by April Henry
“You’re doing great,” Wyatt said. “How does Trask look?”
She tore her gaze away from the fire. Trask’s head was turned toward her, resting on the back of Wyatt’s neck. His eyes were closed. “You won’t believe it. I think he’s asleep.”
Instead of being assured, Wyatt looked worried. “Are you sure he’s asleep and not unconscious or something?”
Just then Trask’s eyes opened and he looked at Natalia. He still looked relaxed. To him, this must feel like a dream.
“His eyes are open now. I think he’s just decided to go with things.”
Wyatt looked ahead. “We’re about halfway across.”
AJ appeared on Natalia’s other side, then switched from some much more efficient stroke to a dog paddle. “How are you doing, Natalia?”
“Good if I don’t think about how deep it must be.” She tried to give him a smile. “So why do you watch videos about the navy?”
“I’ve always dreamed of joining up, but it doesn’t seem like it’s for someone like me. Someone who’s out of shape and scared of everything.”
“You’re a good swimmer.”
“I’ve always liked to swim.” His smile was rueful. “And in the water a few extra pounds actually help.”
It was easier to feel confident for him than it was for herself. “You can always get in better shape. And I think most people feel scared sometimes. Even petrified. It’s like that saying, ‘Feel the fear, and do it anyway.’”
“Like you’re doing,” AJ said.
Before Natalia could answer, Marco started shouting somewhere ahead of them.
“There’s people on shore! I see B! She’s okay!”
CHAPTER 29
SCARS NOW MADE VISIBLE
8:54 A.M.
“YOU CAN STAND UP now, Natalia,” Wyatt said. “We’ve reached the shore.”
Still clinging to her makeshift flotation device, she stood up. The water was only waist-deep.
As she turned toward the shore, Ryan and Lisa splashed toward them, calling Trask’s name, their arms outstretched.
“We’ve been so worried.” Ryan’s voice broke. “I can’t believe you swam that whole way! Thank God you’re all still alive.”
“Let me get Trask out.” Lisa’s voice broke with urgency. “I just need to hold him, at least for a second.” She started fumbling with the straps on Wyatt’s back. Trask woke up and reached for her.
Her heart in her throat, Natalia scanned the rocky shore. What about the others? Had they survived?
First she spotted Beatriz. Marco had his arms around her. Her head was tucked underneath his chin. It was another layer of relief to see Beatriz still had Wyatt’s backpack, which meant the group still had at least his first aid kit, water bottle, and filter. The two held each other, rocking back and forth, while Blue barked and ran in circles around them. Beatriz’s face was smeared with ash, while Marco looked like he had just taken a shower fully clothed.
Behind them were Darryl and Zion. Jumping from foot to foot, Zion was explaining to AJ what had happened.
“The tree just went whoosh past us!” Zion demonstrated by throwing his hands from one side of his body to the other. “Grandpa and I had to run.”
Natalia only relaxed when she saw Susan, standing a little apart from the others. The older woman was wringing her hands, looking anxious and confused. But she was alive.
“Come on, Natalia.” Wyatt held out his hand from where he stood on the shore. “We need to keep moving.”
The whole time she had been counting heads, her fingers had been working at the knots in her pants, now empty of air. “I need to put my pants back on, but I think the knots are too tight.”
He splashed back out to her. “Let me try.” After tugging and fiddling, Wyatt even tried using his teeth. Finally, he swore. “It’s like they’re superglued.”
“I don’t exactly want to hike in my underwear.”
He pulled the knife from his pants pocket. “How do you feel about shorts?”
“It beats the alternative.”
He had her hold the knot while he grabbed a pant leg and sawed away. Eventually, the lightweight nylon cloth parted with a loud ripping sound. When it reached the seam, Wyatt had to give the blade an extra tug. After they repeated the process with the other leg, she slipped into pants that now ended at her knees.
After she stepped out of the water, she saw Ryan wince at her exposed scars. He looked away when he saw her noticing. Did he recognize them for what they were? For a minute, Natalia allowed herself to think about the future, about how they might be rescued, how Ryan and Darryl and Lisa might be treated by real doctors. About how Ryan might learn firsthand the truths behind her scars, about debriding and grafts and skin so tender that at first even the weight of a cotton sheet was too much to bear.
She was still lost in thought when Beatriz wrapped her in a hug. “I’m so glad you’re alive. When that burning log split us up, we all freaked out, wondering what had happened to you guys.”
“We were doing the exact same thing.” Marco slipped his arm around Beatriz’s waist as soon as she released Natalia.
“I thought you guys were gone forever,” Zion said. “And Wyatt’s the only one who knows where to go.”
As if to underscore Zion’s words, Wyatt had already pulled the map from his pocket and unfolded it. Instead of being a waterlogged mess with disintegrating paper and smeared ink, it looked untouched.
“That survived the swim?” Natalia asked.
“It’s printed on waterproof paper. I wish I could say the same for my phone.” He tapped a spot on the map. “So anyway that’s Knox Lake we just crossed. Even though the fire may not be able to get across, it’s already working its way around the lake. But if we keep ahead of it, we can pick up the Cougar Creek trail.”
“Wait a minute,” Darryl said. “Haven’t we just spent the better part of a day avoiding the Cougar Creek fire?”
Wyatt shrugged. “That was when we were miles farther north, where there’s still active fire. But I think we should head to where the fire started a couple of weeks ago. The fire already burned everything there and then moved on. If you can’t outrun a forest fire, then the best place to be is in what smoke jumpers call ‘the black.’ Because things can’t burn twice.”
“And if we do that, if we take the Cougar Creek trail, how much farther to civilization?” Marco asked.
“Once we meet up with Cougar Creek, it looks like it’s only about three miles to a road.”
Road. It almost sounded like a foreign word to Natalia. The reality of the last twelve hours—of running for her life over and over, of near misses and panic, of one injury or problem after another, of exhaustion sapping the strength from her muscles—seemed like just how things worked now. It was hard to imagine ever breathing clear air again, or licking her lips and not tasting ash, or lying down between crisp white sheets. Hard to imagine finally being safe.
AJ, Wyatt, and Natalia put their wet boots back on. Then Lisa placed Trask back in the carrier Wyatt was still wearing. While people took turns drinking lake water through Wyatt’s filter, AJ said, “Here, Susan, let me carry your pack for you a bit.”
She took a step back. “You don’t need to do that.”
“I know I don’t need to. I want to. Plus, I don’t feel right without something on my back, and I had to leave my pack on the other side of the lake.”
Even though her expression betrayed that she wasn’t quite following him, she still started to shrug out of the straps. As she did, she looked down at her arms. “What happened to my arms?”
He answered patiently. “You just scratched them up a bit last night. But you’re okay.” He settled the straps over his own shoulders.
At first the woods ahead of them were untouched, but soon there were scattered burned patches where sparks had fallen but not found enough fuel to stay alive.
They had been hiking for about a half hour when they heard the burble and mutter of water
flowing over rocks. Then the woods opened up and they saw the source. A stream. While it was only about fifteen feet wide, the water looked at least thigh-deep.
And it was moving fast.
CHAPTER 30
SUCK YOU UNDER
9:31 A.M.
THE GROUP CAME TO a stop. “How are we supposed to get across that?” Marco asked. Part of the water was white, presumably from rocks just underneath the surface.
“Isn’t there some kind of bridge we could use?” Lisa appealed to Wyatt.
He was checking his map. “We’re off-trail now, so there isn’t a crossing anywhere nearby. I think we’re going to just have to figure out the best place to ford it.”
“It doesn’t look that deep.” Ryan narrowed his eyes. “That lake you guys got across was way deeper.”
“Yeah,” Wyatt said, “but this is moving water, not still. Which means physics are not in our favor. Water weighs something like sixty pounds per cubic foot. If it’s moving, the pressure increases with the square of its velocity.”
Darryl tilted his head. “Can you say that in plain English?”
“It means that if the water is moving twice as fast in one section as in another, then it’s exerting four times as much force. If it’s moving ten times as fast, that’s ten times ten, or one hundred times the force. It’s tempting to cross where it’s narrowest, but then the water will be deeper and faster. And the deeper the water is, the more we’ll float, which means it’s harder to stay upright. We want to find the shallowest, slowest part.”
AJ grimaced. “Even then, for some people it’s going to be tough.”
Wyatt was looking at each of them in turn, weighing how difficult it would be. “We’ll have the strongest people form a human chain, and then we’ll have the others go over one at a time in front of the chain. That way if someone loses their footing, the people in the chain will catch them. After they’re done, the rest of us will finish going across.” He took a deep breath. “But it’s worth taking a few minutes to look for the best place. And that includes making sure there’s nothing immediately downstream that someone might run into if they get swept away.”
“Like a waterfall?” Beatriz asked. “That always happens in movies.”
Wyatt nodded. “Exactly. Or something like that that boulder.” He gestured at a big gray rock shouldering out of the water. “That could break a bone or knock someone unconscious.”
Ryan pointed upstream. “What about where it turns? It looks calmer there.”
Wyatt pinched his lips between index finger and thumb as he considered it. “It does, but sometimes that means there are deep pools or undercurrents. It’s all a trade-off. A straight stretch might have faster water, but it’s also more likely to be a consistent speed and have a flat bottom.”
He kept walking downstream while the others followed in a strung-out, exhausted line. Finally he found a spot he liked. “What about here?” In the middle of the water was a tiny island, about two feet across. A few leggy weeds grew from it. “That could give people a resting spot. And with luck, it could mean the current is cut in two and weaker on both sides. I’ll check it out first.”
Before going across, Wyatt asked to borrow Lisa’s trekking pole. She gave it to him and then lifted Trask out while Wyatt borrowed the other pole from Susan.
“Should you take off your shoes?” Marco asked.
“That made sense when we were swimming and didn’t want to get weighted down. But going across the stream barefoot means it is easier to slip and fall—or just hurt your feet.”
Wyatt scrambled down the bank until he was standing next to the water. When he stepped in, rather than cutting straight across, he faced upstream and began shuffling sideways at a diagonal. Natalia’s breath went shallow as she watched him test each step, first with the pole and then his foot. Carefully, he began to cross, making sure one foot was planted before moving the next one. At the center, it was a little less than three feet deep—but that would be chest-deep for Zion.
Once Wyatt got to the other side, he reversed the process, still moving deliberately and carefully. After he got out of the water, he didn’t climb back up the bank. “The current’s definitely pushy, but the bottom is rocky and didn’t feel too slippery. I say we go for it.” While they jumped or gingerly picked their way down the three-foot-high bank to the narrow shore, he looked them over, and one by one they joined him on the shore. “For the chain, let’s have me, AJ, Natalia, Beatriz, and end with Marco. Then the rest of you can cross in front.”
Darryl puffed out his chest. “I can be part of the chain.”
“We need you to go over with Zion. It’s going to be the hardest on him.”
“What about Trask?” Lisa asked. “Who’s going to carry him?”
Natalia realized that none of the choices were good. The people on the chain were the strongest, but also at the most risk. That left Zion, Darryl, Susan, Lisa, and Ryan.
“I’ll do it,” Ryan said.
“No,” Lisa said. “Your shoulder is burned.”
Ryan shrugged. “Just on the outside. Not where the straps hit.”
“Wait a minute,” Wyatt said. “I haven’t been thinking straight. If anyone falls into the water, the best way to survive is to shed your pack, get on your back, and point your feet downstream. But you obviously can’t do that if you have a baby on your back.”
“My sister was big into wearing her kids,” Beatriz said, untying her beach towel–turned–cape. “I think it’s possible to use this to tie Trask to Ryan’s front.”
It took a few tries for Beatriz to remember how it was done, but eventually the towel was snugged under Trask’s butt and wrapped around Ryan’s torso, and the ends of the towel were tied around his unburned shoulder.
After putting back on the empty child carrier, Wyatt had them link arms on the narrow shore. “We’ll be moving on my count at an angle so we can help break the current for the person behind us. Don’t cross your legs. Just keep shuffling sideways.”
Was he afraid? Natalia couldn’t tell. Since he was in the lead, he would be bearing the brunt of the current. Feeling each step with the pole, he waded back into the water as he began to call out their steps.
“Left foot. Right foot. Left. Right.”
Natalia’s arm was threaded through AJ’s on one side and Beatriz’s on the other. She stepped into the water. It was immediately as high as her calves. She let out an involuntary gasp at how cold it was. Behind her, she felt Beatriz’s arm tighten as she slipped a couple of inches before catching herself. But they kept bulling their way forward, until finally the five of them spanned the width of the stream.
“Good job!” Wyatt called. “Careful not to lock your knees.” Then he yelled for Susan to come across. She moved a little uncertainly without her pole but still made it across. Darryl and Zion crossed together. Lisa was next, using the pole to steady herself. Ryan went last. Trask kept patting his dad’s face and babbling, but Ryan didn’t let himself respond until they were safely on the other side.
Once everyone was across, Marco detached himself and made his way carefully across the stream. One by one, the line unpeeled, until finally only Wyatt was left standing in the stream.
“We did it!” Smiles broke through their exhaustion. Natalia felt her spirits lighten.
Wyatt put Trask on his back again and returned the trekking pole to Susan. Their boots sloshing at every step, the group moved forward in scattered clumps. For once, Marco’s Tevas served him well. Beatriz’s booties were still on her feet, but looking worse for wear. When they came upon an old fallen log, most went around it. AJ elected to go straight over. He grabbed hold of the stub of a branch poking up from the top, then set his right foot on the curve of the trunk. With a grunt, he pulled himself up until he was standing on top, about three feet off the ground. Bending his knees and swinging his arms, he got ready to jump down on the other side.
Suddenly there was a splintering crunch as part of the log gave way. He lu
rched sideways as his left foot disappeared.
An angry hum filled the air.
AJ desperately yanked his foot free. He fell backward off the log, landing on his butt.
From the hole he had punched in the rotten trunk, tiny yellow bodies began to rise up. First dozens, then hundreds, then possibly thousands massed in a dark and angry swarm around the log that had once held their nest.
“Bees!” AJ yelled.
Shrieking, everyone scattered. Everyone but Zion, who had frozen. And when AJ desperately scrambled to his feet, he accidentally knocked Zion off-balance. Face-first into the log.
Right into the bees’ nest.
CHAPTER 31
STOP HIS HEART
10:10 A.M.
WITH A BELLOW, DARRYL sprinted, not away from the bees, but right into the middle of them. Paying no mind to the angry, buzzing swarm, he leaned down into the middle of it and hoisted Zion in his arms. Holding the boy to his chest, he ran back the way he had come. Barking, Blue followed.
“Everyone else—stop!” Wyatt yelled. “Stay as still as you can! Don’t run or wave your arms or try to get them off you. It’ll just make them madder.”
It took all of Natalia’s will to stop running, to stand stock-still when her heart was banging in her chest.
She felt a tiny tap on her cheek as a bee bounced off. Bees won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt them. That’s what Natalia’s mom had always said. But these bees had been hurt. And they were mad. She felt a sting just below the curve of her jaw. Another on her left hand. A third on her right calf.
The bees’ buzzing reached a crescendo, like a hundred people angrily humming some avant-garde piece of music, or a machine with something stuck in the gears grinding to a halt.