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But by lunchtime, Carly was already feeling the strain. Justin offered to start a fire and cook something, but Carly refused. The sooner they could get back on the road, the sooner they could make their destination and she could rest. She swallowed her share of the ravioli Justin gave her and climbed back onto the bike. Carly envied Sam, who trotted at their side with his tongue flopped out of the side of his mouth, enjoying the trip. Behind them, Shadowfax ambled along, comfortable with the pace. She slowed now and then for a nibble at something tasty along the way, but never let them get out of her sight.
“How much further?” Carly asked Justin when she was certain they had to be getting close.
“About six miles or so.”
Carly wanted to cry.
“We’re going to stop soon,” he said and gave her a little encouraging smile.
Carly gritted her teeth. “Not yet.”
“Carly, you’re wiped out.”
“No, I’m not!”
“You’re also a terrible liar.”
“I want to keep going.”
“Carly, come on. You did good for your first day, especially since we’re going up an eleven percent grade.”
“At this rate, we won’t even make it out of Alaska by wintertime.”
“We’re not always going to be going at this rate,” Justin said patiently. “Carly, listen to me. I know what I’m talking about here. You don’t want to exhaust yourself. You need to take it slow and easy until you build up your stamina because you’ve been half-starved for three months. You’re not as strong as you once were.”
“I can go more, honest!”
“I know you could, but there’s no need. Tell me something, are your calf muscles aching?”
Carly didn’t answer.
“I’ll bet when you used the Stairmaster at the gym, they told you to do it only for a few minutes at first, even though you felt like you could do more. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“They didn’t want you to tear up your muscles needlessly. Besides, we need to think about Sam, too.”
“Sam? What about him?”
“He’s not used to walking long distances on asphalt. His paws are probably sore.”
Carly hadn’t even thought about poor Sam. And Shadowfax, too... she might be sore or tired from walking such a long distance. Carly started wondering if she could get the horse to let her check her feet without being stepped on or kicked from annoyance.
“I’ll pick the next good campsite,” Justin said, and she wondered why he sounded a little smug about it.
Carly had never slept in a tent before, and she’d certainly had never put one together. But for some reason, Justin insisted Carly help him with the bewildering tangle of nylon and metal tubing. She watched him connect the posts and tried to do the same, but she realized she’d done it opposite the way he had, and she had to take the whole darn thing apart again. But the smile he gave her when she got it assembled made it all worth it, and Carly liked feeling that she had at least something to contribute instead of simply standing around and letting Justin take care of her.
Next, Justin showed her how to build a fire. It turned out to be yet another of one of those things she thought would be easy but was much more complicated in reality.
He started by scraping a patch of earth bare and building a ring of rocks around its perimeter. “You don’t want to wake up and find you’ve started a forest fire,” he explained. He then built a small pyramid of twigs, with bits of paper from a McDonald’s bag lying beside the road and leaves between them. “You have to start with things that catch fire easily. Start as small as you can. You can use paper if you have it, shredded fiber, bits of cloth, though you want to use natural fibers like cotton or wool.”
“Synthetics don’t burn as well?”
Justin smiled at Carly. “Right.”
He showed her how to pull little shreds from a piece of soft wood to make it easier to light. “Now, what are you going to do if you don’t have a cigarette lighter or matches?”
“Rub two sticks together? I saw that movie where the guy is shipwrecked on an island and has to start a fire that way. It took forever, but he finally got it to work.”
