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She screwed the top onto the water bottle. “I need to climb up again and get a feel for north and south.” Holding the top of the bottle in her teeth, she climbed the tree again.
Sarah held her breath and prayed this crazy thing would work.
***
Annie hadn’t made a compass since she was in Girl Scouts, and she smiled as she shimmied back down the tree with the marked bottle in her hand. Sarah stood with her back to the tree watching the thickest part of the woods. Annie didn’t want to break her bubble, but the men were more apt to come from an easier direction. Any hunter knew to find the path of least resistance. For one thing it was quieter, but it was also less tiring.
Annie held up the bottle. “Got it.”
She moved away from the trees and held the bottle still until the needle settled and swung in the north to south direction. It was exactly where she’d placed it when up in the tree. This thing worked. Rubbing the needle in the dog’s fur had magnetized it.
She pointed to the south, on the same trajectory she’d been on when she ran into Sarah. “This way.”
They moved through the forest, skirting the brambles and the thicker brush as best as they could. Annie would have liked to have had the time to ask Sarah questions about what she’d seen and what the men looked like who had taken her. There would be time for that later. They had to get to safety first.
She checked her watch. Ten in the morning. She’d been walking nonstop for four hours. No wonder her muscles ached and she wished she could fall into a soft bed of pine needles for a while. The men would be on them in no time if they did though.
She’d thought to see them before now. Were they deliberately watching them from afar and laughing at their feeble attempts to survive? Annie didn’t want to believe it, but she didn’t know why they’d been allowed to go this far without a confrontation.
Maybe they were waiting for dark.
She picked up the pace. These woods would be terrifying in the dark. Never knowing when a shot would ring out from the trees or a man with a knife would come rushing toward them. They had to find their way out.
She led the way, pausing often to recheck the compass. From her perch in the tree, she knew it wouldn’t be a short walk to get out of here. The terrain seemed to go on forever. She’d seen only rocky terrain this direction, and she hoped when they arrived, they might find a good place to hole up for the night.
She didnotwant to try to rest in the woods, exposed to the murderous stares of the men who hunted them. From the curve of Lake Superior she’d seen, she believed they were in the vast forest south and east of Fourteen Mile Point. Going on that assumption, if they pressed on south and a little west, they should run into some hunting cabins. None would be close, but it was better than heading north toward Houghton.
“Can we rest a minute?” Sarah whispered from behind her.
Annie turned to see her sister’s pale face. Sarah bent over and threw up, and Annie grabbed water from her backpack. “Here, take a sip. Easy.”
Sarah sipped the water and closed her eyes. “Thanks. I don’t feel very good.” She looped an arm around the dog’s neck and buried her face in his fur.
Annie kept an eye on the trees around them while she let her sister sit. “Are you sick?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I let the soup they brought sit all day. Maybe I have food poisoning.” She sent a pleading gaze Annie’s way. “If you have to leave me, I understand.”
Annie squatted beside her and stared deep into her blue eyes. “Sarah, I will never leave you. Never. Don’t even think for a minute I would do that. I came out here to find you, and we are both walking out of these woods together.”
Her voice trembled, and she cleared her throat before she stood and gazed around at the possible places where they might rest out of sight of any hunters. Maybe the trees? But could Sarah climb in her condition?
A tall oak tree caught her attention. Was that a deer stand in it? She walked over to inspect it, and sure enough, a sturdy platform was wedged into a crook of the tree. It wasn’t that far up either. Maybe she could help Sarah get up there, then use pine branches to brush away their tracks. She could then make new tracks leading away from here before she doubled back to rejoin her sister.
It seemed a doable plan.
She returned to Sarah’s side and took her arm. “I have a plan if you think you can get up that tree into the stand.” She pointed it out.
“I think I can,” Sarah said. “But what about the dog?”
Annie had forgotten the dog. “I’ll hide him nearby where he can’t make tracks.”
“I don’t want you to leave me.”
“It will only be for a few minutes. Once I get you up there, you can sleep while I throw the hunters off the trail.” She explained her plan to her sister, but Sarah appeared greener by the second.
She threw up again. “Sorry.”
Annie handed her the water bottle again. “It’s not your fault. Let your stomach settle a minute, and we’ll see if you can get up there.”
