Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2)(97)

Day 4: Sunday Morning


The first thing Lauren heard when she opened her eyes was the screaming outside the cabin.

She felt movement around her, heard someone standing up, then the trample of feet against the floorboards. A bang as the cabin door swung open. She was slow to sit up in her sleeping bag. Her head throbbed and her eyelids were heavy. Alice. The memory of the trail came to her immediately. She looked around. She was the only one in the room.

With a sense of dread, Lauren stood up and went to the doorway. She looked out and blinked. There was some sort of commotion in the clearing. She tried to work out what she was seeing. Not Alice. Bree.

Bree was slumped by the remains of last night’s fire, clutching her right arm. Her face was pale.

‘Elevate it!’ Beth was shouting, trying to pull her sister’s arm over her head.

Jill was flipping frantically through a thin leaflet. No-one was looking at Lauren.

‘It says we need a splint,’ Jill was saying. ‘Find something to keep it still.’

‘What? What kind of thing?’

‘I don’t know! How should I know? A stick or something! Anything.’

‘We have to go,’ Beth shouted, scooping up a handful of broken twigs. ‘Jill? We have to get her to a doctor right now. Shit, hasn’t anyone done a first aid course?’

‘Yes, bloody Alice!’ Jill finally turned to the cabin and saw Lauren in the doorway. ‘Where is she? Wake her up. Tell her we’ve got a snakebite.’

Lauren had the surreal thought that Jill meant to go and wake her from the path, but instead the woman was pointing at the cabin. As if in a dream, Lauren lurched back inside and looked around. She was still the only one there. Four sleeping bags on the ground. She checked each one. All empty. No Alice. She hadn’t come back.

There was movement in the doorway and Jill appeared.

Lauren shook her head. ‘She’s gone.’

Jill froze, then all at once grabbed her own backpack and sleeping bag from the floor and shook them out.

‘Where’s my jacket? It had the phone in it. Shit. That bitch has taken it.’

She threw her belongings down and turned, slamming the cabin door behind her.

‘She’s bloody gone and she’s taken the phone.’ Jill’s voice was muffled outside. Lauren heard a cry of outrage that could have come from either one of the twins.

She pulled her boots on and stumbled outside. She knew where the jacket was. She had seen Alice stuff it behind a log the night before. Lauren wished now she’d never got up in the night to go to the toilet. She wished she’d taken a minute to wake the others instead of chasing after Alice in the dark. She wished she had been able to stop her from leaving. She wished a lot of things were different.

Lauren could see the splash of colour behind the log. She reached down.

‘The jacket’s here.’

Jill snatched it from her and rummaged through the pockets. ‘No. She’s definitely taken it.’

Beth was standing over Bree, who was still slumped on the ground, her arm immobilised in a makeshift splint.

‘All right. What are our options?’ Jill was breathing heavily. ‘We stay put. Or we split up, leave Bree here –’

‘No!’ the sisters said in unison.

‘Okay. Okay, then we’ll have to walk. We’ll all have to help Bree, but which way –’ Jill spun around.

‘Keep going north,’ Lauren said.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes. Stick to the plan. Keep as straight as we can, as fast as we can, and hope we hit the road. It’s our best bet.’

Jill considered for a fraction of a beat. ‘All right. But first we need to look for Alice. Just in case.’

‘Are you kidding? In case what?’ Beth was open-mouthed.

‘In case she’s gone to the toilet and twisted her bloody ankle, I don’t know!’

‘No! We have to go!’

‘Then we’ll be quick. The three of us. Leave Bree here.’ A hesitation. ‘And don’t go too far.’

Lauren was already running through the long grass towards the trail.

‘Alice had better hope someone else finds her,’ she heard Beth say. ‘If I get to her first, I’ll bloody kill her.’

Lauren was breathless as she ran. She could still feel the weight of Alice as they’d fallen and the shock as the air was knocked out of her lungs. She could still feel the sting of the words.

At the memory of that, Lauren slowed a little. The trail looked different in the daylight and she nearly missed the spot. Nearly. She was past the large smooth rock almost before she realised it. She stopped, turning, understanding in an instant what she was seeing. Nothing. The rock stood alone. The path was empty.

Alice was gone.

Lauren felt dizzy as the blood rushed to her head. The trail was deserted in both directions. She looked around, wondering how far Alice had got. The bushland gave no clue.

She scanned the ground, but there was no sign of her bracelet. Could she have lost it at the cabin and not realised? There was nothing to see, but the air had an odd tangy scent and she had the sensation that the area had been disturbed. She supposed it had been, in a way, but as she looked around now, she could see little evidence of their fight. Her legs shook only a little as she turned and walked back.