Off Road

by Raelyn Drake

  Wyatt could still hardly believe that he had fallen that far after losing his bike. Exhausted and in pain, Wyatt sat down heavily on a rock on the side of the trail and examined the rest of his scrapes and bruises while Tanika lugged his bike back up.

  Wyatt had never had any problem reading Tanika’s expressions, and now as she returned with his bike he could easily see that she was nervous about something. Which meant only one thing.

  “How bad is the damage?” Wyatt called.

  “Umm . . . let’s just say that it’s not great,” Tanika said, dragging the bike over and propping it up against a nearby tree. She sighed and wrinkled her nose. “Not great at all.”

  Wyatt felt a stab of pain almost worse than the pain in his arm when he looked at his beloved mountain bike and saw the mangled metal frame. The seat was tilted at an angle, the wheel spokes were bent, and the front tire had been punctured in at least five places.

  Tanika took off her helmet, ran a hand over her curly hair, and sighed again. “It looks like it was run over by a truck,” she said finally.

  “Are you sure I hit a root?” Wyatt asked. “Maybe I ran into a deer.” He laughed weakly at his own joke, trying to keep the edge of panic out of his voice as he realized just how badly his bike was damaged.

  “I’m never going to be able to ride the rest of the way on that,” Wyatt said. One look at Tanika told him that she was thinking the same thing.

  Tanika grimaced. “I don’t suppose you have a bike repair kit in that backpack of yours?”

  “I have a great bike repair kit in the back of the car. Whole lot of good that does me right now,” Wyatt said. “All I brought in my backpack is a single tire patch and a pump, but that’s not going to be nearly enough.”

  “So your full kit is miles away that way,” Tanika said. She pointed over her shoulder to indicate the general direction of the parking lot, then frowned. “Err, actually I guess the parking lot is . . .” she looked at the trees around them and then swept her hand around in frustration, “somewhere.”

  “Let’s stop kidding ourselves,” Wyatt said glumly. “We’re not on the right trail. If this were the black diamond trail, that jump should have been clearly marked. And I haven’t seen one sign since—” Wyatt paused. He had just seen something orange lying near the side of the trail, half obscured by dead pine needles and moss. “What’s that?”

  Tanika cleared away the debris and held up the orange warning sign so they could both read it:

  BIKE PARK BOUNDARY. NOT PATROLLED. The area beyond this boundary is hazardous backcountry terrain—trails are unmarked and unmaintained. Persons proceeding beyond this point should be equipped and trained for self-rescue and be prepared for dangerous terrain, weather changes, and wildlife encounters.

  “If this isn’t even an official bike trail, then what is it?” Tanika asked.

  “It could be some sort of animal path, I guess,” Wyatt said. “I’ll get the trail map out.”

  He reached into the main section of his backpack and froze. It was wet. That wasn’t right. Why on Earth was it wet? Wyatt unzipped it all the way to examine the contents. He pulled out his water bottle and discovered that it was dripping. He found a long hole slashed in the side and tried to plug it with his thumb. But the damage was done. The water bottle had already leaked more than half of his water.

  “It must have gotten punctured when I crashed and has been slowly leaking since,” Wyatt moaned. “Here, hold this,” he said, and Tanika took the wet, leaking water bottle from him.

  Meanwhile, Wyatt tried to rescue the soaking wet contents of his backpack. He found his phone lying in a puddle of water at the very bottom.

  Muttering under his breath, he dried it off with his jacket. It had powered off. “Should I turn it on?” he asked Tanika.

  Tanika shook her head. “I wouldn’t risk it, unless you want to fry your phone. I’m pretty sure the only way you’re going to salvage that thing is if you get it home and leave it in a bag of rice for a couple of days.”

  “Then how are we supposed to look at the map?” Wyatt said. “You left your phone in the car. Like you always do,” he added before he could stop himself.

  Tanika scowled. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You don’t need to remind me that I screwed up by forgetting it. It’s not like I forgot it on purpose. Obviously I wish I had my phone with me right now.”

  “Sorry,” Wyatt said. “I’m just trying to think through our options here.”

  “What options?” Tanika said, still sounding a little annoyed. “Why don’t we just head back the way we came until we connect with the main trail?”

  “Because,” Wyatt said, “we’d still have to hike back up the mountain with our bikes, and then we’d have to make our way along the washed-out section of the trail. Or we’d have to head all the way back up to the overlook. Either way, by that time it will be dark. And I’m not even sure we can find our way back to the intermediate trail.”

  The animal path had seemed clear enough on the way down, but now that Wyatt looked back the way they had come, he had a hard time picking it out among the trees. And there had been a few spots where the path had branched and they had picked at random. How could they be sure they were even headed in the right direction?

  “What are you trying to say, Wy?” Tanika asked.

  Wyatt sighed. “I’m saying we’re lost.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  “How do people even get lost in a park?” Tanika grumbled. “It’s not like we’re in the uncharted wilderness. This park is, like, a thirty-minute drive from my home.”

  “At least we told our parents we were coming here,” Wyatt said. “So if we don’t make it home tonight, then they’ll know where to send someone for us. Based on the warning sign, I’d guess we’re at the very edge of the park, but that doesn’t mean the park rangers are going to let us just get eaten by wild animals or starve to death.”

  Tanika raised an eyebrow. “Did you say ‘if we don’t make it home tonight’? We still probably have at least four hours before it gets dark. There is no way I’m spending the night in these woods.”

  “We might not have a choice,” Wyatt said, though he didn’t really like the thought either.

  The sun wouldn’t set for a while, but the clouds blocked most of the afternoon light. Wyatt was suddenly very aware of just how quiet the woods were. An occasional bird would call out in the distance, but other than that there was only the rustle of wind through the trees and the steady drip of water from the branches.

  Tanika started talking as though she needed to fill the silence, and Wyatt was grateful. “Well, I don’t know about you,” she said, “but I didn’t bring any camping gear with me. What’s all in that backpack of yours? If you don’t have a bike repair kit, then I suppose you don’t have signal flares.”

  Wyatt tucked his damaged phone in a side pocket and looked through what was left. “I have the first aid kit, tire patch and pump, an extra granola bar, an extremely leaky water bottle, a small, not-so-sharp pocketknife that I picked up at a garage sale, duct tape, and one of those cheap fold-up plastic ponchos.”

  Tanika nodded thoughtfully as he listed the contents. “Not bad. Is it one of those pocketknives with tools?”

  “Yeah,” Wyatt said. “But it’s just stuff like a nail file, a screwdriver, a can opener, and a corkscrew. I can’t really repair my bike with that.”

  “No,” Tanika admitted, “but it helps to have options. And if we find any cans of food lying around, we’ll be able to open them.”

  Wyatt gave a short chuckle.

  “First things first—let’s stop this water bottle from leaking anymore,” Tanika said, reaching for the tire patch and sticking it over the hole. She nodded to herself in a satisfied way and looked back up at Wyatt.

  “Well, what now?” he asked, trying to keep his voice more light and casual than he felt.

  Tanika snorted. “That’s all I’ve got! You’re the big planner! Usually you’d have a color-coded checklist
written up by now. So what’s the plan for an emergency?”

  “My plan for an emergency was to pack some extra things in my backpack and use my phone to call for help. I didn’t exactly plan on something like this happening.”

  Tanika smiled grimly. “Who would?” She walked a couple of steps away and spun in a slow circle, surveying the surrounding woods for any sort of clue of which way they should go. “I guess it would make sense to head downhill, right?” she asked. “I know it’s probably not technically part of the park property anymore, but we need to head back down the mountain anyway.”

  “Yeah,” Wyatt agreed, “but the path goes up and down so much that we could think we were walking down, but actually be going in the opposite direction of the park entrance and the parking lot.”

  “Oh yeah, I see what you mean,” Tanika said. She glanced up at the sky. “And of course it’s so cloudy and foggy that we can’t just use the sun as a point of reference.”

  “And we can’t do the old sailor thing and navigate using the stars,” Wyatt muttered. Not that he knew what that involved, anyway.

  “Is that trick you always see in movies accurate?” Tanika asked suddenly.

  Wyatt felt like he had missed something. “What trick?”

  “The thing where you see what side of the tree the moss is growing on,” Tanika said, as though that should have been obvious.

  Wyatt thought he remembered hearing something like that at one point, but he couldn’t remember if it actually worked or if it was just an urban legend. “I don’t know, but it’s the best we’ve got to go on at the moment,” he said.

  “Okay,” Tanika said, examining the trees nearby. “So let’s say the moss is growing on the north side of the trees.” She looked around and sighed. “A lot of these trees have moss on all sides, but it looks like it’s thickest over here”—she gestured to the side of the tree facing Wyatt—“so that must be north.”

  “Makes sense to me,” Wyatt said with a shrug. “And I’m pretty sure we want to go south and east from what I remember of where the sun was when we pulled into the parking lot.”

  Wyatt stood up, wincing, and walked over to his bike.

  “What are you doing?” Tanika asked.

  Wyatt stopped, puzzled. “I’m getting my bike.”

  “There’s no way you’re hauling that thing through the woods with your injured arm.”

  “I’m not leaving my bike,” Wyatt said sharply. It was one of his most prized possessions, and there was no way he was just going to leave it in the woods to rust. It was badly damaged, but Wyatt was hoping the mechanic at the local bike shop could fix it. “You’re taking your bike with you, I’m assuming?”

  “Well, yeah, but my bike rolls,” she said with a small laugh. She hung her helmet from the handlebars and flipped up the kickstand. “And if we reach one of the main trails, I can ride ahead for help.”

  “Yeah, well,” Wyatt sputtered. As much as he hated to admit it, what Tanika said made a lot of sense. He huffed in exasperation. “Fine, as long as we can try to come back to find it later. You know, once we actually have a map and a working phone and more than a couple hours of daylight.”

  “I have an idea,” Tanika said, smiling. She grabbed the duct tape out of Wyatt’s backpack and used it to secure the orange warning sign to a small tree on the edge of the animal path. Then she laid Wyatt’s bike carefully at the base of the tree. “See, this way the spot is marked, and the warning sign is back up where people can actually read it.”

  Wyatt smiled, thinking of how it would be easier to find his bike with a marker like the warning sign. “Looks good,” he said.

  “Maybe we could use that poncho to cover the bike to protect it from the elements?” Tanika offered.

  “I’m tempted,” Wyatt said, “but I’m thinking we better save the poncho for ourselves in case it starts pouring again like it did yesterday. I love that bike, but I care about our safety a lot more.”

  ***

  They trekked through the woods in the direction they hoped was southeast. Assuming that southeast even was the right direction. Wyatt knew they needed to remain calm. He tried telling himself that they were bound to find a road or a park ranger or something eventually, but he honestly wasn’t convinced that was true.

  The park didn’t seem so big when they were speeding down the trails on their mountain bikes. But Wyatt had no idea how long it would take them to hike the same distance, especially with his injured arm and Tanika pushing her bike along. He guessed it was probably already well into the afternoon based on the amount of time they’d already been out on the trail. We probably only have a few more hours until it starts to really get dark, he thought to himself. And he wasn’t eager to face the woods without the light of day. He remembered that the warning sign had mentioned dangerous terrain and unpredictable weather, but also—

  “Did you know that we have all sorts of predators in the woods around here?” Tanika asked suddenly, as if she had been thinking the same thing.

  “Isn’t it just bears?” Wyatt asked.

  “There are grizzly bears and black bears,” Tanika said, ticking them off on her fingers, “but I’m pretty sure there are also wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions. Comforting thought, right?” she teased.

  “Yeah,” Wyatt said, his voice practically a whisper. “Thanks for the nature lesson.” He glanced over his shoulder nervously, but there was nothing there.

  Tanika suddenly spoke up in a loud, clear voice that made Wyatt jump. “I’ve always heard that the best way to avoid running into wild animals is to make a lot of noise,” she said. “If you give them a heads up that you’re coming, they’re not going to be startled. And it’s when they’re startled that they get defensive and attack.”

  “Good thinking. And besides—” Wyatt started to say, then started again, louder this time, “And besides, if there’s anyone else out in the woods, maybe they’ll hear us.”

  He didn’t add what he was thinking—that if they ended up stranded in the woods overnight and their parents called them in as missing, there would be search and rescue parties combing the woods. And you want the search and rescue parties to be able to find you, he thought. But he hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

  They walked on, talking about other things like upcoming pool parties and what teachers they would have next year. Anything to take their minds off their current situation.

  But there was only so much Wyatt cared to talk about. And soon he started tuning out Tanika’s chatter, thinking instead about the darkening clouds and the sounds of twigs snapping in the undergrowth.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  After about an hour, Wyatt stopped suddenly. “Hold up.”

  “What?” Tanika asked.

  “I’m pretty sure we’re going in circles,” Wyatt said.

  Tanika looked around. “Everything looks the same in these woods. How can you be sure?” she asked.

  Wyatt pointed to a shallow cut in the bark of a nearby tree. “I’ve been using my pocketknife to mark trees every once in a while.”

  “Like a trail of bread crumbs,” Tanika said.

  “Exactly,” Wyatt said grimly. “And we’ve passed by this tree before.”

  “How did we get turned around?” Tanika asked, annoyance ringing in her words. “I swear we were heading in a straight line.”

  “There were a couple times that we had to go around fallen trees, and we kept going left. Our turns must have added up until we ended up right back where we started.”

  “But how can we stop it from happening?” Tanika asked. Clearly his theory wasn’t doing much to comfort her.

  “What if we alternate between turning right and left around obstacles? That should help balance us out.” Wyatt said.

  Wyatt laid out a strategy about how to keep track of their direction and how to check at points along the way, but Tanika didn’t seem at all interested in the details of his plan—or his lengthy explanation.

  Once he finished talking, T
anika raised a bored eyebrow. “Did it really require that much explanation?”

  “Uh.” Wyatt didn’t know what to say.

  “You really need to learn how to get to the point, Wy,” Tanika muttered.

  She folded her arms across her chest, and Wyatt couldn’t tell if it was out of annoyance or because she was cold. Probably a little bit of both. He knew she was probably just snapping at him because she was starting to get freaked out about the situation, but Wyatt thought it was a bit bold of her to be annoyed. Especially since Wyatt was the only one coming up with any real plans to get them out of the mess.

  It’s not my fault you have the attention span of a goldfish, he thought meanly.

  They set out again, this time trying to be more aware of their surroundings and keeping an eye out for the marked trees as Wyatt had suggested. Wyatt was shivering a little bit.

  Wyatt noticed that it was getting progressively darker as the sun sank lower in the sky and the clouds thickened. The weather had seemed great when they were on their bikes, but now it wasn’t so nice, especially when the wind whipped through the trees and sent drops of cold water splattering down on the backs of their necks. Wyatt was tired and cold. And all of a sudden it struck him that he was also incredibly thirsty.

  His mouth was dry and he wondered how he could be this thirsty when the forest around them was so damp and foggy. He kicked the ground in frustration—his shoes were caked with mud.

  Wyatt swung his backpack around and reached in for his water bottle. The inside of his bag was still sopping wet, and when he pulled out the bottle her understood why. The tire patch hadn’t worked to fill the hole, and the rest of his water had slowly drained out of the bottle. Wyatt glared at the water bottle, as though that would somehow bring the water back. He felt his stomach clench as he thought about how much longer they would be able to last without water.