Sara glanced at Zack. She could tell he was getting antsy to get going on his treasure hunt, but if he had any brains at all, maybe he was having second thoughts. Without her, his odds of getting lost and dying in the wilderness increased dramatically. He wasn’t stupid, so he had to realize that. Of course, as was so often the case, now she felt like the mean teacher, always spoiling everyone’s fun. Being the bossy responsible person all the time could be a little tiresome sometimes. When was the last time she’d actually kicked up her heels and done something spontaneous?
Zack stood up and stretched his arms toward the sky. “It’s getting warmer! I think I can feel my toes again. Life is good.”
“It’s a beautiful day for boating. I’m sure someone will come by soon.”
He put his arms behind him, clasped his hands together, and bent over. “My back is thrashed. I gotta move.”
“You aren’t leaving, are you? You can’t.”
He stood up straight. “Watch me.”
“Please don’t go off on this insane treasure hunt alone. It’s not safe.” A distant rumbling sound came from the lake and Sara turned to look. She jumped up and waved her arms frantically. “Look, it’s a boat. We’re saved!”
Zack leaped at her, grabbing her arms and shoving them down. “Cut it out! I know that boat.”
Sara shook herself free. “How can you possibly tell from here?”
“I told you. That boat had a serious motor on it. Incredibly loud. Listen to it. How many boats have you run across that sound like that?”
She paused. “I don’t know. Not many, I guess.”
“Put out the fire. We need to get outta here. Now!”
Sara grabbed the Mylar blanket and stuffed it in her bag with the water and other supplies. She closed the bag and looked at him. “What about Olivia?”
He looked up from throwing sand on the campfire. “Jeez, I don’t know. If you wanna carry a cat off this beach, it’s up to you. We need to go.”
Working together, Sara and Zack scooped more sand and threw it on the fire to put it out. The sound of the boat motor was getting louder and it was clear that the person at the helm had seen the smoke from the smoldering campfire.
Sara collected Olivia in her arms and she and Zack ran from the beach toward the trees. She looked over her shoulder. A man was standing on the bow of the boat holding binoculars and pointing at them. She reached out a hand to push on Zack’s back to prod him up the hill. “Move it!”
“Easy, Sparky! Cut me some slack here. I’m not the world-class athlete you are.”
“You’d better get in shape quickly, because that guy saw us.”
As he scrambled up the incline, Zack uttered a string of expletives that would have gotten him sent to the principal’s office if he were in Sara’s class.
They reached the cave where they’d waited out the storm and Zack stopped. He bent over, breathing heavily. “I’m so not cut out for this nature crap. Ugh, I’m dying here.”
Olivia squirmed in Sara’s arms and she put the cat down on the ground. “So okay, Captain, where’s this treasure supposed to be?”
Zack stood up straight and looked around. “Well okay, this is the cave where we were, but I was sorta lost before.”
“I don’t suppose you have a map? Treasure hunters always have maps, right?”
“Not so much in this case. It’s in my head.”
“Oh great. That’s just perfect.”
“We need to pick a direction. I don’t hear the motor anymore, so I think they’ve hit the beach by now.”
Sara pointed. “You said the treasure was that way.”
“I did?”
“Yes, you indicated it was south, down the beach.”
“Okay.”
“You have the worst sense of direction I’ve ever seen.” She gestured toward the sky. “The sun sets in the west and rises in the east. Therefore, you were pointing south when you told me about the treasure.”
“Whatever.”
“Hand me the bag, please.”
“Okay, but hurry up. We need to move.”
Sara rummaged around in the bag and detached the little compass that was hanging from her key chain. “I have a compass.”
“Fan-freakin’-tastic. Can we go now?”
Sara nodded and picked up Olivia, who was getting progressively less enthusiastic about the carrying and running. They worked their way through the brush along the hillside parallel to the shoreline.
A few minutes later, Sara stopped. “Zack! Wait a minute.”
He turned and shook the dry bag impatiently at her. “Now what?”
“I think you’re veering off course.”
“What?”
“Is that what you intend to do?” How far up the hillside should we be?”
“Um…well, I’m not exactly sure.”
Sara put down the cat and placed her hands on her hips. “I need more details about where you think we’re going. And then maybe I should go first, since you don’t seem to have any idea where you are.”
“I’m going to call you bossy now.”
“I’m serious. We have someone chasing us and you aren’t even telling me where we’re going.”
His shoulders slumped. “Fine. All right. What Ira said was that it was halfway up the hill, past a creek, near the falls, and near the ‘home of moss,’ whatever that means.”
“Well, finding a creek would be a good start. I hear water.” She pointed. “Up that direction. Let’s follow that sound.”
“Do you hear anyone behind us?”
“Not at the moment.”
He nodded. “Good. If we’re lucky, that guy’s wilderness skills are as bad as mine are. Let’s get outta here.”
Sara wasn’t about to argue. She picked up Olivia again and moved forward through the trees. If they actually managed to find this ridiculous treasure, it would be nothing short of a miracle.
Sara quickly discovered that making her way through the dense vegetation was what put the whack in bushwhacking. It felt like she’d been scraped by every branch, needle, and thorn in the forest. Summer growth was in full force and a machete would have been extremely helpful.
Although she prided herself on her preparedness, when Sara had gathered her things together the day before, she thought she’d be enjoying a relaxing afternoon canoe ride, not embarking on a frantic scramble through remote lakeside backcountry.
Behind her, Zack was not enjoying the copious amount of plant life either. He periodically loudly revisited his increasingly creative list of descriptive expletives to indicate his dismay.
Sara clambered up a rocky incline, following the sound of the rushing water. As she got closer to the top of the hill, the noise grew significantly louder. Maybe they were close. Olivia had tired of the activity and expressed her unhappiness, clawing Sara’s forearm. With a shriek, Sara dropped the cat and stumbled. “Ow! I’m trying to help you.” Olivia scuttled off, disappearing under a gigantic thimbleberry leaf. Sara felt a clench in her chest when the cat vanished from view. She didn’t want anything to happen to Olivia, but trying to reach in after her was risky because of the slippery rocks.
Zack caught up to her, breathing heavily. “What are you doing? Why did you stop?”
“It’s the cat. She ran under there, and I don’t think I can reach her without slipping. We must be closer to the creek—or maybe it’s a waterfall. These rocks are wet.”
“No kidding. I’m probably gonna fall and kill myself here. Keep going. The cat will figure it out. They have nine lives and I’ve only got one as far as I know.”
“You’re right. This isn’t a safe place to stop.” Sara reestablished her footing and called out toward the bushes. “Please follow us, Olivia! I promise we’ll take care of you.”
Sara resumed her clambering. The process was significantly easier without the cat, but the thought made her feel guilty. Cats weren’t like dogs. They didn’t follow anyone. She’d abandoned Olivia. Why hadn’t she tried ha
rder to catch her? What kind of rotten human being was she? How could she just let her go? But Olivia did seem resourceful. If she really did follow them on this ill-fated adventure, she’d be fine. There were stories about how cats could be ingenious that way. Their owners thought their pet was lost, and then the cat turned up again later, demanding dinner. It wasn’t completely impossible. Sara shook her head. Who was she kidding? Oh Olivia, I’m so sorry. Please, please stay safe and be okay. If we ever get out of here, I promise I’ll come back and look for you!
Reaching up and grasping for a handhold, Sara pulled herself up the last bit of the steep incline. Thank goodness. She stepped over a puddle and stood at the top of the hill, looking down at a valley that appeared to have been carved out by the creek that wound back down to the lake.
Zack crawled up beside her and rose to a standing position. “Whoa. That’s one serious view.”
“Yes, it’s stunning, isn’t it?”
“I guess we found the creek. Hmm.”
“What do you mean, hmm?”
“Well, I guess ‘past the creek near the falls’ means we gotta get across the creek somewhere. That could be interesting.”
Sara wanted to scream in frustration. She spun around to face him and her foot slipped in the mud. She whirled her arms around as she lost her balance, and Zack reached out to grab her. She pulled him down with her as she slid on her back through a muddy gully, down the hill toward the creek below.
She squeezed her eyes shut until her descent was suddenly interrupted by an unpleasant squishy splash. Peeking open one eye, Sara discovered she was underneath a large bush that was growing out of a swamp filled with gooey, inky pond scum. She moved her arms experimentally. Yuck. How revolting.
She turned her head to see what all the splashing was behind her. Zack was flailing in the muck, then stood up, shaking black grime from his hair. Goo oozed off his arms as he raised them. “What happened? Man, this is so incredibly foul! What is this stuff?”
Sara tried not to giggle at his appearance, but wasn’t successful. “I think it’s mud. Maybe peat? See how it levels out here? I think dirt and forest debris collected into a bog of some sort. And now it has collected on you.”
Zack looked down at himself. “Wow. That’s so nasty.” He looked up and grinned at her, his teeth appearing especially white against the dark filth on his face. “I hate to tell ya, Sparky, but you don’t look much better than I do.”
Sara reached around and grabbed her bedraggled, gloopy ponytail, and held it out. “I confess that I don’t feel terribly pretty right now.”
“That way looks less disgusting.” He pointed toward the edge of the swamp and began slogging in that direction. “I’m never gonna get clean.”
“I didn’t think about that. This is bad for your laceration.” She hurried after him, as best she could. “It could get infected. We need to follow the creek down to the lake and wash up. Your dressing is all wet now, and I need to redo the bandages and make sure everything is okay.”
“But then we’ll have to go back up the hill. I’m sick of up. I’d like to not do any more up for a long time.”
“Well first we’ll go down.” She reached out her hand to touch his arm. “Zack, this is important. No treasure is worth risking your leg.”
He looked down. “I gotta say, I’m fond of it. So the cut really could get infected? Like my leg could swell up and have to get chopped off like in Gone with the Wind or something?”
“Well, assuming we ever return to civilization again, you’d probably get an anesthetic. Medicine has improved since the Civil War.”
“Even so. That scene with the guy screaming in agony completely freaked me out. Let’s go get clean.”
They slowly worked their way out of the mire and made their way through more dense vegetation toward the creek. It wasn’t a particularly vigorously flowing waterway, but it was enough to rinse their hands and faces. Zack mostly managed to smear the dark goo around, so he looked like an ad for Tropicana suntan oil. For that deep, dark, brackish tan.
Sara made a mental note of where they were in relation to the hillside. Noises sometimes echoed through the trees in odd ways, so maybe the waterfall had been above them. If the treasure was located near the falls, they needed to figure out where the falls actually were.
Following the creek downhill was significantly easier than going through the vegetation, and they arrived at a cove on the lake that was surrounded by huge granite boulders. Given the number of rocks, it was possible that a large powerboat couldn’t get to this beach, which was undoubtedly a good thing if the person following them had returned to the water.
Sara took the dry bag from Zack and pulled out the water bottle. She took a long drink and handed it to him. He smiled and drained the bottle. “Thanks. I hope you have more of those tablet things.”
“Yes. A whole bottle of them.”
After they took off their shoes, Zack touched his hair and made a face. “I feel so gross right now, but I bet that lake is going to be cold. Are you ready?”
Sara nodded and began walking toward the water. If she were alone, she’d take off her clothes and try to wash them. Swimming fully clothed was going to be uncomfortable. She’d done it for her water-safety class and soggy clothing hanging off your body felt horribly heavy and strange.
Zack galloped by her, apparently not worried about any lingering questions of modesty. She laughed as he splashed his naked form into the water and dove into the lake with a shriek. He surfaced and shook his head. “Yowza, that’s bracing!”
Sara looked down at herself. Did she have the guts to strip? Probably not. It would feel so good to be clean again though. A bra and panties weren’t so different from a bikini. What the heck? She pulled off her shirt and shorts, threw them on the sand, and ran to the lake. She dove in and the frigid water hit her like a wall of ice. She surfaced and pulled her hair out of the ponytail so she could rinse it out. Running her shivering fingers through the tangles, she leaned back to dunk her head under water so the muck could float out of her long hair.
When she surfaced, Zack was dog-paddling toward her. He grinned, stood up, and splashed her. “With your hair slicked back like that, you look like you should be on the cover of Sports Illustrated.”
She splashed him back. “They usually have better swimwear. Or any swimwear.”
“Whatever. It’s still pretty sexy.”
“I think you’re having boundary issues again.”
“Oops. Sorry. Maybe you should get your hair wet again.” He dove back under the water and yanked on her ankle.
Sara squealed and kicked away from him. Zack was a little odd, but it was flattering to have someone suggest she was attractive. It had been a while since she’d spent this much time with an adult male. Earning the adoration of a bunch of second-graders was nice, but definitely not the same.
Sara stood up in the water and attempted to rearrange her bra. She lifted a strap and peered down. Zack stood up in front of her and gave her a lascivious grin. “Something wrong?”
“I think a leaf or a piece of aquatic plant may have floated under the fabric.”
“Need help?”
Sara looked up from her investigation. “No, thank you.”
“Oh come on, take it off. You’ll be a lot more comfortable. I can tell you, skinny-dipping in a lake is invigorating. I promise I won’t jump you.” He backed away from her and ran a fingertip across his chest. “Cross my heart. Me and my mutant boundaries will be way over here.”
“Fine. I give up.” Sara crouched down in the water and removed her bra. She held it aloft out of the water, trying to figure out what was lurking in it. A few pine needles floated by. Ouch. No wonder. She swished the lacy fabric back and forth in the water, hoping to remove anything else stuck in there. Then she removed her panties, figuring she didn’t want anything trapped down there either.
With an amused smirk still on his face, Zack started dog-paddling toward the beach. He stood up an
d walked onto the shore, got his clothes, and threw them in the water. Wading back in, he crouched down and swished the fabric around.
Sara tried not to look too interested, but it was quite a view. As she’d surmised, Zack was remarkably nice to look at once he was clean. Trying to ignore his naked body, she splashed around, putting her panties back on. She then made an effort to put her bra back on, but the wet fabric wasn’t cooperating and she was starting to get cold. Her fingers fumbled with the hooks until she wanted to scream in frustration.
Finally, her fingers were so cold that it was clear that getting the bra on wasn’t going to happen discreetly in the water. She gave up and began paddling to shore.
Zack looked up from his scrubbing and smiled at her as she approached. “I don’t know what that black goo was, but it stains. These shorts are never going to be the same. I really liked them too.”
Sara stood up and Zack’s eyes widened. She glared at him with her best stern schoolmarm expression. “Don’t say anything. I need your help.”
He capered into the water so he was standing right in front of her. “I’m happy to oblige.”
She put her bra back on and turned around, holding the straps toward him. “Please hook this. I can’t get it.”
“I’m better at unhooking.”
“No doubt. Please just do it.”
He fiddled with the bra hooks and then ran a fingertip down her spine. “All better.”
Ignoring the tingles that had followed the path of his touch, she turned back around. “Thank you. I should rinse out my clothes too.”
“Doesn’t the sun feel great? I’m gonna have the best tan ever. And no tan lines!”
Sara giggled. “You don’t want to get sunburned in certain areas. That could hurt.”
“Hmm, yeah. Maybe I’ll set my clothes out on that rock and go hang out in the shade.”
“I’ll be there in a minute to look at your leg.” She bent to pick up her clothes from the sand. “You might want to take off the bandage yourself. Carefully.”
Zack put his leg out and looked behind him at the bandage. “Oh yeah. Ouch. That’s not gonna be any fun.”
The Treasure of the Hairy Cadre (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 8) Page 8