Don’t veer off the path.
So much for that. This was a matter of survival. Mine and Noelle’s. I took an abrupt turn, and dove into the trees. Shoving aside branches and jumping over a fallen log, I tried to keep my bearings. If I could keep a straight line and remain perpendicular to the original path, then I’d be able to find my way back. I had to get to my hands and knees to crawl under the low-hanging bows of an evergreen, and when I stood up again, muddy pine needles clung to the legs of my jeans. At least Gruff’s gloves were vinyl and waterproof. Nothing could touch my fingers in those. After what felt like an hour of jogging, jumping, ducking, and the occasional scratch to the face, I glimpsed a huge oak tree looming up into the sky. The perfect hiding spot. I ducked behind it, took a deep breath, and attempted to calm my wildly beating heart. I tried my best to listen.
There was nothing. Wind swirled through the bare branches overhead, but other than that, silence. Had I just imagined that shout? Or had I gotten so far away from the path that I couldn’t even hear them coming after me?
I tugged my phone out of my pocket, cupped my fingers around it just in case, and hit the screen to light it up. The time read 9:46. And the battery indicator was seriously low. Perfect. That’s what you get for leaving your phone on twenty-four-seven waiting for psycho kidnappers to text. For a split second I thought about calling Josh. Thought about telling him everything and having him call in the cavalry. But the original instructions still applied. Tell anyone and she dies. I was on my own. I shoved aside my frustration and I told myself I would give it five minutes. Wait until 9:51. Then I would start back for the path.
Those five minutes dragged on for days. The longer I stood still, the more alone I felt, the more scared, the more frozen. I had to get moving. I took my first step the moment the clock ticked over.
Okay. All I had to do was retrace my steps. No problem whatsoever. Just keep to a straight line and I’d find myself back on the beaten path. Then all I had to do was hook a right and the path would take me to this shed, which would lead me to Noelle. I turned my phone on to the flashlight app to help guide my way.
I stepped over a thick branch I remembered vaulting over moments ago, then shuffled through a pile of wet, fallen leaves. Soon I was passing through a semi-familiar clearing. But then I paused. That evergreen I had ducked under … hadn’t it been right on the periphery of this clearing? Dead ahead, all I saw were white birches and elms. Not an evergreen among them.
Instantly, my heart started to panic. I turned around, looking for the evergreen. And there it was, just to my right. I took a deep breath and blew it out. I must have just gotten confused in the dark. No worries. Now I was back on the right track. This time, I walked around the tree, not feeling so daredevilish now that I wasn’t being chased, and continued on my way.
It took about five minutes for me to figure out it was the wrong way. Because I hadn’t jumped the little stream I was now standing beside. And I was sure I hadn’t come down that small hill on the other side.
Okay, Reed. Don’t panic. Do not panic. Just go back to the clearing and see if there are any other evergreens. Maybe you picked the wrong one.
But when I turned around again and retraced my steps. I couldn’t even find the clearing. It was right there a second ago. Right there. And it wasn’t small. How could I have lost an entire clearing in the space of five minutes?
Now my pulse really started to pound. I was lost. Plain and simple. Noelle was out there somewhere, counting on me, and I’d gotten myself completely lost. All I’d had to do was stay on the path. Stay on the damn path. And I would have found the shed by now. I could have outrun Gruff and Cheese Breath and Zit Lady. And if I had, I could have gotten the next instructions, found Noelle, and the two of us could have hidden in the woods together until the coast was clear.
“So stupid,” I whispered to myself, turning in a circle. “So, so stupid!”
Why didn’t I ever stop to think? Why did I have to make such rash decisions? This was a life or death situation I was in here. And I just jumped off the path? Who did I think I was anyway, some Survivor star?
“Okay, wait,” I said to myself, stopping my crazy, dizzying circle. “This is not the end of the world. You survived days alone on an island, you can survive this.”
Of course, there was a difference. At least on the island it had been warm. If I spent another hour out here I was going to freeze to death.
Then, suddenly, my phone vibrated in my hand. My heart leapt into my throat. There was one more difference. Here, I had my phone.
The vibration was a text from Portia asking where the hell I was. I yanked off my gloves and started to text back, but then paused. What was I going to say? That I was lost somewhere in Soldier Woods and to please come find me? Telling her that would mean Noelle’s death. What the hell was I supposed to do?
I looked down at the half-written text and was about to just finish it. Let her read it and call the cops. Maybe they could get here before the kidnappers figured it all out and hurt Noelle. I couldn’t do this alone anymore. I didn’t even know where I was. But then, the screen suddenly went blank.
“No,” I said, hitting the screen over and over again. “No, no, no!”
Shouting, of course, wasn’t going to do anything. The battery had died. And now I really was on my own. I stuffed the useless tech into my back pocket and told myself this was not the end of the world. Just pretty damn close.
My stomach grumbled audibly and I suddenly wished I had eaten more of that biscotti Tiffany had offered me back at the solarium. A stiff wind rattled the trees around me and I flipped up the collar of my coat, cuddling down into its warmth. It was time for me to find some kind of shelter. Someplace at least a little bit out of the elements where I could stop and think. Figure out what I was going to do next.
I kept walking in the general direction of the clearing—or at least where I thought the clearing would be—and came upon a little circle of evergreens. I stooped down to see between their trunks. Inside the circle was a bed of fallen needles, all dead and brown, and they appeared to be dry, as though the crisscrossed netting of branches above had protected them from the snow and rain. Turning to the side, I shimmied my way through the space between two trunks and sat down. I waited for wetness to seep through my jeans, but my butt stayed miraculously dry. It was far warmer inside as well, shielded as I was from the wind. I curled my dirty wet knees up under my chin, held my legs to me, and took a deep breath.
Okay, Reed. Just think, I told myself, listening to the wind above and the rhythmic creak of the branches as they swayed back and forth. Just think. There has to be a way out of here. There just has to be.
I woke up with a start and cried out in pain. My face was on fire. I yanked it away from the cold bark on which it was resting and winced as my delicate skin tore. Ripping off one glove, I reached up to touch my face. It was all mottled and dented and raw. When I pulled my hand back, there was blood on my fingertips. I had fallen asleep with my face pressed into the trunk of a tree, and now I was bleeding.
I had fallen asleep.
“Sonofa—”
I jumped up and smacked my head into a branch. At least it was a soft, bendy one and not one of the hard thick ones. But still, I momentarily saw stars. Sitting down again to take a breath and get my bearings, I heard something crinkle. There was a stark, white envelope sticking out from under my butt. It practically glowed in the dark.
Where the hell had that come from?
My frigid fingers were barely able to tear the thing open, but I managed to extract the small card inside. Unfortunately, it was still dark out, and as much as I squinted, I couldn’t make out the writing.
Letting out a string of curses that would have sent my mom sprinting for a bar of soap to shove in my mouth, I crawled out of my hiding space and into the woods. It was slightly lighter out here. The sun was starting to come up. How the hell long had I slept? Unbelievable. I couldn’t seem to pass out in my ow
n bed no matter how hard I tried, but in the middle of the freezing cold woods? No problem. Just call me Reed Van Winkle.
I walked, squinting and feeling my way through the trees and the underbrush, until I came to a slight clearing where the dim light of morning filtered through the trees. I held the card out in front of me, angling it until I could read it.
WALK EAST SEVEN MILES. YOU WILL COME TO AN OBSERVATORY.
THERE YOU WILL FIND YOUR FRIEND.
My heart slammed into my ribcage. Finally. Finally I knew where to find Noelle. But then, just as suddenly, a realization hit me in the gut. Someone had left this note for me. Someone had crept up beside me while I was sleeping. Someone out here was following me. And they had gotten disturbingly close right when I was at my most vulnerable. Was it Officer Gruff? Zit Lady? Cheese Breath? All three of them? Were they all out there right now, watching me, ready to pounce?
Terrified, I turned around and started walking. All I wanted to do was get away from my stalkers as quickly as possible. Show these people they hadn’t gotten to me, that I wasn’t freaked. Even though I so was. Then, suddenly, I paused. There was, of course, just one small problem.
Which way was east?
I looked up at the wan sunlight. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, right? But with all the trees surrounding me, I couldn’t tell for sure which direction the light was coming from. If I had my phone, I could probably download some compass app, but I didn’t have my phone. My phone was dead.
My phone was dead and my hands were frozen and my nose was running and my cheek was bleeding and I couldn’t feel the middle toe on either foot, which just could not be a good sign. My creaky fingers curled into fists, crumpling the card and the envelope inside my reddened palms. I’d had just about enough of this crazy-ass game of scavenger hunt.
“Hey!” I shouted, startling a few birds out of the trees overhead. A couple of squirrels skittered out from behind a tree and ran up the trunk, their little claws scraping irritatingly as they went. “Hey, you! I know you’re out there! Somebody left these instructions for me!”
I turned in a slow circle, staring into the dusky, gray forest of trees around me. Feeling as if I could rush and tackle the first person who dared step out into view. “Well, guess what, people!? I would just love to keep you entertained with my wild–goose chase abilities, but there’s the tiny issue of not having a clue which way east is!” I took a breath, gulping in the cold, dry air. “So if you want to throw me a clue here, give me some kind of sign? That would be really frickin’ great, because my feet are about to freeze off and in about five minutes I’m going to be no good to you at all!”
I stopped yelling and looked around. Listened for the sound of footsteps, laughter, breathing. But I heard nothing.
“No? You’re not gonna help me out here!?” I demanded of the forest. “Because then we’re just going to have to wait until the sun rises some more and I can tell which direction it’s coming from. Are you prepared to wait that long?”
I closed my eyes and listened. Said a little prayer. Nothing. No response. The frustration mounting inside of me was too much to bear. I leaned forward and let out a guttural scream totally worthy of some big-screen, multimillion-dollar cavewoman production. Like I was summoning my army of mastodons to come trample the enemy.
I wished.
“Fine!” I shouted when I was done. “Fine. I guess we just sit here, then.”
I turned around, sat down on the first rock I saw, and obstinately waited for the sun to guide my way.
Hours had passed. Days. Weeks. And I was still walking toward the sun. Shoving aside branches, tripping over stones and fallen limbs, sweating down my back and under my arms, while my cheeks and fingertips and toes froze to numbness. How far had I come? How far was seven miles? I knew I could run a mile on a wide-open track in about seven minutes. How long did it take to walk just one through underbrush and overbrush and mud and muck and ice?
My only ray of hope, the only small change in my fortunes that gave me a smidgen of optimism, was the fact that for the past half hour or so I’d been going uphill. It was murder on my thighs and glutes, and there was a lot more slipping and sliding involved than when I’d been on flat terrain, but at least it was something. Because if there was, in fact, an observatory out here somewhere, it would have to be at the top of a hill. A hill meant I was getting somewhere, that I was getting closer to Noelle.
The hill suddenly grew steeper. So steep that I found myself grabbing on to tree trunks to speed my way, hoisting myself upward with the help of a few sturdy branches. It was nice to use my arm muscles for a little while, give the legs a bit of a break, but soon I started to pant from the exertion. Then, just as suddenly as the incline had begun, it leveled out. I squinted through the trees up ahead. Was that a building in the distance? My heart skipped an excited beat. I’d found it. I’d found her.
That was when I heard the tree branch snap behind me. I whirled around, my eyes scanning the forest. I took a deep breath, waited a moment, and scanned, just to show my stalker I wasn’t afraid. Nothing. I turned and started moving again, faster this time. Better safe than sorry.
There. That crunch. That had definitely come from behind me. I upped my pace, glancing over my shoulder again. It had to be pushing noon by now, but the sun didn’t seem much stronger. The forest was still all shadowy and the shifting branches played tricks on my mind. For a second, I thought I saw someone lurking behind one of the fatter trees, but on second glance, it was only a huge knot in the trunk, protruding out from the side.
I turned around again, and started to run. At first all I could hear were my own footsteps pounding the ground beneath me, the sound of my own ragged breath. But then, I heard the unmistakable sounds of another runner. Someone else was behind me in the woods—someone who was gaining on me. An owl was frightened from its roost and took off with a series of angry hoots, its massive wings making a racket up above. My heart vaulted into my mouth, but I kept running toward the edge of the woods, just praying I’d get there before whoever was behind me caught up.
I hurtled myself out of the tree line and into the clearing surrounding the observatory, expecting to be tackled or grabbed or smothered at any moment. But when I turned around again, there was no one there. Nothing but trees and snow.
My mind was messing with me. I’d imagined the whole thing.
Maybe.
Taking as deep of a breath as I could, I faced the white dome of the observatory. All around it, the sky was brightening, the morning blue chasing away the grays and pinks and purples of dawn. For a moment, I nearly sagged with relief over having found it, over having escaped the phantom stalker in the woods. But then I remembered: My mission wasn’t complete. Noelle was somewhere inside. The last time I’d seen her, she’d been terrified. She’d had a huge gash in her cheek. What if they’d done worse to her since then? What if she was inside this place, beaten and bruised and bleeding and crying?
With one last shot of adrenaline, I raced to the nearest door, a big, blue metal one marked deliveries only. I yanked at it and it opened with a wail. The warmth of the indoors rushed over me. From scalp to toe I felt nothing but relief, and I gave myself a moment to relish it. My eyes took a moment to adjust to the dark. When they finally did, I found myself in a long, stark hallway. I walked along quietly, unsure of which way to go, unsure of who might be waiting for me when I got there. Finally I came to a set of doors. To my left was a storage room; to my right, a lab; straight ahead, the observatory dome, which housed the massive telescope.
Well, these kidnappers certainly had a flair for the dramatic, and I had a feeling the dome would be a more dramatic setting than either of my other two choices. I took a deep breath and pulled open the door in front of me.
A rush of cool air hit me in the face. Beneath my feet, thin, dark blue carpeting covered a shallow, circular staircase leading up. Quietly, carefully, I started up the stairs, holding on to the wooden railing along the wa
ll. The place was deathly still, but I knew that I wasn’t alone. And for the first time in all of this, I started to feel real and total fear for my own life.
What was I doing here by myself? What was I going to find when I came around this bend? What if some sadistic serial killer with a fetish for brunette, teenaged soccer players had grabbed Noelle and murdered her and I was next? What did I think I was going to do if I was faced down by the kidnappers? What if I actually had to fight to save Noelle’s life, not to mention my own? Nobody knew where I was right then. Not a soul. The kidnappers had made me keep all of this a secret, so that no one would even be suspicious if I didn’t show up for breakfast. Except, maybe, for Josh. But thanks to task number four, it wasn’t like he was going to be looking for me anyway.
All of these horrifying, unanswerable things flooded my brain as I moved forward, as I continued to climb. But I had come this far. I couldn’t turn back now. Even if I could, where would I go? How would I get there? I was injured and starving and exhausted with no phone and no idea where the hell I was. It was move forward, or just stop. And stopping was not an option.
Then, finally, breathlessly, I came to the top of the stairs. Looming high above was the most tremendous telescope I had ever seen, its tip pointing out through the massive hole in the dome ceiling high above. And sitting in a chair directly beneath the scope, her hands tied behind her back, her body drooping forward so that her hair hid her face entirely from view, was Noelle.
“Noelle!” I whisper-shouted, my voice hoarse. She didn’t look up. I ran across the cavernous dome and dropped down on my knees in front of her. “Noelle! Are you all right?”