by catt dahman
“Good, I was starving,” Taryn told them. She surveyed their spot that branched four ways, five if she counted the way they had come from. One was an easy trail that led back to where the family that they had helped had gone. They could go that way and camp with them and swim and hang out with all the people there. “Really? I don’t want to hang with them and then hike out and stay at the hotel all those days.”
“You’re joking? I thought you wanted to stay at the hotel,” Carla said, “so we don’t take the Pines Trail. The Bartley Trail goes…let’s see…up along some bluffs, and a camp is in the meadow and then bluffs and forest and out.”
“No, I never wanted to stay at one. I’d rather be out here with all of you, and Dana said at least a week. We were waiting because Dana had us on notice we would be needed after Sam…yanno. We packed enough food for over a week anyway,” Taryn told them.
Taryn took a deep breath, “The guys are taking Cross Over. Cody said they were going to have some medium bluffs and have to work a lot harder, but it just adds a day or two extra with the bluffs and water.”
“They’re going that way?” Dana asked, “and that’s a fairly hard trail.”
“Yep. So we can do Lofton. It says closed, but the guys did it two weeks ago, and it said closed then, too, but they took it and saw no reason for the closure. Cody said it was easy but exciting with low bluffs, water, meadow, and the forest. It would take the whole week. One day of medium bluffs.”
“It’s closed, and it sounds rough,” Dana argued.
“I vote we do Lofton even if it’s closed,” Taryn said.
“I vote Bartley and take it slow.” Dana decided.
“I vote Lofton. We bypass the tons of families along the Pines, and East is way too hard, so it’s west for me,” Carla said.
“Lofton,” Bev said, “or we follow the guys? That could be fun.” She nudged Leila. “I vote for both so someone has to be the tie breaker in case.” It was what they had done in college when the eight of them were together.
“Dana,” Holly said, “three all”
“Dana 4-3.” Leila sighed.
Anthea shrugged, “Lofton. No boys, 4-4”.
“Oh hell, no. Why?” Charlie kicked a rock. Once there had been ten of them who always hung out together. All their dorm rooms were close together, and they made fast friends, shunning the rest of the girls for their own club. The Butlers. Their motto was I don’t give a damn. Bev had come up with the idea one night.
The other two girls had been Della and Fran. Della had been drunk one night, had a fight with a boyfriend, and got into her car. She hit a truck head on. Fran had gone home to see her parents, and although they always travelled in a pack, taking friends home with them, this one time Fran had gone alone because she had been used by a boy and tossed aside; she was hurt and embarrassed.
She cut her wrists at her house.
Charlie, for some reason, thought of Fran and Della and looked at Bev, who was always rejected and never appreciated. Charlie didn’t want to be anywhere near the men on the trail and watch Bev flirt and get hopeful. “Lofton.”
Dana rolled her eyes and blazed the trail first, slamming her walking stick against the rocks a little harder than usual. She did have to admit the trail was pretty as it wound slightly upwards and east. At a break, Dana tried to figure out her map, but it didn’t make sense.
“This is pretty simple,” Charlie said, “camp soon.”
“We’re not very high, and there’s a forest on both sides. According to my map, we should have forest to the east and bluffs to the west. We were going to camp here,” Dana indicated the area, “we did something wrong.”
“Right here, we should have gone on the west trail, but we went east.” Charlie showed her that if they used a small trail the next day, they could cut through to a nice campground that was in the middle. Everyone was tired today.
When Charlie saw the campground, she moaned a little. It was small, and two men were camping almost in the center. None of them felt like hiking farther and staying at a random spot on the trail.
“We’ll make camp here,” Dana said.
“In the woods?”
“I thought we would want to be away from those guys, so it’s either here almost in the woods or on the other side in the middle of the trail.” Dana was exasperated and snapped at Anthea.
“Hi. We have a lot of fish we caught and cleaned. Would you ladies like them? We have plenty,” said a man who came over. He looked like a biker without his bike, had a long beard and sharp blue eyes, a dew-rag on his head and was buffed. “Bill. Nice to meet y’all.”
Charlie simply sighed and invited them to cook with them. They had curried rice with the meal that Charlie made in two big bags once she had boiling water. Inside the bag were rice, dehydrated peas and onion flakes, a lot of spice, and cashews that provided the needed protein to their meal. Some of the rest took foil and made packets with fish, spices, dehydrated peppers, onions, and celery. While it all cooked, the women set up their tents and straightened up the campsite.
Charlie stretched out on a pad to relax and looked at the sky.
“Do you want me to come stay with you a while after this? I mean I really want to,” Carla said. “Una pelado won’t bother you with me there to tell them you are tired of all the payoso idiots who want you to fill out forms and do el chorillo for what Sam left.”
“They do bug me. But you have your own routine and home….”
“Let her come be your stress guard, and then I can come and take over. We can all help,” Anthea suggested, “all of us except Bev and Holly can be rather outspoken.” She blushed when they laughed because she was the sweetest.
“We’ll work it out before we go back. I would love to have any of you hang out with me in that big, empty house, but I don’t want anyone to have to take off work or go to any trouble,” Charlie said.
Dinner had been great with an almost Louisiana-style cook out. The rice had been perfectly seasoned and tasted great with the foil-cooked fish.
After dinner, Bill and Ray offered to share some moonshine they had brought. Bill had attached himself to Taryn and Ray flirted with Anthea and Charlie.
“You’re real pretty,” Ray told Anthea.
“Is your hair really that color?” Bill asked, “up and downstairs if ya know what I mean?” He grinned at Taryn who looked about ready to choke him.
Charlie told them, “We appreciate the company and the sharing of dinner, but we’re even now, and we couldn’t repay you for the moonshine. We’ll pass.”
“We don’t keep score. Come on and try some. We can drink some ‘shine and sing. Isn’t that what camping is about?” asked Ray, smiling. He was a smaller man than his friend.
“Try a sip,” said Bill as he turned to Holly, “I bet it’ll warm you right up before you wash in that cold water.”
“No, thanks. We need to go down to the water and clean up, so we’ll see you later maybe before we head out in the morning.” Charlie gathered dirty dishes. The water was just a few yards down a smooth bluff. The small lake was centered between two bluffs; a huge, beautiful meadow was behind it and a forest in the front. It was the perfect place to see everything.
Before dinner, Charlie had watched deer in the meadow. Now, she just wanted to wash the dirty dishes, jump in and get clean, dress for bed, and sleep.
“We’ll wash your dishes and return them to you at your camp.” Carla said, adding their stuff to the load.
When Charlie and Carla returned, the men were still hanging around, offering sips and getting drunker. With whispers, the women had decided to go clean up in shifts so some would be at camp to watch their stuff and keep the men away from their things.
Holly, Dana, Leila and Taryn took their turn, glad to leave the camp. They had been ignoring the men and walking around them for the last thirty minutes.
“Would you go away? I am going in the woods to pee,” Dana yelled.
Ray and Bill laughed as if that were
the funniest joke they had heard in a long time.
“What about you?” Ray asked Bev, “I’ll give you a shot.”
“Really? Finally, you get down to me after every other girl tells you to get lost? I’m really always last, huh? Well, it gets a little old,” she said as she raised her voice.
“Hey, calm down,” Ray said, “you need to simmer down.”
“Simmer down? Buddy, I ain’t even started yet.”
I ain’t even started yet: it was one of The Butler’s favorite phrases in college. It meant that someone needed backup and was about to lose control.
“Like we said, it was fun sharing dinner, but we’re tired and really want some peace and quiet, okay?” Carla was beside Bev in a flash.
Charlie jogged over, crossed her arms, and said, “Good night, gentlemen.”
“Good night. Sleep well.” Anthea handed them their clean dishes and crossed her arms, too.
The rest came back from taking quick baths and saw the four others with arms crossed, watching the men slink back to their camp, cursing the whole time under their breath.
“Is everything okay?” asked Dana who had come running with the rest close behind.
Bev took a breath and sighed, her eyes filling with tears and said, “I made an idiot of myself.”
Anthea hugged her at once, “You did not. You said what was on your mind, but Bev, you’re so pretty. Stop thinking you aren’t.”
“I’m not. That’s why I sit behind a computer writing sexy books and putting them on book sites while you could be on the cover of any book, ‘Thea.”
Leila said they were all exhausted and needed sleep. The next day should be easier and better since they would acclimate by then. She took the swimsuits and made sure they were laid out to dry; she flattened them on the rocks and smoothed wrinkles. “Those guys are freaks. They kept talking about hunting and telling some gross-ugly shit, and you know how Holly is about animals. I thought she was gonna puke or slap one of the guys.”
Dana made sure the fire would burn well all night so they could see if the men pulled a stunt and tried to mess with them. “They really upset Bev.”
“Just another group of male jerks we need to avoid. We will let them go on and get ahead tomorrow morning, so we can sleep in a little,” Charlie said. She split a few more logs and set the axe down beside the rest of the firewood. “I’m beat.”
Carla and Taryn sat up a while, feeding the fire and watching as the men got drunker in their own campsite; they heard some colorful terms for women, said extra loud, almost like they were shouting the obscenities to the women.
Part 2
Chapter 3
Charlie was the first one awake. After dressing, she climbed out and began to start breakfast, and noticed the men had gotten up early and left their camp. She walked over and stretched her legs, noting that the men had not properly extinguished their fire. Charlie noticed something odd and fished it from the fire.
It was the same pink paper she had seen a few days before in their own litterbag that they dumped before beginning the hike. It was a muted pink with embossed swirls about the edges, and Charlie had thought it was pretty and planned to ask whom it belonged to and where she could find some like it, but had been side tracked.
How had their paper gotten into the fire that the men used? Had one of the men stolen the paper or had one of Charlie’s friends come over here and drop it into the fire? lofton trail was all that was unburned, written as if someone had written the letters carefully to make sure they were clear.
Normally Charlie would have asked them whom the paper belonged to and why those words were there and why was it burning in the other campfire, but until the day before, none of them even knew the name of this trail or supposedly hadn’t known.
For days, she hadn’t worried about Mark Banner and the time travel insanity of Kelly Brodie; he believed in it, and she almost believed in. She had thought herself perfectly safe, but now she grew concerned and wished she could ask that detective’s opinion. It might have meant nothing at all, but why did she get the oddest feeling it meant something?
She put the paper back in the fire.
Deep rumblings of thunder interrupted her thoughts, and she dragged back to their camp. Was rain going to keep them stuck in place all day? But as she looked into the sky, she saw no clouds.
“I’ll get breakfast going,” Dana said, “you okay? I heard the thunder.”
“No clouds,” Charlie said as she pointed out.
“Did you move our swim suits?” Taryn asked, “ and why?”
“No,” Charlie said, “maybe the wind blew them over there? That’s weird.”
“No wind,” Taryn said.
Dana chuckled. “No clouds, but there was thunder.”
“I heard.” Taryn walked over to the woods where some of the swimsuits were hanging on branches of a bush. “I’ll grab them. Good morning, Leila.”
Leila danced in place and mimed she would be back after she relieved herself; she took her packet of toilet tissue and waited for Holly to catch up.
“This is really….” Taryn said as she walked and stopped talking since her voice went high pitched. She screamed.
The other women came out of their tents, and Leila yelled that she and Holly were on the way; Dana and Charlie ran towards the woods, jumping over rocks and broken limbs.
Taryn was lying at the bottom of a washed out incline filled with more branches and stones, some of them large and jagged. Wash outs were common as flash floods formed them, and this one was the usual with a heavy layer of pebbles and sand at the bottom, a few pieces of trash, and tangles of things that might include animal hair, tiny twigs, pine needles, and bits of items that formed to look like dead creatures or dried moss.
“Don’t move,” Dana ordered as Taryn moaned. Dana and Charlie carefully eased themselves to the bottom to crouch next to Taryn. Dana asked her questions and began to check her over. Several times, Taryn winced and yelped with pain, but to Dana’s relief, her friend didn’t seem to have a head, neck, or back injury. “I would still use a neck brace and litter to get you out. I think we should have paramedics come in, but it would take some of us going all the way back down, and that would be days.”
“I can’t lie here for days.”
“Exactly. What we’ll do is slowly get you back to camp and then carefully reassess you there so I can see. It’s gloomy in here.” Dana showed Leila, Carla, and Bev what to do, and they walked out of the gully backwards, carrying Taryn. The others collected the swimsuits, and they met by the camp again.
After looking Taryn over again, Dana began to bandage her. “She has some scrapes. Her ankle is twisted, but I don’t think there’s a break or that anything is torn. It looks like she just badly pulled some ligaments. She has some deep bruising on the shoulder, hip, knees, and elbows and some scrapes. She lost a large patch of skin on one elbow, but with that, we need to keep it clean and dry. Here on your arm, I am going to stitch.”
“Seriously? Jeez, then do it fast before the adrenaline wears off,” Taryn demanded, “I hate this.”
Dana did the stitches, cursing the limited first aid supplies, bandaged Taryn’s arm, and settled her into a comfortable place with her sleeping bag so she could rest and let the antibiotics and pain pills work. The others made breakfast while Carla asked Charlie to help her find more fire wood and get a look at the sky from a better point.
“All we need is rain,” Charlie grumbled.
“I haven’t been able to get you to the side. You told us that and made it sound kind of funny with everything, but in the woods, that guy was seriously trying to kill you. As in kill, dead?”
Charlie shrugged and said, “He wanted me dead. Yes, I didn’t want to scare you anymore than I had to, so I made sure you kept the trip quiet. But it is serious. Why are you asking now?”
“Charlie, that wasn’t an accident. I can show you; there was a line running back there, and when Taryn went to get the swimsuits, she wa
s tripped, and she fell into the ravine. That was meant to hurt or kill one of us.”
“So someone did it. It could have been done days ago for anyone. And even if it was recent, any one of us could have gone over to get the suits.”
“Only, I was there when we first got here, collecting wood, and there was no line, or I’d have fallen. As for the line, anyone could have been put it up…yep…any one of us.”
“I think someone wants me dead, but why all of you? They don’t.”
“I don’t know yet, but we’re now in a bad position with one of us being injured. Maybe it was to get you back.”
“No one knows I’m here,” Charlie reminded her. She was trying to take this seriously, but she didn’t see a connection so far, but she was reminded that Carla, when very stressed and worried, didn’t use Mexican words. She used Mexican words only when she was in a happy mood. It almost made Charlie smile.
“You hope. You think. You can’t be positive.”
“Maybe the men from last night were angry. They got up early and ran the line and moved the swimsuits, so it was a payback for our telling them to move along. They wouldn’t care who the trap caught since they were mad at all of us.”
Carla nodded and said, “Okay. True. I am jumping to conclusions.”
“You don’t have pink writing paper, do you? I saw some when we were about ready to hit the trail and was going to ask who owned it. It’s pretty,” Charlie said.
“Me? Pink? Very funny,” Carla chuckled. “Wait. Why are you asking me that now?”
Charlie explained, “I don’t own any. I don’t know who does, but we can look.
“That makes no sense, Charlie. It gives me the creeps. I would say it belonged to the men but not if you are sure you saw it before.”
“I’m positive. Carla, I’m scared.”
Carla grabbed both of Charlie’s hands and looked into her eyes. “You shouldn’t have even trusted me. I mean, Charlie, this is very serious. That guy wants you dead, and that could be all, and this is a case of we pissed off those men. That is more than likely it. I can’t explain the paper and name of the trail in their fire.”