Off Road by Raelyn Drake

Author:Raelyn Drake
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Athletes, Extreme Sports, Hi/Lo, Nature, Sports, Survival, Action & Adventure, Survival Stories, Survival, Survival Story, Sports, Sports & Recreation, Extreme Sport, Extreme Sports, Darby Creek, Mountain Bikes, Mountain Biking, Off Road, Raelyn Drake
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group
Published: 2018-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

The next hour passed in agonizing silence, broken only by their heavy breathing as they climbed up ridges and picked their way carefully down slopes, occasionally slipping on an especially slick layer of dead pine needles in the evening glow of the setting sun.

Wyatt tried to ignore the fact that his arm was still bleeding and a dark red blotch had soaked through the bandage. Between that and how thirsty he still was, Wyatt was thankful that Tanika didn’t seem willing to break her silence. As much as he hated to admit it, Wyatt was pretty sure he was the one who had overreacted. But he wasn’t in the mood to apologize for being a jerk. So silence was easier.

When Wyatt finally heard a low burble almost beyond the edge of hearing, he hardly dared to believe it. Maybe it was just his pulse pumping in his own ears. Finding the creek drastically increased their chances of making it out of the woods, Wyatt knew. And after the series of bad luck that afternoon, he found it hard to believe that they had found the creek in under an hour.

But Tanika seemed to have heard it too because she stopped suddenly, her eyes lit up as she turned to Wyatt, her anger with him temporarily forgotten.

In a split second the excitement in her eyes changed to horror, and she stared over Wyatt’s shoulder at something behind him. Her mouth dropped open, and she looked like she wanted to scream but was too afraid to let it out.

Wyatt felt his blood run cold as he slowly turned his head to see what it was that had scared Tanika. And he didn’t like what he saw.

A mountain lion was crouched on a rock about thirty feet away.

As Wyatt’s breath caught in his throat, his mind raced wildly. They had passed right by it without seeing it. How had they not noticed? It definitely had noticed them.

The mountain lion stared intently at them, but Wyatt couldn’t tell if it was sizing them up as prey, or if it was just curious what they were doing in its habitat.

Wyatt felt frozen, and he heard Tanika’s voice as if from a long way off.

“Wy,” she was saying, her voice a low, urgent hiss. “Wyatt, what do we do? I can’t remember what you’re supposed to do if you see a mountain lion.”

Wyatt thought he’d heard something about mountain lions somewhere, but fear had turned his mind to sludge and he couldn’t seem to think of the advice, let alone get any words out.

They had both turned slowly to face the mountain lion, and that sparked a memory for Wyatt. “Whatever you do, don’t turn your back on it and don’t run,” he croaked, “or its instinct will be to chase us.”

“What else are we supposed to do?” Tanika prompted.

“I, I don’t know,” Wyatt said. Why couldn’t he think? His frustration at being frozen with fear only made it harder to move, and his heart seemed to thump wildly against his bruised chest.

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