It was difficult to remain holding hands. Jess kept wanting to stop and look at things and Chris kept getting jerked to a standstill every time she did.
The farther along the pathway they walked, the more adventurous Jess felt. “Let’s go into the woods,” she suggested.
“I don’t have a signal on my phone. Do you? We might need the compass to get back.”
Jess spared at glance at her screen. Three bars. Plenty. Plus, she had already installed a compass app before they had arrived.
Heading south, they followed a separation in the trees. The forest was welcoming and there were no branches to block their way and barely any roots crossed their path. They were able to walk side by side with each other with comfortable space for exuberant storytelling.
As the got deeper into the forest, the path narrowed a little, then quite significantly. It became only enough room for one person to fit through without scrubbing against bark and grasping twigs. The sun was high overhead, but the trees were gathering in close enough that barely any light came directly through to the ground. Sometimes it wasn’t clear if the path went one way or another, but Jess would simply pick a direction and follow it, certain they could head back to the north again and find the lake well before the end of the day.
Before long, the choices Jess had made led to tighter spaces between the towering pines. Maples, ashes, and other trees were fewer and instead the evergreens crisscrossed each other in a blanket of heavy green. Where there was a leafy tree, the sunlight was dappled across the forest floor.
“What’s that?” Chris asked, pointing to over her shoulder.
Jess shimmied between two bushes and moved in for a closer look. “It’s some stone thing.”
Chris walked around it, running a hand over the pinkish brown stone. It was stacked like a small column that barely reached waist height. It was almost a cube, though the height was a bit longer than the width of any side. The top had a small bowl-shaped recess and a hole.
“This looks just like the drinking fountains in the park. It’s the same stone,” Chris mused.
As soon as he said it, Jess was certain he was right. “What’s it doing all the way out here?”
“I bet this used to be part of the park,” he shrugged. “Hey, there’s another one.”
It became a game of who spotted the next one first. Like children, they ran to each discarded water fountain shouting first when they tapped their hand against it.
“They’re seriously spooky though,” Jess mused. “They’re like little druid monuments or something. It’s so weird.”
They had also discovered a few that were fire pits. On most of them the grate for cooking had been mangled or rusted straight off. On one where the grate remained, an animal had packed the space for the wood into a nest.
“This whole area must have been a picnic area. The forest has really done a number on it,” Chris said. “I wonder when this part of the park was given back to nature.”
“I don’t know how long wood lasts, but maybe not too long,” Jess said pointing toward a dark shape. “I think that’s a picnic table.”
Tucked between the trees was an all but obliterated table with attached benches. The boards were little more than soft rot held together by a prayer. Lichen had taken up residence across most of the surface and tall weeds were entangled throughout.
Jess ran a hand over the wood stained dark with a perpetual dampness. “Not going to lie. This is the creepiest picnic table I have ever seen.”
“Not as bad as that one.”
Jess turned to look at another picnic table tucked behind a large tree. “It’s like it’s spying on us,” she said with a giggle. “It’s like that table is poking out its little table head and having a look at us.”
“The voyeuristic picnic table. Nice, I like it.”
Jess took a few steps toward it when she stopped dead in her tracks. “There’s someone behind the tree.”
“Okay, whatever,” Chris said with a laugh.
“No, seriously.”
He looked over his wife’s shoulder and saw an arm just barely visible from where they were standing. Someone was sitting at the table. Jess was frozen to the spot and he had to walk past her. As soon he was in front of her, he felt her hands press into his back as she clutched on for support.
“They aren’t moving,” he said in a whisper. If they’d been listening up to this point, the stranger would know for certain they were aware someone was sitting there, but so far there hadn’t been a reaction. The woods were dead silent as they stepped together toward the figure. Each footfall was an obvious crunch in the old fallen leaves.
“Hello?” Chris asked as they began to round the tree. No response. Jess leaned out from behind him for a better look. He groaned with uncertainty.
Another step and Jess had a better view. It was definitely a women. Her brunette hair fell around her shoulders in straggly ringlets. She was wearing a plaid shirt and blue jeans. Jess leaned out in front of Chris for a better look. She took a deep breath in relief to see someone so unthreatening, and put her hand out to touch the young woman’s shoulder. Maybe she’d fallen asleep.
The girl tipped forward smacking her forehead into the tabletop, then sideways as soon she fell from the bench. Chris jumped back nearly tripping over Jess in the process and falling to the ground. Jess shrieked as the girl hit the dirt, her arms splayed out to the sides with no effort to stop her momentum. Jess raced forward to help the girl, then gave another scream and dashed off into the woods.
Chris sat upright as his wife fled between the trees. He leaned forward to get a better look at the girl and then scrambled backward to a standing position. The girl’s chocolate hair was fanned out over the pine needles on the forest floor. Her skin was as pale as paper. Violently bright and in stark contrast to her flesh, there was a wash of dark, drying blood from a deep gash in her throat.
Her entire front was spattered with crimson as she lay there positively dead in the dirt. Her makeup was smeared all down her face from when she’d been crying. Those had been her last moments alive. Chris looked her directly in her distant eyes and backed himself into a tree. The girl’s legs were hooked up over the bench seat. She lay there still and awkward. He wanted to put her back upright, to return her to a more dignified death state, but his mind wouldn’t let him walk near the corpse. He couldn’t will one of his feet to even take a single step toward the poor young woman.
Former nurse or not, she was definitely dead and he was having a very visceral reaction to the reality of the situation.
He knew he recognized the face and was certain that he’d seen it recently, but another of his wife’s screams snapped him back to the moment. He slid around the tree and as soon as he couldn’t see the horror behind him, he sprinted off in the direction he thought he’d heard her.
“Jess!” he shouted. Everything looked the same and he had no more sense of direction. Their game of chasing fountains had completely thrown his orientation to the wind. Now he couldn’t even find his wife at all. He had no idea which way to go or where to turn.
“Chris!” Her panicked voice split the air and pierced his heart. She sounded like she was at her wit’s end or in pain. Maybe both.
“Jess! Keep shouting! I can’t find you!”
His feet slammed through the brush as he bounded over fallen logs and through the slapping, scratching branches. His heart felt like it was going to break his ribs it was beating so hard. The sick horror and exercise made him feel light-headed and frantic.
“Chris! Oh God! Chris!”
To the left, just a little. He changed his trajectory, hoping to cross her path, and catch her in his arms. He felt as fast as an Olympian. His feet were barely in contact with the earth before lifting off again. He was flying, faster than a cheetah, faster than a missile. As soon as he saw it coming, it was too late to stop. Crashing through a cluster of berry bushes, he flew straight into the air.
Gravity gripped him hard and quic
k. His body was soon below his sneakers, the soles pointed at the sky. He toppled over a little further. Sky. Forest. Ground.
The impact against the ground rattled his bones. The air in his lungs expelled out his mouth all at once. The pain followed soon after. He clutched and clawed for a breath.
“Chris!” Jess screamed from nearby. His name crackled with mind-numbing terror as it left her lips.
Oxygen rushed back into his chest and willed himself as hard as possible not to pass out. Regardless of how petrified Jess was, he had to regain himself before he could consider standing up. He couldn’t even turn his head. She was sobbing hysterically and it hurt him to the core.
He let out a moan as he recovered from the impact. Opening his eyes, he could see the ledge he’d fallen from. It was about double his height. Not too far, but far enough. His bones felt like they’d been smacked together without cushioning. It was agony to move his arms and lean up, but it had to be done.
“Chris?” Jess asked between gasps. Her breath was coming in short pants. Each exhale was a sob. He raised himself to his elbows and focused on her. She was sitting and holding her right leg. Blood covered her hands. A lot of blood.
Forcing himself to his knees, he dragged himself over to her. Looking toward the ledge he’d come from, he could see the path she’d taken down. Beside the cliff was a steep slope. Leaves had been disturbed straight down and part of her pant leg was attached to a sharp bit of stump sticking out of the base of a tree. He was certain he could see bits of her flesh clinging to the vicious point.
“Let me see,” he said. She hesitantly uncovered the wound, her hands shaking and clutching at air as he pulled back the remainder of the material to look. “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” she kept repeating. She kept thinking if she hadn’t run off, this would never have happened.
He could see the panic attack building in her eyes. She was woozy and unnerved and soon her whole body was shaking. “Jess,” he said as calmly as he could manage. “Jess, look at me.” Her chest was rising and falling so hard her whole upper body was quaking with each breath.
He grabbed her chin and turned her face to his. Her leg would have to wait a minute. He was afraid she’d hyperventilate until she passed out or have a panic attack if she wasn’t at that point already. “Jess, please. Look straight into my eyes.” Her own eyes moved to his, but continued to jitter. “Honey,” he lowered his voice to a whisper. “You need to calm down. You need to get your breathing under control.”
They stared at each other for a moment. Jess had her bloody hands raised uncertainly still gasping at nothing. They glistened red like she was wearing shiny gloves. He took the right hand, despite the blood on it and gave a light squeeze.
“I want you to lay back,” he said gently. “Just lay down and I’ll take care of you.”
Her breaths were still incredibly violent, but had become deeper. She seemed just a touch more focused and aware. He helped her to lay back. Once she was on the ground, she shut her eyes tightly.
Chris took a deep breath and stared down at her filthy, wet shin.
The stress of working in a hospital had been far too much for him to handle. Jess had said it made him grim and had turned him into a monster to deal with. He’d left it for her sake, but now that there was enough distance, he was glad he’d left it for himself, too. It had been awhile since he’d seen anything quite so gruesome, although this was far from the worst he’d dealt with. Memories that smelled of death and sterility came back to him as he struggled for focus.
He pulled the material back again and took a look at the gash running down her leg from under her knee to her ankle. Her sneaker had probably prevented the ripping from continuing to her foot. He silently thanked anyone who was listening that it had only broken the first few layers of skin in most places. Any deeper and she’d have been split open, revealing deep tissue muscle and making it impossible to do anything for her out here. It looked like her jeans had mostly protected her from the worst of the damage. The deepest was the puncture at her ankle where he guessed the tree snagged her shoe and whipped her around.
“Jess,” he said retaining his Buddhist calm. “Honey, you okay?”
She swallowed loudly and let out a pathetic whimper. The cut was filthy with dirt and bits of pine needle. Neither of them were particularly clean. He didn’t see her water bottle anywhere.
“Jess, sweetie,” Chris said putting a hand on her cheek. She opened her eyes and looked at him. “Where’s your phone? We need to call for help.”
“Back pocket,” she muttered saying the words as carefully as she could. Her eyes quavered as much as her voice. Her wound continued to trickle blood with a frequency that concerned Chris. He’d have to wrap it. They’d clean it at the hospital and bandage her up nicely.
“I have to lift you. Just for a second,” he said caressing her forehead with his thumb. It left a muddy print, but he doubted she cared at this point.
She nodded her consent and he lifted her long enough to feel each back pocket and find her phone. The screen was cracked with the damage spider-webbing from a lower corner, but it still worked when he clicked the home button. The rugged case had protected it from the worst of her backside slamming down on it.
The bars at the top weren’t visible. In their place, the screen read “No service.”
“Shit. No. No. No. No,” Chris said holding the phone up hoping against all hope that it would work. He took his own out and found an equally dismal circle with a slash over his blanked out signal bars accompanied by the word “Searching.”
Jess reached out and grabbed his wrist. Her head lolled aimlessly and he wondered if she’d hit her head. He was surprised that he hadn’t cracked his skull during his own landing.
“Babe,” he said putting down both phones. “I have to wrap it.” She moaned and he repeated himself. He pulled off what he could of her shredded pant leg and then tore off a smaller piece to tie it around. It was a poor solution, but the best he could do.
Chris pressed the folded fabric against the cut and then knotted the second piece around. It wasn’t an ideal bandage, but he felt that there wasn’t much choice. Jess lay still even as he tightened the knot.
“You okay?” he asked when the task was completed.
She threw an arm over her face and nodded. She was pale, but he was certain it was from pain and fear, not blood loss.
He laid down on the ground next to her and placed his hand in hers. “We’re going to be okay,” he assured her. He wanted so deeply to believe it.
“I know we will,” she said very quietly. It was a heavily uncertain statement.
Chapter 4
Jess’s eyes fluttered open. The sky above was dark and overcast. A glance at her watch showed it was only afternoon. Her leg throbbed and she could feel her heartbeat in her fingers and under the wrapping Chris had created.
She turned her head toward him and saw him staring into the sky. “Chris?” she asked.
He turned his head toward her. “Are you okay?”
She tried to give her most genuine smile. “Mostly. Did I fall asleep?”
Chris rolled toward her until he was on his side. “I think you just completely blacked out. I said we’d be okay. You said we would, too, and then you were gone. You were just completely gone.”
Jess slowly sat up. She remembered falling and knew she’d cut her leg, but didn’t remember a lot after that. “Do I have a concussion?”
“It’s hard to say. We really need to get to a hospital. We’re both in really bad shape. Even worse, we don’t have any drinking water.”
As soon as he said that, she realized how irresistibly thirsty she was.
“What do we do?” she asked. She picked their phones up off the ground and checked each one again. She even restarted them, but the result was the same.
Chris shook his head. “Survival isn’t really my forte. You’re better at this than me.”
“You say to the person that c
an’t start a fire without lighter fluid and a hundred newspapers.”
Jess pulled her injured leg in toward her chest and inspected Chris’s handiwork. Her blood had soaked into the rolled up compress and the tie had managed to hold most of it in place, but it felt too restrictive.
The blood had dried dark and crusty everywhere including her hands. The cut was mostly closed with just a little bit of red wetness down the deepest parts. It felt right to give it air and expose it. It was gross and oozing, but she was glad it had stopped gushing.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m taking this off. It hurts.”
“It’s going to get dirty if you do that. I think it would be better to leave it on.”
Jess continued peeling the cloth away from her leg. “I don’t like the way it feels. I want it off.”
“Your ankle is pretty bad. It might still be bleeding.”
Jess removed the makeshift bandage and uncovered the whole scrape. Her ankle was still seeping, like Chris said it probably would. It didn’t hurt much, but the skin was torn up around that spot. She was absolutely repulsed to see the way her skin was folding and damaged, like torn vellum paper.
“Is it okay?”
“It’s bleeding, but I think it’ll stop. I mean, tons of people in medieval times could get whacked with an arrow and still walk around for days, right?”
Chris got to his feet and dusted himself off. His stature was a little hunched. “I guess, but I don’t think that would be my first option. I’d rather keep it covered.”
“Well,” Jess replied with a little edge in her voice, “I’m the one walking on it, and I think I’ll be fine for now.” She softened her tone. “Are you okay?”
“My back isn’t great, but there’s not really anything I can do about it now.”
“I guess we’re walking out?”
Chris grunted his agreement. “Or we need to get back to where we have a signal.”
“How will we tell the cops about where to find… her?” Jess’s eyes darted back toward the ledge they’d fallen from. She wasn’t particularly keen to head back up in that direction.
No Service Page 5
