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“Depends on who it is. If they’re not used to being in the woods, then yeah, they probably would have made a lot of noise. But this looks like someone who knows the land.”
“So, what now?” Clarissa asked, looking concerned as she began to study her surroundings suspiciously.
“I think we should split up,” Jasper suggested, craning his neck toward the path on the left. “Jolene and I can try to track this way, and you guys can stay on the original trail.”
“No way,” Clarissa quickly replied, stepping close to Jolene. “I’m not letting you guys go out there alone.”
“I agree,” Anthony added, “we shouldn’t split up. Not after what happened to Emma and me the last time we were out here. I don’t want any of us getting lost. Especially since there’s no cell service out here.”
“What do you think?” Jasper asked, turning to Jolene. He gave her a hopeful look, but she shook her head.
“I agree with them. I think we should all stick together since we’re not really sure what we’re looking for.”
Jolene expected Jasper to get annoyed, but instead, he handled the decision maturely, and together the five of them decided to follow the fading trail to the left. With all of them on guard, none of them attempted to fill the silence with conversation. Every now and then, though, Clarissa would turn back to look at her, and Jolene could tell her sister was starting to worry.
Just as Anthony had predicted, they lost the new trail shortly after they picked it up. With no other clues to go on, they stopped an hour later, and Anthony pulled out the map to find where there were and make a new course. His eyebrows furrowed as he studied the map, then suddenly he lifted his head and looked around.
“This isn’t right,” he murmured, shaking his head as he pointed to a place on the map.
“We should be here, within twenty minutes from that pond there. But if I’m reading this right, we somehow swung back and started going right.”
“What?” Jasper asked, coming up beside him. He studied the map quickly, looking for the mistake Anthony could have made.
“That’s not possible,” he said, shaking his head as he stepped away. “We headed east. How the heck did we wind up west?”
“I don’t know,” Anthony admitted, folding up the map, “but I think we should retrace our steps and find our way back to our original trail. The sun will set in another two hours, so I don’t want to be setting up camp in the dark.”
“Agreed,” Jasper replied quickly. He looked around at Emma, Jolene, and Clarissa.
“Ladies? How does that sound to you?”
8
“Here, you take this end and tap it into the ground like you did the other one,” Jasper directed, handing Jolene the tent stake and mallet. She took them readily and tacked down the final edge of the tent. It was the last of the four tents, and she felt proud of her work as she stepped away to admire her work.
“Another job well done,” Jasper praised her and then winked down at her. “Should we see how far the others have progressed?”
She nodded toward him, and they turned around. While she and Jasper had been getting the tents up, Anthony had been charged with getting the fire pit ready and gathering wood. Not only was the pit ready along with a sizeable pile of wood nearby, but he had the fire hot and roaring, casting a protective glow around their campsite.
Clarissa and Emma had volunteered to make supper, and with a little pop-up table, they had put together a foil package of seasoned vegetables and opened up a few metal containers of Spam. She noticed that Clarissa had whipped up some sort of marinade to pour over the canned meat, and even uncooked, it looked appetizing. It was by no means a fancy meal, but to Jolene, it looked like a feast she couldn’t wait to dig into.
Jasper had packed great snacks for them, trail mix, nuts, and granola bars, but with how much ground they’d covered, the little bites here and there never really touched the growing hunger inside of her. She wasn’t sure if it was the exercise, the anxiety, or the mixture of both that kept ramping up her appetite, but either way, she was ready to settle down for the evening and eat.
“Food’s ready to go on,” Clarissa announced, placing the Spam in a big, cast iron skillet Jasper had pulled from his bag.
Anthony placed the collapsible grill rack over the flames and placed rocks around the bases so they wouldn’t move, and Emma and Clarissa brought the food over. Within minutes, they could all smell the sweet aroma of the marinade and savory scent of the herb-covered vegetables, and Jolene felt her anxiety ebb a little.
“How ya doin’, sis?” Clarissa asked, taking a seat by the fire beside Jolene. She looked over at her little sister and smirked.
“I should be askingyouthat question, not the other way around,” she replied, nudging her shoulder against Clarissa’s. Her smile faded as she saw the stress lines etched around Clarissa’s eyes and forehead.
“So how are you, cher?”
Clarissa sighed and shrugged.
“I don’t know. A part of me is glad we’re doing this, but another part of me is feeling foolish. When this all started, I thought maybe it was afix,you know? Like someone cast some bad juju on me for runnin’ away”
Jolene nodded, understanding her turmoil.
