Stranded by Melinda Braun

Author:Melinda Braun
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Day 6

Sunset

There was one plane that flew low over the trees that afternoon, a duplicate of the one that had passed over yesterday, but unfortunately we hadn’t made a new raft. It wasn’t a floatplane, and I realized Oscar was right. This lake was too small and narrow for a plane to land on. They’d have to get to us by foot.

“Which direction did it come from?” Oscar asked. “South? East?”

“I don’t know.” I pointed over a giant spruce. “From there, I think.”

“Do you think we should try to hike back?” He glanced at Chloe, who shook her head.

“The last thing we should do right now is try to hike back there.” Isaac kept himself busy feeding twigs into the small flames. “You saw all those logs piled on top of each other. Some of them were over ten feet high. It’d be like climbing through a giant Lincoln Logs booby trap.”

Without another word Oscar turned and walked back to the beach.

Chloe gave me a look: Now what?

I followed the trail down to the lake. Oscar stood with his back to me, arms hanging limply at his side as he watched the water, which was the same shade of blue as the morning glories my mom grew every year along our backyard fence. Morning glories were Lucy’s favorite, the ones called Heavenly Blue. They usually bloomed on her birthday. There was not a better color. There was not a better name, and I briefly wondered if my mother had planted them this year. I doubted it.

“They’re probably searching for us right now,” I said finally. “They probably have it all mapped out. They’ll go lake by lake. We wouldn’t want to try to hike to a place they’ve already covered.”

“So you think they’ll just find us here?” Oscar stared up at the pink streaks in the sky.

“I bet they’re on their way. It will just be hard to get to us. They’ll need chainsaws and . . .” I stopped. I didn’t know what they would need to find us.

“But what if the fire’s still burning?”

“If it’s not big, they just might let it burn,” I said. “Or they’ll put it out. It will just take longer.”

Oscar’s eyes were bright and shiny behind his glasses when he finally looked at me. “How long is long?”

“They know we’re out here,” I said. “They won’t give up. I know.”

“Do you?” Oscar sank down into the sand and crossed his legs, elbows on his knees.

I sat next to him. “Do you think they found the campsite?”

“I hope so. Then they’ll know.”

I was quiet for a minute, letting a horrible idea take shape, an idea I’d forced away until now. Rescuers finding the obliterated campsite, then the bodies. Broken trees, everything in charred lumps. Would they even be able to identify them now? Chris? Wes? Jeremy? “What if they think we’re already dead? All of us.”

“Don’t say that.” Oscar looked ill.

“Sorry.” I wrapped my arms around my knees and hugged myself. “I can’t help it.

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