The Wall (The Woodlands) (43 page)

“
If we can do that, we can do anything,” I cried. Tears streamed down my face. It was so hard, more physically testing than anything I’d ever done. And the worst was yet to come.
How would we survive this?
Especially without Pietre.

“
That’s good,” she said into my hair, her hand resting on my shoulder, “because now we have to outrun wolves.”

The new plan.
Well, the only plan, was to leave Pietre in the cave and run all the way to the edge of the town. We’d left our sleeping bags with Pietre and removed anything inessential so we weren’t weighed down. We didn’t even take water bottles—we would rely on snow. Careen was going to run east a kilometer or so and kill something, hopefully something big, to distract the wolves. Then she would run back to the cave and we would set out together.

We would have to travel in daylight, which was risky
, but we weren’t going to be able to camp, which meant we weren’t going to be able to sleep. Panic deserted me at this time. It should have strangled me, but I don’t know, the fact we were facing death, just pulled everything into sharp focus. We had to do it. We had no choice. We would run and we would take our chances.

Squatting in the cave waiting for Careen was
agonizing. I felt ready to spring—to run. I ate what little my stomach could handle and drank some water. I stretched my legs and checked back on Pietre every now and then. When he woke up, he would be in terrible pain and I was thankful I wouldn’t be around to see his scowling face when he did open his eyes. Looking at him now, he seemed peaceful except for the bulging bruise on his temple.

I heard a rustling in the trees and snapped my head back around to
its origin. Pale hands pulled through the branches, covered with snow-iced leaves. Careen.

She climbed up to the cave entrance.
She explained that she’d managed to kill an elk and carve it up crudely so she could deposit bits of it around in the trees. I shuddered and then I laughed. Careen looked at me like she thought I was going crazy.

“
You all right?” she asked in a tone indicating she clearly didn’t think I was.

I laughed again
. “A butcher and a carpenter running for their lives in the woods… It sounds like the start of a really bad joke.”

She gave
me another wondering look, like,
What is going on inside that head of yours
? But she didn’t say anything.

It would take the wolves some time to get all the pieces down.
Careen had also marked trees heading in the opposite direction to our cave with blood. It would lead them away from Pietre’s sleeping body. I composed myself at the chilling visual. Always blood. Hopefully, this elk’s sacrifice would save us.

Careen
had a little water and ate something. She leaned down and ruffled Pietre’s hair. Kissing him lightly on the cheek, she whispered something to him and then strode purposefully towards me. She may have wanted to be a butcher but everything about her screamed warrior. This was it. We had no one to rely on except each other. The sun rose, peeking through the branches, spilling blood-tinged light over the black rocks and bouncing off the snow.

I could feel them in my chest
, pounding paws digging in and pushing off in unison.

“
Let’s go.”

We hit the ground and
broke into a frantically paced run. We had no idea what kind of head start we had or whether our diversions would work. We only knew what direction to run and that’s what we did. We put our heads down and sped across the snow as fast as we could. Careen ran behind me, knives clutched in both hands. I clasped the handheld in front of me, turning and veering, keeping the red arrow straight. It said we had fifteen kilometers to go. I wish I hadn’t known that.

Running.
Running. Running.

The
edges of my vision darkened like I was passing through a shadowy tunnel. Exhaustion approached me, clamping its ragged fingers around my shoulders and trying to pull me backwards. But I kept my head down and kept pushing forward.

On and on
, one foot in front of the other, ignoring the buzzing in my ears and the thickness of the surrounding air. I was moving through bitter honey.

I pictured Joseph
’s face in front of me. I heard Orry’s laugh and saw it dancing in the trees. I held out my hands for them but they disappeared into a wisp of smoke.

“
We have to stop,” I managed to expel.

“
We can’t,” Careen replied halfheartedly.

“
One minute.” I put my finger up.

I quickly took a drink, leaned myself against a
tree, and sunk into it. I imagined it wrapped its branches around me and lifted me to the sky. I’d be out of air but out of reach. I closed my eyes. I would just close my eyes for one minute, just rest for two seconds. My mouth cooled and my breath steadied. I would just sleep for five minutes. Greyness. Pinprick edges and haze.

Careen slapped me back into consci
ousness. I awoke with a start, putting my hand to my face, feeling light, scratchy icicles running off my cheeks from her snow-covered glove.

“
Wake up. We are not giving up now. We’re nearly there. Look,” she said, holding the handheld that was frozen to my palm in front of my face. It read two kilometers. It was barely midday and we were almost there. I guess fear makes you fast.

Hope got a hold of me and rattled me awake
. We might make it. We could find a tree to sleep in. We could still get this done in time.

The sound and the sight of
three wolves approaching grabbed at the hope and tore into tiny pieces right in front of me. We were dead.

Their muzzles were bloodied. Their eyes focused on the
two, white-clad puffs, two Woodland girls who didn’t belong out here in the Wilderness. Careen grabbed my shoulder and squeezed. Our eyes connected and I inherited her wildness. I thought of nothing other than survival. We turned and ran.

They w
ere so close. Their low growls rumbled in my ears and then a quick bark followed as they pursued us through the undergrowth. Branches whipped at my face as I scrambled up and over rocks. The unnatural, cool steel of wind-turbine posts suddenly creating an extra obstacle course we had to weave around. They churned the air and confused sound. I peeked back at the wolves; they shook their heads, their ears flapping against their heads. The whirring confused them too and slowed them down a fraction. Careen stayed at my back. I knew she could run faster than me and I didn’t understand why she hadn’t overtaken me yet.

I
twisted my head back to look at her and realized she had stopped. She was standing legs parted, knives up, ready to throw.

I watched in
slow-motion terror as she threw them both. One connected with a black wolf’s chest. The great dog skidded in the snow, smashing face first into the ground with a single yelp, and then went silent. The other knife landed in the front leg of another, but it only seemed to make it angrier and it didn’t slow its pursuit. Careen spun around, weaving her hand into mine, and ran next to me. I’m not sure who was leading. We dragged each other along.

W
e didn’t care how much noise we made. We were intensely focused on getting close to the wall and up a tree as fast as we could.

The handheld
flashed. Two-hundred meters.

Oh my G
od. We might actually make it. I looked up and noticed the trees were spreading out, becoming sparser and sparser as we approached the wall. There would be nothing to climb.

My concentration lapsed for a fragment of a second and that was all it took. I put my foot down between two rocks
, my boot wedged, and I fell forward, my face planted in the snow. All I could see was white. All I could hear was growling. They were right on top of us now.

A hand grabbed the back of my
jacket, yanked me up, and threw me forward. A jaw snapped closed, connecting with nothing but air, teeth on teeth, just missing my calf. The wall was right there. I could see it. Grey concrete topped with white snow like a molding cake. But it was too late. We’d run out of time.

I don
’t know what I was hoping for, but I sprinted at the wall for all I was worth. Maybe I thought someone might see us, rescue us, pluck us from the ground and place us back inside the walls. I didn’t want to die.

We
slammed against the wall at the same time. I pounded it with my fist weakly but my mouth wouldn’t open. I realized quickly and depressingly that I would rather die than be captured and put back in there.

We planted
our backs to the concrete, waiting for the wolves to spring at our throats and tear us to shreds. This would not be a quick death.

Careen took my hand and squeezed.

The two remaining wolves had slowed to a walk. They had us cornered and they knew it. They moved slowly, their tongues hanging out, the injured one limping slightly. Their eyes were wild, the bloodstains around their mouths making them look monstrous and invented. They lowered their bodies to a ready crouch. I blinked slowly.

Joseph
, I’m sorry.

I concentrated on the mouth of the black wolf
. Its crusty lips lifted, gums baring polished, white fangs. Pink-tinged saliva dripped from its growling jaw. My heartbeat slowed to match the viscous trickle. It slowly bulged with the extra weight of more liquid joining it and then plopped onto the fresh, powdery snow, spreading like a stain and disappearing as it melted through the ice.