Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2)(34)

‘So what should we do?’ Jill was looking at her.

‘I think we should turn around and try to retrace our steps.’

Alice groaned. ‘Christ. Retracing takes absolutely ages. We’ll be out here for hours.’

‘Well.’ Lauren shrugged. ‘I’m not sure what other choice we have.’

Jill’s head turned back and forth between the two as though at a tennis match. Bree was standing only a metre or two away, but she might as well have been invisible.

Alice looked back at the trail. ‘Would we even be able to retrace? The path’s pretty faint. We might lose it.’

Beth saw with a start that Alice was right. Behind them, the route they had forged now appeared fluid at the edges, blending seamlessly into the background. Beth automatically felt for her cigarettes. Not in her pocket. Her heart beat a little faster.

‘I think it’s still the best option,’ Lauren said. ‘The safest, anyway.’

‘It’ll add hours to the hike.’ Alice looked at Jill. ‘We’ll be walking in the dark again before we reach the campsite, no question.’

Jill glanced down at her new boots and Beth could tell the prospect of extra kilometres was not a popular one. Jill opened her mouth. Shut it again and gave a small shake of her head.

‘Well, I don’t know,’ she said finally. ‘What’s the alternative?’

Alice studied the map, then looked up, her eyes narrowed. ‘Can everyone else hear a creek?’

Beth held her breath. The faint rush of water was almost drowned out by the blood pounding in her ears. God, she was unfit. The others were nodding, at least.

‘If we went wrong here, that creek should be this one here.’ Alice pointed at the map. ‘It sounds near. We can use that to orientate ourselves. If we work out where we are we could try to cut through and rejoin the right path further along.’

Lauren had crossed her arms over her chest, Beth noticed. Her lips were pressed together in a line.

‘Do you think –’ Jill cleared her throat. ‘Do you feel confident we can orientate ourselves from there?’

‘Yes. We should be able to.’

‘What do you think?’ Jill turned to Lauren.

‘I think we should retrace our steps.’

‘For God’s sake, we’ll be out here all night,’ Alice said. ‘You know we will.’

Lauren said nothing. Jill looked from one to the other, then down at her feet once more. She gave a tight sigh.

‘Let’s find this creek.’

No-one bothered asking Bree what she thought.

Beth followed as the sound of water grew more distinct. It had a different quality from the roar of the falls the day before, thicker and more muted. They pushed through a bank of trees, and Beth found herself on a muddy ledge.

The clay ground fell away near her feet, dropping more than a metre to a swollen brown strip below. It was definitely more river than creek, she thought as she stared at the water. It had been engorged by rainfall and left a foamy tidemark as it lapped at the bank. Floating debris hinted at a rapid speed beneath the surface.

Alice pored over the map, while Jill and Lauren looked on. Bree drifted at the fringe, looking forlorn. Beth slipped off her pack and thrust her arm inside, feeling around for her cigarette packet. She couldn’t find it and despite the cold, her palms began to sweat. She pushed in deeper. At last, her fingers closed around the familiar shape and she pulled her arm out, dragging clothing and odds and ends with it.

Beth didn’t notice the shiny metal canister rolling away until it was too late. It bounced out of reach of her outstretched fingertips, turned one more revolution towards the bank and then dropped over the side.

‘Shit.’ She shoved the cigarette pack in her pocket and scrambled after it.

‘What was that?’ Alice’s eyes flicked up, hard above the map.

‘I don’t know.’ Beth peered over and breathed a half-sigh of relief. Whatever it was, it was suspended in a tangle of dead branches above the water.

‘Great.’ Alice was looking now. They all were. ‘It’s the gas canister for the stove.’

‘The . . . what?’ Beth watched the metal shimmer as the branches swayed.

‘The canister. For the stove,’ Alice repeated. ‘We need that to cook our meals tonight. And tomorrow. Jesus, Beth. Why did you drop it?’

‘I didn’t even know I had it.’

‘We split the communal stuff, you know that.’

A stray piece of wood rushed along in the water, colliding with the branches. The canister wobbled, but held.

‘Can we get by without it?’ Jill said.

‘Not if we want to eat dinner tonight.’

Another surge in the water and the canister quivered again. Beth could feel Alice’s eyes on her. She stared straight down at the swollen river, knowing what was coming. Alice stepped in close behind her and she felt an invisible hand prodding her spine.

‘Fetch it.’





Chapter 10



Beth was leaning against the wall outside the hospital, one hand shoved in her coat pocket, and her eyes slitted as the cigarette smoke drifted across her face. She straightened a little as she saw Falk and Carmen come out.

‘You finished in there?’ she called. ‘Is Bree okay?’