Guilt lay in Jo’s chest like a heavy stone. As she approached her friends back at the trail, she could barely look at their faces.
From a distance, Dove was smiling at Lary, but as the trio drew closer, her expression changed to curiosity and then to alarm. She and the others ran out to meet the returning party and barraged them with questions.
The painful lump in Jo’s throat and her winded lungs staunched her ability to talk. While she was catching her breath, Dove dashed to get her sweat jacket from her backpack. April limped to her side and hugged her, but she quickly retracted her arms. “Jo, you’re ice cold!”
Dove wrapped Jo’s jacket around her shoulders. She moved over to Mike to examine his wrist. He flinched when she touched it. “I don’t think it’s broken,” she told him. “I’m sorry we don’t have some ice to put on it.”
“And I’m sorry you don’t have your dry shirt to put on,” April said, frowning, rubbing his cold arm.
A smile flickered over his lips. “It’s fine, April.”
“What happened?” April asked him, but Mike was silent, staring down at his wrist. Water dripped from his hair into his despondent eyes and it was hard to tell if it was just water that made them wet.
Jo could tell he was suffering from the same condition she had: a lump in his throat.
“Guys, where’s Red?” Dove asked, looking in expectation at the empty clearing.
Jo wanted to answer, but her throat wouldn’t let her.
“She tried to cross the river,” Mike spoke. His voice was raspy. “She fell in and…she’s gone.” His voice gave out and his gazed dropped into the grass.
Drew, Ben and April all uttered the same “Huh?” Their eyes were wide and their mouths hung open in disbelief.
Lary finished the story. “Mike and Jo tried to save her, but she got swept away. We tried to find her, but…we couldn’t.” His eyes were a watery brown. Dove circled his waist with her arms and held him close.
Drew laid his hand on Mike’s shoulder.
Pressed against Lary’s chest, Dove looked over at Jo. She dropped her arms from Lary. “Jo, how’d you get all wet?”
Jo bit down hard on her bottom lip. “I grabbed her. I fell in.” She couldn’t bring herself to say that she had let go of Red’s hand.
“Jo.” Dove hugged her, in spite of her cold, wet clothes. “I’m so sorry. But how did you get out?”
“Galen.” She said his name faintly and turned her head towards him. He was standing away from the group with his arms folded, watching the sun go down.
“Thank God for him,” Dove said. She grinned slightly. She turned and gazed in the direction of the river. Her blue eyes filled with liquid. “Lord, please help her,” she prayed.
“Poor Red,” April lamented. Tears slipped from her eyes.
“I can’t believe it.” Ben shook his head. “Why would she take such a chance?”
Galen turned and walked to the group. “People, I’m sorry about Red, but we’ve got to go.”
“We need a fire to warm these guys,” Ben said, observing Jo and Mike, both shivering. Mike’s lips were purple. He bent down to get something out of his backpack.
“No.” Galen was adamant. “They’ll have to warm up as we walk. We’ve got to go.”
“He’s right,” Mike said, with a solemn tone. “We’ve got to get back and get help.” He slipped his backpack over his wet T-shirt, grimacing as he moved his wrist.
The group stole glances at each, but they picked up their packs. Galen took the lead once more and walked alone, but not quite as fast.
Jo observed him turning his head left and right as if he was looking for something. He also kept looking back over his shoulder, but not at the group—over their heads, at the horizon.
Jo looked back too. The sun hovered above the earth in an orange-yellow fireball, casting purple shadows behind every rock and under every tree. She wrapped the front of her jacket around her shivering sides and folded her arms. She was glad she had packed the jacket. There was comfort in its softness and warmth, but only physically.
She worried about Galen leading them who-knows-where. Her heart hurt for Mike, visibly in pain from his wrist—and the loss of Red, she thought. His sweet, usually confident expression was a frown; his head was tilted downward. Jo wanted to talk to him, to offer some comfort, but she was afraid he wouldn’t want it from her—she had let go.
Blood was oozing through April’s makeshift bandage. She limped more now, beginning to lag behind. Lary and Dove waited for her.
“May I?” Lary held his arms out. April’s lips curled into a shy half-smile and her cheeks flushed pink. He picked her up and carried her.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized to him.
Lary grinned at her. “Are you kidding? It’s like carrying feathers.”
April smiled and rested her small head on his shoulder.
Dove beamed at his chivalry and rubbed his arm. Jo’s heart warmed.
Drew watched them with a frown.
“You’ll get it next time,” Jo said to him. She patted his shoulder.
“Yeah, sure,” he said dejectedly.
Dove came up beside her and asked, “Can you talk about it now?”
Jo shook her head. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“Red tried to cross the river and she slipped. I got out on a tree to grab her. I was holding onto her hand and I fell…I let go of her.” There, she said it. She confessed.
“Jo, you must have been terrified.” Dove squeezed her arm.
“I thought I was a goner, but…Galen—” She gazed at his back. “I didn’t even know he was there. I thought he stayed with you guys.”
“He did…for a little while. He paced around and was mumbling something—he was pretty mad—and then he took off after you guys.”
“I guess I have to be grateful about that.”
Dove grabbed Jo’s hand and walked close to her. “Maybe he was right. We shouldn’t have stopped to play so long.” Her voice was hushed, almost a whisper.
Jo glared at the back of Galen’s head. “I don’t understand what he’s up to.”
“What do you mean?”
Jo kept her voice low. “He says there’s something dangerous out here, but he doesn’t know what it is—like he’s trying to frighten us so we’ll do what he says.”
“Jo—”
“Look at him. He’s nervous—almost like he’s late for something. Rushing us all day. Maybe we were supposed to be somewhere earlier.”
“Where? For what?”
“I don’t know, but think about it. He takes the lead and we end up on the wrong trail. He won’t let us make a fire and take a few minutes to warm up ‘cause we’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to be somewhere for something.”
“Jo, you’re scaring me.” Dove squeezed Jo’s hand. “He’s trying to get us back. He saved your life—and April’s.”
Jo ignored Dove’s comment and cut in quickly. “I caught him talking to that family we saw this morning.”
“What?”
“Yeah. I didn’t get to tell you about it before. He and the dad were having an argument.”
“What about?”
“I couldn’t hear. I asked him about it, but he never answered the question—as usual.”
Dove gripped Jo’s hand harder. Her brow wrinkled. “We should tell Mike and Lary.”
“Guys!” Galen yelled.
Jo and Dove both jumped. Together they looked in the direction he was pointing.
In the distance stood a structure. It was orange and abandoned and overgrown with grass and brush.
“Hallelujah!” Drew shouted. “I hope it’s a Burger King!”
“I hope we’re not on the menu,” Jo whispered.
Chapter 19