The Challenge(27)

“Can I get you anything?” he asked before he left her, and she shook her head. He could see that she was on the verge of tears. He pulled her into his arms and she didn’t resist. They needed each other now, even if she hated him and he had disappointed her. They no longer loved each other, of that he was sure. But they loved their daughter. It was the only bond they still had, and a strong one. He stroked Beth’s hair as he held her, and wished he could promise her it would be okay. He hoped it would be. “We just have to get through this,” he said softly, and she nodded. She wiped her tears when she pulled away. “The waiting is killing us all. I hope they find them soon. Call me if you need anything at all. If Chief Mack wants to meet with us, I’ll call you and pick you up.” She nodded again and looked less aggressive than she had when she got off the plane. She was a mother who was worried sick about her daughter, not an angry ex-wife, for now. She suddenly seemed smaller and more human, and he felt sorry for her. He had friends here, she didn’t. All she had was him, all the recent bad history between them, and a pending divorce. It would be final soon. They were both eager to have it behind them, and if they lost Juliet, it would be like erasing the best part of the history they’d shared. It would make it all seem pointless. June Taylor felt that way too.

Losing the child of a divorced marriage made the marriage seem irrelevant. There would be nothing left to show for it.

He drove back to his house after he dropped Beth off, and sat on the couch, staring into space, waiting for news, and trying not to think of what he and Beth had once shared. The blackboard of their life together had been erased.



* * *



—

The kids walked all day, and had no idea where they were by the end of it. They were higher up the mountain, the trees were thicker and hard to navigate around, and the foliage made it even harder for them to be seen on the ground. They had seen helicopters in the distance, but they were too far for the band of seven to catch their attention. They could see smoke in the sky now, coming from the other side of the mountain, and there was a thin film of ash falling around them like early snow. They tripped over tree roots frequently. Benjie had fallen several times and hurt his knees and his hands, and cried when he did. Matt carried him for a while, and Justin took a turn since he was bigger and stronger. Noel was looking pale, and all of them were hungry and tired by the end of their second day on the mountain. All sense of adventure had gone out of it, if there had ever been any. This was no longer a challenge. It was only about survival.

Their food had almost run out. Juliet had no power bars left and only a few mouthfuls of the sandwiches. And they could only take small sips of the water from what was left. They still found berries along the way, but if they ate too many it gave them a stomachache. They looked exhausted, but they had agreed to keep moving all day, hoping that rescuers would see them, but none of the helicopters even came close. They had somehow guessed the young people’s position to be entirely different from what it was, and the kids had no way of getting to the area the rescue planes kept flying over. Two deep ravines separated them from the low-flying zones of the planes. The ravines were entirely unnavigable without risking serious injury or death. So they just kept walking up the mountain, around to the side, and as close as they could get to the helicopters that were much too far away to even catch a glimpse of them between the trees. It seemed too late to head down the mountain now.

“Maybe we should try that tomorrow,” Peter suggested to Justin when they stopped for the day. They had thought that the trees would thin out if they went up the mountain, but the foliage had gotten thicker, and it was getting harder to breathe, especially for Noel, who was slowing down noticeably. He was well aware, as was Justin, that he had another twenty-four hours of insulin left in his pump, and after that he would slip into a coma. He bitterly regretted not having brought a spare pump, and swore he would from now on. But this time he hadn’t, and it might cost him his life.

They were sitting, catching their breath and taking small sips of water, discouraged by how far the helicopters had been from them all day. They had all disappeared from the sky just after seven, with the day still bright. The sun would set soon. The kids were talking about their plan for the next day, sitting in front of a small cave, when suddenly a giant brown ball emerged from the cave, and stood on its haunches. It was a bear with a cub right behind her, and all seven of them shrank in terror as the mother bear showed her teeth, and almost danced in front of them. The very small cub ran into a clearing and looked confused. Its mother stayed standing to protect it, as they all watched in terrified silence.

“Don’t touch the baby!” Juliet shouted at all of them. It looked adorable, and very scared. The mother seemed to be deciding between whether to attack them or remove her cub from the scene she obviously considered dangerous.

“Holy shit!” Justin said out loud, as the bear gave a roar, and they tried to figure out what to do. There was nowhere for her to run to.

“What do we do? Do we throw rocks at it?” Peter asked in a terrified voice, as Justin spotted a boulder and leapt onto it, which made him considerably taller than the bear. He made no sound but towered over her, as he had read to do if one encountered a bear. The bear dropped to all fours, nudged the cub with her muzzle to push it forward. They disappeared into the forest a minute later. Justin tried to jump from the rock on shaking legs and fell backwards. He narrowly missed hitting his head, and the others rushed toward him.