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Another storm had raged last night. It was bad news that it rained so often, but it was good news—the storm would have chased away the mountain lion.
When I glanced out of the window, it was gone.
“Is it still there?” Celine asked, standing in the doorway of the small bedroom.
“No, I think the storm drove it away. We should keep our eyes open, but I think the coast is clear.”
Celine nodded and worried her lower lip, which made her damn cute.
“What if it’s just waiting for us to leave so it can pounce?”
I’d wondered about that, too.
“We have to take a chance. We’ve been here two days and they haven’t found us.” I’d hoped we would hear a helicopter. Even if it was in the distance, it would mean that they were getting closer to us. All we’d heard the whole time was the deafening silence in the forest, a few birds chirping here and there, or the rumble and crack of thunder.
Celine nodded. At least the two days here had given us a chance to rest, to eat something, and to get our strength back up to keep going.
We ate more meat before we got ready to leave. The rest of it wouldn’t keep for much longer, and I didn’t want to walk around with meat in my pack in case a predator picked up on the scent and followed us.
We decided to discard the meat there—getting rid of perfectly good food was painful—and to keep going without it. We would have to start over when we found something else to help, but we had to deal with that as it happened.
Finally, after making sure everything was as we’d found it, we reluctantly left the cabin behind. I hated the idea of leaving a perfectly good shelter, but I was worried if we stayed, we wouldn’t be found at all.
This part of the forest looked completely wild and untouched, and I had a feeling we were much further away from the camping grounds than I’d thought at first—they would have found us if we were closer. They would have started looking there.
While we walked, I made small talk to pass the time. I pointed out shrubs and birds, explaining how the vegetation here was different from LA and even more so from Italy, where I’d grown up. I showed her the difference between the different birds’ calls.
Celine was smart and a quick student. She absorbed everything I told her, and she remembered it immediately. She pointed out a few things I’d shown her when we’d hiked to the camping grounds a couple of days ago.
I took out my phone and checked for a signal.
Still nothing.
“How often does it happen that people get lost in the woods?” Celine asked.
“I don’t know statistics, actually,” I said. “I think it happens more often than we know about.”
“Don’t they have some kind of contingency for stuff like that?” Celine asked. “Like, shelters with food and stuff, or big arrows pointing in a direction. I mean, that would help.”
I chuckled. “It would, but it would ruin the wildlife. Predators would get into the packs, rodents would carry off the smaller things, and none of it is good for the creatures and nature all around us.”
“Aww,” Celine said. “And here I thought you were just a heartless killer, taking out grouses like it’s nothing.”
I laughed. “We’re doing what we need to survive. I don’t actually like messing with nature if I don’t have to. Out here, though, it’s kill or be killed, you know?”
Celine shivered and looked over her shoulder. “I’m hoping the second part won’t happen.”
“Not if I can help it,” I said grimly.
We fell into silence again as we walked. My mind spun, trying to think of what we needed to do next, how we could increase our chances of survival in any way… and what would happen when we got home.
When we were back in our respective lives, I would have to face Celine and her confession head-on. Either I would have to tell her we were going to do this, close our eyes and jump no matter the cost, or I had to tell her that I couldn’t do it and back out.
The latter would be a dick move since I’d pushed so hard to get her to open up to me. The former would break me.
How had I gotten myself in such a pickle? God, it was fucked up that I’d tried so hard to get myself into this position just to want out again. Not because I wanted to lose her but because I didn’t know if I could bear losing everything else.
“Are you okay?” Celine asked.
