Page 39 of Protecting the Flame

“Well, I could have saved you the trouble,” he said. “I’ve got a compass.”

“Ouch,” Mattie teased. “Way to deflate.”

“Yeah,” she said, adopting a tone of mock outrage. “Let me own this moment, Mr. Wilderness.”

“Far be it from me.” They all stared at the sky a few more moments and then Will said, “And you’re getting your bearings because? Don’t tell me it’s because you wanted to be Luke Skywalker.”

Maddie piped up. “You did?”

“Briefly. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” She was annoyed, but mostly because she knew what Will was fishing for. She saved him the trouble by coming out with it. “We need to think about getting out of here. We need a plan at the very least.”

“What?” Mattie’s alarm was instant. “But what about my mom?”

Will’s face was a nacreous oval in the starlight. “The weather’s only cleared up a few hours ago. You have to give the searchers time to actually look for us.”

“I get that,” she said. “But we need to think ahead, too. In their calculus, we’re already past our window of survival. First off, it’s cold. Second, with the snow, they’ll figure the odds we made it this long as close to zero. ”

“It doesn’t mean they won’t look for the plane. With the ELT, they might find us pretty fast. I think we need to give them a chance to do their job first before we panic.”

That rankled. “I’m not panicking. I’m thinking ahead. Look, I hope you’re right. I hope we get to the point where you can say you told me so. But we also have to be realistic here. Their odds of finding us depend on how off-course we were from Burke’s flight plan when we crashed.”

“I’m not disputing that, but the first thing they taught us in the Boy Scouts was if you’re lost, sit down. We need to sit tight. If we move, even if we leave markers showing them our direction, the likelihood’s much less that they’ll find us. Plus, with the snow gone, it’s colder now. The sun will help, but we’ll use up a lot more calories if we’re humping over mountains and also trying to stay warm.”

“The exercise will help keep us warm. We’ll make fires. We’ll melt snow and drink hot water or tea or whatever.” She knew about dogsledding from her time in Thule. “Mushers do it all the time.”

“They also have food and know where they’re going. We might not find any game, we have no idea where we are, and hypothermia is hypothermia. We could be in big trouble pretty fast.”

Everything he said was correct. But she’d shot a story on military search-and-rescue operations. Even knowing exactly where a plane went down wasn’t a guarantee of finding people fast. About the only times people were found within the first twenty-four was either if they were wearing a personal locator beacon—or dead. Dead people tended not to go far. Well, unless they were in pieces. Many animals liked to cache their prey for a rainy day.

Besides, sitting around and waiting was making her crazy. For a woman who’d spent a month cooling her heels on a military psych ward, that was saying something.

“I didn’t say we shouldn’t give the search teams a chance,” she pointed out. “What I am suggesting is we need to think about the future and how long we wait until—”

“Hey, do I get to say something?” Mattie’s shout was loud enough to echo, and they both turned, surprised. “Because it’s not only about you guys! It’s about me and my mom! What, are you guys going to leave her here?”

“No, no,” Will said. “Of course not.”

“Then what? Because if we do what Emma wants, if we leave, like, soon, my mom might not be awake.”

“Then we take her. We have Burke’s raft. We can make a stretcher out of it if we have to or take turns dragging her. It’s not ideal, but whatever works.”

“Over mountains?” Even Mattie was incredulous. “Through woods?”

“People have done it. We’ll pick a direction and keep to it. I’ve got a compass. Burke has a compass. We have to come on somebody somewhere eventually. We do the best we can. Guys,” Will said, “both of you, calm down. It’s been three days.”

Which can easily turn into three weeks. “All the more reason to be thinking ahead, Will,” she said. “About what’s realistic, about what we can really do so we can all look back on this in a year.”

“Well, then…maybe then you and Mattie go,” Will suggested. “I stay with Rachel. We divide up the food, you ladies take the rifle, pick a direction, and start walking.”

“What?” Mattie cried at the same moment Emma said, “You’re out of your mind if you think I’m leaving—”

Someone shouted.

They all went rigid. Almost as one, they turned toward the distant woods in line with the fuselage.

Mattie whispered, “Did you…”

“Hush.” The word smoked in the starlight. Will put a finger to his lips. “Be quiet, honey.”

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