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With all these negative thoughts swirling around inside my brain, I shivered, realizing that even though it was still the tail-end of summer, the mountains grew extremely cold at night.
So, I thought about trying to start a fire, but the darkness of the surrounding woods was daunting and by this point, my ankle was pulsing, even while I was resting.
The pain was starting to intensify, sharply stabbing up my leg and I prayed I hadn’t reinjured it. I hoped to God that it was simply a matter of overworking the leg, because if I hurt if further, the pain would only intensify. This would slow me down more and I couldn’t survive that.
I heard cracks and the splintering of wood around me and I nearly jumped at every noise. Mentally, I was freaking out, trying to focus on the source of the sounds, though the darkness didn’t provide any answers.
“It’s just the noises of the wild,” I reminded myself, in hardly more than a whisper, in case I was wrong, and something was watching me. I swallowed hard, “Remember, you’re in the middle of the woods, on the side of a mountain, all by yourself, there are bound to be noises…” Again, I gulped. I had thought talking myself through the situation would make everything better but unfortunately, hearing the craziness of my situation spoken aloud made me feel exceptionally worse about my odds of survival.
I groaned, feeling defeat starting to encase me like the darkness and dropped my head into my hands.
Yet, as soon as I did this, I heard a noise in the woods that I couldn’t explain away by the wilderness. It sounded like footsteps.
Oh God… I thought, as my stomach dropped. The first thing I contemplated was what I would do if it was an animal, but the second possibility was even more horrifying. I froze and was nearly instantly brought to tears at the idea that the guide had found me. Oh God… I thought again as I bit my lip and hampered my breathing.
I listened for any other sounds, looking around for a weapon.
I couldn’t see anything and even if I did, it was idiotic to think that I would be able to fend off an attacker. Between my injured leg and malnourishment, I was as good as useless, which made me hope it was an animal that had found me.
At least if I was mauled to death, there was a possibility it would be quick. If the guide was stalking me, there’s no telling what he was planning to do with me and I had no interest in finding out.
By now, I was shaking but the cold had far less to do with my reaction than it did previously. Now, I was far more afraid than anything else, but knowing I couldn’t run, my curiosity got the best of me. I had to know who was out there as soon as possible, if only to ruin the consistent torment of the unknown.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” I called, as my voice cracked.
After speaking, I heard a rustle in the bushes and I braced myself for whatever or whoever was about to show themselves.
When the shadow of an animal leapt out of the bushes, I felt my heart drop. However, it didn’t take more than a second to hear a familiar bark, before feeling a wet tongue licking my face.
“Jake?” I asked, relieved as I hugged the dog close to me.
As I pet him, while my heart started to settle into a normal rhythm, he continued to kiss my face and snuggle against me, clearly happy to see me.
A few moments later, a familiar human voice broke through the silence of the mountainside.
“Jesus Christ, dogs never do what you tell them to do, especially this one,” Johnathan insisted as he walked through the bushes, holding a bundle of firewood in his arms.
My heart started to pound once again, but this time, it wasn’t from fear. I was relieved and excited to see Jonathan, thankful that he ended up following me. I wasn’t sure what I would’ve done if he had taken my word and decided not to follow me.
Although, I tried to pretend like I wasn’t happy to see him, since I still wasn’t particularly happy with him. Yet, I wasn’t going to be mean enough to make him go away…at least not until after he built a fire.
“So, you just couldn’t stay away, huh?” I asked snidely, crossing my arms over my chest. However, the attitude behind the motion was ruined completely when Jake’s nose nuzzled between my arms, uncrossing them instantly. “You know, I was doing fine without you.”
“No food, no water, no fucking fire? Yeah, Carrie, you’re a regular boyscout,” he insisted, without losing a bit of his sharp tongue and normal roughness.
“I was getting to it,” I answered, “I was just taking a break, that’s all.”
Dropping the firewood on the ground, he followed it and started to methodically set the wood alight.
“Well, you need to get on that, because if you don’t warm yourself soon, your skinny ass will freeze to death.”
“You have no right to talk about my ass, in any capacity,” I answered, half teasing him.
Johnathan wasn’t amused. I could nearly sense his eyes roll as he continued to work with the tinder.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you do realize that you are in the mountains, not the fucking coast and when you’re in a situation like this, you should put aside your pride and get help. Your
pride doesn’t do shit for you if your dead,” he hissed.
