The Lake

by Natasha Preston

  “Score for the E Team,” Isabel says.

  “Let’s rock this,” I cheer.

  The other groups walk behind us. We have an hour before lunch. If we don’t go wrong, we should make it back on time.

  Kayla and Cora switch places. I think that shows Cora trusts us if she’s willing to fall back and let us little CITs lead. Not that we’re leading, four seven- and eight-year-olds are.

  “How’s it going, May-May?” Kayla asks, using my very old nickname.

  I think she stopped using it after the last time we were here.

  “Feeling pretty good, actually. I can’t wait for tonight.” I’m absolutely not thinking about someone else in the woods.

  My group leads us through the forest, and we find each flag shown on the map. They have confidently chosen the correct path. I give each girl a high five as we hand the map reading to Cora’s group.

  “You guys did so good,” I tell my group. Four toothy smiles beam at the praise.

  I fall in line with Cora, who’s leading now.

  “How many of these hikes have you done?” I ask.

  “I’m pretty sure I could do this without a map. Well, not this route; I’m usually on the north side. The flags aren’t spaced too far apart, though.”

  “Yeah, I noticed that.”

  “The next hike we do, we remove every other flag to make the girls rely more on the map rather than just walking and looking for a colored rag.”

  “That’s the all-day hike?”

  Cora nods. “They’ll all make their own shelters. Sometimes the shelters even last the whole night.”

  Great, I’m going to sleep under the stars and get eaten alive by bugs.

  Cora laughs at my expression. I’m sure I look like I want to run home. “You’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

  “I’m not sleeping in a tent without my hair straighteners,” Sophia says. She is in Cora’s group and although she is sweet, she’s high maintenance and kind of a princess. It came as no surprise to learn that she’s an only child and here purely because her parents wanted her to experience something different.

  I’m glad the girls in my group don’t mind getting their hands dirty and their hair messy.

  “You’ll survive too, Sophia,” Cora replies, laughing.

  “Are we doing anything fun this afternoon?” she asks, running her fingers over her long black plait.

  “We’re on the lake.”

  “Do we have to do anything on the lake?”

  Cora’s smile tightens and I can tell she wants to roll her eyes. “No one is going to make you do anything.”

  “You might enjoy it if you try,” I tell her. “You can always get out if you don’t.”

  Sophia shrugs. “Maybe.”

  She has probably lost where we are on the map now.

  Cora takes a deep breath. She’s makeup-free and wears shorts and T-shirts exclusively, so I can’t imagine she has a lot in common with Sophia.

  The girls ahead stop and look around.

  “Where are we, girls?” I ask.

  My group turns to me, their foreheads furrowed. “Er…I have no clue,” Audrey says. “There should be a flag here. Look”—she points to the X on the map—“the flag should be right in front of us.”

  I walk up to her and look at the cross. She’s right, we should be standing beside a flag on a tree that Kayla is currently scowling at.

  “Are we lost?” Isabel asks.

  Cora looks up, alarmed. “No, we’ve just gone wrong a step, but don’t worry, we have the map and there are plenty of flags. If we pick up another color flag, that’s fine. We’ll just take that route.”

  Cora sounds so sure. She is right to be—I’m sure too. But the girls do not look convinced.

  “Hey, it’s fine,” I tell them. “Cora is right. There are plenty of paths out here and they all lead back to camp.”

  They nod, satisfied with my answer. For now.

  “Okay, we’re going to go east and pick up the other trail,” Kayla says, scanning her map. “It looks like the flag is gone…or we’ve detoured.”

  Cora gives her a thumbs-up. “See, girls. We’ll be back on track in a few minutes.”

  Cora and I resume leading and take us east.

  I lick my lips and take a sip of water.

  “You know this new trail?” I ask Cora as we get a few steps ahead of the girls.

  “Kind of.”

  I frown. Her “kind of” is not at all selling it to me. “Why would the flag not be here?”

  All we can see around us are tall trees. The flags are the landmarks.

  Cora shrugs. “It probably is. I think it’s most likely that we’ve veered off course. We might see it in a minute and pick up the track again. If not we’ll move to green flags—those are on the trail nearest to us. It doesn’t matter how we get back.”

  It only matters that we get back. We’ve been walking deeper into the forest for about an hour now, without knowing where we are on the map. How do we find our way back if we don’t see another flag? We could go in circles until we pass out from the heat.

  I swallow the hysteria conjured by my own damn imagination, and push forward.

  Our bodies would decompose quickly in this heat.

  Shut up!

  Kayla is always telling me to calm down. I’m terrible. Whenever someone is late, I assume something bad has happened.

  Because sometimes bad things do happen.

  Cora’s lips press into a thin line. Her eyebrows knit together.

  She’s getting worried.

  She is not alone. No one is saying anything negative, but we’re all wondering why we haven’t seen a red or green flag yet.

  Kayla, Cora and I don’t want the girls to be alarmed. They’re young and they’re likely to be scared if they knew the truth right now. We don’t know where we are.

  Cora has very cleverly started a conversation about Roblox. Most of the girls play it or want to; they chat incessantly about the game, telling each other what they’ve done on it and what they want to do. They swap tips and tricks and it leads them away from our reality.

  We are lost in the forest.

  9

  Cora chews her lip, visibly uneasy now.

  Her head swings around every few minutes, making her hair sway. She’s scanning the trees for evidence of ripped flags.

  “How much longer?” Ava asks.

  I make myself smile. “Shouldn’t be too long now. Are you getting hungry?”

  “I’m starving!” Sophia answers for us all.

  Lunch was supposed to be fifteen minutes ago.

  When will Andy begin to worry? We have a phone for emergencies. Cora has placed her hand over her pocket a few times. She’s probably considering when the right time to call would be.

  I know what she’s doing. She wants to show the girls how to orient yourself when you’re lost.

  But there’s a reason we haven’t found a single flag landmark yet.

  Someone has removed them.

  It’s so obvious. Why else would they be missing? Colored rags do not untie themselves from tree branches. I’m no wildlife expert, but I do know that squirrels can’t work knots.

  “Esme,” Cora calls, and she comes to a stop. Her voice is sharp, and a cold shiver ripples down my spine.

  Her eyes, round and brimmed with defeat, stare back at me. With a quick nod, she gives me the answer we’ve all been longing for. Yes, we can call for help now.

  “Hey, look!” I say, my eyes catching something red. Cora is a step behind me as I jog to the scrap of material on the ground by a tree.

  “Is that the flag?” Maisie asks.

  I swipe the flag off the ground and hand it to Cora.

  “Someone ripped this off the tree and left a pi
ece behind. Who would do that?” Cora says.

  I shrug one shoulder. “We’re on track, though. Just a shame we don’t know which cross this relates to on the map.”

  “Yeah. I think we should still call Andy.”

  Kayla catches up to us.

  The girls are whispering about what’s happened. Hushed voices are spurting all sorts of crazy stories.

  “It was definitely ripped off,” I tell Cora and Kayla, keeping my voice low. The girls are already suspicious and pretty much think there is a madman after us, especially since Ava thought she saw someone watching us.

  Did she?

  “Do you think that Ava could have seen a person?” I whisper. “The same person who’s taken the flags off, so we got lost?”

  Cora shakes her head, frowning like I’ve just asked if she believes all of those Area 51 conspiracy theories.

  I do not. If I’m an alien visiting Earth, I’m going to the Bahamas, not Nevada.

  “Drink some water, Esme,” Kayla tells me.

  Now she thinks I’m delirious.

  I take my water bottle out of my bag and pretend I can’t see Kayla’s tight lips and tense eyes. It’s her way of telling me to get ahold of myself.

  That would be wonderful, but I can’t until we’re safely back at camp.

  “All right, girls. It looks like we’ve veered off course, so we’re going to make a call to Andy for some assistance,” Cora tells them. “For now, take a break and hydrate. You should all have a protein bar, so have at it.”

  “Wait, what is that?” Isabel asks.

  Ava stands on tiptoes. “Yeah, why is the flag on the ground?”

  Cora tucks the marker into her pocket. “It’s made of thin cotton, so it isn’t a flag. Must have been left by someone.”

  She’s quick with the lie there. She didn’t even blink.

  I should take lessons from her. When I lie, I’m sure my face is as red as a London bus. Kayla says it isn’t, though. She has told me I’m quite a good liar. I’ve never quite known how to take that.

  “Really?” Isabel asks.

  I step up to her. “Really. I checked it myself. Take a seat with everyone else and rest. Once we have our bearings, we’ll set off and go get some lunch.”

  She does as I say and takes a seat with the others. All of them look suspicious as hell.

  “How do we know you three haven’t taken us out here to do something?” Sophia asks.

  Cora tilts her head. “Seriously, Sophia? I know you might be worried right now, but we’re here to take care of you. Everything is fine and soon we’ll be back at camp.”

  She huffs and sits down next to Ava.

  I sip my water as I walk back to Cora and Kayla.

  “Doesn’t that thing have Google Maps?” I ask Kayla.

  She smirks. “I asked the same thing. We won’t get service, but Cora’s going to ask Andy to message our location and the direction we’re supposed to head.”

  “How’s he going to do that?”

  Kayla shrugs. “Do I look like a tech geek?”

  With her glossy hair, manicured nails and hot pink sunglasses, no, she does not.

  Cora is still talking on the phone. Her voice is as calm as always, as if she’s letting Andy know we’re almost there, not that we got lost in the forest with twelve young girls.

  This isn’t going to look good on my CIT record.

  “Yes, that’s correct…Looks like it was,” Cora says into the cell.

  I’m guessing Andy is asking about the ripped flags.

  “All right, Andy has tracked the phone number and is sending us the directions back to camp.”

  “He tracked us?” I ask.

  “Camp cell phone,” she replies, holding it up.

  Okay, that’s less creepy.

  “Good,” I say, sliding my water bottle back into my bag.

  “Looks like we need to go southeast and we’ll be back shortly,” Cora says after the phone beeps. “We’re minutes away!”

  She puts the phone away, opens her compass and starts to walk slowly.

  “All right, we know where we are, and we’re off. Up we get, girls,” Cora says, waving her arms as she passes them.

  “Are we close?” Ava asks.

  “Ridiculously close,” I reply. “Despite the lack of flags, we almost got back.”

  Sophia’s shoulders drop. “But we didn’t.”

  “But we will. Come on, do you want a big bowl of mac and cheese or not?”

  Her eyes widen. “I do.”

  “Then let’s go!”

  Four minutes. That’s how far away we were. If everyone was out on the lake or outside, we probably would have heard them.

  “Mac and cheese,” Ava cheers, followed by whoops and squeals from the other girls.

  It’s funny the psychology of being lost to post-lost.

  The girls had been hunched, looking around, whispering, worrying. I was convinced we were goners and now I can see us splashing around in the lake this afternoon without a care in the world.

  Now it’s no big deal. The knowledge that we’re almost back and there’s mac and cheese waiting has them forgetting one very important thing.

  The fact that someone wanted us to lose our way hasn’t changed.

  Whatever they think they believe because Cora told her white lie with conviction, they’d realize the truth if they thought about it for a second.

  Red material dropped by someone else at the same time our red flags go missing? Unlikely.

  Kayla falls in line with me. This time Cora trusts both of us to be at the back and make sure none of the girls decide to run away. As if at this point they would be so stupid.

  What with a flag-stealing stalker maniac out there and all.

  “Something is off, right?” I whisper.

  Kayla shrugs. “Think about it logically.”

  “I have.”

  “Who could it be?” she asks.

  “I don’t know who!” Not exactly. “People do all kinds of crazy stuff for all sorts of reasons. Some just because they’re bored. Maybe someone from town is trying to make it an eventful summer.”

  “Then don’t worry about it, Esme. They’ve had their fun.”

  “Yeah, but what if they’re just getting started?”

  “Babe, stop. You’re going to fry that big brain of yours if you don’t stop thinking.”

  I’m not usually this bad. It’s being back here.

  “Okay, I’m done,” I tell Kayla, mostly to stop her from thinking too much about who could be out here. And I’ll do my best to ignore what my mind is trying to convince me of. It’s like my mind and I are separate entities sometimes. The battle of staying sane versus letting hysteria take over.

  I don’t want to think the worst. This summer is supposed to be fun and I’m letting what is probably some innocent prank get to me.

  Kayla and I pulled pranks when we were here. Everyone does. It usually starts with the counselors once the campers have settled in. Then it goes back and forth.

  The most likely culprits are teens from town who have wandered onto camp property and stolen some flags from the trees.

  A cheer from the girls jolts me from my incessant thoughts.

  My muscles unlock.

  We’re back.

  The trees give way to open land and a glorious body of water. I am so freaking happy to see the lake!

  The girls run for the food hall chanting about mac and cheese. Andy laughs and steps out of their way before they trample him.

  He waits for us to catch up.

  “Thank God we’re back,” Cora says. “Thanks, Andy.”

  “What happened?”

  She takes the scrap of red material out of her pocket. “Looks like someone has been having fu
n on camp grounds.”

  Andy takes it from her hand. “Someone has taken the flags off?”

  “Yeah.”

  Muttering something under his breath, he straightens his shoulders. “I’ll deal with this. We’ll have Garret and Ward come in and set the flags up again. Go eat. And well done on staying calm and getting help when you needed it.”

  I smile at Andy, feeling like a bit of a fraud for accepting his praise along with Cora and Kayla. I didn’t show the girls that I was worried, I suppose. That’s what counts.

  “You good?” Kayla asks me.

  “Yep. You?”

  “I’m fine,” she replies, and trips over the threshold of the food hall.

  Yeah, me neither.

  10

  It’s nine at night. I’m outside with Kayla, Tia, Rebekah, Olly and Jake. We’re going for a walk.

  The campers are tucked in bed and it’ll be lights-out soon. Not that they’ll stop whispering and go to sleep. It’s such a relief to be able to relax after all of the lost-in-the-woods excitement. Except I didn’t find it very exciting.

  Kayla has stopped being clumsy, so I’m pretty sure she’s moved on. She’s very good at pushing something out of her mind if she doesn’t like it. I wish I could do the same.

  It was probably someone from town messing around. At least, that seems to have won the whodunit votes. It’s not the first time that teens have wandered onto camp property and messed around, according to Andy; occasionally they’ve been caught and cautioned by the cops.

  Now that we’re out of the woods and I’ve eaten, I can see how over the top I was being. Kids have been hauled away by cops and taken back to town. The path through the forest leads our way, so it’s easy for townies to reach the camp.

  The fear of being lost and thinking that Ava saw someone got to me in a big way.

  Just because the camp looks like a horror movie set does not mean it is one.

  I don’t know exactly when we’re going to sneak into town. There was talk of next week, but after we got lost today, I think the others are hesitant.