Lost at Running Brook Trail (11 page)

“At least we have a landmark for when we come back,” Elaine said. “We can hear and see it.”

They heard the waterfall in the distance as they continued their search for food. The roar became softer and softer with each step until it faded away like a forgotten memory. So far they had found nothing that looked remotely edible but stumbled upon a train track that seemed to appear out of nowhere. The track was brown and rusty. It belonged to another time and place. It was possible they hadn’t seen the track because some of it was overrun with weeds, but they could now see it winding away from them.

“Tracks usually lead to somewhere,” Miriam said thoughtfully.

“That would be true elsewhere, but not here,” Elaine said. “This is the death of a railway. Nothing is moving on this track but grass.”

“We should still see where it goes,” Miriam said.

“Are we following grassy tracks or looking for food?” Susan asked.

“Geez, just drink some water,” Kimberly said.

“Well, there’s no reason why we can’t follow the track and look for food at the same time.” Elaine looked down at the track. All they had to do was follow it to get back. They had a fixed line from which they couldn’t get lost. “But don’t expect to find anything.”

“Not even a station?”

“Miriam, seriously, look at this place. You really think you’ll find a building out here? Not even the remains of one.”

At times the railway track disappeared completely and then reappeared again, stretched out in front of them like a rusted beacon.

They saw lots of berries that looked appetizing. Some even looked like the ones they’d seen just outside the cave. Unfortunately, they had to pass on them because they were unknown.

“I wonder what the others are doing,” Susan said.

“Who cares? We’re better off without those losers.” Kimberly looked down at her feet and took note of the reddish orange track. It was rusted and flaking away. Elaine was right; they would find nothing along this line.

“They are just people who cut themselves, pretty dunces and all the other stuff.”

“It’s always the same thing with you,” Miriam said. “Everybody at Anne Beaumont is a loser, except for you and your friends.”

“I never said that, but hey, it might be true.”

“You’re full of it. If you think that, you’ve got to be more spaced-out than I thought you were. You’re just talking without thinking, like you usually do.”

“Whatever.”

The track led them through tall trees that seemed to reach the sky. All the while the imperial mountains were in front of and all around them like an all-seeing goddess.

“They probably had their breakfast,” Elaine said. It was hard to know whether one was on the right or wrong track when scavenging for food or anything else in an unknown place. “And they are probably saying the same thing about us, that we’re losers because only stupid people get lost by separating themselves from people who know where they’re going. We wouldn’t even need to think about where we’re putting our feet right now. All we needed to do was follow the guide who knows the trail and stay with our group.”

“You sound frustrated,” Susan said.

“I’m responding to Kimberly. I’m past frustrated. I simply want to survive this. We’re walking in kind of a straight line, but we’re not seeing anything new or getting anywhere. Know what I mean?”

“Yeah,” Susan said. “I’m seeing more and more of the same berries that we can’t eat.”

“So when we get back to school, we’re going to be seen as losers?” Miriam didn’t want to be branded, but she wouldn’t worry too much about it. If she survived being alone in this backwoods with three other girls who didn’t know where they were, maybe she could survive anything. “Maybe now Kimberly will know what it feels like to be called names.”

“I doubt anybody is going to be calling us names. People our age are fascinated by lost and found stories. They’ll probably have lots of questions for us that they wouldn’t ask losers.” Elaine looked at the parallel lines of the rails with the crossties. It was a never-ending pattern of movement. She could imagine a train running on the track, but only just. She wondered what kind of train it was, where it went, its final destination and when it had stopped running. It seemed to have stopped a long time ago.

“Why would anybody need a train out here anyway?” Miriam asked. “It’s not like there’s anybody living out here.”

“Food,” Susan said. “It transported food.”

“You would know that, wouldn’t you?” said Kimberly.

“Maybe it carried people too,” Elaine said. “When we see those western movies, the trains are always running in some lonely, forsaken place. Maybe that’s why they were so easy to rob. People were on the train, but there weren’t a lot of people around on the outside. The towns were far apart and the stations were far apart.”

“So why’d it stop running?” Kimberly asked. “People still need food and the things the train carried. People still need to move.”

“Who knows?” Elaine asked. “Sometimes some ways of doing or carrying things just become outdated and unnecessary. I don’t know. Just look at this place. What would a train be doing out here now?”

They hoped they wouldn’t have to change course from the train tracks. It was a predictable line that they could use as their map. They had travelled on too many unexplored trails already and couldn’t afford to venture into any more new territory and end up even further lost. They needed some amount of control in a situation that already evoked a powerless feeling. But still, how could they get any more lost if they didn’t know where they were?

“You think they’re looking for us right now?” Susan asked.

“Of course they are,” Elaine replied. “And Mrs. Marks is probably repeating herself, saying, ‘Those girls just don’t listen.’”

“Shouldn’t they have found us already?”

“They probably would have if we hadn’t panicked and started running and walking aimlessly.”

At last they came to a bushy section by the side of the tracks that held an unmanaged tangle of compact arching stems. On these stems were what looked like blackberries. The purplish fruit was bunched up together and was surrounded by numerous prickly thorns. They got as close as they could to inspect the fruit and make sure it was in fact blackberries.

“Well?” Susan said and looked at the other three. “We can’t look at them all day—so is it or isn’t it?”

“It has the brambles and thorns,” Miriam said.

“Yeah, the brambles are short too,” Elaine noted. “And then there’s the arching. Yeah, I’d say these are blackberries.”

They picked and ate. Their fingers and hands paid the price as the thorns pricked their skin. The more they tried to avoid the thorns, the more they got caught. The branches and thorns seemed to take over the entire space.

“There are caterpillars all over this thing,” Miriam noted. “How comes they don’t get pricked?”

“Maybe because they’re on the leaves, and they’re smart. They don’t make sudden movements. They’re either very still or they inch forward slowly.” Elaine stuffed some of the blackberries into the side pocket of her bag. She didn’t know when they would be found, and she could surely use some later. While they waited to be found, or if by chance they ran across someone, they still had to survive.

“Ouch.” Susan flashed her right hand and sucked on her index finger.

“Ouch is right,” Kimberly said. “My beautiful fingers.”

The blackberries were good, but it was a big challenge to navigate through the thorny brambles. They ate until they were sated. The tips of their fingers and their palms showed deep purple marks from where the berries had smashed. There were more blackberries that could be had, but they couldn’t get through the density to reach them. The ones that were within reach had been consumed or were tucked away in Elaine’s knapsack.

Having nothing else to do with themselves but be found, they continued along the track. Having something to follow gave them some comfort. They were not able to take a different path because of their fears of getting off track.

“This is tiring, this constant walking. We walked yesterday, and here we are walking again.” Susan wasn’t hungry anymore, but she was tired. She thought they should just turn around and go back to their base. They could sit on a rock until help came. She didn’t see the point in tiring themselves out without cause but followed the other three. Where they went she went, whether she liked it or not.

“Maybe we’ll run into someone,” Miriam said. “We can’t be the only ones out here. People come out here to hike.”

“Out here, yeah, right!” Kimberly said.

“People come to Running Brook to hike, but I’m not sure about this side of the track. We’re off the beaten trail. We haven’t seen or heard anyone at all, and the people we saw last were in our group. The trails aren’t well-defined here. In any case, we can’t just pray to run into someone. We’ve got to be careful,” Elaine noted. Most of the crossties on the track were rotted out. In some sections there were none at all.

“I still want to know why we’re still walking,” Susan whined.

“What is it with you?” Kimberly said. “You found something to eat, and now we should go back and lie down because you’re content. We’re walking because we don’t know what else to do, and we’re going in this direction because we don’t know where to go! We can turn around anytime we want, so just chill.” They said she was vain, but she wasn’t stupid. That was how people operated, wasn’t it? They stuck with what was familiar. There was safety in routine. It was her vanity that had landed her out here on this aimless walk. She had skipped classes too many times to spend time with herself in the bathroom mirror. But in her appearance, Kimberly had found a constant. Everything was where it should be, as it should be, and she was certain that she was pretty. In that certainty was comfort.

“We could go back to the cave.” Susan didn’t agree with Kimberly that they didn’t know where else to go. It was pointless to be travelling along this abandoned track. What were they looking for?

“We’re just waiting for something to happen. Maybe we should turn back.” Elaine saw the black bear at the same time as the others. It was a stone’s throw away from them. It seemed to have emerged silently from the bushes. It loomed up and seemed to stand several feet above them. For such a huge creature, it had stealth. Now what were they going to do?

“Run!” Susan said.

“No,” Elaine shouted in a whisper. “Don’t move. We can’t outrun a bear. I repeat, we can’t outrun a bear.”

“I think I’m going to wet myself,” Susan said. They were now in a tight huddle. The bear stared at them and they stared back. Unable to look away from the animal, they tried not to make any sudden movements.

“Don’t do that! Don’t you dare wet yourself! If the bear smells that, it’s going to maul us to shreds.” Elaine tried to make her paralyzed brain think. What did they say?
Don’t panic.
The bear was probably just as surprised as they were. But now it was coming toward them. They stayed rooted to the spot.

“What are we going to do?” Susan wailed. “We have to run!”

“Get a hold of yourself,” Elaine said through clenched teeth. “We should head for those bushes over there.” She pointed to a tight-knitted clump of bushes that would provide a good shield.

“No sudden movement and no running. Let’s do this slowly, very slowly.” Elaine spread her fingers and moved them calmly to make her point. It was possible the bear wouldn’t get into the bushes. They moved slowly, inch by slow inch, toward the clump. The bear was huge and intimidating as it stood on its hind legs. The animal looked to be about seven feet and three hundred pounds. Maybe it was all the shaggy hair. Luckily for them, they were on a part of the track that wasn’t in the open.

“Play dead, play dead,” Miriam said. “Isn’t that what they say we should do?”

“I don’t think I could do that with a bear standing over me,” Elaine said. “If anyone wants to try that, I’ll be in these thickets. This isn’t the time to be submissive.”

“I’m with Elaine on this one. It would probably eat us, lying there on the ground on a silver platter.” Kimberly had heard of many people who had escaped from bears over the years. However, many had been mauled, and she thought of that now, her face being torn apart by a vicious bear. If that were to happen, she would have nothing left.

They clawed their way into the thickets, scraping their hands and faces in the process. They didn’t care. It was either being eaten by a bear or surviving this experience.

In the thicket, they formed a tight wad with their backs against each other. The bear came slowly toward them, its white chest patch now visible.

“We should throw something at it,” Susan said.

“We don’t have anything to throw,” Kimberly said. They had no rocks, bark or branches. They were in a thicket crisscrossed with small branches and shrubs, but they could see nothing effective to hit a bear with.

“Let’s just be quiet,” Elaine whispered. “If it doesn’t get a good hit, like in the eyes or nose, it won’t go away and will only get mad. Let’s stay quiet and blend in with these bushes like we belong here. Hopefully it’ll go away. I don’t think it can get in here.”