The Wild

by Owen Laukkanen

  Dawn’s right behind him. Alex, too. Even Brandon and Evan are hauling ass.

  Only Warden and Christian haven’t moved. Christian’s staring over the edge toward Amber, then back toward where the Pack is ready to move.

  Christian looks scared. He looks young. He looks like he always knew he was coasting on Amber’s competence and all-around boss status, and now that she’s gone, he’s got eight teenagers to keep safe and one gravely injured colleague to get rescued.

  He looks like he’s not really sure he’s up for the job.

  Fortunately, Warden seems like he’s ready to fill the void. “You guys go,” he tells Dawn. “Take the group down. Christian and I will stay up here and make sure Amber’s okay.”

  Dawn looks at Christian, wondering how the counselor is taking Warden’s little speech. To her surprise, he actually looks relieved.

  Lucas tugs at her arm. “Come on, Dawn,” he tells her. “Let’s go.”

  Dawn glances back at Warden and Christian one more time. Then she turns and makes a break for the summit.

  THEY SAY THAT coming down a mountain is even tougher than climbing it. You expend so much energy on the climb that when it’s time for the return trip you’re running on fumes. You’ve already reached your goal, too, so now you just want to get back down to base camp, have a hot meal, climb in your tent. Celebrate.

  You get tired. You get careless. You spent too much time on the come up, and now it’s getting late and the weather’s starting to turn. And just the technical act of descending is often tougher than the climb was in the first place. So people screw up. They lose focus. They get injured and die.

  And that’s in the best circumstances. Throw a wrench in the gears—like, I dunno, your only competent counselor falling, probably to her death—and it’s bound to mess you up even more. The Bear Pack is in a hurry to get down the mountain to camp. Even Brandon and Evan, who don’t give a shit about Amber, look like they’re damn eager to get back to their tents.

  But getting down isn’t simple, even after they’ve covered the last hundred feet up to the summit. They’ll take the standard route down, the route they should have come up, but it’s not exactly a Sunday stroll.

  It’s basically a long drop down a sharp, narrow gully. There’s a little bit of snow, but it’s mostly loose, slippery rock and bare mountain underneath. Nothing to hold on to. Nothing to break your fall if you trip.

  They take it as fast as they dare. Alex is in the lead, Brandon and Evan right behind him. Dawn barely notices who’s ahead of her. She’s mid-Pack with Lucas, trying to keep up, trying not to slide on her ass off the side of the mountain.

  She can see the tarn where they camped last night. It still looks a long way down.

  They drop through the gully, one after another, kicking pebbles and occasionally big rocks down toward the Pack members below them. Every now and then, somebody shouts, “ROCK!” and everyone has to duck as far off the trail as possible as a freaking boulder comes hurtling from on high, threatening to knock out or decapitate anyone in its path.

  Miraculously, nobody gets hurt.

  At the bottom of the gully, the mountain widens out to a broad, flatter shoulder, on which Dawn sees some lichen and a couple of cairns. This is obviously the way they should have gone: no chimneys, no ledges, no batshit traverses. They’re still a long way from the bottom, but the really scary part is over.

  The Pack hurries across the shoulder to the top of another gully. This one has a dry streambed cutting through the middle of it, all the way down to the tarn. It’s not as steep as the gully above, and there are plants and the odd stunted tree. Still, it’s easy to get careless, as Dawn discovers. She falls on a loose patch of earth and nearly takes out Lucas’s legs ahead of her, probably almost killing them both. But Lucas stays upright and somehow arrests her slide. Looks back at her and grins, wearily, like Ain’t this some shit.

  And Dawn can’t do much but shake her head in return.

  This is hell.

  “Come on,” Lucas tells Dawn. “We gotta get down there before the weather turns.”

  He’s not lying. It’s probably about four in the afternoon at this point, which means it shouldn’t be dark for another three hours, but already the skies are getting gloomier. To the west, Dawn can see storm clouds forming, rolling in over the distant peaks, getting closer. There’s bad weather coming, and it’s going to fuck up their day.

  And if it storms too bad, Dawn thinks, they might not even be able to bring in a helicopter.

  Dawn remembers what Amber said about the last weather report. We might see some rain, but we’ll be down off the summit by then.

  It doesn’t feel like rain, though, the way the wind’s biting, chilling Dawn through her jacket and numbing her face. Not at this time of year. Not this high in the mountains.

  The wind feels like winter, from what Dawn can tell. And it’s coming on pretty damn fast.

  * * *

  Alex gets back down to the campsite first. Brandon and Evan are hot on his trail. By the time Dawn comes out from the gully, she can see the three guys closing in on Christian’s tent.

  Behind her, the slope looks almost vertical from here. The peak of the Raven’s Claw looks a mile high. Dawn can’t even make out the summit; the whole side of the mountain just looks like sheer rock.

  What she can see, though, is that the blue sky and warm sunshine the Pack was enjoying on their climb is now disappearing, replaced by ominous, swirling gray clouds.

  The boys are almost at Christian’s tent, and that makes Dawn hurry up, even though her knees are killing her by this point and she has blisters on her feet and her back hurts and she’s tired as hell. Also, she’s now walking through a boulder field, where the smallest rock underfoot is like the size of a soccer ball, and most are, like, fridge-sized, or even Volkswagen-sized. It’s dangerous ground, lots of chasms to slip into and uneven ground to trip over. But somewhere, Dawn finds some last reserve of energy, some adrenaline she hasn’t already wasted. She’s struggling into the circle of tents just as Alex emerges from Christian’s tent, holding the orange emergency beacon aloft.

  She’s almost caught up to Alex when Brandon and Evan tackle him to the ground.

  DAWN DOESN’T UNDERSTAND AT FIRST.

  Brandon and Evan launch themselves into Alex, and they collide with the new Bear Cub and knock him backward into Christian’s tent.

  The orange emergency beacon goes flying, and Brandon bolts up and runs to it, picks it up as Evan stays on top of Alex, pinning him to the ground.

  Dawn sees it happen, but it doesn’t quite register.

  Not until Brandon hurls the beacon into a rock.

  No, Dawn thinks, feeling paralyzed and suddenly sick. No, Brandon, what the hell are you doing?

  The beacon explodes against the rock. Clatters to the ground as Dawn and Lucas watch, incredulous—

  (and Brielle and Kyla pick their way into camp behind them)

  (and Alex struggles underneath Evan, who still has him pinned)

  —as Brandon walks to where the beacon landed.

  He kneels down.

  He picks up a nearby rock, about the size of a grapefruit.

  And slowly, methodically, he begins to pound the beacon into tiny, useless pieces.

  DAWN SCREAMS, “What the fuck are you doing?”

  She runs across the uneven ground past Christian’s tent and Alex and Evan to where Brandon stands, triumphant, over the useless wreck of the beacon.

  She kneels down amid the rocks and picks up what’s left of it, and the beacon is in pieces and the pieces are small, and it will never, ever make an emergency call again.

  She stares at the pieces.

  Lets them fall from her hands.

  Feels suddenly very cold, and it has nothing to do with the storm blowing in.

  She sta
nds up slowly and turns around to see Alex shove Evan off from on top of him. Watches the new guy push himself to his feet, wincing.

  Brandon and Evan just stand there with smirks on their faces. Lucas and Brielle and Kyla stare back, disbelieving.

  “What the fuck, Brandon?” Kyla says after a beat. “Have you gone completely insane?”

  “How are we supposed to call the rescuers?” Dawn asks. “Dude, what the fuck?”

  Brandon’s expression doesn’t waver. “We’re not going to call the rescuers,” he says.

  Dawn blinks. Feels like she’s in an alternate dimension where nothing in life has to make sense. “Why not?”

  Evan sniggers. “Because they’re not freaking rescuers, dumbass. They’re prison guards, just like Amber and Christian.”

  “Amber isn’t a prison guard,” Dawn says.

  Brandon rolls his eyes. “Weren’t you kidnapped?” he asks her. “Do you actually want to be here?”

  “Fucking nerd,” Evan mutters.

  “This is our chance to get away,” Brandon tells her. Tells all of them. “Why the fuck would we call in more counselors?”

  Dawn stares at them. Still trying to process. “So, what? You’re just going to leave Christian up there? And Warden?”

  And Amber, she thinks, but she already knows that Brandon and Evan don’t give a shit about Amber.

  Brandon and Evan swap glances.

  “Christian, maybe,” Evan says.

  “Not Warden,” Brandon says.

  He gestures with his chin back toward the Raven’s Claw.

  As one, the rest of the Pack turns.

  And watches as Warden picks his way out of the gully. And comes walking across the boulder field toward them.

  WARDEN DOESN’T SAY ANYTHING until he reaches the middle of the campsite. Until he’s sure the whole Pack is looking at him: Brandon and Evan standing by the remains of Christian’s tent. Dawn by the wreckage of the emergency beacon. Alex wiping blood from his mouth. Lucas and Kyla and Brielle just kind of watching him, agape.

  Then he surveys the group, meets their eyes. Kind of chuckles.

  “Well, hey,” he says, grinning. “I guess we’d better have a team meeting.”

  * * *

  They adjourn, uneasily, to the remains of last night’s fire. They stand in a circle, and they all watch Warden.

  “Brandon’s right,” Warden tells them. “There’s no rescue. There’s only going back to the way things were before. If we want to be really rescued, we have to do it ourselves.”

  Dawn looks around at the other group members. Alex looks angry and confused. Lucas about the same. Brielle’s expression is inscrutable, but she never takes her eyes off Warden. Kyla, though, looks like she’s starting to hear Warden. She’s inched a little bit closer to where he and Brandon and Evan stand.

  “But what about Christian?” Dawn asks. “What about Amber?”

  “Christian’s still up at the summit,” Warden says. “In a couple of days, when we don’t show up at headquarters, someone will send a rescue team looking for us.” He looks at Dawn. “We don’t even know if Amber’s still alive by now,” he says. “We can’t waste this opportunity we’ve been given.”

  “So, what?” Lucas asks. “What are you suggesting we do?”

  “I’m suggesting we get the hell out of here,” Warden replies. “We can hike it. I remember from the map, there’s a way out of here, around the backside of the Raven’s Claw. There’s a highway, like, twenty miles north.”

  Kyla groans. “Twenty miles?”

  “It’s not hard,” Warden says. “We just follow a river. We’ve got enough food to make it, and we’ll have a couple days’ head start on whoever comes looking for us.”

  “And then what?” Dawn asks. “Are we supposed to just, like, hitchhike back home?”

  Warden sighs, like the way your teacher sighs when you’re just not getting a concept. “You need to stop thinking about this as just a speed bump on the way back to normal,” he tells her. “If we get out of these woods, Dawn, we’re not going home.”

  Dawn doesn’t say anything. Her head’s spinning.

  Warden looks at Kyla.

  “Kyla, when we get out of here, you never have to worry about your mom’s stupid boyfriend again, or the judge who sent you. Just go off and do something new; whatever you want.”

  He turns to Lucas. “Bro, you can forget about the army, or whatever your dad wants. Make your own life. Fucking take control, right?”

  Lucas nods, though it’s clear the idea of telling his dad to fuck off kind of terrifies him.

  “Alex, you’re new, and, Brielle, you hardly ever speak, so I don’t really know either of you, but once we get out of here, you can do whatever it is you want to do,” Warden says. “And, Brandon and Evan? You guys can, shit, I don’t know. Give each other handjobs in a truck stop bathroom or something, whatever you’re into.”

  Nearly everyone laughs. Even Brandon and Evan, though Dawn notices they refuse to look at each other.

  Then Warden turns to Dawn. “Dawn,” he says, “listen. You want to see your nana, right? Wouldn’t you rather be in Chicago than here?”

  Dawn doesn’t answer.

  “We can go to Chicago,” he says.

  Brandon and/or Evan makes an ooooh noise like Warden just told Dawn he has, like, a crush on her.

  Warden shoots them the finger. “Not like that, assholes,” he says. “Just, like, we’ll hitchhike, or something. Scrounge up money for the Greyhound. We’ll go to Chicago. You can visit your nana. Isn’t that better than just going home?”

  It is better.

  It’s so much better.

  Warden has her, and he knows it.

  Dawn wants to see her nana so bad it nearly makes her cry to think about it, and now that Warden’s mentioned how the Out of the Wild people will probably get them in trouble once they figure out what happened here—

  (and let’s be real, it would totally not be beyond Christian to try to rewrite history and blame the Bear Pack for what happened)

  —well, Dawn isn’t sure she’ll ever get out of this program.

  (Or, like, jail.)

  She doesn’t want to go home to her mom and her stepdad. She doesn’t want to go home to Julian. She wants to see her nana. And Warden looks so sure of himself, so confident he can lead them out of here, that Dawn starts to believe in his plan.

  She starts to believe he can lead them twenty miles through the mountains and out to the highway. That he can take them from the highway to somewhere they can all scatter, disappear across the country like ghosts.

  That he can take her to Chicago. To Nana.

  Dawn starts to believe this is What Happens Next.

  “I just need you to trust me,” Warden says. “Do you trust me?”

  “NAH,” ALEX SAYS.

  Dawn blinks, turns to look at him, realizing she almost forgot the rest of the group is here. Like she’s been lost in Warden’s green eyes for a minute or two, and it’s only the sound of the new guy’s voice that snaps her out of it.

  The Pack turns to look at Alex, who shrugs.

  “No offense, dude,” he tells Warden. “I’m sure you know what you’re doing and you can get these folks to the highway. I just don’t really feel the need to escape.”

  Warden says nothing. Just stares at him.

  “It’s like,” Alex says, “that counselor, Amber, she might still be alive. And we all know Christian doesn’t know what he’s doing. You all do your thing; I’ll hike back to headquarters on my own. Call in the rescue chopper and I’ll play the hero.

  “Shit,” he says, grinning. “They might even let me out early.”

  For a long moment, nobody says anything.

  Brandon and Evan look at Warden, as if they’re waiting on his c
ue for how to react. Dawn realizes she’s waiting, too. And she’s seeing how Alex doing hero things will get her off the hook—like, she doesn’t have to feel guilty about abandoning Amber. Not if Alex stays behind to shoulder that burden.

  She can skip out with Warden and make tracks for Chicago.

  She can leave her old life in the dust.

  After a beat, Warden nods.

  “Yeah,” he tells Alex. “Okay. You head back to headquarters, make sure the rescue team can find Amber. Just don’t tell the prison guards where we’re headed.”

  Alex makes a gesture like he’s zipping his lips. “Snitches get stitches,” he says. “I won’t tell.”

  It’s at that moment the wind suddenly picks up, and the first drops of rain blow in hard and cold from the west. Above the campsite, the Raven’s Claw is now completely obscured by clouds; the day’s light is waning, and the storm’s getting closer.

  Dawn shivers.

  “There’s no point in leaving tonight,” Warden tells the Pack. “We’re better off making camp before this weather gets worse. Get a fire going, get dinner started. We need to work as a team.”

  Warden’s eyes are on her, and Dawn realizes he’s looking for allies.

  We all need to work as a team.

  She claps her hands, feeling suddenly energized. “I’ll gather firewood,” she announces. “Who wants to start pumping water?”

  IT COULD BE THAT at this point you’re thinking Dawn’s plan is a little unrealistic.

  Like, surely she can see that her nana will call Wendy and Cam the minute Dawn shows up in Chicago, and Dawn will get her ass hauled back home.

  This is true.

  And Dawn knows it’s a possibility.

  But she also knows: