Footprints. Alex Archer
students all sprang into action, taking down tents and getting their packs squared away.
Annja watched them. She felt hesitant about taking command of the situation but, with Jenny nowhere to be seen, someone had to. She couldn’t tell a bunch of kids to hang around with gun-toting nuts lurking in the woods. And she was pretty confident that Jenny would tell them to get out of there, as well. There was no way Jenny would want kids under her care to be in danger.
It took them twenty minutes to break down the camp. Annja found Jenny’s tent and started to pack it up, too.
Joey spent most of the time complaining about the supplies he’d lugged back from town. “Hey, man, I’m still getting paid for this, right? I mean, charity’s nice and all, but I have to look out for numero uno.”
Annja fished out her wallet and gave him fifty dollars. “That enough?”
Joey’s eyes lit up. “Not bad. Jenny promised me a hundred per day out here, though.”
“Don’t push your luck. Jenny’s on a university grant and has to watch all of her expenses. That fifty’s a gift and you know it.”
Joey smiled. “Can’t blame a dude for trying.”
Annja finished breaking down Jenny’s tent and wrapped up the stakes in the nylon. “I’ve got one final assignment for you, Creeping Wolf.”
“Yeah?”
“You need to lead these kids back to the trailhead.”
Joey frowned. “They stay on the trail, they’ll be fine. They don’t need me.”
Annja pulled him close. “Take a look at their faces. Every one of them is terrified. Being confronted with guns isn’t a normal occurrence for these kids. And they’re probably considering very seriously the idea that they came close to being killed. If I let them go like this, they’ll wander off the trail and die from exposure. You know that’s true.”
Joey nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. They do look pretty shell-shocked.”
“As opposed to you.”
“I left, man. I don’t stick around for trouble. That’s bad medicine.”
“Well, do me this one favor and then you can get lost, as well.”
“What about you?” Joey asked.
Annja looked out into the trees. “I’ll leave with you guys as a group. But somewhere along the trail, I’ll bleed off. Don’t try to find me. I’ll search for Jenny and we’ll figure out what to do next.”
“You’re going to find Jenny in these woods alone? You?”
“I’m pretty good at finding my way around, Joey. I’ve been in a lot worse environments than this,” Annja said.
At that moment, the clouds finally opened up and rain pelted down from the sky, soaking everyone in seconds. The students shouted and complained that they had no tents to use for shelter.
Annja sighed and called them all together. “You’re leaving.”
“Now?” one of them said. “It’s raining.”
“So the quicker we get out onto the trail and headed back to the trailhead, the better off you’ll be. Move quickly and you’ll stay warm, too. Joey here is going to lead us all out.”
“Can he do it?”
Joey looked as if he was going to punch the person who asked, but Annja held him back. “Yes, he knows these woods better than anyone.”
“What if we get lost?”
“You won’t,” Annja said. “And I’ll be bringing up the rear so I’ll make sure no one gets left behind. Now, are we ready?”
They all nodded. Annja breathed a sigh of relief. If she could just keep them focused on the task at hand, getting back to the safety of town and away from here, then they’d be all right.
She looked at Joey. “You all set?”
“Of course,” he said.
“All right, then. Lead on.”
Joey started off down the trail. One by one, the students fell in, forming a ragged line. Rain continued to drench them all. Annja knew she’d have to find shelter pretty quickly if she had any hope of surviving long enough to find Jenny.
She figured the trio of gunmen were probably watching them leave. She hoped they would think that Annja had just wanted to get everyone out in one piece. Hopefully, they would believe that their threats had worked.
Even though they hadn’t.
The trees seemed to reach in over them as they walked down the trail. Overhead, the long spindly branches with leaf shoots and pine branches deflected some of the rain, but it was still getting very squishy on the ground. Annja’s boots left footprints behind her that quickly filled with water.
The trail was turning into a muddy mess.
“Joey?”
He turned back, hearing Annja call him. “Yeah?”
“Thanks for your help.”
He frowned for a moment and then simply nodded. He understood that Annja would simply take off on her own at the right time and not announce her departure. The quieter she was, the better. The last thing those kids needed was something else weighing on their minds.
Annja did find it peculiar that none of them had asked about Jenny’s welfare. But then again, when faced with mortal danger, most people do end up only considering their own personal safety.
Jenny was on her own.
Well, not quite. As Joey led the group around a bend in the trail, Annja saw her chance and quietly stepped off the trail. She crouched low and then slipped behind a thick pine tree.
The rain continued to fall and the light in the sky seemed to be dimming by the second. It was already late afternoon and the addition of bad weather meant that she was looking at spending a truly dark night in the woods.
Annja, soaked and not really knowing where she was or how to even begin looking for Jenny, was facing the very real threat of staying warm enough to survive her first night out here.
She smirked. Funny how her bad haircut paled in comparison to the dangers she faced now.
3
If Annja had initially believed that the rain would taper off as the evening progressed, she was wrong. Indeed, as the sky continued to darken, the rain increased until sheets fell from the clouds above her. The forest floor ran with mud and debris while a strong wind howled around her.
If I stay here, I’ll die, Annja decided. The good news was that the weather was a great equalizer. The men with the guns would also have to seek refuge from the storm. That meant Annja could risk setting herself up properly without fear of them showing up to shoot her dead.
She hauled Jenny’s tent out of her backpack and immediately got it staked into the sodden ground. There was no guarantee that the tent wouldn’t fly away at the next gust of wind, but she was grateful she at least had something that would keep her reasonably dry.
Her next task was fire. Annja could already feel herself starting to shiver. And she knew from experience that the onset of hypothermia would render her useless very soon. Her system would literally start to shut down, as her core drew heat away from her extremities and her brain.
She pulled out her knife and started scraping at the bark of the tree closest to her. The exterior of the bark was wet but the interior would still be reasonably dry. Annja produced a handful of shavings that would easily catch a spark. She put them into a plastic bag and then in her pocket to keep them as dry as possible.
Twenty yards from her makeshift camp, she spotted a downed tree. Closer