The Hike by Lucy Clarke

Author:Lucy Clarke [Clarke, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-27T12:00:00+00:00

37

LIZ

Liz woke to the howl of wind. Something cold and damp was pressing against her cheek. Thick with sleep, she reached out, palms meeting a tomb of wet fabric above her. The tent was buckling!

She fumbled in the blackness for her torch, while outside the wind shrieked and waves hurled themselves to shore.

Finding her torch, she filled the tent with light. She saw Joni sitting with her knees bunched to her chest, eyes squeezed shut, rocking.

‘Oh! Joni! Are you okay? The weather will pass—’

Even as she said it, another rush of wind battered the tent, flattening it against them. Liz opened her arms above her head to keep the fabric from their faces. Then a shock of lightning filled the sky, illuminating the tent.

Joni shrank further into herself, head buried against her knees.

Liz silently counted the seconds that followed the lightning. A boom of thunder reverberated around the basin of mountains. She estimated that the storm was still a few kilometres away.

Suddenly the tent door was unzipped, fabric sent flapping by the wind. Liz raised a hand in front of her eyes as a torch beamed into the tent.

Rain drilled down on Maggie and Helena, who were huddled in the entrance.

‘Our tent isn’t holding!’ Maggie cried.

‘It’s leaking, too! Everything is soaked,’ Helena said.

‘Get inside!’ Liz said, shuffling over as rain sheeted in behind them.

They crawled into the cramped space and zipped the tent tight. There was barely space to move – the domed roof pressed to the crowns of their heads. The air filled with the wet-dog stench of damp woollen socks and unwashed bodies. Everywhere was gritted with sand.

Lightning tore from the sky, illuminating the tent.

Liz began to count. After eight seconds an almighty crack of thunder struck the mountains, the amplified sound feeling physical in its strength.

Joni shrieked.

‘Where has this storm come from?’ Helena shouted. ‘Was it forecast?’

Liz’s skin prickled as she thought of the weather apps she’d checked, most of them showing the lightning icon. The forecast had felt so unthreatening on screen, just a tiny zigzag of yellow. With a guilty swallow, she recalled the farmer’s warning. A low pressure is coming. It will bring a storm tomorrow, she’d said. Tell your friends to turn back.

Only she hadn’t. She’d told them nothing.

Her cheeks flushed as she said, ‘Vilhelm told us all the weather was turning, didn’t he? I checked the forecast and it looked mixed – I told you that. I’d no idea it would be this bad. I thought the storm might not arrive—’

‘Storm?’ Helena said. ‘You knew there would be a storm?’

‘We’d already set off and—’

‘Wait, what do you mean we’d already set off?’

The sting of guilt seemed to drive the truth from her mouth. ‘The woman I saw in the field on that first morning – she mentioned that the weather might turn.’

In the torchlight, Maggie’s face stretched in surprise. ‘You didn’t tell us.’

‘I didn’t want to spook anyone. We were committed—’

‘What did she say?’ Helena demanded.

Liz flinched. ‘Tell your friends to turn back.

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