The Camp

by Karice Bolton

  We explained the plan to the others and since nothing else was working, they agreed we should give it a try. All we could focus on from here on out was survival, surviving until a plane decided to come for us.

  Everyone began quickly gathering the supplies needed for the short term. We could always come back to the base camp to grab something, but for now the most important things were food, shelter, and a way to stay warm. I was in the yurt with Liam rolling up our sleeping bags tightly as he packed up the daypacks that we’d be hauling with us. I rounded up all the ravens and stuffed them in the bag.

  “We need to get the phone back,” Liam said. “I bet once we find the place the person’s staying, we’ll get the phone.”

  “And hopefully Steph,” I whispered, grabbing the pack that Liam gave me.

  “You’re gonna take Marty’s rifle with you,” he said, helping me to secure everything around me.

  “All right.”

  “Let’s get going,” he replied, giving me one last check before we left the yurt.

  I closed the door and took a deep breath in, hoping we’d made the right decision.

  ChapterSixteen

  “Here it is,” Liam whispered.

  I’d been following Liam for several hours and even though we’d taken breaks every so often, I was exhausted. Our first goal was to check out the place where he’d found Tom and here we were, only I didn’t see anything.

  “Where should I be looking?” I asked quietly, scanning in front of me and next to me.

  “It’s through the trees over there to the right,” he said in a hushed tone. “But it doesn’t look like anyone’s been back since we came and grabbed Tom.”

  My heart fell a little. The entire hike up here, I’d been hoping we’d find Steph. I knew it was doubtful, but it was what helped me walk through the burn and fatigue of my muscles.

  “I’m still hopeful,” I whispered and Liam nodded.

  He grabbed my hand and helped me through the dense vegetation. I finally made it to the shack he was talking about. The place looked in worse shape than the smokehouse that Liam had shown me only a few days earlier.

  “He was staying in here?” I asked bewildered. “It doesn’t even look like it would be safe to open the door.”

  We walked to the shack and Liam pushed the door in, exposing a cot and a rolled up sleeping bag. I bet if Liam laid down here, his head would touch one wall, and his feet the other. It was that tiny.

  “This is really creepy,” I said, peeking my head in.

  “We never should have stayed once we found Tom,” Liam said, shaking his head.

  “We can’t start second guessing everything,” I said to him, thinking about the decisions I’d made. “Imagine the downward spiral I could do with that one.”

  “True,” he said, exhaling loudly. “I guess we can safely say Steph’s not here.”

  His voice cracked slightly, and I reached over and grabbed his arm, squeezing it gently.

  “Something tells me she’s still alive and in all honesty, she’s the only one I’ve thought that about,” I told him, catching the heaviness in his eyes.

  “I only hope it’s not just wishful thinking,” he said softly.

  Against my better judgment, I stepped inside the tiny box of a shelter and looked around. My stomach growled, and I shoved my fist into my belly to quiet it down when it occurred to me.

  “Did you see any food or cooking items when you found him?” I questioned, kicking the cot to look under it.

  He shook his head. “No, actually.”

  “I bet the reason for that is that he was close enough to the other people.”

  “That makes sense,” Liam said, examining the area I had kicked around.

  “I think we’re closer than we realize. It’s only a matter of time.” I said, nodding my head as I looked around one last time before I left the shack.

  “My guess is that they used the other place to store all of the food and stuff. It’s gotta be around here,” I persisted.

  I followed Liam back to the trail, watching his deliberate movements as he we searched for any sign of where to look next.

  A sudden movement in the bushes made me freeze.

  “Liam to my left,” I hissed.

  Liam whirled around quickly and spotted exactly what I was talking about.

  “It’s okay,” he whispered. “It’s a female black-tailed deer. She’s watching you. Can you see her?”

  I shook my head, extending my neck to try to get a glimpse of something nice for a change.

  “Move forward a tad,” Liam whispered.

  I took a slow step, which allowed me to see the doe’s beautiful eyes. I hadn’t ever been this close to a deer before. She was magnificent, and it gave me the extra reminder I needed about life’s goodness. There were wonderful things out there waiting for us. We just needed to get off this island. The deer blinked at me and bounced off in the other direction, leaving shimmering leaves in her absence.

  “That was incredible,” I whispered.

  “I had hoped to show you things like that around the island,” he said, pressing his lips into a thin line.

  I stepped over to him and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Well, just seeing her for a few moments did wonders for my spirit. Onward I guess.”

  We continued up the tiny trail when Liam spotted another structure. He stopped and gestured for me to come check it out. It was only about a hundred feet away and my stomach began tightening into knots. This had to be it.

  Similar to the other shack, the side of the building was pieced together with all kinds of wood. But on this one there were some green, painted pieces mixed in with the dark brown I was used to seeing. Liam half-turned, looking at me anxiously.

  The wind began to pick up around us and I felt a sudden charge. I wanted to find her. I felt she was alive and inside the very building we were staring at.

  “Let’s make this happen,” I whispered.

  Liam began hauling through the trees, and I did everything I could to keep up. Neither of us worried about the noise we were making. We just wanted to get to Steph.

  He reached the shack first, but I was close behind, panting and attempting to catch my breath. I was most definitely notifying whoever was inside of our presence. The slats between the pieces of wood and siding were easily to see through, but my eyes hadn’t caught anyone or anything inside the building as we walked up to the door.

  There was a defined path leading up to the front door and my pulse zipped through me at the thought of what we’d find on the other side of the door.

  Liam’s fingers’ wrapped around the knob, yanking open the door, which created a high-pitched squeak as the old metal rubbed against itself. The empty room, cobwebs and dust that greeted us told me everything I needed to know.

  The tears cascaded down my face as I stepped into the empty shack. Steph had never been inside. No one had been here for a long time. The room began spinning and the feeling of absolute desperation scared me beyond anything I’d ever felt before. The unyielding amount of doom that continued to crash into my soul was unstoppable. I had reached my end. This was it.

  Liam rushed to my side, holding my head to his chest.

  “It’s gonna be okay,” he whispered.

  “What if it’s not?” I asked. “What if—”

  “I know there’s nothing I can say to calm you. But we will get off this island alive,” he interrupted. “But you’ve been holding it together quite well this entire time.”

  His hands let go of my head, and I stepped back. Looking into his brown eyes that were rimmed with wetness, I knew then I had to be strong for him just as he’d been strong for me.

  “Let’s find a place to crash and get setup so we can rest before we start all over again in the early morning,” he said, leading me out of the shack.

  We hiked for about twenty minutes and found a place that had a decent amount of shelter to set up camp. Not that there was much of a camp to set up. Liam ha
d grabbed a single tent and popped it up for both of us to squeeze into. Neither of us could sleep so we talked for hours, but every conversation led right back to Steph, and my heart ached even more by the time the stars appeared.

  “I don’t think I can take much more of this,” I murmured, looking into the beautiful night sky.

  “I know, babe,” Liam said, hugging me. “But we’ve gotta fight until the end.”

  “That’s what my dad always told me,” I whispered, feeling the tears surface once more.

  ChapterSeventeen

  I woke up to Liam squeezing me tightly, his body pressed against me as one of his long legs was shoved in between mine. It felt so amazing to be in his arms, to be held by him all night. I was actually glad we were forced to fit into this tiny tent. I loved feeling the warmth of his breath as it scattered along my hair. I only wished the circumstances were different.

  We had zipped our sleeping bags together to make one again, and it helped against the cold temperatures, but I still didn’t want to get up or out of the tent because it would only signal that we had to start everything over again.

  “How are you doing?” he murmured, sliding his legs out from mine.

  “I hope someday we get the chance to do this for other reasons.” I sighed.

  “Me too.”

  He slowly began unzipping the sleeping bags, and I felt the chill as it worked its way down. I rolled my hair tie off my wrist and wrapped my hair into a ponytail, securing it firmly before I stood up.

  “We’ll head east today and canvas that area,” Liam said, digging a sweatshirt out of a backpack.

  “Sounds good,” I replied.

  I started to roll up the sleeping bags again. I had gotten pretty good at making them compact for carrying and wanted to help in any way I could. The more time I had to allow the latest note to sink in, the worse I felt about everything. After tying the bags up, I went over to my backpack and grabbed a water canteen and sat down on a rock

  Liam had dumped several packets of trail mix onto a large leaf and brought it over to share.

  “Happy almost birthday,” he said.

  I looked up at him and smiled. I couldn’t believe my birthday was coming up. I always imagined a lot of different ways to bring it in and being stuck in the middle of an island in Alaska certainly wasn’t one of them.

  “Thank you,” I whispered.

  “It’s the least I could do.” He winked at me, and I could tell we were both at the point of exhaustion no matter how hard we tried to hide it.

  “This certainly seems like it will be an eighteenth to remember. Here’s hopin’, I live to see it,” I said, clanking my water bottle with his, trying to make a joke.

  “Here’s hopin’,” he repeated.

  He sat down next to me and slipped his arm around my waist. I leaned my head against his arm and took a deep breath in.

  “I think we’re close to her and everyone,” I said. “I think we’ll find them.”

  He nodded. “I do too.”

  I slowly chewed on some of the almost-birthday granola, knowing I should eat more, but I wasn’t even remotely hungry.

  “Make sure you eat all of that. I’m worried with as much as we’ve been on the move that your body is getting too fatigued,” he said softly. “We both need our strength.”

  “I wish you were telling me that for a different reason,” I grumbled.

  He laughed, picking a dried cranberry out of the trail mix and popping it in his mouth, right when we heard a gunshot, followed by another one and another one.

  My heart skipped a beat.

  That was our signal if something went wrong between our two groups.

  “It didn’t sound that far away,” he whispered, grabbing his rifle.

  “I wonder what happened,” I said, feeling the dryness creep into my mouth again. “Why would they be so close?”

  “Let’s go,” he whispered.

  I grabbed my rifle and looked back at our makeshift camp.

  “We’ll come back for everything after we find out went wrong,” he said, and we took off toward the booms.

  I ran side by side with Liam, dodging the branches and mounds that continually surfaced. The brisk wind chapped my cheeks until Liam finally started to slow down.

  “He’s supposed to shoot another one off,” Liam said. “If he doesn’t then we’re not going any farther.”

  I shook my head, waiting alongside with Liam. His breathing shifted anxiously, as silence filled the air versus another boom. He started shaking his head.

  “We need to get out of here. Something’s not right. They should’ve fired another shot.”

  My heart started pounding with the thought that we were on the run again, falling into another trap. Liam’s eyes scanned mine for a response, and I blinked back the tears.

  “Let’s take off then,” I said quietly.

  He nodded and just as he turned around another shot was fired.

  “Thank god,” I murmured, taking off after him.

  “They’re only a couple minutes away,” he yelled as we continued on.

  We were right next to a rocky cliff when we saw the group. I scanned everyone quickly, searching for anyone who might be missing.

  “What happened?” Liam asked.

  “We had an accident,” Caleb said, his gaze went over the cliff.

  “Oh no,” Liam said, walking closer to the edge.

  “Mark went over the cliff. He slipped,” Dave said, shaking his head.

  I looked around the few campers who were left, and all of their expressions were grave and defeated. If it wasn’t someone else chasing us down, it was nature playing a cruel joke.

  Liam moved along the edge, scanning the area below.

  My pulse quickened as I watched the tiny pebbles release over the side from Liam’s boots.

  “Stand back,” I told him.

  He looked up at me and smiled slightly. “I’ve got this.”

  I peered over the edge to see if I could spot anyone.

  “He wouldn’t have survived the fall,” Liam said ominously.

  “He was trying to avoid that,” Caleb said, pointing at a gnarly looking contraption.

  “It’s a snare,” Liam said, running his finger along the wire. “There are probably more scattered in this area.

  I looked at the primitive setup, wondering what would really be caught in it. It didn’t look big enough for bear, although I don’t really know how big it would need to be for one either.

  “When is it going to end? Maybe Mark was lucky,” Fulton mumbled.

  Unfortunately, I was close to agreeing with Fulton, and that’s not usually how my mind worked.

  “Have you found anything?” Liam asked, getting everything under control again.

  Caleb shook his head, swinging his rifle over his other shoulder.

  “We think the other shack is around where we found Tom. I’m hoping it leads to something soon,” Liam said. “We’ve gotta get back before anyone finds our stuff.”

  I tensed as Dave swung a machete around some grass. “Probably a good idea.”

  “Stay away from the rocks, maybe move the group back toward the woods,” Liam suggested. “I’m sorry about Mark. I really am.”

  Fulton shot me a severe look and frowned as he walked behind me to join the others. I felt the glares of the remaining campers piercing into my back. I was definitely the one everyone was blaming and I understood why.

  I didn’t look behind me or say anything to anyone as we left. There was nothing left to say. They were in this situation because of me.

  Liam gently grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of their line of sight.

  “If they fire any more shots, we’re not coming for them,” Liam murmured. “They’re too unpredictable. I didn’t like how they were looking at you, and I think they’d like to take their frustrations out on someone. And I can guarantee it’s not going to be you.”

  “You think it’s that bad?” I asked, already knowing
the answer. I had felt it after all.

  We were near the area that we had camped the night before when a piercing, shrill scream rang through the air.

  “Did you hear that?” Liam asked.

  “I did,” I whispered. “She’s got to be near. It was her voice. I know it.”

  She let out another eerie cry as loud as the last, and we took off, running quickly through the woods.

  This time we were close.

  ChapterEighteen

  The shack was off in the distance, but I could see enough of the trail leading up to it to know that this place was active. Someone was living inside. The building was probably no larger than a small bedroom, but more than adequate for a few people. The dense vegetation made any movement obvious even to the untrained eye.

  I looked over at Liam as he scanned the woods surrounding the building. It would be difficult to come up quietly with the amount of trees and vegetation, but I wasn’t sure we could wait until we saw the person or persons leave, either. We didn’t have the luxury of time, and I think Liam was thinking about that as well.

  “Wanna try now or wait?” I whispered, feeling my anxiety grow as I thought about Steph’s screams.

  He turned to face me and grabbed my hand. “I want to go in there by myself first. I think I can make it pretty quietly up to the shack.”

  “No. I’m not letting you go there alone. Whatever plan we come up with, needs to include us both,” I said quietly, removing my hand from his with a scowl.

  Another shrill scream came from the shack sending a wave of nausea through me.

  “I think he’s going to leave again,” I whispered.

  Liam nodded. “We can’t assume there’s only one person holding her hostage.”

  “No. You’re right,” I said, as the goose bumps speckled my flesh.

  “Let’s slowly begin to make our way over there,” he said, pointing to an area of newer growth that was dense enough to hide us, but would allow us to see the door.

  “Got it,” I said, knowing once he began clearing the way, my only goal was to keep quiet and as close to his heels as possible.