Three hours later, we are not at the inn. We are not anywhere near the inn. In spite of Warner’s map and Jack’s compass, we are utterly lost.
And it’s going to get dark soon.
Lindsay begs until we stop for a quick rest. Noah’s water is long gone, and we all take sips from Jack’s water bottle. I feel slightly ill at the knowledge that when this water bottle is empty, we won’t have anything to drink. Even though the sun has fallen in the sky, it’s still hot out. My shirt is soaked with sweat. I could easily polish off the entire bottle by myself. My mouth feels like the Sahara.
Jack takes this opportunity to reassure us. He looks tired and sweaty, but not nearly as frazzled as Lindsay and I look. His shaggy dark hair is slightly damp, and it’s sexy. I can’t wait to get this guy alone at the inn.
If we ever get there.
“It’s going to be fine,” Jack says to us. “We made a wrong turn so we have to backtrack. But we’re on target. We’ll be there before dark.”
“It really feels like we’re lost,” I say.
“We’re not lost.” Jack’s voice is warm and reassuring. He starts to reach for my hand, but then catches himself. “Look, we’re going to hit civilization at some point soon, like it or not. These days, it’s very hard to get lost in the woods. And it’s even harder to stay lost.”
I reach into my purse and pull out my cell phone. I’m hoping to see a bar of reception, or maybe a missed call from Penny. But there’s still no service.
“We should have stayed in the car.” Lindsay’s eyes are red-rimmed. Her hands are shaky as she wrings them together. “We have no idea where we are.”
“No,” Warner says. “You have no idea where you are, Lindsay. Jack and I know exactly where we are.”
He sounds like an arrogant jerk when he says it, but God, I hope he’s right.
I look up at Noah. He has been privy to all the navigating, and he doesn’t look nearly as confident as the other two guys. Our eyes meet for a moment, and he shakes his head almost imperceptibly. There was a time when I could have gone up to him and asked him to tell me what’s really going on, but that’s not going to happen right now. That head shake is the best I’m going to get. And anyway, it tells me everything I need to know:
We are screwed.
Lindsay jerks up her head. “Did you hear that?” “Hear what?” Warner asks.
She hugs her chest. “It was like… a growl or a howl or…”
I shiver despite the heat. We haven’t come across any wild animals aside from a lot of bugs and a few rabbits. But there were those claw marks on the tree. Obviously, there are wild animals around here. Big ones.
“I didn’t hear it,” Jack says.
Lindsay’s hands ball into fists. “Well, I did!”
Jack seems sure of himself, but I’m not so sure. Don’t people lost in the woods get attacked by animals all the time? Is that so far-fetched?
“Look, there are probably bears around here,” Jack says. “Mostly black bears. But, you know, bears are usually scared of humans. Unless they feel cornered or their children are threatened, they’re not going to attack.”
“Great, that’s real comforting,” Lindsay mutters.
“Can we get going again?” Michelle speaks up. She shifts her purse, which is bulging with the weight of her laptop. She refused to leave it behind. “I have a ton of work to do tonight and I need to charge this thing.”
I look over at Lindsay, whose shoulders are sagging. I can tell she’s reluctant to venture deeper into the woods, but we don’t have much of a choice—it’s not like we can stay behind. I don’t know how they’re ever going to find us again if we don’t stay together. The woods seem endless.
“All right,” she finally says. “Let’s go.”
My feet are starting to ache from all the walking. I didn’t realize how out of shape I was until this hike. When is the last time I’ve been hiking? Actually, have I ever been hiking? It doesn’t seem like the sort of thing
Noah and I would have ever done. We were more the Netflix and chill type of couple. It used to work for us. We were both a couple of couch potatoes.
Jack had been telling me we were going to hike together during the trip. At the time, it sounded romantic. I liked the idea of being lost in the woods with Jack. But right now, when we are actually lost in the woods, it doesn’t seem even remotely romantic. I think the hike is officially canceled. Once I get to that hotel, I’m not setting foot in the wilderness. I might not even leave the room.
Lindsay is walking even slower than I am. She does not look good— her complexion is distinctly pale. Her stylishly messy bun from earlier is now just messy, and there are loose hairs plastered to the back of her neck. Before today, I’m not sure I ever saw Lindsay sweat before, but now there’s a vee of sweat along the neck of her shirt. Then again, I’m not sure I look much better.
The two of us are lagging a good twenty feet behind the others. We’re far enough back that I can’t hear a word they’re saying. But I make sure to always keep them in my line of sight. The last thing I want is to get separated.
“When we get to the inn,” Lindsay says, “I’m going to soak in the bathtub for like five hours. Until I’m a prune.”
I manage a smile. “I just want to lie down on a nice soft bed.”
“You know what else I’m going to do?” Lindsay licks her lips. “I’m going to order room service. A nice big bacon cheeseburger.”
I laugh. “Goodness, what will Warner say?”
“And a big box of double stuffed Oreo cookies for dessert.” She inhales sharply. “God, I haven’t eaten Oreos in…years, I think.”
Back in college, I would have said that Oreo cookies were Lindsay’s favorite food in the whole world. She always had a box of them in her room, in variable stages of being eaten. She used to take them apart and make a little stack of the chocolate wafers, then a giant ball of the creamy stuffing. I remember the way I used to groan when Lindsay would pop that white ball in her mouth.
Okay, I used to do it too sometimes. But it was fun. I can’t imagine Warner would approve of Lindsay eating a giant ball of Oreo stuffing.
“Honestly…” Lindsay rubs at a little red patch on her neck. Now that the sun is falling, the bugs are coming out, which stinks for me—I’m
always a target. “I am so hungry right now. I feel like I could eat bugs.” “Jack has some beef jerky in his bag, you know.”
Her eyes light up for a moment, but then she shakes her head. “Warner will kill me.”
“Warner will kill you if you eat some beef jerky when you’re lost in the woods?”
“You don’t get it.” She smacks at her neck, then looks at her palm. “Goddamnit. There’s like a million mosquitoes out here.”
“What don’t I get?”
“Look, I just…” Lindsay seems like she has something to say, but before she gets it out, she points excitedly at a bush on the ground. “Claire! It’s blueberries!”
I look at where she’s pointing. It’s a large, leafy green bush that has a bunch of plump, dark blue berries growing from it. Even though I had a burger rather than a salad, the sight of any sort of food makes my stomach growl. It’s past our usual dinnertime.
“Are you sure those are blueberries?” I ask.
“Of course! I used to go blueberry picking all the time when I was a kid.” She plucks a berry off the bush. “This is definitely a blueberry.”
“I don’t know…” I look ahead at the others, who are within earshot, but only if we shout. “Maybe we should ask Jack if they’re okay to eat.”
“Why? Because he was a Boy Scout a million years ago?” She rolls her eyes. “He has no clue. If he did, we’d have found that stupid inn by now.”
Before I can stop her, she pops the picked berry into her mouth. She chews on it thoughtfully. I take a step forward, ready to catch her if she starts foaming at the mouth and collapses.
“It tastes good!” she says. “It’s a blueberry, Claire. It’s ripe and sweet.
If it were poison, it would taste bad.”
Is that true? I feel certain I read some poison berries have a sweet taste. Lindsay is plucking berries from the bush. She’s got at least a dozen of them in her hand, and she’s eating them as she goes. I get a sick feeling in my stomach. This is a bad idea. As much as I’m not excited by the idea of Jack’s beef jerky, I don’t think we should be eating random berries we find
in the woods. Also, don’t blueberries ripen in July? It’s still only June.
“Lindsay,” I murmur, “I really don’t think this is a good idea. We have no idea if the berries are safe or not. Can’t we just check with Jack?”
“Oh, come on. What are the chances some random berries we come across are poison?”
Maybe I’m a glass-half-empty type of person, but I feel like there’s a much smaller chance that some random berries in the woods aren’t poison. “Lindsay…”
“Fine.” She pops a couple more berries in her mouth, then drops the rest in the dirt below us. “I won’t eat them, okay? Happy?”
I look up—everyone else is way ahead of us. They don’t seem at all concerned we’ve fallen so far behind. Would they even notice if we just vanished? “We better catch up.”
“Yeah…” Lindsay looks suddenly exhausted, like she can’t go another step. “We better.”
I know exactly how she feels. But we don’t have much of a choice. If we want to get out of here tonight, we’ve got to keep walking.
