Page 29 of Hollow Child

He forced a smile at her. “I know, sweetie. Let’s go.”

We all gathered up our things and made our way toward the steep trail. Near the bottom was a faded but clearly official sign reading Grizzly Falls: Watch for Bears and Slippery Rocks, and then below it, written in red paint, someone had added the words and zombies.

Next to the official sign was a much smaller wooden one with only the word Emberwood painted on it along with a white arrow pointing toward the trail.

Once we got on the pathway, it didn’t seem quite as steep or bumpy as we’d feared, but it was very, very narrow. The width was just barely enough for one person to walk on it. It was carved into the stone of the cliffside, varying between smooth incline and shallow steps.

We went up in a single line, and we chose our order carefully since there really wasn’t room to change it. Lillian led the way, with Castor right behind. Then it was Samara, with Garrison between her and me, so we could both help him if he needed it. Behind me was Max, and Stella was sandwiched between him and Boden, so they could both help her. After them, it was Serg, and Polly requested to go at the very end. Castor had wanted her to walk next to him, but she had insisted on going last.

“My stomach still isn’t right from the boat,” Polly said. “I’m gonna need to stop more than the rest of you, and I don’t think anyone is gonna wanna stand around and wait while I do what I will need to do.”

Nobody argued with her after that, so we began the climb up. Ripley charged on ahead, leaping up to the path crisscrossed above us, and she made the whole thing appear effortless.

It was not as easy for the rest of us, but I don’tthink it was as bad as Garrison feared. If the path wasn’t so narrow, it might even have been almost nice. The sun grew hotter as we hiked, but when we did the hairpin turns near the waterfall, the mist was quite refreshing.

“How are you doing, Dad?” Samara asked Garrison.

“Oh, not too bad,” he answered in a tight voice. “I’ve just always been afraid of heights. That’s why I stuck to trains and boats instead of getting planes.”

“You collectedmodeltrains and boats. How could you not handlemodelplanes?” Samara asked, teasing.

“Well, I suppose that I never liked them because I associated them with heights,” Garrison replied.

“Wait. Didn’t you propose to Mom at the top of the Empire State Building?” Samara asked, turning dubious.

“They had a fence around the edge of the building so you can’t fall off,” her father explained. “And I loved your mom, and she lovedAn Affair to Remember, so I did what I had to do.”

“What’sAn Affair to Remember?” Castor asked.

Lillian laughed. “It’s a very old movie, and it’s quite romantic. A pair of lovers vow to meet again on the Empire State Building after a torrid affair.”

“Careful. There’s zombie guts up ahead,” I said, pointing to them.

The trail was much too narrow and steep for zombies to navigate with their clumsy, jerking steps, tottering around like enraged drunks on damaged limbs. But that didn’t stop them from trying apparently.

There were no moving zombies on the trail, but the pathway was littered with viscera and broken bones. The zombies would evidently make it up high enough that when they inevitably fell, they crashed into the stone and exploded like overfilled water balloons.

The slippery guts were honestly the most difficult part, as well as maneuvering around the litter left behind by other uninfected travelers. Jackets and bags, either accidentally dropped or abandoned, and trash like chicken bones, broken bottles, soiled underwear, and tattered blankets were left behind.

“There must be quite a few people in Emberwood to leave so much trash behind,” Max said. “It’s gonna be so strange to be around so many people.”

“It will be different, but you’ll get used to it,” Boden said from behind us. “It’ll be good.”

By late afternoon, we were nearly three-quarters of the way up, and everyone was doing really good. We stopped often, mostly for Stella or Polly, and the rest of us had been enduring it well.

As we got closer to the top, the eastern most turns of the switchback drew even closer to the waterfall. We never quite touched it, but the mist was enough to dampen our clothes.

“It is absolutely gorgeous here,” Samara said breathlessly as she paused at the turn to marvel at it. “I never imagined I’d be this close to a waterfall.”

She smiled and laughed. Her straight black hair was in a loose fishtail braid over her shoulder, but a few errant strands were stuck to her damp cheeks. As she turned back toward the trail, her shoes slipped on the wet stones, and she fell.

“No!” Garrison shouted, and he lunged for her. In the process, his own feet skidded on the rocks, and he tumbled forward.

Samara had managed to grab onto a rocky edge of the trail with both her hands, and the only thing that would catch her if she fell was the river half a kilometer down. Castor knelt at the edge and grabbed her hand.

When I reached them, I peered over and saw that Garrison was hanging off Samara. The watch he woreon his wrist had gotten caught on her backpack somehow, and he was dangling from that off of her.

“Hang on, Garrison!” I yelled, and I reached over to the edge to try to grab his hand. “Max, hang onto my legs so I don’t go over!”

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