Page 124 of The Glass Girl

I stop to readjust my straps. They’re thick and difficult.

“Let me.” It’s Josh.

“I can do it,” I say. I give one more good yank on both sides and almost pitch forward onto my face. He catches my shoulders.

“Thanks,” I say.

“No problem. I did this before at another place. It gets easier. I don’t think this is going to be that bad, though. The one I did was a whole week long.”

We start walking together.

“That’s long. A week,” I say. My shoulders are already starting to pinch under the straps.

“Yeah,” he answers. “Hey, you know I’m out soon. I think a day or so before you. I can’t wait. I feel cooped up.”

“Where…the other place?” I ask. “What was that like?”

“It was in Colorado,” Josh says. “Three months, mandatory. I crashed my dad’s car. Last year. I wasn’t messed up or anything. It was more like a behavioral camp.”

“Well,” I say. “You seem pretty well-behaved to me, so I guess it worked.”

He laughs.

“I’m not an outdoorsy person,” I tell him. “I mean, I like nature and I’m glad it’s here, but I don’t really want to spend an excessive amount of time in it.”

“Same,” he says. “I mostly play games, watch movies, stuff like that. Chess.”

“I get lost at chess. I like Scrabble, though. I’m excellent at Scrabble.”

“Cool. I think there’s a board in the activity room. Let’s do it when we get back. If we survive.”

“Right,” I answer, watching something kind of furry and disturbing skitter across the dirt in front of us. “If we survive.”

—

After a few hours, we stop for lunch, which is dried fruit, nuts, water, beef jerky, and tofu nuggets. Tracy takes Charlotte and Brandy a ways off to pee, but I’m going to wait until we get where we’re going, when it’s dark, even though I’m feeling a little uncomfortable.

Before we start moving again, Tracy whips out the Polaroid.

“Yep,” she says. “Even out here, we commemorate the moment.”

We walk and hike for six hours. I know this because Charlotte has a watch.

Everywhere we go, I look for signs, even though I know I shouldn’t because it’s probably useless, but still…signs of Holly. A footprint. Maybe she dropped something. I don’t know.

Anything.

But it’s been five days. Someone had to have come and gotten her. Maybe she had a plan. Maybe someone knew to meet her out here.

—

When we finally stop, you can tell this is where they always do this, because there are remnants of other fires, like dark pits and blackened branches.

Phil claps his hands. “This is where we make camp. The first thing is shelter. Does anyone know why?”

“So we can get out of this stupid place?” Nick asks. His cheeks are red from the cold.

“Ha ha,” Phil says. “Yes and no. One, yes, you need this step to complete the program. But two…what do we do when we need to stay warm and safe from the environment?”

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