Footprints

by Alex Archer

Annja felt the jab of the rifle barrel again and sat down. Jenny's expedition consisted of a number of college students—an even mix of boys and girls who looked quite frightened.

  But where was Jenny?

  Annja watched as the three armed men huddled together and spoke for a few seconds. They parted and the one who seemed to be in charge, a guy of maybe forty with thick pork-chop sideburns and a long scar down one side of his face, nodded at her. "You."

  "What?" she asked.

  "Stand up."

  Annja tensed. Were they going to shoot her now? She closed her eyes and pictured the powerful sword she'd inherited from Joan of Arc. The weapon was ready for her to call forth. She knew her timing would have to be perfect.

  Annja stood and asked, "What's this all about?"

  "Shut up. We've got a message for the professor."

  Annja frowned. So this wasn't just some random occurrence. These guys wanted to speak to Jenny. But what had happened to her?

  "What's the message?"

  The man leveled a finger at Annja. "Tell her to back off. She's not wanted here. These woods belong to us. And we'll do whatever it takes to keep it that way."

  Annja wanted to argue, but decided it would be better to just accept things and try to figure out what was going on once the danger had passed. "Okay. I'll give her the message."

  "You do that. And tell her we'll be watching. If we don't like what we see, then bad things will start happening."

  Annja nodded. "I get it."

  The lead man regarded her for one more second and then turned. The three men walked toward the trees that bordered the clearing. In minutes, they had vanished back into the gloom.

  Annja frowned. She turned and pulled one of the young men to his feet. "What the hell is going on around here?" she asked him.

  "Who are you?" he said, sounding terrified.

  "I'm Annja Creed. Where is Jenny?"

  "Jenny?"

  "Professor Chu," Annja said.

  Although he was big and strapping, the student looked frightened. Probably hasn't had the experience of being shot, stabbed and blown up, Annja thought

  "Professor Chu went out on a hike this morning. We haven't seen her since."

  Annja looked around. "None of you have seen her?"

  "No. And those guys showed up about an hour ago. I guess they just got tired of waiting for her."

  Annja peered out into the woods. "Maybe."

  "Maybe?"

  "Perhaps they were only supposed to deliver the message. Maybe it's a scare tactic."

  "Those guns looked real enough."

  Annja smiled. "They were."

  "Hey," a voice called out.

  Annja turned and saw Joey standing behind her, sliding his backpack off.

  "Where the hell did you disappear to?"

  Joey grinned. "Creeping Wolf, remember? I can disappear in the blink of an eye."

  "Yeah, well, thanks for sticking around to defend the weak and all that jazz."

  Joey smirked. "Yeah, right. You defenseless? That's a joke. And besides, I don't do guns, man. I'm a lover, not a fighter."

  "Great. So, my creeping friend, maybe you can tell me what happened to Jenny?"

  "How could I do that? I've been gone all day getting supplies," Joey said.

  Annja frowned. He had a point. And none of the college kids looked as if they were going to be particularly keen to set out on a search through the woods. Annja could hear them all talking in hushed tones. She knew what was coming.

  Annja looked at Joey again. "They'll want to leave," she told him.

  Joey frowned. "Because of those guys? That's weak."

  "Didn't you just tell me you're a lover, not a fighter?"

  "Sure, but I don't lay down for anyone, either. I did that, I wouldn't be much of a credit to my tribe."

  "Well, I don't think any of these kids signed on for this kind of thing. The thought of gun-wielding dudes is probably giving them images of Deliverance."

  "Deliverance?"

  "It's a movie," Annja said. "Rent it when you're older."

  Joey shook his head. "I can download it for free. But thanks for dating yourself."

  "You've got quite the mouth on you, don't you?" Annja said, attempting to sound stern.

  Joey held up his hands. "No disrespect intended, ma'am."

  Annja smirked. "Wiseass." She turned back to the student she'd spoken to initially. "Get your gear packed up. You guys aren't staying here."

  He looked as if Annja had just promised him several bars of gold. Instantly, the college students all sprang into action, taking down tents and getting their packs squared away.

  Annja watched them. She felt hesitant about taking command of the situation but, with Jenny nowhere to be seen, someone had to. She couldn't tell a bunch of kids to hang around with gun-toting nuts lurking in the woods. And she was pretty confident that Jenny would tell them to get out of there, as well. There was no way Jenny would want kids under her care to be in danger.

  It took them twenty minutes to break down the camp. Annja found Jenny's tent and started to pack it up, too.

  Joey spent most of the time complaining about the supplies he'd lugged back from town. "Hey, man, I'm still getting paid for this, right? I mean, charity's nice and all, but I have to look out for numero uno."

  Annja fished out her wallet and gave him fifty dollars. "That enough?"

  Joey's eyes lit up. "Not bad. Jenny promised me a hundred per day out here, though."

  "Don't push your luck. Jenny's on a university grant and has to watch all of her expenses. That fifty's a gift and you know it."

  Joey smiled. "Can't blame a dude for trying."

  Annja finished breaking down Jenny's tent and wrapped up the stakes in the nylon. "I've got one final assignment for you, Creeping Wolf."

  "Yeah?"

  "You need to lead these kids back to the trailhead."

  Joey frowned. "They stay on the trail, they'll be fine. They don't need me."

  Annja pulled him close. "Take a look at their faces. Every one of them is terrified. Being confronted with guns isn't a normal occurrence for these kids. And they're probably considering very seriously the idea that they came close to being killed. If I let them go like this, they'll wander off the trail and die from exposure. You know that's true."

  Joey nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. They do look pretty shell-shocked."

  "As opposed to you."

  "I left, man. I don't stick around for trouble. That's bad medicine."

  "Well, do me this one favor and then you can get lost, as well."

  "What about you?" Joey asked.

  Annja looked out into the trees. "I'll leave with you guys as a group. But somewhere along the trail, I'll bleed off. Don't try to find me. I'll search for Jenny and we'll figure out what to do next."

  "You're going to find Jenny in these woods alone? You?"

  "I'm pretty good at finding my way around, Joey. I've been in a lot worse environments than this," Annja said.

  At that moment, the clouds finally opened up and rain pelted down from the sky, soaking everyone in seconds. The students shouted and complained that they had no tents to use for shelter.

  Annja sighed and called them all together. "You're leaving."

  "Now?" one of them said. "It's raining."

  "So the quicker we get out onto the trail and headed back to the trailhead, the better off you'll be. Move quickly and you'll stay warm, too. Joey here is going to lead us all out."

  "Can he do it?"

  Joey looked as if he was going to punch the person who asked, but Annja held him back. "Yes, he knows these woods better than anyone."

  "What if we get lost?"

  "You won't," Annja said. "And I'll be bringing up the rear so I'll make sure no one gets left behind. Now, are we ready?"

  They all nodded. Annja breathed a sigh of relief. If she could just keep them focused on the task at hand, getting back to the safety of town and away from here, then th
ey'd be all right.

  She looked at Joey. "You all set?"

  "Of course," he said.

  "All right, then. Lead on."

  Joey started off down the trail. One by one, the students fell in, forming a ragged line. Rain continued to drench them all. Annja knew she'd have to find shelter pretty quickly if she had any hope of surviving long enough to find Jenny.

  She figured the trio of gunmen were probably watching them leave. She hoped they would think that Annja had just wanted to get everyone out in one piece. Hopefully, they would believe that their threats had worked.

  Even though they hadn't.

  The trees seemed to reach in over them as they walked down the trail. Overhead, the long spindly branches with leaf shoots and pine branches deflected some of the rain, but it was still getting very squishy on the ground. Annja's boots left footprints behind her that quickly filled with water.

  The trail was turning into a muddy mess.

  "Joey?"

  He turned back, hearing Annja call him. "Yeah?"

  "Thanks for your help."

  He frowned for a moment and then simply nodded. He understood that Annja would simply take off on her own at the right time and not announce her departure. The quieter she was, the better. The last thing those kids needed was something else weighing on their minds.

  Annja did find it peculiar that none of them had asked about Jenny's welfare. But then again, when faced with mortal danger, most people do end up only considering their own personal safety.

  Jenny was on her own.

  Well, not quite. As Joey led the group around a bend in the trail, Annja saw her chance and quietly stepped off the trail. She crouched low and then slipped behind a thick pine tree.

  The rain continued to fall and the light in the sky seemed to be dimming by the second. It was already late afternoon and the addition of bad weather meant that she was looking at spending a truly dark night in the woods.

  Annja, soaked and not really knowing where she was or how to even begin looking for Jenny, was facing the very real threat of staying warm enough to survive her first night out here.

  She smirked. Funny how her bad haircut paled in comparison to the dangers she faced now.

  Chapter 3

  If Annja had initially believed that the rain would taper off as the evening progressed, she was wrong. Indeed, as the sky continued to darken, the rain increased until sheets fell from the clouds above her. The forest floor ran with mud and debris while a strong wind howled around her.

  If I stay here, I'll die, Annja decided. The good news was that the weather was a great equalizer. The men with the guns would also have to seek refuge from the storm. That meant Annja could risk setting herself up properly without fear of them showing up to shoot her dead.

  She hauled Jenny's tent out of her backpack and immediately got it staked into the sodden ground. There was no guarantee that the tent wouldn't fly away at the next gust of wind, but she was grateful she at least had something that would keep her reasonably dry.

  Her next task was fire. Annja could already feel herself starting to shiver. And she knew from experience that the onset of hypothermia would render her useless very soon. Her system would literally start to shut down, as her core drew heat away from her extremities and her brain.

  She pulled out her knife and started scraping at the bark of the tree closest to her. The exterior of the bark was wet but the interior would still be reasonably dry. Annja produced a handful of shavings that would easily catch a spark. She put them into a plastic bag and then in her pocket to keep them as dry as possible.

  Twenty yards from her makeshift camp, she spotted a downed tree. Closer inspection showed it overhung a fairly large area and provided substantial shelter from the rain. It was almost dry under the canopy of the dense pine. Annja could see the splintered trunk and reasoned it must have come down during a recent thunderstorm.

  She hurried back and pulled Jenny's tent from the muddy ground. Back under the canopy, the ground was much drier. It wasn't high enough to set up the tent under the branches, but she could stretch the tent out and use it as a tarp. It was perfect to further protect her from the elements.

  Annja also found a large pile of deadfall and the branches were almost all dry. She hacked several into smaller lengths and then scraped out a fire bowl depression in the ground. On the bottom she laid the tinder bundle and set some thin kindling sticks above it.

  Here goes nothing, she thought. She scraped her fire starter against her knife blade and saw the sparks fly into the tinder bundle. They caught almost immediately, and even with the cacophony of noise from the rainstorm, Annja could still hear the snap and crackle of the wood as it caught.

  Heat radiated up toward her and Annja shivered again, as if trying to throw the water off her skin.

  I need to get these clothes dry, she thought.

  She added more wood to the flames and set two of the thicker logs nearby to begin burning. When she was satisfied she had a sustainable fire going, Annja removed her clothes.

  Her jacket was still fairly dry, but she'd gotten wet pretty much everywhere else. She stripped off all of her clothes until she huddled around the fire nude, feeling the wood smoke curl up around her, wrapping her in its warmth.

  On the branches above her, Annja draped her clothes, letting the heat and smoke dry them out.

  The area was littered with pine boughs and Annja knew that sleeping on them could be almost a luxury if they were soft enough. The spring growth hadn't occurred yet so they were obviously dead leftovers from before the winter snows. Still, when she gathered enough of them and lay down, it was quite comfortable.

  The wind howled around her sanctuary. I wonder where Jenny is in this mess? Annja frowned. She knew there was a chance that her friend would not survive the night without any of her camping gear. The wind, rain and falling temperature together could kill even an experienced outdoors type.

  Still, Annja knew that Jenny was remarkably resilient. And she also had a lot of training. Annja rooted through her pack and found the energy bar she always kept there along with the bottle of water she'd packed. Some feast, she thought, but at least she had something.

  The rain continued to hammer the forest. Annja couldn't remember hearing about any major storm systems threatening this area, but that didn't mean much in the mountains where the weather could change from minute to minute.

  She finished her meal and then leaned back against the thick tree trunk. Thanks to the way the branches drooped almost to the ground, the heat from the fire warmed the area nicely. Annja felt relaxed and comfortable, despite the fact that she was sitting naked in the midst of a terrible storm. If she wasn't worried about Jenny's whereabouts she'd actually be having a great time.

  But it was definitely not a night to be out alone. Still, she had her sword. And she had a fire and shelter. Water wasn't an issue yet. She'd just eaten. So even though she was out in the woods with three armed guys who had warned her not to hang around, Annja didn't feel too bad. As soon as the rain let up she'd start her search for Jenny.

  She touched her clothes. The heat and smoke were doing their job nicely. She pulled them down and slid them back on. Her body heat would finish drying them.

  She fed another log onto the fire, watching the flames jump around in the slight breeze that had managed to work its way inside the relative safety of the drooping tree. The heat enveloped her. Annja felt her eyelids drooping. She tried to blink away sleep, but she took another deep breath and nodded off.

  When she woke, the sun wasn't shining. In fact, it was still pitch-black outside. It was dark inside the shelter, as well. The fire had died out and only red coals remained, smoldering from a lack of fuel.

  Annja reached for a branch to toss onto the fire. She felt a small chill run up her back and knew she would need to keep better alert to ensure the fire didn't die out entirely.

  Fortunately, the coals were still hot enough, and with a quick huff of air over th
em, they flared and caught on the branches, resurrecting the fire into a reputable condition. Annja shivered again.

  The rain had tapered off. But the wind continued to blast through the trees.

  Had she just heard something?

  It was tough trusting her ears when the wind seemed to overpower her ability to pick out details.

  The fire blazed to full strength. Annja sat with her back against the tree. The fire had compromised her relative invisibility. If those goons were out there looking for her, they would see its glow through the branches and know someone was in there.