Desolation Point by Cari Hunter

Author:Cari Hunter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781602829046
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2013-03-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“Bugger, didn’t see it. Sorry.”

Sarah took the hand that Alex held out to her, lifted her boot from the small hole it had vanished into, and then scrambled back to her feet. She made a half-hearted attempt to brush dirt and dried leaves from her filthy pants but quickly gave up, seeming to realize that a large quantity of the forest floor was already clinging to her clothes.

For close to an hour, they had been walking in the dark with only occasional light filtering down from the moon to guide their path. Alex had tried to give Sarah an idea of what they needed to look out for, but she knew they had probably already walked blindly past several areas that would have been ideal.

They had continued for an additional half hour beyond the point where Sarah had tripped over, when Alex grabbed her arm to get her attention and then gestured ahead of them.

“There, see? That’ll be perfect.”

Sarah nodded a little uncertainly. Alex wasn’t sure that she really did appreciate the potential of the dead tree in the clearing, but the relief on her face was easy to distinguish.

“Just tell me what you need me to do,” she said as, weariness pushed aside, they jogged across to the tree Alex had spotted.

Alex ran her hands over the rough bark of the fallen spruce. The tree’s skeletal silhouette had been clearly delineated by the moonlight reaching down into the tiny clearing. The tangled deadfall of the tree’s upper branches would give structure to the shelter she planned to build, and for the first time since they started to walk through the forest, there was enough natural light making it through the tree canopy for them to work by.

“Ditch the bags here,” she said. “We need insulation for the base of the shelter; spruce branches, bracken, whatever you can gather.”

Sarah’s lips moved as she repeated the instructions over to herself.

“Sarah?” Alex waited until Sarah looked up at her properly. “Stay within the clearing where I can see you,” she said gently, and smiled when Sarah gave her a crisp salute.

Several branches had snapped cleanly off the tree as it had fallen. Alex began to collect the more manageable ones together. She leaned them up against the deadfall and used those that were still full and green to plug the gaps in the walls she was gradually constructing. She had only seen Walt demonstrate this skill once, when he had invited her to accompany him as he and Marilyn ran a weekend course on wilderness survival. It had been the height of summer. The sun had beaten down relentlessly on a group of city thrill seekers who had subsequently gotten back into their air-conditioned SUVs secure in the knowledge that, if they ever deigned to set foot in the wilderness again, they would know what to do should someone steal their Winnebago. Alex had built her own shelter a short distance from Walt’s, and Marilyn had stayed late into the evening to share hotdogs and the remnants of the brownies she had baked.

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