Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 71774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
He wraps his arms around my waist, standing behind me. I just want to shake my head and wonder what he’s thinking. I’m at least three inches taller than him, and I’m sure I’ve got fifty pounds on him. He’s small compared to me. Did he really think he could get me out here and hit on me? And then when I say no, does he think he’ll overpower me?
I raise both my arms up and break his hold on me. “I’m not interested, Arney.”
I no sooner turn to face him and he’s reaching for me again. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m fed up. Maybe because I’m cold and I’m hungry, but my patience is thin. As soon as he grabs my shoulders, I rear back and punch him in the nose.
He falls backwards, and I’m glad he does because blood is spewing everywhere. “You hit me!” he yells when he falls on his butt.
I put my hands on my hips. “Yeah, well you didn’t seem to want to take no for an answer. Now I’m going to my tent. Alone. When the sun comes up, you are taking me back down this mountain and you’ll be lucky if I don’t press some kind of charges or something.”
I swear he’s crying when I leave him. He’s sputtering and wanting to argue with me, but I unzip my tent, grab my pack, and head inside, zipping me and all my belongings in with me.
I can hear him muttering and making a racket out there, but I don’t care. The rest of the night I sit here and ponder my life. I have no family and the only friends I have are the ones I’ve met in the outdoorsmen group. My roommate may wonder where I’m at when I don’t show up in two days. But that’s two days. I moved here to California for a job. A job that didn’t pan out. So I’ve been working as a waitress downtown for the last few weeks.
I pull out my phone and hold it up. Of course there’s no signal, and even if there was, who would I call? My roommate won’t come get me. And I really don’t know anyone from work that well. I asked for three days off work, so no one will miss me there unless I don’t make it back in almost a week. I zip it back into my pack and move the bag to use as a pillow. I pull the blanket over me and say a little prayer that I’m not going to die tonight. Don’t think like that, Keri! You will get out of here, and as soon as you do, you can put this all behind you. The sooner I go to sleep, the sooner daylight will come, and I can get the hell out of here.
Chapter 2
Keri
I stretch my arms over my head as the cool morning air hits me and I snuggle under my cover again. In the light of the morning, I realize maybe I was too hard on Arney. Maybe the others did back out. If he gets me off this mountain alive, I’ll be sure to apologize to him for hitting him. I reach for my pack and pull out some trail mix. I lay here in the warmth filling my stomach as long as I can before nature calls.
I unzip the tent and step out, stopping in shock as I’m midstretch. Arney’s tent is gone. I look all around the clearing, and he’s nowhere to be seen. I tramp through the freshly fallen snow, walking edge to edge, but nothing. He’s gone.
Crawling back into my tent, I grab my bag and pull out my phone. I hold it up as high as I can and run around the clearing, hoping and praying that I’m going to get a signal.
Nothing! No bars. No service at all. I shut it off and stuff it back into my bag. Okay, think, Keri. What do you need to do?
I start taking apart my tent, fold it up, and attach it to my backpack. I use the bathroom quickly and start walking the way Arney and I came in last night. I can’t believe I was going to apologize to him. If I see him again, I’m going to kill him.
I walk so long, I know I’m going in the wrong direction. I was walking down the mountain, but somehow now I’m walking up it. The snow has picked up and it’s too dangerous now. I can’t even tell where the edge of the drop-offs begin now because the snow is so misleading.
“Fuck!” I scream as I trip over a rut in the path. I land sprawled out, face first, and a part of me just wants to lie here, defeated. I know I’m not going the right direction, and the snow is making it harder and harder to see. I roll over onto my back and reach for my ankle, trying to wiggle it around thinking that maybe that initial pain was really nothing, but instead a sharp pain shoots up my leg. Barely able to hold back the tears, I reach for the stump I tripped over and a dead wolf head is lying there, its teeth bared.