We’ve been walking about another hour when I hear a woman’s scream from up ahead.
After what happened to Lindsay, my pulse immediately shoots up. I’ve been walking alone for the last half hour or so. Noah was staying beside me initially, but then he went ahead to see how the navigation process was going. I can’t even begin to read the map and the arguments about which way to go were stressing me out, so I stayed behind. I don’t feel like talking to anybody anyway—all I can think about is Lindsay. Every time I shut my eyes for a moment, I see her pale face.
My eyes have been mostly downcast, trying to keep from tripping on any branches. But now I look up sharply, trying to figure out what just happened. The only other person in our group who could have screamed like that is Michelle.
Did she see a wild animal?
I jog to catch up with the others. As I get closer, I see that Michelle is sitting on the ground, clutching her left ankle. Her face is pink and her jet black bun has even become a little bit unraveled. Even her lipstick has rubbed off. That’s a first.
“Are you okay, Michelle?” I ask. “Do I look okay?” she snaps at me.
“Michelle tripped and twisted her ankle,” Jack explains.
Suddenly I don’t feel so stupid for keeping my eyes on the ground.
Michelle moans and pulls up her pants leg. The ankle already looks swollen—soon it will probably turn purple. I wince at the sight of it. “I can’t believe I did that…” she groans.
“Can you put weight on it?” Warner asks.
“I’ll try.” She holds out a hand to Jack, who hauls her to her feet. She gingerly attempts to stand on her left leg, and she screams again. “Oh my God…”
“It might be broken,” Warner says.
“No.” Michelle grits her teeth. “I can’t have a broken ankle.” Her eyes fill with tears. “You don’t get it. I do not have time for this. I don’t have time for any of this.” She lowers herself down to the ground. “I should never have come on this stupid trip. I only came because…”
She lifts her black eyes and stares at me. It’s impossible to miss the accusation in that stare. Does she know about me and Jack? Did she only come on the trip so she could keep an eye on us?
I drop my eyes. I can’t deal with this right now. I need to focus all my energy on making it to that inn. On surviving so I can get back to my children.
“Does anyone have a signal?” Jack asks.
I take out my phone from my purse. I’ve been checking periodically, but I haven’t looked in at least half an hour. I hold it up—still no service. Worse, the battery is dying. I should probably turn the phone off so I don’t drain the battery completely while it’s searching for a connection, but I can’t make myself do it.
“What am I going to do?” Michelle moans. “I can’t walk like this…” “But we’ve got to find the inn,” Warner says. He looks down at his
watch. “Once we find it, we’ll come back for you.”
The panic on Michelle’s face is unmistakable. She reaches out and grasps Jack’s arm hard enough that he winces. “You can’t leave me.”
He squirms. “Michelle…”
Her fingers bite into his forearm. I wouldn’t be surprised if she drew some blood. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Okay, okay.” He forces a smile. “Look, we’re all really tired. I think we should camp here for the night and then start up again when we’re fresh in the morning.”
“Camp here?” Warner looks at the woods around us, densely populated with trees and branches. Now that it’s dark, it’s hard to see more than about six feet ahead of us. “You’re joking.”
As much as I dislike Warner, he has a point. This doesn’t seem like a good place to be setting up camp for the night.
Jack looks up. “There was a clearing we passed a few minutes ago. We can camp there. It’s just for the night. I can build a fire.”
Warner’s handsome face darkens. In the moonlight, his perfectly chiseled features look almost frightening. How could poor Lindsay have fallen in love with this man? “We’re almost out of food and water, you know. We need to keep moving.”
At the mention of food and water, my stomach growls. If I found a bunch of berries right now, I don’t think I would be able to resist eating them. But the more pressing need is thirst. Jack has been sharing what was left in his water bottle, but it’s not much anymore. I could guzzle the whole thing in one go, but we’ve got to share it between the five of us.
And then in the morning, we’ll have nothing.
“I saw a couple of rabbits traveling north,” Jack says. “I’m sure if we follow their footprints, we’ll find a water source.”
Warner grits his teeth. “Contaminated with God knows what…”
As much as Michelle isn’t my favorite person, I can’t imagine leaving her here. It was hard enough leaving Lindsay. Michelle must be terrified right now. She’s holding onto her left ankle with one hand and hugging herself with the other.
It’s just dumb luck that Michelle is the one who twisted her ankle instead of me. Even though I’ve been keeping my eyes on the ground, I’ve had a few close calls with some stray branches. I could have easily fallen and sprained my ankle. And then I would be the one begging everyone not to abandon me.
“I think we should stay here for the night,” I speak up. “Me too,” Noah says.
Warner’s face twists into a grimace. He folds his muscular arms across his chest. “You know,” he says, “I’m the one with the map.”
What is he saying? Is he threatening to go off on his own with the map, leaving us behind? Frankly, I’d prefer it if he left us alone. He gives me the creeps. I don’t know how he fooled Lindsay into thinking he was a good guy—or maybe this situation has brought out his dark side.
Then again, it makes me uneasy to think about being stranded here with no map.
“Look, we’re all tired,” Jack says. “We’ll navigate a lot better when it’s light out. And I’m not leaving my wife alone here.”
Warner stands there, the wind tousling his golden hair. He looks like he’s thinking over what to do next. Finally, he nods. “Fine. We’ll sleep here
tonight.”
It looks like we’ll be setting up camp.
