“Never want to move again,” Mariana said.
Reyva snorted. “Never want to see a cave again. Especially that one.”
Claire got to her feet. She turned slowly in a circle, looking for motion through the trees. Even the wind was silent.
But if that was so, was it wind she’d heard in the cave?
Twelve times one, twelve. Twelve times two, twenty-four. Thirty-six. Forty-eight. Sixty. Seventy-two. Eighty-four. Ninety-six. One hundred eight....She didn’t feel calmer. She switched to reciting the digits of pi:Three point one four one five nine two six five three five eight...
Water dripped from the leaves, steady. Everything glistened with droplets. The ground felt soggy beneath her. She should have heard sound beyond the fall of leftover rain, shaken fromthe trees. But there wasn’t a single chirp or warble.
Reyva got up too. “What is it?”
“No birds,” Claire whispered.
Reyva nudged Mariana with her foot. Groaning, she pushed herself up to standing.
In three directions there was only forest: spruce and hemlock, maple and birch. Bushes, ferns, and brambles wove a thick knee-high layer of undergrowth between them. The low sun cast long shadows over all of it.
In the fourth direction was a mound made of boulder-size rocks and packed dirt. Halfway up, on an angle, was the hole they’d climbed out of, the entrance to the cave. No green grew on the mound, not even moss or the pale gray lichen that grew in lacy patterns over the other rocks. Just a pile of rock and dirt, slick from the rain.
It made her think of a cemetery. Specifically, a freshly covered grave. She tried not to think about the fact that they could have died down there. It could have been their tomb.
Staring at the hole they’d climbed out of, she shuddered. It was unmarked and half hidden by the shadows of the rocks above it. If someone were to fall in there by accident... They’d climbed a long way up. It would be a deadly fall.We won’t come near here again, she thought. She fixed the rock formation in her mind: an array of boulders with the cave opening tucked between them. She wouldn’t accidentally stumble over it.
“Any idea where we are?” Mariana asked in a whisper.
“Somewhere we shouldn’t be,” Claire whispered back.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the ferns shudder.Grabbing Reyva’s and Mariana’s arms, she stepped backward. They stepped with her.
It could be a squirrel. Or a bird. If they were going to flee, they had to be sure they ran in the right direction, ideally toward the lake. Once they found the water, they could follow the shoreline to civilization. Begin their trek out of here. Leave this nightmare behind.
A bony hand clamped onto Claire’s arm.
She was ripped away from Reyva and spun around. She saw him in a flash: tattered jeans caked with blood, a torn shirt with a single sleeve, mud-caked beard, straggly red-streaked-with-gray hair in clumps.
She screamed.
The man screamed back at her, spittle hitting her face. “You!” He shook her, gripping her arm so hard that it felt as if he was digging his fingers into her skin. His fingers were coated in caked-on dirt and dried blood. “It’s you!”
Mariana kicked him hard in the knee, while Reyva pulled her right fist back and let it fly at his face. She connected with his cheekbone, and he reeled back. Claire yanked away, falling backward as she pulled out of his grip. She landed on the ground with a thump that rattled through her bones.
Clutching the side of his face, he lunged for Mariana. “Is it you? Tell me!”
Mariana skittered sideways as he swiped at her. Shoving her hand into her pocket, she withdrew her suntan lotion. She sprayed it in his eyes, and he howled.
“Run,” Reyva commanded as she yanked Claire onto her feet.
Together, the three of them sprinted away from the wild man. Claire felt her heart racing and her mind screaming so loudly that it drowned every thought butrun. She glanced back.
Wiping at his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks, he chased after them in loping, wolflike strides, trampling ferns and plowing through bushes. “Stop! I have to know! Am I free?”
A branch slapped Claire’s cheek. She felt it sting and stumbled from the shock. Reyva pulled her forward. And then Mariana skidded to a stop, forcing Claire and Reyva to stop too.
Claire felt a sharp pain as the wild man seized a wad of her hair. Screaming, she grabbed the back of her head and lunged forward. Reyva, fists ready, stopped and faced him.
“Man! Gun!” Mariana yelled.
