Cut down a tree? Right, with what? Her pocketknife? All she had was a rope that was too short and a paralyzed audience of six horrified people.

  Six strong horrified young people, plus one middle-aged terrified field guide. Each with two good arms. The standard Wilderness Quest uniform was high quality, with belted pants and Gortex rain jackets. She uncapped her water bottle, took a swig to wet her throat, then untied the rope from the tree.

  Below them, Olivia shrieked again. Sam prayed she and Nick were not being swallowed by the river. “Nick! Olivia! Hang on, don’t move. We’re coming!”

  She turned to the others. “Okay, crew. We’re going to form a human chain. Justin, take off your jacket, loop it through your belt, and then use it to tie yourself to that tree.”

  He hesitated, confused.

  “I need you at the top of the chain because you are the strongest, but you can’t hug a tree and hold us at the same time.”

  Nodding, he did as she asked. “Gabe, take off your jacket, loop it through your belt and hand the sleeves to Justin to hold you.”

  She positioned the rest of them, the boys at the top and the girls toward the bottom, linked with jackets and belts. Maya was the last link she added to the chain, because she knew Maya would stay calm even if the worst happened. She tied one end of the rope to the belt around her young friend’s waist and the other around her own.

  “Now, we’re going to walk, or more likely slide, down that slope. I’m going to grab Nick and Olivia. And you guys will pull us back up. Ready?”

  Although their faces were tense with anxiety, they all nodded.

  “We’re going over to the left side. We don’t want to push more dirt down on top of them. Got it?”

  Six heads bobbed again.

  “Here goes. Everyone, hold on. Maya, play my rope out gradually, and wait until the rope goes tight before you follow.” Sam stepped over the crumbling edge. Her feet sunk into the soft sand, which gave way beneath her. She slid a yard down the slope before the rope jerked her to a halt. A river of sand shifted beneath her boots, sliding down and over the edge of the bank, sloshing into the roiling water.

  The boulder resting on the edge tilted sideways. So did Olivia and Nick. The pink light of the sunrise over the flank of Mount Baker revealed the terror in the eyes of the two teens.

  As the steep bank slid away from her, adrenaline coursed through Sam’s veins. At this rate, half the hillside would give way and they’d all go in. Sam sank onto her backside, shifting only a little sand. Better. She inched her way down the slope on her butt until she reached the end of the rope. Her boots were at least twenty feet from Nick’s outstretched hands.

  “Okay, Maya,” she yelled up the slope, “sit as carefully as you can on the edge and slide down slowly. Everyone sit down as you come over, and move as slowly as you can.”

  The progress was slow, but as Sam felt slack in the rope at her waist, she inched downward. Rivulets of sandy earth piled up behind her backside and slithered down beside her legs as the pressure on the slope above increased with the weight of the human chain.

  “That’s it!” Aidan yelled from above. “That’s all we’ve got.”

  Sam’s left foot was still above and to the side of Nick’s hand, a good eighteen inches away. The boy’s expression was no longer terrified. Instead, he looked resigned to his fate. She had no idea what Olivia was thinking. The girl’s entire focus was on her own hands, gripped tightly around Nick’s ankle above his boot.

  “Crew, stay strong,” Sam yelled up the slope. “Hang onto each other, no matter what.”

  She turned to the fifteen-year-old. “Nick, I’m going to take off my jacket now. That’s going to be our rope. When I say, I am going to toss it in your direction, you’re going to grab onto it, and hold on for dear life. You got it?”

  “Got it.” His voice was hoarse, little more than a whisper.

  She peeled off her jacket, knotted a sleeve around her right wrist and passed it through her fist. “Ready? Now!”

  She flung the jacket in his direction, reaching as far as she could. The loose sleeve slapped Nick’s shoulder. He pulled his hands out of the soil to grab it. The earth beneath him shifted, and Olivia shrieked as the ground slid away from her. The landslide shoved the boulder beneath them over the edge. As the huge rock tumbled, it pulled more dirt with it, and suddenly the whole bank was moving beneath them.

  Everyone in the human chain screamed.

  Chapter 17

  Sam was astonished when all the teens managed to hang on. How long they could keep it up was a totally different question. Pain sliced through her body. The belt at her waist was cutting off her breath. The jacket stretched between her and Nick threatened to pull her shoulder out of its socket.

  She dug her heels into the soft soil to push as best she could. “Pull us up!”

  The only movement she felt was more sand giving way beneath her.

  “Pull, crew! Give it all you’ve got!” Pain shrieked through her shoulder; it felt like it was being torn apart. Her belt threatened to cut her torso in half. The kids above her had to be in the same predicament. She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw.

  This was going to be the biggest disaster in Washington Wilderness Quest history. Instead of losing two kids, most of the kids in her crew were going to slide into this damn stream and if they didn’t drown first, they’d be bashed into pulp over the falls downstream.

  Summer Westin would be famous for poor planning and failed leadership. Sort of like George Donner, whose inept guidance caused half his party of pioneers to perish on their trek over the Sierra Nevadas.

  Why was there always so much time to think when death was imminent? For mercy’s sake, the final lights out should be instantaneous, not drawn out like this, leaving too many moments for regrets.

  Sorry, Kyla. Sorry, Kim. Sorry, kids. Troy. Sorry, Chase. Sorry, Dad, Blake... She’d almost reached the end of her list when her belt jerked tighter beneath her ribs and she began to move uphill, sand snaking down the back of her pants and into her boots.

  “Yes, yes!” She dug in with her heels, finally making some progress, inching backwards. Nick and Olivia were face down in the dirt, but she could see they were trying, too, digging in the toes of their boots.

  Their uphill progress grew swifter as more kids reached the top of the slope and could help pull. As their chain straightened, Sam could hold onto her jacket sleeve with both hands, lessening the strain on her right shoulder.
But everything still hurt like hell. Her waist, her ribs, her hand, her wrist, her elbow, her shoulder.

  Nick’s knuckles were white, and so were Olivia’s. Sam noticed for the first time that the girl still had her pack on her back.

  By the time she reached the top of the slope, Sam’s pants were so full of sandy soil that she probably weighed twenty pounds more than usual. She didn’t care. She whooped as Justin and Gabriel yanked her over to firm ground. As soon as Nick’s hand emerged at the top of the bank, the boys grabbed him by his arms and hauled him up. Olivia clung to his leg like a snapping turtle.

  Then the entire group collapsed at the top of the ravine, some sitting against trees, most spread-eagled on the ground, all breathing heavily.

  Sam watched the stars above dissolve into the pinkish gold of dawn, breathing shallowly, waiting for the pain in her ribs and wrists and shoulder to dissipate. She could hardly believe all nine of them were present and alive.

  Finally she sat up, rubbing her shoulder. “Excellent effort, crew.”

  “And I thought the night at the lookout was memorable,” Maya drawled.

  Justin laughed weakly.

  Sam turned to her two runners. Nick lay on his back on the ground, massaging his hands. Olivia had pulled off her pack and sat with her legs extended and her eyes closed, her back against a slender alder. Her face and dark hair were coated with dirt. “Nick, Olivia, you’ve got some explaining to do.”

  Nick sat up. He untucked his shirt. A shower of sand slid out. The bruises on his face were even darker now, although some of the duskiness was probably dirt. Licking chapped lips, he croaked, “It’s my fault.”

  Ashley, the closest to him, handed him a bottle of water, and he gulped down several swallows. After wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he continued. “I felt like taking a walk, and I made Olivia come, and then we got into trouble.”

  “No, no, no.” Olivia shook her head violently. “That’s not the way it went at all. I was alone. When I got here, I couldn’t figure out how to cross. I sat down on that boulder and then the bank gave way. I knew I was going to slide into the river. Every time I moved, I slid down farther. And then Nick showed up.”

  Sam wearily pushed herself to her feet and pulled at her waistband. Rivulets of sandy soil coursed down the insides of her pants legs and spilled out over her boots. Yeesh, she had dirt in her bra and dirt in her underwear, but she resisted the urge to pull her panties away from her butt cheeks in front of the kids.

  She wanted to burst into a halleluiah chorus at her relief that everyone had survived, but she needed to look fierce, so she put her hands on her hips. It hurt to curl her fingers into fists. “Were you two running away?”

  “No,” Nick said. He shook his head and then winced, touching dirty fingers to the swelling near his eye.

  Olivia gazed at him, her eyes clouded with doubt, lips parted, as if trying to make up her mind what to say.

  Flapping his shirttail to dislodge more sand, Nick said, “I heard Olivia get up in the night to...you know... She walked by my camp; she probably didn’t even know I was there. But then she didn’t come back, so I went looking for her.”

  “Olivia?” Sam asked. “I can’t help noticing you have your pack with you.”

  The girl focused on the ground. “I was thinking about not going home, but when I got here, I changed my mind.” Her eyes flicked up and she shifted her gaze from one person to the next. “I’m sorry. Thank you for saving me.”

  She stretched out a hand toward Nick. “And Nick, thank you for coming. You kept me from sliding into the river.”

  “Are you kidding me? I nearly pushed both of us in. I nearly killed both of us.”

  “I would have given up if you hadn’t been there,” Olivia insisted.

  Nick rubbed dirt from the uninjured side of his face. “If I’d only had a rope...”

  Nobody said anything for several minutes, and Sam realized the whole group was waiting for her to instruct them. “Can everyone walk?”

  They could.

  “Back to camp for breakfast, then. But first, take a minute to check out Mount Baker.” With dawn, the fog had lifted. The group pivoted toward the volcano. Only its triangular summit was visible above the sharp ridge that separated this valley from the mountain, but its glaciers were covered in new snow. Sunrise painted the entire landscape in rose and gold.

  * * * * *

  After dragging all their gear from the solo camps to the group site, Sam rewarded the kids by letting them use a lighter instead of making their bow-drill fires. Which probably proved her sense of discipline was going to hell. But she wasn’t sure she could make her arms and hands work well enough to create her own fire. What kind of a leader was she, anyway, who hadn’t noticed that Olivia was the most likely to take off? Had the girl truly decided to turn around before she’d tumbled down the slope, or only after her escape was foiled?

  Sam wasn’t sure she believed Nick wasn’t running, either, although evidence hinted that he was telling the truth. Olivia’s pack had been full, but Nick had only the clothes on his back.

  “We’ll still make it to the lake tonight, right?” Aidan asked, his brow furrowed. “Because if we don’t, we’ll never arrive back at headquarters in time.”

  Sam sighed. She wanted to stay in place and rest, but the schedule had gotten mucked up after the storm at the lookout and last night’s drama. Scraping together her remaining energy, she carried her coffee and a protein bar up to the ridge to get a decent signal. Troy was silent during her description of the dramatic events, but seemed remarkably unperturbed after he found out everyone had survived relatively unscathed.

  “Sounds like it was quite the adventure,” he said.

  “That’s one way to put it. Thank God tomorrow is the end.”

  “You haven’t seen the hunter again? Or gotten any more notes?”

  “No. Maybe that was Aidan’s idea of a joke after all.”

  “Aidan? You mentioned that before. Why are you saying that again?”

  She didn’t know how to answer that. The college student still seemed a bit “off” to her.

  “Aidan’s not causing any problems, is he?”

  “No, forget I said that, Troy. We haven’t seen that hunter and nothing else weird has happened.” She grimaced at her own words. “Well, nothing else more weird than what we’ve been through the past couple of nights. What should I do to Nick and Olivia?” she asked. “Take away their Navigator pendants? Or just Olivia’s?”

  “I’ll back you, whatever you decide,” he said. “Will you still make it to the lake tonight? The families will all be here tomorrow afternoon for the final ceremony. I need the kids to show up on time.”

  Some help he was, more concerned about tomorrow’s meeting than about her current situation.

  “Yes, Troy, we can still make the lake tonight. Everybody’s ambulatory. I’ll hustle them out on the trail as soon as we finish breakfast.”

  The kids couldn’t stop talking about the rescue. Olivia and Nick were chastened and embarrassed that they had been the cause.

  Sam decided to let the group decide Nick and Olivia’s fate.

  Gabriel was the first to speak up. “I don’t think they should be demoted. I mean, Nick actually tried to save her. And Olivia”—he stared at her, frowning—“I think she’s sorry she tried that, and she won’t do it again.”

  “Everyone deserves a second chance. You gave Nick and me one.” Justin crossed his arms. The bandage on his brow was dirty, and dark bruises shadowed his right eye, giving him an outlaw aspect.

  “And we only have tonight, so she wouldn’t have a chance to earn it back,” Ashley added.

  Sam had expected them to be more competitive. Instead, they were unanimous. Then again, these were kids who had grown up in an era when every participant got a ribbon. “All in favor of Olivia and Nick keeping Navigator status raise their hands.”

  Four hands shot up, then six as Aidan and Maya added their votes.<
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  “All right then. It’s decided. Clean up and pack up. We’ve got a lot of miles to cover today and we’re behind schedule. Remember that tonight is our final night for sharing. I’m not going to ask about contracts or future plans.”

  A cheer went up.

  “That will happen tomorrow after we get back to Bellingham.”

  The groans were louder than the cheers had been.

  “Tonight we will enjoy each other’s company and friendship and savor our last night together in the wilderness. I want to hear a statement of something you’re grateful for, and then I want you to share something with all of us.”

  Maya held up her cup and nodded at Sam. Aidan simply looked relieved. He was already a few days late getting started at Washington State University, and he’d probably been worried that they might not make it out on time.

  * * * * *

  It was a long tough hike on a rarely used trail to get to their last night’s camp. They had to climb over two downed trees and push their way through overgrown patches. The kids were silent for the most part, winding down after the adrenaline rush of the early morning hours, brooding over reuniting with their families tomorrow.

  Aidan and Maya were probably contemplating where they would live next week and how they’d earn money after this final paycheck. Sam was fretting about the latter, making a mental list of all the conservation nonprofits she’d worked for in the past year.

  They’d just emerged from a tangle of brush to a small clearing when Ashley pointed across the valley. “Hey! Check it out!”

  A small herd of goats dotted the steep hillside there. Two of the smallest goat kids chased each other, scampering up and down the rocks while their mothers grazed.

  Justin studied the hills around the herd. “No hunters.”

  “It’s like a good omen,” Taylor happily summarized.

  Chapter 18

  Despite the beautiful setting of their camp on the bank of a long mountain lake, on the last night of their expedition the atmosphere was melancholy. The six crew kids would be glad to get back to their beds and the food they liked, but they seemed unanimously worried about returning to their families.