“They seem to be made with a thick knife, or maybe a chisel and hammer,” Fiona said, still staring up at them.
“Yeah. I think you’re right.”
They stared at each other in the gloomy light, and Fiona saw her own fear reflected in Sarah’s eyes.
“Do you think this has anything to do with what we heard earlier, on the trail?” Sarah asked.
Fiona nodded without hesitation. “Yes. Roz and the other guys were really creeped out when they came back.” She gave a quick summary of how they’d behaved. “Seeing something like this would explain how they were acting. Maybe they’ll admit what they saw if we show them this.”
Sarah rubbed her arms despite the heat. “Agreed. Now let’s get the hell out of here. I don’t have to pee that bad.”
They almost ran back to camp. Once there, it took them a few minutes to find and gather everyone, as they were all either working on something or had drifted off to explore. Something in her expression must have alerted Roz, however, as she gathered everyone into the center of camp when Fiona asked her to.
Once the group was assembled, Roz asked, “Okay—so what’s the problem?”
Sarah explained, and Fiona could hear the fear in her voice. Roz’s face hardened as she listened, her eyes narrowing with fury.
After Sarah finished, Roz said, “Okay. Me and Ben are going to go check it out. Everyone else stay here and don’t wander away.”
Roz and Ben left, and the moment they were out of sight, everyone around Fiona started talking at the same time, seeming nervous and scared. Fiona’s ears were ringing slightly, and her head felt strangely light and disconnected. Her vision blurred then, and her legs started to buckle. She managed to make her way to a nearby stump of wood, sitting down on it before her legs gave way entirely. Her hands were tingling, and the buzzing in her head increased, darkness now almost entirely obscuring her vision. Her heart felt high and heavy in her chest, pounding in her ears, and her breath was so loud she could hear nothing else. She clasped her shaking hands between her knees and bent forward as far as she could, trying to get the blood into her head. She was vaguely aware of the others falling silent, and then, dimly, she realized Jill was next to her, kneeling on the ground by her side.
“Just breathe,” Jill whispered. “You’re okay. Take deep breaths, okay? In through your nose, out through your mouth, in through your nose, out through your mouth…”
Fiona did as suggested, and the ringing gradually faded. She tried to sit up, but Jill kept a hand on her back.
“Stay down for another minute, okay? You almost passed out. Keep breathing. I’ll get a cool rag for your neck.”
Jill disappeared from her peripheral vision, and Fiona closed her eyes, concentrating on her breathing. Time seemed to flicker slightly, as Jill was suddenly next to her again, the damp cloth on the back of her neck heavenly cool.
When Jill finally let her sit up again, the others had all retreated to a distant part of the camp. They were talking quietly. Roz and Ben were back, Roz in the middle seemingly answering questions. Every person had their arms crossed or their hands stuffed into pockets, appearing tense, expectant.
“What happened?” Fiona asked Jill.
“You almost fainted. All of the sudden, you were stumbling around. You almost went down, but you managed to sit on this stump here. Scared the hell out of me.”
Fiona was confused. She could remember most of this, but she also seemed removed from it somehow.
“Weird,” she said. “I’ve never fainted before.”
Jill looked scared, eyes wide, face pale. “And you better not do it again.”
“What did Roz say when she came back?”
Jill glanced that way and shook her head. “I don’t know. I was too busy taking care of you.”
As if they’d called to her, Roz started walking toward them, and Fiona managed to sit up a little straighter, the damp rag sliding off her neck and falling to the ground behind her. Her head was pounding, but that strange weightless weakness was gone.
“Are you okay?” Roz asked. She seemed worried, almost frightened.
She nodded, suddenly embarrassed. The last thing she wanted this woman to see was her frailty. “Yes. I don’t know why that happened. I’ve never fainted before.”
“I’m just glad you didn’t hurt yourself.”
“Did you guys see the trees?” Jill asked.
Roz met Fiona’s eyes, raising an eyebrow, and Fiona waved a hand dismissively. “I’m not going to pass out again. I want to know what’s going on.”
Roz stared at her a beat longer before focusing on Jill. “Yes, we did. It was like Fiona and Sarah said, and just like what me and the guys saw earlier when we went to check out the noises on the trail. Earlier, three trees about a hundred yards past the boulder field had marks and symbols like that on them.”
“Why didn’t you say something about it then?” Jill asked. Fiona could hear a hint of anger in her voice.
Roz sighed. “I don’t know. I guess we didn’t want to scare you. I was going to have the guys report it when they got back to town. Now I’m not so sure we should wait that long. Obviously whoever is doing this is still out here—we heard them, after all.”
“Can you tell how long ago they were here at the camp?” Fiona asked.
Roz shrugged. “Not long—last few days, or maybe as soon as this morning. The trees haven’t started healing yet, so within the last week, anyway.”
“Jesus,” Jill muttered.
“Exactly. I don’t think it’s safe to wait to report it. I want the forest service to know what’s happening as soon as possible.”
“Do you think we’re safe?” Fiona asked.
Roz didn’t answer right away, and Fiona’s stomach dropped with dread. Roz had her hands bunched into fists on her waist, staring off into the meadow.
“I don’t know,” she finally said.
“What? How can you not know?” Jill said.
Roz frowned at her. “I don’t know, because I don’t know what this person or people’s intentions are any more than you do. It could be kids, trying to mess with us.”
“Or it could be a maniac,” Jill said.
Roz shrugged. “Unlikely, but I guess so.”
Jill laughed. “Are you serious?”
“How could I know?”
Fiona could see that Jill wanted to debate Roz, and she touched the back of Jill’s hand to cut her off. Of course Roz couldn’t know. All of this was new to her, too. Jill was reacting to her fear with anger.
Jill looked down at Fiona and frowned, but the anger disappeared from her expression, and she sighed.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Of course you don’t know.”
Roz’s expression cleared as well. “It’s okay. We’re all in the dark here.”
They were quiet so long, Fiona couldn’t take the suspense. She needed to ask what they were likely all thinking.
“Should we go back to the trucks?”
Roz sighed. “Part of me thinks we should, but it’ll be dark before we get back there, even if we hurry. It’s too dangerous for the horses. I could send one of the guys to alert the forest service, and the rest of us could wait to leave until we hear from him again. One person on his own could get back well before sunset if he leaves soon and travels light.”
“Goddamn it,” Jill said. She turned abruptly and strode away, toward the meadow. She was nearly stamping, her arms swinging wildly as she walked. Jill was obviously upset at the idea of an interruption to their trip, but of course they had very few options. Even Jill had to know that. At best, a rampaging vandal was stalking these woods, cutting up protected woods. At worst, a nutcase was on the loose with a hammer and chisel at his disposal. Either way, things couldn’t go on as scheduled until they figured this out. The police, or whoever, needed to be involved and put a stop to this. If that meant cancelling the trip, so be it.
Roz raised an eyebrow at her, and Fiona shrugged as an apology. Roz migh
t not know Jill very well, but she clearly understood not to try to follow her. Instead, she turned back to the others and gestured them over to her. By the time they’d walked across the camp, Jill had also come back, though Fiona could see that she was still upset.
“Okay. I’ve made a decision. Fred, I want you to ride back to the trucks and call the forest service. I don’t want to wait until tomorrow morning. The rest of us will stay here until we hear from you, or thirty-six hours, whichever is first.”
“What happens then?” Carol asked.
Roz frowned and shook her head. “We’ll have to decide—either to go back or keep going. We can make up one day on the trail with a few extra miles here and there, but not more than that, so we’ll wait until Monday morning if we don’t hear from you, Fred.”
Roz waited for objections and more questions, but no one said anything, everyone simply looking around at each other, worried and upset. Jill was still fuming, but even she had to recognize a compromise when she heard it. With no voiced objections after several seconds, Roz nodded with what seemed like dismissal and turned to Fred. She and Fred made their way across camp toward one of the horses, talking quietly, and Fiona and her friends were soon left behind as the other men moved apart to talk to each other.
“Well, this sucks,” Jill finally said.
“It sure does.” Sarah nodded.
“Sure, but what are you gonna do?” Carol asked. “At least we’re not going back now. The last thing I want to do is ride a horse any time soon. And who knows—maybe everything will be okay. Maybe we’ll get to keep going after all.”
“I sure as shit don’t want to go back the day after tomorrow,” Jill said.
“But we’ll have to, if Roz decides that’s best,” Sarah said.
“Why?” Jill said in almost a whine. “It’s just some asshole cutting up trees. It shouldn’t ruin our vacation.”
Fiona knew Jill would say something like this eventually, but she was still momentarily stunned. She could see that Sarah was startled as well. Jill must have seen identical expressions staring at her, as she threw her hands up in the air and walked away in a huff. Carol and Sarah shared another of their silent exchanges, and Fiona closed her eyes, suddenly exhausted. At this point, she would have paid any amount of money simply to be at home, away from all this, and in her own bed.
Fred suddenly rode by at a brisk trot, and the three of them waved to him as he passed. He touched his fingers to his baseball cap in a mock salute and quickly disappeared down the trail, toward the trucks. His green bandana was still visible long after he’d gone, the color flashing through the trees before it disappeared.
She glanced at her wrist before she remembered that she no longer had her watch. Judging by the sun, however, it was perhaps four or five. Unencumbered and moving that quickly, he could probably make it to the trucks in three hours. He would be cutting it close but should be there before full dark.
“Come on, guys,” Carol said. “Let’s get something to eat.”
She and Sarah walked away toward the food, and Fiona waited for Jill to turn around and join them. She didn’t. She continued to stand about ten feet away, her back a solid wall of indignation, and Fiona finally decided to let her pout on her own. She couldn’t be bothered to talk her out of her snit, no matter how much Jill clearly wanted her to try.
After dinner, everyone sat around the fire in almost complete silence, the light, excited mood from this afternoon a distant memory. Hardly anyone spoke, though almost everyone made a half-hearted attempt to play cards for an hour before people seemed to wander away by themselves or in small groups. Fiona tried two or three times to work up the courage to talk to Roz, but the longer she waited, the more she dreaded trying.
By the time Fiona finally headed for bed, just as the first stars appeared in the sky, she was so emotionally and physically spent, she fell asleep almost the moment she was in her sleeping bag. When Jill joined her in the tent and roused her, it was full dark, and Fiona said nothing to her, pretending to sleep through it.
Chapter Five
Fiona was startled awake by a commotion outside her tent. She was surprised to find it already light outside. She usually slept poorly the first night or two in the woods, waking up on and off and getting up at first light. Judging by the sunshine inside her tent, she’d managed to sleep well past dawn. She fought her way out of her sleeping bag, slipped off the fleece skull cap she wore when she slept, and unzipped the tent flap, struggling to get out of her tent and into her boots without touching the ground with her socks.
The commotion was coming from the far end of camp. Roz and the others were standing close together, and she could hear Jill’s tone from here, though not her words. Her voice was raised, angry, and Roz stood in front of her, a foot or two away, hands on her hips—defensive and angry herself. Carol and Sarah were standing nearby, so close to each other their arms were flush on one side. Fiona leaned down to tie her laces and then hurried over to them, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Jill said. Her face was mottled red, her body tense.
“I mean I have no fucking clue what happened,” Roz said. Unlike Jill, the anger in her tone was quiet, cold.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Exactly what I just said. I have no idea where they are.”
“How is that even possible? Didn’t you hear them?”
“Did you?”
Fiona touched Sarah’s arm. “What happened? What are they arguing about?”
Sarah’s eyes were dark and scared. “They’re gone. All of the guys are gone, and so are the horses.”
“What?”
Sarah pointed at the spots where the men’s tents had been, and at the area where they’d tied the horses last night. Both were empty.
“But—”
“Shhhh!” Sarah said, holding a finger to her lips. “I want to hear this.”
“So let me get this straight,” Jill was saying. “All your employees managed to pack up camp and disappear with ten horses, and you didn’t notice?”
Roz threw her hands in the air. “None of us noticed! I don’t know about you all, but I didn’t hear a fucking thing!”
“How is that possible? Explain it to me—I’m all ears.” To emphasize this point, Jill cupped a hand over one of them.
Roz let out a restrained groan. “How can I explain it? I don’t know what the hell happened any more than you do.”
Jill took a step toward her, fists clenching. “Some leader you are! What fucking use are you?”
Carol stepped between them and held out a palm to each. “Guys, hold on a second. Yelling and swearing at each other is getting us exactly nowhere.”
“She’s incompetent!” Jill screamed.
“Jill, cut it out.” Sarah’s voice was dark, furious but quiet. Jill opened her mouth to object, and Sarah held up a single finger. “I mean it, Jill—shut the hell up.”
Everyone stood still, Jill and Roz breathing heavily. Fiona’s heart was double-timing, anxiety squeezing her chest and throat, vise-like.
Roz and Jill had calmed a little, so Carol let her hands drop and backed up so the five of them were standing in a loose circle.
“Okay then,” Sarah said. “Let’s approach this situation logically and take it a step at a time. Just to clarify, Roz, you didn’t ask the guys to leave—they left on their own?”
“That’s what I’ve been saying!”
Sarah touched her fingers to her forehead. “I’m clarifying for everyone, okay? No need to jump down my throat.”
“Fine. Sorry. No. I didn’t ask them to leave.”
“Okay. So the guys left on their own for some reason. Can anyone think why they might have done that? Or why they took all the horses?”
Fiona read equal amounts of fear and confusion on everyone’s face. All of them were quiet before everyone shook their head or muttered no.
“So again,” Sarah said, “to be crystal
clear, no one heard them talking last night? None of them said anything about leaving early?”
More negative responses.
“Who was up the latest last night?”
Again, they glanced at each other before Jill raised her hand.
“Me, I think. Roz—you went to bed right before I did, right?”
“Yes.”
“What were you doing, Jill?” Sarah asked.
“One of the guys—Mark—had some whiskey. We all had a little before turning in. Barely anything, really—a mouthful or two.”
“Did they stay up after you left?”
Jill shook her head and then shrugged. “Not exactly. I mean, technically yes. They were still up when I got in the tent, but they were all putting out the fire, that kind of thing, getting ready. I’m pretty sure I remember one of them going into his tent about the same time I did, but I can’t be sure. I guess it’s possible he was pretending for some reason, but I don’t know.”
Everyone was quiet again as they digested this information. Fiona’s heart was doing that funny skip again, her chest still tight and hot.
Sarah sighed. “So I guess we can all agree that sometime in the night they packed up camp, tied up the horses, and left, and they did it entirely on their own for unknown reasons. Now think back to yesterday. Even if they didn’t mention leaving, exactly, did anyone hear them talking about anything else? Something they wanted to do when they got back to town, maybe? Something they were worried or excited about, maybe?”
More silence before Carol said, “Jon mentioned missing his girlfriend.”
“Mark said something about a river-rafting trip he was going on later this week,” Jill offered.
“I think I heard Ben say he has a sick grandma,” Roz added.
All of this seemed inadequate, and Fiona assumed the others were thinking the same thing. Even a dying grandmother wouldn’t merit abandoning them like this, especially without saying something to one of them first. Anyway, no one had any way to receive this news, this morning or otherwise.
From the Woods Page 5