by Gary Paulsen
Scotty was lying half out of the water, coughing and vomiting on the rocky bank. Brandon was frantically swimming around the van, trying to get a door open.
When Scotty saw Daniel, he pointed at the van. “Troy! He’s still in there!”
Daniel didn’t hesitate. He kicked off his shoes and jumped into the water. When he got to the van, Brandon screamed, “Troy’s hurt but he’s still alive! The door’s stuck and I can’t get him out!”
Daniel dove under the water. He tried to pull the back door open, but it was wedged tight against a rock. He quickly swam to the side door and rammed his shoulder into it. It moved, but not enough.
Daniel held on to the mirror and kicked the door. It popped open. He went to the surface for a quick gulp of fresh air and then dove back down.
Inside the van he saw the driver still hanging lifelessly over the steering wheel. Daniel searched for Troy and found him floating at the top of the water near the back of the van.
Daniel’s lungs felt as if they were about to burst. He grabbed Troy under the arms and worked his way out the door. Holding on to Troy with one hand, he fought his way to the surface.
“He’s not breathing,” Daniel said between gasps. “He’ll need mouth-to-mouth. Help me get him to shore.”
CHAPTER 4
Daniel built the fire up until he had a roaring blaze. He had put Troy as close to the fire as he dared, hoping it might help to bring him around.
Troy was breathing, but he was still unconscious. His skin was light blue, and he was shivering. Daniel rubbed Troy’s hands and arms. He turned to Brandon. “Dig down under that tree over there and bring me all the dry leaves, moss, or grass you can find. And hurry.”
Brandon didn’t question him. In a few minutes he returned with an armful of dry leaves and grass. Daniel began stuffing them inside Troy’s clothing and packing them around him. “It’ll help insulate him from the cold.”
Daniel continued to rub Troy’s feet and legs. When Troy’s socks were dry Daniel put them back on him. He felt Troy’s forehead. It was hot.
Scotty looked a little better and was now resting against the huge tree watching Troy anxiously. “Is he gonna die?”
Daniel didn’t look up.
“Is there anything I can do?” Brandon asked.
“You can get us a supply of wood. The main thing is to keep him as warm and dry as possible.”
“I can help.” Scotty started to stand.
“You take it easy.” Brandon pushed him back down. “I’ll get it.”
Scotty watched Daniel work. “How do you know all this stuff? I mean I’ve seen you in class. You’re no Einstein.”
Daniel shrugged. “Most of what I’m doing is just common sense. Besides, Brandon’s the one who did the mouth-to-mouth.”
Troy moaned softly. His eyes opened. “Where …”
Scotty moved to him. “It’s okay. There was an accident. The van fell in the river. Danny boy here pulled you out.”
Troy looked over at Daniel. His mouth turned up in a feeble grin. “Thanks.”
“I was in the neighborhood.”
Brandon came back with an armload of wood. “Hey. Nice to see you in the land of the living again. I thought there for a minute you were gonna check out on us.”
Troy coughed. “Me too.”
Daniel shook out his handkerchief and headed for the river.
“Wait up.” Brandon jogged up to him. “Where you going?”
“Troy’s still not out of danger. He needs hot liquids.” Daniel dipped his handkerchief in the water until it was dripping wet and quickly ran back to the fire. He held it over the flames until it was warm.
Daniel told Troy to open his mouth, and he let the warm water drip in until he had squeezed the handkerchief dry. Then Daniel stood up to repeat the process.
Brandon took the handkerchief. “I’ll do it this time.”
The two boys took turns until Daniel was satisfied that they had done all they could. He felt Troy’s forehead again. It wasn’t quite as hot.
Daylight gave way to darkness, and the only light came from the fire. The rain started up again, but the boys were fairly well protected under the branches of the big tree.
Scotty and Troy were sleeping soundly. Daniel added a good-sized stump to the fire so that it would burn all night, then cleared a place to stretch out.
Brandon threw a handful of pine needles into the fire. “You’re okay, you know.”
An awkward silence filled the night. Daniel stared into the flames. “Most people are—if you give them half a chance.”
CHAPTER 5
Brandon sleepily yawned and opened his eyes. It was midafternoon and the sun beat down on him. He sat up and stretched. A small fire was still burning. A large rock with a hollowed-out center sat near the edge of it. Something liquid was boiling in it. To the side of the fire was a generous pile of pinecones.
Scotty and Troy were still asleep. Daniel was nowhere in sight. Brandon shook Scotty’s ankle. Scotty turned over and opened one eye. “What?”
“Wake up. It’s the middle of the day.”
Scotty rubbed his eyes and sniffed the air. “I’m starved. What’s cooking?”
Brandon shrugged. “I don’t know. Daniel must have left it. Looks like water with chopped-up pine needles in it.”
“It’s tea.” Daniel stepped out from behind a tree. The front of his T-shirt was filled with round green berries.
He dumped the berries on a grassy spot. “It’s made from pine needles. Has more vitamin C than orange juice.” Using his handkerchief, he tipped the rock and let some of the liquid run into a piece of bark he had carved out with his knife. He held it out to Scotty. “Try some.”
Scotty took the bark. “I’m game.” He sipped the hot liquid. “Not bad.”
Brandon picked up one of the pinecones and tossed it into the air. “What are we gonna do with these? Have a war later?”
“Those are part of your breakfast.” Daniel held one of the cones over the fire. When it was warm he easily popped off some of the scales. “See these little winged-looking seeds?” He put them in his mouth. “They’re good.”
“These don’t taste all that great.” Daniel pointed to his little cache of berries. “But they’ll help fill the empty place in your stomach.”
Scotty stripped off a few of the berries and tossed them in his mouth. “Danny boy, you are amazing.”
A small rock flew through the air and hit Scotty in the chest. Troy sat up and smiled. “You dummies gonna keep all the grub to yourselves or what?”
Scotty threw the rock back. “I think I liked you better when you were unconscious.”
Daniel poured some of the tea for Troy. Troy reached for it, and some of the leaves and pine needles fell out of his shirt. He looked at Daniel. “Would it be okay with you if I unstuffed myself? I feel like a scarecrow. This junk is kinda uncomfortable.”
Daniel nodded. “I don’t think you need it anymore. But you still ought to take it easy today.”
“Does that mean you think we should wait another day before we try finding our way out of here?” Brandon asked.
Daniel nodded again. “Troy wouldn’t get too far before we’d have to stop and make another camp, and besides” —he looked up at the sky—“it’s a little late in the day to start.”
Scotty popped some scales off his pinecone. “Why don’t we just stay where we are? Someone’s bound to find us sooner or later. Until they do, Troy can rest up.”
“They don’t know where we are.” Daniel poured more tea for Troy. “The way I figure it, the driver took a wrong turn about an hour out of town. After that he just kept going. We should have been at Camp Eagle Nest two hours after we left yesterday, but we were still driving after about four hours.”
“You mean we’re not even close to the camp?” Scotty’s voice rose slightly.
Daniel shook his head. “We could be anywhere. I think the driver knew we were lost and he kept trying different roads hop
ing to get back on course.”
“What are we going to do?” Troy asked.
“We have three choices. One is to sit here, build a signal fire, and wait. We can hope someone sees it and comes to get us. The second is to walk up this side of the river to the place where the bridge washed out and see if the road leads anywhere.”
“What’s the third thing?” Brandon asked.
“The third thing is the most dangerous, but if it works it’ll get us home the fastest. We go downstream and find the slowest-moving part of the river and try to get to the other side. Follow the river back upstream to the bridge and then follow the road home.”
“Not me.” Troy shook his head. “Ain’t no way this boy is getting back in that water. Forget it.”
Brandon looked at Daniel. “Which way do you want to take?”
“Back across the river.”
CHAPTER 6
Several hours later Daniel dropped his wood by the fire. It was strangely quiet around the camp. Scotty nudged Brandon with his elbow.
Brandon cleared his throat. “We, ah, we took a vote while you were gone.” Daniel was silent.
“It’s just that we think it makes more sense to stay on this side of the river. I mean, it’s safer and that road on this side of the bridge has to lead somewhere, doesn’t it?”
“We don’t want to go against you or anything, Danny boy.” Scotty looked sheepish. “We appreciate everything you’ve done and all, but Troy’s a little nervous about the water, and to tell you the truth, so am I.”
Daniel knelt by the fire. He didn’t look at them. His voice was low. “What if it doesn’t lead to anything? It could just be an old forest road the rangers use to check on things up here.”
“We think it’s worth a try,” Brandon said.
Daniel stood and wiped his hands on his jeans. “Maybe it’s for the best. If we split up, one of us is bound to find help sooner or later.”
“We don’t necessarily have to split up,” Brandon said. “Unless you want to.”
“Like I said, it’s probably for the best.”
Troy touched Daniel’s shoulder. “No hard feelings?”
Daniel shook his head. He looked up at the night sky. Well, at least I was the hero for a little while. I should have known these guys didn’t really want me around. To them I’m still Daniel the nerd.
Scotty punched him in the arm. “As soon as we reach civilization we’ll come looking for you, Danny boy. Promise.”
Daniel put a log on the fire. He stretched out on the ground and turned over so that they couldn’t see his face.
“Right,” he said quietly.
CHAPTER 7
Daniel sat on his heels and watched the water. He had walked downriver for more than | two and a half miles, until he’d found a likely-looking spot at which to cross. He had been watching it for a long time. It didn’t look too deep, and the current appeared to be slow enough that he could get across without too much trouble.
He thought about the three boys back at the camp and how, for a little while, things had been different among them. For the first time he could remember, Daniel had actually felt like part of a group. Then they had turned on him.
They had all been asleep when he had silently withdrawn this morning. He had purposely left early so that he wouldn’t have to face their empty goodbyes.
Daniel looked at the sky. Dark clouds were forming to the east. It would probably rain before afternoon. He smiled. With any luck, he would be halfway home before it hit.
Still, he didn’t move to cross the river. He knew he was stalling. His thoughts kept going back to the trio on the mountain. He doubted they even knew how to start a fire.
Why should I care? Daniel suddenly stood up and stepped out into the water.
He stopped and thought of what his uncle Smitty would say about his leaving three helpless boys stranded on the mountain.
On the other hand, there’s really no rush. Maybe I’ll just hang around up here for a while.
“You and your big ideas.” Brandon paused and looked around them. “Some shortcut, Scotty. We’ve been walking for hours, probably in circles. Why do I ever listen to you? We should have crossed the river like Daniel said.”
“Nobody stopped you.” Scotty was breathing hard. “You weren’t too anxious to swim across that river last night.”
“That’s because last night I was dumb and listened to you two. Daniel knows what he’s doing. Didn’t you see him? He fed us and kept us dry. Not to mention the fact that he saved Troy’s life.”
Troy sat on a log. “Let’s take a break. I’m beat. We can argue all we want but it doesn’t help our situation. We’re lost.” A drop of rain the size of a quarter hit him on the nose. “Great. This is all we need.”
“Come on.” Scotty led the way through the brush. “We need to get under a tree like the one Daniel found, before we get soaked.”
As if on cue, the heavens opened and unleashed a furious downpour. Before they could take ten steps it was raining so hard it was difficult to see where they were going. The boys crashed through the brush and dove under the first big tree they came to.
The only problem was, the space under the tree happened to be occupied. The little striped animal stamped its feet and hissed in warning. Then it whirled and in a flash sprayed them with foul-smelling liquid.
Scotty got the worst of it right in the face. He screamed and ran back into the rain, holding his hands over his eyes in pain.
Brandon grabbed Scotty’s arm and pulled him to another tree Troy had found a few yards away. They huddled together near the base of the tree while the wind blew sheets of rain at them. They were helpless. There was nothing to do but cover their heads and wait the storm out.
CHAPTER 8
Daniel sat back and took a sip of his rainwater tea. The rain was beginning to let up. When it was clear enough he would try to pick up the boys’ tracks again. Strangely, Brandon, Troy, and Scotty had left the river and cut across the mountain. Their tracks had led him over the tops of two ridges. There was no telling how far they had gone before the rain had hit.
He felt edgy. The newspaper was full of stories about backpackers who had lost their way up here. The Premonition Mountains were famous for catching inexperienced hikers unaware.
Daniel had never hiked up here. He didn’t know these mountains at all. But thanks to the time he had spent with his uncle, he knew there was little chance of his losing his way.
He wished he could say the same for Brandon and the others. What are they doing? In the direction they were going they would never cut across the bridge road.
The air was cool, but he was anxious to get started. Taking handfuls of dirt, he doused the little fire. He knew it would be next to impossible to find any tracks after the rain. The best he could hope for was that the boys would continue in the same direction and break off branches here and there, leaving a trail that he could follow.
It was slow going. He circled and circled, hoping to find some sign of where they had gone. The noise he was making startled an old doe. She jumped out in front of him and bounded away.
Daniel smiled. Some backwoodsman. I’m louder than a herd of buffalo.
The doe drew his attention to some brush off to his right. The bushes had been trampled recently and hadn’t had a chance to recover. Daniel pushed some of them aside. Under one was the clear imprint of a tennis shoe, now filled with muddy water.
He looked in the direction the boys appeared to be heading. It didn’t make sense. Why would they try to cross the Premonitions —unless they were lost? If they were, it would make his job even harder. They could change direction at any time.
Daniel wondered if he had made a mistake. Maybe it would have been better for him to cross the river and get help instead of wandering around up here. He cupped his hands and yelled for the others.
There was no answer.
He decided to keep going. If he lost their trail now, he might never be able to find them.<
br />
When the van didn’t show up at Camp Eagle Nest, he figured, they’d send out search parties. A lot would depend on how wide an area they covered. The searchers wouldn’t be able to spot the van at all now. On his trip downriver he had discovered that it had completely sunk below the surface.
Anyway, he doubted if a search party would think to look on this side of the mountain range. The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that the driver had taken them close to a hundred miles in the wrong direction.
Daniel worked the area carefully. He cut their trail again near an ancient pine tree. The dirt and pine needles under the tree had been packed down. He studied the place where the three boys had waited out the rain, and scratched his head.
The tree was on the wrong side of a small ravine. They had been sitting facing the wind as it drove the heavy rain in at them. To stay dry, all they would have had to do was move to a tree on the other side of the ravine, or move around to the other side of this tree.
These guys are worse off than I thought. They don’t even have enough sense to come in out of the rain.
From the tree, the tracking became easier. The boys had walked in the mud and left a good clean trail. Daniel followed it up a rocky slope. From there they had taken a ninety-degree turn and moved parallel with a rock cliff.
Daniel paused at the top of the cliff and looked out. Below him was a sheer drop. In front of him were miles and miles of forest. It was a forbidding sight.
The possible urgency of the boys’ situation jarred him back to reality. It was getting late and he still hadn’t been able to catch up with them. Which meant they would probably spend a cold, sleepless night without food or water.
Part of him felt as if they deserved it. But another part remembered the way Brandon had defended him in the van, and the look on Troy’s face when he’d tried to thank Daniel for saving his life.
