On His Watch

by Katie Ruggle

  “C-can’t w-w-we stay h-here?” Maya was shaking so hard that the words were interrupted by her teeth clicking together.

  “No one’ll find us in here.” As she stood, Zoe unsuccessfully tried to pull Maya to her feet. It was amazing how much her tiny sister weighed when she went limp. Tears threatened, but Zoe forced them back. “Maya. We need to walk. You’ll stay warmer that way, too.”

  “I th-thought we didn’t w-want anyone to f-f-find us,” Maya whined through chattering teeth, but she allowed Zoe to pull her to standing.

  A jolt of fear shot through Zoe at the thought of what would happen when they were found. Looking at her shivering sister made her more scared of what would happen if they weren’t found, though, so she took Maya’s hand and led her back to the path.

  Between the low light and the snow, it was hard to see things on the trail, and Zoe kept tripping. As she walked, her toes went from numb to painful pins and needles. She wished they’d stayed numb. She wished she had a flashlight. She wished her dad was there. She wished she’d never had the stupid, stupid idea to egg Chase into walking out onto the ice. She wished she’d just stayed and taken her punishment, so that Maya wouldn’t be here, cold and hungry and scared, just like Zoe.

  Something moved in front of them.

  “What w-was that?” Maya whispered.

  Squinting through the dusk, Zoe opened her mouth, ready to tell her sister that she didn’t know, that it was nothing, just a shadow or a trick of the dark. Then it shifted closer, morphing into the terrifying shape of a mountain lion, and the reassuring words she was about to utter turned into a scream.

  * * *

  Every step hurt. She knew that Derek was watching her carefully. He’d wanted to stay at the cabin longer, but she couldn’t stay cuddled with Derek while their friends were slogging through the snow, searching for them. It had been almost impossible, though, to force herself to leave his arms and the tiny, ramshackle cabin.

  Trying to mask her limp was making it worse, but Artie was worried what would happen if she stopped trying to hide it. He’d either insist on carrying her or make her stop so he could light a flare, and then all the searchers would converge on them, endangering everyone for the second time that day for an injured would-be rescuer who’d gotten all of them into this mess in the first place by being such a crappy chaperone.

  Gritting her teeth against the pain and the guilt, she swept her flashlight in a steady rhythm, watching for obstacles on the trail and boogeymen in the bushes. Instead, the light reflected against the swirling snow. The toe of her boot caught on the edge of a rock, making her stumble and sending a shock of agony through her right knee.

  “Artemis…”

  “I’m fine,” she barked, focusing the beam of her flashlight on the area ahead of her. The wind had eased slightly, to her relief, allowing a half inch of snow to settle on the ground. Then an odd depression in the white blanket caught the light, and Artie stopped abruptly, her bad knee forgotten.

  “What is it?” Derek asked from right behind her.

  “Prints.” Keeping the light focused on it, she forced herself to step closer. Crouching, she extended her right leg to the side so she wouldn’t have to bend her bad knee. It was a total giveaway that she was hurting, but the new discovery trumped hiding her injury from Derek. “What does that look like to you?”

  Even with her attention focused on the impression in the snow, she could tell he stiffened. He leaned closer to look over her shoulder at the print, his chest lightly brushing her back. “That”—his voice was quiet and eerily calm—“looks like the paw print of a really big cat.”

  Not wanting to be crouching and vulnerable any longer, Artie stood so quickly that she clipped Derek’s chin with her shoulder.

  “Ow.”

  “Sorry.” She moved her flashlight, searching farther along the trail. Her stomach dipped when she found them—neat, even rows of overlapping paw prints. “Mountain lion?”

  “Yep.”

  “Really fresh prints.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Shit.”

  “Exactly.”

  Artie realized that she was breathing much too fast. “Okay. Since there’s a mountain lion a scarily short distance in front of us, we should go in a different direction, right?”

  “That’s a good idea.” He let out a grumbly sigh. “We’re going to have to backtrack.”

  “Why?” she asked before turning her flashlight toward the left and the right. “Oh.” The ridge had narrowed, and the rock to the right rose in a vertical wall, while the left side dropped straight down into blackness. Without climbing equipment, there was no way to go either up or down. The only choice was retracing their steps. Again.

  With a resigned groan, she turned around, prepared to follow Derek back the way they’d come. Her knee started throbbing again. It felt like it hurt worse when they walked over ground they’d already traveled. Suddenly, the idea of being rescued and carried out of there didn’t seem so bad.

  A cry ripped through the snowstorm, jerking both of them to an instant halt. The sound was horribly familiar. For the second time that day, Artie heard Zoe’s terrified scream.

  Pivoting around, Artie took off toward the sound. She didn’t even pause to wonder why Zoe was still out there, screaming, rather than tucked up in bed like the earlier static-filled radio transmission had led them to believe. The light from her flashlight bobbed with her sprinting strides, reflecting off Derek’s back as he ran in front of her. Everything disappeared—the pain in her knee, the cougar tracks they were following, the slickness of the snowy path. All that mattered was getting to the girls and saving them from whatever had made Zoe scream like that.

  Her foot slid to the left, and she scrambled to keep her balance. The bobble allowed Derek to pull farther ahead. Artie pushed for more speed, digging for that last final burst of power like she had during high school track meets, and closed the gap between them.

  When Derek slid to a halt, she almost crashed into him, barely managing to stop in time. His broad shoulders blocked her view, so she shifted to the side and then sucked in a breath.

  Their flashlights turned the tawny coat of the mountain lion almost white. It turned its head to look at them, eyes reflecting eerie brightness. Artie bit the inside of her cheek hard. The sharp pinch cut off the scream that was building in her chest.

  The cougar was slightly crouched, its long tail twitching like an annoyed house cat’s. A high-pitched whimper from twenty feet in front of the lion caught its attention, making its rounded ears swivel toward the sound. Artie raised her flashlight slightly to find the source of the noise.

  When she saw Zoe and Maya’s tiny, huddled forms, tucked against the flat face of a boulder, she had to swallow her own frightened cry.

  “Zoe.” Derek’s voice was loud enough to make everyone, including the big cat, startle. “Stand up slowly. You too, Maya.”

  The girls didn’t move, but Artie understood what he was doing and stepped to his side. “Girls.” She used her stern-teacher voice. “Get up. I know you’re scared, but you need to be brave.” Zoe was the first to respond, wobbling to her feet and tugging a reluctant Maya with her.

  “Good job.” Derek’s tone was more soothing, and Artie had to hold back a semi-hysterical laugh. Apparently, she was the bad cop in this situation. “Now, unzip your coats. Move slowly, though.”

  As Derek gave instructions, Artie started inching to the left. Her fingers clutched Derek’s arm, both to tug him over with her and because she needed to cling to him. Her heart was beating so loudly in her ears that it was hard to hear anything else. Both girls had managed to unzip their coats, but Maya started crying, making squeaky, high-pitched sounds. When Artie looked at the cougar, she noticed the animal’s attention was fixed on the children again. She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but Artie was pretty sure the lion crouched lower.

  “Maya. Stop,” Artie snapped, startling the little girl into silence. “You ne
ed to act like a lion, not a little mouse. Be big. Spread your jackets open. Arms over your heads. Pretend you’re ten feet tall and have teeth like a shark, got it?”

  Neither girl said anything, but the tears had stopped completely. Their shaking hands extended over their heads. Artie sucked a relieved breath through her teeth as she and Derek made painfully slow progress circling around the cougar.

  “That’s perfect,” Derek crooned in his good-cop voice. “You two are so brave. We’re coming to get you now.”

  He and Artie had shuffled as far as they could to the side. It wasn’t nearly far enough away from the animal—barely fifteen feet—but a wall of stone blocked their retreat.

  With their backs facing a steep rock slope, they inched toward the girls. Artie’s heart was beating fast—much too fast—and she could barely hold in the terrified noises that wanted to escape her lungs. Be a lion, she mentally repeated her own advice. The girls need you. Be a lion.

  She and Derek drew parallel to the mountain lion’s side, and it turned to stare at them with eyes that reflected the light. Artie could barely breathe as they made their impossibly slow progress toward the girls while the cat watched. It was almost impossible not to sprint to the girls, snatch them up, and run. Panicked instinct fought reason in her head as her vision narrowed until all she could see was the cougar, crouched to attack her kids.

  Artie’s eyes and flashlight flicked back and forth between the predator and the children. They looked so small, even with their jackets opened and their hands stretched bravely toward the sky.

  She and Derek passed the cougar’s midsection and then its shoulder. Each careful sideways step moved them closer to the children but also put them more directly in front of a mountain lion that looked ready to pounce. If the animal had to attack, though, Artie would rather be the victim than Maya, Zoe, or Derek. Her fear for her own safety was overwhelmed by the lung-squeezing terror at the thought of the others being mauled.

  They were twenty feet from the girls and then fifteen. Oh, please God, please let them stay safe! After one agonizingly slow shift to the side and then another, they were in front of the lion. Finally, finally, they were close enough that Artie raised her arms above her head. When they’d been behind it, she’d been afraid of driving the animal toward the girls. Now that they were on the same end, she was hoping the cougar would take advantage of the opening behind it and leave.

  Instead, it lifted one enormous paw and shifted forward a half step. Artie’s heart started beating in triple time. Terror sped through her body until it was hard to think. She stomped down her fear and shifted the flashlight so it skipped over the area around the two girls.

  “Zoe.” She was shocked at how calm and even her voice sounded when her brain was in hysterics. “Use your left hand to reach for that rock on the ledge behind you. Go slow. Do you see it?” Artie kept the light aimed at the notch in the boulder where a few small rocks were piled.

  Keeping her wide eyes locked on the cougar, Zoe lowered her trembling hand to grope along the surface of the boulder. It took everything inside of Artie to keep from screaming at the little girl to hurry. She clenched her jaw and swallowed.

  “A little higher and to the left,” Derek guided, although he kept his light aimed at the mountain lion. “There. You’ve got it.”

  “It’s too heavy,” she whimpered, and the cat shifted another oversize paw.

  “No squeaking, Zoe.” Artie put a snap in her voice. It had worked to yank Maya out of her tears, so hopefully it would keep Zoe from falling apart, too. “Use both hands. Got it?”

  Zoe lifted the rock just over her head in silent response.

  “That’s awesome, Zoe. You have a weapon now. That’s like Thor’s hammer. This is the time when you get to act like a superhero.” Derek edged closer, moving a little faster now that they were so close to the girls. It was impossibly hard for Artie not to break and dash for the children.

  No running, she told herself, taking a sideways baby step. No running. It’s like you told the girls. Don’t be a mouse. Predators don’t run away. Don’t run.

  Despite her mental lecture, keeping her pace to a creeping shuffle was painfully difficult. They were five feet away, then three, then Derek was picking up Zoe, and Artie finally could reach for Maya, lifting the girl into her arms without bending down. Derek stretched his free arm behind Artie and pulled them close.

  “Now we’ll be really tall,” Artie told the trembling child, trying to keep her own voice from shaking. “Arms up. We’ll look like a giant. A four-headed giant.”

  “You too, Zoe,” Derek said. “Hold that magic hammer as high as you can.”

  Artie met the mountain lion’s eyes, her fingers tightening around the flashlight. Like Zoe’s rock, it could be used as a weapon, if necessary. “We are not mice.”

  “We’re superheroes,” Zoe piped up, her voice quavering just a little.

  Although the prey-like high pitch of the girl’s voice made Artie wince internally, she couldn’t hold back a puff of startled laughter. “Exactly.”

  The big cat stared at them as Artie held her breath and tried not to shake. Each second felt like an eternity as the mountain lion studied them, unmoving except for the twitch of its tail. Please let the kids be safe. Please let Derek survive this. If we all get out of this okay, I’ll never take my eyes off any of my kids ever again.

  Her breath caught. Had the lion just crouched? Was it preparing to lunge? Clutching Maya tighter, she raised the flashlight, trying to shove the panic down so she could strategize in her mind. If the cougar pounced, she’d turn her body so Maya would be away from the animal, then she’d swing the flashlight at its head. Realizing that her shoulders were rounding, Artie shoved them back, standing tall.

  “Go!” Maya’s usually piping voice had lowered to her best attempt at a growly roar. “Shoo! Bad kitty! Go!”

  The mountain lion’s tail twitched, its haunches lowering even farther. Resisting the urge to squeeze her eyes closed, Artie stared at the enormous cat, watching for movement, anything to give her some warning before it attacked.

  Its hindquarter’s bunched, and Artie flinched slightly, ready for the charge. With a flick of its tail, the cougar turned and bounded away, quickly leaving the range of their lights until it was swallowed by the darkness.

  Artie stared after it in disbelief. Did it really just…leave?

  They all stood in silence for a solid minute after the lion had disappeared. Derek was the first to move, twisting until he could wrap his other arm around Artie and Maya, sandwiching the two girls between them in a four-person hug.

  Maya burst into tears. “Sorry,” she wailed between sobs. “I’m…being a…mouse!”

  Squeezing the girl tighter, Artie gasped out a laugh. “It’s okay to be a mouse now, sweetie. The cat is gone.”

  “Can I drop my hammer?” Zoe asked.

  “Just don’t drop it on anyone’s foot.” Taking the rock from her two-handed grip, Derek tossed it away from their huddle, and it landed on the snowy ground with a dull thud. A clump of snow jostled free and fell to cover it in a muffled fwump fwump fwump, like an echo.

  Artie wasn’t sure who started it, but they all began laughing, which led to the girls crying. Although Artie was close to tears too, she held them back. Tonight, when everyone was safe in bed, she could break down. For now, she still needed to be the invincible teacher, Ms. Rey.

  When Derek withdrew his embracing arm, cupping her shoulder for a moment on the way, she turned her head to smile at him. At least the invincible Ms. Rey had a pretty awesome sidekick.

  * * *

  Derek placed Zoe on her feet. “You okay to walk? It’ll keep you warmer.” He didn’t tell her that the main reason he put her down was because he’d started shaking as the adrenaline rush faded, and he didn’t want her to know.

  “Yes.” She wiped her face with the back of her glove. Her stoic expression wavered a little as she asked, “Is it far?”

  “No.
We’re just going to find a sheltered spot where we can light some flares and then wait for your dad to find us.”

  “Can we go that way?” Maya asked through chattering teeth, pointing in the opposite direction from the cougar’s deep tracks.

  “Definitely.” Artie gave a choked laugh, and he eyed her carefully. There was an edge to her voice that made him worry she was about to lose it. After the day from hell, she fully deserved to have a complete breakdown, but it would help if she could hold it together for another couple of hours.

  “You good?” Although he kept the words light, so as not to scare the girls, Artie must have caught the serious undertone, because she took a deep breath and met his gaze squarely.

  “Yes,” was all she said, but it was steady and resolute enough to send a burst of warm pride through Derek. He wanted to hug her, to tell her how amazing he thought she was, how brave and smart and simply awesome, but he had to be satisfied with holding his fist out to her.

  As she bumped it, her lips tugged up into a shaky smile.

  “How about you, Maya? Can you walk a little longer?” Derek asked, careful not to shine the flashlight in her eyes as he looked her over carefully. Both children had been dressed for the cold, and he was pretty sure that Maya’s trembling was from the encounter with the mountain lion rather than the beginning of hypothermia.

  “Okay. My hands are cold, though.”

  Derek glanced at Artie over the kids’ heads, and they shared a concerned look. Crouching down by the smaller girl, Artie tugged off her own gloves and then Maya’s mittens, while Derek directed his flashlight beam at their bare hands.

  Maya hissed between her teeth as her tiny fingers were sandwiched between Artie’s palms. “Your hands are really hot, Ms. Rey.”

  “I know it hurts,” she said with brisk sympathy, “but we need to warm yours up fast. There’s no sign of frostbite, so that’s good. They’ll sting a little, but you’ll be okay.”

  Derek loved how she was with her students, like a kindly drill sergeant. After warming Maya’s hands and replacing her mittens, Artie stood and pulled on her gloves.