Crossing the Deep (6 page)

The noise caused the animal to pounce. Horrified, Rachel fell to the ground and protected her head as best she could. This was it. She was going to die.

Waiting for the imminent attack seemed to take forever and before she realized what was going on, Asher was there next to her. He laid his light on the ground so it shined up toward the sky. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

Rachel looked around wildly. Where was it? Why hadn’t it attacked her? “Where did it go? Where is it?”

“I don’t know. It ran off when it saw me, I think.”

“It’s still out there, Asher!”

“No, it’s gone. It won’t hurt you. I won’t let it.”

His words gave her little comfort, and she couldn’t stop shaking. She looked down and saw her e-reader broken on the ground. Her chin quivered, and she couldn’t breathe.

“Hey, calm down, girl,” Asher said, rubbing her shoulder gently with his fingertips. “It’s OK. It’s gone now, and you’re safe.”

She nodded and tried her hardest to stop freaking out.

“What are you doing this far from where I left you anyway?”

“I didn’t want to be there alone,” she said through breaths. “You were gone so long, I thought you were hurt or something. Thought you might need help.”

He was so close she could see the smile pull on his lips. “So, you were going to be my savior, huh?”

“Something like that.”

“Your foot?”

“Hurts.”

“Figured as much.”

“Please, please tell me you have good news. Tell me you found the trail, and we are going home now.”

The look on his face let her know all she needed to know. “You didn’t find it, did you?”

He shook his head, making her heart sink. “Now, don’t freak out on me again, Rachel. You have to stay calm. But no, I didn’t find the trail. The trees just got taller and thicker, and the trail got narrower. We had to have turned wrong somewhere.”

“I don’t see how,” she said, placing her throbbing head in her hand. “All I did was go down one path. How hard should it be to get back?”

“Apparently very.”

“Grrrrr…” She moaned, wanting to kick herself for ever turning off on that blasted trail. If she hadn’t, she’d be at the hotel room, warm and happy, not stuck on this freezing mountain with little food and no idea how to get back. “We need a plan.”

“Agreed. It’s obvious we can’t hike tonight. It’s way too dark, and we don’t even know where we’re going. I say we go through our packs, see what we can find, and go from there.”

“Not much of a plan.”

“It’s all we’ve got.” He crawled over to her backpack and handed it to her. “Here. I’ve rummaged through it enough already.”

Appreciating his unexpected act of gentleman-like behavior, Rachel took the backpack and opened it. She was curious herself to see what all was in it. Much to Rachel’s appreciation, her mom had gone overboard. Under the scribbled on notebook and her purple Bible, her mom had packed a set of extra clothes, a compass, snacks, a pair of gloves — which she put on — three bottles of water, extra batteries for the flashlight, a blanket, toothbrush, toothpaste, and a first aid kit.

“Why did your mom pack a toothbrush?”

“No idea, but I’m glad she did,” and she was. Being stuck with Asher was bad enough, much less having to deal with bad breath on top of it.

“Well,” he said looking over her things, “Looks like we’ll make it through the next week and an upcoming apocalypse.”

“Yup,” she agreed, easing a bit. It felt good not to be so tense. She was so glad to have Asher back with her and not be alone. “Let’s go through your pack now.”

“Fine,” he said, reaching over for it. “But there’s not much in it. David’s not as thorough when it comes to packing for trips as your mom is.”

“David? Your aunt didn’t pack this for you?” Rachel didn’t know much about Asher, but what she had heard didn’t sound pleasant. The rumor was his mom left on some sort of drug-induced binge and never came back, and that’s why he lived with an Aunt Carol or something. She had also heard about how rough his aunt’s boyfriends could be.

Something in his face changed, just a flicker, but it was there long enough for Rachel to catch it. “No — um… no. My participation on this trip was very last-minute.”

There was so much about him that she didn’t know and, for the first time, she found herself wanting to know about him. But she could tell by the way his eyes avoided hers and how set his jaw had become that the conversation would have to wait for another time. If he wasn’t comfortable talking about it, she sure wasn’t going to push it in their current situation. She wanted to stay on his good side.

“Should we make a fire?” she asked.

His gaze shot up to hers, and she saw he appreciated the subject change. “I don’t know. I think there’s a certain bear somewhere around here who doesn’t take kindly to forest fires, you know,” he said, talking about the cartoon bear that warned kids about forest safety.

“We have to do something. We can’t freeze to death.”

“Don’t be overdramatic. It’s maybe forty, forty-five degrees right now. Way above the temperature to freeze to death. How about we hold off on the fire for a while? Use the flashlight for light if we need it and the blanket to stay warm. We’ll eat something, drink something, and then decide on our next move in the morning.”

She grinned back at him. “You sure you weren’t a boy scout?”

“Maybe in another life.” He smirked. He went over to her pile of goodies and found the first aid kit. When he got back to her, he laid her hurt foot on his leg.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“What does it look like? I’m taking your boot off so I can bandage your ankle.”

That did not sound like a good idea. She tried to pull away from him. “I don’t know about that. What if we take my boot off and my foot swells so big I can’t get it back on?”

“What if,” he said back, “we take your boot off, bandage your foot up right, it gets better, and you can walk in the morning?”

“What if we take it off, notice it’s way worse than we ever imagined, and we have to change our entire plans for the night because you decide we have to go back down this trail ASAP?”

“I — don’t see that happening,” he laughed as he untied her boot. “We need to see what we’re dealing with, Rachel.”

She knew he was right and understood the logic of it. Take the boot off… see what damage had occurred. But something inside froze when she thought of doing it. It was irrational, she knew. And it seemed silly even to her, but there was some sort of comfort in the unknown.

Rachel put her hand on his to stop him from continuing with the laces. “Why can’t we wait?” She could tell he didn’t want to, and when he started to open his mouth to protest, she cut him off. “Please.”

He glared at her with an are-you-serious look. Shaking his head, he pulled the mouth of her shoe open wider to allow for swelling and laid her foot back down on the ground. “It’s your ankle, I guess.”

“Thank you,” she said, relieved to have her foot hidden away in her boot.

“For now…” He added. “But if it gets any worse…”

“I know, I know.”

“Good.” Asher scooted to his own backpack, rummaging through it. Rachel leaned back on her elbows and looked up at the sky. A few stars peeped through the increasing clouds.

God, please protect us. Please make this whole ordeal worthwhile
.

Chapter Six

The mountain air felt cooler as the night dragged on. Rachel zipped up her green coat as far as it would go, pulled off her toboggan, and let her hair down, hoping the long thick curls would help keep her somewhat warm. She wanted more than anything to crawl under the blanket her mom had packed for her, but since she just had one, it didn’t seem right to hog it. At least her coat was warm. Asher didn’t even have that going for him. Looking over at him, she could tell that though his leather jacket suited him, it couldn’t be very warm. It added more to the puzzle that was Asher Jenkins. Who went on a hike dressed like that?

Even with her coat zipped up and her hair down, she still shivered. It wasn’t just the cool air that caused her shaking; the situation had a lot to do with it too. She reminded herself that it could always be worse. Sure, she was stuck in the woods with a beat-up ankle and a near-stranger, but they were lucky that the weather was cooperating. Thick clouds hung in the sky, but nothing was falling from them. If the wind would stop blowing, the temperature might be more bearable.

“Aren’t you cold?” she asked through chattering teeth.

“I’m all right.” He shrugged. His knees were drawn up to his chest, and he rocked on his bottom.

“Liar.”

“Excuse me, but I think I know myself much better than you do, and I’m telling you I’m not cold.”

“You sure look cold.”

“Looks can be deceiving.”

“Wonder who said that the first time?”

“What?”

“Who said ‘looks can be deceiving’ first? Someone had to.”

“That’s a… weird question. I have no idea. Can’t say I ever thought about it.”

“Here,” she said, throwing him her blanket. “You need this more than I do.”

He caught it and inspected it. “Purple. Nice.”

“Don’t make fun. It’s better than nothing.”

“I wouldn’t make fun of such a generous gift, especially one that knocks the chill off as much as this does.” He pulled the plush blanket over his shoulders and sank into it. “Just hope Sid doesn’t catch me using it. He’d never let me live it down.”

“Sid not much of a purple-lover?”

“Sid just likes to aggravate whenever he gets the chance.” Asher looked around the darkness. Rachel knew who he was looking for because she kept catching herself doing the same thing.

“He’s not coming,” Rachel said, wishing it wasn’t true. She’d give anything for Sid to surprise her and come running up with David or some sort of search party. Nothing would make her happier. David could yell at her all he wanted as long as she was safe and sound and off that mountain.

“Not tonight, but he’ll come back.”

“How cold do you think it will get?” She shivered.

“Don’t know. Did your mom happen to pack a manual or an almanac or something important like that?”

“Well, she had downloaded a survival manual on my e-reader, but that bit the dust.”

“Bummer.”

“Plus, she had faith that I would actually listen to instruction and not venture off and get lost.” It killed her knowing how scared her mom had to be. Rachel’s head fell to her hands while she twisted some of the ringlets. How could she do something so horrible to her mother again? Her mom had been through so much in the past few years, and to add something else traumatic on top of it made Rachel’s stomach hurt. At sixteen, she had enough guilt to last a lifetime.

“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself. So, you did something wrong. You’re human. It happens.” Asher slid over toward her.

“Yeah,” she hesitated, trying to find the right words. She didn’t want to babble, but she needed to talk to someone. If only it was Carly instead of Asher. “It’s just my mom. She’s probably worried sick, ya know? Scared. She doesn’t need this stress. Especially not after the last two years.”

“Nothing we can do to change it now,” he said, stopping when got close enough to touch her if he wanted. “It’s done.”

“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel much better.”

“It’s not supposed to make you feel better,” he said so bluntly that it caused her to glance at him. His eyes held no contempt — no ill will. Rachel wondered how in the world he could look at her like that when she had done this to them. ”It’s to get you to stop beating yourself up over it. It’s over, Rachel. It’s done. You have to move on.”

She shook her head. Ever since it happened, she’d heard the same argument at home. She had to get over it and move on, but how could she do that when her actions killed her father? “I can’t do that. I can’t not feel bad. My mom is paying for my mistake. My mom, and Sid, and you…”

“What about me?”

“You don’t deserve to be stuck in the woods with a lame person like me.” And she meant lame in every sense of the word. She wished she could get up and pace just to get some of the tension out and to clear her head. Instead, she was stuck there on the ground, her leg laid up on her pack like a piece of meat on a platter and about as useless.

“First of all,” Asher leaned closer, not leaving much room between them, “you have no idea what I deserve. Not everyone is as good as you are.”

“Yeah, I’m such a good girl.” She rolled her eyes.

“You are.” He closed the gap between them and wrapped half of the blanket around her shoulders. Rachel’s breath caught when he huddled closer to her. It was awkward being so close to him, but she had to admit, it felt much warmer.

“You are a good person. Great even. Don’t worry. Your soul is safe.” He gave a little smirk.

She had a snarky response all ready when he threw her a curve ball. He took her gloved hand and held it in his, startling her. What was he doing? And why was he doing it?

“You aren’t evil, believe me,” he added. Rachel watched as something changed in his expression, and he looked down at their intertwined hands. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to do... that. Sorry.” He let her hand go as fast as he had grabbed it and stared straight ahead.

If she didn’t know any better, she would have sworn his breath caught. That sure didn’t fit in with all of the ladies’ man stories she’d heard about him. She didn’t know him well, but rumors got around.

“It’s okay,” she said, unsure of what else to say. He was so close she could smell the faintest hint of his cologne. It tickled her nose in a weird sort of comforting way.

“Sid will come through. You’ll see. He can be… different… but ultimately, he is a good guy.”

“I just wish he would come through sometime soon,” she said, her voice getting hoarse from being out in the cold and being so close to Asher.

The one good thing about the cool night air was that it seemed to numb her ankle pain, or maybe she had just gotten used to it. She didn’t know how she felt about that.

As warm as it was sitting under the blanket with Asher, there was one thing she needed. Something that she knew would take her mind off everything and give her some peace. She rolled from under the blanket and scrounged through the pile of her belongings. Among the snacks, clothes, and water bottles laid her most prized possession: her little, purple, leather Bible.