Dark Woods (8 page)

‘I think it’s our only option,’ said Eden. ‘If we follow the stream it should eventually take us down the mountain and back to the river. Which is where the campground is.’

‘Yeah, but we don’t know how far Jefferson took us, do we?’ Cal waved his hand in an effort to disperse the midges that danced in front of his face. ‘The campground could be a hundred miles from here.’

‘Maybe. But at least if we get to the river we’ve got a chance of finding civilisation.’

She was right, of course. But the stream was where Cal had last seen the man, and he wasn’t in too much of a hurry to run into him again. They had decided to walk back up the mountain at an angle, basing their plan on the fact that the man would have seen Cal running away from the stream and so would probably expect him to carry on in that direction before attempting to head off down the mountain. So while the man set off on a false trail, they would be able to double back and make their way further east before heading down again once they had put some miles between them. But as they approached the stream Cal’s fear returned, jangling his nerves as he remembered the look on the man’s face and the water, dark with blood.

Eden saw him hesitate and put her hand on his arm.

‘It’s a big place, Cal. We’ve been walking for over an hour. If he was going to find us, he’d have found us by now.’

Cal clenched his fists as they walked by the edge of the stream, half expecting the man to appear at any moment. But as the trees thinned and the sun warmed his face, the feeling of danger lessened and Cal began to wonder if perhaps he had over-reacted.

This was America, he reminded himself. They played football in crash helmets. Their woods were full of poison ivy. They did things differently here. Sure, the guy had been dressed weirdly enough. But was it any weirder than some of the other people he’d seen through the window of the camper van, walking the backstreets or offering to wash the windscreen at junctions?

Like all the other strange stuff that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, he was beginning to think that maybe the trick was just to adapt to it and move on. But perhaps the strangest thing of all was that, for the first time in years, the unhappiness that had lain beneath the surface of everything he did was starting to dissolve. For a few brief moments, what had gone before and what lay ahead of him no longer seemed important; all that mattered was that he was here, now, walking in sunlight and listening to the water chatter across the stones.

‘Hey, Cal.’

Eden’s voice broke into his thoughts and he turned to see her standing with her hands on her hips, up to her ankles in the stream.

‘Are you OK? You’ve gone pretty quiet.’

Cal nodded.

‘Just thinking, that’s all.’

‘About what?’

Cal shrugged.

‘I don’t know. That I quite like it up here. You know. Away from everything.’

Eden looked at him, shielding her eyes from the sun.

‘You
like
it?’

‘Yeah. Kind of.’

‘You realise we could be miles from the nearest town? I mean, not just a few miles. Like fifty. A hundred, even.’

‘Yeah, but you were in the Girl Scouts, weren’t you? So maybe we can live off the land and hunt wild boar and stuff.’

Eden frowned.

‘Are you kidding me?’

‘I don’t know. I just . . . I’m starting to feel like everything’s going to work out OK.’ He shrugged. ‘Maybe it’s just the after-effects of the stuff Jefferson put in our drinks.’

‘Maybe,’ said Eden. ‘But whatever it is, hang on to it. Cos as my grandmother used to say, we ain’t out of the woods yet.’

The stream meandered through the trees, at one point dropping through a narrow gully so that they were forced to clamber down its steep sides, stepping from stone to stone as they followed it between banks green with moss and ferns. Up ahead, Cal noticed several smaller streams cascading down and merging, increasing the volume of water so that the stream became broader and deeper, until at last it opened out into a clearing where a large woodland pool reflected the green pines surrounding it and the blue sky above.

They walked around the edge until they came to a place where the ground dropped away through the trees. A waterfall plunged hundreds of feet down the side of the mountain and far below Cal could see the silver glint of the river, winding its way through the valley. Beyond it, the forest covered the slopes of another mountain range, so that the landscape was clothed in a blanket of green.

‘It’s like something from a storybook,’ said Cal.

‘It’s also a bit of a problem,’ said Eden. ‘There’s no way we can climb down there.’

Cal looked at the sheer, dizzying drop and knew she was right. Trying to reach the river valley by that route was definitely not an option.

To the right of them, the mountain rose steeply again, making the descent even more dangerous. To their left it gradually curved towards the lower slopes, but that was far in the distance; in between were several miles of sheer rock face that would make it impossible to climb down with any degree of safety.

‘We’re going to have to go back, aren’t we?’ said Cal.

Eden nodded. ‘It looks that way. Maybe we could cut through the woods a little earlier.’

‘Maybe. But I think we should follow the river for some of the way. Help us keep our bearings.’

‘Dammit.’ Eden sat cross-legged beside the pool and rested her chin on her hands. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. What time do you think it is?’

Cal looked at the sun, high above the trees.

‘One o’clock? Two, maybe?’

Eden rubbed sweat from her forehead and wiped it on her jeans.

‘I don’t suppose you have any food?’

‘Let me check.’

Cal patted his pockets sarcastically.

‘No, I don’t think I have. But maybe that’s because we left in a bit of a rush. What with you wanting to get away and everything.’

‘Hey.’ Eden looked at him sharply. ‘You were the one who wanted to check on your friend’s little doggy. You remember the guy I’m talking about. The one who drugged us, threw us in a van and stuck electrodes on our heads.’

Cal stared back at her, angry now.

‘And whose idea was it to go into the woods? Not mine, that’s for sure. I just went to do the washing-up. But you were all like, “Ooh, let’s go and have an adventure. It’ll be fun!”’

‘Yeah, well, you didn’t have to come, did you? But then, let me see, wait a minute, what was it you said? Oh yeah, that’s right, people are always telling you,
Do this
,
Do that
. Well, no one’s telling you what to do now, Cal. Least of all me.’

Eden stood up and threw a stone into the deepest part of the pool. ‘From here on in, you can make you own decisions. And then maybe you’ll start taking some responsibility for them. Because blaming other people, that’s the coward’s way out. I thought you were better than that. But obviously I was wrong.’

Eden turned and began walking back along the edge of the pool towards the forest. Cal felt bad then, not only because the things she said had hurt him, but because they were true.

‘Where are you going?’ he called, running to catch up with her.

Eden turned to him angrily.

‘I don’t know. But I was a Girl Scout, remember? I’m quite capable of doing this on my own.’

‘I know you are,’ said Cal, ‘but I don’t want you to. And I’m sorry.’

‘For what?’

‘For being all those things you said. And for being an idiot.’

Eden stopped walking then. She looked away from him, at the moss on the rocks and the reflections of the trees in the water. ‘You’re not an idiot, Cal,’ she said quietly. ‘And you don’t need to be sorry. You just need to be . . . different.’

For a few moments, there was silence.

Then Cal untied his sweatshirt from around his waist and slipped his T-shirt over his head.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘In that case, maybe I’ll start by making a decision.’

Eden frowned.

‘What kind of decision?’

‘One based on the fact that I’m hot, I’m tired and my clothes are sticking to me.’

He took off his shoes, balanced them on a rock and began unbuttoning his jeans.

‘Cal?’ Eden stared at him uncertainly. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Like I said,’ replied Cal, stepping out of his jeans to reveal a pair of blue boxer shorts, ‘I’ve made a decision. And the decision is, I want to go swimming.’

As Eden put a hand up to her mouth to stifle a laugh, Cal stepped into the pool and waded in up to his knees. Then, before he could change his mind, he threw himself forward in a dive that took him down to the bottom of the pool, his fingers brushing the smooth stones before he splashed up to the surface again, the ice-cold water leaving him gasping for breath.

‘You’re crazy!’ called Eden from the side of the pool. ‘You know that, don’t you?’

‘Nah,’ said Cal, dancing around in an effort to keep warm. ‘It’s called making a decision.’

He flipped over onto his back and kicked his legs so that spray skittered across the surface like diamonds.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘You know you want to.’

‘Actually, I don’t,’ said Eden.

‘Course you do,’ said Cal. ‘How often do you get to swim in a pool halfway up a mountain? Just think. Next time you’re trailing around a dusty museum, do you really want to look back and think, I wish I’d done that?’

‘All right, all right!’ said Eden, kicking off her shoes and unbuttoning her jeans. ‘But I’m telling you, if it’s freezing, I’m going to come over there and stand on your head.’

Cal saw that she was laughing and it made him laugh too.

‘You’ll have to catch me first,’ he said.

Eden was still smiling, right up until the moment the water reached her calves and her mouth formed a little O of shock. Then she recovered just enough to point a finger at him.

‘OK, mister,’ she said. ‘Now you’re gonna get what’s coming to ya.’

And with that she threw herself forward and began swimming across the open water towards him.

Cal watched her long enough to realise what a good swimmer she was – head down, breathing to the side – and then he was off, laughing and spluttering and kicking his legs in an effort to make it to the far side before she caught up with him. He almost made it, but with a couple of metres to go she grabbed his ankle, pulled him backwards and pushed him under the water. Cal opened his eyes and saw blurred stones and weeds waving in the current. Then her fingers dug into his sides and he burst through the surface, coughing and splashing his way to the shallows.

He sat on the stones for a while, catching his breath and watching her swim over.

‘I warned you,’ she said. ‘You don’t want to mess with me.’

Cal smiled.

‘Yeah, you’re a dangerous one. I’m just glad you ditched the shotgun.’

Eden sat next to him and waved her foot amongst the weeds.

‘Cal?’

‘Uh-huh?’

‘Do you think we’ll make it out of here?’

‘Yeah. Don’t you?’

‘I’m worried about Jefferson. He ain’t gonna be too happy when he wakes up and finds we’ve gone.’

Cal felt a pang of guilt then, and although he knew it was crazy to feel sorry for a man who had got them into all this trouble, he couldn’t help it.

‘We got his dog back for him, didn’t we? That was what he wanted.’

‘Yeah but like you said, we got an angry version of it. I made Jefferson angry, he went to bed angry, and so he dreamed up an angry dog.’

‘That might not be the reason.’

‘It might not. But if the things that happen in the world can affect the way you feel inside, then the feelings you have inside can also affect what happens out in the world. I guess it’s a two-way street.’

‘How do you mean?’ asked Cal.

‘I mean, for instance, if something bad happens to you, it can make you feel horrible inside and that can affect the way you behave towards other people. And the way you behave towards other people can affect the way they behave towards you, which affects the way you are with them and so it goes, on and on. And then if you’re not careful you can get stuck in one way of being for the rest of your life. That’s probably why Jefferson’s the way he is.’

‘So we’re stuck with what the world gives us, then,’ said Cal. ‘The world makes us who we are.’

‘It can do,’ said Eden, plucking a stone from the stream bed and throwing it into deeper water. ‘But it doesn’t have to.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because we can choose how we react to things. We can make our own decisions, remember?’

‘OK,’ said Cal. ‘Then let’s decide we’re going to get out of here. Let’s decide we’re going to go home.’

Eden scooped up some water and cupped it in the palm of her hand.

‘I’ll drink to that,’ she said.

It wasn’t until the sun slipped behind the trees that Cal realised they were going to have to spend another night in the forest. His mood, which earlier on had been buoyant and hopeful, now faded with the dying sun. The insects quietened, the birds returned to their nests and the shadows lengthened beneath the pines.

‘You know where we are, don’t you?’ asked Eden as the trees thickened around them.

‘In a forest,’ said Cal wearily. He was tired and hungry. They had shared a handful of red thimbleberries that Eden had found growing in a forest clearing, but that was all they had eaten since the previous day. They had been walking since first light and suddenly the effort of speaking seemed almost too much.

‘Yeah, in a forest,’ said Eden. ‘In exactly the same place we started out.’

And as Cal followed her beneath a low branch he saw the shelter she had built the night before.

Eden picked up a stick and threw it as hard as she could through the trees. Cal listened to it clatter through the branches and heard the alarm call of a startled jay.

‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘How did we end up back here?’

‘Let me give you a clue,’ said Eden, smacking her hand against the trunk of a tree. ‘They all. Look. The frickin’. Same.’

‘Maybe we should just get some rest and wait until morning,’ said Cal. Although he wasn’t exactly keen on spending another night in the forest, his fear was tempered by exhaustion. The thought of lying down and sleeping for a few hours suddenly seemed very appealing.

‘And then what, Cal? Do exactly the same thing tomorrow? Cos the way things are going, we’re going to spend the rest of our lives running round in circles. That’s if we don’t get attacked by bears or something first.’

‘Hey,’ said Cal, putting a hand on her shoulder. ‘I thought you were a Girl Scout.’

‘Not any more.’ Eden leaned back against a tree, folded her arms and slid down to the ground. ‘I quit.’

‘We’ll be all right,’ said Cal. ‘Everything will be better tomorrow.’

Eden raised an eyebrow.

‘You’ve changed your tune.’

Cal shrugged.

‘It was just something someone said to me a couple of hours ago about choices and decisions. Can’t remember who it was, though. Some girl or other.’

Eden managed a faint smile.

‘She sounds like a right pain in the ass.’

‘Totally.’

Cal stretched out a hand and helped her up.

‘Promise me we’ll get out of here tomorrow,’ she said, resting her head on his shoulder.

‘I promise,’ said Cal.

For a moment, the world seemed to stand still.

And, just for a moment, Cal wished it would stay that way.