Wilderness Liaison

by Anne Ashby

  ****

  When the birds’ dawn chorus woke her, Jodie knew the sun was shining even before opening her eyes. She could feel its warmth welcoming in another day. That was before she felt the foreign weight across her chest and the minty breath on her face...before she realised the true source of the warmness.

  Her eyes shot open, her heart pounding. She held herself rigid, focusing her eyes on the face so close to her own. Horrified to feel the warmth of his bare back under her hand, she snatched her arm away, praying he wouldn’t waken. If she listed even slightly her lips would be touching his.

  Lying there, her mind raced almost as fast as her pulse. She knew she had to get away from this embarrassing set-up before he woke up. Because, if he wakes up while we’re lying so close together... She frantically drove the images away.

  Opening the door zipper one tooth at a time, Jodie laboriously planned her escape until she could shuffle herself, sleeping bag and all, out of the tent. Jodie inched away, holding his arm aloft as she slipped out from under it.

  She froze as a sleepy murmur halted her getaway. Before she’d extracted her legs from the tent, Jodie’s relief turned to horror as she imagined his reaction if he woke now. Stealing away from him like a thief was only marginally better than them waking wrapped in each other’s arms. Her breath caught as she relived the touch and even the smell of him.

  She looked around, the dullness of the day registering. Heavy clouds still obliterated the tops of the mountain range. Hearing no further noise from inside the tent, Jodie continued to edge herself away.

  She never considered that Shal might be wide awake and very aware of every move she’d made, with a broad smile covering his face as he allowed himself to imagine reasons for her hasty retreat.

  ****

  “You should have woken me.”

  Jodie glanced across at Shal crawling out of the tent some time later. She’d had time to wash and get the billy boiled. He looked at her strangely and she ducked her head, concentrating on the breakfast she was preparing. She prayed her increased responsiveness to him wasn’t showing. Lying next to him had heightened her reaction to an almost uncontrollable level.

  His third day without shaving had turned his designer stubble into a piratical look that was gut-wrenching in its attractiveness. Jodie swung her back on the heart-stopping sight of him washing. She sucked in deep breaths as she tried to calm her racing pulse.

  Thank God he has no idea what the sight of his semi-naked body is doing to me. He must never guess. She was alone with a gorgeous man who made her heart pound and her head feel dizzy—a man who might make her forget she had nothing in common with townies.

  She gritted her teeth. “Control yourself,” she whispered, frantically averting her eyes. You don’t even like the man.

  Liar, liar, came that little voice, again. She jumped up and dismantled the tent, telling herself they must hurry. Continue treating him as a chance acquaintance, she ordered, a safety number. That was all he was ever going to be.

  When he joined her next to the fire, she had regained control, possibly because his chest was now covered with a khaki shirt. Although the garment didn’t disguise the muscles bulging along his arms as he reached out for the dixie she handed him.

  “Mmm, this is good.” He tucked into the mixed muesli and dried fruit.

  “Have you talked to your folks? Or the Park service?”

  “Not this morning. I’ll wait until we get to the Bluff, then we’ll have something to tell them.”

  She felt her voice thicken as she thought of Danny. He used to be a stubborn, feisty hell-raiser, but marriage and a beautiful baby girl had settled him down. Jodie prayed his stubborn contrariness had been enough to keep him alive all this time.

  ****

  Shal gulped down his scalding coffee, taking Jodie’s careful dousing of the fire as an indication it was time to go. He rinsed his dishes and stuffed them into his pack, ready to leave just slightly after she was.

  “No chance of a helicopter getting in yet?” It was a rhetorical question. The tops of the mountains were still invisible. They were still the deerstalker’s only hope.

  She set a stinging pace, which Shal hoped he could maintain. His eyes rarely left Jodie as she strode ahead of him. Grimacing as he recalled his comments just days ago about this “slip of a girl,” he shook his head. How wrong could I have been? Now he was full of admiration, her pack must be heavier than his—she carried the radio and first aid kit—yet its weight never seemed to affect her. He felt admiration...and something else he wasn’t quite ready to accept yet.

  “How much longer?” They’d been making good time for three hours along the ridgeline. He’d discovered linear measurement didn’t count in the bush, particularly over this terrain.

  When Jodie paused, Shal took time to sag against a tree. He opened a couple more buttons down his shirt, grabbed the loosened material, and flapped it in and out, trying to create a cooling breeze against his sweaty chest. He looked at Jodie. Isn’t she hot and exhausted, too? It appeared not. She’d merely stopped to consult her map again, her eyes darting about identifying the landmarks.

  “Do you think you could handle crossing that gorge?”

  Shal’s back stiffened. I haven’t slowed you down yet. But he realised it hadn’t been a dig as she touched his arm, pointing to a saddle in the distance.

  “We have a choice. Keep going along to that saddle, then carry on down the other side of this hill”—his eyes followed her pointing arm—“or we could go straight over this edge and up the other side.”

  Shal looked, his heart dropping before contemplating the distant saddle. It looked miles away.

  Gesturing to the gorge, he guessed, “This way’s a lot quicker, I suppose.”

  “We could shave off two, maybe three hours, but it’d be tough.”

  “You think we can do it?” A strange surge of emotion flowed through him as his eyes turned from the gully back to her face. She seems confident I can scale a ravine a mountain goat wouldn’t attempt. He felt his chest expand.

  “Going down should be pretty basic.” Jodie’s eyes twinkled as she grinned. “But if you’re doubtful, we’ll go around.”

  Shal met the sparkling eyes and gave an exaggerated sigh. “I bet you were a terror at playing follow the leader when you were a kid.”

  He gripped her arm. “Time’s important, let’s go over the edge.” His fingers tightened. “You just be careful.”

  His eyes caught and held hers. Their confused puzzlement reminded him he couldn’t expect to be her focus right now. He forced a teasing smile to cover his urge to kiss her. “Anything happens to you and I’m dead. I have no idea where I am, or how to get out of here.” His smile grew as her lips twitched in response. “Remember how good I am at map reading.”

  Her smile broke into a wide, open grin. “I told you I’d get you back safely.” Hitching up her pack a little higher on her back as she slid over the bank, she added, “My parents would disown me if I let anything happen to you.”

  Startled, Shal chewed on Jodie’s words as he followed her, slipping and sliding down the steep slope. Spoken in jest, something in her tone had alerted him. He remembered Doug’s reaction when he’d suggested Jodie shouldn’t lead them. Then his mind travelled to her earlier ingratiating politeness. Why would her parents dictate her reaction to me? In a flash, he knew they had.

  A muffled curse in front of him dashed the baffling thoughts from his mind and he slid to a halt just above where Jodie had become impaled on a stump. His heart leapt into his throat before he saw that it was only her pack caught. Anchoring his feet on the slippery ground he awkwardly heaved the pack up, his muscles bulging painfully as he took her weight along with it.

  “Thanks.” She smiled over her shoulder as he held on until she found her feet again. Then she was off.

  Shal shook his head in wonderment as he followed, far enough behind so Jodie’s brushed aside branches weren’t flicking back in his fac
e. It was impossible to keep up with her. His feet kept sliding out from under him, whereas she was moving so fast there didn’t seem time for hers to slip.

  Frustration grew as yet again his pack became snagged as he slipped under a low overhanging branch. Cursing under his breath, he jerked himself free, only to propel himself sharply against another branch, which ripped a gaping hole in his shirt and left an ugly scratch across his ribs.

  While every tree and bushy branch resisted him, leaving red welts up and down his body, she didn’t appear to be having the same problems, or at least she seemed oblivious to any danger to herself. She slid down so fast, she must be sustaining cuts and scratches to her bare legs and arms, and yet they weren’t slowing her descent.

  The day remained overcast and still. Although they rarely saw the sky, the humidity rose as the morning progressed. Shal prayed for a cooling breeze to freshen his sweat-drenched body but no wind penetrated the trees. Pausing to wipe his face on his shirt sleeve for the umpteenth time, Shal wondered how much his sweat—pouring in rivulets off his body—was contributing to the slippery ground.

  The sun was high overhead, peeking through a break in the cloud, when they stopped for lunch—if the small energy food bar could be called lunch. Jodie’s little gas cooker was used to boil and replenish their dwindling water supply.

  Surprised when Jodie lay down against a tussock and closed her eyes, Shal looked about uncertainly, then shrugged his shoulders and after ducking his burning face into the stream a number of times, lay back too. He knew this was High Ridge, and wondered how far they were from Jeffers Bluff.

  Glancing across at her, he frowned, what if she falls asleep? He squinted down at his watch and set the alarm for thirty minutes, just in case.

  “Don’t you trust me?” Jodie questioned over her shoulder about ten minutes into their resumed trek as his watch started beeping.

  He grinned. “It’s hardly a matter of trust,” he quipped back, cursing that he’d forgotten the alarm. “I’m trusting you with my life.”

  She paused, causing Shal to bump into her. “Poor townie,” she tsked with a teasing smile. “I guess you are at that.”

  “You shouldn’t really generalise like that. We can’t all be that bad.”

  Jodie’s reply was a wide-eyed look of disbelief.

  Their route was gentle enough to allow some conversation, even though they continued at what seemed a break-neck speed. Shal decided it was time to correct her assumptions. He didn’t much like being slotted into a group Jodie clearly despised.

  Changing her opinion took on new meaning. “Why do you have such animosity toward townies?”

  His question caused Jodie to pause in mid-stride, but she didn’t respond.

  “It’s annoying being lumped in with a body of people and scorned without good reason. I’d like to know why you do that.”

  “Why do you have such animosity against women?”

  Taken aback by the challenge in her voice, Shal swallowed. How much do I want to understand this woman? Enough to share the motivation behind my own irrational stance?

  “I’ll tell you my story, if you’ll tell me yours.” He threw the challenge at her. “Is it a deal?”

  He saw her chewing on her bottom lip before she shrugged and answered with a doubtful, “Maybe.”

  Not the commitment he wanted, but it was the best he was likely to get.

  “I have nothing against women. In fact I like them a lot.”

  “I imagined you might.”

  “I don’t have anything against women in authority either, much as you’re likely not to believe that.”

  “Yeah right.”

  He took a deep breath. “Okay, I do have an issue with women being in charge when it comes to life and death situations. When I was fifteen a woman sat by and watched my best friend drown.”

  Shal was aware of an immediate change in Jodie’s demeanour. Although she didn’t say anything, he felt her shocked questions hanging in the air between them.

  “We were on a sailing weekend, a group of teenagers from a local club. Deirdre Patterson was in charge. She was a teacher, a well-respected woman. She was supposed to be a good sailor.” He felt the ever-present anger resurface.

  “Just as we were jibbing, we got caught in a freak gust of wind and flipped out. It should have been no big deal but we didn’t realise Gavin had hit his head and ended up under the boat.” He struggled to keep his voice even. “He’d stopped breathing by the time we got him back into the boat.”

  He glared at Jodie as memories clouded his thinking. “The bitch just sat, screaming and crying. We were kids. She was the adult, the supposed leader. We tried to resuscitate him all the way back to land, while she couldn’t even hold onto the tiller.”

  His fists were clenched as he stalked along the path, seeing nothing but a hysterical woman incapable of helping, let alone leading through an emergency. “I realised years later she probably couldn’t have saved him, but her inability to even try was inexcusable in my eyes.”

  “Mine, too,” Jodie murmured.

  They continued on in silence for some time while Shal pondered over how to word the apology Jodie deserved. He sucked in a deep breath. “I apologise for thinking you might share a similar weakness under stress.”

  Jodie nodded. “I guess anyone with an experience like that behind them is entitled to have some doubts. And to voice them.”

  “Quite needlessly, I soon learned.”

  Shal was warmed by the sweetness of her smile. “Now it’s your turn.”

  The agitated fiddling with her pack straps and her refusal to meet his eyes showed Shal how reluctant Jodie was to share anything of herself.

  “Come on, fair’s fair. Now you know I had a good reason for being concerned about a woman leading this tramp. I wasn’t being an arrogant chauvinist on purpose. The least you can do is show me you have an equally good reason for disliking townies so much.”

  The furtive shifting of her head so he wasn’t able to see her face sent elation surging through his body. It was just a shield she used to keep people from getting too close. “You don’t have a reason at all, do you?” he challenged. “You just dislike us on principle.”

  The narrowed glare swinging his way caused him to pause. “Don’t you?”

  “Townies are two-faced.”

  “How so?”

  “They change their personalities like most people change their underwear.”

  “Oh come on, Jodie, you can’t believe such a generalisation.” Shal tried to keep his voice light at her extreme exaggeration.

  A disdainful shrug was the only comeback he got before the track narrowed and she stalked ahead. Following closely behind, Shal didn’t pursue the subject. The stubborn set of her shoulders suggested the companionable air between them might disintegrate completely if he tried.

  He wasn’t giving up. He’d wait until the time was right.

  ****

  Jodie interrupted the long, awkward silence bringing their minds back to the present situation. “We should be able to see the slip soon. I’m assuming it must be pretty big, ’cos Danny can move like a scalded cat when he has to.”

  She was feeling emotionally vulnerable since Shal’s taunts had recalled unpleasant memories. Now she was worried the thickening of her voice might relay further weakness.

  Jodie shoved her hands into her pockets. She blinked frantically as she considered what might be waiting for them. Panic welled in her throat. Will I be able to cope if all we find is Danny’s body? Or will I fall apart like that Deirdre woman? If I have to send word to Maata and little Ariana that Danny isn’t coming home...

  She didn’t realise she’d stopped moving until the gentle hand on her arm registered through her fear.

  “No matter what we find, we’ll manage. I’m here with you.”

  Jodie blindly turned and huddled into the arms that surrounded her, accepting Shal’s support and strength.

  Shal had bowed to her bush-craft e
xpertise, but his self-confidence remained intact.

  She jerked herself away, annoyed at her show of weakness. Swallowing hard, she lifted her chin and, stiffening her back, met his sympathetic gaze.

  “Thank you, I appreciate that.”

  She began walking, without her earlier haste, but with chilly, determined purpose. She sensed, but didn’t regret, Shal’s presence close behind. She welcomed it, in fact, but she mustn’t lean on him.

  Even if Danny was dead, she must have the strength to deal with it alone. Shal was here as an emergency support person, not to witness her falling apart at the seams. No man would ever see that.

  Rounding a corner, the sun hit her with a suddenness that was almost blinding. There was nothing in front of them but sky and the steep mountain face opposite. The whole side of the mountain had eroded, sweeping tons of mud and broken vegetation into the gully below. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment in prayer, before she gingerly approached the rim of the huge slip.

  “Don’t go near the edge.” Shal’s hand shot out and grabbed her arm, yanking her backward.

  Startled, Jodie stared at him. She felt a tremor in the hand that clung to her arm and recognised blind terror in his furtive glance toward where the ground disappeared.

  Her mind reeled as she slipped off her pack and leant it against a tree well back from the slip. Digging out a rope, she handed it to Shal, hoping her impatience was hidden.

  “Secure this to that tree over there,” she ordered, pretending not to notice his shaking hands and shallow breathing. In deference to his obvious fear, Jodie tied the other end around her stomach. Crawling to the edge, she sent up another prayer before looking over.

  Danny was easy to spot amidst the debris. His silver hypothermia blanket caught a few rays just before the sun disappeared behind a cloud. The sight filled Jodie with hope. If he’d been able to get the blanket from his pack and wrap it around himself...

  “Danny, Danny!” She confidently waited for his response. “Danny, it’s Jo. Can you hear me?”

  She felt a nauseating lump rising to gag her as no movement or sound echoed from below.